Stage Briefs

Michael Jackson THE IMMORTAL World Tour for Australia

The Estate of Michael Jackson and Cirque du Soleil have announced that Michael Jackson THE IMMORTAL World Tour™ will tour Australia during September and October 2013.

Latest news - Additional Brisbane Performance - Sunday October 6 at 4pm

Tickets on Sale on August 30 at 9am.

Adelaide Dates Added - October 15 - 17.

Additional Sydney and Melbourne performances added.

STC Honours Playwrights

• Hilary Bell named the Patrick White Playwrights’ Fellow

• Anna Barnes wins the 2013 Patrick White Playwrights’ Award

Belvoir Peter Pan Broadway Bound

Following in the footsteps of The Book of Everything, Belvoir’s acclaimed production of Peter Pan will fly out the window, down the street, and all the way to New York’s New Victory Theater.

Everybody knows Peter Pan. He’s the boy who hasn’t grown up in 113 years. When you actually read J.M. Barrie’s original play you realise you are in the presence of something far stranger, far wilder and far more brilliant than Disney would have us believe.

Ralph Myerstakes this classic and turns it on its head. 

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Musical to Open in Sydney.

Broadway musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels opens at Sydney’s Theatre Royal in October 2013 for a strictly limited season, confirming rumours which Stage Whispers had heard late last year.

Based on the 1988 film with music and lyrics by David Yazbek and book by Jeffrey Lane, Dirty Rotten Scoundrelscentres on two con men on the French Riviera. The first is the suave, sophisticated and successful Lawrence Jameson, the other, a small-time crook named Freddy Benson.

A Murder Is Announced

Judi Farr has been confirmed to play Miss Marple in the 2013 Australian Tour of Agatha Christie’s A Murder Is Announced.

Following that preliminary casting, the remaining cast members were announced on Friday June 7.

THE BIBLE: The Complete Word of God (abridged) to Tour

It’s ‘apocalypse now’ as the three cultural guerrillas of the Reduced Shakespeare Company set their reductive sights on the good book with The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged) in 100 madcap minutes. Can bolts of lightning be far behind? This show is an affectionate, irreverent rollercoaster ride from fig leaves to final judgment as the boys tackle the great theological questions: Did Adam and Eve have navels? Did Moses really look like Charlton Heston?

No Tour: The Addams Family to Close in Sydney

The Herald Sun has reported that the cast of The Addams Family has been told the musical will close in June and will not tour.

Apparently the cast received the bad news before the matinee performance on Saturday May 11.

Publicity, including the show’s Facebook page, confirms Final Weeks for the show.

Eddie Perfect Play is MTC Zeitgeist

Melbourne Theatre Company today (May 10, 2013) revealed Eddie Perfect’s The Beast will be staged during its Zeitgeist season in October, a slot set aside to bring the freshest, most contemporary theatre to Melbourne audiences.

‘In creating the 2013 initiative of Zeitgeist we wanted to leave MTC’s season open to the possibility of a new work or opportunity emerging after our launch, which we felt audiences should have an immediate chance to see,’ Brett Sheehy, MTC Artistic Director said.

Ewen Leslie joins Tim Minchin and Toby Schmitz in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Sydney Theatre Company has announces that Ewen Leslie has been cast as ‘The Player’ in the forthcoming production of the absurdist tragicomedy, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, directed by Simon Phillips. Performances are at Sydney Theatre from 6 August to 7 September 2013 (Opening Night: Saturday 10 August 2013 at 7.30pm).

Thoroughly Modern Millie at WAAPA

The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) will present Thoroughly Modern Millie, directed by Crispin Taylor, from Saturday 15 to Saturday 22 June at the Regal Theatre, Subiaco.