2017s major production:
INTO THE WOODS
With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine, Into the Woods has been an audience favourite for decades, and Western Arts Theatre was incredibly proud to present this new production at The Clocktower Centre. Intertwining the plots of several Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault fairy tales, and exploring the consequences of the characters’ wishes and quests, Into the Woods is a theatrical experience for the young and young-at-heart. This is all tied together by a story involving a childless baker and his wife, and their quest to begin a family, their interaction with a witch who has placed a curse on them, and their interaction with other storybook characters during their journey. It also examines the moral consequences of having your wishes granted, and what happens after “happily ever after”.
2017’s minor show : XYZ.
XYZ was an original work by Frankie Guida and Alexandra Karaoutsadis, with musical arrangements by Kelly Trenery.
This is a song cycle show featuring songs by artists including Ed Sheeran, Demi Lovato, as well as musical numbers from ‘Waitress’ and ‘School of Rock’, amongst others.With a perfect combination of heart and soul, XYZ showed two scenes that played as one, mirroring each other and showing how something that happened to us as children or teenagers can help us grow as adults.
XYZ was a show that was all about life, and how you learn from your experiences.
2016’s Major Production: Annie, presented to timeless broadway classic. In the depths of the 1930’s, Annie is a fiery young orphan girl who must live in a miserable orphanage run by the tyrannical Miss Hannigan. Her seemingly hopeless situation changes dramatically when she is selected to spend a short time at the residence of the wealthy munitions industrialist, Oliver Warbucks.
2016’s Cabaret: Love Me Not, WAT aimed to spotlight the unrequited, the underexplored, the over explored. Leave your unbroken hearts, your power ballads of devotion and “I just met the one of my dreams” songs at home. Give us the bitterness, the anger and carnality that love reveals in us all.
Loosely based on Puccini’s opera La Boheme, Rent tells the story of a group of impoverished friends struggling to survive and create in New York’s gritty Alphabet City in 1991. Over the course of one year, Rent follows these starving artists as they strive for success and acceptance while enduring the obstacles of poverty, illness, impending gentrification and the AIDS epidemic.
Rent by Jonathan Larson
July 2015 – Union House Theatre – University of Melbourne
Our very first cabaret. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly debuted, showcasing the vast variety of musical theatre. As a new company, we aimed to give our audience different tastes of musical theatre, showcasing our newly found talent and what our audiences could be in store for during the next few years of production. A sold out event!!
Western Arts Theatre INC. 