Gloss star Peter Elliott returns to 1990 (and Kiwi audiences) in new play - Spy

Peter Elliott starred in Kiwi soap opera Gloss alongside Ilona Rodgers.

Rex Redfern, one of the key characters of glamorous Kiwi soap opera Gloss returns with a cameo in Auckland Theatre Company’s new play; the actor behind the role, Peter Elliott, talks to Spy about why he decided to rewind the clock and step on stage, the legacy of the show, and what he loved about New Zealand’s ‘boom’ years.

Award-winning screenwriter Albert Belz’s play, Hyperspace, is a homage to 1990, and now audiences are in for a true rewind, with Kiwi acting legend Peter Elliott starring in the show; his famous character, villain Rex Redfern from the late 80s Kiwi soap opera Gloss, is cleverly woven into the script.

A production from the Auckland Theatre Company, the play centres around an aerobics competition (it’s full of the leg warmers and fluro colours that defined the era) and premieres next Friday night at the Auckland Waterfront Theatre. A sequel to Belz’s Astroman, it is described as so kitsch it’s cool — a 1990s homage to all the dance movies ever made.

For the uninitiated, Gloss was New Zealand’s first attempt to capture the magic of the big American soaps like Dallas and Dynasty that were so popular during the 1980s.

The Kiwi show centred around the fictional Gloss magazine and the publishing empire of the Redfern family. 1990 was the last year of its four-year run.

Kiwi legend Peter Elliott starred in Gloss as the villain, Rex Redfern.

Elliot’s character Rex Redfern was the J. R. Ewing of Kiwi TV thanks to Gloss. “I was the villain, Rex Redfern the cuckoo in the nest and it was an extraordinarily fun thing to play.”

After the show’s run, Elliot was introduced to a new generation of fans as Dr David Kearney on Shortland Street.

Now, after all these years, he’s back in Redfern’s shoes. “The first I heard about Rex being in Hyperspace was an oblique approach by Albert, and I thought someone was taking the piss,” Elliott tells Spy.

He and Belz first worked together 20 years ago on Captain’s Log, but Elliott admits being wary of reviving Rex. “When Albert sent me an early draft, it occurred to me that I was now so old I had started to parody my own career,” says Elliott.

In Hyperspace, Belz constantly references Elliott’s character Rex Redfern as the heart-throb of the minute, and the play will feature a short appearance from Elliott as Rex MCs an aerobics competition. “I felt alternately horrified and bereft, I guess. So many years, heartthrob? What a joke,” says Elliott.

It’s not his only return to a past character; Elliot says he recently sat down at the mirror for a brief return to Shortland Street after 25 years, and the 66-year-old says it was brutally clear as he saw this old, grizzled guy in the mirror, just how cruel the years had been.

Elliott recalls the Gloss years as the boom time of the boomers; a time when the shackles of society were being thrown off, when TV was discovering humour and drama.

The 66-year-old says it was brutally clear as he saw this himself in the mirror just how cruel the years had been. Photo / Supplied

Amongst the big hair and even bigger shoulder pads on Gloss, Elliott co-starred with Ilona Rodgers, Dame Miranda Harcourt, Danielle Cormack, Simon Prast, Craig Parker, Mark Ferguson, Lisa Chappell, Geeling Ng, the late Kerry Smith and Yvonne Lawley.

When Parker was back in town recently, a majority of the cast had a big knees-up and Elliott says it was a glorious joy to see them all. He also revealed the cast live in trepidation that pictures of themselves out and about will turn up on the Facebook page The Lost Nightlife of Inner-City Auckland. “It’s a damn good thing that the internet was in its infancy in the 90s and cellphones were still like slabs of wood, and cameras non-existent, phew,” he says.

As Gloss stars they were expected to behave in a certain way, to arrive in glitz and to arrive single as well. They were supposed to be “attainable,” explains Elliott.

“Inside the bell jar, of course, we were aware of the people staring in, there were weekly Gloss parties, male egos of the time got enraged by these ‘stars’ and it was often wise to beat a hasty retreat than stay out too long.”

Elliott describes the 1980s and 1990s in Auckland as one big hustle, he says, and the time was socially extraordinary, with a great deal of very bad behaviour.

“Everywhere there were drugs, gold scandals, tax evasion, shit buildings, mirror glass, booze, sex, boats, glamour, designer clothes, music, parties, muscle cars, and life in the fast lane,” he confides.

“Everyone was fit, wearing high-cut thigh lines and body-hugging dayglo outfits. It was freaking wild.”

It was a high-energy time, and so is Belz’s new play. “Hyperspace is physical! Damn physical, it’ll blow your socks off,” he says.

Elliott, who received his ONZM in 2021, has done countless work in television and film over his career but we had to ask which show Shorty (which his daughter Lucy also starred in) or Gloss was his favourite?

“I loved the Street for its continuity of employment and the possibility of joining the human race — as an actor to have a weekly wage was a joy unknown, before or since.

“Gloss, however, was the most fun I ever had with my clothes on, and off for that matter,” he says. “Gloss certainly changed NZ television from ‘worthy’ to ‘watchable’ very quickly.”