Draft:Andrea Szabo

Andrea Szabo (born July 1966) is an Australian performer, writer, director, singer-songwriter, voice-over artist, and community arts facilitator. She is known for her work in musical theatre, particularly the satirical cabaret show Crumpet to Crackers, and for founding the Sing Sisters choir on the Gold Coast. Her work spans theatre, music, screen, wellness education, and community development.

Early life and education

Szabo was born in Granville, New South Wales. She attended Granville East Public School and Granville South High School. She later completed a Bachelor of Arts in Performance Arts at the University of Western Sydney, Nepean, where she majored in theatre and singing. Her training included acting, voice, movement, design, directing, puppetry, and theatre theory, with a particular focus on women’s roles in performance history.

Career

Theatre and Music

Szabo began her performance career in folk and cabaret venues in the 1980s. She later toured with theatre-in-education programs and performed at events and festivals across Australia. In 2006, she founded the Sing Sisters, a women's community choir based on the Gold Coast. The group promotes inclusivity, accessibility, and joy in singing, and has involved over 1,000 women since its inception.

She is the creator and lead performer of Crumpet to Crackers, a satirical cabaret production exploring themes such as aging, disability, gender, technology, and regional life through original music, multimedia, and comedy. Szabo is known for her three-octave vocal range and performs across genres including blues, jazz, folk, and musical theatre.

Her discography includes:

• Transit (2007) – Jazz standards
• Mamas New Bag (2012) – Blues standards
• All Stitched Up (2016) – Original songs

She has performed in musical groups such as The Feel, Mamas New Bag, The Geordie Leach Band, TAG, and the jazz trio Sweet Sugar.

Festivals and Screen Work

Szabo appeared in the Netflix series Irreverent (2022), playing the character Bev Duncan. She has also acted in short films, including Midnight Snacks, and provided voice-over work for advertising, audiobooks, radio, and e-learning.

She was a featured performer at the 2009 Swell Sculpture Festival as part of the performance group Goulash.

Radio and Media

In 2017, Szabo was interviewed by ABC Gold Coast's Matt Webber, where she discussed her performance background, her lived experience with disability, and her role in inclusive community arts.

Personal life

At the age of 31, Szabo was diagnosed with Idiopathic Syringomyelia, a rare degenerative condition affecting the spinal cord. She underwent emergency brain surgery and spent a significant period with limited mobility. She refers to herself as "DiFFabled", advocating for representation of people with disabilities as different, not deficient.

External links

• Andrea Szabo – Official website
• Sing Sisters Choir

Categories

Category:Australian singer-songwriters Category:Australian women comedians Category:Australian women theatre directors Category:Australian television actresses Category:Australian voice actresses Category:Community arts facilitators Category:People with disabilities Category:Women in theatre Category:Living people Category:1966 births

Performer • Educator • Cultural Changemaker

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Andrea_Szabo_-_That%27s_Life_Magazine_Article_2006.jpg

Summary

{{Non-free magazine cover | Article = Andrea Szabo | Publication = That's Life! | Issue = 21 | Date = 2006 | Type = Feature article | Source = Scanned by subject | Author = That's Life! editorial team | Description = A published magazine article titled "The Singing Sisterhood" about Australian performer Andrea Szabo and the founding of the Sing Sisters community choir. The article includes photographs and quotes from Szabo and highlights her recovery from brain surgery and shift into community arts leadership. Author: That's Life! editorial team

Source: Scanned by Andrea Szabo from original print copy

Date: 2006

Permission: Andrea Szabo holds rights to use this scan for public documentation. Used with permission.

License:

Licensing

That's Life! editorial team

Source: Scanned by Andrea Szabo from original print copy

Date: 2006

Permission: Andrea Szabo holds rights to use this scan for public documentation. Used with permission.

License:

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Transcript of said interview Matt Webber: Good find, good find! Last week, Sam Morris—you may recall—we had a really good chat. People were firing off their memories of Midnight Oil shows from years gone by, especially after the announcement that they were touring again.

1981 was a particular point of interest, and then other bands of the era came up too—Divinyls, Spy vs. Spy, Mi-Sex, The Angels… and Rose Tattoo.

Now, the reason this is topical: Geordie Leach, bass player for Rose Tattoo, lives here on the Gold Coast. He’s got his own band, the Geordie Leach Band, and he’s teamed up with a ridiculously gifted vocalist named Andrea Szabo.

They’ve also brought in some pretty impressive guest musicians—Kevin Borich, for example, who many will know from the blues scene. A guitar virtuoso, really.

They’ve released an album called All Stitched Up. It’s this intriguing mix of bluesy grooves, a bit jazzy here and there. I even hear a bit of Allman Brothers in it. It’s really interesting.

Let’s have a listen to a track now—here’s “Broken Man Blues.”

[Music plays – “Broken Man Blues”]

Just a little taste of the album All Stitched Up from Rose Tattoo’s former bassist Geordie Leach, and his current musical collaborator, Andrea Szabo. Beautiful voice—really something special.

You can find them online; they’ve got a decent presence. I actually did some digging and found out how Geordie and Andrea got together musically.

Turns out, Geordie mastered one of Andrea’s albums in his home studio—and that’s how they connected. I looked into Geordie’s background, and thanks to Trevor Jackson, found that Geordie bought his first bass at 15 and took lessons from an upright bass player.

Even though he ended up playing hard rock, his influences included jazz artists like Herbie Hancock and the Jazz Crusaders. Over time, he transitioned through soul, funk, blues, and finally into rock.

So yeah—jazz was the gateway for him. Interestingly, Andrea went the other way, starting from jazz and moving outward from there.

They're both still active on the Gold Coast, and still making incredible music.

Let’s take a listen to another tune...

[Music resumes – live track from the album]