WITH the COVID virus now declining theatre groups in and around Newcastle are increasingly staging new shows that will have large audiences applauding loudly.
Two of the coming shows - Young People's Theatre's Disney's The Aristocats KIDS and Knock and Run Theatre's Airness - have certainly been big hits in the United States, the country where they premiered.
Disney's The Aristocats KIDS is a brisk 30-minute adaptation of the 1970 Disney film The Aristocats which has an elderly millionairess woman in 1910's Paris, Madame, who has paid for food for street animals throughout her life, putting together a will that is intended to ensure that the animals will keep getting the food after she dies.
But her greedy butler, Edgar, secretly hates tending to them, and when he finds out that they will continue getting the food money he becomes jealous and begins making moves to stop that from happening.
However, the main animal team, the Aristocats, are determined to keep getting the money to enable themselves and other animals to survive.
Young People's Theatre (YPT) will present Disney's The Aristocats KIDS as a school holidays show with 20 performances at the company's Hamilton venue between Tuesday, September 27 and Saturday, October 22.
There will be two alternating casts, each with 19 characters and large ensembles, with many of the actors in their early teens having their first major roles.
The central character in Airness is a young woman, Nina, who has become an air guitar player, and when she enters her first air guitar competition thinks that winning will be easy. But as she befriends a group of charismatic nerds at the competition venue, all of whom are also committed to becoming the next champion, she discovers that there is more to becoming the next champion than playing pretend.
It's about finding yourself in your favourite songs and performing with raw joy. Will Nina be able to let go and set herself free onstage?
Airness was written by American playwright and director Chelsea Marcantel and premiered at the 2017 Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, which saw her winning the 2018 American Theatre Critics Association's M. Elizabeth Osborn New Play Award.
Interestingly, the story and the nature of the play led to it being adapted into a high school production.
Knock and Run Theatre's Airness, which is part of this year's Civic Theatre Season and the New Annual Festival, will have eight performances at the Civic Playhouse between Friday, September 30, and Saturday, October 8.
While The Aristocats KIDS has only a 30-minute running time it packs 15 songs and musical numbers into the engaging show, which have titles such as Use Your Nose when a pack of country dogs chase people and cats away, Ev'rybody Wants To Be A Cat when onlookers wonder why so many cats are getting together in comfortable places and Scat Cat, the jazzy leader of the Alley Cat narrators, uses it to help them understand why.
And the show, despite its brief length, has largely had packed-out theatres. Opera Hunter, for example, staged the play at Warners Bay's Performing Arts Centre in April 2014, with eight performances, followed by two sessions at Hamilton's Wesley Centre, and attracted large audiences. And the characters, including a country dog called General Napoleon, and Amelia and Abigail, two bold geese sisters who rescue a charming male cat from a river, had audiences laughing.
The show is directed by Katy Booth, with Evan Booth as musical director, Caitlin Maher as choreographer, Ollie Abel as assistant director, and two students, Marcel Forrer and Takira Coleman, as production assistants.
There are two alternating casts - Tom Toms and Hi Hats - with their performance dates on the company's website. The musical has 8pm sessions on Friday, September 30, Saturday, October 1, and nightly from Wednesday, October 5, to Saturday, October 8
The school holiday performances are at 11am and 2pm on Tuesday, September 27, Wednesday, September 28, Thursday, September 29, Friday, September 30, at 11am, 2pm and 7pm, Saturday, October 1, at 2pm and 6.30pm, Friday, October 7, at 11am, 2pm and 6.30pm, and Saturdays, October 8, 15 and 22, at 2pm and 6.30pm.
Tickets: Adult $50, Subscriber $42, Concession $44, Youth (15-21) $35. Bookings: boxoffice@ypt.org.au; 4961 4895.
Airness has a very strong adult cast, mainly playing competitors and onlookers at the guitar: Bec Kynaston as Nina, James Chapman as Shreddy Eddy, Richard Murray as the romantic Facebender, Samantha Lambert as the fearsome Cannibal Queen, Roger Ly as the athletic and creative Golden Thunder, Marty Worrall as the cocky and charismatic D Vicious, and Megan Elizabeth Kennedy as The Announcer.
The show's directors are James Chapman and Jody Miller, with lighting by Jacob Harwood and choreography by Jody Miller.
The show, which is recommended for people aged 15 and older, has performances on Friday, September 30, at 8pm, Saturday, October 1, at 2pm and 8pm, nightly from Wednesday, October 5 to Saturday, October 8, at 8pm, plus a 2pm Saturday matinee.
Tickets: Adult $50, Civic Subscriber $42, Concession $44, Youth (15-21) $35. Bookings: 4929 1977. The show has smoke, strobe lighting and loud music.
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