Post by Talissa on May 2, 2003 15:34:15 GMT 11
I found this article in The Age today. Yay! I haven't seen any of these shows, and they're all ones I've heard heaps about 
(My comments in italics)
Pratt plots comeback for musical theatre
Carolyn Webb
A Melbourne production house will inject some Broadway shine into the gloom that has gripped Australian musical theatre. (Amen!)
The industry's glory days of a decade ago are a memory as locals stay away, while terrorism and SARS affect tourist numbers, but for The Production Company the shows must go on.
The company's collection of sunny Broadway classics will play at the Victorian Arts Centre's State Theatre over an eight-week period from July.
The first, Bye Bye Birdie, the bright tale of a rock star's visit to a small American town before he joins the army, will open in July, and star Philip Gould and Tamsin Carroll.
South Pacific, Rodgers and Hammerstein's romance set during Word War II, will follow, starring John Diedrich as plantation owner Emile de Becque, and Natalie Bassignthwaite as young nurse Nellie Forbush.
The third Production Company show will be They're Playing Our Song. John Waters and Jacki Weaver were a hit when the show first played in 1980. A romantic comedy based on the lives of songwriters Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager, the leads this time will be played by Sharon Millerchip and Ian Stenlake.
The Production Company's chairwoman, Jeanne Pratt, launched its fifth season at her home, Raheen, in Kew, on Tuesday.
Pratt said she started The Production Company in 1999 because she felt too many people in the musical theatre industry were out of work. "I just thought, this isn't right," she said. "There are so many talented people in Australia.
"Unfortunately, world-wide, there's been a terrific downturn in the theatre. I know it's only cyclical, because at one stage people usen't to go to the movies, and now they're back on again, so I think the same thing is going to happen to the theatre."
Earlier this year, The Production Company announced that it was backing a return of the musical Hair to Melbourne.
Directed by David Atkins, it will open on May 20 for a six-week season at Her Majesty's Theatre.
It was also revealed this week that in August, the international director Gale Edwards will oversee the workshopping of Sideshow Alley, the musical that last year won the inaugural $80, 000 Pratt Prize for new Australian works.
Pratt said she tries to suggest musicals that have not recently been staged. "But at the same time, I don't like things that are too arty-farty," she said.
"In other words, I'm sick of going to the theatre where you look around, and everybody's sitting there asleep, and then they wake up and say, 'wasn't that wonderful?'
"We don't want to do that, we keep people very much awake in our shows. (The shows) have all got a certain vitality about them."
(My comments in italics)Pratt plots comeback for musical theatre
Carolyn Webb
A Melbourne production house will inject some Broadway shine into the gloom that has gripped Australian musical theatre. (Amen!)
The industry's glory days of a decade ago are a memory as locals stay away, while terrorism and SARS affect tourist numbers, but for The Production Company the shows must go on.
The company's collection of sunny Broadway classics will play at the Victorian Arts Centre's State Theatre over an eight-week period from July.
The first, Bye Bye Birdie, the bright tale of a rock star's visit to a small American town before he joins the army, will open in July, and star Philip Gould and Tamsin Carroll.
South Pacific, Rodgers and Hammerstein's romance set during Word War II, will follow, starring John Diedrich as plantation owner Emile de Becque, and Natalie Bassignthwaite as young nurse Nellie Forbush.
The third Production Company show will be They're Playing Our Song. John Waters and Jacki Weaver were a hit when the show first played in 1980. A romantic comedy based on the lives of songwriters Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager, the leads this time will be played by Sharon Millerchip and Ian Stenlake.
The Production Company's chairwoman, Jeanne Pratt, launched its fifth season at her home, Raheen, in Kew, on Tuesday.
Pratt said she started The Production Company in 1999 because she felt too many people in the musical theatre industry were out of work. "I just thought, this isn't right," she said. "There are so many talented people in Australia.
"Unfortunately, world-wide, there's been a terrific downturn in the theatre. I know it's only cyclical, because at one stage people usen't to go to the movies, and now they're back on again, so I think the same thing is going to happen to the theatre."
Earlier this year, The Production Company announced that it was backing a return of the musical Hair to Melbourne.
Directed by David Atkins, it will open on May 20 for a six-week season at Her Majesty's Theatre.
It was also revealed this week that in August, the international director Gale Edwards will oversee the workshopping of Sideshow Alley, the musical that last year won the inaugural $80, 000 Pratt Prize for new Australian works.
Pratt said she tries to suggest musicals that have not recently been staged. "But at the same time, I don't like things that are too arty-farty," she said.
"In other words, I'm sick of going to the theatre where you look around, and everybody's sitting there asleep, and then they wake up and say, 'wasn't that wonderful?'
"We don't want to do that, we keep people very much awake in our shows. (The shows) have all got a certain vitality about them."
