Jo Davies News

Bright, bold and brilliantly fun, Frank Loesser’s (Music and Lyrics), Jo Swerling (Book) and Abe Burrows’ (Book) Tony Award Winning GUYS AND DOLLS delights audiences for Opera Australia’s annual Handa Opera On Sydney Harbour “event theatre” offering.

This week’s theatre news highlights key shifts in leadership, policy, and industry trends. From calls for cultural organizations to expand their audiences to the reintroduction of legislation supporting performing artists, financial sustainability remains a pressing theme. On Broadway, Hell’s Kitchen earns a GRAMMY, while Sardi’s prepares to welcome back Broadway Bets. Leadership changes at the Kennedy Center, Syracuse Stage, and Soulpepper Theatre signal transitions across major institutions, and international headlines bring further challenges, including the cancellation of Coraline and Opera Australia’s ongoing turmoil. As the industry navigates these developments, adaptation and advocacy remain at the forefront.

Just nine months into her tenure and partway through her inaugural season as Opera Australia Artistic Director, acclaimed British director Jo Davies has left the post effective immediately. 

Opera Holland Park close out another acclaimed season with a rollicking Yeomen Of The Guard.

Opera Australia has announced a new production of the iconic musical Guys & Dolls for Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour in 2025, that will transport audiences to 1950's Manhattan, a colourful and glamorous world filled with showgirls and gangsters, set against Sydney's glittering skyline.

Hadestown will make its Australian premiere at Theatre Royal Sydney in February 2025. Learn more and see how to purchase tickets.

Previews begin tonight, April 24, for Illinoise, the theatrical adaptation of Grammy- and Oscar-nominated Sufjan Stevens’ concept album Illinois. Performances will continue through August 10 at the St. James Theatre. Meet the cast of Illinoise here!

Opera Australia (OA) has announced its 2024 Sydney Summer Season with guest Creative Director Lindy Hume presenting five Sydney Opera House premieres, having been invited by CEO Fiona Allan to curate the season.

This Autumn, the English National Opera (ENO) presents the first production of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Yeomen of the Guard in the company's history.

This November, Tony and Olivier Award-winning stage and screen actor and musician Richard McCabe makes his operatic debut in the English National Opera's (ENO) first production of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Yeomen of the Guard.

The English National Opera (ENO) announces its 2022/23 Main Stage Season. The ENO's 2022/23 Season features nine main stage productions at the London Coliseum: seven new productions and two revivals.

Welsh National Opera has announced full details of its Autumn 2021 Season which features a new production of Puccini’s Madam Butterfly and WNO’s much-loved production of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. A series of digital talks and events to explore the themes of Madam Butterfly are also planned. 

In this episode of In The (Home) Office, Donna Lynn will check in with Nick Butcher, Tom Ling and Joe White who developed their new musical at Goodspeed's 2020 Johnny Mercer Colony. Tune in to learn more about their project and hear song or two. 

Musical theatre podcast 'Piece by Piece' explored the iconic musical Carousel in its latest episode, released today, Tuesday 21 April.

In what has become an annual ritual, a total of 40 established and emerging composers, lyricists, and librettists will converge on the Goodspeed campus from mid-January through mid-February 2020 to participate in the Johnny Mercer Foundation Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals. The writing teams, representing 15 new musicals, will populate the campus, creating a truly exciting environment for discovery and inspiration.

This October will mark Birmingham Hippodrome's official 120th birthday. To celebrate, the greatest show on earth will come to the city centre with a range of free performances and workshops honouring the theatre's origins as a circus.

Under Sarah Frankcom's Artistic Directorship the Royal Exchange Theatre has been redefined, reimagined and reframed. It has explored classic texts in new and radical ways, celebrated the vitality and significance of new writing, embraced new ways to talk to audiences and engage communities and supported theatre makers to challenge their own practice.

Cole Porter's 1948 love letter to showbiCole Porter's 1948 love letter to showbiz is brilliantly served by Opera North's big, bold and bawdy production - both soaringly romantic and packed with meta winks. A touring staple, Jo Davies' detailed take (the revival helmed by Ed Goggin) beds down very comfortably in the London Coliseum.

Molto spesso noi miseri e incompresi amanti del musical ci lamentiamo di non riuscire a volare fino a Londra o a New York per assistere alle grandi produzioni, a causa di mancanza di tempo e di denaro. Quest'anno pero il Ravenna Festival, giunto alla sua diciannovesima edizione, ha deciso di fare un regalo agli appassionati del genere, portando sul palco del Teatro Alighieri la compagnia inglese Opera North.

Oh, what a beautiful evening in West Horsley! Grange Park Opera open their 2018 summer festival season with Rogers and Hammerstein's vintage musical (the first of its kind in 1943), set in the farming heartlands of America.