There was once a familiar catch cry in Sydney show business: when a performance was lacklustre, "Send for Nellie!"
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Born in 1900, Nellie Small was a cross-dressing cabaret artist who became a legend of the industry, singing jazz and blues standards in prestigious clubs.
For decades her story was forgotten, but a show by Helpmann-award winning writer Alana Valentine hopes to remind people of her legend.
Send for Nellie is not a biography, said Valentine - rather a cabaret show interspersed with funny and heartbreaking tales from the performer's life.
The set list includes Stormy Weather, Sunny Side of the Street, and the classic I Want a Little Sugar in my Bowl.
"It's like a Weimar cabaret - we're calling it cabaret with claws," Valentine told AAP.
Nellie Small's mother was Australian and her father was from Antigua in the West Indies.
She started on the cabaret scene during the Depression, and found wearing a suit both on and offstage helped audiences to recognise her.
On tour, she had to stay in different hotels to the rest of her band because of the colour of her skin, and when she returned from a tour of New Zealand, border guards didn't believe she was Australian.
"Send for Nellie is mostly very funny, but we don't resile from the fact that she talked about how how difficult it was for a third generation Australian with her skin colour," Valentine said.
She discovered the stories of Nellie Small almost 30 years ago, and wrote a play about her in the 1990s.
After a reading at the Performance Space in Redfern in 1992, she sent the script to the Melbourne Theatre Company, and received a polite rejection.
"As with everything we have read by Alana, good writing and interesting ideas, intellectually and theatrically," a letter to Valentine said.
"But we do not think it would have a wide enough appeal for us to mount a successful production."
Other companies also passed, but perhaps the time for Nellie Small's story has finally arrived - it's no accident the finale is the wartime jazz standard "At Last".
Elenoa Rokobaro stars in the title role, having recently played Billie Holiday in the Belvoir St Theatre and Melbourne Theatre Company's Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill.
Australians often turn to overseas talent when they think of the great performers, but world-class local artists like Nellie Small have always been right under our noses, Valentine said.
"She was this big star, she's got a beautiful voice, let's raise her up and celebrate her."
Send for Nellie plays at the Sydney Theatre Company as part of the Sydney Festival from January 10 to 14.
Australian Associated Press
