Stage Briefs

Mandy Patinkin and Nathan Gunn Tour Together

Producers John Frost and Phil Bathols today (September 2, 2013) announced that Broadway’s Mandy Patinkin and Opera’s Nathan Gunn will perform together in Australia in November, combining their musical talents to create a unique and powerful evening of entertainment. AN EVENING WITH MANDY PATINKIN & NATHAN GUNN will play one night only in Melbourne (November 21), Sydney (November 26) and Brisbane (November 28). Tickets go on sale on September 16.

Geoffrey Rush to Star in and Produce Drowsy Chaperone Film

The word has been around since 2011 that Geoffrey Rush would repeat his starring stage performance in The Drowsy Chaperone on film. Now it has been confirmed.

CRAIG McLACHLAN TO DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN!

Latest News: Full Cast Announced

Craig McLachlan returns to the role of Frank N Furter in the new Australian production of Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show, producers Howard Panter and John Frost announced today (August 26, 2013).

TONY AWARD WINNING THE KING AND I RETURNS TO AUSTRALIA

Producer John Frost today (August 23, 2013) announced that his Tony Award-winning production of The King and I, the first Australian production ever to be taken to Broadway, is the next Rodgers and Hammerstein masterpiece to be presented in Australia by the Gordon Frost Organisation and Opera Australia.

Ute Lemper Touring in September

German cabaret legend Ute Lemper is set to serenade Australian audiences in September with a song cycle of love poems by acclaimed poet, Pablo Neruda, along with her greatest hits from Berlin to Broadway.

Lemper has collaborated with Argentinian bandoneonist Marcelo Nisinman to create a song cycle of poems that is presented in Spanish, French and English, and performed alongside a stunning repertoire from Ute Lemper’s career spanning from Berlin to Broadway.

Chloe Dallimore and Damien Bodie Head Up Twisted Broadway in Sydney

The gender-bending music theatre event Twisted Broadway returns to the NIDA’s Parade Theatre, August 19 for its second year, after sold-out seasons in Melbourne in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. Twisted Broadway features top Australian  music theatre performers singing songs originally written for the opposite gender.

Dido and Aeneas: a choreographic opera

Sasha Waltz’s radical re-telling of Henry Purcell’s Baroque opera, Dido & Aeneas has been announced ahead of the rest of the program, as the centerpiece of the Sydney Festival in January 2014.

The oldest love story in English opera, this tragic tale of unrequited love is brought to life by sixty dancers, singers and musicians at the Sydney Lyric from 16 to 21 January 2014.

From Xena to Velma: Lucy Lawless for Auckland Chicago

After playing Mama Morton in the Hollywood Bowl season of Chicago, Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess, Battlestar Galactica, Spartacus: Blood and Sand) is on her way home to New Zealand kick up her heels as the murderous chanteuse, Velma Kelly, in Auckland Theatre Company’s Chicago, opening on 2 November, 2013.

(Sorry, no images of Lucy Lawless as Velma yet, the pic is of Hannah Tasker-Poland).

Bilingual Musical Cho Cho Wins Two Australian Arts in Asia Awards

A collaboration between the National Theatre of China, Playking Productions and Arts Centre Melbourne to create possibly the world’s first bilingual musical theatre production, Cho Cho, won two of the inaugural Australian Arts in Asia Awards which were presented by the Australian Minister for the Arts, The Hon Tony Burke MP in Sydney on August 1.

Philip Glass Opera and Scent

Hymn to the Sun, an original and fragrant interpretation of Philip Glass’s opera Akhnaten, plays in Sydney for one night only on July 27, 2013.

As ancient dhows ply the Nile, the intensely visceral sounds of Philip Glass’s music, intimately sung and played on baroque instruments,will interplay with a subtly diffused scent created exclusively for this performance.