The inaugural Maori Playwright's Festival has made an inspired choice by opening with a beautifully crafted revival of Briar Grace Smith's Purapurawhetu.

Catherine Zeta-Jones, Douglas Hodge and Sir Alan Ayckbourn were among the winners at Sunday night's Tony Awards.

Shifting from his hard rock group to a play about the good old days of the Maori showband wasn't that much of a leap for Francis Kora.

The Maori New Year festival Matariki gets bigger every year. This year Taonga Whakaari: The Inaugural Maori Playwrights Festival has been added to the calendar of events in Auckland and Papakura.

Seizing the dark heart of the show Ross Girven captures the haunted nature of Sweeney Todd's psychosis.

Solo performer Gareth Williams takes us on a delightfully whimsical journey inside his head.

NBR New Zealand Opera's The Marriage of Figaro is as engrossing a night of theatre as one could wish for.

Michele Hine is revelling in a trio of rich maternal roles _ from Go Girls' downtrodden parent, to fading theatrical star, to hell-bent control freak in the Auckland production of The House Of Bernada Alba.

Dame Pat Evison, a much-loved stalwart of New Zealand radio, television and theatre who died at the weekend, will long be remembered for her colourful contribution, colleagues say.

One of New Zealand's best known actresses, Dame Pat Evison, has died at the age of 85 after a long illness.

The razor gang behind a new stage production of Sweeney Todd talk to Dionne Christian about bringing the mythical murderer to musical life.

The director has agreed to become the first patron of Opotiki's De Luxe Theatre, in the eastern Bay of Plenty.

This debut work by local drama teacher Andy Saker shows an easy familiarity with the North Shore's casual backyard culture.

There are Baxter self-quotations and talk of cut-throats and fowlhouses for literary experts to spot, but you don't have to know a line of the great men's work to enjoy the play.

The devised work is clearly actor-driven and the huge cast of 17 all get a chance to get their teeth into well-rounded characters.

John Leigh talks about acting as though it still isn't really his idea, as if he has no idea how he ended up being an actor and that it has, just this minute, occurred to him that he is one.

Given actor/writer Tim Balme's workload, it's amazing he answers interview questions so coherently and affably.

It was when the drag queen in the Santa coat started banging her drumsticks on the scaffolding, singing about sending a barking annoyance to "doggie hell" that Rent came to life.

The cast of stage production Rent are put through their paces during a dress rehearsal at Auckland's Civic Theatre.

English theatre luminaries Sir Ian McKellen and Dame Judi Dench are on a heavyweight list of artists and historians calling for the reopening of Auckland's St James Theatre.