Your guide to what's happening on stages across the country and beyond.

Pianist Keith Jarrett is one of the most captivating and controversial musicians of the last 50 years. He's a rare breed - a musician who has mastered the art of jazz improvisation and a fine classical player too.  It’s been 50 years since the Köln Concert, which became the best-selling piano and solo jazz album of all time. But as we find out, that concert nearly didn't happen! You’ll hear all the back stories to this iconic artist in our tribute to Keith Jarrett.  This episode was presented by bass player and ABC Jazz host, Eric Ajaye, and written and produced by ABC Jazz producer Henry Rasmussen. It was created by ABC Jazz, originally being broadcast on 2 June 2025. Find out more information on Keith Jarrett here.   ABC Jazz features a Jazz Legend each month on the radio, with historic moments, significant albums and a full-length feature to immerse into the important history of this music and culture.  Hear more Jazz Legends episodes here, including significant artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Quincy Jones, Joni Mitchell, Keith Jarrett, Mary Lou Williams and Herbie Hancock.

Much like Duke Ellington before him, Charles Mingus' output was prolific. Over his near four-decade career, Mingus was behind a number of jazz firsts: he composed and recorded arguably the first jazz ballet - labelling his iconic LP 'The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady' as "ethnic folk-dance music." He also brought together elements of swing, bebop and R&B in ways that had never been heard before. Unlike some of his contemporaries, Mingus never shied away from his roots in gospel music and the blues. Rather, these textures became an integral part of his sound - often juxtaposed against elements from the free jazz movement. 

This week we're honouring the late, great Billie Holiday. From her early ascendancy as a weaver of song in the 30s to her outspoken truth telling with records like 'Strange Fruit' to her downfall and decline in the 1950s, her tale is one of the more captivating in jazz. Across this episode, we recount Billie's life, and you'll hear from Lady Day herself from various archival interviews.

If you were to put together a list of jazz’s most influential names, then it’d be hard to look past Quincy Jones’s contributions. He was a giant of the music industry, with an influence that spanned from the bop era right up to modern music today. 

In the '70s, Joni Mitchell looked to jazz to inform her creative style. She would collaborate with many of the genre's leaders, but as we'll discover, jazz also was key in her formation right from the start. This episode was presented by bass player and ABC Jazz host, Eric Ajaye, and written and produced by ABC Jazz producer Henry Rasmussen. It was created by ABC Jazz and originally broadcast on 5 Mar 2024. Find out more information on Joni Mitchell, here.   ABC Jazz features a Jazz Legend each month on the radio, with historic moments, significant albums and a full-length feature to immerse into the important history of this music and culture.  Hear more Jazz Legends episodes here, including significant artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Quincy Jones, Joni Mitchell, Keith Jarret, Mary Lou Williams and Herbie Hancock.

With over 70 years of playing jazz under his belt, Sonny Rollins has seen a thing or two. He was present at so many turning points in the music: from bebop to modal jazz, post bop to fusion... and beyond. Now days at the age of 93, Sonny Rollins is one of the last of his generation and a true elder statesman. His contribution to music in both the 20th and 21st centuries is immense, and to this day, many aspiring tenor saxophonists still look to Sonny as a source on inspiration. He was a powerful player with a dominating sound - but he's also a gentle giant too, someone who was always looking to collaborate and pursue new avenues in jazz. Discover Sonny's life and music across this episode, with archival highlights from the ABC's vault, as well as excerpts from pianist Ben Sidran's Talking Jazz series on CD. This episode, presented by bass player and ABC Classic host, Eric Ajaye, was originally broadcast 3 July 2024 

The name Nina Simone can mean many things to many people. Casual fans of her music will no doubt remember her hits like 'I Loves You Porgy', or 'My Baby Just Cares For Me'. For others, though, Nina Simone was one of the most defiant and outspoken performers in the jazz field for much of her career. After an initial rise to fame in the 1950s, Nina started to use her music as a form of protest in the 1960s, becoming one of the most prominent artists involved in the civil rights movement in America. With her lengthy gigs and probing albums, Simone sought to tackle racism and segregation head on, and some of her most powerful works came from this era. On this episode, we wind back the years on the singer and pianist's incredible career. You'll hear from Simone herself and we'll touch on why her music was and still is so important to this very day. This episode,  presented by Eric Ajaye, was originally broadcast 5 Nov 2024 on ABC Classic 

We continue our journey into the life and work of Stephen Sondheim, the composer and lyricist of some of the most well-regarded musical theatre ever made. We are joined by performer Philip Quast, authors Joanne Gordon and Robert L McLaughlin, directors of several Sondheim productions Dean Bryant and Sonya Suares, and we speak with the New York Times' chief theatre critic Jesse Green about Here We Are, Sondheim's posthumous final musical.

Stephen Sondheim is the composer and lyricist of some of the most well-regarded musical theatre ever made. We delve into his life, work and impact on the form. We hear archival interviews with Sondheim himself and are joined by performer Philip Quast, author Joanne Gordon (Art Isn't Easy: The Theatre of Stephen Sondheim), director of several Sondheim productions, Dean Bryant, and Sonya Suares, founding artistic director of the Sondheim repertory company Watch This.

Choreographer Stephanie Lake and composer Robin Fox are partners in work and life, though they come from 'different worlds' artistically.  Their latest collaboration is the joyful The Chronicles, which follows the rhythms of a life cycle, from birth to death — or is it renewal? Eddie Perfect's Broadway musical Beetlejuice has received rave reviews for its re-interpretation of Tim Burton's classic 1988 film. Karis Oka plays Lydia Deetz and tells Michael what it's like channelling her inner Goth eight nights a week! Botis Seva is a London choreographer who dug deep into his most difficult times to create an acclaimed dance work called BLKDOG. From his start at a local youth club in Dagenham, Botis founded his own Hip Hop dance company Far From The Norm when he was still a teenager and is now bringing BLKDOG to Australia.

It’s one of those roles which great actors have on their to-do list: Winnie in the play Happy Days by Samuel Beckett.  Winnie starts the play buried up to her waist in dirt. In Act 2 she’s buried up to her neck! Acclaimed actor Pamela Rabe tell us what makes this such an iconic play and how she approached it as both co-director and star of Happy Days for the Sydney Theatre Company. In the play POV (Point of View), 11-year-old Bub directs a pair of adult actors on stage, to re-enact scenes from her life. There's a catch: it's the first time the actors have seen the script, and Bub is filming them for a documentary. This innovative work by collective re:group is all about how a kid experiences the mental illness of a parent. We chat to young actors Mabelle Rose and Edie Whitehead, who play Bub, and director Solomon Thomas. What if Celine Dion wasn't just the torch-bearing soundtrack to Titanic — but the main character? That's the premise of a hilarious musical parody called Titanique, which originated off Broadway and has since proven popular here in Australia too. A cast of 11 joins The Stage Show, led by powerhouse Marney McQueen.

What does it take to write a Tony-winning musical? Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty are the friends and songwriting team behind big Broadway musicals like Ragtime and Anastasia. They're also voting members for New York City's famous theatre industry prize, the Tony Awards. They join us as Tony Awards season takes off. Back stage... The make up artist. Meet the veteran head of WHAM (that's wardrobe, hair and make-up) Fiona Cooper-Sutherland as she transforms Christine Anu into Hermes, the silver god for the musical Hadestown. Hear Michael's interview with Anais Mitchell the creator of Hadestown. In the classic play The Maids by Jean Genet, two servant sisters act out a sinister game -- playing at murdering their mistress. Then the mistress herself enters the plot. Canberra theatre company The Street is staging this absurdist and chilling drama. We hear from actors Christina Falsone, Sophia Marzano, Natasha Vickery and director Caroline Stacey. The original sound design is by Kimmo Vennonen. 

Legendary French singer Edith Piaf was a firecracker of emotion. Gutsy and seductive, while underneath -- an intense fragility. That’s the legend. But what’s it like to play a legend, show after show, year after year? Cabaret singer Nathalie Lermitte has been inhabiting the icon Piaf for well over a decade. Top Shelf with Josh Piterman. Josh Piterman is an Australian musical theatre star who’s used to donning all kinds of masks, especially as the Phantom of the Opera on London's West End. He’s also a certified meditation teacher and he’s just written a self-help book, about dropping the mask and being authentic. He takes us through the music and thinkers who've changed his life. Plus — more masks!  Gail Evans and Nicky Fearn are Darwin local theatre legends. Now they’re presenting something completely different from their usual humorous, physical-theatre plays — Fair Punishment, a story based on a chilling, gothic Canadian novel that’s  told through masked performance. We hear a reading performed by Merlynn Tong.

When Cree-Salteaux theatre-maker Margo Kane started trying out for theatre gigs in Canada in the 1970s, there were so few roles for Indigenous actors, she ended up auditioning for the same part more than once. That all changed when she wrote her own one woman show, Moonlodge that became a classic of Canadian theatre. She's in Australia to show her new one-woman show, and reflect on her career. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown was a big international hit for the Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar in the 1980s. Now it's a crazy, funny, kitschy musical coming to Sydney's Hayes Theatre. We talk about the impact of the film and how director and performer Alex Berlage and Grace Driscoll are bringing it to life in 2025. New play Thirst, by Barbara Hostalek, is set in a lonely run-down country pub called The Glass Slipper  somewhere in Western Australia. The place is on its last legs. But maybe the new owners can turn it around with a high stakes karaoke night! Actors Leah Pigram, Jarrad Inman and Maitland Schnaars from Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company perform a scene. For our series Back Stage, we meet international set designer Anna Cordingley, who hand draws her designs among many other talents.

Playwright Andrea James has researched a story from the 1840s, in which colonial newspapers suggested that a 'white woman' – maybe the survivor of a shipwreck – had been taken captive by Gunaikurnai people in what is now eastern Victoria.  Andrea interrogates the legend in a riveting new play called The Black Woman of Gippsland. In 1895 Oscar Wilde was sentenced to two gruelling years in Reading Gaol, for being homosexual. The experience broke his health and spirit, and towards the end of his ordeal he wrote an impassioned 80-page letter called De Profundis ('from the depths'). Acclaimed actor and singer Paul Capsis is performing the letter on stage. Athol Fugard wrote influential plays about the injustices of South Africa’s racist Apartheid system on everyday people, for decades. Fugard died last month and fellow playwright and scholar Anthony Akerman tells Michael about his work and impact. 

S. Shakthidharan's last play Counting and Cracking was a massive hit, an epic tale of one Sri Lankan Tamil family and their involvement in world-change events. Now he returns with The Wrong Gods, a story about a mother and daughter in India whose lives are about to be ripped apart by industrial agriculture. Should economic growth come at the cost of a sustainable and ancient way of life? Shakthi is joined by actor Radhika Mudaliyar.  In the 40 years since their history-making perfect score that earned them a gold medal at the 1984 Winter Olympic Games, figure skaters Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean have toured the globe presenting ice dancing spectaculars. Now, the pair plan to hang up their skates for good, following a farewell tour they are calling Torvill & Dean: Our Last Dance. First broadcast November 2024.

We mark the 100th Birthday of Australia's oldest continuously run theatre — Brisbane's iconic La Boite. A little theatre that's had a huge influence on the theatre and politics of Brisbane and on building a theatre culture which is distinctively Australian. La Boite's Artistic Director Courtney Stewart and former AD David Berthold (current director-in-residence at NIDA) take us through the eras, the challenges and the triumphs. Back Stage: the lighting designer. In the theatre world, what does a lighting designer do? Richard Vabre creates night, day, inside, outside and inner psychological states, all through the use of light. Just don't give him a white wall! Richard's work can be seen in ENDGAMES, directed by Laurence Strangio. How would you create a play that a four year old could understand? How about a four month old? Sally Chance and Stephen Noonan do just that, carefully creating works of theatre for the very early years. Stephen's the Boy & the Ball is on as part of the Dream Big children's festival in South Australia.

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival has taken over the city. Comedians from across Australia and around the world are here including the UK's Nicola And Rosie Dempsey, as dead-pan singing sisters Flo and Joan. This year they're also presenting One Man Musical – a musical take-down of Andrew Lloyd Webber! Producer Rosa Ellen hits the streets and meets three comedians debuting shows at MICF: the word-of-mouth hit Jin Hao Li (Swimming in a Submarine), Tik Tok pop songstress Charlene Kaye and Brisbane's queen of crowd work, Anisa Nandaula (You Can't Say That) Kayah Guenther is 31 and he has been dancing since he was a kid. Now with his sister Maitreyah Guenther he is performing in a skilful, intimate show called The Glass Child. Kayah has Down Syndrome and the performance is an exploration of their journey together and their growth to adulthood. They're joined by choreographer Kate Harman from The Farm. Music by Anna Whitaker.

John Harding, a founder of Ilbijerri Theatre Company and veteran playwright, recorded 20 hours of Taungurung elder Uncle Larry Walsh recounting his life story. The result is Lazarus, a sold-out theatre show telling a life of tragic beginnings as a stolen child, survival in institutions and fearless activism. We also hear Billy McPherson, playing Larry. Lazarus is on as part of Melbourne /Naarm's Yirramboi festival. Jason Arrow is known to many as the titular character in Hamilton where he had an extraordinary run both in Australia and internationally. Now he has put his breeches and coat tails away and has donned a 1950s dapper suit for the character of Nicely-Nicely Johnson in Opera Australia’s Guys and Dolls on Sydney Harbour. He sings for us the showstopper Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat! The Player Kings is a show which takes the audience on an 8-hour journey through plays by Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe that chart the rise and fall of five kings. Liam Gamble is making his professional theatre debut, alongside Emma Palmer who plays the evil Queen Margaret. Liam has cerebral palsy, and talks about playing the villainous Richard III, a character who is disabled and endures cruel treatment.