Stage Whispers December 2020 & January / February 2021 edition

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In this issue

SnowMen ................................................................................................. 4 Meet Frozen’s Hot Snowman, Wicked Prince and Iceman

8

4

Does Sport Score On Stage? ..................................................................... 8 Hits, misses and a new play about Evonne Goolagong Cawley Kate’s Joy, Magic And Darkness .............................................................. 12 Playwright and actor Kate Mulvany on her remarkable career Waiting In The Wings ............................................................................. 17 New and rejuvenated theatres around Australia Digital Marketing Tools ........................................................................... 22 Getting the word out about theatre by email and social media New Directions ....................................................................................... 25 Three of our top directors reflect on the impact of COVID-19 and the future Not To Be Missed .................................................................................... 28 Plays we can look forward to around the country in 2021

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Musicals In 2021 And Beyond ................................................................. 33 Frozen, Hamilton, Moulin Rouge! and so much more Community Theatre Seasons 2021 .......................................................... 40 Non-professional theatres begin to recover John Wood - On Acting .......................................................................... 48 An extract from the autobiography How I Clawed My Way To The Middle

33

Regular Features Let’s Put On A Show

36

56

45

Stage On Page

46

Stage On Disc

50

What’s On

52

Reviews

56

Musical Spice

60

40

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2 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

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Editorial

Pippin’s Ainsley Melham peruses the latest edition of Stage Whispers magazine.

Dear theatre-goers and theatre-doers, As always at this time of year, I’ve been working with our correspondents on a comprehensive listing of Community Theatre seasons for the year to come.

This year, though, the list is considerably shorter than usual, as many companies struggle in the aftermath of COVID-19 lockdowns.

Shows that were set to be the popular hits of 2020 are being rescheduled, and will become the must-see shows of 2021 at your local theatres.

Live plays and musicals are also returning to our professional stages, after a long period of diverse and imaginative online substitutes.

Two commercial musicals have just hit the boards in Sydney in the space of a week - with more to follow - while most of our major theatre companies have either recommenced their seasons, or staged rescheduled previously postponed productions.

Artistic Directors everywhere have been announcing at least the first installments of our theatre-going for 2021.

Online extras!

Stage Whispers TV takes you to Sydney Lyric Theatre for the opening of Pippin. youtu.be/TXAI-YT8mz0

Challenged by bans on international travel, our arts festivals have adapted to the challenge, with Sydney, Perth and Adelaide events over the coming months creating unprecedented opportunities for local performers and companies.

Local casting, and diversity in casting, though, have been huge issues within the industry. One Sydney Festival production was cancelled after the casting of a non-trans actor in the title role of Hedwig and the Angry Inch caused a furore. Passionate but civil discussion erupted on our Facebook page as we posted a news item and opinion pieces. A record 500 comments were posted by our readers. bit.ly/3gjJ83Z. It followed close on the heels of fiery debates about the lack of diversity among the finalists selected for this year’s aborted Rob Guest Endowment, and the decision to import a Broadway performer, and cast a TV celebrity, in the musical Pippin.

On Facebook, Stage Whispers was in the crossfire more than once for publishing media announcements without interpreting them, or taking a stand. To that criticism I say ‘fair point, I agree’, then I strive to help provide a voice to the various responses which cross my desktop.

Here’s hoping that vigorous debates will lead us into a new era of diversity and equality in the theatre, as we move into 2021 and beyond COVID-19.

Yours in Theatre,

Neil Litchfield Editor

CONNECT

Cover image: Jemma Rix and Courtney Monsma in Disney’s Frozen The Musical.

Read our interview with the show’s male leads on page 4.

Inset: Danny Burstein in Moulin Rouge! on Broadway.

Photo: Matthew Murphy. stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 3

Matt Lee as Olaf in Disney’s Frozen The Musical.

Online extras!

Disney’s Frozen The Musical has stormed into Sydney. Scan or visit fb.watch/2hMa9bICjW 4 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

Cover Story The male leads play second fiddle in the Disney musical Frozen - which centres on the relationship between two sisters - but they don’t mind at all.

David Spicer spoke to the men playing Olaf, Hans and Kristoff at the beginning of what is expected to be a national tour.

Matt Lee is a Disney veteran, having toured the world as Bert in Mary Poppins. In this production he’s swapping soot for snow as the hot Snowman Olaf.

David Spicer: “When you started rehearsals did you think it was a dicey whether you'd actually get here, because of the way the world is?”

Matt Lee: “We were supposed to start in June/July. It was great that we were delayed, but not cancelled. It was quite surreal going back to work because it has been so long, but I think it is something that our community was crying out for, in terms of being able to just reconnect with each other.”

DS: “How has the rehearsal process been different?”

ML: “Disney looked after us very well. We had sanitisation stations everyone was in masks unless on the floor performing material. Our chairs were 1.5 metres apart, everyone was diligent to do it correctly and we all get tested once a week.”

DS: “And now you are performing?”

ML: “We don’t socially distance on stage, but all the backstage change areas are spread out. We have our masks on in the wings and everywhere we warm up, following all the guidelines to a T.” DS: “Are you in a bubble like the footballers?”

ML: “No, but as adults in the supermarket or on public transport

we are all very diligent about wearing masks.”

DS: “Tell us about your role.”

ML: “I get to play the character of Olaf the Snowman, which Elsa creates whilst she is honing her powers. Elsa and Anna build this snowman as a companion for them, but as the story progresses they drift apart. He is so brilliant and has no filter. He says things as he sees it. It is just an honest, joyous character to play.”

DS: “Is it a bit odd to be playing a character made of snow in the middle of Summer?”

ML: “The irony of the character is that he is obsessed with Summer. He does not realise that putting a snowman in Summer means he is (Continued on page 6)

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 5

ML: “When Olaf sings ‘In Summer’ - it transforms into summer.”

DS: “How much stuff is (Continued from page 5) backstage?”

ML: “There are props and sets left, going to melt. (But Olaf) dreams big right and centre. Some of it is and won’t let any obstacles get in his hanging overhead for Act 2 and that way. So, it is quite fitting that we are gets switched at interval.” opening Frozen in Summer.”

DS: “With Frozen, the story DS: “It must be pretty hot on stage based on Hans Christian Andersen’s under the lights. Could you describe fable The Snow Queen - is centred on your costume?” a relationship between two sisters.

ML: “He has a nice big fluffy hat, How appropriate is this for the an extravagant overcoat with fur and times?” amazing laced up hiking boots. It is ML: “I think it is refreshing and very cool.” absolutely needed as we have come DS: “It is cool, but is it hot?“ through the #MeToo movement. We ML: “Every show I have done I are in 2020. This tells a story not have been hot in the theatre. This is about the love of a man and woman, no different.” but about love between two sisters, DS: “Do you lose weight?” which carries just as much weight as a ML: “Any time you’re in a musical romantic relationship. It won’t theatre show, being physical eight surprise anyone to hear that this show times a week, you get show fit and is led by two stupidly talented women your body adapts. I always love being (Jemma Rix and Courtney Monsma).” in a show and getting a bit of DS: “Why do you think this definition in places, which I embrace.” musical, at this time, is going to be a DS: “Where do you get that little different for audiences?” definition?”

ML: “This is a story about isolation.

ML: “I am talking about my upper It is a story about a girl who feels body and my upper arms. The puppet isolated because she does not sits in front of me. I take all the understand her powers. We have all weight of the puppet on my upper been isolated and kept away from our back, so my shoulders get a little family. Anna feels the same way. broader.“ Being a story about family, this a very DS: “None of which we will see, heart-warming story for the time.” because you are on stage covered in fur, with the puppet in front of you. Is Thomas McGuane is fulfilling a this a bit like Avenue Q, where the childhood fantasy to play the Disney puppet is central?”

Prince, Hans.

ML: “It is more like the puppet DS: “Were you much character of Timon in The Lion King. of a Disney geek as a So many of the younger members of kid?” the audience don’t see me, just the TM: “Yep. puppet. Other characters react to the I was the puppet; I also react to the puppet.” kid who DS: “You are his shadow?” was singing ML: “Yes. I am moving him around Disney songs the stage.” until early DS: “You have seen Frozen up hours of the morning and close - what are the most special scenic effects?” then again all the way through the ML: “I can guarantee there’s some snow in the show and the day. I was obsessed proscenium gets frozen over. Elsa’s with ‘Go The Distance’ transformation at the end of the first from Hercules. We actually act is spectacular.” did Disney Trivia the other DS: “What is your highlight?”

Cover Story

6 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

night and, needless to say, I got all the of the questions right!”

DS: “Did you ever think you would be a handsome Prince in a Disney musical?”

TM: “I’ve always dreamt of being in a Disney musical. The fact that I’m a Disney Prince is an extra bonus on top of the fact that I’m doing this show at all, plain and simple. It’s pretty fun playing such a well-known character.”

DS: “How have you found the process of rehearsing during 2020?”

TM: “This is my first time doing a Disney musical so it’s quite huge for me in many ways - there are so many technical aspects to the show that we learn in rehearsals and obviously this year has had other challenges.

However, even with all of that going on, it’s been such a wonderful experience getting back into work and rehearsing.”

DS: “How has it been different to other productions you have been in?”

TM: “The technical aspects to this show are phenomenal - you have to

Courtney Monsma and Thomas McGuane in Disney’s Frozen The Musical.

Photo: Lisa Tomasetti.

be so specific. It’s elating and scary but exciting, all at the same time. I’ve never witnessed being in a rehearsal room where there are ‘ice strikes’ happening and such dynamic lighting and an amazing orchestra.”

DS: “What is the most fun you have in the show?”

TM: “Probably the number ‘Love Is An Open Door’. From the get-go, learning that choreography was really fun and special, while also being the most physically demanding part of the show for me.”

DS: “Is there a scene that you’ve seen that makes your jaw drop?”

TM: “I don’t want to give it away but there is one scene in the show that makes my jaw drop. As an actor and as a character, it blows my mind.

The intensity of it, the sound effects, the smoke, the lighting coming at you - it makes my jaw drop every single time. It’s incredible, but if you want to know more you’ll have to come and see the show.”

DS: “In the musical your character is left in charge of the kingdom when

the Queen leaves town. How would you describe the way your character runs the place?”

TM: “Hans is a character who has never had much responsibility in life; he’s never had to take care of a kingdom - he’s 13th in line. Then suddenly he’s thrust into taking care of the entire kingdom. I think he’s trying to do everything by the book.

He’s trying to do it with humility and grace and as much leadership as he can muster. I don’t want to give away the story, but he does also have some interesting twists and turns in his plotline - I can sometimes hear the gasps from the stage from people in the audience.”

DS: “Is playing a villain more satisfying than portraying a hero?”

TM: “I don’t think it’s more satisfying necessarily - I think I’d have fun playing either to be honest.”

DS: “Would the world be a better place if there were more Ice Queens than Ice Kings?”

TM: “Yes! I think men have taken it upon ourselves for too long to feel like we should be in charge of too many things. If I take that back to Hans, when he is the 13th in line of all brothers, it is hard to justify his decision, when he suddenly sees an opportunity to grab power and take over an entire kingdom. As a character it’s quite juicy to play, but if it was real life, Hans is morally reprehensible.”

similar to that. I also once wore a beanie all summer long because of ‘fashion’, so you could say I’m used to living on the edge like Kristoff does.”

DS: “Can I ask, is the reindeer an actor in a suit?”

SS: “You know I can’t give anything away! But what I can say is that our reindeer trainers are very professional and some of the best in the world. Other than that, you’ll need to come and see the show for yourself.”

DS: “According to one review I read, the reindeer steals the show do you agree?”

SS: “He is absolutely the quiet achiever of the show. It’s pretty hard to take it away from Jemma or Courtney, who are such amazing performers, but certainly the reindeer holds a special place in people’s hearts and the audience reaction has been great to hear.”

DS: “Is it fair to characterise this musical as one where the women are the leading characters and the men are ornaments or provide comic relief?”

SS: “Everything about Frozen is geared towards empowering women.

It’s an incredible story - there should be more stories like this!”

DS: “How does the fact that women dominate the story influence your approach to the musical?”

SS: “For me, personally, not at all. I love the book - it’s so well written. I’m just along for the ride, trying my best Sean Sinclair has to make sure the story is done scored the role of justice.”

Kristoff, an iceman DS: “How much fun are you who lives together having?” with his furry side-kick Sven.

SS: “I am having too much fun.

DS: “Kristoff is an ice harvester You won’t find anyone else having with a reindeer. Is that a profession more fun than me on that stage. My which is hard to get your head favourite part is the number ‘Fixeraround - particularly during a Sydney Upper’ in Act Two. Everyone’s on summer?” stage - everyone’s having fun. You’ll SS: “I grew up with a pet dog, and see it - it’s a party! It’s exactly what I’ve found having a reindeer is very we all need at the end of 2020.”

Frozen The Musical is playing at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre.

Other city dates are expected to be announced soon. frozenthemusical.com.au stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 7

Plays and musicals about sport don’t always hit it out of the park, but Sunshine Super Girl - a new show about the life of tennis legend Evonne Goolagong Cawley - looks set to ace audiences at the Sydney Festival and beyond. Jasper Bruce reports.

Like Beckham proved popular, earning Tony and Olivier nominations, respectively.

Here, David Williamson scored a hit with The Club, a satirical play riffing on the AFL’s backroom dramas.

Williamson went back to the well decades later with Managing Carmen, another AFL play with plenty to say.

Further north, Robert Kronk and Nadine McDonald-Dowd took on Rugby League with The Longest Minute. The play dramatises the Cowboys’ memorable 2015 Grand Final win and, like Managing Carmen, ruminates on gender roles within male-dominated sporting codes.

In recent years, tennis has proven the game of choice for many playwrights daring to marry the stage and the sports field. Perhaps it’s tennis’ internationality that draws writers to it, or its contingent of both male and female athletes? Or perhaps Sport and theatre have a Andrew Lloyd Webber’s less-than- some find it cleaner dramatically to troublesome relationship. True, there beautiful ode to soccer, The Beautiful avoid team sports. The late Terrence have been high-profile attempts to Game, didn’t shine quite so brightly, McNally took tennis to Broadway in transplant sport onto the stage. In the never making it to the Great White 2007 with his critically panned Deuce. wrong hands, however, something is Way. It wasn’t the first time Lloyd Not even Angela Lansbury could save often lost in the translation. After all, Webber had tried his hand at a the play from being termed “a flimsy sport relies on immediacy, while sporting musical. You won’t see his excuse for a comedy” by The New theatre operates under the illusion of first attempt, Cricket, performed these York Times. it. days, largely because Lloyd Webber Australian Open by Angus Historically, musical theatre buffs borrowed songs from it for use in Cameron had its world premiere as have flocked to sporting adaptations. subsequent shows. It is noteworthy, part of Sydney’s Mardi Gras earlier Damn Yankees, a Faustian however, for being the last full-length this year. It wasn’t the first time a reimagining of the titular team’s collaboration between Lloyd Webber writer had allowed tennis to “glitter golden era, ran for over 1,000 and lyricist Tim Rice. Cricket and be gay”. Peter Gil-Sheridan’s The performances in its original Broadway premiered in 1986, the same year as Rafa Play, apparently the most run. The musical swept the Tonys in Phantom, so perhaps Lloyd Webber creative title he could come up with, 1956 and was remounted on had other things on his mind. In the is a love letter to the titular tennis star Broadway in the 1990s.

21st Century, musical adaptations of in the most literal of senses - Gilthe sports films Rocky and Bend It Sheridan’s play reimagines Nadal as 8 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

the playwright’s own romantic partner.

Many writers have focused on iconic athletes as a way to adapt sport for the theatre. In Australia, we’ve got plenty of sporting demi-gods to choose from. Eddie Perfect’s Shane Warne: The Musical bowled audiences over on its premiere in 2008. Barassi, a play about AFL star Ron, debuted four years later.

It takes a bold playwright to thrust a sports star onto centre stage.

Distilling an athlete’s legacy into a matter of hours in the theatre is no mean feat. But if Andrea James felt the pressure, it did nothing to abate Sunshine Super Girl. James’ new play zeroes in on Evonne Goolagong Cawley, arguably Australia’s most legendary female tennis player.

The work tracks the Wiradjuri athlete’s journey from her humble beginnings in Barellan, a small town near Griffith, to her international career on the court. In her illustrious singles career, Goolagong Cawley won seven Grand Slam singles titles, lifting the trophy at all major tournaments but the US Open. In 1980, she made history as just the second mother ever to win Wimbledon. She was also the first non-white player to compete in a South African tennis tournament during apartheid. Goolagong Cawley found success as a doubles player as well, winning the Australian Open five times and Wimbledon once.

She was noted for her impressive speed on the court and was held in high esteem by her contemporaries.

“She moved around the court like a gazelle - she was just so lovely to watch,” Andrea James, the writer and director of Sunshine Super Girl, tells Stage Whispers.

“To see a young Aboriginal girl from the bush reach the heights of international tennis fame is such an inspiring and hopeful story.”

James, a proud Yorta Yorta/ Gunnaikurnai woman, has a history of championing female Indigenous voices in her works, which include Winyanboga Yurringa and Yanagai!

Yanagai!. She’s also a self-described tennis tragic.

Katie Beckett in rehearsals for Sunshine Super Girl.

Photo: Luke Currie-Richardson.

That doesn’t mean this adaptation was game-set-match right away, though. In fact, James spent four years developing the play’s script with support from Create NSW and, later, Performing Lines.

“Words can’t describe the amount of love and nurturing that [Performing Lines] bring to a project like this,” James says. “I don’t think this project would have gone this far without them.”

While writing the play, James consulted with Evonne herself, as well as her husband of 45 years, Roger Cawley.

“We’ve been really fortunate that they’ve been so generous with their time. They certainly knew about

everything - they read drafts, they came to a reading as well - which was really important.”

Goolagong Cawley also helped James with the difficult task of selecting which moments from her career merited inclusion in this ninetyminute adaptation, and which couldn’t make the cut.

“There were definitely things that she really wanted to be platformed; things to do with some of the racism that she encountered on the [professional tennis] circuit and in her day-to-day life and things to do with the #MeToo movement,” James says.

(Continued on page 10) stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 9

(Continued from page 9)

Katie Beckett in rehearsals for Sunshine Super Girl.

Photo: Luke Currie-Richardson.

Online extras!

Andrea James and Katie Beckett discuss the Sunshine Super Girl premiere. youtu.be/WCnb3zcmO14

10 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

“There’s been a lot of things that are coming out as well about the mistreatment of young women on the circuit and that was something that was really important to her as well.”

James’ years of work culminated in the world premiere of Sunshine Super Girl at Griffith Regional Theatre in October. The cast and crew were thrilled by the locals’ response to its sold-out, limited season.

“There’s something so special and resonant about performing a work on Country, that comes from that Country. You can literally feel the heartbeat of this story and it’s manifest in the people’s faces,” she says.

“The theatre had been closed down because of COVID-19 for months and I think people were just itching to get out and see a show.

People just loved it.”

The Griffith season starred Katie Beckett (Redfern Now, The Unlisted) in the title role, with First Nations

performers Luke Carroll, Kyle Shilling, Jax Compton and Katina Olsen rounding out the cast. For James, assembling an all-Indigenous cast was of central importance to telling Evonne’s story.

“The more I started ruminating on what the guts of the story is...ultimately for me it’s about Black excellence,” she says.

“I kind of wanted that extra layer to celebrate that, with this allIndigenous cast.”

Compton, Olsen and Shilling’s backgrounds as professional dancers helped deliver on James’ physically complex vision for the show. Rather than attempt to replicate uncommon sporting brilliance, James and choreographer Vicki Van Hout dramatised Goolagong Cawley’s athleticism through movement sequences. It’s a tactic common to other theatrical adaptations of sport.

Most recently, Bangarra Dance Theatre used choreography to reimagine Cathy Freeman’s historic 2000 Olympics victory in the documentary Freeman.

“We certainly could never play like a Number One tennis player who’s been training since she was nine, but we can bring really skilled dancers to the stage and beautiful, complex choreography to the fore,” James says.

It’s a busy ninety minutes on stage for the show’s supporting players.

When they’re not partaking in the signature movement sequences, they each play “at least four or five characters” from Goolagong Cawley’s life.

The cast rehearsed in a bubble not unlike those used by professional sporting codes. They spent five weeks in the rehearsal room at the Seymour Centre in Sydney, moving to Griffith.

Each actor wore a face mask and practiced social distancing for the entirety of the rehearsal period.

“It took us a little while to get used to it, but we just thought it was a really necessary precaution to take,” James explains.

“Once we could finally perform with everything off it was like a cloud had been lifted”.

All but one member of the cast are Sydney-based, so Victoria’s Winter resurgence in coronavirus cases had minimal effect on the actors’ preparation. However, the show’s designer Romanie Harper found herself stuck in Melbourne during the rehearsal period. James knew the show had to go on, so she brought Harper into the space through Zoom.

“We’re artists - we’re resilient.

We’re really good at solving problems on the run and that was just another problem to solve,” James says.

Just like its star subject, Sunshine Super Girl plans to move from the

season, before the COVID-19 pandemic had other plans. While James says the show is unlikely to tour during 2021, she feels there is potential for additional seasons further down the track.

“We know there’s a lot of interest out there but there’s a sense that everyone’s waiting to see what’s going to happen [with the pandemic],” James says.

James is excited at the prospect of taking the show interstate, with her cast and creatives believing wholeheartedly in the vitality of Goolagong Cawley’s story.

Evonne Goolagong Cawley and Sunshine Super Girl creator Andrea James.

Photo: Jhuny-Boy Borja.

countryside to the big stage, booking in a season as part of the 2021 Sydney Festival. The cast from the Griffith season will reprise their roles in the state capital from January 8-17.

Together with James and her team, they will transform the Sydney Town Hall into a tennis arena for 11 performances. Audience members will sit courtside on this journey through the life of one of Australia’s most gifted athletes.

“I think it’ll look absolutely stunning in there. We can’t wait,” James says.

Sunshine Super Girl had also been slated to feature as part of the Melbourne Theatre Company’s 2020

“This is a fantastic story about a little town that rallied around an Aboriginal girl when Aborigines weren’t even given the right to vote,” she says.

“There’s a lot of joy and happiness, it’s a great ‘good news’ story and it’s an opportunity for Australia to see what it can do really well and what it needs to keep doing.

“You just know that there are hundreds of young Aboriginal kids that are just as talented as Evonne who just don’t get given the opportunities.

“Who’s the next Sunshine Super Girl waiting in the wings?” stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 11

Kate’s Joy, Magic And Darkness As she perfects a new work to reopen Sydney’s Wharf Theatre, the celebrated writer and actor Kate Mulvany, admired for her generosity, shares her remarkable career - one lived in constant pain - with Martin Portus.

Kate Mulvany in Belvoir’s The Seed (2008).

Photo: Heidrun Lohr.

12 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

Kate Mulvany was raised in the windy, if story-rich, port of Geraldton, north of Perth, but spent most of her first decade in the hospital. The little three-year-old was carrying a tumour the size of a football, and to remove it, they severed ribs, cut out organs and glands and blasted her with so much radiotherapy that her spinal cord is atrophied and her vertebrae still continue to shatter.

Lying there in the oncology ward, where some kids would just disappear, she discovered books. She consumed fairy tales of magical exploration and possibility, playful but with an uncompromising darkness, all of which power her writing today.

And as a teenager, she read Playing Beatie Bow. Her adaptation of Ruth Park’s novel reopens the Sydney Theatre Company’s Wharf Theatre in February after years of renovation. It’s an apt story to blow away the COVID-19 pall and open our eyes to the world outside. It’s the modern tale of a troubled young girl who finds meaning and connection by following Beatie Bow back through the lanes and lives of The Rocks in 1873, right there on the Wharf’s very doorstep.

The STC’s Kip Williams will direct, as he did Mulvany’s epic adaptation of Ruth Park’s trilogy The Harp of the South in 2018; this centred on Sydney’s then working class suburb of Surry Hills. With 18 actors playing

characters spanning decades, Mulvany spent nearly three years translating the trilogy’s 900 pages into an astonishing six hours of theatre about love and grief, families and communities struggling against development. Her compass point?

“It’s to look up,” says Kate. “It’s for theatre audiences to look up and see the history around them that is often still engraved on the tops of buildings and see Sydney’s shifting light. Sydney itself was, and is, a fascinating character.”

She’s cautious to avoid “poverty porn” but Mulvany has, unlike some young playwrights with something to say, always been comfortable writing in the Australian working vernacular even with an occasional flowering of fairy storytelling.

“Working class, country dialogue and accents is my forte, since that’s where I came from.”

She can also turn Gothic with shocking theatricality, as she did in her first play, when a tomboy teenager at Geraldton High. Rosemary Lamb showed a wife cooking up her husband’s mistress and feeding her to him!

One favourite early play, Storytime, at Sydney’s Old Fitz in 2004, partly drew on her own family. Two criminals in a max security cell entertain each other telling dark Gothic tales. A part inspiration for the language was watching her uncles when she and her father (Danny)

visited his home in Nottingham, England.

“I got a bit of an understanding into their dealings, their ‘bits and bobs’ as they called it; it was mostly just black-market Viagra, illegal steroids, but there was a bit of standover as well.”

Storytime was the antecedent to her award-winning autobiographical play The Seed, staged at Belvoir and around Australia from 2007. It grew from hearing that her childhood cancer had left her unable to have children, and her anger and growing militancy about how she had been likely poisoned by the defoliating dioxin Agent Orange, which her father had been exposed to while (Continued on page 14)

Kate Mulvany’s childhood.

Top: Kate’s hair regrowing following radiotherapy.

Bottom: With her father.

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 13

(Continued from page 13)

fighting in Vietnam. Danny had been conscripted soon after he migrated to Western Australia as a Ten Pound Pom. “I was one of the Children of the Mist, as they’re often called,” says Kate. “He tried not to go but he thought later that he could have been more belligerent about what happened, so I think there was this level of guilt, real deep loathing, anger and bitterness, and in my Mum to some extent. So as a child having the disease, I had it too - I thought it was my fault.”

The Seed lays out this story, dramatizing three Mulvany generations as Rose/Kate, a journalist, and Danny visit his own estranged father in Nottingham, who’s a bullying IRA sympathiser with a criminal charm. The play’s considerable humour has equal touches of Irish, British and Australian.

Mulvany was reluctant to play Rose, but the director, Iain Sinclair,

convinced her. “They’re your scars show them,” he said.

Kate’s parents came to the Belvoir premiere along with dozens of other veterans.

“They hadn’t read the play - they trusted me; I offered it to them to read because there’s a lot of eggshells and clichés around veteran stories.”

She saw her Dad after in the foyer, for the first time truly happy, proud, head high, now with her “a different ally in a different kind of war.”

As Ambassador for MiVAC Mines, Victim and Clearance - Kate later travelled with her father to Vietnam and Laos, along with her husband, the actor Hamish Michael.

Danny Mulvany died in 2017 of a suspected Agent Orange cancer. It was in the same week Kate opened in what is arguably her greatest role, as Richard III, her own disability for the first time fully laid bare to play the ‘crippled’ king.

“My Dad was my best friend, my ally and my muse,” she says.

Kate Mulvany suffered another profound loss in 2008 with the

suicide of the well-known TV actor Mark Priestley, then in the top rating hospital series All Saints. She’s still haunted by memories of hospital staff asking for his autograph, some even disbelieving the actor’s pleas for help, and then the media intrusion. She suffered a long depression and anxiety, didn’t act for nearly three years, but suicide and mental health continues to feature in her plays and her public advocacy.

“There was a lot of suicide in my community around me growing up and again that was due to the absence of mental health facilities. It was in the first play I wrote after Mark with The Web; it’s a very raw story about a woman who has just lost her partner to suicide and has to deal with the trauma and getting on with life.”

Another quality in Mulvany’s work is storytelling, often set in country towns and told through the eyes of young males. The Web is about social isolation in a regional town, cyberspace crime and an ill-fated friendship between two male

Helen Dallimore and Louis Fontaine in Masquerade.

Photo: Brett Boardman.

14 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

teenagers. The Danger Age shows how World War II might threaten a country town, as seen through the imagination and innocence of a tenyear-old boy.

“I learnt that the most dangerous age for a male is at ten - the time we take risks - it’s the Danger Age! “I think my ten-year-old boys are an amalgamation of myself, a little ten-year-old tomboy as I was just after I was cleared of cancer. And I got up to mischief because I was finally free! I idolised my father and I grew up in a very masculine community. So, in a way these boys are me and the ones I grew with and love, and who became fine young men.

“And I often set my plays in country towns or small communities because I think they’re the perfect petri dish or microcosm of the bigger world.”

In the same tradition is Mulvany’s acclaimed adaptation of Craig Silvey’s Jasper Jones, as narrated by nerdy young Charlie, during the Vietnam

Rory Potter, Blazey Best & Joseph Kelly in Belvoir’s Medea (2012).

Photo: Heidrun Lohr.

War, in a country town thriller around the mysterious Aboriginal boy, Jasper.

While one focus may be on the juvenile male, Mulvany ensures her plays and adaptations expand the women in the story into meaty roles she’d be attracted to play. It’s what you’d except from a writer known, especially recently with works like The Mares, for her feminist assertions...let alone as an actor who’s excelled in new gender-blind role-playing, notably in Julius Caesar, Richard III and An Enemy of the People.

Medea (2012) was a masterpiece of these different sensibilities. With two boys who’d never performed before, and her frequent collaborator, director Anne-Louise Sarks, Mulvany developed the story of Jason and the traumatised Medea through the eyes of her two young sons playing and bantering in their bedroom.

Their games show they grasp some of the adult issues beyond the door; Medea enters rarely, finally lingering to feed them poisoned cordials. It’s horror theatre and, oddly, we almost understand the abused Medea. Medea won success in five overseas productions but - in a familiar provincial crime of Australian theatre - is another fine play barely staged beyond its origin city.

Euripides of course is much too dead to take issue with anything done to his famous story. And so too is Friedrich Schiller, whose Mary Stuart Mulvany adapted for the STC two

centuries after he wrote it. She was the first woman in a long line of males who’ve adapted it - and was staggered at all the information and revelation about the two feuding queens left out of the original play.

“The whole play is about men moving the women, the queens, around as pawns, and I wanted to shift that to having the women move the men, the ‘obscure men’ as they’re called in one contemporary document.

“Adaptations usually start with talking to the author, if possible, in the process of babysitting their child and being very grateful for what they’ve created, but leaving room for your own contribution. I’ve never met a writer or their estate which hasn’t let me do that. But I ask them to tell me everything they think I need to know and their perspective on what they think this is about. It’s really important that all of us - and the creatives - have a piece of the jigsaw, and that includes the audience as well.”

Mulvany’s journey to adapt Kit Williams’ celestial fairy tale Masquerade - for a three city tour of Australia - had her flying to England, at his request, and knocking on his cottage door in Stroud exactly one year after Mark Priestley’s death. This simple love story between the moon and the sun had entranced young (Continued on page 16) stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 15

Her career as an actor has rocketed since playing the Helpmann Kate back in that oncology ward.

Award-winning role of Richard III in Williams gave his permission but only 2017. if she included her own story.

“Through all this time my spine “That, out of all my plays, was has been gradually crumbling beneath where real life and fiction melded in my body and skin. I wasn’t aware I the best of ways.” could use the word disability; I didn’t One of Kate’s godmothers, Tessa, know how to claim that this far in, a local farmer’s wife, first brought her because I’d been in hiding. For fear of this fantastical riddle of the lost people not hiring me, I didn’t amulet. Tessa later took her own life mention my chronic pain.” but she lives on in Masquerade as the “But I was encouraged by seeing mother. One of Tessa’s sons, Joe those bones dug up (in a Leicester car young Kate’s best friend - is reborn as park in 2013) - where everyone could the boy in that oncology ward, see what Richard lived with every day amalgamated with kids in the real - with such severe scoliosis.” ward who Kate befriended and who She understood why Richard, in never left it alive. In Masquerade Joe battle, so desperately cried for his travels with his Mum in search of the horse - for its supportive high arching amulet, but he dies in the end. saddle - and why he turned to red Mulvany doesn’t pull punches wine to dull the pain. And so, in the first week of the Bell Shakespeare and certainly not for kids. rehearsals, Mulvany stripped off her (Continued from page 15)

shirt and showed the cast her condition - how her body lands when released.

“The moment I came out of my spinal closet, my Richard closet, life got a lot easier.”

She won another Helpmann for her solo role in the British audience participation play Every Brilliant Thing, rejecting suicide for the simple joys of living. It was cathartic, life-affirming theatre, but tough.

“I never enjoyed performing that one as much as it looked because you had to be so careful with its impact. It would be rare to have a group of 300 people who haven’t been through that experience in some way.”

Mulvany is perhaps on safer ground now, playing in the Amazon Prime series Hunters, opposite Al Pacino, as the Nazi hunting nun and ex-spy Sister Harriet.

Kate Mulvany spoke to Martin Portus for the State Library of NSW oral history collection on leaders in the performing arts. The full interview will be available soon on the Library’s website.

If you or anyone you know needs help, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636.

Kate Mulvany in Belvoir’s Every Brilliant Thing (2019).

Photo: Brett Boardman.

16 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

Waiting In The Wings

Renewed And Refreshed Venues Beth Keehn investigates new and rejuvenated Australian theatres, looking forward to a revitalised post-coronavirus entertainment world.

Bidding farewell to 2020, the arts world can look to the new year with hope. Many restoration and renovation projects proceeded, while some new theatres opened. Postcoronavirus, we will crave human connections more than ever. Theatres are places we can visit together, spaces to learn and experiment, platforms to celebrate diversity, and areas to access unique experiences that cannot be digitally replicated.

Several refreshed venues are ticking all the boxes to get us back to the theatre and help the industry out of crisis.

Innovation Stations: Our Iconic, Smaller Spaces Theatres are more than mere venues - they are vital spaces to collaborate, create and share ideas.

Our smaller theatre venues are often firm favourites for audiences and practitioners, and places where our next generation of makers and performers start practising their craft.

Indie Talent Pipeline: Metro Arts, Brisbane In September 2020, Brisbane’s Metro Arts put their new slogan - Art Starts Here - into action. The 40-yearold group moved from their old heritage-listed building to a new creative hub in West End. The beloved home of independent arts worked their way through the lockdown, commissioning new artworks and planning their opening season in conjunction with the Brisbane Festival.

The New Benner Theatre seats around 115 people, but when it opened, its seats were stuck in a warehouse in London. The opening season in the vibrant new space was a resounding success. The first four shows all sold

Metro Arts, Brisbane.

out to socially distanced audience capacity. On 17 November, restrictions eased, allowing Queensland to operate at 100 percent capacity again - and Metro Arts’ new seats arrived safe and sound!

CEO and Creative Director Jo Thomas said, “Our beautiful purple seats have been installed and they’re really gorgeous. They’re comfortable with lots of leg space - and we welcome everyone to come and give them a try!”

During the lockdown, Jo says she was particularly concerned about emerging artists - “I can’t imagine what it’s like to be about to graduate or move into your dream industry and everything just shuts overnight!”

Metro Arts is launching two new programmes in 2021 - one for emerging producers, and an Arts Pathway for young arts workers.

“It’s a crucial part of our reopening to support young artists -

we don’t want to lose that talent,” Jo said, “but we’ve got to look after the health and wellbeing of our older artists too, to bring it all back together again.” metroarts.com.au Soaring To New Heights: La Mama, Melbourne In 2018, when fire devastated the home of risk-taking comedy, daring diversity, and independent theatre La Mama, there was never any doubt that the aim would be to rebuild.

Theatre supporters rallied, raising more than $3.2 million. In August 2020, the theatre’s iconic home became a buzzing building site. While maintaining the heart of the old, the new building aims to make this 50year-old institution’s home more accessible, and improve rehearsal space, technical, front-of-house and (Continued on page 18) stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 17

La Mama’s redevelopment.

Courtesy: Meg White (Cottee Parker Architects).

(Continued from page 17)

theatre facilities. The space will be rebuilt to retain its close and intimate personality, but with new facilities and technology befitting a 21stcentury venue.

This is one space that is building on its history to retain its role as a base where new and diverse Australian works can develop and evolve. Caitlin Dullard worked at La Mama for nearly 15 years, first as a volunteer, then in touring and producing before becoming co-CEO in 2019. Caitlin said the reopening is likely to be in the second half of 2021. I asked Caitlin why it was important to stay on the original site, rather than move to a new building.

Renewed Rooms With A View: The Wharf Theatre, Sydney The Sydney Theatre Company’s Wharf Theatre has some of the best views in Australia - overlooking Walsh Bay. The company moved to the site in the mid-1980s and has been planning the latest refurbishment since 2012. The NSW Government pledged $30 million in 2017 - with STC raising the same amount through its network of supporters and donors.

The restoration project is upgrading the space and facilities for the first time in nearly 40 years, and performers in the 2021 season will be the first to tread the boards at The Wharf in three years. The Wharf has She said, “La Mama has a lot of two spaces: Wharf 1, the main history - and a lot of soul - and our theatre, with a 420-seat capacity and hope is to recreate that feeling. The Wharf 2, the intimate space for up to original La Mama wasn’t a traditional 160 people. Both theatres, and the theatre space - it was an old factory, Theatre Bar at the End of the Wharf, and along with that came particular are due to reopen in February 2021. ways of working that impacted the The refurbishment aims to retain way artists think and make. So we the heritage character of the iconic didn’t want to recreate just another port facility at Wharf 4/5 while black box - we wanted all that improving accessibility and character and that idiosyncratic modernising facilities for audiences element for artists to respond to and including new public entrances, play with. Obviously, there’s new enhanced spaces for performers (such technical equipment and it’s a new as higher ceilings, soundproofing, and building - but we will be trying to better rehearsal and dressing rooms). create the same opportunities for The renewal will also allow the design playfulness and exploration that a non to feature flexible seating -traditional theatre space has, and it configurations - something that STC’s will be entirely accessible.” first Artistic Director, Richard lamama.com.au Wherrett, originally envisaged, but which was unaffordable at the time.

At STC’s virtual 2021 season launch, Artistic Director Kip Williams said, “The new Wharf will preserve the magnificent heritage details that provide its unique ‘wharfiness’. And the refitted theatres will now be fully flexible: each time you enter, you will be met with an exciting new seating configuration. To celebrate these new creative possibilities, I’ve put together a collection of six plays for the 2021 season that comprise a special theatrical journey.” That journey for audiences will include entering the theatre after taking in the wonderful harbour views along the length of the wharf. sydneytheatre.com.au

18 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

QPAC redevelopment.

The Bigger The Better: Bagging The Blockbusters Our capital cities also need larger venues more than ever. This was illustrated by the tussle to stage the new blockbuster Australian premieres that help to attract tourists and wider spending to our states. While Sydney managed to snaffle Hamilton at the Sydney Lyric (with a seating capacity of 2,000), Brisbane and Sydney both lost out to Melbourne’s broader range of larger venues for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (multi-million dollar facelifted Princess Theatre: capacity 1,500) and Moulin Rouge! The Musical (Regent Theatre: capacity just over 2,100). However, the landscape is about to change in 2021, with a brand new venue under construction in Brisbane, and a revitalised Theatre Royal in Sydney.

2023. Key features include two new studios below the theatre, and a single balcony auditorium with enhanced audience sight lines. QPAC Chief Executive John Kotzas told us A World-Class Performing Arts Hub: that the new venue had also offered Brisbane’s South Bank QPAC’s team a clearer vision for Before the lockdown, Queensland future developments: “It’s given us a clear line of sight to some of the Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) was scheduling more than 1,200 outcomes we’ve been seeking for performances each year, but a larger some time. For example, the kind of venue was needed to attract those all- new technologies in the new theatre will change our capacity to connect important premieres and blockbusters. At last, the South Bank with more people in more dispersed of the Brisbane River is on track to locations here and around the world.” arts.qld.gov.au become Australia's largest performing arts hub, with capacity for an extra 260 performances and potential to Royal Receives Vital Makeover: Theatre Royal, Sydney welcome an extra 300,000 visitors One hundred years or so after it every year. This will be courtesy of a new 1,500-seat, $150 million theatre opened in the 1870s, the old Theatre that will also be used by Queensland’s Royal bowed out to make way for a state arts companies, such as more modern venue, designed by Harry Seidler as part of the 1970’s Queensland Ballet and Queensland MLC Centre. After being closed for Opera. Arts Minister Leeanne Enoch the last four years, this entertainment told Stage Whispers, “continuity on survivor is enjoying a $170 million this key infrastructure project has facelift. In a 45-year sublease been a priority. The Palaszczuk Government recognises the arts as an agreement with the NSW Government, global live important driver of vital social, economic and wellbeing outcomes on entertainment company Trafalgar Entertainment is the theatre’s new Queensland’s road to recovery from operator. The theatre will retain its COVID-19.”

While a $2 million master plan for existing 1,100-seat capacity, and will a facelift for the South Bank area has include refreshed areas for performers, improved staging, better been delayed due to 2020’s challenges, construction work on the seating, a spruced-up foyer area and bar. Trafalgar is also aiming for the new theatre proceeded as planned, with completion scheduled for 2022, Theatre Royal to be their livestreaming content hub, and provide a ready for its first performances in

home for their Stagecoach performing arts school.

Trafalgar’s Executive Chairman Asia Pacific, Tim McFarlane, said, “Our prime motivation was to make sure that Sydney didn’t lose one of its commercial theatres. Sydney is actually underserviced when it comes to theatres (certainly relative to Melbourne) but the venue plays an important part in arts, cultural, entertainment life, and also in tourism as well. We’re hoping to continue live -streaming, particularly into regional NSW. That’s something that has always been part of our ambitions - to reach those who are unable to get to Sydney, and in places that don’t have theatres for plays and musicals - so, where we can, we’ll take entertainment out to them.”

On the topic of digital content, I asked Tim if he was concerned that the lockdown has changed people’s habits. He said, “I certainly don’t underestimate the severe impact that COVID-19 has had on many actors and musicians and technical crew this year, but I’m optimistic about the future. You only have to look at bookings for Hamilton to see that the overwhelming majority of people want to go out - I think they want to go somewhere they know has all the appropriate arrangements in place to keep people safe - they want to go to good shows; they want to be in places where there are other people.

(Continued on page 20) stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 19

Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide.

(Continued from page 19)

punch by a year, reopening in September 2020 after a two-year What I hope will happen is that, when rejuvenation. Built in 1913, the the theatres open and there’s no redeveloped site hopes to grow social distancing, our business will get audience attendance by up to back up on its feet quickly. At this 250,000 a year. stage, everything is on track for the The new theatre is designed to be Theatre Royal to open in September world-class, with state-of-the-art 2021.” lighting and sound. It also has a create.nsw.gov.au rehearsal room the same size as the stage area. The seating capacity has Another Right Royal Reno: been increased to that magic number: Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide 1,500 seats. The new theatre Australia’s theatrical history promises an improved patron naturally generously acknowledges experience, with new foyers, bars, our cultural and architectural links more amenities, and full disability with Europe - in particular London’s access. Stage Whispers’ Theatreland. Many of our oldest correspondent Mark Wickett attended theatres reflect that connection. One Gaslight, the first show after the cultural Queen in Adelaide - Her lockdown period. He reported an air Majesty’s Theatre - beat Sydney to the of excitement about the new theatre

Victoria Theatre, Newcastle.

and a splendid reinvention of the original building: “The façade remains but nearly everything behind it is new, with the auditorium on three levels. It is furnished with rich reds and a forest of curved wood. The seats are comfortable, wide enough to move in, with enough legroom that you barely need to turn to allow your fellow patrons to find their seats!”

Adelaide readers can join a Curtain Up tour to learn about the theatre’s history, check out the new facilities, and see the famous signature wall, with autographs from visiting stars such as Barry Humphries, Julie Anthony, Lauren Bacall and Alan Cumming. adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au Two Old Vics Get A New Lease Of Life Worldwide there are at least a dozen theatres named after Queen Victoria - from Halifax in West Yorkshire to Shamokin in Pennsylvania, via London and New York. In Australia, one old Vic (Newcastle) is being redeveloped, while another historic hall (Fremantle) has reinvented itself by taking up with a brand new theatre company.

Ready For Regional Roar: Victoria Theatre, Newcastle The Victoria Theatre in Newcastle is one of Australia’s oldest surviving heritage theatres, dating back to the 1850s. The venue has been altered, rebuilt and reopened many times in its illustrious and industrious past. It

20 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

Victoria Hall, Fremantle.

was mainly a cinema from the 1930s to the 1960s, and a fashion outlet through the 70s and 80s. In 2020, there was a campaign to restore the old Vic and, in August 2020, the development application was approved by Newcastle Council for $11.5 million makeover works to start. The new Victoria will have a seating capacity of up to 900 and, as well as theatre productions, will be used to host live music, dance, local productions and presentations.

Owners, Century Venues - which operate Sydney’s Enmore and Metro theatres - anticipate that the project will create jobs and boost the live performance scene in the Hunter area.

It is also hoped that the revived venue will help to boost tourism.

In 2020, the Victoria Theatre introduced its Founding Ambassadors, 10 industry leaders from the Hunter area and the live performance industry, dedicated to seeing the Victoria return to being a working theatre for the community.

The owners could not say when the works will start, but Zoe Davies from Century Venues told Stage Whispers: “The approved development application is valid for three years. We are currently working on the strategy to raise the funds for the building works. Once the funding is secured, the works will take 18 months from that point so an opening would be 2022 at the earliest.” victoriatheatre.com.au

Online extras!

Discover the history of Fremantle’s Victoria Hall. Scan the QR code or visit youtu.be/onbqftK4Bqs Box-Fresh In Freo: New Resident At Victoria Hall WAAPA graduate Renato Fabretti chose this year as an unlikely time to launch a new theatre company. The Fremantle Theatre Company enjoyed its first-ever opening night on 17 October 2020 at the historic Victoria Hall on High Street. This venue is an entertainment pentimento: first used in the 1940s through to the 1970s for Saturday night orchestra performances and as a dance studio; it then became the home of Deckchair Theatre until 2012; and was leased to the Fly by Night Club until early 2018.

Moving in late in 2020, the Fremantle Theatre Company says it is providing a new beginning for the old Victoria Hall. The company has fitted it out with a new educational space, a rehearsal room, a meeting room, and

company office spaces. The performing area has been reconfigured as a black box theatre - a versatile, and mouldable space that will have a different layout for each production. As well as a residency for developing new works in theatre, dance and film, the company will also offer professional arts training.

When Stage Whispers correspondent Kimberley Shaw spoke to Renato Fabretti, he explained that the hall holds a special place in his heart, as the first space he performed in as a professional actor. He intends to “connect with the Fremantle community and make the heritagelisted building more accessible to the public by showcasing local talent, as well as seeking out captivating works from across the globe”. fremantletheatrecompany.com stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 21

The pandemic has driven a stampede of eyeballs onto digital platforms. What tools do theatres need to get this growing audience back into theatres when they reopen? Julie Nemitz from Playhouse Marketing in the United States shares her tips, alongside local digital theatre professionals.

Digital marketing feels overwhelming and many people are uncertain where to start. They also want to know what is affordable or free.

In these times, 80% of the job of theatre marketers should be digital, as that is where the audience is. Even my elderly father is online watching content.

During 2020, consumption of social media has boomed. Time spent on Facebook is up 84% and there has been a similar increase in Instagram (in people aged over 30) and arts content on YouTube.

Near the beginning of the epidemic, good theatre companies focussed on keeping their audience’s attention with their online content.

So, in the future when theatres need them to act, they are ready.

Memory lane content is working very well. Post a photo or video with a tag - remember when we staged this show.

websites of theatres where nothing has been updated for many months.

A lot of websites are like encyclopaedias with information dating back 30 or 40 years. Websites need to engage, with audience tightly linked to analytics (which are tools that measure how many readers each article receives and can capture their details). So, when the time comes, you have collected all the information and are able to access it.

patrons regularly. Data informs decisions and that information is critical.

Advertising on Social Media The big social media platforms are fuelled by advertising. An average of about 5% of your ‘likes’ get to see that info. Facebook does not want organic material to succeed and you must spend money or work hard to get that number up.

If you are spending money on Email is the most powerful digital Facebook then stop clicking on the marketing you have. Work it hard, as Boost ad prompts. You must evolve to it is not used enough. It is so the Facebook Business Manager important that your email service platform. It is more affordable and provider is easy and flexible. allows you to use your own data. The Communications must be consistent email addresses of clients (who have and segmented. Also, talk to your agreed to receive your newsletters) theatre patrons and volunteers in can be inputted into Facebook so your different ways. ads will reach them on social media.

It is important to get email list Another excellent tool is Facebook building tactics integrated into your Creator Studio. This allows you to website and social media. A rule of update and schedule posts, so they thumb is that every dollar spent on go out at the right time. email gets $42 back.

Cultivating influencers is a way of The critical trifecta of digital Create a nurture sequence for new beating the algorithm. An influencer marketing is website, email, and list members. A welcome email has an is someone who recommends a social media. A fluid and flexible open rate of 80%. Make it rock. I also product or service and has a website is essential. It pains me seeing suggest you poll and survey your following. Let them know when a

22 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

Marketer Michele Lansdown works for several Sydney theatre companies, including Miranda Musical Society.

“Our choice for email is Mailchimp. We do not bombard people with emails and look very closely at open rates. I often do a test campaign to a segment of our database.

“Before a show we send five or six emails. The biggest mistakes in emails are terrible images, formatting and how many clicks it takes to buy a ticket. You lose people very easily if they can’t click quickly to buy a ticket.

“For every campaign I work in tandem with a graphic designer. We are very strict about the look for a show and don’t let anyone else post anything to social media or send an email, as the look has to be very consistent.”

If you can’t afford a graphic designer, Julie Nemitz highly recommends setting up a Do-It-Yourself graphic design program. She recommends Canva - which has a free option. In a few minutes you can make one design and resize it for Facebook or Instagram. major event is happening, such as ‘going live’ for an announcement, and encourage them to start a watch party.

When theatres create content in partnership with local organisations they grow awareness. For instance, you could partner with a first responder organisation or a seniors living group to develop future audiences.

By embracing people outside your bubble, you will reach new audiences and can invite them to follow your page.

Video Tools and Broadcast Platforms If anyone comes to me with an idea how to promote a show, I say how can we make that into a video?

It’s estimated that within a few years 82% of content viewed online will be video, and more than half will be viewed on a phone or tablet.

A good idea is to survey your staff or volunteers to find unknown skills. Is there someone who can host and produce your show? Is someone savvy at editing video?

(Continued on page 24)

Luke Joslin as Lord Farquaad in Packemin Productions’ Shrek (2018).

Photo: Grant Leslie.

Georgia Putt from Packemin Productions in Sydney posts a flashback photo every day.

“It gets engagement - we get comments like ‘I loved that one’, or ‘that was one of the best Miss Saigon performances I have ever seen’. Often members of the cast tag each other.

“I set up the posts for the whole week in one hour on a Monday.

I use an email scheduling tool called Hootsuite. I make the posts as topical as I can. On National Bath Day I published a photo of Lord Farquaad from the musical Shrek in a bath. On National Dog Day I used a photo of our dog in Legally Blonde.”

Georgina tags the posts heavily. That is, she writes in topics with # such as #theatre and #musicaltheatre - which means they appear in Facebook and Instagram searches. stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 23

(Continued from page 23)

Lift the professionalism of your smartphone videography with simple accessories.

There are many DIY video solutions. The basic equipment needed is portable lighting, and a smartphone or camera. For editing, iMovie is free and Filmora is very affordable.

Once you have made your video you need to consider the platform to broadcast it.

It made sense during the height of the coronavirus to broadcast direct into Facebook and YouTube.

However, at the end of the day they are crowded and disrupted experiences.

Different platforms can help you create online communities. This can be for in-house communications for your members, or external communications for your audiences.

Zoom is popular for meetings and Vimeo is an alternative to YouTube.

Choosing Options On and Off Crowded Social Media Networks Julie Nemitz is an award-winning digital content marketer I love Crowdcast, as you can make who teaches arts organisations and artists to make, market it your own platform. Its features and monetise content online. include interactive Q&As, chat, and To learn more, join the Playhouse Theatre Academy for free polls. Its high quality streaming allows at playhousetheatremarketingacademy.com you to invite attendees on screen, and it broadcasts to other platforms like Facebook Live, Periscope and YouTube Patreon is good for paid content. website. You can interview guests, Live.

It allows artists to receive monthly share your screen, and stream directly TikTok has excellent video editing income from subscribers and offers onto other platforms. tools and is a huge opportunity for perks for members. younger actors and youth programs.

Streamyard facilitates the Production Management broadcast of a TV show onto a A great way to save time is to adopt a cloud-based production management platform. If you have a project, organise it online with everything in a cloud. You can assign people to duties and review content.

The two best known platforms are Asana and Monday.com Having that platform from the beginning can reduce the need for staff meetings.

Use that time you have saved on digital media. I recommend 15 minutes, three times a day, to grow your digital and, ultimately, your theatre patron audience.

This article is based on a webinar hosted by American Association of Community Theatre.

24 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

New Directions

Coral Drouyn talks to three of our most acclaimed directors about their futures - and the future of Australian Theatre.

I remember auditioning for a school play (and yes, I got the part Mrs Petrov in Shaw’s Arms and the Man) and the boy who was directing said he wanted the job because “Directors get to order the actors around.”

I doubt that my three much respected guests would subscribe to that scenario.

Roger Hodgman is a multiple award-winning director (Grey Gardens, A Little Night Music, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf) and a triple directing threat - stage, television and feature films. There are very few of our acting elite who haven’t been directed by Roger at some time in their careers.

Jason Langley is better known to some as an actor, but his breakout directing role in terms of acclaim came with the delightful musical on the life of Gertrude Stein, Loving Repeating, which won him Best

Neil Gooding.

Director at the Green Room Awards in 2016. He went on to direct Dusty at the Melbourne Arts Centre, Wonderful Town at the Sydney Opera House and other highly acclaimed productions.

Neil Gooding is a director/writer/ producer and perhaps the most entrepreneurial of my guests.

Instrumental in originating the Hayes Theatre and Packemin Productions in Sydney, and bringing Australian Musicals to a world stage as producer and director, Neil has multiple award nominations as a director, most notably for Gutenberg, The Musical. If there’s a hidden gem of a musical waiting to be found, Neil will find it.

So, three respected directors, all involved in productions in 2020, and then COVID-19 strikes. We know how performers have fared this year but what are the repercussions for directors in the future?

I asked all three what they were doing when “the lights went out”.

Jason: “I had just closed my first show for the year, which was Elegies in Brisbane at the Queensland Con, Griffith University. The following day was March 15 and as I was flying back to Sydney, commercial theatres were having their final performances before going dark for eight months. I was flying back to start another rehearsal period. Instead, I went straight into lockdown.”

Neil had a similar experience.

Neil: “I had just opened The Bridges of Madison County in Sydney when COVID-19 became a massive factor. That show was closed very prematurely. Similarly, Back To The Future had only just opened in Manchester and was closed. Luckily that will be heading to the West End next year. And on arriving back in New York, I had to cancel Queenie (Continued on page 26)

Neil Gooding Productions’ prematurely shuttered Bridges of Madison County.

Photo: Grant Leslie.

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 25

Jason: “I’ve always wanted to work with animals in some capacity, but I van de Zandt’s tour of Blue across the didn’t have to ponder that career shift USA.” for too long. Although the landscape of my 2020 changed significantly, For Roger it was a different experience. several opportunities popped up online masterclasses and workshops; Roger: “I was pretty busy directing episodes of Wentworth (TV) quite a few dramaturgy projects; then working on upcoming performance coaching and an exciting productions and a film project - but it new development project.”

But will theatre come back, and has been a strange time.”

Jason: “For six weeks I relaxed, will it be as we have always known it, I ask them, or something entirely read and pored over all the theatre online. We have a few musicians in different?

Jason: “Hopefully we might see our street so each Saturday afternoon more boutique musicals - more homewe’d have a street Iso-Jam, which found me singing again after ten grown musicals in out-of-the-box theatre settings. I suspect we need to years. Neighbours would sit outside reinterpret how we use venues and their homes on the pavement with wine and cheese and it became a find ways to create pop-up theatre.

(Continued from page 25)

Jason: “Neil created an extraordinary event with Who’s Your Baghdaddy, and his marrying of technology with COVID-19 restrictions and musical theatre was incredibly exciting and effective. However, if theatres were no longer a viable option, I would imagine we should write and create material specific for the online medium (though is that just creating TV?).”

Roger: “I think streaming projects are a wonderful and innovative response to the particular needs of this time. I don’t think, in the end, they will replace live theatre. There is something so particular and emotionally satisfying in sitting among a group of people experiencing a story together.

Roger Hodgeman.

lovely community building experience.

But it was tough watching mine and my partner’s (Musical Director Michael Tyack) work for the year slip away, and heartbreaking seeing the decimation of our industry.”

So, did they think this might be time to change careers?

Roger: “No. Throughout its history, theatre has been thought to be doomed - during the plague, during wars, with the arrival of film, radio, television and all the current ways of delivering stories dramatically.

But it never does die, although it has good and bad times.”

Neil: “I quite often think about what I might do instead of theatre but to be honest, that has not really happened too much during this COVID-19 phase. I seem to have more projects bubbling along than I normally do. It is just a case of not knowing when they may actually see a stage.”

Perhaps we need to come up with ways of seating audiences differently and less formally.”

Roger: “I’m an optimist and believe an audience will come back, including a new one. But I do think we’re in for a period of smaller casts and simpler designs, which is not necessarily a bad thing. But I also think audiences will be hungry for some large-scale work.”

Neil: “I think it’s the economics and structuring of theatre that will need to change more than the actual content. Broadway has already been going through a big change. Smaller shows such as The Band’s Visit, Hadestown, Dear Evan Hansen, Fun Home and Come From Away have become a much bigger factor in New York alongside the mega-musicals over the last decade. This is exciting for creators, but it may cause a problem for Australia, as some of these shows will probably not be commercial hits in Australia.”

26 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

Whenever I have seen a streamed or filmed version of a show I have previously seen in a theatre it has fallen short of the live experience. But I have been grateful for it.”

Neil: “I don’t think these productions will become the norm, and I don’t think that they will replace the live experience. However, I do feel that coming out of COVID-19 there will be a new genre of entertainment.

One that is based on screens - and over time will become its own art form. It will start being less about putting filmed theatre pieces onto screens, and I think it will be more likely that writers will start creating pieces that are meant to be viewed on a screen. It will be some blend of theatre and film - but will be slightly different to both I hope.”

Roger: “Yes, I’m sure shows will be (and indeed some have been) written specifically to accommodate new conditions. For example, I have been involved in developing an opera

Jason Langley’s Elegies: A Song Cycle closed just before COVID-19 restrictions.

Photo: Nick Morrissey.

Jason Langley.

written specifically for socially distanced performers and to be streamed. But this may only last a few years, until we get back (as I hope and believe we will) to some kind of normality.”

Jason: “Creative people will always work towards finding solutions - it’s in their DNA. I think in the year to come we all need to experiment. Yes, potentially a director’s role could look very different, especially if you, say, devised a geographically interactive piece of musical theatre that could be experienced at any time with a pair of headphones and a map. Or if you created ‘peeping tom theatre’ in an abandoned apartment block with an audience standing outside, socially distanced and looking in.

Fundamentally, I think we will work towards getting back into theatres, although it may be a new refurbished kind of live theatre 2.0.”

What impresses me so much about these three directors - who span collectively more than 75 years in theatre - is their belief in the future, while honouring the past. They simply don’t entertain the possibility that theatre as we know it could be beaten by any physical manifestation. Despite being movers and shakers, at heart they are still dreamers - like the three kids who directed school plays.

So I ask them one last question about those dreams - what show (that they haven’t yet directed) would

they give their eye teeth to have a shot at in this new world of theatre?

Roger still has a personal bucket list.

Roger: “I’ve directed a lot of Sondheims, but one I still long to do is Sunday in the Park with George.

And a couple of Britten operas.”

Both Neil and Jason have their eyes firmly upon the possibilities ahead.

Neil: “I am going to cheat a bit here, and say that my ideal is to work on a show that is not written yet, and oversee that from its draft stages to becoming a global theatre hit. That is the most exciting process to me and inspires me more than directing existing shows (although - I do love doing that as well!).”

Jason: “Giving ‘your eye teeth’ implies a show that has been around for a while that other directors have already had a shot at and I’ve done plenty of those in my career. I’m excited by the prospect of musical theatre in Australia evolving with the times. The events of this year have highlighted the lack of diverse representation on our musical theatre stages. Musical theatre in Australia is ten years behind the UK and the US. As Australia is going to find postCOVID-19 pathways back to theatre before its West End and Broadway counterparts, my hope is that we will stop playing so safe and so white and find bold approaches to exciting and inclusive musical theatre, both commercial and independent.

Something I’d give my eye teeth to direct would be a hugely successful production which I had a hand in developing from the very beginning.

That would be something for the memoirs!”

These three directors give just three perspectives on how we move forward, and fortunately we have a country filled with directors and performers of great vision and talent.

We should all feel confident about the future. It takes more than a pandemic to kill live theatre. And now that we’ve looked to the future, in our next issue I’ll take my guests back to their beginnings and explore how they got started and their approaches and beliefs about directing for theatre.

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 27

Seasons 2021

Trent Dalton, author of the novel Boy Swallows Universe, with Joe Klocek who will star in Queensland Theatre’s stage adaptation.

Photo: David Kelly.

Not To Be Missed After the interruptions of 2020, mainstage theatre companies are treading carefully into 2021, with some only announcing their first six months of productions. David Spicer selects one not-to-be-missed play from each season.

Online extras!

Watch Queensland Theatre Company’s digital 2021 season launch. Scan or visit youtu.be/kqZvSBHVBCk 28 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

World premiere productions headline theatre programs announced for 2021, many of them postponed from 2020. Theatre companies have been buoyed by the support of patrons, who have been donating the cost of their tickets to cancelled performances at high rates.

Federal and State Government support has kept them afloat and the time off has been, in many cases, devoted to developing new work.

Stop Girl - Belvoir It is said that every decent journalist has a novel sitting in their bottom drawer, but for ABC foreign correspondent Sally Sara the truth is that she has been secretly crafting a play. She sent the draft to nine different theatres until it was accepted.

The result is Stop Girl, based on her real-life experience working as a foreign correspondent in Afghanistan. Sally admits she broke down 11 months after returning to Boy Swallows Universe - Queensland Theatre Australia and struggled to find the words to describe Trent Dalton’s best-selling coming of age novel is set what happened to her. in Brisbane in 1983. The colourful characters include a “There is grief in feeling so strong for so long and then lost father, a mute brother, a heroin dealer for a feeling so suddenly vulnerable,” she said. stepfather and a notorious crim for babysitter. However, I Artistic Director Eamon Flack describes Stop Girl as a have to admit my favourite bits were the flashbacks to the “ratbaggy wise play by a writer who’s seen it all first-hand glorious rampaging Parramatta Eels of the 1980s. and learnt to ask the pointed questions. It’s about our Fans of the novel will be keen to see how writer Tim complicated world, and it’s full of heart.”

McGarry and director Sam Strong have translated the March 20 - April 25. magic realism to the stage. How do you blend a brilliant bit.ly/2JudV2a backline try by the mighty Eels with an escape from Boggo Road Gaol on Christmas Day? Playing Beatie Bow - Sydney Theatre Company The man with the ball in his hand in the central role of You feel the bones of history when you clip clop along Eli will be smouldering Brisbane actor Joe Klocek - a the long flat path of planks in Sydney’s Wharf Theatre to graduate of QT’s own Young Artists’ Ensemble. see a production. That sound will return for patrons for Lucky for QT that restrictions on numbers in local the first time in several years with the reopening of the theatres have now been lifted. theatre precinct.

August 30 - September 18.

(Continued on page 30) bit.ly/2VrEWFV

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 29

Sydney Theatre Company’s Playing Beatie Bow. Photo: Rene Vaile.

Online extras!

Kip Williams launches Sydney Theatre Company’s 2021 season online. youtu.be/heJFOCIHFRs (Continued from page 29)

The first production in the refurbished theatre is Playing Beatie Bow, adapted from the novel by Ruth Park by playwright Kate Mulvany (interviewed on page 12 of this edition).

Set just a stone’s throw from the theatre, the story is about Beatrice May - a time travelling young Victorian-era girl summonsed from the past to contemporary Sydney, by children who were chanting her name.

With Kate Mulvany’s track record for adapting other Australian novels, Jasper Jones and Harp in the South, and the full cavalry of the STC’s impressive production prowess under the direction of Kip Williams, it will be very hard to see this play not hitting the mark.

February 22 - May 1 - Wharf Theatre. bit.ly/3lCQMHD Hibernation - State Theatre Company South Australia Hibernation is a large-scale work, written prepandemic, but with themes eerily parallel to the 2020 lockdown.

It’s set in 2030, when there is an immediate climate crisis. World leaders make a collective, pragmatic decision to save the planet. For an entire year, all 8.5 billion humans on Earth will hibernate.

30 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

Gas will be launched into the atmosphere and the human population will be immediately plunged into a deep sleep, leaving the natural world to reset. However, the reset of the human world is not what was expected.

A world premiere from South Australia’s Finegan Kruckemeyer, it’s directed by Artistic Director Mitchell Butel. He says,“Finegan has written what will surely become a landmark Australian play. The action is played on a global stage, rippling out from South Australia to South America, Korea, Africa and the United States.”

August 13 - 28. bit.ly/2Vu4C4B Naked & Screaming - La Boite Brisbane’s La Boite Theatre describes Naked & Screaming by Mark Rogers as an electrifying new Australian play that will take audiences on a heartstopping psychological thrill ride.

It centres on struggling new parents Emily and Simon, whose relationship begins to unravel when Simon travels overseas for work and Emily is left alone with their child.

Haunted by his own anxieties, and questioning Emily’s actions, Simon makes a dangerous decision, changing the course of their relationship forever.

Starring Queensland actors Emily Burton and Jackson McGovern, the world premiere production is directed by La Boite Creative Producer Sanja Simic.

“Naked & Screaming is a searing look at contemporary relationships and the complexities of new parenthood,” Ms Simic says. “The duel perspectives examine communication, trust and the patriarchal structures that govern domestic relationships.”

February 6 - 27. bit.ly/36UQ8RX Wherever She Wanders - Griffin Theatre Sex, scandal and star power are some of the ingredients in Griffin’s blockbuster world premiere Wherever She Wanders.

Kendell Feaver started writing the play when incidents of sexual misconduct were being flung into the unforgiving light of the internet.

It is set at one of Australia’s oldest residential colleges, where scandal is rare. Writing the cheques this year is Jo Mulligan (Heather Mitchell), the first female Master in the college’s hundred-year history. Nikki Gonçalves (Emily Havea) - student resident and aspiring journalist - hopes it’s a time for reform.

That all changes when a serious allegation is made against a fellow resident. The new work plunges into the growing gulf between different generations of feminist women. Watching the brilliant acting of Heather Mitchell in the cosy Stables Theatre will be a treat.

July 10 - August 25. bit.ly/3gqdMJ8

Berlin - Melbourne Theatre Company Playwright Joanna Murray-Smith had a West End hit with her play Switzerland; her latest work is named after a city - Berlin. The Melbourne Theatre Company commission is described as a romantic thriller that pits the shadow of history against the promise of true love.

It’s about Tom (Michael Wahr), an Australian abroad, and Charlotte (Grace Cummings), a Berliner through and through. After meeting in a bar, sparks fly, and she invites him to spend the night at her place.

The MTC says, “As they navigate the ritual of seduction, their desire gives way to secrets that cannot be ignored and questions neither of them can answer.

“Berlin weaves a universal story of youthful passion into a nail-biting game of philosophical cat and mouse.”

From April 17. bit.ly/3gmjFal

Seasons 2021

(Continued on page 32)

Grace Cummings in Melbourne Theatre Company’s Berlin.

Online extras!

La Boite raises the curtain on a year like no other with their 2021 launch. youtu.be/AO-iqLnE4XE

Emily Burton and Jackson McGovern in La Boite’s Naked & Screaming.

Photo: Dylan Evans.

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 31

York - Black Swan State Theatre Company of WA Described as an epic, sprawling work of haunting and history, York is set in and around an abandoned hospital.

(Continued from page 31) Here is a flavour of it: ‘Neighbour, I’ve been having trouble sleeping. Perhaps A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Bell Shakespeare it’s that we haven’t been here very long but...do you hear Bell Shakespeare promises that the classic comedy A it? There’s a pulse. A voice. Underneath and around. I’ve Midsummer Night’s Dream is reawakened in this stripped back the wallpaper and lifted the carpet. production brimming with magic, mirth and mayhem.

‘I’ve pulled up the floorboards and stand with a sledgehammer above the foundations. The tension is Love is in the air in Athens - and it’s contagious.

Besides the royal wedding, which is just days away, there climbing up the walls and through the beams. There’s are young lovers dreaming of enchanted futures together. something unsettled here. Something needing to be Hermia and Lysander are besotted with one another, heard.’ while Helena adores Demetrius. The only snag is that Traversing multiple eras, and inspired by 200 years of Demetrius loves Hermia - and he’s got Hermia’s father on real accounts, this new work, written by Ian Michael and his side Chris Isaacs, explores how stories are told - and who tells The play will debut at Arts Centre Melbourne (July 15- them.

The play is the centrepiece of the inaugural Maali 24) before travelling to 26 locations across the country including Hobart, Alice Springs and Festival, which will take over the State Theatre of WA Mackay, and finishing at the during NAIDOC Week.

Sydney Opera House July 10 - August 1.

(October 14 - November 7). bit.ly/39xNa7D bit.ly/2L5s1aR Kenny - Ensemble Theatre Who didn’t enjoy the movie Kenny, the poignant 2006 mockumentary about a fearless Aussie plumber who sets up portable dunnies? Some might have thought there was too much information about how the type of food served at the events (such as curry) impacts the “production process” perhaps. Nevertheless, Kenny’s off-beat humour and wide-eyed wonder at life’s possibilities are an inspirational reminder that all that glitters is not necessarily gold Given that the movie turned Shane Jacobson into a national icon, surely the Ensemble is set to be flush with success from this world premiere, which is ideally suited to touring.

Doing the business is a solitary activity, and so too this play is a one-man job. Actor Ben Wood told me sheepishly that on stage “there will be nowhere to hide”.

But with a grin he added, “I get to step into the shoes of one of the most iconic characters we have seen. What a welcome back to theatre. Especially in this age when everyone has to stay clean. A play about sanitation - what a great idea!”

January 15 - February 27. bit.ly/3oiekDD

Seasons 2021

Online extras!

Ensemble Theatre’s 2021 season kicks off with Aussie classic Kenny. youtu.be/LBhzQGnD3-Q 32 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

Ben Wood in Ensemble Theatre’s Kenny.

Photo: Christian Trinder.

The Broadway cast of Moulin Rouge!

Photo: Matthew Murphy.

Musicals In 2021 And Beyond Major musicals will roar back into life in 2021, once theatre-goers have had injections of both confidence and a vaccine. David Spicer looks at what musical theatre lovers can expect.

The elimination of community transmission of COVID-19 in most of Australia has given large scale Performing Arts a shot in the arm.

WA opened up first. Next came NSW with 75% to 85% of tickets available for sale. Queensland is allowing 100% capacity from January.

Jason Arrow

Hamilton The Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning musical about US Founding Father Alexander Hamilton - blending hip-hop, jazz, R&B and Broadway opens at the Sydney Lyric on March 27.

With debate raging about diversity on our stages, the Australian producer and US creatives of Hamilton scored a standing ovation from the industry for their casting choices.

In the title role is Jason Arrow, handpicked by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

The South African born Western Australian lad’s previous career highlights were minor roles in Beautiful and Aladdin.

When told he had the part, Arrow says, “I think I was speechless for about 10 minutes. In many ways I am still completely speechless.”

The other male lead, the villainous Aaron Burr, is played by another upand-comer - Lyndon Watts.

Chloé Zuel, most recently seen in Six the Musical, will play Elizabeth Hamilton. The juiciest (always Anglo) comedic role is the part of King George, which has been scored by Brent Hill, recently the star of School of Rock.

COVID-19 permitting, this musical is set to be the hottest ticket of the year.

Moulin Rouge!

Aussie producer Global Creatures had finally staged a rolled gold international blockbuster when the wrecking ball of COVID-19 cruelly halted their Broadway season, and postponed plans for Melbourne.

Recently nominated for 14 Tony Awards, this musical is scheduled to resume on Broadway, and open at the Melbourne’s Regent Theatre, in August.

Based on the 2001 20th Century Fox motion picture by Baz Luhrmann, (Continued on page 34) stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 33

Zoe Gertz and the cast of Come From Away.

Photo: Jeff Busby.

Online extras!

The Melbourne cast perform “Welcome To The Rock” from Come From Away. youtu.be/sq-TNimj9bE Stage Whispers reviewer Alex Armstrong said, “Watching the town the musical is a kaleidoscope of colour characters swing deftly and and song confectionary. determinedly into action was one of The production zooms the jukebox the pleasures in this musical. Seeing musical into another era. Short them also pull seamless double-duty phrases of favourite songs from David as bewildered, angry and frightened Bowie to Dolly Parton are seamlessly passengers and flight crew was blended. another.”

The scenic effects are utterly She described fellow theatre-goers breathtaking. “wiping away tears throughout the This will be just the antidote for performance. At the conclusion of the Victorians looking for an escape from final chorus the audience roared to a grim period. life and was on its feet in the space of a minute.”

Come From Away The first big musical to open in Fangirls Melbourne will be a short return Yve Blake’s sensational debut season of Come from Away in musical is back for a return Company January, before if flies to QPAC on B season in Sydney from January 30 March 28, and then lands at Sydney’s February 20 at the Seymour Centre, Capitol Theatre in June. ahead of Adelaide and other destinations to be announced soon.

The musical, based on the true story of passengers stranded in the This musical is for everyone who remote Canadian town of Gander in has ever had an uncontrollable the wake of the September 11, teenage crush. The leading lady is 14 features twelve performers, and seven and head over heels in love with musicians who play a variety of boyband member Harry. She has a instruments with a celtic influence. talent for creative writing and dreams (Continued from page 33)

34 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

up vivid teenage-like pulp fiction for the two.

Things get out of hand when her imagination is taken over by reality.

Sitting next to me at the original Sydney season was the mother of a recent teenager, squealing with recognition. OMG! After seeing this show I immediately bought a ticket for my teenage daughter.

The music is catchy, and it has the giddy atmosphere of being at a rock concert. Daggy parents like myself struggled to find the torch ‘ap’ on our iPhones to wave when commanded by the boyband.

Screamingly good.

Fun Home Co-produced by the Sydney Theatre Company and Melbourne Theatre Company, Fun Home is a gritty drama which won the 2014 Tony Award for Best Musical.

Based on a graphic novel by Alison Bechdel, it’s described as “a heartfelt

Seasons 2021 story about coming out and coming of age.”

After the unexpected death of her father, Alison is forced to confront his secrets. Shifting between past and present, we meet present-day Alison, a successful graphic novelist; collegeage Alison on the cusp of selfdiscovery; and precocious child Alison, who plays in coffins instead of sandboxes in the family’s Bechdel Funeral Home.

Maggie McKenna, the original (musical) Muriel, plays medium Alison, alongside Lucy Maunder as mature Alison.

The cast also features Marina Prior, Ryan Gonzalez and Adam Murphy.

Fun Home is scheduled to open in Sydney in April at the Ros Packer Theatre, with the Melbourne dates yet to be confirmed.

Belvoir’s Fangirls.

Photo: Brett Boardman.

Online extras!

Yve Blake speaks about the return of Fangirls in 2021. Scan the code or visit fb.watch/29JJxXzQj_

Frozen Disney Theatrical’s musical Frozen opened its Australian season at Sydney's Capitol Theatre in December, only three years after its Broadway premiere.

Based on the classic fable ‘The Snow Queen’, Frozen was the highest grossing animated movie of all time, with eye popping imagery and that ear worm song ‘Let It Go’.

A dozen songs were added by the original composers, plus a mountain of scenic effects, to turn it into a Broadway musical.

The New York Times raved about the “masterly” first twenty minutes but noted that children were looking on the sleepy side during the second act.

The Guardian wrote, “With its music, its dance, its flurry of likable leads, and snowball after snowball of son and lumière, some of it newfangled, some of it stretching back to 19th-century melodrama, it offers most of the pleasures that we count on Broadway musicals to provide.”

Certain to tour to other capitals during 2021/2022.

(Continued on page 36) stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 35

Jally Entertainment’s Margaret Fulton The Musical.

Photo: Andrew Seymour.

(Continued from page 35)

Margaret Fulton The Musical Jally Productions is taking this scrumptious musical homage to cooking legend Margaret Fulton on a national tour in 2021.

Margaret Fulton was famous for her cookbook, which encouraged Australian housewives to experiment with more interesting ingredients, straying from the old tradition of meat and three veg.

Not so well known are the difficulties she faced behind the scenes as a single mother.

Based on her best-selling autobiography, this musical romp follows her journey from humble beginnings to super-stardom.

At least 80 performances are scheduled across regional and capital cities in Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria.

Stefanie Caccamo and Toby Francis in Once.

Photo: Robert Catto.

capacity, without a special exemption, Once is really rewarding.”

Sydney’s Darlinghurst Theatre Shrek The Musical will open in Company has been given a grant to January for a four-week season, with tour its production of Once around special prices for families.

Australia.

As I said in my review of the Beating The Blues original Darlo season, Once is a big Audiences will be given a sneak hearted juicy musical. peek of a new musical by the team It begins with a romantic chance behind 2015’s smash hit, Ladies In meeting between a Guy (Toby Francis) Black. The Melbourne Theatre and a Girl (Stefanie Caccamo). He is Company will present staged readings busking a beautiful tune which she likes and together they go on a of the latest work of Carolyn Burns, Tim Finn and Simon Phillips on journey to heal themselves of February 5 and 6. The stripped-back fractured relationships. performances will feature Alison Bell, Performances famously invite Simon Gleeson and Chris Ryan. members of the audience on stage,

Shrek The Musical Shrek, Fiona and Donkey are headed for the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) in the first major musical to open to a 100% capacity audience in Australia since the onset of COVID-19.

Queensland Minister for the Arts Leeanne Enoch said, “The arts sector has been severely impacted by the pandemic, so to be the first state in Australia to host the first major musical performance at 100% 36 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

Online extras!

Everyone’s favourite ogre is coming to QPAC in 2021 with Shrek The Musical. youtu.be/sPZvINbD9X8

QPAC’s Chief Executive John Kotzas, Shrek and Queensland Minister for the Arts Leeanne Enoch.

Andrew Polec and the cast of Bat Out Of Hell: The Musical.

Photo: Specular.

Seasons 2021

Online extras!

Join the cast of Bat Out Of Hell: The Musical on the first day of rehearsals. youtu.be/WflN2ABr9ms into the pub that is the beating heart of the drama.

Toby and Stefanie were well suited to their roles, displaying a high level of musicianship on the guitar and piano, and most importantly having a warm on-stage chemistry.

Jim Steinman’s Bat Out Of Hell: The Musical The rafters of arenas in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney are set to be rattled during May with the arrival of the thrashing rock musical Bat Out Of Hell.

The show is an epic love story of rebellious youth and passion, based

on songs from the Bat Out Of Hell album trilogy, including ‘You Took The Words Right Out of My Mouth’, ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ and ‘I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)’.

A groupie (reviewer) from The New York Times said, “When’s the last time it felt as if an entire theater were about to levitate? That experience - electrifying and giddy and guaranteed to tap into every playgoer’s inner rock god - can be had at the Jim Steinman musical Bat Out Of Hell, which is all but blasting an adoring audience out of their seats.”

Rent One of the most successful recent productions at the Hayes Theatre is being revived in the new year.

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Jonathan Larson’s multiple Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Rent, about young artists struggling to survive in New York’s East Village, will play at the Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House from December 27, 2020 to January 31, 2021. It will again star Kinky Boots alumnus Callum Francis as Collins and Seann Miley Moore as Angel.

(Continued on page 38)

Rent.

Photo: Daniel Boud.

Online extras!

Join the bohemian revolution and meet the cast of Rent. Scan or visit fb.watch/2b2b8X_cP8 stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 37

The Wedding Singer.

(Continued from page 37)

Online extras!

The Wedding Singer takes you back to 1985 - to big hair and popped collars! youtu.be/Xh9lkUBCFdo West Australian Opera’s Sweeney Todd.

Photo: James Rogers.

Ethan Jones in The Boy From Oz.

The Wedding Singer It had a respectable run of almost a year on Broadway but The Wedding Singer never made it to the professional stages of Australia...until now.

David Venn Enterprises is bringing the musical to Melbourne, the Gold Coast and Sydney from April.

Based on the movie of the same title, the musical takes you back to 1985. Hair is huge, collars are up, and a wedding singer might just be the coolest guy in the room.

Producer David Venn says, “it’s such a joyful, nostalgic romp of pure rom-com fun, and hopefully just what the doctor ordered. I can’t wait to see audiences dress in their 80s finest and join the party of the year!”

An Australian cast and creative team will be announced in the new year.

Sweeney Todd The State Opera of South Australia is sharpening its blades for a season of Stephen Sondheim’s musical about love, greed, revenge and pies.

Postponed from 2020, the production will star Ben Mingay as the demon barber of Fleet Street for six performances in May at the recently restored Her Majesty’s Theatre.

Artistic Director Stuart Maunder said, “From the first words 'attend the tale of Sweeney Todd' we know we are in for a ‘fright night’. This is a period piece, an allegory, a legend, a 'tale' that has oft been told across the generations, an urban myth, a cautionary tale ... and it's deliciously scary, dark, sinister... and thrilling.”

Young Frankenstein Sydney’s Hayes Theatre Co has been severely affected by COVID-19 as its venue is so cosy.

The company will return to the stage in 2021 with a new production of Young Frankenstein, the musical

by Mel Brooks, adapted from his own film parodying the horror movie genre.

38 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

Chair of Hayes Theatre Co, Lisa Campbell, said, “We’re overjoyed to be reopening with a musical as spectacular and entertaining as Young Frankenstein. We can’t wait to lift the curtain on what will be an incredible year of musicals and cabaret at Hayes.”

The Boy From Oz Following its sold out season of We Will Rock You, Pro-am company Platinum Entertainment will stage four musicals in Perth’s Crown Theatre during 2021, kicking off with The Boy From Oz from January 23.

In the lead role of Peter Allen is recent WAAPA graduate Ethan Jones.

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime,” says Ethan. “I’ve dreamed about playing Peter Allen for years and am absolutely thrilled - and a little daunted - to be following in the footsteps of such luminaries of the stage.”

Todd McKenney, the original Boy from Oz, sent the following message.

“Congratulations Ethan, on landing one of the best roles in

Australian musical theatre. You not only get to tell Peter’s amazing personal story through brilliant songs and amazing dance routines but you also get to talk directly to the audience - which provides some of the most moving moments.”

Platinum Entertainment is also staging Hot Shoe Shuffle, Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Spamalot at the Perth Crown.

Seasons 2021

Musical Concerts Chess The Musical Featuring the iconic music of Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus (ABBA), and book by Tim Rice, the Cold War-themed musical Chess The Musical to be directed by Tyran Parke will play at Melbourne’s Regent Theatre in two performances on Saturday 24 April, followed by Announcements Pending performances in Perth on June 5, in A national tour of the cult musical conjunction with Perth Symphony Everyone Loves Jamie was abandoned Orchestra. due to the pandemic and will most certainly be revived when the time is Carousel right.

Ben Mingay stars for State Opera of South Australia as troubled Six the Musical got off to a huge start in Sydney and is also likely to re- carousel barker Billy Bigelow, whose romance with millworker Julie Jordan staged.

Dates for the rescheduled Sydney comes at a terrible price. The Rodgers season of 9 To 5 The Musical will be and Hammerstein classic will play at the Festival Theatre, Adelaide on announced soon.

Watch out too for new Australian March 26 and 27, its vivid score musical The Dismissal, based on the brought to life by an all-Australian cast, the Adelaide Symphony events of 1975, which got rave audience feedback at a try-out and Orchestra and State Opera Chorus under the baton of Brett Weymark. will open before too long.

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 39

Joseph Raso and Trent Gardiner in Lane Cove Theatre Company’s Jekyll & Hyde.

Photo: Jim Crew.

Community Theatre Seasons 2021 After COVID-19 decimated 2020 Community Theatre seasons, many companies are now cautiously announcing their plans for 2021 - in some cases it’s a whole season, in others just a first production.

New South Wales Willoughby Theatre Company: Priscilla Queen of the Desert: The Musical (May), Mamma Mia! (Oct).

Packemin Productions: We Will Rock You (Feb), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Jul/Aug).

Engadine Musical Society: Wicked (May), Freaky Friday.

Bankstown Theatre Company: The King and I, You Can’t Many companies are rescheduling postponed shows, Take it with You, In The Heights. while others are offering new programming, or a mix of Noteable Theatre Company: Les Misérables (Mar), Miss both.

Saigon (Jul).

Following the lifting of lockdowns, Queensland and Hornsby Musical Society: Beautiful: The Carol King Musical Western Australian companies were first back on the (Apr). boards, but productions are now being mounted or planned Holroyd Musical and Dramatic Society: The Wizard of Oz everywhere, with precautions in place including socially (Apr). distanced audiences and performances.

Rockdale Musical Society: Annie (Mar).

Stage Whispers correspondents have researched the Hills Musical Theatre Company: High School Musical: On seasons which have already been announced across Australia and New Zealand, as of early December 2020. We Stage, The Sound of Music.

Sydney Youth Musical Theatre: The Addams Family (Jul), will continue to update seasons on our website, as details Kinky Boots (Nov). come to hand, at bit.ly/2JCIbI4.

Campbelltown Theatre Group: Chicago (Mar), Macbeth (Apr/May), The Addams Family (Oct).

A.C.T. Castle Hill Players: Things I Know to be True (Feb), Always a Free-Rain Theatre Company: Priscilla Queen of the Desert Bridesmaid (Apr), The Cripple of Inishmaan (Jun), (Jul).

Entertaining Angels (Jul/Aug), Roald Dahl’s The Witches Queanbeyan Players: The Sound of Music (Mar), Kiss Me, (Sep/Oct), Unnecessary Farce (Nov/Dec).

Kate (Jun).

The Theatre On Chester: In Duty Bound (Apr/May), Blithe Canberra Rep: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Feb), Cosi (Apr), Rope Spirit (Jul/Aug), Things I Know to be True (Nov).

(May/Jun), The Governor’s Family (Jul), Rosencrantz and Pymble Players: Pack of Lies (Feb/Mar).

Guildenstern are Dead (Aug), Hotel Sorrento (Sep), Sense Guild Theatre, Rockdale: Crown Matrimonial (Feb), Our and Sensibility (Nov/Dec).

Town, Beyond Reasonable Doubt, Calendar Girls (Oct), An Canberra Philharmonic Society (Philo): Jersey Boys (Mar).

O. Henry Christmas (Nov/Dec).

40 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

Hunters Hill Theatre: Australia Day (Apr/May), 84 Charing Cross Road (Jul/Aug).

Arts Theatre Cronulla: Travelling North (Feb/Mar), The Game’s Afoot (May/Jun), Life Without Me (Jul-Sep), The Book of Everything (Oct/Nov).

Lane Cove Theatre Company: Jekyll & Hyde The Musical (Feb), Steel Magnolias (May), A Streetcar Named Desire (Aug), Hercules - panto (Nov).

Glenbrook Players Inc: Orson’s Shadow (May).

Blackheath Theatre Company: More Than a Little Black Dress (May), Out of the Blue - Short Play Season (Jul/Aug), The Peach Season (Oct).

Richmond Players: Allo, Allo! (Mar).

Cumberland Gang Show: Rise Up (Jul).

Newcastle and Hunter Region Bearfoot Theatre: Do Your Parents Know You're Straight?

(Feb).

Bling Productions: Grease (Jan).

Knock&Run Theatre: The Unseen (Mar), 2.0 - Two Point Oh (Apr), Trevor (Nov).

Metropolitan Players: The Woman in Black (Mar); Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Aug).

Newcastle Theatre Company: Murder on the Nile (Jan/Feb), Glorious (Apr), The House of Bernarda Alba (Jun), Steel Magnolias (Jul/Aug), Barefoot in the Park (Oct), A Hit and Miss Christmas (Nov/Dec).

The Very Popular Theatre Company: Chess The Musical (Feb).

Seasons 2021 Young People's Theatre: The Addams Family: Young @ Part (Apr), Naked Bunyip Dancing (Jun/Jul), The Wizard of Oz: Young Performers Edition (Sep/Oct), Beware of the Jabberwock (Nov/Dec).

NSW Central Coast Wyong Drama Group: An Anzac Tribute (Mar), The Full Monty (May), Central Coast Theatrefest (Jun).

NSW North Coast Ballina Players: Girls’ Weekend (Mar).

Coffs Harbour Musical Comedy Company: Into the Woods, Mamma Mia! Murwillumbah Theatre Company: Keeping Up Appearances (Mar), The Old People are Revolting (Jun), James & the Giant Peach (Oct/Nov).

Players Theatre, Port Macquarie: We Will Rock You (May/ Jun), Oliver! (Sep/Oct).

CHATS Productions Inc (Coffs Harbour): Steel Magnolias (Mar) In Bed with the Bishops (Jul).

NSW South Coast and Southern Highlands So Popera (Wollongong): Grease (Jan), Jersey Boys (May).

Roo Theatre Co (Shellharbour): Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Jan), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Apr).

(Continued on page 42)

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Queensland Savoyards: Hot Shoe Shuffle (Jun/Jul), The Drowsy Arcadians Theatre Group (Corrimal, Wollongong): Chaperone (Sep/Oct).

Sweeney Todd (Mar), Ladies in Black (Jun).

Sunnybank Theatre Group: Xanadu (Feb), The Sum of Us Spectrum Theatre Group (Merimbula): The Little Mermaid (Apr), First Things First (Jun), Sunflowers (Jul/Aug), Jr (May), Australia Day (Jun).

Eventide (Sep/Oct), Red Riding Hood to the Rescue (Nov).

Highlands Theatre Group, Mittagong: Nunsense (Mar).

Brisbane Arts Theatre: Main Stage: The 39 Steps (Jan-Mar) Wollongong Workshop Theatre: Boeing Boeing (Feb/Mar), Children’s Theatre: Roald Dahl’s Goldie! The Untold Story Blackadder The Third (May), The Clean House (Jul), Angels of Goldilocks (Jan-Mar). in America (Oct), The Mousetrap (Nov).

Centenary Theatre Group: Radium Girls (Mar), Unnecessary Albatross Musical Theatre, Nowra: The Last Five Years Farce (May), Go Back for Murder (July).

(Jan), Alice in Wonderland, Jesus Christ Superstar.

Mousetrap Theatre Company: The Great British Bump Off (Feb).

Regional NSW Coolum Players: Xanadu (Apr).

Orange Theatre Company: Beauty and the Beast (May), Tugun Theatre Company: The Butler Did It (Feb), The Mamma Mia! (Oct).

Kidnap Game (May).

Tamworth Musical Society: Mamma Mia! (Mar), Sweeney Gold Coast Little Theatre: Bye, Bye Birdie (Jan/Feb), No Sex Todd (Oct).

Please, We’re British (Apr - May), Metamorphoses (Jun/Jul), Tamworth Dramatic Society: Steel Magnolias (May).

Green Day’s American Idiot (Sep/Oct), One O’Clock from Armidale Drama and Musical Society: Favourite Shorts the House (Nov/Dec).

2021, Mamma Mia! (Jun), Little Gem (Oct), Forever vs No Javeenbah Theatre: Some of my Best Friends are Women Tomorrow (Nov).

(Jan/Feb), One Act Wonders (Mar), Two Weeks with the Albury Wodonga Theatre Company: Thumbelina (Feb).

Queen (May), Playhouse Creatures (Jul), Ordinary Days Carillon Theatrical Society (Bathurst): The Sound of Music. (Sep/Oct), The Importance of Being Earnest (Nov/Dec).

Griffith and Regional Association of the Performing Arts: Phoenix Ensemble: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Shakespeare Under the Stars (Nov).

(Feb), The Mystery of Edwin Drood (May).

Norfolk Amateur Theatrical Society (NATS): Theatre Festival Burdekin Singers and Theatre Company: Mary Poppins (Sep).

(Feb).

Seasons 2021

42 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

Spotlight Theatrical Company, Benowa: Hansel and Gretel (Jan), Jersey Boys (Feb/Mar), Beautiful - The Carole King Musical (Apr/May), Priscilla Queen of the Desert (Jul/Aug), Puffs (Sep), Singin’ in the Rain (Oct/Nov).

Tweed Heads Theatre Company: The Snow Queen (Mar), A Red Plaid Shirt (June), The Fabulous 40s and 50s (Sep/ Oct), Youth Variety Showcase (Nov).

Villanova Players: An Ideal Husband (Mar), Ninety (Apr), Quartet (Jun/Jul), Chekhov Double Bill - The Proposal and The Bear (Jul), Vivien Leigh’s School for Scandal (Aug/Sep), Snapshots from Home (Oct), Summer Rain (Nov).

Cairns Little Theatre / Rondo Theatre: Life Without Me (Mar).

Noosa Arts Theatre: A Turkey’s Tale (Jan), Mamma Mia! (Mar/Apr).

Toowoomba Choral Society: Priscilla Queen of the Desert (Sep).

North Queensland Opera & Music Theatre: Jersey Boys (Mar), Priscilla Queen of the Desert (Oct).

Victoria CLOC: Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Jersey Boys.

Babirra Music Theatre: Mamma Mia! (Jun), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Oct), 42nd Street (Jun 2022).

Latrobe Theatre Company: We Will Rock You. PLOS Musical Productions: Hello, Dolly!

Williamstown Musical Theatre Company: Mamma Mia! Diamond Valley Singers: The Addams Family (Jul).

Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Victoria: The Flowers that Bloom in the Spring (Mar), The Gondoliers, The Yeomen of the Guard.

Fab Nobs Theatre: Mary Contrary and the Nursery Rhyme Mystery (Jan).

Windmill Theatre Company: Bring It On (Feb).

Cardinia Performing Arts Co: Priscilla Queen of The Desert.

The Mount Players: Too Many Crooks (May/Jun), Love Song (Aug/Sep), The Vortex (Oct/Nov).

Brighton Theatre Company: Flipside (Apr), The Architect (Jun/Jul), Torch Song (Sep), Chancers (Nov).

Mordialloc Theatre Company Inc: Love, Loss and What I Wore (Feb).

Encore Theatre Company Inc: George’s Mavellous Medicine (Jan), Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime (Mar), Vigil (Jul), cul-de-sac (Oct).

Beaumaris Theatre Inc: Anne & Gilbert The Musical.

Eltham Little Theatre: The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, I’ll Be Back Before Midnight, Peter Pan Jr, The Long Road, Cinderfella.

Regional Victoria Ballarat Lyric Theatre: We Will Rock You (Jul).

Footlight Productions (Geelong): Jersey Boys.

Wonthaggi Theatrical Group: Vivaldi, Cecilia and the Carnevale (Jan).

Leongatha Lyric Theatre: The Wind in the Willows (Jan).

(Continued on page 44)

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 43

Harbour Theatre: Ladies’ Foursome (Mar).

Koorliny Arts Centre: Mamma Mia! (Mar).

Fremantle Performing Artists: Dracula (Feb), Wait Until Dark, Tasmania Devonport Choral Society Inc: Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story On Golden Pond.

Laughing Horse: Steel Magnolias (Mar), The Vicar of Dibley (May).

(May), Jungle Book (Jul), The Wizard of Oz (Sep).

Burnie Musical Society: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical AIM - Art in Motion: Edges (Jan), James and the Giant Peach (Apr/May).

Launceston Players: The Bridesmaid Must Die (Apr), Marjorie (Apr), Footloose (Jun), Rent (Nov).

GRADS - Graduate Dramatic Society: A Comedy of Errors Unravelled - The Musical (Sep).

The Old Nick Company: Heathers The Musical -High School (Mar).

Bridgetown Repertory Club: The Latest Flame (Mar).

Edition (Feb).

Old Mill Theatre: Last of the Red Hot Lovers (Mar), The Odd Couple (Jun), Hay Fever (Sep), Little Women (Dec).

South Australia Darlington Theatre Players: Robin Hood (Feb/Mar).

Adelaide Repertory Theatre: Crimes of the Heart (Apr), We’ll Always Have Paris (Jun), Good People (Aug/Sep), Humble New Zealand Boy (Nov).

Taieri Musical (Dunedin): Disney Moana Jr (Jul), Mamma Adelaide Youth Theatre: Aladdin Kids (Jan), Charlie and the Mia! (Oct).

Chocolate Factory (Apr).

Act Three Productions: Chicago (Apr).

Blue Sky Theatre: One Man, Two Guvnors (Jan).

Showbiz Christchurch: Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story.

Davine Productions: Summer of ‘69 (Feb).

Hills Youth Theatre: The Addams Family (Jan), The Girl Who Manukau Performing Arts: The Addams Family (Apr).

Rotorua Musical Theatre: Keep The Home Fires Burning Was A Hundred Girls.

Northern Light Theatre Company: Mamma Mia! (Apr/ May). (Apr), Monty Python’s Spamalot (Jul), The Lion King Jr (Sep).

St Jude’s Players: Game Plan (Apr), The Ghost Train (Jul), The Centrestage Theatre Company, Orewa: Urinetown (Feb), Evita (Mar), Les Misérables.

Pig Iron People (Nov).

New Plymouth Operatic Society: Wicked (Jun).

The Stirling Players: Cosi (Mar), The Hypochondriac (Sep).

North Shore Music Theatre: Wicked (Sep/Oct).

Zest Theatre Group: Shrek (Jan/Feb).

Variety Theatre Ashburton: It’s only rock’n’roll baby (May) North Canterbury Musicals: Joseph and the Amazing Western Australia Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Stirling Players: Dinner (Feb), To Kill A Mockingbird (Apr/ Whangarei Theatre Company: The Murder of My Aunt (Mar/ May), Into The Woods (Jul), The Addams Family Apr), West Side Story (Jul), Hot Stuff (Nov).

Young@Part (Sep), Summer of the 17th Doll (Nov/Dec).

Harlequin Musical Theatre: Grease (Mar), Into the Woods KADS: Treasure Island (Jan), My Friend Miss Flint (Mar), The (Jun/Jul).

Last Resort (May), 6 Dance Lessons in 6 Weeks (Jul/Aug), Tauranga Musical Theatre Inc: 13: The Musical (Jan), West One Act Season (Sep), The Naked Truth (Nov/Dec).

Side Story (Apr/May), Les Misérables (Sep).

Alexandra Theatre: The Producers (Apr).

Hamilton Musical Theatre: Alice in Wonderland Jr (Jan).

Wanneroo Repertory: Heathers The Musical (Jan/Feb), One Napier Operatic: Sister Act (Mar).

For the Road (Apr), Gasp (Sep/Oct), Pantomime (Nov/Dec).

Butterfly Creek Theatre Troupe: The Winter’s Tale (Feb).

Garrick Theatre: Managing Carmen (Feb/Mar), Clue (Apr/ Waipawa Musical & Dramatic Club: Priscilla Queen of the May), Trap (Jul), Our Gang (Sep/Oct), Treasure Island the Desert (2022).

Pantomime (Nov/Dec).

Dolphin Theatre (Auckland): Death and Taxe$ (Feb/Mar).

Melville Theatre: Summer Shorts (Feb), Incognito (May), The Ellerslie Theatrical Society: Sham (Mar), Our Man in Havana Dresser (Jul), Clue: On Stage (Sep) William Shakespeare’s (Aug).

Long Lost First Play (abridged) (Nov/Dec).

Elmwood Players: Snow White & Rose Red (Jan), Daughters Murray Music and Drama: Drinking Habits (Mar), Back to of Heaven (Apr), Hudson & Halls Live (Jun), Array 21 (Aug), the Eighties (May), Sleepy Hollow (Jul/Aug), Happy Days Bugsy Malone (Oct).

(Nov).

Hawera Repertory Society: Bugsy Malone (Feb).

Stray Cats Theatre: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (May), Howick Little Theatre: The House (Feb/Mar), The Girl on the Picnic at Hanging Rock (Jul/Aug), Strictly Ballroom (Oct).

Train (May), The Viewing Room (Jun), My Cousin Rachel Bunbury Repertory Theatre: At Any Cost (Mar), Dinner (Jun).

(Sep), Hilda’s Yard (Nov/Dec).

Roleystone Theatre: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Stagecraft Theatre (Wellington): That Bloody Woman (Feb/ the Forum (Mar), Cosi and Closer (Jul), One Act Season Mar), She Kills Monsters (Jun/Jul).

(Aug), Shakespeare in the Park (Sep), Disney Kids Production Company Theatre (Auckland): Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (May).

(Oct), Gala Concert (Dec).

Titirangi Theatre: The Plague (Mar).

Southwest Opera Company: Les Misérables (Sep).

Shoreside Theatre (Auckland): Much Ado About Nothing / Primadonna Productions: Oliver! Jr (Feb), Monty Python’s Hamlet (Jan/Feb).

Spamalot (Apr).

Seasons 2021

44 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

Video Wizardry The Sydney Theatre Company’s latest production of The Picture of Dorian Gray has won rave reviews for technical wizardry and acting.

Eryn Jean Norvill played all 26 roles in the Oscar Wilde classic. On multiple screens, she interacted with her own pre -recorded performances as different characters.

One of the highlights was a dinner party where live Eryn sits at the end of a table and has a razor-sharp repartee with a smorgasbord of eccentric characters.

Read David Spicer’s full review bit.ly/36PrlyL.

Photo: Daniel Boud.

Rosco Celebrates 30 Years Creative Film and Theatre Solutions is the exclusive agent for Rosco Products in Australia and New Zealand - supplying to the performing arts and entertainment industries for 30 years.

The company has kept its business ticking over under trying circumstances in 2020 but is excited about the year ahead.

Rosco Laboratories - a lighting equipment, live entertainment, film and broadcast equipment supplier - is committed to being a one stop shop for producers.

Products include paint for scenery and props, and digital compositing paint for blue and green screens - formulated with the assistance of video technicians.

The company has what they describe as world's largest catalogue of gobo templates, created by lighting designers.

They also have LED Effects Projectors capable of throws of up to 33-ft (10m) engineered to create “stunning” illumination effects.

Other products include a full range of flooring. A popular line is Rosco's Chroma Floor, which solves the long-standing problem of repainting a studio floor for every shoot.

Creative Film and Theatre Solutions ship to all areas via their Sydney warehouse and have dealers in most capital cities.

Check out the product range at au.rosco.com/en, or get in touch with them on (02) 9906 6262 or by emailing sales@cfats.com.au. stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 45

Stage on Page

By Peter Pinne

John Wood - How I Clawed My Way To the Middle (Penguin/Viking $22.00) In the first pages of his new autobiography, John Wood refers to himself as a ‘jobbing actor’, and after reading it I’d have to say a ‘jobbing actor’ who’s had a rich career. Yes, there has been a lot of bread-and-butter work but there has also been incredible success on stage in everything from Shakespeare to David Williamson, with musicals in between, and TV, in the longrunning Rafferty’s Rules and Blue Heelers.

Wood grew up in working-class suburb Port Melbourne, in his youth and later moved to Croydon. The thing he remembers from that time is suburbia was gray, flat, and, where they lived in Croydon, without sewerage. His father had been a POW in the war, was scarred by his experience, and worked at the Flemington abattoirs. Wood did a stint there (the pay was good - £21 per week), and also worked as a brickie’s labourer, a machine press operator, and a clerk at the Victorian Railways.

He had a brush with several religions, but didn’t find one to suit, joined the scouts, and like all youths

had a fling with séances and ouija boards.

In school he played The Defendant in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial By Jury, and then joined the Melbourne Youth Theatre, which was set-up by John Ellis and Lois Smith. Other members of the group included Max Gillies, Wendy Hughes and Tony Taylor. They did Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle, but when the success of the group saw them become possible rivals for the Melbourne Theatre Company, John Summer was instrumental in having their funding removed.

It was during his MYT days that he met his wife Leslie, who at that time was attending Monash University. It was a time of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Vietnam demonstrations, draft dodging and long hair, and Wood had the longest, as a front-page cover of Truth confirmed. Wood fortunately missed out on being called up. His father was vehemently anticonscription due to his own war experiences.

Lois Smith encouraged Wood to audition for NIDA, which he did singing the Defendant’s song from Trial By Jury. Despite not having completed his schooling, he was

Stage Whispers Books Visit our online book shop for back issues and stage craft books

stagewhispers.com.au/books 46 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

John Wood’s “How I Clawed My Way To The Middle” can be purchased from Stage Whispers Books bit.ly/36R7teB accepted. His co-students were Kim Carpenter, Nigel Triffitt, Joanna McCallum and Aubrey Mellor. Wood was awarded a scholarship of $6 per fortnight by the NIDA board, and to earn extra money he became a follow-spot operator at the Music Hall, Neutral Bay, Sydney. During his time at NIDA he performed in Our Town, King Lear, The Rivals and The Crucible.

On graduation he was offered a contract with the Old Tote Theatre Company where he did Death of a Salesman, Major Barbara, and Oedipus Rex, directed by Tyrone Guthrie. Guthrie wanted him to go to Melbourne for his MTC production of All’s Well That Ends Well, but Robin Lovejoy nixed it, promising him the lead in The Hostage, but reneged and instead gave it to Terry Bader.

He also started to get TV offers parts in Barrier Reef, Dynasty and Catwalk followed - before he joined the newly created Nimrod Theatre where his credits included Flash Jim Vaux, Hamlet On Ice and his own self-penned On Yer Marx.

Loves Me, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and My Fair Lady. His last performance before the COVID-19 shutdown was in Crunch Time, David Williamson’s last play at the Ensemble Theatre, Sydney in 2020.

It’s a marvelous memoir - a good read, with short, clear, concise chapters that bristle with wit.

Booktopia currently has David McAllister’s “Soar: A Life Freed By Dance” for 25% off recommended retail price bit.ly/3oqKCfN On returning to Melbourne to fulfill an MTC contract, and now married to Leslie with their first child Meg in tow, they settled at Ferny Creek in the Dandenong Ranges. His days were spent writing for Cop Shop, The Sullivans and Prisoner, whilst his nights were on stage in John Power’s The Last on the Knucklemen, one of the biggest successes of his career. He was memorable as Sugar Renfrey in the ABC’s Power Without Glory, Alan Bond in The Challenge and Robert Menzies in The Last Bastion, before he was cast as Michael Aloysius Rafferty in Rafferty’s Rules.

The show ran five years and brought him Most Outstanding Actor of the Year at the Logies in 1988 and 1989. Then came the role of Tom Croydon in Blue Heelers, which ran for 12 years. After nine years of being nominated for a Gold Logie, Wood finally won it in 2006, the year the series was cancelled.

He had stints in Adelaide (in Patrick White’s Signal Driver), Brisbane, and appeared in Jim Sharman’s 1990 production of Chess. Other musicals included She

Soar - A Life Freed by Dance (David McAllister) (Thames & Hudson $29.95) A young boy’s vision of becoming a ballet dancer comes true beyond his wildest dreams in David McAllister’s new autobiography about his career at the Australian Ballet. From growing up in Perth in a devoutly Catholic family, being bullied at school and called a ‘pooftah’ and ‘pansy’, being accepted into the Australian Ballet School, dancing as a coryphee, becoming a principal, winning a Bronze Medal in Russia, being feted in Australia and internationally, to taking on the mantle of Artistic Director, McAllister has done it all.

This book lovingly captures the highs, the heartbreak, and the incredible work ethic that drove him.

As a child he was obsessed with dance and loved the ABC’s Play School. He pestered his parents to let him take ballet classes, but it wasn’t until they saw Rudolf Nureyev dancing Don Quixote on TV that they agreed.

Being the only boy in a class of girls didn’t deter him. He was in his element. He was one of the kids in The Nutcracker for Perth City Ballet, and played Nancy in his school’s production of Oliver!

When he was accepted for the Australian Ballet School in Melbourne, his parents said he could not go until he finished his HSC. One year later he packed his bags and moved to Melbourne. It was a time of share houses, study, classes and parties. He had a secret affair at 19 with AB’s principal dancer Kelvin Coe, but when Coe wanted to make

it public McAllister backed off, not ready to acknowledge he was gay.

He didn’t actually come out until he was 46, long after his younger brother Paul, who was also gay, had declared his homosexual feelings.

In between, McAllister climbed the heights, despite thinking himself too short for the leading ‘Prince’ roles, and Maina Gielgud suggesting he get a ‘nose job.’ His partnership with Elizabeth Toohey saw them win a Bronze Medal in 1984 at the Fifth International Ballet Competition in Moscow. They not only became the toast of the town but were invited back to perform an incredible three times. During this time they also became a couple, his first ‘straight’ relationship.

A 1992 tour which took in Italy and London saw him dance Coppelia at London’s Coliseum, where he got to meet Princess Diana at the after-show party. He became Artistic Director of the company in 2000. His tenure in the post has often been criticised as being too safe, which he acknowledges, though also pointing out he was responsible for commissioning Graeme Murphy to create a new Swan Lake in 2002, which successfully toured to London three years later. He was also responsible for Christopher Whelan’s Mercurial Manoeuvres, John Neumeier’s Nijinsky, and created his own version of The Sleeping Beauty in 2015.

Co-authored with journalist Amanda Dunn, the book is refreshingly free of bitchy gossip, and is not one of those ‘get even’ tomes. If anything, it’s sweet and old-fashioned.

McAllister has been with the company for almost 40 years, something that used to happen back in grandfather’s day: you’d leave school, get a job in a bank and stay there until you retired and they gave you a gold watch. I don’t know whether McAllister will get a gold watch, but he’s certainly earned it.

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 47

John Wood On Acting Gold Logie winner John Wood has penned an autobiography, How I Clawed My Way To The Middle. It traces his journey from working class beginnings in Melbourne through to rubbing shoulders with some of the best and brightest in Australia’s acting scenes.

I honestly don’t know what possessed me to create this heading. I don’t have the faintest idea about the subject. I don’t understand the processes well enough to teach it, and often in fact think it can’t be taught. You can either do it or you can’t. I have resisted many requests to teach. While you are in the midst of working you can see where things are going wrong, or where, perhaps, a friendly piece of advice might help, but I wouldn’t call that teaching.

Sometimes the best thing an actor can do for a particular performance is learn to shut up a little bit. It’s a particular bugbear for writers of theatre when an actor wants things changed because they want to look better. My experience as a writer has had me work with actors who will do anything to avoid being disliked by the audience, even when that character is a monster. A certain type of television actor is guilty of this - driven more by vanity than good craft - holding their chin just so, showing off their good side. It can ruin a whole scene. And that’s even before they start rewriting their dialogue.

To be fair, it’s a very hard thing to do, to play a character that you know the audience is going to despise. It’s very difficult, but it’s fascinating. You have to look inside yourself and find things in your own psyche that are similar to what drives this other person you’re portraying. When you’re playing an unsympathetic character, that can be very confronting.

One of the worst things I ever did was in Pravda, a play by David Hare and Howard Brenton, well-known English playwrights. It’s about a guy from South Africa who starts to take over Fleet Street - no prizes for guessing it’s about Rupert Murdoch. So, my character was a really unpleasant man, and to find that this level of coldness and ruthlessness existed within me, that I was capable of it, was a bit of a shock.

But you work with everything you’ve got, both inside and outside you. Particularly in theatre, it’s all about the audience. That’s the best asset you have, when you’re standing there under the lights and there’s just dead silence, the audience waiting with bated breath for you to do something.

Without the audience there’s no point being there. You’d be lost, wasting your time. They reinforce for you your ideas, where you’re going with the performance. When your jokes land, when an audience laughs, you get a feel for what’s a funny line. And if they don’t laugh well, you know it’s not going great.

Performances get better as you go along. You don’t get all the laughs on the first night - you don’t get all sorts of things. With each performance you get a better feeling for how to time things, how to deliver lines, and by the end of the run the role is really well honed, you’re getting great guffaws or tears.

An audience can tell if you’re not authentically in the role. In so many roles these days actors are expected to speak in American accents, because people think that’s what audiences want or need. I was lucky enough to come into the business at a time when I was encouraged to keep my accent.

Williamson, Buzo, Hibberd, Boddy, Ellis, Blair - I was in that first wave of Australian plays that allowed me to hear my own voice on stage.

But now you must audition for American television roles in American accents, and I find it . . . very annoying. Americans make no attempt to understand other accents, even when actors are

48 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

Book Excerpt How I Clawed My Way To The Middle

speaking their language (English). Most overseas movies or television shows are dubbed in the US

by American actors so that their poor countrymen don’t have to make any effort to understand. Liv Ullman, the great Norwegian actress, won a Golden Globe without her voice ever having been heard in the US. Whether her character was speaking Norwegian or English, she was apparently revoiced throughout by an American actor doing a Norwegian accent.

Apart from when I felt a little cheated by Lovejoy at the Tote (well, a lot cheated) when he gave the role he’d promised me in The Hostage to Terry Bader, I never really wanted to go overseas to work. I felt if I had anything at all to offer, it was to an Australian audience.

It was around the time of On Yer Marx that I had a regular role in a kids radio program on the ABC, produced by Pam Swain, whom I had known for several years. At the time she was married to Lex Marinos and she’s gone on to work on Double J, Triple J and ABC TV, and most notably on Good News Week.

Anyway, this was pretty small fry. I was a character who was either a small boy or a dwarf, but either way he was named Ozzie and he was ostensibly an Australian schoolboy. He was very popular with the listeners he was aimed at (schoolkids), but rather less so with adults, who objected to his Australian twang.

I was asked to change the accent, which I personally found objectionable, and I believed loyal listeners would find it strange. I myself remembered vividly the Gerry Gee doll on The Tarax Show being replaced after the original Gerry had been worn out. We kids all knew it wasn’t the real Gerry Gee and a story was invented that it had been his cousin, pretending to be him. The original doll was brought back on screen.

Long story short, I was replaced as Ozzie. By Terry Bader.

Ozzie now had a cockney accent. No further complaints from outraged Aussie parents protecting their kids from that vile Australian twang. I feel that’s a battle that’s been lost over the years.

I decided very early in my career that if I had anything to say through acting it would be to my own people, in my voice. I still feel very strongly my working-class roots. I admit my accent has moderated somewhat since then, but I spent my whole life around people ‘fucking’ and ‘bloodying’ all over the place, and of course that rarely translates onto the stage. Well, it hadn’t until the early seventies, when all these new Australian writers started using the vernacular with increasing frequency. I’m prepared to concede that it wears thin after a while, but it has been the way we talk for a couple of hundred years.

These days I’m sick to death of playing overly Aussie or ocker characters. I’m not complaining I’ve made a good living by playing the archetypal ocker - but I suspect the truth is that those characters are as much caricature, as unlike reality, as Punch and Judy. They served their purpose in the early seventies, but they are, for the most part, extreme, and therefore people that don’t really exist. Whether or not that is true, I have played more than my fair share of them.

How I Clawed My Way to the Middle by John Wood.

Published by Penguin Random House Australia. RRP $34.99 Available to buy from Stage Whispers Books bit.ly/36R7teB

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 49

Stage On Disc

By Peter Pinne

was incisive and coherent, and very well played, though the show is still flawed, despite some brilliant sequences.

Like the early Act One medley of ‘Rain on the Roof’ with Norma Atallah and Billy Boyle skittering around like characters in a Jerome Kern 20s musical, Geraldine Fitzgerald bringing Gallic charm to ‘Ah, Paris’ and Di Botcher delivering some White Way gloss to ‘Broadway Baby’.

Peter Forbes is in top form with ‘Buddy’s Blues’, possibly the best track on the album. Tracie Bennett’s ‘I’m Still Here’, although studied, bristles with guts. Josephine Barstow’s wide vibrato as Heidi in ‘One More Kiss’ is offset by the gorgeous soprano of Alison Langer as her youthful self, and you can hear the age of a faded showgirl in Dawn Hope’s ‘Who’s That Woman’.

Staunton, in another demanding Sondheim role, beautifully controls her distress in ‘In Buddy’s Eyes’, whilst her ‘Losing My Mind’ is suffused with a raw ache. Janie Dee’s ‘Could I Leave You’ has sweeping bitterness, whilst Gould brings gravitas and introspection to ‘The Road You Didn’t Take’.

Nigel Lilley conducts a 21-piece orchestra, which plays Jonathan Tunick’s original orchestrations superbly. 

Company (Stephen Sondheim) (Warner Music Group 0093624900979) Marianne Elliott’s gender-switch version of Company gives the Sondheim classic a new and vibrant lease of life.

Elliott, whose previous hits have included groundbreaking productions of War Horse and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, has reimagined the quintessential 70s musical for today, with the role of Bobbie played by a female, the ‘Getting Married Today’ sequence as a male gay couple taking their vows, and gender switches in ‘You Could Drive A Person Crazy’ (male trio), ‘Another Hundred People’ (male vocal) and ‘Have I Got A Girl (Guy) For You’ (female quartet). With new orchestrations by David Cullen, and a few lyric tweaks, it’s a brilliant reinterpretation.

Rosalie Craig, whose previous London credits include City of Angels, Ragtime and London Road, plays Bobbie with warmth and honesty, and can belt it out when necessary. Her ‘Being Alive’ is emotional, and her comic instincts are perfect, giving ‘Barcelona’ (with Richard Fleeshman) the requisite laughs. George Blagden’s ‘Another Hundred People’ is good but very English, and Jonathan Bailey (Jamie) and Alex Gaumond (Paul) are a great gay couple ‘Getting Married’. ‘Side, By Side, By Side,

By Side’ is vibrant and alive with great theatricality, whilst Patti LuPone eats up ‘The Ladies Who Lunch’ as she did on the Neil Patrick Harris 2011 Broadway version. Ben Lewis (Love Never Dies), as Larry, gets a moment to shine Online extras! in ‘Sorry-Grateful’.

Stream the 2018 National Theatre Cast The production was recording of Follies on Apple Music a 2018 London hit and apple.co/37EdABX was due to play Broadway this year but cancelled due to COVID Losing My Mind - A Sondheim Disco Fever Dream -19. Let’s hope it gets (Stephen Sondheim) (Broadway Records BR-CD14420) up when Broadway reopens, as this version Still on a Sondheim kick, this album is much, much more than a disco album, being a clever mash-up of needs to be seen Sondheim songs which are thematically linked. The everywhere.  harmonies and arrangements are excellent, and the terrific orchestrations are by Joshua Hinck and Scott Wasserman.

Online extras!

‘Opening (Doors)’ sets the style with lyric grabs from Company, Into The Woods and Merrily We Roll Along. It’s Get a digital copy of the 2018 cast sung by Joshua Hinck and Charity Angél Dawson, who recording of Company from Amazon. both have great Broadway belt voices. amzn.to/3qCIPpY The second track mixes ‘Somewhere’ (West Side Story) with ‘There Are Giants’ (Into the Woods), whilst the third Follies (Stephen Sondheim) (Warner Classics has grabs from Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods and 093624900955) Passion.

Aili Venho does a driving version of ‘The Miller’s This is Dominic Cooke’s 2018 National Theatre, Son’, with stunning trumpet work by Jami Dauber, whilst London, cast recording of this cult Sondheim classic track eight, ‘Artists Are Bizarre’, features sections of which won “Best Musical Revival” at the Olivier Awards.

‘Simple’ from Anyone Can Whistle, a song where the Starring Imelda Staunton (Sally), Philip Quast (Ben), Janie characters decide who should be in the “cookie bin”. It’s Dee (Phyllis) and Peter Forbes (Buddy), Cooke’s production 50 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

Lolita, My Love (John Barry/Alan Jay Lerner) (Kritzerland KR-200385) Hot on the heels of York Theatre Company’s “Musicals In Mufti” version of this forgotten show, which closed out -of-town before reaching Broadway in 1971, comes a new live soundboard recording of the original cast.

In 1987 Blue Pear Records released a soundboard recording of the original cast but the sound was poor and there was so much noise ambience it was un-listenable.

Producer Bruce Kimmel has now done a mighty job of restoring this live recording, which sounds very good. The show, based on Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 novel Lolita, was about a “precociously seductive” teenage girl and her middle-aged literature professor, Humbert Humbert, which starred John Neville and Dorothy Louden.

Three-years earlier, Neville had made his musical Online extras! theatre debut in the West End’s Mr and Mrs. Not a singer Buy Losing My Mind - A Sondheim Disco - more an actor who carries a tune - his vocals capture the essence of the character in the haunting ‘Tell Me, Tell Me’ Fever Dream from Broadway Records. and ‘How Far Is the Next Town’, and one of the best bit.ly/39NbceV songs ever written about adolescent love, the lovely ‘In The Broken Promise Land Of Fifteen’. Louden, as Lolita’s On The Level (Ron Grainer/Robin Miller) (Stage Door vulgar mother, sings the piquant waltz ‘Sur Le Quais’.

STAGE 9076) ‘Going, Going, Gone’ Stage Door continue their ‘Masters Series’ with this was a hit for Shirley West End entry from 1966. It was Ron Grainer and Ronald Bassey at the time.

Miller’s follow-up to their massive hit Robert and The CD reveals John Elizabeth, but without its staying power - running a mere Barry and Alan Jay 118 performances. It’s lively, even frenetic, with a score Lerner’s score to be a that’s typical of the 60s, featuring a jazz-waltz, soft-rock lost gem from beats, and a title tune done as a “frug”. ‘My Girl At The Broadway’s Golden Dance’ sounds like a Cliff Richard number, ‘Very Good Age. Highly Friend’ is nicely handled by Barry Ingram and Phyllida Law, recommended! whilst ‘Bleep-Bleep’ made a star (briefly) of chorus-girl  Sheila White. ‘Nostalgia’ was a pleasant number for the adults, which satirically asked “bring back the war”, Vera Lynn, and “The White Online extras!

Cliffs of Dover”. The plot Kritzerland has the 2-CD set of Lolita, revolved around the My Love available to buy. Scan or visit stealing of high-school bit.ly/37Kw4AM exam papers, and the cast was top-heavy with Australian talent - Rod McLennan, Terry Mitchell, Earle Cross and Noel Tovey.  the first time I’ve ever heard this song (or part of it) recorded since the original cast recording in 1964.

‘Losing My Mind’ is mixed with ‘You Could Drive A Person Crazy’, whilst the finale is a mega-mix of ‘Somewhere’, ‘Unworthy Of Your Love’, ‘Lovely’, ‘No One Is Alone’, ‘Losing My Mind’ and ‘Take Me To The World’. It’s Sondheim with a difference. 

Online extras!

Pick up a copy of On The Level from Stage Door Records. Scan or visit bit.ly/33M7U7J

Rating  Only for the enthusiast  Borderline  Worth buying  Must have  Kill for it

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

On Stage A.C.T. Bluey’s Big Play - The Stage Show. Jan 19 - 24. Canberra Theatre. canberratheatrecentre.com.au Eishan Ensemble: Afternoon Tea at Six. The Street Theatre.

Feb 13. thestreet.org.au Wolf Lullaby by Lucy Bell. Echo Theatre. Feb 18 - 27. The Q Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. theq.net.au The Miriam Lieberman Trio.

The Street Theatre. Feb 27. thestreet.org.au New South Wales Pippin. Book by Roger O. Hirson. Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. John Frost and Suzanne Jones in association with Barry and Fran Weissler, and Howard and Janet Kagan. Ongoing. Sydney Lyric Theatre, The Star. 136 100. pippinthemusical.com.au Frozen. Music and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez. Book by Jennifer Lee. Disney Theatrical Productions. Ongoing. Capitol Theatre. 1300 558 878. frozenthemusical.com.au The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, adapted and directed by Kip Williams.

Sydney Theatre Company. Until Jan 9. Ros Packer Theatre. (02) 9250 1777. sydneytheatre.com.au My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin, adapted by Kendall Feaver. Belvoir. Dec 5 - Jan 31.

Belvoir Street Upstairs Theatre. belvoir.com.au Magic Mike Live. Conceived and Directed by Channing Tatum. From Dec 17. The Arcadia, The Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park. magicmikelive.com.au Rent by Jonathan Larson. LPD Productions and Sugary Rum Productions. Dec 27 - Jan 31.

Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. (02) 9250 7777. sydneyoperahouse.com The Shape of Things by Neil LaBute. Lambert House 52 Stage Whispers

A.C.T. & New South Wales

Enterprises. Dec 29 - Jan 21.

Flight Path Theatre, Marrckville. trybooking.com/BMUXN James Galea’s Best Trick Ever.

Rose Tinted Enterprises. Jan 2 Feb 14. Studio, Sydney Opera House. (02) 9250 7777. sydneyoperahouse.com Great Opera Hits. Opera Australia. Jan 3 - Feb 5. Sydney Opera House. (02) 9318 8200. opera.org.au The Merry Widow by Franz Lehár. Opera Australia. Jan 5 16. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. (02) 9318 8200. opera.org.au The Wharf Revue 2020: Good Night and Good Luck by Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Phillip Scott.

Sydney Theatre Company. Jan 5 - 17, Glen Street Theatre, glenstreet.com.au; Jan 21 - 23, Q Theatre, Penrith, thejoan.com.au; Jan 29 - 30, Orange Civic Theatre, orange.nsw.gov.au; Feb 2 - 6, Illawarra Performing Arts Centre, merrigong.com.au; Feb 9 - 10, Civic Theatre Wagga, civictheatre.com.au; Feb 13 14, Civic Theatre, Newcastle, civictheatrenewcastle.com.au.

Sydney Festival. Jan 6 - 26. sydneyfestival.org.au The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. Jan 6 - 24.

Royal Botanic Garden. (02) 9011 7704. willowslive.com.au A Bee Story. ARC Circus ad ClusterArts. Sydney Festival. Jan 7 - 10. Vaucluse House. sydneyfestival.org.au Queen Fatima by James Elazzi.

Riverside’s National Theatre of Parramatta / Sydney Festival.

Jan 7 - 16. Riverside Theatres. sydneyfestival.org.au Sunshine Super Girl by Andrea James. Sydney Festival / Performing Lines. Jan 8 - 17.

Sydney Town Hall. sydneyfestival.org.au No Shade? All Shades. The People of Cabaret and Darlinghurst Theatre Company.

Sydney Festival. Jan 12 - 17.

Eternity Playhouse. sydneyfestival.org.au Darlo Supper Club.

Darlinghurst Theatre Company / Sydney Festival. Jan 12 - 16. Eternity Playhouse. sydneyfestival.org.au Humans 2.0. Circa / Sydney Festival. Jan 13 - 20.

Carriageworks. sydneyfestival.org.au Hide the Dog by Nathan Maynard (Palawa) & Jamie Mccaskill (Māori). Tasmania Performs / Sydney Festival. Jan 13 - 17. Seymour Centre. sydneyfestival.org.au H.M.S. Pinafore by Gilbert and Sullivan. Siren Theatre Co / Sydney Festival. Jan 13 - 20.

Riverside Theatres. sydneyfestival.org.au Maureen: Harbinger of Death

by Jonny Hawkins and Nell Ranney. Sydney Festival. Jan 13 - 17. Seymour Centre. sydneyfestival.org.au Kenny. Adapted for the stage

by Steve Rogers, from the film

by Shane and Clayton Jacobson. Ensemble Theatre.

Sydney Festival. Jan 15 - Feb 27. Ensemble Theatre. sydneyfestival.org.au / ensemble.com.au Room on the Broom. Adapted from the award winning picture book by Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler.

CDP/Tall Stories. Jan 18 - 20.

Seymour Centre. seymourcentre.com Dorr-e Dari: A Poetic Crash Course in the Language of Love. PYT Fairfield. Jan 20 - 24.

Carriageworks. sydneyfestival.org.au Magic Beach by Finegan Kruckemeyer, based on the book by Alison Lester. CDP Kids. Jan 21 - 24. Seymour Centre. seymourcentre.com Rewired: Musicals Reimagined

by Hayes. Hayes Theatre Co / Sydney Festival. Jan 22 - 24.

Seymour Centre. sydneyfestival.org.au

Fangirls by Yve Blake. Belvoir.

Jan 30 - Feb 20. Seymour Centre. (02) 9699 3444. belvoir.com.au Circa’s Peepshow. Created by Yaron Lifschitz with Libby McDonnell and the Circa Ensemble. Feb 2 - 14. Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House.

(02) 9250 7777. sydneyoperahouse.com Ernani by Verdi. Opera Australia. Feb 2 - 13. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. (02) 9318 8200. opera.org.au Things I Know To Be True by Andrew Bovell. Castle Hill Players. Feb 5 - 27. The Pavilion Theatre, Castle Hill. paviliontheatre.org.au Green Park by Elias Jameison Brown. Griffin Theatre Company. Feb 5 - Mar 6.

Green Park, Darlinghurst. griffintheatre.com.au Crown Matrimonial by Royce Ryton. The Guild Theatre, Walz St, Rockdale. Feb 5 - Mar 6.

(02) 9597 4558 or guildtheatre.com.au Travelling North by David Williamson. Arts Theatre Cronulla. Feb 12 - Mar 20. Arts Theatre, 6 Surf Road, Cronulla. artstheatrecronulla.com.au Pack of Lies by Hugh Whitemore. Pymble Players.

Feb 17 - Mar 14. pymbleplayers.com.au The Choir of Man. Andrew Kay & Nic Doodson. Feb 18 - Apr 4.

Studio, Sydney Opera House.

(02) 9250 7777. sydneyoperahouse.com Playing Beatie Bow by Ruth Park, adapted for the stage by Kate Mulvany. Sydney Theatre Company. Feb 22 - May 1.

Wharf 1 Theatre. sydneytheatre.com.au Jekyll & Hyde The Musical.

Book and Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse. Music by Frank Wildhorn. Based on the story

by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Lane Cove Theatre Company.

Feb 12 - 27. lanecovetheatrecompany.com

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

On Stage

New South Wales, Queensland & Victoria

Online extras!

Join the cast of Disney’s Frozen The Musical during rehearsals. fb.watch/2hMmn9zU3x Sean Sinclair as Kristoff and Lochie McIntyre as Sven in Disney’s Frozen The Musical, playing at The Capitol Theatre, Sydney.

Photo: Lisa Tomasetti. frozenthemusical.com.au

We Will Rock You by Queen and Ben Elton. Packemin Productions. Feb 12 - 27.

Riverside Theatre Parramatta. riversideparramatta.com.au Tosca by Puccini. Opera Australia. Feb 22 - Mar 13.

Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. (02) 9318 8200. opera.org.au Bluebeard’s Castle by Béla Bartók. Opera Australia. Mar 1 - 10. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. (02) 9318 8200. opera.org.au Queensland A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. shake & stir. Lyric Theatre, QPAC. Dec 16 - 24.

136 246. qpac.com.au Bluey’s Big Play - The Stage Show. Playhouse, QPAC, Dec 23 - Jan 10, 136 246; Empire Theatre, Toowoomba, Feb 21, 1300 655 299. events.bluey.tv Shrek The Musical. Based on the DreamWorks Animation motion picture and book by William Steig. Book and lyrics

by David Lindsay-Abaire. Music

by Jeanine Tesori. Gordon Frost Organisation. From Jan 9. Lyric Theatre, QPAC. 136 246. qpac.com.au Cinderella. Ballet Theatre Queensland, Playhouse, QPAC. Jan 20 - 24. 136 246. qpac.com.au Mamma Mia! The Musical.

Encore season. Catherine Johnson, Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus. Redcliffe Musical Theatre. Redcliffe Cultural Centre. Jan 21 - 24. (07) 3213 0400. redcliffeentertainmentcentre.com.au Prada’s Priscillas. Empire Theatre, Toowoomba. Jan 29.

1300 655 299. empiretheatre.com.au Bye, Bye Birdie by Michael Stewart, Charles Strouse and Lee Adams. Gold Coast Little Theatre. Jan 29 - Feb 27. (07) 5532 2096. gclt.com.au Some of My Best Friends are Women by Carole Tricher.

Javeenbah Theatre, Nerang.

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

Jan 29 - Feb 13. (07) 5596 0300. javeenbah.org.au Our Town by Thornton Wilder.

Queensland Theatre. Jan 30 Feb 27. (07) 3010 7600. queenslandtheatre.com.au Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by David Greig, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman.

Phoenix Ensemble, Beenleigh.

Feb 5 - 23. (07) 3103 1546. phoenixensemble.com.au Birds of Tokyo In Concert with QSO. Concert Hall, QPAC. Feb 12 - 13. 136 246. qpac.com.au Aftermath. Australasian Dance Collective. Brisbane Powerhouse. Feb 12 - 14. (07) 3358 8622. brisbanepowerhouse.org The Beatles 50 Years On. Concert Hall, QPAC. Feb 18.

136 246. qpac.com.au Avenue Q. Music and lyrics by Robert Lopez & Jeff Marx. Book

by Jeff Whitty. Shoebox Theatre, Empire Theatre, Toowoomba. Feb 18 - 20.

1300 655 299. empiretheatre.com.au Miss Burlesque Queensland State Final. Brisbane Powerhouse. Feb 20. (07) 3358 8622. brisbanepowerhouse.org Souvenirs De Aranjuez.

Southern Cross Soloists.

Concert Hall, QPAC. Feb 21.

136 246. qpac.com.au There’s Something About Music. Rom Com Movie Mix Tape. The Little Red Company / Naomi Price. Brisbane Powerhouse. Feb 24 - 27. (07) 3358 8622. brisbanepowerhouse.org Victoria A Midsummer Night's Dream

by William Shakespeare. The Australian Shakespeare Company. Dec 18 - Jan 24.

Royal Botanic Gardens. (03) 8676 7511. shakespeareaustralia.com.au Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. The Australian Shakespeare Stage Whispers 53

On Stage Company. Dec 19 - Jan 24.

Royal Botanic Gardens. (03) 8676 7511. shakespeareaustralia.com.au Tinkerbell and the Dream Fairies. The Australian Shakespeare Company. Dec 22 - Jan 20. Ripponlea House and Gardens, Elsternwick. (03) 8676 7511. shakespeareaustralia.com.au Vivaldi, Cecilia and the Carnevale by Sue Lindsay.

Wonthaggi Theatrical Group.

Jan 2 - 9. WTG Performance Space. wtg.org.au The Love of the Nightingale by Timberlake Wertenbaker.

Fringe Replanted. Jan 5 - 9.

Theatreworks. theatreworks.org.au

Victoria

Jan 13 - 16. Theatreworks. theatreworks.org.au And Then She Became a Chair

by Michelle Myers. Fringe Replanted. Jan 13 - 16.

Theatreworks. theatreworks.org.au

Malthouse Outdoor Stage.

Come From Away. Book, music From Jan 22. Malthouse Theatre. (03) 9685 5111. and lyrics by David Hein and malthousetheatre.com.au Irene Sankoff. Junkyard Dogs Productions and Rodney Rigby. The Wind in the Willows by From Jan 19. Comedy Theatre. Kenneth Grahame. Leongatha comefromaway.com.au Lyric Theatre. Jan 22 - 26.

Mosvale Park.

Kerosene by Benjamin Nichol.

Fringe Replanted. Jan 20 - 31. trybooking.com/BLYGT Theatreworks. theatreworks.org.au

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany.

Ring, Ring! By Ebony Rattle and Princess Theatre. From Jan 20.

Ellen Wiltshire. Fringe harrypottertheplay.com/au Replanted. Jan 5 - 9.

Very Nice Pot Plants to Purify Theatreworks. the Air and Enrich Your Life. theatreworks.org.au Fringe Replanted. Jan 20 - 24.

Alibi or Someplace Else by Will Hannagan. Fringe Replanted.

54 Stage Whispers

The House at the Edge of the World by Conor Neylon and Jackson Peele. Fringe Replanted. Jan 20 - 24.

Theatreworks. theatreworks.org.au

Theatreworks. theatreworks.org.au

Dolly Diamond - I’m Not Angry, Just Disappointed. The Butterfly Club. Jan 25 - 30. thebutterflyclub.com

Tash York and the Red Wines: Trash Talk. The Butterfly Club.

Jan 25 - 30. thebutterflyclub.com Burn This by Lanford Willson.

16th Street in association with HST. Jan 26 - Feb 7. fortyfivedownstairs. fortyfivedownstairs.com

Spot by Fabio Motta. Fringe Replanted. Jan 27 - 31.

Theatreworks. theatreworks.org.au The Well by Louris van de Geer, adapted from the book by Elizabeth Jolley. A bespoke staged reading. Melbourne Theatre Company. Jan 29 & 30.

Southbank Theatre, The Sumner. mtc.com.au Macbeth by William Shakespeare. The Australian Shakespeare Company. Jan 30 - Mar 6. Royal Botanic Gardens. (03) 8676 7511. shakespeareaustralia.com.au Common Dissonance by Harley Mann. Na Djinang Circus.

Fringe Replanted. Feb 3 - 13.

Theatreworks. theatreworks.org.au Das Rheingold by Wagner.

Melbourne Opera. Feb 3 - 7.

Regent Theatre. melbourneopera.com Beating The Blues. Sneak-peek of a new musical by Carolyn

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

On Stage

Victoria, South Australia, W.A. & New Zealand

Burns, Tim Finn and Simon Phillips. Melbourne Theatre Company. Feb 5 & 6.

Southbank Theatre, The Sumner. mtc.com.au

Bluey's Big Play - the Stage Show. BBC Studios & Andrew Kay, in association with QPAC's Out of the Box and Windmill Theatre Co. Jan 13 - 17. Her Majesty's Theatre.

The Anniversary. MILKE and Salvador Dinosaur. Feb 10 - 21. events.bluey.tv Les Misérables. Music by fortyfivedownstairs. fortyfivedownstairs.com Claude-Michel Schönberg.

Well, That Happened by Dean Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer.

Original French text by Alain Bryant for Esther Hannaford, Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel.

Bert LaBonté, Zahra Adelaide Youth Theatre. Jan 14 Newman, Christina - 17. Arts Theatre.

O’Neill and Eddie Perfect.

Melbourne Theatre Company. adelaideyouththeatre.com.au Feb 12 & 13. Southbank Theatre, The Sumner. mtc.com.au

We’re Probably Really Happy Right Now by Ellen Grimshaw.

Public Service Announcement Theatre Co. Feb 17 - 27.

Theatreworks. theatreworks.org.au

Skylight by David Hare.

Verendus Theatrical with the support of Red Phoenix Theatre. Jan 14 - 23. Holden Street Theatres. holdenstreettheatres.com

Adelaide Festival in association with Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Feb 26 - Mar 3.

Festival Theatre. adelaidefestival.com.au Nancy Wake - The White Mouse. Adelaide Fringe. Feb 26 - Mar 14. Star Theatres. adelaidefringe.com.au Adelaide Festival. Feb 26 - Mar 14. adelaidefestival.com.au Western Australia Heathers The Musical by Kevin Murphy & Laurence O’Keefe.

Based on the film written by Daniel Waters. Wanneroo Repertory. Jan 21 - Feb 6.

Limelight Theatre. limelighttheatre.com.au

Black Brass by Mararo Wangai.

Performing Lines WA / Perth Festival. Feb 24 - 28. Studio Underground. perthfestival.com.au New Zealand Cinderella - The Pantomime by Simon Leary and Gavin Rutherford. Circa Theatre, Wellington. Jan 2 - 16. (04) 801 7992. circa.co.nz The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. Jan 16 - 22.

Gryphon Theatre, Wellington. eventfinda.co.nz The Look of Love. Ali Harper with Tom McLeod (piano) Callum Allardice (guitar). AliCat Productions. Jan 23 - Feb 20. Circa Theatre, Wellington.

(04) 801 7992. circa.co.nz

The Boy From Oz by Nick Enright and Peter Allen.

Moana Jr. By Lin-Manuel Platinum Entertainment. Jan 22 Disney Alice in Wonderland Jr. Miranda, Opetaia Foa’i and - Feb 7. Crown Theatre.

Riverlea Theatre, Hamilton. Jan Mark Mancina. Adelaide Youth 19 - 23. 0508 iTICKET (484crownperth.com.au Love, Loss and What I Wore by Theatre. Jan 23 & 24. Arts 253). eventfinda.co.nz Fringe World Festival.

Jan 15 Theatre.

Delia and Nora Ephron.

Feb 14. fringeworld.com.au A Bunch of Amateurs by Ian adelaideyouththeatre.com.au Mordialloc Theatre Company Hislop and Nick Newman.

Perth Festival. Feb 5 - 28.

Inc. Feb 18 - 28.

Summer of '69. Davine Havelock Theatre Company. perthfestival.com.au mordialloctheatre.com Productions. Feb 4 - 6. Star Jan 20 - 30. Havelock Town Theatres.

House by Dan Giovannoni.

Cybec Electric play readings.

Hall. havelocktheatre.nz Barking Gecko Theatre / Perth Melbourne Theatre Company. davineproductions.com Snowflake by Mike Bartlett.

Feb 19 & 20. Southbank It's Our Secret. Not anymore... Festival. Feb 5 - 13. Heath Plumb Productions. Feb 3 - 20.

Ledger Theatre.

Theatre, The Sumner.

Feb 11 - 13. Star Theatres.

Theatre Pitt, Auckland. perthfestival.com.au mtc.com.au trybooking.com/BILTA plumbproductions.co.nz The Cherry Orchard. Adapted Runt. Dee & Cornelius & Wilks. The Man Who Wrote Winding Up by Roger Hall. The

by Adriane Daff & Katherine Feb 24 - Mar 7.

Shakespeare. Adelaide Fringe.

Court Theatre, Christchurch.

Tonkin after Chekhov.

Black fortyfivedownstairs.

Feb 19 - Mar 7. Star Theatres.

Swan State Theatre Company / Feb 13 - Mar 13. 0800 333 fortyfivedownstairs.com adelaidefringe.com.au Perth Festival. Feb 17 - Mar 14. 100. courttheatre.org.nz The Black Woman of 13 The Musical by Jason Robert Sunset Heritage Precinct.

Te Whare Kapua: The Cloud Gippsland by Andrea James.

Brown. Adelaide Youth House by Miriama McDowell. bsstc.com.au Melbourne Theatre Company. Theatre. Feb 19 - 21. Star Massive Theatre Company. Feb Whale Fall by Ian Sinclair.

The First draft presentation on Theatres.

16 - 20. Māngere Arts Centre Kabuki Drop / Perth Festival.

Feb 26 & 27. Southbank adelaideyouththeatre.com.au Feb 17 - 27. PICA Performance Ngā Tohu o Uenuku, Auckland.

Theatre, The Sumner.

Adelaide Fringe. Feb 19 - Mar massivecompany.co.nz Space. perthfestival.com.au mtc.com.au 21. adelaidefringe.com.au Slow Burn, Together by Emma Hamilton Gardens Arts Festival.

South Australia The Boy Who Talked to Dogs.

Feb 20 - 28. hgaf.co.nz Fishwick. Performing Lines Room on the Broom. Adapted Slingsby and State Theatre WA / Perth Festival. Feb 18 Dakota of the White Flats. from the picture book by Julia Company South Australia in Adapted from the novel by 21. Studio Underground.

Donaldson & Axel Scheffler. association with Adelaide Philip Ridley. Red Leap Theatre. perthfestival.com.au CDP Theatre Producers. Dec 19 Festival. Feb 25 - Mar 14.

Feb 24 - 26. The Meteor, Managing Carmen by David - 23. Dunstan Playhouse.

Thomas Edmonds Opera Waikato. redleaptheatre.co.nz adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au Studio, Adelaide Showground. Williamson. Garrick Theatre.

Feb 18 Mar 6.

A Floor, Some Thoughts, and adelaidefestival.com.au One Man, Two Guvnors by garricktheatre.asn.au Us. ChoreoCo by Footnote New Richard Bean. Blue Sky Theatre A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Zealand Dance. Feb 25 - 28.

Whistleblower.

The Last Great and Open Gardens SA. Jan 8 - Co-production of Houston Circa Theatre, Wellington. (04) Hunt / Perth Festival.

Feb 19 24. Victor Harbor / Hahndorf / Grand Opera, Chicago Lyric 801 7992. circa.co.nz 28. Heath Ledger Theatre.

Wittunga Botanic Garden.

Opera and Canadian Opera perthfestival.com.au blueskytheatre.com.au Company presented by Advertise your show on the front page of stagewhispers.com.au

Stage Whispers 55

Online extras!

Reviews

Director Bridget Boyle discusses the creation of The Holidays. Scan or visit youtu.be/N_3hl-hkeeE

Bryan Probets in Queensland Theatre’s The Holidays.

Photo: Morgan Roberts.

The Holidays

By David Megarrity. Queensland Theatre. Direction: Bridget Boyle. Nov 14 - Dec 12.

QUEENSLAND Theatre reopened with the world premiere of David Megaritty’s 2018 Queensland Premier’s Drama Award winning play, The Holidays.

As seen through the eyes of the 12-year-old Oliver Holiday (Matthew Lanna), who has been pulled out of school to go and visit his grandfather at his remote seaside shack, the car trip with his dad, Bob (Bryan Proberts), and mum, Summer (Louise Brehmer), sets us up for what is to follow: a play of memories, memory loss, and family love.

The shack is messy and in need of a clean, but it reeks of its owner, an eccentric artist. It’s full of paintings given to the grandfather by his artist friends in exchange for free board. As they look at the works, an audio-visual frame lights up on the set and we see them. Later, when Oliver is on the beach, he draws lines in the sand which are drawn out on the set. It’s a marvelous AV effect. In fact the AV effects not only illuminate the text but elevate it.

Bob is having difficulties with the memories the shack evokes, knowing his father will never return to it as he is in hospital with dementia. He doesn’t want to move anything, but Oliver insists on playing an old Billie Holiday LP and the sound of her voice is what leads to the play’s climax. The family visit the hospital, and for a moment Billie Holiday’s voice brings the grandfather lucidity. He reaches out to touch Oliver’s hand which he does but 56 Stage Whispers

when Bob puts his hand on top of the other two it’s an emotionally touching and moving moment as three generations come together.

Proberts is a stern but lovable dad, Brehmer’s mum is the shoulder her husband needs at this difficult time, and 15-year-old Lanna is excellent as the play’s narrator and dumb joke teller, Oliver.

Nathan Sibthorpe’s production design and Jason Glenright’s lighting are superb, as is the moody and melodic soundscape of composer Sean Foran, whilst Bridget Boyle’s direction pulls it all together in a cohesive whole.

Peter Pinne Ripcord

By David Lindsay-Abaire State Theatre Company SA. Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre. Nov 13 - Dec 13.

RIPCORD is, on the surface, a rollicking comedic gem.

However, as one expects from playwright Lindsay-Abaire, the layers beneath are where the riches of the story lie.

With his direction, Mitchell Butel maintains the pace and keeps the shrewd wordplay focused. The relationships and dynamics of the characters are also beautifully realised - the regard in which the director holds this play is obvious. Without such deft handling Ripcord could easily descend into farcical sit-com land. Instead, Butel skilfully guides this play and cast to exactly the right place where deeper themes sit beside the comedic in respectful and meaningful ways.

Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at stagewhispers.com.au

Online extras!

Danik Abishev, Lucy Maunder and Ainsley Melham in Pippin.

Photo: David Hooley.

Opening night audiences loved Pippin.

Scan the QR code or visit fb.watch/2exnyoPmjr

The Ripcord ensemble is perfectly cast, with Nancye Hayes as abrasive, forthright Abby and Carmel Johnson as joyous, sparkling Marilyn, two older women sharing a room at the Bristol Place Senior Living Facility. The narrative centres on Abby’s desire to live solo in this room with two beds and Marilyn’s goal, not only to remain in the room, but to acquire the bed closest to the window and view. Battle lines are drawn and a bet made that Abby will make Marilyn feel anger before Marilyn can provoke Abby to feel fear. Instead of watching two actors strut their stuff, we are merely observers as two complex women find themselves in circumstances they did not expect and eventually embrace sides of their personalities they have formerly supressed.

Mitchell Butel has produced a very fine production of Ripcord and pulled together a cohesive and talented team. It was also a joy to witness older women portrayed on stage with respect, wit and layered personalities - by actual, talented older women.

Lisa Lanzi

Pippin - first staged on Broadway in 1972 - is not a tier one commercial musical with general public name recognition like we are used to seeing in this venue, but is more in the field of classics which music theatre aficionados relish.

The casting initially attracted some controversy.

Gabrielle McClinton was imported from the United States for the part of the Leading Player. “Why bring in someone from overseas during a pandemic?,” was the outcry. Well the answer was, because she is so good in the role.

The other controversial casting was TV personality Kerri -Anne Kennerley, in the cameo as the grandmother Berthe. Her singing was OK, but up on that swing the 67year-old swung upside down - held by her ankles by a muscle-bound gymnast.

But this was not the Kerri-Anne Kennerley show - her role is a brief cameo.

This is the Ainsley Melham (Pippin) show. He is Australia’s leading man of the moment: combining boynext-door good looks, dazzling dancing, nice singing and bucket loads of charisma.

Pippin The production, too, is a knock-out - first staged at the Book by Roger O. Hirson. Music and Lyrics by Stephen American Repertory Theatre in 2012, then transferring to Broadway where it won the Best Revival of a Musical Schwartz. Produced by John Frost and Suzanne Jones.

Sydney Lyric. Opening night Dec 3.

Tony.

IT was a thrill to finally return to a crowded, albeit Setting the musical in a circus - with magic tricks, masked, theatre to see a big musical. The excited opening acrobatics, svelte bodies and brooding lighting - well suits night audience gave a well-deserved ovation to the the illusion of the original book.

It was a welcome return to big musical theatre. spectacular song ‘Magic To Do’ - which combined a lovely David Spicer tune, colourful costumes and circus tricks.

Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at stagewhispers.com.au

Stage Whispers 57

Penelope Bartlau & Jason Lehane in Barking Spider’s The Biscuit Readings.

The Biscuit Readings Performed by ‘Betty Bircher and Bert Bircher’ (Penelope Bartlau & Jason Lehane). Barking Spider Visual Theatre.

Digital Fringe. Melbourne Fringe Festival. Nov 18 - 26.

‘NOTHING defines a person more than their natural biscuit alignment.’ So claims Betty, and probably stolid Bert Bircher too. So, what is your biscuit? Tim Tam? Iced VoVo? Ginger Snap? How about a Florentine? That’d be something. To get an interactive reading you need to log on with Zoom. It’s an entirely improvised show, different every time, depending on who happens to log on for their ‘reading’.

When I log on, the couple are warm and welcoming in an old-fashioned Australian way. ‘How has your day been, dear?’ Betty asks, as if she really cares. Bert occasionally brings Betty down from a malapropism or a flight of fancy. My biscuit is, apparently, the Venetian, a crumbly number topped with white chocolate, lemon zest and… something else - these disparate elements reflecting - or perhaps a metaphor for - my character. It is nevertheless gratifying, if not flattering, to be told that since one’s biscuit is creamy, full o’ fruit or chocolate coated, one is therefore creative, full of energy or magnanimous. And no one’s biscuit is going to be a Jatz cracker or a dry old Sao. I ask what their biscuits are. Well, Bert’s is the Anzac although it took Betty to see it. And Betty’s? Now that is something no one has been able to say.

We can always expect something uniquely original from Barking Spider Visual Theatre. This manifestation of their powers of invention is ‘silly’ but warm, laugh-outloud, and also nostalgic for a nicer past.

Michael Brindley

Online extras!

Betty and Bert Bircher discuss the pros and cons of Arnott’s Chocolate Royals. youtu.be/Es1ZrxMqrgA

Rules For Living

By Sam Holcroft. Sydney Theatre Company. Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Nov 2 - Dec 19.

TINSELLED up for the silly season, the STC returns from COVID darkness with that old sit com trope of a dysfunctional family reuniting on Christmas Day, and then

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Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at stagewhispers.com.au

Keegan Joyce and Nikita Waldron in STC’s Rules For Living.

Photo: Daniel Boud.

PERFORMING ARTS MAGAZINE DEC 2020 & JAN/FEB 2021. VOLUME 29, NUMBER 6 ABN 71 129 358 710 ISSN 1321 5965

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tearing each other apart. But British writer Sam Holcroft adds a touch of reality TV by flashing on screens each of the characters’ hidden idiosyncrasies.

Matthew (a convincing Keegan Joyce) is frustrated lawyer pining for his brother’s wife: he has to sit down and eat - whenever he lies. Brother Adam (Hazem Shammas), a once promising cricketer, has to speak (endlessly) in silly voices when revealing truths, while his wife Nicole (Amber McMahon) stews in alcoholic need, and anger at Adam’s hopeless procrastination. Matthew’s partner Carrie (Nikita Waldron), fresh from NIDA, must dance out inappropriately bawdy songs before, thankfully, she can sit down.

And Edith (Sonia Todd) is the traditional Mum, planning Christmas with military precision: she furiously cleans whenever truths and conflicts threaten. Designer Charles Davis delivers an attractively detailed home from Sydney’s North Shore, exploiting the Drama Theatre’s wide stage, here topped with screens intermittently revealing each new rule for living.

Director Susanna Dowling slickly integrates this theatrical messaging, but the secrets, while prompting some good gags, are hardly profound, just as Holcroft’s characters themselves struggle to reach beyond bluster and cliché, or move us to much real, empathic laughter.

Premiered in London in 2015, the play has been artfully adapted by Holcroft herself with Australian references and jokes. In the second half, it leaves truth further behind and happily cranks up into riotous farce when the dominating patriarch, Francis (a classy Bruce Spence), now demented, returns from hospital, and some real secrets are hurled into the mix.

Martin Portus

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LIMITED BACK COPIES AVAILABLE. ADVERTISERS We accept no responsibility for material submitted that does not comply with the Trade Practices Act. 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, Mel Bobbermien, Michael Brindley, Rose Cooper, Kerry Cooper, Ken Cotterill, Bill Davies, Coral Drouyn, Jenny Fewster, Graham Ford, Peter Gotting, Frank Hatherley, Jude Hines, John P. Harvey, Barry Hill, Tony Knight, Neil Litchfield, Ken Longworth, Kiesten Mcauley, Rachel McGrath-Kerr, Roger McKenzie, Peter Novakovich, Peter Pinne, Martin Portus, Sally Putnam, Suzanne Sandow, Kimberley Shaw, David Spicer, Anthony Vawser, Carol Wimmer, Mark Wickett and Beth Keehn.

Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at stagewhispers.com.au

Stage Whispers 59

Musical Spice

We have all heard the horror stories for The Arts in 2020. From late March every theatre in Australia closed, crushing whole seasons and leaving thousands of freelance artists out of work, and locked out of JobKeeper because of the nature of their employment arrangements.

But have you heard the rare, good news stories from the pandemic?

Pictured above is writer/comedian Ben Elton, on stage at the opening night of We Will Rock You in Perth in November, with producers Trevor and Katrina Patient, from Platinum Entertainment.

The pro-am company had made a big leap to have one musical scheduled for the 2300 seat theatre in 2021. But when the Premier of Western Australia made his state an island within an island, the casino asked the company if they could produce more, and more, and more.

The venue had a reduced capacity of 1300 - but with 24 performances scheduled it was still a mighty risk, when one sloppy security guard at a quarantine hotel could cause the season to be cancelled.

The intrepid producers imported one star from the east, Casey Donovan, who duly spent two weeks in quarantine. The rest of the cast were all Western Australian locals.

I am pleased to report that the season was a smashing success, with all houses for the last week sold out.

Ben Elton with We Will Rock You producers Trevor and Katrina Patient from Platinum Entertainment.

licenced by my company), followed by Priscilla Queen of the Desert in May. Such a tight schedule of major CBD musical productions being run by one family company is unheard of (The Production Company only did three a year). But the Patients, who cut their teeth setting up one-week school holiday productions with their Perth Youth Theatre Company, are determined to make hay whilst the sun (or pandemic) shines.

Other producers are also doing well. In Sydney, the Darlinghurst Theatre Company scored a grant of more than $600,000 for a 21-week national tour of the musical Once, under the Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund program.

This means that during November There is no way that a commercial it was the highest selling musical in musical would have attracted this sort the entire world! OK, with Broadway of funding under the regular Australia and the West End closed there is not Council grants on offer before the a lot of competition. But it is true, pandemic. nonetheless, as Mary Poppins had Many theatre companies have closed in Auckland and even musicals spent the downtime increasing their in Korea had smaller houses. capacity for digital broadcast and Ben Elton (who lives near Perth) communication with their subscribers, gave the cast a huge wrap and said of which will hold them in very good the producer Trevor, “beneath your stead when the whole world is pantomime exterior beats the heart of vaccinated. an artist.”

And what works of genius have With barely enough time to sit been created during the lockdown? down, Platinum Entertainment is We will know soon. preparing for a three week season of In 1605 a playwright had to cool The Boy From Oz from late January, his heels during the Bubonic Plague. then a season of Hot Shoe Shuffle in He penned King Lear, Macbeth and April (which by coincidence are also Anthony and Cleopatra. Of course, his name was William Shakespeare. All’s well that ends well.

60 Stage Whispers December 2020 - February 2021

David Spicer

We Will Rock You. Photo: Stephen Heath.

Read scripts, listen to music and order free catalogue at: davidspicer.com.au david@davidspicer.com (02) 9371 8458

The Australian Junior Musical Collection

Superb locally adapted musicals for young performers with CD backing tracks.

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