Head Over Heels to Make Australian Premiere in August

Head Over Heels, the Broadway musical that features the songs of the Go-Go's, will play the Hayes Theatre in Sydney, Australia beginning August 7. This marks the musical's first international production.

A new Australian creative team is set with Ellen Simpson directing and Cameron Mitchell serving as choreographer, Zara Stanton as music director and Isabel Hudson as designer. The cast will be announced in coming months.

"Before I began reading the piece, I stumbled on an interview with a handful of the Broadway cast. I’ve not seen an interview where the cast were so effervescent in their joy and love for their show," said director Simpson. "They were so assured in its message of inclusion, and the importance with which they spoke about how the show called for diversity and broad representation was galvanizing and inspiring. It had my heart already. I’m looking forward to injecting a large, ruff-wrapped dose of joy into Sydney theatre."

Bowing on Broadway in 2018, Head Over Heels features an original book by Jeff Whitty adapted book by James Magruder, inspired by Sir Philip Sidney's 16th-century pastoral romance Arcadia. The musical is set to Go-Go's hits including "We Got the Beat," "Get Up and Go," "Cool Jerk," "Vacation," "Our Lips Are Sealed," "Lust to Love," "Head Over Heels" and Belinda Carlisle's solo hits "Mad About You" and "Heaven Is a Place on Earth."

Originally directed by Michael Mayer with music direction by Kimberly Grigsby and choreography by Spencer Liff, the musical made its world premiere under the direction of Ed Sylvanus Iskandar at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in the summer of 2016. It had a pre-Broadway production, directed by Mayer, at San Francisco's Curran Theatre prior to transferring to Broadway's Hudson Theater.