City Of Angels steams up Melbourne this November 

Winner of six Tony Awards and 2015 Olivier Award winner for Best Musical Revival, City of Angels is set to thrill and delight Melbourne audiences when it plays at the Playhouse Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne, for four shows only from November 5 to November 8. Tickets on sale from Ticketmaster on Friday August 7.

Produced by Life Like Company, this new Australian production of City of Angels stars Kane Alexander, Amanda Harrison, Anton Berezin and Chelsea Plumley, all of whom are truly some of Australia’s most incredible musical theatre talent.This production also features Troy Sussman, Rohan Browne and Anne Wood alongside a wonderful supporting cast including Hannah Fredericksen, Andrew Kroenert, Melissa Langton and Jennifer Peers, with Adam Fiorentino as Lieutenant Munoz.

 

“There are plenty of musicals with clever lyrics. Some offer clever books. A handful even manage clever melodies. But “City of Angels,” which won six Tonys in 1990, is the rarity that has all three!” – New York Times

 

“The joy of City of Angels is that it’s bitterly amusing about the treacherous LA movie industry but serves as far more than a one-note satire.” – The Telegraph (London)

 

City of Angels is a wickedly funny celebration of the 1940’s film noir genre and dark detective fiction which takes place in two worlds. The ambitious writer of a Hollywood screenplay, Stine, struggles as he negotiates his demanding film studio boss, compromises on his movie and dealing with the women in his life, while his creation, ‘private eye’ Stone takes on a life of his own and mysteriously gatecrashes Stine’s life. While Stine’s detective story plays out in black and white, he finds the dangerous temptations of Los Angeles almost too colourful and endlessly alluring.

 

On its Broadway debut, City Of Angels won 6 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical and was also winner of the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival earlier this year. With a wonderful jazz score by Cy Coleman, sizzling lyrics from David Zippel and book by acclaimed comic screenwriter Larry Gelbart (M*A*S*H, Tootsie) it makes for a witty and glorious celebration of film noir and includes popular songs, You Can Always Count on Me and I’m Nothing Without You. 

 

With a liberal touch of femme fatale and hilarious comedy, the City of Angels double feature weaves together two plots unfolding at once, the “real” world of New York ‘hack’ novelist, Stine (Anton Berezin), and his fictional alter-ego in the “reel” world, private eye “Stone” (Kane Alexander). Stine is lured to Los Angeles with the promise of turning his crime novel “City of Angels” into a Hollywood blockbuster, while struggling to balance his relationship with his wife, Gabby (Chelsea Plumley) and his overbearing producer Buddy Fidler (Troy Sussman). Each movie scene that Stine writes comes to life on stage, bringing double the laughter and intrigue for the audience. In the black and white movie plot, Alaura Kingsley (Anne Wood), wife of a millionaire, enlists the services of Stone to find her step-daughter Mallory (Hannah Fredericksen), who has gone missing. Things get steamy when Detective Stone finds Mallory in the most unlikely of places: his bedroom. Stine’s characters become embroiled in a larger-than-life mystery involving a rich man, his missing daughter and a scheming wife.

This new Australian production of City of Angels is directed by the award-winning director Martin Croft with musical direction by Kellie Dickerson and choreography by Kelly Aykers.

Life Like Company comes from a creative partnership that has been built over the course of 20 years. The company continues to grow a unique, independent arts organisation that entertains millions of people each year all over the world, with their productions touring the USA, Middle East, Asia and Europe. Following on from their successful production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Passion, at Arts Centre Melbourne in 2014, Life Like Company is dedicated to utilising the outstanding talent in Australia aiming to continue to develop and present compelling and rare theatre that will challenge and create discussion, ultimately engaging and moving the audience.

 

The most unique of musical comedies, City of Angels is not only loaded with music and written in the contemporary jazz idiom, but also filled with side-splitting comedy. Don’t miss this magnificent homage to 1940’s film noir.

City of Angels is at the Playhouse Theatre for four shows only from November 5.