In the FRESH showcase at Tempo Dance Festival 2014, the communication of ideas through the dancing body is still the primary focus of this new generation of dance artists, but the ways in which that body dances are divergent.

Lesley Garrett, the English soprano, is in town for The Sound of Music in which she is playing the Mother Abbess, and she was over the moon to be here.

Right now The Sound of Music seems even more in tune with the times than when it premiered in 1959 and anticipated all the major themes of the 60s.

Shirley MacLaine has been a star for nearly 60 years. She's been an author for nearly 45.

A team of Kiwi musicians, actors and artists are joining forces with marginalised Auckland teenagers to bring their street stories to the stage.

Four months ago, the New Zealand String Quartet enthralled a town hall audience playing Mozart and Brahms quintets with Canadian clarinetist James Campbell.

The fraudulent world of high finance has furnished plenty of high-stakes drama in recent years.

Acting duo open performance to people from other industries to try to find a new perspective on their work.

Allison Williams looks ready to fly in her newly-released first photo as Peter Pan.

A new circus with characters including the 'Half Naked Asian Dude Wearing Pigtails from Japan' will begin touring New Zealand for the first time later this year.

Living travelled to Singapore to see The Sound of Music ahead of the show opening in Wellington and Auckland.

The party fun starts even before you enter the theatre for this Importance of Being Earnest, fabulously reimagined as an all-male dandy revel.

This week, 10 light-hearted "slice of life" plays start the month-long Short+Sweet suite of theatre, song and dance. Next week sees another round of 10-minute plays before the dancers and musicals get a week each.

Matt Whelan goes against type in his new play, finds Barney McDonald.

As an instantly recognizable brand celebrating their 30th anniversary Cirque du Soliel must stretch a tightrope between making it new and delivering on the expectations of its loyal customers.

Playwright Ben Hutchison establishes himself as an original and very distinctive voice with a play that has the gritty realism of a kitchen sink drama merging seamlessly into the weirdness of dream.

When Robin Kelly and Cherie Moore established their theatre company Last Tapes, they sat down and talked at length about the types of productions they wanted to produce.

This bright, feel-good musical left us so happy that we were possibly high on hairspray fumes, writes Janet McAllister.

Barney McDonald meets a rock star of the world of illusion.