Adelaide Festival Centre Foundation is dedicated to nurturing both leading and emerging creative talent, supporting essential pathways and year-round, hands-on performance and industry experiences.
Sam Harvey and his partner, the late Frank Ford AM, have long been dedicated supporters and visionaries of Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Thanks to their generosity, the 2025 Adelaide Cabaret Festival hosted a work-in-development presentation of PRIMETIME co-written by Millicent Sarre and Joseph Simons, and through the Frank Ford Commission, supported the premiere of Joanne Hartstone’s The Smart Girl’s Guide to Breaking Up.
Image: Cast of PRIMETIME at Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2025. Photo by Claudio Raschella.
PRIMETIME is an ambitious new Australian musical blending the glittering world of vintage game shows with a razor-sharp feminist lens. Set in 2005 and spanning the 60’s to the 90’s, PRIMETIME tackles everything from internalised misogyny to the pressures of ageing in the public eye, all while celebrating the resilience and complexity of its five female protagonists.
Development opportunities like this are vital for getting new Australian musicals off the ground. The work-in-progress showing allowed audiences to play a direct role by providing feedback, influencing the show's development. It's hoped PRIMETIME will eventually achieve a mainstage season in Australia.
I simply cannot overstate how vital it is that opportunities such as this exist. The development process for new musicals is long, labour-intensive, resource-heavy, and, frankly, expensive. Opportunities that fund the development of original musical theatre within Australia are still relatively scarce, and independent artists rarely have the means to get their work off the ground without significant financial support. Consequently, the opportunities that do exist, like Adelaide Cabaret Festival’s Musical in Development program, are so valuable, meaningful, and necessary.
Image: Millicent Sarre, Sam Harvey and Joseph Simons at Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2025.
We’re incredibly grateful to Adelaide Cabaret Festival for this opportunity, and especially thankful to Sam Harvey and the late Frank Ford AM whose generosity has funded this development.
Image: The Smart Girl’s Guide to Breaking Up cast performing at Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2025. Photo by Claudio Raschella.
The Smart Girl’s Guide to Breaking Up presents a five-step approach to navigating heartbreak, drawing from Hartstone’s personal experience of being left before her wedding. Blending candid storytelling, humour, and a dynamic musical soundtrack from, Etta James to Florence + the Machine, the show champions resilience and empowers audiences to find strength and clarity after romantic disappointment.
The rareness and uniqueness of this extraordinary commission means the honour of being chosen as a recipient transforms the award into much more than it first appears.
The performance platform and the support have elevated my practice to another tier, and the endorsement and recognition of being chosen has given me confidence in the quality of my craft. This was more than a gift. Of course, Frank Ford’s commission is certainly that too - his bequest offers an opportunity to create and present a brand-new festival-ready show in the biggest Cabaret Festival in the world.
Image: The Smart Girl’s Guide to Breaking Up cast performing at Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2025. Photo by Claudio Raschella.
The Frank Ford Commission ensures Frank's legacy continues to shape recipients well into the future, empowering artists to create on a larger scale with greater visibility. The Smart Girl's Guide to Breaking Up is now being pitched for touring, aiming to bring this new South Australian production to international stages.
The commission allowed me freedom to try, but with a deadline to keep me focused. I am very proud of the result, and I carry this pride forward into more creative endeavours.
By providing essential pathways and fostering new productions like PRIMETIME and The Smart Girl's Guide to Breaking Up, Adelaide Cabaret Festival - with the generous support of Adelaide Festival Centre Foundation and visionaries like Sam Harvey and the late Frank Ford AM - plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of Australian theatre, ensuring that compelling original stories continue to be told on stages both here and abroad.
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