The Stage Show

To mark the return of theatre to New York City, Michael revisits his private tour of Broadway with Audra McDonald, then delivering her Tony Award-winning performance in Porgy and Bess, and Tony Sheldon, who was starring in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Also, we check in with the New York Times' chief theatre critic Jesse Green and preview next week's long-delayed Tony Awards, and we meet the man...

Physical theatre-maker Hanna Cormick performs her show The Mermaid wearing a bright pink and blue tail and a full respirator mask. The image reflects the show's underlying warning about climate change — but without the mask, Hanna might very well die. Also, we explore some of the unique considerations necessary to translate the work of Shakespeare into sign language and Sarah Houbolt outlines Arts...

What can a 60-year-old play about drunk and sometimes spiteful American academics tell us about culture and race relations in Australia? Margaret Harvey introduces her bold vision for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf at the State Theatre Company South Australia. Also, ABC Top 5 resident artist Rose Montgomery introduces us to the enduring, physical creative device that is still the stage designer's...

Justin Levine is the man behind the music of Moulin Rouge! The Musical. The Broadway production, nominated for 14 Tony Awards, is soon to open in Melbourne. Justin joins us at the keyboard to demonstrate how he updated some of the film's most iconic moments. Also, Trent Dalton's acclaimed novel Boy Swallows Universe comes to the Queensland Theatre stage and we check in on the challenges faced by a...

Live on stage at last year's Adelaide Festival, we're joined by the Olivier Award-winning English star of the stage and screen, Juliet Stevenson. Juliet was performing in the play The Doctor, following its sell-out season at London's Almeida Theatre. Also, with much of the country back in lockdown, we turn to musical comedian Jude Perl to lift our spirits at the piano and we enjoy a masterclass wi...

Incoming Melbourne Theatre Company artistic director Anne-Louise Sarks has a reputation for bringing the best out of people. She speaks about her process with her friend and collaborator, Zoë Coombs Marr — who delights in bringing Anne-Louise down a peg or two. Also, not content to highlight the work of just one Legend of Australian Theatre, Zoë attempts to double the series' output with a quickfi...

When Hugo Weaving and Paula Arundell share the stage, magic happens — not just in performance, but behind the scenes, too. The pair have forged a strong friendship around their insatiable curiosity and shared sense of fun. Also, Virginia Gay explains why her Cyrano at the Melbourne Theatre Company, based on the French classic, needed a happy ending, and Paula speaks with theatre-maker James Brenna...

Straight out of drama school, Paula Arundell became a mainstay for directors like John Bell, Jim Sharman and Benedict Andrews. Now she treads the boards as one of the most famous characters in literature: Hermione Granger in Harry Potter. She joins Kate Champion. Also, director Rachael Maza and the cast of Ilbijerri Theatre Company's production of Heart Is a Wasteland perform a song in the studio...

The best theatre is always the result of a great collaboration and Neil Armfield found the ideal collaborator in Kate Champion — choreographer, director and founder of the dance theatre company Force Majeure. The pair's work includes Cloudstreet and The Ring Cycle. Also, we consider what complete silence might finally allow us to hear in Will O'Mahony's play Minneapolis and we question how far rei...

Neil Armfield cut his teeth at Sydney's Nimrod Theatre Company before co-founding Belvoir, but his earliest forays into theatre-making were a way to escape some challenges at home. He shares his story with Mark Howett as one of our Legends of Australian Theatre. Also, we visit a war-torn city and a family confronting the cost of survival in Samah Sabawi's play Them and we meet two comedians who ha...

We meet an artist whose canvas has been some of the world's biggest stages, but his palette is ever-inspired by Noongar Boodjar. For our next conversation between Australian stage icons, Kylie Bracknell sits down with designer and director Mark Howett. Also, as part of our High School Playlist series, we travel from London in 1959 to Alice Springs in 2039 and encounter a fish falling from the sky...

Taking on Macbeth is a mammoth task for any director but try translating and performing it entirely in Noongar. In our next conversation between legends of Australian theatre, Wesley Enoch meets Noongar actor, director and translator Kylie Bracknell (Kaarljilba Kaardn). Also, we hear a scene from the world premiere of York at Black Swan State Theatre Company and visit performer Paul Capsis and dir...

In the first of our conversations between legends of Australian theatre, the former artistic director of The Australian Ballet, David McAllister, steals the spotlight to interview his partner, Noonuccal Nuugi playwright and director Wesley Enoch. Also, David pays tribute to Australian ballet icon Lucette Aldous who recently died at the age of 82, and we travel to the tiny town of Gander in Canada...

Tom Stoppard and William Shakespeare loom large in the canon of English drama. Two new books explore their lives, their work, their driving forces and their impact on theatre.

Composer and performer Eddie Perfect's Broadway adventures included some of the highest highs and lowest lows of his career. Now with two Broadway credits and a Tony nomination on his CV, he's touring a new show of stories and songs: Introspective. Also, Robyn Nevin has been a leading talent in Australian theatre for decades, but her latest role may be one of her toughest yet — in A German Life, s...

American playwright Jen Silverman is a true believer in the power of theatre. She compares her first encounters with the theatre to walking into church. Her plays have enjoyed great success in Australia and now she has written her first novel, We Play Ourselves. Also, Opera Queensland are on the road and looking to make opera fans of country music lovers with their show Are You Lonesome Tonight an...

Since his Tony Award-winning performance as The Emcee in the musical Cabaret, Scottish performer Alan Cumming has been increasingly enamoured of the form, opening his own cabaret bar in New York and now taking charge of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Also, we learn about the unifying power of roller derby in the play Ugly Virgins at the Blue Room Theatre in Perth and meet the gig economy workers i...

The Wadawurrung story of Parrwang, a magpie that lifted the sky to bring light to the land, is now an opera. Parrwang Lifts the Sky is by the Yorta Yorta composer and singer Deborah Cheetham and presented by Victorian Opera. Also, we visit a rehearsal of The Dispute, a work performed and co-created by children with experience of family separation, hear performance from the new Australian productio...

When dancer Amy Hollingsworth was just 18, she suffered a potentially career-ending injury. Yet, she didn't just recover — she flourished. She's now the artistic director of the Australasian Dance Collective, which is about to make its return to the stage. Also, we hear a scene from Andrea James and Catherine Ryan's Australian gothic play Dogged now at Sydney's Griffin Theatre and we consider the...

David Ireland writes very funny plays that often descend into bloody chaos and despair. Most, including his controversial play Ulster American, reflect the legacy of sectarian violence in his homeland of Northern Ireland and the fractured cultural politics of today. Also, with Opera Australia back on the road, we hear Natalie Aroyan perform an aria from Verdi's Ernani ahead of its Melbourne season...

Choreographer William Forsythe didn't take a ballet class until he was 17 years old, but he quickly built a reputation for breathing new vitality into the historic art form. His Artifact Suite features in The Australian Ballet's Counterpointe, on now at the Sydney Opera House. Also, two actors bring a whole town to life in Emily Steel's complex and heartfelt ode to regional South Australia, Euphor...

British playwright Mark Ravenhill made a huge splash in the mid-90s with his first play, Shopping and F***ing. He's since become one of the most produced writers in the UK. His recent play The Cane is on now at Melbourne's Red Stitch. Also, what does it take for an Australian to make it on Broadway? We ask Carmel Dean, a composer and musical director who spent 20 years working on huge shows. And w...