Professional Musical Theatre for Brisbane: Harvest Rain’s 2014 Season

Harvest Rain’s first season as a professional music theatre company promises to be an exciting one.  There will be big shows, and big casts, including a number of iconic Australian names.

Harvest Rain will present three main house productions in 2014.  The first is the classic musical Guys and Dolls with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows.  The show includes such memorable songs as ‘Luck Be a Lady’, ‘Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat’, ‘A Bushel and a Peck’, ‘Adelaide’s Lament’ and ‘If I Were a Bell’.

From the season launch performances it’s obvious that Ian Stenlake and Angela Harding will be vocally exceptional as the romantic leads, Skye Masterson and Sarah Brown. Joining them will be TV icon Darryl Somers (Hey Hey It’s Saturday), who will be a treat to watch as Nicely Nicely Johnson. Guys and Dolls will be playing at the Concert Hall in QPAC from 20^th March 2014.

In July Harvest Rain will do its first show at the Brisbane Convention Centre. Four words for you: Cats – the arena spectacular! Whether or not you’re a fan of Andrew Lloyd Webber or grown-ups pretending to be cats, Harvest Rain’s production will be HUGE. It will have an ensemble of over 500, the largest Cats ensemble ever seen in the Southern hemisphere: “Proving once and for all that I am insane”, said Tim O’Connor, Harvest Rain’s artistic director at the season launch.

Schools are coming on board to provide performers and the cast will be headed by the talented Marina Prior in the role of Grizabella. Cats – the Arena Spectacular will be playing at the Brisbane Convention Centre from 4^th July 2014.

To celebrate the 30^th anniversary of the pairing of Simon Gallaher and Jon English in The Pirates of Penzance (the first production ever staged in the Lyric theatre), Jon and Simon return to QPAC in Spamalot, as King Arthur and Patsy. They will be joined by the lovely Julie Anthony as The Lady of the Lake. This show is a joyous romp through the Monty Python world that has provided so much laughter for decades.

With Harvest Rain’s tagline for 2014, ‘The Stars Shine Bright in Brisbane’, the emphasis is on BIG-big casts, big names, big shows. Harvest Rain over the years, has become well known for their large, energetic, all-singing, all-dancing chorus’, a consequence of the support they offer young performers through their internship program. It’s fabulous that they offer up and coming musical theatre talent the opportunity of working alongside veterans in a professional setting.

At the launch it was proudly declared that Harvest Rain is now officially Queensland’s first professional musical theatre company and, with the ticket price reflecting the professional label, we look forward to seeing them earn that title in 2014.