Showbiz News

Vocal Studio Term 2 – enroll now!

By Showbiz | 04/01/2020

Showbiz Vocal Studio provides expert vocal tuition in a small group environment, with a focus on repertoire and performance technique specific to the musical theatre stage.  All ability levels are welcome. To enroll, click here

Sister Act entertaining and engaging

By Showbiz | 09/11/2017

Stuff Review by Tony Ryan 10:57, 11 September 2017 Although Sister Act is little more than undemanding candyfloss, Sara Brodie’s production for Showbiz Christchurch highlights its humanity and pathos so effectively that its gentle humour and uplifting vitality made it a night of truly delectable entertainment. What could easily have been the all-too-usual big brash…

The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber is a night full of favourites

By Showbiz | 06/15/2019

By Emma Dyer Showbiz Christchurch’s mid-year concert, The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, is as delightful as a box full of chocolates. It is a perfectly sized taster, a wide range of pieces from one of the most renowned composers of musical theatre. If you aren’t familiar with his work, if you are familiar with…

The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber: a nice way to finish the week

By Showbiz | 06/15/2019

Review by Patrick Shepherd, stuff.co.nz This was a nice and easy way to finish the week with a well put together show that was just the right length and did a good job of covering the work of one of musical theatre’s most prolific and successful composers. I have to say I’m not the biggest…

Christchurch mother and daughter cast in hit musical (The Press)

By ellecim | 04/06/2016

Stage veteran Anne-Marie Gilmore has a dream to share her love for theatre with her daughter Sophie, and this week the dream will become reality. It will come together in the jukebox musical Mamma Mia! with the central theme focused on the relationship between a mother and daughter. Super trouper Anne-Marie Gilmore, 47, will provide backing vocals…

Reviews: An Evening of Rodgers & Hammerstein Classics

By Showbiz | 05/27/2017

Audience wowed by an Evening of Rodgers and Hammerstein Classics By What’s Up Reviewer Jenny Sew Hoy Agnew One of the advantages a local production has over an international touring show is the partisan audience of family and friends of the performers. Showbiz’s audience for An Evening of Rodgers and Hammerstein Classics was no different. Richard Rodgers’ familiar music,…

“We Will Rock You” keeps its promise, you will be rocked

By Showbiz | 04/02/2019

We Will Rock You is the latest musical show to grace the stage of The Isaac Theatre Royal, and it keeps its promise, you will be rocked. By Emma Dyer We Will Rock You is a story about rebellion, set to the music of Queen, with outrageous futuristic or punk costumes, and an endless supply…

Hairspray Review: Gloriously uplifting, crispy paced and bright musical

By Showbiz | 06/09/2016

  This gloriously uplifting, crisply paced and bright musical is a triumph that bounces with vim and energy. Christchurch theatre company Showbiz’s production of hit Broadway musical Hairspray is sweet without being sickly and righteous without being worthy. The show, adapted from the 1988 John Waters film, is set in early 1960s Baltimore and tells the story of Tracy Turnblad, a young woman…

Wicked percussionist heard but not seen

By Showbiz | 03/23/2018

By Georgia O’Connor-Harding The Star Craig Given has never had the desire to soak up the spotlight and perform on stage. Instead you will find the percussionist hidden away in the dark orchestra pit of a theatre juggling a spectrum of quirky instruments. “We have got to blend into the background, we have to be…

All the songs you have been waiting for in one concert

By Showbiz | 06/07/2018

Broadway Hitmen follows on from the grand success of An Evening of Rodgers and Hammerstein Classics, the mid-season concert which wowed audiences last year. The Ryman Healthcare Showbiz Christchurch Orchestra, 16 soloists and a large chorus will fill the Isaac Theatre Royal stage to present a concert of back-to-back hits from two of the biggest…

Showbiz Piano Bar with Trevor Jones

By Paul Christ | 04/04/2021

Showbiz Piano Bar with Trevor Jones – Friday, 28 May 2021 ITR Showbiz is hosting a music theatre night where the audience requests its favourite showtunes for the whole crowd to sing, or individuals bring along the sheet music to favourite musicals and jump up on the mic. Songs could range from West Side Story…

Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story

By Paul Christ | 04/04/2021

Book Tickets for 9th May

By Showbiz | 09/24/2020

Way off Broadway – Book your tickets for 9th May here    

Ticket Refund information

By Paul Christ | 09/23/2020

REFUND OPTIONS: All Showbiz Christchurch tickets which have been purchased through Ticketek New Zealand (excluding ‘comps’ or tickets which have not been paid for) have the option of a refund. You can contact Ticketek by sending an email to online@ticketek.co.nz My Fair Lady: Tickets purchased online by credit or debit card for My Fair Lady…

Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story

Auditions

By Showbiz | 04/30/2020

Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story Two hours of the best rock ‘n’ roll songs ever written Find out about tickets

Vocal Studio Term 2 – enroll now!

By Showbiz | 04/01/2020

Showbiz Vocal Studio provides expert vocal tuition in a small group environment, with a focus on repertoire and performance technique specific to the musical theatre stage.  All ability levels are welcome. To enroll, click here

2019 President’s Report

By Showbiz | 03/19/2020

Another great year has almost flown by and what an interesting one it has been. Three spectacular productions that brought over 25,000 patrons into the theatre at a time when Christchurch most needed some fabulous entertainment and escapism. In the final quarter of the year, both Michael Bayly and Markham Lee resigned from their roles…

Q&A with Kira Josephson (Eliza Doolitte)

By Showbiz | 03/02/2020

What is the relevance of My Fair Lady to a modern audience? My Fair Lady deals with a lot of universal themes – education, class structure, inequality of sexes. I think those are all very important issues that unfortunately are still relevant. The play is set in 1912, but even now in society women are…

Sarah Greenwood Buchanan

Big Shoes to Fill

By Showbiz | 12/01/2019

That is how Sarah Buchanan describes taking on the role of Showbiz Christchurch president following the resignation of Markham Lee about three weeks ago. Having a strong association with the company since 1989, Mrs Buchanan said taking on the role is an exciting new change. Mr Lee has served as president of Showbiz on and…

Miss Saigon Musical Blazes in Christchurch

By Showbiz | 10/15/2019

By Violi Calvert, Australian Filipina Magazine. October 01, 2019.  The Miss Saigon musical staged by Showbiz Christchurch at the Isaac Theatre Royal in Christchurch opened last Friday (September 27) to a captivated audience. Judging by the number of people up on their feet in [a] standing ovation at the end of the show, it was a huge success.  Even during…