A new show written especially for Christie Whelan Browne returns after a hit season at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

Steve Vizard has long been a big fan of Christie Whelan Browne. “I can’t think of anything I’ve seen her in where she wasn’t a star,” he says, rattling off a list of her credits including The Importance of Being Earnest for Melbourne Theatre, and musicals such as The Drowsy Chaperone (also for MTC) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, all with Geoffrey Rush.

Christie Whelan Browne. Photograph: supplied

Now, in collaboration with pianist/composer Joe Chindamo, Vizard has written a solo show to showcase Whelan Browne’s considerable versatility as a performer. Entitled Vigil, it was commissioned by the Adelaide Cabaret Festival with support from Arts Centre Melbourne, and premiered recently at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival to rave reviews, with Limelight giving it four-and-half stars. In July, it will have a short season at Arts Centre Melbourne.

A solo play with songs, Vigil centres on Liz, a 30-something prodigal daughter who returns home on Christmas Eve to find her mother on her deathbed. Talented, shameless, beautiful and needy,...