Gale Edwards News

The 14th Annual Helpmann Awards were presented tonight live from Sydney's Capitol Theatre and broadcast on Foxtel's Arena. Host Jonathan Biggins was joined by some of Australia's most talented performers and industry leaders to announce this year's winners while recognising the distinguished artistic achievement and excellence across the major disciplines of Australia's live performance industry.

The Helpmann Awards, which has recognised the achievements in live performance in Australia since 2001, is the Australian industry's equivalent of the Tony Awards and the Olivier Awards.

The Production Company aims to showcase great shows performed by exceptional Australian talent. Their current offering of Guys and Dolls - the musical fable of Broadway - fulfils this aim.

One of Broadway's best musicals, the award winning Guys and Dolls opens tonight, July 19 at the State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne for 10 shows only. Starring in this new production are Verity Hunt-Ballard, Martin Crewes, Chelsea Plumley, Adam Murphy, Bobby Fox and Christopher Horsey.

One of Broadway's best musicals, the award winning Guys and Dolls opens on July 19 at the State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne for 10 shows only. Starring in this new production are Verity Hunt-Ballard, Martin Crewes, Chelsea Plumley, Adam Murphy, Bobby Fox and Christopher Horsey.

For a modern audience, the strength of a classic work can also be its Achilles' heel. So it is with Ibsen's GHOSTS - the 19th Century writer's words are so on point as to feel contemporary, yet this realism also exaggerates any hint of melodrama present on stage.

The Production Company announces it's 2014 Season. All tickets for The Production Company's 2014 Season go on sale at 9am next Monday, May 5.

As internationally renowned director Gale Edwards leads MTC's Ghosts into the second week of rehearsals, the Company is excited to learn that after more than 130 years, Ibsen's classic thriller has proved yet again to be a vital and exciting piece of theatre.

More than a hundred years since it alarmed censors, appalled critics and thrilled audiences Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts remains as sensational and electric as ever. Opening Thursday 22 May 2014 at Southbank Theatre, The Sumner, internationally renowned Australian director Gale Edwards returns to MTC to direct this unflinching critique of marriage and social convention.

Jeanne Pratt AC, Chairman of The Production Company, announces her Company's 2014 season. She states, 'Three very different musicals are coming to Melbourne for our 2014 Season. Spanning sixty years of Broadway creativity, they are three of my favourite Broadway classics. Guys and Dolls opens our season on July 19, Show Boat opens on August 16 and our third musical is La Cage Aux Folles, which opens on November 22. To star in these musicals, we have engaged artists who will shine and enchant our audiences. Unique stagings for each musical will be created by our brightest directors, choreographers and conductors. Melbourne is in for another great year of musical theatre entertainment.'

Already off to a brilliant start with the standing-room only Private Lives and the much-discussed Cock also attracting good houses, Melbourne Theatre Company's 2014 Season just got brighter with the announcement of more stars who will come out to play this year.

Melbourne Theatre Company has announced the appointment of four Assistant Directors for Season 2014. Tanya Dickson will work on Private Lives, Kat Henry on The Speechmaker, Kim Hardwick on Ghosts and John Kachoyan on Pennsylvania Avenue, joining the company as part of MTC's paid Assistant Directors Program for emerging or mid-career artists.

Anthony Freud, general director of Lyric Opera of Chicago, announced today that the company will present a new production of Richard Wagner's monumental four-opera masterpiece, Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) starting in 2016-17.

Voting is now underway for Australia - Melbourne! We have a record number of votes in already, but if you haven't voted yet, click here to vote! If you have voted already,tell your friends.

Royal Shakespeare Company Announces 2014 Season

State Opera of South Australia started their main stage programme for the year with a powerful production of Salome, with a libretto by Richard Strauss based on Hedwig Lachmann's German translation of Oscar Wilde's play. Richard Strauss, of course, also wrote the score of the opera

2013 is set to reinforce State Opera of South Australia's (SOSA) outstanding reputation for bringing new and exciting opera to Adelaide audiences. SOSA will stage three contrasting but equally brilliant main-stage spectacles, including two rarely performed works in brand new productions, and the return of a perennial favourite.

Get yourself a ticket to GYPSY, and get it right now. Because if you have an interest in musical theatre, or any theatre at all, you owe it to yourself to experience Caroline O'Connor as Mama Rose.

Today Jeanne Pratt AC, Chairman of The Production Company, announces her company's new season.

The nominations for the 2013 Helpmann Awards have been announced simultaneously at events in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart and Perth. This is the first time the Nominations events were held concurrently in 6 cities and a first for Adelaide, Hobart and Perth.