Penny Shaw - Let's Do It!

At age 15 Penny was given a mixtape, some sheet music and a list of jazz standards to memorize; she never looked back.

Those songs kept her in pocket money throughout school, the dreaming spires of Oxford University and as a trainee soprano hustling for work in London. Revisiting them as an adult, the brilliant music of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Rogers and Hart et al brings back the hedonism, heartbreak and hilarity of youth, when there was nothing for it but to face the music and dance.

55 minutes

Daisy Productions

Despite having childhood ambitions to be a musical-theatre star, singing in a jazz band from age 16 and completing a degree in Human Sciences from Oxford University, Penny’s ‘day job’ has mostly been as an operatic soprano. After many years working in London she moved to Fremantle in 1999 and began singing with the West Australian Opera, appearing as Despina in WA Opera’s award winning 2020 production of Cosi Fan Tutte, and in Carmen in 2023. As part of DivaLicious she reached the finals of Australia’s Got Talent and has taken three shows to the Sydney Opera House. Penny has been nominated for Best Supporting Actress in the PAWA Awards for her appearance as Baroness Grizelda in Cinderella has directed La Boheme, Rapunzel and The Princess and the Showgirl for Freeze Frame Opera.