FOOD & DRINK, ARTS & CULTURE, LIFE & TRAVEL
Building on its phenomenal debut last year, this ten-day extravaganza will draw upon the talents of over 250 local and international creatives, transforming some of the city’s most iconic venues into hubs of immersive digital art, cutting-edge performances, and thought-provoking talks.
Melbourne theatre-goers are in for an absolute treat as Cameron Mackintosh’s latest production of the award-winning musical, Miss Saigon, graces the stage of Her Majesty’s Theatre for a fleeting 7-week stint. The return of this heart-wrenching tale comes after a resoundingly successful Sydney season, and a 16-year hiatus since Miss Saigon last enthralled Melbourne audiences on the very same stage. Boasting a resplendent full 24-piece orchestra and an exceptional cast of 42 representing the length and breadth of the Asia-Pacific, this is a revival that is bound to take your breath away. Leading the standout Australian ensemble with aplomb is the internationally acclaimed Seann Miley Moore, who brings an electrifying performance in the role of The Engineer. Fresh-faced talent Abigail Adriano and Nigel Huckle as Chris make a formidable pair and, together with a supporting cast that includes the likes of Kerrie Anne Greenland, Nick Afoa, and Kimberley Hodgson, infuse new life into this timeless classic. Miss Saigon is a tale of love, loss, and resilience in the backdrop of war, and is set to a captivating score by Boublil and Schönberg that includes classics such as ‘The Heat is On in Saigon’ and ‘The American Dream.’ Since its premiere, this epic production has garnered an impressive 70 major theatre awards and has been performed in 15 languages across 350 cities worldwide. The reception to this rendition has been nothing short of ecstatic, with The Daily Telegraph calling it “thrilling,” and The Daily Mail dubbing it “the greatest musical of all time.” Don’t miss out… Read More
This year, the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) has a quality spread of art and culture to keep you occupied all autumn-winter long. Comprising the autumn-winter 2022 program, the NGV will kick things off with an homage to Picasso before embarking on the rest. Scroll down for more… The Picasso Century This exhibition opens June 10 at NGV International. The Picasso Century charts the extraordinary career of Pablo Picasso in dialogue with the many artists, poets and intellectuals with whom he intercepted and interacted throughout the 20th century, including Guillaume Apollinaire, Georges Braque, Salvador Dalí, Alberto Giacometti, Françoise Gilot, Valentine Hugo, Marie Laurencin, Dora Maar, André Masson, Henri Matisse, Dorothea Tanning and Gertrude Stein. Get tickets here WHO ARE YOU: Australian Portraiture This exhibition opens on 25 March and will unite collections of the NGV and the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, for the very first time. Featuring more than 200 works by the likes of Patricia Piccinini, Howard Arkley, Vincent Namatjira and more, and depicting sitters such as Cate Blanchett, Queen Elizabeth II and Eddie Mabo, this exhibition will be one of the largest presentations of portraiture ever mounted in Australia. Get tickets here Queer: Stories from the NGV Collection Because equality is key! This exhibition is a celebration of the queer and LGBTIQA+ stories embedded in the NGV Collection – and is one of the most historically expansive exhibitions ever dedicated to this diverse subject opening March 10. Get tickets here Melbourne Design Week 2022 Australia’s leading annual international design event, returns for its sixth edition from 17–27 March 2022, a key highlight this… Read More
Leading cabaret artists, Drew Downing and Sally Bourne have been announced as the 2019 Melbourne Cabaret Festival Ambassadors. Snaps, please. They’re strongly admired within the industry by performers and producers and they’ll be an additional source of support for all performers in this year’s line-up. Sally Bourne said “I’ve been performing in cabaret for over 20 years in Australia and in London. I was privileged to be one of the headline acts at the inaugural Melbourne Cabaret Festival 10 years ago and since then have watched the festival grow and continue to present some of the best talent around.” Find out more about the Cabaret Festival at their website.
The dude known for his consumption by consumerism who then turned it into art, Darren Sylvester, has an exhibition on at the National Gallery of Victoria from 1 March to 30 June 2019. From a pulsating coloured dance floor based on an Yves Saint Laurent makeup range, to a chaise lounge upholstered in cheeseburger wrapping, more than 70 of Darren Sylvester’s works – known for their pop culture and multinational brand references – will be on display at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV. The exhibition is called Darren Sylvester: Carve A Future, Devour Everything, Become Something and reveals the artist’s ongoing fascination with consumerism, the banality of everyday life, love and mortality, which he presents in a playful way. On show will be 43 of Sylvester’s hyper-colourful photographs, all an homage and commentary on pop culture, music and advertising as a way of exploring the ways in which everyday life is shaped by branding. Also, a gigantic YSL make up compact lit-up dancefloor interpretation will be one o the stars of the show, thanks to its colour scheme that is ‘proven’ by market research to appear flattering. Darren is a Melbourne man now, having made the move from Sydney in ’74. See his exhibition at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Federation Square, Melbourne from 1 March 2019 – 30 June 2019. Entry is free at NGV.MELBOURNE.
