Xanadu Cast Announcement

Rising Musical Theatre superstar Christie Whelan has landed her first lead in a large scale commercial musical.
Whelan will play Kirra in the 2011 Melbourne production of Xanadu.
Also starring in the show are Sam Ludeman, as Sonny, Ally Fowler, as Melpomene/Medusa, Susan-Ann Walker as Calliope/Aphrodite, and John McTernan as Danny Maguire/Zeus.

Xanadu opens on Docklands in Melbourne on Thursday the 3rd of March 2011.

Rock of Ages Casting

The cast for the 2011 Melbourne production of Rock of Ages has been announced this afternoon by Producers.

The cast includes Justin Burford from the band End of Fashion as Drew and Amy Lehpamer as Sherrie.

The rest of the cast include:

Regina - Francine Cain
Justice - Rachel Dunham
Joey Primo - Alex Ellis
Stacee Jaxx - Michael Falzon
Franz - Lincoln Hall
Dennis - Anthony Harkin
Constance - Mel Hawkins
Lonny - Brent Hill
Angel - Ellen Sutton
Hertz - David Whitney

Ensemble - Thern Reynolds, Rachel Bickerton, Brendan Coustley, Samm Hagen, Shaye Hopkins, John O'Hara and Jensen Overend.

The production opens in Melbourne's Comedy Theatre in April 2011, with tickets going on pre-sale through Ticketmaster at 6:30pm tonight AEST with the password ROCKON

The baby is unnaturally GREEN

The Musicals Insider would like to extend our congratulations to former Elphaba Amanda Harrison. Amanda has given birth to a healthy and presumably not green baby boy, Max, on the 9th of November.

Full Doctor Zhivago Cast

The full ensemble cast of Doctor Zhivago has been announced today.

As well as the previously reported principals, the ensemble includes:

Johanna Allen, Gavin Andrew, Anton Berezin, Caitlin Berry, Tony Cogin, Todd Goddard, Natalie Gamsu, Frank Hansen, Scott Hili, Glenn Hill, Luke Joslin, Todd Keys, Ben Lewis, Elise McCann, Kathleen Moore, Shaun Murphy, Chris Scalzo, Annie Stanford, Belinda Wollaston and Jamie Ward.

You Can't Stop the Beat. Or can you?

Hairspray the musical has this week discovered that with great technological innovation comes great technological failure. This Tuesday the 26th of October's performance has to be cancelled at the absolute last minute. The audience was sitting in their seats waiting for the performance to commence when Trevor Ashley walked onstage in full Edna costume, announcing that evening's performance could not go on. One of the three giant LED screens was not working, so the show was forced to be cancelled. Theatre-goers were understandably not happy, with many thinking it was a joke until the doors were opened, and many others swamping the bars for refunds on drinks and snacks.
A full refund or rescheduling into another show of their choice has been offered to all patrons.

More on Dr. Z

This morning at Melbourne's Sofitel Hotel, Producer John Frost announced more details about his new show, Doctor Zhivago.

Rounding out the cast will be Lucy Maunder as Lara, Taneel Van Zyl as his wife Tonia, Martin Crewes as Pasha Antipov, Bartholomew John as Viktor Komarovsky, Peter Carrol as Alexander and Trisha Nobel as Anna.

The Melbourne date was also announced as April 9th at Her Majesty's Theatre.

More on Love Never Dies

The full creative team for Love Never Dies is as follows:

Director: Simon Phillips
Choreographer: Graeme Murphy
Musical Supervisor: Guy Simpson
Associate Director: Rainer Fried
Associate Choreographer: Janet Vernon

Audition dates are as follows:

First Round: Melbourne - October 25-28, Sydney October 29-November 3rd

Second Round: Sydney November 15-16, Melbourne 17th-20th

Final Round: Sydney 22nd-25th November, Melbourne 26-27 November


Rehearsals commence at the start of April with the season commencing from May.

The production will be touring to other Australian cities.