Sweet Nell: The Story of Australia's Rose

Ali McGregor
  • 5.0 (2)
  • PERFORMING ARTS

Sweet Nell: The Story of Australia’s Rose is a 6-part, richly told narrative podcast about fame, forgetting, and the women who built Australian theatre long before their stories were written out of it. Hosted by acclaimed performer and producer Ali McGregor, the series traces the extraordinary life of Eleanor “Nellie” Stewart - the most celebrated stage star of 19th-century Australia. Sweet Nell was adored, scrutinised, scandalised, and mythologised in her own lifetime, yet today her name has all but vanished from public memory. Each episode blends immersive storytelling, archival research, and personal reflection, following Nellie from gaslit pantomimes and grand opera houses to international tours, secret marriages, artistic reinvention, and enduring love. Along the way, we meet the formidable women who came before her, the theatre dynasties that shaped a nation’s cultural life, and the precarious realities of making art while navigating class, motherhood, and public expectation. The series opens at sea in 1893, with Nellie travelling alone with her baby, poised between past and future, fame and anonymity, an image that echoes through generations of artists, including the host herself. Sweet Nell is not just a biography. It is an exploration of legacy, adaptation, and why some stories are remembered while others quietly disappear. Across six episodes, this podcast asks a simple question with far-reaching consequences: who decides what, and who we keep?

Episodes

  1. 3 MAY

    Episode 6: The Final Act

    Send us Fan Mail In the final episode of Sweet Nell, Ali McGregor traces the closing chapter of Nellie Stewart’s life while reflecting on her own. Beginning in 1916 with the death of George Musgrove, we follow Nellie through loss and a changing industry as cinema rises and theatre shifts around her. No longer at the centre, she becomes a symbol of a fading era, returning to her defining role while quietly shaping the future through mentorship and charity work. As the distance between past and present narrows, this episode asks what it means to keep performing, to remain relevant, and to build a legacy when so much cannot be preserved. A final meditation on loss, endurance, and what remains after the applause fades. Recorded on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong Peoples of the Kulin Nation, written and hosted by Ali McGregor. Script editing by Maeve Marsden and musical excerpts by Matthew Floyd Jones.  This podcast was created wth the generosity of The Frank Van Straten Fellowship, supported by ‘The Van Straten and Turley Foundation', with the help and guidance of Claudia Funder at the Australian Performing Arts Collection. Massive thanks also go to Elaine Marriner of Marriner Theatres for the initial and continued inspiration and support.  https://www.alimcgregor.com/nellie

    23 min

  2. 6 MAR

    Episode 5: Triumph, Tragedy and the Birth of a Legend

    Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Sweet Nell: The Story of Australia’s Rose, we follow Nellie Stewart through one of the most dramatic periods of her life and career. Returning to the stage after the birth of her daughter, Nellie throws herself back into touring comic opera across Australia and New Zealand, discovering a stronger voice, renewed confidence and an audience more devoted than ever. But success is rarely simple. As Nellie and theatre impresario George Musgrove chase opportunities across London, Australia and America, ill health, financial risk and relentless touring begin to shape their lives behind the curtain. Along the way, we meet the historical Nell Gwynne of Drury Lane—an actress whose story will inspire the role that transforms Nellie’s career and earns her the nickname that will follow her forever: “Sweet Nell.” From triumphant premieres and international tours to personal loss, earthquakes, theatrical gambles and the complicated partnership between Nellie and Musgrove, this episode reveals the fragile balance between fame and hardship in the golden age of theatre. It’s a story of reinvention, resilience and the moment when Nellie Stewart becomes not just a star—but a legend. Recorded on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong Peoples of the Kulin Nation, written and hosted by Ali McGregor. Script editing by Maeve Marsden and musical excerpts by Matthew Floyd Jones.  This podcast was created wth the generosity of The Frank Van Straten Fellowship, supported by ‘The Van Straten and Turley Foundation', with the help and guidance of Claudia Funder at the Australian Performing Arts Collection. Massive thanks also go to Elaine Marriner of Marriner Theatres for the initial and continued inspiration and support.  https://www.alimcgregor.com/nellie

    21 min

  3. 26 FEB

    Episode 4: Alone on the High Cs

    Send us Fan Mail In this deeply personal episode, I trace Nellie Stewart’s return to Australia in 1893 - not as the adored “Rose of Australia,” but as a new mother travelling incognito across the world with her six-week-old baby. From triumph and tragedy at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre to a gruelling 45-day voyage aboard the SS Doric, this chapter reveals a woman balancing ambition, secrecy, love and survival. As I uncover a long-forgotten shipboard journal and search in vain for her daughter’s birth certificate, the distance between performer and private woman narrows. Alone on the high seas, Nellie’s story becomes one of resilience, reinvention and the cost of returning to the stage when everything has changed Recorded on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong Peoples of the Kulin Nation, written and hosted by Ali McGregor. Script editing by Maeve Marsden and musical excerpts by Matthew Floyd Jones.  This podcast was created wth the generosity of The Frank Van Straten Fellowship, supported by ‘The Van Straten and Turley Foundation', with the help and guidance of Claudia Funder at the Australian Performing Arts Collection. Massive thanks also go to Elaine Marriner of Marriner Theatres for the initial and continued inspiration and support.  https://www.alimcgregor.com/nellie

    32 min

  4. 21/12/2025

    Episode 3: Bracelets of Gold

    Send us Fan Mail A secret marriage, a defiant love affair, and a symbol that would become legend. In Episode Three of Sweet Nell, Ali McGregor follows Nellie Stewart through heartbreak and resolve as she refuses a respectable life in favour of the stage and the man she cannot live without. From the glittering triumph of The Mikado and the opening of Melbourne’s Princess Theatre to a bracelet forged from melted sovereigns and worn as a private declaration of devotion, this episode explores how love, ambition and sacrifice became inseparable in Nellie’s life. It is a story of artistic authority, quiet rebellion, and a woman shaping both her public image and her private truth at the height of her power Recorded on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong Peoples of the Kulin Nation, written and hosted by Ali McGregor. Script editing by Maeve Marsden and musical excerpts by Matthew Floyd Jones.  'The Sun Whose Rays' (Mikado) & 'I am Weary of the Sorrows' - sung by Ali McGregor. This podcast was created wth the generosity of The Frank Van Straten Fellowship, supported by ‘The Van Straten and Turley Foundation', with the help and guidance of Claudia Funder at the Australian Performing Arts Collection. Massive thanks also go to Elaine Marriner of Marriner Theatres for the initial and continued inspiration and support.  https://www.alimcgregor.com/nellie

    20 min
  5. Episode 2: Nellie

    19/12/2025

    Episode 2: Nellie

    Send us Fan Mail Melbourne in the late 1870s is loud, glittering and hungry for spectacle, and Nellie Stewart is rising with it. In Episode Two of Sweet Nell, Ali McGregor follows Nellie from backstage sewing tables to centre stage, as Christmas pantomimes, comic opera and burlesque turn a gifted teenager into one of Australia’s first true theatrical celebrities. Alongside the chaos of gaslit theatres and runaway success, we meet the power brokers of the age, including the formidable George Coppin and the ambitious George Musgrove, and watch as fame, desire and expectation begin to collide. This episode charts the exhilaration of stardom, the cost of being watched, and the moment when Nellie makes a choice that will change the course of her life forever Recorded on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong Peoples of the Kulin Nation, written and hosted by Ali McGregor. Script editing by Maeve Marsden and musical excerpts by Matthew Floyd Jones.  This podcast was created wth the generosity of The Frank Van Straten Fellowship, supported by ‘The Van Straten and Turley Foundation', with the help and guidance of Claudia Funder at the Australian Performing Arts Collection. Massive thanks also go to Elaine Marriner of Marriner Theatres for the initial and continued inspiration and support.  https://www.alimcgregor.com/nellie

    29 min
  6. Episode 1: Eleanor

    19/12/2025

    Episode 1: Eleanor

    Send us Fan Mail A woman stands on the deck of a steamship in 1893, a baby in her arms and forty-five days of ocean ahead. In this opening episode of Sweet Nell, performer Ali McGregor traces the journey of Eleanor “Nellie” Stewart back through generations of performers, beginning not with fame, but with travel, motherhood, reinvention, and risk.  From the crowded decks of the SS Doric to the gaslit theatres of colonial Hobart, Sydney and Melbourne, Episode One lays the foundations of a theatrical dynasty and a nation’s live performance culture. It is a story of women who made art against the odds, of forgotten labour and quiet resilience, and of how the echoes of the past still shape Australian theatre today. Recorded live during a presentation for Theatre Heritage Australia at the Showroom, Arts Centre Melbourne.  Edited by Ali McGregor, with the most basic setup. All music in this episode played by Matthew Flloyd Jones, except the final song, sung live by Ali McGregor, accompanied by Zachary Hamilton-Russell and singers Eliza Bennetts O'Connor, Samantha Anderson-Mayes, Jack Jordan & Nicholas Shepherd. Recorded on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong Peoples of the Kulin Nation written and hosted by Ali McGregor. Script editing by Maeve Marsden and musical excerpts by Matthew Floyd Jones.  This podcast was created wth the generosity of The Frank Van Straten Fellowship supported by ‘The Van Straten and Turley Foundation' with the help and guidance of Claudia Funder at the Australian Performing Arts Collection. Massive thanks also go to Elaine Marriner of Marriner Theatres for the initial and continued inspiration and support.  https://www.alimcgregor.com/nellie

    28 min
  • 6 Episodes

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Sweet Nell: The Story of Australia’s Rose is a 6-part, richly told narrative podcast about fame, forgetting, and the women who built Australian theatre long before their stories were written out of it. Hosted by acclaimed performer and producer Ali McGregor, the series traces the extraordinary life of Eleanor “Nellie” Stewart - the most celebrated stage star of 19th-century Australia. Sweet Nell was adored, scrutinised, scandalised, and mythologised in her own lifetime, yet today her name has all but vanished from public memory. Each episode blends immersive storytelling, archival research, and personal reflection, following Nellie from gaslit pantomimes and grand opera houses to international tours, secret marriages, artistic reinvention, and enduring love. Along the way, we meet the formidable women who came before her, the theatre dynasties that shaped a nation’s cultural life, and the precarious realities of making art while navigating class, motherhood, and public expectation. The series opens at sea in 1893, with Nellie travelling alone with her baby, poised between past and future, fame and anonymity, an image that echoes through generations of artists, including the host herself. Sweet Nell is not just a biography. It is an exploration of legacy, adaptation, and why some stories are remembered while others quietly disappear. Across six episodes, this podcast asks a simple question with far-reaching consequences: who decides what, and who we keep?

Information