September Session: All about YOU

Andrew is an established freelance performer and vocal coach who has performed professionally in and around Adelaide. He has been a member of the State Opera of SA’s Chorus since 2009. Andrew‘s first foray into the world of Music Theatre was in 2000, when he was encouraged to audition for the Gilbert & Sullivan Society’s back-to-back production of HMS Pinafore and Trial By Jury, and since then he has not looked back!

Andrew won his first leading role in 2006, and has gone on to play a large number of leading and supporting roles throughout Adelaide’s community theatre. Andrew has been nominated for Best Male Performance by the Critics Circle Awards for his role as Don Lockwood in Singin’ In The Rain, and by the Adelaide Theatre Guide for the same role, as well as his portrayal of The Beast in Disney's Beauty And The Beast. For one of his most recent productions Andrew won the TASA Best Male Performance Award for his portrayal of Edward Bloom in BIG FISH – a show which also won the TASA MusiCal Award. Andrew co-wrote and performed in the sold-out season of Villain-Ville: A Musical Exploration of Villainy and Evil in the 2015 Fringe Festival. His most recent appearances this year include a return to the role of Curly McLain (for the third time) in an outdoor production of Oklahoma (On A Farm) with Emma Knights Productions, The Preacher in Davine Interventionz production of Violet, a return to the role of the Major General in Emma Knights Productions’ fourth season of Pirates On The Popeye, and lastly as Pontius Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar.

Andrew played the role of Marius in both seasons of Les Misérables with the Gilbert & Sullivan’s Society in 2008 and 2009, and he is overjoyed to be coming back for yet another season with them only this time as the infamous Javert – a role he has coveted since he was little!

Currently studying at Paul McCartney's The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in the UK, Benji Riggs has a passion for songwriting and composition. He had the privileged upbringing as a performer, which has led him to audiences around the world – previously performing at the Royal Albert Hall, The Adelaide Cabaret Festival and the 50th year anniversary celebration of Uganda’s independence.

His first lead role was as Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat with Shane Davidson Presents age 10. Since then, he has performed with many local theatre companies, including Swell Productions, Adelaide Youth Theatre, Scotch College and Independent Theatre, as well as professionally for Heaps Good Productions, and SINGular Productions. Adding to his credits are performances with the State Opera of South Australia, Windmill and the Australian Ballet Company.

Riggs has more recently found himself in the world of theatrical composition, having worked on Tony Harrison’s The Mysteries Part III: Doomsday (dir. Nick Bagnall), Blackbird by David Harrower (dir. Nick Bagnall) and with UK-based touring company Peepolykus.

However, beneath all the romance of adventure, Riggs is an Adelaide boy with a gentle heart, a warm spirit and a desperate need to create.

Brendan has performed in shows for most theatre companies in SA. Favourite Roles include Wilbur in Hairspray, Bert in Mary Poppins and Danny Maguire in Xanadu. He can be seen next in Guys and Dolls as Nathan Detroit with G&S SA. He has been in the chorus for many shows, worked backstage on just as many and Directed The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee for AYT. He will be directing two shows next year, Bob's your Auntie for Tea Tree Players and Catch Me if You Can for Marie Clark (big challenges ahead)!

Brendan's ultimate role would Francis Henshall in One Man, Two Guvnors. By day Brendan is self employed as a House/Office and Window Cleaner for Maxwells Smart Cleaning Service. Give him a call if you don't like cleaning because he certainly does!

Ella is just eleven years old and has a passion for the Arts. She has been dancing with TIDC for nine years, and has performed in many state and national competitions over this time. Showing particular flair for singing, she has busked in Salisbury's Secret Garden and been involved in musical theatre productions with Pelican productions in Little Mermaid Jr and many Adelaide Youth Theatre productions.

Ella was cast as Charlotte in the 2014 junior production of Charlotte's Web, and will be playing Lina Morelli in October's Junior AYT production of Busgy Malone. Ella is working vocally with both Emma Riggs and Kirsty Roberts, on trumpet with Lesley Raymond and Piano with Esther Riggs. She is also a budding contemporary artist, recently placing second in this year's Junior Contemparay Solo section of the Balaklava eisteddfod. If that wasn't enough, she is also currently exploring songwriting!

Ellis Dolan toured as Eddie/Dr. Scott in The Rocky Horror Show, and with the company of School of Rock as an Understudy for Dewey Finn and as a Swing – travelling all over Australia, China, and New Zealand.

He spent 2017 studying Musical Theatre at NIDA; appearing in the Sydney Theatre Company production of Chimerica as part of the NIDA Ensemble.

He has appeared in several productions around Adelaide, including Evita (The Met) in which he portrayed Che; The Producers (HMC) as the Stormtrooper; Oliver! (Shane Davidson Presents) as Bill Sykes; as well as ensemble roles in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (HMC) and Jesus Christ Superstar (G&S Society). Off-stage, he acted as Assistant Director for You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown and Smokey Joe's Cafe (HMC).

He also toured across Australia, portraying the role of Peter Dutton, as part of Abbott: The Musical (George Glass Productions), performing as part of the Canberra Comedy Festival and Melbourne International Comedy Festival, as well as a sell-out run in the Adelaide Fringe Festival.

Outside of performing, Ellis is a writer – having completed his Honours in Creative Arts: Creative Writing at Flinders University. He’s currently struggling through the third draft of a novel and is constantly side-tracked by wanting to write reviews and film analysis; because of this, nothing seems to get done, but he has a lot of fun doing it.

He made his directorial debut with Edges as part of the 2018 Adelaide Fringe Festival and loved every second of working with such fine people.

Gemma has been singing and dancing and acting since she was three years old and at fifteen is already an accomplished performer - a true triple threat! Gemma's passion for musical theatre has allowed her to feature in a number of shows over the past few years including Wendy in Peter Pan and The Witch in Into The Woods Jr with Adelaide Youth Theatre. Gemma has just returned from performing in DisneyWorld and Universal Studios, Orlando.

Gemma is a student at TIDC Performing Arts Studio and has competed successfully in State, National and International Hip Hop, Jazz, Tap and Contemporary competitions. She attends Loreto College where she is very much involved in the performing arts, is a keen saxophone player and a member of the school band. Gemma is thrilled to be singing at Broadway Sessions this month!

Originally from the US, Jeri Williams immigrated to Adelaide in 2011. She’s a born performer, growing up singing in choirs, glee club, a pop/R&B girl group, and musical theatre. She got her start in theatre performing in the ensemble of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at age 16. After school, Jeri got a job singing in an acapella group at a theme park in Florida, which led to being cast as Wendy Darling by Disney Cruise Line. Jeri spent her early 20s working and performing on various cruise ships with her husband.

Since making Adelaide her home, Jeri has delved into the local theatre scene on a few occasions, being cast in leading roles in NLTC’s Into The Woods (2012) as the Baker’s Wife; G&SSA’s Guys & Dolls (2015) as Adelaide and NLTC's Mack and Mabel (2016) as Mabel.

When life gets too busy for a full show schedule, Jeri enjoys singing with the Civic Park Carols Choir and joining in for a sing at Broadway Sessions as often as possible.

Josh Barkley started theatre work when a high school friend introduced him to the stage at the age of fifteen. Since then Josh has performed in many plays and musicals including the parts of Enjolras in Les Misérables, Motel in Fiddler on the Roof, Corny Collins in Hairspray, The Beast in Beauty and the Beast and Old Deuteronomy in Cats.

Kate is an established performer and a regular with NLTC having played roles such as Liesl in The Sound of Music, The title role in Cinderella, Belle in Beauty and the Beast, Truly Scrumptious in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and most recently Fantine in this year's production of Les Miserables to name a few. Kate loves the Adelaide theatre community and has performed with a number of other companies across SA including MBM, The MET, Marie Clarke, Therry, The Hills Musical Theatre Company and G&S Society. Highlights for Kate include playing the puppet Kate Monster for The Hills Musical Theatre Company's production of Avenue Q in 2018 and the roller-skating Goddess Kira/Clio in Davine Interventionz' production of Xanadu in 2014.

Kate was first nominated for an Adelaide Theatre Guide Awards for "Best Female Performance" at 15 for her role as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz with NLTC. Ten years later Kate was nominated again and won ATG's "Best Female Performance"  for her role in or Kira/Clio in Xanadu. In the real world Kate is a Speech Pathologist, Voice Therapist, Vocal Coach and Mum to two young children.

Leah Boots is currently at school in year nine at Marryatville High. She loves singing, acting and dancing. So far she has been in a few musicals, such as Chip in Beauty and the Beast (NLTC), Little Cosette in Les Misérables, and Gabriella in High School Musical, and has also done a bit of TV work. She has also performed as part of the ensemble in a few Pelican Productions performances such as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Bring It On. Leah has been a featured soloist in the Festival of Music (twice), and an assisting artist.

Mitchell is so excited to be back at Broadway Sessions for the first time since almost 3 years living in Melbourne. Favourite past roles include Melchior in Spring Awakening (HMC), Marius in Les Misérables (PLOS - Melbourne), Jimmy in Thoroughly Modern Millie (G&S), and Monty in Violet (Davine). He currently works as a paediatric podiatrist in the public sector in Victoria and is so grateful to be able to get across the border (and hopefully back) to sing tonight.

Nathan has been performing onstage since the age of six starting as a tiny, little magician alongside his mother. Since then he has worked his way up the ranks of Scout Shouts Youth Theatre as performer and Young Director for several years (2007-2014). Pirates of Penzance (Ensemble/2012) marked his amateur theatre debut and he has since appeared in Little Shop of Horrors (Ensemble/2013), Eurobeat: Almost Eurovision (Russia, Estonia, Italy/2013), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Frank Pontipee/2014), White Christmas (Broadway Chorus/2014), Happy Days (Richie Cunningham/2015), all with the Northern Light Theatre Company, Mary Poppins (Bear, Tap Ensemble/2015) with Matt Byrne Media, and Guys and Dolls (Rusty Charlie/2015) with the G&S Society of SA. He now serves on the Northern Light committee as Publicity Officer. Nathan has enjoyed singing in fundraising cabarets for NLTC, ADSSA and Riding for the Disabled, his ability in which has grown through singing tuition over the past four years.

Nicholas recently started training with Brian Gilbertson, a well-known Adelaide vocal teacher and performer. After just finishing Year 12 just last year, he's still figuring out what he wants to do. His hopes are that he'll get into an acting school next year!

Recently Nicholas had the privilege of being a part of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival with a new show, written by Lane Hinchcliffe, called The Front. It was a brilliant experience being able to work with industry professionals, and he also got the added benefit of being able to see a few cabaret shows here and there!

Scott has always had a love of the theatre, but his real obsession began in high school, with performances as the Foreman, Pimp and a Student in Les Misérables, Priam in Paris and Action in West Side Story. Since completing high school he performed non-stop for a number of years, starting with Gerald Bolingbroke in Me and My Girl, an Apostle in Jesus Christ Superstar and Ugly in Honk! (Marie Clark Musical Theatre). After playing Cornelius Hackl in Hello, Dolly! and Asher and the Butler in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Metropolitan Musical Theatre Company of SA), Scott joined Northern Light Theatre Company’s production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast as Monsieur D’Arque to round out 2011. The following year started with an incredible experience: Scott won the role of Henry in Six Foot Something’s pro-am Production of Next to Normal. After a mild performance hiatus in more recent times, Scott starred as Hunter in Irregular Productions sell out 2015 Adelaide Fringe season of [title of show].

If there’s one thing he regrets, it’s not starting singing and performing (publicly of course) at an earlier age. Off-stage (but in the theatre) Scott enjoys both sound and lighting design, and the challenges each of these areas brings to his knowledge of design in the digital world. Broadway Sessions is certainly the start of a new chapter, bringing together many ongoing stories and plot lines, but allowing the love of theatre (musical theatre in particular) to continue in new and exciting ways.

When not strutting his stuff on stage, or manically helping out backstage or in the roof of a theatre, Scott is a web designer & developer, creating sites like this one! You can see more of his work at www.scottreynolds.com.au.

Tanisha has a strong background in musical theatre, however recently has taken up songwriting (as well as learning the guitar and drums). Her current singing teacher is Kirsty Roberts and together they're developing an EP. Look out for that soon!

Tegan has appeared in amateur and professional shows since the age of nine, her favourite roles include Lois/Bianca in Kiss Me Kate (MCMT- 2006 and Co Opera SA - 2007), Ariel in Footloose (Matt Byrne Media – 2006), Lucy T Slut in Avenue Q (Matt Byrne Media – 2011), Rizzo in Grease (The Met – 2013), Calamity Jane in Calamity Jane (MCMT- 2014), Elle Woods in Legally Blonde (Hills Musical Company – 2014) and Julia in The Wedding Singer (MCMT- 2015).

For five years Tegan worked at the Night Train as a lead performer in their Adult, Kids and touring show, The Rockaholics, and has been the lead singer for Adelaide corporate and Party Band Jungle Jooce for the past 16 years. She also co-wrote, choreographed and performed in the sold out season of Villain-Ville: A Musical Exploration of Villainy and Evil in the 2015 Adelaide Fringe Festival.

More recently Tegan played Princess Fiona in AYT's Shrek, Tracy Samantha Lord in the METs High Society, Mayzie La Bird in NLTC’s Seussical in 2018 and Eva Peron in G&S' production of Evita in 2021. In April this year, Tegan will be playing Holly in Northern Light Theatre CO’s production of The Wedding Singer.

Vaishnavi is a lawyer with a passion for music theatre. This is now her fifth time being a part of the Broadway Sessions line-up, and her first time since coming back from a long hiatus! She was in the Met's production of Bye Bye Birdie and hopes to be part of another show soon!

Zak is currently in his third year at the Victorian College of the Arts studying a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Music Theatre). He has been passionate about theatre for as long as he can remember, undertaking both on and offstage roles for a variety of productions. He has completed a Certificate IV in Commercial Dance at Gravity Dance, specialising in tap, hip hop, jazz, contemporary, ballroom and ballet.

Zak’s choreography credits include Singin’ in the Rain JR (2017, TB Arts, Fringe Festival), A Peter Combe Extravaganza! (2017, Something on Saturday) and A Night on Broadway (2014, Glenunga High School). Zak made his professional debut with State Opera of South Australia’s production of Hansel and Gretel. Since then, he has played many memorable roles such as Boq in Wicked the Musical (2016, Matt Byrne Media), Mary Sunshine in Chicago (2017, Emma Knights Productions), The Tinman in The Wiz (2013, GIHS), Danny in Grease (2014, GIHS), Bert in Mary Poppins (2014, GIHS) and also appeared as a featured dancer in Thoroughly Modern Millie (2016, G&S Society of SA).

An avid performer, he has entertained at many events around Adelaide, such as the Adelaide Fringe Festival, the Royal Adelaide Show and Adelaide's Clipsal 500, as well as at private functions, weddings and parties. Zak also works as an entertainer for Nickelodeon and Showtime Attractions and has performed in many children’s shows with them.

Peter is a music director, accompanist, repertoire coach, and the founder of Irregular Productions - one half of the brains behind Broadway Sessions.

He has been a theatre music director since 2005, with a number of his shows winning local awards. Theatre Credits include: (as Music Director) Beautiful, Mamma Mia, Les Misérables, Next to Normal, Violet, The Story Of My Life, Songs For A New World, The Light In The Piazza, You're A Good Man Charlie Brown, Into the Woods, Disney's Beauty and the Beast, [title of show], Edges, Avenue Q, Bring It On, Singing In The Rain, Fiddler on the Roof, Oliver!, Monty Python’s Spamalot, Chicago, Sweeney Todd, The Sound of Music, Urinetown the Musical, Scrooge, The Witches of Eastwick, Little Shop of Horrors, Seussical the Musical, Grease, Once Upon a Mattress; (as Associate Music Director) Kinky Boots; (as Conductor) City of Angels, The Addams Family; (as Associate Conductor) Rent; (as Assistant Music Director) Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, South Pacific, Copacabana; as well as playing keyboard in over 25 other productions.

Besides co-producing Broadway Sessions, Irregular Productions has also staged the South Australian premieres of Songs for a New World, [title of show] and Edges, as well as a new production of Godspell (with Lydian Productions).

Peter is also the music director for Civic Park Carols, Australia's second-largest candlelight carols event, working with some of Adelaide’s finest musician’s and performers, as well as artists such as Justine Clarke, Guy Sebastian, Rachel Beck, and Jimmy Giggle.

Louis has been playing both double bass and bass guitar as long as he can remember. Beginning with lessons at the age of 7, he quickly developed his skills and decided that music was the career for him. Louis began playing for Musical Theatre shows in 2011, with the Northern Lights Theatre Company’s production of Beauty and the Beast, which coincidentally, was the beginning of a long-standing working relationship with Musical Director, Peter Johns! Since, Louis has played for many theatre companies around Adelaide, including Adelaide Youth Theatre, Lydian Productions, Pelican Productions, Davine Productions, Irregular Productions, Marie Clarke Musical Theatre, The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of South Australia, and Hills Musical Company. Some of his favourite shows to play for have been In the Heights, for Pelican Productions in 2019, and Beautiful: The Carol King Musical, for Davine Productions in 2020. In 2018, Louis had the privilege of playing in the pit for the Gordon Frost Organisation’s touring production of The Wizard of Oz. Louis graduated from the Elder Conservatorium of Music in 2016, with a Bachelor of Music (Classical Performance.) That same year, he began performing as a casual member of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra - some of his favourite performances include Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in Concert at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, and Last Night of the Proms at the Adelaide Festival Centre.