 Cover shows Caroline O’Connor in Bombshells. Photos: Jeff Busby | |
| Author | Joanna Murray-Smith |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Ned Hoste, 2H |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Play |
| Publisher | Currency Press |
Publication date | 2004 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| ISBN | 978-0-86819-751-7 |
Bombshells is a play by Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith.
Six monologues made famous by the diva Caroline O'Connor, exposing six women balancing their inner and outer lives with humour and often desperate cunning. They range in age from a feisty teenager to a 64-year-old widow yearning for the unexpected.
Puppetry of the Penis is a comedic live performance-art show featuring a series of genital contortions. The show was initially conceived as the title of a highbrow art calendar released by Australian Simon Morley in 1996. The calendar showcased twelve penis "installations". In response to increasing requests for live demonstrations, in 1997 Morley enlisted fellow Australian, David "Friendy" Friend, to devise a performance show consisting of body-based genital comedy.
Tripod are an Australian musical comedy trio founded by Scod, Yon and Gatesy in 1996. They provide original songs and harmonies, strung together by comic banter.
The Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1953 as the Union Theatre Repertory Company at the Union Theatre at the University of Melbourne, it is the oldest professional theatre company in Australia.
Victorian Opera is an opera company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The company was founded in 2005 by the Victorian Government as a replacement for the Victoria State Opera. It commenced operations in January 2006 with Richard Gill as Artistic Director. Richard Mills is the current Artistic Director. The company is supported through government funding, patron contributions and corporate sponsorship.
Reginald Dawson Livermore is an Australian actor, singer, theatrical performer, designer, director, lyricist and writer and former television presenter.
Todd McKenney is an Australian dancer, theatre performer and TV personality. He is best known as a judge on the Australian television talent show Dancing with the Stars.
Malthouse Theatre is the resident theatre company of The Malthouse building in Southbank, part of the Melbourne Arts Precinct. In the 1980s it was known as the Playbox Theatre Company and was housed in the Playbox Theatre in Melbourne's CBD. It is a heritage-listed building which contains three theatres: Merlyn Theatre, Beckett Theatre, and The Tower.
James Millar is an Australian actor, singer and writer. He wrote the musical drama The Hatpin, the song cycle LOVEBiTES and co-wrote the semi-autobiographical musical A Little Touch of Chaos.
Caroline Ann O'Connor is an Anglo-Australian singer, dancer, and actress. For her theatre work she has won three Helpmann Awards: Best Female Actor in a Play for Edith Piaf in Piaf in 2001 and the same category for Judy Garland in End of the Rainbow in 2006, and Best Female Actor in a Musical for Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes in 2015.
Joanna Murray-Smith is a Melbourne-based Australian playwright, screenwriter, novelist, librettist and newspaper columnist.
Simon Gallaher is an Australian singer, actor, director and pianist.
The Flying Fruit Fly Circus is Australia's national youth circus, and the only full-time circus school for young people in Australia.
Peta Murray is an Australian writer, born in Sydney in 1958. Best known as a playwright, she also writes short stories and essays and is a freelance dramaturg, director and occasional performer. She leads a parallel life as a teacher of creative writing and late-blooming academic researcher, in the higher education sector.
Hamer Hall, formerly the Melbourne Concert Hall, is an Australian concert hall. The 2,466-seat hall, the largest indoor venue at the Arts Centre Melbourne, is mostly used for orchestral and contemporary music performances. It was designed by Roy Grounds as part of the cultural centre which comprised the National Gallery of Victoria and the Arts Centre Melbourne. It was opened as the Melbourne Concert Hall in 1982 and was renamed Hamer Hall in honour of Sir Rupert Hamer shortly after his death in 2004.
The Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Play is an award presented by Live Performance Australia (LPA), an employers' organisation which serves as the peak body in the live entertainment and performing arts industries in Australia. The accolade is handed out at the annual Helpmann Awards, which celebrates achievements in musical theatre, contemporary music, comedy, opera, classical music, theatre, dance and physical theatre.
The Production Company was an Australian not-for-profit theatre company that staged a series of usually three musicals at the Arts Centre Melbourne each year.
Chris Goode was a British playwright, theatre director, performer, and poet. He was the artistic director of Camden People's Theatre from 2001 to 2004, and led the ensemble Chris Goode and Company until its closure in 2021.
Luke Leonard is an American theatre director, designer, actor, playwright, and filmmaker whose work has been described as "outstanding" by The New York Times and "sophisticated and thought-provoking" by Limelight Magazine. He is the Founding Artistic Director of Monk Parrots, a New York City-based not-for-profit that produces new theatre, music theatre, and opera.
Alex Rathgeber is an Australian actor and singer, perhaps best known for his Helpmann Award-winning performance as Billy Crocker in Anything Goes. More recently he appeared as the Tin Man in Andrew Lloyd Webber's revival of The Wizard of Oz.
Centrepoint Theatre is a theatre and theatre company in Palmerston North in New Zealand. Established in 1973, the theatre has employed more than 2500 actors and produced more New Zealand plays than any other theatre.
Bombshells was first presented by Melbourne Theatre Company at the Fairfax Theatre, Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne, Australia, on 28 December 2001, with the following production team:
This production was revived at the same venue from 26 February 2004 and transferred to the York Theatre, Seymour Centre, Sydney, Australia, from 30 April 2004.
A reduced version—consisting of four monologues—was presented as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe at the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, Scotland, from 6 August 2004. The performer again was Caroline O’Connor, directed by Simon Phillips.
This production—now consisting of all six monologues—transferred to the Arts Theatre, London, England, on 3 September 2004.
Four of the monologues from Bombshells were televised by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in November 2003.