Arts editor HELEN MUSA picks the best of upcoming Canberra shows in her weekly “Arts in the City” column.

QUEANBEYAN Players are “having a blast” busy rehearsing the dance musical “Footloose”, made famous in the 1984 movie where Kevin Bacon played Ren, a teenager from Chicago who moves to a small town where the local minister has placed a ban on dancing. At The Q, Queanbeyan, June 23-July 2. 

WITH a seasoning of rock standards, Dianna Nixon will reprise her solo cabaret show created in celebration of the cocktail, “The Gentleman’s Companion”. Yazzbar, Comur Street, Yass, 4pm-6pm, June 18.

CANBERRA writer Ayesha Inoon’s debut novel “Untethered” will be launched in a conversation event with Barbie Robinson at The Book Cow, 2pm, June 18. Born in Colombo, Inoon worked as a journalist in Sri Lanka before migrating to Australia. She was a recipient of the inaugural 2019 Penguin Random House “Write It Fellowship” and last year won a fellowship from the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre in WA to work on her second novel. 

BASS-baritone David Greco will sing arias and flautist Melissa Farrow will play two flute concertos with the Australian Haydn Ensemble in “Die Stille Nacht” (The Silent Night), a recital of works by Vivaldi, Telemann, Hasse and Biber. Wesley Music Centre, June 22.

SHOWMAN Greg Andrew will pay homage to the music of Elton John in the concert “Rocketman”, which he was invited to perform at the UK festival “Tribfest”. At The B, Queanbeyan Bicentennial Hall, June 24. 

AUTHOR Maura Pierlot, well known for her play “Fragments”, will launch her new book, “What Will You Make Today?” in front of the sculpture “Less”, Dairy Road, Fyshwick, 2pm, June 24 as part of the Play Dairy Road program, which involves competitions, prizes, food, author readings and book signings.

LLEWELLYN Choir’s “A Winter Concert: Durufle and Boulanger” is a program of French music featuring Maurice Durufle’s “Requiem”, with three pieces by World War I era French prodigy Lili Boulanger. Wesley Uniting Church, June 24.