New Zealand Plays and Musicals
Playmarket New Zealand’s top recommendations for schools.
Musicals
The Invisibles by Dan Bain and Luke Di Somma
At the beginning of her final year at rugby obsessed Riverhole High School, Lauren, a budding singer-songwriter, meets new arrival, rugby star and former dancer Scott, and attempts to enlist him in the annual nationwide music competition BandSmash.
Checkout Chicks by Rachel Callinan and Julia Truscott
A fast paced, high-energy musical comedy that celebrates loving your job. In her bid to save her locally owned struggling supermarket, Tashandra enters into the Checkout Operator of the Year Award.
Plays
Wheeler’s Luck by Nigel Collins, Toby Leach and Damon Andrews
How will the people of Bell End decide what to do when a local personality dies, leaving her prime coastal property to them? It seems a bareback horse race will be the decider.
Ophelia Thinks Harder by Jean Betts
A riotous reworking of Shakespeare’s Hamlet that puts Ophelia centre-stage.
Heavenly Bodies by Kerry Lynch
In an allusion to Greek and Elizabethan theatre, three Fates realise they have forgotten how to have fun, so they reawaken their playfulness by having teenager Hugo fall in love with Verona, a young Italian girl.
Ziggy’s Tribe by Gary Henderson
A group of lost orphans flee south to escape bulldozers causing destruction and desolation, but are their assumptions about what is going on in the world correct?
Whole School Primary School Productions
Emma Rose and the Enchanted Forest by Jon Gadsby
Emma Rose and her horse Smuggler head into the Enchanted Forest on a quest to heal Smuggler’s sore tummy.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Snow Queen by Jenny Wake.
Written for casts of 100-300 and 64-154 respectively.
Space Circus by Holly Gooch.
Featuring scientists, astronauts, aliens, moon people, stars and planets, this play combines science education with dance, music and circus spectacle.
Image: Checkout Chicks
