Latest news with #ShowbizQueenstown
Otago Daily Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Take a chance auditioning
Production manager Susan Moore, left, Remarkable Theatre past president Melanie Grindell and director Ryan Brennan studying the script for Take a Chance on Me. PHOTO: SUPPLIED Auditions for Queenstown's Remarkable Theatre's 2025 play, set in the unpredictable world of dating, are on this weekend. Described as "a laugh-out-loud comedy", Take a Chance on Me, by noted veteran Kiwi playwright Roger Hall, will run over eight performances during September at the Arrowtown Athenaeum Hall. It follows six hopeful singles navigating the highs and lows of modern romance — primary school teacher Fleur, homemaker Lorraine, lawyer Eleanor, plumber Brian, pharmacist Tim and banker Dan who's just been made redundant. Also being cast are two main ensemble roles, male and female, who each play over a dozen characters. According to the audition pack most characters will be involved in scenes with elements of intimacy, but not nudity. This year's director's Ryan Brennan, who's had over a decade's experience in Hollywood as an assistant director for multi-camera sitcoms — he was in the adult ensemble of Showbiz Queenstown's musical School of Rock in 2022. Auditions, each around 15 minutes, take place at Te Atamira on Saturday between 10am and 6pm, with callbacks, if needed, on Sunday between 2 and 5pm. For further information or to book a time, visit
Otago Daily Times
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Life's a stage for Queenstown teacher
Ben Wombwell, who plays 'Cinderella's Prince' in Showbiz Queenstown's season of Into The Woods. PHOTO: TRACEY ROXBURGH Till last week, Ben Wombwell may have flown under Queenstown's radar, but the Queenstown Primary teacher's been making headlines for years. On debut for Showbiz Queenstown as 'Cinderella's Prince' — "raised to be charming, not sincere" — in Into The Woods, the 36-year-old performer's got about 20 years' experience under his belt, though it could be argued his most famous appearance was almost accidental. In 2014 Ben was living in London when one of his mates got tickets to The Graham Norton Show, and had one spare. "I said, 'if you take me, I will do a red chair story', and he went, 'fine, great, you can come along'." He sent his yarn — about being accidentally groped during a "midnight spooky walk" through a museum with his year 4 class — to the show's producers, but had no idea whether it had cut the mustard till he was pulled from the crowd by the producer. Norton's guests that night included Taylor Swift, who appeared overcome by the Kiwi, asking "Where is he? Where can we find him?" After being told to "settle down" by Norton, Swift replied: "It's OK, it's fine. I've got it in check." Successfully walking away from the red chair after telling his story, Ben wasn't prepared for what came next. As soon as word hit our shores, the headlines followed. "It was, at the time, the number one news story," he laughs. "In New Zealand, my phone was blowing up ... And then in the UK I was heading in to teach 5-year-olds that day, and we were doing painting with our fingers. "So, you know, it was some beautiful grounding." Originally from Dunedin, Ben got his first taste of musical theatre at Bayfield High School, where they were "really big on school productions". In need of guys for one particular show, Ben was hand-picked by the director and he's never looked back, initially performing with Taieri Musical Society and Musical Theatre Dunedin before, while studying to become a teacher, he linked up with DKCM Ltd founder and director Doug Kamo, who became a "mentor and a friend". It was through that friendship Ben had his first taste of Showbiz Queenstown 16 years ago, when Kamo directed Les Miserables in Queenstown and Ben came to see it. "I was blown away then with what Queenstown could produce." After a teaching stint in Dunedin, he headed to Wellington for a time, then on to London where he continued teaching and spent four months studying part-time at The Associated Studios, one of Britain's top drama schools, working with a variety of West End actors, choreographers and musical directors. Due to a subsequent visa change, though, he couldn't keep working in entertainment there, so jumped at a later chance to audition for the National Theatre, looking for volunteers for a top-secret project. He became one of 1600 actors enlisted to be part of Jeremy Deller's art event "WeAreHere", performed across the UK on July 1, 2016, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme — each actor represented a World War 1 soldier, dressed in replica costumes, who died on the first day of the battle. Ben, who describes it as "an incredible experience", was there for Rifleman Reginald Stephen Hazzard, 1st/9th Batallion, London Regiment (Queen Victoria's Rifles), age unknown. The men took to the streets from dawn till dusk, with strict instructions not to speak. If they were approached, they simply handed over a card which bore the details of the person they represented. "People's responses were just incredible, in terms of bursting into tears and just the silence and respect," he says. After his OE, Ben returned to NZ where he worked with the Life Education Trust in South Auckland, and subsequently met his now-wife, Nikki, who's also a teacher, about six years ago. He got back on stage, where he "finally got to do the dream musical", Les Miserables, at Pacific Theatre, and then Chess The Musical at the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre with the Auckland Philharmonia. Ready for a change, and always intending to return to the South, Ben and Nikki moved to Queenstown just over two years ago — he's teaching year 6 at Queenstown Primary, and is also one of the Kahui Ako within school leads and a mentor teacher, while she's teaching at Te Kura Whakatipu o Kawarau. Ben says he was "waiting for the right moment" to audition for a show here, and he's grateful to Showbiz's musical director Natasha Wilson, also a teacher at QPS, who suggested that time might be now. "The main reason that I always do shows is for the people and to get to know the community and the amazing people who do these shows, who have been a privilege to work with," he says. "I think the calibre of what Showbiz Queenstown brings is incredible, and it punches well above its population weight ... the talent and the crew and the creative team [behind] what is produced in Queenstown is right up there with Dunedin, Wellington and Auckland." Given "Queenstown is now definitely home", it's a fair bet while this is his first time on a Queenstown stage, it won't be his last.
Otago Daily Times
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Take a bow, Showbiz Queenstown
Some of the hardest-working local volunteers are Showbiz Queenstown's cast and crew, who spend months building up to their musical each year. Ahead of next week's latest show, Philip Chandler delves into the history of the society, who staged their first production 50 years ago last August. With Showbiz Queenstown entering its second half-century with Into The Woods starting next week, it's surely time to make a song and dance about it. As the Queenstown Musical and Operatic Society it launched in 1974 with Salad Days, in which Fae Robertson played "an attractive and saucy Rowena". She says it grew out of a loose group of entertainers, The Gaiety Club, who'd sing for Paddy's Day and the like. She subsequently had singing/dancing roles for 18 years and also served as president and secretary. A set builder, her stepfather Owen Lockhart also wrote the 1979 show, Beyond The Moonlight, depicting local history. "We paid an actor because we were short of a male lead and every time a coconut he missed the cue to lead us in." Later, when helping out at the bar during a show, she got her drinks mixed up — "instead of asking a customer if they'd like an RTD, I said, 'would you like an STD?"' Robertson also played a major role securing their first sponsor, Armada's Jim Boult, so they could employ their first director. "He said, 'how much?', I think I said '10 grand' and he said, 'is that enough?"' "That was a momentous step," says Greg Thompson, who was president when the first director came onboard for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat in '88. "It just lifted everything up and improved the way we did the show including lighting and sound. "Since then we've come full circle almost in that we've got our own people being directors who have learnt through it." An example is Marty Newell, who's trod the boards every year, except three years, since 1995. After serving as assistant director he directed Jesus Christ Superstar in 2014, co-directed Annie in 2016 and is director again this month. He says "it's also very good to bring in a professional to bring in new ideas and teach people different things". "The standard just keeps getting better and better, and I think we push ourselves every year to be better and better. "We want to be the best — we don't want to be an amateur musical society, so people come in and experience a show they could see in Christchurch or Auckland." Two hugely ambitious shows were 2017's Mamma Mia!, which used the Events Centre, and Les Miserables in 2009, where the Queenstown Memorial Centre had a revolving stage. "Les Mis was something we were told we could never do, which of course just fired us up to actually do it," Newell says. Thompson, who renamed the Queenstown Musical Society Showbiz, says he and other long-timers have experienced three ever-better iterations of the Memorial Centre. "Until the first modification it was absolutely awful — we had to hang scaffolding pipes so we could hang lights up and we put in temporary power supplies because we would have blown up the whole thing otherwise." Someone who knew the venue well was the late Glenn 'Scooter' Reid, whom Thompson brought along when he taught at Wakatipu High and who later ran the lighting for about 20 years and also served as president — the light and sound booth's named in his honour. Someone else who's grown through the society is Nicole McLean, who played Velma in 2013's Chicago and is now choreographer for the second year running. Another is current president Emma Pullar, who originally played an orphan in Annie in 1989 and whose daughter Ruby was an orphan in the next Annie in 2016 when she was 7. A special repeat was Showbiz's The Sound of Music in 2012, when cast from the show 30 years earlier visited for a reunion. They included Stelios Yiakmis, who went on to act in TV dramas like Shortland Street and McLeod's Daughters. In the '82 version "I was singing Rolf's song, I am 17, going on 18, on my 17th birthday," he told Mountain Scene. Thompson says his only regret is Showbiz, which can no longer use its Isle St rehearsal room, is homeless. "Every other society I can think of in Otago and Southland has got their own space, and poor old Showbiz has been shoved around from pillar to post." Reader giveaway Our friends at Showbiz Queenstown are giving us two double passes to next Thursday's opening night of Into The Woods, to give to you. To be in to win, just email ed@ — subject line 'Showbiz' — by noon Tuesday, May 13, and we'll notify the winners directly. Into The Woods is being staged at the Queenstown Memorial Centre till Saturday, May 24 — for more info, or to buy tickets, visit
Otago Daily Times
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Autumnal celebration draws thousands
These stilt walkers captivated the crowds during the Arrowtown Autumn Festival street parade. PHOTO: GUY WILLIAMS A glorious autumn day brought thousands of people into Arrowtown on Saturday for the high point of the township's annual autumn festival. The street parade is the signature event of the four-day festival, now in its 39th year, which started on Thursday. Festival co-ordinator Vanessa Williams said "magical" weather on all four days meant the schedule of over 40 events went without a hitch. She estimated 15,000 people packed into the township for Saturday's parade and other events, including the market day on Ramshaw Lane, providing a roaring trade for the arts, crafts and food stalls, and local cafes and restaurants. "It was a great day for the stallholders, great for local businesses and community groups raising money," Ms Williams said. Following a vintage car display on Buckingham St, free street performances kept crowds entertained for several hours, including Mullet Man and Mim and an aerial cabaret show on Library Green. The crowd came to a standstill before 2pm to watch as the street parade made its way from Wilcox Green and along Centennial Ave, Buckingham St and Ramshaw Lane. About 40 community organisations and businesses took part in the parade, including the Southern Lakes Highland Pipe Band, Lakes District Museum, Arrowtown junior rugby players riding in a Sunrise Balloons basket — which intermittently let off flames — and the cast of Showbiz Queenstown's upcoming season of Into the Woods. Adding to the cacophony of sound and colour were stilt walkers, fairies and Latin dancers, ice hockey players on rollerblades, a unicyclist, and a traction engine belching smoke and steam. The Arrowtown kea, cub and scout group won the prize for best community float, with Bush Creek Ice getting second prize. The day was capped off by a comedy show at the Athenaeum Hall.
