Stage Briefs

The national opera review discussion paper has painted a picture of a traditional mainstage art form in steep decline. Here are some of its main findings:

Since 2009, attendances at Australia’s Major Opera Companies have increased by 55 percent or 9.2 percent per annum, defying global trends. However, that achievement has come primarily through the strong diversification of Opera Australia’s activities into musicals and events such as Handa’s Opera on Sydney Harbour.

Eleven of Australia’s top musical theatre Leading Ladies - Rhonda Burchmore, Nancye Hayes, Silvie Paladino, Christie Whelan Browne, Virginia Gay, Claire Lyon, Kirby Burgess, Chelsea Gibb, Debora Krizak, Josie Lane and Natalie O’Donnell
 - come together for a great musical theatre event in November, along with with Brent Hill.

With numerous theatre companies across Australia announcing their 2016 seasons over the last few weeks, we thought it was time to collect together links to our coverage of the various seasons.

Click on the links below for more detail of individual seasons.

National

Bell Shakespeare

Opera Australia

Twelve performers on the satirical musical Avenue Q have finally been paid after their union took legal action to recover $114,000 that was owed to them.

The performers turned to the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA), the union for Australia’s entertainment professionals, after the money was frozen during a legal dispute between the show’s producer and his ex-employer.