Geoffrey Rush wins the best actor in a musical award at this year's prestigious Helpmanns Queensland-born actor Geoffrey Rush won a Helpmann award for his role in the theatre production A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. OSCAR winning actor Geoffrey Rush has another gong to add to his collection, this time for his turn in a toga. The Queensland-born performer was named on Monday night best actor in a musical for his performance in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To The Forum. He was one of a number of Queenslanders who took home awards at the Sydney ceremony which celebrates the highest achievement in live performance in Australia. Local circus company Circa won two awards, best regional touring production for their self-titled show and best physical theatre or dance work for (italics) S (italics) in last year's Brisbane Festival. Local composer Iain Grandage won the award for best music direction and best original score for The Secret River which was also awarded best new Australian work and best play. Dancer Deborah Brown was honoured with an award for best female dancer for her work in Bangarra Dance Theatre's Terrain. Queensland Performing Arts Centre's investment in its International Series, which brought performances from the Vienna Philharmonic and The Bolshoi Ballet to Brisbane recently, paid off with two awards for last year's visit from the Hamburg Philharmonic. The performance of Das Rhinegold received the best symphony orchestra concert award while conductor Simone Young won the award for best individual classical music performance for conducting the orchestra. In the hotly contested music theatre categories Legally Blonde was the big winner taking out the award for best musical. The show's star Lucy Durack won best female performer in a musical while Helen Dallimore, who played quirky hairdresser Paulette, won best female supporting actor in a musical. The $6 million theatrical production of King Kong which is currently playing in Melbourne picked up four awards in the production categories and one special award for the creation of the giant gorilla that the show is centred around. The awards were announced at a gala ceremony at the Sydney Opera House hosted by Offspring star Eddie Perfect and cabaret diva Christie Whelan-Browne.