Billy the Rabbit

Overview

Love Leunig? Chances are if you’re a Melburnian, the anwer’s a warm-hearted yes. Our city’s Cartoonist Laureate - to coin a title for the special role Michael Leunig and his curly-headed creations plays in our city consciousness - is this weekend doing live shows at the Melbourne Recital Centre.

He will, naturally, be cartooning, his live drawing projected onto a screen, accompanied by melodies from former pop starlet turned soulful songstress Gyan. Gyan - one of Australia’s original reality TV stars (having gained notice on Star Search in the '80s) recorded a whole album using Leunig’s poetry for lyrics, titled Billy the Rabbit, in 2006. She and Leunig have performed it together as a song-plus-cartoon cabaret several times since its launch at the Melbourne Writers Festival that year and they won a Sydney Theatre Award for it in 2007.

It’s back for two shows only, so catch this rabbit while you can.