Ladies in Black

Ladies in Black
Promotional image featuring Tim Finn (left) and Christen O'Leary (right)
Music	Tim Finn
Lyrics	Tim Finn
Book	Carolyn Burns
Basis	The Women in Black by Madeleine St John
Productions	2015-16 Brisbane/Melbourne 2017 Aus National Tour

2015-16 Brisbane/Melbourne

Ladies in Black is an Australian musical with music and lyrics by Tim Finn and book by Carolyn Burns, based on the 1993 novel The Women in Black by Madeleine St John.

Set in Sydney in the 1950s, the musical tells the story of bookish school leaver Lisa who joins the sales staff in fashionable department store, F.G. Goode's. Over a summer that changes her life, she befriends the colourful denizens of the women’s clothing department. Each of the characters are on the precipice of change – facing independence, working for a living and what it means to be a woman.

Ladies in Black premiered in Brisbane in a season from 14 November to 6 December 2015 at the Playhouse, Queensland Performing Arts Centre, produced by the Queensland Theatre Company in association with the Queensland Performing Arts Centre. It transferred to Melbourne for the Melbourne Theatre Company, playing at The Sumner, Southbank Theatre from 16 January to 27 February 2016.

The production was directed by Simon Phillips with musical direction by Isaac Hayward, choreography by Andrew Hallsworth and orchestrations by Guy Simpson. The cast included Sarah Morrison (Lisa), Christen O'Leary (Magda), Bobby Fox (Rudi), Kathryn McIntyre (Myra/Dawn), Lucy Maunder (Patty), Naomi Price (Fay), Carita Farrer Spencer (Mrs Miles), Kate Cole (Miss Cartright/Joy), Andrew Broadbent (Frank), Deidre Rubenstein (Miss Jacobs/Mrs Crown) and Greg Stone (Mr Miles/Stefan).

In August 2016, Queensland Theatre announced that Ladies in Black would be remounted for a four-city engagement in 2017:

The musical was very positively received.