'Opening Night' Guest Artists
Allison Farrow and Andrew Short
Known as the gorgeous couple behind the Festival of Voices perennial sell-out event, Afternoon at the Ritz, and as the young lovers in Tasmanian Theatre Unit Trust’s The Phantom of the Opera, Allison and Andrew are both local artists with extensive lists of credits streaming behind them.
Allison
Allison has enjoyed a successful and varied career as a singer, actress and, more recently, as a producer and director.
Performing throughout Australia, the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia, Allison’s credits include music theatre, opera, cabaret, drama, film and concert work. Playing to popular and critical acclaim, Allison’s one-woman cabarets have resulted in performances at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the recording of an album, and invitations to a huge selection of festivals and events.
In 2006, Allison established dell’Arte Productions and has produced and performed a huge selection of work including Afternoon at the Ritz (with Andrew Short for Festival of Voices 2013, 2014 & 2015) She has also produced and directed a sell-out season of the one-act musical The Last Five Years and co-produced her solo jazz show Spring Fever: Allison Farrow with Kelly Ottaway and band with the Theatre Royal, Hobart. She also performs regularly with her jazz quintet Allison Farrow & Friends.
Allison loves to entertain children and their families, providing the voice for ‘Betty Bug’ in Blue Rocket’s animated television series Buzz Bumble in 2013 and narrating/singing for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra’s Family Classics Series: Roald Dahl and Paul Patterson’s quirky retelling of Little Red Riding Hood in 2014 and Maximus Musicus Visits the Orchestra in 2015.
Andrew
With opera and music theatre credits across Australia, and from London to Cardiff and Edinburgh, Andrew Short is one of Tasmania’s great exports who has now – thankfully – returned home to Australian shores. Born into a very musical family, Andrew has been performing from an early age, with such appearances as Theo in Pippin at the age of eight.
After a decade spent in the UK, where he gained a Masters degree from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Edinburgh, just a few of his credits include UK productions of The Little Shop of Horrors, Far From the Madding Crowd, Company, Passion, The Frog Prince and Once Upon a Time in New Jersey.
Andrew’s Australian highlights include Marius in Les Miserables, Alex in Aspects of Love, Fakir in Secret Garden and Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera at Hobart’s Theatre Royal in 2013. Other credits include Side by Side by Sondheim, Jesus Christ Superstar, Guys and Dolls and the operas Cosi Fan Tutte and La Cenerentola.
Andrew’s show with Allison Farrow, Afternoon at the Ritz, has played to full houses at Festival of Voices each year since 2013.