Every love story needs a little fertiliser! 

The cult Broadway and Hollywood sci-fi smash musical Little Shop of Horrors is back – bigger, bolder, and hungrier than ever!

Step inside Mushnik’s flower shop on Skid Row, in this black comedy musical, where down-on-his-luck Seymour discovers a strange and unusual plant with a taste for more than just plant food. Meet Audrey II – the foul-mouthed, R&B-singing carnivore with a killer personality that’s ready to take over the stage (and the world).

Featuring irresistible hits like “Suddenly Seymour”, “Feed Me (Git It)” and “Dentist!”, this gleefully gory musical blends 60s pop, doo-wop and rock ‘n’ roll with outrageous comedy, camp charm and jaw-dropping puppetry.

Directed by Alister Smith (Bring It On, Cruel Intentions, The Wedding Singer) with music supervision by David Young (Frozen), musical direction by Heidi Loveland (Carrie: The Musical), set design by Penny Challen and choreography by Dan Venz, this revival promises everything fans love about Little Shop of Horrors – deranged dentists, larger-than-life plants and an unforgettable night of musical mayhem.

Don’t miss the chance to experience this new version of a smash-hit musical, up close in the intimacy of QPAC’s Cremorne Theatre this summer.

Little Shop of Horrors
From 3 January 2026
Cremorne Theatre, QPAC, Brisbane
www.qpac.com.au

Natalie Weir, EDC’s artistic director and Helpmann award-winning choreographer, describes her latest work as a journey back in time, as seen through the memories of an ordinary old man, played by acclaimed dance and theatre artist and former EDC dancer, Brian Lucas.

“It’s really a joyful and uplifting celebration of all our lives at all their wonderful stages, from childhood to old age … It’s an exploration of the small, personal things that make life precious and beautiful,” explains Weir.

The production will have a distinctive Australian flavour, referencing more than 60 years commencing from the 1950s to modern-day Australia. “We’ll see snapshots of memorable moments throughout recent history. So I think will make his story that much more relatable and real for the audience.” The production will also contain era-inspired costumes by Brisbane-based designer Bill Haycock.
Special guests include senior dancers from Brisbane dance group WaW Dance – a weekly dance program run by arts practitioners Wendy McPhee and Wendy Wallace tailored for women 50 plus – who, as Weir states, show that “dance really is for everybody and every kind of body, for life.”

Describing the Expressions’ dancers as “amongst the very best in the dance industry”, Weir expresses how fortunate she feels to have high calibre professionals at her creative disposal. “I am so blessed. Having the opportunity to choreograph with these incredibly talented individuals enables us to offer audiences thrilling and inspiring moments of pure expression and artistry.”

The EDC ensemble includes 2018 and 2015 Helpmann Award nominated dancer Elise May as well as 2018 and 2017 Australian Dance Award nominee and 2011 Helpmann Award nominee Richard Causer.

Joining the EDC dancers on stage will be renowned vocal ensemble The Australian Voices, as they sing an acapella score composed by their Artistic Director, Gordon Hamilton. Weir says Gordon’s compositions are simply breathtaking. “It’s hard to believe the incredibly full, complex sound they (The Australian Voices) create just using vocals, without any instrumental accompaniment.”

The score was exclusively composed and created for Everyday Requiem by Gordon Hamilton after workshopping with the dancers during two separate development series – the first in 2016 and the second in 2017. Hamilton’s inspiration for the work was a mix of the choreographed movement and the concept and story of Everyday Requiem – moments from everyday life.

Gordon describes the musical score as a “mixture of everyday sayings that indicate time passing – like lists and dates – and the profound.”

Running from 12 – 20 October at the Cremorne Theatre, QPAC, Everyday Requiem follows critically acclaimed productions such as When Time Stops, The Red Shoes, Behind Closed Doors and the recent highly acclaimed, 4Seasons.

Expressions Dance Company Everyday Requiem
12-20 October, 2018
Cremorne Theatre, QPAC
www.qpac.com.au

Meet Osamah Sami. He’s done all of the above. Interesting, considering his father is one of the leading Islamic clerics in Australia, having pulled his family out of war-torn Iran to settle in suburban Melbourne.

But when his kindly and unorthodox dad dies suddenly during a trip to Iran, Osamah must grapple with an inscrutable and corrupt bureaucracy in his fight to bring his father’s body home to Australia – all the while looking back on his life in a haunting, hilarious and heart-wrenching retrospective.

Drawing from his award–winning novel of the same name and his recent smash hit film Ali’s Wedding, Good Muslim Boy recounts Osamah’s hilarious and heartbreaking personal history, and the beauty and contradictions found at the cross currents of two cultures.

This award-winning production, a smash-hit during its premiere season at Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre earlier this year, comes to Brisbane with the same standout cast. Rodney Afif (Ali’s Wedding, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) and Nicole Nabout (Nowhere Boys, The Librarians) play multiple characters as the story travels from Austalian to Iran and back again, and hops between 1979, 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2013. Osamah plays himself in this powerful piece of autobiographical theatre.

“Good Muslim Boy continues Queensland Theatre’s exploration of Australian society right now, in all its diversity and complexity. This show was so successful in Melbourne, not just because it is topical, but because it is told with a charismatic flair that matches the extraordinary stories of Osamah and his family. We’re proud to be bringing this funny, moving, captivating co-production with Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre to Brisbane audiences,” said Queensland Theatre Artistic Director Sam Strong.

In writing about the stage adaption of his memoir, a co-production between Malthouse Theatreand Queensland Theatre, Sami said, “Refugees don’t want sympathy, pardon my bluntness. Empathy, on the other hand, can heal our wounds collectively, as we begin walking in one-another’s shoes”.

“This why I wanted to tell my story. Not to show my plight as a kid during the war, but to hopefully (inshallah) act as a conduit between your kind selves and a people who are otherwise only talked about, and rarely heard from. Emotions don’t discriminate against our skin colour or faith. If you showed me a close-up photograph of tears rolling down someone’s face, there is no way I could label them as ‘Muslim tears’ or ‘Jewish tears’ or ‘African tears’ or ‘gay tears’ or … you get the drift,” he said. “Thank you to Malthouse Theatre and Queensland Theatre for putting on show about a guy whose skin colour is mostly seen on cop shows.”

What does it mean to be a Good Muslim Boy?
Thursday, 12 July – Saturday, 4 August
Cremorne Theatre, QPAC
www.queenslandtheatre.com.au

In this production, Jon Halpin directs an all-Queensland cast of four including; Hugh Parker (Scenes from a Marriage, Noises Off!), Liz Buchanan (Much Ado About Nothing & Gimm Tales), Leon Cain (I Love You Bro, Orphans & An Oak Tree) and Bryan Probets (Pirates of the Caribbean & The Great Gatsby).

Halpin said he feels blessed to be able to revisit Patrick Barlow’s work (creator of the original stage adaptation in London 2005).  “This is my fourth outing as director on a Patrick Barlow play, two different productions of The Messiah (in 2002 and then 2006) and two productions of The 39 Steps, first for State Theatre Company of South Australia in 2016 and now this production. I must say, I feel very blessed to be able to revisit his work and this play. Patrick has an uncanny knack for putting madcap, slapstick and almost silly comedy up on stage, but always with such integrity and respect for the source material. In The Messiah, it’s the nativity and in this play it is of course Hitchcock’s 1935 seminal classic. Although the action may be ridiculous and unhinged, at all times the story on Richard Hannay’s dangerous journey to learn the meaning of The 39 Steps is the beating heart of the play.”

“We have approached this production from the position that the movie, a film that is very much the progenitor of many action films we know today, is impossible to stage. It is such an iconic piece of cinema and so utterly filmic, that to attempt to stage it is sheer folly. But stage it we shall. And we shall deliberately fail and triumph in equal and hilarious measures.”

On stage, Hugh Parker plays the hero Richard Hannay. Liz Buchanan plays the three women with whom he has romantic entanglements with, and Leon Cain and Bryan Probets play every other character in the show: heroes, villains, men, women, children and even the occasional inanimate object.

This often requires lightning fast quick-changes and occasionally for them to play multiple characters at once. Thus, the film’s serious spy story is played mainly for laughs, and the script is full of allusions to (and puns on the titles of) other Alfred Hitchcock films, including Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, Psycho, Vertigo and North by Northwest.

“The thought of working with Hugh, Liz, Bryan and Leon – pulling apart the film scene by scene, inventing the cleverest ways to put this work before an audience – is an utter joy. To have the support and ingenuity of Ailsa Paterson, David Murray and Stuart Day offering creative and hilarious solutions to unstageable conundrums has likewise been a delight,” Halpin said.

Leading star, Hugh Parker said The 39 Steps was the play that brought him back to theatre.

“The first time I saw what’s referred to as the West End version of it, a very good friend of mine played Hannay, so I got so see him in the Oxford Playhouse in England. I was so proud and so jealous.”

After a year-long tour with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1996, Parker decided to focus on television. It wasn’t until 2006 that he decided to return to theatre and perform in Patrick Barlow’s stage adaptation of The 39 Steps in St Andrews, Scotland.

“I think having an audience association with it myself  in 1993-1994 and loving how it was so charming and seeing a good mate doing it, it suddenly dawned on me that I could do this too,” Parker said.

Originally Parker wasn’t seen for Hannay, “I was seen for one of the clowns and when they met me they said would you mind reading for Hannay as well.”

Hugh Parker has been a star of Queensland Theatre now for nearly 10 years and this year’s production of The 39 Steps is set to be a popular choice for many theatre goers.

The 39 Steps
24 February to 24 March
Cremorne Theatre, QPAC
www.queenslandtheatre.com.au

Who really holds the power at this sophisticated table? And who will be in control by the time coffee is served?

Combining gripping dance theatre with a touch of explosive fun, The Host will take you on a thrilling ride through the lifestyles of the power hungry. You will be struck by the sublime costumes by Brisbane-based fashion designer Gail Sorronda, the live music performed by Southern Cross Soloists and the enduring story told by multiple award-winning choreographer, Natalie Weir.

Natalie Weir’s The Host
1 – 9 May 2015
Cremorne Theatre, QPAC
www.qpac.com.au