Joanna Murray-Smith Headlines Pennsylvania Avenue Concert, Nov. 13

Five years after the runaway success of Songs for Nobodies, Joanna Murray-Smith, Bernadette Robinson and Simon Phillips team up once again for Pennsylvania Avenue, a brilliant new music theatre work opening Thursday 13 November 2014 at Southbank Theatre, The Sumner.

Bernadette Robinson's renowned power of transformation in evoking the great divas of our time is the stuff of legend. Her sell-out one-woman shows include You Might As Well Leave, Calling all Angels and Patsy Cline: Her Songs, Her Story. In Pennsylvania Avenue, audiences are treated to a new collection of iconic singers whose relationships with the White House spanned concert recitals to friendships, Presidential endorsements to tabloid speculation.

With Bernadette Robinson's unique talent in mind, Joanna Murray-Smith has created a seamless narrative entwined with music that blends show business and political history.

The final box is packed and the door is open, but Harper is not quite ready to leave. Having worked in the East Wing since the first weeks of the Kennedy presidency, there are just too many memories holding her back. For forty years, she watched history being made. And listened to it being made too - all those singers who sang for the President, defining the times while creating their own unforgettable moment.

Joanna Murray-Smith has achieved international success as an Australian playwright. Her work has been nominated for many awards including the Olivier Award for Best Comedy for The Female of the Species. Her other plays include Switzerland; Fury,True Minds; Day One. A Hotel, Evening; The Gift; Rockabye; Ninety; Bombshells; Honour; Redemption; Love Child and the smash-hit, Songs for Nobodies. She has been awarded two Victorian Premier's Literary Awards for Drama, the Braille Book of the Year Award, Edinburgh Fringe First Award 2004 and the London Theatregoers Choice Award. She was also a finalist for the 2006 Miles Franklin Award and was nominated for the 2004 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

Pennsylvania Avenue sees the long-awaited return of former MTC Artistic Director Simon Phillips to MTC's stage. During his twelve year tenure as Artistic Director he directed 60 productions for the Company including Songs for Nobodies, The Importance of Being

Earnest, Hamlet, Richard III, The Drowsy Chaperone, August: Osage County, Ninety, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Visit, Inheritance, The Blue Room, Proof, Life x 3, Bombshells and The Tempest. Across his thirty-year career, his directing credits range from new works, Shakespearean classics, musicals and opera. Simon's musical credits include Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (which had West End and Broadway seasons and is currently touring internationally), the new Australasian version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never

Dies (recently filmed by Universal), The Drowsy Chaperone and High Society (which toured Australia and the UK).

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