Biggest names in Aussie showbiz come to Adelaide for hit musical Hairspray
The hit musical Hairspray comes to Adelaide next week, starring favourites including Shane Jacobson, Todd McKenney, Rhonda Burchmore and Bobby Fox.
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Some of the biggest names in Australian showbiz will let their down as hit musical Hairspray comes to Adelaide next week.
The multi-award-winning Broadway show opens on December 27 and stars favourites including Shane Jacobson, Todd McKenney, Rhonda Burchmore and Bobby Fox.
The quartet, along with other performers Asabi Goodman, Javon King, Carmel Rodrigues and Donna Lee, previewed the production, at Adelaide Festival Theatre on Wednesday.
The cast, all from interstate, have been in rehearsals all week and will spend Christmas in Adelaide.
Carmel Rodrigues, who plays Tracy Turnblad, says some of the cast will get together for a pot-luck meal to celebrate the big day.
“I’m very excited about that and I’m very excited to be in Adelaide, the City of Churches. I’m very excited to explore. I’ve never been to Adelaide before so this is really, really exciting,” the Sydneysider said.
Hairspray is a feel-good comedy about big-haired teen Tracy Turnblad and her dream to dance on The Corny Collins Show. Set in the US in the 1960s, it also explores the theme of racial segregation.
Shane Jacobson plays Tracy’s mother, housewife Edna Turnblad, a role made famous by Divine in the 1988 movie Hairspray and John Travolta in its 2007 remake. McKenney stars as Wilbur Turnblad, Burchmore is the villainous Velma Von Tussle and Rob Mills is Corny Collins.
Visit: hairspraymusical.com.au
ADELAIDE FESTIVAL’S NEW SECRET WEAPON
A new Europe-based associate director has been appointed by the Adelaide Festival to assist artistic director Ruth Mackenzie to source and secure international shows for its 2024-26 programs.
Wouter Van Ransbeek, who lives and manages his own production company in the Netherlands, will provide support for the Festival’s collaborations with European multi-arts events, maintain relationships with major performing companies and help to scout cutting-edge works.
He previously spent more than 15 years working for Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, which will perform its stage adaptation of the best-selling novel A Little Life at next year’s Festival, and presented its Shakespearean trilogies Roman Tragedies in 2014 and Gods of War in 2018.
“I look forward to bringing some of the best European companies to South Australia,” Mr Van Ransbeek said in Adelaide, where he has been assessing venues.
“I have visited Adelaide Festival many times throughout my career, and have such
admiration for the festival’s unassailable reputation,” he said.
“Along with Edinburgh and Avignon, it is one of the three great festivals in the world.”
Ms Mackenzie said she first met Mr Van Ransbeek almost 20 years ago at Vienna’s Wiener
Festwochen, where he was a programming assistant, and their paths had continued to cross, most recently when she was director of the Holland Festival from 2015-18.
“He possesses a strong instinct for building relationships between artists and audiences and has a particular talent for scouting and securing the best that the international arts scene has to offer,” she said.
Next year’s Adelaide Festival, programmed in part by McKenzie’s predecessors Neil Armfield and Rachel Healy, runs from March 3-19.
NEW BOARD TO SEE IF MERCURY CAN RISE
A group of South Australian screen industry professionals has formed a new board for the city’s troubled Mercury CX cinema and reduced its staff to skeleton levels while it attempts to devise a new operating model.
Arts minister Andrea Michaels said the State Government had provided $50,000 to assist the MCX while the board reviewed its structure.
The Mercury’s former board had indicated that the independent not-for-profit cinema organisation was almost certain to become insolvent if it continued under its existing model, after a review commissioned by the previous State Government.
Epic Films producer Kirsty Stark and a former SA Film Corporation chairman, Mess Productions producer Peter Hanlon, will co-chair the new MCX board.
“We are committed to exploring every avenue we can to keep this cherished institution operating independently,” Stark and Hanlon said in a prepared statement.
“Nevertheless, we are fully aware of the parlous financial condition … and, as such, will explore all opportunities to ensure the critical functions of the Mercury CX continue.”
After an extraordinary general meeting on November 24, the new board examined the MCX’s accounts and was forced to significantly reduce its overheads by only retaining a skeleton staff.
Former MusicSA head Lisa Bishop has been appointed as interim general manager, replacing outgoing chief executive Karena Slaninka.
Bishop, an experienced board director and freelance film producer, will work to secure partnerships and investigate new operating models that would allow a sustainable future for the MCX.
Other new board members include Uni SA associate professor Kath Dooley, business development professional Chris Leese, Mess Productions director Madeleine Parry, Highview Productions producer Lisa Scott; Closer Productions producer Rebecca Summerton and lawyer Adrian Tisato.
Established in 1974 as the Media Resource Centre, the Mercury is home to the Adelaide Cinematheque program and various festival screenings.
It began to experience difficulty in 2015 when the then federal government cut funding to cinema organisations, which also offered training and development programs. This was compounded when Covid-19 hit and the Mercury lost its income from audiences for much of the past three years.
ROCKY HORROR RETURNS TO ADELAIDE FOR 50TH ANNIVERSARY
Controversial stage musical The Rocky Horror Show will return to Adelaide as part of its 50th anniversary Australian tour next year.
Cast members for the Adelaide season, which will open at the Festival Theatre on April 13, have yet to be announced.
Sydney and Melbourne seasons, which are already on sale, will star Jason Donovan as lead character Frank-N-Furter, with Myf Warhurst as the Narrator.
The Rocky Horror Show’s last Adelaide season in January 2018 was rocked by scandal when its star Craig McLachlan was accused of indecent assault, sexual harassment, exposing himself and bullying by actresses from a previous 2014 production, including Christie Whelan-Browne, Erika Heynatz and Angela Scundi.
McLachlan was immediately replaced for the rest of the Adelaide season and Australian tour by understudy Adam Rennie.
Last year, 13 charges against McLachlan were dismissed by Melbourne magistrate Belinda Wallington, who noted the standard of proof required for consent had changed since the time of the allegations.
Wallington also stated that the four complainants “were brave and honest witnesses”.
A parody of science fiction and B-grade horror films, The Rocky Horror Show was created by London actor, writer and composer Richard O’Brien in 1973 and was filmed two years later by Australian director Jim Sharman as The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which became a cult hit.
Tickets for next year’s Adelaide season go on sale Tuesday, December 13, at rockyhorror.com.au
TWO SA FILMS HEAD TO SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL
Two Adelaide films supported by the SA Film Corporation are among four Australian entries selected for next year’s Sundance Film Festival, the largest independent film event in the US.
Run Rabbit Run, written by Adelaide author Hannah Kent and directed by Daina Reid in the Riverland, will have its world premiere at Sundance, while Talk to Me directed by Danny and Michael Philippou – also known as YouTube duo RackaRacka – will have its first overseas screening.
They will be joined by writer/director Noora Niasari’s debut Shayda, which will open the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, and the US premiere of fellow Melbourne director Robert Connolly’s Blueback at Sundance in Salt Lake City, Utah, from January 19-29.
Run Rabbit Run stars SA actor Sarah Snook (of Succession acclaim) as a fertility doctor who is put to the test as her young daughter begins to exhibit strange behaviour.
“It has been an incredible journey making this film and working with such a massively talented writer in Hannah Kent and our amazing leading actors Sarah Snook, Lily LaTorre and Damon Herriman,” director Reid said.
“It is so exciting to see their work showing at such a fantastic festival.”
Talk To Me had a preview screening at the Adelaide Film Festival this year, and follows a group of friends who discover how to conjure spirits using an ancient embalmed hand.
The twin Philippou brothers also said they were excited to be screening at Sundance.
“It’s surreal. Cannot process it. So happy,” they said.
“We cannot thank everyone involved enough for all their amazing hard work and unbelievably kind support.”
Sundance has a history of launching Australian works in the US market, including You Won’t Be Alone in 2022, Relic in 2020, 52 Tuesdays in 2014 and Animal Kingdom in 2010.
OVERSEAS ACTS FIRE UP FOR RETURN TO ADELAIDE FRINGE
Adelaide Fringe will return to pre-Covid size in 2023 with more than 1200 shows and events, including 40 per cent of acts coming from overseas and interstate.
A pyrotechnics and percussion spectacular called Silence! by French street arts company Les Commandos Percu will ignite the five-week program on opening weekend.
Described as “a storm of sounds and fire” that emulate thunder and lightning, Silence! will be a ticketed event for up to 10,000 people a night in Elder Park from February 17-19.
UK comedian Sarah Millican, US performance artist Penny Arcade and Adelaide’s own Drag Race Down Under finalist Kween Kong will be next year’s Fringe ambassadors, as well as starring in their own shows.
Also part of the program, which runs from February 17 to March 19, will be 1970s queen of pop Marcia Hines in Velvet Rewired, darkly comic musical The Marvellous Elephant Man, and Lyra la Belle from Bootlegger Burlesque.
“I love Adelaide and the Fringe, it holds a special place in my heart as it is where Velvet was born,” said Hines, who was also one of the event’s ambassadors in 2020.
Fringe director Heather Croall said it had added a new category of “eat and drink” events to its program of comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret, visual art, music and interactive shows.
“It is wonderful to see so many international shows coming back after a couple of years of
not being able to have internationals here,” Ms Croall said.
“It is a bumper program full of old favourites as well as hundreds of new shows.”
The full program and ticket sales will be available online from 9am on December 6 at adelaidefringe.com.au
BAKEHOUSE TEAM RECOGNISED AT 25TH ADELAIDE CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS
Former Bakehouse Theatre creative producer Peter Green and artistic director Pamela Munt received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Adelaide Critics Circle on Monday night.
Launched in 1979 as The Red Shed, the venue was taken over and renamed by Mr Green in 1998, but had to close this year after the property was purchased by the adjoining Life Christian Centre church.
The 25th Adelaide Critics Circle Awards also recognised actor Adrian Barnes and Red Phoenix Theatre with the individual and group amateur awards for their production of Festen.
Professional theatre awards went to Stefanie Rossi for her individual body of work in 2022, and were shared between the Bakehouse’s final production of A Streetcar Named Desire and Adelaide Festival’s Watershed: The Death of Dr Duncan in the group category.
Emerging Artist of the Year was awarded to pianist Shawn Hui, while the Independent Arts Foundation Award for Innovation went to Bowerbird Collective for its multimedia conservation work Life on Land’s Edge.
The Visual Arts Award went to painter and mural artist Jasmine Crisp, who recently curated The Studio in the 2022 SALA Festival.
MUSIC TO A KOALA’S – AND KIDS’ – EARS IN ASO SHOW
Young audiences will have a rare chance to see classical musicians “in the wild” when the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra meets Koala Bob.
Created for children aged 4 to 12, Koala Bob is on the Loose is a collaboration with Theatre Bugs, Koala Life and Green Adelaide, and was adapted from the original Blinky Bill stories by author Dorothy Wall.
Under the baton of conductor David Sharp, it weaves storytelling and theatre with nine original songs that explore the role people play in protecting our wildlife and environment.
ASO violinist Janet Anderson said one of its aims is to connect with all sectors of the community – including her own son Billy, who will be in the audience.
“Koala Bob is the perfect show to introduce children to hear the wonderful sounds of the orchestra,” she said.
“Billy is looking forward to seeing me play … he’s almost as excited as he was meeting real-life koala Dewi at Cleland.”
In the show, Koala Bob teams up with Professor Wombat, Angelina Wallaby, Lady Beatrice Bandicoot, Bobbin the Bilby and Go-Go Goanna as they strive to save their home from destruction.
The two performances are on Saturday, December 10, at 2pm and 4pm in the Grainger Studio. Book at aso.com.au
GAWK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN – NEW PYRAMID VENUE
A towering new venue called The Pyramid will reactivate Victoria Square for next year’s Adelaide Fringe with everything from circus shows and physical theatre to sea shanty singalongs.
The 15-metre tall, triangular-sided tent structure will feature a full-height performance rig for aerial acts, seat 350 audience members and feature long table food and beverage services, and be coupled with smaller venue The Vault at an adjoining hub named Fool’s Paradise.
Headline acts include the return of US performance artist and Andy Warhol associate Penny Arcade, who previously starred at the 1994 Festival, 2016 and 2019 Fringes, with her new show The Art of Becoming.
“The Adelaide Fringe reinstates city space and exposes us to new ideas – that’s a critically important and beautiful thing,” 72-year-old Arcade said.
“It’s going to bring Victoria Square alive.”
Victoria Square/Tarntanyangga was home to the Royal Croquet Club from 2014-16, after which the rebranded RCC moved to Pinky Flat and Adelaide Uni until 2021.
The Pyramid has been put together by a fresh SA team headed by director Max Mason, who ran the former Henry Austin restaurant, and Ben Phillips.
“Fringe deserves a new star attraction,” Mr Mason said.
Its program, which runs from February 14 to March 19, goes on sale at thepyramid.com.au from 9am today.
Among the more than 20 shows are acrobatic adventure Love, Life & Laundry, dreamlike circus-cabaret enSOMNIA, late night party Club Freak Out and naughty nautical act Seamen! The Sea Shanty Extravaganza.
The Adelaide Fringe will release its full 2023 program on December 6.
FINAL ACTS ANNOUNCED FOR WOMADELAIDE 2023
A self-described German “techno marching band” and a Grammy Award-winning US blues artist, whose new album explores the illegal interracial romance of his forebears, are among 35 final acts announced for WOMADelaide.
MEUTE features 11 drummers and horn players from Hamburg, who mimic the electronic dance music of a DJ with their acoustic instruments and will perform three times at the world music festival in Botanic Park from March 10-13.
Fantastic Negrito, whose real name is Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz, will perform two shows in support of his latest multimedia project White Jesus Black Problems.
The album and accompanying film are based on the true story of his white, Scottish, seventh-generation Grandma Gallimore, an indentured servant who lived in a common law marriage with his African-American slave Grandfather Courage, in defiance of the separatist laws in 1750s colonial Virginia.
“I stand on the shoulders of my ancestors, both black and white, who showed me that anything is possible,” Negrito says.
“There was a lot of ugliness in their story, but there was a lot of beauty, too, because in the end, perseverance overcame.”
Also joining the line-up will be Colombian supergroup Ondatrópica, Romanian folk musicians Taraf de Caliu, London jazz collective Kokoroko and iconic Jamaican dancehall DJ, Sister Nancy.
Full line-up and tickets at womadelaide.com.au
SIC ’EM T-REX … EXTINCTION EVENTS AT SA MUSEUM
No bones about it: Scotty the Tyrannosaurus rex is the biggest specimen of her kind ever discovered.
Measuring 13m from head to tail, and standing more than 3m tall, the 66-million-year-old (who was actually around 28 when she died) in life would have weighed just under nine tonnes.
Even her bones are too heavy – and valuable – to travel. So, a resin copy of Scotty’s skeleton has been shipped to Adelaide for the world premiere exhibition Six Extinctions, which opens at the SA Museum on Saturday.
“I was really excited to see Scotty and was surprised at how long her tail is,” said nine-year-old Alex Parker.
The exhibition explores five mass-extinction events which have occurred during Earth’s history, including the one which wiped out the dinosaurs, and how humans and climate change are now involved in a sixth extinction crisis.
When Scotty was discovered by palaeontologists at a dig site in Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1991, all they had on hand to celebrate with was a bottle of scotch – hence her nickname.
However, it wasn’t a simple matter to “beam her up”. Scotty’s fossilised bones were stuck in extremely hard rock, and it took more than two decades to free, assemble and assess her remains.
Six Extinctions is at the SA Museum until February 5. Book at humanitix.com
FRIDA KAHLO EXHIBITION EXCLUSIVE FOR ART GALLERY OF SA
Iconic works by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo will be shown in Adelaide for the first time in more than three decades as part of a national exclusive exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia next year.
Frida & Diego: Love & Revolution will run from June 24 to September 17 and include works by Kahlo’s artist husband Diego Rivera, alongside those by their contemporaries in the Mexican Modernism movement.
It features 20 Kahlo paintings and drawings from the private collection of Jacques and Natasha Gelman, two Eastern European immigrants who met and married in Mexico City, becoming devoted art patrons and friends of Kahlo, Rivera and their associates.
AGSA international art curator Tansy Curtin said Kahlo’s works rarely tour because of their scarcity and restrictions enforced by the Mexican government.
“She only painted 147 works in her lifetime … she had one solo exhibition,” Ms Curtin said.
“There are not very many in public institutions, and none in Australian collections, as far as I know.”
Kahlo’s work was last shown here as part of the 1990 Adelaide Festival.
The new exhibition will include both portrait and documentary photographs of Kahlo and Rivera, video installations and period clothing, and works by fellow artists including Manuel and Lola Alvarez Bravo, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Rufino Tamayo and Maria Izquierdo.
AGSA’s 2023 program also presents Andy Warhol & Photography in March, and the first survey of contemporary artist Vincent Namatjira’s career in October.
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