Andrew Lloyd Webber – deborah jones: FollowSpot

‘That’s Norma Desmond, that’s Norma Desmond’: one role in Sunset Blvd., many interpretations

Andrew Lloyd Webber is rarely absent from a stage somewhere and it’s safe to say his work will outlive the scoffers, of whom there are many. Oh well, he can always cry all the way to the bank having landed hits (along with a few misses) for more than 50 years. And just recently there’s…

The Phantom of the Opera

Sydney Opera House, August 26, 2022 One of the stranger side effects of Covid has been Opera Australia’s double dip into The Phantom of the Opera. First up was the Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour extravaganza directed by Simon Phillips earlier this year. Now a new production – new to Australia, at least – has taken…

There’s a bright golden haze on the meadow

In March 2008, when I was still on staff at The Australian, I wrote a piece about musical theatre ahead of an Opera Australia production of My Fair Lady. With OA and John Frost opening The King and I in Brisbane, with Melbourne and Sydney seasons to follow, I pulled it out of the vault. THE golden…

Jesus Christ Superstar

Perth Arena, May 31 JESUS Christ Superstar was the first big musical I saw as an adult so it’s always had a special place in my heart and memory. It was 1972, Sydney’s Capitol Theatre had been smothered in what was then an extremely cool colour, Mission Brown, and Jon English was very, very hot….