Helen Musa

Arts Editor at CityNews.com.au

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Articles

A dazzling spectacle for drag aficionados

1 week ago | citynews.com.au | Helen Musa

Reality TV and drag aficionados are in for a dazzling spectacle when the touring show, Bring Back My Wives, arrives at the Hellenic Club for a one-night-only show. Billed as a crossover merging the glitz and glamour of The Real Housewives with the drama of the popular reality series, RuPaul’s Drag Race, it will be hosted by Justin Hill, host of Drag Race Down Under: The Podcast, for Stan Australia.
Wickedly Mean girls strut their stuff

1 week ago | citynews.com.au | Helen Musa

In her latest Artsweek column, HELEN MUSA wraps up the best in arts and attractions for the coming week. Budding Entertainment has three new, youthful shows: Peter Pan Goes Horribly, Terribly Wrong, written and directed by Kirsty Budding, June 21, A Tribute to Narnia directed by Beya Babyack, June 22 and Wickedly Mean, a parody musical blending Wicked and Mean Girls, June 22. The Overture Hall, Weston.
Busy composer Aija has well and truly emerged

1 week ago | citynews.com.au | Helen Musa

Oriana Chorale’s emerging composer in residence, Aija Draguns, whose new work is part of the coming Musica Domestica concert, seems well and truly to have emerged.
Photographer Heide Smith looks to her legacy

1 week ago | citynews.com.au | Helen Musa

At age 87, legendary photographer Heide Smith, now living at Tuross on the south coast, is looking to her legacy. With that in mind, she and husband Brian, are staging an exhibition, Heide Smith – A South Coast Selection, along with the launch of Brian’s new book, Fotoheide – A Photographers Talebook. The book, he says, is his tribute to Heide’s skill as an artist, but also a reminder to “The Establishment” of her talents.
As the stars come out, so do the home truths

1 week ago | citynews.com.au | Helen Musa

Arts in the City is HELEN MUSA’s weekly wrap of arts news from around the town. In what looks like an arts traffic jam of a weekend, Mockingbird Theatre Company is opening Steve Martin’s absurdist comedy, Meteor Shower, to be directed by Chris Baldock. Jess Beange, Maxine Eayrs, Anto Hermida and Sachin Nayak play two couples planning to watch a rare meteor shower. But as the stars come out, so do the home truths. Belco Arts, June 25-July 5.
Everything an audience would want for a musical evening

2 weeks ago | citynews.com.au | Helen Musa

Music / French Connection, Phoenix Collective Quartet. At Wesley Music Centre, June 13. Reviewed by GRAHAM McDONALD. The Phoenix Collective Quartet, of Dan Russell, 1st violin and artistic director Pip Thompson, 2nd violin and program notes, Ella Brinch playing viola and Andrew Wilson on cello, have established themselves as leading members of the Canberra chamber music community in recent years.
Weiss wins conducting prize in Armenia

2 weeks ago | citynews.com.au | Helen Musa

Canberra conductor Leonard “Lenny” Weiss was on Thursday judged co-winner, with Argentine-Italian conductor Fernando Oscar Gaggini, of the 21st Khachaturian International Competition, held in the Armenian capital, Yerevan. Staged in honour of the celebrated Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian, the competition was staged in the 1400 seat Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall, with the competitors leading the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra.
Concert aimed to satisfy – and it did | Canberra CityNews

2 weeks ago | citynews.com.au | Helen Musa

Music / Northern Lights, Johan Dalene, violin; Jennifer Marten-Smith, piano. At Llewellyn Hall, June 12. Reviewed by HELEN MUSA. Musica Viva served up a seven-course banquet of exquisite music at Llewellyn Hall on Thursday night as Scandinavian violinist Johan Dalene took the stage with Tasmanian pianist Jennifer Marten-Smith to perform a mix of romantic classics, pictorial Scandinavian works and one new piece.
Theatre celebrates 60 by bringing back the ballet

2 weeks ago | citynews.com.au | Helen Musa

When the curtain rose on the new Canberra Theatre on June 24, 1965, a crowd of VIPs crammed in to see Minister for the Interior Doug Anthony launch Australia’s first multi-purpose theatre centre, reports HELEN MUSA. Apart from the razzle-dazzle, there was a gala performance by the Australian Ballet, supported by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, of Act II from Petipa’s Swan Lake and The Display devised by Robert Helpmann.
Archer goes live with Pack of Women

2 weeks ago | citynews.com.au | Helen Musa

HELEN MUSA lines up all the big arts events of the coming week in her latest Artsweek column. Robyn Archer and The Pack of Women, a live performance comprising a screening with reflections in song and conversation is at Arc Cinema, NFSA, June 14. Her 1977 album, Take Your Partners for the Ladies’ Choice, was the first Australian record produced by women and was inducted into the NFSA’s Sounds of Australia registry in 2023.