Stage Briefs

Ewen Leslie to step in for Toby Schmitz as Hamlet

Belvoir issued this statement today (October 25, 2013).

We are always delighted when artists we work with enjoy international success, so we are very pleased that Toby Schmitz will be shooting the second season of Black Sails, a blockbuster TV series directed by Michael Bay. Unfortunately  and unexpectedly shooting begins in South Africa just before the end of the season of Hamlet. Schmitz will give his last performance on Sunday 17 November.

Beckettian Waiting Game for STC Waiting For Godot Cast

Life has mirrored art almost too closely for comfort during the first seven days of rehearsals for Sydney Theatre Company’s Waiting for Godot, with the cast of Richard Roxburgh, Hugo Weaving, Luke Mullins and Philip Quast engaged in an unexpected, yet somehow strangely appropriate, waiting game of their own. They’ve been waiting for a man who will never turn up. They’ve been waiting for director Tamás Ascher.

ATOMIC: World Premiere Musical

Dreamingful Productions present the world premiere of ATOMIC, promising ‘an explosive high-energy musical that throws open the doors on a pivotal moment in history – the creation of the atom bomb’.

Written by Danny Ginges (Australia) and Gregory Bonsignore (USA) with music by Philip Foxman, the show will be directed by Damien Gray (USA) and presented at the NIDA Parade Theatres from 16 – 30 November 2013.

Queensland Mezzo Soprano Wins 2013 Australian Singing Competition

On Saturday 28 September at Sydney’s Conservatorium of Music, 23 year old Mezzo Soprano Jade Moffatt from Toowoomba, QLD was announced as the 2013 Australian Singing Competition winner. Jade was awarded the Marianne Mathy Scholarship presented to her by acclaimed opera singer and 2013 National Adjudicator Emma Matthews. The event was compeered by ABC Classic FM presenter Emma Ayres.

Disney and MEAA sign performers’ enterprise agreement

The Walt Disney Company (Australia) and the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) announced on September 24 that they have signed an enterprise agreement covering performers in Disney stage musicals. The agreement gives Disney increased rostering flexibility and modernised publicity provisions while offering significant benefits for performers including increased wages and a new clause covering the use of overseas artists.

All Out of Love: Air Supply Musical to Premiere in Perth

The world premiere of the new musical All Out of Love will take place in Perth in July 2014, ahead of a Singapore season and other yet to be announced Australian and international dates.

All Out of Love features the classic songs of Air Supply, one of the world’s most successful and enduring bands, with over 80 million album sales worldwide, and an original script, a new love story set in New York, by Canadian playwright Jim Millan, All Out of Love.

ONCE TO PREMIERE IN MELBOURNE

Latest News - Cast Announced

Winner of eight Tony Awards including Best Musical, Once, a musical about friendship, love and music will have its Australian premiere season at  Melbourne’s Princess Theatre from Saturday 4 October 2014 featuring an all-Australian cast, directed by its original Broadway and West End director John Tiffany.

Gillian Cosgriff: This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

Following the success of her debut show, Waitressing...and Other Things I Do Well, Gillian Cosgriff is doing less waitressing, and a lot more of the other things, which may include - the media release tells us - drinking, procrastinating, voicemail messages, love, sex, dreams, humiliation, grammar, hangovers, and Band-Aids.

She’s also been busy writing the songs for her new show called This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, songs that are ‘touching, hilarious and will make you glad these things haven't happened to you’.

Equus Nude Scene Sets Off Fire Alarms.

At the opening performance of Equus last night (Thursday September 12, 2013) at the Forum Theatre in Leichhardt, the audience and the cast were treated to smoke (no mirrors), fire alarms and a sudden evacuation of the theatre.

At the climactic point of the play - in every sense - the two young characters Alan and Jill (played by Michael Brindley and Brinley Meyer) take off all their clothes and start to have sex in a misty country stable at midnight - flanked by six horses and watched by psychiatrist Dr Dysart  (played by Stage Whispers reviewer Martin Portus).

Home Appliances Make Way for New Brisbane Theatre

The former Gordon Walters Retravision store on Wynnum Road in Morningside (Qld) has been transformed into a dedicated live theatre by Queensland based entertainment company Starbuck Productions.

Producer Damien Lee who is behind this new venue in Morningside said, “The Studio Theatre & Café will be a boutique style venue that will showcase a wide diversity of entertainment options.