Following a recent run at the Sydney Lyric Theatre and ongoing performances at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne, Global Creatures have announced that Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom the Musical will have the next leg of its Australian tour in Brisbane at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC). This run will begin in September 2015 at QPAC’s Lyric Theatre for a currently undisclosed period of time. This is the same venue which has hosted musicals including The Lion King and Wicked.
This new production is being managed by the original creative team behind the classic 1992 film including: director and co-writer Baz Luhrmann, set and costume designer Catherine Martin, choreographer John “Cha Cha” O’Connell and co-writer Craig Pearce. Featuring an Australian cast of 43, major performers include Thomas Lacey and Phoebe Panaretos as Scott Hastings and Fran, Bob Baines as Les Kendall, Drew Forsythe as Doug Hastings, Natalie Gamsu as Abuela, Robert Grubb as Barry Fife, Fernando Mira as Rico, Heather Mitchell as Shirley Hastings and Mark Owen-Taylor as JJ Silvers.
This cast will act and sing their way through many original classics from the film such as Love is in the Air, Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps and Time After Time. New songs by artists such as Eddie Perfect and Sia will also seek to provide something fresh for newcomers and those familiar with Strictly Ballroom.
If this sounds interesting to you, QPAC will be opening ticket sales for Strictly Ballroom the Musical starting March 2nd 2015. For now, you can add yourself to a waitlist via the QPAC website.
Baz Luhrmann | Director of Strictly Ballroom the Musical
From a small student play to my first motion picture and now a full-blown theatrical stage musical, Strictly Ballroom has been an almost thirty year journey for me. I have often marvelled at how this story, born so long ago, has been in my life for so many years and has managed to touch, move, entertain and uplift so many different people from so many different backgrounds.
I think the simple truth is that, despite all the sequins, outrageous hairdos and classic Hollywood musical plotting, the simple message that ‘there isn’t only one way to cha cha cha’ and that ‘within us all we have the true potential to dance through life with our own steps’, is something that appeals to all of us. The message that life doesn’t have to be strictly ballroom is something I hope our audiences will carry with them as they dance down the aisles.
Carmen Pavlovic | CEO of Global Creatures
It’s a proud and thrilling collaboration for Global Creatures to be in partnership with Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin. This musical production has been conceived with the community in mind and the decision to premiere the show in Australia was born out of a desire to bring Strictly Ballroom full circle to where it all began.
We are delighted to be bringing the show to Brisbane and we can’t wait for Queenslanders to experience this brand new Australian production and to reconnect with the story of Strictly Ballroom live on stage.
