Sam Jury

Stephen Sondheim's epic musical thriller Sweeney Todd opened last night at Christchurch's Isaac Theatre Royal, its final stop on a tour across New Zealand. A joint collaboration between New Zealand Opera and Victorian Opera, this gritty and wonderfully stylised production emphasises the most operatic and dramatic features of this masterpiece of musical theatre.

Giuseppe Verdi's operatic masterpiece La Traviata opened triumphantly at the Isaac Theatre Royal in Christchurch last night to a capacity audience. This production marks a welcome return by New Zealand Opera to the theatre that, following an extensive restoration from the Canterbury earthquakes of the 2010s, continues to be one of the artistic jewels of the city.

New Zealand Opera's new production of Mozart's final opera The Magic Flute is an absolute delight. The Magic Flute (or Die Zauberflote) tells the story of Prince Tamino's quest for his Princess Pamina through a fairytale dream-world where she is held captive by the wizard Sarastro. Aided by his impulsive companion Papageno and the magic flute given to him by The Queen of the Night, he sets off to rescue her and face the challenges set for him by Sarastro and the mysterious brotherhood.

The international smash-hit musical Mamma Mia! opened last night in Christchurch at the beautifully restored Isaac Theatre Royal. It is the first of three hotly anticipated musicals to be put on by Showbiz Christchurch this year as part of a national consortium of theatre production partners.

The two-time Tony Award-winning actress and Broadway Legend Sutton Foster will be performing for one night only this Friday the 29th of January at the Charles Luney Auditorium at St Margaret's College in Christchurch, following two weeks of tutoring and mentoring at the Christchurch International Musical Theatre Summer School.

Love and Information by the acclaimed British playwright Caryl Churchill opened last night at the Basement Theatre on Queen Street in a very polished new production produced by The Actors' Program and Last Tapes Theatre Company. The tagline reads: Sixteen Actors. Over 100 Characters. A Snapshot of life. Perhaps rather the plural, snapshots, might be a more accurate description of this unusual piece

Mark Hadlow excels in his hilarious one-man show MAMIL: Middle Aged Man in Lycra in a sell-out season at Christchurch's Court Theatre. Written and directed by Gregory Cooper, MAMIL plays to all Hadlow's strengths as an actor and gives him ample opportunity for humour with a good dose of clowning around. It is also not without its sensitive and thought provoking moments, particularly in the area of men's health -Hadlow himself is an ambassador for the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

NBR New Zealand Opera has been going from strength to strength over recent years, and this latest production of Tosca is no exception. Cleverly set during the Cold War era of Italy during the 1950s, this production stars two internationally famous New Zealanders, the tenor Simon O'Neill and the baritone Phillip Rhodes, who are joined by Irish soprano Orla Boylan in the title role.

Following on from successful seasons at BATS Theatre in Wellington and the famed La Mama Theatre in New York City, the five-time Chapman Trip Theatre Award nominated play All Your Wants and Needs Fulfilled Forever is a surreal existential comedy set in a hyper-realised modern age of internet-saturated media and Facebook, where Simon, a young twenty-something man is battling to make sense of his life, whilst simultaneously struggling to deal with the loss of his father.

The latest West End revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's smash-hit musical Cats kicked off its Australasian tour last night to a packed Civic Theatre in Auckland. Nominated for two Olivier Awards (including best revival) this production of Cats was put together by the original creative team of the award winning 1981 London production and features the superb UK star Sophia Ragavelas in the role of 'Grizabella'.

Nic Sampson returns to the Basement Theatre as The Lord Ernest Rutherford of Nelson following a successful debut run of Ernest Rutherford: Everyone Can Science! in May 2013. Sampson (Billy T nominee 2015 and head writer for the Jono and Ben Show) writes and stars in this hilarious one man comedy about the legendary New Zealand scientist most famous for splitting the atom, who also appears on our $100 note.