Ben Apfelbaum

THE SECRET GARDEN REVEALED

Once again  John Frost has teamed with Opera  Australia to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Australian production of ‘The Secret Garden’ which will play at the Sydney Lyric Theatre from the 2nd August.

Lyndon Terracini, Artistic Director of Opera Australia, and John. Frost were thrilled with the cast they had assembled. At the media call the principals delighted an invited audience when they sang excerpts from the musical.

Based on a much loved novel by Francis Hodgson Burnett, the show premiered on Broadway in 1991.with book and lyrics by Marsha Norman and music by Lucy Simon (sister of Carly Simon).

This  25th anniversary production reunites the original Broadway creative team of director Susan H Schulman,  choreographer Michael Lichtefeld and scenic designer Heidi Ettinger. Also  reunited with the 1995 production  is its lead Anthony Warlow.

Joining Anthony Warlow will be fellow principals Georgina Hopson, Rob McDougall, Alinta Chidzey, Nigel Huckle, Rodney Dobson and veteran soapie star, Rowena Wallace.

The two child roles have not as yet been cast and Frost and Terracini announced that they were facing the daunting task of auditioning  some seven hundred children.

Warlow spoke fondly of this musical, sighting it as one of his favourites because of the personal issues he was facing during its season. He performed while undergoing chemotherapy and proclaimed it as being the best tonic for his illness. Also at that time, his daughter was born.

As a result of the cancer treatment he lost all his hair which did not seem to grow back and he had been photographed with a bald pate, Warlow found it highly amusing that when he wore his character’s long haired wig, accompanied by a long beard, many audience members believed that Warlow had been surreptitiously replaced. He reassured the audience that under all the hair and make up, it will be Warlow himself as the lead character Archibald Craven.

Warlow lauded the simplistic yet effective set and the emotional  pull of the musical score.

John Frost also said that, “producing  ‘The Secret Garden’ in 1995 was one of the most special experiences of my career.”

Lyndon Terracini added, “we are very excited to continue Opera Australia’s mission of telling narrative through music and drama with this wonderful classical musical.”

Tickets  go on sale from Friday 28th February for both the Sydney and Melbourne seasons.

For further details http://secretgardenmusical.com.au

All pics by Ben Apfelbaum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborland. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, united states, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication.