Presenting the songs and lyrical genius of Warren Zevon

Starring Henry Wagons

Musical Direction by Lachlan Bryan

About The Show

Warren Zevon is the songwriter’s songwriter. Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen have covered his songs. Linda Ronstadt had massive hits with Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me and Carmelita. Jackson Browne was his producer. He called David Letterman his greatest champion. His visible hits Werewolves Of London and Lawyers, Guns & Money and Excitable Boy barely scratched the surface of the lyric genius found on his albums.

A turbulent, erratic relationship with loved ones, supporters and the music industry in general, fuelled by alcohol and drugs extravagance, no doubt contributed to him becoming a cult figure rather than a major star. His songs captured the dark, colourful eccentricities and extremes of Los Angeles, his life and early death. His great passion was literature and the crime writers of the day and he was their favourite songwriter.

Zevon – Accidentally Like A Martyr allows master craftsman of the stage and multi-media star, Henry Wagons, the opportunity to explore and interpret some of rock’s greatest lyrics. Lachlan Bryan also lends his talents and serves as Musical Director for the show.

From heretic to heroic – Zevon – Accidentally Like A Martyr starring Henry Wagons is a marriage of rare convenience.

Cast & Creative

Classic songs created Classic Rock and Warren Zevon contributed more than his share of those songs. At the same time, the era generated endless colourful lifestyle stories and Warren has contributed his share of these.

The producers along with Henry and Lachlan, as the joint creators, have chosen to focus on the songs; to acknowledge the man's life and to shine light where darkness may have prevailed. The intention was to leave 'em smiling and the preview performances delivered as promised.

HENRY WAGONS

Henry Wagons performs and presents with disarming and friendly ease that can only come from years of performing on hundreds of stages around the world as one of Australia's most gifted musicians, performers and TV/radio hosts. Whether delivering from a script or speaking off the cuff, Henry makes it his own, with youthful charm and humour which can interest a distracted crowd and speaks with weight and knowledge that can convince a more cultured audience. The man is a master craftsman of the stage and carves out his place upon it like no other. Mr. Wagons is also a professor of the song.

His fierce intellect was once hurtling toward a career as a philosopher, but was derailed by a record deal and an insatiable need to make noise. There is no songwriter who casts the same kind of ever-curious, startlingly present shadow. He soaks up inspiration from spectres of the past in Hazelwood and Elvis, also the many comrades with whom he has shared the stage with, such as Lucinda Williams and Justin Townes Earle, all intertwined by a passion for classic song-craft.

Henry has roamed the globe having appeared at festivals such as Bonnaroo, Bluesfest, Laneway, Bumbershoot, Big Day Out, Ottawa Blues, SXSW, and Americana. Mr. Wagons has made six albums with his band ‘Wagons’ as well as two solo albums.

All of his skills are evident in his 2019 theatrical tour de force homage to the songs and lyric genius of Warren Zevon - Zevon - Accidentally Like a Martyr which is bound to astonish audiences worldwide.

LACHLAN BRYAN

Lachlan Bryan is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and bandleader. Since 2010, he has been frontman and songwriter for prominent Australian alt-country/roots band Lachlan Bryan and The Wildes, recipients of both a Golden Guitar Award and a Music Victoria Award for Album of the Year in 2014. With his band, Lachlan has toured extensively throughout Australia, Europe and the USA, performing with the likes of John Hiatt, Steve Earle, Joan Armatrading, Shawn Colvin and more.

Whilst not on the road with the band, Lachlan produces records from EoR studios in Edithvale, Victoria and in 2019 he helped develop Warren Zevon: Accidentally Like a Martyr with Henry Wagons and producer John Blanchfield, before musical directing the debut season at The Athenaeum Theatre.