Sheridan Harbridge is preparing to bring her role of Chrissy Amphlett for Amplified The Exquisite Rock And Rage Of Chrissy Amphlett to Melbourne, revisiting the life and music of the legendary Divinyls singer through theatre, storytelling and song.
by Paul Cashmere
Australian performer Sheridan Harbridge understands the magnitude of portraying Chrissy Amphlett on stage. The Divinyls frontwoman remains one of the most influential figures in Australian rock history, a performer whose fearless stage presence and uncompromising personality reshaped expectations of what a female artist could be in the music industry.
Harbridge will embody Amphlett in Amplified The Exquisite Rock And Rage Of Chrissy Amphlett, a theatrical production that explores the life, music and emotional intensity that drove the singer’s career. The show blends theatre, storytelling and live music to reflect the spirit of Amphlett’s work.
Speaking to Noise11’s Paul Cashmere, Harbridge acknowledged the scale of the task.
“Only an idiot would attempt to take this on and I am that idiot,” she said with a laugh. “Chrissy comes with so much expectation because she was such an icon.”
Rather than presenting a strict biography, the production focuses on a central theme that shaped Amphlett’s identity, the fierce energy and anger that became a defining part of her artistic voice.
Harbridge and the creative team describe the show as tracing the “rage” that ran through Amphlett’s life, beginning with her early years in Geelong and continuing through her rise in the Australian rock scene.
Geelong in the late 1970s could be a challenging place for a rebellious young performer, and Amphlett channelled that tension into the persona that later electrified audiences across Australia and beyond.
The show also draws inspiration from an idea Amphlett herself had been developing before her death. In the years before she passed away in 2013, Amphlett had begun work on a one woman theatrical project exploring her life beyond the years of chart success.
Harbridge said the production imagines what that concept might have become.
“We picked up that thread of what her one woman show might have been,” she explained. “It becomes her revisiting the songs and telling the story in a different way.”
That concept also reshaped how the music of Divinyls is presented in the show. Some songs remain close to their original arrangements, while others have been reinterpreted to reveal a new emotional perspective.
“No one should dare touch Boys In Town,” Harbridge said. “But songs like Pleasure And Pain and Back To The Wall have so much happening in the lyrics. When you pull them back from the big 1980s production you really hear the words.”
Rather than presenting the music chronologically, the songs appear where they best serve the story being told on stage. The approach allows the narrative of Amphlett’s life to guide the performance rather than the timeline of the band’s career.
Divinyls emerged from the early 1980s Australian pub rock scene and quickly became one of the country’s most distinctive acts. Formed by Amphlett and guitarist Mark McEntee, the band gained attention with the release of the EP Monkey Grip and the single Boys In Town, which became a defining anthem of the era.
Their reputation for intense live performances soon carried them beyond Australia. By the early 1990s Divinyls had achieved global success with I Touch Myself, a song that reached the top of charts in multiple countries and introduced Amphlett’s voice to a new international audience.
For Harbridge, the global success of that song represents an important turning point in the story.
“There was huge love for that track around the world,” she said. “But at home some fans thought the band had changed too much. It put a lot of pressure on them at the time.”
Amphlett’s career also extended beyond rock stages. In 2006 she delivered a striking theatrical performance as Judy Garland in the Australian production of The Boy From Oz. The role revealed a vulnerability that audiences had rarely seen during her years fronting Divinyls.
Harbridge has reflected on the parallels between the characters she is portraying.
“In a strange way it’s me playing Chrissy who once played Judy Garland,” she said.
The production is being staged in Melbourne, a city deeply connected to Amphlett’s formative years. During her early twenties she spent time immersed in the city’s music and fashion culture, including working in retail around the Greville Street precinct.
Harbridge believes Amphlett’s cultural influence extends well beyond her recordings.
“When people hear about this show they immediately tell you where they first saw her perform,” she said. “For a lot of women in the audience it was the first time they saw someone on stage behaving in ways society said they shouldn’t. It was powerful.”
That legacy remains central to the spirit of Amplified The Exquisite Rock And Rage Of Chrissy Amphlett, a production that aims to celebrate the enduring impact of one of Australia’s most fearless performers.
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