News

Plied and Proud of it

With a new parody on everyone’s favourite lovers, Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett, opening this week in Brisbane, Coral Drouyn looks at our penchant for “Taking the P**s”.

Some may call it the Tall Poppy Syndrome, but really it’s more than that. Take an icon…a film, a play, a book, and create a parody of it, send it up mercilessly with all the tropes and cliches you can find, and serve it to a hungry audience with all the aplomb of a French chef.

The Visitors Embarks on National Tour in July

Moogahlin Performing Arts and Sydney Theatre Company present the national regional tour of Jane Harrison's critically acclaimed play, The Visitors, directed by the celebrated Quandamooka man Wesley Enoch.  Fresh from its triumph at the 2023 Sydney Theatre Awards, where it won Best Mainstage Production and Best Ensemble, The Visitors will tour across Australia and to regional areas from July to September 2024.

Hadestown To Premiere In Sydney

Seen by three million, streamed by over 350 million and with fans all around the world, singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell’s West End and Broadway musical Hadestown will make its Australian premiere at Theatre Royal Sydney in February 2025.

Presented by Opera Australia and JONES Theatrical Group, Hadestown won eight Tony Awards when it opened on Broadway in 2019, including Best Score and Best Director and is still playing to packed houses five years later.

Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel in Concert

Anna O’Byrne and Marina Prior will star in a lavish concert presentation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel in September.

Set in a seaside town in Maine, the musical follows the love story of Billy Bigelow, a handsome but troubled carousel barker, and Julie Jordan, a young mill worker. Anna O’Byrne and Marina Prior will play the leading roles of Julie Jordan and Nettie Fowler.

SIX the Musical Crowns Its New Australian Queens

Image: SIX Australian Cast 2024 – Kimberley Hodgson, Deirdre Khoo, Loren Hunter, Zelia Rose Kitoko, Chelsea Dawson, Giorgia Kennedy – Photographer: Michelle Grace Hunder

Rhonda Burchmore Is Getting Into The Habit For Sister Act

Rhonda Burchmore has been confirmed to join Casey Donovan and Genevieve Lemon in the cast of Sister Act

Rhonda will star as Sister Mary Lazarus in the Australian premiere of Sister Act when it opens at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney from August and the Regent Theatre in Melbourne from November.

An Authentic Parade

The Tony Award winning musical Parade opens in Sydney in May after a successful season in Melbourne.

The Grinning Man

Aleksandar Vass is persisting with his vision of offering Melbourne affordable premiere productions of professional theatre f

Little Women Cast at Hayes Theatre Announced.

Joshua Robson Productions in association with Hayes Theatre Co has announced the cast members who will be joining the production of Little Women, based on Louisa May Alcott’s timeless novel at Hayes Theatre Co from 12 July. Tickets are available from www.hayestheatre.com.au

What’s in The Box?

Coral Drouyn talks to writer/composer Paul Hodge about his TWO Musicals due to hit the stage in 2024, including Black Box, which opens at QPAC on May 10th,

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde’s Lady Bracknell, “To have one musical staged is good fortune, to have two sounds like sheer talent!”

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