Tina: The Tina Turner Musical takes audiences on an emotional rollercoaster, showcasing the extreme ups and even more extreme downs of her legendary career. She was in the music industry for many decades, from her glory Ike and Tina Turner days in the 1960s and ‘70s (at least performance-wise) to her being a ‘has been’…
Two actors, some props, lighting… sounds rudimentary – but the result in The Woman in Black is astounding. This storied play remains the second-longest running production in London’s West End, racking up over 13,000 performances between 1989 and 2023. (The longest-running is The Mousetrap.) Now this localised version of the London production is touring the…
Queensland Ballet’s 2024 season has kicked off with Shakespeare’s whimsical masterpiece A Midsummer Night’s Dream, an enchanting tale of love, magic, mischief and mayhem. A co-production with the Royal New Zealand Ballet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream was first performed in 2015 in Wellington and has since toured China and Australia. The late Liam Scarlett’s choreography…
The Disney stage musical Beauty and the Beast The Musical (music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, and book by Linda Woolverton) is a classic; the original Broadway production, adapted from Walt Disney Pictures’ Academy Award-winning 1991 animated feature musical film of the same name, ran for over 13 years on…
Like many musicals, every production of, Rent is somehow a bit different, especially as more time passes since the iconic rock musical’s debut on Broadway now over 25 years ago. Rent went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (awarded posthumously to its creator, Jonathan Larson who tragically died at the age of 35,…
It’s a case of feathers meeting fluro when performers in Polytoxic’s new work, Dangerous Goods, initially ensemble in movement of feathered fans to ‘light our fire’. Continuing with theme of the collective’s 2021 Brisfest show, Demolition, the fluro comes from the hi-vis tradie uniform costumes… and also the more revealing hints from beneath them. It’s…
Bananaland opens in the wake of Covid’s decimation of the performing arts sector. Only the determined can survive, and lead singer of Kitty Litter, 21-year-old Ruby Semblance (Maz McKenna) is certainly determined… uncompromising in her pursuit to have society wake up and also realise her unconventional onstage artistry. It’s all quite tongue-in-cheek as along with…
The Cremorne Theatre stage is packed with nooks and crannies to become the Yeppoon settings of shake and stir theatre company’s latest page-to-stage adaptation, the world premiere of Fourteen (part of this year’s Brisbane Festival). The show is fast moving from the outset, propelled by a dynamic soundscape, which places us firmly into the time…
Opera Australia’s production of Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella is glorious from the get go. Though there is no real standout number, the musical’s soundtrack is glorious and easy-on-the-ear, filled as it is with recognisable Rogers and Hammerstein melodies and lyrics. Anna Louizos’ set design is superb, featuring slick transitions through scenes the sometimes include animal hand…
The Sunshine Club opens in the summer of 1946. Ambitious Aboriginal solider, former boxing champion Frank Doyle (Marcus Corowa) has spent years fighting for freedom shoulder-to-shoulder with troops from all over Australia. Despite its opening number “Lest We Forget”, the war does not set the narrative tone of Queensland Theatre’s bright revival of Wesley Enoch…
