Press Release

Free Opera Australia Performance And Special Ticket Offer In Melbourne

Feature-La Bohème

Opera Australia is bringing the romance and drama of opera to the heart of Melbourne, with a free performance at Emporium Melbourne on Tuesday 10 November at 1pm, plus an exclusive $70 ticket offer for all who join on the day.

Taking place at Emporium’s Lonsdale Street entrance, the pop-up performance will feature a selection of Opera Australia’s Principal Artists performing highlights from the company’s much anticipated new production of La Bohème that has its world premiere at the Regent Theatre next month.

A brilliant line up of singers includes Italian soprano Valeria Sepe, alongside soprano Jane Ede, tenor Iain Henderson and bass David Parkin.

As celebrations continue for Opera Australia’s 70th anniversary, anyone who turns up on the day will be eligible for $70 tickets to see a full performance of La Bohème.

Included in the offer is a limited number of A, B and C Reserve seats for weekday performances at Regent Theatre, available exclusively in-person on the day and capped at two tickets per person.

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One of the world’s most beloved operas, this breathtaking new production of La Bohème by visionary Australian director Constantine Costi is set in a snow-kissed Paris. A sumptuous, painting-inspired staging brings the opera’s bohemian world to life with hand-painted scenery and beautifully crafted costumes and sets, sung by some of Opera Australia’s finest singers.

No booking needed for the pop-up performance, simply turn up at Emporium Melbourne and secure your spot to enjoy a taste of Opera Australia’s La Bohème, playing at Melbourne’s Regent Theatre from 7–18 November.

Bookings: Opera Australia Box Office (03) 9685 3700 | www.opera.org.au

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From Director’s Choice Award In Geelong To Debut In Western Australia, Get Ready For Sugar Bits Is Feminist Trash 2027

Feature-Feminist Trash

WOMEN CAN BE ANYTHING – INCLUDING BEING GLORIOUSLY, SHAMELESSLY STUPID

DIRECTOR’S CHOICE AWARD – GEELONG COMEDY FESTIVAL Winners 2026. GREEN ROOM AWARDS Nominees 2026. GOLDEN GIBBO Nominees 2025. THE NEXT ACT FUND RECIPIENT 2027

★★★★★ “Steph, Nic, and Tess are an absolute force of nature” Binge Fringe
★★★★1/2 “Insightful and fresh takes on rhetoric that has inspired activists for decades” InDaily
★★★★ “Full of cheek, good times and irresistible energy” The List
★★★★ “As bitingly satirical as it is silly” Time Out Melbourne

Feature-Feminist Trash

WA, THURSDAY 5 NOVEMBER 2026: Who decides the benchmark of feminism? Society does what the individual thinks is right, but not everyone is doing the emotional labour for the men around them or living in the trenches raising children. Certainly not Steph, Nic and Tess, who are unmarried twenty-somethings doing the best they can.

Recently taking out the top award at Geelong Comedy Festival, Sugar Bits are Feminist Trash is smeared with socio-political grime and idiocy. It is about how trashy we can be as activists. The trio say, ‘We’re not perfect and have plenty of nights when we can’t even bring ourselves to take the bins out.’ Life is messy. Life is stinky. Life is trashy.

Sure, some feminists do need to lift their game, like the show’s pro-life Pentecostal priest’s daughter who thinks she’s helping and the potato sack-wearing whistle-blowing witch burner. Do we judge them? We’re trying not to, but we do. Supported and funded by ARTRAGE, Sugar Bits encourage conversations with ridiculous comedy, absurd sketches, characters and razor-sharp songs that validate the feminist experience, such as the fan-favourite hillbilly earworm ‘The Feminism Left My Body When…’

They say, ‘We laugh at the fact that we’re not perfect, because if we’re trying to be perfect, surely we’re doing the work of the patriarchy.’

FRINGEWORLD
20-31 January 2027 (10 shows)
The Pleasure Garden – The Hat Trick (Russell Square, Northbridge)
9:20pm $21 – $45
Tickets on sale now at: https://fringeworld.com.au/fringefeed/events/sugar-bits-are-feminist-trash-fw2027

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Come Alive: The Greatest Showman Circus Spectacular Opens In Adelaide Tomorrow

Feature-COME ALIVE! The Greatest Showman Circus Spectacular

‘COME ALIVE!’ The Greatest Showman Circus Spectacular has arrived in Adelaide and will delight audiences from tomorrow at the Morphettville Racecourse. This is the third stop on the production’s Australian tour which has already delighted fans across Sydney and Perth. Following its six week run in Adelaide the spectacular will then move on to Brisbane before farewelling Australia in Melbourne in early 2027.

Performed beneath a purpose-built Hippodrome, this all-ages spectacular reimagines Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s iconic soundtrack from the 20th Century Fox motion picture like never before—live, loud and breathtakingly close, with world-class circus artistry, dazzling visuals and electrifying performances.

Since its Australian premiere in May in Sydney, COME ALIVE! has become a must-see favourite, bringing to life beloved anthems including This Is Me, Rewrite the Stars and A Million Dreams.

Leading the all-Australian cast of actors, singers, dancers and acrobats Des Flanagan (CATS, Moulin Rouge!) as The Showman and Ruby Clark (The Lord of the Rings) as Max have won over audiences along with the local and international circus sensations responsible for bringing this internationally acclaimed production to life.

David Hutchinson, CEO of The Path Entertainment Group said: “After an ongoing sellout run in the UK, we have been thrilled to see Australian audiences so warmly and enthusiastically embrace COME ALIVE! We look forward to performing for Adelaide on the next stop on our national tour after being so warmly welcomed by fans new and old in both Sydney and Perth.”

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At the helm of the production is Drama Desk award-winning Creative Director Simon Hammerstein (Masquerade, a bold new immersive production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera; Usher’s sold-out ‘My Way’ Las Vegas Residency; and Queen of the Night). The creative team behind the production and its expansion consists of Music Producer and Olivier Award-nominated Matthew Brind (Paddington 2, Just For One Day, Legally Blonde – West End), Choreographers Jerry Reeve (Taylor Swift, The Queen’s Jubilee Platinum Party At The Palace) and Lukas McFarlane (Strictly Come Dancing, So You Think You Can Dance?, The X Factor), Emmy Award-nominated Lighting Designer Adam Bassett for Woodroffe Bassett Design (The Rolling Stones – ‘SIXTY’ Tour 2022, London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony, Adele – Live), Set Designer Ruby Law (Billie Eilish, Jorja Smith, the Royal Albert Hall, Sadler’s Wells Theatre), Costume Designer Susan Kulkarni (The Peripheral, Silence, Dirty Dancing – Secret Cinema), Co-Musical supervisor Greg Arrowsmith and Technical Consultancy by Gary Beestone Associates.

‘COME ALIVE!’ The Greatest Showman Circus Spectacular is inspired by the 20th Century Fox Motion Picture The Greatest Showman story by Jenny Bicks and songs by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. ‘COME ALIVE!’ The Greatest Showman Circus Spectacular in Australia is produced by Showpath Entertainment Ltd by special arrangement with Outside The Box Amusements and TSG Entertainment.

Tickets are on sale now at comealiveshow.com.au

‘COME ALIVE!’ The Greatest Showman Circus Spectacular 2026/27 remaining Australian Dates:
Adelaide – From 29 October 2026, at the Morphettville Racecourse
Brisbane – From 23 Dec 2026, at Royal Queensland Golf Course
Melbourne – 25 Feb 2027, at Caulfield Racecourse

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From A New York Loft To The Sydney Stage: Patrick Kennedy Brings Richard Foreman’s Radical Theatre To Life

Feature-PARADISE HOTEL

The first production of Foreman’s work anywhere in the world since his death in 2025, PARADISE HOTEL draws on an eleven-year friendship and features original artwork by his wife and longtime collaborator, Kate Manheim.

For more than a decade, British-Australian theatre director Patrick Kennedy visited Richard Foreman in his New York loft. They talked about theatre, Kennedy’s productions and the future of the American playwright’s uncompromising work in the hands of someone other than Foreman himself.

This December, those conversations find new expression at KXT on Broadway, where Kennedy directs, designs and produces PARADISE HOTEL, his tenth production of a Foreman play.

Running 4–19 December, with previews from 4 December and opening night on 10 December, the production brings one of American theatre’s most distinctive voices to an intimate Sydney stage.

Foreman, who died in 2025, spent five decades making theatre that disrupted the habits of both performers and audiences. The founder of New York’s Ontological-Hysteric Theatre and a MacArthur Fellow, he created a world of startling images, fractured dialogue and sudden sensory interruptions. His productions were defined by being funny, maddening, beautiful and disorienting. Often at once.

Kennedy knew Foreman for eleven years and developed his productions with the playwright’s encouragement. PARADISE HOTEL continues that sustained engagement with his work, following Kennedy’s Sydney production of SOPHIA=(WISDOM): THE CLIFFS in 2024.

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The production also features original artwork by Kate Manheim, Foreman’s wife and a defining performer in his theatre before turning her attention to visual art. Her contribution brings another of Foreman’s closest artistic collaborators into this Sydney staging.

In PARADISE HOTEL, desire promises paradise and delivers panic. A group of characters hurtles towards a mythical hotel, only to discover the brazen Hotel Fuck. Its apparent opposite, the sentimental Hotel Beautiful Roses, proves equally terrifying. Pursued by human bouquets of red roses, they ricochet between lust, romance and alarm.

Violent vaudevillian comedy, a jarring soundscape and delirious philosophical language turn their predicament into a theatrical assault on the search for satisfaction.

Kennedy says: “With his unbridled endorsement, I am delighted to present Richard Foreman’s controversial work PARADISE HOTEL in Sydney. He wanted to take a sledgehammer to theatrical convention, and I’m looking forward to smashing it to smithereens in December. I’d like Sydney audiences to walk out baffled, laughing and arguing about it.”

PARADISE HOTEL
By Richard Foreman
Directed and designed by Patrick Kennedy
Produced by Patrick Kennedy Theatre Machine
Cast: James Collins, Finn Couzner, Brock Cramond, Lucinda Jurd, Sam Martin, Luke Visentin, Seth Rafael Barrun, Zachary Bandiera-Dunn, Georgia Da Silva, Liam Dundon and Lara Kocsis
KXT on Broadway, 181 Broadway, Ultimo NSW 2007
Season: 4 to 19 December 2026
Previews 4-9 December, 7.30pm
Opening Night: 10 December, 7.30pm
Performances: 11 to 19 December, Tue-Sat 7.30pm
Tickets: https://events.humanitix.com/paradise-hotel

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