Musical theatre and television star Ian Stenlake, dubbed one of Australia’s music theatre stars of today, is set to shine on The Wedge theatre stage. He is teaming up with award-winning singer and actress Michelle Fitzmaurice, starring in Promac Productions‘ latest Australian touring musical show, The Winner Is.
Encompassing Academy Award-winning songs from 1935 to 2020, The Winner Is is an 80-year journey through the world’s biggest hits, an hour and 15-minute emotion and memory-provoking production, which Helpmann Award winner, Ian Stenlake, describes as fun and, at times, thrilling.
“It is definitely fun,” Stenlake said.
“Ultimately, fun’ is a word that you could use to describe all of Promac Productions’ shows because we want people to come to the theatre and just enjoy themselves.
“The Winner Is is thrilling at times when you’ve got bigger songs with more complex harmonies, but then you might just get simple ballads that will just evoke memories of life and love and times gone by.
“That’s the beauty of music; it transports you to a place, or a time, or an event.”
For Stenlake and the entire production, The Winner Is is the celebration of some of the best Acadamy Award-winning songs in the past century.
“It’s a very extensive list, as you could imagine, and we’ve tried to pick songs we knew would evoke memories for the audience; if we were familiar with them, the chances are they were big, big hits,” Stenlake said.
“I think that is the beauty of choosing songs that were Academy Award-winning songs, because they’re not just songs from films, most of the great songs, most of the Oscar-winning songs get recorded by the best recording artists in the world, so you know people would have heard them in their life even if they didn’t see the film.
“For example, The Windmills of Your Mind from The Thomas Crown Affair; if you didn’t see that movie, then take your pick on who’s recorded it since then – Barba Streisand, Johnny Mathis, Andy Williams or even Sting.
“That really is the beauty of choosing a repertoire from such great songs.”
The Windmills of Your Mind was Stenlake’s favourite song going into the show; however, over The Winner Is’ five live performances, the song Mona Lisa, has become his favourite piece.
“I’ve just really enjoyed singing Mona Lisa; you can just hear people’s reactions, and obviously, it was such a huge hit, had such an impact on the entire world,” Stenlake said.
“I also love, there is a Disney sort of medley that we do on duet, nothing better than singing opposite fantastic singers and Michelle Fitzmaurice is such a fine singer and performer.
“We are joined by Kym Dillon this season; she joined us late last year with Lloyd Webber and The Great Composers, and she’s been on board as our musical director, and she is absolutely extraordinary on the piano,” Stenlake added.
“Kym has done her own composition of Born Free and Talk to the Animals, and it’s just an incredible composition that you can just sit there and enjoy the moment.”
The Winner Is starts at 11am on Friday, March 3. To book your tickets or find out more, go to https://thewedge.com.au/event/the-winner-is/
