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John Waters might not have ever become one of Australia\u2019s most famous stage and screen actors, were it not for a little bit of luck and a whole lot of chutzpah.<\/p>\n
He arrived as a 10-pound Pom at the age of 19 after a few years of playing music in London, knowing no one and with nothing but a single lead given to him by a relative who had spent time in the far-off land.<\/p>\n
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John Waters at lunch at Farmer\u2019s Daughters.Simon Schluter<\/p>\n
\u201cI arrived in Australia with only one name scrawled on the back of an envelope that my uncle Tom had given me, and it was this George Patterson \u2013 he worked for Clark and Tait Pastoral Company in Brisbane.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Tom] said he can get you a job on a station, no problems at all. I know them all, and I went, \u2018OK.\u2019 So I saw this guy, and he said to me, \u2018Well, yeah, you can get a job there any time because no other bastard wants to work on it.\u2019 So I was sent on a train out of central Queensland, but I\u2019m a very urban person, and there I was in the middle of nowhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Central Queensland was never going to be the right place for Waters. These days his possessions are in the Southern Highlands, but his real home is on the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t been home for more than about four days this year,\u201d Waters says \u2013 but he loves the travel. \u201cI like hotels. I just love having a place where you get back after a hard day\u2019s work and someone\u2019s cleaned and made the bed. What\u2019s not to like?\u201d<\/p>\n
His temporary home now is in Melbourne, and we\u2019ve met for lunch at Farmer\u2019s Daughters the day before technical rehearsals begin for Fiddler on the Roof, which will open next week around the corner at Her Majesty\u2019s Theatre.<\/p>\n
Waters spotted the 80 Collins precinct fine diner when he was performing up the road in Waitress and thought it looked like a lovely place for a meal.<\/p>\n
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The lamb rump at Farmer\u2019s Daughters.Simon Schluter<\/p>\n
It is, and we quickly decide on the two-course lunch option, with mains and dessert. Waters opts for lamb rump and coastal greens, followed by a dark chocolate tart. I am swayed by the Murray cod and tangelo and rhubarb ice-cream, and like almost everyone who has dined at Farmer\u2019s Daughters, we decide to share the aligot, a creamy and rich blend of silky mashed potatoes and bitey Gippsland cheese. What\u2019s not to like?<\/p>\n
But back to that chutzpah. The son of Scottish character actor Russell Waters (\u201cHe was never famous, but my school friends would say, \u2018Is that your dad I saw on telly last night?\u2019\u201d) was not made for jackarooing, but he thought he might give the performing arts a crack Down Under. Only problem was, he had no name on an envelope to open doors this time.<\/p>\n
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The Murray cod at Farmer\u2019s DaughtersSimon Schluter<\/p>\n
He saw in the newspaper that the movie Adam\u2019s Woman was being shot on the NSW south coast, and its director, Philip Leacock, was staying at the Sebel Town House in Sydney.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew this name because my dad knew him,\u201d Waters says. \u201cSo I went to the Sebel Townhouse and I bullshitted my way. I said, \u2018Oh, I\u2019ve got an appointment to see Philip Leacock,\u2019 and a young woman who was at a desk outside the room where he was said, \u2018Do you have an appointment with Mr Leacock?\u2019 I said yes. And she said, \u2018Well, hang on a minute.\u2019 She was obviously very suspicious.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe didn\u2019t have my name written down, and I heard her inside, and I heard this very English voice saying, \u2018Well, yes, I do know Russell Waters. He\u2019s a lovely man, but I\u2019ve never heard of his f—ing son.\u2019 But anyway, he said, \u2018Show him in.\u2019 He said, \u2018Do you want to be on that film? What do you want?\u2019 I said anything. And he said to his production manager, \u2018Get the boy a job.\u2019 So I started as a runner on the movie.\u201d<\/p>\n
While making tea and delivering rushes on the set, he learnt Jim Sharman was auditioning for an Australian production of Hair, which had scandalised and thrilled Broadway and London.<\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/cbe29cc50daa9a23434a3b5d71fb75cddede9b7d.jpeg\")
An original signed billboard poster for Hair, at the Metro Theatre, Kings Cross. The production was directed by Jim Sharman. <\/p>\n
He landed the part in the Vietnam-era anti-war paean to free love and revolution, which set him on the path to stardom across stage and screen, both big and small \u2013 including, of course, nearly 20 years hosting Play School.<\/p>\n
He became the most famous man in Australia for the preschool set, but his own children were completely unfazed. \u201cKids in childcare and primary school would say, \u2018Oh, your dad\u2019s on Play School\u2019, and they thought everybody\u2019s dad was on Play School because it was entirely normal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waters was just 22 when his first child, Rebecca, was born and 24 when son Ivan came along, so they were of peak Play School age when he was hosting the program. He unexpectedly found himself a father again in his 50s, after marrying his third wife, Zoe Burton.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I met Zoe, she was 29, and I was 51, and she hadn\u2019t had children,\u201d Waters says. \u201cShe had a starter marriage, but she hadn\u2019t had children. And I thought, yeah, I could go again. Why not? It was always a joy. I never did anything but love being a parent.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the time Archie, Gloria and Rusty came along, they were barely aware that their father had once been the talk of the playground. Not that they were unaware of his stardom, of course \u2013 as he was in everything from All the Rivers Run to All Saints and Underbelly, Waters\u2019 children of all ages also heard plenty of \u201cIs that your dad I saw on telly last night?\u201d<\/p>\n
But for those who grew up with it, Play School would always be his calling card. Our photographer, Simon Schluter, says Waters brought a certain rock-star bad boy glamour.<\/p>\n
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John Waters, pictured on the set of Play School with co-host Benita Collings, spent nearly 20 years hosting the show.<\/p>\n
\u201cJohn was cool because he had a scar,\u201d Schluter says, pointing to his cheek. \u201cThere\u2019s this cool bikie dude on Play School. Respect.\u201d<\/p>\n
The scar was a souvenir of not listening to his mother when Waters was a child in south-west London.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was probably about this high,\u201d Waters says, gesturing about a metre off the ground, \u201cand I was walking along with one foot on the sidewalk, one foot in the road. My mother was saying, \u2018Don\u2019t do that; it\u2019s dangerous.\u2019 And a guy on a bicycle came along, an American airman actually, who was based at the Bushy Park USAF base, which had been there ever since the close of the Second World War. He was horrified because I just stepped out in front of him and his bike smacked me in the face. Blood spewed everywhere, and so he carried me to the Teddington Hospital, which was down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
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John Waters is playing Lazar Wolf in Fiddler on the Roof.Simon Schluter<\/p>\n
The ensuing scar endeared Waters to generations of boys growing up with Play School, but one of his most defining characteristics is no longer visible.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s faded so much,\u201d he says, pointing. \u201cIt was low on this cheek. It almost just disappeared of its own accord. It\u2019s very faint now. But it was quite vivid.\u201d<\/p>\n
The famous scar would be difficult to see today even if the ensuing years hadn\u2019t dulled it, as Waters is now sporting a rather magnificent bushy white beard to play Lazar Wolf, the village butcher in Fiddler on the Roof, which is about to open in Melbourne after runs in Sydney and Brisbane.<\/p>\n
Fiddler is set in the Jewish village of Anatevka in 1905 and follows the heartaches of Tevye, his wife and daughters and their community as they try to adapt to a changing world against a background of deadly pogroms, expulsion and persecution.<\/p>\n
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The cast of Fiddler on the Roof during a performance in Sydney.Daniel Boud<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw it back in the early \u201970s. I was doing the first ever big stage show I ever did, which was Hair, and I\u2019d gone into Hair just from being a singer,\u201d Waters says. \u201cI\u2019d never been an actor on stage before. But my partner then, she was a new arrival to the Hair cast, but she had been in the touring cast of Fiddler on the Roof, which was still touring … It was an amazing show. I really, really loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He saw another production about a decade ago, starring his longtime friend and All The Rivers Run costar Sigrid Thornton as Golda, Tevye\u2019s wife. Thornton is back this time around, as matchmaker Yente.<\/p>\n
Waters joined the cast late, after rehearsals had started, as the previously cast Lazar Wolf had to pull out for medical reasons and the show Waters was in, Waitress, was closing early.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a mad period of about three weeks, I did the last weekend shows of Waitress here in Melbourne, flew to Sydney for the rehearsals [of Fiddler] while my understudy did the midweek shows [of Waitress], and then came back every weekend because the two theatre companies got together and arranged how they would share me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u2018I saw Sigrid sitting there, and I thought, ah, a friend! … I\u2019m at a new school, but I\u2019ve got a friend that I can have a laugh with.\u2019<\/p>\n
John Waters<\/p>\n
Joining a cast already in rehearsals was somewhat daunting, he says. But when he arrived at the rehearsal room, \u201cI saw Sigrid sitting there, and I thought, ah, a friend! I\u2019ve got a friend. I\u2019m at a new school, but I\u2019ve got a friend that I can have a laugh with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waters\u2019 role of Lazar Wolf is a secondary character \u2013 though in this production, which is transplanted from a sold-out, five-star season in London and directed by Jordan Fein, the entire village of Anatevka stand as silent witnesses to the Tevye family drama instead of retreating offstage. (\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of tableau standing \u2013 I find it very tiring. One of the worst things you can do is stand still for a long time when your lower back is screaming.\u201d)<\/p>\n
Waters is 77, making him the right age for Lazar Wolf, the much older suitor of the far younger Tzeitel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019d done it when I was 45, I might have played Tevye,\u201d Waters reflects. But he is glad in a way he was not offered the part when he was the right age, as \u201cI think a Jewish man should play Tevye.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Troy Sussman as Tevye with Ben Adler as The Fiddler.Daniel Boud<\/p>\n
This production stars Troy Sussman in the starring role, and Waters says he is perfectly cast. \u201cHe\u2019s been waiting all his life for this role,\u201d Waters says. \u201cHe\u2019s a proudly Jewish man who has been in theatre all his life, since he was very young, waiting for this role to come up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the other cast are also Jewish, including Alexis Fishman as Golde, Tevye\u2019s daughters and Ben Adler as the titular fiddler, and Waters says they have been generous in sharing their traditions with the rest of the cast.<\/p>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/a1a9aa0c70c1b7d95c6fe4610a8c35b65d349dc4.jpeg\")
The bill<\/p>\n