It's been 100 years since the death of the Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini. From La Bohème to Turandot, Puccini's operas remain some of the most popular around the world. To explore Puccini's life and legacy, we're joined by musicologist Dr Linda Fairtile and hear performances from two Opera Australia productions.Also, since Hamilton debuted in Australia in 2021, the American founding father has been played by the South African-born, Perth-raised performer Jason Arrow. He's now been in the role for longer than the show's writer and original star, Lin-Manuel Miranda.
In her memoir Oh Miriam!, the British-Australian actress, writer and comedian Miriam Margolyes shares hugely entertaining stories from her life with her trademark wit and disarming candour. This year she brought those stories — and more — to the stage, touring her show Oh Miriam! right across Australia.Former prime minister Paul Keating was one of the great parliamentary performers. His ruthless wit and self-confidence take centre stage in Jonathan Biggins' hugely popular tribute to Keating, The Gospel According to Paul. It's a role that Jonathan — an actor, singer, writer, director and co-creator of The Wharf Revue — has been performing, on and off, for five years.
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William Yang — A life in a slide show
Legendary photographer William Yang has spent decades transforming his photography into captivating live theatre via the medium of the slide show. In his latest performance, Milestone, which is coming to the Sydney Festival and Asia TOPA, Yang shares a lifetime of stories, from his boyhood in Cairns, to his various 'coming-outs', to the freedom — and fear — of life as a gay man in Sydney in the 1970s and 80s.Also, Siegfried & Roy: The Unauthorised Opera tells the duo's dazzling story of fame and tragedy, and we meet actors Brendan Cowell, Ewen Leslie and Toby Schmitz as they compare notes on playing the role of Hamlet.
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How an accident redefined the possibilities of dance
In 1997, Australian dancer Marc Brew's life was changed forever by a devastating car accident that left him paralysed from the chest down. He tells his story in the deeply personal An Accident / A Life. Over the past 27 years, Brew has redefined the possibilities of dance, captivating audiences worldwide with performances and choreography that challenge the boundaries of the art form.On Top Shelf, actor Christie Whelan Browne shares the performances that shaped her, while mixed reality artist Troy Rainbow invites audiences to confront experiences of psychosis through his groundbreaking work.
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Can Kiss Me, Kate be tamed?
The nine-time Tony Award nominee Bartlett Sher has this year directed Robert Downey Jr's Broadway debut and a London revival of Cole Porter's 1948 musical Kiss Me, Kate. Kiss Me, Kate is based upon Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, so how palatable is this controversial musical to a 21st century audience?Also, Wanderings is a new play that delves into the lives of a transgender son and his mother who is living with dementia, and Tracy Letts' Pulitzer Prize-winning play August: Osage County comes to Belvoir St.
Australia