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Source: West Australian 24 June 1938, p.7
Dot Mendoza Dot Mendoza i(A46768 works by) (birth name: Doris Rosetta Elizabeth Mendoza) (a.k.a. Doris Mendoza)
Born: Established: 11 Sep 1899 Perth, Western Australia, ; Died: Ceased: 19 May 1986 Melbourne, Victoria,
Gender: Female
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1 1 A Wish is a Dream William Orr , Dot Mendoza (composer), Phillip Street Theatre , 1962 single work musical theatre children's

Children's chamber musical.

A musical fantasy for children, adapted by William Orr from the story of Cinderella.

1 1 Stop Press John McKellar , Dot Mendoza (composer), Phillip Street Theatre , 1961 single work musical theatre revue/revusical humour

Intimate revue.

Written mainly by John McKellar, Stop Press is described by William Orr in the production program as dealing 'with the local scene, and [thus] it can truly be called "Sydney's own Revue"'. Among the topics and subject matter under fire were advertising jingles and slogans, Fidel Castro, Robert Menzies, Sydney's North Shore and South Shore, Australian television crime shows, and nuns and monks.

The order of sketches and songs (including performers) was:


Act One:

  • 1. 'Grab It While it's Hot' (Company)
  • 2. 'Monitor' (Dennis/ Hopgood/ Farr)
  • 3. 'What the People Want' (Ginn/Dennis/Hardy/Mather)
  • 4. 'Three Little Words' (Lenihan/ Mather/Farr/Hardy/Dennis)
  • 5. 'Yes and No' (Wyndon)
  • 6. 'High School for Scandal' (Hopgood/Lenihan/Farr/Hardy/Wyndon)
  • 7. 'Control': (i) Zillion Dollars (Dennis) and (ii) 'No Strings' (Hopgood)
  • 8. 'North Shore-South Shore' (Ginn/Lenihan/Wyndon/Mather)
  • 9. 'Cook's Tour' (Farr)
  • 10. 'Surfside Sick' (Dennis/Ginn/Hardy/Wyndon/Hopgood)
  • 11. 'Yearnings' (Lenihan/Farr)
  • 12 'I'm the Boy' (Mather/Wyndon)
  • 13. 'Happily Ever After' (Dennis/Farr/Hopgood/Lenihan)
  • 14. 'Calorie Count Down' (Hardy)
  • 15. 'Time to Forget' (Company).

Act Two:

  • 1. 'Peak Hour' (Company)
  • 2. 'Paper' (Farr)
  • 3. 'Holiday Estate' (Ginn/Lenihan/Mather/Dennis)
  • 4. 'Encorpse' (Hopgood)
  • 5. 'Girls' Night Out' (Lenihan/Hardy/Wyndon/Farr/Dennis)
  • 6. 'Twilight Zone' (Mather)
  • 7. 'Blue' (Hardy)
  • 8. 'Monastery' (Ginn/Wyndon/Farr/Hopgood/Dennis)
  • 9. 'Old-Fashion Passion' (Lenihan)
  • 10. 'Guidance' (Mather/Hardy/Ginn)
  • 11. 'Art Strip' (Wyndon)
  • 12. 'Of Ming I Sing' (Ginn/Hopgood/Dennis/Mather)
  • 13. 'Where Do We Go From Here?' (Company).
1 1 y separately published work icon Mistress Money Eleanor Witcombe , John McKellar , Dot Mendoza (composer), Phillip Street Theatre , 1960 (Manuscript version)x401225 Z869024 1960 single work musical theatre

Musical.

Essentially a chamber musical, Mistress Money was designed to be a 'musical' extension of the popular Phillip Street Theatre revues, using Moliere's The Miser as the foundation for its narrative.
1 1 The Birthday Show John McKellar , Lance Mulcahy , Phillip Street Theatre , Dot Mendoza (composer), 1959 single work musical theatre revue/revusical humour

Intimate revue.

Devised in order to celebrate the Phillip Street Theatre's fifth birthday, The Birthday Show comprised a smattering of new material along with popular favourites from previous productions, notably Top of the Bill, Hit and Run, Hat Trick, Two to One, Mr and Mrs, Around the Loop, Cross Section, and Bats.

Songs interpolated into the production included 'Oh What a Year it's Been' and 'Trite Fantastic' (McKellar); 'The Oracle' (Rasdall/Goldman); 'The World is My Ashtray', 'Tiger Moth', and 'Noel' (McKellar/Mendoza); 'Katoomba' (McKellar/Mulcahy); 'Soap Opera', 'Breakfast Delight', and 'White Carnations' (McKellar/Donovan); 'Golden Hair', 'You Came from Outer Space', 'Beside Myself', and 'Wow of a Frau' (McKellar/Donovan/Mulcahy); 'Bread Love and Teddy Bears' (McKellar/Frazer); 'Queen's Square' (Nettheim); 'Letter Song' (Taylor/Mulcahy); 'Circulation', 'Cuckoo', and 'Call of the Wild' (Donovan/Mulcahy); 'April in Fairbanks' (Grand); 'Woy Boy' (Cranko/Swan); 'Don't Let Him Know You Too Well' (Cranko/Addison); 'Surly Girls' (Flanders/Swan); 'Bedside Manners' (Frazer); and 'Happy Birthday' (Mendoza).
1 1 y separately published work icon Ride on a Broomstick Eleanor Witcombe , John McKellar , Phillip Street Theatre , Dot Mendoza (composer), 1959 (Manuscript version)x401224 Z869022 1959 single work musical theatre children's

Children's musical.

The story concerns two stylish and witty witches; a bleating, self-pitying dragon; a Rapunzel with six yards of rope for hair; a Shakespearian-spouting prince; a half-cat-half-fish (who always moans about its top half wanting to eat its bottom half); and numerous mixed-up spells.
1 1 Bats Dot Mendoza (composer), Phillip Street Theatre , 1958 single work musical theatre revue/revusical humour

Intimate review.

In a Sydney Morning Herald review theatre critic L. B. writes:

'Bats? The five performers certainly were. They variously pretended to be Metro-Goldwyn's lion, the sphinx, a cuckoo cucking more than it cooed, an eaves-dropping palm from the pot plant in the foyer, ballerinas from 'Swan Bog', an elephant with a lost memory, and Noel Coward [played by Ronald Frazer] summing up La Peruse with rhymes like 'lubra' and 'Maroubra' to keep him in character'.

Other sketches included an expose on social climbing, a slapstick tooth-drilling scene and a brawl with a one-armed bandit (Lyle O'Hara), Jill Perryman as both a honky tonk siren and a sophisticate singing the praises of igloo-life in Alaska, and Alton Harvey as both a paranoiac lout from the Deep South and a frightfully pukka Governor Phillips at Sydney Cove in 1788 (2 October 1958, p.7).
1 2 Cross Section John McKellar , Eric Rasdall , Phillip Street Theatre , Dot Mendoza (composer), Peter Sculthorpe (composer), 1957 single work musical theatre revue/revusical humour

Musical revue.

Loosely set in Sydney's King's Cross, but occasionally going further afield (including Scotland and southern USA), Cross Section followed on from the very successful Phillip Street Theatre revue Around The Loop, which ran for over a year. The King's Cross flavour, which one critic viewed as being far 'from strong', involved scenes of Crucians exchanging hauteur and abuse from assorted apartment windows; a sentimental ballad about some hospitable old lady of Palmer Street (performed by Noel Brophy); a skit on the espresso craze ('You Can't Keep a Good Cup Down'); and a bit of hoyden autobiography from a Rushcutter's Bay conductress (Sydney Morning Herald 12 September 1957, p.14). Other sketches included 'Truth in Advertising' (performed by Peter Batey), Dolore Whiteman's 'Frankie and Johnnie', Rhonny Gabriel's 'Not Negotiable', and a dance number, 'Caribbean Bazaar', performed by Yolanda and Antonio Rodrigues.

The musical aspects of the revue are said to have included an 'Auld Lang Syne' finale and a song about a girl-ruined Bank of New South Wales teller. The original musical numbers were composed by the Phillip Street house composer Dot Mendoza and moonlighting classical composer Peter Sculthorpe. The latter's contributions (set to words by John McKellar) were 'Truth in Advertising', 'Manic Espresso' (scored as a send-up samba rhythm and included in the 'coffee bar cult' sketch), 'Redleaf Revelations', 'Shooting a Lion', 'I Knew a Fella', and 'Something You Can't Pin Down'.
1 1 The Willow Pattern Plate Jill Lyons , John McKellar , Phillip Street Theatre , Dot Mendoza (composer), 1957 single work musical theatre children's

Children's musical.

Adapted from the traditional English story set in ancient China, the narrative concerns the love of a mandarin's daughter for the son of her father's gardener. Although kept away from the world in order that she marry the person of her father's choice, she falls dangerously in love with the gardener's son, and they are subsequently forced to flee the parental wrath.

Songs included 'Fried Rice' (a tango), 'The Land of Let's Pretend', 'Yangtse King', and 'I Am'.
1 1 Alice in Wonderland William Orr , Dot Mendoza (composer), Phillip Street Theatre , 1956 single work musical theatre children's

An adaptation of Lewis Carroll's famous children's story, this version retains the original adventures, with the addition of ballet and pantomime music.

Dot Mendoza's score is largely influenced by Vienna waltz styles.
1 1 y separately published work icon The Tail is Familiar Dot Mendoza , June Mendoza (illustrator), Melbourne : Robertson and Mullens , 1943 10341341 1943 single work prose poetry

'The spirit of the book is contained in the first stanza of an introductory poem headed "Of Stray Dogs." This stanza reads:

They come between my sleep and me

With proud, plumed tails, and cornie stumps

Signalling amiability

From humble, deferential rumps.

Then begins the dog parade in article and in drawings. You can meet Snookie, the black and tan gangster; Terry, the fighting Irish; Bushy, the amateur gentleman; Royal, ignorant but arty-and so on.'

Source: 'About Dogs.' Western Mail (Perth) 17 November 1949, p.14.
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