The Stage Show

If the border closures of the last two years have a silver lining for Australian artists and audiences, it must be the renewed focus on Australian work at our capital-city arts festivals. This year's Brisbane Festival demonstrates what that kind of investment can achieve, with an array of world premieres gracing the city's stages, including Holding Achilles, Tiddas, Slow Boat and Othello.

An operatic adaptation of Hamlet by the celebrated Australian composer Brett Dean this year made its North American debut at the famous Metropolitan Opera in New York. Brett joins us to reflect on his career and the challenge of bringing Shakespeare’s famous Dane to the opera stage. Also, we hear a scene from Dorr-e Dari, a celebration of love expressed in poetry, music and stories drawn from the...

Sydney Theatre Company artistic director Kip Williams' production of The Picture of Dorian Gray starred Eryn-Jean Norvill in all 26 roles and incorporated video screens to spectacular effect. Now, Williams has brought another classic to the stage: Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Also, Elena Kats-Chernin's opera Iphis gets a timely revival by Lyric Opera in Melbourne and we chart the rise of...

In 2002, John Waters' brash and big-hearted musical comedy Hairspray was adapted for the Broadway stage. It won eight Tony Awards, including one for its director Jack O'Brien. Twenty years on, Jack is at the helm of a new revival here in Australia. Also, award-winning playwright Christopher Chen shares his Top Shelf ahead of the Australian premiere of his play Caught and theatre-maker Elnaz Sheshg...

After wowing audiences at the Royal Albert Hall and The Metropolitan Opera in New York, Australian soprano Helena Dix is back on home soil to sing the challenging title role of Lucrezia Borgia. Also, Arts Minister Tony Burke is taking submissions and holding town hall meetings across the country to inform the Government's new National Cultural Policy and economist David Throsby and Nyoongar/Yamatj...

Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill is now a jukebox musical. But how has this achingly personal collection of songs been transformed into a show about an American family coming apart at the seams? We ask the show's Oscar and Tony-winning writer, Diablo Cody. Also, we meet Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss who wrote Six the Musical for the Edinburgh Fringe as students and have since opened the show on...

Catherine McClements has transformed into a vast range of characters during her celebrated career on stage and screen. So, with each role, where does that act of transformation begin? We find out as she prepares for the new laugh-out-loud comedy, Chalkface. Also, Larrakia founder of the NT Dance Company, Gary Lang, shares what's on his Top Shelf and we examine the role of the dramaturg with Chris...

Suzie Miller was a lawyer before she became a playwright. Now, Prima Facie, a play that takes her back to the courtroom, has launched her career on the West End and Broadway. Also, we visit a regional theatre to meet the young locals preparing for a production of Annie Jr.

Darren Yap has been a part of some huge moments in Australian performing arts history, from acting in Miss Saigon to being on the directorial team for the Sydney 2000 closing ceremony. Now he's using his talents to bringing new Asian Australian work to the stage. Also, we meet artists behind a surge of Asian Australian plays on our mainstages right now and Neil Armfield joins us to pay tribute to...

Our oldest modern dance company, the Australian Dance Theatre, has been delighting and challenging audiences for nearly 60 years. Now Wiradjuri dancer and choreographer Daniel Riley is at the helm, becoming the first Indigenous man to lead the company. Also, we meet the winner of this year's Keir Choreographic Award, Tra Mi Dinh, and Wesley Enoch's joyous musical The Sunshine Club returns to the Q...

As the ABC celebrates its 90th birthday, we delve into our archives to revisit key moments in Australian performing arts history. Highlights include Laurence Olivier on tour, Nureyev and Fonteyn dancing into Australian hearts and Indigenous theatre taking centre stage. Also, Ian McKellen makes his Australian debut, Dorothy Hewett revolutionises Australian playwriting, Philip Glass writes a piece f...

A Strange Loop has won Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical at the 75th Tony Awards. This funny and challenging metafictional musical is inspired by the experiences of its writer, Michael R. Jackson, who joins us from New York. Also, we're joined by the chief theatre critics at the New York Times and the Guardian for the latest from the US and UK and we meet director Max Webster, the man behind...

Since starting her career on Young Talent Time, Tina Arena has become one of our most successful musical exports, having sold over 10 million records worldwide. She's now flexing new creative muscles as the artistic director of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Also, we meet the students and two high-profile alumni creating new work at The Australian Ballet School and we learn about a new study that...

After being cancelled in 2020 and 2021, Melbourne's RISING festival is finally here. It's the first major arts festival the city has hosted since 2019. We venture into the frosty night air to discover how this festival tries to subvert expectations and capture new audiences. We meet the artistic directors, watch passers-by become part of the action in The Invisible Opera, meet ordinary people rehe...

Tony and Olivier Award-winning musical theatre star — and two-time Disney Princess — Lea Salonga rose to international fame for originating the role of Kim in the stage musical Miss Saigon. She retraces her journey into the spotlight and struggles along the way. Also, voice and dialect coach Leith McPherson explains how she helps actors to find their character's voice and the prolific, 'critic-pro...

Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera and Cats were all produced by the same man: Cameron Mackintosh. In Australia for the opening of a new production of Mary Poppins, Cameron shares his journey from humble beginnings to producer extraordinaire. Also, Anna O'Byrne shares songs and stories inspired by her work with Julie Andrews and we interrogate the Cinderella story with performers from a new prod...

When Yorta Yorta/Gunaikurnai theatre-maker Andrea James quit her job as a legal secretary to pursue a career in the arts, it was because she saw the theatre as 'a place where truth gets told.' She is now one of our most celebrated playwrights and directors. Also, we hear a scene from A Letter for Molly, the debut play from Brittanie Shipway at the Ensemble and Dr Ana Flavia Zuim, co-author of a st...

Geraldine Turner has been a mainstay of the stage since the 1970s, featuring in the Australian premieres of Chicago, A Little Night Music, Into the Woods and more. Now she's written a memoir, Turner's Turn, about her performing life and a very painful personal life. Also, the cast of Bob Dylan musical Girl from the North Country perform for us and we ask Australian Musical Theatre Festival artisti...

Richard Wagner's epic fantasy opera Lohengrin is a fairy-tale romance, but a disconcerting German nationalism lurks beneath its surface. French director Olivier Py confronts the opera's complexities head on in his upcoming production for Opera Australia. Also, we trace the influence of theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski and his impact on modern acting and theatrical storytelling with Isa...

Red Stitch Actors' Theatre has just 80 seats, but the company is acclaimed for their bold programming of the buzziest new work from abroad and for developing new Australian plays. Now in its 21st year, we meet their artistic director Ella Caldwell. Also, Kaitlin Tinker summons the strength of Alien heroine Ellen Ripley in her play about pregnancy and childbirth, Earthside, at the Blue Room, and we...

At this year's Australian Playwrights' Festival, writers gathered to interrogate some of the most challenging questions facing theatre-makers today. We hear two panels from the festival about the craft and responsibilities of writers telling other people's stories. Panellists: Tommy Murphy, Angela Betzien, S. Shakthidharan, Alana Valentine, Stephen Sewell, Vanessa Bates, Dylan Van Den Berg and And...

Dan Giovannoni is a prolific writer of plays for young people and adults. His work as a playwright and as a teaching artist demonstrate his belief in how creativity can change the world. Dan has new plays at Barking Gecko and the Melbourne Theatre Company. Also, Maree Johnson, Broadway cast member of Phantom of the Opera now performing on Sydney Harbour, shares her Top Shelf and we explore the 're...

Tchaikovsky's opera about a blind princess, Iolanta, raises challenging questions about the nature of disability — questions the West Australian Opera confronts head on in a new production reimagined with members of the blind and vision-impaired community. Also, we hear two Sri Lankan Australian brothers debate 'wokeness' in a scene from the new comedy Stay Woke and we pay tribute to the theatre d...

Colin Lane and Frank Woodley are having a whale of a time in their new show, Moby Dick. The pair join us to reflect on forming their famous duo, forging separate paths and then discovering that neither of them had quite as much fun without the other. Also, we meet comedians readjusting to life on the road in 2022, check in with theatre companies impacted by the recent floods and congratulate Bruce...

George Gershwin's An American in Paris has been associated with dance ever since it inspired the 1951 Gene Kelly film, so who better to bring it to the musical theatre stage than the renowned ballet dancer, choreographer and now director Christopher Wheeldon. Also, with several Australian companies currently presenting works by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, we learn about the lives of these two m...