It’s a cast with impressive credentials, not to mention
serious box office pulling power.
In Melbourne’s Plaza Ballroom this morning
(Monday 30th April) prolific producer John Frost and Opera
Australia’s Artistic Director Lyndon Terracini were on hand to announce the
Australian cast for the Lincoln Center Theatre Production of Rogers and
Hammerstein’s South Pacific.
The Plaza Ballroom in Melbourne’s Collins Street is a lavish
space for a big announcement. There were in fact two of them. And with
Orchestra Victoria on hand and ‘celebrity media ‘in attendance, it promised a
great deal.
It’s a dream cast, supremely talented and bound to draw a crowd.
But this event was more than a cast announcement, impressive as it was.
‘This is a launch not only of South Pacific,’ said Chief
Executive of Opera Australia Adrian Collette, ‘but of this partnership with the
Gordon Frost organisation because we intend over the coming years to produce
some of the great classical musicals that have been written with the highest
musical values, the highest theatrical values, and partnering with John [Frost]
…our sustaining commerciality.’
Colette continued, ‘For Opera Australia this is all about
throwing open our doors and engaging with the broadest possible audience we can
through the length and breadth of Australia …. We know that by engaging with
this extraordinary musical, at the highest possible level, we will engage a
much broader audience.’
