A radical new staging of John Cassavetes’ cult movie Opening Night, starring Isabelle Adjani, two concerts by award-winning UK choir Tenebrae, a concert of modern re-arrangements of rare First Nations songs by Canadian composer and musician Jeremy Dutcher, and a reboot of Reg Livermore’s famous 1970s cabaret show Betty Blokk-Buster, performed by Josh Quong Tart, are among the shows programmed by Sydney Festival Artistic Director Wesley Enoch for 2020, along with the previously announced Aboriginal musical Bran Nue Dae.

The centrepiece of the Festival, which runs from January 8 to 26, is the exclusive Australian season of Opening Night, adapted from Cassavetes’ 1977 film by French auteur Cyril Teste. Cassavetes’s film starred Gena Rowlands as Myrtle, a middle-aged actor on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Haunted by the death of a young fan killed in a car accident just outside the theatre, and struggling with the misogynistic theatre world around her, her life begins to blur with the theatre role she is playing. Myrtle is played on stage by French star Isabelle Adjani. Teste uses smartly integrated live video in his adaptation. Staged in New York in...