About this Session
To kick off the new year, join us and our host, Lindsay Prodea, for a night of performer’s favourite songs – that’s right, it’s free choice time! In addition to the regular happenings of Broadway Sessions, there will be a special performance from the cast of Violet.
If you are registering, please remember to suggest two songs so we can choose a program of varied style. This month there are no restrictions on what you can choose, provided it’s from musical theatre or a musical theatre writer!
Session Setlist
Session Host
Lindsay Prodea (he/him)
Lindsay has performed over the past decade in both musical theatre and cabaret, having enjoyed success in various genres: classical roles such as John Brooke in Little Women (The Musical) (Therry Dramatic Society 2013) and Cinderella's Prince in Into the Woods (Northern Light Theatre Company 2012); to contemporary roles such as Abraham in the Adelaide premiere of Altar Boyz (Davine Interventionz 2013), Sonny Malone in Xanadu (The Musical) (Davine Interventionz 2014), George in The Drowsy Chaperone (Hills Musical Company 2013), Kyle the UPS Delivery guy in Legally Blonde (HMC 2014) and most recently Elliott Garfield in The Goodbye Girl (Therry 2015). Lindsay has also appeared in countless other shows, favourites including Urinetown, 42nd Street, Crazy for You & Les Misérables. Most recently he premiered in Adelaide the role of Fabrizio for Davine Interventionz's 2016 Adelaide Fringe Show, The Light In The Piazza.
Aside from musical theatre, Lindsay has a keen passion for cabaret, having written, co-produced and performed at numerous cabaret events over the years. Stepping out side his usual genre, Lindsay played the role of Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby (old sport), produced by Independent Theatre.
Session Performers
Amelia Sanzo
Amelia has trained for years at Xcel Dance Studios. She received national titles in Tap and Song and Dance at Showcase Dance Nationals, and has won numerous competition scholarships and aggregates to interstate schools such as Brent Street and Dance World.
Amelia is no stranger to the stage and was lucky enough to play the lead of Alistair in her year 11 drama production of Two Weeks with the Queen, as well as the lead roles of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde Jr and Gabriella in High School Musical 2 with Shane Davidson Presents. In February Amelia is joining TB Arts in the leading role of Kathy Selden in Singin' in the Rain Jr for the Adelaide Fringe Festival 2017.
Ava-Rose Askew (she/they)
Brenton Shaw
Brenton Shaw is a singer, actor, composer, musical director and choral conductor.
From the age of eight Brenton has been involved in theatre and music performing in both established and original music theatre, opera, cabaret and choral repertoire. A graduate of the University of South Australia's Bachelor of Media Arts (Performing Arts major) in 2013 Brenton was invited to continue his study in musical theatre at Minnesota State University Mankato, USA. He furthered his study in 2014 and as part of his honours thesis adapted Bryce Courtenay's iconic novel Jessica for the musical theatre stage. From 2013 to 2016 he was the co-conducter for the Tutti Ensemble, an all inclusive community choir, and in 2016 was also commissioned to work with the students of Christie Downs Primary School on a music theatre adaptation of the children's book The Snail and the Whale. From 2015-2016 he also worked as a casual lecturer at the University of South Australia in communication studies.
Performance highlights include: Courfeyrac - Les Misérables, The Boy - Ten Ways to Love, Baal - Baal, Possum - EYE MUSIC, Soldier - Earshot, Peter Pan - A Musical Adventure (musical director), King - The Six Swans (Aust. Premiere), Rites of Passage, History of Autism (stage manager), and My Life, My Love.
This year he is thrilled to continue his studies in music theatre at Federation University Ballarat, where he hopes he can finally learn how to dance on a stage without making a fool of himself!
Cara Andriani
Cara, 17, graduated from King's Baptist Grammar School in 2016 and is excited to gain experience performing in Adelaide. Cara saw her first professional musical when she was just 5 and, like all of us, fell in love with the stage! Since, she has seized any opportunity to learn and grow as a performer. She began performing in school choirs, bands and in the ensemble for many youth shows including The Wizard of Oz, Beauty and the Beast, My Son Pinocchio, High School Musical (KBGS).
Her first experience as a lead role was playing Mrs Meers in Thoroughly Modern Millie, and she loved it! From there she played many other characters, her favourite roles were the Baker's Wife in Into the Woods and Tracy Turnblad in Hairspray! Cara was very honoured to have received the Performing Arts award at KBGS for her dedication to the arts in from 2014-2016.
Most recently, Cara performed in the ensemble for Fiddler on the Roof with Therry Dramatic Society, and is currently in rehearsals for their Jane Eyre. Cara loves coming to Broadway Sessions and is looking forward to performing again!
Casmira Lorien (she/her)
Casmira is an experienced performer and teacher with a great passion for storytelling. Highlights have included performing the role of ‘Violet’ in Davine Productions’ Violet (for which she won the TASA award for Best Female Performance 2017) and 'Fantine' in the G&S Society's production of Les Misérables (for which she was nominated for a Curtain Call: Best Female Performance 2018).
Other shows she has done include Edges, Steel Magnolias, Spamalot, Seussical, Judge Jackie: Disorder in the Court, Assassins, Jesus Christ Superstar, Into the Woods, Sing on Through Tomorrow, and most recently she played Harper Pitt in Angels in America.
Casmira is most proud of writing, producing and performing her own Fringe show this year, Distopia (misspelling intentional), with her writing partner and collaborator David Salter.
CJ McLean
CJ McLean is an emerging Adelaide writer. His fiction and poetry has appeared in InDaily and Vaein Zine, and he has read and performed at Speakeasy and The Hearth. In 2015, CJ was mentored by Nicki Bloom in ATYP’s Fresh Ink Mentoring Program. He developed a seven-minute monologue, Changing Room, at ATYP’s National Studio, which was later selected for The Voices Project 2016. Changing Room was reworked and broadcast on ABC Radio National’s Pocketdocs program in late 2016, and published by Currency Press in an anthology of the same name. In 2017, CJ mounted his first one-man cabaret show for the Adelaide Fringe, Love & Anger, which explored themes of lost love and self-identity. He was recently awarded with the State Theatre Company's Young Playwright's Award for his play The River.
David Gauci (he/him)
David Gauci, proudly from Adelaide’s western suburbs, wouldn’t stop singing from an early age – so much so that the Sisters of St Joseph at primary school wished he’d just shut up and do maths.
At Woodville High, teachers and parents suggested – after David showed interest in acting or journalism – a career in accounting. He did study accountancy but also theology and music (Elder Conservatorium). David was introduced to opera and classical singing but went down the dark path of corporate functions, cabaret and music theatre. He worked in piano bars for 20 years in Adelaide, Darwin, Melbourne, Sydney and Townsville.
David wrote cabaret shows New York According to Bernstein, The Sinatra Show and The Broadway Show, performed with co-writer and accompanist Matthew Carey in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Townsville and Darwin.
He performed at the inaugural Adelaide Cabaret Festival and again in 2016 when he returned with the award-winning It was Worth the Weight. David also wrote and performed in The Big Book of Broadway, Cole’s Girls, Leading Men I’ll Never Play and Wireless.
He was equal winner in the 2015 Australian Cabaret Competition Adelaide final and most recently performed in the Australian Touring production of Hairspray as understudy to the role of Edna Turnblad – adding to professional stage roles in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney
David’s also appeared in TV commercials and films, e.g. The Brush Off, directed by Sam Neill.
This led to forming his own Davine Interventionz Productions in 2013 with a string of shows he’s produced, directed and/or designed to glowing reviews and a welter of awards. And David’s still singing!
Eloise Quinn-Valentine
Eloise Quinn-Valentine loves to tell stories on stage, and has performed in a variety of musicals, plays, cabarets, and choirs from a young age. Recent highlights include Othello and Seagull (Independent Theatre, 2022), The Hello Girls (Therry Theatre, 2021), Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (Davine Productions, 2020), Jerusalem (University of Adelaide Theatre Guild, 2019), It’s Only Life (Davine Productions, 2018), Violet: a musical (Davine Productions, 2017), and The Crucible (Royal Holloway University of London Drama Society, 2017). Eloise works and volunteers as an educator across a variety of disciplines and contexts, and particularly loves teaching others about faith, storytelling, compassion, and justice.
Emily Goldsmith
At the age of three, Emily first took to the stage – originally a dancer, she was captured by the feeling of complete freedom when she danced. After opening her horizon she has found love in moving ordences not only through dance by in song also.
This year Emily will be leaving the Adelaide scene to study in Perth at WAAPA (Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts). Knowing her remaining time in Adelaide is short, she wanted to perform in her first Broadway Sessions to kick off 2017. We're sure Emily will be back soon though with bucket loads of even more amazing talent to share!
Emma Haddy (she/her)
Although no stranger to the stage, Emma has spent the last few years focussing on her career in history and museum curation, and is excited to be dipping her toes back into the performing pool once again. In 2017, she performed the role of Cosette in Les Misérables with G&S, and in 2019 played Edith in Therry's The Pirates of Penzance. She also joined the ensemble of Thoroughly Modern Millie in 2016 and Oliver! in 2013 and 2014, both with G&S.
Fahad Farooque
Fahad has been performing for 24 years in concerts, and musical theatre and drama productions. His most recent theatre production was an original Australian musical called Pricecheck, where he played the a cooky supermarket worker who had a fetish for fruit and vegetables. Prior to that he was in a production of You're a Good Man Charlie Brown musically directed by Peter Johns, where he played the role of Snoopy. Amongst some of Fahad's favourites roles in theatre are Tobias in Sweeny Todd and Dr Aziz in a Passage to India. Later in 2017 he will be performing in the Red Phoenix political drama Two Hands at the Holden Street Theatre.
Fahad is also a singer of Indian and Pakistani music, and has been performing in this style since the age of 15. He has travelled to India and undertaken vocal training in semi-classical Hindustani music. He has given a number of concerts, and in 2014 performed as part of Floating Melodies for the world renowned Ozasia festival on the Popeye boat, where he was accompanied by his band.
Fahad most recently was involved in the production of Violet, where he played the role of Flick for the Davine Interventionz production staged during the 2017 Adelaide Fringe Festival.
Fiona DeLaine
Fiona has an Honours degree in performance from Flinders University Drama Centre. She has appeared on television and on stage both professionally, here and interstate and as part of the Adelaide Amateur Theatre community. She has worked in several aspects of theatre from performer to choreographer to director. Maureen from RENT is a dream role in a show she has loved since she was 14 and received the original Broadway album and was privileged enough to see the original Australian production.
Grace Mackenzie (She/Her)
Grace is now a post-graduate medicine student and still passionate about performing and honing in on her musical theatre vocal skills. She loves being apart of the Broadway sessions stage and has performed in past Productions as Penny in Hairspray and Gertrude McFuzz in Seussical.
Jessica Wolfendale (she/they)
Jess has been involved in Adelaide's theatre scene since 2015, from Guys and Dolls to The Addams Family, to (most recently) A New Brain with Davine Productions. Working as a Stage Manager and general backstage all-rounder, for companies such as Adelaide Festival Centre, State Opera, and Slingsby; they still love to perform – though it's mostly in the car on the way to and from work!
Joshua Spiniello
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Kaitlyn McKenzie
Kaitlyn played her dream role of Christine Dae in Phantom of The Opera at just 16 years old. She also travelled around Europe for her final year of high school singing as the lead soprano and soloist, and on her travels through Italy she performed in the Vatican. Recently, Kaitlyn has spent her year traveling around Australia working with Opera Australia and has been focusing on her theatre management. She loves having the chance to perform when she can.
Kathryn Driver
Kathryn was born in England and has had a rich upbringing in the world of the arts. She has been in various characters such as tweedledum in Alice in wonderland, Betty Rizzo in Grease and is currently playing Erma in JamaeRaws adaptation of Anything Goes. Kathryn has been singing in Soul Factor Gospel Choir for many years and is currently receiving vocal training by David Gauci.
Recently out of uni with a degree in teaching and the arts, Kathryn has been in musical theatre since a young age. She is currently in the Hills production of Aida and also teaches musical theatre, acting and singing at Starlets SA.
Lachlan Zilm
Very familiar with treading the boards, Lachlan has performed in many musicals including AIDA with his school, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, both with Pelican Productions and professionally at the Festival Theatre. He has also participated in Pelican's Musical Theatre Camp for eight years.
No stranger to dance, Lachlan has been learning Tap and Jazz at RSDS for eight years. In February 2017 Lachlan will be using these dance skills to perform as the leading man, Don Lockwood, in TB Arts production of Singin' in the Rain Jr for the 2017 Adelaide Fringe Festival.
Leah Harford
At 18, Leah is trained in Musical Theatre, dance and has private singing tuition with Kirsty Roberts. The Met’s The King & I was Leah’s first musical at eight years old whereby she played the role of Princess Ying Yaowalack and some ten years on Leah was very excited to accept the beautiful role of Tuptim with The Met – shows start 13th October at the Arts Theatre.
In the ten year gap Leah has performed for both professional and amateur companies in varying lead and support roles: Adelaide Youth Theatre – Into The Woods (Cinderella), Seussical (Gertrude), Hairspray (Nicest Kid), High School Musical (Taylor McKessie), You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown (Sally u/s), G&S Society – Les Misérables (Young Cosette), Swell Productions – Thoroughly Modern Millie (Bun Foo), Into the Woods (Rapunzel), Beauty & The Beast (Le Fou), Seussical (Jo-Jo), … just to name a some of the shows. Leah extended her CV to include directing with AYT giving her the opportunity to direct her first musical Aladdin Jr. earlier this year – a fantastic experience which she loved.
Leah has performed overseas in Disneyland Hong Kong & Paris and on the West End in London with the Australian Youth Performing Arts Team and has sung at many previous Broadway Sessions. Leah hopes to go on and study and teach in the Arts Industry.
Lisa Simonetti
Lisa has been singing since a very young age and has been receiving singing tuition since the age of 14 – most recently with David Gauci. Lisa has also been a vocal coach & singing teacher for almost 9 years and became involved in Adelaide community theatre around this time. Since then Lisa has gone on to be involved in many shows – some of her favourite roles include Ellie Greenwich in Leader of the Pack (NLTC, 2011), Mrs Potts in Disney's Beauty & the Beast (2011), Motormouth Maybelle in Hairspray (MBM 2012) and most recently Mama Cass Elliott in the South Australian premiere of Flower Children (Davine Interventionz, 2015).
Lisa has also had the opportunity to be involved with performing in the Adelaide Fringe Festival (Michelle & the Gentleman's Club, 2013 & Flower Children, 2015) & several workshops & masterclasses during the Adelaide Cabaret Festival (with Jason Robert Brown, Adam Guettel, Matthew Robinson & Scott Evan Davis). She was also recently in New York this year in July and was lucky enough to have a one on one class with Adam Guettel (lyrical writter for Light in the Piazza). By night she is a performer but by day works as a midwife at the Women's & Children's Hospital, where the song of choice is 'Happy Birthday' for all the new babies she gets to welcome into the world!
Megan Doherty
Megan is a graduate of the Music Theatre program at the University of Ballarat and has been performing in theatre and cabaret in Adelaide and beyond for over fifteen years, including a two-year stint in the U.K., where she performed her show The Girl Who Won't Grow Up and premiered a new, as yet untitled piece, at the Pheasantry in London.
She has written and produced several cabarets and concerts, and produced the South Australian and amateur premiere of Matthew Robinson's Sing on Through Tomorrow in 2014. Favourite roles in amateur theatre have included Laurey in Oklahoma!, Phoebe in The Yeomen of the Guard, and Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady.
In 2018 Megan premiered a new cabaret at the Adelaide Fringe Festival, climbed Rocky Mountains once more as a part of The Pirates of Penzance (on the Popeye!), directed the Australian Premiere of Buffy Kills Edward, a Musical Parody, and is playing Petra in A Little Night Music for the G&S Society and Carrie in Rules for Living with the Adelaide Repertory. And that's only the stuff that's confirmed!
Mitchell Smith
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.
Nicolas Equid
Nic started theater in 2016, performing in the ensemble of Big Fish (Therry, 2016). Since then, he has been bitten by the "theater bug", and hasn't looked back. Outside of the music world, Nic works in customer service, and enjoys playing a variety of nerd games (video games, tabletop, board games etc).
Being a geek, Nic would absolutely jump at the chance to perform in either of Joss Whedon's musical works – Once more with Feeling, from Buffy, or Dr Horribles Sing-Along Video Blog. His first exposure to any sort of stage show was the Phantom of the Opera movie, from 2004.
Rebecca Raymond
Rebecca comes from a rich musical heritage and has been performing for most of her life. Versatile in her style she enjoys performing in all musical genres which has led to her performing as a soloist with many different groups and for varying audiences. She has been a leading soloist with Adelaide’s Soul Factor Gospel Choir for the past 16 years, performs regularly with her Sisters, The Raymond Sisters and for five years was the vocal soloist with the Melbourne Staff Band with whom she toured Australia, Korea and the UK where she had the privilege of singing in the Royal Albert Hall, London.
Rebecca performs corporately as a Singer and Actor. Appearing as a soloist at varying events in Adelaide and Nationally and in Theatre. Memorable roles include the role of Violet Hilton in SideShow (2018) and Aida in Aida (2017) with Hills Musical Company, Sandra Bloom in Big Fish with Therry Dramatic Society (2016), Laurey in Oklahoma! The immersive farm experience with Emma Knights Productions (2016 & 2017), and Cosette in Les Misérables with the G&S Society (2008 & 2009).
When not performing Rebecca teaches singing, has her own Mary Kay Cosmetic business and is a makeup artist. She also teaches Skincare & Self Esteem classes in schools and groups in the community.
Ruby Pinkerton (she/her)
Ruby’s passion for musical theatre began at a young age, receiving voice and acting training from industry professionals. Ruby is currently directing Urinetown with Hills Musical Company. Recently, Ruby played Sue in Carrie the Musical with Hills Musical Company, and Rose in Dogfight with St Jude’s Players. She also played Nicola in the Gilbert and Sullivan Society's production of Kinky Boots and was the ‘Turn Back, O Man’ soloist in Godspell, produced by Irregular Productions and Lydian Productions. She performed as Hodel in the Therry Dramatic Society's production of Fiddler on the Roof, and understudied the title role and performed in the ensemble for Davine Productions’ Violet. Her performing credits also include Beautiful: The Carole King Musical witih Davine Productions, Thoroughly Modern Millie and Les Misérables produced by The Gilbert and Sullivan Society, and in 2023 Kiss Me Kate with Hills Musical Company.
Sarah Jane Whiteley
Sarah is a highly trained professional vocalist and musician. She holds a Bachelor of Music and a Masters in Teaching. She is both a practitioner and a fan of the Estill Voice Model and Kodaly pedagogical approach. She founded the Sarah Jane Voice Studio in 2015 and coaches voice users of all ages and abilities.
Sarah performs in both private and corporate settings around Adelaide as well as musical theatre. Theatre and cabaret credits include Rent (MCMT), Evita (The Met), Sugar (The Met), Smokey Joes Café (Hills), The Channel 9 Easter Special, The Blues Brothers (Ad Fringe), 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Music Director; MCMT), Sex and the Musical (Ad. Fringe, EK Pro), Heathers the Musical (Segue Pro), Shane Warne the Musical (Segue Pro) and her own show depicting the life of the irreplaceable Bette Midler; From A Distance, the Glory of Bette (Ad Fringe).
She is also a lover of scrapbooking and is obsessed with curious minds magazines!
Timothy Mackie
Tim is a second year actor at Adelaide College of the Arts (AC Arts). He has been dancing for several years and has done many musicals with Therry and Hills musical company, such as She Loves Me, Goodbye Girl and Full Monty. Tim would say that his favourite role would be of that from Full Monty where he played the young stud Ethan.
Session Band
Peter Johns (Piano/Musical Director)
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 Cann (Bass)
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.
Max Ziliotto (Drums/Percussion)
Max Ziliotto has been performing since 2004, from concert bands, drumline and big band, to orchestral works and musical theatre. Prior to his acceptance as a Casual Percussionist with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, he completed his Bachelor of Music in 2013 at the University of Adelaide’s Elder Conservatorium of Music under the tutelage of Amanda Grigg.
Born in Adelaide, Max began his musical journey under the guidance of Peter Matzick. Attending Marryatville High School, Max gained a wealth of performance opportunities including the Generations in Jazz festival in Mount Gambier. During his Undergraduate studies, Max won first place in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Snare Drum Award in 2011.
Max has been performing with the Elder Conservatorium's Music Theatre students' productions since 2021, most notably playing the drum score for Legally Blonde, directed by Broadway's Nikki Snelson in 2022.
Max was also an active member of the Raiders Drum Corps from 2006-2019, performing numerous times in the city's Christmas Pageant, and on stage with them at Australian Ultimate Drummers Weekend in Melbourne 2015. He has tutored at South Australian Music Camp multiple times, and has been in the house band of Broadway Sessions since its inception in 2015.