News

 > Performing Arts > Features

How (and why) to remake a classic

‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ doesn’t apply to the arts, where classics are tinkered with all the time.
18 Sep 2015 12:00
Richard Watts
[This is archived content and may not display in the originally intended format.]

Performing Arts

Share Icon

Lana Jones in The Australian Ballet’s The Sleeping Beauty. Photo by Jeff Busby.

On Tuesday night, Melbourne audiences witnessed the premiere of The Australian Ballet’s new production of The Sleeping Beauty directed by Artistic Director David McAllister. Featuring Marius Petipa’s original 1890 choreography and a new, baroque-inspired design by Gabriela Tylesova, the production has been billed as ‘a lavish new Beauty for the modern age’. Which begs the question: why remake such a classic? Why not let the original stand?

Unlock Padlock Icon

Unlock this content?

Access this content and more

Join Now Login
Richard Watts

Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts

Related News

Reviews Visual Arts Writing and Publishing News Theatre Film Digital All Arts Television Features
More
A bar scene in the production of 'Sweat'.
Reviews

Theatre review: Sweat, Wharf 1 Theatre

A play about hardscrabble small-town Americans by a Pulitzer-winning playwright is grimly prescient.

Virginia Balfour
Two men. One is standing (Drew Forsythe), one is seated at a piano (Phil Scott) in a production of 'The End of the Wharf as we know it.'
Reviews

Performance review: The Wharf Revue: The End of the Wharf As We Know It, Seymour Centre 

After 25 years, The Wharf Revue – famous for lampooning Australian politicians – is presenting its final show.

Ned Hirst
Guy Simon is pivoting from acting to being an Assistant Director, and speaks about the experience for ArtsHub's 'So you want my arts job?' series. An Aboriginal man with black hair and brown eyes gazes steadily into the camera.
Career Advice

So you want my arts job: Assistant Director

If you are willing to be an extra set of eyes and ears for the director, working as an assistant…

Richard Watts
A woman in black, with sunglasses, Pamela Rabe, is standing in a doorframe of a production of 'August. Osage County.'
Reviews

Theatre review: August: Osage County, Belvoir Street Theatre

Belvoir Street tackles one of the century’s great American plays in its final offering for 2024.

Peter Hackney
The cast of 'Jesus Christ Superstar'. A group are assembled around a central figure, a man. The is a large cross formation below them that also acts as a table.
Reviews

Musical review: Jesus Christ Superstar, Capitol Theatre

Go for the voices, not the storytelling.

Dennis Clements
User Icon
Forgot password?
User Icon
Back to Login