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Sydney Theatre Company

May

Cynthia Erivo brings gravitas to Elphaba.

How an Aussie nabbed Wicked star Cynthia Erivo before she was famous

Producer Michael Cassel contracted her for a West End season of Sydney Theatre Company’s Dracula weeks before Wicked made her a household name.

April

Robyn Nevin is directing her second Agatha Christie play, “And Then There Were None”, for John Frost’s Crossroads Live.

Robyn Nevin wrote off Agatha Christie. Now she’s directing her plays

The theatre doyenne once dismissed the Miss Marple creator as “just a popular playwright” – until producer John Frost convinced her to actually read her work.

Sarah Snook in Kip Williams’ adaptation of The Picture Of Dorian Gray, currently grossing over $US1m a week on Broadway.

Dorian Gray is a homegrown Broadway smash. Local investors missed out

The Sarah Snook one-hander is breaking box office records with tickets at $US497 a pop in New York. But just four of the 53 investors in the show are Australian.

March

Tom Gleisner takes a different sort of look at aged care in his musical Bloom, which opens in Sydney next week.

An aged care musical? Straight to the pool room, said Tom Gleisner

The creator behind The Castle and Utopia spent many hours visiting nursing homes, and emerged not depressed, but inspired to write songs.

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.

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September 2024

Until recently, performing arts companies in Australia have taken a permissive or encouraging approach to artists speaking out.

There is a compromise for disputes like the one at MSO

Art is meant to disrupt, but audiences must be free of interference too. There is a time and a place for both.

August 2024

Pianist Jayson Gillham, whose onstage remarks about the Gaza war have plunged the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra into crisis.

Everyone is angry at Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, even its musicians

The MSO’s decision to cancel a guest pianist for his Gaza war commentary, then backtrack, has united pro-Israel and pro-Palestine activists in disdain.

Mitchell Butel is the new artistic director of the Sydney Theatre Company.

Voice of Play School to run Sydney Theatre Company

Mitchell Butel accepts that singing the children’s show theme is what he is best known for despite three decades in the theatre.

May 2024

Broadway royalty Patti LuPone, known for her role as Evita, is bringing her ‘musical memoir’ to Australia.

Shows you don’t want to miss in June

From the original ‘Evita’ to Coppélia set in the Adelaide Hills, here’s our pick of the top performances and exhibitions around Australia.

April 2024

Jonathan Biggins says the Wharf Review will end next year.

How to make money being Paul Keating

Thank god for writing royalties, says Jonathan Biggins, who reckons politics is stuck on repeat and the new puritanism is hard to poke fun at.

February 2024

Williams’ productions incorporate live cameras, multiple screens and many perspectives. He wears the Bode patchwork jacket from Incu, incu.com; Filippa K black jacket from Parlour X, parlourx.com

This Australian theatre wunderkind is taking on London’s West End

Sydney Theatre Company’s Kip Williams wowed the critics with his adaption of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Now he’s set to cash in.

Emmy winner Sarah Snook will next week star in STC’s West End debut play, The Picture Of Dorian Gray, providing the company much-needed income after a boycott from some Jewish theatregoers.

STC should act or $1.5m losses will mount: Jewish patrons

On the eve of Sydney Theatre Company’s West End debut starring Sarah Snook, the company is being urged to engage with the Jewish community or suffer further losses.

January 2024

Alan Joyce departed Australia shortly after being hauled before a Senate inquiry last year.

Alan Joyce quits Sydney Theatre Company

The former Qantas chief executive says the chairman’s role will require more time than he is willing to give.

Penny Wong in the West Bank this week –  a trip that seemed more for domestic consumption.

Like it or not, the Middle East runs through our politics

The Dunkley by-election will be fought and lost on kitchen table issues. But it is a distant conflict that is piling pressure on political parties and even the national broadcaster.

December 2023

Tim Minchin

STC director Minchin slams ‘leftie bubbles’

The performer, who’s also an STC director, reportedly told a Canberra audience that the actors’ onstage pro-Palestinian protest was misguided, and thanked Jews for their outsize support for the arts.

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Pro-Palestinian supporters gather at Sydney Town Hall

Political debate in Australia is at a dangerous tipping point

In the arts and now politics, claims about the other side are turning to reductionism and wild overreach.

November 2023

Robert Magid at home in Point Piper.

‘Idiotic thing to do’: Sponsor says STC has ‘learnt its lesson’

Robert Magid, whose Pier One Hotel sponsors the besieged theatre company, said his support hinged on no evidence of management collusion in Saturday’s pro-Palestinian protest emerging.

September 2023

Zahra Newman is set to play every role in a new Kip Williams ‘cine-theatre’ production of Dracula.

Sydney’s blockbuster ‘cinema theatre’ is back

The team behind Australian theatrical smash hit The Picture Of Dorian Gray is back with another innovative take on a gothic classic.

July 2023

Suzie Miller

Art is mightier than the law, says lawyer turned playwright

Suzie Miller is on a roll, but she still marvels at how her play Prima Facie has turned her from an accomplished playwright to an international success.

May 2023

John Gaden, Brigid Zengeni, Philip Quast, Vanessa Downing and Peter Carroll.

What’s it like to get old? Here’s an answer

Almost everyone in the cast of this new play is old enough for an age pension.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/sydney-theatre-company-1mzl