September Session: The Right Honourable Lord Lloyd Webber

Amy’s love of theatre began when she joined the Hills Youth Theatre aged 7. Since then she has worked with many companies around Adelaide.
Favourite roles include Dorothy, The Wizard of Oz (Hills Musical Company, 2001, The Advertiser Oscart Award- Best Actress), Sandra, Breezeblock Park (St Jude’s Players, 2006), Deidre, I Hate Hamlet (Adelaide Repertory Theatre, 2006) Louise/Linda/Claire, Road (REDChilli Theatre, 2007), Celia, As You Like It (This Rough Magic Theatre & Film, 2008) Olive, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (MBM, 2009), Kate Monster, Avenue Q (MBM, 2011, ATG Curtain Call Award- Best Female Performance), Tessie Tura, Gypsy (Gin & Vodka Productions, 2011), Audrey, Little Shop of Horrors (Northern Light Theatre Company, 2013), Susan, [title of show] (Irregular Productions, 2015) and Lucy, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown (Hills Musical Company, 2015).

Amy Neumann returns for her Broadway Sessions swan song before returning to her home in America in August. She recently closed a successful run as Olive in The Odd Couple – Female Version for Blackwood Players. Before moving to Australia, Amy worked across the US as a performer and director. She has appeared at the Kennedy Center, Ford's Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Round House Theatre, and the American Century Theatre, as well touring the US and Canada in both The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Becky Thatcher) and Annie (July). Favorite roles include Alice Nutting/Edwin Drood in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, the Baker's Wife in Into the Woods, and Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest.

Amy spent 17 years as a company member of Now This, Washinton DC's only totally improvised musical comedy troupe. She currently teaches for ArtStream, Inc., where she specializes in teaching actors with disabilities. Ms. Neumann holds a BFA in acting from Syracuse University and a Masters of Social Work from the Catholic University of America. Her favorite role is being wife to Jonathan and mum to Micah, 7, and Becca, 5.

Volleyball player turned actor Andrew Smith was a member of the inaugural graduating cohort of the Elder Conservatorium’s Music Theatre Program. During the course he played the Male Adults in Spring Awakening (dir. George Torbay 2019), Herr Schultz in Cabaret (dir. Erin James 2021), and Father Alexandrios in Mamma Mia! (dir. Zoe Komazec 2021). After graduating he, alongside 3 other graduates, co-founded EXEUNT (Pursued By A Bear) Productions and performed in their inaugural show: Rodgers and Hammerstein's A Grand Night For Singing (dir. Erin James 2022) in the Adelaide Fringe earlier this year. Other credits include Peach Cobbler (dir. Laura Desmond 2020) and Shakespeare in the Bar (dir. Tony Knight 2021). He has also appeared on the game show Challenge Accepted (dir. Brayden Green 2019/20) on Channel 44.

Ashleigh started dancing at 3 years of age, and her love of the stage only grew from there. Her very first musical was La Cage Aux Folles (OPUS), followed by playing Mayzie La Bird in Seussical (Tatachilla Lutheran College). She has been blessed to be able to be in the ensemble for many bucket list shows, including Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (OPUS), Legally Blonde (Hills Musical Company), Jekyll & Hyde (MCMT), Les Misérables (G&S) and Spamalot (MCMT).

She has also been lucky enough to choreograph Annie Jnr (Investigator College) and High School Musical (Stayg25). She is also very excited for her next choreography adventure with Segue Productions’ next show, Heathers the Musical. It has been a challenge and a privilege to play Elena in the upcoming 2018 production of If/Then (Segue Productions).

Brianna is a 19-year-old musical theatre student. She has been studying music for eight years and has a passion for the Disneyland theatre. Her mentor is her singing teacher, Cindy Macdonald and her inspirations are Elaine Paige and Michael Crawford. Her list of favourite musicals consist of The Phantom of The Opera, Wicked, CATS and Frozen. Brianna would love to pursue her passion by being a performing Disney princess on Disney cruise ships.

With a professional career spanning three decades and diverse music genres, Carolyn has been honoured to share the stage with many greats, including Anthony Warlow, Lou Diamond Philips, Bert Newton, Ruth Cracknel and Jubilant Sykes.

Carolyn has been in the original casts of shows such as The Phantom of the Opera, The Secret Garden and The Sound of Music. Other roles include Jelly/Griddlebone in CATS in Hamburg, Johanna in Sweeney Todd for Queensland Opera, Chava in Fiddler on the Roof and Flora in Turn of the Screw for Opera Australia.

Carolyn has performed in the Adelaide Cabaret Festival with Broadway legends Maltby and Shire in Closer than Ever and Take Flight, and in The Adelaide Festival’s production of Bernstein’s Mass.

Concert highlights include Shakespeare on Broadway with Margaret Urlich, “duetting” with Marina Prior and singing the National Anthem at the Opening Ceremony of The Ashes in Adelaide. Television credits include Here’s Humphrey, The Kingdom of Paramithi, Neighbours and Wiggle TV and for many years she was the original voice of Dorothy the Dinosaur. Carolyn has also taught performance in schools, workshops and privately and has coached many students towards successful auditions.

Recently Carolyn played the role of Rose Pickles in Gale Edward’s workshop performance of Cloudstreet with State Opera of SA and then toured Australia as the alternate Mrs. Anna in Opera Australia’s The King and I, performing the role opposite Lou Diamond Phillips and Teddy Tahu Rhodes.

Growing up performing in the Scouts’ Gang Show: Comedy Capers, David developed a love for musical theatre from a young age. Trained at the Centre for the Performing Arts; David has enjoyed performing Shakespeare with the State Theatre, Lightning Strike and Chopt Logic Theatre Companies and has toured in the past with Splash Theatre Company. Turning from professional acting to focus his energy on his family and work for the Anglican Church as a priest, David chooses to do shows that he loves.

It was in Marie Clark's production of Paris in the titular role that David hit the Adelaide scene in musical theatre. David has since performed with Marie Clark Musical Theatre in Miss Saigon (John) and as Carl Hanratty in the 2016 production of Catch Me if You Can. He has worked with Northern Light Theatre Company as Frederick in Pirates of Penzance and Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors. David also performed at the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 2015 with Lazy Saturday Productions' Australian premiere of Darkle. 2017 was a big year of theatre for David starting with Pale Ale Tales, a new work by local writer, Jason Hendy in the 2017 Adelaide Fringe, Jekyll and Hyde with Marie Clark and finishing with Les Misérables as Enjolras with G&S Society. Most recently David performed with the Hills Musical Company in Assassins as John Wilkes Booth.

David is thankful to his wife for her love and support, and for letting him play.

Dione Baker, Adelaide’s pocket power house, is known among the Adelaide theatre circle as the "diva"... but in a good way! Since the age of 16 Dione has performed for many amateur and professional companies including Co Opera and State Opera of South Australia. Dione was also a member of team Ricky Martin on 2015's season of The Voice Australia. Some of her most cherished roles have been Carlotta in The Phantom of the Opera for Matt Byrne Media (2013), Suor Angelica and Cio Cio San (Madame Butterfly) for Co Opera (2012 and 2015).

Most recently Dione was selected to be a member of the State Opera SA Chorus for 2019 and looks forward to working with them again soon. Dione is a versatile singer and performer as she covers many styles from pop to opera and was also a part of the amateur premiere of We Will Rock You with Matt Byrne Media in July 2018 where she played the jumping Suzi Quattro. Dione performed again with the State Opera chorus in Boheme on the Beach, returned to her SALOS roots to sing the roles of Julie (The New Moon 2021) and Casilda (Gondoliers 2021), understudied the role of Donna Elvira for The Elephant in the Room Productions of Don Giovani, and will join her fist Met show this year as a nurse nun in the comedy musical Nunsense.

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.

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.

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.

Kurt debuted in the Adelaide musical theatre scene in 2017, where he played in the ensemble and Cesar Rodriguez in Saturday Night Fever with MBM, Hugo Peabody in Bye Bye Birdie with the Met, as well as ensemble and the Pied Piper in Shrek the Musical with AYT in January of 2018. Taking a small hiatus after Shrek to work on his newly developing singing and acting skills, as well as continuing work on his dance training of many years, Kurt has made a return to the theatre scene – playing the role of Scott Hastings in MBM's Strictly Ballroom in 2019.

Mark is an award winning South Australian performer whose credits include the Adelaide and Brisbane Festivals, State Opera South Australia, SINGular Productions, Co Opera, Various People, Aerial Artists Australia, and MOatesArt Productions.

In 2022 Mark was nominated for an Adelaide Critic's Circle Award for his body of work. He premiered the dual roles of Ian Duncan and Don Dunstan in Neil Armfield's Ruby Award-winning Watershed: The Death Of Dr Duncan for the Adelaide Festival – while for State Opera South Australia he performed Lt Tom in Voss and Gastone in La Traviata, as well as embarking on a national tour of Love Burns, completing the first orchestration workshop of When The Rain Stops Falling and appearing in Bright Lights, Big Dreams.

Previous Adelaide Festival appearances are Mozart Requiem (2020), Bernstein Mass – featured Street Singer (2012) and Le Grande Macabre - Ruffiak (2010).

In State Opera of South Australia's 2023 season Mark will be appearing as the Defendant in Trial by Jury and in Pirates of Penzance and HMS Pinafore, as well as hosting the Tra La La Bar for the Gilbert and Sullivan Festival, with further exciting projects to be announced. In 2021, Mark appeared as Beadle Bamford in Sweeney Todd and Jack in Love Burns, and opened the year in Carousel. Further highlights with the company include Njegus in The Merry Widow, Arjuna in Satyagraha, John Styx in Orpheus in the Underworld, The Cantor in Maria de Buenos Aires (co production with Leigh Warren Dancers – Adelaide Festival Centre Playhouse and Brisbane Festival). Mark is a proud and long-standing State Opera South Australia artist, both as a chorister and a principal performer.

Well known and regarded on the concert stage, Mark also mentors Class of Cabaret for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, works extensively with Primary Schools Music Festival and regularly tours with Aerial Artists Australia in Le Aerial, including Perth Fringeworld, Adelaide Fringe, Auckland Fringe, Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Arts Centre and Port Douglas. Mark is Associate Producer and regular host of Broadway Sessions, Adelaide's long running monthly music theatre focussed, curated open mic night.

Maya’s love of musical theatre began at an early age, with her journey in performance beginning with Pelican Productions. Since then, Maya’s theatre credits include The Gilbert & Sullivan Society’s Thoroughly Modern Millie (2016) and Les Misérables (2017), Lydian Productions and Irregular Productions’ Godspell (2018) as the ‘By My Side’ soloist, Marie Clark Musical Theatre’s Anything Goes (2019) as Hope Harcourt, Segue Productions’ Heathers (2019) as Heather McNamara, and most recently Davine Productions' Beautiful: The Carole King Musical as Cynthia Weil (2020). Maya is a primary school Dance/Drama teacher, and she finds so much joy in being able to share her love of musical theatre with her students.

Melody has been training in contemporary music and musical theatre most of her life and has no intention of abandoning her love for the stage anytime soon. She performed in her first musical, Holiday Inn, in June 2018 and cherished every second. She is hoping to continue working in local theatre productions in the future but, for now, she's taking it one stage at a time...

Natasha has been singing since she before she could talk. She started with the Australian Girls Choir at age 7 and started performing in variety shows at age 18. For the 2017 Adelaide Fringe Festival she took her first fore onto the amateur stage and played Button the Gnome, a lead role in Gnomes Vs Mermaids put on by the Such Cliche Productions. She studied Microbiology at university and by day is a scientist working for a private laboratory. Musical theater is her passion and she takes every chance she can get to perform her favorite musicals are Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables and her dream is to one day perform Éponine on stage

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.

Sandy knew from a young age that she was destined to be in the theatre, and as it turns out she was correct. Sandy is an Operating Theatre Nurse, and yes, she does sing at work! Sandy's first experience of music theatre was at age 11 when she understudied the role of Jane in a Come Out Festival performance of Tarzan's Narrow Escape. Not long after this she was introduced to the world of country music, and won a number of talent quests across Australia, including two amateur Golden Guitars at Tamworth, and her episode of Bert Newton's New Faces at age 15.

Since then Sandy has sung across a number of genres, studied AMEB Classical Voice to Grade 5, and worked as a Primary School Choir Trainer for the Festival Of Music. Her passion remains with Music Theatre and some of her favourite things have been playing the role of Nancy in Oliver!, Miss Hannigan in Annie (Balaklava Community Arts 2001/2005), Mrs Baskin in Big ( Northern Light 2015), and most recently being privileged to be in the ensemble of G&S Society's extremely well received production of Les Misérables.

At 23, Scarlett has been passionate about performing since she was young. She began dancing at Barbara Jayne Dance Centre when she was 3 years old where she developed her singing and dancing skills for 13 years and has now begun focusing on her passion for musical theatre. Scarlett graduated Concordia College in 2017 as the Dux of Solo Vocal Performance where she was and will continue to be taught by her singing teacher Rosie Hosking.

With 18 years of combined performing experience, Scarlett's love for the stage has never ceased, with her previous roles including Amber Von Tussle in Hairspray, and Campbell Davis in Pelican Production's production of Bring It On the Musical's first season and its 2018 return season - for which she received a TASA nomination for 'Best Youth Female Actor'. Her most recent musical accreditation included a performance season of Godspell with Lydian Productions and Irregular Productions. In addition to this, she was also selected to perform as a featured soloist at the nationally televised 2018 Elder Park Carols By Candlelight. Her professional accolades in Adelaide have also included working with Ding Productions and Shane International each year for varying statewide productions. She has also been contracted with Royal Caribbean International (Miami) as a featured lead vocalist since January 2019 and has recently returned from a 10 month LA season with them. She’s set to resume her overseas work with them for another year, beginning in October 2022.

Sebastian’s talent and passion for performing has stood out since he was knee high to a drama block and he shone in his breakout performance as ‘Oompa Loompa 1’ in the Red Cliffs Players production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Since then he has performed leading and supporting roles in amateur productions all around the country. He’s played a knight of The Round Table, two princes, an in-the-closet investment banker/puppet and been shot dead… twice.

He scored his first leading role as the Cat in the Hat in Suessical! (Adelaide Youth Theatre -2013), charmed as Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls (MMAC-2014), and performed in his first fringe as the Comfort Councillor in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (AYT- 2014). Most recently he performed as Sammy in The Wedding Singer (Marie Clarke -2015). Sebastian would like to thank his mother for not encouraging him to play sport.

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.