You might think great tunes make great musicals. Not according to some. David Spicer speaks to two men who believe great stories are the bedrock of the art form, Tony Award winning Director/Choreographer Jerry Mitchell for Legally Blonde The Musical and Oscar Hammerstein III, namesake grandson of one half of the great creative team Rodgers and Hammerstein..
We’re used to the words Superstar and Genius being bandied about in this day and age. Usually they describe over-rated pop singers or bankable film actors – even footballers get the tags - or once in a while deservedly for someone like another SS – Steven Spielberg, or even a race horse like Black Caviar. But a guy who writes stage shows…..musical ones at that? He doesn’t even act in them….the acting parts are usually taken by…er…..superstars!
Prior to Opening Night of the Australian Premiere of the stage musical version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre Neil Litchfield had the opportunity to chat with ensemble members Francine Cain and Nathan Pinnell, along with Tony Farrell, who plays the role of Lord Scrumptious.
Neil Litchfield: Tell me about how each of you came to be involved in the show. Had you seen the movie beforehand?
Casting has been announced by David Atkins Enterprises for the 2013 national Anniversary tour of tap dance musical comedy Hot Shoe Shuffle, one of the most successful Australian Musicals of all time.
Better known as an opera star, lyric tenor David Hobson is making the crossover to music theatre with the Australian production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre.
“It’s a big departure,” Hobson told Stage Whispers, “but musicals have been looming large in the background for the last few years now. This is the one that came along at the right time, and the right situation.”
More than 500 artists from Australia and around the world join hundreds more from WA for the 2013 Perth International Arts Festival, from February 8 to March 2, 2013
Celebrated artists and companies creating work for the Festival include The Berliner Ensemble (directed by Robert Wilson), Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet, Margaret Atwood, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Maceo Parker, Jim Campbell, Frédéric Flamand and Ai Weiwei.
Exclusive Video and interview with director Sasha Regan.
Memories of a school Gilbert and Sullivan production inspired director Sasha Regan’s hit all-male production of The Pirates of Penzance, currently touring Australia. It originated at London’s intimate Union Theatre, formerly a derelict paper warehouse. Sasha spoke to Neil Litchfield.
Actor and writer Jonathan Biggins shares his secrets of writing and performing comedy, drawing upon his latest play Australia Day and twelve seasons of the Wharf Revue. This article was compiled from a question and answer seminar at the 2012 Association of Community Theatre conference at NIDA.
As “The Laramie Project” – the most critically acclaimed production of 2012 in Melbourne – goes into its final week, the cast took some time out to chat with Coral Drouyn about the process of ensemble acting.
