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Performing arts

This Month

TEG’s new chief executive Brad Banducci and former CEO, now chairman, Geoff Jones.

TEG enlists MinterEllison to investigate workplace culture claims

It was Brad Banducci’s first week as chief executive of the company that owns ticketing giant Ticketek. It included a workplace review by an law firm.

March

Daddy Warbucks (Anthony Warlow) and Annie (Lucille Le Meledo) in rehearsal for John Frost’s 2025 production.

From Annie to Zimmer: the must-see shows to catch in April

Take a break from the hard-knock life with our monthly selection of the best live entertainment around the country.

Bobby Fox, Angelina Thomson, Annie Aitken, Cody Simpson and that giant taxi star in Guys & Dolls for the 2025 edition of Handa Opera On Sydney Harbour.

How to direct a musical on a ‘football field’

There’s a lot riding on Opera Australia’s annual outdoor production but Shaun Rennie is more worried about actors getting to their marks, and nothing getting blown into Sydney Harbour.

The Australian Ballet’s new executive director, Claire Spencer, alongside artistic director David Hallberg, whose contract has just been extended another five years.

Australian Ballet appointments a show of faith

The artistic director’s contract extension comes as the major performing arts company also gets a new executive director, after being without one for almost a year.

Left: Pianist Jayson Gillham. Right: MSO managing director Sophie Galaise.

Former MSO boss settles with pianist she cancelled

Sophie Galaise has settled with Jayson Gillham on the eve of his discrimination trial against the orchestra.

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Pianist Simon Tedeschi at his Sydney home, ahead of concerts with Muslim-Israeli violinist Yamen Saadi and his 1734 Stradivari next week.

He was David Helfgott’s hands. Now he must have fingers in many pies

Sharing the stage with a $16 million violin and donning a powdered wig to become Mozart – pianist Simon Tedeschi on the eclectic lot of a classical musician.

Heather Mitchell, at Cafe Cressida.

This actor has the legal profession flocking to see her show

Heather Mitchell is reviving the crowning role of her long career, playing the US Supreme Court judge in RBG: Of Many, One.

Taylor Swift performs during "The Eras Tour" on Dec. 6, 2024, in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Your concert ticket might soon look like a bill

A federal parliamentary inquiry into reviving the struggling live music industry has proposed itemising the costs that go into the price of a show.

Roman Banks, who plays Michael Jackson in MJ The Musical, with Lynn Nottage, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who wrote its book.

From two Pulitzer Prizes to the Michael Jackson musical

Playwright Lynn Nottage – whose second Pulitzer Prize was praised for “explaining” Donald Trump’s win – says taking on the King of Pop’s life was a no-brainer.

Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their Santa Fe home.

Police probe Gene Hackman’s phone records to determine death

Santa Fe police said they are trying to piece together a timeline of the Oscar-winning actor’s movements leading up to his unexplained death.

February

Two decades on, Clooney believes he now has the chops to play the legendary CBS newsman Edward Murrow on stage.

Being George Clooney is harder than it looks

A big Democrat donor, Clooney said he sees “a lot of cowardice” as the tech moguls bow to Trump.

Robert Flack, performing here in 1980, has dided aged 88.

Roberta Flack, piano teacher who rose to rule the charts, dies

The music industry didn’t quite know what to do with the soulful, yet classical-inspired music of the North Carolinian – but Clint Eastwood did.

Green Day: Tre Cool, Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt are punk culture talismans - with a sideline in Seinfeld-friendly ballads.

Seven shows you must see in March

From a Michael Jackson musical to an anniversary tour of Green Day’s breakthrough album, there are plenty of performances to get you off the couch.

Eddie Perfect plays the philosopher Voltaire in Opera Australia’s production of Candide.

He won over Shane Warne with a musical. Could Gina Rinehart be next?

Eddie Perfect wrote a Broadway smash in Beetlejuice, a critical hit (but financial disaster) about the leg-spinning legend, and would love to give another prominent Australian the song-and-dance treatment.

Samuel Marino, male soprano

Meet the rare male soprano shaking up concert halls

Samuel Marino is one of just a handful of professional male singers with the voice type, but his significance is more than musicological.

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Neil D’Souza as Krishna and Anaka Maharaj-Sandhu as Arjuna in
Why Not Theatre’s Mahabharata

This 4000-year-old story could be fresh off the front page

Sanskrit epic Mahabharata showing at Perth Festival has an urgent message for all of us – particularly for some in the WA capital.

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra chair, Edgar Myer

‘He was Switzerland’: Edgar Myer to chair MSO as court battle looms

The anthropologist and lawyer turned fund manager and philanthropist takes the orchestra’s helm ahead of a court date with pianist Jayson Gillham.

Bang the drum: The 68-hectare former home of the Falls Festival in Victoria’s Lorne is on sale with a reduced $2.5 million price guide.

Falls Festival site going for a song as Live Nation cuts asking price

The entertainment group wanted $4 million two years ago for the site near the Great Ocean Road. It’s less optimistic now on price.

Emma Rice’s bold musical take on Wuthering Heights is now playing in Sydney.

Wuthering Heights gets a folk-protest remix in new musical

The rebellious British director Emma Rice has made a version of Emily Bronte’s gothic classic that leans into its darkness and sense of injustice.

when a good seat in the Joan Sutherland Theatre costs nearly $400, the convenience of Spotify and YouTube is hard to ignore.

Troubles at Opera Australia a symptom of a bigger cultural malaise

Getting the books of legacy arts institutions back in the black requires reining in bureaucracy, improving arts education and rejecting ideological distractions.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/performing-arts-hnl