Stage Whispers December 2024/January & February 2025 edition

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Dear theatre-goers and theatre-doers,

When the Association of Community Theatre (ACT) honoured me with Hall of Fame membership at this year’s conference dinner, it was a bolt out of the blue. Being a committee member, I was blown away by the behind-thescenes intrigue involved in springing this surprise on me.

Community Theatre has been huge for me since I joined the chorus of a local company as a teenager. I’ve been fortunate to perform in and direct many plays and musicals, where my principal joy was staging school musicals.

In about 1990, heading out to the opening night of a musical I’d directed, a chance encounter with a neighbour led to my personal mission to this day promoting community theatre in general.

Editing Stage Whispers has bolstered that ‘mission’ from promoting NSW shows (as I have done for ACT since with their What’s On brochure), to national coverage, including the 2025 seasons feature in this edition.

Receiving my award from Nancye Hayes, ACT’s patron, who has lit up musical theatre stages and inspired me since my parents began taking me along to see JCW musicals, was extraordinary.

I was in splendid company amongst the other new inductees, along with other Hall of Famers dotted around the room, who were mingled with many friends I have trodden community theatre boards with or directed.

What a privilege to share the podium with Diane Crease, who was in my first ever show, later directing me at Bankstown Theatre Company; Caroline Reddel, a driving force at EUCMS, where I did shows while living in that area; Andy Davis, with whom I’ve shared the stage several times, along with the ACT committee table and Zoom meetings; and Southern Sydney theatre legend Tim Dennis, who I must do a show with soon.

And of course, Nancye Hayes.

What an evening.

I look forward to continuing to spread the word about Community Theatre, and the joy which participating has brought me, for many years to come.

Yours in Theatre,

NeilLitchfield

Editor

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Cover image: Michael Paynter and the cast of Jesus Christ Superstar (2024). Read David Spicer’s interview with Michael Paynter (Jesus) and Javon King (Judas) on page 8.

Photo: Jeff Busby.

Neil at the awards presentation night, surrounded by some of the people with whom he has made Community Theatre. Photo: Troy Kent.

Michael Paynter and the cast of Jesus Christ Superstar (2024)

Photo: Jeff Busby.

As the national tour of Jesus Christ Superstar kicks off, David Spicer speaks to the performers playing Jesus and Judas. Michael Paynter and Javon King reveal that faith, their mothers and love of good tunes bind their passion for the musical.

Michael Paynter has taken ‘long-service’ leave from his gigs as a guitarist with Icehouse and Jimmy Barnes to make his professional stage debut in Jesus Christ Superstar, which opened at the Capitol Theatre in November.

“They know where I am and my positions are being held,” he notes wryly.

Indeed, Jimmy’s daughter Mahalia Barnes is on stage with him as Mary, so it’s family celebration for him, while Icehouse founder Iva Davies is a big fan of the musical. It’s a giant leap for the rock star, as the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice blockbuster is the first musical he’s been in since he was a teenager.

At his last theatre gig, Paynter played Nicely-Nicely Johnson in Guys and Dolls at Flinders College. After that, he turned away from theatre, despite the hyperenthusiasm of his show business parents.

“My mother and father met playing opposite each other in high school in West Side Story. I think my mum starred in it and directed the musical.”

Conceived as a direct result of a ‘showmance’, the singer might have been destined for the stage, but instead rebelled against his “theatre nut” mother.

“Maybe it's one of those underlying things, that you just do whatever your parents don't do.

“I just loved being a musician. I got sucked in by the rock’n’roll dream and the pop dream, which I continue to love to this day.

“To be honest, I think theatre has never been something that's drawn my attention too much. I wouldn't say it's a sort of music that I put on to listen to … to relax.

“That is why Jesus Christ Superstar is very different. It has a disproportionate amount of great pop songs in it,

which is probably why it's got so much populist attention.”

He nominates the song ‘Gethsemane’ as “such an incredible mountain top of a rock opera piece”.

Also, he overheard his six-year-old daughter singing the chorus of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’.

“She's probably heard the song once, when I was playing it in the car or something. It's a show with the sort of music that gets under the skin and sticks with you.”

Javon King is playing the character of Judas.

The native New Yorker came to Australia to play the character of Seaweed J Stubbs in Hairspray the Musical He “absolutely loved living in Australia” so has stayed as “a fake Aussie”.

Javon describes ‘I Don’t Know How To Love Him’ as one of the most beautiful songs he has heard.

Both Paynter and King nominated the song ‘Heaven on Their Minds’ as one of the iconic songs in the piece. It is sung by Judas, who is the central character in the musical. The late Jon English was fond of re-telling the story that the lyricist Tim Rice told him directly that the sung-through work was written as the gospel according to Judas.

King jokes that the name on the billboard should be Judas and not Jesus.

“I think this show is so cool. And it's that sense you're watching Jesus' last couple weeks of life through someone else's whole mindset,” said King.

He describes Judas’ perspective as Jesus becoming too much of a celebrity and not standing up for what he believed were his principals.

(Continued on page 10)

Jesus Christ Superstar Capitol Theatre, Sydney until January 26. Crown Theatre, Perth from February 13. Princess Theatre, Melbourne from March 16. Lyric Theatre, QPAC, Brisbane from June 29. jesuschristsuperstarmusical.com.au

(Continued from page 9)

“It's a modern take on seeing two really good friends, and how that relationship has kind of had a falling out and putting it under the lens of the biblical story of Jesus and Judas. And ultimately what Judas does, that breaks his heart in the long run.”

The character of Judas was played by a person of colour in the original movie, which King says is a good tradition to follow.

“I don't think it's a necessity that it's played by a person of colour, because it is not scripted that way, however the songs are geared towards that, as they have a very gospely twang to them.

“I grew up in an all-black Baptist church, which had that type of choir and singing.”

King’s mother, who he describes as a Christian who holds to traditions dearly, is travelling from New York to see the production when it opens in Melbourne.

“My mom doesn't come from a theatre background, so, all of this might be a bit shocking to her having

Javon King and Michael Paynter in Jesus Christ Superstar (2024) Photo: Jeff Busby.

Michael Paynter and Mahalia Barnes in Jesus Christ Superstar (2024)

Photo: Jeff Busby.

that whole crucifixion on stage. Watching a man literally crucified on stage might be a bit graphic.”

Javon King describes himself as not as religious as his mother.

“I think I'm more of a kind of a spiritual person.”

Michael Paynter’s parents, however, knew what to expect when they saw the Sydney opening.

His mother has been running a community theatre company (Gateway Theatre Productions) on the Mornington Peninsula for the last twenty years.

“Both my parents are pastors. The theatre company that my mum runs is a real outreach to the community where the church is, and they do this Broadway in a week a holiday program for kids in the area to do the junior version of a show. So, she manages to teach, direct, paint sets and make all the costumes.”

Paynter might have neglected his parents’ musical theatre traditions but describes himself as a Christian. “I'm a Jesus man mate, absolutely.”

According to the website Premiere Christianity, when the rock opera opened in London in 1972 it sparked protests from conservative Christians, with Billy Graham describing it as borderline blasphemy.

However, the website says that the music was added to the Vatican’s playlist with Pope Paul VI lauding its ability to spread the gospel to more people than ever before.

50 years later, comedian Tim Minchin, who played Judas in an arena tour, labelled it a radical atheist musical.

“The show ruffled religious feathers at the time. I don't think anyone goes into this looking for it to be a completely biblically accurate recreation of what happened,” said Paynter. “I think it's a wonderful artistic interpretation of what may have happened in those last weeks of Jesus's life.”

The portrayal of Jesus across the ages has been influenced by the popular culture of the time.

“I'll tell you this for sure, Jesus would have looked like a classic Middle Eastern man, not like a white guy with a beard and brown hair. But I think that's human history, and it will continue forever. We are humans trying our best to interpret the divine and whatever that is. And every culture will see and experience that through their own lens.”

Paynter says the portrayal of Judas in the musical is fascinating.

“Outside of this show, in history, Judas has always been a dirty word. There are not too many children called Judas, but seeing such a historically formative moment through the lens of the quote-unquote bad guy is interesting. I enjoy the way that sort of humanises him. It goes through the things in his head and extrapolates what his thoughts, fears and dreams might have been.”

King relishes playing Judas in front of Australian audiences, which he describes as different to audiences in the United States.

“The making of a show, rehearsals, and getting on a stage, it's all the same. However, audiences in America are

very assertive and a bit obnoxious. They have no qualms about yelling out and singing along.

“I think people come to the theatre here and want to be polite. In certain shows performers need the audience to give performers feedback, to be able to continue to tell the story (most effectively).

“But overall, it's all the same. Australians just seem to be a bit nicer in terms of watching the theatre, which is not a bad thing by any means necessary.”

Michael Paynter is pleased to perform in front of a polite audience.

“I have nothing but incredible respect for people that that can do that eight shows a week (for months). It’s a set of skills I didn’t have before. I'm looking forward to a real challenge.

“I really want to honour the legacy from which it's come and at the same time I'm looking forward to putting my own spin on it. We are looking for a rock’n’roll interpretation of theatre, which is really, I think, the original intention of the show, which is probably why they cast Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan in the original one.

“I think singing Icehouse songs for 15 years has been a good warm up, because people are paying money to see a song that Iva wrote 40 years ago.

“You've got to honour what was written, because that's the reason why the song is great and then at the same time find your own way to interpret and express what was written in a way that feels true to myself. So, that's the delicate dance that I'll be I'll be attempting to sort out as I do the show.”

Christine Anu talks to Coral Drouyn about the forthcoming production of one of Broadway’s best, but least known, shows.

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Whether that’s true or not, it was certainly a long road for composer/lyricist/librettist Anaïs Mitchell, who originally conceived Hadestown in 2006, though it took another ten years to reach New York.

By 2019 it was nominated for thirteen Tony Awards, winning eight and gaining a staggering total of 39 nominations across the award season.

And yet it’s fair to say that even some die-hard Musical Theatre fans have never heard of this astonishing musical or, at best, know little more than the title. Somehow it has eluded theatre lovers, until now.

If we say it’s based on the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, our scant knowledge of Greek Mythology kicks in. We all remember how star-crossed lovers are separated when Eurydice is spirited away to Hell, or Hades, and her lover Orpheus must risk all to go down to the depths of hell to rescue her, overcoming obstacles placed in

his way by Hermes and other Greek Gods.

Mitchell could see similarities between the ancient myth and the politics and lack of compassion of the 21st Century. The simple love story with its strong themes of injustice and triumph over adversity ultimately offers hope in a world which desperately needs it.

True, themes of poverty and exploitation are all too familiar to us now, but it’s just another ‘myth’ that a number with the lyrics “Why we build the wall. We build the wall to keep us free” was inspired by Donald Trump. Mitchell penned that song in the first draft of the musical. Ten years later she wrote that both Trump and the song tap into the same folk archetype of making people scared.

And though it may be one of the least known smash hits of the last decade or more, Hadestown will finally open in Australia, in Sydney in February, followed by a May season in

Melbourne, with the stellar cast that it deserves.

It's a musical of universal themes, and that allows for diverse casting. So, it was a delight to learn that the amazing Christine Anu is returning to the main stage to play the narrator of the show, the God Hermes.

Although Anu is known to at least two generations as a pop singer (who hasn’t heard ‘My Island Home’ more times that they can count?), most of us can remember her lithe grace as a dancer with the original Bangarra company, or her appearances in Hollywood blockbusters like The Matrix or Moulin Rouge. And of course, Christine got to sing what is inevitably her theme song at the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympics.

“I can’t believe that’s almost a quarter of a century ago,” she says incredulously. “Of course I live with that song every day, and I am so grateful for all it has given me, but it just doesn’t seem that long ago.”

Hadestown will take you on a journey to the underworld and back youtu.be/WbZJDyAP8wk

The cast of Hadestown (2024)

Photo: Michelle Grace Hunder.

It was the chance to study dance that brought the Torres Strait Islander to Queensland nearly forty years ago.

“It was a revelation to me even being in Queensland,” she tells me. “So, when I first saw Sydney and Melbourne … well, it was just overwhelming. I knew I could dance and I loved it but it never occurred to me in the early days that I could sing.”

But sing she could, mainly as a back-up singer for the Warumpi Band in the days when Indigenous artists were still finding their feet. Neil Murray had written ‘My Island Home’ back in the ‘80s, but it took Christine’s version to make the song part of Australia’s musical landscape.

“I didn’t know it then,” Christine confides, “but that song, plus my dance training, opened the door for me to the world of musical theatre, something I would never have had the confidence to pursue, but I love it with a passion.”

It was this unfulfilled desire that led Christine to attend an open audition for the musical Rent in 1998. Not only did she get the leading role of Mimi, but she also fell in love with Rodger Corser, now one of television’s favourite leading men.

“We had six amazing years together,” she tells me. “Who knows what the allotted time for any relationship is? No-one can predict it. All I know is that together we somehow created this miraculous being, our daughter Zipporah, and I will always be grateful for that.”

Christine turned down a chance to play Mimi on Broadway, because she couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her country.

“I suppose my life might have been very different but, honestly, noone who knows me would ever think of me as a Broadway star,” she explains.

Anu is deeply spiritual, with a belief that how she lives her life is more important than fame or fortune.

“It’s about always doing the best work I can and being true to myself,” she says. “And family is always going to be more important than my name on a billboard. Yes, sometimes I do

muse a little about how things might have turned out. But in the end, I believe I am where I am meant to be, doing what I am meant to be doing.”

Christine had no plans to do another musical, when Hadestown appeared out of the blue.

“I really didn’t know much apart from the title,” she confesses, “but when I started listening to the music and in particular reading the script, it just touched me so deeply and I thought the world needs this right now. We all need to remember that compassion, caring and honesty are qualities that are slipping away from us, and we mustn’t allow that to happen. We need to make this world into the world we are proud to be part of. There will always be a darker underworld seeking to destroy all that is good, but we can stand up against it. I really believe that.”

I ask her how she feels working with a young cast, some of whom weren’t born when she reached stardom.

“They are so incredibly talented,” she tells me. “We haven’t started rehearsals yet, but I have seen their tapes and I am in awe of their talent. When I first saw Abigail (Adriano who plays Eurydice) and Noah (Mullins playing Orpheus) I felt really humbled and I wondered, what is an old chook like me doing alongside these amazing young performers?”

I suggest that maybe she is there to impart all she has learned over three decades, as a teacher of sorts.

Christine thinks about it for a moment. “Maybe,” she concedes, “or maybe I am meant to learn from them. We never stop learning, and it is their world now not mine. I hope I can learn just a little bit about how to make it a better place, a place of hope, for everyone.”

Christine Anu is a very special woman, and Hadestown is a very special musical. Put them together and we are promised a unique experience. There’s no doubt that Hadestown will leave the same mark on Australia as it already has on Broadway, in the West End, and in Canada. I can’t wait for February.

Coral Drouyn talks to Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean about the end of an era, ahead of their farewell tour of Australia in 2025.

There are moments in history where we remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when they happened. Some are linked to politics, war, devastation. Occasionally they are linked to joyous, life-altering experiences. I remember where I was when I first saw Torvill and Dean dance Bolero at the 1984 Winter Olympics. I watched in awe as these two young, ridiculously wholesome and attractive athletes broke all boundaries in their quest for excellence. It was so emotional for me, even knowing nothing about Ice Dancing or skating in general that I started to cry silently. The pursuit of excellence has driven me ever since.

Though their stardom was instantaneous, it followed a decade of them dancing on ice together, perfecting their routines, exploring ideas for moves that had never been done before.

“Some people still think we were an overnight success,” Chris tells me with a chuckle, “but it was hard work.”

“And it still is,” Jayne chimes in, “especially now our bodies are getting older.”

In their teens the pair shared a trainer and were already making waves in skating circles, though not together. Jayne was already European pairs champion and Chris was British Junior Ice Dance champion. They knew each other from various competitions, then in 1975 Jayne lost her skating partner, and history was made.

“Call it fate or destiny, I don’t know,” Jayne says, “but I wasn’t thrilled with the idea at first. I knew Chris a little. He was a great skater very…very…”

“Uppity? Bossy? Aloof?” Chris suggests.

“Well, you were intense,” Jayne chides.

Chris laughs. “Oh yes, I was. And uppity. I thought I was going to change skating forever. That I was God’s gift to the sport.”

I refrain from stating the obvious that he did, and he was!

“We didn’t hit it off at first,” says Jayne. “I knew nothing about Ice Dancing; it’s very different to pairs skating, which has rigid set moves. Chris was experimenting with lifts and steps that no-one had ever done before, and I had no idea whether I could do them. Most of our early routines were all Chris’s ideas and I just tried to keep up.”

The miracle of how quickly their pursuit of innovation and excellence took flight is magnified by the fact that both held down full-time jobs at the time Chris as a police officer and Jayne as an insurance clerk.

“When I look back now two kids in their late teens. It’s astonishing that we stuck to all the training,” Chris recalls.

Online extras!

Catch an interview with Chris and Jayne on Channel 10’s The Project. youtu.be/KsBmogyaUWQ

Christopher Dean and Jayne Torvill.

Photo: Alfie Hitchcock.

The training meant getting up in the dark to train before work and heading straight to the ice rink after work for hours of practice. On the weekends they explored Chris’s new ideas for music and costumes.

“We had a friend who worked in the music department of the BBC,” Jayne tells me. “He would let Chris and me come in and listen to new recordings, sometimes for hours.”

Chris elaborates, “It’s how we discovered the Mack and Mabel score. We wanted to create stories around the music. That hadn’t been done before. When we used the entire overture for one dance people thought we were crazy. We found music that we didn’t know existed.”

“I’m sure people who saw us practice thought we were crazy, but Chris always trusted his judgement,” Jayne adds. “He knew what would work, and we started getting really big results.”

They became British Champions in 1978, and then their hometown stepped in to help its newest celebrities. The Nottingham council gave the pair a grant so that they could quit their day jobs and concentrate on skating.

“It didn’t mean we got time off,” Jayne explains. “It just meant we had more time to practice.”

And that extra time saw them become world champions three times, starting with 1984. But there’s no doubt that the greatest achievement was the Gold Medal at the Sarajevo Olympics. Surely reaching that pinnacle saw them suffer a let down afterwards, with little left to achieve?

“Not so much a let-down as a… well, the realisation came pretty quickly that we only had one direction left, one thing left to achieve. We had to turn professional.”

We take for granted now, an astonishing forty years later, that sports people make millions of dollars for doing what was once an unpaid recreation.

“We really didn’t know about putting on a show, working with other skaters, holding an audience and entertaining them for hours rather than minutes,” Chris explains.

Torvill & Dean: Our Last Dance Touring Australia throughout June 2025. torvillanddean.com

“We’d never had to do that for more than a few minutes at a time,” Jayne adds.

And that’s where the Australian connection was born. Chris and Jayne met Sydney Dance Company founder Graeme Murphy and an amazing alliance was born. In fact, their professional careers began here.

“Graeme had this unique way of not making you do anything, but just making you want to do things you had never thought of before,” Jayne muses.

“He so completely understood what we were trying to do,” Chris explains, “and somehow he made it all more theatrical, more exciting, for us and the audiences. It wasn’t just us out there on the ice. It was a whole team of skaters, and musicians, and costumes and stunning choreography.”

“He made us into entertainers, not just athletes,” Jayne explains. “Even though he never did quite manage to tame the ice. His skating was… well…”

“As a skater he was a phenomenal choreographer,” Chris concedes and Jayne laughs.

The alliance with Graeme led to a string of huge arena productions, multi-million-dollar spectaculars for the entire family.

“Suddenly we were being treated like superstars just for doing what we

had always done. It took a little while to get used to,” Jayne tells me.

In between productions the two pursued separate lives and managed to get married and raise families… “But not to each other,” Chris hastens to tell me.

“People always assume we are romantically linked or have been in the past, but it’s not true,” Jayne hastens to explain.

“We never even dated,” Chris concedes. “It would just have made things too difficult.”

Along the way they mentored young skaters, choreographed for their peers and started a program that helped disadvantaged kids who wanted to skate.

“There’s still so much we really want to do, but all athletes have a use by date. There are some things you just can’t fight, and one of them is age,” Chris admits.

Their latest triumph is the television series Dancing on Ice, but skating live before an audience is still their greatest love. And yes, they will be dancing together live.

“It seems right somehow that we should end it all here in Australia, where we have always felt like we belonged,” Chris says.

Except it isn’t really the end. How could it be? Magic doesn’t have a beginning or an end and neither do Torvill and Dean.

Christopher Dean and Jayne Torvill. Photo: Alfie Hitchcock.

Opera Australia is pitching a glittering new production of Massenet’s Cinderella at families and children. David Spicer speaks to one of the creatives, along with stars Emma Matthews (Fairy Godmother) and Emily Edmonds (Cinderella).

The first written record of the story of Cinderella is credited to an Italian almost 400 years ago, which evolved from folk stories across Europe. The key features were a ball, a gown that appeared by magic, and a curfew.

Later a French edition, Cendrillon by Charles Perrault, added a glass slipper and a pumpkin. This inspired composer Jules Massenet to turn the legend into a grand four act opera (later adapted by Walt Disney).

This production by Laurent Pelly was originally staged in full at the New York Metropolitan Opera, but being a grand French opera in four acts was not accessible for youngsters. So, out came the scissors, resulting in an English translation cutting it down to ninety minutes.

Choreographer Karine Girard tells me, “The idea of this short English version is to allow young audiences to come to the opera, with their families, sometimes for the first time, and to discover in a fun way and over 90 minutes what an opera can be, because it can often be intimidating.

“It is important to be able to understand what the characters are singing on stage, moreover the story of Cinderella is known to all and that helps. It is a show that allows this first step that I hope will call them to discover other shows. We lose nothing except the joy of hearing singing in French, the language in which Massenet composed,” she said.

Karine says the staging is a mix of romance and humour.

“The idea of the set came from the director’s childhood because he gave his scenographer a big red book of Cinderella with the Gustave Doré illustrations, that he had when he was a little boy.

“It was inspired by the writing pages, the red colour of the cover and the old paper. It's like you're entering the book and following the story.”

I ask Karine to nominate her favourite moments from the production.

“In Act One, the fairy scene with Cendrillon and the departure to the ball, and in Act Two, the ball scenes

with the Chorus, the dancers and the soloists.”

Itching to get into a glamorous gown and go off to the ball is mezzosoprano Emily Edmonds in the lead role.

“I love that this production speaks to the storybook aspect of the tale a fairytale isn’t grounded in realism, but it does contain profound truth. By placing the characters in this storybook world, we’re able to suspend disbelief and let magic in. In doing so, we make space to see the characters for the very real humanity they articulate.

“As for frocks, Cinderella’s ‘dress moment’ is quite stunning; it’s all quite magical, and her dress feels connected to where she’s come from, as much to where she’s going. That’s all I’ll say!”

Emily has spent most her adult life working overseas. She joined an artist program at the Royal Opera House at the age of 22. This led to a succession of meaty operatic roles across Europe and the United States.

Royal Opera House, London’s Cendrillon (2011)

Photo: Bill Cooper.

Online extras!

See the classic Cinderella fairy tale told with an operatic twist youtu.be/GQNc8EDaJEM

Cinderella (Cendrillon)

Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House from January 2 to March 28. opera.org.au/productions/cinderella-sydney

“There’s a fairytale-like quality to the whole thing. This production has had a vivid life at the Royal Opera and Ballet, which has been such a significant part of my artistic life so far. It therefore feels poetic and beautiful to be part of bringing this piece to my hometown of Sydney.”

Returning to Opera Australia for her first appearance since 2017 is the seven-time Helpmann Award winning soprano Emma Matthews as the Fairy Godmother.

Cinderella was the first opera staged at WAAPA when she joined as a senior lecturer.

“It’s beautiful. Massenet’s writing is lush, rhythmical and passionate, yet there’s a lightness too. It’s full of magic and wonder … and with this incredible cast, it’s going to be delightful,” she says.

“The Fairy Godmother is very glamorous in this production. I’m not too sure how quirky she’ll be. I’ll take my lead from the director there. Vocally it’s revisiting my bel canto foundations. Lots of piano singing

and light sparkling notes. She’s quite demanding and yet super gentle; she’ll be challenging and hugely rewarding. I can’t wait!”

Emma feels a connection to the role as a teacher, especially the bossy nature of her character.

“A few of my colleagues and students have said it’s ’type casting’. I’m probably a mixture of the stepmother and fairy godmother. It’d be nice to wave a wand and have everything organised and top marks all around, but part of learning is also learning to pick yourself up when things aren’t going well.”

The fable of Cinderella has had many different treatments in recent times. The Rodgers and Hammerstein version was seen recently in Australia. This featured a contemporary look at the story, with Cinderella in charge of her destiny.

Other new adaptations include an Australian musical, Midnight, and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bad Cinderella

Karine Girard says this is not part of this version.

“There is not an obligation to modernise. Sometimes it brings something more, but not always. The goal here was to stay on childhood and the discovery of love; but we can also modernise by making simple and surprising sets without touching the original story.

“The audience will be carried away by Cinderella's innocence and joy and will be dazzled, like her, by the dress that her fairy godmother offers her. They will be seduced by this wonderful fairy who takes us into her magical world.

“They will laugh at Madame de la Haltière, Cinderella's stepmother, and the two sisters. They will be moved by the Prince. They will be amused by the ladies of the court who will parade before him to become the future queen. They will enjoy the moment and will have stars in their eyes.”

Will it appeal equally to children and adults?

“Oh oui! There are different levels in it; children and adults will find their happiness and will be able to discuss it and talk about their favourite moments.”

Royal Opera House, London’s Cendrillon (2011)

Photo: Bill Cooper.

Read about the design and creative process of the costumes for Dark Emu. tinyurl.com/2d9lxg7a

Jennifer Irwin is Australia’s most applauded costume maker adding to decades of recognition with yet another recent award for her work with Bangarra Dance Theatre. Martin Portus explores what’s made her creations the perfect fit especially for dancers.

Jennifer Irwin with a costume from Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Dark Emu

Photo: Daniel Boud.

She was a shy girl at Pymble Ladies College but loved lipstick and dressing up and so, thirsty for life, she escaped home to study applied arts in Wagga Wagga. Australia’s applauded costume designer soaked up more inspiration in 1980 at Adelaide’s new tech arts course, and stayed on just as the city’s dance and theatre scene was blossoming. She “helped and picked up” costumes backstage, often unpaid, but Jennifer Irwin was soon trading on her special sewing skills.

Back in Sydney, upcoming choreographer Graeme Murphy nabbed her as a costume assistant, soon supervisor, for his embryonic dance company.

“Graeme was already making a name for himself,” says Irwin. “But we worked in a complete dive, a crumbling squat in Woolloomooloo where the Housing Commission kids used to break into our cars and rob buildings; like it was pretty wild, with just one shower for all the dancers.”

But Irwin was busy perfecting another of her signature costuming skills: how to make sheer gossamer body stockings which, while strikingly adorned, fully reveal every muscle of the dancer. So began her long and outstanding creative association with two of Australia’s dance landmarks Graeme Murphy’s Sydney Dance Company and from 1992 Stephen Page’s Indigenous Bangarra Dance Theatre.

Her first chance to actually design SDC costumes was Sirens, Murphy’s homage to ten famous women, right at home at Kinselas, the happening nightclub on Oxford Street. She then created high impact costumes for Shining, Murphy’s lyrical hymn to hedonism which from 1986 toured the world. By this time the company was smartly housed in Walsh Bay and Irwin was irreplaceable. She not only made all her own costumes but also those of other designers sometimes chosen by Murphy for more character -filled dances.

Over decades, she’s designed costumes for 33 SDC shows, 37 Bangarra dances and nearly 20 major ballets, always with a fresh vision, sculpturing new design ideas from

new technologies and fabrics. She was commissioned for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Sydney 2000 Olympics and her work has been staged live in more than 90 countries.

Irwin also designed the world premiere in Sydney of the musical classic, Dirty Dancing. Twenty years later it continues today to travel the globe and unusually for Australian creatives working at home on big musicals she still gets royalties.

“Dirty Dancing really allowed me to survive in this industry,” she says. “Working in the arts you might be very good, at the top of your profession, but it doesn’t make you a lot of money; it was very unusual for someone like me working in subsidised live performance to get that job.”

As a jobbing creative, Irwin must be inventive to find new work options and, in her coastal retreat north of Sydney, says she’s nervous at the idea of retirement. Those skills at sewing, cutting and making her own costumes, especially those bodysuits, won her gigs on The Lion King and movies like Wolverine, The Matrix and Mission Impossible, and are vital to her survival.

“If I may say so, I make the best bodysuits I can do it with my eyes closed. If you can cut dance costumes you can make action costumes to fit perfectly on any body. I do all the stretchwear for Opera Australia.”

Vital to Irwin’s success is her hardworking loyalty to a small band of prestigious companies who keep coming back. She’s now rethinking the 1950s as costume designer for Guys and Dolls, which Opera Australia is opulently staging on Sydney Harbour in March. Shaun Rennie has taken over as director after the sudden resignation of the company’s artistic director Jo Davies.

No wonder Irwin’s awards collection is so big. She’s created costumes for 18 Helpmann awardwinning stage productions and has a swathe from the Australian Production Design Guild, which last year recognised her with the award for Outstanding Contribution to

Design. She has ten further APDG nominations, and in August 2024 won Best Costume Design for her work on Bangarra’s Yuldea

Yuldea was the first production by Frances Rings as Bangarra’s artistic director following the departure of founder Stephen Page. It drew on colonial episodes of environmental devastation as experienced by the people of the Western Desert of South Australia; Rings’ own country is adjacent in SA’s south west. Irwin also designed an earlier, abstract work by Rings, Terrain, inspired by Lake Eyre, the dancers distinguished by Irwin’s sprouting feathers, clusters of leaves and headdresses of spinifex and sprays of twigs. Her costumes so often look like she’s been out in the desert picking up nature, but no she hasn’t.

“I’ve never used a leaf, or any real feathers, but I’ve made plenty! And I don’t usually go out on country.”

Bangarra’s first big hit was Ochres at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre, where the company found a keen new audience in 1994. And Irwin learnt heaps about how the different colours of ochre which Bangarra dancers paint on their bodies soon become an organic part of her costumes.

“It’s a nightmare but it’s terrific. I look at costumes as something that will disintegrate over time, but actually they get better, because ochre you can’t wash off, especially the red. So the costumes get layered and layered from ochre on their bodies, often head to toe, and on the floor they and the stage become an art work. We often put talcum powder on the costumes which gave them an initial puff of smoke, an added spiritual touch! That evolution of costume making as the dancers wear it and make it their own wouldn’t be possible with any other company, dance or theatre.”

Bangarra has gone on to create exemplary production standards, with inventive composers like David Page and Steve Francis and Jacob Nash’s stunning abstractions of landscape. It’s all a long way from the set of

(Continued on page 20)

Online extras!

Jennifer Irwin shares her inspiration behind the costumes for Terrain. youtu.be/Xyj3ijK8TYA

Ochres “it just had a little mound,” laughs Irwin.

She’s always worked alone, with a glimpse perhaps of a set design, but often without Stephen and the company seeing her work until dress rehearsal. “They trust me,” she says. “And they’re running around doing their own things.” Later came early meetings of the creative team, Stephen had clearer initial ideas, and the set was built earlier, but Irwin still had challenges.

“When you’re working with dance you’re building and making costumes as it goes along, because choreographers have an idea, but only in the process does it unfold and change! So with the SDC and Bangarra, I always started with the presumption the dancers have to be free to do anything, and will always end up on their knees because the works are so grounded. Now we have developed a design shorthand I think we actually see the same images when we are talking together.

“And over the years I’ve educated myself. As a non-indigenous person, I have to be careful; I basically give them a costume which is abstracted from traditional Indigenous, but I would never go to that source. I’d ask an elder for something like a feather

string, but never make that myself. I would use textures or weaving but it’s not traditional in any way, just suggestion.”

Stephen Page was barely out of his teens as a dancer when Irwin met him at Sydney Dance Company, the first big salaried job for both of them. And she designed some of the first works he choreographed there.

She’s very excited that decades later they’re soon both returning to the SDC to create together a new work for September 2025.

Irwin has worked with Stephen and his team from the very start of Bangarra, through the tragic deaths of his brothers and collaborators: Russell on the opening night in 2002 after he so beautifully danced a solo in Walkabout, and David in 2016, the effusive composer who created Bangarra’s signature mix of traditional, language and natural sounds with contemporary rhythms from around the world.

She’s also watched and shifted her costuming approach as Stephen Page this century took on more historic contact stories of both black and white Australia. It began with Mathinna, about the Aboriginal girl adopted then abandoned by Tasmanian governor John Franklin; then Patyergarang about her language exchanges with Lieutenant

William Dawes in colonial Sydney; and Bennelong, a witty yet often horrific pageant of scenes from the Indigenous and settler life of Governor Phillip’s chosen black “ambassador”.

Irwin of course did thorough historical research into the period costumes required for these increasingly extravagant and compelling dance theatre works. The biggest was Page’s final major work for his company, Wudjang: Not the Past, an epic story of pre-settler and contact scenes in Australia collaboratively told by dancers, musicians, singers, actors, designers and Irwin’s inventive costumes for them all.

“I think Mathinna was a turning point where he drew from historical stories, all with the sanctioning of the clan Elders of the stories given over,” says Irwin. “Maybe it was because Bangarra had by then become so much respected and was now in a position to be custodian of stories that needed to be told … the stories of Mathinna, Patyergarang, Bennelong, all names that we know but this is their real story from an Indigenous perspective.”

Jennifer Irwin naturally jumped at the chance to get the band back together, when last January at the Adelaide Festival they created Baleen

(Continued from page 19)

Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Sandsong: Stories

From The Great Sandy Desert (2021)

Photo: Daniel Boud.

Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Terrain (2012)

Photo: Greg Barrett.

Moondjan, Page’s first commission since Bangarra. Set on Glenelg beach, within Jacob Nash’s enormous whale carcass, to music by Steve Francis, these were tales of Baleen whales passed on to Page by his mother. And critics praised the costumes.

Irwin in 2024 herself was also back with Bangarra for The Light Inside Horizon collaborating with New Zealand choreographer Moss te Ururangi Patterson on a striking work of Maori landscapes, coasts and lakes, the dancers draped in her ephemeral autumnal-shaded cloth.

“Terrain with Frances in 2012 was a turning point for me where my work became more sculptural. I took a leap of faith, really exploring what fabric could do, pushing it further. Possibly my most recent works have been my best. Working with choreographers and directors who trust your input always gets a better result. But The Light Inside was not that experience for me.”

Indeed, after decades helping to forge the design aesthetic of Bangarra, Irwin thinks this will be her last show for the company.

“I have mentored my young Indigenous designers and now it’s time to step back, whether I want to or not. It’s definitely time.”

Meanwhile she’s happily worked with her other great collaborator, director Graeme Murphy, on a sumptuous touring production of Opera Australia’s The Merry Widow and a revisionist Madame Butterfly

“In absolute contrast to Bangarra, Madame Butterfly is a white story in Japan that some argue should not be told in this day and age. Graeme wanted a contemporary approach. There was much conversation about where she came from, working as a geisha girl and about the ancient arts of Shibari/Kinbaku rope tying. My costume designs are always informed by the set, so MB became very architectural and clean cut. I focused a lot on the art of origami using a lot pleating, abstract and structured.”

She’s designed significant stage productions for the Sydney Theatre Company and Belvoir and knows well the added responsibility of placating actors keen to discuss character in the making of their costume. Dancers are less concerned.

But Irwin is pessimistic for the future of her profession, with jobs so scarce today for an ever growing surplus of talented designers, and performance companies which save money by employing designers to do both set and costumes.

“It’s a young person’s industry, so very hard to make a living financially. Australia just doesn’t have the population to support the numbers of people coming out of colleges every year. But as a young designer you live the dream, working from one show to another. Designing for film is better paid but everything revolves around money rather than the product and rarely do you get the opportunity and that freedom of live performance design.”

Yet somehow, without relying on film, Jennifer Irwin continues to build her outstanding legacy in costume design, and even in the niche and competitive world of dance. She’s achieved the dream she had as a shy little kid who made shoes by tracing her foot on cardboard and attaching empty cotton reels for the high heels.

“I love my job. I’ve always loved the adrenalin race to get the show on a collaboration of everyone working together to finish, before the curtain goes up.”

This article draws partly on an oral history interview with Jennifer Irwin by Martin Portus available online at the State Library of NSW.

Musicals In 2025

A swag of hit Broadway musicals never before seen in Australia will wend their way around the country in 2025, alongside some old favourites to tap the nostalgia buttons.

The post-pandemic era, along with high interest rates, combined to encourage conservative choices by musical theatre producers. The year ahead is the most innovative in a long time.

National Premieres

Beetlejuice

Not since he starred in the musical he wrote about Shane Warne, has Eddie Perfect has so many fingers in a theatrical pie.

After earning a Tony Award nomination for the music and lyrics he wrote for Beetlejuice, Mr. Perfect will also take on the title role for the local premiere based on the movie directed by Tim Burton.

Beetlejuice tells the story of an unusual teenager, obsessed with the whole “being dead thing”, who finds herself in a house haunted by a recently deceased couple and a degenerate demon with a thing for stripes.

Online extras!

Catch Beetlejuice The Musical, with its score by our own Eddie Perfect. youtu.be/OIpz-79bUMI

“Beetlejuice is a taboo-busting, shapeshifting, fourth wall-smashing, free-lovin' ball of neediness and I’m excited (and a healthy amount daunted) to play the role and share this strange and unusual tale with my home town,” said Perfect.

Regent Theatre, Melbourne in May. beetlejuicethemusical.com.au

MJ The Musical

MJ The Musical takes the audience back to 1992 and inside the creation of Michael Jackson’s iconic Dangerous World Tour.

Conveniently, this was the year before the king of pop was subject to any sexual abuse allegations.

Instead, the audience hurtles through his rise to fame, his early performances with The Jackson 5 and his later solo albums.

Of the West End production, the Guardian reviewer wrote, “his big hits are met with glee from the audience:

Online extras!

MJ The Musical offers a rare look at the creative mind behind the legend. youtu.be/zu0PQTkVZ1g

Eddie Perfect in Beetlejuice

Photo: Benny Capp.

‘Thriller’ contorts the stage into a garish nightmare, while the chorus version of ‘Man in the Mirror’ has the woman next to me singing at the top of her lungs.”

The identity of the performer who’ll play MJ in Australia was still under wraps when this edition went to press. He’ll have to dance and sing through what producers calls the complex history of his life.

Sydney Lyric Theatre from 26 February. mjthemusical.com.au

Dear Evan Hansen

The brand new local production of Dear Evan Hansen, which has closed in Sydney ahead of a national tour, was described by Stage Whispers’ reviewer Les Solomon as “breathtaking in its originality, its daring and its cast. Everything director Dean Bryant and his team have created is awe inspiring.

“It would have originally arrived probably three years after Broadway in a carbon copy production, so to have this new, free, unique and original local production is a gift from the Gods.”

The Tony Award winning musical is based around the story of a socially awkward teenager who gets trapped in a lie surrounding the death of a classmate.

It stars newcomer Beau Woodbridge and Verity HuntBallard.

Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne from December 13 to February 13, Canberra Theatre Centre from February 27 and Her Majesty’s Theatre Adelaide from April 3. dearevanhansenmusical.com.au

Online

Meet the cast and creatives during rehearsals of Dear Evan Hansen fb.watch/w2xYJH876H

Dear Evan Hansen

Photo: Daniel Boud.

The original Broadway production of MJ The Musical (2022)

Photo: Matthew Murphy.

Online extras!

Christie Whelan Browne and Marina Prior discuss Kimberly Akimbo youtu.be/aorVX583lcU

Kimberly Akimbo: A Musical

Two state theatre companies are tackling this Tony Award winning musical with the strangest storyline and a stellar cast.

The show tells the story of a lonely teenage girl, Kimberly Levaco, who suffers from a condition that causes her to age rapidly, giving her the appearance of an elderly woman.

Described as equal parts teen comedy, heist caper and unlikely love story, the cast of Kimberly Akimbo includes Marina Prior, Casey Donovan and Christie Whelan-Browne

The musical is directed by the new Artistic Director of the Sydney Theatre Company, Mitchel Butel, so hopefully Sydney might be seeing it in 2026.

Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide from July 8 to 19 Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne from July 26 to August 30. statetheatrecompany.com.au mtc.com.au

Sister Act

“A heavenly hit that promises an evening of uplifting entertainment and delivers. Sister Act is nun-stop entertainment!” wrote Stage Whispers reviewer Nicole Smith of the Sydney opening.

Based on the 1992 movie, Sister Act revolves around Deloris Van Cartier (Casey Donovan), a lounge singer. Unfortunately for Deloris, she witnesses murder and is placed under protection at a convent where, after a few hiccups, she transforms the choir, convent and herself in the process.

Online extras!

Cody Simpson performs ‘Luck Be A Lady’ from Guys & Dolls youtu.be/_SwWK_q8kPg

Guys & Dolls

Photo: Guy Davies.

Kimberley Akimbo Photo: Jo Duck.

The show settled nicely into Melbourne with Patricia Di Risio describing it as an “irresistibly charming show”.

Regent Theatre Melbourne through January, then the Lyric Theatre, QPAC Brisbane from February 8, Festival Theatre, Adelaide from March 22 and Crown Theatre Perth from April 26. sisteractthemusical.com.au

Lord Of The Rings - A Musical Tale

This adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s trilogy invites audiences on a journey through Middle Earth, from the Hobbits’ perspective.

As the Hobbits gather to celebrate Bilbo Baggins’ eleventy-first (111th) birthday in the Shire, Bilbo gifts his nephew Frodo his most treasured possession a gold ring.

At its Auckland premiere, Stage Whispers reviewer Emma Bishop wrote, “The production maintains an unrelenting pace, with a continuous flow of action that transitions from one climactic moment to the next.”

The production stars Jemma Rix as Galadriel and Ian Stenlake as Saruman.

State Theatre, Sydney from January 11, then Crown Theatre Perth from March 19, Comedy Theatre Melbourne from April 26, and HOTA on the Gold Coast from July 4. lotronstage.com

Hadestown

After winning the Tony Award in 2019, the musical Hadestown, described by The New York Times as “sumptuous, hypnotic and somewhat hyperactive” is still running on Broadway, which is no mean feat in these difficult times.

Described as a genre-defying musical that blends modern American folk music with New Orleans-inspired

jazz to reimagine the sweeping ancient tale of Orpheus and Eurydice.

Christine Anu stars in the Australian premiere.

Theatre Royal Sydney from February 10, then Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne from May 8.

hadestown.com.au

Elf The Musical

Based on the New Line Cinema film written by David Berenbaum, Elf follows Buddy on a heart-warming journey after he discovers he is actually human, despite being raised as an elf at the North Pole.

Hijinks ensue as he searches for his birth family, taking him to the bright lights of New York City where he’s faced with many harsh realities, including a father who’s on the naughty list and a half-brother who doesn’t even believe in Santa.

Gareth Isaac will lead the company as the lovable Buddy, joined by Simon Burke as Walter Hobbs.

Sydney Opera House from December 19. sydneyoperahouse.com

Back To The Future: The Musical

Fresh from seasons on Broadway and in the West End the musical Back to the Future is faithful to the popular movie. Marty McFly is accidentally transported back to 1955 in a time-travelling DeLorean invented by his friend, Dr. Emmett Brown. But before he can return to 1985, Marty must make sure his high school-aged parents fall in love to save his own existence.

Stage Whispers’ reviewer David Spicer described it as a “fun and energetic musical with a spectacular effects, particularly in the second act” when the DeLorean takes off.

Sydney Lyric in September. backtothefuturemusical.com.au

Online extras!

Audiences are truly blessed as Casey Donovan leads the cast of Sister Act youtu.be/HrgoediAXNs

Sister Act

Photo: Daniel Boud.

Revivals

Guys & Dolls

Opera Australia has made the intriguing decision to produce Guys & Dolls as its outdoor Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour production in March/April.

The showgirls and gangsters from New York gaming houses will be dancing up a storm in front of the Sydney skyline.

The company often uses the water as part of the production; could this happen during the song ‘Sit Down Your Rock the Boat’?

Pop star and champion swimmer Cody Simpson will make his Australian musical theatre debut as Sky Masterson, with Annie Aitken as his love interest Sarah Brown, alongside Bobby Fox as Nathan Detroit, and Jason Arrow as Nicely-Nicely Johnson.

Fleet Steps, Mrs Macquaries Point, Sydney from March 21. opera.org.au

Annie

As sure as the sun coming out tomorrow, there’ll be a regular revival of the family favourite Annie Anthony Warlow returns as Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks, the role he has played twice before, first in Australia and again when he made his Broadway debut.

Occasional Stage Whispers columnist Debora Krizak takes on the role of Miss Hannigan.

And as we go to press, the full cast of Annie has been announced. More details at tinyurl.com/25pb2b3j

Capitol Theatre, Sydney from March 25, then Princess Theatre, Melbourne from July 10. anniemusical.com.au

The Book Of Mormon

Those lovable foot-soldiers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be knocking on the doors of theatres around the country, tapping first at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney from July.

Penned by the creators of South Park, it’s still running on Broadway after almost 15 years and miraculously all the politically incorrect jokes have remained intact.

Could you get away with writing a new musical these days about white missionaries visiting stereotypical Uganda?

Australian audiences loved it last time and ten years later Sean Johnson (Elder Price) and Nick Cox (Elder Cunningham) will aim to convert a new legion of followers.

Capitol Theatre, Sydney from July 15. thebookofmormonmusical.com.au

Jesus Christ Superstar

Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s take on the last days of Jesus offended some, and led to protests when it was first staged 50 years ago.

This revival uses the set from the Regent Park Open Air season in London and harks back to the origins of the musical as a concept rock album.

Stage Whispers’ reviewer David Spicer raved about the sound of the production.

“Michael Paynter, in his professional musical theatre debut, almost blew the lid off the Capitol Theatre with his soaring high tenor rendition of the aria ‘Gethsemane’.

Capitol Theatre, Sydney until January 26, then Crown Theatre Perth from February 13, Princess Theatre Melbourne from March 16, and QPAC, Brisbane from June.

jesuschristsuperstarmusical.com.au

Victorian Opera’s Candide Photo: Charlie Kinross.

Cats

Producer John Frost is also reviving another Lloyd Webber blockbuster for Crossroads Live.

“Cats is a legendary show that I’ve admired for over 40 years. A sparkling fusion of music, dance and verse, it was revolutionary when it first opened and enticed new audiences into the world of musical theatre.”

Cats is returning to the Theatre Royal, Sydney in June, 40 years after its Australian premiere at the same venue. Theatre Royal, Sydney from June 17 with a tour expected to follow. catsthemusical.com.au

Les Misérables The Arena Spectacular

No, you are not dreaming a dream. The musical blockbuster that’s been going for 40 years in the West End, and has had waves of productions down under, is returning, this time as an arena spectacular featuring what is described as an international cast of over 65 actors and musicians.

Venues earmarked for their part of the world tour are the ICC, Sydney in April, followed by Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne and Brisbane Entertainment Centre in May. lesmisarenatour.com.au

Rent

The national touring production of Rent ends its journey in Sydney in October as part of Opera Australia’s very musical year.

Stage Whispers’ reviewer Beth Keehn wrote that “The grittiness of 1990s grunge-era New York is lovingly brought to life by the scaffold-and-loft-apartment set design, quirky costumes and an inspired lighting design.

“There are visual treats to watch out for including a FAB-U-LOUS Christmas shopping scene, and a café long table that morphs into Leonardo’s ‘Last Supper’.”

Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House from September 27. opera.org.au

Beauty And The Beast

Disney’s dazzling, high-tech update of Beauty and the Beast is currently delighting audiences in Melbourne.

Stage Whispers’ reviewer Michael Brindley lauded “the astonishing lead cast.

“There is so much humour, pizzazz, glamour, energy and beautifully choreographed production numbers on stage that the audience is continuously smiling and audibly engaged.”

“Gasps, oohs and aahs from the audience can be heard throughout.”

Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne, then Adelaide Festival Centre in May and Crown Theatre, Perth in July. beautyandthebeastmusical.com.au

Six

“See Six and be impressed not just by the clever idea, the music, the costumes, the colour and energy but by the talented Australian queens who really rock this bit of history!” wrote Stage Whispers’ reviewer Carol Wimmer.

“There is nothing dull about those stories. They are clever and witty, told in a punchy ‘pop concert’ beat and language that thumbs its nose at historians who have side -lined women for years.”

Henry VIII’s six wives tell their own stories, as they’ve never been heard before, in this pop rock musical hit.

Theatre Royal Sydney until December, then QPAC, Brisbane from January, The Civic Auckland from February and Civic Theatre, Newcastle from April.

sixthemusical.com.au

Single Cities Only

Candide

Opera Australia presents the satirical musical Candide, about humankind’s capacity for mindless optimism, with Voltaire’s story set to a remarkable score by famed West Side Story composer Leonard Bernstein.

Eddie Perfect and Lyndon Watts reprise their roles from the 2024 Victorian Opera premiere of this production, which delivers both firstrate comedy and symphonic magic.

Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House from 20 February. opera.org.au

Bloom

Melbourne Theatre Company’s hit musical Bloom gets another chance to shine with the STC in May. The comedy set in a nursing home has book and lyrics by Working Dog’s Tom Gleisner and music by Katie Weston. sydneytheatre.com.au

MTC & STC’s Bloom. Photo: Derek Henderson.

Wicked

As the movie version of Wicked hits our cinemas, the stage version concludes its national tour in Perth, playing to the end of January with Todd McKenney in the Wizard’s chair. wickedthemusical.com.au

Follies

Victorian Opera opens Season 2025 with a fully staged production of Stephen Sondheim’s Tony Award-winning musical Follies, from February 1 to 6 at the Palais Theatre, St Kilda.

Set in a run-down theatre scheduled for demolition, former chorus girls (including legends of the Australian stage Marina Prior, Antoinette Halloran, Colette Mann, Geraldene Morrow, Evelyn Krape, Rhonda Burchmore and Geraldine Turner) reunite to honour their performances there during the interwar years. victorianopera.com.au

Avenue Q

AG Theatre will stage puppet-filled, adults-only comedy Avenue Q at The National Theatre, Melbourne, opening in February. agtheatre.com.au

Calamity Jane

The Bille Brown Theatre transforms into an immersive old-time Western bar complete with on-stage saloon seating from March, as Queensland Theatre presents Calamity Jane queenslandtheatre.com.au

Tina

Tina - The Tina Turner Musical concludes its national tour in Melbourne on 9 February. tinathemusical.com.au

Converted

The Australian Theatre for Young People in Sydney premieres the musical comedy Converted in January, which celebrates queer teenagers who learn to trust who they are while dancing to the irresistible call of the disco ball. atyp.com.au

Hayes Theatre, Sydney

2025 at the Hayes opens with the Australian Premiere production of Ghost Quartet, written and composed by Dave Malloy (Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812), playing from January 8 to 25.

A new adaptation by Richard Carroll of The Pirates of Penzance, brought to life by just four performers, plays from February 14 to March 16.

March will see the return of The Producers - A Mel Brooks Musical, the winner of a record 12 Tony Awards, from March 28 to April 27.

The Australian Premiere of the Tony and Olivier Awardnominated musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, based on the film by Pedro Almodóvar plays from May 9 to June 8.

Being Alive: The Music of Stephen Sondheim, a concert of songs by the greatest musical theatre mind of all, plays a three-week season from June 25.

From the Tony Award-winning songwriting duo of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (Seussical, Ragtime) comes the Sydney Premiere of the Olivier Award-winning Once on This Island from August 2 to 31.

For their first musical, Sport for Jove will present the Sydney Premiere of the Steve Martin and Edie Brickell musical Bright Star, directed by Damien Ryan, from September 5 to October 5.

The year concludes with two World Premieres, Phar Lap: The Electro-Swing Musical, written by Steven Kramer, from October 17, and Merry & Bright, a new play with music, starring Nancye Hayes in a role crafted specially for her by Jordan Shea, from November 28.

hayestheatre.com.au/2025-season

Online

Hayes Theatre’s artistic directors introduce their 2025 season youtu.be/KPvtO8m67wU

Highlights of Hayes Theatre’s 2025 season: The Pirates Of Penzance, Phar-Lap: The Electro Swing Musical, and Merry & Bright.

Loud And Clear Musicals

Sydney based audio company Loud and Clear and the Hornsby Musical Society have marked a unique milestone 50 “unforgettable productions together”.

The company’s owner and founder, David Betterridge, reminisced about what he described as the rich history, friendships, and enduring magic that can only come from decades of collaboration.

The partnership began in 1995 with a production of Les Misérables, where Betterridge recalls enduring freezing winter temperatures and the challenges of a vast cathedral-like auditorium.

“We achieved something extraordinary. Mixing the show sometimes in fingerless gloves.

“It was a huge success and the first of many Les Mis seasons I would mix. I counted 88 performances before I went mad.”

That show sparked a relationship with Hornsby that has only grown stronger, with countless show

memories, and a shared dedication to theatrical excellence.

Loud and Clear’s journey has seen the company grow from a passion project to a fully-fledged operation with a team of over 40 and equipment valued at over $3 million dollars.

The company also recently celebrating their 1300th show.

As the audience gathered for Hornsby’s evening performance of Urinetown, Loud and Clear’s founder presented a commemorative memento to the company.

What resonated in his speech was a love for the craft and the community that has supported it for nearly three decades.

Amusingly, he noted the connection between Les Misérables and Urinetown. “The only thing I

could find that links Les Mis to Urinetown is sewers. And revolution of course.”

For Hornsby Musical Society and Loud and Clear Audio, this milestone symbolises not just the past 50 shows, but also so many more they will continue to create together.

Here’s to a future filled with more remarkable productions, unforgettable memories, and the sounds of success!

Koren Beale

Photo: SRD Photography.

In 2025 The Bard is back, along with some blockbuster Australian plays, world premieres, classics updated and Indigenous works. David Spicer picks some of the highlights.

All the world’s a stage for Shakespeare in Australia in the year ahead.

In Sydney, Sport for Jove Director Damien Ryan has gathered some of Australia’s most revered performers to tackle an edited mix of Shakespeare’s epic history dramas. Under the banner of The Player Kings Part One and Two (March) the cast, including John Gaden and Peter Carroll, will traverse the political chaos and medieval blood spilling of the Richards, the Henrys and the War of the Roses.

Across town Company B is staging The True History of the Life and Death of King Lear and his Three Daughters,

described as an energised revival of one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays, starring Colin Friels (Nov).

Brisbane’s La Boite Theatre is re-imaging Macbeth. In their production (March) the Witches whose cryptic prophecies drive Macbeth to murder, madness, and ruin become the focus.

The Melbourne Theatre Company is staging Much Ado About Nothing (Nov), promising that the romantic comedy will be a theatrical feast.

Bell Shakespeare is touring its ‘intimate’ production of Romeo and Juliet to 26 venues across the country. Henry 5, one of The Bard’s most famous war plays, will premiere in a new production in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. (Mar to May). For the first time in nearly 30 years, the company will stage one of Shakespeare’s lesser-known works, the political epic Coriolanus in Sydney and Melbourne (Jun to Aug). It tells the tale of war, power and politics that is both thrilling and disturbingly familiar.

The Dictionary Of Lost Words

Adapted by Verity Laughton from the novel by Pip Williams, this hit play about the creation of the Oxford Dictionary will have a wide national audience with return seasons in capital cities and some regional dates.

“Multiple locations and character development are conveyed by some brilliant collaborations of set designer, costume designer and director,” wrote Stage Whispers’ reviewer Michael Brindley.’

“As a play, The Dictionary of Lost Words is a mix of touching scenes, of comedy as (the central character) Esme encounters the outside world, and wordy narration and at times rather preachy idealism.”

Online extras!

Peter Evans discusses Coriolanus at Bell Shakespeare’s 2025 season launch youtu.be/kjnqvg1MpVA

Bell Shakespeare’s Coriolanus.

Photo: Pierre Toussaint.

Sport For Jove’s The Player Kings

World Premieres

S. Shakthidharan, the writer of the international hit Counting and Cracking, has penned The Wrong Gods, a new work set in India that pits 50,000 years of tradition in a farming district against the desire of a daughter for education. MTC (Jun) and Belvoir (May).

The Ensemble Theatre is tapping nostalgia from the TV series A Country Practice with Melanie Tait’s How to Plot a Hit in Two Days. It centres around the writers creating the seminal episode when Molly died (Sep).

Queensland Theatre will stage two world premieres: Back to Bilo based on the real-life battle of a regional town to allow Sri Lankan refugees to stay in their town (Sep) and Malacañan Made Us, Jordan Shea’s epic set in 1986 Philippines (Oct).

Never Have I Ever, a debut comedy from screenwriter and podcaster Deborah Frances-White, skewers the

Online extras!

La Boite has a bold new take on one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies. youtu.be/xg0sRN5hEwE

Seasons 2025

Online extras!

Belvoir’s Eamon Flack discusses directing Colin Friel as King Lear. youtu.be/1oRi1QCUpBU

Belvoir St Theatre’s The True History Of King Lear And His Three Daughters

Photo: Daniel Boud.

La Boite Theatre’s Macbeth

Photo: David Kelly.

contradictions of contemporary society and the shifting sands of power and sexual politics. MTC (Feb) and Black Swan (Jun).

Classical Entertainment

From playwriting icon Joanna Murray-Smith comes this adaptation of the twentieth century’s most glamorous thriller, Talented Mr Ripley. Will McDonald (Heartbreak High) plays Tom Ripley, an orphan and a striver, barely scraping by in 1950s New York. Sydney Theatre Company (Aug).

In the 250th year after her birth, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice leaps to the stage in a vibrant retelling with a luminous local Queensland Theatre cast. (Feb).

Daphne du Maurier’s classic 1938 novel Rebecca, where love and doubt cloak the corridors of Manderley, updated by Anne-Louise Sarks, will star Pamela Rabe, Nikki Shiels, and Bert LaBonté. MTC (Oct).

And Then There Were None

From the producers of The Mousetrap comes a brandnew production of Agatha Christie’s best-selling crime novel of all time, And Then There Were None, opening at Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre in February, then Sydney’s Theatre Royal from May.

Ten people are lured to a solitary mansion on an island off the English coast, when a storm cuts them off from the mainland. The true reason for their presence on the island soon becomes horribly clear.

Online extras!

Discover Dear Son and the rest of Queensland Theatre’s 2025 season youtu.be/AgmYhB2msQA

Queensland Theatre’s Dear Son. Photo: Sam Scoufos.

Malthouse Theatre’s A Nightime Travesty. Photo: Gregory Lorenzutti.

Indigenous Theatre

A love story unfolds when two teenage boys meet under a lemon tree, in the light of a full moon in Whitefella Yella Tree. Also available as new release on Australian Theatre Live, the stage production can be seen at the STC (Sep) and La Boite (Oct).

Dear Son: Letters and Reflections From First Nations Fathers is based on the book by Thomas Mayo, adapted by Isaac Drandic, featuring letters from 12 Indigenous leaders to their sons in a co-production between Queensland Theatre and State Theatre SA (July).

From Andrea James, the writer of Sunshine Super Girl comes The Black Woman of Gippsland, “a thrilling modern mystery’’ in which a woman is tossed ashore from the sea, bedraggled and lost 150 years ago. MTC (May).

Black Swan presents Blue, a tender monologue written by Heartbreak High star Thomas Weatherall. (May).

Malthouse presents A Nightime Travesty, complete with explosions, zany costumes, gruesome decapitations, existential horror, Blak humour, romance, genocide and a live band (Feb).

David Williamson Plays

Australia’s towering playwright (literally and figuratively) is back in favour across the country. Sydney’s Ensemble Theatre is staging a new work of his Aria (Jan) and a revival of Emerald City (Jul). His seminal work The Removalists, set in violent inner-city Melbourne, is being revived by the MTC (Mar), and Queensland Theatre is introducing Brisbane audiences to his take on the world of country music in Rhinestone Rex and Miss Monica (Jun).

Online extras!

Meet Dylan Van Den berg, the playwright behind Whitefella Yella Tree. youtu.be/DWsNpQAeG_s

Online extras!

The crisis wrought by globalisation is laid bare in MTC’s The Wrongs Gods. youtu.be/3QCjWq02thU

Belvoir St Theatre & MTC’s The Wrong Gods.

Photo: Daniel Boud.

STC’s Whitefella Yella Tree

Photo: Derek Henderson.

State Theatre Company SA & STC’s The Dictionary Of Lost Words

The Queen’s Nanny

Inspired by historical events, a royal scandal ignites a blistering fire between the steely Queen Mother and her children’s doting nanny in Melanie Tait’s new comedy-drama. The World Premiere took place at the Ensemble Theatre and the play will tour Australia in 2025.

5. THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, 1931

[It’s 11.30 a.m. ELIZABETH is drinking down a hangover salve. Dialogue.]

ELIZABETH: My word, Ainslie, this is bloody awful.

AINSLIE: Apparently it does the trick a mere ten seconds after the last sip is supped. All the rage in America.

ELIZABETH: What did you say is in it?

AINSLIE: Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, salt, Tabasco sauce, black pepper…and a raw egg from the Buckingham Palace chicken coop. It’s called a ‘prairie oyster’.

[She finishes the drink. They count the ten seconds.]

ELIZABETH: That’s rather a miracle, Ainslie! I don’t feel the least bit hung! You do look after me, dear old fruit! Ainslie, bring me the new builder of our girls’ character! Bring me Miss Crawford!

AINSLIE: She’s waiting right outside the door. Since six-thirty.

ELIZABETH: She has her breakfast at six-thirty?

AINSLIE: Scottish.

ELIZABETH: My word, Ainslie.

AINSLIE: The Duke does say, Ma’am, ‘The world belongs to those who wake up early.’

ELIZABETH: He does, Ainslie. But you mustn’t give the Duke credit for such wisdom. I’m sure you’ll find it was Wordsworth, or Keats, or someone equally as dreary, who’d never had a moment’s fun in all their lives. Not like you or I, Ainslie.

AINSLIE: Quite, Ma’am.

ELIZABETH: Now then, let’s have this new nanny!

MARION enters, curtsies.

MARION: Good morning, Your Royal Highness.

ELIZABETH: Ah, Miss Crawford. Let me guess how you like your tea? And then you shall guess how I like mine,

and we shall be acquainted properly from that moment on. You’re from Dunfermline?

MARION: Mostly. Born in Ayrshire. Lived there for the first few years of my life

ELIZABETH: That changes things.

MARION: It does?

ELIZABETH: The east and west coasts of Scotland might as well be different countries. Certainly when it comes to one’s tea preferences. Those on the west coast don’t allow themselves as many pleasures. Therefore, I’d wager that, and your slim figure, means it’s rare that sugar illuminates the tea you drink.

MARION: I’m sorry to tell you, Ma’am, you’re quite mistaken. I like the heftiest amount of sugar available to me. What I think I might get away with in the company I’m keeping. With my mother, for instance, just the one. I’d rather evade her Presbyterian judgement. But with you? I know you hail from the east coast of Scotland. You have a wee glint in your eye that suggests you’re open to an excess of sugar. If we’d known each other longer, I’d be going for three … or even four! Yet, I’ll protect my reputation upon first getting to know each other: just two please.

ELIZABETH: Miss Crawford. Are you wild?

MARION: Wildly sweet of tooth.

ELIZABETH: I knew you were right for the girls! I knew it!

MARION: Because I have a weakness for sweetness?

ELIZABETH: A weakness for sweetness suggests you still have the child in you.

MARION: Do you have a weakness for sweetness?

ELIZABETH: Miss Crawford. It’s not proper to ask a member of the Royal Family any personal questions.

MARION: I beg your pardon.

ELIZABETH: It’s quite all right. I think you and I will scrap that rule as we’re to be joined in the family endeavour of bringing up happy little girls. Look at me, Miss Crawford. Does it look like I have a weakness for sweetness? You don’t have to answer that, but suffice to say I’m most aware that my brother-in-law David and his waifish paramours call me ‘Cookie’. Apparently, Miss Crawford, because I am as round as an American chocolate chip cookie. Now then! We must get to the bitty nitty pretty gritty of what we need from you

MARION: Yes, Ma’am.

ELIZABETH: I suspect Lilibet’s fate will include some nice country chap. You know the type red-faced and slightly gouty. She’ll have a few children, breed some race horses and live a thoroughly delightful life. Margo’s still a baby, she’s a little wild, so who knows? What I’m saying, Miss Crawford, is please don’t feel too much pressure about their academic education. As long as they can read, write, are happy and thought of as pleasant people that’s all their father and I care about.

MARION: Ma’am?

ELIZABETH: Yes, Miss Crawford.

MARION: I think you might have chosen the wrong person. I believe girls need to be educated for the future of this world. To make it better. They can’t do a worse job than men have over the last thousand years or so.

ELIZABETH: Miss Crawford.

MARION: Yes, Ma’am.

ELIZABETH: These men of which you speak…

MARION: Yes, Ma’am.

ELIZABETH: You do realise that many of them have sipped brandy in this very room?

MARION: Yes, Ma’am. I want more ladies making more decisions for our world. A good education is key to that.

ELIZABETH: I see.

MARION: I suppose then I’ll be heading back to the station, Ma’am. Thank you for the splendid night in your lovely home…

ELIZABETH: Miss Crawford, you’ll not be going anywhere. I like your spirit! We could do with a nanny in this family who doesn’t need a feather duster taken to her brain. Teach them what you like, but I keep a happy house, so, as long as the girls are pleasant, do fill their heads with anything you like! Except Marxism.

MARION: I’d venture the girls should learn about Marxism, if they’re put upon to make a case against it.

ELIZABETH: Glorious. And one more thing, dear Miss Crawford. I can tell you’re an absolute darling, but it’s most important when you go home to Scotland: You must keep oyster.

MARION: ‘Oyster’, Ma’am?

ELIZABETH: You’ll find everyone will want to know about us. Whether the girls behave (they do), whether Bertie and I bicker (we do), whether the Prince of Wales is an attentive uncle (he is, surprisingly). I don’t need to tell you how the newspapers survive on us being very good stories. But these stories must not come from you. If one must share a story from time to time (and, Miss Crawford, who among us doesn’t like an indiscreet little chittity chat?), share with the other staff. You’ll find particularly receptive ears in Ainslie. Just keep oyster everywhere else. Oyster. Snapped shut.

MARION: You won’t need to worry about me and gossip, Ma’am. People

don’t tend to gossip with me. I’ve always thought maybe it’s to do with my posture.

ELIZABETH: You have excellent posture.

MARION: Aye people who gossip tend to have less erect posture. All the leaning in to hear the secrets, et cetera.

ELIZABETH: Ha! How very clever of you, Miss Crawford. I’m doing an inventory right this moment of all my friends who love some salacious chittity and you’re quite right! None of them are erect of posture. Goodness me! I’ll have to start standing up taller!

[ELIZABETH rings the bell, their time together is over.]

ELIZABETH: Thank you, Miss Crawford. Of course we’ll need another name for you…

MARION: I’m not really one for silly names…

ELIZABETH: Crawfo? Crawfiddleypoo? Crawfie?Crawfie! Oh yes! I think ‘Crawfie’ suits you very well.

MARION: Crawfie? In the classroom, with the girls, I’m not sure it sets the right tone…

ELIZABETH: And Crawfie that accent won’t do if you stay on with us. Of course I adore the lilt of a Scot nearby actually makes me frightfully homesick for my own dear nanny, would you believe? But we can’t have the princesses…

MARION: I’ve college to be going back to when spring comes. It’s very much in Scotland.

ELIZABETH: Yes, yes, Crawfie. But you’ll fall in love with us. Everyone does. It becomes completely impossible to leave us! Ask Ainslie. Isn’t it so, Ainslie? Isn’t it simply completely impossible to leave us?

AINSLIE: Yes, Ma’am. Impossible.

ELIZABETH: And you’ll never guess where Ainslie is originally from. He’s done a beautiful job with his accent. Beautiful! Go on, Ainslie. Be a peach and do some of your old accent?

AINSLIE: I’m afraid I’ve quite forgotten, Ma’am.

ELIZABETH: Poppycock, dear Ainslie. Please, Ainslie. It’s so delightful when you do it. What if I do it? I’m a really rather excellent mimic, aren’t I Ainslie?

AINSLIE: Yes you are, Ma’am.

ELIZABETH: [in Cockney] Ainslie is from the East End of London, innit! I’m off to find me old pot and pan!

[ELIZABETH exits, laughing.]

AINSLIE: Excellent, Ma’am!

MARION: How long have you been here, Ainslie?

AINSLIE: Seventeen years, Miss Crawford. Stay here seventeen years and you can erase that very essence of yourself too.

Ensemble’s The Queen’s Nanny (2024) Photo: Phil Erbacher.

Broadway And Beyond

After a five-year break, Stage Whispers correspondent David Spicer made it back to the Great White Way to review many of the newest crop of musicals and plays. He rates productions ranging from Tony Award winning hits to musicals in their last few months, along with fascinating regional and Canadian productions.

The Outsiders: A New Musical

The best way to see that a musical is a hit is by the ticket price and the reaction of fans waiting for the stars to come out after the show has finished. Getting a single ticket to The Outsiders was my most expensive outlay of the whole trip, which I forked out to see the Tony Awardwinning Best Musical.

After the performance, legions of female fans jockeyed to get autographs from the leads. I spoke to one fan who had seen the musical eight times.

One of the buff leads, Brent Comer, gave Stage Whispers an impromptu interview on the footpath, dressed in a singlet. He told me that the musical “resonates with everybody because it’s about a transitional part of people’s lives when they experience

loss. I think everyone experiences loss in a coming-of-age time of their life in one way or another. They can project that onto this story.”

Based on the seminal coming of age novel by SE Hinton, set in 1967, it’s about the battle between working class gangs in Oklahoma. This year’s Forbidden Broadway revue parodied it as a cross between West Side Story and Grease. There’s a grain of truth there with respect to the choreography. The sensational dancing recalled the classic opening of West Side Story But this was much more violent in its intensity there was beauty in the violence.

The Outsiders looks likely to be the only new musical from this year’s crop to run indefinitely, and will make it to Australia at some stage.

Stereophonic

My first show on Broadway after the big plane trip over the Pacific Ocean was the Tony Award winning play Stereophonic.

Still getting over jet lag there was a real risk of me dozing off in the theatre (which happens from time to time). Yet I stayed wide awake and was captivated by the gritty drama, set in a recording studio at a time when an emerging rock group is creating its breakthrough album.

There is a great music, and hilarious office politics gossip from two sound engineers and lashings of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll as you’d expect.

The play script by David Adjmi was described in pre-publicity as loosely inspired by Fleetwood Mac’s emergence in the 1970’s.

However, in October a former reallife Fleetwood Mac sound engineer filed a lawsuit to hold the play’s writer accountable for infringements on his copyright. He claims that parts of a book he wrote in 2012 about Fleetwood Mac end up on stage.

The Outsiders.

Photo: Matthew Murphy.

As the old saying goes. If it’s a hit there’s a writ.

The Great Gatsby

The 75th anniversary of the death of F. Scott Fitzgerald in 2021 put his classic book out of copyright and a musical version by Kait Kerrigan, Jason Howland and Nathan Tysen won the race to get to Broadway first.

Staged at the Broadway Theatre, which is the second biggest in the district, I went on a Saturday night and it was packed. A long queue formed afterwards for the autograph of its bonafide star, Jeremy Jordan.

The strongest elements are the cast and the spectacle. The set is huge, the costumes (which won the Tony) are dazzling, and it includes a life-sized vintage car.

Some of the original source material has been omitted and the music is pleasant enough but more Disney pop ballads than roaring ‘20s. It is selling enough tickets to keep going for more than a year in New York but might be too expensive to stage, and not popular enough to make it to Australia.

Back

To The Future The Musical I bought a matinee ticket to the highly commercial musical adaptation of the popular 1980s movie and sat near an Australian couple on holidays from regional NSW who rarely go to the theatre.

The musical is faithful to the movie’s storyline with the leads Marty, Doc and George carbon copies of the

original characters. You feel like Michael J. Fox is there on stage.

The difference is of course the introduction of music, and at times in the first act the entrance of a large cast, all singing and dancing chorus numbers, felt a little contrived.

Making up for this is the technical wizardry of the second act. The whole Winter Garden Theatre was set up nicely for surround lighting effects.

The real stars of the show are the special effects which don’t disappoint and the DMC DeLorean car. At the right moment it appears to be going at breakneck speed back to the future and (spoiler alert) it turns upside down.

The musical did steady business and will close on Broadway on January 5. The Australian premiere season will take place at the Sydney Lyric in September.

The Notebook The Musical I caught this adaptation of the classic movie in the last few months of its short run on Broadway.

The sizzling original on-screen romance between Ryan Gosling (Noah) and Rachel McAdams (Allie) for which the movie was famous was always going to be a hard act to follow. I sat in a matinee performance amidst a predominantly female audience, who wept at the re-telling of the story of an elderly man reading from a notebook to an elderly woman in a nursing home about the love life she can’t remember.

I enjoyed the production. But why did it fail to sufficiently excite audiences on Broadway? Well, the music was sweet but perhaps the story was overly sentimental, with the couple represented by three sets of actors at different ages.

Overall, the story is about class. Noah was from a working-class family and his relationship with well-to-do Allie in 1940s America was blocked by her parents because of their disparity in wealth.

This production had the added complexity of colour-blind casting. Both characters were portrayed at their different ages by actors who Broadway

See David Spicer’s short video reviews of these productions and more at youtube.com/StageWhispersTV

Stereophonic. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

Back To The Future The Musical.

Online extras!

Joy Woods performs ‘My Days’ from The Notebook The Musical. youtu.be/FXckkJqw920

were a mixture of POC and AngloSaxon, which at times confused me.

Another perspective is that perhaps the movie was so good that it didn’t need to become a musical.

Water For Elephants: A New Musical

Perhaps my favourite overall production on Broadway was this musical, based on the best-selling book (which was adapted into a movie) about a veterinarian who leaves behind a family tragedy to join a circus.

I enjoyed it so much that I bought a T-shirt, as a thank you to producers for giving me a free ticket, and because I liked the clever graphic of acrobats in the shape of the head and trunk of an elephant.

It was a complete night of entertainment, with a fascinating story, clever large animal puppetry and elegant circus tricks. How often do you get that in a musical?

There was also drama traversing the issues of the treatment of animals and domestic violence.

The musical cost a whopping US$25 million but it closes in December because ticket sales were not sufficient to cover its running costs.

It is said that four out of five musicals on Broadway do not recoup their investors’ money. This trend has been exacerbated by rising production costs and audiences being wooed by the billions of dollars’ worth of content being pumped out by streaming services.

Suffs

The musical based on the story of the women’s suffrage movement in the United States took out several Tony Awards and looked headed for the big Best Musical gong, but it was pipped by The Outsiders

Based on the recommendations of a friend who loved it, I bought a ticket but was a little underwhelmed. While it was fascinating being taken to a time when women were revolutionaries who went to jail and risked their lives in a bid to pressure the US Government to give them the

vote, I found it a little too didactic.

It was telling that The New York Times wrote in its review that the musical had improved over its OffBroadway try-out, which was not exactly a ringing endorsement.

Some of the characters felt two dimensional, particularly the US President at the time, who sang a song a little too reminiscent of King George in Hamilton.

After I saw the show, news came through that it would be closing in January.

Broadway Buzz

The Notebook The Musical.

Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

Suffs.

This won’t be the last of Suffs as it will go on a national tour and Music Theatre International is said to be very passionate about it. As a musical in a girls’ school, it will be a knockout.

Beyond Broadway

Maggie The Musical (Goodspeed Opera House)

My cousins live in Connecticut and invited me to visit them, which meant that I was away from the theatre district for one whole night! However, I noticed that they lived near the famous Goodspeed Opera House and persuaded them to go.

We didn’t regret it. The 1877 white theatre on the banks of the Connecticut river in East Haddam beamed in glorious sunshine. The venue is famous for being a destination for out of town try outs that make it to Broadway. Annie is one of the productions which had its first outing there.

On stage was Maggie The New Musical. It was a rollicking musical drama set in Scotland during the troubles of the 1970s. A young woman with three children is

widowed after losing her husband in a mining accident.

As her sons reach manhood, they face new challenges in a period of history that has been overshadowed by what happened in Northern Ireland. Whilst it may not be commercial enough for Broadway, the musical was gripping and entertaining with a strong future.

The Secret Garden (Shaw Theatre)

The reason for my visit was to see a regional production of The Boy From Oz in Rochester, New York (see Musical Spice on page 76). This was very handy to Niagara Falls.

Whilst the waterfalls are world famous, not so well known is a posh suburb an hour away called Niagaraon-the-Lake. It’s home to the famous Shaw Festival Theatre which was founded in the 1960s by a local lawyer/playwright. It now has several venues and sells 250,000 tickets a year to its seasons, which always include something from George Bernard Shaw (My Fair Lady in 2024).

The recent update of Gaslight that toured Australia began life there.

I enjoyed a specialty dish, an apple fritter, in the picturesque town, then

bought a ticket to a new adaptation of The Secret Garden

The small cast production, with songs from the time that the original book was written, was beautifully staged.

The Life Of Pi

Finally, as I was flying out of Toronto and with a few days to be a tourist, I looked around to see if there was a final show I could squeeze out of my working holiday.

The West End and Broadway play

The Life of Pi was on stage in the stunning CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre. The century old theatre underwent a lavish renovation for the opening of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I was told it was among several beautifully restored venues in Canada’s most populous city.

Matching the spectacle of the foyer was the stunning adaptation of the novel and movie. The puppetry was exquisite, and the production was made more special as the writer was Canadian. Let’s hope this beautiful production, which won three Tony and five Olivier awards ends up down under.

Water For Elephants: A New Musical. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

Drama Teacher Wins N.Y. Trip

A passionate drama teacher and director at Viewbank College in Melbourne, Pasquale Bartalotta, has been awarded the highly coveted Travel Gang Theatre Educator Scholarship.

The prize will take him to New York City, where he will gain invaluable experiences that will shape his work as an educator and mentor.

Pasquale was selected from 112 applicants vying for the scholarship.

“As a former teacher, I wanted to find a way to give back and honour the hard work and dedication of teachers and youth theatre educators,” says Dr. Shane Bransdon, founder of Travel Gang.

“This scholarship acknowledges those who make an incredible impact on their students and school communities, rewarding educators who inspire excellence in the arts.”

Pasquale will travel to New York in January, where he will experience Broadway shows and undertake professional learning.

Music Theatre International Australasia, a partner in the scholarship, is thrilled to support this initiative.

“Pasquale will not only get to experience some of the world’s best theatre but also observe Broadway professionals in a rehearsal room a chance to gain fresh insights to inspire his work back home,” says Stuart Hendricks from MTIA.

Pasquale’s application for the scholarship was supported by his students. Year 12 Theatre Studies student Liv McIntyre credits him with her growth as an actor and leader.

“Theatre Studies is such a vulnerable

subject, and Pasquale excels at creating a family-like atmosphere where we can truly grow. I couldn’t imagine a more supportive teacher,” Liv said.

Reflecting on the impressive pool of applicants, Mike King from Travel Gang was struck by the heartfelt endorsements received from all applicants. “Reading the letters of recommendation was incredibly moving,” he said.

The letters of support from both students and colleagues prompted Travel Gang to commend the achievements of all ten outstanding finalists.

Visit travelgang.com.au for more information about the scholarship program

Pasquale Bartalotta.

Viewbank College’s Year 12 student production of Clue (2024)

Do Critics Still Matter?

Les Solomon ponders whether reviewers really matter, before sharing his theatre highlights of 2024.

I receive a little email every time a new show opens on Broadway from a website called “Did They Like It?”, which collates the main Broadway reviews (didtheylikeit.com).

On the side of the page are three hands the top one has its thumb pointed upwards, the middle thumb points in a straight line and the third is the classic thumbs-down, categorising the reviews into positive, mixed and negative.

According to research, there is no doubt that the first review everyone looks at is ‘The New York Times’. Like it or not, this paper holds the main sway over theatregoers even today.

‘The Times’ has always been a tough paper to please. Frank Rich, who was known to shoot a show down in the most flagrant and aggressive way, was its most controversial critic. One of his many scathing barbs was, “This loathsome trio is quickly joined by a whole crowd of unappetizing clowns.”

Jesse Green, the current reviewer, is softer but can still pan a show with the best of them.

Yet shows have survived weak to poor reviews from ‘The Times’.

Wicked was poorly reviewed, receiving mostly mixed rather than totally negative reviews. “Its swirling poperetta score sheds any glimmer of originality,” wrote Ben Brantley.

I was in New York when Wicked opened in 2003, and the feeling was that the show would last six weeks at best. For the first two weeks the box office was poor and the show was on half-tix every day. Suddenly the public started to love it, the word spread, and we all know the super success that show has become.

The term “critic proof” is bandied about a lot these days. The era of a bad ‘NY Times’ review closing a show after the opening night doesn’t exist anymore. Shows will

run for two to three months on advance sales, even if annihilated by the press. More than ever, it seems, the critics have mattered less and less if the public love the show, though the same has perhaps also been true for decades, and internationally.

Cameron Mackintosh, for example, will tell you with great pride about the dreadful London reviews that Les Misérables received when it first opened in 1985. He and his co-producers were meeting to discuss how many weeks they could get out of the show before it closed when the phone rang to tell him queues were forming around the theatre. People didn’t care what was written by the press, they wanted to see it. The rest is history.

Of the current batch of musicals that have opened in the last year on Broadway, The Outsiders has been the hit of the NYC season, followed closely by The Great Gatsby. The Outsiders received mixed to good reviews, but very few raves. Gatsby was mainly panned. Is there a message about the power of the critic in this? It is difficult to say.

The musical Suffs was generally praised, it won a Tony for Best Score, yet it closed having lost money for investors.

So how does Australia rate in terms of the impact of the critic? Well, the sad fact is that many papers no longer carry theatre reviews, which is a great shame and speaks poorly of the rapidly dying print media. The big ones in the eastern states ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’ and ‘The Age’ still have a daily Arts page, but reviews of plays and musicals have become scarce and it’s harder than ever for an independent production to get reviewed in a major newspaper.

As serious reviews decline, social media influencers with vast audiences, but little knowledge of theatre, are courted by publicists.

Most people read reviews online in blogs and websites such as this one and ‘Limelight’. Publicists select positive quotes from multiple reviewers and plaster them across social media and websites.

‘The Sydney Morning Herald’ no longer has one major reviewer. John Shand is probably the most consistent writer, but the role is now shared amongst several people.

Older readers will remember the days of H G Kippax. If Harry liked a show, it would run and run. No one holds that sort of power these days and most people find the inconsistency amongst reviewers hard to equate, so less notice is taken. Often it is even hard to find where the Arts pages can be found, such is the slow decline of the print media in daily papers. ‘The Australian’, our only national paper, rarely reviews anything.

The quality of reviews is on the wane. Critics still review the play too much. Anything new? Yes, it must be reviewed, but when a play or a musical is already a

worldwide hit, there is little point in saying whether you like the play or not; it’s one of the great traps critics often fall into.

They spend too much time on plot and not enough on reviewing performances / productions. The press release will always tell the story. What we want is to find out how the production handles what is on the page. A good tip to try and keep critics employed into the twenty first century as their power becomes less important.

The Year In Performances

I’d like to finish my column for the year by concentrating on a few sensational performances and a couple of major new names.

If I had to name the best performance in a play and a musical for this year, without question I would nominate Daniel R. Nixon for his extraordinary work in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time at Belvoir St and for a musical, Tim Draxl, who completely carried the show and most of the praise for Sunset Boulevard, especially as he had to adapt his performance between two leading female performers.

Verity Hunt-Ballard was magnificent in Dear Evan Hansen and would win an award from me for Best Supporting Performer. Blake Bowden stole the show from everyone in the concert version of Carousel in the supporting role of Enoch Snow, a role often ignored. Sadly, that concert didn’t make it to Sydney

Online

Les Solomon gives Stage Whispers TV a round-up of recent stage highlights youtu.be/NnToI1j38LY

To end the year, I must mention the future, and two exciting newcomers fresh out of the music theatre course at NIDA, both making individual marks in two community shows which, backing up their superb performances at NIDA, make them major names to watch.

I speak here of Matthew Trethewy who has recently given us the best Toby in Sweeney Todd I have seen for years (at Bankstown Theatre Company), commanding the stage not only in song but actually making dramatic sense of Toby’s final moments in the show where his motivation and feelings made enormous sense something I have never seen before in any production, anywhere in the world.

Last, but by no means least, Luc-Pierre Tannous skipped out of NIDA long enough to absolutely wrap the Willoughby Theatre Company production of Jersey Boys around his little finger (and his amazing voice) as Frankie Valli.

They’re two young performers we will be seeing more from in coming years. What a year it has been.

Matthew Trethewy. In The Spotlight With Les Solomon

Luc-Pierre Tannous

Online extras!

Amateur theatre powerhouse CLOC’s Come From Away was a sensation fb.watch/wbCvBdy7Vc

Come From Away is landing in a Community Theatre near you, making it the hottest new show on the boards in 2025. Check the arrivals board (seasons summary) below for your nearest flight to Gander, Newfoundland and the hospitality of the locals, in this popular musical set in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

CLOC Musical Theatre presented the non-professional premiere in October, and already the W.A. premiere has been staged by Koorliny Arts Centre, where our reviewer Kimberley Shaw described it as “one of the theatrical highlights of 2025”.

Another show having its nonprofessional debut in 2025 is Australian musical Georgy Girl - The Seekers Musical, with its score of iconic 1960s hits, though the performances of this show are somewhat sparser.

Come From Away aside, there’s a diverse repertoire of musicals to be

enjoyed across our capital cities in the new year. At a quick glance, Mamma Mia! is the most popular choice amongst quite a range of familiar titles.

Drama groups will present a varied repertoire of dramas and comedies, with some very exciting choices, though the staple at the heart of so many company seasons remains an Agatha Christie thriller, or another whodunnit.

Our congratulations and best wishes to companies celebrating special milestones in 2025, among them Queanbeyan Players, celebrating their 60th anniversary, and MLOC Productions, who have now been entertaining Melbourne audiences for 80 years.

An expanded version of this feature will appear online in midJanuary, and be regularly updated, so please share news of your seasons and special celebrations with us at stagewhispers.com.au/contact

A.C.T.

Queanbeyan Players: Bubble Boy (Feb), The Pirates of Penzance (Jul), 60th Anniversary Concert (Sep), 9 to 5 (Oct).

Canberra Rep: Baby Jane (Feb/Mar), Blithe Spirit (May), A Doll’s House, Part 2 (Jun), Spider’s Web (Jul/Aug), Lizzy, Darcy and Jane (Sep), Low Pay, Don’t Pay! (Nov/Dec).

Canberra Philharmonic Society (Philo): Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Feb/Mar), The Addams Family (Aug / Sep).

Free Rain Theatre Co: Sweet Charity (Apr/May).

NSW - Sydney and Blue Mountains

Willoughby Theatre Co: A Chorus Line (May), Anything Goes (Oct).

Miranda Musical Theatre Co: Georgy Girl (Mar), Mary Poppins (Sep).

Engadine Musical Society: Seussical (May)

CLOC’s Come From Away Photo: Ben Fon.

PACA Productions: The Little Mermaid (Mar), Footloose (Aug).

Berowra Musical Society: Disney The Little Mermaid (May), The Addams Family (Oct).

Bankstown Theatre Co: The Frogs (May), A Better You (Jul), Mamma Mia! (Oct).

Inner West Theatre Co: The Boy From Oz (Jun).

Hornsby Musical Society: Grease (May), City of Angels (Oct).

North Shore Theatre Co: The Wizard of Oz (Apr), Gypsy (Sep).

The Regals: Head Over Heels (Feb), The Lightning Thief (Aug).

EUCMS: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (May), You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Oct).

Strathfield Musical Society: Radio Dreams (May).

Genesian Theatre Co: An Inspector Calls (Jan), Macbeth (Mar), Lord Arthur Saville’s Crime (Apr), The Lady Vanishes (Jun), Moriarty - A New Sherlock Holmes Adventure (Aug), Side by Side by Sondheim (Sep), It’s A Wonderful Life (Nov).

Mosman Musical Society: A New Brain (Mar).

The Henry Lawson Theatre: All Sorts, Short Play Series (Mar), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (May), Women of Twilight (Jul), Calendar Girls (Sep), Cash on Delivery (Nov).

Tall & Short Theatre Co: Grease (Feb).

Penrith Musical Comedy Company: We Will Rock You (May), School of Rock (Sep).

Holroyd M & D Society: The Music Man (Jun), Rock of Ages (Nov).

Rockdale Musical Society: Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Apr), The Sound of Music (May), Evita (Sep).

The Guild Theatre: Goldilocks’ Mum Meets The Three Bears (Jan), Night Must Fall (Mar), The Explorers Club (Jun), Secret Bridesmaids’ Business (Aug), Tons of Money (Nov).

Rockdale Opera Company: CabaretOpera on the Rocs (Mar), The Merry Wives of Windsor (Jun), La Traviata (Nov).

Hills Musical Theatre Co: Disney Freaky Friday (May).

Blackout Theatre Co: Mamma Mia! (May), The Spongebob Musical (Nov).

Camden Musical Society: Alice in Wonderland Jr (May), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Oct).

The Acting Factory (Penrith): Proposals (Feb), Seventeen (Jun), Summer of Harold (Oct).

Sydney Youth Musical Theatre: Billy Elliot (Apr).

Pymble Players: It’s Only a Play (Mar), Agatha Christie’s Spider’s Web (Jul), The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race (Oct).

Campbelltown Theatre Group: Noises Off (May).

Castle Hill Players: Improbable Fiction (Feb), Glorious (Mar), Rehearsal for Murder (May), The Last 5 Years (Jul), I’ll Be Back Before Midnight (Sep), Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Elusive Ear (Nov).

The Theatre on Chester: Silent Sky (Apr), Broadway Bound (Aug), The

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (Nov).

Hunters Hill Theatre: Sylvia (Mar), The Revlon Girl (May), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Aug), Drinking Habits (Nov).

Arts Theatre Cronulla: Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (Feb), Midnight Murder at Hamlington Hall (May), Seventeen (Aug), Gaslight (Oct).

Lane Cove Theatre Company: If/Then (Mar), The Shape of Things (May).

Glenbrook Players Inc: Holding the Man (May).

Liverpool Performing Arts Ensemble: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (May), The Velveteen Rabbit (Aug).

Cumberland Gang Show: Dare To Dream (Jul).

Elanora Players: Ghosting The Party (Jan).

Richmond Players: The Mysterious Amateur Tramp (Mar), Sylvia (May), Midnight Murder at Hamlington Hall (Aug), Boeing Boeing (Nov).

Blue Mountains Musical Society: Come From Away (May), Sweet Charity in Concert (Jul), Legally Blonde (Oct).

Blackheath Theatre Company: The Hardcase Hotel (May), Short Plays by Local Authors (Aug).

NSW - Newcastle and Hunter Region

Metropolitan Players: The Wizard of Oz (Jul).

Newcastle Theatre Company: Hangmen (Feb), The Father (Mar), Morning Sacriifice (May), Macbeth (Jun), Every Second (Sep), The Birds (Oct).

Maitland Repertory Theatre: Flood Stories (Feb), The Great Divide (Feb), The Hanging, Robin Hood and His Merry Men, Spiders Web, It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To.

The Very Popular Theatre Company: Mamma Mia! (Oct).

Hunter Drama: Dot & the Kangaroo JR (Apr), Frozen JR (Jul), The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical (Aug), The Crucible (Oct).

Young People's Theatre: Ruby Moon (Feb), A Pocketful of Stories - Tales

From the Sea (Mar), Disney’s Alice in Wonderland Jr. (Apr), You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown (Jul), The Shoemaker’s Secret (Jul), Diary of a Whimpy Kid (Sep), Animal Farm (Dec), Creative Christmas (Dec).

NSW - Central Coast

Wyong Drama Group: The Importance of Being Earnest (Apr), Sylvia (Jul), Things I Know to Be True (Nov).

Gosford Musical Society: Popstars (Jan), Legally Blonde (Feb), The Lightning Thief (Jul), Catch Me If You Can (Aug).

Woy Woy Little Theatre: Killing Kate: Confessions of a Book Club (Feb), Witness for the Prosecution (May), Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike (Jul), Grand Horizons (Oct).

Wyong Musical Theatre Co: Song Contest - Almost Eurovision (May), Wonderland The Musical (Sep).

NSW - South Coast and Southern Highlands So Popera (Wollongong): Come From Away (Apr).

Roo Theatre Co (Shellharbour): The Little Mermaid - panto (Jan).

Highlands Theatre Group: Emma (Oct).

Arcadians Theatre Group: Hello, Dolly! (Mar).

Bay Theatre Players Inc (Batemans Bay): Fantastic Mr Fox (Jun), Ladies in Black (Oct).

Wollongong Workshop Theatre: Ulster American (Feb), Crimes of the Heart (May), Silent Sky (Jun), Radium Girls (Aug), White Rabbit Red Rabbit (Sep), The Full Monty (Nov).

Woods-Ray Theatricals (Wollongong): Seussical Jr (Jan), Disney The Little Mermaid (Apr), The Wizard of Oz

Albatross Musical Theatre, Nowra: Cinderella (Jul).

Nowra Players: Pass The Butler (Mar).

NSW - North Coast

Ballina Players: Finding Nemo Jr. (Jan), Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Mar), Chicago (Jun), Monty Python’s

Spamalot (Aug), Georgy Girl (Nov), Christmas in Concert (Dec).

Murwillumbah Theatre Co: Plonk (Mar).

The Players Theatre, Port Macquarie: Clue (Feb/Mar), Bonnie and Clyde (May).

CHATS Productions (Coffs Harbour): Love’s Labours Won (Apr).

Regional NSW

Singleton Theatrical Society: Tick, Tick … Boom! (Feb), Disney The Little Mermaid (Jun).

Tamworth Musical Society: Legally Blonde (May).

Tamworth Dramatic Society: Logan’s Gold (Mar).

Armidale Drama and Musical Society: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Twelfth Night, Noises Off, Next to Normal.

Albury Wodonga Theatre Co: Come From Away (May).

Bladwell Productions (Goulburn): Never Closer (Jun).

Rocky Hill Musical Theatre (Goulburn): Legally Blonde (May), The Pirates of Penzance (Nov).

Parkes Musical & Dramatic Society: Mamma Mia! (May)

Queensland

Savoyards: Come From Away (Jun), Hello, Dolly!

Ipswich Little Theatre: Popcorn (Feb), The Perfect Murder (May), Secret Bridesmaids’ Business (Sep), Waiting for God (Nov).

Empire Theatre, Toowoomba: Come From Away (Mar).

Toowoomba Repertory Theatre: Night Must Fall (Feb), On The Wallaby (Apr), The Sunshine Boys (Jul), Nellie Robinson OBE One Act Play Festival (Jul), Picnic at Hanging Rock (Sep), Seasons Greetings (Nov).

Tropical Arts Association: Richard the Third, Shakespeare at the Tanks 2025 (Jun).

Toowoomba Choral Society: The Addams Family (Aug)

Guild Theatre’s An O’Henry Christmas (2024)

Photo: Grant Leslie.

Online extras!

GSOV’s Ruddigore lampoons melodrama and the supernatural youtu.be/UPhlZZemYy0

Centenary Theatre Group: Veronica’s Room (Feb), No Dinner for Sinners (May), 84 Charing Cross Road (Jul), Cosi (Sep), Holmes & Watson (Nov).

Nash Theatre: Gunsmoke (Feb/Mar), Grand Horizons (May), Veronica’s Room (Aug), The Unexpected Guest (Nov/Dec).

Phoenix Ensemble, Beenleigh: Falsettos (Feb), Little Women (May), All Shook Up (Aug), Bare (Nov).

Spotlight Theatrical Co, Benowa: Fame (Feb), The Universe Has Your Back (Mar).

Sunnybank Theatre Group: The Birthday Party (Feb), Black Comedy/ Little Grimley (May), The Boys in the Band (Jun), Rumors (Sep), Red Riding Hood: Hood vs Hood (Nov).

Growl Theatre: It's My Party (And I'll Die if I want to) (Mar).

Tweed Theatre Co: The Narcissist (Mar), Cinderella (Jun).

Villanova Players: The Great Gatsby (Mar), She Kills Monsters (May), The Great Divide (May), Zig Zag Street (Jul), A Murder is Announced (Aug), The Accidental Death of an Anarchist

(Oct), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Nov).

Tugun Theatre Company: Checkmate (Feb), Love, Loss and What I Wore (May), Murder on Cue (Aug), Boeing Boeing (Nov).

Gold Coast Little Theatre: The Crucible (Jan), Divorce Party (Mar), Steel Magnolias (May/Jun), Titanic The Musical (Aug), Oklahoma! (Nov).

Javeenbah Theatre: Letters to Lindy (Mar).

North Queensland Opera and Music Theatre: Come From Away (Mar), Carrie The Musical (Jul), Rock of Ages (Oct).

Mackay Musical Comedy Players: Goldilocks & The Three Bears (Feb), Footloose (May), Evita (Sep).

Townsville Choral Society: Billy Elliot (Jan)

Burdekin Singers and Theatre Co: Back to the 80s (Jan).

Noosa Arts Theatre: Scrooge’s Christmas Carol (Jan), Rumors (Apr).

Coolum Theatre Players: Don’t Dress for Dinner (Mar).

Cairns Little Theatre / Rondo Theatre: Charley’s Aunt (Feb), Breakfast on Pluto (Apr), Death and the Maiden (Jun), The Real Inspector Hound (Aug), Snow White (Nov), Cairns Choral Society: Come From Away (Jan).

Victoria

CLOC Musical Theatre: Nice Work If You Can Get It (May).

BATS Theatre Company: Disney Moana Jr (Apr).

PLOS Musical Productions: School of Rock (Jan), We Will Rock You (Aug).

Babirra Music Theatre: My Fair Lady (Jun).

Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Victoria: Fledermaus (Feb/Mar), The Mikado (Jul), Jubilee: Celebrating 150 years of Gilbert and Sullivan and 90 years of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Victoria (Oct).

NOVA Music Theatre: The Music Man (Mar).

PEP Productions: Toxic Avenger: The Musical (Feb).

GSOV’s Ruddigore (2024)

Photo: Andrew McGrail

Online extras!

Go behind the scenes of WTC’s production of Singin’ In The Rain. fb.watch/wbBHJttHdx

SLAMS Music Theatre Company: Chicago (Mar).

Mountain District Musical Society (MDMS): Mary Poppins (Jun)

Fab Nobs Theatre: Captain Nemo (Jan), Come From Away (Mar/Apr), Zombie Prom - Atomic Edition (Jul).

Diamond Valley Singers: All Shook Up (Mar), Curtains (Jul).

MLOC Productions: MLOC celebrates 80 years in 2025. 80 Years of MLOC Magic (Apr), The Pirate Queen (Australian Premiere - Jul), Carousel (Oct).

Windmill Theatre Company: Mamma Mia! (Jun)

Heidelberg Theatre Co: Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense (Feb), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Apr), Love, Love, Love (Jul), Other Desert Cities (Sep), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Nov).

The Mount Players: The Importance of Being Earnest (Feb), The Girl on the Train (May).

Lilydale Athenaeum Theatre: Moon Over Buffalo (Feb), Haunted (Apr),

The Diary of Anne Frank (Jul), The Importance of Being Earnest (Sep), Nunsense Jamboree (Nov).

Williamstown Little Theatre: Wicked Sisters (Feb), Things I Know to be True (Apr/May), Rabbit Hole (Jun), The Hollow Crown (Sep), Jeeves & Wooster in Perfect Nonsense (Nov).

Phoenix TC: Head Over Heels (Feb).

Mordialloc Theatre Company Inc: Holmes and Watson (Feb), The Children (May), Lord Arthur Saville’s Crimes (Jul), Broadway Bound (Sep), Birthday Candles (Nov).

Frankston Theatre Group: An Inspector Calls (Apr), Emma (Sep), Farndale Avenue - A Christmas Carol (Nov).

Malvern Theatre Company Inc: The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race (Feb), A Happy and Holy Occasion (Apr), Macbeth (Jun), The Humans (Aug), Perfect Wedding (Oct).

Peridot Theatre Inc: The Architect (Feb).

Gemco: Millie’s War (Apr), Night Watch (Jul).

Seasons 2025

Willoughby Theatre Company’s Singin’ In The Rain (2024)

Encore Theatre Company Inc: Puss In Boots (Jan).

The 1812 Theatre: Short Shorts (Jan/ Feb), Agatha Christie’s Spider’s Web (Feb), The Thrill of Love (Apr/May), The Housekeeper (May), Sweeney Todd On The Razor’s Edge (July), Board Shorts (July), Home, I’m Darling (Aug), Speaking in Tongues (Oct) Rhinestone Rex & Miss Monica (Nov).

Eltham Little Theatre: The Diary of Anne Frank (Feb). One Act Plays (May), Fairy Tale Courtroom (Jul), The Addams Family (Sep), Whodunnit (Nov).

Players Theatre Company: Frozen Jr (Apr).

Beaumaris Theatre Group: Ladies in Black (Mar), Knife Edge (May), The Witches (Aug), Blackadder II (Nov), Phoenix Theatre Company: Head Over Heels (Feb).

The Basin Theatre Group: Home, I’m Darling (Feb).

Essendon Theatre Company: Ordinary Days (Mar).

Out of the Wings: Spring Awakening (Apr), Be More Chill (Apr),

Photo: Grant Leslie.

CPP Community Theatre: Macbeth (Apr), Urinetown (Oct).

Upstage Theatre Co: Into the Woods (Apr),

Regional Victoria

Geelong Repertory Theatre Company: Bondi Legal (Feb), The Shape of Things (Apr), Clue (Jul), The Heartbreak Choir (Sep), Shakespeare in Love (Nov).

CentreStage Geelong: Come From Away (Mar), Pippin (Aug).

Geelong Lyric Theatre Society: School of Rock (May)

Theatre of the Damned (Geelong): Young Frankenstein (Jun), La Cage Aux Folles (Aug).

Ararat Regional Theatre Society: Mamma Mia! (Jun).

Ballarat Lyric Theatre: Kinky Boots (Feb).

Footlight Productions (Geelong): Billy Elliot (Jan).

Bairnsdale Production Line Theatre Co: Come from Away (May).

Leongatha Lyric Theatre: Footloose (Jul).

Wonthaggi Theatrical Group: True West (Jan), The Addams Family (May).

Warragul Theatre Company: The Wedding Singer (May).

Wangaratta Players: Baskerville (Feb).

FAMDA (Foster): Noises Off (Apr).

Holiday Actors (Warnambool): Spamalot (Jan).

Gateway Theatre, Seaford: Seussical Kids (Apr), Mary Poppins (Jul).

Tasmania

Hobart Rep: Folk, Stuart Little (Apr), A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder (Jul), The Lord of the Flies (Aug), The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Oct), Christmas Pantomime.

The Old Nick Company: Anything Goes (Jan), Uni Revue.

The Show Company Tasmania: Come From Away (April).

Devonport Choral Society Inc: Calendar Girls The Musical (May), DoMaur Productions (Burnie): Once (Feb).

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

Cradle Coast Theatre (Devonport): Parton Me Jolene! (Mar).

South Australia

Tea Tree Players: Shirley Valentine (Feb), Doctor in the House (Apr), Murder at Checkmate Manor (May), Sleeping Beauty (Jul), Girl of the Frozen North (Aug), The Kitchen Witches (Oct), Alice in Wonderland - a pantomime (Nov).

The Metropolitan Musical Theatre Company of SA: La Cage aux Folles (May).

Northern Light Theatre Company: Billy Elliot (Mar). Seasons 2025

Latrobe Theatre Company: Mamma Mia! (Aug).

Encore Theatre Company: Billy Elliot (Mar).

The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of W.A.’s Kiss Me Kate Photo: Nicholas Madeley.

St Jude’s Players: Labour of Love (Apr), Neighbourhood Watch (Aug), The Revlon Girl (Nov).

The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of SA: Merrily We Roll Along (May).

Blue Sky Theatre: Jack and The Absolutes (Jan).

Therry Dramatic Society: Unfriend (Mar), Come From Away (Aug).

Hills Musical Company: Little Women (May), Be More Chill (Nov).

The Stirling Players: Life Without Me (Mar), Almost, Maine (Jul).

University of Adelaide Theatre Guild: The Penelopiad (May), The Watsons (Aug), The Whale (Nov).

Adelaide Youth Theatre: Rent (April).

Riverland Musical Society: Come From Away (Oct).

South Coast Choral and Arts Society: Rodgers and Hammertein’s Cinderella (Oct).

Murray Bridge Players: Jersey Boys (May).

The Magpie Warblers (Port Pirie): Sweeney Todd (Jul).

Western Australia

Primadonna Productions: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Feb) Nunsense (Mar), Moana Jr (Jul), The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (Oct).

Stirling Players: Matriarchs, Mystery and Mayhem - One Act Play Season (Feb), Newsies Jr (Apr/May), Bye Bye Birdie (Jul), Rotto Boys (Sep) Making a Meal of It (Nov/Dec).

Melville Theatre: Escaped Alone and What if Only (Mar), Chalkface (May), Heartlines (Jul), Letters to Lindy (Sep), The Chairs (Nov).

Garrick Theatre: Comedy Carousel One Act Season (Feb), Midnight Murder at Hamlington Hall (Mar/Apr), Sweeney Todd (Jun), Canterbury Tales (Aug), Hansard (Sep/Oct), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Nov/Dec).

KADS: Endgame (Mar), Laying the Ghost (Jun), Mr Bennet’s Bride (Sep), Tre Department (Dec).

Roleystone Theatre: Assassins (Feb/ Mar) Julius Caesar (Jul), Play On (Oct), Family Musical TBA (Nov/Dec).

Darlington Theatre Players at the Marloo Theatre: She Kills Monsters (Feb), Shrine (May), Tuck Everlasting (Jun), One Act Season (Oct), Jeeves (Nov/Dec).

Wanneroo Repertory: Disposing of the Body (Feb/Mar), Alice by Heart (May), Frankenstein (Jul), The Viewing Room (Sep), 84 Charing Cross Road (Nov/ Dec).

Murray Music and Drama: The Pajama Game (May), Lockie Leonard Human Torpedo (Jul), Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella Young at Part (Sep). Big Fish (Nov).

Stray Cats Theatre: Mary Poppins (May), The Hundred and One Dalmatians (Jul), Kinky Boots (Oct)

Roxy Lane Theatre: After Dinner (Mar), At Home With the Sheridans (May), Perfect Arrangement (Aug), Pantomime TBA (Nov/Dec).

AIM - Art in Motion: American Idiot (Apr), Hopelessly Devoted (Oct) Gilbert and Sullivan Society of WA: Utopia Ltd (May), The Mikado (Oct).

Playlovers: Camp Rock (Jan), Eight Women (May).

Midnite Youth: Godspell (Mar), A Comedy of Errors (May), Shakespeare in Love (Aug), Ali Baba and the Bongo Bandits (Sep), Charlie Pigrim (or a Beginner’s Guide to Time Travel (Nov).

Rockingham Theatre Company: Murder on the Nile (Mar/Apr), Nanna’s Naughty Knickers (Jun/Jul), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Sep), Christmas Variety Show (Dec).

Bel Canto Performing Arts: Chicago Teen Edition (Jul).

The Production Company: Finding Nemo Jr (Jul).

Arena Theatre: Wuthering Hearts (May), Alice in Wonderland (Oct).

PADWA: Guys and Dolls Jr (Feb), Show TBA (Oct).

Milky Way Productions: Evil Dead (Jan), Lizzie the Musical (Mar).

Western Theatrics: Dot and the Kangaroo Jr (Mar), We Will Rock You (Jul), Dare to Dream (Jul), Frozen Jr (Dec).

Graduate Dramatic Society (GRADS): Henry IV (Mar), Eurydice (Jul),

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Oct).

Endeavour: Play TBA (May), Pantomime TBA (Nov).

University Dramatic Society (UDS): Slam Poetree (Jan), Noise Complaints (May), Top Shelf (May).

Koorliny Arts Centre : Emerald City (Feb), Guys and Dolls (May), Red Silk (Jun), First Date (Sep), Shrek the Musical (Nov).

Adeniline: Alice in Wonderland (Oct), The Breakfast Club (Oct).

Old Mill Theatre: Looped (Feb/Mar), The Lady in the Vans (Apr/May), Keep On Laughing.

Hills Musical Theatre Company’s Strictly Ballroom (2024).

Photo: Grant Leslie.

Henry Lawson Theatre’s Clue

Silent Sky

Lesley Reed and team transformed an Adelaide church hall into a window to the universe for St Jude’s Players’ production of Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson.

The Beginning

I admired Lauren Gunderson’s Silent Sky from my first reading. As I fell in love with it, I began to believe it is a classic in the making celebrating the history-making endeavours of Henrietta Leavitt, a brilliant woman who, in the early 1900s, did not receive the kudos from her peers she deserved.

Happily, St Jude’s Players chose it for the August slot in the company’s 75th (Diamond) Anniversary season, 2024.

About The Play

Silent Sky was written by Lauren Gunderson one of America’s mostproduced contemporary playwrights, known for her interest in historical events and strong women.

The play includes a perfect balance of human drama and historical and scientific fact, a stirring story spiced with humour and poignancy.

Now hailed as an early 1900s astronomer ahead of her time, Henrietta Leavitt's status in her first job at Harvard Observatory is far below that of the observatory’s male astronomers. Leavitt was driven by an obsessive work ethic to follow her dream, despite the odds against her succeeding in a historically male scientific field. As she catalogues the stars, her immersion in her discoveries impacts her relationships with family, colleagues and a new-found love. At

last, Henrietta makes a profound discovery that forever changes scientific understanding of the breadth of the universe.

Director’s Vision

Lauren Gunderson meticulously researched the personal and scientific history of Henrietta Leavitt and the times in which she lived. Whilst the play includes dramatic licence, it never compromises the scientific fact, and yet includes it in a way that is never dry and within a lay person’s understanding. My vision for Silent Sky was to be true to this perspective, and for the characters to be so relatable, the story so real and immersive, the planetary effects as well as Jenny Giering’s original music so enveloping, that the awesome against-the-odds achievements by Henrietta Leavitt and her female colleagues would take each consecutive audience’s collective breath away by the final scene. Informing the vision:

An amazing true story Born in 1868, Henrietta Leavitt graduated from Radcliffe College in 1892. She eventually gained a permanent position at Harvard Observatory as a ‘computer’ in an allfemale work room, under the direction of Harvard Observatory’s Professor Edward C. Pickering. Henrietta’s routine work involved cataloguing the thousands of stars

captured in vague black dots on glass photographic plates by The Great Refractor telescope.

Henrietta became interested in Cepheid variables (pulsating stars). In the male-dominated field of astronomy, her research was not taken seriously at first. After all, women still hadn’t even gained the right to vote. Against the odds, she devised scientific standards that enabled astronomers such as Edwin Hubble to determine how far away variable stars were and the distances of the star clusters and galaxies in which these stars were observed. The potential breadth of the universe was now revealed to science. It was astonishing and revelatory, stirring the beginnings of new horizons in space endeavour.

Sickly throughout her life and deaf due to this, Henrietta died in 1921. She received little acknowledgement of her work from other astronomers in her lifetime but was nominated after her death for a Nobel Prize.

Settings

The main settings in Silent Sky include an ever-present northern hemisphere starfield, as well as the Harvard Observatory plate room, the Leavitt home in Wisconsin, and Henrietta's house in Cambridge, MA. All of these needed to be present on the small stage throughout, as scenes in the script flow into each other rapidly and sometimes with time periods changing within a single monologue or scene. Other settings are an ocean liner deck, a Harvard lecture theatre and ‘letter-reading’ scenes, which we treated in an abstract way. The set designer Don Oakley created a deceptively simple, excellent set. The workroom was denoted by desks and chairs set in the narrow central space forward of the proscenium arch. Built by Dean Taylor, a member of the set build team, and looming behind the workroom on a raised dais was a replica of the original refractor telescope, The Great Refractor.

At one side of the stage, a baby grand (replica) piano and stool represented Henrietta’s Wisconsin

Henrietta Leavitt; Harvard’s ‘Great Refractor’ telescope; a glass plate from Harvard’s archives.

home, a cross on the wall above it showing the significance of faith, not science, in this daughter of a Massachusetts minister’s early home life. At the other side, a simple leather armchair, crocheted blanket and a side table denoted Henrietta’s later sickly life in her final residence in Cambridge, MA. The deck of an ocean liner was a position on stage denoted by spot lighting and ocean sound effects, with a Harvard lecture theatre represented front of stage by spot lighting and a lectern. In addition, ‘letter scene’ effects were created by spots for key positions on stage. Projection was used to ‘cradle the stage by stars’.

Projection, Music, Sound, Costumes and Props

Main challenge to the vision: A stage ‘cradled by stars’ Lauren Gunderson makes it clear that the stage on which any Silent Sky season takes place must be ‘cradled by stars’ for the entirety of each performance. Although Silent Sky has mostly been performed in modern venues where ‘surround’ projection can be effectively used to envelop the performance space with a range of astronomical images, we were to perform the play on a small stage in an aging church hall. However, I was not deterred as the St Jude’s Players’ technical team was experienced in such challenges. A screen was suspended above the apron of the stage onto which several moving and still images were projected, all gained

from NASA public files, the Harvard Observatory Museum public files, and public images from Unsplash Free Photos. These were repeated on a scrim beyond the large ‘telescope’ prop, as if the telescope was aimed at the stars. The result was stunning, with synchronised projection at both the front and rear of the stage.

Sound and music

Troubling and persistent sound interference occurred throughout the rehearsal period. Some brilliant forensic detective work by sound operator, Thomas Batten ultimately solved this on the brink of opening night. Jenny Giering’s original piano music files for the play, for which St Jude’s Players had the foresight to purchase the Rights, beautifully complemented the play’s action and it was a treat for amateur actors and the tech team to work with such music throughout, down to the timing of individual notes denoting the blink of a single star.

Costumes and props

Very fine 1900s costumes resulted from meticulous research and skilled work by Rosemary Taylor and her team of Anna Siebert and Jill Wheatley, including very good dressmaking from Anna.

Props were carefully designed to mirror the early 1900s reality, including glass replica scientific plates and Henrietta’s hearing device.

Roles And Casting

The excellent cast included Brittany Daw in the pivotal role of Henrietta

Director’s Diary

Leavitt, Tianna Cooper as her sister Margaret (a compilation of people in Henrietta’s real family), Deborah Walsh as fiery and sharp-tongued colleague Annie Jump Cannon, with Joanne St Clair as the witty Scots colleague, Williamina Fleming. Josh van’t Padje played astronomer Peter (a character created by the playwright and not based on history). All actors embraced my vision and produced performances of which I was very proud and that generated enthusiastic audiences and excellent critical response.

Audience And Critical Response

In addition to wonderful audience response, with many saying the production was ‘surprising’ in that its science didn’t confuse at all, critics loved the show.

‘Director Reed has gently guided her small cast to tell these great stories so skilfully. They’re supported by another excellent Don Oakley set…’ -Stage Whispers

‘An inspiring, witty, and warm depiction of the challenges women face in following their dreams…’

-What’s The Show

I believe this production of Lauren Gunderson’s Silent Sky achieved my director’s vision to take each consecutive audience’s breath away at the human achievement depicted, the performances and the production values. It certainly remains with me as a favourite directing experience.

St Jude’s Players’ Silent Sky (2024).

Photos: Lez Zetlein.

All The World Was Cairns’ Stage

A century ago, a railway strike stranded a troupe of actors in North Queensland, providing locals with an unexpected festival. Seaborn, Broughton & Walford Foundation Archivist Susan Mills recounts the exploits of Australia’s first national touring Shakespearean company.

Tales of enterprise and resilience can be found within material persevered in archives. One such tale is the Allan Wilkie Shakespearean Company and their determination to bring Shakespeare to all of Australia in the 1920s, despite roadblocks along the way.

Allan Wilkie was born in 1878 in Liverpool, the son of an engineer. As a young man, he left his job in a merchant office to move to London with the aim to become a Shakespearean actor. In 1899, he made his debut as an extra on the Comedy Theatre stage in London and worked his way up to roles with the likes of the deliciously named flamboyant actor and theatre manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree.

In 1905, Wilkie founded his own company, touring throughout England, India, Asia and South Africa. In 1909, he had married an actress in the company, Frediswyde HunterWatts. When World War I broke out, the pair travelled to Australia in 1915, where Hunter-Watts’ uncle had a farm in New South Wales.

Australian theatrical entrepreneur George Marlow invited the pair to head a Shakespearean company in Australia the Grand Shakespearean Company. The season opened at the Princess Theatre in January of 1916, with The Merchant of Venice, followed by Hamlet, Othello and Romeo and Juliet.

Ticket prices were kept low, and school pupils were encouraged to attend. Its success led to a national tour and quicky established Wilkie and Hunter-Watts as the leading actors of Shakespeare in Australia.

In an interview with the publication Table Talk in 1916, Allan Wilkie said, “It seems to me there should be support here for a permanent Shakespearean company,

such as they have in England all year round. Not pretentious productions with big star companies, but adequate productions with experienced artists.”

It was in 1920 that Wilkie made this dream come true, as he launched the Allan Wilkie Shakespearean Company. Miss Hunter-Watts was the leading actress. The non-superstitious Wilkie opened in September of that year with Macbeth in Melbourne. The stage settings were minimal, and, in an interview at the time, he explained

that streamlined staging shortened interval times, allowing more of the play to be included. His stated aim for the company was to eventually stage all of Shakespeare’s plays.

In 1925, there was a change in the repertoire, with the inclusion of old English comedy and classical English drama. That year the tour started its Queensland leg in Brisbane at the Theatre Royal, before making its way up the eastern seaboard. The company started their 4-night run at the Palace Theatre in Cairns with She Stoops to Conquer (Oliver Goldsmith’s 1773 comedy), followed by The School for Scandal (a 1777 comedy of manners by Richard Brinsley Sheridan), The Taming of the Shrew,

Programme for the Allan Wilkie Shakespearean Company in Cairns, August 22 to 26, 1925. All images courtesy S,B&W Foundation Performing Arts Library and Archives.

and The Rivals (another comedy of manners by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 1775).

Plans were thrown off track when a railway strike in northern Queensland was called, stranding the company of 30 artists. The Cairns Post announced “one of the indirect advantages to Cairns of the present railway strike” was an unexpected extended season of Shakespeare for the inhabitants of Cairns, with reduced prices “to meet the prevailing conditions”. On a sidenote, the newspapers added, Mr Wilkie and Miss Hunter-Watts had arrived in Cairns from Townsville with only their handbags, so had to buy complete outfits.

The unexpected Shakespeare season moved to Cairns’ Hibernian Hall with The Bells (Leopold David Lewis’s 1871 drama) on Saturday 29 August, which was then followed by a veritable Shakespeare festival A Midsummer Night’s Dream on the Tuesday, Twelfth Night on Wednesday, The Merchant of Venice on Thursday, Much Ado About Nothing on Friday, and The Winter’s Tale on Saturday.

Such was the predicament, two company members walked along the railway line from Cairns to the isolated mountain town of Kuranda to assist communications.

However, the consequence of being stranded was the cancellation of further Queensland tour dates and, ultimately, the loss of money for the company. The fortunes of Allan Wilkie Shakespearean Company continued to wax and wane, for in the following year a fire destroyed the company’s sets and costumes in Geelong. However, a subsequent public appeal raised almost £3000.

Sadly, 1930 saw the demise of the Allan Wilkie Shakespearean Company due to the Depression and the rise of the talkies. Since its inception, Wilkie and Hunter-Watts and their company of travelling actors, many Australian, had continually toured Shakespeare all over Australia, and had staged 27 out of Shakespeare’s 37 plays. Their influence on the Australian public and theatre is felt to this day.

Programme for Allan Wilkie Shakespearean Company’s The School For Scandal (1925) in Cairns.

Flyer for “Positively the last two nights” of the unexpectedly extended Cairns season.

On Stage

On the night of 9 August 1954, glamour model Shirley Beiger pointed a gun at her bookie’s clerk boyfriend, Arthur Griffith, in front of Chequers, one of Sydney’s ritziest nightclubs. Arthur was there with another woman…he’d told Shirley he was at the dentist. In her trial for Arthur’s murder, Shirley claimed she did not hear the gun go off, “but knew something dreadful must have happened”.

Playwright Melanie Tait (The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race) and cowriter and director Sheridan Harbridge (44 Sex Acts in One Week) take you back in time 70 years with their brandnew immersive work A Model Murder It not only uses the words from the trial itself but takes place in the very same courthouse which is welcoming theatre audiences for the first time.

Part of the 2025 Sydney Festival, A Model Murder will play at Darlinghurst Courthouse from January 4 to 19. sydneyfestival.org.au

& New South Wales

A.C.T.

Jack Maggs by Samuel Adamson, based on the novel by Peter Carey. State Theatre Company South Australia. Dec 5 - 7. The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre. canberratheatrecentre.com.au

Tick, Tick… Boom! By Jonathan Larson. Dec 11 - 21. ACT Hub at Causeway Hall. acthub.com.au

The Nutcracker. Big Live. Dec 13 & 14. Canberra Theatre. canberratheatrecentre.com.au

The Sleeping Beauty. Storytime Ballet, The Australian Balllet. Jan 16 - 19. The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre. canberratheatrecentre.com.au

Bluey’s Big Play. The Stage Show. Original story by Joe Brumm, and music by Joff Bush. BBC Studios and Andrew

Kay in association with Windmill Theatre Co. Jan 2125. Canberra Theatre. canberratheatrecentre.com.au

Bubble Boy The Musical. Music and lyrics by Cinco Paul and book by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio. Queanbeyan Players. Feb 14 - 23. Belconnen Community Theatre. queanbeyanplayers.com

Baby Jane. Adapted & directed by Ed Wightman from the novel What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? by Henry Farrell. Canberra Rep. Feb 20 - Mar 8. canberrarep.org.au

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Canberra Philharmonic Society. Feb 27Mar 15. Erindale Theatre. philo.org.au

Dear Evan Hansen. Book by Steven Levenson, music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. Michael Cassel Group and Sydney Theatre Company. Feb 27 - Mar 9. Canberra Theatre. canberratheatrecentre.com.au

Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare at the Hub. The Q and Lakespeare. Feb 27 & 28. ACT Hub at Causeway Hall. acthub.com.au

New South Wales

SIX the Musical by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. Louise Withers, Michael Coppel and Linda Bewick. Until Dec 28. Theatre Royal, Sydney. sixthemusical.com.au

Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. John Frost and David Ian for Crossroads Live and Work Light Productions. Until Jan 26.

Capitol Theatre, Sydney. jesuschristsuperstarmusical.com.au

August: Osage County by Tracy Letts. Belvoir. Until Dec 15. belvoir.com.au

The End Of The Wharf As We Know It! The Wharf Revue by Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Phillip Scott. Until Dec 23. Seymour Centre. seymourcentre.com

The Heartbreak Choir by Aidan Fennessy. Ensemble Theatre. Until Jan 12. ensemble.com.au

The Pigeons by David Gieselmann. The Other Theatre in association with Bakehouse Theatre. Dec 7 - 21. KXT on Broadway. kingsxtheatre.com

Grug and the Rainbow. Windmill Theatre Company. Dec 11 - 22. The Playhouse, Sydney Opera House. sydneyoperahouse.com

Photo: Wendell Teodoro.

On Stage New South Wales

Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern. Showpath Entertainment and David Carpenter. Dec 15 - Mar 8. The Studio, Sydney Opera House. sydneyoperahouse.com

Elf: The Musical. Songs by Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin. Book by Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin. Based on the New Line Cinema film written by David Berenbaum. Dec 19 - 24. Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House. sydneyoperahouse.com

Bluey’s Big Play. The Stage Show. Original story by Joe Brumm, and music by Joff Bush. BBC Studios and Andrew Kay in association with Windmill Theatre Co. Jan 218. Theatre Royal, Sydney. theatreroyalsydney.com

Cinderella (Cendrillon) by Massenet. Opera Australia. Jan 2 - Mar 28. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. opera.org.au

Converted. Book & Lyrics by Vic Zerbst. Additional Lyrics by Oliver John Cameron. Music By Vic Zerbst & Oliver John Cameron. ATYP / Sydney Festival. Jan 3 - 25. Rebel Wilson Theatre, ATYP. atyp.com.au

Animal. Cirque Alfonse from Canada. Sydney Festival. Jan 312 at Riverside Theatres. Jan 16 - 19 at The Pavilion Performing Arts Centre Sutherland. sydneyfestival.org.au

Sydney Festival. Jan 4 - 16. sydneyfestival.org.au

As You Like It or The Land Acknowledgement. Crow's Theatre & Cliff Cardinal from Canada. Sydney Festival. Jan 4 & 5. Sydney Opera House, Drama Theatre. sydneyfestival.org.au

Antigone in the Amazon. Milo Rau & NTGent. Sydney Festival. Jan 4 - 8. Roslyn Packer Theatre. sydneyfestival.org.au

A Model Murder by Melanie and Sheridan Harbridge. Sydney Festival. Jan 4 - 19. Darlinghurst Courthouse. sydneyfestival.org.au

Swing! Circus at Darling Harbour. Sydney Festival. Jan 4 - 25. Palm Grove Darling Harbour. sydneyfestival.org.au

BullyBully by René Geerlings. Sydney Festival. Jan 7 - 12. Riverside Theatres, Lennox Theatre, Parramatta. sydneyfestival.org.au

Ghosting The Party by Melissa Bubic. Elanora Players. Jan 725. Nth Narrabeen Community Centre. elanoraplayers.com.au

Air Time. Branch Nebula, Sydney Festival and The Seymour Centre. Jan 7 - 11. Everest Theatre, Seymour Centre. seymourcentre.com

Cowboy. Michael Smith, Form Dance Projects & The Farm. Sydney Festival. Jan 8 - 11. Riverside Theatres, Parramatta. sydneyfestival.org.au

Multiple Bad Things. Back to Back Theatre. Sydney Festival. Jan 8 - 12. Sydney Opera House, Drama Theatre. sydneyfestival.org.au

Dark Noon. Fix+Foxy, Glynis Henderson Productions & The Pleasance from South Africa & Denmark. Sydney Festival. Jan 9 - 23. Sydney Town Hall. sydneyfestival.org.au

An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestly. Genesian Theatre Company. Jan 10 - Feb 22. St Joseph's Parish Hall, Rozelle. genesiantheatre.com.au

The Little Mermaid (Panto). Roo Theatre Company. Jan 1025. The Harbour Theatre, Shellharbour Village. roo-theatre.com.au

Popstars by Nicholas Christo & Neil Gooding, musical arrangements by Isaac Hayward. Gosford Musical Society. Jan 14 - 18. Laycock

Street Community Theatre, Wyoming. gosfordmusicalsociety.com

Tina - A Tropical Love Story. Sydney Festival. Jan 11 & 12. Sydney Theatre Company, Wharf 1 Theatre. sydneyfestival.org.au

Christie Whelan Brown: Life in Plastic. Sydney Festival. Jan 14. Sydney Theatre Company, Wharf 1 Theatre. sydneyfestival.org.au

Rachael Beck: In Her Own Words. Sydney Festival. Jan 15 - 18. Sydney Theatre Company, Wharf 1 Theatre. sydneyfestival.org.au

Seussical Jr. By Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. WoodsRay Theatricals Jan 16 - 19. Wollongong High School Performing Arts Centre. woodsraytheatricalsinc.com

Jacky by Declan Furber Gillick. Belvoir. A Melbourne Theatre Company production, copresented with Sydney Festival. Jan 16 - Feb 2. belvoir.com.au

Goldilocks’ Mum Meets The Three Bears by Christiane Brawley. The Guild Theatre, Rockdale. Jan 17 - 19. guildtheatre.com.au

Redfern Renaissance. Honouring the trailblazers of the National Black Theatre. Sydney Festival. Jan 17 - 25. Belvoir St Theatre. sydneyfestival.org.au

The Barber of Seville by Rossini. Opera Australia. Jan 18 - Feb 28. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. opera.org.au

The Box Show. Junkyard Beats. Jan 21 - 23. Riverside Theatre, Parramatta. riversideparramatta.com.au

La Traviata by Verdi. Opera Australia. Jan 23 - Mar 27. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. opera.org.au

Aria by David Williamson Ensemble Theatre. Jan 24 - Mar 15. ensemble.com.au

Wally by Nick Vagne. Moon Bureau. Jan 24 - Feb 8. KXT on Broadway. kingsxtheatre.com

Wuthering Heights. Based on the novel by Emily Brontë, adapted and directed by Emma Rice. Liza McLean & Andrew Kay. National Theatre, Wise Children, Bristol Old Vic & York Theatre Royal production. Jan 30 - Feb 15. Ros Packer Theatre.

wutheringheightsaustralia.com

On Stage

Peter and the Starcatcher by Rick Elice. Music by Wayne Barker. Dead Puppet Society, Glass Half Full Productions, JONES Theatrical Group and Damien Hewitt. From Jan 31. Capitol Theatre, Sydney. peterandthestarcatcher.com.au

4000 Miles by Amy Herzog. Sydney Theatre Company. Feb 3 - Mar 23. Wharf 1 Theatre. sydneytheatre.com.au

Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen by Marcelo Dos Santos. Francesca Moody Productions in association with Roast Productions. Feb 5 - 23. Playhouse, Sydney Opera House. sydneyoperahouse.com

Improbable Fiction by Alan Ayckbourn. Castle Hill Players. Feb 7 - Mar 1. Pavilion Theatre, Castle Hill Showground. paviliontheatre.org.au

The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan, adapted by Richard Carroll. Produced by Hayes Theatre Co in association with The Art House Wyong. Feb 7 & 8, The Art House Wyong, thearthousewyong.com.au and from Feb 14, Hayes Theatre Co., hayestheatre.com.au

Hadestown by Anaïs Mitchell. Opera Australia and JONES Theatrical Group. From Feb 10. Theatre Royal, Sydney. hadestown.com.au

Faulty Towers The Dining Experience. Interactive Theatre International. Feb 10 - 15. Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House. sydneyoperahouse.com

Cruise by Jack Holden. Fruit Box Theatre. Feb 12 - 22. KXT on Broadway. kingsxtheatre.com

Ruby Moon by Matt Cameron. Lindsay St Players. Feb 13 - 16. Young People’s Theatre Newcastle, Hamilton. ypt.org.au

Song of First Desire by Andrew Bovell. Belvoir. Feb 13 - Mar 23. belvoir.com.au

Head Over Heels. Songs by The Go-Go's. Adapted by James Magruder. Based upon The Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney. Conceived & Original Book by Jeff Whitty. The Regals Musical Society. Feb 14 - 23. Rockdale Town Hall. theregals.com.au

Grease by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Tall & Short Theatre Co. Feb 14 - 23. Sutherland Arts Theatre. thepavilionarts.au

Nucleus by Alana Valentine Griffin Theatre in association with Seymour Centre. Feb 14Mar 15. Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre, Chippendale. griffintheatre.com.au

Summer of the Seventeenth Doll by Ray Lawler. Arts Theatre Cronulla, 6 Surf Rd, Cronulla. Feb 14 - Mar 22. artstheatrecronulla.com.au

Hangmen by Martin McDonagh. Newcastle Theatre Company Inc. Feb 15 - Mar 1. newcastletheatrecompany.com.au

Picnic At Hanging Rock. A play by Tom Wright, adapted from the novel by Joan Lindsay. Sydney Theatre Company. Feb 17 - Apr 5. Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House sydneytheatre.com.au

Tick, Tick…Boom! Book, music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson. Singleton Theatrical Society. Feb 20 - Mar 1. singletontheatricalsociety.com.au

The End Of The Wharf As We Know It! The Wharf Revue by Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Phillip Scott. Feb 20 - 23. Riverside Theatre Parramatta. riversideparramatta.com.au

Candide. Music by Leonard Bernstein, book by Hugh Wheeler after Voltaire, Lyrics by Richard Wilbur, with additional

New South Wales & Queensland

lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, John La Touche, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker and Leonard Bernstein. Opera Australia. Feb 20 - Mar 14. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. opera.org.au

Killing Katie: Confessions of a Book Club by Tracey Trinder. Woy Woy Little Theatre. Feb 21 - Mar 9. Peninsula Theatre, Woy Woy. woywoylt.com.au

Ulster American by David Ireland. Wollongong Workshop Theatre. Feb 21 - Mar 8. wollongongworkshoptheatre.com.au

Don’t Save Me by Karina Young. Puncher’s Chance Co. Feb 26 - Mar 8. KXT on Broadway. kingsxtheatre.com

MJ The Musical. Book by Lynn Nottage. Lia Vollack, John Branca, John McClain and Michael Cassel. From Feb 26. Sydney Lyric Theatre. mjthemusical.com.au

Mary Poppins. Original Music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, with new songs and additional music by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. Book by Julian Fellowes. Rehearsal Room Productions. Feb 28 - Mar 16. Town Hall Theatre, Campbelltown. rehearsalroom.net.au

Legally Blonde. Book by Heather Hach, music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin. Gosford Musical Society. Feb 28 - Mar 15. Laycock Street Community Theatre, Wyoming. (02) 4323 3233. gosfordmusicalsociety.com

Clue On Stage by Sandy Rustin, Adapted from the screenplay by Jonathan Lynn. The Players Theatre, Port Macquarie. Feb 28 - Mar 16. playerstheatre.org.au

Queensland

The Spirit of Christmas. Cairns Little Theatre. Until Dec 14. Rondo Theatre. therondo.com.au

A Very Naughty Christmas. Until Dec 18, La Boite and Dec 20 & 21, The Star, Gold Coast. averynaughtychristmas.com

A Christmas Carol. Adapted and created by Shake & Stir Theatre Co. Dec 12 - 24. Playhouse, QPAC. qpac.com.au

The Nutcracker. Queensland Ballet. Dec 13 - 21. Lyric Theatre, QPAC. qpac.com.au

A Cracker Kransky Christmas. Dec 17 - 22. Cremorne Theatre, QPAC. qpac.com.au

Six The Musical. Jan 2 - Feb 9, 2025. Playhouse, QPAC. qpac.com.au

Grease. By Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. John Frost for Crossroads Live. Jan 3 - Feb 1. Lyric Theatre, QPAC. qpac.com.au

Li’l Elvis Jones and the Truckstoppers - The Musical. Based on the original television series by Viskatoons and the Australian Children’s Television Foundation. Jan 10 - 18. Powerhouse Theatre. brisbanepowerhouse.org

Billy Elliot. Book & Lyrics: Lee Hall. Music: Elton John Townsville Choral Society. Jan 16 - 25. Townsville Civic Theatre. tcs.org.au

The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Gold Coast Little Theatre. Jan 31 - Feb 22. gclt.com.au

Falsettos by William Finn. And James Lapine. Phoenix Ensemble, Beenleigh. Feb 7Mar 1. phoenixensemble.com.au

Sister Act. Music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Glenn Slater, book by Cheri Steinkellner and Bill Steinkellner. Presented by

Whispers

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

On Stage Queensland & Victoria

Online extras!

Get into the festive spirit as A Christmas Carol returns to Melbourne youtu.be/RB8QedKjkF4

Filling Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre to the brim with mince pies, music and merriment, there’s no better way for families to get into the holiday spirit than immersing themselves in this classic story of greed, love and redemption. Erik Thomson, one of Australia’s most loved and award-winning stars across film, television and theatre plays the coveted role of Ebenezer Scrooge as the Old Vic production of A Christmas Carol returns for a third straight year. christmascarolaustralia.com.au

John Frost for Crossroads Live, Shake and Stir and Power Arts in association with Jamie Wilson. From Feb 8. Lyric Theatre, QPAC. qpac.com.au

The Wharf Revue: The End Of The Wharf As We Know It. Feb 11 - 16. Playhouse, QPAC. qpac.com.au

Pride & Prejudice. Adapted by Wendy Mocke and Lewis Treston from the Jane Austen novel. Feb 20 - Mar 9. Playhouse, QPAC. qpac.com.au

Gunsmoke. A Triple-Shot of Lux Radio Plays. New Farm Nash Theatre. Feb 21 - Mar 15. nashtheatre.com

Popcorn by Ben Elton. Ipswich Little Theatre Society. Feb 26Mar 15. ilt.org.au

The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter. Sunnybank Theatre

Group. Feb 28 - Mar 16. sunnybanktheatre.com.au

Victoria

Disney Beauty and the Beast. Music by Alan Menken. Lyrics by Howard Ashman & Tim Rice. Book by Linda Woolverton. Ongoing. Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne. beautyandthebeastmusical.com.au

Tina - The Tina Turner Musical. Book by Katori Hall with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins. Paul Dainty - TEG Dainty presents the Stage Entertainment production. Until Feb 9. Princess Theatre. tinathemusical.com.au

Sister Act. Music: Alan Menken. Lyrics: Glenn Slater. Book: Cheri Steinkellner and Bill Steinkellner. Additional book material: Douglas Carter Beane. John Frost for Crossroads Live. Until Jan 26. Regent Theatre,

Melbourne. sisteractthemusical.com.au

My Brilliant Career. Book by Sheridan Harbridge and Dean Bryant. Lyrics by Dean Bryant. Music by Mathew Frank. Based on the novel by Miles Franklin. Melbourne Theatre Company. Until Dec 18. Southbank Theatre, The Sumner. mtc.com.au

Noises Off by Michael Frayn. The 1812 Theatre. Until Dec 7. 1812theatre.com.au

Hotel Sorrento by Hannie Rayson. Warrandyte Theatre Company. Until Dec 7. Mechanics Institute Hall. warrandytearts.org.au

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, conceived and directed by Matthew Warchus and adapted for the stage by Jack Thorne. GWB Entertainment. Until Dec 29.

Comedy Theatre, Melbourne. christmascarolaustralia.com.au

F Christmas by Sarah Ward and Bec Matthews. Malthouse. Until Dec 15. Merlyn Theatre. malthousetheatre.com.au

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. The Basin Theatre Group. Until Dec 8. thebasintheatre.org.au

ILARUN: The Cutting Comb by Amarantha Robinson. Quiet Riot. Dec 5 - 15. fortyfivedownstairs theatre, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. fortyfivedownstairs.com

A Very Naughty Christmas. Dec 5 - 21. Alex Theatre St. Kilda. averynaughtychristmas.com

Love Actually? The Musical Parody. Christmas Showtime Festival. Dec 6 - 23. The Athenaeum Theatre,

Photo: Eugene Hyland.

On Stage Victoria

Innocence comes to Adelaide Festival for its highly anticipated Australian Premiere following sell-out seasons worldwide, and directly before its New York debut at the Metropolitan Opera.

In modern-day Finland, a joyous wedding celebration takes a shocking turn when the darkest of secrets is revealed and a young bride faces an impossible decision.

Acclaimed as a “masterpiece” by the New York Times, Innocence draws us into the complex emotional journey shared by a community of students, teachers and families recovering from an inconceivable tragedy. Loyalties are tested and ghosts confronted in a powerful and enthralling story of innocence and guilt, destruction and salvation.

From February 28 to March 5 at Festival Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre. adelaidefestival.com.au

Adore Händel’s Potpourri! Dec 11 - 13. The Butterfly Club. thebutterflyclub.com

Flight | Darkfield. Realscape Productions. Dec 13 - Feb 16. Arts Centre Melbourne, Theatres Forecourt. artscentremelbourne.com.au

Lucy Best's Disgraceful Christmas! Dec 13 & 14. The Butterfly Club. thebutterflyclub.com

Séance | Darkfield. Realscape Productions. Dec 13 - Feb 16. Arts Centre Melbourne, Theatres Forecourt. artscentremelbourne.com.au

Sleigh Girl Sleigh 2: The Sleighing. Dec 13 & 14. The Butterfly Club. thebutterflyclub.com

Merry Swiftmas. Christmas Showtime Festival. Dec 14 & 15. The Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne. christmasshowtimefestival.com

Dear Evan Hansen. Book by Steven Levenson, music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. Michael Cassel Group and Sydney Theatre Company. Dec

13 - Feb 16. Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne. artscentremelbourne.com.au

The Last Christmas Party by Sabina Gerardi. Dec 17 - 20. The Butterfly Club. thebutterflyclub.com

The 3 Little Pigs. By Anthony Drewe and George Stiles. Dec 18 - 29. National Theatre, St Kilda. agtheatre.com.au

Sauce by Ciara Elizabeth Smyth. Dec 18 - 21. The Butterfly Club. thebutterflyclub.com

School of Rock. Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber. Lyrics: Glenn Slater. Book: Julian Fellowes based on the Paramount movie written by Mike White. PLOS Musical Productions. Dec 31Jan 11. Frankston Arts Centre. plos.asn.au

Monty Python’s Spamalot by Eric Idle and John Du Prez. Holiday Actors. Jan 4 - 11. Warnambool. holidayactors.com.au

#SwiftTok. Jan 9 - 11. The Butterfly Club. thebutterflyclub.com

Captain Nemo and the Quest for Atlantis - A New Pantomime. Fab Nobs Theatre. Jan 11 - 19. fabnobstheatre.com.au

Glory Down The Line. Jan 1318. The Butterfly Club. thebutterflyclub.com

True West by Sam Shepard. Wonthaggi Theatrical Group. Jan 17 - 26. wtg.org.au

Midsumma Festival - Jan 19Feb 9. midsumma.org.au

Not Done Yet - Ripe For Action. Jan 29 - Feb 1. The Butterfly Club. thebutterflyclub.com

Thirty-six by Bayley Turner and Jo Clifford. Bullet Heart Club and Midsumma Festival. Jan 21 - Feb 2. fortyfivedownstairs

Contact Stage Whispers for details. Melbourne. christmasshowtimefestival.com

Whispers

of

Photo: Tristram Kenton.

On Stage

theatre, Melbourne. fortyfivedownstairs.com

Follies by Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman. Victorian Opera. Feb 1 - 6. Palais Theatre, St Kilda. victorianopera.com.au

An Evening Without Kate Bush. Midsumma Festival. Feb 5 - 8. Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio. artscentremelbourne.com.au

Bondi Legal by Tony Laumberg. Geelong Repertory Theatre Company. Feb 7 - 22. geelongrep.com

Mrs. Marvin. Emma Algeri. Feb 10 - 15. The Butterfly Club. thebutterflyclub.com

Fractured Love by Joachim Matschoss. Feb 10 - 15. The Butterfly Club. thebutterflyclub.com

Wicked Sisters by Alma De Groen. Williamstown Little Theatre. Feb 12 - Mar 1. wlt.org.au

Truth by Patricia Cornelius. Malthouse. Feb 13 - Mar 8. malthousetheatre.com.au

POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying To Keep Him Alive by Selina Fillinger. Lightning Jar Theatre. Feb 13 - Mar 2. fortyfivedownstairs theatre, Melbourne. fortyfivedownstairs.com

Never Have I Ever by Deborah Frances-White. Melbourne Theatre Company. Feb 15Mar 22. Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio. artscentremelbourne.com.au

Honour by Joanna MurraySmith. Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre. Feb 15 - Mar 16. redstitch.net

A Nightime Travesty by A Daylight Connection Malthouse. Feb 19 - 22. malthousetheatre.com.au

Frankie & Fitz. Feb 19 - 22. The Butterfly Club. thebutterflyclub.com

Jeeves & Wooster in Perfect Nonsense by the Goodale Brothers. Heidelberg Theatre Company. Feb 14 - Mar 1. htc.org.au

Moon Over Buffalo by Ken Ludwig. Lilydale Athenaeum Theatre. Feb 13 - Mar 1. lilydaleatc.com

Melancholia. Studio Stocks. Feb 13 - 15. Chapel off Chapel. chapeloffchapel.com.au

The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race by Melanie Tait. Malvern Theatre Company. Feb 14Mar 1 malverntheatre.com.au

The Toxic Avenger: The Musical by Joe DiPietro and David Bryan. PEP Productions. Feb 14 - 22. Doncaster Playhouse. pepproductions.org.au

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. John Frost for Crossroads Live. Feb 16 - Mar 16. Comedy Theatre, Melbourne. andthentherewerenone.com.au

Fledermaus! (or The Bat) by Johan Strauss II. Operetta. Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Victoria. Feb 16 - Mar 2, The Knowe, Sassafras, trybooking.com/CWRNG and Mar 8 & 9, The Round Studio, Nunawading, theround.com.au

Home, I’m Darling by Laura Wade. The Basin Theatre Group. Feb 20 - Mar 2. thebasintheatre.org.au

Nijinsky. A ballet by John Neumeier. The Australian Ballet. Feb 21 - Mar 1. The Regent Theatre, Melbourne. australianballet.com.au

Avenue Q. Music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx. Book by Jeff Whitty. AGTheatre. From Feb 21. National Theatre, St Kilda. agtheatre.com.au

Victoria & Tasmania

The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. Eltham Little Theatre. Feb 21 - Mar 8. elthamlittletheatre.org.au

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. The Mount Players. Feb 21 - Mar 9. themountplayers.com

The Architect by Aidan Fennessy. Peridot Theatre Inc. Feb 21 - Mar 2. peridot.com.au

What to do When You Kill Your Co-Star. Feb 24 - Mar 1. The Butterfly Club. thebutterflyclub.com

Turning 25 by Georgie Hindle. Feb 24 - Mar 1. The Butterfly Club. thebutterflyclub.com

Greeking Out. Feb 24 - Mar 1. The Butterfly Club. thebutterflyclub.com

Kinky Boots. Book by Harvey Fierstein. Music by Cyndi Lauper. Ballarat Lyric Theatre.

Feb 27 - Mar 9. Her Majesty’s Theatre. ballaratlyrictheatre.com.au

Holmes and Watson by Jeffrey Hatcher. Mordialloc Theatre Co. Feb 27 - Mar 8. mordialloctheatre.com.au

Head Over Heels. Songs by the Go-Go’s, adapted by James Magruder. Book by Jeff Whitty. Phoenix Theatre Company. Feb 28 - Mar 8. phoenixtheatrecompany.org

Tasmania

The Princess and the Pea. Playhouse Pantomime. Hobart Rep. Dec 1 - 8. The Playhouse Theatre, Hobart. playhouse.org.au

Puffs! Or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic by Matt Cox. Dare Collective. Dec 4 - 7. darecollective.com.au

On Stage Tasmania, South Australia & W.A.

Hating Alison Ashley by Robin Klein, adapted and updated by Mandy Gibson from the play by Richard Tulloch. Launceston Youth Theatre Ensemble. Dec 10 - 12. Earl Arts Centre. theatrenorth.com.au

The Fan by Joshua Scott. PLoT Theatre Society. Dec 11 - 14. Peacock Theatre. Salamanca Arts Centre. sac.org.au

The Wizard of Oz. Royal Shakespeare Company version, based on the novel by L. Frank Baum. Music & lyrics by Harold Arlen & E.Y. Harburg. Background music by Herbert Stothart. Launceston Musical Society. Dec 13 - 22. Princess Theatre, Launceston. theatrenorth.com.au

Alice in Wonderland. Adapted by Les Winspear. Big Monkey Theatre. Dec 31 - Jan 19. Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. theatreroyal.com.au

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. John X Presents / Shakespeare In the Gardens. Jan 10 - Feb 1. Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. theatreroyal.com.au

Folk by Tom Wells. Hobart Rep. Feb 12 - 22. The Playhouse Theatre, Hobart. playhouse.org.au

South Australia

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Joshua Dixon. Tea Tree Players. Until Dec 14. teatreeplayers.com

Hansel and Gretel by Alan P Frayne. Venture Theatre Group. Dec 6 - 14. Cosgrove Hall, Clovelly Park. venturetheatrecompany.com.au

The Tap Pack. Created by Jesse Rasmussen, Jordan Pollard, and Thomas J Egan. Co-created and directed by Nigel Turner Carroll. Produced by Kym Halpin in association with SK Entertainment. Dec 20 & 21. Her Majesty’s Theatre,

Adelaide. adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au

Storytime Ballet: The Sleeping Beauty. The Australian Ballet. Jan 2 - 5. Dunstan Playhouse. adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au

Peter and the Starcatcher by Rick Elice. Music by Wayne Barker. Dead Puppet Society, Glass Half Full Productions, JONES Theatrical Group and Damien Hewitt. Jan 9 - 25. Dunstan Playhouse. peterandthestarcatcher.com.au

Adelaide Fringe. Feb 21 - Mar 23. adelaidefringe.com.au

Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible is Going to Happen by Marcelo Dos Santos. Adelaide Festival. Feb 26 - Mar 2. Space Theatre. adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au

Krapp’s Last Tape by Samuel Beckett. Adelaide Festival. Feb 27 - Mar 8. Dunstan Playhouse. adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au

Adelaide Festival. Feb 28 - Mar 16. adelaidefestival.com.au

Innocence by Kaija Saariaho. Adelaide Festival. Feb 28 - Mar 5. Festival Theatre. adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au

Western Australia

Mother Goose on the Loose by Taneal Thompson. Darlington Theatre Players. Until Dec 10. Marloo Theatre. marlootheatre.com.au

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by Josephine Robinette, based on the book by C. S Lewis. Garrick Theatre. Until Dec 14. Garrick Theatre. taztix.com.au

On a First Name Basis by Norm Foster. KADS. Until Dec 14. KADS Town Hall Theatre. kadstheatre.com.au

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay, adapted by Tom Wright. Old Mill Theatre, South

Perth. Until Dec 14. oldmilltheatre.com.au

The Twelve Days of Christmas by Alan Frayne. Irish Theatre Players. Dec 5 - 14. Townshend Theatre, Irish Club, Subiaco. irishtheatreplayers.com.au

Wicked by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, based on the novel by Gregory Maguire. John Frost for Crossroads Live Dec 15 - Jan 23. Crown Theatre, Perth. wickedthemusical.com.au

Elf Jr. by Thomas Meehan, Bob Martin and Matthew Sklar. Western Theatrics. Dec 18 - 21. Don Russell Performing Arts Centre. westerntheatrics.au

A Cocktail of Murder. Cluedunnit. Dec 20 - 21. Downstairs at The Maj, His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth. artsculturetrust.wa.gov.au

Evil Dead the Musical by Christopher Bond, Frank Cipolla, Melissa Morris. Milky Way Productions. Jan 3 - 5. The Quarry Amphitheatre, City Beach. trybooking.com/1287449

Hometown. Inspired by Shaun Tan. Spare Parts Puppet Theatre. Jan 6 - 25. The Ellie Eaton Theatre, Claremont Showground. sppt.com.au

The 78-Storey Treehouse by Richard Tulloch, adapted from the books by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton. CDP Theatre Producers. Jan 7 - 9. State Theatre Centre of WA. artsculturetrust.wa.gov.au

Spot by Jonathan Rockefeller, based on the books by Eric Hill. CDP Theatre Producers. Jan 10 - 12. State Theatre Centre of WA. artsculturetrust.wa.gov.au

It’s The Same the World Over. Busselton Repertory Club. Jan 10 - 19. Busselton Senior Citizens Centre. busseltonrepertory.com.au

Disney Camp Rock - The Musical by Faye Greenberg and Robert L. Freedman. Playlovers. Jan 16 - 25. Tricycle Theatre, Mt Lawley Senior High School. playlovers.org.au

Lady Macbeth Played Wing Defence by Courtney McManus and Bec Price. Crash Theatre / FringeWorld State of Play. Jan 17 - 24. State Theatre Centre of WA. fringeworld.com.au

The Addams Family Jr by Andrew Lippa, Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. Light Up Productions. Jan 18. St Stephen’s School Theatre, Duncraig. trybooking.com/CWHYV

Fate: A New Musical. Morai Productions. Jan 31 - Feb 1. Old Mill Theatre, South Perth. fringeworld.com.au

This Is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan. Jan 31 - Feb 2. Subiaco Arts Centre. fringeworld.com.au

Not Another Murder Mystery by Ciedele Mezger. Hayman Theatre Company. Feb 4 - 9. Hayman Theatre. fringeworld.com.au

Stand and Deliver by Arthur Brown. Hayman Theatre Company. Feb 4 - 9. Hayman Theatre. fringeworld.com.au

Comedy Carousel One Act Plays by Werner Treischman, Sean Guy and Shirley Toohey. Feb 6 - 15. Garrick Theatre, Guildford. (08) 9255 3336. taztix.com.au

The Wild Between Stars. Choreographed by Lucas Jervies. The West Australian Ballet / Perth Festival. Feb 7Mar 1. The Quarry Amphitheatre, City Beach. waballet.com.au

Who Killed Jolly Roger by Robert J. LaBlanc. Lost Sheep Theatre Co. Feb 7 - 22. The Highway Hotel, Bunbury and The Dunsborough Tavern,

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

On Stage Western Australia

Online extras!

Get a taste of the powerful story of Big Name, No Blankets. youtu.be/UeeCinCDCZg

Dunsborough. lostsheeptheatre.au

She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen. Darlington Theatre Players. Feb 7 - 22. Marloo Theatre. marlootheatre.com.au

Mahabharata by Miriam Fernandes and Ravi Jain. Why Not Theatre / Perth Festival. Feb 8 - 16. His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth. perthfestival.com.au

A Fortunate Life by Jenny Dabis and Stuart Halusz. Koorliny Arts Centre. Feb 8. Koorliny Arts Centre. koorliny.com.au

Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Crossroads Live and Work Light Productions. Feb 13Mar 8. Crown Theatre, Perth. jesuschristsuperstarmusical.com.au

Matriarchs, Mischief and Mayhem - One Act Plays by Bob Charteris, Nick Hall and Yvette Wall. Stirling Players.

Feb 13 - 22. Stirling Theatre. stirlingplayers.com.au

Oliver! By Lionel Bart, based on the novel by Charles Dickens. Redfoot Youth Theatre. Feb 13 - 15. John Inverarity Music and Drama Centre, Wembley Downs. redfootyouththeatre.com.au

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Primadonna Productions. Feb 14 - 15. Pinjarra Civic Centre. trybooking.com/CVYRS

Is This a Room by Tina Salter. Half Straddle / Perth Festival. Feb 14 - 17. State Theatre Centre of WA, Perth. perthfestival.com.au

Two Caryl Churchill PlaysEscaped Alone, and What if Only. Melville Theatre. Feb 14Mar 1. Melville Civic Centre. melvilletheatrecompany.au

Travel from the heart of the central desert to the bright lights of the big smoke in an epic rock ‘n’ roll theatre show. Big Name, No Blankets celebrates the phenomenal journey and impact of Sammy Tjapanangka Butcher and his brothers, the founding members of Warumpi Band the band that took Aboriginal culture to the world. Playing as part of the 2025 Perth Festival at Regal Theatre, Subiaco from February 27 to March 1. perthfestival.com.au

12 Last Songs by Quarantine. Perth Festival. Feb 15. State Theatre Centre of WA, Perth. perthfestival.com.au

Ultimate Safari by Finn Works. Avedeva /Perth Festival. Feb 19 - 23. State Theatre Centre of WA, Perth. perthfestival.com.au

Looped by Matthew Lombardo. Feb 21 - Mar 8. Old Mill Theatre, South Perth. oldmilltheatre.com.au

Samsara: A Cine-Concert by Garin Nugroho. Perth Festival. Feb 21. His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth. perthfestival.com.au

Legends (of the Golden Arches) by Joe Paradise Lui and Merlynn Tong. Perth Festival. Feb 21 - 24. State Theatre Centre of WA, Perth. perthfestival.com.au

Night Night. The Last Great Hunt / Perth Festival. Feb 26 -

Mar 2. State Theatre Centre of WA, Perth. perthfestival.com.au

Assassins by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman. Roleystone Theatre. Feb 28Mar 15 roleystonetheatre.com.au

Big Name, No Blankets by Andrea James with Anyupa Butcher. IBIJERRI Theatre / Perth Festival. Feb 27 - Mar 1. Regal Theatre, Subiaco. perthfestival.com.au

Disposing of the Body by Hugh Whitemore. Wanneroo Repertory. Feb 27 - Mar 15. Limelight Theatre, Wanneroo. (08) 9255 3336. taztix.com.au

August Osage County by Tracy Letts. Black Swan State Theatre Company. Feb 27 - Mar 16. State Theatre Centre of WA, Perth. blackswantheatre.com.au

Photo: James Henry.

Dear Evan Hansen

Book by Steven Levenson. Music and Lyrics by Benj Pasek & Justin Paul. A Sydney Theatre Company and Michael Cassel Group production. Roslyn Packer Theatre. Oct 12 to Dec 1. Melbourne from Dec 14; Canberra from Feb 27 2025 and Adelaide from Apr 3.

USING modern technology that has been improved since the original version in 2016, this production is breathtaking in its originality, its daring and its cast. Everything Dean Bryant and his team have created is aweinspiring.

This brilliant but tight package is a tale of the sad claustrophobic world of a lost, lonely teenager. We watch the humour and then horror as the ramifications of his lies grow until they slowly close in on him.

By the middle of the second act the sound of silence in the audience is palpable, as his world becomes like a nightmare flanked by screens and images.

Bryant knows what he is doing with this show from the utterly superlative casting to his technologically unique set, to the tiny, squashed apartment that squeezes its occupants slowly as good intention turns to deceit.

Beau Woodbridge’s voice is something to behold; his melismas and phrasing are superb, his singing like his performance is always totally in control. His partner in this climax is the wondrous Verity Hunt Ballard as his mother.

These two are one hell of an act as the play reaches its climax; this is rare theatre. We are in the hands of two virtuosos one young, one mature, both totally at one and in full control.

Martin Crewes gives another of his balanced, perfect, superbly realised performances as Larry Murphy

Jeremy Allen’s set design is like a dark blue tomb that encompasses Evan and then all the cast, releasing only in the final scene.

Unquestionably the best production of this year and perhaps this decade.

Les Solomon

Come From Away

By Irene Sankoff and David Hein. Directed by Katherine Freind and Allen Blachford. Koorliny Arts Centre, Kwinana, WA. Nov 15 to 30.

KOORLINY Arts Centre’s WA Amateur Premier production of Come From Away has created quite a buzz, and as the full, very theatrical crowd on Opening Night can testify, this production is very much worthy of the hype.

This story of the town of Gander, whose residents cared for thousands of people from stranded airplanes following September 11, has quickly become a modern classic.

Dear Evan Hansen

Photo: Daniel Boud.

Apart from the lack of a revolve and a reduced staged space, the set, choreography, costume and staging is almost identical to the Australian touring production, and Koorliny have assembled a band and cast with a talent that could, for the most part, easily swap into its professional equivalent.

Presumably working within strict guidelines, directors Katherine Freind and Allen Blachford, choreographer Allen Blachford, and costume consultant Melissa Kelly have excelled in replication, alongside excellent work from Lighting Designer Kat Brieden, to produce a high quality, professional looking production, while Musical Director Kate McIntosh leading a six-piece band, and sound designer Johnathan Hoey have ensured that the show sounds just as great.

Very much an ensemble cast, the dozen actors work well as a team. Shannon Payette Seip, who auditioned by video and travelled from the USA to be in this production, shows depth as airline pilot Beverley and others. Gillian Binks played the romantic arc of Diane beautifully and switches seamlessly into other roles. Maree Cole wins hearts playing Bonnie, caring for dozens of animals from the planes, and shining in other roles. Lucy Eyre isa delight, playing no-nonsense Beulah and others, while Mahali is simply beautiful as Hannah, concerned for her missing son. Phoebe Tempra is lovely as wide-eyed reporter Janice and other roles.

Tadhg Lawrence has a show stopping moment leading the song “Prayer”, which is simply stunning, as he plays Kevin T and other roles, with Bailey Bridgman-Peters playing the humour of Kevin T’s boyfriend, also called Kevin, as well as playing the quiet dignity of an innocent Muslim man under suspicion. Rea Selepe, Jason Nettle and Neil Young are all excellent in a plethora of roles, with Colan Leach nicely completing the cast as a very unlikely romantic-lead-of-sorts.

This is one of the theatrical highlights of 2025.

Kimberley Shaw

Hedda Gabler

By Henrik Ibsen, in a version by Anthony Skuse. Secret House, in association with bAKEHOUSE Theatre Company. KXT on Broadway. Oct 18 to Nov 2.

IBSEN’S famous anti-heroine, Hedda Gabler, raged at the oppressive patriarchy in 1891 Oslo but her liberating spirit is restrained in Henrick Ibsen’s play by her cowardly fear of scandal.

In Anthony Skuse’s abbreviated, compelling version all social disguise and chat is stripped away, the play’s melodramatic bones are bared, and Hedda shows up as a narcissistic bitch. But Ibsen’s moral themes are still clear, perhaps even starker, and while this Hedda doesn’t necessarily move us, we understand her frustrations and delusional psychosis.

Hedda craves power but she’s already compromised by marriage to a conventional academic, Tesman (James Smithers), and now another horror of entrapment grows in her womb. She mocks servile woman like fussy aunt Berte (Suzann James) and Thea (Jane Angharad), who may be timid but bravely risks all by associating with the wild young writer, Eilett Lovborg.

When Hedda discovers Thea has helped Lovborg write his remarkable new book one likely to be far more successful than Tesman’s new tome she’s desperate to destroy the manuscript. She insists Lovborg must end it all with Romantic idealism, and pistols. Then her destructive power is clipped by the predatory Judge Brack (Christopher Tomkinson).

Skuse’s Hedda Gabler, which he directs, is a concise, detailed production, performed in impressive period costumes on James Smither’s open set with mirrors and select furniture including Hedda’s beloved piano (played by Christie Mae).

The KXT Broadway stage is small but inventively employed, with actors even sitting occasionally in the front row, performing amongst us.

Ella Prince gives a commanding, highly physical performance as the tirelessly provocative Hedda. All of them bring a nuanced authenticity to a thrilling tale.

Martin Portus

Hedda Gabler

Photo: Braiden Toko.

The Lord Of The Rings: A Musical Tale

Based on the novels by J R R Tolkien. Book and lyrics by Shaun McKenna and Matthew Warchus and original music by A R Rahman, Värttinä, and Christopher Nightingale. Kevin Wallace Productions, GWB Entertainment and Middle-earth Enterprises. Civic Theatre, Auckland. Opening night: Nov 12. Sydney from Jan 7 2025, Perth from Mar 19, Melbourne from Apr 26 and Gold Coast from Jul 4.

THE opening night at Auckland's Civic Theatre was a spectacle in itself, radiating excitement as attendees were greeted by Hobbits in a bid to immerse the audience in the enchanting world of Middle-earth.

This musical, which has evolved significantly since its initial conception in 2003, invites audiences to embark on Frodo Baggins' epic quest, starting from a festive celebration in the Shire. The challenge of condensing Tolkien's extensive narrative into a three-hour performance creates a rapid-fire pace that may leave viewers, less familiar with the lore, a bit disoriented. However, devoted fans of the franchise are likely to find the storyline engaging and coherent.

The cast is a standout feature, comprising 25 Hobbits, all exceptionally skilled actor-musicians. Their ability to simultaneously sing, dance, and play instruments enhances the live experience.

Visually, the production impresses with its innovative set design and technical execution. Simon Kenny's design captures the essence of Tolkien's universe, transformed by striking lighting and projections that transport the audience across Middle-earth. While some costuming choices, particularly for the Orcs, fell short of expectations, the overall production remains a captivating journey.

Though not devoid of flaws, The Lord of the Rings: A Musical Tale is an epic adventure that resonates with the spirit of Tolkien's work.

Emma Bishop

My Brilliant Career

Based on the Novel by Miles Franklin. Book by Sheridan Harbridge and Dean Bryant. Music by Mathew Frank. Lyrics and Dean Bryant. Melbourne Theatre Company. Directed by Ann-Louise Sarks. Sumner Theatre. Nov 7 to Dec 21.

THERE has long been talk and a search for a great Australian musical. That is a full book musical with original songs around a distinctive piece of Australian literature or history. The Melbourne Theatre Company has finally cracked the code in what is an exuberant, engaging and thrilling night in the theatre.

The team of Frank and Bryant toiled for years to develop the work, based on Miles Franklin’s seminal fictional memoir about a bright as a button late 19th century young woman in the country, trapped on a

trajectory to domestic drudgery, who wants to be a novelist.

From a series of workshops they produced a nice musical, but what has sent it to the stratosphere is the injection of humour from writer Sheridan Harbridge.

The central character Sybylla (Kala Gare) is a force of nature. She’s funny, quirky, tremulous and feisty. When I saw the production three weeks into the season, Gare was firing off electricity and accepting the standing ovation with opening night joy.

The musical never takes itself too seriously, with the audience invited into confidence of the Sybylla’s world.

The brilliant cast work their butts off, singing, dancing, talking and playing the musical instruments.

There is a delicious mix of song styles, making a story written over a century ago feel fresh.

The Melbourne season was extended due to popular demand, and we can expect to see this wonderful production around the country in the years ahead.

David Spicer

The Lord Of The Rings: A Musical Tale

Photo: Liz Lauren.

A Night With The Villains Concept by Elodie Boal and Trent Sellars. Presented by Mira Ball Productions, Our Yakka, and Salad Bowl Collective. Ron Hurley Theatre. Oct 29 to 31.

A HILARIOUS, spooky cabaret featuring some of the best of the worst characters from history and fiction, singing beloved musical numbers with lyrics cleverly tweaked to suit each character.

Peter Wood as Beetlejuice is charming, funny, and highly skilled. Beau Wykes is incredible as King George III, with a gorgeous singing voice, and excellent comedic timing. The Sanderson Sisters (Samantha Sherrin, Kennedy Foley, Kelsey Todd) are animated, great at choreo’, and their harmonies are divine.

Gabby Ayoub as Wednesday Addams is focussed, funny, a precise dancer, and shines brightest when singing. Amelie Clarke as Regina George is another fantastic singer, with lovely comic timing. Jaya FisherSmith’s Captain Hook is hilarious, vivacious, and brave. Madeleine Ford as Mrs Wormwood is adept at comedy, and a divine dancer.

Costuming by Jackie Frederickson shows superb attention to detail, wigs and make up by Rosie Humphreys are perfection. The cast under Musical Directors Georgia and Matt Leigh deliver some top-notch

work. Lighting by Jono Harrison is suitably spooky. Choreography by Jennifer B Ashley adds great entertainment value. I can’t commend Producer/Director duo Elodie Boal and Trent Sellars enough for presenting work of the highest standard.

A Night with the Villains is accessible and enjoyable. If you delight in dark comedy, great singing, and fantastic dancing you would be thrilled by this show.

Kitty Goodall

Round The Twist

Music, Lyrics and Book by Paul Hodge. Theme song by Andrew Duffield. Queensland Theatre and QPAC. Directed by Simon Phillips. Playhouse, QPAC. Nov 12 to Dec 8.

AT last, an Australian musical that is true blue down to its very roots. Those roots are the work of beloved children’s author Paul Jennings, without whom this delightful concoction for kids from 1-100 would never exist.

But it has taken the single-mindedness and multi talents of musical wunderkind Paul Hodge to give us this delightful entertainment for every member of the family.

The book is crisp and pertinent for adults as well as children the songs are not only upbeat and hummable,

Online extras!

Discover the theatrical retelling of The Lord Of the Rings: A Musical Tale. youtu.be/N_iyrF403jA

Online extras!

Awaken the darkness within A Night With The Villains is a real thriller youtu.be/9EoJj4zcCRM

A Night With The Villains

Photo: B_rit Creative.

but they advance story and character. And at its heart are values of decency and family.

The plot loosely follows Jennings’ stories about the Twist family, who leave the city for a sea change and a new home in a haunted lighthouse.

It would be easy to go Over The Top with Round The Twist, but Director Simon Phillips exercises subtlety, especially when the action is at its most gross. The entire production is loaded with energy and confidence.

As Tony Twist, Matt Hetherington’s wealth of experience allows him to be the glue that holds the story together, his natural charm and charisma endearing him to the audience. As his love interest (and the children’s teacher) Fay James, Liz Buchanan is a delight and always believable. Brian Probets, particularly as Dead Ned, comes close to stealing every scene he appears in.

Christen O’Leary is memorable in the key roles of Nell Rickards and the ghost of Claire King, and the Gribbles are beautifully played by Tarita Botsman (the top notes of this operatic soprano are both unexpected and jaw dropping) and the multi-faceted David James.

Eldest Twist child Pete is given great energy and a fresh perspective by Hanlon Innocent, who totally embodies all that is Pete. Charly Oakly is perfect as Linda Twist and their scenes with almost-boyfriend Andrew Shelford (Alexander Tye) are warm and charming.

Edison AI, as youngest Twist child Bronson, is only 10 years old (he has been acting since he was 4) and in this, his professional debut, he unashamedly owns the stage every time he appears, nailing the comic timing of every line.

The three bullies are deliciously played with great comic ability by Carla Beard, Nic Van Lits and Carlo Boumouglbay, while Taylah Johns is beautifully cast as Pete’s love interest Fiona (I’m still chuckling over the lipstick routine).

Laura Rainieri makes a beautiful mermaid, exquisitely realised.

Craig Wilkinson’s astonishing video design part cartoon, part fantasy, plus heightened reality is the very heart of the show and sets mood and place as well as driving the peripatetic energy, complementing Renee Mulder’s great design to perfection.

Then add Andrew Hallsworth’s simple but effective choreography, Ben Hughes impressive lighting design and Lucy O’Brien’s musical direction, with orchestration by Neil Douglas Reilly, played by a terrific band.

Round The Twist deserves to be a worldwide smash hit and we should all give three cheers Aussie, Aussie, Aussie…Wow, Wow, Wow.

Coral Drouyn

The Wharf Revue - The End Of The Wharf As We Know It.

By Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Philip Scott.

The Seymour Centre. Nov 11 to Dec 23.

WHAT shall we do without The Wharf Revue? ‘Tis hard to accept that this will be the last! For over 25 years Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Phil Scott (and his piano) have brilliantly lampooned politics and politicians from here and overseas.

In this their final show “the Three Men” are joined once again by Mandy Bishop and David Whitney. Together these five brilliant performers not only “flashback” to the past, but introduce a few new characters, including some well-known English TV stars led by dual UK/Australian citizen Miriam Margoles wheeled on by the inimitable Phil Scott complete with a new wig, expansive girth and, of course, a little flatulence!

“On tour” in Australia she meets up with island hopping Martin Clunes (Whitney), Joanna Lumley (Bishop) and their monarch Charles Rex (Biggins again). This new segment was a welcome, very funny surprise, especially for ABC viewers!

The Wharf Revue - The End Of The Wharf As We Know It Photo: Vishal Pandey.

Online extras!

Audiences are bidding The Wharf Revue a fond farewell on their final ever tour youtu.be/6x59sXsDIqU

The very lithe Jonathan Biggins in a silver sequinned mini-dress and high, silver boots is an elegant Angus Taylor Swift, explaining that when asked about policies you just “Make it Up”!

Various ‘hindsight’ segments remind the audience of ‘policies’ that have come under fire in the in the last 25 years the environment, finance, foreign affairs, climate change. All the PMs and pundits who dealt with them appear in ‘door stop’ video grabs, while some ex-pollies, looking remarkably like Joe Hockey and Mathias Cormann, explain the possibilities of “Jobs for the Boys”.

Oh, how we shall miss those clever impressions, those ingenious parodies, the timing, the pace, the intelligence! Carol Wimmer

The Hall

Text and songs by Ro Bright & Pat Irwin. Bullet Heart Club. fortyfivedownstairs. Nov 21 to Dec 1.

NATASHA Herbert an actor of great presence, vitality and beauty is ‘Tup’, a grandmother with Frontotemporal Dementia: it breaks your heart. She scarcely recognises daughter Alison (Brooke Lee), now her loving carer, or non-binary teenage grandchild, Billie (Emmanuelle Mattana).

Tup drifts on stage in an incontinence nappy vague, blank, suddenly febrile, irascible, demanding then softening, sentimental, a dependant child. In one scene we see Tup as she was brave, sassy, wise-cracking, glamorous, and a singer because Tup loved to sing.

Music is what Tup remembers. Music is still how she can be reached. There are stacks of hymn books, ‘The Sacred Harp’, stashed away. But there are original songs

The Hall Photo: James Reiser.

by playwrights Ro Bright and Pat Irwin, sung by a choir seated around the stage, interpolated into the narrative, sometimes enhancing, sometimes almost bursting in. The music is always there for Tup and so it’s there too for Alison and Billie and the combination, the weaving together of music and text never falters.

The plot is animated by love letters hidden among the detritus of the past. Alison and Billie can’t recognise the handwriting, but the letters show that once Tup loved passionately and was loved in return. If they can solve the puzzle, it might help Tup. They pursue their quest with resilience, with desperation and a great deal of humour. The sheer goodness of Alison and Billie is as touching as Tup’s isolation. Alison is dogged while Emmanuelle Mattana’s teenager, posting everything to TikTok, is still a teenager another utterly engaging performance.

The Hall runs seventy-five minutes which seems just right. It is tragic and matter-of-fact funny. The music lifts the sadness to another dimension. Kitan Petkovski’s direction assisted by Belinda McClory is precise, finding the rhythms of this layered play and creating something intuitive, touching and beautiful.

Michael Brindley

Peter And The Starcatcher

By Rick Elice. Dead Puppet Society and Glass Half Full Productions, directed by David Morton. Canberra Theatre, Oct 15 to 27, and touring to Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, and Brisbane.

PETER and the Starcatcher premiered in the offBroadway New York Theatre Workshop and played on Broadway as a Disney production for nine months from April 2012. Collecting five Tony Awards, it remains popular for good reason.

The story’s premise is of a mission, taking two ships for Lord Leonard Aster to destroy a substance called

Peter And The Starcatcher

Photo: Daniel Boud.

starstuff: a substance so dangerous that the Crown has sent Lord Aster (accompanied by his daughter, Molly) to destroy it on a distant volcanic island.

It offers a lovely theatrical experience for anybody from the age of about ten. For younger children, the show’s complexity offered a challenge, and for those younger still it could be a bit long, especially the first act.

Amongst its other strengths, Dead Puppet Society and Glass Half Full Productions’ take on this prequel has great visual appeal: detailed costuming; fantastical bird, fish, and reptilian puppetry, with surprisingly lifelike motion; and dazzling stage and set design.

Complementing the action came live music on stage, performed by up to seven musicians at a time on a great range of instruments, and several ensemble songs, all sung with accuracy and harmonised with daring and panache. All in all, the play’s visual and musical artistry was an experience for the senses that kept the audience constantly engaged.

John P. Harvey

PERFORMING ARTS MAGAZINE

DEC 2024 & JAN/FEB 2025. VOLUME 33, NUMBER 5 ABN: 71 129 358 710. ISSN: 1321 5965

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CAST & CREW

Editor: Neil Litchfield 0438 938 064

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Contributors: Cathy Bannister, Anne Blythe-Cooper, Michael Brindley, Kerry Cooper, Rose Cooper, Ken Cotterill, Bill Davies, Coral Drouyn, Jenny Fewster, Kitty Goodall, Peter Gotting, John P. Harvey, Frank Hatherley, Barry Hill, Jude Hines, Beth Keehn, Fiona Kelly, Tony Knight, Debora Krizak, Neil Litchfield, Ken Longworth, Rachel McGrath-Kerr, Mel Newton, Peter Novakovich, Peter Pinne, Martin Portus, Suzanne Sandow, Kimberley Shaw, David Spicer, Mark Wickett, Geoffrey Williams and Carol Wimmer.

Aussie Accents In New York

As you may have read earlier in this edition, I was lucky enough to see some shows on Broadway during September, in a trip partly financed by being the agent for The Boy from Oz

A young producer in Rochester (upstate New York) had booked the musical. When I saw on the map that the town is a few hours from Niagara Falls, I got the itch to attend, with lots of theatrical detours.

Rochester has a population of just over 200,000 and is a seven hour drive from Broadway, where Hugh Jackman appeared in The Boy from Oz 20 years ago.

The company, called OFC Creations Theatre, is based in an outof-town shopping strip where the enterprising producer Eric Johnson stages five Broadway musicals a year, cast with imported professional artists, and dozens of junior shows, in his 260-seat venue.

My favourite The Boy from Oz schtick is to test the Australian accents of the US cast members. The lead, Blake McIver Ewing, impressed me with his ‘strine’. I put him on the spot in an episode of Stage Whispers TV. He passed with the line, “Don’t tempt me with a good time.”

Now that I am safely back in Oz, I can confirm that some of the other accents more closely resembled

cockney or English dialects. The original professional season had the same problem.

You must feel a little sorry for the Americans whereas we are raised watching US telly and movies, they only get to hear our accent occasionally.

Only master actors such as Meryl Streep in the movie Evil Angels seem to nail it.

The biggest surprise was meeting a colleague of Peter Allen on the Rochester stage. The actor playing Peter Allen’s manager, Tripp Hanson, recalled a season with the Australian artist for his Easter spectacular at Radio City Music Hall in 1986.

It was a wild ride as Peter Allen planned on entering the stage on an Elephant (animal rights activists avert your eyes).

“There was a grand piano on a pallet behind the elephant. Fortunately, one night when we had a rehearsal, Peter Allen was not on the elephant. The Elephant was practising pulling the pallet across the stage,” said Tripp. “Unfortunately, the trainer stopped short and the pallet with the piano kept rolling and hit his ankles from behind.”

The distressed animal vomited and charged around the stage forcing cast members to make good their escape.

“The elephant got fired from pulling the piano and I got the job of pulling it across the stage to (a theatrical representation of) Rio.”

Hugh Jackman himself is due back on the stage of Radio City Music Hall in 2025 in a concert series From New York With Love, where he will reprise songs from The Boy from Oz. I don’t expect any animals to accompany him, but would not be surprised if the concert ends up in Australia.

Speaking of Aussies in New York, whilst I was there I attended a performance of Counting and Cracking, the epic Australian/Sri Lankan play, hosted by the Public Theater.

I interviewed a very proud Artistic Director of the Belvoir Street Theatre, Eamon Flack, who lead 19 actors plus creatives in the season at New York University.

He was delighted that New York audiences took to the story of “migrants, political upheaval and families coming together.”

The only thing lost in the translation were stage directions.

“They don’t have prompt or offprompt, so I had to learn to say stage left and stage right.”

David Spicer

Stage Whispers TV checks out Counting And Cracking in New York youtu.be/aE0kXhlIWIU

Blake McIver Ewing leads OFC Creations Theatre’s The Boy From Oz. youtu.be/r3f8n_FxxcE

David Spicer with the cast of OFC Creations Theatre’s

The Boy From Oz