Shrek the musical, Dolly Parton’s 9-5 to open in Sydney in 2020
Hollywood stardust will fall on Sydney stages in 2020 with several popular movies-turned-musicals set to grace our theatres in the new year – and it all kicks off with the big, green ogre.
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Sydney’s stages will be dusted with a little Hollywood magic in the first half of 2020, with famous movies inspiring a string of musicals and even a new ballet.
The fun begins on New Year’s Day with the opening of Shrek The Musical at Sydney Lyric in Pyrmont, and continues with The Bridges Of Madison County at Hayes Theatre in Potts Point from March 5.
Dolly Parton’s 9 To 5 The Musical will be seen at Sydney Lyric from April 21. Frozen The Musical will bring a blizzard of Broadway pizzazz to the Capitol Theatre in July.
And a choreographic adaptation of the film of Leo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina will be danced by The Australian Ballet at the Sydney Opera House in April.
The lavish production of Anna Karenina promises to be the high point of popular artistic director David McAllister’s final year with the callet company.
The computer-animated ogre Shrek first burst on the scene in 2001 as the star of the eponymous DreamWorks movie, voiced by Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and John Lithgow, among others.
Australian audiences will see the acclaimed Broadway production of Shrek The Musical, starring a glittering Australian cast led by Ben Mingay as Shrek, Lucy Durack as Princess Fiona, and Todd McKenney as Lord Farquaad.
Shrek The Musical will be on in Sydney until February 9.
Next off the blocks will be the Australian premiere of the musical The Bridges Of Madison County, opening on March 6 at Hayes Theatre in Potts Point.
The show springs from the original book by Robert James Waller. But it’s probably best known as the 1995 Academy Award-nominated film starring Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood.
The show is about immigrant housewife Francesca who lives in America’s midwest and has a brief but fateful affair with a National Geographic photographer called Robert.
Set in 1965, the musical at Hayes will see Kate Maree Hoolihan playing Francesca and Martin Crewes as Robert.
Dolly Parton’s 9 To 5 The Musical will burst on to the Sydney Lyric stage from April 21 in the Australian premiere of the West End hit musical.
With music and lyrics by the irrepressible Parton herself, the musical tells the story of three female office workers who plot revenge on their sexist and egotistical male boss.
The 1980 film starred Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton, and while Parton’s country music was already well known by then, the film placed her firmly in the cultural zeitgeist.
Frozen The Musical is an off-shoot of Disney’s 2013 hit animated movie, Frozen. (Frozen 2, the film sequel, is now playing in Sydney). The films and the musical tell the story of a royal family whose Princess Elsa has the special power to turn anything she touches to snow and ice. It’s a gift as well as a curse for the young princess.
Disney Theatrical Productions is behind Frozen The Musical, and is sending a team of creators to Sydney to bring the Broadway show to the Sydney stage. The Australian cast has not yet been announced.
Anna Karenina is Leo Tolstoy’s classic literary tragedy, brought to the stage in The Australian Ballet’s first co-production with The Joffrey Ballet of America.
Choreographer and former Bolshoi Ballet dancer Yuri Possokhov leads a decorated creative team including composer Ilya Demutsky, designer Tom Pye and lighting designer David Finn.
In the 2012 film of the book, adapted by Tom Stoppard from the 1877 novel, Keira Knightley played the role of Anna Karenina, Jude Law was her husband Karenin, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson was Anna’s illicit lover Count Vronsky.
In Sydney, stars of The Australian Ballet such as Imogen Chapman and Kevin Jackson will take the leading roles.
The indigenous Australian musical Bran Nue Dae is being revived from January 15 as part of the Sydney Festival.
Bran Nue Dae, the musical, inspired a 2009 movie starring Ernie Dingo, Jessica Mauboy and Missy Higgins. Ernie Dingo will reprise the role of Uncle Tadpole for the Sydney Festival show. The cast features 14 indigenous actors, half of whom are from Broome or the Kimberley where the action is set.