StuJo! the Musical: “There’s no show like StuJo!”

Celine Marshall travels through time (but not space, she’s still stuck in the Honi office).

StuJo! The Musical presents a whimsical homage to the great cultures of student journalism and musical theatre. StuJo, as both a musical and practice, is about the “pursuit of truth,” “fighting for what’s right,” “community” and “love.”

The grungy Cellar Theatre provides a fitting ambience for a 1960s newsroom, creating an apt vintage setting for the Honi Soit editors of 1968. However, these props soon turn into laptops and a vape as the three editors from the past are time-warped to 2024.

As the audience follows the 1968 editors into 2024, interesting comparisons are made between student life then and now. Where students of the 60s had hoped that universities would bring progress, StuJo! highlights the current day campus which is instead characterised by course cuts, student protests and fee hikes.

An original jukebox musical, the show reinvented iconic musical songs with witty lyrics and zings about student theatre. This made the show particularly entertaining for musical theatre lovers. From tunes like The Sound of Music’s “My Favourite Things” and Funny Girl’s “Don’t Rain On My Parade,” to Ariana Grande and Iggy Azalea’s “Problem,” there was a good variety of numbers for the audience to enjoy.

Performing to a full house on their second show, the cast and crew of StuJo! The Musical performed sold out shows until Saturday. The show had a great amount of fun and laughs, and was a dazzling celebration of student journalism and its quirky characters.

One way to spend your weeknights is in the foggy haze of one of the pubs of King St as they pedestal this week’s rotation of surging Innerwest bands. Maybe you would make the trek to Oxford Art Factory, or traipse your way through The Vanguard, Kelly’s on King, Mary’s Underground or The Lansdowne. Perhaps you’d like some local post-hardcore, re-born jazz, alternative-rock, funk, soul or RnB.

Live music can be an enigmatic pastime. The Inner West, and by default, The University of Sydney is notorious for its gig culture. For some, the best parts of student life are synonymous with exploring new live music or attending parasocial invites to nouveau gigs. So much so, that the council itself has a “gig guide” accessible for their youth coining this pastime as a “vital part of the cultural fabric and identity of Sydney’s Innerwest.” But is this choice of Friday night activity an enjoyable way to spend your social battery, or a product of the daunting jealousy of being absent from a scene likened to last Friday’s gig?

To fill this void of introspection, I dug a little deeper into some of the voices that make up the “cultural fabric” of our local gig space. University of Sydney student and musician, Justina Blahlock sat down with me to discuss her “unofficial guide” to understanding the Inner West’s gig culture. Justina occupies both “the artist and the audience” and feels that live music is deeply synonymic with her sense of expression.

Justina explains that there are three key kinds of audiences to live music. The 1st level being The Rock: Hard to crack and often apprehensive of an unfamiliar scene, the rock may come across as standoffish, but be assured that with time for tentative unfurling, their inner enjoyer is alive and well.

For the 2nd level, next in line, is The Embrace: a contagious release of stress enters the performance walls as