Tickets to MTC's LADIES IN BLACK Now on Sale

Melbourne audiences can now start the New Year in song and shimmering style, with the announcement that single tickets for MTC's glamorous new musical Ladies in Black go on sale today.

Ladies in Black arrives in Melbourne after a critically acclaimed season in Brisbane and a standing ovation at its world premiere last month. Adapted from Madeleine St John's novel, The Women in Black, and brought to life by director Simon Phillips with songs by Tim Finn (Split Enz) and book by Carolyn Burns (North by Northwest), this QTC production opens Melbourne Theatre Company's 2016 season on Wednesday 20 January at Southbank Theatre, The Sumner.

Alongside this announcement, single tickets for the much-anticipated Australian premieres of Lungs and The Distance also go on sale today.

Directed by Clare Watson, Lungs is a funny, tender and profound new play by British writer Duncan Macmillan. Bringing our uncertainties and unspoken thoughts about the future into full voice, Lungs stars Kate Atkinson (Wentworth) and Bert LaBonté (Birdland, The Mountaintop), and makes its Australian premiere on Thursday 11 February at Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio.

Drawing similarities to Ibsen's A Doll's House, The Distance by Deborah Bruce is this breezy comedy of big laughs and bigger emotions that takes aim at society's revered view of motherhood. Starring Susan Prior and directed by Leticia Cáceres, this smash-hit from London opens on Thursday 10 March at Southbank Theatre, The Sumner.

Ladies in Black, Lungs and The Distance are the first three shows in MTC's star-studded 2016 season which also features actors Kat Stewart, Shaun Micallef, Colin Friels, Sarah Peirse and Mark Leonard Winter; award-winning directors Kip Williams, Nadia Tass, Peter Houghton, Sarah Goodes and Sam Strong; and writing from Joanna Murray-Smith, Kate Mulvany, Tom Holloway, Young Jean Lee, Ayad Akhtar, David Hare and Neil Simon.

Single tickets for Ladies in Black, Lungs and The Distance are now available online and from the Southbank Theatre Box Office. Subscriptions and mini-packages for MTC's Season 2016 are also available and single tickets for all remaining productions go on sale on Tuesday 8 March 2016.

For more information about MTC Season 2016 or to book tickets go to mtc.com.au/2016.