Rob Guest

STAGE queen Marina Prior has paid tribute to her close friend and co-star Rob Guest, saying the actor would be terribly missed.

Prior, who starred with Guest in Les Miserables in the late 1980s, and The Phantom of the Opera, said he would be missed professionally and personally.

Guest, 57, died in hospital overnight after his life support machine was turned off. He was surrounded by family and friends.

The English-born actor had been starring as the Wizard of Oz in the hit musical Wicked. He rushed to hospital on Tuesday night with bleeding on the brain after suffering a major stroke.

Prior said the music theatre fraternity was devastated by Guest's death.

"He had an amazing ability to gain the audience's empathy straight away, and he was incredibly charismatic," she told 3AW Radio.

"As the Phantom he had this extraordinary magnetism and charisma.

Prior said Guest never missed a performance as the Phantom.

"We used to always laugh that he would go on in an iron lung if he had to," she said.

"I think that's just why everybody has been so shocked, he's such a robust and vital person.

"He's one of those people that gives 400 per cent and ... he's a man of great integrity, a great family man."

Producers of the hit musical say the show will go on despite the shock death.

Wicked producer John Frost said despite their grief cast mates would continue to perform the show, with Guest's understudy Rodney Dobson to take over the role of the Wizard.

He said the cast had pulled together yesterday to perform both a matinee and evening show.

"The show went on and it was a terrific one and I think they all rallied knowing that Rob was waiting for them somewhere and they gave it for Rob last night," Mr Frost told 3AW radio.

"The audience was great, they really embraced Rodney Dobson."

Mr Frost said Guest's partner Kellie Dickerson, who is the show's musical director, and children Christopher, 19, and Amy, 17 were distraught.

He said he was worried about how Ms Dickerson would handle her eventual return to the show, because she was so used to watching Guest on stage from the music pit.

"My biggest fear is that she will come back to work and have to look up on that stage and he won't be there."

Mr Frost said Guest loved the theatre and acted as a mentor to the junior members of the cast.

"He was loved by the whole company," he said.