Legendary musical theatre star Rob Guest is in a critical condition in Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Hospital after being struck down by a massive stroke.
Guest was admitted late last night.
The 57-year-old, who is currently starring as the Wizard of Oz in the Melbourne production of Wicked, is best known for his lead performances in The Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables.
The cast of Wicked were devastated after learning the news before they were due to perform a matinee this afternoon.
The music director on Wicked is also Guest's wife, Kellie Dickerson.
"He's critically ill in St Vincent's Hospital and that's the only statement I've got from the family at this point,'' the show's publicist, Susie Howie, said this afternoon.
Guest took over the role of Jean Valjean from Normie Rowe for the Adelaide season of Les Miserables in the late 1980s.
He also took over the title role in Phantom of the Opera from Anthony Warlow in 1991 and performed the show for a record seven years in Australia and New Zealand, including the original Adelaide season. He played the role for a record 2289 performances.
More recently, Guest played Captain Von Trapp in the 2001 revival of The Sound of Music.
Guest also hosted Channel 7's risque variety show Man O Man, where an all-women audience voted for their favourite male contestants in 1994.
Speaking earlier this year about his current role Guest said he was excited because it was pure escapism.
“The Wizard is like a snake-oil seller. He can sell anything to anybody, fridges to eskimos.
“But as the show goes on, you see a darker side to him. A whole lot of intriguing things come out that people don't know about the story before the Wizard of Oz.''
The English-born star started his career as a New Zealand pop star and starred for many years on favourite TV shows such as Happen Inn.
He performed his hit records from NZ to Korea to Czechoslovakia, where he performed to huge TV audiences.
Rob worked in Las Vegas through the eighties before moving to Australia when cast in the in Les Misérables.