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The Secret Garden is returning to Sydney in 2020 with Anthony Warlow

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The Secret Garden is set to celebrate its 25th anniversary with a Sydney season in 2020, and they’re going back to their roots.

That’s right, in exceptionally exciting news, Australia’s greatest musical theatre performer Anthony Warlow will revisit one of his most acclaimed roles when he takes the stage as Archibald Craven in the upcoming production.

Since he was just 19, Warlow has been thrilling Australian audiences with his gorgeous voice. From his 1981 debut in Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to creating the role of Dr Yurii Zhivago in the Australian premiere production of Doctor Zhivago (2011), Australian tours of Annie (2000 and 2012), and performing the title role of The Phantom of the Opera (1990 and 2007-2008), as well as Broadway roles as Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks in Annie and Captain Hook in Finding Neverland, his celebrated list of stage credits is lengthy.

The Secret Garden was a glorious production 25 years ago and I loved being a part of it. It’s a wonderful story and the music of Lucy Simon is extraordinary. When the opportunity came up to revisit the material with the original creative team and play Archibald Craven again with a new cast, I just couldn’t pass it up. I can’t wait to return to The Secret Garden,” Warlow says.

THE SECRET GARDEN I AUSTRALIA I STARRING ANTHONY WARLOW

The reunions don’t stop there though. When the production returns to Australia it will also reunite the original Broadway creative team of director Susan H Schulman, choreographer Michael Lichtefeld and scenic designer Heidi Ettinger with costume design by Catherine Zuber.

Based on the much-loved novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, when The Secret Garden premiered on Broadway in 1991 it took New York by storm. Rave reviews, Tony Awards, and international productions all followed. It last played in Australia back in 1995 starring Anthony Warlow, Philip Quast and Marina Prior.

In August 2020, The Secret Garden will return to Australian stages for the first time in almost three decades, bringing this sensational musical and the story of young, orphaned Mary Lennox and her uncle’s mysterious secret garden to life in front of a new generation of musical theatre lovers.

The 25th anniversary season of The Secret Garden will come to Sydney Lyric Theatre from Sunday 2 August. Tickets are on sale via Ticketmaster.com.au.