Bret McKenzie won an Oscar in 2012 for posing the question: 'Am I a man or am I a muppet?’ Now he is playing a big part in the upcoming Jim Henson Retrospectacle in Wellington.
The three-week long restrospective is a musical tribute to Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock .
Bret McKenzie – one half of Flight of the Conchords, is performing a live show as part of the tribute.
McKenzie served as music supervisor for two Muppet films, The Muppets (2011) and Muppets Most Wanted (2014), the former of which won him an Academy Award for Best Original Song for the song ‘Man or Muppet’.
“My show’s a live concert with the Muppets and Sesame Street characters and Fraggle Rock characters all on stage - not at the same time.”
McKenzie is joined by the NZSO and a band of other musicians backing Henson’s characters as they work through their rich back catalogue of songs.
“There’ll be classics: there’ll be Kermit, Bert and Ernie, The Count, Red from Fraggle Rock … basically a concert of songs with all those characters who sing them,” McKenzie says.
Henson’s characters come to life on stage and McKenzie says that’s down to the skill of the puppeteers.
“It’s amazing to watch as these puppets come to life in a way that’s beautiful to watch.
“I do some pretty good work with a sock, but with these guys it’s amazing,” McKenzie says.
“To me to celebrate him there’s no better way than having those characters alive on stage.”
McKenzie’s old friend, Nic Marshall, has spent much of the last 10 years organising the ‘retrospectacle’.
Like many New Zealanders, Marshall’s love of Henson came via The Muppet Show on TV.
“I think we were one of the first countries to have The Muppet Show on at prime time,” Marshall says.
Marshall says when she first got in touch with The Jim Henson Legacy - established two years after Henson’s death in 1990 – they could not have been more cooperative.
“They had shared a programme of Jim Henson films in Brooklyn and I thought that’s exactly the kind of thing I’d like to put on here in New Zealand - so I wrote to them.”
Keeping Henson’s work alive and bringing it to New Zealand has been a mission for Marshall.
“[The team is] the world’s foremost puppeteers, and they’re coming here to share what they do. It’s an incredible thing.”
The Jim Henson Retrospectacle runs in Wellington 9 -29 April
