Children's theatre legend Garry Ginivan has another hit on his hands with the world premiere production of Wombat Stew.

Wombat Stew is based on the popular Australian children's picture book by Marcia K. Vaughan and Pamela Lofts, which was first published in 1984 and has since sold more than 350,000 copies.

Garry Ginivan’s stellar creative team has brought Wombat Stew to life on stage through story-telling, mime, music, dance and puppetry sure to delight audiences both young and old. This simple tale of a dingo who captures a wombat to make a "gooey, brewy, yummy, chewy stew" is played out by a ragtag ensemble of travelling actors camped by a billabong, in the tradition of the mechanicals from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Since 1977, Garry Ginivan Attractions has been converting children's literary favourites into captivating theatrical productions. Writing, directing, choreographing and producing, Garry has created successful stage musical adaptations of Noddy, The Magic Faraway Tree, The Adventures of Peter Rabbit, Pinocchio, Puff The Magic Dragon and Winnie the Pooh. Negotiations are well underway for Garry’s inventive production of Peter Rabbit to be staged in London’s West End in 2012 as part of the 110th anniversary of publication celebrations.

However, it is since turning to Australian literary sources that Garry has had most success. Possum Magic The Musical, based on the best-selling children’s book by Mem Fox and Julie Vivas, has been a phenomenal hit in theatres, regularly touring nationally for the past twenty years and now recognised as Australia’s most successful musical for children ever produced. His stage adaptation of My Grandma Lives in Gooligulch, created in collaboration with world-renowned author Graeme Base, will tour the country again this year… and now there is Wombat Stew.
 
For the stage musical adaptation of Wombat Stew, Garry has enlisted the award-winning creative duo of Gary Young (writer/director) and Paul Keelan (composer/musical director). Young and Keelan have won the prestigious Pratt Prize twice, for Sideshow Alley in 2002 and Bim Bom in 2008. Sideshow Alley also won the 2007 Helpmann Award for Best Original Score. Gary Young has been resident director on many major musicals including Mamma Mia, Miss Saigon and Les Miserables and directed several musicals for The Production Company.  A prolific composer, Paul Keelan has also been the musical director on Menopause The Musical.
 
Wombat Stew also features the choreographic talents of Andrew Hallsworth, the associate choreographer to the late Ross Coleman on the world premiere production of Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Andrew has re-staged the choreography for Priscilla on London’s West End, a task he will repeat for the show’s planned Broadway season. Andrew also choreographed the acclaimed Melbourne Theatre Company production of The Drowsy Chaperone, and has recently completed a workshop in the USA for a new musical adaptation of An Officer and a Gentleman.
 
Wombat Stew is currently on an extensive national tour of capital cities and regional towns, with over 150 scheduled performances in 53 venues. Having already played Melbourne’s National Theatre, Sydney’s Enmore Theatre, Canberra Theatre Centre and many locations in regional Victoria, Wombat Stew is about to tour to Brisbane, regional New South Wales, regional Queensland, Alice Springs, Darwin and Perth. To date the show has been seen by 25,000 people and is estimated to play to over 80,000 by the time the tour concludes at the end of October.