Stage Whispers December 2023/January & February 2024 edition

14 In This Issue

Hopelessly Devoted To Grease ............................................................................. 8 We chat with Australia’s new Danny, Sandy and Miss Lynch Gaslight: Reignited For National Tour ................................................................ 12 An interview with the director and co-writer on this classic thriller, reimagined The Unstoppable Lucy Maunder......................................................................... 14 Now touring as Roxie Hart in Chicago, Lucy talks about the role and her career Musicals In 2024 ............................................................................................... 20 A round-up of musicals in the year ahead Hugh Jackman’s First Drama Class ..................................................................... 25 How Hugh’s career path shifted from journalism to Hollywood and Broadway

17 25

Pick Of The Plays .............................................................................................. 30 David Spicer’s theatre-going recommendations for 2024 Community Theatre Seasons In 2024 ................................................................. 38 What’s on around Australia on local stages in the coming year

Regular Features Behind The Scenes With Debora Krizak What happens to child stars?............................................................................. 16

30

Script Extract: Julia ............................................................................................ 28 Stage Heritage Gilbert and Sullivan in Australia ......................................................................... 34 Broadway Buzz.................................................................................................. 36 London Calling .................................................................................................. 37 Let’s Put On A Show.......................................................................................... 48 Director’s Diary Stirling Players’ Accidental Death Of An Anarchist .............................................. 52

41

Choosing A Show .............................................................................................. 56 What’s On ........................................................................................................ 60 Reviews ............................................................................................................. 66 Musical Spice Oy vey, I’m on stage .......................................................................................... 76

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6 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

Editorial Dear theatre-goers and theatre-doers, Welcome to this edition, as we look forward to an exciting year of theatre across Australia.

2023 has certainly bounced back to something a bit more like the days before COVID-19, though theatre companies still face all sorts of trials and tribulations.

While preparing this magazine, I became aware of seasons curtailed by illness, a play where the director had to step in, script in hand, and another where a versatile understudy filled in for one role at dress rehearsal, then a different one mid-season.

Anticipating all contingencies has certainly added a brand-new layer to rehearsing and preparing for a production, but it has also shown us the resilience and resourcefulness of our Performing Arts community.

As I prepared the annual Community Theatre seasons feature, while most companies have returned, or are making their first forays back on stage in 2024, I was saddened to discover that some have not survived the pandemic. Others remain in recess, still licking their wounds from costly cancellations or continue to assemble their comeback committees.

I’m sure, though, that you will find as much to be excited about in these pages as I have found in editing them, across all spheres of theatre in the year to come.

Wishing you and yours a happy and healthy Christmas and New Year.

Yours in Theatre,

Neil Litchfield Editor

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Sheridan Adams as Elphaba in Wicked.

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Cover image: Annelise Hall as Sandy and Joseph Spanti as Danny in Grease.

Read Nicole Smith’s interview with the show’s stars ahead of its premiere on page 8.

Photo: Hugh Stewart.

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 7

Cover Story

Annelise Hall and Joseph Spanti in Grease.

Photo: Hugh Stewart.

8 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

Slicker and sexier than ever is the promise. Nicole Smith speaks to the new Danny, Sandy and Miss Lynch ahead of the latest revival of the musical, which is honouring the memory of Olivia NewtonJohn.

Seventy years beyond the ‘50s, we remain hopelessly devoted to Grease.

With the enduring appeal of its era, the iconic musical can evoke a strong nostalgia across generations. A cultural phenomenon, Grease has had countless revivals, adaptations, and references in popular media, ensuring its status as a nostalgic touchstone for multiple generations. On the eve of 2024, at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne, a new cast will pick up the leather jackets and don the poodle skirts to head to school at Rydell High.

The infectious music, vibrant choreography, and timeless themes of love and belonging featured in Grease resonate with audiences, transporting them back to their youthful experiences and the cultural landscape of the 1950s.

The portrayal of teen romance, friendship, and rebellion taps into universal experiences, drawing viewers into a world filled with youthful exuberance and innocence. Audiences are being promised a version of the classic that is slicker, sexier, and more electrifying than ever.

Leading the all-Australian cast in the iconic roles made famous by our own Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta are Joseph Spanti (Danny) and Annelise Hall (Sandy), and both can’t wait to get the show on the road.

For Melbourne local Spanti, Her Majesty’s Theatre holds a special place in his heart.

“I saw my very first musical in 2014, and it gave me the bug, so it is very exciting to come back to the theatre where I fell in love with musicals,” Spanti says. “I can’t believe I’m doing a show in the place that gave me the reason to do theatre.

Getting to open in my hometown is special”

Spanti has been researching the a sheltered idea of masculinity, and a Hall also looks forward to era while preparing to take on Danny. lot of people suffered because of that. honouring Australia’s sweetheart “It’s fun because it’s such an iconic “Danny learns a lot about himself Olivia Newton-John in this, the first role. John Travolta put such an through Sandy. He learns I don’t have staged version of the role that made interesting spin on the character, and to put on this persona. I can be her famous, since she lost her battle when people think about the role, whoever I want to be, and showing with cancer in 2022. She recently they have him in mind,” he adds. “I’m vulnerability and love for this woman visited the Olivia Newton-John Cancer feeling really privileged to step into his is totally fine.”

Wellness & Research Centre in shoes. But It’s a double-edged sword, The chemistry between Danny and Melbourne and is delighted that the giving people what they expect, yet at Sandy is a central aspect of the story, centre is an official charity partner of the same time, to play with it and and Spanti has nothing but praise for the production. She is drawn to make it your own. If it’s not his leading lady.

Olivia’s life work because the centre is authentically yourself, then they see “Annalise is truly a lovely person “focussed on wellness to improve through that.” and has that essence of Olivia. quality” of life alongside research.

Spanti is trying on the iconic T-Bird Australian audiences are going to fall One of her proudest moments was look. in love with her.” leading the charity’s primary “As soon as I put on the leather Both Spanti and Annalise Hall fundraiser walk for wellness in jacket, I felt an element of Danny grew up loving the music and movies, October this year as its ambassador.

Zuko already there. The essence with classic hits like ‘Summer Nights’ She hopes to spread awareness and started to come through naturally. My and ‘You’re the One That I Want’ that raise funds, saying “We are doing this leather jacket era has begun,” he have become synonymous with the for Olivia, and a lot of the money laughs. “I’ve been learning a lot about era and have the power to trigger raised will go to the wellness centre.” what a Greaser is. They were these feelings of nostalgia for many “Australia just loves Grease and guys returning from war who didn’t instantly. loves Sandy. I’m going to bring a little know how to deal with their Hall has always loved the musical bit of myself to it as well. Sandy’s experiences and formed gangs. I’m and had a deep connection to the journey starts reflective of old America playing with different ideas of how he role. in that she’s got these certain morals, would have been introduced to the “Olivia Newton-John is someone certain ideals. At that time, we are Greaser life.” that I looked up to growing up. She’s seeing all these teenagers who are Reflecting on the masculine someone that has inspired me,” Hall fighting for their identity, fighting for stereotypes of men in the ‘50s and says. “To play such an iconic role is their freedom. I think Sandy is a ‘60s, Spanti says, “some themes special and a little bit nerve-wracking reflection of that. She is fighting for aren’t very 2023, but we need to but very exciting”. her empowerment,” Hall says. bring it to life and look how far we Having played the role of Sandy “There are so many opportunities have come. Men don’t need to be whilst studying at the Queensland throughout the show where she could angry to be masculine in that way.

Conservatorium, she looks forward to turn her back on the Pink Ladies, turn They can be themselves. It is sad in a bringing Sandy to the stage now that her back on Danny, but she sticks way that these guys in those days had she is “a little bit older, a little bit (Continued on page 10) wiser.”

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 9

Cover Story

“Kate Baily worked on the costume music. It’s a show that appeals to design of the movie and described the everyone.”

(Continued from page 9) final outfit as being ahead of its time, The cast quickly points out this is and that’s the way I see Sandy’s an Australian Grease, with all cast and with them, and in the end, she gets journey — ahead of its time. In 2023, creatives on home soil. The fashion of what she wants. I love the we are so much more respectful of Grease contributes to its timeless determination and persistence that women having control of their bodies quality in the hands of Aussie you can see in Sandy. and making their own decisions over designers.

“The way that I see Sandy and the their bodies. I’m focused on showing “There will be all the amazing production of Grease does resonate some of the grit and the female costumes people have never seen,” well with a 2023 audience. Women empowerment throughout the says Hall. can be inspired by women supporting production.”

“When do you ever get to do a women and the way that Sandy Heading up Rydell High is beloved show like that? Designers, directors, stands up for herself. I’m (looking veteran Patti Newton as Miss Lynch. the whole production team are Newton has unique connections with Australian, and everything is forward) to bringing that to the show.

Grease, being friends with Olivia Australian-made,” adds Spanti.

Newton-John.

The 1950s setting and iconic “Olivia adored Bert as Bert did costumes have become emblematic of her,” she says. “This was her moment a bygone era. The film’s depiction of and something that put her on the high school life, complete with the Tmap.”

Birds and Pink Ladies, has become Bert Newton, who sadly ingrained in popular culture, serving passed away in 2021, played as a reference point for an idealised, Vince Fontaine during the nostalgic representation of teenage last tour of Grease in one experiences. of his final stage roles.

One of the most apparent impacts “Bert loved doing of Grease is its enduring influence on Grease,” she reminisces. fashion. The 1950s-inspired looks “I know how he feels. showcased in the film, from leather The young people in jackets and poodle skirts to slickedthe ensemble are so back hair and pedal pushers, have had caring and loving. a lasting imprint on fashion trends, When I got the call with retro and vintage styles often from John Frost to drawing inspiration from the film. play Miss Lynch, a Beyond fashion and music, Grease yellow butterfly landed on my has also influenced how we talk and windscreen, and I thought, yes, communicate, with iconic lines and that’s a sign. We always say any phrases from the film becoming part yellow butterflies mean he is here. of everyday language. Whether it’s “I think Bert is looking after me exclaiming, “Tell me about it, stud”, upstairs. Hopefully, I will be an or referencing “Summer lovin’,” the inspiration to people who have film’s dialogue has permeated lost their loved ones; who can’t popular culture, instantly recognisable get out of bed. You don’t want to to audiences across generations. go with them; you want to live for So, as the class of 2024 moves them. I have six grandchildren, into Rydell High, this New Year’s Eve and life is for living.”

Grease becomes further solidified in Newton says, looking forward popular culture, becoming part of an to the new iteration of the enduring legacy that continues to beloved musical, “You can’t not inspire and resonate with audiences love it with all that beautiful worldwide.

Mackenzie Dunn and Keanu Gonzalez in Grease.

Photo: Hugh Stewart.

10 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

Grease The Musical Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne from December 31 Capitol Theatre, Sydney from March 24 Crown Theatre Perth from June greasemusical.com.au

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A new adaptation of the classic psychological drama Gaslight is making its Australian premiere in Brisbane next year ahead of a national tour. Beth Keehn caught up with Lee Lewis, the play’s director, and Patty Jamieson, one of the playwrights, to find out more.

Patrick Hamilton’s Gaslight has resonated strongly with audiences since its first production in 1938. Its dark Victorian setting and disturbing themes have intrigued us so much that it has been produced for the stage several times, under different titles, for London’s West End, for Broadway, and beyond. It was even televised live from the stage in a 1958 production for our own ABC TV. And of course, it has given us a new way to describe psychological coercion in modern relationships.

Thanks to a timely reinterpretation by two Canadian playwrights, Australian audiences will soon be able to revisit this classic tale of madness and manipulation.

Beth Keehn: Lee, why did you choose Gaslight as your first play for 2024?

Lee Lewis: QT’s 2024 season has an underlying theme: “Every play is all about the conversation after the play.”

And one story that is incredibly topical is Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 Gaslight, a gothic thriller set in the Victorian era.

This is the play that changed how we speak about toxic relationships. It has added ‘gaslighting’ to our modern lexicon to describe coercive behaviour and psychological manipulation.

Gaslight is a classic play that has been adapted several times for the stage. I love the original play, and I love the two 1940s films — but then I read this new version by a couple of great Canadian theatre-makers — Johnna

Wright and Patty Jamieson. Their version first appeared in 2022, so it is very fresh. Their adaptation changes the play in a way that makes it a much better thriller. It’s scary and claustrophobic. And, of course, the themes of coercion and control are only too familiar to us today. Sometimes plays set in the past can help us realise how things have changed for the better.

And the Victorian setting is another good reason to do this play. I (also) love a good frock and an old-fashioned melodrama!

BK: There’s nothing old-fashioned about your lead actors!

LL: Certainly not! The writers have distilled the story to just four characters, who each have a much bigger part in the story — so the nuances and

Lee Lewis.

12 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

psychology are really important. Every part needs a strong actor, and we have a wonderful cast: Geraldine Hakewill as Bella and Toby Schmitz as Jack — with Kate Fitzpatrick as the housekeeper, Elizabeth, and Courtney Cavallaro as Nancy the maid. These are all fabulous contemporary actors.

Gerry and I have been looking at situations that have always been frightening for women. Looking at coercive control, as a woman, you have to admit to all those times you’ve been subjected to it, and use that insight to understand how this can happen to Bella — to acknowledge that some of the decisions that she makes are not crazy, and to have compassion for her.

It’s exciting working with Gerry, who’s interested in that level of psychology.

It’s also great to have Toby back on the stage because he’s been doing so much TV. And he really wants to sink his teeth into his role as Jack and understand what drives his behaviour — is it a society that puts pressure on men to always succeed? We have to try and understand the violence — where does that impulse come from? What we see at the beginning is a man who is deeply in love with his wife, but seeing him change is the magic trick of a great actor.

BK: Will you be importing any designs from the original production?

LL: No, we are making everything here in Queensland. I really believe that the State theatre companies, as well as introducing new voices, have a responsibility to preserve the old theatre traditions as well — in making, in costumes, and sets. Paul Jackson is our Lighting Designer. And, because a good thriller needs a good score, we have Paul Charlier as our Composer and Sound Designer. For our costumes, we have Renee Mulder, who has just returned from working on The Importance of Being Earnest for the Sydney Theatre Company, so this will be a wonderful addition to her periodpiece portfolio.

BK: Tell me about working with Newtheatricals, your touring producer for this play.

LL: We are partnering with Rodney Rigby at Newtheatricals as producers for Gaslight. We’ve been looking at different models for our work, and this will enable Gaslight to tour the country after our premiere in Brisbane. The whole team is looking forward to creating the atmosphere and tension of Gaslight, and making audiences jump!

And of course, continuing their conversations after the show! ________________ Patty Jamieson is a playwright and performer. She adapted Gaslight with fellow Canadian Johnna Wright (who is also a theatre director). Their new version was first performed for the Shaw Festival in Ontario in 2022.

BK: What drew you and Johnna to Gaslight?

Patty Jamieson: Johnna and I felt that the central story of Gaslight was compelling. Bella’s struggle resonated for us in so many ways. We thought it could have meaning for others as well.

We’ve kept all the delicious mystery elements from the original play: a gloomy Victorian house with a tragic history; a fragile woman who may be

Patty Jamieson.

losing her mind; an attentive and caring husband; mysterious sounds in the attic; and ominous changes to the gaslight at night. Our version starts off much the same as the original but, part way through, something changes, something that puts Bella at the centre of a story that many of us are living right now. No one is coming to save Bella. Can she save herself?

BK: Patty, you’ve performed in Patrick Hamilton’s Rope — did that give you an insight into the playwright’s method and themes?

PJ: Both Rope and Gaslight dive into some of the darker recesses of human thought and behaviour. Both pieces are about worlds that mostly men inhabit — women are peripheral. It’s hard to know Hamilton’s motives, but he was a product of his time. We are writers shaped by the circumstances we live in.

We wanted our version to reflect that.

BK: How long did you work on the play?

PJ: We started the work in 2014. We live in different parts of Canada, so we

Gaslight Premiering in Brisbane on February 20 then touring to Melbourne, Canberra, Perth, Newcastle, Parramatta and Sydney. gaslightplay.com.au

actually wrote together over Skype and we had a first draft by 2017. We did get together for several workshops before the premiere at the Shaw Festival.

BK: How did you research female experience in Victorian times?

PJ: I’ve absorbed a great deal about the female experience in Victorian times from the plays I’ve worked on at the Shaw Festival over 26 seasons! The Victorian period represents a huge span of social, political and economic change for women in society, in England and elsewhere. Some of the stakes for Bella come from the Victorian marriage laws and property laws. We also have the house staff, Elizabeth and Nancy, who are navigating different societal expectations. We didn’t want to change the rules of Victorian society. Our question was: Is there a way for Bella to play by those rules and win?

BK: Do you have a message for Australian audiences?

PJ: The Australian team, led by director Lee Lewis, is very experienced and talented and we can’t wait to see what they come up with. We hope Australian audiences will enjoy this classic thriller filled with mystery and suspense — and its wonderful cast!

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 13

Ever since Lucy Maunder can remember, she wanted to be on the stage. Born to show business parents, Lucy was cradled in the dressing room of the Sydney Opera House, went straight into WAAPA after school, then into a non-stop musical theatre career. Now a stage mother herself, she spoke to David Spicer about her latest role in the touring production of Chicago.

Lucy Maunder will play Roxie Hart in Chicago.

Photo: Juliet Taylor.

14 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

Lucy Maunder plays the charismatic killer Roxie Hart. She has lots of killer lines including “All that jazz”, “Who says murder is not an art” and “Do you wanna take my picture?”. But her favourite is, aptly, “Haven’t you read the papers lately? I’m a star.”

David Spicer: What do you like about playing Roxie?

Lucy Maunder: I’ve loved the role since I first saw Chicago in London, when I was 12. Roxie is so deep and has so many layers to her character. She’s conniving and she’s street smart. She’s a killer, but she’s got charm and is still likable. You have to understand and want to go on that journey with her, otherwise she can just be portrayed as a monster. The role has humour, and a lot of emotion at the end of the show as well. It’s just got everything that you would want in a role.

DS: Are you best known for playing nice characters?

LM: I did play Heather Chandler in Heathers the Musical, which was just monstrous — and so much fun. Also Rizzo in Grease is not particularly nice.

But yes, Miss Honey in Matilda (was nice), and Cynthia in Beautiful was sassy but a very positive kind of character. Mrs. Bucket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and my roles in Pippin and Fun Home were different altogether. So yes, this role is not what people have seen me do in a long time.

DS: Is it more fun playing someone who’s not so nice?

LM: I think so. It is definitely good to stick your teeth into those characters. I mean Roxie is just so ambitious and, I guess, narcissistic, but she is adorable as well.

DS: How have you found rehearsals?

LM: My body’s very sore. I haven’t done a show this physical in quite a while and there’s a lot of very specific direction and choreography. My brain is

full. But it’s wonderful. I mean, it’s such a perfectly constructed piece of musical theatre.

DS: Well, let’s look back. Were you destined to be on the stage given your mother [Anne-Maree McDonald] is an opera singer/pianist and father [Stuart Maunder] an actor/director?

LM: I think so. I always did a million extracurricular activities. I played the violin, the viola and the piano. I did jazz, tap and ballet. I also did competitive ice skating until I was about 14 years old.

I grew up in my mother’s dressing room at the Opera House. I was never a kid that watched any sort of cartoons. I was always watching Esther Williams, and Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and Rita Hayworth. It was something that I had a passion for from a very young age.

I did plays and musicals all through high school and then went to WAAPA as soon as I finished the HSC. It just all snowballed from there.

DS: Your mother was quite a big star at a young age.

LM: She was the youngest principal with the Australian Opera at the age of 20 and she worked with Dame Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge and many amazing people.

DS: The editor of Stage Whispers Neil Litchfield first met your father Stuart Maunder at university, when Stuart was studying to become a lawyer.

LM: His heart wasn’t in law. And then he went into stage management and then into resident directing (and is currently the Artistic Director of the Victorian Opera).

DS: You were an only child and were encouraged to take part in the performing arts. Did you ever sort of say, no, I’d love to have a break?

LM: No way. The whole family was just so driven by music, and it just was in my blood and my bones, and it was always something that I wanted to do.

I’ve been so lucky with the range of roles that I’ve been given the opportunity to

Anne-Maree McDonald as PeepBo with a baby Lucy Maunder backstage at The Mikado (1986).

play. The last few years have been mental. During the pandemic I lost quite a lot of work. Then I got cast in Pippin, which was the first musical back on stage after the lockdown. It’s been nonstop since then.

DS: Now are there any funny stories from your childhood with parents that are such great performers?

LM: I remember my mother telling me that the way they calmed me down if I was crying was to put me in the baby carrier in the orchestra pit. I would just listen to the music and that would be something that really soothed me.

I was in her dressing room with her.

There is as a photo of me when she was playing Peep-Bo in The Mikado, and she’s dressed to the nines with a full stage face on and I’m just sort of sitting on her lap.

That’s exactly how my daughter Edi has grown up as well. We started Matilda when she was six weeks old. In Perth she was in my dressing room for nine weeks. Since then, she just travelled around and was always on tour with me until she started school at the beginning of last year.

Mary Poppins was challenging because she had to stay in Melbourne, so I was traveling constantly, and she

Chicago Crown Theatre Perth from November 21 Lyric Theatre, QPAC from January 2 Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne from March 23 Capitol Theatre, Sydney from June 9 Festival Theatre, Adelaide from August 4 chicagomusical.com.au

would be over with me for school holidays.

(Our very own Mary Poppins) my mother-in-law, has taken months out of her life in the last six years to come on tour with me and make it possible for Edi to be with me, and also to make it possible for (my partner) Jared to continue to perform.

But now we own a cafe in Melbourne that is going through the roof, and he is totally thriving in that role.

DS: Do you employ actors as waiters?

LM: Not really. That happens less than you would imagine. He’s got me in a couple of times to do a few shifts. I help out when I can, running coffees and making toasties.

DS: Is your daughter doing all the dance lessons and ice skating?

LM: Yes, she’s doing it all. Acrobatics, dance, ballet, jazz tap and musical theatre — the whole bit.

DS: Take us back to your audition for WAAPA. You must have had outstanding preparation from your parents?

LM: Yeah, I suppose. I was very young. I had just turned 18, and I didn’t think that I would get in. I just wanted to do the audition and then when I got offered a place I cancelled my gap year around Europe and I moved over to Perth.

DS: What was your first big break?

Was it playing opposite Anthony Warlow in Doctor Zhivago?

LM: I came out of University and did a role in a show called Harp on the Willow with Marina Prior. (My on-stage husband) was Tom Wren and then 17 years later, we were cast as husband and wife in Mary Poppins again. After that I went straight into A Little Night Music with Opera Australia and then Janet in The Rocky Horror Show. Dr Zhivago was my first big commercial break.

It’s been nearly 13 years since Anthony Warlow and I did Dr. Zhivago together. It’s really, really nice to be working with him again, and he’s phenomenal in show.

DS: And what sort of electricity is there between you two onstage?

LM: We’ve got a comfortability, a great rapport and a lot of banter. And so it’s really good to have that comfortability going into this, for sure, because we do a lot together in Chicago. stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 15

For the young stars, it’s an exciting time in their life. Full time rehearsals replace the usual school hours and they’re surrounded by other likeminded creative people instead of hanging out in the schoolyard.

Mara Wilson, who was catapulted to fame in the movie Mrs Doubtfire at Debora Krizak speaks to stars of Rent and The Rocky Horror Show the age of five and later won the role of who cut their teeth in the industry as children.

Matilda in the 1996 film starring Danny DeVito, writes in her article 7 Reasons Having spent the best part of 2023 For every successful audition, there Child Stars Go Crazy: performing with young kids, I have may be 50 knockbacks. It’s tough “Children get used to the love and often wondered whether any of them enough dealing with that as an adult, attention, and then lose it. Adults know would go on to pursue a performing let alone as a minor. that infatuation is fleeting, but kids arts career, and at what cost.

If a child performer is the right don’t understand this. Years of When I was a kid, there wasn’t any height, can take direction and has a adulation and money and things pressure to be a quadruple threat. Most reasonable amount of natural talent, quickly become normal, and then, just of us attended regular dance classes, they’re bound to be given a call-back, as they get used to it all, they hit participated in some community which is the opportunity to workshop a puberty — which is a serious job theatre and didn’t get our first head role in front of the creative team to hazard when your job is being cute,” or shot until we were way into our 20s. determine if they’re the right fit for the when it hinges on being a certain Performing as a career was seen as show. height or whether your voice has a pipe dream and we almost certainly If they get a role then it’s a huge broken or not. needed “something to fall back on”. burden on the families, having to Many thespians relate this — what Now for many children it’s all about accommodate a child with a full-time we call the ‘post-show blues’. We are pursuing those dreams, whatever the job as well as schoolwork, balancing part of a showbiz family for months, cost, for what may just be a fleeting family life, and looking after the rest of maybe years, and these people become moment in the spotlight. the family. our new families — warts and all. I can only imagine how hard it is for kids to

16 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

walk away from that type of intense environment. Some former child stars have said that nothing has ever been able to top that intense showbiz experience. It is sad that they reached their life’s pinnacle at 12.

I spoke with two musical theatre talents about their experiences transitioning from child star to adult professionals.

Kelsi Boyden (Phantom of The Opera, We Will Rock You) started dancing and singing in concerts at three. Her first musical was The Sound of Music in Newcastle with the Metropolitan Players when she played the role of Gretel at five.

“That was the first time I realised that people loved theatre. Audiences laughed and cried at what I was doing and saying onstage. I never wanted to leave the stage after that; it was just electrifying to see people so emotionally moved because of something I was a part of,” she said.

Her first professional contract was playing Debbie Wilkinson in Billy Elliot the Musical.

“I had to move my life from Newcastle to Sydney to play that role and I was 12. It was a life changing experience for my family. It solidified for me that I could do this for a career, and, once I learnt that, performing has been all I have ever wanted to do.”

Likewise, Josh Gates (Mamma Mia!, Rocky Horror) got his first taste of theatre at the age of five when he auditioned for an amateur production of Les Misérables. He knew from that moment that it was all he wanted to do. He landed his first professional contract as Young Peter (understudy) in Hugh Jackman’s The Boy from Oz Australian Tour. He then went on to play the coveted title role in Billy Elliot.

Carrying the responsibility of the title role in a show at such a young age is not lost on me. I am acutely aware of the demands placed on the young Billys to not only carry the show but to put themselves out there for scrutiny every night. Their emotional intelligence must be as well-honed as their fouettés.

The temptation to compare oneself to the numerous other Billys can be the undoing of talent with children who (Continued on page 18)

Kelsi Boyden as Debbie Wilkinson in Billy Elliot (2007).

Behind The Scenes With Debora Krizak

Kelsi Boyden as Scaramouche in We Will Rock You (2021).

Photo: Grant Leslie.

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 17

Behind The Scenes With Debora Krizak Josh Gates with Kaori MaedaJudge in Jagged Little Pill (2019).

Photo: Jeff Busby.

Josh Gates in Billy Elliot (2007).

18 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

(Continued from page 17)

aren’t as mentally strong. Then there’s the competitive undercurrent as to who is chosen to perform on opening night.

And with so many months of auditions and rehearsals, gala openings and press commitments, the amount of attention and focus that is placed on these kids is hard to come down from.

“In retrospect, I was very lucky to be working so young. When I wasn’t working, it was hard to relate to my peers at school. The community of artists that would grow to become like family would move on to other contracts and I’d go back to my regular school in Tasmania, usually re-entering slightly more neurotic every time,” said Josh.

Kelsi Boyden said, “Your whole childhood becomes about achieving your dream of being a performer, so the amount of time, work and ‘blood sweat and tears’ that you put into making that happen may rob you of the time to just be a kid.”

Both Kelsi and Josh have both gone on to successful musical careers as adults, but for every success story, lies an abundance of shattered dreams.

Josh adds, “Even though I can look back now and am incredibly proud of taking on acting as a child, transitioning through the industry as a young adult — it kind of embarrassed me that I’d worked as a kid, or it would give me anxiety that I wouldn’t meet people’s expectations.

“I think having the Billy Elliot credit really helped me get into the audition room, for which I am very grateful.

However, I worked hard to be taken seriously as an actor and singer. The ‘ballet boy’ of it all really pigeonholed me. Imposter syndrome was a big one for me.”

Kelsi has found her own set of challenges along the way.

“Sometimes it’s been a bit of a challenge because the people who have been auditioning you for some time still see you as the child in their last show.

So convincing people that I’m older and capable of leading a show is a strange feeling.

“People think of you as young and treat you like you’ve always been around. Or they think they know what

you can do already, and you don’t get impact on children’s mental health that chance to show them everything back then. you have to offer. That’s the toughest “I am yet to do a show with kids, part for me. Underestimation is a killer, but it seems there is a lot more care but incredibly motivating.” given when the content in the show is This strikes a chord with me. I liken intense. Creating a barrier between the it to changing schools in Year 12. character and child is now a big Starting afresh where no one knew me, priority. There were a few times when meant I didn’t have to carry the burden separating myself from roles was hard, of anyone’s perceptions of me. This had and I can look back and see a sort of a massive impact on my own social and influence the characters had on me — emotional well-being, and I can relate both positive and negative,” said Josh. to how those ghosts of the past can be “I see more care being taken with a great motivator. children in shows. Now musicals and It’s been sixteen years since Josh TV shows have psychologists and and Kelsi were child leads. Josh has councillors that talk to the kids to help gone on to perform in Anything Goes, them process what they are going La Cage Aux Folles, My Fair Lady and through. It can be a very overwhelming experience, especially if the subject Jagged Little Pill. Kelsi most recently played Meg Giry in The Phantom of the matter that they are performing is Opera, Scaramouche in We Will Rock heavy or difficult,” said Kelsi.

I get the sense that it’s somewhat You, and has just been announced in the national tour of Rent. When I asked harder for child stars to make the breakthrough from child to adult how the industry has changed since their childhood debuts, it became clear performer. In Hollywood, the child stars who fared better as adults, generally just how little we knew about the

What’s your career life motto?

Kelsi: “Do the thing that sets you on fire. Life is too short to fill your time with doing anything less than the things that make you feel alive.”

Josh: “If you’re early you’re on-time, if you’re on time you’re late, if you’re late you’re fired.”

Mara: “For kids who want to act, make sure it’s your choice. Get out when it stops being fun and get an education. CGI technology is improving all the time. Considering all the potential legal hassles child stars can be, I wouldn’t be surprised if they get phased out by CGI children who are voiced by adult actors”.

We can only hope live theatre takes a long time to catch up on technology.

did one or two projects, and then got the hell out of Hollywood.

Mara Wilson took a break from the industry for 12 years to concentrate on writing. She returned to acting in 2012 and has predominately worked in web series, finding film acting “not much fun”.

“Doing the same thing over and over again until, in the director’s eyes, you get it right, does not allow for very much creative freedom,” she stated.

Looking back, Josh realises if there was one thing he could tell his younger self, it would be to breathe more and just give himself a big hug.

“There was a long chunk of time as a young artist when I felt I was constantly holding my breath — scared and nervous I’d make a mistake, embarrass myself or be perceived strangely. As I’ve grown older, I sometimes feel that inner child energy spike up. I tell him to take a big breath, drop into the present and accept that what will be, will be”.

Kelsi Boyden will be appearing in the national tour of Rent. rentmusical.au Josh Gates is currently preparing for the continuation of the 50th Anniversary production of The Rocky Horror Show. rockyhorror.com.au

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 19

Musicals In 2024 about to step onto the stage at an outdoor concert in Rio de Janeiro attended by 180,000 people. It flashes back to her childhood with strains of African and gospel music.

“Tina Turner’s tumultuous journey Nationwide choreography that resembles a grand is propelled by slick video projection old, synchronised swimming movie.

“One patron was heard saying on and energetic dancing.

Beauty And The Beast “The writers squeezed 26 songs In 2023, Beauty and the Beast opening night that he had his into the story, some of them are returned to Australia for the first time ‘money’s worth’ in the first ten essential to the narrative such as the minutes.” since its original 1995 production, autobiographical “Nutbush City opening at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre in The production stars Shubshri Limits”, written by Turner herself, and June, with a new digital makeover Kandiah as Belle and Brendan Xavier Ike’s own early song, ‘She Made My as the Beast. which even Broadway audiences haven’t seen yet.

The Sydney season continues until Blood Run Cold’.

“Tina Turner, well known in In his review of the Sydney season, January, ahead of playing Brisbane for the first time ever from February, and Australia for singing her rock anthem David Spicer reported that the show at the NRL Grand Final, is portrayed “regularly draws standing ovations a Melbourne season from June. with passion and gusto by Ruva bit.ly/3R8dydz during the middle of the musical. The Ngwenya. Barely leaving the stage, she eruption of appreciation is for the did not put a foot or note wrong. The rendition of ‘Be Our Guest’, when the Tina - The Tina Turner Musical final concert scene is electric.”

After playing for more than eight humans trapped as furniture put on a Tina plays in Sydney until the end lavish display of affection for the months at Sydney’s Theatre Royal, it’s of January, then Perth in February now time for the rest of Australia to Beast’s prisoner, Belle.

“Another breathtaking moment in rock to Tina - The Tina Turner Musical. followed by Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne. the Disney musical is when the cast In his review of Tina, David Spicer bit.ly/3GeSuf6 dance in complex geometrical said, “The musical opens with Tina

Something old and something new is the flavour of Musical Theatre in 2024. There’s blockbuster classics including Wicked, Sunset Boulevard and Beauty and the Beast, along with Australian premieres of Dear Evan Hansen and Groundhog Day the Musical.

Online extras!

Melbourne audiences fell in love with the King’s music and moves. youtu.be/-Ih-r8kabzQ 20 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

Seasons 2024

Elvis: A Musical Revolution Martin Portus wrote that “with snatches of some 40 great hits from the King of Rock’n’Roll, this biomusical wins from the start.

“David Venn’s production artfully weaves hit vignettes into a revealing, dramatic narrative from Elvis growing up poor in a coloured Mississippi neighbourhood, to learning the US reality of race in the 1950s, to forging the sounds of country, gospel and defiant black rhythms of celebration.

“Rob Mallett is a powerhouse mover and shaker as Elvis, with all the right hip wiggles, splayed legs and swinging arms.”

Playing in Melbourne until December 31, a return Sydney season follows in February, ahead of seasons in Adelaide, Perth and on the Gold Coast. elvisamusicalrevolution.com.au Groundhog Day The Musical The musical, based on the 1993 film, with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin, tells the story of a man trapped inside one day on repeat.

Cynical Pittsburgh TV weatherman Phil Connors, assigned to cover the Elvis: A Musical Revolution.

Photo: Daniel Boud.

Groundhog Day The Musical at The Old Vic. Photo: Manuel Harlan.

Online extras!

Will this self-centred weatherman break the cycle of reliving the same day? youtu.be/HSc8e7UODyw annual Groundhog Day event in the small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, is trapped in a time loop — forced to relive the same day again and again.

“I have waited 7 years for this moment!” said Tim Minchin.

“Groundhog Day The Musical, like Matilda The Musical, has a unique mixture of darkness and light, of head and heart, and of complexity and joy!”

Originally produced in partnership with The Old Vic, Groundhog Day The Musical is scheduled for Melbourne only from January at the Princess Theatre. bit.ly/49INv49 Grease Every decade or so producer John Frost wheels the Grease car out of the garage and over the years there have been arena spectaculars and productions led by TV soap stars.

This time round the leads Joseph Spanti and Annelise Hall have been cast purely on, talent not celebrity.

Director Luke Joslin told David Spicer that as well as a brand-new set, he’s been asking cast to approach the musical like it is being performed for the first time.

It will be fascinating to see how some aspects of the story that have become problematic post MeToo are treated in this production.

Grease plays Melbourne from December 30, Sydney from March 24, 2024, and Perth from June. greasemusical.com.au & Juliet & Juliet flips the script on perhaps the greatest love story ever told, imagining what would happen next if Juliet hadn’t ended it all over Romeo, and got a second chance at life and love — on her terms.

The story is set to pop hits including ‘Baby One More Time’, ‘Roar’, ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’, (Continued on page 22) stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 21

out of the park, while Sheridan Adams as the green witch Elphaba soared in the song ‘Defying Gravity’ and got stronger as the night went on.”

Wicked plays in Sydney until February, then heads to Melbourne from March. bit.ly/3MVMziN

State Theatre Company SA’s Candide.

Photo: Daniel Boud.

(Continued from page 21)

‘Larger Than Life’, ‘That’s The Way It Is’ and ‘Can’t Stop The Feeling’.

The production is led by Lorinda May Merrypor in the title role, with Rob Mills as William Shakespeare and Amy Lehpamer as his wife Anne.

Blake Appelqvist is Romeo with Casey Donovan as Angélique and Hayden Tee as Lance. & Juliet plays Perth from December 30 and Sydney from February 27. andjuliet.com.au Chicago Just four years after its last professional outing, Chicago is back with an all-new cast lead by Anthony Warlow as Billy Flynn, Zoë Ventoura as Velma Kelly, Lucy Maunder as Roxie Hart, Peter Rowsthorn as Amos and Asabi Goodman as Matron ‘Mama’ Morton.

In his review of the 2019 production, David Spicer described Chicago as “an almost perfect model box of a musical. It has one great tune after another and at its heart is a jaw dropping good story.

“Journalist Maurine Dallas Watkins penned a play about the actual female killers who became celebrities in Chicago in the 1920s.

“Originally staged with circus-like flamboyance, a concert staging of the musical led to its renaissance.

Dear Evan Hansen Dear Evan Hansen is the story of a socially anxious highschooler who is suddenly thrust into the spotlight when he makes up a story about a local tragedy.

The musical, with a contemporary score by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, won six Tony Awards in 2017.

When David Spicer saw it on Broadway in 2019, he described it as “The set is simple. The orchestra is “utterly engaging, with nice music and terrific lyrics.” on stage framed with a box to The movie adaptation, released in resemble a jury. It is a pleasure to see the band and revel in the big juicy and 2021 disappointed critics largely due to the casting of 27-year-old Ben Platt at times dirty sound of the brass.” in the lead role of 17-year-old Evan.

Currently Broadway’s longest The Sydney Theatre Company and running show, the 1996 revival of Michael Cassel Group are promising a Chicago is also Broadway’s second longest running musical ever, behind “brand new production” under the direction of Dean Bryant.

The Phantom of the Opera. sydneytheatre.com.au Chicago plays in Perth until December 17, ahead of Brisbane from Sunset Boulevard January, Melbourne from March, Sarah Brightman, the artist who Sydney from June, and Adelaide from originated the role of Christine in August.

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom bit.ly/3MVyLFh of the Opera, will star as Norma Desmond in what marks her first Wicked theatrical role in more than three Wicked has returned to Australia, with its Sydney season encompassing decades.

Opera Australia and GWB the musical’s 20th anniversary on Entertainment are promising Broadway on October 30. “spectacular new staging features, In his review, David Spicer said, stunning sets and costumes, evoking “Another short day in the Emerald the glamorous Golden Age of City, but this time with more flying Hollywood.” monkeys, new colourful LED lighting Sunset Boulevard weaves a tale of and a joke about TikTok, which wasn’t faded glory and unfulfilled ambition. invented when the last professional Having been discarded by Hollywood season took place almost a decade with the advent of “talkies”, legendary ago. silent movie star Norma Desmond is “Wicked is back with a few small updates, sparkling from the inclusion tortured by her longing for a return to the big screen. of bright new leads and the deft Sunset Boulevard plays at hands of experienced actors (including Melbourne’s Princess Theatre in May, Todd McKenney as the Wizard and followed by a Sydney Opera House Robyn Nevin as Madame Morrible). season in August.

“Courtney Monsma is the new bit.ly/46psZ5v Glinda, and she smashes the singing

22 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

Seasons 2024 Sydney Theatre Company’s Dear Evan Hansen.

Online extras!

Catch Sydney Theatre Company’s 2024 season launch. youtu.be/hc2fFFAVZJs West Side Story Opera Australia is bringing back its Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour production of West Side Story in March.

In 2019, Frank Hatherley described it as “a marvellously wide-staged, harbour-side version production by Francesca Zambello that absolutely blew your socks off.

“The marvel of this great production, with the Sydney skylight as a magnificent ground row, is the music, the songs. One after the other they come, either sung or danced to: an outpouring of Bernstein brilliance.

“The real fireworks that explode marvellously after ‘America’ bring us a sharp reminder that we are in Sydney, on the harbour, watching this splendid revival of a timeless American classic.” bit.ly/3MYv1Ts Candide Another Leonard Bernstein classic, Candide, is being staged by the Victorian Opera.

Led by Eddie Perfect and Lyndon Watts, Candide sees Voltaire’s satirical tale of mindless optimism spring to life through a brilliant score from the famed West Side Story creator.

This new production, fusing opera and musical theatre, will see St Kilda’s Palais Theatre transformed from February 8 - 10 into “The Best of All Possible Worlds” under the direction of Dean Bryant, with Benjamin Northey and Orchestra Victoria. victorianopera.com.au A second concert staging of Candide arrives at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Adelaide from May 23 — a collaboration between the State Theatre Company of South Australia, State Opera South Australia along with Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. bit.ly/47lLp8y My Brilliant Career Written over a century ago by Miles Franklin, the novel My Brilliant Career centres on the character of Sybylla Melvyn and her adventures

juggling romance over a desire for a fulfilling career.

The beloved novel — later adapted into a film starring Judy Davis and Sam Neil — has been adapted as a musical

by Matthew Frank, Dean Bryant and Sheridan Harbridge.

The Melbourne Theatre Company describes it as “a live soundtrack that’s equal parts contemporary pop, folksy bush band and raucous pub rock which will translate the untameable spirit of Sybylla into a live theatre experience to blow the ceiling off.”

Playing at the Southbank Theatre in November and December. mtc.com.au Rent LPD Productions, who previously staged Rent at the Hayes Theatre and Sydney Opera House, is taking their production around Australia.

Neil Litchfield wrote of that original staging, “With its potent tale of love and diversity, amidst New York’s impoverished yet still vibrant (Continued on page 24) stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 23

Seasons 2024 LPD Productions’ Rent.

Photo: Wendall Teodoro.

(Continued from page 23)

arts community living with the HIV/ AIDS epidemic, 1990s rock musical Rent resonates powerfully today.

“It’s well known that creator Jonathan Larson died before the OffBroadway opening of his contemporary take on La Bohème, leaving behind a wonderful, virtually through-sung score, but a sketchy scenario for this Pulitzer and Tony winner, which casts and directors must flesh out into living characters.”

Rent plays in Brisbane during January 2024, followed by seasons in Melbourne, Newcastle, Perth and Canberra. bit.ly/3RbQHxG Miss Saigon Following successful seasons in Sydney and Melbourne, Cameron Mackintosh’s new production of Boublil and Schönberg’s musical Miss Saigon is headed to Adelaide for a summer season from January 2.

Featuring an extraordinary cast of talented performers from across the Asia-Pacific region, Miss Saigon will play at the Festival Theatre for a strictly limited season.

Miss Saigon’s Australian cast is led

by Seann Miley Moore as the Engineer, Abigail Adriano as Kim, Nigel Huckle as Chris, Kerrie Anne Greenland as Ellen, Laurence

Hayes Theatre, Sydney The Hayes Theatre Company is celebrating its 10th birthday in 2024 with a mixture of world premieres, Australian premieres and contemporary Broadway musicals.

The season encompasses Zombie!

The Musical, a new show from Laura Murphy (The Lovers, The Dismissal); the Australian premiere of Ride The Cyclone (about members of a Canadian school choir who have perished on a faulty roller coaster with each telling a story to win the chance to return to life) and a co-production with Griffin, Flat Earthers: The Musical (described as a beautiful and chaotic musical epic featuring star-cross’d lesbians plunged into the Dark Web and down YouTube rabbit holes).

Mossman as Thuy, and Kimberley Interspersed with these will be Hodgson as Gigi. independent productions — The Hello Miss Saigon plays until December Girls (described as a contemporary 16 at Her Majesty’s Theatre, musical brimming with folk and pop Melbourne, before heading to earworms, charting the journey of a Adelaide. feisty bunch of trail-blazing women bit.ly/47ohQDp who turned the US Army on its head and made history), Andrew Lloyd Bananaland Webber’s Tell Me On a Sunday, Little A hit at the 2023 Brisbane Festival, Women and Irving Berlin’s Holiday new Australian musical receives a Inn. Sydney showing in January. bit.ly/3GcurNX Brian Adamson wrote of the world premiere in Brisbane, that “in wild, Encore Seasons wacky and colourful mode, popular song writer and performer Kate MillerHamilton Heidke and writer Keir Nuttall’s The revolutionary musical which venture into the world of musical fuses hip hop and musical theatre comedy, is a juxtaposition between styles, based on the real-life story of punk rock music and kiddie American Founding Father Alexander entertainment.

Hamilton, returns to the Sydney Lyric “Based on their own experiences as Theatre from July. touring musicians and parents, this sydneylyric.com.au high-camp caper had the audience giggling with glee at its satirical dig at The Rocky Horror Show life on the road leading to the bright After touring Australia in 2023, the lights of television.

50th Anniversary world tour of Rock “Includes a vast array of quips, wit, ‘N’ Roll musical The Rocky Horror crudity and flamboyance as well as Show returns in 2024, opening at the touches of good ol’ Australian meat Civic Theatre Newcastle on January 12, pie and sauce’ humour. starring Jason Donovan as Frank N “A show well worth a visit Furter and Myf Warhurst as the (ironically, without the kids!)”

Narrator (Newcastle only). Return At Riverside Theatre Parramatta as seasons at Melbourne’s Athenaeum part of the Sydney Festival, from Theatre from February 9 and Theatre January 3 to 14.

Royal, Sydney from March 31 will sydneyfestival.org.au follow. bit.ly/47Dj91a

24 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

Hugh Jackman’s First Drama Class The future Australian superstar seemed destined to become a journalist, but something happened when he enrolled in a performance subject whilst he was studying at university. In this Stage Whispers exclusive, Sara Lander recounts the moment when everyone in the room realised that Hugh Jackman was something special.

The tutor’s instruction was to choose an animal and BE the animal.

The disparate bunch of 3rd year University Communications students taking the Performance Studies class in 1990 dropped to all fours and in turn started mooing, clucking and meowing. I decided to be a cat and curled up for a nap.

Out of one half-closed eye I saw someone pretending to be a dog. No, not pretending to be a dog, he WAS a dog. Affable North Shore dork Hugh Jackman was such a convincing dog that the rest of the drama class stopped what they were doing and gaped in open mouthed admiration.

This was the first time anyone in our cohort noticed that Hugh Jackman was, well, Hugh Jackman.

Flashback to 1988 as the cohort entered first year of Communications studies at the University of Technology, Sydney. We were a mixture of kids straight from high school who had got the requisite marks in the HSC and older students who had found their way into the course through life experience.

Imagine if you can a bunch of teens with very little life experience, mostly from the wealthier suburbs, trying to mingle with students who talked their way into the course on the backs of their recovery from addiction, their immaculate social justice commitment, their immense CRED. As one of the school-leavers, I of course immediately found refuge with the other teens. There was Adam from Cremorne, Patrick from Crows Nest, Eugenie from Neutral Bay and Bernard from North Ryde. We sat, shellshocked in the uni cafeteria, eating $1 boiled rice with curry sauce and

getting to know each other. Hugh Jackman was one of us, a tall gangly boy from Pymble in jeans and a striped button up shirt, recently returned from a gap year in England.

Hugh was instantly likeable. He was the kind of boy who looked you in the eye, remembered your name,

share house to the next. In a group of late 80s gothy, leftie, burgeoningly queer and thoroughly indie students, he stood out as almost glaringly wholesome, straight and mainstream.

As far as any of us knew he didn’t have any acting aspirations. Hugh chose the second most mainstream Hugh Jackman in The Boy From Oz (2006).

clapped you on the back and laughed major in our course — journalism/PR at your jokes with an affable guffaw. (the most mainstream being the much His laugh was so adorable and -maligned advertising). However, one recognisable we would imitate it when of the most fun things about our speaking (fondly) of him among degree was that while entry was ourselves. It was a rising “whoah-ah- difficult, once we were in, we had the ah” like a baritone kookaburra. freedom to explore all the different Lovable he really was. To my friends streams including radio, film and these days who can’t believe I didn’t writing. hurl myself into his arms; all I can say One of the writing tutors, a mildwas — you had to be there. Hugh — mannered man named Tony Mitchell, handsome as he was — was too decided to put on a subject called damn nice to be what I considered Performance Studies, something a sexy back then. group of my friends did for a lark in Hugh called grown men called second year, and I did in third year for Stephen ‘Steve’ without a second lack of anything else to do. Enter thought, and was the first person you stage right Hugh Jackman, poking his would think of to ask for help if you nose in from the Journalism/PR world. needed assistance moving your (Continued on page 26) meagre student possessions from one stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 25

(Continued from page 25)

We hadn’t had a class together since first year.

I don’t remember much about that semester other than Hugh being, to everyone’s surprise, very, very good.

Tony, who I suspected would rather be almost anywhere than teaching drama to a bunch of profoundly untalented uni students, bore us patiently. A New Zealander, he had a flat laconic drawl and stood with his arms permanently folded across his chest, barely raising an eyebrow at the good (Hugh’s animal impersonations) and the bad (everything else).

The second semester of Performance Studies we got to — jazz hands — put on a show! Tony started handing photocopied scripts around of The Memorandum by Czech playwright turned President Vaclav Havel.

There were no auditions, and also no surprises when Tony cast Hugh in the lead. Written in 1965, The Memorandum is an absurdist comedy about pointless innovations in a bureaucracy leading to chaos and

Sara Lander touches up Hugh Jackman’s make-up.

confusion. There were a lot of words, and a made-up language. Thankfully for the poor souls who came to watch the show, most of those words are spoken by the play’s hero Johan Gross aka Mr Hugh Jackman.

Hugh was a revelation. As the rest of us clunked through stiff 1960s language awkwardly translated from the Czech, barely able to get our lines

26 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

out of our mouths let alone give them any meaning, Hugh commanded the stage, easily believable as middlemanager brought low by corporate skullduggery.

The opening night crowd were amazed. “I think you’re going to be an actress,” said the assistant director’s mum — who had herself studied at NIDA — to me, kindly. “Nah,” I said,

nodding my head toward Hugh, Hugh Jackman in Willoughby Theatre accepting plaudits from newly found Company’s Paint Your Wagon (1989). fans, “but he is”.

Was it the high of the applause from this limited run — which toured not only to the University of New South Wales’ blackbox theatre but also to Bathurst to grace the stage of Charles Sturt University — which convinced Hugh that his lot was not to be a journalist, but an international movie star? It may well have been.

On the drive out to Bathurst with several cast members in Hugh’s silver hatchback, at one point he acted out the type of celebrity endorsement which form a movie star’s bread and butter. “Hyundai!” he said, smacking the bonnet of his tiny car and with a wink at an imaginary camera, “Solid”.

Did he know he was going to be a superstar? I think maybe he did. After we graduated from UTS, he enrolled Veteran Community Theatre director Tom Sweeney reveals that himself in an acting course at the Hugh Jackman was also involved in amateur theatre as a teenager.

Actors Centre in Surry Hills. Dazzling in their production of Dylan Thomas’s “Back in 1989 I was directing a production of Paint Your Wagon for the Under Milkwood, he chatted to us Willoughby Musical Society at the Bailey Hall in Chatswood. after the performance and disclosed “In those days you didn’t audition, you just turned up. I had 28 men in that he had recently turned down the the chorus, which was rare. offer of an ongoing role in Australia’s “At one particular rehearsal, everyone was on the stage singing ‘Away hottest show, Neighbours. Why? He out here they got a name for rain and wind and fire’. Anyway, they were all was off to Perth to study at WAAPA a bit lacklustre and I said ‘Stop, stop, stop, stop!’ I said, ‘Listen you lot, if and take over the world. If there was you could act and sing like this guy,’ pointing at Hugh, ‘you might get nagging self-doubt lurking somewhere.’ underneath this confident man on a “So, I used him as an example of what they should be doing. He was mission, he didn’t show it. only about 17 or 18 at the time and just out of high school. When I do Every time I’ve heard of Hugh since talks about theatre, I say if it wasn’t for me Hugh Jackman wouldn’t even that day, it’s been in the context of be on Broadway. another career high. Straight out of “He was singing, acting and interpreting the lyrics perfectly. Hugh had WAAPA into the lead of an ABC the X Factor even then.” drama. Lead in a mainstage musical. A themselves talented musical theatre However, in December 2017 my Hollywood movie. Broadway. A Tony Award. Hosting the Tony Awards. artists. husband texted me from Bondi Beach.

Nominated for an Oscar. Hosting the The last time I saw Hugh I was “Hugh Jackman is here. I’m gonna get working as the publicist for ABC a photo with the girls.” I sent him a Oscars. Goddamn Wolverine!

None of his success has come as a Radio’s 2BL in 1996. I saw a finephoto of me and Hugh, back in our surprise to those of us who had the looking tall man in a suit being Memorandum days with the privilege of watching Hugh in his last whisked into the studio by his instruction “show him this”. year of uni, realising that he wasn’t a minders. It was Hugh, promoting his The photo did the trick, Hugh, journalist, he was an actor. new show Sunset Boulevard, in which having turned down many others It couldn’t have happened to a he had been cast as the leading man. I asking for selfies, agreed to pose with nicer bloke. thought about saying hello, but the the kids. Looking at the Hugh from a moment seemed too surreal, and I lifetime ago back in the days where he And he really was a bloody great dog. was certain there would not be could go to the beach undisturbed, he The Memorandum was the enough time for anything more than a told my daughters, “Say hi to Sara for beginning and end of my performance brief “hi”, a confused look and a flash me”. career, but I stay involved as a ‘stage of recognition before he was ushered mum’, as two of my daughters are away to his next commitment.

Painting Hugh’s Wagon

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 27

Julia

She remembers the words of Alfred Deakin, that a great speech cannot be prepared: ‘It is the flower of a thought or feeling.’

A political life is so conscious. It’s so Joanna Murray-Smith’s one woman play Julia, starring Justine Clark, ‘advised’.

It’s so contained. It’s so tours Australia in 2024. It’s on stage at the Melbourne Theatre afraid.

Company from May 31, the State Theatre of South Australia from But in this moment, the only thing August 16 to 31 and Sydney Theatre Company from September 5. she’s afraid of is running out of time.

Recently published by Currency The Leader of the Opposition looks The jeers subside and there is silence.

Press, the playscript for Julia can be down at his watch. She has very [She seems to come to life now as purchased at Book Nook. Stage little time to make her case. she inhabits the first tense.]

Whispers shares the first four pages.

There are jeers coming from the I’m there.

Members behind him as she speaks. Something is driving me, some [The present. We are nowhere or She’s shaking with purpose and for coming together — of heart and everywhere. JULIA GILLARD, the first this second, she is immensely, brain and history...gathering. intently, present. female Prime Minister of Australia, An adrenalin, a sudden freeing...

She has a chair at the central table in Caution’s boom gate is right ahead of walks onto the dark stage. She is a front of the Speaker, beside her a me but...I just accelerate. little older or younger than sixty.] chair for her deputy.

‘A great speech is the flower of a JULIA GILLARD. She stands on the On the other side of the table is the thought or feeling.’ floor of the Chamber.

Leader of the Opposition and She’s trembling with rage. Three And something is growing, some beside him, a chair for his deputy. ‘pulse inside the earth’, some words comes to her. Just three.

Near them, is a small table for the organic urgency, buried deep Three words.

Hansard reporters who record It’s October the ninth 2012. She’s beneath the instinct to behave, everything that is said in the pushing to the surface. been PM for two years and four Chamber, the backbone of public It’s not just my voice. months and she’s worn down. She accountability since Thomas Curson It’s a million voices inside me. And I has been hounded, slurred, Hansard started printing them for can feel it. I am it. dissected, libelled. She’s been the British Parliament in 1802. violated over and over again by I look across the table at the Leader of Surrounding the tables is horseshoethe Opposition. words. She’s been attacked for shaped seating for up to a [Beat.] being too much of a woman, for hundred and seventy-two not being enough of a woman.

There’s the sheerest cloud of terror Members of Parliament. settling on his face. I look around She cannot win. and see it on the other faces in the And Question Time...in Parliament. It’s The governing party or parties sit on the right of the Chair and the all we’ve got but...it’s dirty. room, colleagues and opponents...

Members of the Opposition on the There’s an ominous tremble in the left. atmosphere, the vibration of barely Behind the Speaker’s Chair is the Coat controlled...rage...in my voice. of Arms. In front of it, sits the desk And I’m ignited by three small words. of the Clerk of the House with a I will not. button which activates the bells [Lights change.] throughout the building.

[As a little girl] ‘I don’t want children.’

The bells ring five minutes before the ‘You will,’ said my mother. ‘You’re only start of each sitting, before eight.’ ‘I will not. No. I won’t.’ the resumption of a sitting and before ‘That’s what we do. We have children.’ any division or ballot is taken.

‘Why?’ On the walls are clocks, two on each ‘Well, Julia, that’s a question side of the Chamber, analogue and millions of parents have asked digital. themselves over millennia.’

They indicate the time she has left. A ‘Not everyone needs to have children.’ warning light is illuminated ‘There wouldn’t be people if people on each clock during the final sixty didn’t make people.’ ‘But Mum. I seconds of her allotted time. want to think.’

‘You can think and make people.’

Purchase your copy of this playscript for just $24.99 from booknook.com.au/product/julia 28 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

‘Then why do you say: “Julia be quiet: I That quiet, mellifluous voice. The lilt. can’t hear myself think!”?’

[Father’s voice] ‘By 1913,’ he says, ‘a [Lights change. Back to adult third of all Welshmen worked in the JULIA.] mines, fuelling the British Empire, I am standing in the kitchen at Truro breathing in the soot, exposing Avenue...Dad is telling me the story themselves to daily catastrophe, of Six Bells. paying for the candles that lit their [Lights change.] way. This is how it was.’

At ten forty-five a.m. on the twentyDad often quoted the Welsh Labour politician Aneurin Bevan: ‘The eighth of June 1960, three hundred metres below the surface purpose of power,’ he said, ‘is to of the earth, a spark from a falling give it away,’ and Six Bells taught me at whose feet, in this world, stone ignites the coal gas at the Six Bells colliery near Abertillery in power deserved to be laid.

Wales.

The story of Six Bells has never...It just...it’s there. ‘All battles for All but three of the forty-eight men in the mine die and the town of Six justice are our battles, Julia.’

Bells is devastated by the loss of its The story which ignited my father’s fathers and sons. righteousness ignites something in Four years after Six Bells, the Aberfan me. disaster sees a colliery spoil tip slide It’s the spark. downhill and bury a hundred and That causes the flame. That starts the sixteen children in the local fire. school...The Queen comes and Thirty = seven kilometres away cries. from Six Bells is another Welsh He looks at me, Dad. A man always town, Barry, where I was born the and forever alive to injustice. year after the Six Bells disaster.

Script Extract [As a teenager in debate, to herself] Posture. Watch emotion.

Enunciate. Stay on track. Focus.

And KEEP CALM. [Directing her ‘performance’ to the audience she faced as a teenager.]

‘As the third speaker in this debate I will use my rebuttal to summarise why “Man Should Not Lead”. After all, women have always demonstrated their ability to lead, from Cleopatra to Indira Gandhi and Golda — Moir — [Quickly correcting herself, perhaps touching her ear for memory] MyEar. Even if you look at sport, Evonne Goolagong is number one.

On the pop charts at this very moment you will find Suzi Quatro in lead position and not far behind Sister Janet Mead with her rocking version of the Lord’s Prayer.

Online extras!

Justine Clarke in STC’s Julia (2023).

Photo: Prudence Upton.

Watch Justine Clarke on stage in Sydney Theatre Company’s Julia. youtu.be/7I9MDT1pw7k stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 29

Pick Of The Plays Australian audiences are being served a heady mix of new work, overseas hits and Australian written classics in 2024. David Spicer recommends plays from mainstage seasons around the country.

Sydney Theatre Company The keys go in the jar, the Dracula recriminations flow in the bar.

By Bram Stoker. Adapted and directed Described as The White Lotus

by Kip Williams. meets Triangle of Sadness meets The Artistic Director of the STC has Don’s Party, the comedy stars Logie pioneered a new genre of cine-theatre Award-winning Erik Thomson as which dazzled audiences at its first Drew. incarnation. The video gymnastics in statetheatrecompany.com.au The Picture of Dorian Gray included a live actor dining with her pre-recorded Griffin Theatre self in different costumes.

The Lewis Trilogy Next came a three hander The

By Louis Nowra.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr The SBW Stables Theatre in Kings Cross is about to undergo renovation, Hyde.

The third incarnation of cinewith the current venue’s last hurrah is theatre is Dracula. Zahra Newman will a trilogy of plays by iconic local perform every single role, combining playwright Louis Nowra. live video, pre-recorded film and what Summer of the Aliens, Così and Kip Williams promises will be a This Much is True will be staged superhuman live performance. consecutively on some days for a long Set in a ruined castle, high in the one-day dramatic feast — or they can Transylvanian wilderness, a mysterious be enjoyed on separate nights. presence is lurking. Is it man or beast? sydneytheatre.com.au

The trilogy will feature an ensemble of eight actors including Paul Capsis. griffintheatre.com.au Belvoir Counting And Cracking

By S. Shakthidharan.

Featuring a cast of 19 performers from six countries, Counting and Cracking follows the journey of a Sri Lankan-Australian family over four generations.

The epic story of love and political strife, of home and exile, of parents and children was described by Stage Whisper’s reviewer Anthony Vawser as a must-see.

“When nearly-three-hours of stage time simply flies past, you know that a play has been faultlessly crafted.

When its concluding passages

State Theatre Company South Australia The Puzzle

By David Williamson.

Fifty years after David Williamson wrote his first play for the Adelaide company (The Department), the recently unretired playwright has penned a new black comedy about marriage, desire, polyamory and parenthood.

Married couple Mandy and Craig are bored with their (mostly) monogamous relationship. Eager to inject some vim into their vows, they book themselves in for a “lifestyle” cruise, where they meet Brian and Michele, similarly looking for some stimulation at sea.

Online extras!

Discover Dracula and the rest of STC’s 2024 season. Scan or visit youtu.be/hc2fFFAVZJs 30 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

STC’s Dracula.

Photo: Rene Vaile.

Online extras!

Seasons 2024 MTC’s Seventeen.

Photo: Jo Duck.

Fiona Choi and Richard Piper discuss MTC’s upcoming play Seventeen. youtu.be/WXzXLHHeZXo

culminate in an image that is so perfect you are left breathless with admiration, we’re talking about a theatrical experience that is truly special.” belvoir.com.au Melbourne Theatre Company Seventeen

By Matthew Whittet.

This great little Australian play has taken far too long to reach Melbourne after its premiere in Sydney eight years ago.

Six teens assemble at the local park to celebrate the great unknown that is their future. Through wild drinking, wilder dancing, regrettable pashes and jaw-dropping confessions, no one will be left unchanged by this night.

(Continued on page 32)

Online extras!

Belvoir’s Counting And Cracking.

Photo: Geraint Lewis.

Meet the writer of Counting And Cracking S. Shakthidharan. youtu.be/yUOaPJT5NY8 stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 31

Seasons 2024 (Continued from page 31)

Ensemble Theatre’s The Queen’s Nanny.

Photo: Brett Boardman.

The trick is that the actors playing the characters are a long way north of 17.

I described the 2015 production as a “A great idea that left the audience captivated.”

The Melbourne cast includes recent stars of Wentworth, Pamela Rabe and Richard Piper. mtc.com.au Ensemble Theatre The Queen’s Nanny

By Melanie Tait.

Inspired by historical events, a royal scandal ignites a blistering fire between the steely Queen Mother and her children’s doting nanny in Melanie Tait’s new comedy drama.

Marion ‘Crawfie’ Crawford adored her job as governess to Princesses Lilibet and Margaret Rose...until she was ostracised without warning, despite dedicating the best part of her life to raising, educating and caring for the young royals. The reason? A tell-all memoir.

This promises to be an intriguing production from the creative team behind the The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race. ensemble.com.au La Boite Closer

by Patrick Marber Four strangers are caught in a destructive square dance, where partners are swapped, lies are told and desire faces off with betrayal.

The Olivier award-winning work follows the lives of out-of-towner Alice, photographer Anna, obituary writer Dan and dermatologist Larry over several years as they meet, bond, separate and move on.

A modern classic, 2024 marks 20 years since the film adaptation

Online extras!

Artistic director Courtney Stewart announces Closer to start season 2024 youtu.be/OOdyFknFS7s 32 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

Online extras!

Just who was Marion Crawford, and why was she shunned by the royals? youtu.be/beoOoGkb3mM La Boite’s Closer.

Photo: David Kelly.

starring Julia Roberts, Natalie Portman, Jude Law and Clive Owen hit cinemas. laboite.com.au Queensland Theatre and Melbourne Theatre Company 37

By Nathan Maynard An ensemble of 10 performers feature in this highly physical production that is described as a little sweary and very sweaty.

The Cuttaway Currawongs are the laughing stock of their small coastal town. But when two Marngrook cousins — Jayma and Sonny — (named after the Aboriginal game that inspired AFL) arrive, it’s not long before the team realises that these two have what it takes to help them capture the flag Set within the era of Adam Goodes’ war-cry — and named after the number he immortalised — 37 is a loud, brash match between top dogs and underdogs that packs some serious bite. queenslandtheatre.com.au mtc.com.au

Bell Shakespeare King Lear

By William Shakespeare Sydney and Melbourne.

For the first time since 2010, Bell Shakespeare presents King Lear, directed by Peter Evans and starring one of Australia’s finest classical actors, Robert Menzies.

The company poses the question.

“Is this Shakespeare’s great exploration of ‘filial ingratitude’? Or the sad tale of an old man in decline and the terrible choices forced upon his daughters? Is it the story of an appallingly entitled and selfish king?

Or a daughter too naïve and proud to compromise for an ailing father? It is about all these things, and more.

Shakespeare’s epic of the imagination will be performed in the profoundly intimate setting of The Neilson Nutshell and the Fairfax Studio.” bellshakespeare.com.au

Black Swan State Theatre Company Barracking For The Umpire

By Andrea Gibbs.

Returning to Perth after its world premiere in 2022, when it was described by Kimberley Shaw as “a moving but funny production about football and family. Touching on several serious issues, this first play by Andrea Gibbs is relatable and quintessentially Australian and would be the perfect play to introduce your footy loving friends to theatre — because they will love it.

“The story centres around a family drawn back to the family home to watch their father receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the local footy club. Unfortunately, Dad Doug is battling the effects to his brain after a football career of hard knocks — and this has an impact on all the family.” blackswantheatre.com.au

Malthouse Theatre Yentl Co-written by Gary Abrahams, Elise Esther Hearst, and Galit Klas According to Stage Whispers’ reviewer Michael Brindley, Yentl is “marvellous, funny, moving, and very theatrical version of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s story. For many people, Yentl is a story made famous by Barbra Streisand’s 1983 movie — which, by the way, Bashevis Singer hated.

“Here, adaptors Abrahams, Hearst and Klas have made a story for our time. Going back to the Yiddish original for their version, they have scarcely changed the plot. They have dramatised developments; they have expanded on details; they have added much delicious humour; and they have not ignored the elements of mysticism and spirituality.” malthousetheatre.com.au

Malthouse Theatre’s Yentl.

Photo: Mark Gambino.

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 33

Gilbert And Sullivan In Australia Gilbert and Sullivan theatre programmes track the rise of J.C. Williamson’s business empire, and the ongoing popularity of the Savoy Operas here in Australia. Archivist Susan Mills explores some of the programmes held in the performing arts archives of the Seaborn, Broughton & Walford Foundation.

The history of our most successful the company previewed the show at place it before the public with the theatre entrepreneur, J.C. Williamson the Royal Bijou Theatre in Paignton, MOST PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO (1844-1913), is also the history of Devon, with the official premiere at DETAIL.” J.C. Williamson played the Gilbert and Sullivan in Australia. the Fifth Avenue Theater, New York main role of Sir Joseph Porter, First When, in 1879, J.C. Williamson on 31 December, followed by the Lord of the Admiralty, while Maggie bought the rights to perform H.M.S. London premiere at the Opera Moore alternated between the roles Comique in April 1880 where it ran of Josephine and Buttercup.

Pinafore in Australia, the latest musical by the new sensation Gilbert for an impressive 363 performances.

As in America, pirate productions, and Sullivan, it began a theatrical Gilbert and Sullivan fever had well parodies and sequels had proliferated and truly taken hold. in Australia before JCW’s arrival. Soon business empire.

After an obscure start with the The Americans, however, to be Australia’s first great leading duo’s first collaboration Thespis in continued to perform Gilbert and lady, Nellie Stewart played Ralph Sullivan operettas copyright free for Rackstraw in one such production, 1871, dramatist W.S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan produced many years, despite the best efforts of while Australia’s first Little Buttercup the writers, and producer Richard was female impersonator ‘The Only hits with the one-act comic opera D’Oyly Carte.

Leon’. Williamson pursued the pirate Trial by Jury, which opened at London’s Royalty Theatre in 1875, J.C. Williamson and wife Maggie productions, including sequels, Moore were a pair of enterprising through the courts. and The Sorcerer, which opened at American actor producers touring the In a side note, the cast of a London’s Opera Comique theatre in 1877. world, including their first Australian subsequent, authorised, juvenile tour in 1874. After quick-thinking production of Pinafore in 1880, H.M.S. Pinafore premiered at the showcasing the students of Mrs G. B. same theatre in 1878 and was wildly Williamson experienced the original popular, running for 571 run of H.M.S. Pinafore in London, he W. Lewis, featured young Mary Weir purchased the rights for £300 to (later the second Mrs J.C. Williamson) performances. That success also spawned approximately 150 American present the show in Australia. H.M.S. as Coxswain Bill Bunting.

By December 1880, J.C. pirate productions of HMS Pinafore, Pinafore opened on 15 November 1879 at Sydney’s Theatre Royal.

Williamson had secured the rights which paid no royalties. To confront this state of affairs, it was decided The programme proudly from the D’Oyly Carte Comedy Opera Company for £1,000 to The Pirates of that The Pirates of Penzance would announced, “This being the FIRST AUTHORISED REPRESENTATION, in Penzance, which opened on 19 have its official premiere on Broadway. Prior to sailing for America, Australia, every care has been taken to March 1881 at the Theatre Royal in Sydney. Again, J.C. Williamson and Maggie Moore played leads (JCW, the Sergeant of Police and Maggie, alternately, Mabel and Ruth).

J.C. Williamson stayed in Australia, forming the Royal Comic Opera Company in 1880, which in the 20th century spawned the Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company branch of the all-encompassing J.C. Williamson company, until the last tour, ending in 1963.

A History In Theatre Programmes J.C. Williamson programmes for Gilbert and Sullivan productions tell the story of the role of the J.C. Williamson company and Gilbert and 34 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

Stage Heritage

Sullivan in Australian theatrical and social history.

A programme for an amateur production of The Pirates of Penzance by the Railway and Tramway Musical to Society in 1911, with permission from become J.C. Williamson Ltd, performed at the a popular large Railway Institute Hall in radio performer, Devonshire Street, Sydney, is a small then a troop entertainer during WW2. sign of the popularity of the comic Another notable programme is for operas. A society for the recreation a fundraising matinee of The Pirates and education of railway workers of of Penzance produced by J.C. Sydney, the performance was open to Williamson Ltd in 1940 for the Actors’ the public and the three-night run Benevolent Fund and the Sydney Day was welcomed by crowded audiences. Nursery and Nursery Schools’ The H.M.S. Pinafore programme Association. The event was attended for the J.C. Williamson company’s by children from the Association’s 1921 Gilbert and Sullivan revival Woolloomooloo and Surry Hills Australian tour reveals it was nursery schools, who sang and 1911 programme for The Pirates of Penzance, produced and choreographed by provided percussion for ‘God Save The Railway and Tramway Musical Society, Sydney.

King’. Sweets and flowers were sold Minnie Everett — the world‘s first Producer and choreographer Minnie Everett in and a tapestry stool was raffled to female director of Gilbert and the programme for H.M.S. Pinafore, opened with Trial by Jury, 22 January 1921 for the raise funds for the nurseries.

Sullivan.

Gilbert and Sullivan revival tour of Australia.

The programmes of Gilbert and The programme for the J.C. Williamson production of The Pirates Sullivan in an archive collection tell a J.C. Williamson as Sir Joseph in H.M.S. Pinafore, tale of the enterprising success of J.C. 1879, the first official Gilbert and Sullivan of Penzance for the further revival production in Australia. Photo from the Williamson, and the perennial season in 1926-27 underlies the collection of the Seaborn, Broughton & Walford popularity of the works of Gilbert and Foundation. public excitement for a Gilbert and Sullivan.

Sullivan season that opened in 1927, The Pirates of Penzance, opened 5 Adelaide with The Gondoliers in April February at the Theatre Royal, Sydney.

1926.

In Sydney, the 1926-27 season, with shows limited to a two-week run, opened with The Gondoliers at the Theatre Royal on 27 December, 1926, followed by The Yeoman of the Guard in January 1927, Iolanthe, The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado, Princess Ida, Patience and H.M.S. Pinafore with Trial by Jury. The programme for The Pirates of Penzance shows Broken Hill born Strella Wilson as the principal soprano. A student of Melba, Strella’s international credits included opera at Covent Garden, and creating the role of Princess Mirabelle in Noël Coward’s Cavalcade in the West End. Returning to Australia in 1934 to star in White Horse Inn for The Firm, she went on stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 35

Broadway Buzz

Chavkin, Lempicka stars Eden Espinosa.

Days of Wine and Roses, based on the 1962 Warner Bros film, is headed for Studio 54 following its Atlantic Theater Company Off-Broadway premiere. Kelli O’Hara and Brian d’Arcy James will star in the musical

by Adam Guettel (music & lyrics) and Craig Lucas (book), which previews from January 6 at Studio 54.

Suffs, Shaina Taub’s musical about the American suffragette movement, opens at the Music Box Theatre on April 17, following its sell-out run at The Public Theater.

Kelli O’Hara and Brian d’Arcy Aaron Tveit and Sutton Foster will James in Days of Wine and Roses. replace Josh Groban and Annaleigh Photo: Ahron R. Foster.

Ashford in the revival of Sweeney Todd from February 9, 2024, at the LuntThree novels are set to sing and in a fight for survival and a quest for Fontanne Theatre, for a 12-week dance their way onto Broadway purpose in a world that may never engagement. stages during February and March accept them.

In April, Manhattan Theatre Club 2024.

Revivals of three hit musicals come will produce the Broadway premiere Previewing at the Gerald home to Broadway less than a month of Amy Herzog’s play Mary Jane, Schoenfeld Theatre from February 10, apart during March and April. First to which played Off-Broadway in 2017, the adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ arrive is The Who’s Tommy, at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, novel The Notebook (also made into a previewing from March 8 at while Second Stage will produce a hit 2004 film), has a book by Bekah Nederlander Theatre. Original director new play by Pulitzer Prize winner Brunstetter, with music and lyrics by Des McAnuff helms the updated Paula Vogel, Mother Play, at the multi-platinum singer-songwriter production. The Wiz previews at the Hayes Theatre.

Ingrid Michaelson. Michael Greif and Marquis Theatre from March 29. The The 2024-25 Broadway season will Schele Williams will direct.

West End transfer of Kander and Ebb see TV evangelists Tammy Faye and Interweaving three pairs of performers musical Cabaret begins previews two Jim Bakker make the leap from the as Allie and Noah at different stages days later, on April 1, at the August small screen to the Broadway stage in of their lives, it tells a story of the Wilson Theatre.

Tammy Faye, with music by Elton enduring power of love.

Based on the HBO documentary John, lyrics by Jake Shears, and a book With cast featuring a group of about a group of autistic young

by James Graham. Tammy Faye circus artists, the stage musical adults, new musical How to Dance in premiered in the West End in 2022, version of Sara Gruen’s Water for Ohio opens at the Belasco Theatre on where it was nominated for four Elephants, with a book by Rick Elice December 10, having premiered at Olivier Awards. and music by PigPen Theatre Co, will Syracuse Stage. The show features Australia’s Neil Gooding preview at the Imperial Theatre from music by Jacob Yandura, with book Productions is one of the coFebruary 24. After losing what and lyrics by Rebekah Greer Melocik. producers of the musical Harmony: A matters most, a young man jumps a The Heart of Rock and Roll, a new New Musical by Barry Manilow & moving train unsure of where the musical comedy by Jonathan A. Bruce Sussman which opened in road will take him and finds a new Abrams and Tyler Mitchell, which November at the Ethel Barrymore home with the remarkable crew of a draws its score from the song Theatre. It tells the true story of the traveling circus, and a life — and love catalogue of Huey Lewis and The Comedian Harmonists, six talented — beyond his wildest dreams.

News, previews at the James Earl young men, Jewish and gentile, who A new musical based on S.E. Jones Theatre from March 29. came together in 1920s Germany.

Hinton’s novel and Francis Ford New biomusical Lempicka by Together they sold millions of records, Coppola’s film The Outsiders previews Carson Kreitzer and Matt Gould, starred in a dozen films and packed at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre from which follows the life of the artist and the houses of the most prestigious March 16. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1967, exiled aristocrat Tamara de Lempicka, concert halls around the globe until the hardened hearts and aching souls previews at the Longacre Theatre the world they knew changed forever. of Ponyboy Curtis, Johnny Cade and from March 25. Directed by Rachel their chosen family of ‘outsiders’ are 36 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

Yve Blake’s hit Australian musical London Calling Fangirls has its UK premiere at the Lyric Hammersmith in London from 13 July. Stage Whispers reviewer Jenny Fewster said of the musical, “FANGIRLS gives an insight (or a reminder) into what it is to be a teenage girl. It’s the story of young love, fan hysteria, friendship, family, self-image, gender disparities and the relentless pressures of navigating puberty under the constant watch of social media...the songs have a currency, are gutsy and above-all catchy.”

Already a hit in Tokyo and Osaka, Joaquin Pedro Valdes as Manjiro in rehearsals for Stephen Sondheim’s Pacific Overtures Pacific Overtures at Menier Chocolate Factory. opened at the Menier Chocolate Photo: Manuel Harlan.

Factory during November in a coproduction with Umeda Arts Theater musical features songs from Bob

by Sheffield singer-songwriter Richard in Japan.

New wild west show Bronco Billy - Dylan, David Bowie, The Who, U2, Hawley.

Queen, The Police, Elton John, Paul Sheridan Smith returns to the The Musical is heading to the West End, playing at Charing Cross Theatre McCartney, The Pretenders, The Cars, West End in Ivo van Hove and Rufus from January 23. Based on the Clint Status Quo, Paul Weller, Sade, The Wainwright’s new musical Opening Boomtown Rats, Bryan Adams, Diana Night, which premieres at the Gielgud Eastwood movie, it stars Emily Theatre from March 6. Based on John Benjamin (Cabaret) as Antoinette. It’s Ross, Ultravox and many more, 1979 and life is tough for a group of celebrating the two 1985 benefit Cassavetes’ film, Opening Night is concerts which raised $127 million for centred on the leading lady of a new romantic fast-drawing, trick-riding, Broadway play who is rocked by disco-dancing Wild West roustabouts the Ethiopian famine relief, performing to an audience of 1.5 and their travelling show, but things tragedy. take an unexpected turn when Bronco billion.

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Rehab The Musical, described as ‘a Express returns in a new immersive Billy (leader of this rag-tag troupe) darkly comic musical about a jaded meets Antoinette Lilly, a determined production at purpose-built new Manhattan heiress on the run for her pop star in the late 90’s who is sent venue, the Troubadour Wembley Park life. to rehab, dealing with subjects of Theatre from June 8. Directed by Luke addiction and mental health with A musical version of the movie Sheppard, the show’s original Clueless, currently in development in warmth, humour and heart’, plays choreographer Arlene Phillips is from January 12 at Neon 194 in creative dramaturg, with new Bromley, London, will play a twoPiccadilly. Written by Grant Black, week run from February 12 to 24 at choreography by Ashley Nottingham.

Churchill Theatre. The modern spin on Murray Lachlan Young and Elliot Christina Aguilera and Burlesque Davis, the show is directed and creator Steve Antin will present the Jane Austen’s Emma has a book by choreographed by Gary Lloyd.

Amy Heckerling, based on her 1995 West End-bound Burlesque The Bartlett Sher’s Tony Award film. Directed by Sarna Lapine, it Musical in Manchester from June 13. winning Lincoln Center Theater revival The stage adaptation will feature features music by KT Tunstall, and of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The lyrics by Glenn Slater. songs from the movie, plus new King and I is headed to the Dominion songs. Directed by Nick Winston, the Hadestown arrives at the Lyric Theatre on February 10. Winner of 8 Theatre from January 20, starring show has a book by the movie’s Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Helen George as Anna, with Darren writer Steven Antin, with additional singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell and Lee as the King of Siam. material by Kate Wetherhead.

Best New Musical at the 2023 director Rachel Chavkin transformed Tina Fey’s Broadway musical Mean Mitchell’s concept album into a genre Olivier Awards, Standing at the Sky’s Girls plays at the Savoy Theatre from 5 Edge, transfers to the Gillian Lynne -defying musical that mixes modern June. The team for Mean Girls American folk music with vintage Theatre from February 8. A love letter includes director & choreographer to Sheffield told through the stories of Casey Nicholaw, composer Jeff New Orleans jazz. one iconic estate, it charts the hopes Richmond, lyricist Nell Benjamin, and Just For One Day, a new musical about the story of Live Aid, will play at and dreams of three generations over book writer Tina Fey. the course of six decades, set to songs The Old Vic from January 26. The stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 37

Seasons 2024

The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of WA’s Ruddigore.

Photo: Nicholas Madeley.

38 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

A.C.T. Queanbeyan Players: Next to Normal (Feb), Green Day’s American Idiot (Jun).

Bankstown Theatre Company: We Will Hills Musical Theatre Company: Seussical The Musical (May), Strictly Rock You (Apr/May).

Ballroom The Musical (Nov).

Hornsby Musical Society: Jekyll & Hyde (May).

Blackout Theatre Company (Castle Hill): Ghost The Musical (May), Carrie The Musical (Oct).

Canberra Rep: Last of the Red Hot North Shore Theatre Company: Spies Lovers (Feb/Mar), The Actress (May), are Forever (Mar), Footloose Youth Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Jun), William Edition (Jun), We Will Rock You (Oct). Camden Musical Society: Charlie and Golding’s Lord of the Flies (Jul/Aug), The Regals: Monty Python’s Spamalot the Chocolate Factory (Apr).

Away (Sep), Bloody Murder (Nov/Dec). Young@Part edition (Mar).

The Henry Lawson Theatre: A Canberra Philharmonic Society (Philo): EUCMS: Fiddler on the Roof (Apr).

Midsummer Night’s Dream (Feb/Mar), Bring It On (Feb/Mar).

Mary Stuart (Apr).

Strathfield Musical Society: Disney The Free Rain Theatre Co: Billy Elliot (Apr/ Little Mermaid Jr (May).

Sydney Youth Musical Theatre: School May). of Rock (Apr).

Holroyd Musical and Dramatic NSW - Sydney and Blue Mountains Society: Oliver! (Jun/Jul).

Pymble Players: The White Sheep of the Family (Feb/Mar), The Spook Willoughby Theatre Company: Jersey Rockdale Musical Society: Finding (May/Jun), Sweet Road (Aug), The 39 Boys (May), Singin’ in the Rain (Oct). Nemo Jr (Apr), 9 to 5 The Musical Steps (Oct/Nov).

Miranda Musical Theatre Company: (May).

Campbelltown Theatre Group: Picnic Catch Me If You Can (Apr).

The Guild Theatre, Rockdale: The at Hanging Rock (Mar), The Cripple of Engadine Musical Society: Anything Return of the Big Bad Wolf (Jan), An Inishmaan (Jul), All My Sons (Oct).

Goes (May), Billy Elliot (Oct).

O. Henry Christmas (Feb/Mar), Gulls (May/Jun), Beyond Caring (Aug/Sep), Dural Musical Society: The Marvelous PACA Productions: In The Heights Wonderettes (Feb/Mar), Oklahoma!

The Odd Couple (Female Version) (Feb).

(May/Jun).

(Nov/Dec).

Noteable Theatre Company: The Castle Hill Players: An Inspector Calls Hunchback of Notre Dame (Feb/Mar). Rockdale Opera Company: The Pirates (Feb), Caravan (Apr), Almost, Maine of Penzance (Apr), Lucia de (May/Jun), Mrs Warren’s Profession Berowra Musical Society: The Wizard Lammermoor (Nov). of Oz (May).

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 39

Arcadians Theatre Group (Corrimal, Wollongong): Big Fish (Feb), Pippin (Jun).

Wollongong Workshop Theatre: Agatha Crusty and the Village Hall Murders (Feb/Mar), Calendar Girls (May), Wolf Lullaby (Jun), Gaslight (Aug), Ordinary Days (Nov).

Woods-Ray Theatricals (Wollongong): LIZZIE The Musical, Frozen JR (Jun), Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Oct).

Albatross Musical Theatre, Nowra: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Jul).

Nowra Players: Exit Laughing (Mar).

NSW - North Coast Pymble Players’ Gaslight.

Photo: Daniel Ferris.

Ballina Players: The Lion King Jr (Jan), Are You Being Served (Mar/Apr), The Addams Family (Jun/Jul), Jack The (Jul/Aug), The Ghost Train (Sep/Oct), Grand Horizons (Apr/May), A Ripper (Sep) 9 to 5 The Musical (Nov/ Grand Horizons (Nov/Dec).

Streetcar Named Desire (Jul), Game of Dec), Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Mar/ Apr 2025).

The Theatre On Chester (Epping): Two Tiaras (Oct), First Things First (Nov/ Ladies and an Emu (Apr/May), Home, Dec).

Coffs Harbour Musical Comedy I’m Darling (Jul/Aug), Lifespan of a Hunter Drama: The Jungle Book (Apr), Company: Jersey Boys (May/Jun), We Fact (Nov).

Love and Information (May), The Will Rock You (Nov).

Passport Play (Jun), School of Rock Hunters Hill Theatre: Boeing Boeing Murwillumbah Theatre Company: The (Jul), Carrie: The Musical (Aug), Game (Mar), The Ballad of Maria Marten Man From Earth (Mar), Cosi (May/ (Jun), Murder by the Book (Aug/Sep), Night (Nov/Dec).

Jun), Saving Frogton’s Home (Oct/ Brunker Community Theatre: The Ides Nov).

Mother and Son (Nov/Dec). of March - Shakespeare’s Julius Arts Theatre Cronulla: Mother and The Players Theatre, Port Macquarie: Son (Feb/Mar), The Tin Woman (May/ Caesar Re-imagined (Apr).

Fame (Feb/Mar), The Harbinger (May), Jun), Private Lives (Aug/Sep), The 39 NSW - Central Coast Legally Blonde (Jul/Aug), Unnecessary Steps (Oct/Nov).

Farce (Oct) Showtime Eighties (Nov/ Wyong Drama Group: Sleeping Dec).

Lane Cove Theatre Company: The Beauty Pantomime (Jan), Home, I’m Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Darling (Apr).

CHATS Productions (Coffs Harbour): Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Clue: On Stage (Apr).

Gosford Musical Society: Disney Society Murder Mystery (Feb), The Moana Jr (Jan), The Wizard of Oz Regional NSW Lieutenant of Inishmore (May), (Mar).

Orange Theatre Company: The Radium Girls (Aug).

Woy Woy Little Theatre: Relatively Addams Family (May).

Cumberland Gang Show (Scouts and Speaking (Feb/Mar), Moon Over Tamworth Musical Society: We Will Guides): Off The Record (Jul).

Buffalo (May/Jun), The Girl on the Rock You (May).

Richmond Players: Death by Chocolate Train (Aug), Miss Bennet - Christmas Tamworth Dramatic Society: The (May), The Mikado (Aug), Milo’s at Pemberley (Oct/Nov).

Kitchen Witches (Mar).

Wake (Nov).

Wyong Musical Theatre Company: Armidale Drama and Musical Society: Blue Mountains Musical Society: The Forever Treasure Island (Apr).

We’ve Got Rhythm, The Appleton Sound of Music (May/Jun).

NSW - South Coast and Southern Ladies’ Potato Race, Crazy For You, Highlands NSW - Newcastle and Hunter Region Things I Know to Be True, Jumpers for Metropolitan Players: Avenue Q (Mar), So Popera (Wollongong): Annie (Apr). Goalposts.

The Addams Family (Jul).

Roo Theatre Co (Shellharbour): Peter Albury Wodonga Theatre Company: Maitland Repertory Theatre: Pan (Jan).

The Sound of Music (May).

Dangerous Obsession (Feb/Mar), 40 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

Seasons 2024

Lieder Theatre Company (Goulburn): Fox on the Fairway (Feb/Mar), Life Without Me (Jun), Mighty Playwrights 2024 (Oct), Anne of Green Gables (Dec).

Parkes Musical & Dramatic Society: Annie (Apr/May), Cinderella and the Crystal Slipper (Oct).

Dubbo Theatre Company: The 39 Steps (Mar).

Queensland Ipswich Little Theatre: Ageing Disgracefully (Feb/Mar), Stepping Out (May/Jun), Clue: On Stage (Sep/Oct), Bondi Legal (Nov/Dec).

Empire Theatre, Toowoomba: Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Mar).

Toowoomba Repertory Theatre: The Ladykillers (Feb/Mar), The 39 Steps (Apr/May), Maggie’s Getting Married (Jul), Rumors (Sep/Oct) It Could Be Any One of Us (Nov/Dec).

Toowoomba Choral Society: The Addams Family (Sep).

Nash Theatre: War of the Worlds - Lux Radio Play (Feb/Mar), Mr Bailey’s Minder (May/Jun), The Odd Couple -

Willoughby Theatre Company’s Cats.

Photo: Grant Leslie.

(Continued on page 42) stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 41

Seasons 2024

the Female Version (Aug/Sep), Murder on the Nile (Nov/ Dec).

Phoenix Ensemble, Beenleigh: Footloose (Feb), Carrie: The Musical (May), Company (Aug).

Spotlight Theatrical Company, Benowa: The Sound of Music (Feb/ Mar), Burn (Apr).

Sunnybank Theatre Group: Go Back for Murder (Feb), Harvey (Apr), The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Jul), How the Other Half Loves (Sep), I Love You, You’re Perfect. Now Change! (Nov).

Tweed Heads Theatre Co: The Twelve Dancing Princesses (Mar), Crazy Ladies (Jun/Jul), The Swinging 60s and Seventies (Nov).

Brisbane Arts Theatre: Peter and the Wolf (Jan), Peter Pan (Jan-Mar), When The Rain Stops Falling (Feb/Mar).

Villanova Players: Great Expectations (Mar), Puffs (Apr), Away (Jun), The Last of the De Mullins (Aug/Sep), Failure: A Love Story (Nov).

Tugun Theatre Company: The Haunting (May), The Cemetery Club (Aug), The 39 Steps (Nov).

Guild Theatre’s Mr Bailey’s Minder.

Photo: Grant Leslie.

Coffs Harbour Musical Comedy Company’s Atomic.

Photo: Dustin Kerr.

Gold Coast Little Theatre: The Graduate (Feb), Wait Until Dark (Apr/ May), Hair (Jun/Jul), Lord of the Flies (Aug/Sep), Honeymoon in Vegas (Nov/ Dec).

Mates Theatre Genesis: The Farmer Will Swap Combine Harvester for Wife (Jan/Feb).

Javeenbah Theatre: 35mm: A Musical Exhibition (Jan), Picnic at Hanging Rock (Jun), Kimberly Akimbo (Aug/ Sep), Ladies Down Under (Nov/Dec).

North Queensland Opera and Music Theatre: The Addams Family (Mar/ Apr).

KUCOM (Mackay): Odd Couples - a season of one-act plays (Feb), Bob’s Your Auntie (Apr), The Appleton Ladies Potato Race (Jul), Family Values (Oct/Nov).

Townsville Choral Society: 9 to 5 The Musical (Jan).

Burdekin Singers and Theatre Company: Disney The Little Mermaid (Feb).

42 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 43

Seasons 2024

Noosa Arts Theatre: Puss In Boots (Jan), The Sum of Us (Mar), Aria (Apr).

Coolum Theatre Players: One Man, Two Guvnors (Apr), Don’t Dress For Dinner (Jul).

Cairns Little Theatre / Rondo Theatre: Rumours (Feb / Mar), The Almighty Sometimes (Apr/May), The Hardcase Hotel (Jun/Jul), The Spirit of Christmas (Nov/Dec).

Cairns Choral Society: Les Misérables (Jan).

Malanda Theatre Company Inc: Prospect Terrace (Mar).

Victoria - Melbourne CLOC Musical Theatre: Jersey Boys (May).

BATS Theatre Company: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Jul).

PLOS Musical Productions: Catch Me If You Can (Jan).

Babirra Music Theatre: Priscilla Queen of the Desert (Jun).

Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Victoria: Lilac Time (Feb/Mar), Kiss Me, Kate (May), Ruddigore (Sep), A Festival of W.S. Gilbert Plays (Nov).

Williamstown Musical Theatre Company: Into the Woods (May).

Art Theatre Cronulla’s Things I Know To Be True.

Photo: Port Hacking Camera Club.

Rockdale Opera Company’s The Elixir Of Love.

Photo: Mark Padina (ARTPIX).

Waterdale: 9 to 5 The Musical (Jul).

NOVA Music Theatre: Oliver! (Mar).

PEP Productions: Eurobeat Moldova (Feb/Mar).

SLAMS Music Theatre Company: Zombie Prom (Mar).

Mountain District Musical Society (MDMS): The Phantom of the Opera (Jun), Sweet Charity (Oct).

Fab Nobs Theatre: The New Adventures of Thumbelina - A Pantomime (Jan), Alice by Heart (Mar/ Apr).

Diamond Valley Singers: Frozen Jr (Mar).

MLOC Productions: Finding Nemo Jr (Apr).

Windmill Theatre Company: Noises Off (Feb), School of Rock (Jun).

Heidelberg Theatre Co: Rumors (Feb/ Mar), Berlin (Apr/May), Wait Until

44 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

Dark (Jun/Jul), And a Nightingale Sang Menagerie (Apr/May), Lovesong (Jun/ (Sep), Much Ado About Nothing Jul), Little Women the Musical (Aug/ (Nov).

Sep), True Minds (Oct/Nov).

CPAC Musical Theatre: Cats (Apr), Anything Goes (Oct).

The Mount Players: Wild (Feb/Mar), Looped (May), Jasper Jones (Aug/ Sep), A Bunch of Amateurs (Nov).

Lilydale Athenaeum Theatre: Piece of Mind (Feb).

Williamstown Little Theatre: Photograph 51 (Feb).

Brighton Theatre Company: Love Song (Feb/Mar), Hydra (May/Jun), Admissions (Aug), The Kitchen Sink (Nov).

Gemco: Millie’s War (Apr).

Encore Theatre Company Inc: Peter Pan and the Pirates (Jan), To Kill a Mockingbird (May).

Regional Victoria Geelong Repertory Theatre Company: Farragut North (Feb), Home, I’m Darling (Apr/May), Misery (Jun/Jul), Silent Sky (Sep), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Nov).

Ararat Musical Comedy Society: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Jun).

The 1812 Theatre: Mother & Son (Feb/Mar), The Fire Raisers (Apr), The Ballarat Lyric Theatre: The Phantom of Great Gatsby (May/Jun), The Sweet Delilah Swim Club (Aug), The Laramie the Opera (Feb).

Project (Oct), Noises Off (Nov/Dec).

Footlight Productions (Geelong): Strictly Ballroom (Jan).

Eltham Little Theatre: Yes, Prime Minister (Feb/Mar).

Latrobe Theatre Company: Mary Beaumaris Theatre Group: A Year with Frog and Toad (Mar).

Mordialloc Theatre Company Inc: And Then There Were None (Feb/Mar), Hearth (May), Veronica’s Room (Jun), Minnie and Liraz (Aug/Sep), Home, I’m Darling (Nov).

The Basin Theatre Group: Hatched, Matched, and Dispatched (Feb/Mar), Berlin (Apr), Jimmie The Beatle (Jun), God of Carnage (Oct).

Strathmore Theatrical Arts Group (STAG): Madagascar (Feb/Mar).

CPP Community Theatre: Little Women (Apr).

Essendon Theatre Company: A Tomb Frankston Theatre Group: Pack of Lies. with a View (Mar).

Malvern Theatre Company Inc: The Warrandyte Theatre Company: The Lifespan of a Fact (Feb/Mar), The Glass Last Quiz Night on Earth! (Mar).

Poppins (Aug/Sep).

Off The Leash Productions: The Heartbreak Choir (Apr).

Bairnsdale Production Line Theatre Co: Anything Goes (May).

Leongatha Lyric Theatre: Into The Woods (Jul).

Wonthaggi Theatrical Group: High School Musical Jr (Jan), Seussical (May/Jun).

Warragul Theatre Company: Legally Blonde (May).

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 45

Torquay Theatre Troupe Inc: Sylvia (Mar).

Wangaratta Players: Clarissa & Pip (Mar), The Long Road (Jul), Next to Normal (Nov).

FAMDA (Foster): The Architect (Apr/ May).

Tasmania Hobart Rep: Last Cab to Darwin (Feb), Anne and Gilbert (Apr), Agatha Christie’s The Unexpected Guest (Jul), The History Boys (Aug/Sep), Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (Oct).

The Old Nick Company: Shrek (Feb).

Encore Theatre Company: Chess (Mar).

Bijou: Hello Girls (May).

Devonport Choral Society Inc: The Full Monty (May).

DoMaur Productions (Burnie): Green Day’s American Idiot (Mar).

Launceston Players: The Pillowman (Apr), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (Sep).

Ulverstone Repertory Theatre Society: Mother and Son (May).

Golding Tooker: This is our Youth (Jan).

South Australia Adelaide Repertory Theatre: Baskerville - a Sherlock Holmes mystery (Mar/Apr), Moonlight and Magnolias (Jun), Nana’s Naughty Knickers (Aug), Mother & Son (Nov).

Tea Tree Players: Charley’s Aunt (Apr), Murder by the Book (May/Jun), The Wizard of Oz (Jul), Nobody’s Perfect (Aug), Unnecessary Farce (Oct), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Nov/ Dec).

The Metropolitan Musical Theatre Company of SA: The Addams Family (May).

Red Phoenix Theatre: The Trip to Bountiful (MayJune), Hangmen (Oct/ Nov).

St Jude’s Players: Living Together (May), Silent Sky (Aug), A Hard God (Nov).

The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of SA: Oklahoma! (May).

Blue Sky Theatre: The Government Inspector (Jan).

Garrick Theatre: Debut Directors One Act Season (Feb), The Lisbon Traviata (Apr), Pygmalion (Jun), Steel Magnolias (Aug), Poe Dreams (Sep/ Oct), The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Nov/Dec).

KADS: Last Call (Mar), Under the Table (Jun), Dead Man’s Cell Phone Therry Dramatic Society: A Shortcut to (Sep), On A First Name Basis (Nov/ Happiness (Apr), Jersey Boys (Aug), Dec).

The Actress (Nov).

Roleystone Theatre: Opening Gala Hills Musical Company: Urinetown Concert (Apr) Guys and Dolls (May), (May).

The Addams Family (Jul), One Act The Stirling Players: The Explorers Club Season (Sep), ITA YouthFest (Sep), Shakespeare in the Park (Nov), (Mar/Apr), Sylvia (Sep).

Guards, Guards (Nov/Dec).

University of Adelaide Theatre Guild: Angels in America Parts 1 & 2 (May), Darlington Theatre Players at the Marloo Theatre: Newsies Jr (Feb), King Lear (Aug), The 39 Steps (Oct).

Young Frankenstein (Jun/Jul), One Act Adelaide Youth Theatre: School of Season (Aug/Sep), Fruitcakes (Nov) Rock (Apr), Disney The Little Mermaid Wanneroo Repertory: An Inspector Jr (Apr).

Calls (Feb/Mar), Evil Dead - The Hills Youth Theatre: The Sound of Musical (Apr/May), Hands on a Hard Music Youth Edition (Jan).

Body (Jun/Jul), Bleak Expectations Riverland Musical Society: Evita, (Sep), Puss In Boots (Nov/Dec).

Frozen Jr. Murray Music and Drama: Annie Jr Murray Bridge Players: You’re A Good (Apr), I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Man Charlie Brown (May), Stepping Change (May), The Girl on the Train Out The Musical (Sep).

(Jul), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Nov).

The Magpie Warblers (Port Pirie): The Stray Cats Theatre: Priscilla, Queen of Addams Family (Jul). the Desert (May).

Solus Productions: The Mercy Seat Roxy Lane Theatre: Secret Bridesmaids (Apr).

Business (Feb/Mar), As You Like It (May), The Girl on the Train (Jul), Dirty Western Australia Rotten Scoundrels (Nov).

Primadonna Productions: The AIM - Art in Motion: Disenchanted Producers (Mar), Aladdin Jr (Jun).

(Apr).

Stirling Players: A Night of Comedy Playlovers: Into the Woods Jr (Jan), One Act Season (Feb), Evita (Apr/ Rotto Boys (May).

May), Top Girls (Jul), The Shifting Heart (Sep), The Drowsy Chaperone Midnite Youth: On the Road to Win (Nov/Dec).

Friends and Influence People (Feb), Cathedral (May), The Lamplight Gilbert and Sullivan Society of WA: Project (Jun), Guys and Dolls (Jul/Aug), The Gondoliers (May), Kiss Me, Kate Pirates of the Curry Bean (Sep), Holes (Oct).

(Oct/Nov).

Melville Theatre: Summer Shorts (Mar), Alice by Heart (May), The Deep Albany Light Opera and Theatre Company: We Will Rock You (May/ Blue Sea (Jul/Aug), God of Carnage Jun).

Sea (Sep), Sweet Road (Nov).

Marie Clark Musical Theatre: The Music Man (Jul).

Old Mill Theatre: Exit Laughing (Mar), Baby (May), Breaker Morant (Aug), Northern Light Theatre Company: The Picnic at Hanging Rock (Nov).

Wedding Singer (Apr).

46 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

Rockingham Theatre Company: Mother and Son (Mar), Mamma Mia! (Sep), Blackadder the Third (Dec).

Murray Music And Drama Club’s The Matchmaker.

Photo: Pippily Photography.

Seasons 2024

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 47

Don’t Forget The Tech Crew!

Leah Crockett, creator of Tech Crew HQ, explains the importance of training your crew to ensure that your show is a success.

It’s four weeks ‘til showtime — training. Technical theatre training time to bring in the technical crew! doesn’t have to be laborious and Uh-oh, how do we train our new expensive, but it does have to be Tech Crew members so that they will theatre specific and it must have be ready for the show? safety at its core.

If you’ve ever been involved with a That’s why Tech Crew HQ was school production you will know that invented; Tech Crew HQ is online students relish being involved in all training specifically designed for tech aspects of a production — even if crews to give them skills and they are not performing on stage. knowledge in the areas of lighting, However, too often we bring in audio, safety, stage management and students with no other theatre vision. Being online means that Tech experience and give them a slap-dash Crew HQ is accessible 24/7 and introduction to working backstage. features lots of videos and interactive This approach often leads to activities so that learning the skills for difficulties communicating, increased the next production is quick and safety issues and some very tedious engaging. technical rehearsals.

Tech Crew HQ is flexible enough A well-coordinated backstage crew for individuals to learn on their own, is the unsung hero behind every or for group training sessions. seamless performance, and the key to Tech Crew HQ is theatre and live a great backstage crew is great event specific, utilising Australian

theatre terms and standards, as well as showcasing Australian and New Zealand live event professionals in its regular webinars.

As more schools and community organisations access training through Tech Crew HQ, we are hearing of great things happening backstage including increased professionalism of the crew, higher confidence when operating shows, more efficient technical rehearsals and a focused approach to staying safe backstage.

If we take the time to train our technical and backstage crew effectively, shows will run smoothly, safely and these creative collaborative experiences may even provide students with a career pathway into professional theatre and live events.

Online extras!

Discover how Tech Crew HQ can give your school crew the skills it needs. youtu.be/SpR-qMu4GRE

stagewhispers.com.au/training 48 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

Let’s Put On A Show

Tech Crew HQ also provides face to face training for schools, colleges, community organisations and school holiday workshops. The next scheduled workshop is at North Sydney in January.

Contact techcrewhq@inspiredproductions.com.au or techcrewhq.com

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 49

School Musicals: To Buy Or Hire?

Mark McDowell, the co-owner of Your Show and Costumes Without Drama, shares his tips on budgeting for a school musical.

Calamity Jane.

50 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

Budgets for school musicals are usually set in stone, that is: “the same as last year”. The bean counters will tell you the maximum you can spend and that is that. Some schools see musicals as a promotion of the school, and are therefore generous in financial support and less concerned about balancing the books.

All shows have different pressures on the budget. It is a constant battle to between choosing a show that is popular and one that is tried and tested but not as known to the students. As much as you want to do a particular show for artistic reasons, you have a responsibility to aim to break even. Remember there are many reasons why shows flop on Broadway or in the West End, but mostly it’s because they are not very good.

My motto is whenever possible try to break even and they will leave you alone. If you make a profit, try to spend it on something that will save you money on your next production.

If you have a principal or accountant who will try to help relieve the pressure by investing some capital money, make sure you spend it wisely. They will probably look at the big ticket hire items from last year’s show and inevitably instruct you buy 20 radio mics. This is not a good idea and will come back to bite both of you. Unless you have a trained ‘Theatre Tech’ to maintain them, they will let you down and you will end up hiring them anyway.

Also, you only use this number of mics once a year; the rest of the time they sit in the cupboard deteriorating. I’m not saying don’t buy radio mics, I’m just saying cap it at six in total.

If its lights you want to buy, then first make sure that your infrastructure can support them. Moving lights require maintenance and there is no use buying them if your lighting console can’t drive them.

Budget wise, look at each show that you are considering and check out the following details.

How many locations are in the production? Can this be done with a basic set and more lighting or props? Can I hire the set?

Barnum.

Let’s Put On A Show

Drama Vic trade show.

Contact Mark McDowell for a quote at: yourshow.net.au / costumeswithoutdrama.com.au Call 0412 580 977 or email mark@yourshow.net.au How many different sets of costumes does each cast member require? Does much need to be made or can it be hired? Can it be purchased from op shops?

How many radio mics? Can this be reduced by more swaps or using corded mics with careful choreography?

Will this suit the show?

Can more students be put into the orchestra to save on hiring all professionals?

Do you need moving lights? Moving lights require extensive programming. Most schools have lots of students keen to be involved, but not on stage. Can they be follow-spot operators? Every spoken line or sung lyric in a professional musical has a follow spot on the actor.

Remember follow spots don’t need to look like a hardedge circle of light following an actor around the stage.

They also don’t need to be at 100 percent intensity.

Once these questions are answered you can adjust department budgets to suit the chosen show.

Don’t worry about doing a play or musical that has been done before at your school. As long as it’s over six years ago, you will have a different cohort, and may in fact get the old cohort buying tickets to compare. You also may find that you have some resources around from the last time you produced it.

Choose wisely and remember, ‘If it breaks even or makes money, it will continue to happen’.

Stage Whispers Directory premium listing: $20 Get noticed on the Stage Whispers website with a premium listing at a great price stagewhispers.com.au/directory-central stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 51

Accidental Death Of An Anarchist Lesley Reed cast an all-female acting ensemble for her production of this absurdist comedy, which also starred a lift, a bomb and a false leg.

The Beginning The biting Italian political satire Accidental Death of an Anarchist had long intrigued me. Based on the bombings in Italy in 1969, institutional corruption and a tragic death in custody, I was fascinated with the involvement in political activism by the play’s author, Dario Fo, and how much this linked him to the actual events behind the play.

With institutional corruption and custodial deaths still happening worldwide, I was delighted that The Stirling Players was also excited about the potential of this classic play and scheduled the Ed Emery English edition for the company’s 2023 season.

Behind The Play: An Amazing True Story In 1969 there was widespread political and social tension in Italy. On December 12, 1969, a bomb exploded in the Bank of Agriculture, Milan. Many people died. More bombs then exploded in Rome. Leftwing anarchists across Italy were arrested by right-wing Italian authorities. One, Guiseppe Pinelli, was interrogated at the central police station in Milan without any evidence of his guilt. On December 15, Pinelli plummeted from a fourth-floor police station window.

Police present at Pinelli’s interrogation gave several different versions to various enquiries into the

Accidental Death Of An Anarchist.

Photo: Brian Donaghy

52 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

truth about Pinelli’s death under interrogation. There was much press and public speculation about a coverup. Well-regarded left-wing activist of the time, playwright and public figure Dario Fo also questioned the truth, as did a left-wing journalist.

Although aware of Fo’s leftist activity, when authorities discovered the play he was now writing was a farce, they took their eyes off him. However, while written in comedic disguise, the play was an expose of the political corruption and probable coverup behind Pinelli’s death.

People flocked to Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist when it opened in 1970 in Milan. Uproar occurred on the realisation that the storyline was a startling reflection of the recent real events in Milan. It involved a ‘maniac’ using disguise, quick wit and deception to outsmart bumbling police. Prosecutions for the 1969 bombings went on for decades. Right -wing, not left-wing, activists were eventually found guilty of the 1969 bombings. Some truths emerged on the circumstances of Pinelli’s death, but police weren’t charged.

Director’s Diary

The Main Challenge The major challenge for all contemporary stagings of the play, decades after the events behind it occurred, was to engage and immerse audiences who had no personal experience of the play’s underpinning events. Would they respond only to the comedy and not think further about the many dark, underlying themes?

Director’s Vision I wanted to leave our contemporary audiences with aching ribs from laughing at the absurd comedy, but also with plenty to take home in terms of the play’s relevance in our times of oft-reported deaths in custody, fake news, worldwide extremism, and political corruption.

I also saw an opportunity to enhance the inherent absurdism, by casting all the male police with female actors, with them looking and acting as males. I saw this casting choice also as a strong means of commenting on power and its misuse, both in global terms and in the workplace, where males tend to have power unafforded to most women.

Roles, Auditions And Casting Male characters in the play include a Maniac, a Superintendent of Police, two Inspectors and two Constables (constables played by same actor).

There is one powerful female character, Feletti, a journalist.

Auditions were held a year in advance to secure strong actors, with very good performers attending. The key role to cast was the Maniac, a wily, agile, trickster. Central to the action, he uses disguise and is the inquisitor, constantly questioning, challenging, and outwitting police. He was Fo’s invention and, unlike some other characters, not based on a real person.

Danii Zappia, an experienced actor and drama teacher, shone at auditions and was cast in the role.

Character Development, Commedia Dell’Arte And Slapstick The play’s author, Dario Fo, was an expert in the mediaeval Italian

Accidental Death Of An Anarchist.

Photo: Brian Donaghy

comedic form of acting, Commedia dell’Arte. Some of its characteristics include the use of physical comedy, masks and recognisable character types. These stock characters reflect various levels of power, a strong theme in Accidental Death of an Anarchist.

During the audition callout I was contacted by Doctor Corinna Di Niro, Australia’s leading expert on Commedia dell’Arte. Adelaide-based, she was keen to contribute her expertise to help the production.

While we both agreed Accidental Death of an Anarchist was not a

Commedia play as such, we knew it contained an essence of the form in its characters, its physicality, use of disguise and trickery. Corinna provided a useful workshop in Commedia dell’Arte to the actors. She also put forward her views on which classic Commedia character most likely correlated with each character in the play.

Actors worked to develop key characteristics relevant to, but not dependent on Commedia dell’Arte.

We also researched Fo’s likely ‘reality’ (Continued on page 54) stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 53

Director’s Diary (Continued from page 53)

basis for each character — for example, Inspector Pissani was likely based on a person present at the interrogation of Pinelli and who was said to have a penchant for forcing detainees onto high windowsills during interrogations.

Physicality was key to the farcical nature of the play. Actors were drilled in the short, choreographed song and dance elements and, for slapstick, by an expert trained in physical comedy.

The result was very funny to watch and exhausting yet rewarding for actors, who had ensured good physical fitness prior to rehearsals.

including physicality, the costuming, hair and facial appearance were also key to each character.

Costumes, such as male suits, were well achieved and wigs, including a hilarious ‘combover’ one, were used where needed. Facial hair and makeup for correct male bone contour needed to be realistic, and we achieved this through the skills of work experience students from an Adelaide makeup academy.

Lesley Reed.

Set And Props We set the play in its original 1970 ‘view beyond’ we used fine scenic timeline and place, Milan. Several of design on a large rollup canvas. our actors were of Italian heritage and Actors worked in full view of so accents were no major issue. audiences and with backstage help to The play is set over two floors in ‘roll up’ the scene change in Act One, police headquarters, with a shift up to from the first to the fourth floor. To the fourth floor following the first add to the illusion of multiple floors, a Creating Male Police Using Female scene. A large frame, strong enough ‘lift’ was present and the floor Actors to hold an actor, was built in the number above the lift for the new 4th Creating believable ‘males’ was a upstage flat, with its window sections floor setting after Act One, Scene 1 challenge. While each actor had the opening out into a void. Beyond the was also changed by an actor in an talent to achieve ‘male’ personas, void, rather than projection of the amusing sequence during the scene change.

Accidental Death Of An Anarchist “...the scene transition for the first to fourth floor is an amusing piece in The Stirling Players. Sep 8 - 23, 2023. its own right...” -Stage Whispers Stirling Community Theatre, Stirling, South Australia. review.

Props were a challenge, with a Key Production Credits ‘bomb’, false leg and hands among Director: Lesley Reed the items needed, all of which were Assistant Director: Sally Putnam achieved creatively.

Production Manager: Tim Williams Stage Manager: Bronwyn Chapple Our Contemporary Touches Props: Leah Klemm Dario Fo was aware that future Slapstick Coach: Bronwyn Palmer productions of Accidental Death of an Choreographer: Vanessa Redman Anarchist would need to reflect each Singing Coach: Sarah Bradley production’s times in terms of the Commedia dell’Arte workshop: Corinna Di Niro themes. He publicly gave this his Set Design: Erik Strauts and Eleni Taylor blessing. We endeavoured not to Lift Design: Andrew Phillips make the contemporary relevance Scenic Design: Lilita Daenke and Kathy Wurst overwhelming but did focus on recent Sound and Lighting: Paul Tossell worldwide deaths in custody a little Costumes: Gilian Cordell towards the end of the play.

Hairstyles: Kathryn Stevens Makeup: Students of Media Makeup Academy International Audience And Critical Response Publicity: Les Laub and John Graham Audience and critical response to the play, its comedy and its darker Cast themes was pleasing and reward for Maniac: Danii Zappia the detailed planning and Superintendent: Georgia Stockham considerable dedication by all Inspector Pissani: Anita Zamberlan Canala involved.

Inspector Bertozzo: Olivia Jane Parker Constables: Ashleigh Merriel Read Stage Whispers’ review of Feletti: Kyla Booth the show at bit.ly/3SXd6QB. 54 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 55

Music Theatre International mtishows.com.au Eurobeat - The Pride of Europe

opportunity for every production to put its own stamp on how each entry is interpreted and presented.

Out of all the songs that you’ve written for the various versions of this show, do you have a favourite?

I must say I was really happy to use the song ‘The World Is My Dance Floor’ in this new Eurobeat. I wrote this song about thirty years ago as an homage to one of my favourite disco tracks from the ‘70s, From New York To LA. For more information and licensing inquiries, please visit mtishows.com.au/eurobeat-pride-of-europe.

Origin Theatrical origintheatrical.com.au

Music Theatre International, Australasia has announced the release for licensing of the musical The Curious Incident of the Eurobeat - The Pride of Europe.

Dog in the Night-Time Stuart Hendricks, Managing Director of Music Theatre

By Simon Stephens. Based International, Australasia, said that “Eurobeat - The Pride on the novel by Mark Haddon. of Europe is not just a musical; it’s a celebration of Full Length Play, Dramatic diversity and the joyous expressions of individuality Comedy, Present Day, witnessed at the Eurovision Song Contest.”

Contemporary. Cast: 5M, 5F The show is performed with backing tracks, making it Christopher, fifteen years accessible for groups of all sizes. old, stands beside Mrs Shears’ The audience actively participates in the show by dead dog. It has been speared voting for their favourite performance. Votes are tallied, with a garden fork, it is seven and in true Eurovision-style, the audience are guided minutes after midnight, and through ‘live’ crosses to each country, leading to the Christopher is under suspicion. declaration of a winner.

He records each fact in the MTIA interviewed the composer Craig Christie. book he is writing to solve the What is your favourite part of the writing process? mystery of who murdered I find creating a clever rhyme very satisfying. I’m a real Wellington. He has an extraordinary brain and is stickler for proper rhymes in my lyrics, and when you can exceptional at maths, but he is ill-equipped to interpret find the right words to match a particular melodic hook everyday life. you have created, there’s a real feeling of achievement.

Christopher’s detective work takes him on a When did the idea of Eurobeat first come about? frightening journey that turns his world upside-down.

It was in November 2003 that the original show was origintheatrical.com.au/work/12832 put together with songs by myself and Andrew Patterson in a riotous, chaotic co-op staged at Chapel Off Chapel Ruby Moon under the title Eurovision - the Musical (which we had to

By Matt Cameron. Full change for copyright reasons).

Length Play, Drama, Mystery/ So what’s the idea behind this new version of Thriller, Contemporary. Cast: 1M, 1F. Eurobeat?

In Flaming Tree Grove, life The new version of Eurobeat, apart from reflecting some of the recent trends and ideas of the actual appears to be picture perfect.

Security and privacy are competition, was created to celebrate diversity. It was suggested to me by a colleague in London who wanted to coveted and seclusion is its put together a Eurobeat-style show using existing songs own reward. Until the day when little Ruby sets off to for a pub venue popular with the LGBTQI community.

What does our theatre community have to look visit her grandmother at the end of the cul-de-sac and is forward to in this new version of the show? never seen again. The Over-the-top songs, the opportunity for hilarious interpretations of the numbers and cultural stereotypes, neighbourhood fractures into and of course, the audience voting for the winner at every grief and suspicion in the search for answers to a terrible deprivation. Then a parcel arrives on her parents’ performance. Eurobeat - The Pride of Europe also introduces some characters that fans of Eurovision will doorstep... origintheatrical.com.au/work/12858 recognise — the straight-faced officials, the confusing cultural references and characters — and provides the 56 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

Gretel The Musical Book and Lyrics by Jason Tremblay and Suzan Zeder.

Music and lyrics by Jenn Hartmann Luck . Full Length Musical, Drama, Comedy, TYA. Cast: 1 to 4M, 2 to 6F. Before there was Hansel, there was Gretel! Based on the Russian source that is the origin story of the tale, this musical focuses on the girls and women at the centre of the adventure.

Featuring folk/rock music, the songs capture the darkness but also the humour and humanity of Gretel’s journey to fetch the skull of undying light from Baba Yaga, one of the most fascinating witches of all time. origintheatrical.com.au/work/12856 MILF - The Musical Created by Sally Knight.

Full Length Musical, Romantic Comedy, Australian, Comedy, Present Day, Contemporary.

Cast: 3F, 3M + ensemble.

MILF the musical is a comedy following the journey of mother and wife Kate Esther, a successful fashion designer turned popular fashion influencer known as @FashionEsther, loved and hated for her honest no holds barred content.

The musical is about Kate’s whirlwind personal life, her mother’s venture into the world of online dating and her sister Cleo’s divorce. MILF the musical showcases the highs and lows of her journey, the challenges she faces, and her unwavering determination to succeed. origintheatrical.com.au/work/10072

Choosing A Show David Spicer Productions davidspicer.com.au The Jungle Book Written by Briandaniel Oglesby. Cast: 11 + ensemble.

Mowgli struggles to fit in with the wolves, monkeys, and even the humans on his journey to discover where he belongs, in this new imagining of Rudyard Kipling’s classic.

Masks, puppets, a trip to the Starbucks in the cell-phone-obsessed city make this new adaptation of The Jungle Book a delight. davidspicer.com.au/shows/jungle-book Masquerade Written by Kate Mulvaney.

Based on the book by Kit Williams. Music by Mikelangelo and Pip Branson.

Cast: 9M, 8F. In a wondrous world of riddles and hidden treasure, bumbling Jack Hare is on a race against time to deliver a message of love from the Moon to the Sun. Bringing to life Kit Williams’ iconic picture book, Masquerade stars a talking fish, a tone-deaf barbershop quartet, a gassy pig, a precious jewel and a few mere mortals. davidspicer.com.au/shows/masquerade

Community Theatre Insurance The Association of Community Theatre and Marsh Insurance have announced that there is no change in the cost of their public liability and personal accident insurance policies for 2024.

The policies are specifically designed for Community/Amateur Musical and Theatrical Groups and Choirs that are members of the Association of Community Theatre (ACT) or members of interstate groups that are affiliated with ACT. Public liability insurance of 20 million dollars is provided for $800 a year and personal accident cover of up to $100,000 for $625. Both policies as a package have a cost of $1060.

The Chief Executive Officer of ACT Ros English says despite inflation affecting other insurance policy premiums, the Marsh insurance products are being kept down for community theatres.

“The policy is great value compared to similar products in the market and profits from the scheme are used by ACT to fund training and capital works for community theatre companies.”

For more details, please visit jltentertainment.com.au/act stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 57

Choosing A Show

Wild Bill from The Cowboy Show.

Theatre Restaurant Not So Naughty Writer Judith Prior explains how she has adapted her plays for the times.

Writing comedy today is quite a challenge. Many of the jokes we laughed at twenty years ago would be considered cringe-worthy today.

Some of you may be familiar with my very popular theatre restaurant scripts, available through David Spicer Productions. These were all written many years ago with adult audiences in mind, and, as expected, many of the jokes are quite risqué.

To reach a wider audience, and so that I could take my grandchildren to see all my shows, I have adapted some of my funniest and most popular scripts to a more politically correct format, leaving in (almost all) the very funniest jokes. These new scripts have all been performed here in Bundaberg, and were very well received by appreciative audiences, both young and old. Each show has one simple set and runs for one hour. They may be split into two 30 min acts with an interval or run continuously.

The Cowboy Show is adapted from Jest at the West and Jest Call Me Cowboy. Fun and games at the Silver Slipper Saloon. Can Maggie May pay her mortgage? Will the movie director from the city cast his movie using the local characters? Can the Sheriff avoid the amorous advances of Little White Dove?

The Egyptian Show is adapted from Wink at the Sphinx. Can the Pharaoh marry off his two daughters, Fatima, and Charisma? Will the magic carpet really fly for the ancient genie?

One Way Ticket To Australia is adapted from Sailing South. The prisoners are not looking forward to landing in Australia but many an adventure causes hilarity. The prisoners make a mockery of the inept captain and his first officer.

The Golden Wedding is adapted from Uncle Jack.

Socialite daughter Claire has organised a huge social event. Dad announces that mum has left town, with his brother Jack. Gran is deaf and keeps interrupting, and somebody has spiked the punch. The slightly tipsy Vicar is valiantly trying to keep order. Just your average happy family celebration.

For show or licensing information, and to explore the entire Judith Prior library of shows, please visit davidspicer.com.au/author/judith-prior 58 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

Stagecoach Performing Arts Franchises An international Performing Arts school is seeking expressions of interest from Australians to set up their own centres across the country.

Stagecoach Performing Arts but the freedom to be my own boss  Growing industry: Tap into the specialises in providing extra-curricular — my self-esteem has really improved high demand for quality performing arts education for too.” education and extra-curricular students aged 4 to 18.

And it was her love of the arts that activities.

Their unique approach nurtures first attracted Principal Serena Kipling  Community engagement: talent in acting, singing, and dancing to Stagecoach. She says, “it’s Become a vital part of local but also instils life skills that they call incredible to see how far the franchise communities, fostering “Creative Courage for Life®”. has come since I launched the first relationships and partnerships.

A spokesperson for Stagecoach Stagecoach school in Australia. We’re  Diverse backgrounds welcome: said, “if you have a love of theatre now regarded as one of the best No prior experience required. and you’d like to start or continue to performing arts opportunities for  Flexibility: Build your business build a vibrant and inspirational children in the area. As a franchisee, I at your pace, part-time or fullcareer in the performing arts, joining get a lot of satisfaction out of running time. a leading performing arts school my business.”  Connections to a leading brand franchise could be the best decision Stagecoach has over 35 years of in the theatre industry: you make this New Year.” performing arts education experience Stagecoach Performing Arts is The company has two schools in with over 300 franchisees worldwide. part of the Trafalgar Perth.

Choosing Stagecoach means Entertainment Group, a Five years on from investing in her aligning with a proven system that premium international live first Stagecoach franchise, Alison blends the independence of business entertainment business with Tasker now runs three successful ownership with the support of a venues including the Theatre schools in her Perth South territory, distinguished brand in the performing Royal Sydney. with six teachers, two assistants and arts world. over 125 students.

Reasons to tune in: From collaborations with industry Alison says, “Now that I am a  Supportive network: Navigate giants to franchisee longevity franchisee, I feel in control of my the business world with a celebrations, Stagecoach prides itself destiny and I’m already earning a committed Head Office team. on a strong sense of belonging great income.  Profit potential: Unlock the instilled in schools and students.

“I love that I don’t have to worry door to profits of up to Principles focus on building life skills about leasing a shop front or taking $54,000 and beyond with a such as resilience, creativity, and on unnecessary financial risk, business model designed for courage. especially during these uncertain growth. times. Owning a franchise has given me not only financial independence Visit stagecoachfranchise.com to find out more.

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 59

On Stage A.C.T. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Shake & Stir. Dec 19 24. Canberra Theatre. canberratheatrecentre.com.au Circus of Illusion. Jan 13 & 14.

Canberra Theatre. canberratheatrecentre.com.au The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show by Jonathan Rockefeller, based on stories by Eric Carle.

Feb 1 - 3. The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre. canberratheatrecentre.com.au

A.C.T. & New South Wales

Stage Entertainment, Tali Pelman and Tina Turner. Until Jan 21. Theatre Royal, Sydney. tinathemusical.com.au

Oil by Ella Hickson. Sydney Theatre Company. Until Dec 16. Wharf 1 Theatre. sydneytheatre.com.au

by Cara Reichel. Heart Strings Theatre Co / Hayes Theatre Co. Jan 10 - Feb 12. hayestheatre.com.au

Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

Composer: Alan Menken.

Lyricist: Tim Rice. Book: Linda Woolverton. Until Jan 28.

Capitol Theatre, Sydney. beautyandthebeastmusical.com.au

The Master And Margarita.

Adapted by Eamon Flack, from the book by Mikhail Bulgakov.

Until Dec 10. Belvoir Street Upstairs. belvoir.com.au

Tiddas. Anita Heiss’s adaptation of her novel, developed for stage by Anita Heiss. La Boite Theatre Company, QPAC & Brisbane Festival, co-presented with Sydney Festival. Jan 12 - 31.

Belvoir Street Theatre. belvoir.com.au

Wicked. Music and Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Book by Winnie Holzman, based on the novel by Gregory Maguire.

John Frost for Crossroads Live Jungle Book Reimagined by Australia, Marc Platt, Universal Akram Khan Company. Feb 2 & Pictures, The Araca Group, Jon 3. Canberra Theatre.

B. Platt and David Stone. Until canberratheatrecentre.com.au Feb 4. Sydney Lyric Theatre.

Last of the Red Hot Lovers by wickedthemusical.com.au Neil Simon. Canberra Rep. Feb The Dictionary of Lost Words.

22 - Mar 9. canberrarep.org.au Adapted by Verity Laughton New South Wales

Tina - The Tina Turner Musical.

By Katori Hall with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins. Paul Dainty AO/TEG DAINTY in special collaboration with

Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery by Ken Ludwig. Castle Hill Players. Until Dec 9. The Pavilion Theatre, Castle Hill Showground. paviliontheatre.org.au

Orpheus & Euridyce by Gluck.

Opera Australia / Circa. Jan 12 The Seagull by Anton Chekhov, 31. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. adapted by Andrew Upton.

Sydney Theatre Company. Until opera.org.au Dec 16. Roslyn Packer Theatre. Disney Moana Jr. Music and sydneytheatre.com.au lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Opetaia Foa’i and Mark Calendar Girls by Tim Firth.

Mancina. Book adapted by Comedy. Maitland Repertory from the novel by Pip Williams. Theatre. Until Dec 10.

Susan Soon He Stanton.

Sydney Theatre Company. Until mrt.org.au Gosford Musical Society. Jan Dec 16. Drama Theatre, Sydney 16 - 20. Laycock Street Roald Dahl’s The Witches.

Community Theatre, Laycock Opera House.

Lieder Theatre Company. Until Street, North Gosford. sydneytheatre.com.au Dec 16. theliedertheatre.com gosfordmusicalsociety.com Wowfest: The Final Frontier.

The Return of the Big Bad Hunter Drama. Until Dec 10.

Wolf. Christianne Brawley & Civic Playhouse Newcastle & Scott Brawley. (Children’s Cessnock Performing Arts Pantomime). The Guild Theatre Centre. hunterdrama.com.au Rockdale, 87 Railway Street Cnr Midnight Murder At Hamlington Hall by Mark Kilmurry and Jamie Oxenbould.

Ensemble Theatre. Dec 1 - Jan 14. ensemble.com.au

Walz Street, Rockdale. Jan 19 21. guildtheatre.com.au

Murder For Two Christmas Edition. Book by Kellen Blair and Joe Kinosian. Lyrics by Kellen Blair. Music by Joe Kinosian. Hayes Theatre Co. Dec 1 - 17. hayestheatre.com.au

An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestly. Castle Hill Players. Jan 29 - Feb 24. The Pavilion Theatre, Castle Hill Showground. paviliontheatre.org.au

La Traviata by Verdi. Opera Australia. Jan 2 - Mar 14. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. opera.org.au Sydney Festival. Jan 5 - 28. sydneyfestival.org.au The Wind in the Willows by Glen Elston, from the novel by Kenneth Graham. Jan 5 - 28.

Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney. willowslive.com.au The Hello Girls. Book, music and lyrics by Peter Mills. Book 60 Stage Whispers

Alone It Stands by John Breen.

Ensemble Theatre. Jan 26 - Mar 2. ensemble.com.au

The Magic Flute by Mozart.

Opera Australia. Feb 1 - Mar 16. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. opera.org.au Tiny Beautiful Things. Based on the book by Cheryl Strayed, coconceived by Marshall Heyman, Thomas Kail, and Nia Vardalos.

Adapted for the stage by Nia Vardalos. Queensland Theatre, presented in association with Trish Wadley Productions. Feb

Just $50 a month to reach thousands of theatre goers. Contact Stage Whispers for details.

On Stage

New South Wales & Queensland

1 - Mar 3. Belvoir Street Theatre. belvoir.com.au A Fool in Love by Van Badham, after La dama boba by Lope de Vega. Sydney Theatre Company. Feb 6 - Mar 17.

Wharf 1 Theatre. sydneytheatre.com.au Theodora in Concert by Handel. Opera Australia and Pinchgut Opera. Feb 8 & 9.

Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. opera.org.au RBG: Of Many, One by Suzie Miller. Sydney Theatre Company. Feb 9 - Mar 3.

Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. sydneytheatre.com.au Big Fish. Music & Lyrics by Andrew Lippa. Book by John August. Arcadians Theatre Group. Feb 9 - 17. The Miner’s Lamp Theatre, Corrimal. arcadians.org.au

In the well-heeled seaside town of Illescas, the Octavio sisters Vanessa — played

by Melissa Kahraman (Hubris & Humiliation) — and Phynayah — played by Contessa Treffone (On The Beach) — are desperate to save their family from financial ruin. From the deliciously wicked pen of Van Badham (Banging Denmark), comes A Fool In Love, presented by the Sydney Theatre Company at Wharf 1 Theatre from February 6 to March 17.

Photo: Rene Vaile. sydneytheatre.com.au

The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society Murder Mystery. Lane Cove Theatre Co. Feb 10 - 26. The Performance Space at St Aidan’s, 1 Christina Street Longueville. lanecovetheatrecompany.com.au Christopher Wheeldon. The They’re Playing Our Song. Book Australian Ballet. Feb 20 - Mar

by Neil Simon. Music by Marvin 5. Capitol Theatre, Sydney.

Hamlisch. Lyrics by Carol Bayer australianballet.com.au Sager. Neglected Musicals. Feb The White Sheep of the Family 14 - 16. Hayes Theatre.

by L. du Garde Peach & Ian hayestheatre.com.au Hay. Pymble Players. Feb 21 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival. Feb 16 - Mar 3. mardigras.org.au Mother and Son by Geoffrey Atherden. Arts Theatre Cronulla. Feb 16 - Mar 23. 6 Surf Road, Cronulla. artstheatrecronulla.com.au Theys At The Hayes. Hayes Theatre Co. Feb 19. hayestheatre.com.au Idomeneo by Mozart. Opera Australia. Feb 20 - Mar 15.

Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. opera.org.au Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Choreography by

Mar 16. Pymble Players Theatre, 55A Mona Vale Rd (cnr Bromley Ave), Pymble. pymbleplayers.com.au

Relatively Speaking by Alan Ayckbourn. Woy Woy Little Theatre. Feb 23 - Mar 10.

Peninsula Theatre, Woy Woy. woywoylt.com An O. Henry Christmas by Howard Burman. The Guild Theatre Rockdale. Feb 23 - Mar 17. (02) 9597 4558. guildtheatre.com.au

Carlotta - The Party’s Over.

Hayes Theatre Co. Feb 28 - Mar 3. hayestheatre.com.au Queensland 45 Seconds From Broadway by Neil Simon. Gold Coast Little Theatre. Until Dec 9. gclt.com.au

Falsettos by William Finn and James Lapine. Javeenbah The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Theatre. Until Dec 9.

Fox on the Fairway by Ken Music by Alan Menken. Lyrics javeenbah.org.au Ludwig. Lieder Theatre

by Stephen Schwartz. Book by 99 Dalmatians - The Panto.

Company, Goulburn. Feb 21 - Peter Parnell. Based on the Cairns Little Theatre / Rondo Mar 9. theliedertheatre.com Victor Hugo Novel and songs from the Disney film. Noteable Theatre. Until Dec 9.

Agatha Crusty and the Village therondo.com.au Theatre Company. Feb 23 Hall Murders by Derek Webb.

Is That You, Ruthie? By Leah Mar 9. The Concourse, Wollongong Workshop Purcell. Dec 2 - 9. Cremorne Chatswood.

Theatre. Feb 23 - Mar 9. wollongongworkshoptheatre.com.au noteabletheatrecompany.com Theatre, QPAC. qpac.com.au Ring Cycle by Wagner. Opera Fame. Book by Jose Fernandez. & Juliet. Music: Max Martin.

Australia. Dec 1 - 21. Lyric Book: David West Read. From Music by Steve Margoshes.

Theatre, QPAC. qpac.com.au Feb 27.

Sydney Lyric Theatre.

Lyrics by Jacques Levy. The andjuliet.com.au Peter and the Wolf. A Players Theatre. Inc, 33a Lord Street, Port Macquarie. Feb 23 - Mar 7. playerstheatre.org.au

Advertise your show on the front page of stagewhispers.com.au

Children’s Pantomime by Eugene Hickey. Brisbane Arts

Stage Whispers 61

On Stage

Queensland & Victoria

Theatre. Dec 2 - Jan 19. artstheatre.com.au A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, adapted & created by Shake & Stir Theatre Co. Dec 8 - 14. Concert Hall, QPAC. qpac.com.au Aida by Verdi. Opera Australia.

Dec 6 - 20. Lyric Theatre, QPAC. qpac.com.au Ebenezer: The True Story of A Christmas Carol. Adapted by Tallulah M.E. Grey with John Grey from the works of Charles Dickens. Brisbane Arts Theatre.

Dec 9 - 31. artstheatre.com.au Chicago. Book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. Crossroads Live. Jan 2 - Feb 3.

Lyric Theatre, QPAC. qpac.com.au The Sleeping Beauty. Ballet Theatre Queensland. Jan 18 20. Concert Hall, QPAC. qpac.com.au 9 to 5 The Musical. Music by Dolly Patron. Lyrics and book

by Patricia Resnick. Based on the 20th Century Fox Picture.

Townsville Choral Society. Jan 18 - 27. Townsville Civic Theatre. tcs.org.au Les Misérables. Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg.

Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer.

Original French text byAlain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel.

Cairns Choral Society. Jan 19 27. CPAC Theatre.

Inspired by the best-selling, award-winning memoir by Caribbean-Australian writer Maxine Beneba Clarke, The Hate Race is an unflinching exploration of the complexities of race in Australia, and the universal search for belonging.

Making its theatrical premiere on the Malthouse stage, this powerful story stars Zahra Newman (Wake in Fright), who embodies all characters from the book.

Playing at Beckett Theatre from February 23 to March 17.

Photo: Tiffany Garvie. malthousetheatre.com.au Novel by Charles Webb and the Motion Picture Screenplay by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry. Gold Coast Little Theatre. Feb 2 - 24. gclt.com.au

When The Rain Stops Falling by Andrew Bovell. Brisbane Arts Theatre. Feb 10 - Mar 9. artstheatre.com.au

River. Australian Chamber Orchestra. Feb 12. Concert The Farmer Will Swap Combine 35mm: A Musical Exhibition by Hall, QPAC. qpac.com.au Ryan Scott Oliver. Javeenbah Harvester for Wife by Hugh Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Theatre. Feb 3 - 17.

O’Brien. Mates Theatre The Musical. Composer: Alan javeenbah.org.au Genesis. Jan 25 - Feb 4.

Menken. Lyricist: Tim Rice.

Redland Museum.

Disney The Little Mermaid.

Book: Linda Woolverton. From matestg.org.au Music by Alan Menken. Lyrics Feb 15. Lyric Theatre, QPAC. Rent: The Musical by Jonathan by Howard Ashman and Glenn qpac.com.au Slater. Book by Doug Wright.

Larson. Jan 27 - Feb 4.

Beethoven. Camerata and Alex Playhouse, QPAC. qpac.com.au Burdekin Singers and Theatre Raineri. Feb 17. Concert Hall, Company. Feb 4 - 11. Burdekin QPAC. qpac.com.au Peter Pan. Brisbane Arts Theatre. burdekinsingers.com Theatre. Jan 27 - Mar 23.

Gaslight by Patrick Hamilton, The Sound of Music. Music: artstheatre.com.au adapted by Johnna Wright Richard Rodgers. Lyrics: Oscar and Patty Jamieson.

Odd Couples. A season of oneHammerstein 2nd. Book: Queensland Theatre. Feb 20 act plays. KUCOM Theatre. Feb Howard Lindsay & Russell Mar 3. Playhouse, QPAC. 1 - 10. kucom.org.au Crouse. Spotlight Theatrical qpac.com.au The Graduate. Adapted by Company, Benowa. Feb 9 Terry Johnson, based on the Mar 9. spotlighttheatre.com.au 62 Stage Whispers

The Ladykillers by Graham Linehan. Toowoomba Repertory Theatre Society. Feb 20 - Mar 2. 94 Margaret Street, Toowoomba. toowoombarep.com.au War of the Worlds - Lux Radio Play. New Farm Nash Theatre.

Feb 23 - Mar 16. nashtheatre.com Rumours by Neil Simon. Rondo Theatre / Cairns Little Theatre.

Feb 23 - Mar 2. therondo.com.au Aging Disgracefully. A series of monlogues. Ipswich Little Theatre. Feb 29 - Mar 16. ilt.org.au Victoria A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. A version by Jack Thorne, conceived and directed

by Matthew Warchus. GWB

Just $50 a month to reach thousands of theatre goers. Contact Stage Whispers for details.

On Stage

Victoria

Entertainment. Until Jan 7.

Comedy Theatre, Melbourne. christmascarolaustralia.com.au

17. Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne. artscentremelbourne.com.au

Jan 17 - Feb 11. fortyfivedownstairs. fortyfivedownstairs.com

Jan 31 - Feb 4. Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne. artscentremelbourne.com.au

Mamma Mia! Music and Lyrics

by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. Book by Catherine Johnson. Until Dec 10. Princess Theatre, Melbourne. mammamiathemusical.com.au

The Nutcracker. BIG Live Pty Ltd. Dec 21 - 22. Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne. artscentremelbourne.com.au

Dubious Intent. The Butterfly Club. Jan 19 & 20. thebutterflyclub.com

Disney’s High School Musical Jr. Book by David Simpatico.

Wonthaggi Theatrical Group.

Jan 3 - 6. wtg.org.au

Grease by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. John Frost for Crossroads Live Australia. From Dec 31. Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne. greasemusical.com.au

Noises Off by Michael Frayn.

Windmill Theatre Company.

Malevo. Created by director / Feb 7 - 11. Bunjil Place Studio, choreographer Matías Jaime.

Andrew Kay. Jan 23 - 28. State Narre Warren. windmilltheatre.com.au Theatre, Arts Centre

A Very Jewish Christmas Carol

by Elise Esther Hearst and Phillip Kavanagh. Melbourne Theatre Company. Until Dec 16. Southbank Theatre, The Sumner. mtc.com.au

Erth’s Prehistoric World. Erth Visual & Physical Inc. Jan 3 10. Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne. artscentremelbourne.com.au

Midsumma Festival. Jan 21 Feb 11. midsumma.org.au

Melbourne. artscentremelbourne.com.au

Groundhog Day. Book by Danny Rubin. Music and lyrics

by Tim Minchin. From Jan 24.

Princess Theatre, Melbourne.

The Choir of Man. Andrew Kay. groundhogday.com.au Art by Yasmina Reza. The 1812 Jan 4 - Feb 11. Playhouse, Arts Dr Seuss’s Cat in the Hat - Live Theatre, Upper Ferntree Gully. Centre Melbourne. on Stage. Showcase Until Dec 9. artscentremelbourne.com.au Entertainment Group. Jan 24 & 1812theatre.com.au Circus 1903. Jan 4 - 14. State 25. Hamer Hall, Arts Centre, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee. Red Stitch. Until Dec 17. redstitch.net

Surat-Suratnya. Wawan Sofwan, Sandra Fiona Long and Ria Soemardjo. Dec 6 - 17.

La Mama HQ. lamama.com.au The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter. F.A.M.D.A. Dec 6 - 10.

Foster War Memorial Arts Centre. famda.org.au

Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne. artscentremelbourne.com.au

Les Improvisé. Improv Festival.

The Butterfly Club. Jan 8 - 13. thebutterflyclub.com

Photograph 51 by Anna Ziegler. Williamstown Little Theatre. Feb 7 - 24. wlt.org.au Piece of Mind by Emma Wood.

Lilydale Athenaeum Theatre.

Feb 8 - 24. lilydaleatc.com

Candide. Music by Leonard Bernstein, book by Hugh Wheeler after Voltaire. Lyrics by Richard Wilbur, Stephen Sondheim, John La Touche, Melbourne.

Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker and Leonard Bernstein. artscentremelbourne.com.au Victorian Opera. Feb 8 - 10.

Overflow by Travis Albanza.

Palais Theatre, St Kilda.

Darlinghurst Theatre Company / Midsumma Festival. victorianopera.com.au

Pick-A-Card. Maroussia Vladi / Improv Festival. The Butterfly The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Club. Jan 8 - 13.

OSMaD. Dec 7 - 16. Geoffrey thebutterflyclub.com McComas Theatre, James Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox. Forbes Academy, Scotch Shake & Stir Theatre Company.

College Campus, Hawthorn.

GWB Entertainment. Jan 13 osmad.com.au 21. Comedy Theatre, The Problem Is The Ending. The Melbourne.

Butterfly Club. Dec 11 - 16. shakeandstir.com.au thebutterflyclub.com Seventeen by Matthew A Christmas Carol. Re-imagined Whittet. Melbourne Theatre as a solo performance by Cody Company. Jan 15 - Feb 17.

Riker. The Butterfly Club. Dec Southbank Theatre, The 11 - 16. thebutterflyclub.com Sumner. mtc.com.au Galileo by Richard Mills.

Victorian Opera. Dec 20 - 23.

Palais Theatre, St Kilda. victorianopera.com.au Dolly Diamond’s Christmas Party. The Butterfly Club. Dec 20 - 23. thebutterflyclub.com Possum Magic The Ballet. Dec 8 - 10. Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne. artscentremelbourne.com.au Storytime Ballet: Cinderella.

The Australian Ballet. Dec 13 -

Time Lord. Innes Lloyd / Improv Festival. The Butterfly Club. Jan 15 - 20. thebutterflyclub.com Australian Gothic Tales. The Butterfly Club. Jan 15 - 20. thebutterflyclub.com Tempo. Flying Fruit Fly Circus.

Jan 17 - 20. Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne. artscentremelbourne.com.au The Inheritance by Matthew López, inspired by E. M. Forster’s novel Howards End.

Advertise your show on the front page of stagewhispers.com.au

Stage Whispers 63

On Stage

Victoria, Tasmania & South Australia

Meet Me at Dawn by Zinnie Harris. Melbourne Theatre Company. Feb 10 - Mar 16.

Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne. mtc.com.au Love Song by John Kolvenbach.

Brighton Theatre Company.

Feb 16 - Mar 2. Brighton Arts and Cultural Centre. brightontheatre.com.au The Lifespan of a Fact. By Jeremy Kareken & David Murrell and Gordon Farrell.

Malvern Theatre Co. Feb 16 Mar 2. malverntheatre.com.au Yes, Prime Minister by Antony Jay and Jonathon Lynn. Eltham Little Theatre. Feb 16 - Mar 2.

Eltham Performing Arts Centre, Research. elthamlittletheatre.org.au Lilac Time. Music by Franz Schubert, arranged by Heinrich Berté and G.H. Clutsam.

English libretto by Adrian Ross.

Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Victoria. Feb 17 - Mar 3. The Knowe, Sassafras. gsov.org.au Rent. Book, Music & Lyrics by Jonathan Larson. LPD Productions. Feb 17 - 25. State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne. rentmusical.au The Dictionary of Lost Words

by Verity Laughton from the novel by Pip Williams. Sydney Theatre Company / State Theatre Company SA. Feb 17 Mar 10. Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne. artscentremelbourne.com.au Mother & Son by Geoffrey Atherden. The 1812 Theatre.

Feb 22 - Mar 6.

1812theatre.com.au Madagascar by J.T. Rogers.

Strathmore Theatrical Arts Group. Feb 22 - Mar 2. 0419 591 517. stagtheatre.org Hatched, Matched, and Dispatched by Chris Hodson.

Basin Theatre Group. Feb 22 Mar 3. thebasintheatre.org.au The Hate Race by Maxine Beneba Clarke. Malthouse Theatre. Feb 23 - Mar 17.

Beckett Theatre. malthousetheatre.com.au 64 Stage Whispers

From award-winning playwright Lucy Kirkwood, The Children is a stormgathering exploration of survival, desire, friendship and duty, premiering in Adelaide following acclaimed productions in London, New York, Melbourne and Sydney.

Tina Bursill (Doctor Doctor), Genevieve Mooy (The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race) and Terence Crawford (Girl From The North Country) grace the stage in this tender and provocative State Theatre Company of SA production directed by Corey McMahon (The Bleeding Tree) at the Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre from February 2 to 17. statetheatrecompany.com.au And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. Mordialloc Theatre Co. Feb 29 - Mar 9.

Shirley Burke Theatre. mordialloctheatre.com Wicked. Music and Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Book by Winnie Holzman, based on the novel by Gregory Maguire.

John Frost for Crossroads Live Australia, Marc Platt, Universal Pictures, The Araca Group, Jon B. Platt and David Stone. From Mar 6. Regent Theatre, Melbourne. wickedthemusical.com.au Tasmania Alice@Wonderland by Jonathon Yukich, based on the novel by Lewis Carroll. LYTE Riverside Junior Company. Dec 7 - 9. Earl Arts Centre, Launceston. theatrenorth.com.au

The Velveteen Rabbit. Based on the book by Margery Williams, written by director Jimmy Harrison and Indea Quinn.

LYTE Queechy Junior Company.

Dec 12 - 25. Earl Arts Centre, Launceston. theatrenorth.com.au

Shrek The Musical. Music by Jeanine Tesori, with book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire.

Based on the Dream Works animation motion picture and book by William Steig. The Old Nick Company Summer School.

Feb 1 - 11. oldnick.com.au

Jingled by Stephanie Briarwood. Hobart Repertory Theatre. Dec 15 - 23. The Playhouse Theatre. playhouse.org.au

Last Cab to Darwin by Reg Cribb. Hobart Rep. Feb 7 - 17.

The Playhouse Theatre, Hobart. playhouse.org.au

Pinocchio by Les Winspear. Big Monkey Theatre. Jan 2 - 21.

Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. theatreroyal.com.au

Robin Hood and the Babes in the Woods by Alan P Frayn.

Tea Tree Players. Until Dec 9. teatreeplayers.com

As You Like It by William Shakespeare. John X Presents Shakespeare in the Gardens.

Jan 5 - 27. Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. theatreroyal.com.au

South Australia

The Gruffalo. Based on the award-winning picture book by Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler. CDP / Tall Stories.

Dec 19 - 23. Dunstan Playhouse. adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au

Just $50 a month to reach thousands of theatre goers. Contact Stage Whispers for details.

On Stage Miss Saigon. Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg.

Cameron Mackintosh / Opera Australia / GWB Entertainment.

Jan 2 - 28. Festival Theatre. adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au Alice in Wonderland. Adapted

by Penny Farrow. Produced by Broadway Haus in association with Bonnie Lythgoe Productions. Jan 12 & 13. Her Majesty’s Theatre. adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au The Sound of Music Youth Edition. Rodgers and Hammerstein Hills Youth Theatre. Jan 16 - 21. Stirling Community Theatre. hillsyouththeatre.com The 78-Storey Treehouse. A play by Richard Tulloch, adapted from the book by Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton.

CDP Kids. Jan 17 - 21. Dunstan Playhouse. adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au

South Australia & Western Australia

8 - 26. Ellie Eaton Theatre, Perth Showground.

Dirty Birds by Hayley and Mandy McElhinney. Black Swan sppt.com.au State Theatre Company. Until The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Dec 10. Heath Ledger Theatre, Johnathan Rockefeller from the State Theatre Centre. books by Eric Carle. CDP Kids.

Jan 10 - 14. Regal Theatre, artsculturetrust.wa.gov.au Chicago. Book by Fred Ebb and Subiaco. ticketek.com.au

Dawson. West Australian Ballet and Perth Festival. Feb 9 - Mar 2. Quarry Amphitheatre, City Beach. perthfestival.com.au

Schenkman. Old Mill Theatre, South Perth. Until Dec 9. oldmilltheatre.com.au

Food by Geoff Sobelle. Perth Festival. Feb 21 - Mar 2. His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth. perthfestival.com.au

Western Australia

Wundig Wer Wilura by Gina Williams and Guy Ghouse.

West Australian Opera and Perth Festival. Feb 9 - 15. His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth.

Bob Fosse, music by John Into the Woods Jr by James Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. Lapine and Stephen Sondheim. perthfestival.com.au John Frost for Crossroads Live. Playlovers. Jan 18 - 27. Tricycle Stunt Double. The Farm / Perth Crown Theatre. Until Dec 10.

Theatre, Mt Lawley SHS. Festival. Feb 15 - 18. Studio Crown Theatre. playlovers.org.au Underground State Theatre chicagomusical.com.au Fringe World. Jan 19 - Feb 18. Centre of WA. perthfestival.com.au The Boyfriend by Sandy Wilson. fringeworld.com.au Garrick Theatre. Until Dec 19.

Newsies Jr by Alan Menken, Debut Directors One Act Garrick Theatre, Guildford. (08) Season by Jenny Davis and Jack Feldman and Harvey 9255 3336. taztix.com.au others. Garrick Theatre. Feb 8 - Fierstein. Darlington Theatre The Man From Earth by Jerome 17. Garrick Theatre, Guildford. Players. Feb 17 - Mar 2. Marloo Bixbt, adapted by Richard (08) 9255 3336. taztix.com.au Theatre. marlootheatre.com.au How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse by Dark Stories.

Feb 2 - 10. City of Perth Library. (08) 9255 3336. taztix.com.au

Hansel and Gretel by Norman Robbins. Roxy Lane Theatre.

Until Dec 9. Roxy Lane Theatre, Perth Moves. Strut Dance and The Very Hungry Caterpillar Maylands. (08) 9255 3336.

Perth Festival. Feb 8 - 18.

Show. Created by Jonathan taztix.com.au Courtyard, State Theatre Centre Rockefeller. Based on Eric of WA. perthfestival.com.au Carle’s Books. CDP Kids. Jan 18 Female of the Species by Joanna Murray-Smith, Melville A Night of Comedy by Sean - 21. Dunstan Playhouse.

Theatre. Until Dec 9. Main Hall, O’Casey, Peter Flanigan and adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au Melville Civic Centre, Siobhan Wright. Stirling The Children by Lucy Kirkwood. Booragoon. (08) 9255 3336.

Players. Feb 8 - 17. The End of State Theatre Company South taztix.com.au the Beginning, The Surprise Australia. Feb 2 - 17. Dunstan Once Upon A Pantomime by Party and The Local. Stirling Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Tracy Rogers.

Darlington Theatre, Innaloo.

Centre.

Theatre Players.

Dec 1 16. stirlingplayers.com.au statetheatrecompany.com.au Marloo Theatre, Greenmount. The Pool by Steve Rodgers.

Adelaide Fringe Festival. Feb 17 marlootheatre.com.au Black Swan State Theatre - Mar 19.

As You Like It by William Company. Feb 9 - 25. Bold Park adelaidefringe.com.au Shakespeare. The Actors’ Hub. Aquatic Centre. (08) 6212 Blue by Thomas Weatherall.

Dec 7 - 10. The Actors’ Hub 9300.

State Theatre Company South Studios, East Perth. blackswantheatre.com.au Australia. Feb 23 - Mar 16. taztix.com.au Jungle Book Reimagined by Scott Theatre, University of Murder at the Oscars.

Rudyard Kipling. Akram Khan Adelaide.

Cluedunnit.

Dec 8 9.

Company and Perth Festival. statetheatrecompany.com.au Downstairs at the Maj, His Feb 9 - 17. Health Ledger Guuranda by Jacob Boehme.

Majesty’s Theatre, Perth.

Theatre State Theatre Centre of Adelaide Festival. Feb 29 - Mar artsculturetrust.wa.gov.au WA. perthfestival.com.au 3. Her Majesty’s Theatre.

Disney’s The Little Mermaid Jr Mutiara. Marrugeku and Perth adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au

by Alan Menken, Doug Wright, Festival. Feb 9 - 12. Studio Goodbye Lindita by Mario Howard Ashman and Glen Underground, State Theatre Banushi. Adelaide Festival. Feb Slater. Stray Cats Theatre. Dec Centre of WA. 29 - Mar 3. Dunstan Playhouse. 15 - 16. Koorliny Arts Centre, perthfestival.com.au adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au Kwinana. koorliny.com.au Ballet at the Quarry — Adelaide Festival. Mar 1 - 17.

Pillow Fight by Sam Longley.

Metamorphosis. adelaidefestival.com.au Spare Parts Puppet Theatre. Jan Choreographed by David Advertise your show on the front page of stagewhispers.com.au

An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestly. Feb 22 - Mar 9.

Wanneroo Repertory Club.

Limelight Theatre, Wanneroo. limelighttheatre.com.au Exit Laughing by Paul Elliot.

Old Mill Theatre. Feb 23 - Mar 9. Old Mill Theatre, South Perth. oldmilltheatre.com.au Are We Not Drawn Onward to New Era. Ontrerend Goed.

Perth Festival. Feb 21 - 26.

Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of WA. perthfestival.com.au Eucalyptus by Jonathan Mills and Meredith Oaks. Victorian Opera, Brisbane Festival, Opera Australia with Western Australian Opera. Perth Festival. Feb 22. Perth Concert Hall. perthfestival.com.au The Invisible Opera by Sophie Brous. Perth Festival. Feb 22 25. Scarborough Beach Amphitheatre. perthfestival.com.au Wayfinder by Dancenorth Australia. DNA and Perth Festival. Feb 29 - Mar 3. Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of WA. perthfestival.com.au Stage Whispers 65

Reviews

version of the playwright, Harrison; Maddie Armit as Hollis, the player who, as Noah’s Wife, starts to hilariously question her motivation; Max Phythian as Brom and an obnoxious Royal minion; and Isaiah Harrison as the Physic.

All these performers are worth tracking down in this and in future productions.

Beth Keehn

The Amateurs

By Jordan Harrison. Ad Astra, Brisbane. Nov 16 - Dec 9.

THE Amateurs is a curious little play — part Medieval Morality, part drama history thesis — at the play’s midway point, the actors ‘break the fourth wall’ and become the performers who are portraying the medieval players. It’s a play within a play that is a riot, full of Ink laughs, and full of love for this ill-fated group of amateur By James Graham. Australian Premiere. University of players who are trying to evade the Plague with enough Adelaide Theatre Guild, Little Theatre, Adelaide. Oct 12 surviving players to cover every one of ‘The Seven Deadly 22.

Sins’ and tour ‘Noah’s Ark’ across the countryside in JOSHUA Coldwell is superb as the young Rupert search of cushy patronage and a palace to stay in.

Murdoch, displaying supreme confidence, determination, When ‘Noah’s wife’ (Maddie Armit) starts to question and humanity, when taking a new direction for the UK’s her motivation, you know you are in for an existential Sun newspaper. Here, Murdoch is a man to admire and theatrical treat. The theatre in-jokes abound, and Susan respect.

O’Toole Cridland directs with a fast pace that doesn’t Bart Csorba’s Larry Lamb is convincing as a man who detract from the depth of performance possible from her must be many things to many people: his first act antics superb cast. This is important because the subject matter require persuasion, fast thinking and quicker talking — also deals with parallels between the plague and the AIDS and in a memorable scene, some decent dad-dancing. epidemic in the 1980s.

Amongst the comedy and action, Csorba fidgets, frets, Holding the show together are a top group of and stumbles over words that seem opposite to what his performers who are in no way ‘amateurs’: Matthew Filkins face is saying. as Larking, the over-the-top narcissistic ‘Director/Actor’ The brilliance of James Graham’s writing is that it who has (of course) cast himself as God; Lia Davies as presents media ethics in human form yet achieves this Rona, everyone’s favourite ‘show-mancer’; Greg Scurr as without moralising or preaching. nice-but-dim stage designer, Gregory, but also as the

Ad Astra’s The Amateurs.

Photo: Christopher Sharman.

66 Stage Whispers

More reviews can be found at stagewhispers.com.au/reviews

University of Adelaide Theatre Guild’s Ink. Photo: Richard Parkhill.

More reviews can be found at stagewhispers.com.au/reviews

Stage Whispers 67

The old-school editor of the Mirror, Hugh Cudlipp (Steve Marvenek) doesn’t realise that he’s a ghost of the past, and when with Csorba at a funeral, Marvenek is genuinely moving, a moment of vulnerability amidst his usual calm overconfidence.

Kate Anolak is brilliant as the first women’s editor, Joyce Hopkirk: bold, pointed, and seemingly fearless in the man’s world of newspapers. And Maxwell Whigham has far too much of a good time in his handfuls of characters that season the narrative.

Co-directors Robert Bell and Rebecca Kemp have assembled a strong and capable cast that barely has a weak link amongst them. Their first act rollicks through new starts, the second slows to digest the human cost of “public interest” stories.

Normajeane Ohlsson’s exceptional set design is just as important a player as the cast, its collage of newspaper

front pages and mastheads offset by grimy, well-worn desks and cabinets beneath them.

Ink is often hilarious, but like all good comedy, is rooted in truth. Which means it hits harder when we see how exaggerated yet normalised that is today.

Mark Wickett Venus And Adonis Written and directed by Damien Ryan. Sport for Jove.

Seymour Centre, Sydney. Sep 29 - Oct 21.

COVID-19 forced Sport by Jove to cancel staging Damien Ryan’s version of Shakespeare’s famous epic sonnet, and instead they made it into a celebrated film.

Now it takes centre stage where it belongs.

It helps that Australia’s leading interpreter of Shakespeare knows so well the Elizabethan stage and Will’s ego-mad collaborators. Backstage they rehearse

Online extras!

Sport For Jove’s Venus And Adonis.

Photo: Kate Williams.

68 Stage Whispers

It’s time for Aemilia Lanyer’s story to be told in Venus & Adonis. fb.watch/oyA_uwvavN More reviews can be found at stagewhispers.com.au/reviews

chaotically, all bawdy banter and meta-theatre winks to the audience.

The object of Venus’ unrequited love is the handsome Adonis (an often-naked Jerome Mayer); he prefers hunting. But this Adonis also takes the fancy of the Virgin Queen (a splendid Belinda Giblin).

Into this lovelorn theme Ryan weaves other ideas about creativity and artistic authorship, notably with Shakespeare’s vivacious lover, the Elizabethan feminist poet Aemilia Lanyer (Adele Querol).

Love’s perplexities continue in Stratford in powerful family scenes with wife Anne Hathaway (Bernadette Ryan); throughout, Anthony Gooley plays perfectly the disingenuous, thoroughly believable artist in Shakespeare.

This pageant speaks to us from both history and modernity, with frank displays of gender bending, transvestism and all things sexual, but in words deliciously spiced in the fashion of Shakespeare. It’s a touch wordy but so was the Bard!

It’s a masterful production in its wisdom, rich language, ribaldry and its own theatrical relish, which threatens but never quite reaches buffoonery. And it’s sumptuously costumed by Bernadette Ryan, and shadowy lit by Sophie Parker, on an effective set designed by Ryan, who as director so successfully articulates his own play.

This Venus & Adonis must travel.

Martin Portus

Reviews The Face Of Jizo

By Hisashi Inoue, translated by Roger Pulvers. Omusubi Productions, in association with Red Line Productions. Old Fitz Theatre, Sydney. Oct 28 - Nov 11.

JIZO is the guardian deity of Japanese children. His stone heads are everywhere in Japan and are said to have powers of protection that predate Buddhist beliefs, though not much protection in Hiroshima on 6th August 1945 when a single atomic bomb extinguished the lives of 140,000 people.

The Face of Jizo is a deeply moving play by Japanese writer Hisashi Inoue, who died in 2010 after writing 60 plays and 40 novels. Set in Hiroshima three years after the dreadful blast, the play depicts library worker Mizue (Mayu Iwasaki) as she goes about her daily life.

In the small shack she calls home (beautifully laid out by designer Tobhiyah Stone Feller) is her father Takezo, comfortably installed in a cupboard. Soon it’s clear that Takezo (Shingo Usami) is a figment of Mizue’s fervent imagination.

The father wants her to forget the conflagration and concentrate instead on catching her suitor, a boy named Kinoshita, who plans to visit the shack to collect a sculptured head of Jizo, whose face has been melted by the atomic blast.

The Face Of Jizo.

Photo: Phil Erbacher.

More reviews can be found at stagewhispers.com.au/reviews

Stage Whispers 69

Reviews The to-and-fro between father and daughter is very good and the two Japanese-born actors are exceptional.

Iwasaki brings real pain to the role of a Hiroshima woman, stuck in her violent past, with guilt at having survived when so many didn’t; while Usami brings some much-needed comedy to his role, always hinting at what should come next.

The play has been beautifully directed by Shingo Usami and David Lynch, a dream team for this kind of Japanese/Australian production.

Frank Hatherley Metaverse Of Magic JONES Theatrical Group. Sydney Coliseum Theatre from Nov 7; Canberra Theatre Centre from Nov 22 & QPAC from Jan 4, 2024.

METAVERSE of Magic is an extraordinary experience that seamlessly blends illusion, spectacle, and storytelling with interactive audience gameplay.

It is fronted by Lenox (Ash Hodgkinson, AKA Ash Magic), who leads the audience into the mystical Metaverse. Along with his AI sidekick Digi (Erin Bruce), both he and the audience must complete a series of tasks to level up in a magical playground.

The Metaverse is gradually unravelled through mindbending illusions. The pacing is well-managed, ensuring the audience is constantly engaged and eager to discover what lies ahead.

Hodgkinson, a magician himself, begins the magic, followed by fellow Aussie Charli Ashby. With an old-time set and steampunk vibe, she pays tribute to the history of magic. Horret Wu (Taiwan) is a sleight-of-hand master with a twist, while Harra (Japan) stunned the audience with Japanese Fusion magic.

Sabine Van Diemen (Netherlands) one badass magician — with escapes, mind games, illusion, archery and cracking bullwhip skills — finishes the night. The comical Jarred Fell is a master at the art of distraction.

You never know if he is joking or if the magic has begun until you are genuinely duped.

Incorporating twists, surprises, and audience participation adds an interactive element, making the experience even more thrilling, as the audience solves puzzles on phones in real time.

You can also rent battery chargers if you didn’t get the memo to arrive with a fully charged battery. The only comment I would make is that the gaming experience for some audience members, including myself, was glitchy and did not always load each game experience or transfer points.

Online extras!

Sydney audiences were left stunned by the spectacle of Metaverse Of Magic. youtu.be/vr0VlriPHe8

Metaverse Of Magic.

Photo: Jeff Busby.

70 Stage Whispers

More reviews can be found at stagewhispers.com.au/reviews

Director Siobhan Ginty offers a glimpse into the philosophical aspects of magic, emphasising the power of perception and inviting an exploration of the boundaries between what is possible and what we believe to be possible. Metaverse of Magic is a must-see production that will leave you spellbound and longing for more.

Nicole Smith

rendition of that marvellous finale, “A Weekend in the Country”.

Blazey Best’s gloriously seductive diva Desiree Armfeldt is a force of nature. The eternal triangle she shares with the two contrasting leading men (Leon Ford’s frequently bemused, intense lawyer Frederik Egerman and the gormless, swaggering, broadly comedic Count Carl Magnus of Joshua Robson) impacts the lives and loves all A Little Night Music around them. The intertwined youthful naivete of both Jeremi Campese’s Henrik (Frederik’s son) and Melanie Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by Hugh Wheeler. Hayes Theatre Co. Oct 18 - Nov 18.

Bird’s Anne (Frederik’s wife) is engaging and amusing.

DIRECTOR Dean Bryant’s impressive new salon The absolute synergy of Henrik’s song “Now”, selfaccompanied on the cello by Campese, is an early show production of A Little Night Music distils the musical for the intimate Hayes Theatre space. Jeremy Allen’s attractive highlight.

Erin Clare brings a wry, sarcastic edge to longsimple single set, with minimal props, serves for all suffering, quietly simmering Countess Charlotte, wife of locations, while chamber orchestrations do great service to the score under the musical direction of David Gardos Carl Magnus. Clare and Bird’s super rendition of the duet “Every Day a Little Death” arouses empathy, and laughs and Michael Tyack. with afterburn.

Physical immediacy proves powerful and engaging.

Lawyer Frederik Egerman, his second marriage to Kiana Danielle’s down-to-earth, pragmatic maid Petra much younger second wife Anne unrequited, seeks solace mines every ounce of earthiness from her song “The in the arms of his former lover, glamorous actress Desiree Miller’s Son”, bringing spark and vibrance to the role.

Pamelia Papakosta’s Frederika Armfeldt (Desiree’s Armfeldt, only to be surprised in her apartment by her daughter) is a vivacious joy. jealous current lover Count Carl Magnus. Desiree subsequently inveigles a weekend invitation for Frederick’s Nancye Hayes’ knowing matriarch Madame Armfeldt totally owns the stage (of the theatre which shares her family to visit her mother’s country estate, which Carl Magnus gate-crashes. Act 1 culminates with a wonderful name) with her extra-ordinary stage presence.

Hayes Theatre Company’s A Litle Night Music.

Photo: John McCrae.

More reviews can be found at stagewhispers.com.au/reviews

Stage Whispers 71

The intimate finale, a reflective duet between Frederick and Desiree, the continuation of her famous ballad “Send in the Clowns”, artfully steers their relationship toward a potential future. Blazey Best and Leon Ford make that final moment poignant and promising.

Neil Litchfield Billy Elliot The Musical Book and lyrics by Lee Hall. Music by Elton John. Based on the Universal Pictures/Studio Canal Film. The Very Popular Theatre Company. Director: Anna Kerrigan. Musical Director: Dan Wilson. Choreography restaging: Lauren Harvey. Civic Theatre Newcastle. Oct 7 - 21.

YOU need binoculars to tell the difference between this performance and a fully professional one. The Very Popular Theatre Company is now one of the largest community theatre companies in Australia (or more accurately pro-am) and put together a production of the highest standard.

Billy Elliot the Musical is very challenging to perform, requiring excellence in dancing, music and staging. The licence from rights holders even calls for aerial dancing, which means co-ordinating a 12-year-old (thereabouts) boy dancing and twirling above the stage in a duet with a mature aged male ballet dancer. Like everything else, this was pulled off with great panache. On opening night, Lewis Nicholson was on duty as young Billy, dancing, acting and spinning with inexhaustible energy and passion.

Benjamin Obst, in the role of older Billy, has a CV which includes engagements as a principal with The Australian Ballet and it showed. Debora Krizak, another seasoned professional in the cast, nailed the role of dance teacher Mrs Wilkinson.

Newcastle’s leading lights shone too. On opening night, Charlie Murphy elegantly played the role of Michael Caffrey, fresh from — wait for it — making his West End debut as Michael Banks in Mary Poppins.

The ensemble of police officers/miners were well drilled, the ballerinas in Billy’s dance school just gorgeous and music under Dan Wilson was crystal clear.

Producer Daniel Stoddart’s set design included a clever bedroom bunkbed which rolled onto the stage.

The story of Billy’s journey from Thatcher era mining town strikes to the Royal Ballet school felt fresh and emotional in this production.

David Spicer A New Brain

By William Finn and James Lapine. Davine Productions.

Star Theatre, Adelaide. October 13 - 21.

DAVINE Productions’ A New Brain is a sheer delight.

Once again, director David Gaucci has successfully led an ensemble of actors, musicians, designers, and more, to create a work that is detailed, nuanced, and thoroughly engaging.

A New Brain was first produced in New York in 1998.

Subsequently, it sits alongside other significant American 72 Stage Whispers

musicals of the late 1990s, which include Rent (1996), The Life (1997), Triumph of Love (1998), and Parade (1998) that mark a major development in the American musical theatre. Collectively, they represent what has been called the evolution of ‘the psychological musical’, with their emphasis on the inner lives of characters. What makes A New Brain so distinctive is that it is semiautobiographical.

A New Brain involves the journey of Gordon Schwinn (Daniel Hamilton), a successful song writer who suddenly suffers an acute attack of ‘arteriovenous malformation’ leaving him in a coma, in need of operation and a new brain. Due to the wonderful illogical nature of musical theatre (and opera), even though Gordon is in a lifethreatening coma, nonetheless, he is fully alive and active as he, and the other characters, contemplate on a life full of promise yet only half-lived.

The cast in this production are all outstanding, not least being Daniel Hamilton as Gordon, Lindsay Prodea as Gordon’s lover, Roger, Catherine Campbell as Gordon’s mother, Mimi, and Lisa Simonetta as Lisa, ‘the homeless lady’. With so many standouts it feels a bit churlish to highlight one, however, Catherine Campbell’s Mimi is simply breathtaking. This is partly due to the enormous degree of difficulty of this character, who is in part comic concerned Jewish mother, yet underneath is also full of rage and anger as well as grief over the possible loss of her son. This is expressed in several highly complex musical numbers, all of which are vastly different in tone, rhythm and emotion, yet also exemplifying the very heart and nature of the contemporary American ‘psychological musical’.

Congratulations to David Gaucci and Davine Productions for bringing so wonderfully to life William Finn’s and James Lapine’s A New Brain.

Tony Knight The Lives Of Eve

By Stephen Sewell. White Box Theatre in association with bAKEHOUSE Theatre. KXT on Broadway. Oct 27 - Nov 11.

STEPHEN Sewell has been an important Australian playwright for four decades, his stories epic in theme and dense with socio-political ideas and well-crafted language. The challenge for actors is to root out their character and find a human truth in the verbosity.

And this cast of four does well.

Eve (Helen O’Connor) is a Lacanian psychoanalyst, soon at odds with young Sylvia (Louisa Panucci), a manipulative egocentric patient who doesn’t stop talking about her inability to reach sexual climax.

Eve takes her exasperation home where she quarrels with her needy husband, Paul (Noel Hodda), and banters with her late mother’s ebullient ghost (Annie Byron).

All of them talk about trying to fulfil sexual desires.

This is a happily dangerous preoccupation for a male playwright focusing heavily here on female frustrations.

But Sewell thinks sexual anxieties just disguise wider fears that we won’t grasp our freedom and live our ambitions.

More reviews can be found at stagewhispers.com.au/reviews

Reviews

Online extras!

Relive the opening night magic of Billy Elliot The Musical in Newcastle. fb.watch/oyyQQ1H3b4 More reviews can be found at stagewhispers.com.au/reviews

The Very Popular Theatre Company’s Billy Elliot The Musical.

Stage Whispers 73

Reviews

Some of them saw similar giant nawi eighteen years ago. Their memories are not happy. Some are sad — and Despite Eve’s wordy self-analysis, and O’Connor’s bitter. Why have these nawi returned? What do these convincing attack, Eve’s frustrations are only clear from a strange ‘pale’ people want? Will they have the loud big final reveal. Aside from Byron’s happy ghost, all three weapons that frightened the white cockatoos last time are finally stripped naked, and the characters allowed to they came? finally breathe.

Jane Harrison’s first play, Stolen, set the stage for a The new KXT Theatre in Broadway has a narrow different style of theatre told by clear, new, confident traverse stage which, while intimate, allows the cast little voices. Voices that weren’t afraid of the truth, or expressive freedom and director Kim Hardwick struggles confrontation. to find them new options. Designer Hannah Yardley uses In The Visitors, she imagines those voices two hundred Persian carpets and lamps to hint at professional affluence and thirty-five years ago — and she does so in true storyor sexual fantasy. And as the sexual tension and telling tradition, with clarity...and humour. The dialogue is revelations grow, this new play — if you listen to the clear, precise, the fusion of English and the Bidjigal dialect ideas — finally rewards. an effective dramatic device. So too is the use of Martin Portus juxtaposition to cross time and cultures.

Wesley Enoch directs with an experienced and sensitive The Visitors hand. He uses the dance and movement that is central to

By Jane Harrison. Sydney Theatre Company and indigenous storytelling. His eye for balance and rhythm is Moogahlin Performing Arts. Director: Wesley Enoch. evident again and again in dramatic moments.

Drama Theatre Sydney Opera House. Sep 15 - Oct 14.

The Visitors, in the words of Wesley Enoch, “takes us THE leaders of seven clans of the Eora nation meet on back to the arrival of the First Fleet in Sydney Cove and a rocky sandstone cliff in January 1788. It is hot, humid, asks: ‘what if’ that moment was different?” What if... and strange clouds wisp in the summer-blue sky. In the Carol Wimmer east big nawi with high masts are sailing into their pristine harbour.

Online extras!

STC’s The Visitors asks ‘What if the First Fleet’s arrival had been different?’ youtu.be/__I11kdGnd4 74 Stage Whispers

More reviews can be found at stagewhispers.com.au/reviews

Sticky Beak Devised & performed by Kimberly Twiner, Jessica Ngaio, Laura Trenerry & Patrick Dwyer. Directed by Lily Fish.

Melbourne Fringe Festival. Quilt Room, Trades Hall, Carlton. Oct 4 - 15.

STICKY Beak has you laughing out loud within seconds of its start. On a suburban street — with a corrugated iron fence, a picket fence and a brick fence propped up by milk crates — humans and animals are brought to life by four wonderful performers.

They have no physical resemblance to the characters they create and yet they are instantly recognisable. When Jessie Ngaio comes on as a dog, we know at once that this is a dog, called Psycho. When Psycho crouches for a relieving crap — outside that white picket fence — sooner or later someone will step in it. Later, someone will smear the crap on the fence and continue the plot line. Like any good comedy, plot strands are set up and paid off later.

Tall Patrick Dwyer adds a scarf to become Jana, genteel mother of recalcitrant teen Sarah (Kimberly Twiner).

Without the scarf Dwyer is harassed dad, Hayden, next door — and also Danny another dog. Laura Trenerry is a narky old lady but also Lucas, an adventurous toddler, and — quite startling — William, Jena’s nasty bullying husband. Twiner’s Sarah can be flirtatious with totally inarticulate Hot Jared (Jessie Ngaio). But she’s also Kelly, Hayden’s insouciant partner who calls everyone ‘babe’...and a snail.

Two things make this show as wonderful and as funny and as true as it is. First is the physical skills of these performers. Second is their acute observation of the characters’ interactions: not always harmonious. Sticky Beak is alert to the foibles, malice and frustrations of its characters in the Bouffon mode that Twiner loves so well.

Kimberly Twiner and director Lily Fish — a superb mime artist in her own right — are devoted to physical comedy. Sticky Beak is not ‘about’ anything deep and meaningful, but it is so funny, so beautifully done that you leave the theatre happier than when you took your seat.

Michael Brindley P.S. Sticky Beak won Best Comedy at the 2023 Melbourne Fringe Festival.

PERFORMING ARTS MAGAZINE

DEC 2023 & JAN/FEB 2024. VOLUME 32, NUMBER 5 ABN: 71 129 358 710. ISSN: 1321 5965

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STC’s The Visitors.

Photo: Daniel Boud.

More reviews can be found at stagewhispers.com.au/reviews

CAST & CREW Editor: Neil Litchfield 0438 938 064 Sub-editor: David Spicer Advertising: Angela Thompson 03 9758 4522 Layout, design & production: Phillip Tyson 0414 781 008 Contributors: Cathy Bannister, Anne Blythe-Cooper, Michael Brindley, Kerry Cooper, Rose Cooper, Ken Cotterill, Bill Davies, Coral Drouyn, Jenny Fewster, Kitty Goodall, Peter Gotting, John P. Harvey, Frank Hatherley, Barry Hill, Jude Hines, Beth Keehn, Fiona Kelly, Tony Knight, Debora Krizak, Neil Litchfield, Ken Longworth, Rachel McGrath-Kerr, Mel Newton, Peter Novakovich, Peter Pinne, Martin Portus, Suzanne Sandow, Kimberley Shaw, David Spicer, Mark Wickett, Geoffrey Williams and Carol Wimmer.

Stage Whispers 75

Musical Spice

Oy Vey, I’m On Stage

Bondi Theatre Company’s You Don’t Have To Be Jewish.

Photo: Lindsay Hall (Lightbox Photography).

I thought that drama behind-the-scenes was a thing of the managing technical staff pressing past since the pandemic died down, but boy was I mistaken. In buttons for a revue with 39 short October I produced a comic revue at Bondi Beach based on a sketches. popular album released in 1964 called You Don’t Have To Be To make the cast and audience feel comfortable at a time of very high Jewish.

The charming 93-year-old who wrote it — Bob Booker — tension we employed security guards.

Before each performance I would tell the was still around to cheer us on from San Francisco.

The first hiccup came when half the cast came down with guards we were staging a Jewish comedy, and they were on COVID-19 a month out from opening night. Then three weeks the lookout for anyone attempting to disrupt our show.

I am sad to report that the only incident of antisemitism out, two actors — that is 33% of the cast — exited stage left.

We found one wonderful replacement, and we promoted came from a security guard himself, who walked off the job our understudy — who was also recovering from COVID-19 — telling me he would never work for Jews in a hundred years (he lost his job and the company which employed him was very to the other vacancy.

Then came October 7, and the terrorist attack in Israel apologetic). This was a very distressing incident. unleashed antisemitism, which made some cast members We did 10 performances at Bondi and then three in a synagogue. I studied my lines religiously before every nervous about appearing in a public venue in a play with the word ‘Jewish’ in its title. performance. In between our two seasons, our director came Eight days from opening night our former understudy told down with COVID-19 and the stage manager moved on. So, us he was not comfortable with the Bondi Beach venue. When for one day during our second bump-in at the synagogue, I his fateful email arrived, I realised that it was time to break the was producer, stage manager, actor and assistant director.

But let me end on a positive note. No-one seemed to notice emergency glass. Who else could sing and act (a bit) and had been attending rehearsals? that I was a last-minute replacement. All actors were healthy for So, I ‘auditioned’ for the director and got the part! I had all our thirteen performances. We sold 1500+ tickets. Patrons eight days to learn 18 sketches, a long patter song, more than enjoyed the show. We had some nice reviews and my company a dozen costume changes, choreography and set piece has published the script for others to perform it in the future movements of microphones and chairs. (get your copy from booknook.com.au).

And what a joy it was to perform and sing all those At my first rehearsal, to give the rest of the cast some confidence, I performed just with palm cards. With a few days wonderful sketches and songs. I had the best gags in the whole to opening night I was off-book. show and the final song of the revue ‘When You’re In Love The Learning the role was one thing, but I was still the producer. Whole World Is Jewish’ often brought a tear to my eye both So, on bump-in day, I was up at dawn helping to pack the set from the emotion of the tune and relief of making it to the and props onto the truck, when I really should have been curtain call. Mazel Tov! resting and going over my lines.

Other garden variety theatrical challenges arose, such as David Spicer 76 Stage Whispers December 2023 - February 2024

Read scripts, listen to music and order free catalogue at: davidspicer.com.au david@davidspicer.com (02) 9371 8458

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