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Craig McLachlan returns to stage after being acquitted of assault charges

Melissa IariaNCA NewsWire
VideoThere has been mixed reaction to Craig McLachlan’s tell-all interview with 7NEWS Spotlight

Actor Craig McLachlan is making a stage comeback.

The 55-year-old will play US country music legend Hank Williams in the production Nobody Lonesome For Me, starting in Perth next month.

It’s his first foray onto the stage since being acquitted in December of assault allegations against four women on the set of the Rocky Horror Show in 2014.

The actor was stood down from the Rocky Horror Show and The Doctor Blake Mysteries as a result of being charged.

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In a tell-all interview with Seven last month, McLachlan cried and raged about the “absolute demolition” of his life as a result of the allegations.

He said he was frustrated that despite being “100 per cent acquitted” and “an innocent man”, he was not believed and hadn’t worked for three years because he had been cruelly targeted.

“The crucifixion was so brutal,” he said.

Craig McLachlan
Camera IconGold Logie winning actor Craig McLachlan with partner Vanessa Scammell. NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles Credit: News Corp Australia

McLachlan will portray Hank Williams, renowned as the king of country music, in New York playwright Lanie Robertson’s production.

It begins on July 29 at His Majesty’s Theatre before travelling around the country.

Nicknamed the “Hillbilly Shakespeare”, singer-songwriter Williams penned a string of hits still recorded today.

His short life was wracked by pain, struggles with alcohol and prescription drug abuse. He died in 1953, aged just 29.

VideoShowbiz commentator Peter Ford believes actor Craig McLachlan can bounce back from the indecent assault allegations

Entertainment reporter Peter Ford said the play’s two-week season in Perth was “perhaps a little ambitious”, but McLachlan had a loyal fan base.

“You can just imagine that first night which is July 29, when Craig‘s backstage waiting to go onstage, the tension and nerves and excitement, the combination of all three for him to make that step back onto the stage in front of the public again,” he told 6PR Breakfast radio.

Last December, Magistrate Belinda Wallington said prosecutors had not met the required standard for her to find McLachlan guilty of the allegations.

Originally published as Craig McLachlan returns to stage after being cleared of assault charges

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