Ben Apfelbaum

VELVET REWIRED @ THE STUDIO, SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE

 

A glittering spectacle of circus, cabaret and a love-letter to disco, Velvet Rewired will be presented in the Studio at the Sydney Opera House  from tonight (22 December 2022) until 12 February 2023. The fabulous Marcia Hines (Jesus Christ Superstar, HAIR) reprises her role from the hit-show Velvet as the “Diva”.

Premiering at the 2020 Adelaide Fringe festival to glowing reviews, Velvet Rewired continues the story of a young man on his path to self-discovery as he returns to the club seeking redemption. Led by the fearlessly fabulous Marcia Hines, Craig Reid (La Clique, La Soirée) returns as the incredible “Hula Boy” and Joe Accaria (Once, Dream Lover) as the DJ and mix-master. Rounding out the cast is performer and TV presenter Tom Sharah (It’s Raining Me, I Will Survive on Channel 10) as “Country Mike”, Dutch skating duo Pierre and Stef The Skating Willers (La Clique), London based aerialist Beau Sargent (JPG Fashion Freak Show), aerialist Harley Timmermans (Babylon), and the vocal power of Jacinta Gulisano (The Voice 2018) and Sasha Lee Saunders as the “Sirens”.

To the hedonistic tunes of perpetual anthems like “Ain’t No Body” (Chaka Khan and Rufus), “It’s Raining Men” (The Weather Girls) and “Born to Be Alive” (Patrick Hernandez), Velvet Rewired pays homage to disco greats and New York’s Studio 54, the infamous club synonymous with a celebration of cultural acceptance, glitter and disco.

Directed by Craig Ilott (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Love Song), Velvet Rewired is a seamless integration of acrobatics, aerialists and vocalists who deliver a performance drenched in high energy and dizzying nostalgia. Ilott directed the original Velvet that premiered at the Opera House in 2015. Velvet has left behind glitter and good vibes after more than 1200 performances in some of the world’s biggest fringe festivals including Adelaide and Edinburgh, in cruise ships in the Caribbean, and theatres in Germany, France and Italy. The creative team is completed by Amy Campbell (Choreographer), James Browne (Set and Costume Designer) and Matthew Marshall (Lighting Designer).

https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com

All photos by Ben Apfelbaum 

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborlang. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, United States, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication. To celebrate the opening of a permanent Photography Gallery, the State Library of New South Wales selected 400 shots from its archive of over 2,000,000 images to display in the new gallery. An image of mine was plucked out of the multi million photo archive to be part of the inaugural exhibition.