City Dazzles With Star Productions

Illawarra Mercury

Tuesday March 11, 2008

By BREE FULLER

THEY say the neon lights are bright on Broadway, but it seems Wollongong too is premiering its fair share of headline acts. The Illawarra Performing Arts Centre (IPAC) is rapidly becoming the off-broadway of Australia, with more theatre companies and comic acts trialling new material before touring the country's larger venues. Already the South African State Theatre's Township Stories, Wayne Scott Kermond's Candy Man and Wil Anderson's comical A Work in Progress have made their Australian debut at IPAC. Director of the IPAC's Merrigong Theatre Company Simon Hinton said audiences should be excited about the high profile premieres in Wollongong. "It is really exciting for an audience so see the first performance - there will always be a real buzz around that," Mr Hinton said. The present hype surrounds last night's announcement of Jolene Anderson as lead in the one-woman show Tell Me on a Sunday. Ms Anderson, who is best known for playing nurse Erica Templeton in All Saints and winning last year's It Takes Two, will debut in the national musical theatre company Kookaburra's production at IPAC in July. "It's great for us to be able to have the premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Tell Me on a Sunday. It has never been done in Australia before and it is a major new production with such an exciting star," Mr Hinton said. According to Mr Hinton, Wollongong is an attractive option for producers not only for its size and location, but because of its facilities and audiences. "Wollongong is a fantastic place for producers to bring their show and to premiere it here, rather than taking it into the city. And we've seen a number of instances of that. "We're building the reputation as the foremost regional centre for the arts ... This venue has a good reputation because of our technical staff and their ability to work really well. "(Wollongong's) a place where you can get an audience and you are going to get a pretty good idea of whether a show works or not by bringing it here." Later this month the Chaser team will become the next comic act to test their material at IPAC.