Forego the life of sin, get back in the habit and prepare to raise your voice! A divine musical sent from above, Sister Act has debuted on Australian shores in all its award-winning holiness. On the grungy streets of Philadelphia, Deloris (Casey Donovan), an aspiring singer, becomes witness to a murder and is forced into…
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SIX has arrived for a Sydney season at the Theatre Royal. Inspired by the six wives of Henry VIII, this fresh new musical, which debuted in London in 2017, is a vibrant, energising show that captivates and charms. Written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, “SIX is more than just brilliant music, it’s also a…
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The University of Adelaide Theatre Guild are presenting the Patrick Barlow adaption of the novel The 39 Steps by John Buchan and the subsequent movie by Alfred Hitchcock. Patrick Barlow is an English actor, comedian and playwright, whose adaption was first presented on London’s West end in 2005. Despite the Hitchcock movie being presented in 1935,…
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Written by Dipika Guha, Yoga Play at Riverside Theatres Parramatta invites you into the workplace of yoga apparel store Jojomon and into the lives of it’s staff. There’s Fred (Jemwel Danao) a queer man from the Philippines who is desperate to obtain a green card and stay in America, CFO Raj (Nat Jobe) a man…
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This production of Yentl is an incredibly engaging theatrical imagining of the short story of which it is based. The original Yiddish short story Yentl, The Yeshiva Boy by Isaac Bashevis Singer, published in 1962 has proven to still have a relevance today, over 60 years since the story was conceived. Simply put, Yentl is…
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Almost fifty years ago, the movie Grease was adapted from the original stage play and became a critical and commercial success. With Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta playing the parts of romantics Sandy and Danny, the 1978 movie has been embedded in Western culture. Meanwhile, the stage production has provided entertainment in various theatres around…
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David Williamson is Australia’s best known and most widely performed playwright and one of our leading screenwriters. One of his early plays, The Department was commissioned to open the Dunstan Playhouse in 1974. He has had over fifty five plays produced, including Don’s Party and The Club and written screenplays for several movies such as…
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When director Baz Halpin and executive producer Bernie Yuman approached two-time Academy Award-winning actor Sir Anthony Hopkins, I doubt they expected him to say yes to their proposal. Yuman, a Vegas veteran, was manager to Siegfried and Roy from a very young age and stuck by the legendary performers’ until their last day. He even…
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Writer /actor Chris Pitman has created a powerful story with his one-person show, Shore Break. It is a fictional story about a solitary figure, unable to connect, abandoned at the edge of the world. It’s a combined snapshot of the older men living in remote campgrounds and their isolated existences. Director Chelsea Griffith has helped…
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If you had the ability to travel back in time and correct your past mistakes, would you? Forming part of the September season of UnWrapped at the Sydney Opera House, AUTO-TUNE examines how life-altering our choices can be. Set in Wagga Wagga in the early 2000s, the performance follows Michael (Mark Rogers), a young Silverchair…
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Seen as a hero and a trickster, Māui was a demi-god whose adventures have been told and retold for hundreds of years. Steeped in the culture of the Pacific, his acts of bravery and remarkable life form the inspiration behind MĀUI at the Sydney Opera House. Brought to life by the New Zealand dance collective…
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Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, originally published in 1818, has been adapted into movies, TV shows, songs, firmly cementing itself as a staple in popular culture for over two centuries. While the films and original novel are daresay the most iconic, the themes of what it is to be human, still rings true today with identity politics…
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Part of the September season of UnWrapped at the Sydney Opera House, Class Act is an exploration of class and social standing through the deconstruction of the classic 1964 film My Fair Lady, combined with personal anecdotes. Created by Melbourne-based, experimental art organisation, APHIDS, and staring Mish Grigor in the lead role, the performance opens…
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Joanna Murray-Smith has crafted a sympathetic and thorough expose of the life of Australia’s first female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. Justine Clarke plays the part of Julia and takes us from the time of her birth in Wales up to the famous misogyny speech delivered in parliament. Director Sarah Goodes has taken her story and placed…
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The University of Adelaide Theatre Guild have tackled quite a challenge in presenting one of Shakespeare’s last plays, King Lear. Imagining the play set in the future, it challenges the notions of modern civilisation. In fact, Shakespeare’s commentary on power, lust and betrayal is as relevant today as when the play was scribed in the…
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Pride and Prejudice, arguably Jane Austen’s most famous novel, has been the subject of countless adaptations. There is the 2005 film with Keira Knightley, the modern-day retelling in Bridget Jones’ Diary, the cultural reinterpretation with Bride and Prejudice, and who could forget the incredible masterpiece that was Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. However, there is…
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Choreographed by Aakash Odedra and Lewis Major, Little Murmur at the Sydney Opera House is a sensory feast of projections, dance and sound. Aimed at younger audiences, the performance reflects on Odedra’s life growing up with dyslexia. Having been diagnosed at a young age, he struggled in school and misspelled his own name until he…
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Melbourne’s East End Theatre District glowed purple on Wednesday, August 7th, to celebrate the premiere of the smash-hit musical SIX. Since its debut in 2017, SIX has taken the musical theatre world by storm, and this run marks the show’s highly-anticipated second time in Australia (or the third run if you consider the COVID interruption!)….
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The true story behind Chicago is so fascinating that it still resonates a hundred years after the action. In 1924, Chicago was overrun by gangsters, with prohibition-era criminality infused with a smoky jazz background. On “murderess row” in Cook County, over a dozen women were waiting sentencing. One woman, Kitty Malm, dubbed by the newspapers…
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As the sun rises on what is set to be another blistering summers day in Washington Heights, bodega owner Usnavi (Ryan Gonzalez -they/them) is getting ready to start work. Chasing away petty vandal Graffiti Pete (Jervis Livelo – he/him), he begins to talk about his life, his world and this little corner of Manhattan he…
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Prepare for the most spine-chilling ghost encounter of the year. Susan Hill’s acclaimed gothic horror tale hasn’t gone dull with age, surviving through Stephen Mallatratt’s remarkable adaptation, which has lived on London’s West End for over 30 years. Bringing its ghostly horrors to Melbourne, The Woman in Black is a thrilling exploration of terror that…
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Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, an ill-fated tale of star-crossed lovers, has been re-imagined time and time again. I honestly thought there was no ground left to cover when it came to adaptations of the beloved classic. I have never been more delighted to be wrong. Set to Prokofiev’s iconic score, Romeo and Juliet Suite at…
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Melbourne’s oldest and grandest venue, the Princess Theatre was transformed into Hollywood Glamour on Wednesday night as the city welcomed the return of the Australian production of Sunset Boulevard presented by Opera Australia & GWB Entertainment by arrangement with The Really Useful Group. With a dazzling red carpet, free-flowing champagne on a glamorous bar that…
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The 1949 play, Death of a Salesman, was written by lauded American playwright, Arthur Miller. Miller wrote plays including All My Sons (1947) and The Crucible (1953), and dabbled in screenwriting and radio plays, winning a Pulitzer Prize for Drama for this very play. Death of a Salesman first premiered in 1949 and ran for…
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Spaghetti and ketchup. Pineapple and pizza. Felix and Oscar. They say opposites attract, but sometimes they’re better left alone. The Odd Couple follows two divorced friends who decide to live together… only there’s one problem… Oscar thrives in a messy, laid-back environment, while Felix prefers his quarters spick, span and neatly polished. Can this mismatched…
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Playwright and actor Hew Parham has created a unique one-man show with Symphonie of the Bicycle. Stepping on stage in the intimate Space Theatre, adorned in a white tracksuit with a green stripe, Parham immediately demonstrates his skill at using his body gestures and voice. Acclaimed director Chris Drummond has kept the focus on Parham’s…
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Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is an ambitious two-part play by American Playwright Tony Kushner. Written in 1991, the story explores personal motivations, hopes and desires of characters in New York during the 1980’s AIDS crisis. It has had previous success as a six-part television mini-series and a West End production….
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Heralded as one of his most beloved plays, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is no stranger to adaptation. The delightful tale of love, fairy’s and mischief, despite its troublesome undertones around consent, continues to mesmerise audiences. Performed at Sydney’s Centennial Park, the Australian Shakespeare Company have created a beautiful and incredibly humorous depiction of the…
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Sydney Theatre Company’s latest production, No Pay? No Way! may have celebrated its golden anniversary but it feels as relevant as ever. This farce about cost-of-living pressures and a healthy distrust of corporate greed could be about modern Australia- except that it took its inspiration from real-life events that occurred in Milan in the 1970s….
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With a little over a year since the first Sydney run of the 50th Anniversary Production, Rocky Horror Show is back at the Theatre Royal in Sydney. Featuring mostly the same cast and staging (check out last year’s recap here), this production has kept the momentum going after five decades of this outrageously naughty sci-fi…
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