STARRING
MARINA PRIOR • SILVIE PALADINO • CHLOÉ ZUEL • JOSHUA ROBSON
FEATURING
KATIE BLAXLAND • TAYLA CHOICE • DANNY FOLPP • THOMAS JAMES
JON MURPHY • LAYLA SCHILLERT • AMY VEE • MARTY WORRALL
NATIONAL COLLEGE OF DANCE
100 VOICED MASS CHOIR
LEAD BY
THE HUNTER POPS ORCHESTRA CONDUCTED BY DAN WILSON
A once-in-a-lifetime magical night of musical theatre featuring Australia’s biggest stars!
Australia’s leading lady of musical theatre, Marina Prior, headlines the ultimate cast, including Silvie Paladino, of Les Miserables, Mamma, Mia, Cats, and Chess fame, Joshua Robson, fresh from his triumphant portrayal of the title role in Handa Opera’s The Phantom of the Opera on Sydney Harbour, and Australia’s very own Catherine of Aragon and Eliza Hamilton, Chloé Zuel.
This stunning 2 1/2 hour musical journey honouring theatre giants Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, features hit songs from the best-loved musicals of the twentieth century – such as Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Starlight Express, Aida, Chess, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Sunset Boulevard, The Phantom of the Opera and many more – will have you falling in love all over again with the songs that have been enjoyed by hundreds of millions of people all over the world.
SUPERSTARS WILL BE THE GREATEST CONCERT OF MUSICALS NEWCASTLE HAS EVER SEEN AND WILL NEVER BE REPEATED.
Starring
Marina Prior
Marina Prior is known as Australia’s Leading Lady of Musical Theatre.
Marina’s first professional audition resulted in her first lead role – Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance. She was subsequently invited to perform the role of Guinevere opposite Richard Harris in Camelot. Since then, she has performed over thirty lead roles throughout Australia, possibly her most memorable being the role of Christine Daae, in the original Australian production of The Phantom of the Opera, which she performed for three years.
Other roles include Jellylorum in Cats, Cosette in Les Misérables, Hope Harcourt in Anything Goes, Maria in West Side Story, Lily in The Secret Garden, Magnolia in Showboat, Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, Mrs Banks in Mary Poppins, Baroness Schraeder in The Sound of Music, Dolly Levi in Hello Dolly, Mrs. Meers in Thoroughly Modern Millie, Violet Newstead in 9 to 5 – The Musical and more recently the roles of Birdwoman and Miss Andrew in Mary Poppins.
For Melbourne Theatre Company, Marina has played the roles of Rona Lisa Peretti in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Elmire in The Hypocrite, Frances in Jumpy and Judith Bliss in Hayfever. For Sydney Theatre Company, Marina played the role of Helen Bechdel in Fun Home.
Marina has performed with symphony orchestras throughout Australia including a critically acclaimed Australasian concert tours with international tenor, José Carreras and international vocal group, Il Divo.
She is also well known to television audiences through her appearances on such shows as Carols by Candlelight, as a judge on Channel Seven’s It Takes Two and as Iris in The ABC series The Divorce.
In 1999, Marina was guest of honour for the television program This Is Your Life which paid tribute to her career so far. Over her career, she has received numerous awards including the Advance Australia Award for her contribution to the performing arts and was inducted into Australia’s 100 Entertainers of the Century. Earlier this year, Marina was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for her service to the Arts.
Marina is currently touring with close friend, David Hobson, with their show The Two of Us. By the end of this year, they will have performed at least 180 shows throughout Australia.
Silvie Paladino
Silvie Paladino is one of Australia’s most versatile and talented entertainers.
Her first theatrical role was Eponine in the Australasian tour of Les Misérables at the age of eighteen. She was then invited to perform the same role in the London production. In 1997, Silvie returned to London where she performed the role of Fantine in Les Miserables for a successful two-year season.
Silvie’s Australian credits include the roles of: Jeannie in Hair, Grizabella in Cats, Ellen in Miss Saigon, Donna in the smash hit Mamma Mia!, Rita in Sideshow Alley, Clara in Passion and for The Production Company: Lady Thiang in The King And I, Florence in Chess (Green Room and Helpmann Award nominations) and Jerry’s Girls. In 2021 she revisited the role of Florence in a concert version of Chess at the Civic Theatre Newcastle, for which she won the CONDA Award for Excellence by a Performer in a Lead Role. Silvie made her Melbourne Theatre Company debut in 2022 playing the role of Helen Bechdel in Fun Home. More recently, Silvie played the role of Fairy Godmother in Opera Australia’s Cinderella.
Silvie has performed at many special events such as the world-wide telecast of the Rugby League Grand Final, the Australian Football League Grand Final, Melbourne Cup, Boxing Day Cricket Test, Roger Federer Foundation at Rod Laver Arena, the President’s Cup Golf tournament and a concert in Beijing, as part of the 2008 Olympics. In 2021, she performed at Government House, Melbourne, as a thank you to Victoria’s essential workers.
Silvie’s concert credits include performances with symphony orchestras throughout Australia, internationally with the Salvation Army Band, a solo concert tour of China and tours with international performers, Patrizio Buanne and Michael Bolton. She has also performed for celebrated theatre composers Stephen Sondheim and Stephen Schwartz. Her one-woman shows Silvie Paladino Sings Streisand (Green Room Award nomination) and Silvie Paladino – The Songs of Eva Cassidy have received rave reviews.
Apart from her theatrical credits, she is well known to Australian audiences through her regular television appearances including Carols by Candlelight for the Nine Network.
Her recordings include Silvie Paladino Sings Streisand, Silvie Paladino – Christmas List, On My Own, When You Believe, I Give You My Heart, O Holy Night and Take My Breath Away – The Songs of Eva Cassidy.
Most recently, Silvie performed with Casey Donovan and Caroline O’Connor with John Foreman’s Aussie Pops Orchestra.
Chloé Zuel
Chloé Zuel is a renowned musical theatre performer most notably starring as ‘Eliza Hamilton’ in the original Australian cast of Hamilton The Musical.
Chloé was previously ‘Catherine of Aragon’ in the original Australian cast of Six the Musical, ‘Anita’ in West Side Story Australia, New Zealand and Germany and ‘Sarah’ in Ragtime for The Production Company. Prior to that Chloe was in the Australian premier production of Beautiful; The Carole King Musical as ‘Little Eva/Shirelles’ and as ‘Reno’ in Dusty for the Adelaide Production Company season.
Other theatre credits include: ‘Dynamite’ in Hairspray The Musical Australia, ‘Pilar’ in Legally Blonde the Musical Australia, ‘Maid’ in The Mikado New Zealand, ‘Éponine’ understudy in Les Misérables Australia, ‘Joanne’ in Rent for The Hayes Theatre, ‘Ronette’ in the Australian tour of Little Shop of Horrors and ‘Annie’ in Porgy and Bess for Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
Chloé has worked extensively as a lead singer internationally at Universal Studios Japan and as a resident singer at The Bellini Lounge in The Venetian in Macau.
In Australia Chloé was a soloist and feature singer in MM Creative’s Disney 100: The Concert alongside Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Opera House, The Gold Coast Pops at HOTA and with Perth Symphony Orchestra at Riverside Theatre Perth.
Last year, Chloé was a soloist for Woolworths Carols in the Domain and a Soloist in Coogee Carols 2022.
Joshua Robson
Since graduating from the VCA in 2011, Joshua has forged a highly successful career on stage, winning the Rob Guest Endowment Award in 2014.
Joshua is currently playing the role of ‘Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm’ in A Little Night Music (Hayes Theatre). Also this year, he has played the role of ‘Joh Fredersen’ in Metropolis (Little Eggs Collective) and featured in Victorian Opera’s production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. In 2022, he starred as the titular role in The Phantom of the Opera with Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, for which he was nominated for Best Lead Performance in a Musical at the Sydney Theatre Awards.
Joshua has also toured nationally in Shrek the Musical (GFO), Muriel’s Wedding the Musical (Global Creatures), My Fair Lady (Opera Australia/GFO), Les Misérables (Cameron Mackintosh), Dream Lover: The Bobby Darin Musical (GFO) and King Kong: Live on Stage (Global Creatures).
Joshua is the proud director/ founder of Joshua Robson Productions. JRP has staged and toured productions of Guilty Pleasures, Violet, Songs for a New World, Bonnie & Clyde, the multi-award winning production of In the Heights and most recently, City of Angels.
Katie Blaxland
Katie began performing in theatre in 2007, with her first role at Newcastle Theatre Company in the musical “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change”. Katie has since been involved in numerous musicals and stage plays, winning CONDAs for her roles as Mary in “Jersey Boys”and Roxie in “Chicago”. Further highlights include her roles as Millie in “Thoroughly Modern Millie”, Lady Windermere in “Lady Windermere’s Fan”, Gussie in “Merrily We Roll Along” and Rachel in “One Man, Two Guvnors” . For the Very Popular Theatre Company she was a member of the core cast in “Chess – The Musical”, starred as Mary DelGado in “Jersey Boys” and Anne in “Banging Denmark”. Outside of theatre, Katie likes to travel and works as a child and adolescent psychologist.
Tayla Choice
Tayla Choice is a local novocastrian who has been performing around Newcastle, Sydney and Canberra since 2007. Her notable highlights include Glinda in “Wicked” (CONDA winner), and Regina in “Rock of Ages”. Tayla studied an Advanced Diploma of the Arts Acting and graduated in 2014. Tayla then went on to study a Bachelor of Music, graduating in 2017. During this time she was awarded two scholarships; Doris Smith and Valasi Bleazard. Finally in 2019, Tayla completed a Master of Music Therapy (distinction) where she gain annual deans merit awards. Tayla is thrilled to be back performing after a few years away from the stage raising a young family whilst working at her business, Lake Macquarie Music Therapy or with her Husband at Watagan Dental.
Danny Folpp
Danny has been performing on stage for the last 15 years. Having studied at the Australian Institute of Music (Musical Theatre) with industry professionals, he has relished the opportunity to continue his career on stage garnering many credits as performer. Most recent performances include Shrek in Shrek The Musical, Pricilla Queen of the Desert, the Beast in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Billy Flynn in Chicago, Young Frankenstein. More recently Danny has sat in the director’s chair with productions such as Keeping Up Appearances and Legally Blonde. For The Very Popular Theatre Company he has appeared in Spamalot, and Chess and played the Dad in Billy Elliot. His latest venture is founding What Theatre Company.
Thomas James
Multi-talented instrumentalist, actor and singer, Thomas James was destined for a life in the performing arts. He graduated from ‘Hunter School of Performing Arts’ with a Band 6 in Music for his HSC and graduated from the ‘Talent Development Project’ (TDP) in Sydney. Thomas has performed as a featured artist in the arena spectacular Starstruck (2013-2019) and in musicals around Newcastle, including as Audrey II in “Little Shop Of Horrors”, Arpad in “She Loves Me” , 21 Chump Street and A Gentleman’s Guide To Love And Murder. Thomas performs as a professional solo singer-guitarist in venues and functions around Newcastle and the Hunter Valley, as well as tutoring students in piano, guitar and singing. Thomas made his debut with The Very Popular Theatre company in the role of Bob Gaudio in “Jersey Boys”.
Jon Murphy
Jon studied at the Newcastle Conservatorium, receiving a Bachelor of Music in Classical Singing and Musical Performance. Throughout this year, Jon has performed in local pubs and cafes. His theatre credits include Les Miserables, 9 TO 5 , Emmett in Legally Blonde, Peter in Jesus Christ Superstar, Company and Best of the Best. Jon made his Very Popular Theatre debut as the alternate Frankie Vallie in “Jersey Boys” and also featured in “Billy Elliot”. Jon is thrilled to be performing again in “Superstars: A Musical Celebration of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice”
Layla Schillert
Layla Rose has recently graduated from the Hunter School of The Performing Arts and has also been taking classes at Hunter Drama for the last six years. Layla’s theatre credits include; “Puffs”, Mayzie La Bird in “Seussical”, Francine in “Jersey Boys”, Peter Pan JR, Aladdin JR, Madagascar JR, and Roald Dahl’s The Witches, The Sound of Music and Be More Chill. Layla has also performed as a featured artist in “Star Struck” at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre.
Amy Vee
Amy Vee has over 20 years experience in the performing arts.
As a music theatre performer, her roles include Svetlana in “Chess” , Eva Peron in “Evita”, Eponine in “Les Miserables”, Anita in “West Side Story”, Rizzo in “Grease” , Mimi in “Rent” and Audrey in “Little Shop of Horrors”. Amy’s dramatic roles include Athena in “Ajax in Iraq” , Joan in “Love Song” and Coral in “Away“.
Amy is a trained multi-instrumentalist, a highly awarded songwriter and has a solid reputation as an original artist and musician, with vast touring experience. As a songwriter, Amy’s accolades include: MUSICOZ Artist of the Year; semi-finalist, UK songwriting competition; finalist, LA Music Awards; and the APRA/ABC Publishing Songwriters’ Recognition award.
Amy toured as a singer/multi-instrumentalist with Jon English as part of “The Rock Show”, which garnered an ARIA nomination for Best Soundtrack. Amy currently tours as a musician for The Rock Show Oz Edition featuring Steve Mulry (Ted Mulry Gang), and the Album Show (a Sydney-based musicians’ collective). As a soloist, Amy has opened for many local and international artists, including Luka Bloom, Newton Faulkner, Renee Geyer and Mark Seymour.
Amy holds an Honours in Psychology and is a current PhD Candidate researching the wellbeing of working musicians. Amy is Co-Chair and Board Director for national music and mental health charity, Listen Up Music.
Marty Worrall
Marty is a Newcastle based singer and vocal coach, and one of the region’s most sought after performers.
He was a backing vocalist, vocal coach and occasional vocal director for the first 6 seasons of The Voice Australia for Channel 9 and currently teaches vocal performance at The Voice Studio in Lambton. On stage Marty has appeared in a number of Newcastle productions including the roles of Bobby in “Company”, D Vicious in “Airness”, The Pauper in “Good King Wenceslas”, Michael in “Tick! Tick … Boom!”, “The Wild Party”, Bill Sykes in “Oliver”, Judas in “Jesus Christ Superstar”, Captain Hook in “Peter Pan”, Roger in “Rent” and Stacee Jaxx in “Rock of Ages”. For The Very Popular Theatre Company he has starred as George in “Billy Elliot”, Sir Galahad in “Monty Python’s Spamalot” and Freddie Trumper in “Chess – The Musical”
When not on the theatre stage Marty can be found singing with his bands Dr Zoom and The Rumour at various venues around Newcastle and the Hunter region.
Creatives
Erin James
Director
A graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (Music Theatre), Erin’s professional career began as a performer in some of Australia’s most popular musicals including Opera Australia’s productions of My Fair Lady, South Pacific, The King and I, as well as various Australian and international tours of CATS, Fiddler on The Roof, Blood Brothers and Love Never Dies, among others. Her work in the arts extends to film and television, and Erin was fortunate enough to receive AACTA Award and Film Critics Circle of Australia Award nominations for her role in the feature film The Little Death (2014).
After working as a dance captain, swing and assistant director for the last decade, her professional directorial debut came in 2018 with She Loves Me at Hayes Theatre Co, which received Sydney Theatre Awards and Broadway World Award nominations. She was promoted to Staging Supervisor for Julie Andrew’s production of My Fair Lady (Opera Australia), Assistant Director for Vernon God Little (2014) and Stalking The Bogeyman (2018) and the Resident Director for the Australian tour of Phantom of the Opera (Opera Australia) at the Sydney Opera House and Arts Centre Melbourne. She directed the CONDA Award winning production of Mamma Mia! 2019 and The Very Popular Theatre Company’s CHESS in Concert, starring Silvie Paladino and David Harris, in 2021.
As an educator and theatre practitioner, Erin has worked with Elder Conservatorium of Music’s Music Theatre program to direct five major productions including On The Town (2023) Shrek! The Musical (2023), Les Misérables (2022), Cabaret (2021), and Showcase: Our Time (2021). Later this year, Erin will star in Anna Goldsworthy’s new play Welcome To Your New Life for State Theatre Company of South Australia.
Dan Wilson
Musical Director
Dan is currently the Head Teacher of Creative & Performing Arts at Lambton High School. He is most known in Newcastle as the Musical Director and Conductor of Starstruck at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre, for which he was nominated for the Telstra ARIA Award for Music Teacher of the year. He has also conducted productions of Billy Elliot, Jersey Boys, Chess, Mamma Mia!, Rock Of Ages, The Witches Of Eastwick, Into The Woods, Disney’s High School Musical, Oliver, Grease, Annie, Wuthering Heights and Jesus Christ Superstar. In Sydney, he has played in the orchestra for the original Australian productions of Disney’s Beauty And The Beast, The Phantom Of The Opera, Wicked, Disney’s The Lion King and Side By Side By Sondheim. In 2013, he was the Music Producer and Associate to John Foreman for the Special Olympics Opening Ceremony. As an arranger, he has provided arrangements for the Hunter Singers, Silvie Paladino, Marina Prior, Erin James, Tyran Parke, Lucy Durack, Debra Byrne, Avagail Herman and the casts of Wicked and Love Never Dies. Dan has also been Musical Director for The Rumour’s You Oughta Know: The Songs Of Alanis Morrisette, In The Air Tonight: A Night Of Phil Collins and, most recently, B & B: A Night Of Benny And Bjorn, starring Silvie Paladino. Dan is the resident Musical Director for The Very Popular Theatre Company.
Lauren Harvey
Choreographer
Lauren is a theatre creator with over 15 years experience in the arts. Whilst she started her career on stage, you can now find her peering through the curtain to watch her creations come to life. She has immersed herself in many different aspects of the theatre world as a choreographer, director, vocal coach, performer, and costume creator. Lauren has been contributing to the Newcastle theatre scene for the last 12 years, winning awards in choreography, costume design, and hair and makeup for works such as Seussical (Hunter Drama), The Pecking Order, The Cost of Wishes, and Dark Matter (Aspire). She has also choreographed and performed in shows such as Oliver! (Hunter Drama), and Billy Elliot and Monty Python’s Spamalot (The Very Popular Theatre Company). Lauren has been a part of the creative team for Aspire (the Catholic Diocese’ performing arts program) since its inception. She is proud to have helped create 12 original works held at the Civic Theatre, performed and also created by local talented youth. She is passionate about youth involvement in theatre and will continue to use her broad range of skills to help nurture young people to become all round performers.
Jacob Harwood
Production Designer
Jacob is Newcastle’s favourite production designer. He does all the big stuff like “Billy Elliot”, “Chess – The Musical”, “Jersey Boys”, “Mamma Mia”, “Rock of Ages”, “Oliver”, “The Phantom of the Opera”, “Strictly Ballroom”, “Hairspray”, “Mary Poppins”, “Wicked”, “Shrek! The Musical”, “Disney’s Aladdin Jr.”, “Rent” and “Beauty and the Beast”. He is a versatile designer, also having designed small scale plays at the Civic Playhouse, including The Very Popular Theatre Company’s Endgame. Jacob is a multi-CONDA Award winning lighting and sound designer. He has many other areas of expertise in the technical arena and has also spent time filling the role of Technical Manager at the Civic Theatre.