James Browne is known for his unique and eye-catching designs for theatre, film and events and is currently one of Australia’s most active costume and set designers. James’ creations have been seen all over the world in Ghost the Musical in Tokyo Japan, Blanc de Blanc in Las Vegas and London’s West End, Do You Hear the People Sing? in Shanghai, The Secret Souk in Singapore and Velvet, The Show which has had multiple productions touring the world both on land and at sea.

 

In Australia, James has designed a number of nationally touring productions, including Reg Livermore’s TURNS, David Campbell’s Let’s Go! Trevor Ashley’s Fat Swan and popular children's theatre pieces The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show, Mr Stink, Spot the Dog, Pete the Sheep, the award-winning Josephine Wants to Dance and most recently Cluedo for Crossroads Live.

James designed a development production of Faust for the Sydney Theatre Company and costumes for New Breed for the Sydney Dance Company. Other theatre design credits include, The 39 Steps, Beached, Ladies Day, Diving for Pearls and Naturism for the Griffin Theatre Company, Guards at the Taj and Karim for NTOP, Letters to Lindy for Merrigong Theatre Co and Yong for Monkey Baa.

 

Musicals ranging in scale from intimate 100 seat theatres to enormous concert venues include Hair, Cabaret, Xanadu, Bridges of Madison County, Miracle City, Love Bites, Ordinary Days, Midnight the Musical, Dogfight, Strictly Ballroom, The Last Five Years and Cruel Intentions. The Grease Australian national tour in 2024 was definitely a highlight.

 

James’ vision for circus and cabaret formats came to life in Limbo Unhinged, Blanc de Blanc and Blanc Encore, Velvet and Velvet Rewired, Pigalle, LIFE, Love Riot and The Party, all of which were presented at prestigious festivals and venues across Australia and internationally. 

 

On the event circuit, James has designed the sets for the Love Cooking Festival in London as well as Jamie Oliver’s live stadium show in Melbourne and Rick Stein’s show in New Zealand. Other event projects include the Prague Castle for the Visa Board Dinner, Sydney World Pride concert, Netball World Cup Opening Ceremony, sExpo Australia as creative director, Just for Laughs Comedy Festival at the Sydney Opera house starring John Cleese, Netflix Australia Launch at the MCA, various floats in the Sydney Mardi Gras Parade and the multi award winning Pacha Sydney event for which James was head designer for two years.

 

For television, James has worked on Survivor, All Saints, Australian Idol and was both the costume and production designer on the Horizon television pilot.   

 

James collaborated with Strut&Fret production house to design The Grand Electric performance club in Sydney and later the highly successful West End Electric in Brisbane.

 

In 2026 James is designing The Shark is Broken Australian tour and a new production with icon Marcia Hines for Velvet Inferno at the Sydney Opera House.