Musicals in 2016 and Beyond
Check out our new feature Musicals in 2017 and Beyond - Click here.
Stage Whispers takes a look at musicals around Australia in 2016 and beyond.
Disney’s Aladdin
When news broke that Aladdin will open at the Capitol Theatre, Sydney in August 2016, just two years after its Broadway premiere, Stage Whispers’ Facebook page almost went into meltdown from the excitement.
The musical by Alan Menken, Howard Ashman and Tim Rice also won over the most jaded of theatre critics.
The New York Times’s Charles Isherwood wrote “another weary night in the presence of a spunky youngster and wisecracking animals didn’t exactly set my heart racing.” He said however that Aladdin has a greater emphasis on broad comedy than most of Disney’s other stage musicals and the songs “pay energetic tribute to everything from the Cotton Club and Las Vegas to vintage Hollywood and current Bollywood.”
Get ready for a whole new world of costumes, sequins and flying carpets.
Click here to read more about Aladdin
Aladdin will move to Her Majesty's Theatre Melbourne, from April 2016.
Ghost The Musical
Adelaide from 8 January then Melbourne (February 5), Sydney (March 18) and Perth (May 21).
It is time to unchain all those melodies as Rob Mills stars as (back from the dead) Sam, in the role created by Patrick Swayze in the 1990 movie, opposite Jemma Rix.
There are all sorts of special effects. Sam walks through a solid door, inanimate objects move, and elaborate video imagery allows for spirits to ascend to the heavens.
All this mixed with the comedy of Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg’s shonky physic character) and an array of pop songs.
Click here to read more about Ghost The Musical
Read Coral Drouyn's interview with Rob Mills in the Jan/Feb 2016 Edition of Stage Whispers.
The London Palladium production of The Sound of Music
Capitol Theatre, Sydney (December 2015), Brisbane (March), Melbourne (May) and Adelaide (August).
How do you solve a problem like Maria in 2016? Cast some old favourites, some new talent and throw some technological gadgetry at it.
The London Palladium production from 2006 has a few surprises. After the opening in the convent, we're transported to the Austrian mountains via an oval window which reveals Maria lying on a mountain slope.
Peter Brown from the London Theatre Guide described it as “both surprising and highly effective. When the window rises, Maria is seen singing and dancing on a giant tilting disc which looks like a sort of enormous pancake.
“The device comes into its own again when they've climbed the mountain and peer over the top of it at the end of the show,” he said.
Dancing on the pancake will be Amy Lehpamer as Maria Rainer and Cameron Daddo as Captain Georg von Trapp. Marina Prior plays Baroness Schraeder, with Lorraine Bayly as Frau Schmidt.
Click here to read more about The Sound of Music
Image by James Morgan
Georgy Girl – the Seekers Musical
World Premiere (December 2015) at Her Majesty’s Theatre Melbourne. State Theatre Sydney. (April).
Australia’s own super sixties group The Seekers are the subject of the latest new jukebox tribute which traces their origins from suburban Melbourne in the swinging sixties, to world-wide success.
It’s a biographical musical, but unlike Buddy, Shout!, Dusty andThe Boy From Oz, the subjects are alive and singing as their musical tribute is being developed (as per Jersey Boys ) and Judith Durham, Keith Potger, Bruce Woodley and Athol Guy will be sitting there on opening night watching Pippa Grandison, Phillip Lowe, Mike McLeish and Glaston Toft, respectively, relive their careers, and revive their hits.
No doubt if you love their songs including ‘Morningtown Ride’, ‘I'll Never Find Another You,’ ‘The Carnival is Over’ and ‘A World of Our Own’ it will be well worth the ticket price.
How it stacks up as a piece of drama will be the key to its success. Does their story have the same appeal as Frankie Valli and Four Seasons wrong side of the track tale?
With a small cast and large following, Georgy Girl should have staying power.
Click here to read more about Georgy Girl
Image: Judith Durham with Pippa Grandison.
Fiddler on the Roof.
Melbourne’s Princess Theatre (January), Capitol Theatre Sydney (March).
Anthony Warlow returns to Australia as Tevye, the downtrodden Jewish milkman in the small Ukranian village under the rein of anti-Semitic Tsar Nicholas II.
The theatre slot was opened up by the postponement of Jekyll and Hyde which ironically Warlow made the most famous recording of, but declined to appear in.
Having spent so much time in New York, Warlow will have his Jewish mannerisms down pat. We look forward to hearing how he handles the more bass baritone Idle-diddle-daidle-daidle notes.
Click here to read more about Fiddler on the Roof
Cats
The Australian national tour of the West End revival version of Cats began at Sydney's Capitol in November, 2015, tprior to touring to Hobart, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s mega 1980’s blockbuster returns with changes including rap music, break dancing and Delta Goodrem as Grizabella for east coast audiences.
Click here to read more about Cats
Click here to read our article with Josh Piterman and Holly Meegan
Matilda the Musical.
These summer holidays Melbourne’s ‘revolting’ children are heading north. Child cast members are learning the ropes in Sydney, as Matilda winds down, in preparation for a ten month stint at the Princess Theatre from March (other states will follow in 2017).
The children and choreography are dazzling. They twist, turn and cavort with a discipline that would challenge adult dancers. To get them there requires months of training.
The musical lived up to its hype with an almost universal positive chorus of reviews in Sydney.
Roald Dahl’s larger-than-life characters blend seamlessly with the quirky, rule-breaking, sweet and sour music of Tim Minchin.
Photographer: James Morgan
Click here to read more about Matilda
Meet Miss Honey. Click here for our interview with Elise McCann
Lucy Maunder joins Matilda for Brisbane and Perth seasons
The Lion King
Disney's The Lion King continues the Perth season of its Australian tour at the Crown Theatre until February 28.
The Lion King became the most successful stage show of all time during 2014 – when it overtook the previous record holder The Phantom of the Opera.
Defying Gravity - The Songs of Stephen Schwartz
Composer Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell) visits Sydney’s Theatre Royal in February when a top notch international and local cast will perform DEFYING GRAVITY The Songs of Stephen Schwartz. Broadway and West End stars Sutton Foster, Aaron Tveit, Joanna Ampil and Betty Buckley will share the stage with local favourites Helen Dallimore and David Harris. Prior to the concerts on Saturday 13 February, Leigh Sales will interview Stephen Schwartz about his career in “Stephen Schwartz in Conversation with Leigh Sales” on stage at Theatre Royal. Both events are produced by Enda Markey.
Image: Sutton Foster. Photographer: Laura Marie Duncan
Dream Lover, The Bobby Darin Musical
World Premiere, Theatre Royal, Sydney (September).
Starring David Campbell as Bobby Darin.
Dream Lover is more conventional bio musical. Its subject Bobby Darrin died young (37) and had a life that was often on a knife edge.
Young Walden Robert Cassotto overcame a life threatening illness and a poor background to become one of the great entertainers of the mid-20th century.
With a weak heart he knew he had to pack as much into his life as he could before it ran out.
His personal drama included – a volatile married to movie star Sandra Dee and the discovery that his "mother" Polly was actually his grandmother and his "sister" Nina, was really his mother.
The musical, penned by Frank and John-Michael Howson includes the songs ‘Splish Splash’, ‘As Long as I’m Singing’, ‘Mack the Knife’, ‘Beyond the Sea’, ‘If I Were a Carpenter’, ‘Inka Dinka Doo’ and ‘Mammy’.
The musical has been in development under the direction of Simon Phillips for five years.
Click here to read more about Dream Lover
Click here to read about the casting of DREAM LOVER
We Will Rock You
Sydney (May), Brisbane (July), Melbourne (Sept), Perth (Nov), Adelaide (Jan 2017).
Ben Elton’s musical fantasy, using the best songs of Queen, is bullet proof.
It ran for over a decade in the West End and has had productions around the world every year since critics fired their water pistols at the premiere.
Yes the story is a bit silly. It is set 300 years in the future in a vaguely Orwellian earth called "iPlanet".
But audiences love it and they can’t wait to sing along to ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, which they don’t even pretend is part of the narrative.
Click here to read more about We Will Rock You
Kinky Boots
Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne from October.
Kinky Boots tells the story of Charlie Price, who has reluctantly inherited his father's Northampton shoe factory.
Trying to live up to his father's legacy and save the family business from bankruptcy, Charlie finds inspiration in the form of Lola, a fabulous entertainer in need of some sturdy stilettos.
First came the movie, then the Tony Award winning musical.
New York Times critic Ben Brantley described Cindy Lauper’s music as “a love- and heat-seeking score that performs like a pop star on Ecstasy. ”
He described the book by Harvey Fierstein as “ a shameless emotional button pusher, presided over — be warned — by that most weary of latter-day Broadway archetypes, a strong and sassy drag queen who dispenses life lessons like an automated fortune cookie.”
Worth dressing up for.
Click here to read more about Kinky Boots
Singin’ In The Rain
Melbourne (May), Sydney (July) then Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
We are looking forward to welcoming home Aussie dance heart-throb Adam Garcia in the lead role of Don Lockwood in this classic dance musical, alongside Jack Chambers (Cosmo), Gretel Scarlett (Cathy Seldon) and Erika Heynatz(Lina Lamont).
The West End production originated at the Britain’s Chichester Festival Theatre, under the direction ofthe newly installed Sydney Theatre Company Artistic Director Jonathan Church.
Charles Spencer wrote in the The Telegraph that “Church’s splendid staging, with thrillingly inventive choreography by Andrew Wright that though clearly inspired by Gene Kelly’s original routines often takes off in startling and delightful new directions of its own.”
Singin’ In The Rain is the story of the arrival of the talkies in Hollywood with “a broad buoyant humour, generosity of spirit and delightfully tuneful score”.
Don’t forget your umbrella.
Photo by Brian Geach
Click here to read more about Singin' In The Rain
My Fair Lady.
Sydney Opera House (August)
Dame Julie Andrews was famously cast as the original Liza Doolittle in My Fair Lady on Broadway but overlooked for the role in the film for the non-singer Audrey Hepburn.
Now she gets her own back by being able to put a new feather in her cap as director of the musical on its 60th anniversary.
Alas there is no chance of hearing Dame Julie sing as she is now 80 and tragically suffered vocal damage during a botched vocal surgery.
Photographer: James Morgan.
Click here to read more about My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady will tour to Melbourne and Brisbane in 2017.
Little Shop of Horrors
Sydney (February), Adelaide (April), Melbourne (May), Canberra (May) and Brisbane (June).
The production team behind Sweet Charity, which launched Sydney’s Hayes Theatre into the stratosphere, is getting back together, promising to produceA Little Shop of Horrors for “the 21st century”.
They will join forces with master puppet-makers Erth to create a brand new Audrey II.
Freed from King Kong’s clutches, Esther Hannaford plays Audrey alongside Brent Hill as the unassuming, hapless flower shop worker Seymour Krelborn.
Click here to read more about Little Shop of Horrors
Rolling Thunder Vietnam
THE Australian concert drama Rolling Thunder Vietnam – Songs That Defined A Generation, which toured nationally in 2014, returns for a national tour in July-August 2016 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan, with a cast led by Ben Mingay.
Click here to read more about Rolling Thunder Vietnam
Ladies in Black
The Melbourne Theatre Company presents new Australian musical Ladies in Black at the Sumner Theatre, Melbourne, from 16 January – 27 February, following its premiere season at the Queensland Theatre Company.
The musical has been adapted from the book by Carolyn Burns and has music and lyrics by Tim Finn (Split Enz/Crowded House).
Click here to read Peter Pinne's feature on Ladies in Black.
Ladies in Black will tour to Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Canberra in 2017 - Read more
Clinton The Musical
Black Swan State Theatre Company will present the Australian Premiere of Clinton The Musical from August 27 to September 11.
An outrageous musical comedy penned by Australian writing duo and brothers, Paul Hodge and Michael Hodge, which played a sellout season Off-Broadway.
Kiss Me, Kate
As a nod to the global celebrations of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, on 12 November in QPAC’s Concert Hall, OperaQ will present two semi-staged concerts of Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate, based on The Taming of the Shrew and starring Peter Coleman-Wright and Cheryl Barker.
2017
The Book of Mormon
Opening at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre in January 2017.
As 2016 draws to a close, the yet-to-be-announced cast of the highly anticipated January 2017 Australian premiere of The Book of Mormon will be rehearsing ahead of opening night.
Winner of nine Tony Awards® including Best Musical and the Grammy® for Best Musical Theatre album, The Book of Mormon follows a pair of Mormon boys sent on a mission to Uganda.
Click here to read more about The Book of Mormon
Ladies in Black to Tour
Queensland Theatre Company has announced that the new Australian musical Ladies in Black will tour nationally in early 2017, opening in Sydney on January 3 for its premiere season in the city in which the story is based. The show will then return for an encore season to Brisbane from January 28, before another encore season in Melbourne from February 25, and to Canberra from March 27.
From the adaptation of Madeleine St John’s 1993 novel,The Women in Black, this production has been brought to life by Australian screenwriter Carolyn Burns and director Simon Phillips with original music from legendary singer songwriter, Tim Finn OBE.
The Bodyguard
Producers Michael Harrison, David Ian and John Frost today announced that the international award-winning hit musical THE BODYGUARD will reach Australian theatres in 2017. The Australian tour will commence in Sydney in April next year.
THE BODYGUARD includes a whole host of Whitney Houston's greatest hits including Queen of the Night, So Emotional, One Moment in Time, Saving All My Love, Run to You, I Have Nothing, Greatest Love Of All, Million Dollar Bill, I Wanna Dance With Somebody and one of the greatest hit songs of all time – I Will Always Love You.
Based on the Warner Bros 1992 film starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner and written by the acclaimed, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan (Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Big Chill, The Empire Strikes Back), THE BODYGUARD features a book by Academy Award-winner Alexander Dinelaris.
Former Secret Service agent turned bodyguard Frank Farmer is hired to protect superstar singer Rachel Marron from an unknown stalker. Each expects to be in charge – what they don’t expect is to fall in love.
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
The multi award-winning Broadway hit musical Beautiful: The Carole King Musical will make its Australian premiere at a newly refurbished Sydney Lyric Theatre from September 2017.
Click here to read more about Beautiful
Muriel's Wedding The Musical
Global Creatures will join forces with Sydney Theatre Company (STC) to produce the World Premiere of Muriel’s Wedding The Musical, which will play 6 November to 30 December, 2017, at Sydney’s Roslyn Packer Theatre, as part of STC’s 2017 season.
Based on the 1994 motion picture 'Muriel's Wedding' (written and directed by PJ Hogan, produced by Lynda House and Jocelyn Moorhouse), Muriel’s Wedding The Musical will be directed by Simon Phillips. Book writer PJ Hogan is updating his own screenplay for the stage, and original music for Muriel’s Wedding The Musical is being written by award-winning singer-songwriters Kate Miller-Heidke and Keir Nuttall, to join beloved songs by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus & Stig Anderson originally written for ABBA.
Gabriela Tylesova will design sets and costumes.
Cabaret The Musical
The Kit Kat Club is returning to Sydney in all its decadence for a new Australian revival of Cabaret at Hayes Theatre Co. from 9 January 2017 starring Paul Capsis as The Emcee. Cabaret will then play the Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne from 27 April 2017. The cast also features Kate Fitzpatrick and Debora Krizak
Mamma Mia! Returns
MAMMA MIA! will tour Australia in 2017 – 2018 commencing its national tour in Canberra in November 2017 before moving on to five other capital cities.
Following its Canberra Season, MAMMA MIA! will play a season at Brisbane’s Lyric Theatre, QPAC before playing all other major national cities.
Moulin Rouge! The Musical in Development
Carmen Pavlovic, CEO of Global Creatures, has announced that Baz Luhrmann’s film Moulin Rouge! will come to the theatrical stage as a new musical with a book by John Logan, directed by Alex Timbers.
Developmental work on the show is underway, and a production time-line and opening venue will be announced at a later date.
Independent Musical Theatre 2016
If further proof was needed regarding the success of independent musical theatre companies, return seasons and interstate touring of four productions should put it beyond any doubt.
Highway Run Productions’ RENT, which sold out its season before opening night, has announced a return season at the Hayes Theatre Co in March / April.
Melbourne-based StageArt will revive their successful production of In The Heights at the National Theatre, St Kilda in March.
Three productions which debuted in Sydney will play to wider national audiences.
Heathers The Musical, directed by Trevor Ashley at the Hayes, travels to the Playhouse, QPAC, with Kirby Burgess joining Jaz Flowers in the cast (read more), then Melbourne in May with Hilary Cole and Lucy Maunder leading the cast, followed by a return Sydney season at the Playhouse Theatre, Sydney Opera House, from June 8 - 26.
Supply Evolution’s production of Bring It On The Musical, previously seen at NIDA, plays at the Arts Centre Gold Coast in January.
Violet, which had its Australian Premiere at the Hayes Theatre Co, produced by Blue Saint Productions, will play a Melbourne season in March at Chapel off Chapel. Read more.
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Helen Dallimore directs a new production of the world’s longest running musical, The Fantasticks, from 11 January at Sydney's Hayes Theatre Co.
The Hayes Theatre Company and New Musicals Australia will present a brand new Australian Musical, The Detective’s Handbook. It is set in Chicago, 1950. Frank Thompson, police detective, is called into the station on Sunday morning to investigate the murder of two policemen in a disreputable neighbourhood. The Chief of Police assigns him Jimmy Hartman, a newly promoted detective.
Another new Australian musical, Melba, has been foreshadowed for later in the year at The Hayes. This musical premiered at WAAPA in a student production in 2015.
Our review of the WAAPA production
XANADU, the roller skating musical comedy adventure based on the 1980s cult movie classic starring Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly, opens in May at The Hayes.
Charles Schulz’s beloved characters come to life in the musical You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown by Clark Gesner, which will play Hayes Theatre Co from Tuesday 5 July for 31 performances including special shows for the School Holidays.
One Eyed Man Productions in association with Hayes Theatre Co will present a strictly limited four-week season at Hayes Theatre Co from September 23. The Tony Award-nominated Broadway musical tells a stunning tale of sisterhood. With music from the composer of Dreamgirls, SIDE SHOW is based on the remarkable real-life story of conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton and their transition from ‘circus freaks’ to megastars.
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The first of Melbourne’s boutique musical theatre companies to announce their plans is StageArt. Their season opens with Saturday Night Fever in February. Director/Choreographer Luke Alleva, who starred in the West End production of Saturday Night Fever in 2005, will bring this revival to life.Titanic The Musical follows in July, then the Australasian Premiere of The Colour Purple in October, all at Chapel off Chapel.
They also present a return seson of In the Heights in March
Click here to read more about the 2016 StageArt season.
Read more about Saturday Night Fever.
Read more about The Colour Purple
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Ghost Light, in association with Moving Light Productions will present dark musical Thrill Me - The Leopold and Loeb Story by Stephen Dolginoff at Chapel off Chapel from January 20 to 31.
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Doorstep Arts will present the Victorian Premiere of the award-winning musical Dogfight, with music and lyrics by Benj Pasek & Justin Paul and a book by Peter Duchan, at Chapel off Chapel in May 2016.
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Get out your dictionaries! The Tony Award winning musical comedy, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is heading to the Melbourne’s Lawler Theatre for a strictly limited season from March 30 to April 10, 2016, in a new production from the Vic Theatre Company.
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Pursued by Bear will present tick, tick…BOOM! by Jonathan Larson (RENT), directed by Paul Watson and starring Luigi Lucente and Angela Scundi at Chapel Off Chapel in April.
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Storeyboard Entertainment will present Stephen Sondheim’s Follies three concert performances on 24 and 25 May at Melbourne Recital Centre, to be directed by Tyran Parke, with a cast including Nancye Hayes, Lisa McCune and David Hobson.
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A new production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown plays at the Alex Theatre in St Kilda in June 2016 with a fun, fresh approach to an ageless story about a boy and his best beagle friend.
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Blue Saint Productions will stage the Jason Robert Brown musical Songs for a New World at Chapel off Chapel in June 2016.
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Sydney independent company Squabbalogic’s production of Grease at the Seymour Centre from Aprill 6 promises to go back to the musical’s far grittier original version.
Squabbalogic then presents the Sydney premiere of Freckleface Strawberry, based on the beloved book by actress Julianne Moore, at the Seymour Centre from June 28.
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Winner of six TONY Awards including Best Original Score,The Light In The Piazza will receive a Melbourne season at the Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse for 2 weeks only from 28th October, produced by Life Like Company.
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New Theatre in Sydney presents Summer Rain by Nick Enright and Terence Clark from November 15 to December 17.
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In Brisbane, Harvest Rain Theatre Company will be presenting Hairspray as an Arena Spectacular at the Brisbane Convention Centre in April.
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