Winner of six Tony Awards and 2015 Olivier Award winner for Best Musical Revival, City of Angels is set to thrill and delight Melbourne audiences when it plays at the Playhouse – Arts Centre Melbourne for four shows only from 5 November 2015.
Produced by Life Like Company, this new Australian production of City of Angels is directed by the award-winning director Martin Croft with musical direction by Kellie Dickerson, choreography by Kelly Aykers, and stars Kane Alexander, Amanda Harrison, Anton Berezin and Chelsea Plumley – all of whom are truly some of Australia’s most incredible musical theatre talent.
This production also features Troy Sussman, Rohan Browne and Anne Wood alongside a wonderful supporting cast including Hannah Fredericksen, Andrew Kroenert, Melissa Langton, Jennifer Peers and Adam Fiorentino.
On its Broadway debut, City Of Angels won 6 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical and was also winner of the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival earlier this year. With a wonderful jazz score by Cy Coleman, sizzling lyrics from David Zippel and book by acclaimed comic screenwriter Larry Gelbart (M*A*S*H, Tootsie) it makes for a witty and glorious celebration of film noir and includes the songs, You Can Always Count on Me and I’m Nothing Without You.
With a liberal touch of femme fatale and hilarious comedy, the City of Angels double feature weaves together two plots unfolding at once, the “real” world of New York ‘hack’ novelist, Stine (Anton Berezin), and his fictional alter-ego in the “reel” world, private eye “Stone” (Kane Alexander).
Stine is lured to Los Angeles with the promise of turning his crime novel City of Angels into a Hollywood blockbuster, while struggling to balance his relationship with his wife, Gabby (Chelsea Plumley) and his overbearing producer Buddy Fidler (Troy Sussman). Each movie scene that Stine writes comes to life on stage, bringing double the laughter and intrigue for the audience.
In the black and white movie plot, Alaura Kingsley (Anne Wood), wife of a millionaire, enlists the services of Stone to find her step-daughter Mallory (Hannah Fredericksen), who has gone missing. Things get steamy when Detective Stone finds Mallory in the most unlikely of places: his bedroom. Stine’s characters become embroiled in a larger-than-life mystery involving a rich man, his missing daughter and a scheming wife.
“The joy of City of Angels is that it’s bitterly amusing about the treacherous LA movie industry but serves as far more than a one-note satire.” – The Telegraph (London)
City of Angels
Playhouse – Arts Centre Melbourne, 100 St. Kilda Rd, Melbourne
Season: 5 – 8 November 2015
Bookings: 1300 182 183 or online at: www.artscentremelbourne.com.au (from Friday 7 August)
For more information, visit: www.lifelikecompany.com for details.
Image: Amanda Harrison, Anton Berezin, Kane Alexander, Chelsea Plumley – photo by Colin Page