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 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 and the award-winning Josephine Wants to Dance. 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 Beached, Ladies Day and Diving for Pearls for the Griffin Theatre Company and Letters to Lindy for Merrigong Theatre Co.

 

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, Dogfight and The Last Five Years.

 

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 Funhouse 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, Netball World Cup, Just for Laughs Comedy Festival at the Sydney Opera house starring John Cleese, Netflix Australia Launch, 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.   

 

Recently James returned to his alma mater, the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), to design sets for Strictly Ballroom. 2019 saw his debut with Victorian Opera in their new work The Selfish Giant forwhich he won a costume design nomination at the 2020 Greenroom Awards. James is looking forward to being the production designer for the national tour of Menopause the Musical.