Arts Centre Melbourne’s Morning Melodies returns to Hamer Hall in 2027 with Jemma Rix, Paulini, Christie Whelan Browne and The 60 Four.
Morning Melodies began in 1985 as film screenings in Arts Centre Melbourne’s Playhouse, after performer Betty Pounder and producer Sandy Graham went looking for a way to fill an empty theatre on a weekday morning.
Live performance eventually took over, and the series has now put more than 470 shows on the Hamer Hall stage for upwards of 550,000 people. Morning Melodies 2027 runs between February and December, and the bill leans on musical theatre stars and tribute acts.
Morning Melodies 2027
- Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne
- 15 February – Jemma Rix: Star of Wicked and Frozen
- 15 March – The Great British Songbook Starring Craig Martin
- 12 April – David Hobson and Colin Lane: Harmony and Hilarity
- 17 May – Christie Whelan Browne: The Songs of Olivia Newton-John
- 1 June – The Australian Ballet School: In Performance
- 19 July – Victorian College of the Arts Music Theatre Showcase: Echoes of Broadway
- 16 August – The 60 Four: Hits of the 60s and 70s
- 13 September – Paulini: Sings the American Divas
- 11 October – Rat Pack Reloaded: From Sinatra to Bublé and Everything in Between
- December – Christmas Melodies
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
Jemma Rix opens the year on 15 February. She made her debut in the original Australian production of Wicked, performed alongside Anthony Warlow in Jekyll & Hyde, was the alternate for Tina Arena’s Eva Perón in Evita and later played Elsa in Frozen, and her set tracks that career through its Broadway hits. UK singer Craig Martin and his six-piece band cover four decades of British pop on 15 March, with The Beatles, Dusty Springfield, Tom Jones and Queen in the mix, plus songs including Can’t Buy Me Love, It’s Not Unusual, Your Song and You’ll Never Walk Alone.
David Hobson and Colin Lane have been friends for more than 30 years, and on 12 April the opera singer and the comedian finally trade places in a show that mixes opera with comedy. Christie Whelan Browne takes 17 May with the songs of Olivia Newton-John, working through Grease and Xanadu favourites including Magic and You’re the One That I Want. She has played Newton-John on screen and performed in Xanadu: The Musical.
The Australian Ballet School gets 1 June, sending its full-time students out for a mixed bill of classical and contemporary dance that includes a new work by Jack Lister, associate artistic director of Australasian Dance Collective. On 19 July, graduating music theatre students from the Victorian College of the Arts tackle Broadway’s golden age in their Echoes of Broadway showcase. The 60 Four, fresh from performing in the grand finale of The Voice Australia, return on 16 August with a new set of 60s and 70s hits drawn from Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, Neil Diamond, ABBA and Sherbet.
Paulini, the ARIA winner who played Rachel Marron in The Bodyguard Musical, sings the songs of Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand and Tina Turner on 13 September, I Will Always Love You included. Rat Pack Reloaded take on Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr on 11 October, with Michael Bublé and Robbie Williams also in the set. December belongs to Christmas Melodies.
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