Stage

The Showcase cinema at the Brisbane Regent was denied heritage listing because it was deemed to lack "original" features.

However, during the demolition of the cinema to make way for an office tower, it's been revealed that much of the fabric WAS original.

The Brisbane Times has the story here.

It's a case of two down, one to go for Ladies' Comedy Night at the Sit Down Comedy Cub at the Paddington Tavern.

Mel Buttle joined MC Katrina Davidson on stage last Sunday, and on December 11 it'll be Fiona McGary's turn to headline. Rumour has it that B105's Stav Davidson (nepotism alert: he is related to Kat by marriage) will be making a guest appearance as the token male in the show.

Even if Stav, who is busy raising fund for the station's Children's Hospital Appeal this week, is a no-show, it's no reason not to go. Last week's crowd, including some familiar voices from Brisbane radio, had a hoot.

Details are here.

The Queensland Theatre Company has announced the appointment of Sue Donnelly to the position of executive director.

Ms Donnelly, currently executive director of the Australian Major Performing Arts Group (AMPAG), will relocate from Sydney to take the reins at the QTC from February 20.

“Ms Donnelly brings to QTC strength in strategic planning and policy, leadership and entrepreneurial skills, hands-on management expertise, an exemplary track record in advocacy, high level producing experience, and a widespread arts network, nationally and internationally,” QTC chairman Professor Richard Fotheringham said today in a media statement.

“Her appointment to QTC consolidates the company’s position at the forefront of Australia’s performing arts – after the appointment of Wesley Enoch as artistic director in June last year and the unveiling of Season 2012 to much acclaim,” he said.

Prof Fotheringham said the international search for the position was prompted earlier this year when the incumbent, Libby Anstis, announced her resignation after eight years in the position.

“Under Libby’s stewardship, QTC’s national touring reputation was assured. We now have purpose-built new workshop facilities, and have significantly increased the number of young people and students attending.”

Ms Donnelly said: “Queensland holds a covetable position on the Australian arts landscape. There is an amazing amount of creativity, energy and talent.”

“I am delighted to be part of the highly regarded Queensland Theatre Company and look forward to creating extraordinary and stimulating theatre with the team at QTC and artistic director Wesley Enoch.”

Can your dog walk on stage, jump on a chaise lounge and be sung to? Melinda Schneider is holding auditions for a canine cast member for her show, Doris - So Much More than the Girl Next Door, which will play at Brisbane's Twelfth Night Theatre next month.

If your dog's got the chops to appear alongside somebody playing Doris Day, take it along an open audition on Tuesday, November 15, at 10:30am in the foyer of the theatre at 4 Cintra Rd, Bowen Hills.

Queensland Theatre Company artistic director Wesley Enoch launched his first season with a bang yesterday - literally, by firing off a starting pistol. Enoch put his stamp on the occasion - a subscribers' launch at the QPAC Playhouse - from the outset, with a video ostensibly showing him running late for the event (although eagle-eyed attendees would have spotted in the foyer beforehand) before a grand entrance on stage.

First among the on-stage guests at the launch was Christen O'Leary, who has returned to live in Brisbane after carving out a successful stage career in Melbourne. O'Leary sang beautifully and spoke about her one-woman show, Bombshells, written by Joanna Murray Smith.

The season also includes the Belvoir Street revival of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll; Shakepeare's Romeo and Juliet, directed by Jennifer Flowers; an adaption of Dario Fo's Elizabeth, Almost By Chance a Woman, starring Carol Burns; Alana Valentine's Head Full of Love, starring Colette Mann and Roxanne McDonald; Matthew Ryan's Kelly, which focuses both on bushranger Ned and his brother Dan, who allegedly escaped to Queensland in the aftermath of the last stand at Glenrowan; and David Williamson's Managing Carmen, about a cross-dressing footballer.

QTC subscribers will get preferential booking opportunities for Stephen page's Blood Land and the Brisbane season of the stage version of British comedy Yes, Prime Minister. Details are here.

Stage and screen actress Googie Withers has died at the age of 94. I fondly remember seeing Googie and her late husband John McCallum peforming as angels looking back on their distinguished and glamorous careers at QPAC in Brisbane a decade or more ago. I can't remember the name of the show, though. Can anybody help?

The fourth and final episode of the Eddie McGuire-hosted sport quiz Between the Lines has gone to air on Australian television. It's the third show starring the former "golden boy" and onetime CEO of Channel 9 to get the chop this year. The others were Million Dollar Drop and This Is Your Life, which may return as a series of specials later in the year. (The Courier-Mail's Geoff Shearer has the details, here.)

While McGuire's Hot Seat continues to perform well in the 5.30pm slot, executives and shareholders at Nine must be questioning their star's long-presumed status as one of the network's solid-gold drawcards. While the exact details are secret, McGuire is reported to be on a very lucrative long-term contract, and he presumably gets paid handsomely whether he's on the air or not. Right now, the question is: should the man who also hosts a relatively-low-rating breakfast show on Melbourne's Triple M radio station and runs AFL club Collingwood be permanently benched by the TV network?

It could, of course, be argued that the "vehicles" (i.e. the shows) were flawed and it wasn't McGuire's fault that they all failed to live up to expectations. It could also be said they they weren't given a proper chance to find their audience (we all know stories of classic TV shows that took a couple of series to hit their groove). But, then again, it could also be argued that Hot Seat is a winning formula and it would be a success no matter who was hosing it.

From a business perspective -- and that's the way Nine management has to look at things, not least beause it is considering a float -- McGuire would seem to be a liability who doesn't deliver sufficient "bang for the buck". But he's not the only one in the broadcasting industry.

It's very common for TV and radio stations to pay way over the odds (and well beyond market rate) to hang on to certain talent -- if only to keep them away from other neworks. Earlier this year, after rumours he was in talks with Channel 9, the Seven Network reportedly upped the annual salary of The Morning Show's Larry Emdur to "well in excess of $800,000 a year". The Sunday Herald Sun quoted a Seven source as saying the deal "set a dangerous precedent".

It's about here, I suppose, that I should make some sort of comment about what heart surgeons, nurses, teachers, police and fire officers etc. are earning for the very important work they do, but we can take that as read. The fact is that TV stations are commercial enterprises, and it's entirely a matter for the owners of those businesses to decide how much they want to spend and how much they want to earn from their investment.

My real concern is that because they always take the "safe" option of using the same talent on air and off -- how many opportunities are there for first-time writers and producers, for example? -- television is becoming blander and viewers are deprived the opportunity to see something genuinely new and exciting.

Thank goodness, then, for the theatre and the internet -- and for all-too-rare initiatives such as Andrew Denton's $30,000 "disfellowship" for an emerging screenwriter. The TV execs would do well to note that the new ideas -- the ones that will make them money in the future -- are not all coming through the traditional channels.

Cirque du Soleil is returning to Australian next year, with a fresh production of Saltimbanco, the show that introduced Australians to the Cirque experience 12 years ago. Rather than under the big top, it'll be in theatre mode at entertainment centres. Dates include Perth in April, Melbourne in May and Brisbane and Sydney in July. Tickets on sale October 18. Details here.

It's great news for Brisbane theatregoers that Wicked! will finally open at the Lyric Theatre in January next year. But that will be two-and-a-half years after its Australian premiere in Melbourne -- in which time, according to its producers, it has played 866 shows seen by more than a million people. In other words, the lion's share of the return from the show in terms of arts tourism dollars has gone into the Victorian coffers and, to a lesser extent, to NSW. Of course, if Brisbane had another large venue -- say a renovated Regent Theatre -- such big shows could be debuting in Queensland, rather than coming in at the end of their run after the diehard fans have already spent up big on package tours to see them.

Birch Carroll and Coyle's lease on the Brisbane Regent is coming to end, culminating with a farewell on June 6. The details are on the poster below. Attend the event, but please remember that the fight to Save the Regent goes on.

There's an interesting article here at brisbanetimes.com.au about the tenth anniversary of the Brisbane Powerhouse. There's no doubt that the Powerhouse is a great asset to Brisbane, and it's deservedly cherished by many arts lovers. But it is limited in its ability to cater to the broader population of the city for several reasons, including the fact that its main auditorium can hold only about 500 people. Brisbane has many small venues, and exciting things are happening not just at the Powerhouse, but at the Metro Arts, the Judith Wright Centre, the Brisbane Arts Theatre and elsewhere - but, let's be honest, a lot of what happens in these place is for niche audiences with already well-honed theatrical tastes. For the performing arts to truly flourish, Brisbane now needs another large venue that can handle an open-ended run of a big commercial production. The more people who have the chance to see professional live theatre at a high standard, the more theatregoers we will have - and the more people who might just take a chance on seeing at a show in a smaller venue. First-time theatregoers are unlikely to wander in to see an independent production the Powerhouse or the Judy; but they might just go see the Australian premiere of a big musical at, say, a restored Regent Theatre and eventually develop a taste for less mainstream fare. This is one "trickle-down effect" that might actually work.

In the late-1990s, I saw Earl Okin at an arts festival in Hong Kong. About three years ago, he was lined up to perform in Brisbane as part of an Australian tour to coincide with the release of his album, and I was scheduled to interview him for the Sunday Mail. However, the tour and the interview were cancelled. Now I'm pleased to discover that Okin will perform at the Brisbane Cabaret Festival from June 16-26. He'll be at the Judith Wright Centre on opening night, and if he's anywhere near as good as he was a decade ago, he'll be well worth seeing. The festival bill also includes performances by Ross Wilson and John Waters, Denise Scott and Bob Downe. Details here.

The man who starred as popular Brisbane children's entertainer Danny O'Dibble is backing the campaign to Save the Regent theatre. Actor-singer Darryl Boyd, who played O'Dibble on stage and on the former Channel 0 (now 10) in the 1970s, now lives on the Sunshine Coast. But he came to Brisbane for a nostalgic visit to the Regent, remembering the night of the farewell concert for the venue before the original large auditorium was split into four cinemas in the early 1980s. Darryl says he was the last act on an all-star bill at the concert and he sang Send in the Clowns as the curtain came down. "The only problem was that they'd started serving champagne in the foyer, so there weren't too many people left to hear me," he recalled with a smile. Darryl supports the notion that the Showcase theatre should all be preserved as it is or restored into a much-needed second large multipurpose theatre venue. "I always said that the Regent should be Brisbane's Opera House," he told me.

The Brisbane Times reports that there's support for Geoffrey Rush to replace the retiring Michael Gow at the helm of the Queensland Theatre Company. Of course, it's a brilliant idea. But would Rush forgo his Hollywood career and gigs on Broadway and the southern stage to run a Brisbane-based company? Maybe he could do it if, like Cate Blanchett at the Sydney Theatre Company, he enlisted a co-artistic director to be there when he couldn't be. In Blanchett's case, it's her husband, playwright Andrew Upton.
PS. As reported by Brisbane Times, critic Sue Gough's shortlist includes QTC assistant director Jon Halpin and husband-wife team Helen Howard and Michael Futcher. I'd throw Jean-Marc Russ into the mix, too. Mind you, I don't know who has applied for the job.
PPS: Rush is, of course, a great supporter of the Save the Regent campaign.

I saw Wild World, the Cat Stevens tribute at the Twelfth Night Theatre in Brisbane, and can recommend it thoroughly. While not impersonating Stevens (now, of course, known as Yusaf Islam), British singer-guitarist Paul Dillon performs the great songwriter's catalouge and links the music with some interesting facts and anecdotes. It closes on Saturday. And his backup band is brilliant. Meanwhile, on the local theatre front, April 10 will be opening night at the Arts Theatre of The Tasmanian Babes Fiasco, the sequel to He Died with a Felafel in his Hand, written by Simon Bedak and based on the book by Brisbane's own John Birmingham. The show will be directed by Natalie Bochenski, who works as a journalist at 4BC and successfully moonlights in the worlds of theatre and improvisational comedy. Here's a teaser video for the show: