Previews, arts news, it’s all in HELEN MUSA’s weekly “Arts in the City” column. 

INTERNATIONAL Magician of the Year, Cosentino, will perform death-defying escapes, stage illusions and cutting-edge magic in a 90-minute live show “Decennium”. At Canberra Theatre, 2.30pm and 7.30pm, Saturday, February 4.

RAVE reviews are in for “Urinetown: The Musical”, still running at Sydney’s Hayes Theatre. One review says the show, which originated in Canberra, has been “snappily directed by Ylaria Rogers”, it also awards high praise to protagonist Joel Horwood and to Karen and Natasha Vickery as “a fun mother-daughter double act”. 

LEXI Sekuless’ Mill Theatre at Dairy Road, Fyshwick, has announced details of its 2023 season, starting on February 15 with PJ Williams in Nassim Soleimanpour’s “White Rabbit Red Rabbit”, followed in April by Sarah Haddock-Carroll’s staging of Neil LaBute’s play, “Reasons to be Pretty” and in July, Julian Meyrick’s production of Nick Enright’s “Good Works”. The “Rockspeare” series, directed by Sekuless herself in October and November, will see the Bard’s history plays presented “in a rock universe”. An intriguing move is that “Reasons to be Pretty” will have Kim Beamish, the noted film director and former “CityNews Artist of the Year”, as the Mill’s first “shadow director”. 

IN the next “Geoff’s Jazz at Smiths”, Canberra-trained trumpeter and former general manager of the Canberra International Music Festival, Alex Raupach, returns for a hard bop session with the Tom Fell Quintet at Smith’s Alternative, Civic, February 1. 

EXPRESSIONS of interest are due to events.canberra.com.au by February 12 for grants between $5000 and $20,000 to support events and activities as part of a new winter festival, July 7-16. 

“THE Lonely Spirits Variety Hour” is the first film of the Southern Tablelands Arts’ Screen 2023 season. In it, verbose radio presenter Neville Umbrellaman hosts a late-night variety show full of existential musings from a studio built in his parents’ garage. The cinematographer-editor is local filmmaker Brian Rapsey, who will be in conversation with STA Screen creative director Gary Vehtic after the screening at the Goulburn Performing Arts Centre, 4pm, January 29. Tickets at southerntablelandsarts.com.au