KEY POINTS:
The stage lights dimmed one last time today for Rob Guest - performer, father, partner, practical joker and all round good guy.
At a memorial service of epic proportions, Guest, who died from a stroke last month at the age of 57, was shown in all his guises.
From a long haired, white suit-wearing pop singer in New Zealand in the 1970s, to the longest serving Phantom of the Opera, Guest was remembered as the star of every show.
The memorial was held on the stage at Melbourne's Regent Theatre, where he performed his last role as the Wizard in Wicked.
About 250 fellow performers, friends and family members laughed, cried, hugged, sang and cheered as they remembered the life of Guest, the practical joker.
There was the time he froze a castmate's pyjamas.
Another day, his devil within decided it's be a great idea to lock another castmate in her dressing room and pump it full of the eery mist let off by dry ice.
Wicked producer John Frost, a long-time friend of Guest, opened the show by declaring how "blessed" and "lucky" those present were to have known the British-born, New Zealand-raised, Australian actor and singer.
New Zealand performer Tina Cross said Guest was a man of great mana, or strength, and had been her mentor, friend and role model.
"His enthusiasm for life was catching, and if you were on stage with him it'd be at his cracking pace," she said.
Cross finished her eulogy with a haunting rendition of a Maori song.
The crew of Les Miserables, with whom Guest toured Australia and New Zealand in his role as Jean Valjean in the early 1990s, performed a heartwrenching song from the musical that had the crowd in tears and ended in a standing ovation.
ANZ chief executive officer Brian Hartzer announced an endowment fund would be set up in Guest's name to help young performers get stage experience.
Every speaker, from Marina Prior to Bert Newton, recounted tales of Guest's love of practical jokes, a man who treated everyone equally and who loved nothing more than being on stage.
In a moving speech, Guest's partner Kellie Dickerson spoke of their life together and thanked him for every moment they shared.
Guest was a car and boat fanatic, who changed cars at least every 11 months and had owned over 90 in his life, she said.
"I loved you and you knew it. You loved me and I knew it. I'm so proud of you for everything ... I miss you so much."
She said his greatest legacy was his two children, Chris and Amy, of whom he was so proud, and who were at today's memorial.
The young cast of Wicked performed a final song for Guest, many of them openly sobbing and struggling to sing.
And then the curtain was drawn on Guest's life, to the haunting words of the man himself singing Les Miserables' Bring Him Home.
- AAP