John Diedrich is one of the Australian theatre’s greatest and most versatile talents, having contributed to the industry across many platforms as actor, writer, director and producer. 
John commenced his career at age 11 with J.C. Williamson’s, appearing in the classics Camelot and then Oliver!, playing the Artful Dodger. At the age of 19 John produced and directed his first musical, presenting Minnie’s Boys, a musical based on the life of the Marx Brothers. Regular engagements as an actor followed in both plays and musicals, including Salad Days at St Martins, Grease for Harry M. Miller, Two Gentlemen of Verona for Kenn Brodziak, Lloyd George Knew My Father, starring alongside Sir Ralph Richardson, and with Leslie Phillips in The Man Most Likely To.
John co-wrote, directed and performed in three highly successful revues; Gershwin - a musical tribute to the songwriting brothers, The Twenties and All That Jazz and Oh Those Thirties.
In 1980, John was cast as Curly in Cameron Mackintosh’s revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s seminal musical Oklahoma!, playing the Palace theatre on London’s West End. The production was directed by Oscar’s son, James Hammerstein. For his performance, John was nominated for an Olivier Award as Best Actor in a Musical. He returned to Australia in 1982 to recreate the role in the Australian production and tour.
In 1987, John co-produced and starred as Guido Contini in the ground breaking musical Nine, for which he was nominated as Best Director of a Musical in the Sydney Theatre Critics awards. Nine was also nominated as the outstanding production of the year. John co-produced the original cast album of Nine which won the ARIA Award for Best Cast recording. He has recorded five other cast albums. 
John’s other theatre credits include Inspector Javert in Les Miserables, Wolf by Tobsha Lerner and Insignificance by Terry Johnson for Playbox, Aren’t We All with Sir Rex Harrison and Claudette Colbert, High Society for the Melbourne Theatre Company, as Dr Grant Swain in David Williamson’s Dead White Males for the Sydney Theatre Company and as Vittorio Vidal in Sweet Charity. In 1993, he again appeared on London’s West End at the Prince of Wales theatre in the role of Frank Butler in Ronald Lee’s production of Annie Get Your Gun.
In 1998, John created the role of the silver-tongued lawyer, Billy Flynn, in the acclaimed revival of Chicago. In 2000, he was invited to London to play the role on the West End stage. Further theatre credits include Mack & Mabel, South Pacific, Into the Woods and Follies. 
Producing and directing credits include the musicals South Pacific, Titanic, Zorba and Jekyll & Hyde.
His television and film credits include Bluey, Special Squad, Class of ’74 and The Challenge. In the UK, the sitcom The Gingerbread Girl and Second Thoughts; and Fred Scheppsi’s The Devil’s Playground. 
In this two part conversation with John Diedrich, STAGES recounts many of those highlights, along with the challenges of a life in the theatre, and the tremendous legacy that his career has gifted us.
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