Stage Briefs

SYDNEY TO HOST BIG NEW INDIGENOUS FESTIVAL

NSW Governor, Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir joined Minister for Tourism, Major Events and the Arts, George Souris and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Victor Dominello, today (April 15, 2013) to announce that Sydney will host the largest, annual, national Indigenous arts and cultural festival in Australia’s history.

In The Mood Return Tour

IN THE MOOD - The brassy, all-singing-all-dancing-all-American celebration of Swing Jazz returns to Australiain September/October on a coast-to-coast tour, following their 2011 sold out first run of thirty two shows.

This year marks 20 seasons for the String of Pearls Big Band Orchestra and IN THE MOOD singers and dancers from New York, in this retro revue.

Two New Resident Directors at Replace Simon Stone at Belvoir

Belvoir has announced the appointment of two Resident Directors, Adena Jacobs and Anne-Louise Sarks. They replace previous Resident Director Simon Stone, whose unannounced departure from the role in February has only become public this week.

Kristin Chenoweth to Tour Oz

Broadway Diva Kristin Chenoweth, who originated the role of Glinda the Good Witch in Wicked on Broadway is set to cast a spell over Australia in June. She will take to the stage at Arts Centre Melbourne’s Hamer Hall at 8pm Wednesday 12 June to commence tour with other concerts in Adelaide (as part of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival), Sydney and Brisbane traversing pop, opera and the Broadway classics that have made her a star.

Shane Warne The Musical Updated to 2013

Eddie Perfect heads up the cast In this new concert style presentation of Shane Warne The Musical (featuring Lisa McCune as Simone Warne, Shane Jacobson as Terry Jenner, Verity Hunt-Ballard, and Christie Whelan Brown as Liz Hurley) to re-imagine the musical as an epic, hero-worshipping, PR spinning, celebrity-slaying, satirical homage, which will play two performances at Melbourne's Hamer Hall on June 20 and 21.

Adelaide Cabaret Festival performances from June 5 to 9 at Her Majesty's Theatre had previously been announced.

Who will be the new Warner?

With Rob Mills departing the cast of Legally Blonde towards the end of the Melbourne season of the show (as announced by producers Howard Panter and John Frost announced on Sunday March 24), the search has started for a new star to step into the shoes of Warner Huntington III.

Assassins: New Sondheim Production for Melbourne.

Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's killer black comedy (musical) Assassins kicks off amidst the lurid debris of a travelling carnival, taking the audience on a kaleidoscopic ride through the psychological landscape of nine notorious historical figures - men and women who, for one reason or another, made attempts on the lives of American presidents.

Spain Awards Rafael Bonachela the Cross of the Order of Civil Merit

Sydney Dance Company Artistic Director Rafael Bonachela has been awarded one of Spain's highest honors, the Cross of the Order of Civil Merit, in recognition of his achievements in culture and extraordinary services in support of his home country.

Henri Szeps as Freud in Off-Broadway Award Winner

What happened when C.S. Lewis met Sigmund Freud? Australian audiences will find out when Freud’s Last Session opens at Sydney’s Theatre Royal on August 15, 2013. Winner of the 2011 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Play, Freud’s Last Session tells of an exquisite intellectual duel between two great minds of last century.

Inspired by Dr Armand S. Nicholi Jr's 2003 book The Question of God, playwright Mark St. Germain’s thought provoking play ran Off-Broadway for two years.

NSW State Government Support for Artists with Disabilities

A dozen NSW artists with disabilities will benefit from $150,000 in State Government funding to develop skills in their chosen art form, the Minister for the Arts, George Souris, and the Minister for Ageing & Disability Services, Andrew Constance, announced on Thursday February 28, 2013, at the Shopfront Theatre for Young People, in Carlton.