Rob Guest on Life Support

One of the veterans of Australian musical theatre, Rob Guest, is fighting for his life in hospital after suffering a massive stroke at his Melbourne home last night.

AussieTheatre.com understands the 57-year-old, who is currently starring in the musical Wicked at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne, is on life support after his condition worsened overnight.

Guest is playing the Wizard in Wicked and his partner, Kellie Dickerson, is the show's musical director. The cast of the show was informed of the news prior to today's matinee performance."Rob Guest is one of Australian music theatre’s biggest stars: there have been few bigger in our lifetime," Wicked producer John Frost said this afternoon.

"He is, nonetheless, the most easy-going of stars. He may have top billing but at all times he comes across to us – producers, fellow cast membes and backstage crew – as an irrepressible, always cheerful optimist. An all round good bloke. All of us who know him are shocked."

Guest had appeared in Wicked over the weekend and had shown no signs of illness. Members of his family are flying in from New Zealand to be by his bedside.

Media reports this afternoon suggest the outlook for Guest is "extremely grim".

Awarded an OBE for his services to the New Zealand Entertainment Industry, Rob Guest began his career in the New Zealand pop charts. He has performed in almost 40 musicals and TV productions in New Zealand, Asia and America and came to Australia to audition for Cameron Mackintosh’s production of Les Misérables. He took over the lead role of Jean Valjean and performed it as he toured Australia and New Zealand for the next three and a half years. In 1995, he went to London at Cameron Mackintosh’s invitation to appear in the 10th Anniversary production of Les Misérables.

In 1992 he was cast as The Phantom in The Phantom Of The Opera and performed the role for a record 2,289 performances over seven years.Rodney Dobson is playing The Wizard in Wicked until further notice.

Aussietheatre.com