News

The winner of the 2016 Rob Guest Endowment Award was announced last night at a thrilling Grand Final Concert at the Sydney Lyric Theatre. Competing against five other outstanding Semi-Finalists with his performances of Part of the Painting and Moving Too Fast Linden Furnell took out the prestigious award after being chosen by an expert panel of judges, which included Kelley Abbey, Guy Simpson, Andrew Pole and Michael James Scott.

Four theatre works will make their world premiere at Sydney Festival and five international productions will be presented as Australian exclusives in the theatre offering of Festival Director Wesley Enoch’s first program. The festival will shine a light on Australian theatre, showcasing work from the country’s leading Indigenous companies as well as international theatre from the likes of Complicite/Simon McBurney (UK), Pushkin Theatre Company (Russia) and Native Earth Performing Arts (Canada). Across the 2017 theatre program, five productions feature a one-person cast.

Hot on the heels of its Australian premiere in Melbourne last month, multi-award winning, new musical Kinky Boots, will strut into the Capitol Theatre, Sydney from April 2017.

Tickets go on sale to the general public on December 5 through Ticketmaster or kinkybootsthemusical.com.au.

Winner of every major international Best Musical award, Kinky Boots features Tony and Grammy- winning songs by pop icon Cyndi Lauper, a book by Broadway royalty Harvey Fierstein and direction and choreography by two-time Tony Award-winner Jerry Mitchell.

Bobby Darin’s musical repertoire, together with the dramas of his short life, provide rich source material for new musical Dream Lover – The Bobby Darin Musical, having its World Premiere at Sydney Lyric Theatre. Neil Litchfield speaks to members of the cast and creative team.