Christie Whelan Browne

Sugar is based on the 1959 film, Some Like It Hot, with Marilyn Monroe as Sugar "Kane" Kowalczyk.

Christine Whelan Browne (born 6 August 1982) is an Australian performer who has worked extensively in musical theatre as an actress, dancer and singer.

She has also appeared on television shows and in films.

Christie Whelan Browne was born as Christine Whelan on 6 August 1982 in Melbourne.

She grew up in the suburb of Eltham, and attended St Helena Secondary College.

Whelan performed in school musicals every year from Year 7.

The musicals included, "The King and I and doing everything from Fiddler on the Roof to Little Shop of Horrors, as well as Grease."

She later reflected on her Year 12 school production, "I was choreographing and playing a part. It was the first time I realised this was something that came naturally to me. It is the only thing that was born in me."

The Whelan family were fervent basketballers.

Whelan's first amateur theatre role was in Les Mis, followed by works with the Catchment Players and then as Roxie in Chicago.

She recalled being inspired by seeing Mamma Mia!, "At the end the audience stood up and everyone was singing – I just thought this would be the best thing ever but I didn't think 'that'll be Me One day'."

A talent manager caught her performance in Chicago and recommend she turn professional.

Whelan Browne acknowledged her teachers, "Susan Anne Walker and Rosie Harris for singing, I danced at Bev Palmer's for a couple of years when I was younger and more recently have been doing some TV and film courses around Melbourne and Sydney."

In the early 2000s, she contracted glandular fever, which resulted in chronic fatigue syndrome, "I think with hindsight I hadn't found my place in the world and I didn't know what life was going to look like and actually, just as I was recovering, I was cast in Grease."

Whelan Browne's professional career began in 2005 in Grease: The Arena Spectacular, playing the role of Patti Simcox.

She reprised the role in the United Kingdom.

In both productions she understudied Sandy's role.

On returning to Sydney, she portrayed April in Gale Edwards's production of Company from June to August 2007 at Theatre Royal.

Due to illness, Whelan missed the 18 July performance, and with no understudy available, Peter Cousens of Kookaburra Musical Theatre decided the production would continue with "key songs, scenes and dialogue" removed.

Despite criticism of Company, and Cousens, in 2008 Whelan received the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Newcomer for her role in Company.

The actress provided a one-woman performance in 'Tegrity: Britney Spears Live in Cabaret in the titular role, which began at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival (June 2009) and continued, as Britney Spears: the Cabaret, in Sydney (October 2009) and Melbourne (October 2010).

The show was co-written by Mathew Frank and Dean Bryant.

According to Andrew Stephens of The Sydney Morning Herald, it is "her first big hit. That's little wonder, given it is a searing and unexpectedly compassionate work."

She played the role of Lucy in Bryant and Frank's Australian musical Once We Lived Here, in September 2009 for which she was nominated for the Green Room Award for Female Actor in a Featured Role (Music Theatre).

Other credits include Maisy in The Boy Friend (2009), as well as chorus member in 42nd Street (2007) and various characters in Starting Here, Starting Now (June–July 2010).

Her debut film role was a brief appearance as "Woman Runner" in the romantic comedy, I Love You Too (May 2010).

Whelan appeared in The Drowsy Chaperone (January–February 2010) for Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC) as Janet van de Graaf, for which she was a nominated for a Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Musical.

The lead role of Man in the Chair was portrayed by Geoffrey Rush, while Whelan's then-boyfriend Rohan Browne took the role of George.

She played the title role in The Production Company's Sugar (September–October 2010), for which she was a Green Room Award nominee for Best Actress.

Whelan took the lead role of Clio/Kira in the musical, Xanadu (March 2011), which had her roller skating in a big top tent.

She obtained the sought-after role over fellow actress/singer contenders, Natalie Bassingthwaighte, Ricki-Lee Coulter, Erika Heynatz, Margot Robbie and Holly Valance.

She followed with the role of Erma in Anything Goes (July 2011).

Whelan Browne was a guest panellist on an episode of Spicks and Specks in June 2011 on ABC Television and on TV talk show, The Circle.

She undertook the role of Kylie McDonald in the episode "Covert Aggression in Netball" of TV series Winners & Losers (March 2011).

She appeared in Offspring Season 2, Episode 11 "Complications" (July 2011) as Jenny.

She played Gwendolyn in The Importance of Being Earnest (November 2011–January 2012) for MTC.

Cameron Woodhead of The Sydney Morning Herald felt despite the presence of Rush in the production, Whelan's "piping Gwendolyn steals the show, from the subtle subversions of her flirting behind her mother's back, to the ritualised cattiness of her scene with Cecily" (portrayed by Emily Barclay).

In March 2012, she married fellow performer, Rohan Browne.

Other TV credits include Leila Esperance in Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (March 2012) and Katarina in Conspiracy 365 (December 2012).

In subsequent years, Britney Spears: the Cabaret was toured around Australia annually until 2019.