Australian actress and former Chantoozie Tottie Goldsmith will pay tribute to her aunt Olivia Newton-John with the Aunty O show, touring Australia from 21 February.
Tottie’s mother Rona Newton-John was Olivia’s older sister. Rona left her family and moved to England in the early 70s. Olivia became a surrogate mother to Tottie and her brother Brett and sister Fiona.
Tottie will present her one-person two hour show around Australia talking about their relationship.
Tottie tells Noise11.com, “It started out really organically. When Liv died everything I did went into writing about her because I was grieving. I think when you lose people that are close to you or had a big impact on your life it is very heightened what they brought to you. I was writing about her and people were approaching me about doing tribute shows. The only one I jumped in on was with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for ‘Hopelessly Devoted’ because I had met Mark Sutcliffe who was the Artistic Director backstage with Olivia when she sang with the MSO and it was going to be really classy. I hosted that and did a duet with David Campbell. Then I did get approached a few times about doing something on Olivia but it was never right”.
Aunty O is not Olivia’s biography. “It is not about Olivia and her life,” Tottie says. “It was about what she bought to me and my siblings life. Our mother, Rona, her sister, left to pursue her career and went back to England when I was not yet three and my siblings were four and five. Fiona might have been six by then. No contact. My father raised us and kept getting married, trying to find us mothers and more siblings. Olivia was a very important part of our lives growing up. When we were younger, we looked at her more as a mother figure. As you get older you become friends. I worked with her on the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness Centre for 20 years before it was even a hole in the ground. From the inception. We had a multi-level relationship. She was a very big part of my life. I think not having a mother growing up, that is what you crave. You need that empty space filled. I found that with my girlfriends but Olivia was the most important”.
Olivia reintroduced Tottie to her mother more than a decade after Rona left. “We wouldn’t have met our mother without her. She gave us all a first-class Pan-Am ticket and we went over to America because our mother had moved there when Olivia’s career took off with Grease. I talk about meeting my mother. I talk about my mother dying. I talk about road trips we did. I talk about what she taught me as a human. She was imperative in my emotional well-being and a great friend. She led by example, she never told me what to do. She would always help me to find the answers to things. I think the message is not only the depth of Olivia but what I learned from her. A beautiful life about surrender and forgiveness. It is very uplifting. There are sad moments. There are fun moments.”
Watch the Tottie Goldsmith Aunty O interview:
Tottie Goldsmith Aunty O Dates 2025
Fri 21 February – Drum Theatre, Dandenong VIC
Fri 28 February – West Gippsland Art Centre, Warragul VIC
Sat 1 March, 2025 – Lighthouse Theatre, Warrnambool VIC
Fri 14 March – Palms Crown Casino, Melbourne VIC
Sat 22 March – Wendouree Centre, Ballarat VIC
Friday 28 March – The Wedge Theatre, Sale VIC
Fri 11 April – The Capital, Bendigo VIC
Sat 12 April – Mildura Art Centre, Mildura
Sun 11 May – Frankston Art Centre, Frankston VIC
Friday 16 May – Playhouse Theatre, Geelong VIC
Fri 30 May – Country Club Casino, Launceston TAS
Sat 31 May – Wrest Point, Hobart TAS
Sat 2 August – Twin Towns, Gold Coast NSW
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