The Stage Show

Bob Dylan's music feels inseparable from the man himself, so how could it be adapted for musical theatre? Playwright Conor McPherson explains how his dark and dreamy Girl from the North Country convinced Bob that he was the man for the job.

Also, Dean Bryant, the director of Fun Home, shares the Best Advice he was ever given and Judith Lucy and Denise Scott are Still Here and heading out on the road.

Zindzi Okenyo has a lot on her plate. The actor, musician and Play School host is now a theatre director. Her first plays, Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner and Orange Thrower, are bitingly honest portrayals of growing up black in predominantly white communities.

Also, when Kim Crotty couldn't be with his sons, he wrote them stories instead — 47 of them. These stories are shared in a new play at this year's Perth Festival called The Smallest Stage — a play that also reveals the reason for their separation: Kim was in prison.

Antony Hamilton is the artistic director of Melbourne's fierce and feisty contemporary dance company, Chunky Move. His new work Yung Lung plunges audiences into a restless and menacing dance party held in the midst of a world in crisis.

Also, WA musician and playwright David Milroy shares what's on his Top Shelf and we meet Jules Allen, a youth support and mental health care worker (and former MasterChef contestant) who can now add 'funny and searingly honest playwright' to her CV.

The all-singing, all-dancing wives of Henry VIII reclaim history in the global smash Six the Musical. We meet Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss who wrote the show for the Edinburgh Fringe as students and have since opened the show on Broadway and the West End.

Also, we discover the close connection between William Shakespeare and two terrorists whose names you're sure to know: Guy Fawkes and Osama Bin Laden. We're joined by Dr Islam Issa, author of Shakespeare and Terrorism.

Nathan Maynard is one of Australia's funniest and most clear-sighted playwrights. The Palawa writer had a hit with The Season and now he's back with At What Cost? A play that explores the thorny issue of who decides who can claim Aboriginal heritage.

Also, how are theatres coping with surging COVID cases? We check in with Belvoir, Opera Australia and Global Creatures (Moulin Rouge), and we hear a scene from And She Would Stand Like This, a play described as Greek tragedy meets Paris Is Burning.

The former artistic director of The Australian Ballet, David McAllister, steals the spotlight to interview his partner, Noonuccal Nuugi playwright and director Wesley Enoch.

Also, Yorta Yorta composer and singer Deborah Cheetham talks about the making of her opera Parrwang Lifts the Sky, based on the Wadawurrung story of the magpie who brought light to the land.

Tom Stoppard and William Shakespeare loom large in the canon of English drama. Two new books explore their lives, their work, their driving forces and their impact on theatre.

David Williamson is far and away Australia's most produced playwright. Now that David has retired, he looks back on his luminous career in a very candid memoir called Home Truths (HarperCollins), in which he throws open the doors to his writing room and takes us inside.

What can a 60-year-old play about drunk and sometimes spiteful American academics tell us about culture and race relations in Australia? Director Margaret Harvey shares her bold vision for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

Also, we hear a performance from Black Brass, inspired by stories of resilience from Perth's African communities and we meet some of the real-life people whose generosity inspired the hit musical Come from Away.

Meet Thomas Kail, the Tony Award-winning director of the hit musical Hamilton, whose friendship and collaboration with Lin-Manuel Miranda stretches back twenty years.

And Justin Levine, the man behind the music of the big winner at this year's Tonys: Moulin Rouge! The Musical — now on stage in Melbourne and heading to Sydney in May.