Olivia still has that magic

From playing doe-eyed schoolgirl turned seductress Sandy in Grease to the musical muscle worship of her 1981 hit Physical, Olivia Newton-John’s always had a finely tuned sense of camp.

But it’s the past few years that have seen her career take a decidedly queer turn.

She somehow managed to out-gay the original Physical video when she recreated it on Glee. She played an alcoholic lesbian country singer in the movie and TV series Sordid Lives.

Now she’s released a fresh take of one of her most enduring hits, Magic, teaming up with producer Steve Peach and respected gay DJ Dan Murphy (working under the title WACCI) for a remix that’s tailor-made for the dancefloor.

“With Magic, John Farrar wrote a great, timeless song. No matter what decade you’re in or what you put behind it, it works, because a good song is a good song,” Newton-John told the Star Observer.

The single is currently scaling the iTunes charts, with proceeds going towards the construction of the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre, a holistic treatment centre due to open at Melbourne’s Austin Hospital by 2012.

“That’s the great news: between [the single] and the cookbook I’ve just released, Livwise, we’re hoping to raise a lot of money for the centre. I’ve been busy! But we’re down to the last 10 million; we have a year to go to finish the ‘O’.”

Always a tireless charity campaigner, the design of Newton-John’s Wellness Centre was informed by her own experience battling breast cancer in 1992.

“The Wellness Centre was inspired by the fact that I had to look outside a hospital setting to find all the things I needed to help me through the journey when I went through cancer. To have all this under one roof will be marvellous.

“It’s about a new way of thinking — the hospital is not going to feel like a hospital. It’s already a tough enough experience [battling cancer] without being in a depressing setting.”

The US-based Newton-John’s current Australian visit hasn’t been entirely charity-based, though. She’s also been filming a role in Priscilla: Queen of the Desert director Stephan Elliott’s new comedy, A Few Best Men. Sounds like something to add to her ever-growing list of camp performances.

“Yes, very true,” she laughed. “It’s a wedding film, a comedy by the same man who wrote Death at a Funeral. It’s a wild wedding, and I play the mother of the bride, which is life imitating art, because my daughter [Chloe Lattanzi] is getting married soon.”

Newton-John will stay in Australia for her first local headline shows in several years as part of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival this month. Before then, she said she hoped to escape to her Byron Bay Retreat, Gaia, with her husband of two years, John Easterling.

“It’s so peaceful and beautiful here in Australia. I love this part of the world.”

info: Magic by Olivia Newton-John and WACCI is now on iTunes. Visit www.oliviaappeal.com She also plays the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Visit www.adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au