Stage Briefs

Adelaide Festival's Record Breaking $78.3 Million For South Australia

The 2016 Adelaide Festival generated an estimated gross expenditure of $78.3 million for the state – an increase of 22 per cent in just two years, the highest result in the festival’s history.

19,800 visitors - almost 30 per cent of total attendees - came from interstate or overseas with visitor bed nights increasing to 133,321. Visitor related expenditure was up 24 per cent to a record $28.2 million – a 94 per cent increase on 2014’s figures.

Lea Salonga Returns to Australia in 2017

Additional Sydney Concert, Saturday 4th February 8pm

Tony® and Olivier Award winning star Lea Salonga will return to Australia next February marking her Sydney Opera House debut with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. She will also perform concerts at Arts Centre Melbourne with Orchestra Victoria.

A Conversation with Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton

A Conversation with Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton

On Sunday 28 August at the Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House, Opera Australia and Gordon Frost Organisation will present A Conversation with Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton.

At this special event, which is exclusive to Sydney, Julie Andrews and her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton will share personal stories and insights into their careers. 

This special event will take place on the re-created stage set of My Fair Lady. 

Around The World In 80 Days

Ellis Productions & Aleksandar Vass are proud to present the Australian premiere of the epic adventure, Around The World In 80 Days, adapted by Toby Hulse, based on the novel by Jules Verne and directed by Terence O’Connell.

Around The World In 80 Days will commence on Tuesday 23rd August and continue through Sunday 4th September 2016 at the Alex Theatre, St Kilda.

The cast of Around The World In 80 Days features Ian Stenlake, Pia Miranda & Grant Piro.

Shakespeare’s Game of Thrones for Adelaide

Titus Andronicus is Shakespeare’s Game of Thrones and in the 400th anniversary year of his death, and Adelaide theatre company Red Phoenix is staging the South Australian premiere of this wonderful text. Without doubt, it is his bloodiest play. The play is a gripping thriller and was so popular in his own lifetime that it became a smash hit. 

2016 Rob Guest Endowment Awards Announced

Organisers of The Rob Guest Endowment have launched the 2016 Rob Guest Endowment Awards. The Rob Guest Endowment is one of Australia’s most exciting scholarship programs providing financial assistance and industry support to the next generation of musical theatre stars, creators and musicians. Applications for all awards are now open and the winners will be announced at the Rob Guest Endowment Concert to be held in Sydney in November 2016.

Matilda for Adelaide

Following the announcement of the 2016 Helpmann Award Nominations and news that the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Australian Production of Matilda The Musical has received a record thirteen nominations, it was announced last night that the production will play a season in Adelaide from May 20 2017, following seasons in Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne, where Matilda is currently playing to packed houses.

Cast Announced for Curtains

The cast for The Production Company’s new staging of the Broadway whodunnit, Curtains has been announced. Ken Mackenzie-Forbes, Artistic Director said ‘Colin Lane, John Wood and Nicki Wendt are joining Simon Gleeson, Alex Rathgeber, Lucy Maunder, Melissa Langton and Alinta Chidzey in this Kander & Ebb murder mystery musical comedy. For this hilarious detective thriller we have cast artists with the personality and skill to create Rupert Holmes’ colourful backstage characters.

Spelling Bee for Hayes Theatre Co

After a highly successful Melbourne season, Vic Theatre Company in association with Hayes Theatre Co is thrilled to be bringing their production of the Tony Award-winning musical comedy THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE to Sydney’s Hayes Theatre Co for a strictly limited season from November 17.

SIDE SHOW for Hayes Theatre

One Eyed Man Productions in association with Hayes Theatre Co is thrilled to announce the Australian professional premiere of the Tony Award-nominated Broadway musical SIDE SHOW, due to play a strictly limited four-week season at Hayes Theatre Co from September 23. This stunning tale of sisterhood from the composer of Dreamgirls is based on the remarkable real-life story of conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton and their transition from ‘circus freaks’ to megastars.