All tagged Theatre People

She’s a Phoenix, Bitch

Australian audience should be familiar enough with Bryony Kimmings, with her previous shows in Melbourne, Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model and The Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer. But her latest show at Arts Centre Melbourne and QPAC, I’m a Phoenix, Bitch will skyrocket her to household name in the Australian performing arts scene for its immense power, raw emotion and sense of beauty and hope it in stills in audiences.

Confessions of Musical Theatre writers

Writing duo Kurt Kansley and Oliver Lidert brought Confessions to Home Grown at Chapel off Chapel earlier in the year, and are now out to conquer the West End with the show. Ahead of their run at The Other Palace, off West End, I spoke to them about what they’ve been up to since returning to the UK, and how they’ve been putting together Confessions for it’s London debut.

PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES ON OPERA

One of the wilder shows being presented this year’s Melbourne Fringe season is the Offenbach Retold Triptych, a satirical look at modern society through comedy and opera in French, presented by BK Opera. From blind magicians, agoraphobia, incompetent criminals to vacuous bloggers, three worlds will collide when Offenbach’s operas are presented with brand new stories for an evening of enlightening fun.

THE STORY STARTS HERE: MELBOURNE THEATRE COMPANY ANNOUNCE 2019 SEASON

September is announcement season for theatre in Australia, and Melbourne Theatre Company tonight unveil their star studded, glittering season for 2019. A feast of theatrical delights, Artist Director Brett Sheehy AO announced the six works written by Australian writers, including the first commission from the landmark NEXT STAGE Writer’s Program, along with six contemporary classics.

JONATHAN HICKEY JOINS NEW MUSICAL RECORDING CAST

Joining the cast of the new Australian musical recording, Any Moment, is Greenroom Award nominated actor Jonathan Hickey. Hickey, a graduate from the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith Uniersity, is fluent in Italian and played Fabrizio in The Light in the Piazza at Arts Centre Melbourne in 2017.

SEANNA VAN HELTEN: FALLEN IS A PLAY ABOUT THE SILENCING OF WOMEN

Seanna van Helten and Penny Harpham started She Said Theatre because they couldn’t see any clear pathways to make the type of work they wanted to create. Now their new show, Fallen, a powerful new work about fallen women finding a new life on the other side of the world, opens at fortyfivedownstairs this week, following a highly successful premiere season in Sydney. I spoke to van Helten about creating the company and this work, how it has been impacted by the #MeToo movement, and how she sees women in theatre.

REVIEW: THE BOY FROM OZ

There is no more fitting a celebration for a triple 20 year anniversary: for the show The Boy From Oz, for The Production Company and for Rohan Browne’s professional debut. The 2018 season of The Boy From Oz is everything: cheeky, heartfelt, endlessly energetic, and a serious force to be reckoned with – the show is near flawless and tickets should be snatched up immediately.

NEW DIRECTION FOR BOY FROM OZ

Rio comes to Melbourne with The Boy from Oz opening this week! Director Jason Langley is no stranger to The Production Company or to the show; this is his third TPC show (having previously worked on Brigadoon and Dusty). We spoke about his vision for the show, and how his friendship with Nick Enright has influenced him in working on the show.

NOT A SITCOM: DAVID BADDIEL'S TRUTH

One of the most unique, true stories in comedy form is heading to Australia this September, written by British comedian David Baddiel. For the first time, he’s bringing his show My Family: Not A Sitcom, with his trademark brand of truth telling; part TED Talk, part standup comedy show to Australia.

REVIEW: THE NOSE

For a company only five years old, which was literally formed in someone’s actual shed in a back yard, The Bloomshed have established themselves firmly as experts in reanimating older texts, bastardising classic texts to create cutting edge, political contemporary theatre.

MICHAEL TYACK: 20 YEARS OF THE BOY FROM OZ

Thirty years’ experience as a pianist and musical director, two previous Production Company shows, and two previous runs of The Boy From Oz, including the original – Michael Tyack is the perfect person to bring to light the music and story of Peter Allen, for both the show and The Production Company’s 20 year anniversary.

REVIEW: MOTOR-MOUTH LOVES SUCK-FACE

This return season is nearly sold out, and rightly so: this brilliant show by Anthony Crowley returns after first blasting onto stages in October 2016. This show has the makings of a cult classic indie musical, with its wild and wonderful story line, weird characters and sense of fun and light heartedness, Motor-mouth Loves-suck Face is back to charm audiences and dazzle with everything from zombies to a Bollywood diversion: there is seriously not a single element in this show not to love.

IN REHEARSAL: THE BOY FROM OZ

I headed into rehearsals for The Production Company’s Boy From Oz and have a chat with leading man Rohan Browne and the creative team, Jason Langley, Director, Michael Tyack, Musical Director, and Tim Chappel, Costume Designer.

ALAINE BEEK: POINT OF NO RETURN

Essence Productions presents the 2018 Victorian Tour of Point of No Return, written and directed by Alaine Beek which has just begun a state-wide tour. Based on the true story of Australia’s first boys’ prison, the show is set to be a riveting, energetic new Australian drama about a group of youths struggling to survive in Tasmania’s Point Puer Boys’ Prison.

REVIEW: THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW

The Rocky Horror Show is back! Fresh, fabulous, energetic and shaking off the controversy and allegations that riddled the previous tour, it brings the house down with an opening night party full of laughs, sparkles and glamour.

REVIEW: BIG HOO HA TURNS 8

You’re always in for an entertaining, roaring with laughter and unpredictably funny kind of night when you see a Big Hoo Ha show, and their 8th birthday show at Howler in Brunswick absolutely upheld this