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Celebrating Shakespeare's 450th Birthday.

Celebrations are planned around the world to mark 450 years since the birth of William Shakespeare in 1564, and Australian theatres are joining the party. But how distinctive has our style of Shakespeare become? FRANK HATHERLEY recounts his own experiences dodging flying cabbages on stage and compares notes with Australia’s most lauded Shakespearean JOHN BELL

Many of us had our first taste of live performance when we were children. For most, the experience was thrilling and delightful. It fired our imaginations and in some cases, inspired us to become performers ourselves. Almost without exception that uniquely personal first-time live event found a special place in our childhood memories.

On the eve of her return to Australia, Helen Reddy talks to our Coral Drouyn.

It isn’t easy being born into a “Showbiz” family. There’s always the assumption that you will follow suit, even while your parents say things like “be a doctor”… “study hard”… “don’t go in the business”. They say it….but they can’t remove it from your genes.

Chelsea Plumley joins an formidable alumni of divas including Barbara Dickson, Stephanie Lawrence, Helen Reddy, Carole King, Chrissy Amphlett and Petula Clark when she undertakes the tour de force central role of Mrs Johnstone in Willy Russell’s musical Blood Brothers at Melbourne’s Chapel Off Chapel from March 19.

Set in impoverished 1960s Liverpool (UK), Blood Brothers tells the tragic tale of Mrs Johnstone and her twins (Gareth Keegan and Matthew Bradford) separated at birth, then disastrously reunited.