UK arts trailblazer perfectly at home in ‘radical’ Adelaide
Ruth Mackenzie’s Adelaide Festival program is a bit like going on safari. You might see elephants at the waterhole or you might not. Either way ‘we are going to take you on a journey’.
Stage
Leaving Los Angeles: ‘I want to go’
Television star Josh Thomas has had the kind of US success most local comics could only dream of. So why has he had enough of LA?
Joyce quits STC, urges ‘dramatic action’ to save company
Alan Joyce has ‘reluctantly’ resigned from the Sydney Theatre Company board chairmanship as a pro-Palestine protest is estimated to have cost the STC $1.5m.
Flurry of blanket coverage for dancing Brazilians
Brazilian dancers in Encantado land in Sydney with a promise to enchant audiences at the Sydney Festival.
The stage is set for 2024
Bio-ballets, Broadway musicals and new Australian operas are bound for our theatres next year, writes Matthew Westwood
An unforgettable dance work, Simon Rattle and The Ring Cycle
The arts should excite dormant senses, tickle the grey matter and make us feel alive. These stage productions did just that.
Mao’s Last Dancer takes one final bow
He went from an impoverished childhood in rural china to international stardom as a ballet prodigy. The man they call Mao’s Last Dancer is bowing out in style in his adopted home of Brisbane.
‘Pocket rocket’ proud to launch as Queensland Ballet director
Former Royal Ballet principal artist Leanne Benjamin is thrilled to be returning home after 43 years to head Queensland Ballet.
‘Some people definitely deserve to be cancelled. Not me, however’
After his bawdy joke about Jesus on The Project earlier this year, the cabaret star has some advice for anyone who finds themselves cancelled.
STC acting chair says October 7 attacks ‘abhorrent’
Ann Johnson tells donors the organisation will forge an ‘alternative’ path through its internal crisis that seeks common ground rather than division.
Mao’s Last Dancer says political posturing has no place on the stage
Ahead of his farewell shows in Brisbane and acutely aware of the row engulfing the arts over the STC actors’ pro-Palestinian protest, Li Cunxin says politics and the arts don’t mix.
Comedian Michelle Brasier on living with a 97 per cent chance of developing cancer
After losing her father and brother to the disease, the Melbourne comic has a potent message for those who are afraid of dying.
‘I don’t see why films can’t have sex’
In an era where there is less and less intimacy in films, Tony McNamara’s Poor Things arrives practically throbbing with desire.
‘Am I out of the woods now? I don’t think I am’
Ballet supremo Li Cunxin faced down his mortality after he fainted suddenly and was airlifted off Hayman Island last year. What happens when the mind is willing but the body – once limber and powerful – is not?
Stage set for truth telling about lives stolen
It took Leah Purcell 25 years to bring 94-year-old Aunty Ruth Hegarty’s recollection of living as a stolen generation dormitory girl to the stage. Both agree now was the only time to do so.
Donor cuts off funds after STC actors’ protest
It comes after numerous actors in two STC plays protested the ‘occupation’ and ‘genocide’ in Gaza.
Theatre of war: STC cancels show after edict to actors
The Sydney Theatre Company abruptly canned a performance of The Seagull last night, less than an hour after publicly ordering its stars to keep their pro-Palestine politics off stage.
MEAA backs Sydney Theatre Company actors amid scarf protest
The actors’ union says they would support the trio if any action was taken, senator-elect Dave Sharma weighs in on the stunt.
Delightful depths of comedy in misery
Sigrid Thornton stars as a manipulative diva in Andrew Upton’s racy new adaptation of The Seagull.
Sydney Theatre Company apologises after scarf stunt
The company distances itself from its actors who donned traditional scarfs during an encore in a ‘stance’ against the ‘occupation of the Palestinian people’.
Writing a memoir at 24? Confessions of Joel Creasey
Comedian Joel Creasey on Australian celebrity culture (‘lame’), Joan Rivers (‘rockstar’) and why he keeps politics out of his comedy for a reason.
‘It scares me’: Andrew Upton on the STC’s latest drama
Seven years after Andrew Upton and his wife Cate Blanchett shifted their family from Sydney to the UK, he has returned to theatre to a doozy.
Rhys Nicholson on the audience members to worry about
The comedian reveals that one of the unexpected flow-on effects from Covid – we all forgot how to be an audience.
Sisters together on same stage for first time
Sisters Mandy and Hayley McElhinney at last are appearing on stage together in their own play.
‘What if I never get to perform again?’
She’s played Miss Honey in Matilda The Musical, and now Donna in Mamma Mia! But when COVID shut down the industry, Elise McCann’s life took a totally different course.
Why we have Robert De Niro to thank for New York, New York
Broadway composer John Kander says the actor made him so pissed off that he and Fred Ebb banged out a hit in just 45 minutes.
Hillary Clinton’s next run – Broadway producer
The former first lady lends her support to Suffs, a musical about America’s ‘unsung trailblazers’.
Brando and me: ‘I felt someone kissing my back’
When Barbra Streisand agreed to an interview with Ed Potton, nothing was off the table. But her book goes to a place even they didn’t reach – Marlon Brando
Grappling with the bonds of intimacy
Up close is right. It’s likely you’ll never get nearer the spectacular Sydney Dance Company bodies than this.
Funding battles take toll on Mao’s Last Dancer
Queensland Ballet artistic director Li Cunxin has fired a parting shot at the federal government on the eve of his retirement, saying a funding shortfall has harmed his health.
Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/stage/page/6