Best Charles Little II Podcasts (2025)

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Suzie Miller's new play 'Inter Alia' delves into uncomfortable truths 54:03

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17h ago54:03

54:03

The Stage Show is back from sabbatical! On this episode, star playwright Suzie Miller speaks to Michael about Inter Alia, her gripping new play that takes you into the mind of a feminist judge, who’s also a mother, forced to confront a terrible reality. It’s just wound up a big season at London’s National Theatre, starring Rosamund Pike. Lisa Pelle…

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The Stage Show 54:04

2M ago54:04

54:04

Your guide to what's happening on stages across the country and beyond.By Australian Broadcasting Corporation

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Jazz Legends: Keith Jarrett 54:05

2M ago54:05

54:05

Pianist Keith Jarrett is one of the most captivating and controversial musicians of the last 50 years. He's a rare breed - a musician who has mastered the art of jazz improvisation and a fine classical player too. It’s been 50 years since the Köln Concert, which became the best-selling piano and solo jazz album of all time. But as we find out, that…

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Jazz Legends: Charles Mingus 54:04

2M ago54:04

54:04

Much like Duke Ellington before him, Charles Mingus' output was prolific. Over his near four-decade career, Mingus was behind a number of jazz firsts: he composed and recorded arguably the first jazz ballet - labelling his iconic LP 'The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady' as "ethnic folk-dance music." He also brought together elements of swing, bebop…

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Jazz Legends: Billie Holiday 54:06

2M ago54:06

54:06

This week we're honouring the late, great Billie Holiday. From her early ascendancy as a weaver of song in the 30s to her outspoken truth telling with records like 'Strange Fruit' to her downfall and decline in the 1950s, her tale is one of the more captivating in jazz. Across this episode, we recount Billie's life, and you'll hear from Lady Day he…

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Jazz Legends: Quincy Jones 54:06

3M ago54:06

54:06

If you were to put together a list of jazz’s most influential names, then it’d be hard to look past Quincy Jones’s contributions. He was a giant of the music industry, with an influence that spanned from the bop era right up to modern music today.By Australian Broadcasting Corporation

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Jazz Legends: Joni Mitchell 54:06

3M ago54:06

54:06

In the '70s, Joni Mitchell looked to jazz to inform her creative style. She would collaborate with many of the genre's leaders, but as we'll discover, jazz also was key in her formation right from the start. This episode was presented by bass player and ABC Jazz host, Eric Ajaye, and written and produced by ABC Jazz producer Henry Rasmussen. It was…

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Jazz Legends: Sonny Rollins 54:05

3M ago54:05

54:05

With over 70 years of playing jazz under his belt, Sonny Rollins has seen a thing or two. He was present at so many turning points in the music: from bebop to modal jazz, post bop to fusion... and beyond. Now days at the age of 93, Sonny Rollins is one of the last of his generation and a true elder statesman. His contribution to music in both the 2…

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Jazz Legends: Nina Simone 54:04

3M ago54:04

54:04

The name Nina Simone can mean many things to many people. Casual fans of her music will no doubt remember her hits like 'I Loves You Porgy', or 'My Baby Just Cares For Me'. For others, though, Nina Simone was one of the most defiant and outspoken performers in the jazz field for much of her career. After an initial rise to fame in the 1950s, Nina s…

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Stephen Sondheim — taking a razor to conventions (Part II) 54:04

4M ago54:04

54:04

We continue our journey into the life and work of Stephen Sondheim, the composer and lyricist of some of the most well-regarded musical theatre ever made. We are joined by performer Philip Quast, authors Joanne Gordon and Robert L McLaughlin, directors of several Sondheim productions Dean Bryant and Sonya Suares, and we speak with the New York Time…

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Stephen Sondheim — taking a razor to conventions (Part I) 54:05

4M ago54:05

54:05

Stephen Sondheim is the composer and lyricist of some of the most well-regarded musical theatre ever made. We delve into his life, work and impact on the form. We hear archival interviews with Sondheim himself and are joined by performer Philip Quast, author Joanne Gordon (Art Isn't Easy: The Theatre of Stephen Sondheim), director of several Sondhe…

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Dancing with life and death + the spooky joy of Beetlejuice 54:03

4M ago54:03

54:03

Choreographer Stephanie Lake and composer Robin Fox are partners in work and life, though they come from 'different worlds' artistically. Their latest collaboration is the joyful The Chronicles, which follows the rhythms of a life cycle, from birth to death — or is it renewal? Eddie Perfect's Broadway musical Beetlejuice has received rave reviews f…

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Pamela Rabe tackles an iconic role + a kid's point of view on stage 54:03

4M ago54:03

54:03

It’s one of those roles which great actors have on their to-do list: Winnie in the play Happy Days by Samuel Beckett. Winnie starts the play buried up to her waist in dirt. In Act 2 she’s buried up to her neck! Acclaimed actor Pamela Rabe tell us what makes this such an iconic play and how she approached it as both co-director and star of Happy Day…

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How to make it on Broadway, plus a twisted tale challenges these actors 54:04

5M ago54:04

54:04

What does it take to write a Tony-winning musical? Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty are the friends and songwriting team behind big Broadway musicals like Ragtime and Anastasia. They're also voting members for New York City's famous theatre industry prize, the Tony Awards. They join us as Tony Awards season takes off. Back stage... The make up arti…

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Getting under the skin of Edith Piaf with Nathalie Lermitte 53:51

5M ago53:51

53:51

Legendary French singer Edith Piaf was a firecracker of emotion. Gutsy and seductive, while underneath -- an intense fragility. That’s the legend. But what’s it like to play a legend, show after show, year after year? Cabaret singer Nathalie Lermitte has been inhabiting the icon Piaf for well over a decade. Top Shelf with Josh Piterman. Josh Piterm…

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Meet Margo Kane, a legend of Canadian theatre + a hit Spanish movie on stage 54:03

5M ago54:03

54:03

When Cree-Salteaux theatre-maker Margo Kane started trying out for theatre gigs in Canada in the 1970s, there were so few roles for Indigenous actors, she ended up auditioning for the same part more than once. That all changed when she wrote her own one woman show, Moonlodge that became a classic of Canadian theatre. She's in Australia to show her …

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The Black Woman of Gippsland flips the script on a Victorian mystery 54:03

5M ago54:03

54:03

Playwright Andrea James has researched a story from the 1840s, in which colonial newspapers suggested that a 'white woman' – maybe the survivor of a shipwreck – had been taken captive by Gunaikurnai people in what is now eastern Victoria. Andrea interrogates the legend in a riveting new play called The Black Woman of Gippsland. In 1895 Oscar Wilde …

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The Wrong Gods weighs the cost of 'progress' on a mother and daughter 54:05

5M ago54:05

54:05

S. Shakthidharan's last play Counting and Cracking was a massive hit, an epic tale of one Sri Lankan Tamil family and their involvement in world-change events. Now he returns with The Wrong Gods, a story about a mother and daughter in India whose lives are about to be ripped apart by industrial agriculture. Should economic growth come at the cost o…

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100 years of La Boite: a little theatre with big ambitions 54:05

6M ago54:05

54:05

We mark the 100th Birthday of Australia's oldest continuously run theatre — Brisbane's iconic La Boite. A little theatre that's had a huge influence on the theatre and politics of Brisbane and on building a theatre culture which is distinctively Australian. La Boite's Artistic Director Courtney Stewart and former AD David Berthold (current director…

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'We're very scared when we're on stage': comedy sisters Flo & Joan 54:05

6M ago54:05

54:05

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival has taken over the city. Comedians from across Australia and around the world are here including the UK's Nicola And Rosie Dempsey, as dead-pan singing sisters Flo and Joan. This year they're also presenting One Man Musical – a musical take-down of Andrew Lloyd Webber! Producer Rosa Ellen hits the streets…

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In 'Lazarus', a playwright resurrects a living legend 54:06

6M ago54:06

54:06

John Harding, a founder of Ilbijerri Theatre Company and veteran playwright, recorded 20 hours of Taungurung elder Uncle Larry Walsh recounting his life story. The result is Lazarus, a sold-out theatre show telling a life of tragic beginnings as a stolen child, survival in institutions and fearless activism. We also hear Billy McPherson, playing La…

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Ruby Wax dives deep (with whales) in her comedy + Eliza Scanlen on Oscar Wilde 54:06

6M ago54:06

54:06

Comedian and writer Ruby Wax tells Michael about how she recently found herself in a mental health clinic, after searching for transformative experiences (like swimming with whales). So what drives her to go public about her experiences, and stay funny? Two thousand years ago and the Roman poet Ovid has been banished to live out his days among unci…

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How Anaïs Mitchell wrote the hit musical Hadestown 54:04

7M ago54:04

54:04

This episode of The Stage Show is about love that doesn't end well! The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is retold in a hit folk musical called Hadestown. It's won Tonys, Grammys and is now in Australia. We speak to the singer-songwriter Anais Mitchell, who wrote Hadestown as a concept album, before touring it around in an old bus and then turning it i…

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The story that brought Leah Purcell back to the stage 54:04

7M ago54:04

54:04

Actor, director and writer Leah Purcell has been telling us her own stories and the stories of people close to her since the 1990s. Now Leah’s back – as the adaptor and director of the true tale of Aunty Ruth Hegarty, which take us into the heart of Australia’s post-colonial history, a powerful two-person play called Is that you, Ruthie? The life o…

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Actor Stephen Rea in Krapp's Last Tape + the soul of Butoh 54:05

7M ago54:05

54:05

We meet Irish screen and theatre actor Stephen Rea, who talks about meeting Samuel Beckett early in his career. Rea so wanted to perform Beckett's play Krapp's Last Tape, he had the foresight to record his youthful self reading it. In his new production at Adelaide Festival, the audience gets to hear those recordings.We head Back Stage to the hat m…

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Turning the late Ryuichi Sakamoto into mixed reality 54:06

7M ago54:06

54:06

Shortly before he died, Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto performed a piano concert called Kagami – which was filmed and recorded with mixed reality technology. Thanks to that, the audience can see and hear Sakamoto play on a level of reality which pushes the boundaries of what a concert can be. Todd Eckert was a friend of Sakamoto and through his…

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Dancing in the street with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui 54:06

8M ago54:06

54:06

As a teenager in Belgium, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui grew up dancing with his friends in the street. He’s now a renowned choreographer with his own company and the director of the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, choreographing everything from pop music videos to the new show MANIFEST at Perth Festival - where members of the public can train alongside …

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Robyn Nevin on Agatha Christie's 'dark side' + a play about Julian Assange 54:03

8M ago54:03

54:03

Australian theatre legend Robyn Nevin is directing And Then There Were None, a classic murder mystery by Agatha Christie. She talks to Michael about the darkness in Christie's stories, her view on changing acting styles and how Robyn finds her 'inner clown'. Playwright Patricia Cornelius explains why she has five actors playing the world's most fam…

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Emma Rice's dark, rollicking Wuthering Heights 54:04

8M ago54:04

54:04

UK director Emma Rice thinks the classic novel Wuthering Heights has many contemporary resonances, particularly around the origins of the character Heathcliff. Rice turned the story into a rollicking play after successfully adapting other English folktales and films for the stage. She tells us about her career, which included briefly leading Shakes…

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How do you tell the world's longest tale 'Mahabharata', in five hours? 54:04

8M ago54:04

54:04

The Hindu epic Mahabharata is the longest poem in the world, a tale where gods and mortals dance around each other in stories about creation, sex, death and destruction. But can it be told in under nine hours? That was the duration of Peter Brooks’ famous 1988 production of The Mahabharata at the Adelaide Festival. Miriam Fernandes and Ravi Jain, f…

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'I think the rock swallowed them up': Ian Michael takes on an Australian classic 54:04

9M ago54:04

54:04

When director and actor Ian Michael first saw the stage play of Picnic at Hanging Rock, adapted by playwright Tom Wright, it was as a theatre attendant. Now, he is directing it at the Opera House for the Sydney Theatre Company. The Noongar theatre-maker has forged an exciting career performing deeply personal stories alongside innovative production…

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The surprising history of Shakespeare in a divided America 54:04

9M ago54:04

54:04

Over the past 200 years, theatre has often been a lightning rod for social and political upheaval in the United States. Even the plays of William Shakespeare have been the subject of violent debate. This surprising history is examined in two recent books by James Shapiro: Shakespeare in a Divided America and The Playbook. Also, we explore Bangarra …

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Why Eric Idle always looks on the bright side of life 54:03

9M ago54:03

54:03

Death is not a very funny subject. Yet, comedian, writer and musician Eric Idle has spent 60 years showing us the funny side of our all-too-fleeting lives. The Monty Python member has toured Australia with his show Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, Live! He's also written a book about the creation of his musical, Spamalot. Also, we visit Aust…

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The story of the groundbreaking Warumpi Band 54:05

9M ago54:05

54:05

In the desert town of Papunya in 1981, four blackfellas and a whitefella bonded over rock 'n' roll and became the history-making Warumpi Band. The Warumpis were the first rock band to sing in Aboriginal languages. Big Name, No Blankets from Ilbijerri Theatre Company tells their story on stage. Also, Australian writer James Elazzi has garnered accla…

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Giacomo Puccini 100 years on 54:03

9M ago54:03

54:03

It's been 100 years since the death of the Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini. From La Bohème to Turandot, Puccini's operas remain some of the most popular around the world. To explore Puccini's life and legacy, we're joined by musicologist Dr Linda Fairtile and hear performances from two Opera Australia productions. Also, since Hamilton debute…

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'I know what I'm doing' — Why Miriam Margolyes courts controversy 54:03

10M ago54:03

54:03

In her memoir Oh Miriam!, the British-Australian actress, writer and comedian Miriam Margolyes shares hugely entertaining stories from her life with her trademark wit and disarming candour. This year she brought those stories — and more — to the stage, touring her show Oh Miriam! right across Australia. Former prime minister Paul Keating was one of…

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William Yang — A life in a slide show 54:05

10M ago54:05

54:05

Legendary photographer William Yang has spent decades transforming his photography into captivating live theatre via the medium of the slide show. In his latest performance, Milestone, which is coming to the Sydney Festival and Asia TOPA, Yang shares a lifetime of stories, from his boyhood in Cairns, to his various 'coming-outs', to the freedom — a…

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How an accident redefined the possibilities of dance 54:05

10M ago54:05

54:05

In 1997, Australian dancer Marc Brew's life was changed forever by a devastating car accident that left him paralysed from the chest down. He tells his story in the deeply personal An Accident / A Life. Over the past 27 years, Brew has redefined the possibilities of dance, captivating audiences worldwide with performances and choreography that chal…

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Can Kiss Me, Kate be tamed? 54:04

10M ago54:04

54:04

The nine-time Tony Award nominee Bartlett Sher has this year directed Robert Downey Jr's Broadway debut and a London revival of Cole Porter's 1948 musical Kiss Me, Kate. Kiss Me, Kate is based upon Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, so how palatable is this controversial musical to a 21st century audience? Also, Wanderings is a new play that de…

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Broadway writer Rick Elice, the theatre boy who wouldn't grow up 54:04

11M ago54:04

54:04

Peter and the Starcatcher, by the American writer Rick Elice (Jersey Boys, Water for Elephants), is a Tony Award-winning play inspired by J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan stories. It reveals how Peter, the Lost Boys, and Captain Hook came to find themselves in Neverland, and it puts a new character named Molly at the centre of the action. Also, the big soun…

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The star of Prima Facie plots the next stage of her brilliant career 54:07

11M ago54:07

54:07

Some theatre people constantly surprise you, and their names alone can spur you to buy a ticket. Sheridan Harbridge is one such artist. She blew audiences away in Suzie Miller's Prima Facie, and she's now a writer or director on four upcoming productions: My Brilliant Career, Life in Plastic, A Model Murder and Phar Lap: The Musical. Also, Sydney P…

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Olympic gold medallists Torvill & Dean take one last dance 54:04

11M ago54:04

54:04

In the 40 years since their history-making perfect score that earned them a gold medal at the 1984 Winter Olympic Games, figure skaters Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean have toured the globe presenting ice dancing spectaculars. Now, the pair plan to hang up their skates for good, following a farewell tour they are calling Torvill & Dean: Our Last…

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Why Monty Python's Eric Idle laughs at death 54:04

11M ago54:04

54:04

Death is not a very funny subject. Yet, comedian, writer and musician Eric Idle has spent 60 years showing us the funny side of our all-too-fleeting lives. The Monty Python member is now touring Australia with his show Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, Live! He's also written a new book about the creation of his musical, Spamalot. Also, as we…

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A director's career-long effort to empower everyone in the room 54:04

12M ago54:04

54:04

Mina Morita is on a mission to inspire a new crop of Australian theatre directors and to open our stages to a wider range of audiences and artists. She's in Australia to lead a program called Staging the World, and she's directing the Australian premiere season of Yoga Play at the National Theatre of Parramatta and La Boite Theatre. Also, theatre m…

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Dear Evan Hansen comes to Australia 54:04

12M ago54:04

54:04

The very first Australian production of the smash-hit coming-of-age musical Dear Evan Hansen has just opened in Sydney. The Broadway production won six Tony Awards, including one for the show's book writer, Steven Levenson. Steven also wrote the screenplay for Tick, Tick… Boom! — a musical film inspired by the life of Jonathan Larson (Rent). Also, …

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A cabaret lover's journey from sheep farm to Spiegeltent mastermind 54:04

12M ago54:04

54:04

In the 1980s a young jazz pianist named David Bates ran away with a cabaret band to the other side of the world. A chance encounter with the now-iconic Spiegeltent gave him an idea — if he bought this unloved structure it had the potential to breathe new life into cabaret and variety acts for the 21st century. Bates is the creator of the legendary …

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The secrets and stagecraft of magic 54:04

1y ago54:04

54:04

Step into a hidden vault where the secrets of professional magicians are kept under lock and key. Your guide, magician Nicholas J Johnson, reveals the mysteries of the WG Alma Conjuring Collection, exploring why we’re so captivated by illusions—even when we know it’s all a trick. Also, we explore how Patrick White's suburban satire A Cheery Soul re…

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School's out — Matthew Whittet explores the dreams of our youth 54:04

1y ago54:04

54:04

Do you remember your last day of high school? It's a key moment for many of us, as we step out of our teenage lives and into the world of adulthood. Matthew Whittet's play Seventeen explores this transition in a unique way that has transfixed audiences around the globe.By Australian Broadcasting Corporation

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A creative life undimmed by a devastating diagnosis 54:07

1y ago54:07

54:07

Roz Hervey has enjoyed a 30-plus-year career as a dancer, choreographer, director and producer. So, how does she respond when life throws her a challenge which will certainly bring those adventures to a halt? In the face of a recent diagnosis of Motor Neurone Disease (MND), Roz has continue throwing all of her energies into the arts. Also, we ask t…

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Shakespeare in a divided America 54:04

1y ago54:04

54:04

Over the past 200 years, theatre has often been a lightning rod for social and political upheaval in the United States. Even the plays of William Shakespeare have been the subject of violent debate. This surprising history is examined in two recent books by James Shapiro: Shakespeare in a Divided America and The Playbook. Also, Trent Dalton's Love …