Amanda Harris News

Live Performance Australia (LPA) today announced the names of Award Presenters for the 41 categories for the 2012 Helpmann Awards. These include Amanda Bishop, Blake Bowden, Bille Brown AM, Bryan Brown AM, Darcey Bussell CBE, Daniel Carter, Kate Ceberano, Gerry Connolly, Li Cunxin, Cameron Daddo, Lucy Durack, Marta Dusseldorp, Amanda Harrison, Verity Hunt-Ballard, Genevieve Lemon, Matt Lee, Emma Matthews, David McAllister AM, Lisa McCune, Rob Mills, Simon Phillips, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Leo Schofield AM, The Hon. George Souris, Lyndon Terracini, Stuart Wagstaff AM, and John Waters.

Here are the top 5 picks for Australian theatre this Summer (Australian Winter).

An Officer and a Gentleman, directed by Simon Philips and co-written by Douglas Day Stewart and composer and lyricist team Ken Hirsch and Robin Lerner, made its world premiere performance on May 18 at the Lyric Theater in Sydney, Australia. New photos of the production have been released and BroadwayWorld brings you all of them below!

An Officer and a Gentleman, directed by Simon Philips and co-written by Douglas Day Stewart and composer and lyricist team Ken Hirsch and Robin Lerner, made its world premiere performance on May 18 at the Lyric Theater in Sydney, Australia. Go inside opening night of the new musical in the videos below!

An Officer and a Gentleman, directed by Simon Philips and co-written by Douglas Day Stewart and composer and lyricist team Ken Hirsch and Robin Lerner, made its world premiere performance on May 18 at the Lyric Theater in Sydney, Australia. Photos of the production have been released on the production's official Facebook Page and BroadwayWorld brings them to you below!

An Officer and a Gentleman, directed by Simon Philips and co-written by Douglas Day Stewart and composer and lyricist team Ken Hirsch and Robin Lerner, made its world premiere performance on May 18 at the Lyric Theater in Sydney, Australia. Check out highlights from the musical below!

An Officer and a Gentleman, directed by Simon Philips and co-written by Douglas Day Stewart and composer and lyricist team Ken Hirsch and Robin Lerner, made its world premiere performance on May 18 at the Lyric Theater in Sydney, Australia. Despite the hype of the much anticipated musical, which is believed to have Broadway aspirations, the production was received with little enthusiasm by many critics (revisit the Review Roundup here). Now, the movie and show's scribe, Douglas Day Stewart, has taken to the media to defend the piece in an open letter in The Australian against their negative reaction.

According to a report by Variety, more and more musicals, such as An Officer and a Gentleman, which opened in its world premiere today, May 19 at the Lyric Theater in Sydney, are using Australia has a stepping stone to larger Broadway and West End productions.

Producers John Frost and Sharleen Cooper Cohen, along with NSW Minister for Tourism, Major Events and the Arts, George Souris, today welcomed the full cast and crew of the new musical An Officer and a Gentleman to their first day of rehearsals, ahead of the World Premiere on 18 May, 2012 at the Sydney Lyric Theatre, The Star.

Broadway star and legendary entertainer Donna McKechnie will be heating up two different Florida stages this month, beginning this weekend, where she'll be doing two performances of MY MUSICAL COMEDY LIFE, launching the inaugural season of the new Plaza Theatre in Manalapan, which has been engineered by Florida based Producer, Alan Jacobson.

At a ceremony last night, the winners of the 2011 Sydney Theatre Awards were announced. Over 300 members of the Sydney theatre community packed the auditorium at Paddington RSL to celebrate the best of Sydney theatre throughout 2011.

Tony-Award Winning Star Donna McKechnie Returns to TheatreZone -- Takes on lead role as Marmee in Little Women: The Broadway Musical Broadway star and legendary entertainer Donna McKechnie returns to TheatreZone in Naples, cast as Marmee in Little Women: The Broadway Musical, announced artistic director Mark Danni. Based on Louisa May Alcott's classic novel, the musical follows the adventures of the four remarkable March sisters coming of age during the American Civil War era.

Tony-Award Winning Star Donna McKechnie Returns to TheatreZone -- Takes on lead role as Marmee in Little Women: The Broadway Musical Broadway star and legendary entertainer Donna McKechnie returns to TheatreZone in Naples, cast as Marmee in Little Women: The Broadway Musical, announced artistic director Mark Danni. Based on Louisa May Alcott's classic novel, the musical follows the adventures of the four remarkable March sisters coming of age during the American Civil War era.

On Monday 10th October, the 3rd annual Rob Guest Endowment Concert presented by ANZ Trustees will be held at Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne.

Tony-Award Winning Star Donna McKechnie Returns to TheatreZone -- Takes on lead role as Marmee in Little Women: The Broadway Musical Broadway star and legendary entertainer Donna McKechnie returns to TheatreZone in Naples, cast as Marmee in Little Women: The Broadway Musical, announced artistic director Mark Danni. Based on Louisa May Alcott's classic novel, the musical follows the adventures of the four remarkable March sisters coming of age during the American Civil War era.

Tony-Award Winning Star Donna McKechnie Returns to TheatreZone -- Takes on lead role as Marmee in Little Women: The Broadway Musical Broadway star and legendary entertainer Donna McKechnie returns to TheatreZone in Naples, cast as Marmee in Little Women: The Broadway Musical, announced artistic director Mark Danni. Based on Louisa May Alcott's classic novel, the musical follows the adventures of the four remarkable March sisters coming of age during the American Civil War era.

On Monday 10th October, the 3rd annual Rob Guest Endowment Concert presented by ANZ Trustees will be held at Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne.

You forget just how good the Golden Age of Musical Theatre is when you are saturated by contemporary shows in today's evolving theatre world. Tonight, however, The Production Company's revival of Cole Porter's Anything Goes reminds us of how the foundations of the modern musical were formed and just how strong these foundations were. Anything Goes is a show filled with moments. Moments of love, moments of hilarity, family and comradeship all of which crescendo towards the happy ever after that we are longing for. To get there however, takes great skill. Enter the cast. An all-star cast of Australian musical Theatre royalty is at hand to land each and every one of the desired moments. Todd Mckenny's over-enthusiastic Lord Evelyn Oakleigh is so completely embodied that an initial feeling of 'too much' is soon proven to be a whole heartedly secure character choice. Wayne Scott Kermond as Moonface Martin was dynamic, and full of tricks that had the audience craving more. Further, John O'May and Anne Wood as Elisha Whitney and Evageline Harcourt compliment the show with their experience and poise.