Dunedin Operatic stalwart Gladys Hope still remembers when Dusty Springfield sang in Dunedin in 1964.
"She was my era and I'll never forget seeing her at the Dunedin Town Hall," Hope mused this week.
Springfield appeared in promoter Harry M. Miller's "The Liverpool Sound Show" at the town hall, with Gerry Marsden and the Pacemakers, Brian Poole and the Tremeloes and Gene Pitney.
"She was amazing and I've always been a big fan. The variation in her music was just incredible. She wanted to become one of the best singers in the world and she achieved that. But, she had a very tragic life."
Dusty Springfield was born Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien on April 16, 1939, in London.
But, plain jane Mary O'Brien would transform herself into a '60s pop icon.
"She was a plain, dumpy, bespectacled schoolgirl and she said she'd be a star one day, like Doris Day. But her mother just laughed at her," Hope says.
Dunedin Operatic presents the New Zealand premiere of Dusty next week.
All the Springfield favourites feature in the production, including I Only Want To Be With You, Silver Threads and Golden Needles, I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself, You Don't Have To Say You Love Me and Son Of A Preacher Man.
"Nearly every song she ever recorded is in this show. The songs tell you the story of her life," Hope says.
"Greer Morris-Clarke [who plays Springfield] had to learn more than 20 songs. It's a huge role. Probably the largest female role I've ever come across.
"To replicate her and her music is incredibly difficult, because people have a good idea how they think she should sound and look. I've been looking around the country for wigs. In her early days, she always wore wigs. Even as a hairdresser, I never knew that."
Morris-Clarke has spent the past month and a-half learning the 23 songs.
"They're songs I've known my whole life and it was just a case of relearning them, really," she said.
"My favourites are some of the non-classics, like I Think It's Going To Rain Today and Who Can I Turn To. But, they're all such awesome songs."
The role also has Morris-Clarke darting in and out of five different wigs and 25 different costumes.
Springfield's unique vocal range allowed her to sing in a variety of styles; from pop and rock 'n' roll to soul, folk and Latin.
Her music has been a soundtrack to our lives.
The Look of Love appeared in 1967 James Bond movie Casino Royale, she recorded the theme song for the 1974 The Six Million Dollar Man television series and Son Of A Preacher Man featured in 1994 film Pulp Fiction.
But, at the height of her success, she retreated into a world of drugs and sexual experimentation.
"A lot of people say I'm bent, and I've heard it so many times that I've almost learned to accept it," Springfield told the Evening Standard in 1970.
"I know I'm perfectly as capable of being swayed by a girl as by a boy. More and more people feel that way and I don't see why I shouldn't."
After the halcyon and hazy days of the '60s, Springfield lapsed into alcoholism and drug dependency, was diagnosed with manic depression and hospitalised for self-harming.
"She was often tied up in a straitjacket in a mental hospital. In 1979, she sang in Royal Albert Hall and then slit her wrists afterwards," Hope says.
"She lost her way a bit. Ultimately, she was a tragic creature, really. Alcohol, drugs, you name it. Only three or four people knew her well. It's very sad. Even the kids, themselves, have been crying at rehearsals.
"It's a sad story, but a wonderful story."
In 1987, Springfield made a comeback with What Have I Done to Deserve This? with the Pet Shop Boys, which shot to No 2 on the British and American music charts.
But, while recording what would be her final album, A Very Fine Love, in January, 1994, in Nashville, Tennessee, Springfield was diagnosed with breast cancer.
She battled the disease for the next five years.
Dusty Springfield died, aged 59, in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, on March 2, 1999.
It was the same day she was meant to go to Buckingham Palace to receive her OBE, awarded in the 1999 New Year's Honours List.
Later that year, she was posthumously inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
A decade later, Springfield was named number 35 in Rolling Stone magazine's "100 Greatest Singers of All Time".
Dusty is directed by Gladys Hope, with musical direction from Stuart Walker and choreography by Robyn Sinclair.
