Ruthie Henshall is embarking on her first solo tour of Australia, bringing her new show to Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide this month. For those unfamiliar with this West End name, she’s a five time Olivier Award nominee, made her West End debut in Cats, played Velma, Roxy and Matron Mama Morton from Chicago across the West End and Broadway, and has appeared in a myriad of major shows over the years
The Prague Fringe Festival may be over for another year, and I may be back at home on UK soil, but here is what I saw and my picks for the final few days of the festival, which you should keep an eye out for in the future.
It’s been a slightly quieter few days, we’ve had a massive turn over of shows and a whole lot of brand new shows come in, with plenty more to cram in for my final few days!
In my first three days at the 18th Prague Fringe Festival, this is what I’ve seen – what I liked, what maybe wasn’t my cup of tea, and what you can still see before they close!
Bridging the gap between studio and professional musical theatre industry, the new Young Industry Project, devised by Alice Batt and Daniel Cosgrove, offers students a first hand insight into the pace and level that the professional industry works at.
From some of the team behind the Big HOO-HAA comes an improvised who-dunnit inspired by the works of Agatha Christie. Welcome to Murder Village, where the population is decreasing and each colourful British character is more suspicious than the last.
After a sell out season in 2017, the University of Melbourne Music Theatre Association’s The Factory once again returns to the Melbourne Fringe Festival to present two brand new musicals by Australian writers, and presented by all female production teams.
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.
Trying to find the laughter in the darkness and the irony of it all, join David Baddiel for a wild ride of leg slapping humour as he recounts all of the eccentricities, funny stories and uniquenesses of his parents lives through stand up comedy.
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.
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.
In the real life aftermath of Trump’s immigration policies, Melbourne has gained a rising star of cabaret, musical theatre and performance in Melissa David.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
