"Karate Kid" Ralph Macchio arrives in New Zealand this week to see his daughter, Julia, who is starring in Flashdance - the Musical.

Taking dance to provinces and to the young is company focus.

Leading arts organisations are warning of job losses, higher ticket prices and fewer performances as they face budget cuts.

Listing racist remarks and restrictive stereotypes may seem simplistic at first, but this is mere preparation for some smart theatrics.

COMMENT: It sounds weird but this Broadway musical is a reminder of what is truly great and inspiring about America.

Geraldine Brophy's robust, stripped down treatment of HMS Pinafore suggests their inimitable brand of musical mirth could easily win over a new generation.

To celebrate its silver jubilee, Tim Bray Productions is bringing back favourite shows from its repertoire and The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch is first.

Extra dates have been added to the Pop Up Globe following "overwhelming demand", organisers have announced.

Stage show brings 80's movie Flashdance to life, writes Dionne Christian.

Tim Bray appreciates the past of Auckland's theatre industry and how it has become home.

On April 23, Auckland will be the first city in the world to mark 400 years since the death of playwright William Shakespeare.

Roger Hall's collaboration with British singer songwriter Peter Skellern throws up an entertaining confection celebrating the joys and hazards of grandparenting.

It's a risky ambition to tackle the meaning of love - how we find it, how it changes us and how it feels to have loved and to have lost.

At 70, Henare is taking on his biggest role ever as the Sultan in the popular blockbuster Aladdin, which opens in Sydney in August.

Last year, it staged 111 shows - 62 in its regular programme, 23 in the Fringe, 26 in the NZ Comedy Festival and more than 100 "other" events.

A couple of years ago, playwright Roger Hall well and truly put the "grand" into grandparenting.

One of the largest cultural hubs to be developed in the world could be influenced by one of Auckland's smallest theatres, The Basement.

In Antony & Cleopatra the clash of civilisations is set against the intimacy of a tender love story.

Is it a giant diamond, perhaps an icicle, maybe a lighthouse, lantern or even a huge ice block?

One of NZ's most influential dance choreographers was booted out of an Auckland Arts Festival show this week for booing and calling it boring.

The curtains lift, revealing a dancer seated solemnly to one side. All is quiet barring the sound of audience members settling into their seats.

This excellent one-man show is not chatty or casual. Tight, dramatic spotlights focus sharply on the orator in the dark.

Around 30 Aucklanders jumped on and off the White Night Art Bus from Q Theatre on Saturday night and went west.

I've been having dreams of Queenstown/Wanaka lately. I'd like a bit of adventure, so a week of fast rivers and jumping off things and flying high

La Cucina dell’Arte beckons us to peep through a keyhole into the world’s worst restaurant and open the doors to a topsy-turvy, pizza-flipped joint where servants become masters, candles and crockery take on lives of their own and spoons play a tarantella on wine bottles.

The Great Downhill is about a boy who leaves his single mother to see the sea, riding downhill on his bike and encountering rag-tag characters.

If one of the roles of an arts festival is to present genre-blurring work, then the Auckland festival is doing its job with a show that opens this week.

Overall, I enjoyed the production but, on reflection, would probably only give the performance six out of 10, writes Peter Bromhead.

Among the razzle-dazzle of the big shows, the Auckland Arts Festival always throws up some hidden gems like Waves.