Helen Medlyn

Helen Medlyn (born 1958) is a New Zealand mezzo-soprano opera singer, musical theatre actor, media producer and gardener. She is particularly known for her comic roles and for her cabaret performances.

Early life and family Medlyn was born in Falmouth in 1958. Her family moved to New Zealand when she was three, and she grew up in Henderson Valley. Her mother was a director, actor and singer in musical theatre and her father was a butcher. Her older sister, Margaret Medlyn, is also a well-known opera singer (with a soprano vocal range). She subsequently attended Henderson High School. She continued performing in musical theatre during the 1980s, performing major roles in productions at the Mercury Theatre, Centrepoint Theatre and other venues, while working as a media producer at Saatchi & Saatchi. She became a full-time performer in 1989.

Medlyn tended to perform comic or character roles, in part due to her vocal range as a mezzo-soprano. Marcellina in The Marriage of Figaro, Dame Quickly in Falstaff, Prince Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus, Concepción in L'heure espagnole, Brangaene in Tristan und Isolde and Fräulein Schneider in Cabaret. She also acted in plays including performing the roles of Joy Gresham in Shadowlands for the Mercury Theatre and Mrs Parker in the play Daughters of Heaven with the Auckland Theatre Company. In 2017 she starred as Katisha in a national tour of The Mikado, and as Mother Superior in Sister Act in Auckland.

Beginning in the 1980s, Medlyn collaborated with musical director and pianist Penny Dodd in a number of concerts and performances, including notably eight critically-acclaimed cabaret shows themed around the concept of hell between 2000 and 2010. In their 2007 show, Hell Man, Medlyn performed songs written for men. In 2013 they performed a touring production, Hell on Wheels.

In 2002, Medlyn was made an Arts Foundation Laureate. She was described by The New Zealand Herald critic William Dart as "one of our finest mezzos".