"When they talk, they're from Kempsey, but when they sing they sound exactly like The Carpenters." That's part of the dificult-to-resist blurb for The Carpenters from Kempsey, which plays at QUT Gardens Theatre on September 18 and 19. Details here.
PS: Having stayed in Kempsey, which is about half-way between Brisbane and Sydney, I suggest this is as close as you get to it.

Congratulations to the winners of the Helpmann awards. Sadly, no Queensland productions among the winners' list, although Queensland Theatre Company artistic director Michael Gow won a writing gong for his play Toy Symphony, which made its debut at Sydney's Company B last year. (I'm sure there's a good reason why it didn't premiere in Brisbane, but I don't know what it is.) Queenslanders Leah Purcell and Russell Dykstra also won awards for work performed interstate. The full, Sydney and Melbourne-centric list is here.

I was disappointed to read recently that Brisbane's Harvest Rain Theatre Company is facing some financial difficulties. The "little company that can", as I like to call it, creates an important bridge between Brisbane's professional and amateur theatre scenes, and it deserves arts lovers' support. You can help out by attending the Winter Carnivale, a free event at the company's training centre in 81 Mina St, Alderley on August 6. The event from 6-9pm is free, but you're encouraged to sling a donation their way, buy a raffle ticket or two and/or bid in the art auction at the end of the night. Hosts will be Picasso from TV's The Shak and the self-styled "Bert Newton from Hell", Paul Dellit. Details here.
PS: Mavis Bramston Reloaded, written by the aforementioned Paul Dellit with Peter Pinne, is playing at the StageDoor Dinner Theatre at Bowen Hills (in the basement of the Twelfth Night Theatre) from August 20 to October 18. Its stars Kym Ford, Kym Brown and Steven Tandy. Details here.

It's impossible for me to have an opinion about The Age of Consent - a new dark comedy that has a character based on the two boys who killed British toddler James Bulger - because I haven't seen or read the play. The director, Shannon Murphy, says she feels sorry for the two real-life offenders because they were treated "brutally" by the media, and is quoted as saying: "Some people don't know whether to laugh or not because you're constantly teetering on this point of asking, 'Is laughing at this wrong?'. Cue some very spirited debate.

Successful musicals usually begin on the stage and end up on the silver screen. Singin' in the Rain and Hairspray broke the mould, and now comes 9 to 5. The Dolly Parton/ Jane Fonda/ Lily Tomlin/ Dabney Coleman film has become a musical comedy that will debut on Broadway in April. It feature 20 songs penned by Parton, but none of the original cast will star. More here.

The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics isn't the only big cultural event happening in the first week of August. It will also see the return of the hit comedy The Narcissist to Brisbane's Roundhouse Theatre. The Stephen Carelton play, directed by Ian Lawson, is also part of Sydney Theatre Company's 2008 season - an incredible coup for a Queensland play. Details here.

There are few things more annoying to crusty regular theatregoers than a crying baby or naughty child in the auditorium. That's why cinemas have special "babes-in-arms" screenings. Now, the live smash Busting Out is doing the same at the Twelfth Night Theatre in Brisbane's Bowen Hills. If you're not a parent with a baby and you go along to the 11am show on August 27, you've only got yourself to blame if the noise of children annoys. Show details are here.

I don't often agree with Andrew Bolt, but he is spot on when he says the proposal to name a West Australian performing arts centre after Heath Ledger is "cheap" and an attempt by WA premier Alan Carpenter to advertise himself. Ledger was a good actor, but on the screen not the stage. It's as inappropriate to name a theatre after him as it would be to name a football field after me.
PS: On a similar subject, when is Brisbane going to get a theatre named after Queensland Theatre Company founding artistic director Alan Edwards?

British actor Steven Berkoff will bring his one-man show, One Man, to Brisbane from September 29 to October 1 as part of a national tour. Berkoff has been to Brisbane a few times, notably with Salome many years ago and Shakespeare’s Villains in 2005, and tickets for these performances - a double bill of the Edgar Allan Poe-derived Tell-Tale Heart and Berkoff's own Dog - are sure to sell quickly. Details here; tickets here.

You can't keep a good woman down. Shirley Valentine, Willy Russell's one-woman show about a housewife who runs off to Greece to escape her humdrum existence, is returning to the stage on the Queensland leg of a national tour that brings it to the following venues:
Jun 30: Logan City Entertainment Centre
July 1: Boonah Cultural Centre
July 2: Redcliffe Cultural Centre
July 3-5: QUT Gardens Theatre, Brisbane (details here)
July 8: Moncrieff Theatre Bundaberg
July 9: Gladstone Entertainment Centre
July 10: Mackay Entertainment Centre
The star is Glenda Linscott, who starred in TV's Prisoner alongside the original Australian Shirley (and recent visitor to Shanghai) Amanda Muggleton.
PS: Did you know that in most women, one breast is slightly larger than the other, but in most bras both cup sizes are the same? That's one of the "fun facts" being used to promote Busting Out, which plays at the Twelfth Night Theatre in Brisbane this month and next. Details here.