It has now been announced that Jersey Boys – The Story of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons will return to Melbourne, playing at Melbourne's Princess Theatre from January 10, for a strictly limited 14 week season.
This follows the Brisbane and Adelaide seasons. Jersey Boys opened at the Lyric Theatre, QPAC on July 13, 2012. The show will also play at the Festival Theatre, Adelaide, from October 26, 2012.
56 years after its premiere in Melbourne, The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll by Ray Lawler is a hit all over again under the direction of Neil Armfield, selling out last year in Sydney at Belvoir and now opening in Melbourne, Wollongong and Brisbane. ‘The Doll’ is lauded as a game changer for Australian theatre, not only because it portrayed Australian life, but because it was the first Australian play to tour internationally. Lucy Graham caught up with the ninety-year-old playwright Ray Lawler at his bayside home in Melbourne.
New Australian musical Every Single Saturday has grown from an initial 10 minute incarnation to a full-length song and dance story of soccer mums and dads which is set to tour to Glen Street Theatre, Sydney’s Theatre Royal, Laycock Street Theatre, Gosford and Parramatta Riverside Theatre during February and March 2012. Writer / composer Joanna Weinberg speaks to Neil Litchfield.
Where did the idea for Every Single Saturday spring from?
Benedict Andrews' new production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro for Opera Australia, features a set created by Ralph Myers, costumes by Alice Babidge and lighting by Nick Schlieper.
Since David Berthold became Artistic Director of Brisbane’s La Boite Theatre in 2009 he’s discovered the elixir of youth. Jay McKee sought him out to find the recipe.
Jay McKee:Shortly after assuming your mantle as the next Artistic Director of La Boite you held a meeting to outline your vision for 2010. What was the main thrust?
The mantlepiece of Cate Blanchett must be heaving under the weight of all those Helpmann Awards, Sydney Theatre Awards, AFI’s and, yes, that Oscar. But the silverware for her latest gong went missing this week.
A theatre appreciation society in Sydney called The Glugs – awarded ‘our Cate’ best female actor for her role in Gross and Klein.
Cirque du Soleilreturns to Australia with its critically-acclaimed and family- friendly big top production OVO, described as ‘A teeming world of insects’, with a 2012-2013 national tour that will include Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth.
The co-writer of Yes, Prime Minister Jonathan Lynn has hit back at critics who have given the Australian premiere of his stage version the thumbs down.
The theatre critic for the Melbourne Age Cameron Woodhead gave it one star.
“Unfortunately, everything goes wrong. The production doesn't seem to get that Yes, Prime Minister works as comedy because it works first as drama, that it endures because characters like these in situations like the ones they encounter are very, very real.
The first production for 2012 from Sydney-based Neglected Musicals will be On The Twentieth Century, with book and Lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and music by Cy Coleman, based on plays by Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur and Bruce Millholland. (By arrangement with Origin Theatrical on behalf of Samuel French Inc.)
