Stage Briefs

LIGHT THE NIGHT 2013

Popular musical theatre extravaganza LIGHT THE NIGHT 2013, featuring some of Australia’s most popular musical theatre performers, and raising much-needed funds for the Arrow Bone Marrow Transplant Foundation, will be held at City Recital Hall on Monday October 28th at 7.30pm. Hosting the 2013 concert will be LIGHT THE NIGHT Ambassador and International musical therapist, Jan van de Stool - alter ego of Queenie van der Zandt (pictured).

Additional cast announced

Rob Guest Endowment 2013 Semi-Finalists Announcement

After hundreds of applications, The ANZ Trustees Foundation: Rob Guest Endowment is excited to announce the semi-finalists for the 2013 competition, with the semi-final day to determine the 6 finalists being held Monday, 2 September 2013.

The semi-finals day includes a live audition in Sydney at the Capitol Theatre rehearsal room, where the 31 performers will be required to take part in an open dance call and present two contrasting songs for the judges.

Mandy Patinkin and Nathan Gunn Tour Together

Producers John Frost and Phil Bathols today (September 2, 2013) announced that Broadway’s Mandy Patinkin and Opera’s Nathan Gunn will perform together in Australia in November, combining their musical talents to create a unique and powerful evening of entertainment. AN EVENING WITH MANDY PATINKIN & NATHAN GUNN will play one night only in Melbourne (November 21), Sydney (November 26) and Brisbane (November 28). Tickets go on sale on September 16.

Geoffrey Rush to Star in and Produce Drowsy Chaperone Film

The word has been around since 2011 that Geoffrey Rush would repeat his starring stage performance in The Drowsy Chaperone on film. Now it has been confirmed.

CRAIG McLACHLAN TO DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN!

Latest News: Full Cast Announced

Craig McLachlan returns to the role of Frank N Furter in the new Australian production of Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show, producers Howard Panter and John Frost announced today (August 26, 2013).

TONY AWARD WINNING THE KING AND I RETURNS TO AUSTRALIA

Producer John Frost today (August 23, 2013) announced that his Tony Award-winning production of The King and I, the first Australian production ever to be taken to Broadway, is the next Rodgers and Hammerstein masterpiece to be presented in Australia by the Gordon Frost Organisation and Opera Australia.

Ute Lemper Touring in September

German cabaret legend Ute Lemper is set to serenade Australian audiences in September with a song cycle of love poems by acclaimed poet, Pablo Neruda, along with her greatest hits from Berlin to Broadway.

Lemper has collaborated with Argentinian bandoneonist Marcelo Nisinman to create a song cycle of poems that is presented in Spanish, French and English, and performed alongside a stunning repertoire from Ute Lemper’s career spanning from Berlin to Broadway.

Chloe Dallimore and Damien Bodie Head Up Twisted Broadway in Sydney

The gender-bending music theatre event Twisted Broadway returns to the NIDA’s Parade Theatre, August 19 for its second year, after sold-out seasons in Melbourne in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. Twisted Broadway features top Australian  music theatre performers singing songs originally written for the opposite gender.

Dido and Aeneas: a choreographic opera

Sasha Waltz’s radical re-telling of Henry Purcell’s Baroque opera, Dido & Aeneas has been announced ahead of the rest of the program, as the centerpiece of the Sydney Festival in January 2014.

The oldest love story in English opera, this tragic tale of unrequited love is brought to life by sixty dancers, singers and musicians at the Sydney Lyric from 16 to 21 January 2014.

From Xena to Velma: Lucy Lawless for Auckland Chicago

After playing Mama Morton in the Hollywood Bowl season of Chicago, Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess, Battlestar Galactica, Spartacus: Blood and Sand) is on her way home to New Zealand kick up her heels as the murderous chanteuse, Velma Kelly, in Auckland Theatre Company’s Chicago, opening on 2 November, 2013.

(Sorry, no images of Lucy Lawless as Velma yet, the pic is of Hannah Tasker-Poland).