THEY were fast, they were fresh, and here are the winners from this year's Fast + Fresh festival of short plays (no more than 10 minutes) written and performed by students 18 or younger:

• Best production: Oakhill College Castle Hill with their Macbeth parody Short MacBetty by Timothy Lyu
• Best director: the cast of St Joseph's College Gosford's group-devised satire about advertising, Diseased Incorporated
• Best actress: Laura Shirley of St Patrick's Sutherland in Anne Elliott's disturbing but darkly funny 3.14
• Best actor: Jack Monro of Oxley College Bowral in his own hilarious whodunnit The Cluedo Connundrum
• People's Choice (audience vote) award: Katoomba High for their group-devised futuristic drama Generation Y

Other finalists included Manly Selective Campus, the Australian International Performing Arts High School (AIPAH, Harris Park), Rutherford Technology High School, The Hills Grammar School and Tara Anglican Girls' School of North Parramatta.

The Fast + Fresh 2008 gala final was held on June 13 at Parramatta Riverside Theatres.

Ball Game at Darlinghurst Theatre

 FOUR directors team up in Ball Game — comprising four one-act Alan Ball comedies — at Darlinghurst Theatre until July 19.

Ball is probably best known for the Oscar-winning screenplay of the film American Beauty and the Emmy-winning TV series Six Feet Under.

The four plays to be staged at Darlinghurst Theatre are Made for a Woman, Power Lunch, The M Word and Your Mother's Butt. The four directors are Alex Galeazzi, Anthony Skuse, Christopher Stollery and Jessica Symes.

The Ball Game plays look at sex, gender and relationships in an image-obsessed society.

Booking information: Ball Game.

Jolene Anderson in Tell Me on a Sunday

 IN fact, the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Tell Me on a Sunday (first staged in 1979) has had a few permutations, including being the first part of Song and Dance (first staged in 1982).

In the new production by Kookaburra, Tell Me on a Sunday (music by Webber, lyrics by Don Black) is said to be the revised version which charts the course of a newly single girl arriving in New York.

Brimming with the optimism of "starting over" she sets out to seek success, companionship and, of course, love.

But as she weaves her way through the maze of the city and her own anxieties, frustrations and heartaches she begins to wonder whether — in fact — she's been looking for love in all the wrong places.

This is a musical star turn for actor Jolene Anderson (nurse Erica Templeton on the TV series All Saints) who only last year was partnered with singer David Campbell and vying for singing honors in the show It Takes Two — and won.

Her role in Tell Me on a Sunday would seem to need her to be constantly on stage in a demanding tour-de-force performance.

Tell Me on a Sunday first opens in Wollongong at the Merrigong Theatre (July 29–August 2), then transfers to Glen St Theatre, Belrose (August 5–16) followed by a season at the Everest Theatre in the Seymour Centre (August 19–30) and Her Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne (September 2-14).

View the trailer. Sydney booking information: Tell Me on a SundaySydney.

Codgers

 THE Australian comedy Codgers by Don Reid, winner of the Rodney Seaborn Playwright's Award in 2006, is about ageing, racism, inclusion and acceptance, all wrapped up in people's secrets.

It is performed by an ensemble of Australian actors comprising Ronald Falk, Ron Haddrick, Edwin Hodgeman, Jon Lam, Graham Rouse and Henri Szeps.

In the play, five senior Aussie men, four of them mates since war service, meet one morning each week in a gym. They exercise together, chew the fat, laugh, tease and sing. They solve the problems of the world, agreeing to disagree.

But some surprising and disturbing elements enter to test and challenge their comfortable relationships with one another and to the world around them. Secrets, differences and loss of trust threaten to destroy the long-established friendships.

Amid the back strain and biceps, the jokes and the secrets, they learn that "difference" is more a matter of point of view, that "you wouldn't be dead for quids" and, no matter what, that you gotta laugh.

Riverside Theatre, Parramatta, July 30-August 9. Booking information: Codgers.

The Phantom of the Opera | Photo: Jeff Busby

 THE Phantom of the Opera has returned to Sydney, opening at Star City's Lyric Theatre in early May.

The Phantom of the Opera is the longest-running musical on Broadway, having recently celebrated 21 years since its debut in London's West End, and has won more than 50 major theatre awards, including seven Tony Awards.

Last performed in Sydney 11 years ago, the musical sees the return of Australia's original Phantom, Anthony Warlow, with new talent Ana Marina as Christine.

Lyric Theatre, Star City, Pyrmont Bay. Booking information: The Phantom of the Opera.

 THE Imperial Ice Stars follow their previous productions of The Sleeping Beauty on Ice and Swan Lake on Ice with a fresh retelling of the Cinderella story.

Cinderella on Ice tours Australia from August and will be at Sydney's Theatre Royal from August 22 to 31.

The Imperial Ice Stars specialise in performing theatrical ice skating in the intimacy of the theatre and are known for their daring on the ice and storytelling style.

In the 23-member cast are Olympic, world, national and European championship skaters comprising some of Russia's top skating talents.

Theatre Royal, Sydney, August 22-31. Booking information: Cinderella on Ice.

The Happy Prince

 THE Happy Prince, signature production of Kim Carpenter's Theatre of Image, is back in Sydney in the course of an extensive tour through Gosford, Bathurst, Orange, Wagga Wagga, Newcastle and Lismore and — in Sydney — Penrith at the Q, Parramatta at Riverside, and Chippendale at Seymour Centre until July 12. It will be in Melbourne at the Arts Centre in July.

The Happy Prince was first performed at the Wharf in 1993. It has won the Helpmann Award for best presentation for children.

Adapted by Richard Tulloch from Oscar Wilde's classic tale, The Happy Prince is the story of The Prince and the Little Swallow about love and giving.

The Theatre of Image production is brought to life by a combination of multi-skilled actors and a variety of styles of puppetry, from rod to shadow to marionettes, and striking visual illusions.

York Theatre, Seymour Centre, June 28, July 5, 7-12. Booking information: The Happy Prince.

Shaun Micallef

 AUSSIE actor Shaun Micallef's romp through the comedy of matchmaking and mayhem, Boeing-Boeing, ends in Melbourne on July 6.

Boeing-Boeing was scheduled to open at Theatre Royal on July 10. The Sydney, Brisbane and Perth seasons have now been cancelled.

Stars of Boeing-Boeing's Melbourne season — who had been expected to perform in Sydney — are Shaun Micallef, Sibylla Budd, Helen Dallimore, Rachel Gordon, Mitchell Butel, and Judi Farr.

Boeing-Boeing's short Australian flight took off in Melbourne in June... (more)

Altar Boyz

 ONE of the longest-running off-Broadway musicals in years, Altar Boyz, is at Seymour CEntre until August 2.

Music and dance combine in the musical comedy about five small town boys in a struggling boy band, looking for their big break. Its Australian premiere season with an all-Australian cast is at the Seymour Centre.

With music and lyrics by Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker and book by Kevin Del Aguila, Altar Boyz won the Critics Circle Award for Best Musical in 2005; was nominated for seven Drama Desk Awards in the same year; and received two Drama League Awards. Altar Boyz is now in its fourth record-breaking year in New York.

In the current production are Cameron MacDonald (Matthew), Dion Bilios (Mark), Tim Maddren (Luke), Jeremy Brennan (Juan), and Andrew Koblar (Abraham). Direction is by Kate Gaul with musical direction by Robert Gavin and choreography by Anthony Ginandjar.

Everest Theatre, Seymour Centre, Chippendale, until August 2. Booking information: Altar Boyz.

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Copyright 2008 Larry Rivera