Stage Whispers January/February 2015 by Stage Whispers Magazine

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In this issue

Sweet Verity’s Rhythm Of Life .......................................................... 6 Verity Hunt-Ballard on Mary Poppins, motherhood and Sweet Charity Hollywood Heads Into The Woods ................................................. 10 Hollywood’s latest musical adaptations for the festive season Foxy Moron Gets Jumpy ................................................................ 14 Kath and Kim creator Jane Turner takes to the stage Designing Romeo And Juliet .......................................................... 17 Four different designs for Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers Radio Microphone Nightmare........................................................ 24 Radio mics became obsolete on January 1

10 14

Convict Theatres In Australia.......................................................... 28 Theatre, the odd riot and rude thespians Swinging From The Chandelier ...................................................... 34 The Phantom Of The Opera in Community Theatre Community Theatre 2015 .............................................................. 37 Community Theatre for the year ahead How To Make Props And Sets Sparkle ............................................ 50 Two brothers’ mission to terminate drab looking sets and props

30 34

Regular Features Stage Briefs

London Calling

Broadway Buzz

Stage On Disc

Stage To Page

On Stage - What’s On

Reviews

Choosing A Show

Schools On Stage

Musical Spice

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2 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

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Editorial

Kirby Burgess (“Baby” Houseman) and Kurt Phelan (Johnny Castle) from Dirty Dancing check out our November / December edition.

Dear theatre-goers and theatre-doers, After 43 years, community theatre is in my blood, making the preparation of this edition of Stage Whispers a special annual labour of love. Losing my biggest fan and my fiercest critic last year (my mother) has meant that for the first year in recent memory I haven’t trod the boards in, or directed, at least one production. I’ve promised myself that won’t happen again in 2015. As I compiled the listing of productions across Sydney in the year ahead, my restless thespian spirit stirred, and I made mental note of several potential auditions. While I haven’t performed or directed this year, I’ve enjoyed numerous shows on the community circuit. I’ve been dazzled by big budget shows in lavish venues at one end of the spectrum, while also being regularly engaged by the creativity, enthusiasm and ingenuity which elevates smaller productions well beyond their modest budgets and venues. Wherever you live across Australia and New Zealand, I hope you enjoy joining me in putting together your must-see list from the Community Theatre season listings. And there’s another bonus; you may be seeing stars of the future. Our professional performers continue to get their first taste of the stage in Community Theatre; for a third consecutive edition our cover features an artist who first trod the boards with a local theatre company, like so many before them. Yours in Theatre,

Neil Litchfield Editor

CONNECT

Cover image: Verity Hunt-Ballard is reprising her Helpmann Award winning performance in Sweet Charity. Read our interview on page 6. Photo by Kurt Sneddon. Inset: Meryl Streep in Into The Woods. Photo courtesy Disney. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 3

Stage Briefs

Online extras! Meet Harvest Rain’s Pirate King by scanning the QR code or visiting http://youtu.be/M2u5e8pUpHs

 Television personality Andrew O’Keefe (Pirate King) and musical theatre legend Nancye Hayes (Ruth) will star when Harvest Rain (Brisbane) opens its 2015 season with The Pirates of Penzance at QPAC from March 19 - 22. They are joined by young artists Georgina Hopson (Mabel) and Billy Bourchier (Frederic), in a production celebrating QPAC’s 30th birthday with the show which opened the venue. Simon Gallaher, who starred in the 1985 production, directs this time around.

 Michael Cormick, Blake Bowden, Helen Dallimore and Bobby Fox star in a brand new production of Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers at the Hayes Theatre Company from February 6 to March 15. Photo: Kurt Sneddon. 4 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

Strictly Ballroom The Musical at Her Majesty’s Theatre Melbourne from January 14. Photo: Jeff Busby.

Matthew Mitcham’s Twists and Turns at Arts Centre Melbourne on January 30 and 31.

Online extras! See what everyone’s saying about the show by scanning the QR code or visiting http://youtu.be/OEhwD7FiW4Q www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 5

Sweet Verity’s Rhythm Of Life From a perfect in every way nanny to a dance hall hostess, Verity Hunt-Ballard has triumphed in some of the most demanding roles in musical theatre. As she prepares for a re-mount of the award winning production of Sweet Charity at the Sydney Opera House, Canberra Theatre, Melbourne Arts Centre and IPAC in Wollongong, she tells David Spicer that even exhausting lead roles have nothing on the demands of becoming a mother. Verity Hunt-Ballard was staring dreamily out of her favourite Melbourne café while I was trapped in a taxi that was scoring every red light. Where is a magic flying umbrella when you need one? I rang the head waiter. Can you please let Ms HuntBallard know I am running a little late. Of course he knew exactly who she was. Just a few years back Mary Poppins’ face was on every street corner. When I arrived, flustered, she very politely said that having a few minutes on her own to watch the world go by was a rare treat for a mother of a toddler. Life has changed for the 33-year-old since she starred in the Disney juggernaut. “After a five show weekend I was knackered. I never left the stage, there were quick changes, singing high C’s, and being puffed from being lifted in ‘Jolly Holiday’. I thought I could not possibly be more tired than I am now.” “Then I had a baby and that went out the window completely. What was I complaining about? Giving birth was really hard but I felt after a few weeks I could do everything,” she laughed. Verity Hunt-Ballard won Helpmann Awards for Mary Poppins and Sweet Charity, but I get the impression that the Cy Coleman/ Neil Simon musical fits her more naturally. “The night Geoffrey Rush came to see the show (at the Hayes Theatre) he jumped up from his seat. He said, ‘she is such a clown.’ This was such a compliment to me as I do quite a bit of improvisation and commedia dell'arte. Charity is fun and wild and goofy. She is endearing as she gets into situations that are so awkward.” Sitting watching her sip on a latte I could see flashes of those comic expressions come and go. As well as the comedy there is a darker side to the character of Charity. “Back then Charity had no qualifications, no husband, and no family and thought what else am I going to do? So we focussed on that and the family you create in the underworld where men slime all over you and everything else that goes with that.” What she could directly relate to from her own life was the character’s determination to never give up, the 6 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

loneliness of being an only child and the rejection she experienced in the early part of her career. Verity though has never felt as isolated as Charity or lacked support. Raised in the then working class suburb of Port Adelaide, her parents (a primary school teacher and a social worker), both from modest upbringings in Northern Ireland, were very supportive. They made sure she had piano lessons, but she emphasizes they were not pushy stage parents. Dance classes were her initiative. “I did an amateur version of Les Misérables playing the understudy to Fantine. I did not grow up in the area of Adelaide where the amateur scene was hot. My parents would drive me across town. “I went to public schools and associated with lots of people from different walks of life, which is valuable for an actor. It gave me a street-wise social consciousness.” As a child she was not even aware that you could make a living out of performing arts. Then at 15 she saw Les Misérables and ‘that was it’. Her career goal was set. Applying for WAAPA after leaving school, she missed out at the first audition, instead spending a year travelling and doing odd jobs. “As an actor you are going to have to get used to the rejection. It is awful but you appreciate it in the end.” She got in a year later and relished being in an environment of like-minded people. Years of struggle followed her graduation. “I am glad I did not get a big gig straight out of WAAPA. My friends who did say it was a bit of an assault. They did not know what to do when they did not get work after one big role.” She worked odd jobs in Sydney including a stint as a nanny, which was manna from heaven for the publicists down the track. “I was terrible at auditioning because I am such a perfectionist; I would work myself into a state. I could never show them what I could do. “I was so bad. (Slowly) I got better at showing people straight off the bat.” Her first gig came in the chorus of Eureka. “Maybe it was confidence, timing or the stars aligning. Eureka proved my work ethic.”

Cover Story

Online extras!

Sweet Charity. Photo: Kurt Sneddon.

Check out a clip from Sweet Charity by scanning the QR code or visiting http://youtu.be/58HiT0PTjbI Next came being the Dance Captain and understudy to Magenta in Gale Edwards’ production of The Rocky Horror Show. “There definitely was a shift in me.” She thought she could do the character of Lorraine the journalist in Jersey Boys and the production team agreed. All this prepared her for the audition of her life - a call-back for Mary Poppins in Holland. “I did a Tuesday night Jersey Boys performance, then popped on a plane to Amsterdam. Staying in this crummy hotel above a train station, in the morning I tried to warm up but somebody yelled at me in Dutch. “I was picked up in a car. I got to the rehearsal studio and all these Dutch people in the local cast were looking at me. “Cameron Mackintosh was in the room with ten other men. ‘Morning Verity, come on over.’ I was so jet lagged and dehydrated. ‘This is Kurt our Dutch Bert. Can you sing ‘Jolly Holiday’? (Gulp) I thought it is now or never girl. I have just got to wing it. “They offered me the part but said I couldn’t tell anybody when I got home.” A few days after she arrived in Melbourne came the launch on the steps of the Victorian Parliament. A blizzard of press flash bulbs heralded an avalanche of publicity that was enough to wallpaper the foyer of Her Majesty’s Theatre. “It was a whirlwind. Suzie Howie (the late publicist) as bonkers as she was … wonderfully bonkers … directed me how to manage that time. I would run from matinee to evening performances of Jersey Boys for a couple of weeks in between shows to Mary Poppins then run back. I was running on adrenalin. (Continued on page 8) www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 7

(Continued from page 7)

“Then the real hard work started, doing eight shows a week. It asked everything. It was so physically taxing and you were responsible for two children initially. The flying in the end came like a walk in the park. It was in the end of the show. I would just look at all the children’s beautiful faces. “People say surely if you have played it for two years you can go on auto-pilot. I don’t know how to go on auto-pilot. It actually got harder. The brain is not supposed to say the same thing every night for two years. You started going where am I in the show? I fully appreciate what Stanislavski says of being in the moment. If you stopped listening, sometimes you had no idea where you were.” When Mary Poppins closed she enjoyed an extended holiday in Europe with her partner Scott Johnson. They’d met when he was cast as the bad boy Tommy DeVito in Jersey Boys.

Sweet Charity plays at the Sydney Opera House from January 15, Canberra Theatre from February 11 to 21, Arts Centre Melbourne from February 25 and at IPAC Theatre Wollongong March 11 to 21. 8 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

Just four months after becoming a mother, Eddie Perfect and Simon Phillips convinced her to appear in a brief return season of Shane Warne the Musical. Verity had to think seriously about the offer to play the even more demanding role of Charity a few months later. “Emmylou was not one yet. She is not a great sleeper. I was still breast feeding. I would be away from her at bed -time. There is no way I could have done it without a supportive family.” Sweet Charity exceeded everyone’s expectations. The producers behind the 110 seat theatre in Sydney’s Darlinghurst had barely put the paint brushes down when tickets started flying out the door. It won Director Dean Bryant, Choreographer Andrew Hallsworth and Verity Helpmann Awards. “So many people have asked me (why) … I am not objective enough.” She lists some of the ingredients. The producers were a force to be reckoned with; the director’s vision to tap into the grittiness of the original movie; the special acting chemistry between her and Martin Crewes; a collection of mature actors, many of whom were young parents and the extraordinary lighting and design of the space. It was all put together in two and half weeks of rehearsal. Actors and crew were in a co-op. They were paid $2000 and a share of box office. Some in the industry felt the non-award payments should have disqualified the production from the Helpmann Awards but Verity rolls her eyes. She pleads that the industry is so small that “we have to support each other.” Above all she credits the great story telling. “There is a lot of not good music theatre out there. (My partner Scott and I) feel that is because the story is not told well. And the acting comes secondary to how high I can kick my legs, how high I can sing. “When we are teaching we say let’s forget about all the technique; that is your job to do in your own time. What is the story? What are we trying to tell here? “People who came to the musical said, my wife dragged me along, and I usually hate this fluffy stuff, but I loved it and we entered into this world.” To prepare for the return seasons in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Wollongong she has to get back into training. This means someone has to do some babysitting while she works out to become show fit. “Sweet Charity is more full on (than Mary Poppins) in different ways. She still doesn’t leave the stage. Neil Simon writes chunks of dialogue in that New York accent. My mouth was sore. “I put a lot of pressure on myself during Mary Poppins but motherhood has taught me ten times over not to put pressure on myself. It does not help anybody.” And what about future roles? She shrugs insisting she lives for the present. “There are often times I will be a mummy for six months while Scott does his thing. I am very happy being a mum. I don’t think ‘I wish I was at work’.” The café is closing. It is time for her to walk home to take over bed-time duties.

Cover Story

Sweet Charity. Photo: Kurt Sneddon.

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 9

the adaptation appears to be vastly removed from the classic original. There’s a lot to gain from some film adaptations though, particularly when the authors retain control. This is the case with Into the Woods, with Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine appearing to have taken a hands-on approach to its development. Changes from the stage production were approved by the writers, with “Ever After”, the finale of Act I, adapted into an instrumental piece, musicals: Annie and Into the Woods While musical theatre buffs are possibly because a film doesn’t are already in cinemas; The Last Five grabbing their popcorn and choc require the same closure as a live tops, ready to spend some time at Years has, ironically, set its US show prior to interval. release for Valentine’s Day; and the movies this summer, Ian Two new songs were written for Lucky Stiff is awaiting distribution, Nisbet asks whether these new the film but subsequently cut - one with many others in the pipeline, movie adaptations of Broadway for Meryl Streep (The Witch), and including American Idiot and 13. favourites will do justice to the ‘Rainbows’ for James Corden (The Fan trepidation was only fuelled original works. Baker) and his wife (Emily Blunt). by the recent preview release of the One possible explanation for these Annie soundtrack. Over-produced, “They’re going to ruin it.” new songs, other than the need to “It doesn’t need to be made into with many changes to both tempi patch/improve flow in the slightly and orchestration, it feels closer to a a movie.” “I heard they’ve cut the best song rock musical than a traditional stage edited book, is the chance for show. Were Annie’s writers (Charles Sondheim to win himself a second in the show.” Strouse, Martin Charnin and Thomas Oscar. According to cast interviews, There’s been a bit of hubbub recently amongst aficionados about Meehan) aware of the changes being the songs added little to the adaptation, and it’s pleasing to hear made to their show? Possibly, but the slew of impending movie that they were cut, rather than kept

Hollywood Heads Into The Woods

Online extras! Check out a trailer for Annie by scanning the QR code or visiting http://youtu.be/nrxc8rS2W2E 10 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

in for the sake of a new tune (there are rumours that Streep’s song will be added as a bonus on the CD/DVD/Blu-ray release - keep an eye out). On the cutting of ‘Rainbows’, Corden told Playbill: “We rehearsed it, and it just didn't quite feel right. We rehearsed it a lot. The beauty of doing a film like this is that you have actual rehearsal time, and it just didn't quite feel [right in the show]… It's a beautiful song. I love the song. I think it's gorgeous. It's really, really nice, but it just didn't quite fit. It sort of disrupted the flow of the story, actually.” And this is where my point comes in. These people are not just slapping together an effects-filled extravaganza so far removed from the original that it’s hard to even recognise - they’re taking their time to work their art in a considered and level-headed way in order to treat the work with the respect it deserves. Cutting ‘Rainbows’ also takes Sondheim out of the Oscars race, and we can consider that a good sign that the creators were keeping their egos in check during development. Sondheim felt personally compelled to respond to the multitude of rumours floating around: “The fact is that James (Lapine, who wrote both the show and the movie) and I worked out every change from stage to screen with the producers and with Rob Marshall, the director. Despite what [some articles] may convey, the collaboration was genuinely collaborative and always productive. Having now seen [the film] a couple of times, I can happily report that it is not only a faithful adaptation of the show, it is a first-rate movie.” Jason Robert Brown has also jumped on the Hollywood bandwagon, with the semiautobiographical The Last Five Years coming out on Valentine’s Day 2015 (which is ironic considering the show is based around a failed marriage/

Online extras! Check out a trailer for The Last Five Years by scanning the QR code or visiting http://youtu.be/9FKjLJZdycI relationship). While the screenplay has been adapted by Richard LaGravenese (The Fisher King), Brown has been heavily involved throughout production, only handing over to his “on-set music supervisor”/wife and fellow songwriter, Georgia Stitt, during final rehearsals for his recent Broadway musical The Bridges of Madison County. Brown’s 13, concerning a “guy named Evan” and his impending bar mitzvah, is also headed for (Continued on page 12)

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 11

Online extras! Check out a trailer for Into The Woods by scanning the QR code or visiting http://youtu.be/EFRm_rZIEXc

(Continued from page 11)

the big screen, although a release date is yet to be announced. Into the Woods is in similar care, musically, with the 53-piece orchestra helmed by Sondheim veteran (and the show’s original MD) Paul Gemignani. If that sounds like a massive orchestra, it is - the closest I could find quickly was 39 in the original 1945 production of Carousel. Streep recently revealed to Playbill that Sondheim himself has “never heard this score played by this size orchestra. That's really wonderful, and he oversaw all of the [music] - from the beginning to the end - so whatever you think of it, this is Sondheim's sound”. And what a sound it is. Do yourself a favour and find the recently-released audioonly recording of Anna Kendrick’s ‘On the Steps of the Palace’ online the orchestra is nothing short of glorious and that’s before I even start on Kendrick. But the adaptation process itself can be tricky. Movie musicals can easily fail if they stay too close to the original stage version; they need to be realised as a unique piece of 12 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

cinema in their own right. This has been attempted to varying degrees of success in the past. Chicago managed to successfully traverse the gap between speech and song by setting many of the musical numbers in a virtual ‘black box’, allowing the songs to comment on the action continuing beneath them. RENT was not so successful, setting the antinaturalistic numbers in too realistic locations, making the singing clash with standard cinematic conventions. The more recent Les Misérables was a visual extravaganza that fell on its own sword due to the live, on-set singing. Whilst some performances (Anne Hathaway) were spell-binding, others (Russell Crowe) left much to be desired. Sondheim fans can sleep easy, however, knowing that approximately 94% of the film’s singing was done in a studio, with only the remaining fraction sung live on set. Yes, film adaptations can add value to a work - either through budget or timeline advantages - but they can never recreate the magic of live theatre performance. Their magic

is no less valid, just different. Streep got it right in a recent Playbill interview: “That's the joy of the theatre - you'll see many, many different productions of things. A great piece sort of expands to the sensibility of the people that come together to make it, and it's never going to be the same. Into the Woods will have many other productions of it. It's like a great opera. There are always the people who sit on the first one they saw and think that's the definitive one, but it's a living, breathing organism, and that's what's so cool about it. A lot of movies you can't remake, but things that have a life that came from the theatre can morph and change and live and breathe in different configurations of people. That's what's exciting.” That’s all that (some of these movies) are - new iterations of a beloved show. They are not definitive, nor will the show never be produced live again. And the fact that they are in the highly capable hands of their own creators is a point to be celebrated; that’s what’s exciting.

Into The Woods

Film Review by Coral Drouyn Lovers of Sondheim need not fear the arrival of Disney’s Into The Woods. True, there are some losses, but the gains far outweigh them and Director Rob Marshall has shown restraint and respect for the much loved stage musical which starts out by melding various fairy tales together, and ends as a morality tale. Yes, there are fewer deaths (and they happen off-screen) and far less sexual connotation, but there is enough darkness to satisfy most of us, and a much clearer arc and understanding of the characters. It will take some getting used to, however. The song ‘Ever After’ (along with several others) is cut, though we hear an orchestral version - and since there’s no intermission, the transition from ‘Light’ to ‘Dark’ is not as clean. But there are performances to drool over, and augmented Jonathan Tunick arrangements which are quite stunning. The music has never sounded better. Meryl Streep is even better than we hoped she would be as the Witch. Her transformation is brilliant and if you don’t get goosebumps from her singing “The Last Midnight” (despite there being no “First Midnight” or “Second Midnight”), then something is drastically wrong. She also nails “Children Will Listen”. Emily Blunt is superb as the Baker’s Wife and, though not a great singer, James Corden is delightful and endearing as The Baker. Johnny Depp’s much publicised appearance as The Wolf is rather anti-climactic (though the man has charisma by the bucket load) and - shock horror - the role of the Narrator has been replaced with a voice over.

All that said, it WORKS on its own terms and there are moments to savour forever. Chris Pine and Billy Magnussen are superb as the two princes and the campery in “Agony” is totally hysterical…negating the need for a reprise; Christine Baranski is delicious as the wicked stepmother and Anna Kendrick (though not my cup of tea) is solid and convincing as Cinderella. The ability to see faces and expressions in close-up (the film is beautifully shot by Dion Beebe) adds more subtlety to the storytelling. Best of all, it is magical entertainment and will no doubt create many new Sondheim fans…and that’s something we all want.

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 13

Foxy Moron Gets Jumpy The creator of Kath Day-Night, television’s ‘foxy moron’, Jane Turner is to play the lead in Jumpy, a major MTC/STC stage production. Frank Hatherley asks her if she’s feeling jumpy about straight theatre acting.

We meet in the empty Theatre Royal green room between matinee and evening performances of Rupert. David Williamson’s revue-style portrait of Rupert Murdoch opened in Sydney a few days before, so this was only Jane Turner’s second matinee. “It was good,” she says, tucked into the corner of a comfy sofa. “Except I kicked a cushion and almost fell over, then stumbled on my line. I love live theatre!” She’s petite, direct and formidable, with not a trace of the afternoon’s recent makeup. Her thoughts and memories come out rapid-fire. Jane shares top billing in Rupert with imported Hollywood star James Cromwell, though he’s on stage the whole two-and -a-half hours as hero/

Online extras! Jane announces the launch of Jumpy at MTC. Scan the QR code or visit http://youtu.be/SUaDxek7niA 14 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

narrator Murdoch while she’s on and off, playing many parts, most notably UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The audience loves her. Her life with the wildly successful Kath & Kim franchise - which she writes, produces and performs with her long-time friend Gina Riley - had come to a pause. “After we finished the film [Kath & Kimderlla, 2012],” she says, “I sort of had a year off at home. I just really needed to lie low and chill out. Gina had been sick and I wasn’t being offered anything that I wanted to do. “What I really wanted to do was some theatre, so I put the feelers out and the Melbourne Theatre Company said ‘yeah, we’d love you to do Jumpy next year’. It’s a lovely English play by April de Angelis. “And then Rupert came up, so I thought ‘great, a little reintroduction into the theatre world’. Now I get a week off over Christmas and then I’m back in Melbourne to start work on the 29th.” Jumpy plays Melbourne in February/ March, then moves to Sydney until mid -May. So she won’t be moving with Rupert on it’s publicised move to London’s West End? “Oh, that’s never been part of the deal,” she says. “I think it’ll be cast over there. There’s a girl [Fenella Woolgar] I saw do Thatcher in London in a play called Handbagged. She was fantastic. She should do it.” But, I remind her, the lead in Jumpy is a sustained, one-character role. No running on and off as different comic characters. “Yes,” she exclaims. “All the theatre I have done has been revue style wigs on, wigs off. So it’s going to be very different for me. I’m a bit nervous. “But it’s exactly what I wanted to do. It’s perfect timing for me. It’s not even the funniest role in the play. Oh, she’s funny, the central character, but she’s real and she’s on stage the whole time. There are no scenes without her.”

(Continued from page 14)

Audiences are so used to seeing her do exaggerated comedy: how will she go playing ‘real’? “Actually, I always think of Kath as being quite real - well, I know I’m pushing the ‘real’ envelope - but people are always coming up to me a saying ‘My mother’s Kath!’ or ‘My sister’s totally Kath!’. “You can only write about what you know and Gina and I were definitely living that life, going to IKEA, going to shopping malls, driving around, and having teenage daughters. It came out of the whole new ‘helicopter parenting’ thing, and out of Reality Television shows like Sylvania Waters.” What, I wondered, was her first experience of acting on stage? “When I left school I joined St Martins Youth Arts Centre which was this youth theatre company in South Yarra in Melbourne. I was eighteen. “We did lots of live shows with Helmut Bakaitis. He was a fantastic director, very sort of avant-garde, very charismatic and we all just adored him.

He ended up being Head of Directing at NIDA. “I met Gina at St Martins. The first show we did together was called The Sensational South Yarra Show [1979]. It was like a Brechtian Opera, very sort of Marxist-Leninist. It was a revue, a whole lot of sketches and songs. There were about 50 of us in it. “We did some gritty things, all original shows. The Zig and Zag Follies [1980] was all about early television how video was ruining television, something like that. I played Princess Panda in that: she was a television character of the 60s. “Do you remember Zig and Zag? They were huge in Melbourne! They were sort of like big clowns. Actually, I think one of them got done for the usual... but let’s not go there.” Jane shifts position on the green room sofa. “Anyway, after Youth Theatre we all moved into stand-up, moved into comedy. Gina and I started doing comedy at The Last Laugh and The Comedy Café - doing sketches that we’d written ourselves.”

You never thought twice about writing your own material? “Absolutely not! I’d write something for an audition. They’d say ‘oh, that’s amazing, you can write! Okay, let’s put you together with this person or that person’, so we wrote shows in like 9 days. We all emerged into the 1980s television comedy boom. “Oh,” she remembers, “I did one theatre play for the MTC around that time called Blabber Mouth, the Maurice Gleitzman play. It was sort of for kids, or young adults, at the Russell Street Theatre. “And I did a one-month season of The Rocky Horror Show in Adelaide. I was Janet in that. It was a ball. Nigel Triffitt directed it and Peter Rowsthorn, my Brett in Kath & Kim, played my Brad. We were all a team from way back.” Before Rupert, Jane’s most challenging theatre job was in Holding the Man, the successful 2006 drama by Tommy Murphy, adapted from the memoir of gay-activist Timothy (Continued on page 16)

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(Continued from page 15)

Conigrave. She played Sydney and Melbourne, and went with it for a season in London’s Trafalgar Studios, the old Whitehall Theatre. “London was great. They really embrace theatre traditions. The actual theatre was okay - nice auditorium, art-deco-y, smallish - but the dressing rooms were just old and cramped. And you had to traipse up about 20 flights of stairs to get to them. It certainly wasn’t glamorous, but it was right next to Trafalgar Square. “But, see, even with Holding the Man I played 12 different characters.” She frowns, remembering the task ahead of her, then smiles. “My director is Pamela Rabe, she’s fantastic, always an amazing actor, one of my favourites. We’ve had a few meetings and we’re on the same wavelength. She’s really collaborative. So it’s going to be good, I think.” She looks around the green room, its walls covered in old posters. “I love doing theatre. I love the dressing rooms, the cossies, backstage. The actors are gorgeous. It’s a great collaborative world - a team, always relying on each other, always so full of adrenaline.” Jane Turner is right at home.

16 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

Jumpy plays at the MTC from 31 January to 14 March and at the STC from 26 March to 16 May.

Designing Romeo And Juliet

QTC production. Photo: Rob Maccoll

Stephen Curtis, one of Australia’s most distinguished stage designers, has released a new book, Staging Ideas: set and costume design for theatre. The book is a resource for young designers, drama teachers, professionals and theatre-lovers who would like to know how performance design actually works. Written in an engaging and accessible style and beautifully illustrated with many visual examples of the rarelyseen earliest phases of the designers’ process, Staging Ideas draws on Stephen’s own three decades of experience as well as case studies from nearly thirty of Australia’s leading set and costume designers. In this extract, from the chapter dealing with the Director-Designer Purchase Staging Ideas: Set And partnership, Stephen compares three Costume Design For Theatre by different productions of Romeo and Stephen Curtis along with many other Juliet. The three designers describe titles at the Stage Whispers book shop their creative process with their directors. www.stagewhispers.com.au/books

In my experience most directors use the design process as a way of working out their conceptual approach to the production. The conceptual interpretation actually takes physical shape through the design, and directors generally rely on their designers to make the concept concrete. They rely on our specialist imaginative and practical skills as designers to turn ideas into things. A director might come to the process with a fully resolved idea of how they want to present the production (though this is rarely the case); more often they will begin their process with their designer in a more open-ended way - with some research images of their own, some personal insights into the script, or a set of ideas that they want to explore. Whatever the case, it is our job as designers to draw out the director’s vision and enhance it with our own imaginative response - to find ways to develop and express the director’s ideas in forms that the audience will actually (Continued on page 18) www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 17

STCSA 2010 production. Photo: Shane Reid. Inset: Storyboard by Pip Runciman.

(Continued from page 17)

see: the sets/spaces, costumes/characters and lighting/mood. There are no definitive rules about how this process should work, and every time we do it, it will work differently. The best way for a designer to contribute to the interpretational process is to show things to the director. We are trying to convert words (the script and the director’s words) into physical objects (sets, costumes, props). Showing examples of the shape the ideas could take will give the director a way of seeing what we are both thinking. We might show things by sharing research images, early design sketches, music, film references, fabric swatches, sketch models, shared trips to the art gallery, Photoshop visualizations, storyboard frames…. anything visual that helps to get the ideas out of our heads and into a physical form. Production 1: State Theatre Company of South Australia (an adaptation by Geordie Brookman and Nicki Bloom) 2010, directed by Geordie Brookman, designed by Pip Runciman. “The contrasts in the script were a big starting point: fate and chance, night and day, love and death, beauty 18 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

and terror. We wanted the set to reflect these paradoxes. We wanted something that could be intimate and also vast, suggestive of a cathedral or QTC scale model by Bill Haycock

church in its scale - a giant magic box that could be simply and easily transformed and communicate the emotional landscape of the play. Geordie [director] had the lovely idea of the prologue for the play being delivered as a eulogy - which led us to the cathedral and church as a setting. The church is a strong symbol of the paradox of the feuding Montagues and Capulets, their faith in the church and the resulting suicides of Romeo and Juliet. Geordie wanted a set that looked solid but the actors could disappear and reappear quickly through a seemingly solid wall. Before we even started working on the design Geordie had decided that he wanted to use the voms [actor entries from the auditorium] to link the stage with the auditorium, and these really helped to shape the whole set. Pip Runciman, designer Production 2: Queensland Theatre Company 2012, directed by Jennifer Flowers, designed by Bill Haycock. A lot of our early discussion focused on various aspects of time … how fast or slow time moves in the play depending on mood and emotional state, and the seemingly endless appeal, repetition and variations of this thwarted love story through time. This seemed to push [director] Jennifer and I away from any specifics of location or

This image: STCSA 1984 production. Photo: Grant Hancock. Below: Early concept sketch by Stephen Curtis

costume into a ‘timeless’ classic feel, drawing from both past and present ancient/modern textured walls and costumes that were patched, pieced and scarred in an attempt to show their wearer’s ‘history’. Together with these ideas came the idea of a reflective pool of water downstage centre into which a pebble fell at the start of the production with an exaggerated ‘ripple’ of lighting that spread outwards through the space and over the audience to include them in the fateful events that follow. In essence the concept was to ‘start the clock/light the fuse’ that would set the play in motion, as well as to subliminally suggest that this was a story that just kept repeating and reverberating over and over through time and in different circumstances… The water was used in different ways - as reflective pool, as a contrast to the hotness of the days, but most significantly as a premonition of death. Everyone who died made some connection with it … and it became the final tomb for Juliet to lie within. Bill Haycock, designer Production 3: State Theatre Company of South Australia production, 1984, Directed by Neil Armfield, designed by Stephen Curtis. “We wanted a hot, hot space with an intense atmosphere where passions of love and hate were at boiling point. Neil [director] wanted the world of the

play to have the feel of a contemporary sun-drenched Mediterranean piazza, with a bleakly authoritarian feel, while never being a particular place, and always being open to every theatrical possibility. The huge red curtain was a response to the play’s sensuality, and gave us ways to reveal and conceal, to move fluidly and energetically from one scene to the next and when lowered and draped over the stage to become bed and tomb. It became identified with the idea of the freedom of the kids, as opposed to the desolate authoritarian world of the adults. We began exploring the costuming from the perspective of the schoolyard working from how kids naturally behave and dress - what they might wear when they’re hot, when they go to parties, when they sleep with their lover...” Stephen Curtis, designer www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 19

London Calling

Disney and Sonia Friedman Productions have announced a completely new cast will take-over the West End production of Shakespeare in Love at the Noel Coward Theatre from 12 January 2015. Orlando James will play Shakespeare with Eve Ponsonby as his muse Viola. Featuring a company of 28 actors, musicians, and a dog, it is one of the largest By Peter Pinne companies ever assembled for a play in the West End. London’s latest hit musical is Made in Expect an announcement soon that Disney’s Dagenham. Critics are calling it the best current Broadway hit Aladdin will open at the British musical since Billy Elliot, which London Palladium in early 2016. The famous opened ten years ago, and like Billy Elliot variety house’s current tenant is Andrew Lloyd it’s also based on a successful film with a Webber’s Cats, starring American pop-star Nicole Scherzinger as Grizabella. Before the story revolving around an industrial dispute. The plot, based on real events, limited 12 week run commenced on 6 has Rita O’Grady (a fictional character), December 2014, the show had taken a Photo by Manuel Harlan played in the musical by Gemma phenomenal 6 million pounds in advance boxArterton, leading the women office sales. It plays until 7 February 2015. sewing-machinists in a strike Online extras! for equal pay at the Ford Panto, absent from the West Check out Made In Dagenham by production plant in End in the last few years, is scanning the QR code or visiting Dagenham, Essex, in 1968. alive and gloriously kicking http://youtu.be/QwWoQELZFEw With a funny book by Richard in Richmond, Bromley and Bean, even funnier lyrics by Wimbledon, but for the genuine traditional article it would be hard to beat Hackney Richard Thomas, and period appropriate music by David Arnold, Mark Shenton of London Theatre said, “at last we Empire’s Mother Goose. It’s the 16th panto creation for have an original new show worth celebrating.” His director/ writer Susie McKenna and musical supervisor comments were echoed by Michael Billington in The Steven Edis and features all of the familiar favourite scenes Guardian, “This show - with its slick, catchy tunes… including an ultra-violet lit skeleton dance, a kitchen scene infectiously demonstrates that it’s a saga well worth making with endless smashing of plates, and an audience sing-aa song and dance about,” and Henry Hitchins in the long to lots of interpolated pop songs including Frozen’s Evening Standard, “robustly likeable - mixing passionate “Let It Go”. For actor Clive Rowe it’s his sixth time up to bat populism with bursts of big-budget flamboyance.” as the Dame at Hackney with his performance eliciting the Here Lies Love is another musical that has the critics best quote of the season from Quentin Letts in the Daily throwing their hats in the air. The Off-Broadway show that Mail, “Mr Rowe is even more infectious than ebola”. charts the rise and spectacular fall of Philippines First Lady Clara Brennan’s new play Boa gets a five week run at Imelda Marcos, has been given one of the first immersive Trafalgar Studios from 5 February to 7 March. The twomusical stagings to launch the National’s new Dorfman hander will star Harriet Walter performing alongside her Theatre. A sung-through show with lyrics by David Byrne husband, American actor Guy Paul for the first time on the and music by Byrne and Fatboy Slim, it’s been likened to a London stage. Walker, known in Australia as “Mum” in TV’s vibrant noisy club night. It also features one of the sexiest Law and Order UK, recently starred in the all-female and most sensual casts currently playing in London. Natalie production of Henry lV at the Donmar Warehouse, whilst Mendoza’s performance as Imelda has been called Paul’s Broadway credits include Mary Stuart, Twelve Angry “charismatic” and “stunning at every stage”. Men and King Lear. The Old Red Lion Theatre in Islington, North London is Catherine Tate took the notices in the recently opened home from 3 to 28 February of West Yorkshire playwright Menier Chocolate Factory production of Stephen Adam Hughes’ Marching on Together. Set in Leeds in 1984 Sondheim’s Assassins. As President Ford’s would-be-killer at the height of the football season, the play is inspired by Sara Jane Moore, she was called “cruelly funny” by the true events when West Yorkshire miners were on strike and Evening Standard and “memorably funny-sad” by The football hooliganism was rife with bitter battles being Guardian. Jamie Lloyd’s direction and concept, which places fought on the picket lines and the sporting field. Direction the show in an abandoned and run-down fairground, was is by Joshua McTaggart. Following the London run, the deemed by Variety a “corker of a concept”, and suggested production will play a week of performances and theatre a West End transfer was imminent. It’s not the first time workshops in Leeds at community centres, schools and non this dark Sondheim show about the assassins of American -traditional playing spaces to highlight the dangers of Presidents has had a London outing. Sam Mendes football hooliganism and steps that can be taken to prevent produced a highly-acclaimed production of it for the violence. Donmar in 1992. 20 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

roadway uzz

By Peter Pinne

Martin Short (The Producers), Kate Finneran (Promises, Promises) and Maulik Pancholy (30 Rock) will join the cast of Terrence McNally’s It’s Only a Play on 7 January. Short replaces Nathan Lane as James Wicker, Finneran takes over from Megan Mullally as Julia Budder, while Pancholy becomes Frank Finger in the part formerly played by Rupert Grint. Mathew Broderick, F. Murray Abraham and Stockard Channing remain in their original roles. The production plays until 29 March but come 23 January moves from the Schoenfeld Theatre to the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre following the closure of Once. It’s also rumoured that due to the runaway hit status of It’s Only a Play that the John Kander and Fred Ebb musical version of Friedrich Durrenmatt’s The Visit, which has a book by McNally and has been eying Broadway for years, may finally get a Main Stem berth. Thinking is that as McNally has produced the season’s biggest hit this year, his investors and It’s Only a Play landlord, the Shuberts, may be persuaded to come up with the finance to get The Visit airborne. It’s had plenty of regional outings, the first in Chicago in 2001 with Chita Rivera as the star. Rivera stayed with the project through a 2008 Signature Theatre, Arlington, Virginia, production, a 2001 concert staging in New York at the Ambassador Theatre, and a 2014 Williamstown Theatre Festival season. The story revolves around the world’s wealthiest woman, Claire Zachanassian, who returns to her financially depressed hometown and offers its residents a new lease on life in exchange for the murder of Anton Schell, the man who scorned her years ago. Simon Phillips’ first 2014 project is directing a new production of the Broadway-bound musical The First Wives Club at the Oriental Theatre, Chicago. It stars Faith Prince, Christine Sherrill and Carmen Cusack, and is based on the successful 1996 film of the same name which featured Bette Midler, Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn, about three college gals who hook-up years later and discover they all have something in common: divorce. The original music is by the legendary Motown trio Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland, with a new book by Rupert Holmes and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason. The musical was originally produced at the Old Globe Theatre, San Diego, in 2009, but has been totally revamped for the Chicago season. Sting has joined the cast of his own musical The Last Ship in the role of Jackie White and plays the role through 10 January 2015. The musical has been a hard sell at the box-office, playing to houses just under 60%, although Sting’s musical contribution has been highly praised. The New York Times claimed it was a “seductive score that ranks among the best composed by a rock or pop figure for

Broadway.” The story, based on real events, takes place in 2007 and is set in Wallsend, an industrial town in the north of England, and concerns the closing of a shipyard which gave the town its purpose and identity. Also pulling underwhelming figures at the box-office is Jason Robert Brown’s new musical Honeymoon in Vegas, which is also based on a movie. Currently in previews, it’s a complete turnaround to his previous work on The Bridges of Madison County, Parade and The Last Five Years, being an all-out funny laugh-out-loud musical comedy. It stars Rob McClure (Chaplin), Tony Danza (Who’s the Boss) and Brynn O’Malley (Wicked/Avenue Q). The plot has a couple deciding to marry in Vegas, but the groom loses his fiancé in a bet to a mobster. McLure apparently gives the performance of his career. The World Premiere performance of a stage adaptation of George Gershwin’s An American In Paris took place, appropriately, in Paris at the Theatre du Chatelet, 22 November 2014. The production opens at Broadway's Palace Theatre in March 2015. Loosely based on Gene Kelly’s 1951 MGM Oscar-winning film, the musical features not only Gershwin classics such as “I Got Rhythm”, “The Man I Love” and “They Can’t Take That Away from Me”, but also Gershwin’s “Concerto in F” and his “Second Rhapsody”. The heavy dance show, which features more extended classical ballet sequences than a Broadway audience is used to, may have a better reception at this time due to the enormous success of Leonard Bernstein’s dance-heavy revival of On the Town. Nina Arianda (Venus in Fur) and Sam Rockwell (A Behanding in Spokane) return to Broadway in Daniel Aukin’s production of Sam Shepard’s Fool For Love. Although it will be its first Broadway outing, the play was originally seen Off -Broadway in 1983. It’s about a pair of lovers who unpack their relationship in a seedy Mojave Desert motel. It plays the Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J Friedman Theatre from 15 September 2015. Manhattan Theatre Club have also announced the World Premiere season of Ripcord, a new comedy by David Lindsay -Abaire (Rabbit Hole), at the New York City Center - Stage 1. Directed by David Hyde Pierce, it stars Mary Louise Wilson (Grey Gardens) as a cantankerous tenant at the Bristol Palace Assisted Living Facility who is forced to share her quarters with the infuriatingly upbeat Marilyn (Marylouise Burke). It previews from 29 September and opens 20 October.

Online extras! Meet the cast of An American In Paris by scanning the QR code or visiting http://youtu.be/6nIFB868u8U www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 21

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (Stuart Brayson/Tim Rice) (OV CD11 2CD Set Live). Tim Rice’s solidly By Peter Pinne professional lyrics are the VIOLET (Jeanine Tesori/ best thing about this Brian Crawley) (PS “live” recording of the Classics 2 CD Set complete show that PS1422). played six months in London. Based on James Sutton Foster’s career defining performance in Jones’ classic novel and the recent Broadway the 1953 Oscar-winning revival of Violet has movie, the story is set in been captured in its Hawaii just prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, and revolves around two love affairs within the G Company entirety on this barracks. With a big booming bass former Pop-Idol Darius recording of the Campbell stands out as the platoon sergeant Milt Warden complete show. Jeanine Tesori and and is particularly strong dueting with Rebecca Thornhill on Brian Crawley’s almost-perfect sung-through score sounds the first act closer “More Than America”, and with Robert Lonsdale on “Ain’t Where I Wanna Be Blues”. “Military Life” even better than when the musical first premiered Offis a good character number for the GIs, while the escort Broadway in 1997. Based on Doris Betts’ short story of a young woman who goes on a healing trip across America’s girls bring loads of raunch to “You Got the Money”. Also deep-South in the 60s, the musical quickly seduces you into effective is the anthemic “The Boys of ‘41”, which is sung the plot and doesn’t let go until the emotionally satisfying as a backdrop to the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  ending. With character-colloquial lyrics, and music that VALLEY OF SONG (Ivor touches on blues, country and gospel, the performances Novello/Ronald Hanmer/ thrill at every turn, especially Foster and her male co-stars Christopher Hassall) Alexander Gemignani as Violet’s father, and Joshua Henry and Colin Donnell as her lovers. Best song is undoubtedly (VOS1). When Britain’s the beautifully simple “Lay Down Your Head”, a solo for beloved Ivor Novello died Foster. “Luck of the Draw” is a clever character-building in 1951 he left the song that uses the moves in a poker game to make its incomplete score to point, while the gospel “Raise Me Up” appropriately raises Valley of Song which in the roof.  2014, augmented with additional music by Ronald Hanmer, was IF/THEN (Tom Kitt/Brian given it’s premiere Yorkey) (Masterworks performance by Finborough Theatre, London. The score is delightfully oldBroadway fashioned and reveals that Novello’s melodic gift was with 88843070242). Like Sutton Foster in Violet, him until the end. Set in Wales on the eve of the First World Idina Menzel is all over War, the musical is a homage to Novello’s homeland with a If/Then, the new plot that revolves around a choir and the leading soprano’s love affair with the choirmaster. “I Know a Valley” is highly contemporary musical memorable, as is the gentle 6/8 “Lanternlight”, whilst from the guys who wrote Next To Normal. “Those Were the Days” drips with nostalgia. Katy Treharne as the soprano scores with “Look in my Heart”, the best of Musically in the same league, its pop-rock Hanmer’s augmented material. Novello’s World War 1 hit score tells a story of one woman and two of her lives told in “Keep the Home Fires Burning” is used as a counterpoint on parallel time-frames. Menzel dominates the disc with “You “Soldier Lad”, while a bonus track features a choral version of Novello’s World War 2 hit “We’ll Gather Learn to Live Without”, a searing song about partner loss, Lilacs” (Perchance to Dream).  and “Always Starting Over”, an absolute diva standout. Anthony Rapp, Menzel’s former Rent co-star, totally nails the lyrically terrific “You Don’t Need to Love Me”, and with WORZEL GUMMIDGE - THE MUSICAL (Denis King/Keith Menzel matches her intensity on “Some Other Me”. La Waterhouse /Willis Hall) (Stage Door STAGE 9007). Stage Door continue their London cast album series with this Chanze and the girls deliver a powerful “No More Wasted Time”, while James Snyder as the husband scores with the 1981 West End entry based on the successful UK television series which in turn was based on Barbara Euphan Todd’s impending fatherhood ode “Hey Kid”.  children’s classic about a lovable scarecrow. Lionel Bart’s

Stage On Disc

22 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

Oliver seems to have been the blueprint for Denis King’s (Privates on Parade) score with songs in a jaunty easy sing-a-long style. Jon Pertwee plays the Scarecrow with an endearing North Country accent, with co-star Una Stubbs turning in a feisty performance as Aunt Mary. Best songs are “Aunt Sally’s Song”, “Scarecrow Day”, “In the Country” and “A Slice of Cake and a Cup O’ Tea”, which also features on the Christmas Maxi single included as a bonus track. 

all-embracing warmth. Her son Jason Gould gets to repeat his “How Deep Is the Ocean” duet which first appeared on Streisand’s Back to Brooklyn album, and with some editsuite gimmickry she also duets with Elvis Presley on “Love Me Tender”. Best track, and out of her comfort zone, is her country duet with Blake Shelton of “I’d Want It to Be You”. 

ELAINE STRITCH - SHOOT ME (MPI Media Group DVD IFC9369). Broadway legend Elaine Stritch filmed this warts-and-all documentary directed by Chiemi Karasawa just prior to and following her return to cabaret at the Café Carlyle, New LOST BROADWAY AND York. At 87 the voice is MORE - VOLUME 6 * tired and she frequently JEROME KERN (Original forgets the lyrics, but Cast OC-1399). Bruce her musical director Yeko continues his Lost Broadway series with this Rob Bowman is a patient support and fine collection of early songs from Jerome Kern helps her fill in the gaps. She’s also musicals. Kern, often opinionated and acerbic called the father of musical comedy, worked but incredibly honest about her life growing up as a convent girl, being a recovering alcoholic, her marriages, with the some of the and her lifelong love affair with the audience. There are best lyricists in the clips from Elaine Stritch at Liberty and the 1970 Company business, Hammerstein, Fields, Dietz, Harburg and Wodehouse, to name a few, and all are represented on this original cast recording session, plus interviews with Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey, James Gandolfini, Cherry Jones, Nathan disc. There are three first time recordings from the 1918 Lane, Harold Prince, John Turturro and George C. Wolfe. musical Toot Toot, and two different songs called “Have a This is the last work Stritch did prior to her death and it is a Heart”, one from the musical of the same name in 1924 fitting finale to her brilliant Broadway career.  and one from the Ziegfeld Follies of 1917. The gem of the collection however is the lovely “All Lanes Must Reach a Rating Turning” (Dear Sir) with lyrics by Dietz. It’s nicely sung by  Only for the enthusiast  Borderline Kerry Conte and Michael Lavine, who also accompanies on  Worth buying  Must have  Kill for it piano.  BARBRA STREISAND PARTNERS (Columbia 88875016402). These days it seems mandatory that every aging diva, both male and female, release a duets album. This is Streisand’s second. Accompanied by a 70-piece orchestra, she partners with Michael Buble, Josh Groban, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Ritchie, Andrea Bocelli and others on a collection of new recordings and new arrangements of some of her classics, “People”, “Somewhere” and “The Way We Were”. Although her voice has mellowed with age, she is still in amazing voice throughout and imbues each track with an www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 23

Technical

Radio Microphone Nightmare Using your old radio microphone became a criminal offence on the first of January 2015, when Telstra and Optus officially took over the spectrum previously used for audio equipment for mobile phone coverage. David Spicer asked Ian Harvey, the Executive Officer of the Australian Commercial and Entertainment Technologies Association, to explain how the new system will work. David Spicer: What happened on January 1? Ian Harvey: Telstra and Optus took over the majority of the spectrum above 694 megahertz. That is 40 percent of what was previously available for radio microphones and ear monitoring. As a consequence it became illegal to use the 694 to 820 megahertz spectrum. There are potentially fines of up to $5000 and jail time. We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t expect they will be putting people in prison but it is on the statute books. DS: Does it mean all old radio microphones are unusable? IH: About 250,000 need to have been replaced by now. But it could be that as many as 400,000 need to be thrown out. The cost of converting them is higher than buying new ones. DS: Has this been a bonanza for audio industry? IH: No doubt there are benefits but it is not really something we wanted to do. We know not all the people have 24 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

changed over. There will be lots of complaints about equipment not working properly because of interference from mobile phones. DS: Do you think a lot of schools, theatres and churches will keep using their old equipment? IH: Professional users know this change is happening. But anyone who has a plug-in microphone at churches, schools, community groups, or marriage celebrants, will be For more information visit the ACETA website at www.aceta.org.au

surprised when their product starts to malfunction. DS: How will it malfunction? IH: It will begin with occasional interference from a mobile phone operating in the same physical space as the radio mic. Eventually that interference will become common. The power of a mobile is ten times that of a radio mic; he who has the most power wins. Before a mobile ringing was a problem. Now anyone in the audience with a phone that communicates with its base or has a message come through could disrupt

the quality of the radio microphone. It will be a crackling drop out. DS: Have the authorities warned the community adequately about this? IH: No. There have been inadequate efforts from both varieties of Federal Government. They have not assisted anyone in any way. DS: What percentage of microphones have been upgraded? IH: We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t exactly know. The professional side of industry has largely moved. The university sector is making their moves as well as isolated churches and other groups. If everyone changed over that would be the equivalent of 15 years in sales an 18month period. But audio sellers are not seeing anything like that. It is just up 30 percent. We will start seeing issues from March. DS: What is the new spectrum like? IH: From 520 to 694 hertz the quality is good. The lower frequencies are low power. But there may not be enough of it. It is complicated working around TV, especially in crowded transmission environments (due to geography) around the country, such

as Sydney, the Gold Coast and Brisbane. DS: Does this mean radio mics into the future will be less portable? IH: Yes. Different cities have different TV frequency bands. If you are running a theatre production touring from Perth, then Melbourne and finishing in Brisbane you will need three different types of radio microphones. This has never been the case before. DS: You canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t re-tune them? IH: The microphones only work to a particular frequency. One initiative that should help production companies is that providing they are operating indoors, they can use the whole of the available spectrum. This would apply in buildings big enough to be shielded from any errant broadcast inside. DS: What does a new radio mic kit cost? IH: From about $500 to several thousand dollars. For a big musical such as The Lion King or Wicked the lead artists would have a radio mic kit and earpiece worth $12,000 each. In some cases they would have two of them for a costume change. But a lapel

microphone which a marriage celebrant uses would cost about $500. DS: How easy are they to break? IH: They are reasonably robust. An average radio mic has a ten year duty cycle. Overall this changeover will cost the community $220 million if everyone does it. DS: Do you think the change was justified? IH: The spectrum is highly valuable and sought after. Telecommunication companies argued why they should have more and why TV and others should have less. But the approach of original minister, Stephen Conroy, was unforgiveable. Normally when a Government takes away a property or an asset they compensate the users of that property. The users of the spectrum represent a $32 billion industry - from entertainment, to fitness, to broadcast, to universities. The Government got $2 billion dollars from the telecommunication companies but we got no compensation. We looked at taking out a class action, but decided against it because governments can make their own rules.

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 25

Stage on Page By Peter Pinne LOVERLY The life and Times of MY FAIR LADY - Dominic McHugh (Oxford U.S.$28.76) When I finished reading this book it made me want to get out the Original Broadway Cast Recording of the show and play it to experience the magic of Lerner and Loewe’s wonderful score all over again. Everything you have ever wanted to know about this musical theatre classic is documented in this book with author Dominic McHugh uncovering some interesting facts for the first time. Alan Jay Lerner, the show’s book and lyric writer, Cecil Beaton, the designer, and the stars, Rex Harrison, Julie Andrews and Stanley Holloway, have all written about their experiences with the show, but in order to be complete McHugh has purposely culled his facts from other sources; the papers of composer Frederick Loewe, producer Herman Levin, publisher Warner-Chappell, and one of the original production entities, the Theatre Guild. Only when no other source was available did he resort to using information in Lerner’s two books on the subject, because - as he

26 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

discovered - Lerner did not always remember things as they really were. McHugh received his Ph D from King’s College, London, for a dissertation on the genesis and autograph sources for My Fair Lady, and Loverly is an

adaptation of that thesis. But although its basis is a thesis, not for one moment is it dry and academic. It is just a well-written scholarly account of the creation and production of this hit musical. Lyrics for songs originally written for the character of Henry Higgins, “What Is a Woman”, “Please Don’t Marry Me”, “The English” and “Lady Liza”, are included along with lyrics for “Shy”, an early song for Eliza that closed the first act. The show had its pre-Broadway opening in New Haven and it was there that the authors cut 15 minutes from it, removing the songs “Come To the Ball”, the “Dress Ballet” and “Say a Prayer”. The latter later turned up in the movie Gigi. McHugh also indulges in minutia, discovering the two bars of scene change music leading from “I Could Have Danced All Night” into the “Ascot Gavotte” were originally written by Loewe in 1941 and come from a song he authored with John W. Bratton called “The Son of the Wooden Soldier”. McHugh claims that some people believe My Fair Lady is just George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion with music. Not true he says, there were several hundred changes to Shaw’s text in the adaptation along with the addition of completely newly invented episodes. But more importantly, Lerner and Loewe’s treatment of the Eliza-Higgins

Story, Bells Are Ringing, Will Rogers Follies, Gypsy and Fiddler On the Roof. In 1944 the 25-year old Bernstein had his first major success composing the score to Robbins’ 30-minute ballet Fancy Free. Robbins’ inspiration for the ballet about three sailors on shore leave in New York City was a 1934 painting by Paul Cadmus titled The Fleet’s In which was interpreted as having bisexual overtones. According to author Carol J. Oja, these were carried over to Fancy Free, which had a distinct homoerotic strain which she believed stemmed from the fact that all male creatives who worked on it had affairs with each other; Robbins, Bernstein, designer Oliver Smith, and cast members Harold Lang relationship is better in the musical and John Kriza. than in the play. It is not a The ballet was so successful that conventional Broadway musical happy later in the same year it became the ending but one that is much more fully-fledged Broadway musical On The ‘tantalizingly ambiguous’. Town, with writers (and cast members) For anyone interested in the craft of Betty Comden and Adolph Green developing a musical it is a must read. providing the book and lyrics. On The The book comes with Appendices on the cut material, notes on the sources, a Bibliography and Index. BERNSTEIN MEETS BROADWAY: Collaborative Art In A Time Of War (Carol J. Oja) (Oxford U.S.$24.27) Like Loverly, this book is one in the Oxford series Broadway Legacies. Looking at the creation of Leonard Bernstein’s first Broadway productions, Fancy Free and On The Town, its publication is timely, what with Fancy Free having just recently been performed for the first time in Australia and On The Town currently back on Broadway. But it’s not only about Bernstein but also his esteemed collaborators Jerome Robbins, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who, with Bernstein, all went on to become Broadway royalty creating West Side

Town was one of the first Broadway musicals with an integrated cast; the leading lady Sono Osato was Japanese American and there were six African Americans in the cast. At the time it was groundbreaking but also ironic. While Osato was being acclaimed for her performance, her father was suffering the indignities of being interned on trumped up charges that he was a Japanese collaborator. The book also documents Comden and Green’s beginnings in The Revuers, a group of performers who at one time included Judy Holliday and Bernstein and who specialised in skits that were satirical and mostly played left-wing venues. Oja, who is a Professor of Music at Harvard University, writes with authority, especially on Bernstein’s music which she believes in the beginning was greatly influenced by the work of Aaron Copeland who was a mentor and lover. She also writes at length about the black performers and where their careers went following the success of On The Town. It’s not only a succinct summation of the initial work of Bernstein, Robbins and Comden and Green, but a fascinating appraisal of attitudes, the period, and wartime on Broadway. The book comes with several pages of music (it helps, but is not essential, if the reader is musically savvy), plus some black and white photographs, source notes, discography and index.

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Stage Heritage The colourful and surprising history of those who played in Australia’s convict theatres is now published as an Ebook by Currency House. Martin Portus reports that as well as the odd riot and rude thespians there were quality performances and lots of money to be made.

The Convict Theatres of Early Australia 1788-1840

It’s owner/manager Robert Sidaway was a London house-burglar who made himself indispensable and relatively rich as the colony’s first baker, and was pardoned just seven years after arriving on the First Fleet. Indeed, Jordan’s story Robert Jordan combed through British and colonial newspapers, official is full of such convicts who won early and private correspondence, court opportunities to earn money, including records, statistics and logbooks to through the theatre, and rapidly went uncover compelling stories about our on to be granted full pardons. Sidaway, like many, was originally sentenced to first theatrical steps as a penal colony. death; he went on to be a publican and And he’s dispelled a few myths already formed around Sydney’s debut noted philanthropist. production in 1789. The convict staging Whether in Sydney or Emu Plains, in a slab hut of Farquhar’s The Port Macquarie or Norfolk Island, these convict theatres were established for Recruiting Office was given a fictional reasons of educational enlightenment, treatment in Thomas Keneally’s novel pecuniary ambition, artistic aspiration or The Playmaker and Timberlake out of just sheer boredom. Only later, Wertenbaker’s subsequent play, Our Country’s Good. But as in all after Governor Macquarie left in 1821, subsequent convict theatres, the were theatres regarded with suspicion as either offering convicts too much participants actually organised their own theatricals, without guidance from respite from proper punishment or their superiors, and were generally not leading them further into sin. These moral objections stiffened with the of the lowest and most uneducated orders. consolidation of a conservative religious The first permanent theatre in 1796 establishment in Sydney. By the time Barnett Levey’s sat on Windmill Row, once atop the commercial playhouse opened in 1832, jumbled, illicit lanes of The Rocks, it was conditional on him not offering playgoers a sweeping view beyond of Sydney Harbour. It’s now employing convicts. Jordan quotes the under thirty feet of concrete, buried story of a prisoner who was given evening leave from Hyde Park Barracks under the highway approach to the but who went directly to perform in Bridge. Levey’s new theatre as Richard III. He

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was arrested on stage during Richard’s death throes. It could be the tale of the last convict - if not emancipist - to grace our Sydney stages, but it could be fanciful. Sydney’s often-fractured elite society were desperate for entertainment but usually kept away from the theatre to avoid the risk of mixing with former or current convicts in the audience. Sidaway’s theatre was, though, relatively smart with front and side boxes for better society, and ticket prices rivalling those of London’s theatres. And with plays such as She Stoops to Conquer and The Revenge, and standard afterpieces like Bon Ton and Miss in Her Teens, his program too was no more high or low brow than back in London. Indeed, arguably the convict players themselves may have made these choices, and left the audience to enjoy what they got. Decades later, when convicts had left the stage, Australian theatre like in London shifted to less uplifting, more vulgar entertainments, reflecting new audiences everywhere as they now flooded to theatres. Meanwhile, theatrical careers were made in the colony. Almost no convict arrived here with thespian experience, but Sidaway’s theatre regularly ran benefit nights, denoting considerable

The Convict Theatres of Early Australia, 1788-1840 by Robert Jordan is available on Amazon, iTunes, Google Books and KoboBooks in a variety of e-formats. status for such chosen actors and bringing them sizable takings. Frances Parry, a fence and probable prostitute in Drury Lane, was the group’s leading lady within a year of her arrival in Sydney in 1798. Like for her fellow performers, her felonies are standard entries under her name on the surviving playbills. Frances married well in Sydney to a grocer-turned-highwayman Philip Barry who, helped by his London connections, inveigled himself into the colonial commissariat as a clerk. By 1800, both were free and on a ship back home. Sideway lost connection to his theatre well before it closed sometime before 1807. Jordan notes other occasional and charity performances that followed but there is no record of a permanent theatre in Sydney (even under Macquarie) until petitions for one emerge from 1822. Another sporadic performance was recorded a few years later, when the hit Bombastes Furious was staged in the debtors rooms of the Sydney Gaol. “Persons of respectability,” said one commentator, “witnessed the rude performance through the iron gratings of the window; their astonishment, no

doubt, being excited at the cultivation of the drama being pursued in such a place, and by such persons.” Through the 1820’s a near permanent theatre flourished not in Sydney but beyond, near the Blue Mountains, on a remote convict agricultural station in Emu Plains. Drawing on some 200 convicts, the allmale performance troupe also toured locally to good profit. They were praised especially for their singing and the effectiveness of the costumes and dresses to “trick forth the male performers”. As at Emu Plains, a belief in theatre’s socialising benefits was behind the encouragement of one at the very end of the world - on lonely Norfolk Island. Here convicts could quickly become settlers holding considerable land, and tensions between them and soldiers often turned nasty. A dispute over seating in the local theatre, a converted granary, broke into a riot and produced a draconian over-reaction back in Sydney from Governor King. Before the theatre was closed in 1794 it housed some of the most

colourful names and stories in Jordan’s history. Theatre did return to Norfolk Island forty years later but it was by contrast the province of lesser mortals, often illiterate and low-skilled - just as their audiences too had shifted. The last energetic convict theatre movement was again in an outlying area, this time in the 1840s at Port Macquarie in northern NSW. James Tucker, after chronicling the Emu Plains theatre, was sent there in 1845, as a second-time convict charged with forgery. Three of his own plays were likely staged at Port Macquarie. Topical afterpieces and small local works had been staged before in convict theatres but Tucker is likely our first fully staged Australian playwright. An epoch was ending already: the official end of transportation to New South Wales came in 1840. Martin Portus is a critic, media strategist and Director of Currency House. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 29

Mel Ott as Elle and the cast of Legally Blonde.

CLOC Starts Second Half Century

30 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

The Cheltenham Light Opera Company was founded in 1964 with a production of The Pirates of Penzance in a local church hall. In 2014, fifty years later, and now known as CLOC Musical Theatre, the company staged two musicals with a combined budget of $600,000. Shows #100 and #101 were 42nd Street and the Victorian nonprofessional premiere of Legally Blonde. 42nd Street was a nod to CLOC’s history and even brought back the original director and choreographer from CLOC’s successful 1996 season of the show to remount a stunning revival. Legally Blonde was a look to the future of musical theatre, while continuing the company’s tradition of staging community theatre premieres and producing sets and costumes that are used all over Australia and New Zealand. Although these two shows were very different in their music, content, setting and target audience, they did have one very important commonality. They were both HAPPY shows, shows that allowed audiences to leave their lives, cares and worries out in the foyer, and to lose themselves in the joy of toe tapping songs and dances, bright and sparkly costumes and sets and a world of pure entertainment. Both shows may have had randomly gleeful unrealistic storylines but in fact

Tim Cant as Billy in 42nd Street.

this element of fantasy and whimsy may have been their strength. And if that is not enough happiness, CLOC is about to launch into 2015 with show #102 - the return to Melbourne of Mary Poppins, the most famous nanny in the world with her umbrella, her bag of tricks and her magic which she weaves on the Banks family at 17 Cherry Tree Lane. CLOC President Grant Alley and his team of technical wizards are already working on recreating the many special effects that feature so famously in the show For more information go to www.cloc.org.au or like CLOC on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CLOCMusical

magic carpet bags, beds, toys and statues, crazy kitchens and yes, flying too! After a record-breaking mammoth audition process, Mary Poppins has been cast with the cream of Melbourne musical theatre talent, and with great excitement and anticipation, CLOC is about to launch into a practically perfect magical world where anything is possible if you let it - SPIT SPOT! And hot off the presses, CLOC has just announced their second show for 2015 - The Drowsy Chaperone, known as a musical within a comedy, and a comedy within a musical - more lighthearted fantasy, more joy, more happiness and a show that truly lives up to the name ‘musical comedy’. Sarah Watson as Paulette in Legally Blonde.

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The Producers (2014).

Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (2007).

70 Years of Regal Entertainment One of Sydney’s oldest and proudest musical societies is celebrating its 70th birthday. It all began because of a casting dispute.

met during a rehearsal and his grandmother was the box office stalwart and patron. The Regals’ first production was on the 14th of November 1945. It was the The founder of The Regals, Frederick J Edwardian musical Our Miss Gibbs. No Dunne, is quoted in a program as being doubt the audience were dressed to the inspired to form the musical society nines as was their custom at the time. because of his dream of involving the The venue was the Rockdale Town Hall in Sydney’s south, still home to the musical whole community in his love of music. society today. It transpires that his love of the ensemble mistress of the Rockdale The aim of The Regals was to Musical Society also had something to promote musical entertainment, create do with it. He left the other company - to opportunities for young people to showcase their talent and assist form the new one in the same suburb charitable causes. when his future wife was told her services were no longer required. The original 1945 Regals members There was a happy ending for all, as came from all walks of life - accountants, they got married and The Regals have electricians, florists, butchers, served their community for seven stenographers, builders and returned servicemen and women. Nowadays, decades. The current President Paul Morrision other than the addition of an IT expert, is a third generation Regal. His parents

graphic designer and social networking guru, this is still the case. This eclectic mix of people is what makes a community theatre group so interesting. With the varied skills required to put on a production; from on-stage performance and set construction, to promotions and marketing this blend of professions is integral to the success of a not-for-profit musical society. Paul Morrison believes that it is the contribution of volunteers that pumps the lifeblood through the heart of The Regals family. “I’ve heard it said that ‘volunteers don’t get paid, not because they’re worthless, but because they are priceless’. The Regals has been blessed with many, many wonderful members over the years and without their countless hours each week of selfless sacrifice the Society would not be the wonderful place it is today.”

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Eurobeat (2008).

Spamalot (2009).

2015...And Still Flying High After seventy years, The Regals Musical can say is that an experienced technical Society will be embarking on its most team has been recruited whose responsibility is to develop the car challenging year ever. and it will be amazing. To find out In May it will stage the NSW more you’ll have to come and see the community theatre premiere of Chitty show.” Chitty Bang Bang. Danielle was musical director for Director Danielle Nicholls-Fuller is another of the Regals’ 21st century relishing the opportunity to bring their triumphs, when it staged the world premiere of Jon English’s rock opera ‘Fine Four Fendered Friend’ to the Rockdale Town Hall Stage. “It will Paris in 2003. certainly be a challenge. The number The calendar in 2015 is very full. one question that I have been asked There are two other musicals Alice in since accepting directorship is ‘How are Wonderland Jr in February and you going to make the car fly?’ All I Hairspray in October. Register via The Regals’ website www.theregals.com.au Like their Facebook page www.facebook.com/TheRegalsMusicalSociety or email Pau directly via president@theregals.com.au

Kicking off on the 8th February there will be a Member’s Family Picnic Day at Carss Park, a tradition established by members in the 1970’s. Mid-year The Regals will participate in the biannual Spotlight Awards - local theatre community's ‘night of nights’. There is also time for a pancake party and a gala dinner on the 14th of November. “The Regals would not be celebrating its 70th anniversary without the ongoing support of the Rockdale City Council and the hard work of the past membership,” says Morrison. “With the celebrations that we have in store for 2015 I would love to invite as many people as possible to come back home to The Regals and celebrate this wonderful occasion.”

Sweeney Todd (2009).

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North Queensland Opera and Music Theatre’s production.

The house full signs have gone up, but not all community theatre productions of The Phantom of the Opera have gone without a hitch. Sally AlrichSmythe took time out of a Phantom rehearsal to peer behind the mask.

Swinging From The Chandelier

I spoke to a number of amateur society presidents and directors to gauge just how successfully this difficult show has translated onto the amateur circuit. Peter Novakovich is currently preparing to produce the show in a small theatre in Campbelltown in western Sydney. “Don’t even think about auditioning for Christine if you can’t hit Already, he says, the expectations are the high E.” That statement uttered by overwhelming. a director embodies for me the aura “Everyone I speak with about this show surrounding Phantom. always asks the same question, “How are you doing the chandelier?” I’m Since opening in 1986, the tempted to have a chandelier sitting on Cameron Mackintosh production has been a success world-wide, delivering stage for two hours while the cast goes the same big scale, big-budget show to the pub and just let the audience that everyone has come to expect. watch that….” The professional show is He has a point. Much of the focus of The Phantom of the Opera is prescriptive in execution and centred on the props and the pyro (its production, cloning itself around the world into a brand that guarantees box wow factor). It’s certainly the first office returns. The release of Phantom thing that enters my head when I hear to the amateur circuit is a wonderful that another society is putting on the show: ‘How will they be able to pull off chance to see how the show be rethe chandelier? The boat? The organ? imagined and played with. Most societies so far, however, have The costumes? Amongst all this, we felt the pressure to stick to the ‘epic’ forget the show has anything else experience. This is an issue inherent in going for it. both the script (there’s no escaping “It seems modern audiences are fixated on the effects and the props. that tricky chandelier) and the Why bother with a performer? Luckily attributions of the Cameron in our tiny shoebox of a theatre we’re Mackintosh production. 34 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

forced to think outside the square, which makes us bring out a show’s true nature, and helps us avoid copycat directing,” he said. In fact it appears counterproductive to attempt to emulate the original grandeur of the chandelier as any comparison to the original is just about impossible and laden with potential disappointment. So, can a production of The Phantom of the Opera that entertains and impresses be produced on a limited budget? My mind flies straight to the Arcadians Theatre Group in Wollongong, south of Sydney, who decided to use POTO as an “epic” celebration of the company’s 50th year. It had its wobbly moments. The night I was in the audience happened to be the night that the stage-crew failed to tell their phantom, Kyle Nozza, that the boat would be travelling a little wider than usual, and he abruptly pulled the brakes on for fear of landing in the orchestra pit. The disruption did not go unnoticed. Nor did the relatively simple, underwhelming mechanism of the chandelier, which I vividly remember had one bulb not working. Liza Allen, the Arcadians president, tells me “the show's famous chandelier provided an interesting challenge, and the Musical Director did an amazing job to hold still every time it dropped as it was just over the orchestra pit, right near his head (excellent fortitude on his part).” There were gentle reminders that the production was indeed an amateur one. That doesn’t mean there was nothing to love. The cast was spectacular; a true showcase of triplethreat talents. Tears were shed, goosebumps bumped and standing ovations had. Liza tells me, their Phantom transferred wonderfully to amateur theatre. The company owns The Miner’s Lamp Theatre, a 148 seat venue with a

“sizeable stage” in Corrimal NSW, but it was not able to accommodate the orchestra size or the set heights. The solution was the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre, a venue with 500 seating capacity. “The scale of the production was daunting, and provided some anxious times for the Arcadians Board, charged with managing the finances of the group. We were very mindful of the implications if our version of Phantom wasn't an outstanding success; owning a theatre brings an additional financial burden and we simply could not afford to return a loss.” They were, however, “overjoyed” when they were able to put out the ‘house full’ sign for the season. Financially the show presents a challenge for any amateur theatre group. Even Neil Gooding’s big-budget company Packemin Productions in Parramatta (western Sydney) has felt the weight of this show-specific expense as it prepares to present Phantom in February 2015 where I am a member of the ensemble. Transfer expenses are considerable as hardware is sourced from all over the country. A large chunk is coming from CLOC, in Melbourne, which last year put on an extremely successful Phantom. Costumes must be nothing short of extravagant so the cost is inevitably substantial. According to Neil the costume-hire has been pivotal to the budgeting in comparison with other shows they’ve produced in the past: “For Annie we could just put kids in rags and spend virtually nothing. Phantom is a whole different story”. It doesn’t end here. Royalty costs are slightly higher than other shows, and then there’s the additional cost of a 26 piece orchestra instead of the usual 1416 piece. In contrast to the Arcadians, whose orchestra took part purely out of “community spirit” it is usual for the players to be paid. Then there’s the big stuff. Says Neil, “Currently, the chandelier is the biggest budget consideration.” There is, apparently, a “simple” chandelier option, albeit with a more complex mechanism, currently under consideration. “We know our

CLOC’s production.

preference,” he says, “but it really does come down to the finances.” Despite the exceptional expense, Liza Allen assured me the Arcadian Theatre Group managed to make a modest profit, “…not an earthshattering amount compared to the income from the home theatre, and with a substantial amount of extra effort and risk”. Similarly, with early ticket sales healthy for a production next February, and a fabulous reputation to help them along, Packemin Productions are quietly confident they won't be out of pocket. Sitting in the hall at information night for the Strathfield Musical Society, I scanned the crowd, conscious of only one thing … who were the Christines and the Phantoms? As Peter Novakovich said, “… everybody wants to play either the Phantom or Christine. You'd think it was only a two-person show.” They are, however, the dream roles for many performers. The swelling in numbers of audition attendees is testimony to the popularity of these two roles. For several amateur societies

the scheduling of audition and call back sessions to accommodate the increased number of Christine and Phantom hopefuls occurred over several nights rather than the usual one or two. I spoke to one aspiring Christine who, being relatively tall, contacted all the tall tenors she could think of to bully them into auditioning for the role of Raoul in order to boost her chances. In South Australia, The Whyalla Players production of The Phantom of the Opera selected two ‘new-comers’ for the two highly demanding lead roles. Ron Hay, the show’s producer, left behind his rock n’ roll roots to play the role of the Phantom. The role of Christine was shared between 17-yearold Imala Konyn, and 16-year-old Kaitlyn McKenzie, two very young voices for a presence and range demanded by ‘Christine’. Such decisions could only ever be made in amateur theatre and, however risky, leave room for a lot of exciting exploration and discovery. Perhaps most notably, The Whyalla Players (Continued on page 36) www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 35

(Continued from page 35)

formed a collaboration with the State Opera Company of South Australia, who didn’t directly interfere with the locals' production, but offered assistance and singing-direction where they could, also providing players to fill spaces in the orchestra. In the case of Packemin Productions, the role of Christine was released at the last minute to open auditions. “I was confident we’d find the leads we needed. We did and we’re very happy with our Phantom and Christine (Ben Mingay and Erin Clare). It was actually roles outside of these two that preoccupied my head during the auditions,” Neil Gooding says. He is talking specifically about Carlotta and Piangi, the show’s token opera voices, and the roles of Firmin and Andre. In the case of the former two, particularly Carlotta, it is difficult to find a singer technically capable of performing such material night after night through the open audition

Craig Wellington Productions and The Tasmanian Theatre Unit Trust In Association With The Old Nick Company Inc. Photo: Tony McKendrick

process. There’s hitting the notes and then there’s technique. Firmin and Andre are big acting roles and require strong singers. Neil, aware of the plague, common to community theatre - ‘where are all the men?’- confessed that he was nervous about being able to find older men with refined enough skill for these roles. The decision, in the end, was that talent trumped the traditional stereotypes of the role; Packemin’s Phantom has a tall, slim Carlotta, Johanna Allen, a trained classical vocalist rather than the plump opera diva we’ve come to expect, and a youthful Firmin, tenor Gavin Brightwell.

Lionel Theunissen and Monique Latemore in Savoyards’ production.

36 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

High hopes are held for the capabilities of Packemin who, without pretending to be at the same level as a professional production, have a budget substantially larger than other theatre groups in the state. When the rights were first released Neil Gooding was too afraid to touch the show; “people want to see what they remember from the professional show” which is simply impossible to achieve without millions to spend, and so he was “…sceptical that non-professional companies could satisfy audiences on their given budgets.” When I asked him what changed his mind, he said simply, “CLOC. What CLOC achieved was nothing short of a miracle.” Undeniably, excellent talent aside, the success for CLOC largely lay in the budget available to produce the wow-factor. Having been entertained by a number of lower-budget, fully amateur POTO productions this year around the Sydney circuit, I have no doubt that Phantom can be produced well by any company possessing the dream. However, these companies shouldn’t be afraid of giving the show a new image, of wowing their audiences by successfully utilising the strengths and resources available at a community level. For this reason, I look forward to Peter Novacovich’s experimental production next year, which will not even touch a fly-tower. “What about the chandelier?” I teased. “I guess you’ll just have to see our show.”

Community Theatre 2015

Engadine Musical Society’s The Wedding Singer. Photo: Perfect Images Photography.

Mary Poppins will fly around numerous Australian community theatres in 2015, yet again challenging the technical ingenuity of many of our companies. The newly released mega musical is clearly the hot choice on the circuit, and we look forward to many imaginative solutions. It’s one of two new flying challenges out there this year, though far fewer companies seem to be leaping at the daunting challenge of levitating a car in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Just as one infamous First Lady takes to our professional musical theatre stage this year, another one returns to community theatres after a significant absence. Well before an immersive Imelda Marcos holds sway in Here Lies Love, the centrepiece of Sydney’s Vivid festival, several Eva Perons will have hit the community theatre hustings across Australia and New Zealand. Evita has been rereleased for performance after an absence of many years, and the corrupt dictator’s wife is set to throw down the box office gauntlet to everyone’s favourite magical nanny.

Where else would you stage the World Amateur Premiere of Saturday Night Fever except the childhood stomping ground of the Bee Gees? Brisbane’s Redcliffe Musical Theatre is first to break out the disco ball in March, with productions across Australia and New Zealand following. The popularity of Legally Blonde continues, and while Phantom-mania may have slightly receded chandeliers will continue to crash from the ceilings of theatres around the country. The consortium production of Mamma Mia! continues to roll out across New Zealand, as Australian companies continue to ask Stage Whispers when they will have the chance to stage the ABBA musical. Still there’s a broad repertoire of musical theatre to satisfy all tastes on offer, ranging from Gilbert and Sullivan or operetta, through Broadway classics, to contemporary rock musicals. Many theatre companies have chosen to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Galipoli landing in April, with productions including Simpson 202, ANZAC Bikkies, Ginger Mick at Gallipoli, The One Day of the

Year, Garrick Salutes Gallipoli, You Must Remember This, Heroes & With Love from the Trenches, Keep the Home Fires Burning, The Home Front and Repercussions of the Great War, From The Trenches, With Love, to name just some of. If there’s a staple in the seasons of most of our drama or repertory companies, it’s that bums-on-seats certainty, the annual thriller or whodunit. Often, though, this lays the financial foundation for eclectic and ambitious seasons, cross-subsidising productions ranging across classics, Australian plays, brand new works, and a wide repertoire of comedies, farces and dramas. Several seasons are exclusively, or mostly, Australian, others are a complete fare of comedy and farce, one season is even dedicated solely to Neil Simon. Take the opportunity to visit your local community theatres throughout 2015 to enjoy reasonably priced entertainment, or join up, whether you choose to be on stage, behind the scenes, or front-of-house. (Continued on page 38) www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 37

Victoria CLOC: Mary Poppins (May), The Drowsy Chaperone (Oct). Babirra Music Theatre: The King and I (May/June), The Boy From Oz (Oct), Mary Poppins (June 2016). The Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Victoria: The Merry Widow (Apr). Williamstown Musical Theatre Company: The Witches of Eastwick (May), Disney’s The Little Mermaid Jr (Aug), The Addams Family (Nov). Fab Nobs Theatre: Once on this Island (Apr). Latrobe Theatre Company: Legally Blonde.

Windmill Theatre Company: Guys and Dolls (Jun). ARC Theatre: You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown (Feb), Young Frankenstein (Jul). Cardinia Performing Arts Company: Legally Blonde (Feb), & The Addams Family. NOVA Music Theatre: Evita (May). Aspect Theatre Inc: The Wedding Singer (Jul). MLOC Productions: Spamalot (Jun), Jesus Christ Superstar (Nov). SLAMS Music Theatre Company: Legally Blonde (Mar). MDMS: Funny Girl (Jun).

PLOS Musical Productions: The Addams Panorama Theatre Company: The Family (Jan), Legally Blonde (Jul), Mary Wizard of Oz (Apr). Poppins (Jan 2016). Diamond Valley Singers: The Merry Catchment Players of Darebin: Widow from Bluegum Creek (Jul). Hairspray Jr (Ap). Altona City Theatre: Pinocchio PEP Productions: Community Capers pantomime, The Producers (Jul), The One Act Plays (Feb). Wedding Singer (Oct). SPX Waterdale Players: Ragtime (Mar). Heidelberg Theatre Company: When Dad Married Fury (Feb), The Three

38 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

Sisters (May), The Cripple of Inishmaan (Jul), Quartet (Sep), Don’t Dress for Dinner (Nov). The Mount Players: Summer Shorts (Feb), Spamalot (May), One Act Play Festival (July), An Inspector Calls (Aug), Waiting in the Wings (Nov). Brighton Theatre Company: Chapter Two (Feb), Caught in the Net (May), Time Stands Still (Aug), Barefoot in the Park (Nov). Mordialloc Theatre Company Inc: See How They Run (Feb), A Month of Sundays (Apr), Hotel Sorrento (June), 84 Charing Cross Road (Aug), The Sunshine Boys (Nov). Frankston Theatre Group: Dimboola (Mar), Something to Hide (Aug), Tiptoe Through the Tombstones (Nov). Strathmore Theatre Arts Group (STAG): Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (Feb), Theft (May), The Wisdom of Eve (Aug), Shakespeare in Saigon (Nov). Malvern Theatre Company Inc: Halpern & Johnson (Feb), The Crucible (Apr), Time Stands Still (Jun), The Mystery of

2015 Seasons

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2015 Seasons

40 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

Edwin Drood (Aug), The Man Who Came to Dinner (Oct). Williamstown Little Theatre: The Other Place (Feb), Visiting Mr Green (Apr), Time Stands Still (Jul), Buffalo Gal (Sep), Surprise Season (Nov). Peridot Theatre Inc: Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks (Feb), Season of One Act Plays (Apr), Shush - World Premiere (Jun), Lend Me a Tenor (Aug), The God of Carnage (Nov). Encore Theatre Company Inc: Robin Hood The Panto (Jan), A Doll’s House (Mar), Cash on Delivery (Jul), The Ghost Train (Nov). Lilydale Athenæum Theatre Company Inc: The Vicar of Dibley (Mar), Secret Bridesmaids’ Business (May), Daddy’s Dyin … Who’s Got the Will (Aug), The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Nov). Sherbrooke Theatre Company Inc: Driving Miss Daisy (May), Romeo and Juliet (Aug), First Things First (Nov). The 1812 Theatre: The Peach Season (Feb), Killing Jeremy (Apr), The Book of Everything (May), Steptoe and Son (Jul), Patient 12 (Oct), Moonlight and Magnolias (Nov). Essendon Theatre Company: Freedom of the City (Apr), Private Lives (Jun), Natural Selection - Bull and The Ugly One (Sep), Boeing Boeing (Nov). Beaumaris Theatre Inc: Disney The Little Mermaid Jr. (Mar), Une Belle Farce (May), Sweeney Todd by Christopher Bond (Aug), Fawlty Towers (Nov).

Heidelberg Theatre Company’s Amadeus.

Gemco Players: Medea (Mar), Murder on the Puffing Billy (Oct).

Footlight Productions (Geelong): Miss Saigon (Jan).

Eltham Little Theatre: It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To.

BLOC Music Theatre (Ballarat): Miss Saigon (May).

Hartwell Players: The Snow Queen (Jan), One Acts 2015 (Jul).

CenterStage Geelong: Evita (Jul).

Mooroolbark Theatre Group: Rumours (June). The Basin Theatre Group: I’ll Be Back Before Midnight (Feb), Nobody’s Perfect (May), ‘R’ by Justin Stephens (Aug), Accomplice (Nov). Regional Victoria Geelong Repertory Theatre Company: Lost in Yonkers (Feb), A Few Good Men (Apr), Exit The King (Jul), An Inspector Calls (Sep), Daylight Savings (Nov).

Warragul Theatre Company: Hello, Dolly! (May). Wangaratta Players: The One Day of the Year. Wonthaggi Theatrical Group: Pippin. Bendigo Theatre Company: Noises Off (Mar), Mary Poppins (Jul). Benalla Theatre Company: The Boy From Oz (Jul).

New South Wales Miranda Musical Society: Carousel (Mar), Altar Boyz (Jun), Evita (Sep). Willoughby Theatre Company: Evita (Apr), The Magic of Musicals (Jun), Legally Blonde (Oct). Packemin Productions: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, (Jan), The Phantom of the Opera (Feb), Mary Poppins (July). Strathfield Musical Society: Retro Spectacular - cabaret (May). Engadine Musical Society: Legally Blonde (May), Disney’s My Son Pinocchio - Geppetto’s Musical Tale.

Sorrento Players: Travelling North (Apr).

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 41

Monica Greenwood, Eric Heyes, Tim Byron in Mordialloc Theatre Company’s That Good Night.

Rockdale Opera Company: A Victorian Rockdale Musical Society: Into the Double Bill - Trial by Jury / Cox and Box Woods (Feb). (May), The Marriage of Figaro (Nov). Chatswood Musical Society: Into The Bankstown Theatre Company: Grease Woods (May), Disney’s Camp Rock The (Mar). Musical (Jul), West Side Story (Nov). EUCMS (Eastwood): Ruddigore (May). Manly Musical Society: Chess (May), Evita (Nov). NUCMS: Through The Looking Glass (Jun). The Regals Musical Society: Disney’s Alice in Wonderland Jr (Feb), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (May), Hairspray (Oct).

Shire Music Theatre: The Drowsy Chaperone (Apr), Gypsy (Sep). Birdie Productions: Hot Shoe Shuffle (Apr), Keating! (Jul), 13 (Sep).

Christ Superstar (Jun), Guys and Dolls (Oct). Berowra Musical Society: The Mikado (May)

Sydney Youth Musical Theatre: 42nd Street (Jul).

Ashfield Musical Society: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (May).

Holroyd Musical and Dramatic Society:‘Twas The Week After Christmas (Jan), Sweeney Todd (May). 42 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

Castle Hill Players: Daylight Saving (Jan), 4000 Miles (Apr), Frankie & Johnny in the Claire De Lune (Jun), Steel Magnolias (Jul), The Fall of the House of Usher (Sep), A Bad Year for Tomatoes (Nov).

WOFTAM Productions: The Phantom of The Theatre On Chester (Epping): the Opera. Summer Rain (Apr), Transparency (Jul), Over The Moon And Far Away (Nov). Hills Musical Theatre Company: Jesus

Hornsby Musical Society: South Pacific (May).

Blue Mountains Musical Society: The Who’s Tommy (May), The Phantom of the Opera (Nov).

Campbelltown Theatre Group: The Producers (Mar), Don’t Dress for Dinner (May), Spamalot (Aug), A Few Good Men (Oct).

Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Sydney: The Gondoliers (Sep). Dural Musical Society Inc: West Side Story (May).

Pymble Players: Snake in the Grass (Feb), Black Coffee (May), Twelve Angry Men (July), Playhouse Creatures (Oct), A Little Princess (Dec). Guild Theatre, Rockdale: Enchanted April (Feb), The Book of Everything (May), Moonlight and Magnolias (Aug), Private Lives (Oct). Hunters Hill Theatre: It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To (Feb), Curtain Up on Murder (May), Gulls (Aug), Brief Encounter (Nov).

2015 Seasons

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 43

2015 Seasons

44 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

Genesian Theatre: The Winslow Boy (Jan), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Feb), Simpson 202 (Apr).

Wyong Drama Group: The Cemetery Murwillumbah Theatre Company: The Club (Mar), A Season of Australian One Foreigner. Act Plays (Jun), Ruthless The Musical Players Theatre, Port Macquarie: Vicar (Aug), Lend Me A Tenor (Nov). Arts Theatre Cronulla: Rabbit Hole of Dibley (Feb), Camp Rock (May), One (Feb), Role Play (May), Perfect Wedding Newcastle and Hunter Region Act Play Festival (Jun), The Government (July), The Diary of Anne Frank (Oct). Inspector (Jul), Anything Goes (Sept), Metropolitan Players: Mary Poppins Quartet (Nov). Sutherland Theatre Company: Haywire (Aug) (Mar), Never Too Late (July), Weekend CHATS Productions Inc (Coffs Harbour): Newcastle Theatre Company: Doubt Comedy (Nov). Mum’s The Word 2 - Teenagers! (Apr), (Jan), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Mar), Death of a Salesman (Jul), Birthrights Penrith Musical Comedy Company: In Cactus Flower (May), Lady (Oct). The Heights (May). Windermere’s Fan (Jun), Dancing at Lughnasa (Jul), Female of the Species NSW South Coast and Southern Epicentre Theatre Company: Beyond (Sep), Gaslight (Oct), Beyond Therapy Highlands Therapy (Jan), The Removalists (Mar), (Nov). Beyond the Neck (May), George’s Nowra Players: The Book of Everything Marvellous Medicine - Australian Maitland Repertory Theatre: Sex Please (Mar), Leading Ladies (May), Noises Off We’re Sixty (Feb), Gaslight (Apr), Alice (Aug), Away (Nov). Premiere of a play based on Roald in Wonderland and back again (Jun), A Dahl’s novel (Sept). Wollongong Workshop Theatre: Our Midsummer Night’s Dream (Jul/Aug), Elanora Players: The Sacred Flame Neighbourhood (Jan), Gallipolli :100 Navigating (Sep). (Apr). years (Apr), Dial M For Murder (May), DAPA Theatre: The Glass Menagerie Accidental Death of an Anarchist (July), Lane Cove Theatre Company: Godspell (Feb), Never Kiss a Naughty Nanny Workshorts - 2015 (Sep), Bengal Tiger (Mar), The Snow Queen & The Vagina (Apr), The Woman in Black (Jun), Plaza at the Baghdad Zoo (Oct), Monologues. Suite (Oct). Roo Theatre Co (Shellharbour): Honk! Henry Lawson Theatre (Werrington): Theatre on Brunker: The Spider’s Web (Jan), Evita (Feb), Cosi (Mar), West Side Deck Chairs (Feb), A Bright and (Mar), Black Coffee (Aug/Sep). Story (May), Peter Pan (Jul), A Streetcar Crimson Flower (Apr), Nobby Named Desire (Sep), Othello (Oct), th Postlethwaite’s 50 Anniversary (June), Hunter Drama (formerly Hunter Region Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella Dial M For Murder (Aug), Dags (Oct). Drama School): Baron in the Tree, (Nov). adapted by Jerry Ray from Italo Cameo Theatre Company: The Last Calvino’s novel (Apr), Fame Jr (Jul), Phoenix Theatre Co., Coniston: Once a Resort by Judith Prior (May). Peter Pan, adapted by Callan Purcell Catholic (Feb), Lights Out Nellie Martin The Acting Factory (Penrith): and composer Christopher Harley (Ap), Reefer Madness (May), Macbeth Mucedorus - Shakespeare apocryphal (Sep), The Art of Lost (Oct). (Jul), The Hatpin (Aug), La Cage Aux play (Feb), Pinnochio (Ap), Fawlty Folles (Sep), Alice. Through a Looking The National Theatre Company: Jesus Towers (May). Glass Darkly (Nov). Christ Superstar (Apr), Alice in Glenbrook Players: The Truth by Sir Arcadians Theatre Group (Corrimal, Wonderland Jr. Terry Pratchett (May). Wollongong): Monty Python’s Maitland Musical Society (formerly Spamalot (Mar), The Addams Family Richmond Players: Oklahoma! (May), Maitland Gilbert and Sullivan and (Jul), Jerry’s Girls (Nov). Don’t Dress for Dinner (Aug), Olde Musical Society): Into the Woods English Music Hall (Dec). (May), Seussical: The Musical (Oct). Highlands Theatre Group: A Murder is Announced (Feb), Oklahoma! Cumberland Gang Show (Scouts and Young People's Theatre: Beauty and Guides): Reach for the Stars (Jul). the Beast Jr (Apr). Moonglow Productions: Mary Poppins (Jul). NSW Central Coast Pantseat Productions: Little Shop of Horrors. Pigs Fly Productions (Mittagong): Little Wyong Musical Theatre: Rent (Apr). Shop of Horrors (Sept). Opera Hunter: Disney’s My Son Gosford Musical Society: Narnia - The Pinocchio Jr (Apr). Regional NSW Musical (Jan), Essgee’s The Pirates of Penzance (Mar), Footloose (Jun), NSW North Coast Parkes Musical & Dramatic Society: Legally Blonde (July), Mary Poppins Hairspray (Apr/May). Ballina Players: Alice in Wonderland (Oct). (Jan), It’s a Wonderful Life -Radio play Orange Theatre Company: Annie Woy Woy Little Theatre: Yes Prime (Mar 2015). (May). Minister (Feb), Lovers at Versailles Coffs Harbour Musical Comedy Singleton Theatrical Society: Essgee’s (May), Sherlock Holmes and the Company: Anything Goes, Chitty Chitty The Pirates of Penzance (June). Adventure of the Suicide Club (Aug), Bang Bang (Nov). Hay Fever (Oct). www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 45

Tamworth Musical Society: Company (May). Tamworth Dramatic Society: The Lion in Winter (Mar), Allo, Allo (Sep). Lithgow Musical Society: Evita (May). Armidale Drama and Musical Society: Favourite Shorts 2015 (Mar), Legally Blonde (May), Cole Porter Concert Celebration (Aug). Albury Wodonga Theatre Company: My Fair Lady (May). The Lieder Theatre Company (Goulburn): Two Weeks with the Queen (Feb), Moon Over Buffalo (Mar), SLIDE (your sticky fingers inside my mind) - Youth Production (July/Aug), World Premiere - of William Punch - A Goulburn War Story. Muswellbrook Amateur Theatrical Society: Monsieur Goes A Hunting (May). South Australia Adelaide Repertory Theatre: Quartet (Apr), It’s Just Sex (Jun), The Cripple of Inishmaan (Sep), Only an Orphan Girl (Nov). Adelaide Youth Theatre: Annie (Jan), Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (Apr), Broadway for Kids (Jul). Blackwood Players: Indoor Fireworks (Mar), Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (Aug), A Series of One Act Plays (Oct). Galleon Theatre Group: Jake’s Women (Apr), Rumours (Nov). Gilbert & Sullivan Society: Festival of Gilbert & Sullivan (Apr). Hills Youth Theatre: Don’t Stop Believin’ (Jan). Hills Musical Company: You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Apr), Company (Nov). Independent Theatre: Long Day’s Journey into Night (Mar), The One Day of the Year (Apr), The Great Gatsby (Sep), Red Velvet (Nov). Marie Clark Musical Theatre: The Wedding Singer (May). Matt Byrne Media: Chunderbelly (Feb, Fringe), Mary Poppins (Jul).

46 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

St Jude’s Players: Heroes & With Love from the Trenches (Apr), Einstein and the Polar Bear (Aug), Soulmates (Nov).

Roleystone Theatre: Footrot Flats (Mar), Salonika (Jun), Rogers, Hammerstein and Rogers and Hammerstein (Aug), One Act Season (Sep), Storytime in the Promise Adelaide: Heart to Heart (Feb). Hills (Oct), Bye Bye Birdie (Nov). South Australian Light Opera Society: Garrick Theatre: Panic Stations (Jan), The Student Prince (Apr), The Mikado Garrick Salutes Gallipoli (Apr), Prepare (Aug). to Meet Thy Tomb (Jun), Silhouette South Coast Choral and Arts Society: (Jul), One Act Season (Aug), The Wee Jesus Christ Superstar (May). Small Hours (Oct), You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown (Nov). Stirling Players: The Beaux’ Strategem (Aust Premiere - Feb), Zigzag Street (Sept). Tea Tree Players: Noises Off (Feb), Death By Design (Apr).

KADS: The First Henry (Mar), The Rainmaker (May), Picasso at the Lapin Agile (Jul), Quartet (Nov).

Murray Music and Drama: The Wedding Singer (May), Hoedown at The Metropolitan Musical Theatre Company (AKA 'The Met”): Cats (May), the Civic (Jul -Aug), and Bonnie and Clyde (Nov). Evita (Oct). Therry Dramatic Society: Relatively Speaking (Mar), The Goodbye Girl (Jun), The Lion in Winter (Aug), A Murder is Announced (Nov). University of Adelaide Theatre Guild: Much Ado About Nothing (May), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Aug), The Return (Oct). Northern Light Theatre Company: Happy Days (Mar). The Murray Bridge Players and Singers Inc: The Wizard of Oz (Jun), Bye Bye Birdie (Oct). ACT Free-Rain Theatre Company: Mary Poppins (Mar), Saturday Night Fever (Jul).

Darlington Theatre Players: After the Ball (Mar), It's My Party and I'll Die If I Want To (May), Basin Street Blues (Jul), One Act Season (Sep), Hills Festival of Theatre (Sep), and Dick Whittington (Nov) Primadonna Productions: Bats (Feb), A Characteristic Quest (Jun), Youth production (Jul), Evita (Nov) ICW: Beauty and the Beast (Apr) Old Mill Theatre: Jigsaws (Feb), Hail Mary (Apr), Summer of the 17th Doll (Jun), Wolf Lullaby (Oct), No Names, No Packdrill (Nov/Dec). Stirling Players: Seussical the Musical (Jan), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Apr), The Real Thing (Jun), Gypsy (Sep), Calendar Girls (Nov).

Queanbeyan Players: My Fair Lady (Jun).

Melville Theatre Company: One Act Season (Feb-Mar), Equus (May), Inside Canberra Rep: The Importance of Being Job (Jul), Love, Loss and What I Wore (Sep), Pirates of Penzance (Nov). Earnest (Feb), The Crucible (May), Casanova (Jun), Gaslight (Jul), Much Koorliny Arts Centre: Beauty and the Ado About Nothing (Sep), Don’t Dress Beast (Feb), Evita (May), The Secret for Dinner (Nov), The Threepenny Garden (Aug), Tommy (Nov). Opera (Feb 2016). Dark Psychic Productions: The Canberra Philharmonic: Evita (Mar). Temperamental Artist (May), Zombie Prom (Sep), Office - The Musical (Nov). Tempo Theatre Inc: Spider’s Web (May), Arsenic and Old Lace (Sep). Western Australia Playlovers: 13 (Feb), The Broken Slipper and A Piece of Cake (Feb), Bengal Tiger at the Bahgdad Zoo (May), Play On One Act Season (Sep), A Man of No Importance (Nov).

Phoenix Theatre: Bugsy Malone (Jul), Puss in Thongs (Sep). 9 Lives Productions: Alice in Wonderland (Jan), Legally Blonde (Oct). Wanneroo Repertory: One Act Season (Feb), Darling Buds of May (Apr),

2015 Seasons

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 47

2015 Seasons Snoopy the Musical (Jun), Speaking in Tongues (Aug), The 39 Steps (Oct), Sweet Charity (Nov). Fresh Bred: Spring Awakening (Apr), Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Oct). Bunbury Repertory Club: Twelve Angry Men (Mar), the premiere of Lovers Concerto by WA writer Bob Charteris (May), South West One Act Drama Festival (Sept), BRC Threatrix production for youth 10 to 17 (Oct), Spamalot. Dandaragan Repertory Club: Jest Call me a Cowboy (May).

Sunnybank Theatre Group: Relatively Speaking (Feb), You Must Remember This (Apr), Barefoot in the Park (May), Pack of Lies (July), Are You Being Served (Sep), Dusty (Nov). Brisbane Arts Theatre: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Jan), Three Little Pigs (Jan), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Mar), The Little Mermaid (Apr), ANZAC Bikkies (Apr), The 39 Steps (May), Sleeping Beauty by Tim Fury and Natalie Trengove (Jun), Noises Off (Jul), Jack and the Beanstalk by Peter Pinne and Don Battye (Aug), Mort (Aug), James and the Giant Peach (Nov), Avenue Q (Oct).

Villanova Players: Little Women (Mar), Ginger Mick at Gallipoli, Based on the Savoyards: Beauty and the Beast (Mar), poems of C.J. Dennis (Jun), Let the Sunshine by David Williamson (Aug), How to Succeed in Business Without Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (Nov). Really Trying (Sep/Oct). Queensland

Townswomen’s Guild Murder Mystery (Nov). Centenary Theatre Group: Humble Boy (Mar), Closure (May), Dad’s Army (Jul), Dirk (Sep), Dangerous Corner (Nov). Phoenix Ensemble: The Addams Family (Feb), Taming of the Shrew (Apr), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Aug), Grease (Nov). Tweed Theatre Company: Brilliant Lies (Apr), Songs from Broadway (June), Twelve Dancing Princesses (Aug). Gold Coast Little Theatre: Signal Driver (Jan), Abigail’s Party (Mar), Jerry’s Girls (May), Private Lives (Jul), Dimboola (Sep), Social Climbers (Nov). Ipswich Little Theatre: Perfect Wedding (Mar), Dial M For Murder (May). Javeenbah Theatre, Nerang: Accomplice (Jan), Play It Again, Sam (Mar), Rabbit Hole (May), Hotel Sorrento (Jul), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Sep), The Game’s Afoot or Holmes for the Holidays (Nov).

Queensland Musical Theatre: The Music Man (Jun), Hairspray (Nov).

Mousetrap Theatre Company: Meanies From Mars (Jan), Class of ’77 (Apr).

Redcliffe Musical Theatre: Saturday Night Fever (Mar) - World Amateur Premiere.

Nash Theatre: The Business of Murder (Feb), Never the Sinner (May), Sweeney Top Hat Productions: Cocktails with Todd (Jul), Dial ‘M’ For Murder (Sep), Noël and Gertie (Sep). The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate

S.Q.U.I.D.S: Cats (May), Evita (Sep).

48 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

Spotlight Theatre, Benowa: Cinderella Pantomime (Jan), High School Musical (Feb), La Traviatta - a Boutique Opera (Apr), The Wizard of Oz (May), Dreamland Pantomime (Jul), Legally Blonde (Jul), The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Oct). Burdekin Singers: The Boy From Oz (Jan).

Huon Valley Theatre Company: Keep the Home Fires Burning (Apr). New Zealand Auckland Music Theatre: bare, Sweeney Todd (2015), Evita (2016). Taieri Musical Society (Dunedin): The Sound of Music (May). Abbey Musical Theatre: Evita (Apr), Mamma Mia (Aug).

Butterfly Creek Theatre Troupe: Hamlet - Bard in the Yard 2015 (Mar). Detour Theatre, Tauranga: Open All Hours (Mar), Steel Magnolias (Jun/Jul), Othello (Sept), Twas the fight before Christmas (Nov). Wellington G & S Light Opera: The Gondoliers (Aug).

Dolphin Theatre: Blithe Spirit (Feb), Wish Me Luck (Apr), It’s Never Too Showbiz Christchurch: The Phantom of Late (Jun), Rabbit Hole (Aug), A Piece Noosa Arts Theatre: Aladdin & The Little Mermaid (Jan), Cruise Control by the Opera (Apr/May). of My Heart (Sep), Last of the Summer David Williamson (Apr), 38th Annual Manukau Performing Arts: Honk (Jun), Wine (Nov). One-Act Play Festival (Jul), Quartet Ring of Fire (Oct), A Funny Thing Ellerslie Theatrical Society: Social (Sep), Mel’s Angels (Oct), Side by Side Happened on the Way to the Forum Climbers (Mar). by Sondheim (Nov). (Jun 2016), Dreamgirls (Oct 2016). Elmwood Players: The Owl and the Rondo Theatre/Cairns Little Theatre: Centrestage Theatre Company, Orewa: Pussycat (Jan), The Hen Night Epiphany Two and Two Make Sex (Feb), Quartet Chess The Musical (Mar), The (Apr), Proof (Jun), Sex Cells (Oct). (Apr), Funny Money by Ray Cooney Producers (Jun/Jul), Steel Magnolias Hawera Repertory Society: ANZAC (Jun), Neville’s Island (Aug), Away (Sep), Rodgers and Hammertein’s (Apr), Cinderella by Ben Crocker (Jul). (Oct), Cinderella by Cath Willacy (Nov). Cinderella (Nov). Howick Little Theatre: The Love List BATS Theatre (Buderim): Cinderella Variety Theatre Ashburton: Grease (Feb), Sitting Pretty (May), Birthrights Panto (Jan), Long Story Short - season (May). (Jul), Mary’s Wedding (Sep), The Seven of 10 minute plays (Mar). Whangarei Theatre Company: Bloody Year Twitch (Nov). Lind Lane Theatre, Nambour: All For Murder (Mar), Hairspray (Jun), A Hutt Repertory Theatre: The Merry One (Feb), Forget-Me-Knot (Apr), The Christmas Carol (Nov). Wives of Windsor (Mar) Home Front by John Broughton and Harlequin Musical Theatre: Aladdin Jr Repercussions of the Great War by J.M. (Apr), I Love You, You’re Perfect Now Papakura Theatre Company: Rent Barrie (May), SCTA Festival (Aug), (May) Change (Apr), A Chorus Line (Jul). Keeping Down With the Joneses by Stagecraft Theatre (Wellington): Gasp! John Chapman & Jeremy Lloyd (Sept), Tauranga Musical Theatre Inc: Disney (Mar), Much Ado in the ‘60s (May), Turbulence (Oct), Amadeus (Nov). Aladdin Jr (Jan), Little Shop of Horrors The 39 Steps (Jun/Jul), After The Dance (Apr), Jesus Christ Superstar (Aug). Toowoomba Repertory Theatre: 84 (Sep), Nunsense (Oct). Charing Cross Road (Apr). Cambridge Repertory: Chain Reaction Tauranga Repertory Theatre: The Motor (Mar), The 39 Steps (Jun). Empire Theatre Toowoomba: Mary Camp (Mar), See How They Run (Jun), Poppins (May). Rotorua Musical Theatre: Mamma Mia! Snip/Bonking James Bond (Aug), Joyful (Feb), Nunsense (Jun), Murder on the and Triumphant (Nov). Toowoomba Choral Society: Miss Orient Express (Nov), Evita (July 2016). Saigon (Jun), Evita (Aug). Theatre Whakatane: Annie (May), Rotorua Musical Theatre will be Beauty and the Beast (Oct). North Queensland Opera & Music celebrating its 70th Jubilee on the Theatre (Townsville): Oliver! (Mar), weekend of June 19 - 21, 2015. Company Theatre (Auckland): The Saturday Night Fever (Sep). Showbiz Queenstown: Saturday Night Peace Plays - Hautu and Charlie Bloom (Mar), Hay Fever (Aug), Don’t Dress for Tasmania Fever (May). Dinner (Nov). Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Musikmakers, Hamilton: Bugsy Malone Mairangi Players: Will You Still Love Me Tasmania: Iolanthe (May). - Youth Production (May), Monty in the Morning (Jan). Python’s Spamalot (Aug). Hobart Repertory Theatre Society: Summer of the Aliens (Feb), A Murder Napier Operatic: Evita (Feb), A Chorus Titirangi Theatre: A Shortcut to is Announced (May), Jane Eyre (Jun/ Line (Jun), Forbidden Broadway (Nov). Happiness (Mar). Jul), On Our Selection (Aug), Forbidden Shoreside Theatre (Auckland): Musical Theatre Oamaru: The Addams Broadway (Oct). Shakespeare in the Park - Measure for Family (2015), Evita (2016) Measure and The Merry Wives of Launceston Musical Society: Legally Blenheim Musical Theatre: Mamma Windsor (Jan). Blonde The Musical (Sep). Mia! Wellington Repertory Theatre: From Burnie Musical Society: Disney’s Beauty The Trenches, With Love (Apr). and the Beast (Feb). Coolum Theatre Players: Stiff (Mar).

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 49

How To Make Props And Sets Sparkle

Master Sydney set builders Bob and Col Peet are on a mission to terminate drab looking props and sets. The brothers say making them sparkle is straightforward. The answer is to just to add ‘make-up’. Older brother Bob revealed some of his secrets to delegates at last year’s Association of Community Theatre Stagecraft conference. An old puppet master once told me not to be shy of over doing things with shading. He always said everything has to have make-up. You’ve got to see it from the stalls. I very rarely use one colour or plain colours. God knows how many shows we have been to and people haven’t used any imagination - shading or other techniques on the wall flats - so you end up with a dead boring set. For instance in this picture I am holding a sheet of board painted grey. Half of it is flicked with a paint brush. That breaks up a fairly boring look, particularly if there is a lot of wall surface. I have been doing that with black sets in The Phantom of the Opera. I have flicked black with a couple of colours. There is nothing as boring as looking at a lot of black flats or grey flats or whatever. At least this gives it some dimension. With the flicking here

50 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

I start off with a watery white, then a slightly darker grey, then black. You can use brighter colours if you want. You can see the difference. I painted the whole board grey then I masked half of it and flicked the other half. Another example is this butter churn from Oklahoma! This is a prop that’s not being used very often so we had to make one. It shows what can be achieved with almost nothing. The actual churn is just a cardboard drum, picked up in the recycling. There are some shaped timber bits screwed onto it - two at the bottom for legs and two at the top and the handle comes from a meat grinder we found. It was painted in a fairly plain light brown colour. This time I streaked it with a couple of colours, a darker brown and ochre. The streaking process can be done with a fairly dry brush. I find the simplest way is to make your own tools. I bought a rubber squeegee that is used for silk screen printing from a hardware store. Because they have a square bottom, I cut v shapes with scissors so you end up with a tool that resembles a comb. I dip the comb into fairly watery paint, making sure there is not too much paint. Then I simply drag it in rows with a couple of colours including a few dark shade lines in black.

Suddenly your cardboard tube looks like old timber. It might look odd up close, just like actors’ faces with makeup can look grotesque, but if you see them from the back of the stalls you appreciate why you need this exaggerated texture. Furniture also needs make up. The leg of this chair which is nearest to my chest is sprayed with gold paint. It looks OK but it looks like it has been sprayed with gold paint. The other leg I washed with a brown ochre. I wiped it off straight away but made sure a reasonable amount of brown stuck to

the cracks. You can see the grooves are highlighted in that leg. Period furniture can be made to look even better using this technique. Up the top near Col’s chin you can see quite a shiny bit of gold. I use synthetic gold leaf that is cheap as chips and very easy to apply. I painted the top part of the decoration brown then packed glue over it, and using a very soft brush tapped the gold leaf into place. You let it dry for a day then come back with the same soft brush and tidy up the surface. You also have to apply a clear gloss to maintain it. It looks like a million dollars because the gold has stuck to the highlighted parts but the cracks have darker brown. Here is a glimpse of what the finished product can look like. This is a coffin I have built for a forthcoming production of Evita. It looks for an icon.

Between them, Col and Bob Peet have more than a century of prop and set building experience. For advice from them or to hire sets from the Miranda Musical Society contact Bob: bob.peet@bigpond.com www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 51

On Stage A.C.T. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. Ickle Pickle Theatre. Jan 9 - 24. Belconnen Theatre. (02) 6275 2700. Charley and Lola’s Extremely New Play. Live Nation. Jan 10 & 11. The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre. (02) 6275 2700.

Canberra Theatre Centre. (02) 6275 2700.

book by Winnie Holzman. Based on the Gregory Sweet Charity by Neil Simon, Maguire novel. Capitol Theatre, Sydney. Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields. Luckiest Productions, Ticketmaster. Neil Gooding Productions, Dirty Dancing by Eleanor Tinderbox Productions and Bergstein. Sydney Lyric Hayes Theatre Co, in Theatre, The Star. 1300 795 association with Canberra 267. Theatre Centre. Feb 11 - 21. TOTEM. Cirque du Soleil. The Playhouse, Canberra Until Jan 11. Under the Big Theatre Centre. (02) 6275 Top at the Entertainment 2700. Quarter, Moore Park.

Giggle and Hoot and Friends. Live Nation. Jan 24 & 25. Canberra Theatre. (02) The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. 6275 2700. Canberra Repertory Society. Horrible Histories - Barmy Feb 20 - Mar 7. Theatre 3. Britain. Birmingham Stage 6257 1950. Company and Andrew Kay Beyond. Circa. Feb 25 - 28. and Associates with Canberra Theatre Centre. Jan Canberra Theatre Centre. (02) 6275 2700. 27 & 28. Canberra Theatre. (02) 6275 2700. New South Wales Mother and Son by Geoffrey Atherden. Feb 4 - 11.

A.C.T. & New South Wales

Wicked. Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a

52 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

The Everglades Garden Theatre, Leura. http://bit.ly/1qnWPCE The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Sport for Jove. Jan 11 - 25. The Everglades Garden Theatre, Leura. http://bit.ly/1qnWPCE La Bohème by Puccini. Opera Australia. Dec 31 - Jan 16. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. (02) 9318 8200

www.cirquedusoleil.com/totem The Magic Flute by Mozart. Circus Factory. Powerhouse Opera Australia. Jan 2 - 31. Museum. Until May 3. Joan Sutherland Theatre, www.powerhousemuseum.com Sydney Opera House. (02) 9318 8200 Absent Friends by Alan Ayckbourn. Ensemble Theatre. Until Jan 24. (02) 9929 0644.

Radiance by Louis Nowra. Indigenous theatre at Belvoir supported by The Balnaves A Midsummer Night’s Dream Foundation. Jan 3 - Feb 8. Upstairs Theatre. (02) 9699 by William Shakespeare. 3444. Sport for Jove. Jan 10 - 25.

On Stage Masquerade by Kate Mulvaney. Sydney Festival, Sydney Opera House, Griffin Theatre Company and State Theatre Company of S.A. Jan 7 - 17. Sydney Opera House, Drama Theatre. 1300 856 876. Tabac Rouge. Directed, choreographed and performed by James ThierrĂŠe. Jan 7 - 23. Sydney Festival. Sydney Theatre at Walsh Bay. 1300 856 876.

Next to Normal by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey. Doorstep Arts / Hayes Theatre Co. Jan 8 - Feb 1. 02 8065 7337. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. JWR Productions and Michael Sieders. Sydney Festival. Jan 8 - 18. Lennox Theatre, Riverside Theatres. 8839 3399.

New South Wales 'Twas The Week After Christmas... by Narelle Adams (Pantomime). Holroyd Musical and Dramatic Society. Jan 9 - 17. St. Stephen's Church Hall, Corner Merrylands Rd & Monitor Rd, Merrylands. www.hmds.org.au

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. The Australian Shakespeare Company. Jan 7 - 28. The Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney. 1300 122 344.

Tosca by Puccini. Opera Australia. Jan 13 - Mar 17. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Honk! Music by George Sydney Opera House. (02) Stiles, Book & Lyrics by Anthony Drewe. Roo Theatre 9318 8200. Company, Shellharbour. Jan Narnia. C.S. Lewis / Glynn Robins. Gosford Musical 9 - 17. (02) 4297 2891 / Society. Jan 13 - 17. Laycock www.roo-theatre.com.au Street Community Theatre, Joseph and the Amazing North Gosford. (02) 43 Technicolour Dreamcoat. 233233. Music by Andrew Lloyd

Endings by Tamara Saulwick. Insite Arts Australia / Sydney Festival. Jan 8 - 11. Carrageworks. 1300 856 876.

Webber. Lyrics by Tim Rice. Packemin Productions. Jan 9 - 24. The Concourse, 409 Victoria Avenue, Chatswood. www.theconcourse.com.au

Masterclass (A Play). Written and performed by Gareth Davies and Charlie Garber. Old Fitzroy Theatre. Jan 14 31. www.oldfitztheatre.com

Advertise your show on the front page of www.stagewhispers.com.au

Bad by Kate Walder and Penny Greenhalgh. Old Fitzroy Theatre. Jan 14 - 31 (Late Night Show). www.oldfitztheatre.com Sweet Charity by Neil Simon, Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields. Sydney Opera House in association with Luckiest Productions, Neil Gooding Productions, Tinderbox Productions and Hayes Theatre Co. From Jan 15. Playhouse, Sydney Opera House. (02) 9259 7777. After Dinner by Andrew Bovell. Sydney Theatre Company. Jan 15 to Mar 7. Wharf 1. (02) 9250 1777. The Long Pigs. We3 / Instie Arts. Sydney Festival. Jan 15 - 18. Everest Theatre, Seymour Centre. 1300 856 876.

Stage Whispers 53

On Stage

New South Wales

Lucy Gransbury (Phoebe), Mark Dickonson (Jaques), Louisa Fitzhardinge (Rosalind), Charlie Sturgeon (Orlando) and Claire Nicholls (Celia) in Australian Shakespeare Company’s As You Like It. Photo: Matt Deller.

Bard On The Beach - The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. Jan 16 - Mar 15, every Friday, Saturday & Sunday night. Balmoral Beach Band Rotunda. www.bardonthebeach.net Peace Train: The Cat Stevens Story. Starring Darren Coggan. Jan 17. Capitol Theatre, Tamworth. www.peacetrain.com.au The Winslow Boy by Terence Rattigan. Genesian Theatre Company Inc. Jan 17 - Feb 14. The Genesian Theatre, 420 Kent Street, Sydney. 1300 237 217.

Feb 7. SBW Stables Theatre. (02) 9361 3817.

Absent Friends by Alan Ayckbourn. Ensemble Theatre Production. Jan 28 Feb 1. Glen Street Theatre. 9975 1455.

Puncture. Legs on the Wall, Form Dance Projects, Vox Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and Sydney Festival. Jan 21 - Beyond Therapy by 25. Riverside Theatre, Christopher Durang. Parramatta. 8839 3399. Epicentre Theatre Company. Nothing to Lose. Directed by Jan 29 - 14 Feb 14. King Street Theatre, Newtown. Kate Champion. Force Majeure / Sydney Festival. Jan 21 - 25. Carriageworks. 1300 856 876. The Kitchen. Roysten Abel. Sydney Festival. Jan 22 - 25. York Theatre, Seymour Centre. 1300 856 876.

Daylight Saving by Nick Enright (Australian Drama). Pavilion Theatre, Castle Hill Players, Showground Road, Castle Hill. Jan 30 - Feb 21. 9634 2929.

Dream Home by David Madama Butterfly by Puccini. Williamson. Ensemble Theatre. From Jan 31. (02) Opera Australia. Jan 27 The Unspoken Word is ‘Joe’ Mar 28. Joan Sutherland 9929 0644. by Zoe Dawson. MKA: Doubt by John Patrick Theatre, Sydney Opera Theatre of New Writing and House. (02) 9318 8200. Shanley. Newcastle Theatre Griffin Independent. Jan 21 Company. Jan 31 - Feb 14. 54 Stage Whispers

Newcastle Theatre Company, 90 De Vitre St, Lambton. 4952 4958 (Mon - Fri 3pm 6pm) Cock by Mike Bartlett. Old Fitzroy Theatre. Feb 3 - Mar 6. www.oldfitztheatre.com Playing Rock Hudson by Cameron Lukey. Left Bauer Productions. Feb 3 - 15 (Late Night Show). Old Fitzroy Theatre. www.oldfitztheatre.com Gaybies. Written and directed by Dean Bryant. Darlinghurst Theatre Co. Feb 6 - Mar 8. Eternity Playhouse. 02 8356 9987. Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay -Abaire. Arts Theatre Cronulla. Feb 6 - Mar 21. The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Just $40 a month to reach thousands of theatre goers. Contact Stage Whispers for details.

On Stage and Tim Rice. Packemin Productions. Feb 6 - 21. Riverside Theatre, cnr Church and Market sts, Parramatta. 8839 3398.

Railway Streets, Rockdale. 9521 6358.

Evita. Lyrics by Tim Rice, Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Roo Theatre Blood Brothers by Willy Company, Shoalhaven. Feb Russell. Enda Markey / Hayes 13 - 28. (02) 4297 2891. Theatre Co. Feb 6 - Mar 15. Kill the Messenger by 02 8065 7337 Nakkiah Lui. Indigenous

New South Wales & Queensland Apr 11. SBW Stables Theatre. (02) 9361 3817. It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To by Elizabeth Coleman (Black Comedy). Hunters Hill Theatre. Feb 27 - Mar 14. Bookings (after Feb 2) 9879 7765.

Into The Woods. Music & Mucedorus. Shakespeare theatre at Belvoir supported Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. apocryphal play. The Acting by The Balnaves Foundation. Book by James Lapine. Factory. Feb 7 - 22, Mamre Feb 14 - Mar 8. Upstairs Rockdale Musical Society. House & Mar 7 - 22, Regatta Theatre. 02 9699 3444. Feb 27 - Mar 8. Rockdale Park, Nepean River. Peace Train: The Cat Stevens Town Hall, cnr Bryant St & www.actingfactory.com Princes Highway, Rockdale. Story. Starring Darren www.rockdalemusicalsociety.com Suddenly Last Summer by Coggan. Feb 14. State Tennessee Williams. Sydney Theatre, Sydney. A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. Theatre Company. Feb 9 www.peacetrain.com.au Mar 21. Drama Theatre, Genesian Theatre Company Faust by Gounod. Opera Sydney Opera House. (02) Inc. Feb 28 - Mar 28. The Australia. Feb 17 - Mar 13. 9250 1777. Genesian Theatre, 420 Kent Joan Sutherland Theatre, Street Sydney. 1300 237 Yasukichi Murakami: Sydney Opera House. (02) 217. Through A Distant Lens by 9318 8200. Mayu Kanamori. Queensland Absynthe by Spiegelworld. Performance 4a and Griffin Wheeler Place, Newcastle. The Lion King. Music & Theatre Company. Feb 10 From Feb 17. Lyrics: Elton John & Tim Rice. 21. SBW Stables Theatre. www.spiegelworld.com Additional Music & Lyrics: (02) 9361 3817. Lebo M, Mark Mancina, Jay The Baulkham Hills African Mother Clap’s Molly House Ladies Troupe. Racing Pulse Rifkin, Julie Taymor and Hans by Mark Ravenhill, with Zimmer. Disney. Lyric Productions, Riverside and music by Matthew Scott. Belvoir. Feb 18 - 21. Lennox Theatre, QPAC. Until 25 Jan. New Theatre / Sydney Gay & Theatre, Riverside Theatres. 136246. Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival. 8839 3399. Erth’s Dinosaur Zoo. Feb 10 - Mar 7. New Cremorne Theatre, QPAC. Theatre, King St, Newtown. Snake In The Grass by Alan From 3 Jan. 136246. Ayckbourn. Pymble Players. Sex Please We're Sixty by Feb 18 - Mar 14. Cnr Giggle and Hoot and Michael and Susan Parker. Bromley Ave & Mona Vale Friends. ABC & Live Nation. Maitland Repertory Theatre, Rd, Pymble. MCA Ticketing Playhouse, QPAC. Jan 3-11. 244 High Street, Maitland. 1300 306 776 136246. Feb 11 to 28. 02 4931 2800. Blue Wizard by Nick Coyle. The Illusionists 1903. Tim Vicar of Dibley by Richard Belvoir / Sydney Gay and Lawson & Simon Painter. Curtis and Paul MayhewLesbian Mardi Gras. Feb 19 - Concert Hall, QPAC. Jan 4 Archer. Players Theatre Inc, Mar 15. Downstairs Theatre. 10. 136246. Port Macquarie. Feb 13 02 9699 3444 The Wind In the Willows by Mar 1. 33A Lord St, Port Thriller Live. Featuring the Kenneth Graham/Maxine Macquarie. songs of Michael and the Mellor. La Boite. www.playerstheatre.org.au Jackson 5. Feb 26 - Mar 15. Roundhouse Theatre, Kelvin Enchanted April by Matthew Sydney Lyric. 1300 795 267 Grove. Jan 7-17. 3007 8600. Barber. Guild Theatre, Caress / Ache by Suzie Miller. The Complete Works of Rockdale. Feb 13 - Mar 14. William Shakespeare Guild Theatre, cnr Walz and Griffin Theatre Company. World Premiere. Feb 27 (Abridged) by Adam Long, Advertise your show on the front page of www.stagewhispers.com.au

Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield. Arts Theatre, Brisbane. Jan 10 - Mar 14. 33692344. Thriller (Michael Jackson). Concert Hall, QPAC. Jan 1425. 136246 Sleeping Beauty (Tchaikovsky). Ballet Theatre of Queensland. Playhouse, QPAC. Jan 14-17. 136246. Boston Marriage by David Mamet. QTC. Playhouse, QPAC. Jan 24 - Feb 15. 1800355528 Three Little Pigs by Roald Dahl. Arts Theatre, Brisbane. Jan 24 - Mar 28. 33692344 Horrible Histories Barmy Britain. Birmingham Stage & Andrew Kay. Concert Hall, QPAC. Jan 30-31. 136246. Shen Yun. Concert Hall, QPAC. Feb 3-4. 136246. Sweet, Sour and Saucy. Melissa Western and Antony (Tnee) Dyer. Feb 5 - 7. Performance Space, Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts. 07 3872 9000. A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. La Boite. Roundhouse Theatre, Kelvin Grove. Feb 7 - Mar 7. 30078600. Wicked. Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Book by Winnie Holzman. John Frost. Lyric Theatre, QPAC. From Feb 12. 136246. Two and Two Make Sex by Richard Harris/Leslie Darbon. Cairns Little Thearte. Rondo Theatre, Cairns. Feb 13-21. 1300855835. All For One by Errol J. Morrison. Lind Lane Theatre, Nambour. Feb 14-28. 54411814. Stage Whispers 55

On Stage The Business of Murder by Richard Harris. Nash Theatre New Farm. Feb 21 - Mar 14. 33794775. Mother and Son by Geoffrey Atherden. QTC. Playhouse, QPAC. Feb 18 - Mar 15. 1800355528. Everybody Loves Lucy. Starring Elise McCann. Cremorne Theatre, QPAC. Feb 24-27. 136246.

Queensland & Victoria

West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim. Holiday Actors. Jan 14 - 17. Lighthouse Theatre, Warnambool. 0427 546 141. Robin Hood The Panto by Geoff Bamber. Encore Theatre Inc. Jan 15 - 24. Clayton Community Centre Theatrette. 1300 739 099.

The Big Gay Cruise. Theatre Works. Jan 22 - Feb 1. 03 9534 3388. Miss Saigon. Music: ClaudeMichel Schonberg. Lyrics: Richard Maltby Jr & Alain Boublil. Additional Material: Richard Maltby Jr. Footlight Productions. Jan 23 - Feb 7. Playhouse, Geelong Performing Arts Centre. (03) 5225 1200 / www.gpac.org.au

Theatre Works. 03 9534 3388. Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks by Richard Alfieri. Peridot Theatre Inc. Feb 6 21. Unicorn Theatre, Mt Waverley. 1300 138 645. Cybec Electric Readings: Frogs Cry Wolf by Dan Lee;

The Unknown Man on Somerton Beach by Tobias Manderson-Galvin; The Illusionists 2.0. Jan 16 Victoria Archimedes’ War by Melissa 25. Arts Centre Melbourne, Thriller Live. Arts Centre Reeves and Moths by Grease by Jim Jacobs and State Theatre 1300 182 183 Melbourne. Jan 28 - Feb 8. Michele Lee. Melbourne Warren Casey. John Frost www.artscentremelbourne.com.au www.artscentremelbourne.com.au Theatre Company. Feb 9 Production. Regent Theatre, The Fastest Clock in the Paul Capsis in Little Bird by 21. Southbank Theatre, The Melbourne. 1300 111 011 Universe by Philip Ridley. Nicki Blom, with songs by Lawler and VCA Art Strictly Ballroom by Baz Four Word Letter Theatre. Cameron Goodall and Courtyard. (03) 8688 0800. Luhrmann and Craig Pearce. Jan 21 - 31. Chapel off Quentin Grant. Arts Centre Blak Cabaret. Malthouse. Feb Global Creatures. From Jan Chapel, Prahran. 03 8290 Melbourne / State Theatre 10 - 22. Forecourt, 14. Her Majesty’s Theatre, 7000 Company of SA. Jan 29 - Feb Malthouse Theatre. Melbourne. 132 849 4. Arts Centre Melbourne, Adolescent. Written and What Rhymes with Cars and Playhouse. 1300 182 183 The Addams Family. Book by performed by Michael Girls. Music and lyrics by Tim Marshall Brickman and Rick Griffiths. Jan 21 - Feb 1. Matthew Mitcham’s Twists Rogers, words by Aidan Elice. Music and lyrics by fortyfivedownstairs, / 9662 and Turns. Arts Centre Fennessy. Melbourne Theatre Andrew Lippa. PLOS Musical 9966 Melbourne. Jan 30 & 31. Company. Arts Centre Productions. Until Jan 10. Arts Centre Melbourne, Loving Repeating a musical Melbourne, Fairfax Studio. Frankston Arts Centre. 9784 Fairfax Studio. 1300 182 183 Feb 13 - Mar 28. World of Gertrude Stein. Music by 1060. Stephen Flaherty; lyrics by Vinyl Viagra starring Rhonda Premiere. (03) 8688 0800. I, Malvolio by Tim Crouch.  Gertrude Stein and Burchmore. By Dean Bryant. In the Heights. Music & Jan 6- 11. Arts Centre additional book by Frank Arts Centre Melbourne. Jan Lyrics by Lin-Manuel Melbourne, Fairfax Theatre. Galati. Vic Theatre Company. 30 & 31. Arts Centre Miranda, Book by Quiara 1300 182 183 Jan 21 - Feb 8. Chapel off Melbourne, Fairfax Studio. Alegria Hudes. StageArt. Feb www.artscentremelbourne.com.au Chapel. 03 8290 7000. 1300 182 183. 16 - Mar 8. Chapel off As You Like It by William Horrible Histories - Barmy Jumpy by April De Angelis. Chapel, Prahran. 8290 7000. Shakespeare. Australian Britain. Andrew Kay and Melbourne Theatre Shakespeare Company. Dec Associates / The Birmingham Company. Jan 31 - Mar 14 . Othello: The Remix. Written, directed and music by GQ 31 - Mar 14. Royal Botanic Stage Company. Jan 21 - 25. Southbank Theatre, The and JQ. Arts Centre Gardens Melbourne. 1300 Arts Centre Melbourne, Sumner. Australian Premiere. Melbourne. Chicago 122 344. Playhouse. 1300 182 183 (03) 8688 0800 Shakespeare Theater and The Tiger Who Came to Tea. Jim Morrison: Kaleidoscope. The Ritual Slaughter of Richard Jordan Productions. Based on Judith Kerr’s best- Written & Performed by Luigi Gorge Mastromas by Dennis Feb 18-22. The Playhouse, selling book. Jan 2 - 18. Arts Lucente. Midsumma. Jan 21 Kelly Directed by Mark Arts Centre Melbourne. Centre Melbourne, - 25. Fortyfivedownstairs. 03 Wilson. Red Stitch. www.artscentremelbourne.com.au Playhouse. 1300 182 183 9662 9966. Australian Premiere. Feb 3 - Sexercise - The Musical. By Mar 7. 9533 8083 Beyond by Circa. Created by The Importance of Being Derek Rowe, based on the Yaron Lifschitz with the Circa Earnest by Oscar Wilde. Bad Adam by Dosh book by Aleksander Vass. Co ensemble. Arts Centre Citizen Theatre. Jan 22 - Feb Luckwell / Pony by Jay -produced by Aleksander Melbourne. Jan 13 - 18. 1. Como Historic House and Robinson. Horny Porny Vass and Malcolm Cooke. 1300 182 183 Garden in South Yarra. Productions. Feb 4 - 7. From Feb 19. Alex Theatre www.artscentremelbourne.com.au 56 Stage Whispers

Just $40 a month to reach thousands of theatre goers. Contact Stage Whispers for details.

On Stage (former George Cinema), St Kilda. 132 849.

Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia & W.A.

Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, Hobart.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show, touring nationally from January.

When Dad Married Fury by David Williamson. Heidelberg Theatre Co. Feb 20 - Mar 7. 03 9457 4117.

The Naked Magicians. Samuel Klingner Entertainment Enterprises. Jan 22 - 24. Theatre Royal, Legally Blonde. Music & lyrics Hobart. (03) 6233 2299. by Laurence O’Keefe and Neil AQUARIUS - The All Time Benjamin. Book by Heather Groovy BIG SHOW. G-String Hach. CPAC. Feb 21 - Mar 7. Productions. Feb 5 - 8. The Longford Town Hall. (03) Cardinia Cultural Centre, Packenham. 0407 090 354. 6323 3666 You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown by Clark Gesner, additional dialogue by Martin Mayer, additional music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa. ARC Theatre. Feb 22 28. Our Lady of Mercy College Performing Arts Centre, Heidelberg. 0435 062 087

The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare in the Gardens. Directions Theatre Pty Ltd. Feb 6 - 28. Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. (03) 6234 5998.

Peace Train: The Cat Stevens Story. Starring Darren Coggan. Devonport Cut Snake. Arthur Entertainment & Convention Centre, 26 Feb; Launceston Productions. Feb 23 - 27. Theatre Works. (03) 9534 Country Club, 27 Feb & 3388. Theatre Royal Hobart, 28 Sweet Charity by Neil Simon, Feb. www.peacetrain.com.au Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields. Arts Centre Summer of the Aliens by Melbourne in association Louis Nowra. Hobart with Luckiest Productions, Repertory Theatre Society. Neil Gooding Productions, Feb 27 - Mar 14. Playhouse Tinderbox Productions and Theatre. (03) 6234 5998. Hayes Theatre Co. Feb 25 South Australia Mar 8. Arts Centre Thriller Live. Featuring the Melbourne, Playhouse. www.artscentremelbourne.com.au songs of Michael and the Jackson 5. Until Jan 11. Gross Indecency: The Three Festival Theatre. BASS 131 Trials of Oscar Wilde by 246. Moises Kauffman. Don’t Stop Believin’ by Craig Strathmore Theatre Arts Group. Feb 26 - Mar 8. 9382 Sodaro, Music/Lyrics by Bill Francoeur. Stirling 6284 CommunityTheatre. Jan13Halpern & Johnson by Lionel 17. trybooking.com/FZRZ Goldstein. Malvern Theatre Company Inc. Feb 27 - Mar Wobbles The Clown by Wobbles The Clown. Star 13. 1300 131 552. Theatres. Jan 20. Tasmania trybooking.com or Sinbad The Sailor. Big mightygood.com.au Monkey Theatre. Jan 2 - 25. Noises Off by Michael Frayn. Tea Tree Players. Feb 4 - 21.

Online extras! Check out our video from the show on Stage Whispers TV. Scan or visit http://youtu.be/blPEYcKrq_s Tea Tree Players Theatre, Surrey Downs. 82895266 / www.teatreeplayers.com

Adelaide Fringe 2015. Feb 13-Mar 15. Multiple venues. FringeTix.

Annie by Charlie Strouse and Martin Charnin. Adelaide Youth Theatre. Jan 23-25. Royalty Theatre. trybooking.com.au or bass.net.au

Beckett Triptych: Footfalls, Eh Joe and Krapp’s Last Tape. State Theatre Company of SA. Feb 20 Mar 15. State Theatre Rehearsal Room and Scenic Workshop. 131 246

Shen Yun Performing Arts 2015. Adelaide Festival Centre. Feb17-18. http://bit.ly/1qnYtEf The Beaux’ Stratagem by George Farquar. The Stirling Players. Feb 20-Mar 1. Stirling Community Theatre. stirlingplayers.sct.org.au

Advertise your show on the front page of www.stagewhispers.com.au

Adelaide Festival 2015. Feb 27-Mar 15. Multiple Venues. adelaidefestival.com.au and BASS 131 246. Western Australia Les Misérables by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg. From Dec 31. Stage Whispers 57

On Stage Crown Theatre, Perth. Ticketek 132 849. Horrible Histories Live on Stage. Andrew Kay and Associates. Jan 7-11. Educational comedy for all ages. Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of WA, Ticketek 1300 795 012.

Western Australia

Seussical the Musical by Lynne Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. Stirling Players. Jan 16-21. Family musical. Stirling Theatre, Morris Place, Inaloo. www.stirlingplayers.com

Point and Shoot by Tyler Jacob Jones and Robert Woods. Holland St Alice in Wonderland by Productions. Jan 23-28. Lewis Carroll, Mandurah Little Theatre and 9 Lives. Jan Musical - Winner Artrage Theatre Award. Teatro 1, 14-18. Musical directed by Urban Orchard, Perth Darren Bilston. Boardwalk Cultural Centre. Theatre, Mandurah. www.fringeworld.com.au Performing Arts Centre. Threepenny Opera by Bertolt 9550 3900. Brecht and Kurt Weill. Venus In Fur by David Ives. Queens Hall Music and Black Swan State Theatre Fringeworld. Jan 23-25. Play Company. Jan 15- Feb 8. with music set in Victorian Comedy thriller - most London. Perth Town Hall. produced play in USA. www.fringeworld.com.au Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre of Western Australia. Ticketek 132 849.

Divalicious - Opera Rocks. Divalicious. Jan 23 - Feb 1.

Nominated for Best Cabaret 2013. De Parel Spiegeltent, Urban Orchard, Perth Cultural Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au

Perth Cultural Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au

Eleanor’s Story. An American Girl in Hitler’s Germany. Offending Shadows and Ingrid Garner. Jan 23-30. One woman Australian premiere. The Blue Room Theatre, Perth Cultural Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au

Fakespearian theatre. Teatro 1, Urban Orchard, Perth Cultural Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au

Absolutely by Allan Girod. Flaming Locomotive. Jan 23 Feb 7. Sold out in 2014. Jimmy’s Den, James St Northbridge and Midlandia Square Space, Midland. www.fringeworld.com.au

Tune Your Own Adventure. Impromptunes, Jan 24 - Feb 1. Improvised musical theatre for kids. Circus Tent, Urban Orchard, Perth Cultural Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au

Fish in the Sea. The Blue Room. Jan 23 -Feb 7. New comedic musical. Lazy Susan’s Comedy Den and The Blue Room Studio, Perth Cultural Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au

Keeping Time. Skylight Ensemble. Jan 24 - 31. Asks the big questions. Victoria Hall, Fremantle. www.fringeworld.com.au

The Nina Variations by Stephen Dietz. Jan 23-26. Inspired by Chekhov’s The Death Stole My Dad. The Seagull. De-Luxe. Fringe Blue Room. Jan 23-25. Based World Pleasure Garden, on German children’s novel. Northbridge. The Blue Room Theatre, www.fringeworld.com.au Perth Cultural Centre. Hamlet and Juliet. Sound www.fringeworld.com.au and Fury. Jan 23-29.

I Can Breathe Underwater. The Cutting Room Floor. Jan 23-31. Four friends - one part - one unforgettable night. Blue Room Studio, Perth Cultural Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au

Mummy by Mick Devine. Jan 23 - 27. Teatro 2, Fringe World Pleasure Garden, Northbridge. www.fringeworld.com.au

Anna Bolena: A Tudor Opera by Donizetti. Opera Box. Jan 25 - Feb 4. Darlington Hall, St Hilda’s Performing Arts Centre, RNDM Performing Arts Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au

The Dirty Cowboy. The Blue Room. Jan 27 - 31. Who’ll The Completely Improvised be standing when the day is Musical. Impromptunes. Jan done? The Blue Room 23 - 31. Improvised musical Theatre, Perth Cultural theatre. Hellenic Club, Perth. Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au www.fringeworld.com.au Trampoline by Shane The List by Jennifer Tremblay. Adamczak. Weeping Spoon Fragmented. Jan 27 - Feb 1. Productions. Jan 23-28. Exploration of obsession, Fiction & reality mixed up. guilt & friendship - from The Stables, Urban Orchard, Canada. Guild Studio, 58 Stage Whispers

Just $40 a month to reach thousands of theatre goers. Contact Stage Whispers for details.

On Stage Claisebrook Rd, Perth. www.fringeworld.com.au Conversations. The Australian Institute of Theatresports. Jan 27 - Feb 5. Improvised theatre. Cheeky Sparrow, Murray St, Perth. www.fringeworld.com.au

Western Australia

Adam Booth and Felicity McKay in the Black Swan State Theatre Company production of Venus in Fur, playing from 15 January to 8 February. Photo: Robert Frith.

The Mercy Seat. The Blue Room. Feb 3-7. Perth’s CBD is rocked by explosions. Blue Room Theatre, Perth Cultural Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au

Betty Lou Rose: Good Clean Fun by Cicely Binford. Betty Lou Rose. Jan 28 - Feb 22. Dirty little secrets from Texas. Deville’s Pad, Piccadily Square, Perth. www.fringeworld.com.au

Theatre of Abandon. Abandon Theatre Players. Feb 2-8. Velvet Lounge, Beaufort St, Mt Lawley. www.fringeworld.com.au Become A Functional Adult in 45 Minutes. The Blue Room. Feb 3 - 7. Sophie wants to be a proper grown-up. Blue Room Studio.Perth Cultural Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au

The Listies. Young Ones meet Playschool for 6-12 year olds. Jan 28. Boardwalk Theatre, Mandurah Performing Arts Centre. 9550 3900. Panic Stations by Derek Benfield. Garrick Theatre. Jan 29 - Feb 14. British farce. Garrick Theatre, Guildford. 9378 1990. The Dummies Guide to Opera. Charlie and Friends. Jan 29 - Feb 3. Opera isn’t just for Grandma. Teatro 1. Urban Orchard, Perth Cultural Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au Promise and Promiscuity by Jane Austen and Penny Ashton. Jan 29 - Feb 3. New musical from New Zealand. Teatro 2, Fringe World Pleasure Garden, Northbridge. www.fringeworld.com.au My Selfie. Riptide Contemporary Youth Performance Group. Jan 29 31. Mandurah through the eyes of its youth, Mandurah Performing Arts Centre. Bookings www.fringeworld.com.au Macbethish. Tempest Productions. Jan 29-Feb 7.

7. Bollywood, slam poetry & a sari or seven. The Bird, William St, Northbridge. www.fringeworld.com.au

Bri and Wyatt Save the World. Weeping Spoon Productions. Feb 3-7. The world is a scary place. Casa Mondo, Fringe World Pleasure Garden, Northbridge. www.fringeworld.com.au Shakespeare’s tragedy becomes a comedy. Noodle Palace at Central, Hokkien House (Piccadily Cinema), Perth. www.fringeworld.com.au

CONCRETE - heartbeat. The Blue Room. Feb 3 - 14. 24 American Buffalo by David hours - 8 stories - 1 city. Mamet. Circle in the Sand. Jan 30- Feb 7. Overdue WA PICA Studio, Perth Cultural Premiere. Stage Door Studio, Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au Perth. www.fringeworld.com.au 10,000. Ellander

Quiet Please, There’s A Lady on the Stage by Ryan Taafe. Jan 30-31. Mandurah Performing Arts Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au

24 Hour Hoo Haa! Cut Snake Comedy. Jan 31-Feb 1. 24 hour non-stop improvisation. The Moon, Northbridge. www.fringeworld.com.au

FAG/STAG by Bryony Kimmings and Tim Grayburn, The Blue Room. Jan 30 - Feb 7. Taboo shattering collaboration about male depression. Mandurah Performing Arts Centre; PICA Performance Space, Perth Cultural Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au

Flying Dreams by Aaron Jessup. Feb 2-8. Weaves theatre, vaudeville and busking. Black Flamingo, Fringe World Pleasure Garden, Northbridge. www.fringeworld.com.au Zak and Reefa’s Bollywood Funeral by Chris Kydd Brain and Tasnim Hossain. Feb 2-

Advertise your show on the front page of www.stagewhispers.com.au

Productions. Feb 3-7. Imaginative riff on the breakup drama. The Blue Room Studio, Perth Cultural Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au 600 seconds. The Blue Room. Feb 3-14. Anything goes for 600 seconds. The Blue Room Theatre, Perth Cultural Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au Yoshi’s Castle by Adrianne Duff and Arielle Gray. The Last Great Hunt. Feb 3-9. Stage Whispers 59

On Stage Part gassy comedy, part catfish thriller. The Stables, Urban Orchard, Perth Cultural Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au Short Change. Ruby Gaytime. Feb 4-7. Vignettes probe our relationship with money. Noodle Palace at Central (Piccadily Cinema), Perth. www.fringeworld.com.au

Western Australia

Elizabeth Montgomery inventor of the Butterfly stroke. The Stables, Urban Orchard, Perth Cultural Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au

The Hand of Time. Not Suitable for Drinking. Feb 78. Show for families, set on distant planet Black Flamingo. Fringe World Pleasure Garden, 13. Music and lyrics by Jason Northbridge. Robert-Brown, book by Dan www.fringeworld.com.au Elish and Robert Horn. Jekylâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hide: mind world. Playlovers. Feb 4-14. Musical Group Arretium. Feb 8-10 about thirteen 13 year olds. Experimental theatre. Guild Hackett Hall, Floreat. Studio, Claisebrook Rd, www.fringeworld.com.au Perth. www.fringeworld.com.au Fake Up. The Marionette Sisters. Feb 5-7. Being beautiful in the selfie age. Guild Studio, Claisebrook Rd, Perth. www.fringeworld.com.au Jigsaws by Jennifer Rogers. Old Mill Theatre. Feb 6-21. First in a season of Australian plays, Old Mill Theatre, South Perth. 9367 8719.

Thread by Elena Zucker. Little y theatre. Feb 9-18. Provocative, witty exploration of condemnation & empathy. Velvet Lounge, Beaufort St, Mt Lawley. www.fringeworld.com.au

Last Rounds by Tara Notcutt. The Blue Room. Feb 10-21. Sexy comedy about love, whiskey & music. PICA Performance Space and Blue Room Studio, Perth Cultural Centre. Constellations by Nick Payne. www.fringeworld.com.au The Blue Room. Feb 10-14. Only You Can Save Us. The Girl meets boy comedy. The Blue Room. Feb 10-14. Blue Room Studio, Perth Contains dancing and space Cultural Centre. bats. Blue Room Studio, www.fringeworld.com.au Perth Cultural Centre. Icarus Falling by Scott Wings, www.fringeworld.com.au Kate McDow. Feb 10-17. A boy falls from the sky. The Bird, William St, Northbridge. www.fringeworld.com.au F**k Decaf by Tyler Jacob Jones. The Cutting Room Floor. Feb 10-22. Comedy explores our relationship to love. Frisk Small Bar, Francis St, Northbridge. www.fringeworld.com.au

Wake and Bake. Sandpaperplane. Feb 10-19. An awkward dinner party. Cheeky Sparrow, Murray St, Perth. www.fringeworld.com.au Ballet at the Quarry: Zip Zap Zoom. Choreographed by Annabelle Lopez. West Australian Ballet. Feb 10-17. Dance, Quarry Amphitheatre, City Beach. 136 100. Skin Deep by Tyler Jacob Jones and Cynthia Fenton. Skin Deep Productions. Feb 11 - 15. Beauty cabaret. Hellenic Club, Perth. www.fringeworld.com.au

Waves by Alice Mary Cooper. Feb 7-12.

The Rabbits. Based on the book by John Marsden, composed by Kate Miller-Heidke, libretto by Lally Katz. Barking Gecko Theatre Company and Opera Australia in assoc. with West Australian Opera. Feb 12-16. Picture

Playlovers' production of 13 The Musical, playing at Hackett Hall, Floreat, from February 4 to 14.

60 Stage Whispers

Just $40 a month to reach thousands of theatre goers. Contact Stage Whispers for details.

On Stage book becomes operatic theatre for all ages. Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of Western Australia. 132 849 or 6488 5555. The Incredible Journey. KBT Productions. Feb 12-15. South African theatre for families. The West Australian Spiegeltent, Urban Orchard, Perth Cultural Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au Breathless by Shakespeare and Stirling Youth Theatre. Shadowlight. Feb 13-19. Wordless reimagining of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The Stables, Urban Orchard, Perth Cultural Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au Marx in Soho by Anya Tate Manning. Daddy’s Little Secret. Feb 13-21. Karl Marx is back from the afterlife. Casa Mondo, Fringe World Pleasure Garden, Northbridge. www.fringeworld.com.au

Ashman and Tim Rice, book by Linda Woolverton. Koorliny Arts Centre. Feb 1328. Koorliny Arts Centre, Kwinana. 9467 7118.

DivaLicious.

Amateur Hour by Gwydion Benyon. Daddy’s Little Secret. Feb 14-22. The show must go on. Casa Mondo, Fringe World Pleasure Garden, Northbridge. www.fringeworld.com.au Butterscotch’s Playground by Leslie Hinton. Feb 14. Stars Greg Page. Regal Theatre, Subiaco. 1300 795 012. Squisher and Squasher In the Great Bug Hunt by Emma Davis. Fireflies Entertainment. Feb 14-22. Kids theatre about bugs. Black Flamingo. Fringe World Pleasure Garden, Northbridge. www.fringeworld.com.au

Princess Obsession by Emma Davis. Fireflies Entertainment. Feb 16-18. A look at what it takes to be a Mozart Dances. princess. Black Flamingo, Choreographed by Mark Fringe World Pleasure Morris. Mark Morris Dance Garden, Northbridge. Group. Feb 13-15. NY dance www.fringeworld.com.au group visits Perth for the first A Circle of Buzzards by time. His Majesty’s Theatre, Nathanial Moncreiff, The Perth. 6488 5555. Blue Room. Feb 16-21. Bruce by Tim Watts. The Last Great Hunt. Feb 13-14. Two man, one puppet show. Teatro 1, Urban Orchard, Perth Cultural Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au

Western Australia

Disturbing and timely. PICA Performance Space, Perth Cultural Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au

Cultural Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au

The Defence. The Blue Room. Feb 17-21. Reimagining of Elegy. Leftofcentre. Feb 16- August Strindberg’s The 22. About friendship, loyalty, Defence of a Fool. Blue Room Theatre, Perth Cultural truth and identity. Black Centre. Flamingo, Fringe World www.fringeworld.com.au Pleasure Garden, Northbridge. www.fringeworld.com.au

The Shimmerin. Indivisible and the Hayman Theatre Company. Feb 16-20. The Epicene Butcher. Fantasy about the light and Daddy’s Little Secret. Feb 16dark in all of us. The Dome, The Giants by Royal De Luxe. 22. Weird cross-cultural Curtin Stadium. Perth International Arts theatre oddity. The Stables, www.fringeworld.com.au Festival. Feb 13-15. Giant Urban Orchard, Perth Elephents by Jeffrey Kay puppets commemorate the Cultural Centre. Fowler. The Last Great Hunt. centenary of ANZAC. The www.fringeworld.com.au Feb 17-22. Surreal soap streets of Perth, Free event, A Midsummer Knight’s opera. Big Top, Roe St, no bookings required. Dream…What? by Shane Northbridge. Disney’s Beauty and the McMullan. Into the Mask. www.fringeworld.com.au Beast. Music by Alan Feb 16-22. The Stables, Menken, lyrics by Howard Urban Orchard, Perth Advertise your show on the front page of www.stagewhispers.com.au

Ward 9. The Blue Room. Feb 17-21. Truth or another follower on Instagram? Blue Room Studio, Perth Cultural Centre. www.fringeworld.com.au Not I, Footfalls, Rockaby by Samuel Beckett. Royal Court Theatre & Lisa Dwan in assoc. with Cusack Projects. Feb 17-18. One woman Beckett trilogy. Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre of Western Australia.132 849 or 6488 5555.

Stage Whispers 61

On Stage I Am An Emotional Creature. Based on a book by Eve Ensler. Emotional Creative Australia. Feb 18-21. The secret world of girls. Noodle Palace at Central - Ramen room (Piccadilly Cinema), Perth. www.fringeworld.com.au

Western Australia & New Zealand

19 - 22. Opera from the inside out. Casa Mondo, Fringe World Pleasure Garden, Northbridge. www.fringeworld.com.au

Othello by William Shakespeare. Upstart Theatre Company. Feb 19-24. Set in 1915. PS Performance Space, Beyond. Circa. Feb 18-21. Packenham St, Fremantle. Australian circus show. Regal www.fringeworld.com.au Theatre, Hay St, Subiaco. Rising by Sidi Larbi 132 849 or 6488 5555. Cherkaoui, Akram Khan, Metalhead by Tiffany Barton. Creative Collaboration. Feb 18-22. Guild Studio Courtyard, Claisebrook Rd, Perth. www.fringeworld.com.au It’s Complicated. Mamartia Theatre. Feb 19-22. When you don’t get what you want. Black Flamingo, Fringe World Pleasure Garden, Northbridge. www.fringeworld.com.au

Russell Maliphant & Aakash Odedra. Aakash Odedra Company. Feb 19-21. Solo dance performance,. Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of Western Australia. 132 849 or 6488 5555

mobile phones. Rehearsal Room 2, State Theatre Centre of Western Australia. 132 849 or 6488 5555. Ubu and the Truth Commission. Conceived by William Kentridge, written by Jane Taylor. Handspring Puppet Theatre. Feb 25-28. Australian exclusive and premiere. Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of Western Australia. 132 849 or 6488 5555. Cut the Sky by Dalissa Digram, Rachael Swain and Serge Aime Coulibaly. Marrugeku. Feb 27- Mar 1. Story of infamous protest. Regal Theatre, Hay St, Subiaco. 132 849 or 6488 5555.

Demolition of the Century. Based on the novel by Duncan Sarkies. Circa. Jan 31 - Feb 21. Circa 2, Wellington. 04 801 7992. Outside Mullingar by John Patrick shanley. Feb 7 - 28. Fortune Theatre, Dunedin. 03 477 8323. The Ladykillers by Graham Linehan. Auckland Theatre Company. Feb 12 - Mar 7. Maidment Theatre. 09 309 3395. Mamma Mia! Music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulaveus. Rotorua Musical Theatre. Feb 13 - 25. Civic Theatre, Rotorua. www.rotoruamusicaltheatre.co.nz

Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward. Dolphin Theatre, Auckland. Summer Shorts - An evening Feb 14 - Mar 7. 636 7322. of One Act plays by various Black Faggot by Victor authors. Melville Theatre Rodger. Centrepoint Theatre, Company. Feb 27 - Mar 7. Palmerston North. Feb 14 Melville Theatre, Stock Rd, The Broken Slipper by Yvette 28. 06 354 5740. Palmyra. 9330 4565. Wall. Out of the Bag The Future Postal Service. Wake Up Tomorrow. Perth International Arts New Zealand Productions. Feb 19 - 22. Presented by Everybody Cool Fairy tail exposé. Hackett Festival. Feb 21 - Mar 2. The Owl and the Pussycat by Lives Here, in association Hall, Floreat. Interactive theatrical event Tim Bray. Jan 15 - 24. with Active. Feb 21 - 28. www.fringeworld.com.au for children. Perth Cultural Elmwood Auditorium. 355 Circa 1, Wellington. 04 801 Centre, Perth Writers Festival 8874. One Act Season by various 7992. and Rockeby Rd, Subiaco. authors. Wanneroo Disney Aladdin Jr by Jim Free event, no bookings Evita by Andrew Lloyd Repertory. Feb 19 - 28. Luigs, Alan Menken, Howard Webber and Tim Rice. Napier required. Limelight Theatre. 9571 Ashman and Tim Rice. Operatic Society. Feb 26 8591. Madama Butterfly by Tauranga Musical Theatre. Mar 21. Ticketek / Ticket Giacomo Puccini. English Piece of Cake by Yvette Wall Jan 16 - 24. Westside Direct. National Opera, Out of the Bag Productions. Theatre. Metropolitan Opera, Will You Still Love Me in the Feb 19 - 22. Story of Marie The Kitchen at the End of the Morning by Brian Clemens Lithuanian National Opera Antionette. Hackett Hall, and West Australian Opera. World by William Connor. and Dennis Spooner. Feb 27 Floreat. Circa. Jan 16 - 25. Circa 1, Feb 24 - Mar 7. Starring - Mar 14. TheatreWorks, www.fringeworld.com.au Wellington. 04 801 7992. Mary Plaza and directed by Birkenhead. 419 0415 A Little Rain Must Fall. The Anthony Minghella. His Shakespeare in the Park The Love List by Norm Foster. Actors Hub. Feb 20 - 22. Majesty’s Theatre, Hay St, Measure for Measure and Howick Little Theatre. Feb 28 Clowning, physical theatre, Perth. 6488 5555. The Merry Wives of Windsor. - Mar 21. (09) 534-1406. maskwork. The Stables, Shoreside Theatre. Jan 17 I Wish I Was Lonely by Urban Orchard, Perth Yep, Still Got It by Jane Keller Feb 21. The PumpHouse, Hannah Jane Walker and Cultural Centre. and Sandy Brewer. Circa. Jan Takapuna. 489 8360. Chris Thorpe. Perth www.fringeworld.com.au 16 - 25. Circa 2, Wellington. International Arts Festival. Seed by Elisabeth Easther. 04 801 7992. Opera Undressed by Penny Feb 24 - 26. Requires Circa. Jan 17 - Feb 14. Circa Shaw. Daisy Productions. Feb audience to bring and use 1, Wellington. 04 801 7992. 62 Stage Whispers

The Paper Architect by Davy and Kristen McGuire. Perth International Arts Festival. Feb 19. Paper art and theatre, a secret location in Albany. 6488 5555.

Just $40 a month to reach thousands of theatre goers. Contact Stage Whispers for details.

Reviews: Premieres

Online extras! Check out the Sydney Totem premiere by scanning the QR code or visiting http://youtu.be/Bj5x9kdbG6A Totem Conceived and directed by Robert Lepage. Cirque du Soleil Moore Park, Sydney. Sept 28 2014 - Jan 4, 2015 and touring nationally. TRADITIONAL circus has gone forever. The ‘specialty acts’ that once allowed time for the clowns to clear the lions before bringing on the dancing horses are now the undisputed stars of the show. Canada’s Cirque du Soleil, touring Totem for a year in New Zealand and Australia under their massive big top, has mastered the packaging of classy international speciality acts. Their solution is to find a theme. The linking theme here is nothing less than ‘The Odyssey of the Human Species’, though any storyline is provided entirely by the brilliant production design, the gorgeous costumes, the exceptional lighting and computer-based projections. It’s the transitions between the acts that make this show a must for the theatre community, for whom Totem is a sampler of future stage effects. Bringing in Canada’s leading theatre director Robert Lepage was a great idea. Always interested in new theatrical possibilities, Lepage’s centrepiece here is awesome: a stage that’s a projection screen, that bucks, splits, flows, turns into a speedboat, a swimming pool, an otherworldly totem pole. The costumes (by Aussie movie designer Kym Barrett) are literally dazzling; the lighting (Etienne Boucher) and image projection design (Pedro Pires) break new ground. As

Cirque du Soleil’s Totem. Photo: OSA Images.

retreating gymnasts cross the projected water, so their feet seem to make splashes. The acts are varied. Five Chinese unicyclists endearingly kick bowls on to each other’s heads. A troupe of Russian bar-jumpers are amazingly coordinated. Most touching are the handsome couple on the fixed trapeze. Muscular Guilhem Cauchois and petite Sarah Tessier tell a balletic love story as they cling, tease and tumble high above the stage. In the last edition of Stage Whispers I wondered how to label what Cirque du Soleil has become so famous for. Is it Circus or Theatre? Now I’m suggesting ‘Highly Theatrical Gymnastics’. Frank Hatherley James Joyce’s The Dead Music: Shaun Daley. Lyrics: Richard Nelson & Shaun Davey. Book: Richard Nelson based on James Joyce’s The Dead. Villanova Players. Director: Rod Thompson. Musical Director: Mary Greathead. Choreography: Lynette Wockner. The Theatre, TAFE, Morningside. Brisbane. Nov 21 - Dec 6. THE musical version of James Joyce’s acclaimed shortstory The Dead from the Dubliners is not your typical piece of musical theatre. More a play with songs, the work recalls an earlier time when families gathered around the piano and sang favourite tunes. Richard Nelson’s adaptation of Joyce’s novella won him a Tony Award in 1999 for Best Book of a Musical, and it’s in the second act of the musical where his fine adaptation

Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au

Stage Whispers 63

Sarah Peirse and Eamon Farren in Sydney Theatre Company’s Switzerland. Photo: Brett Boardman

Online extras! Check out a trailer for Switzerland by scanning the QR code or visiting http://youtu.be/m6WnpjV6pa0 takes flight when the protagonist, author and journalist Gabriel Conroy has a powerful epiphany. During the evening his wife Gretta is emotionally affected by a song that reminds her of when she was seventeen and in love with a boy named Michael Furey back in Galway. Having never talked of it with her husband, Gabriel is stunned to realise the depth of feeling Gretta had for the boy which makes him question her love for him. This moment is beautifully realised in Villanova’s Australian Premiere production and as played by Leo Bradley as Gabriel and Tia Wilke as Gretta was one of the most effective sequences in the whole musical. Bradley also captured the insecurities and social awkwardness of Conroy and was a commanding strength in the ensemble numbers and as a narrator. Gary Conwell as the inebriated Freddy was also a strength and shone in his “Three Jolly Pigeons” number. Best number in the show was “Naughty Girl”, interpolated from Lionel Monckton’s 1898 comic opera A Greek Slave. It started as a duet with the aging Markan sisters, Aunt Kate (Morna Kassulke) and Aunt Julia (Pat Wockner), with parasols and developed into a lively chorus with the entire cast. Shaun Davey and Richard Nelson’s original score was mostly of the folk-song variety and at times was maudlin, but Lynette Wockner’s reel and jig dances were lively additions. The Dead is a melancholic work which captures the turn -of-the-century period and for the most part, the elegiac beauty of Joyce’s writing. Peter Pinne 64 Stage Whispers

Switzerland By Joanna Murray-Smith. Sydney Theatre Company. Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Nov 3 - Dec 20. THIS is an internationally reaching, masterful new play from Melbourne’s Joanna Murray-Smith. It takes some risk focusing on a real-life writer - on her obsessions and her books, her abrasive quest for truth, and her last days holed up as a hermit in Switzerland. Murray-Smith however paints such a sharp fulsome portrait of American crime writer Patricia Highsmith that all we need to know is in her play. Indeed, with such true and penetrating details, MurraySmith’s play also reaches beyond, to the fraught relationship any writer can have with their imagination and reputation, their need to control and their isolation. The catalyst is the arrival of a young man. He’s been sent by her New York publisher to sign up, before her death from cancer, one more hit novel about her famous psychopathic killer, Ripley. Angular, seemingly naïve, Eamon Farren captures perfectly the strange resolve of Edward. Despite Highsmith’s torrents of abuse, Edward just won’t take no. In the short time span of the play, he becomes eerily confident and manipulative, even helping her with plotting and finally providing a shocking and intriguing climax. As their relationship shifts, Sarah Peirse is multidimensional as the mannish, foul-mouthed provocateur celebrating all that is real and unsentimental. Highsmith despises the dumb optimism of her fellow Americans and dismisses happiness as a retreat for the

Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au

Bracken Moor.

unthinking. While the play crackles with insights and laughter, director Sarah Goodes keeps the focus on character and suspense, rejecting any glib tricks of comedy. Goodes also makes full use of Michael Scott-Mitchell’s masculine and retro-detailed study/living room, a true bunker with roaring fire and windows punched through thick walls to the outside. It’s lit evocatively by Nick Schlieper while Steve Francis delivers a creeping score worthy of Hitchcock. Commissioned by the Geffen Playhouse in LA, Switzerland will go far. See it before the world. Martin Portus Bracken Moor By Alexi Kaye Campbell. Directed by Rob Crosser. Odeon Theatre, Norwood (SA). November 14-22. SET in 1937 Yorkshire, Bracken Moor opens with aristocratic mine-owner, Pritchard (Brant Eustice), deciding to lay off over 100 workers, despite the protestations of foreman, John (Angus Henderson). Harold’s heart was hardened ten years prior by the premature death of his son, Edgar (Sebastien Skubla), who accidentally fell down one of his mine shafts. This event prompted Pritchard’s wife (Alicia Zorkovic) to descend into a state of clinical depression. One night, Edgar’s friend Terence (Will Cox) decides to pay a visit, along with his parents (Lyn Wilson & Michael Eustice).

Over the course of the evening, Terence undergoes a series of seizures in which he seemingly speaks with the voice of the dead child. The Pritchards’ maid Eileen (Heather McNab) and local doctor, Gibbons (David Roach), offer their support in solving this mystery. Bracken Moor is an ingeniously multi-layered work equal parts hard-hitting social commentary, heartwrenching family drama and chilling gothic horror story. The intelligent script is imbued with added layers of meaning thanks to the depth of the cast’s performances; all are subtly nuanced in roles that lesser performers might be tempted to ham up. The general production design established just the right atmosphere of dread, with the lushly furnished drawing room of the Pritchards’ mansion framed by imposing wooden beams, suggestive of the entrance to a mine. Benjamin Orchard I’ll Eat You Last By John Logan. Directed by Dean Bryant. MTC. Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne. October 31 - Dec 20. IF Einstein had been a theatre reviewer his theory of Entertainment would have read E = MTC2 ….squared because the M becomes MM, which stands for Miriam Margolyes. Like a spectacular and dazzling supernova she draws the audience into her orbit and holds them there, in thrall, for 90 minutes of sublime entertainment. She recreates the famous Hollywood power agent, Sue Mengers, holding court in her Hollywood Hills home, while she waits

Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au

Stage Whispers 65

Ivan Donato, Ursual Yovich, Peter Carrol, Miranda Tapsell and Robert Menzies in Belvoir’s A Christmas Carol. Photo: Brett Boardman

for a phone call from Barbra (“I knew her when she had the extra A”) Streisand, whose lawyers have fired her. Draped on an L shaped lounge, in a blue Kaftan with a beaded neckline….dark roots showing in the blonde hair (a masterful touch) she drinks too much, smokes too much, gets stoned, and breathes profanities; a queen who knows her abdication or execution is inevitable, as she reminisces about the stars she has made - “My Twinklies”. She is funny (“I flew down there like a Valkyrie in heat”) and poignant without being maudlin. Her accent, coached by Leith McPherson, is perfect. Dean Bryant, more restrained than usual, has gentled his star, allowing her the freedom to be still and just perform through the words, without extravagant and un-necessary movement. Owen Phillips’ set is a masterpiece….almost elegant and tasteful….but not quite. Ross Graham’s lighting is fabulous. Russell Goldsmith’s Sound Design is equally excellent. But it’s Margolyes and Mengers - melded into one fantastical over the top ‘Bitch with a Heart of Gold’ - who makes us stand and cheer for more. Coral Drouyn A Christmas Carol Adapted by Benedict Hardie & Anne-Louise Sarks from the novel by Charles Dickens. Belvoir St Theatre Upstairs. Nov 8 - Dec 24. ON a bleak stage, cold with flurries of snow, Ebenezer Scrooge (Robert Menzies) hunches over his desk and Bob Crachit (Steve Rogers) waits quietly for the end of another day. The very starkness of Michael Hankins’ minimalist set 66 Stage Whispers

allows co-writer and director Anne-Louise Sarks to capture this “most powerful, dark, charming, heartbreaking and ultimately uplifting story”. Spooky sounds (Steffan Gregory), eerie lighting (Benjamin Cisterne), two freaky spectres and a lot of trapdoors are a little scary, but this is lifted by warmth, humour and the miracle of Scrooge’s second chance. Using all the power of his long-limbed litheness and his strong, echoing voice, Menzies manages to evoke the haggard, bitter emptiness of Scrooge, yet, led through the visions, he reveals the person he once was, and with tears and groans of pain the real Scrooge emerges and finds joy again. It is a very moving portrayal. Peter Carroll, Kate Box, Steve Rogers, Ivan Donato, Eden Falk, Miranda Tapsell and Ursula Yovich depict all of the characters, past and present, who bring about Scrooge’s transformation. Carroll is pretty scary as Jacob Marley, rising from a trapdoor with wraith-like hair. Box is great fun as Christmas Present, decked as a gold Christmas tree and Miranda Tapsell is appealing as poor little Tiny Tim. This is a very truthful adaptation that pushes all the emotional buttons. Carol Wimmer The Pavilion By Craig Wright. Boutique Theatre Company. Abbotsford Convent (Vic). Oct 30 to Nov14 CRAIG Wright sets his story at a high school reunion in Pine City, Minnesota. Welcome back, Class of ’95. Peter and

Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au

L-R: Ethan Gibson, Nicholas Eadie, Emma Strand and James Hughes in Scandalous Boy. Photo: Lorna Sim.

Kari once were a couple, the ‘cutest couple’ in their year. But that was twenty years ago when they were seventeen. Kari fell pregnant and Peter left town. Peter is ‘romantic’. Kari is matter of fact. And the salient facts are that Peter abandoned her and that she’s married - unhappily maybe, but married. Director Byron Bache trusts the text and his cast enough to eschew gimmickry. Nick Casey’s design and Matt Osborn’s lighting work together to create a simple but suggestive look. Peter doesn’t really acknowledge that what he did twenty years ago was all that bad and he assumes Kari will forgive him because that’s what he wants. Tim Constantine, as Peter, comes across as a nice enough guy, but there’s no spark. Katherine Innes as Kari is attractive in a cool and steely kind of way. She exhibits a kind of strength that lessens Peter’s chances. The third cast member is the Narrator. Claire Pearson handles this task extremely well. She’s fun and gets a lot of laughs. Best of all, she drops in and out of glimpses of Peter and Kari’s clearly delineated class of ’95 classmates - who all have their problems too. What saves The Pavilion from a trite and sentimental ‘happy ending’ is its unsentimental honesty. Craig Wright has written an unromantic, indeed anti-romantic, story. It’s a subtle piece of writing that takes you quite deliberately, but believably and inevitably, to a tougher destination. Michael Brindley

Scandalous Boy Written and Directed by David Atfield. The Street in association with David Atfield. The Street Theatre, Canberra. 14-23 November, 2014 ANTINOUS, the Roman Emperor Hadrian’s young lover, inspired a religion and dozens of exquisitely beautiful statues of his perfectly proportioned naked form. And it’s these statues that give Scandalous Boy its aesthetic - the colours of the set and lighting are the rich and muted cream of marble. Most strikingly, though, Antinous himself is presented as a statue coming to life to tell his story. Like the statue, at the outset he is naked, and remains either completely or close to naked throughout. Playing the lead, Ethan Gibson is a calibrated mix of vulnerability and chutzpah. One important part of the equation is his classically beautiful body, and Gibson is not only completely uninhibited about every bit of himself being on display, but is strong enough to develop a character that evolves from naïve to cunning, finally becoming as manipulative as he needs to be to survive on the knife-edge of being the consort of a Roman Emperor. Interestingly, Hadrian (Nicholas Eadie) seems to be the naïve character. As the top of the status pile, he is at liberty to indulge a genuine love affair, while every other character by necessity practices degrees of sexual and political subterfuge. Hadrian’s infatuation with the young Antinous makes him vulnerable to manipulation, which the younger man exploits, much to the horror of Lucius (an advisor and ex-lover of Hadrian, played by the ubiquitous Raoul Craemer) and bemusement of Hadrian’s wife Sabina (a

Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au

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slinky Emma Strand). The play teases out this tangle of sexual politics in a raw and honest way, not shirking from almost brutal sex scenes. Obviously, this is not a show for children, or anyone who is likely to be offended by nudity and sex. Scandalous Boy is a confident, gutsy addition to the genre of Queer Theatre. Cathy Bannister Leap of Faith Music by Alan Menken. Lyrics by Glen Slater. Book by Janus Warren & Cercone Leight. Director: Nick Yates. Musical Director: David Russell. Choreogrpaher: Craig Nhobbs. Hills Musical Theatre Company. Castle Hill RSL. Australian Premiere Season. Oct 30 - Nov 2. LEAP of Faith is based on the Steve Martin movie where Martin’s fake preacher, Jonas Nightingale, runs a revival show while milking the locals, leaving before they realise it. The revivalists are forced to stop in a poor town. Nightingale becomes involved with Marla, who lost her faith when her husband died in a car crash that also disabled her son. She sees through Nightingale’s scam. However, this is not The Music Man gospel-style. Director Nick Yates does a great job. The cast are excellent. David Bleier makes Jonas his own. Elizabeth Hogan’s Marla is a perfect foil to Jonas’s con. Penny Pettigrew, Emma Scarlis, Jacqueline Bramwell, Adam Haynes and Luke Arthur as the other leads were all believable. The townsfolk and Nightingale’s back-up choir were entertaining. Accents and mannerisms were credible. Keith Macbeth’s set didn’t upstage the cast, and Craig Nhobbs again shows why he is a sought-after choreographer. I was sold on the singing, the cast nailing the Gospel and Broadway belt. Congratulations to MD David Russell for the vocal work. Some qualms: a lighting black spot, and some costumes didn’t flatter. Some slower songs outstayed their welcome, but all was forgiven with the up-tempo material, especially the powerful opening and closing numbers. Leap of Faith originally flopped on Broadway. Given the quality of this production it’s hard to see why. Here’s hoping this paves the way for others to stage it. Peter Novakovich 1790 a tale not often told By Robert Thomson. Lend Lease Theatre Darling Harbour. Nov 13 - 15. THIS is a tale of the relationship forged between Arthur Phillip, Governor of the colony of NSW, and Bennelong, a member of the local Gadigal people, during the first three years of the settlement of Australia. This was likely the first significant relationship between a white European and an Australian aboriginal. This story might have been told as an essay, a novel, a pageant, a film or theatre. To craft such a tale it is necessary to study the diaries, letters and despatches of those involved and, like all historians, lay down a narrative, and, like all writers of stories, create dialogue and movement to express the thoughts of the characters and 68 Stage Whispers

further the plot. The writer has chosen to tell his story through a large theatre production, which may be why this play does not fully realise the drama inherent in this moment of history. The play has scores of scenes and a cast of nineteen actors. This makes 1790 a difficult play to stage, requiring capable and innovative direction, together with creative and effective production, sound and lighting design. A wide featureless stage, bright lights, little music and few sound effects marred this production. The gaps were never closed between actors traipsing on and off stage, which created many voids in the narrative, depleting the tension and drama. And, as often happens with large casts in independent theatre, performances were delivered at varying levels of quality. Outstanding performances were delivered by Andrew Steel (Governor Phillip), Calib James and Dudley Levell. Given its historic significance, 1790 deserves future seasons. Stephen Carnell Requiem for Dalinka By Peter Marks & Ben Pfeiffer, dramaturgy by Deborah Rechter. Gasworks Theatre, Albert Park (Vic). Nov 12-22. THE story, set in a fictional concentration camp in eastern Poland after the Nazi surrender, aspires to dramatise big and important questions of contemporary relevance, such as how far might we transgress in order merely to survive. Only four Jewish musicians are kept alive to ‘entertain’ their Nazi gaolers. The latter know they are finished: they cling to their beaten ideology, they fantasise, they despair. However, two thirds to three quarters of the dialogue was indecipherable on opening night. Crucial speeches and interchanges, delivered by actors who appear to be excellent, became a distant burble, as if from a radio three rooms away. This drags down a production which otherwise excels visually in cast, design and lighting. The design by Jeminah Alli Reidy is simply brilliant. Benjamin Morris’ lighting design superbly complements Ms Reidy’s simplicity. If we leave aside the audibility of the dialogue, the show holds one’s attention due to Mr Pfeiffer’s startling mise en scène. This is a show that is constantly visually exciting in its groupings, its configurations and movements. Mr Pfeiffer is well served by his cast: Steve Turner, George Lingard, Tim Wotherspoon, Luke Mulquiney, Grant Foulkes, Matt Furlani, Zak Zavod and - quite outstanding - Katya Shevtsov. What a damn shame the text is smothered. Michael Brindley Pennsylvania Avenue By Joanna Murray-Smith. Melbourne Theatre Company (Vic). Director Simon Phillips. Musical Director: Ian McDonald. Set and Costume Designer: Shaun Gurton. Video Designer: Chris More. Southbank Theatre, The Sumner. Nov 8 - Dec 20 PENNSYLVANIA Avenue is less about script, and more about performer. Playwright Joanna Murray-Smith has, after all, written this one-woman show for Bernadette

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Bernadette Robinson in Pennsylvania Avenue. Photo: Jeff Busby.

Online extras! Simon Phillips discusses Pennsylvania Avenue. Scan the QR code or visit http://youtu.be/nfgV9LM1xiE Robinson to play, and what a performer she is. Director Simon Phillips completes the Trinity with his return to MTC. A contemplative tone pervades as Harper reminiscences on her retirement day after 40 years service in the East Wing of the White House. Her improbable impact on Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Ford, Nixon, Carter, Reagan and Bush resembles a Forrest Gump influence. Essentially the appeal of this work are the multiple vocal characterisations (or is it caricature?), of each distinctive vocal style and timbre. These include Barbra Streisand, Maria Callas, Bob Dylan, rather too much Marilyn Monroe, Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald, and Tammy Wynette. Reread that list, add half-a-dozen others, and you can imagine how exceptional, fascinating, mesmerising, and amusing each chapter was. Renditions of ‘Don’t Rain On My Parade’, ‘I’ve Got Rhythm’ and ‘Respect’ wrought thunderous applause and Robinson’s depiction of Bob Dylan was simply delicious. An impressive ensemble, positioned behind a semi-transparent curtain, drove and underwrote the songstress with aplomb. The curtain was punctuated with six small screens, within timber picture frames, that variously illustrated the monologue with images. Murray-Smith is a formidable playwright, however at times the script bordered on self-indulgent. Such is the danger of leaning exclusively on a single perspective. For mine, it was rather too heavily weighted towards Marilyn Monroe early in the piece. A wonderful treat for those with long memories, who relish powerful singing. Lucy Graham

One Slight Hitch By Lewis Black. Galleon Theatre Group (SA). Domain Theatre, Marion. Oct 23-Nov 1. THERE’S not a hitch or a hiccup in Galleon Theatre Group’s Australian Premiere production of Lewis Black’s wedding day farce, One Slight Hitch. Set in the 1980’s in a middle-class American household, the characters in the play are deliberately portrayed as larger-than-life, which fits the chaos and improbable scenarios that beset Doc and Delia Coleman on the day their middle child Courtney is to marry dull and nerdy Harper after her unsuccessful relationship with Ryan, a freethinking drifter. Laura Antoniazzi is absolutely delightful as the Coleman’s youngest daughter, teenager ‘PB’, who also narrates the story from her point of view. Maxine Grubel is hysterically funny as the mother. She increases the laughs with skill as her character becomes more and more substance-affected. Andrew Clark is wonderful as Doc Coleman, a man who is always one step behind the pace when it comes to his three daughters’ shenanigans. Megan Langford is hilarious as the worldly eldest daughter Melanie. As middle daughter and bride Courtney, Molly McCormack is fantastic, while Luke Budgen is very fine as the bridegroom Harper. As the bride’s former boyfriend Ryan, Jabez Retallick doesn’t quite carry off Ryan’s radical, off-beat personality. Kym Clayton keeps the energy and pace at full throttle. This experienced director is clearly completely at home with the difficult art of successful farce. Lesley Reed

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Paul Denny, Ray Chong Nee, Rory Kelly and Kate Cole in Red Stitch’s Jumpers For Goalposts. Photo: Jodie Hutchinson.

Jumpers for Goalposts By Tom Wells. Directed by Tom Healey. Red Stitch Theatre Company, St Kilda. Nov 19 - Dec 20. JUMPERS for Goalposts is a beautifully written, thoughtprovoking play - the title refers to the predilection of English folk to improvise a game of soccer using whatever facilities are to hand. ‘Barely Athletic’ are an amateur soccer team consisting of three gay men and one token straight, none of whom appear to be any great shakes as players. This doesn’t stop their lesbian coach Viv from being determined that they’re going to win a trophy which she can proudly display on the wall of her pub. But this is not really a play about the British national sport - rather it’s a love story between two young men, one of whom is a bookish, insecure virgin, and the other a likeable, decent bloke burdened with an awkward secret which he knows he needs to bare if they’re to have any chance of an honest and successful relationship. The core of the play is the developing relationship these two, and it was carefully, delicately played by Johnathan Peck and Rory Kelly, both of whom deserve kudos for their honest, emotional performances. The remaining cast were equally good, with Kate Cole, Ray Chong Nee and Paul Denny all bringing to life distinctive, memorable and well-rounded characters, complete with convincing Humberside accents. I could really find nothing to fault in this production everything works beautifully, from the direction and performances to the pacing and set design. Alex Paige 70 Stage Whispers

A Midsummer’s Nightmare Open Cage Ensemble. 48 Watt, Newcastle. Dec 3-5. A MIDSUMMER’S Nightmare began with a woman using an endless list of initials of organisations associated with disabilities as she voiced her frustration at the lack of genuine support and understanding she had received from them for her mental health problems. Director Erika Gelzinnis developed this engaging work in association with cast members who, like her, have physical or mental disabilities, and drew on her own recent experiences when she was hospitalised for 38 days after a mental breakdown. Her emails quoted in the play showed that she was switched from one organisation to another, without her queries being resolved. And a character based on a friend who tried to visit her in hospital on several occasions voiced irritation at the way she was offhandedly treated by reception staff. If the above makes A Midsummer’s Nightmare sound like a grim work, it wasn’t - though there were Grimm elements to it, with the woman based on Gelzinnis and played endearingly by Ruby Cooper seen as a present-day princess locked in a tower. And early references to people with disabilities often being lost in a forest when dealing with authorities gave rise to charmingly staged scenes from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, that included songs written and performed by two of Erika Gelzinnis’s caring sons, Cosmo as Puck, and Harry as Oberon and Bottom.

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Jonathan Taylor, Natasha Herbert, Paul English, Helen Morse, Nicholas Bell and Brigid Gallacher in Dreamers. Photo: Jeff Busby.

The performers with physical and speech difficulties showed what they could do when given the chance, with Janelle Bortkevitch’s Titania and Meredith Johnson’s Princess Frog involved in lovely dance routines developed by a team led by Monique Horadam and Emma Stephenson. The set design by Erika Gelzinnis and Suzanne Bancroft presented a strong contrast between the rigid imprisoning tower with its hospital bed and the forest around it, with a mix of timber and silver metal trees, made by ensemble members and supporters. Likewise, the costumes for the forest scenes, with colourful tops and headpieces by Mary Misceva, were in marked contrast to the uniform-style dress of the trapped princess. A Midsummer’s Nightmare was appropriately staged in Disability Awareness Week. Ken Longworth Dreamers By Daniel Keene. Directed by Ariette Taylor. Fortyfivedownstairs (Vic). Nov 6 - 30. ANNA is a 60-something widow, a piece worker in the clothing trade. Majid is a 20-something Muslim immigrant, homesick, isolated. Two lonely people fall in love - and find their love threatens and ‘disgusts’ the angry and fragmenting community that surrounds them. Director Ariette Taylor and designer Adrienne Chisholm imaginatively create, by suggestion and poignant detail, Anna’s tiny flat, Majid’s boarding house room, a construction site, a pub, a café, a bus stop and the street.

Andy Turner’s lighting and Sam Bolton’s sound design strengthen the illusion. Helen Morse gives Anna dignity, strength and a matterof-fact tenderness. Yomal Rajasinghe, as Majid, in his first professional role, imbues his character with layers of naiveté, bewilderment, sweetness and anger. The rest of the cast cannot be faulted, although Brigid Gallacher is underused as Carole, Anna’s daughter. Natasha Herbert is a good time gal and vituperative nasty racist. Nicholas Bell is the sour and defeated neighbour. Marco Chiappi, spitting bile in his rumbling bass voice, is a construction site foreman. Paul English brings pathos to his disappointed, half-heartedly racist Ticket Inspector. And Jonathan Taylor is the little guy who agrees with the big guys. Anger at racism, however, doesn’t necessarily lead to a great play. While the love story is poignant, it doesn’t quite convince as much more than a kind lady being hospitable. Mr Keene also seems to have little new to say about racism and racists. Ms Taylor breaks up the darkness with flashes of physical humour and such things as a dance routine with wheelie bins, but these feel arbitrary. To discuss the ending would involve giving it away, but the story stops rather than ends. We have been moved, touched and frightened, but we are - really - left hanging. Perhaps that is intentional. Mr Keene is asking, ‘What are you going to do about this?’ Michael Brindley

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James Cromwell and Guy Edmonds in Rupert. Photo: James Morgan

Reviews: Plays Rupert By David Williamson. Daniel Sparrow Productions. Theatre Royal, Sydney. Director: Lee Lewis. Nov 29 - Dec 21. LAST year’s hit MTC production of David Williamson’s revue-style portrait of Rupert Murdoch here returns for a short Sydney season on its way to London’s West End. It has the same vibrantly theatrical direction by Lee Lewis and the same simple but effective design by Stephen Curtis. Williamson moves carefully, no doubt mindful of offending his subject, the most powerful media mogul on earth. He gives just the accumulated Googled facts, presented as a sort of lecture with the aid of a slick team of comedy revue artists. Moral judgments are left to the audience. Imported star James Cromwell is the contemporary Rupert, a genial host with an all-powerful remote control zapper. One of his team (Guy Edmonds) plays himself as a driven young man, and then continues to play him exactly the same into feisty old age. Between them, the other eight pierrots play an avalanche of characters, from world leaders (Jane Turner is fleetingly excellent as Margaret Thatcher) to bewildered media opponents - Glenn Hazeldine, Bert LaBonté and Scott Sheridan bring the house down as a cartoon Packer family. Danielle Cormack allows us to see the pain of a devoted, then left-behind wife. HaiHa Le is vibrant in pretty much every guise she adopts. Cromwell is a problem. Okay, he’s an excellent actor, able to deliver a two-and-a-half hour lecture with complete 72 Stage Whispers

assurance. But Rupert Murdoch he ain’t. Did anyone notice how super-tall he is? Did they realise he has an American accent? Maybe nobody will notice in London. Frank Hatherley Gasp! By Ben Elton. Directed by Wesley Enoch. Heath Ledger Theatre, Northbridge WA. Oct 25 - Nov 9. BLACK Swan State Theatre Company and Queensland State Theatre Company's co-production of Gasp! is a fascinating production with an intriguing story-line. Gorgeously presented, it is a celebration of the brilliant mind of Ben Elton. Christina Smith's stark and clean, multi-locale set has beautiful lines and the multiple locations are handled with smooth, tracked transitions. Trent Suidgeest's imaginative and fun lighting design works intrinsically to support the production. Ben Elton's script has obviously been heavily revamped for new audiences and a new time. The comedy is clever, often risky and sometimes steps over the line of good-taste. The cast works extremely hard. Damon Lockwood is dynamic in the central role of Phillip, maintaining a strong energy throughout. He is well supported by Greg McNeill, Steven Rooke, Caroline Brazier and Lucy Goleby. I have really mixed feelings about Gasp! While I admired almost everything about the production values, the efforts of the cast and the wonderful mind of Ben Elton, the production as a whole felt lacking and for me, did not have the strength I expect from Black Swan. The audience on

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Opening Night found the show hilarious and I would recommend the show to fans of Ben Elton and irreverent non-PC comedy. Kimberley Shaw Blue/Orange By Joe Penhall. Ensemble Theatre (NSW). Oct 29 - Nov 29. THIS sardonic look at race, mental illness, ambition and the inadequacies of medical systems is laced with caustic humour that skilfully diffuses the seriousness of the themes. On a set overhung by a cloud-like backdrop with a sculptured sphere, sometimes orange, sometimes blue, Anna Crawford’s direction has concentrated on the strength and depth of the characters and the three-way tug -of-war that lays bare their frailties - and their ability to manipulate and deceive. Christopher (Dorian Nkono), a black English patient is suffering from schizophrenia and delusions (he believes he is the son of Idi Amin), and due to be released from hospital. Drug and caffeine deprived in hospital, he is jumpy and on edge and Nkono depicts this with convincing intensity and almost animal cunning. Bruce (Ian Meadows), the young psychology intern, is not convinced his patient is ready for release and has called for the advice of his supervisor. Meadows depicts the underlying pressures of the archetypical young probationary doctor with great clarity. Concern, anxiety and the need to gain permanency are all evident in Meadows’ tighter and tighter efforts at control. Robert (Sean Taylor) is the ambitious supervising Consultant, who is more concerned about management than patient welfare. Taylor is convincingly nauseous in this role, and sustains the sneering, supercilious arrogance of the character with consummate ease. Carol Wimmer In the Next Room or, The Vibrator Play By Sarah Ruhl. Hobart Repertory Theatre Society. Playhouse Theatre, Hobart. Director: Steven Jones. Oct 24 - Nov 8. A PLAY about the history of the vibrator is a fascinating subject. The sexual subject matter was enhanced by the themes of love and misunderstanding between men and women, and gender, class and race inequality. The action coincides with the dawn of electricity and 1880s Victorian social environment. The new technology was being utilized by medical practitioners, lucratively, to treat so-called “hysteria”. Cleverly written, well staged, beautifully acted, this scintillating sex comedy looked good and was surprisingly un-shocking, despite orgasm simulations. The cast relaxed into the play when the audience relaxed and laughed-out-loud. Steven Jones dispensed sensitive, skilful direction; Nicolle Ottrey designed and made sumptuous costumes. The charming set was divided between two rooms - parlour and doctor's office. Quinn Griggs was uptight, overly professional Dr Givings, happy to dispense sexual gratification to his patients via his vibrator invention, while withholding it from his wife. Hannah Just (Catherine Givings) graced the stage.

Kath Uziallo as “hysterical” female patient Sabrina Daldry and her boorish husband Roger Chevalier (Mr Daldry) illustrated the sexual politics. Luke Leitch played Leo Irving the “hysterical” artist with flair and sensitivity. Anne Cordiner (Annie the nurse) and Blancy Otto (Elizabeth the wet nurse) were well cast. In the Next Room is about love and lack of communications. Merlene Abbott Over The River and Through The Woods By Joe DiPietro. Directed by Dexter Bourke. 1812 Theatre, Upper Ferntree Gully (Vic). Nov 20 -Dec 13. DIRECTOR Dexter Bourke gives us a wonderful, funny and poignant production with a stellar cast who have a combined total of more than 350 years of life experience, which they share lovingly with the audience. As Frank, the laconic old Italian who hammers the message of family first, octogenarian Nick Martin is so deliciously real that you forget completely he is playing a role. Valerie Mitchelmore brings warmth and depth to Frank’s wife Aida, a woman who solves everything with food and still loves her husband after 60 years. As Nunzio, Nick’s other grandfather, Howard Proctor excels as dying man who refuses to reveal the truth that would make his Grandson stay. Jackie Hutchison is Emma…with her dyed hot flame hair, her “ageless” fashion style, and her pro-active approach to life. She’s the perfect take on the grandmother who refuses to grow old or conform. Ian Johnson (Nick) has beautiful comic timing, and real warmth makes him the perfect foil for the scheming oldies. Becky Lee (Caitlin) is totally convincing as the slightly desperate 30 something spinster. Bourke has not only brought out the best in his cast, he has choreographed the whole production beautifully and convinces us that we are actually in that house (designed by Patrick Loverso and built by 1812 members). The soundscape by Robin Le Blond (he also did the lighting), complete with Sinatra favourites, completes the illusion perfectly. This is Community Theatre of the highest order. Coral Drouyn Platonov By Anton Chekhov. Mophead, Catnip Productions and ATYP. Nov 5 - 22. THERE hasn’t been a bad Anthony Skuse production all year - and there have been many. Skuse is a master artist; he re-sculpts and re-jigs but always remains respectful of the source material. Platonov, under the direction of Skuse, is no exception. Certainly not one of Chekov’s best plays, in the hands of a hard-working and inspired cast, the wonderfully intimate ATYP space, and Sir Skuse, we forgive the relentless, depressing plod of Platonov. A group of wealthy 20-somethings sit around drinking good wine and eating their fill while they bad mouth their

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lazy forefathers. who have left Russia in its sinking, hopeless state. Platonov is hallmark Chekov in its themes but lacks the complexity of ideas and their eloquent articulation his later works contain. After all, Chekov was 20 years old when he wrote Platonov and the unpublished, untitled work was consigned to a safety deposit box for over a decade after his death. Yet the energy and attack of this production keep you leaning in to pick up every detail as these characters lounge and leap before us. Charlie Garber as Platonov never misses a beat. His characterisation is equal parts irritating and lovable because we see the fight and the pain in his eyes. Sam O’Sullivan’s Isak and Matilda Ridgway’s Sasha are the two other stand-outs amidst a capable cast. Maryann Wright Three Tall Women By Edward Albee. Cairns Little Theatre. Directed by John Hughes. Nov 7-15. CAIRNS Little Theatre’s production of Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women is a well-acted play performed in-theround on a very polished Rondo stage. Directed by John Hughes, the play is about one woman’s journey, with three actors playing the same woman during three different stages of her life. Interestingly, the women interact with each other. What would it be like to have a conversation with your younger self? This is what Albee explores so brilliantly. Though the play is wordy, the actors, Cath Willacy, Carey Leahy and Sophie Berry-Porter, have strong stage presence and energy to make this an entertaining evening of theatre. Leahy in particular is a ball of energy as the play develops. The set is well designed and complemented by good lighting. The only flaw is the weak American accents. Ken Cotterill

Blithe Spirit By Noël Coward. Canberra Repertory. Directed by Kate Blackhurst. Theatre 3, Canberra. Nov 21 - Dec 6. THE inaugural season, in 1941 London, of Noël Coward’s tale of the catastrophic results of a seance was so successful in raising war-weary spirits - so to speak - that it ran for years. Surely Canberra Rep’s present production would have been equally successful, hitting, as it does, all the right notes. Deadpan lines are delivered to devastating humorous effect. The lights rose, on Rep’s opening night, to illuminate a set whose sumptuousness brought audience applause. It takes quite a team to build a substantial set such as this production relies on, and Canberra Rep has been fortunate in the design and coordination that Russell Brown and Andrew Kay consistently provide. We soon met the maid, Edith, scurryingly conscientious; the affable head of the household, Charles; and his correspondingly restrained wife, Ruth, as the household prepared for an amusing evening of table-rapping with a couple of guests. All three characters and the ghost of Charles’s former wife, Elvira, were particularly engaging. Emma Wood, as Ruth, displayed a supernatural facility for comic timing, upon which the play’s humour hinges. Peter Holland was the perfect choice for the congenial English gentleman. Anita Davenport made great mischief as Elvira’s ghost. And Repertory newcomer Yanina Clifton played perfectly the diffident maid, Edith. You won’t regret seeing Rep’s production of this classic at least once. John P. Harvey

Once Upon A Midnight An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe. New Farm Nash Theatre. Oct 31 - Nov 23. IF you’ve heard about Poe’s famous tales of romance, mystery and the macabre, this is a handy sample bag to Sordid Lives By Del Shores. Playlovers (WA). Hackett Hall, Floreat. Nov 6 introduce you to his works. - 22. The company chose four stories in various styles, all but PLAYLOVERS' Sordid Lives is a kooky black comedy with one adapted to the stage by a Nash playwright, and director Sandra Harman cast ten fine actors to bring these moments of depth. stories to life on the stage. An interesting challenge? Yes, David Gardette’s strong cast create a conniving family and they brought it off. group performing on the Texan-flag floored stage. Sordid Lives was introduced with nicely performed songs Let’s start with the stories: The Masque of the Red by Jane Anderson. Grace Hitchin was convincing as Sissy. Death, adapted from the J. E. Ballantyne Jnr version; Ligeia, Highly strung Latrelle and wild, impulsive LaVonda were fun adapted by Ron Kelly; The System of Dr Tarr & Professor contrasts in the capable hands of Alide Chaney and Gillian Fether, adapted by Robert Mason; and The Black Cat, adapted by Elodie Boal. Binks. Andrew Baker was compelling as grandson, Ty. Given the world’s present obsession with ebola virus, Solid and brash support came from Olivia Hogan, Jason Wall, Michael Balmer and Sue Murray, while David Nelson The Masque of the Red Death was an appropriate opener. was strong and almost unrecognisable as DW and Clayton Then came one of Poe’s popular love stories, Ligeia (in Zwanenberg worth waiting for as flamboyant, crossreality a double love story), and The System of Dr Tarr etc. dressing Brother Boy. that dealt with a novel treatment for the insane. Finally, I Terry McCauley's costumes and wigs are gloriously trashy need to warn cat lovers, The Black Cat is not for you. and brilliantly bad-taste, while set changes are nicely Most important are the actors who are charged with executed. bringing this show to fruition: Elodie Boal, Joshua Byrd, A well presented, funny show that deserves its warm Paul Careless, Jonathan Collins, Taryn Crispin, Brendan reception. James, Samantha Lamont, Steve Pearton, Sandy Sharma Kimberley Shaw 74 Stage Whispers

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Online extras! Check out a preview of Othello by scanning the QR code or visiting http://youtu.be/oKZx8AtJEuw

Hazem Shammas and Renato Musolino in Othello. Photo: Shane Reid

and Reagan Warner. To them and their director, it’s a thumbs up from me! Jay McKee Othello By William Shakespeare. State Theatre Company of SA. Directed by Nescha Jelk. Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide. Nov 14-30. THIS Othello successfully drags Shakespeare kicking and screaming into the 21st century. The main action unfolds against a background of desert warfare, the sets chillingly evocative of battlefields in present day Iraq. The prevailing atmosphere of bleak desolation is enhanced by nuanced mood-lighting and the forceful, pounding, techno-infused score. The text remains largely unaltered, but the cast deliver Shakespeare’s dialogue with the fresh rhythmic inflections of modern street talk. The performances of the two leads are somewhat uneven. Hazem Shammas plays Othello with great dignity, and makes for a convincingly authoritative military leader. But he chooses to underplay the character’s jealous rage, diminishing the intensity of the play’s dramatic climax. Renato Musolino perfectly captures Iago’s burning resentment and delivers various conspiratorial asides with an amusingly cocksure swagger that provoked much hearty laughter from the audience. However, he didn’t project as much charm in relating to the rest of the cast as he did in relating to the audience, and at times it seemed implausible

that the other characters would trust Iago as readily as they do. Ashton Malcolm makes for an unusually bubbly, flirtatious Desdomona in an intelligent “thinking outside the square” performance. Much the same can be said about Elena Carapetis’ ballsy take on Emilia. Taylor Wiese and James Smith’s interpretations of Cassio and Roderigo are comparatively more conventional, but strikingly intense nonetheless. Blocking is visually arresting without being ostentatious, as is the realistic, rough n’ tumble fight choreography. All things considered, there’s not a dull moment. Benjamin Orchard Outward Bound By Sutton Vane. Town Square Theatre, Kalamunda (WA). Nov 14 - Dec 6. SUTTON Vane’s 1923 hit is an interesting concept. Ostensibly about passengers at sea, we realise that they are dead and bound for afterlife. Geoff Rumsey's thoughtfully designed, well-finished set and lighting gave interesting, subtle nods to the play’s surreal nature. This show featured three debuts, with Jason Milman, Nic Alexander and Les Marshall showing promise. They were teamed with experienced performers; Terry Hackett reprising a role she played in 1991, Alex Sutton as alcoholic Tom, a sweet Rosie Collyer, an unrecognisable John Pomfret and a delightful Kerry Goode. Geoff Rumsey played the ship’s steward superbly.

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A few line flubs were nicely recovered and the cast worked well as an ensemble. I wondered why only a few characters sported British accents in a pointedly English show and at times pace could have been better, but this production had a lovely feeling, which the audience quietly enjoyed. Kimberley Shaw

of an inoperable cancer, whilst Lewis at 41 is on the cusp of a brilliant writing career. For 70 minutes they verbally spar on God, Hitler, war, love, sex and the meaning of life, with occasional interruptions of BBC radio broadcasts, air-raid sirens, and bombers flying overhead to add some drama. Despite the fact that there is no inherent conflict in the play, it’s a totally engrossing evening thanks to finely attuned performances by William Zappa and Andrew Season’s Greetings Henry, and straight-forward direction by Adam Cook. By Alan Ayckbourn. Newcastle Theatre Company. NTC Zappa is a curmudgeonly but likeable Freud, unswerving in Theatre, Lambton (Newcastle). Dec 6-20. his opinions and beliefs, and adept at delivering the script’s BRING members of a family together for a few days over sharp and funny lines. I’ve rarely seen him give a better Christmas and the conversations flow, with happy performance. As his adversary Lewis, the younger-looking memories often leading to more argumentative comments Henry jousts like a verbal veteran and brings warmth and about things past. tenderness to the character. Playwright Alan Ayckbourn has clearly experienced this, Peter Pinne and the interactions between the hosts and house guests in Season’s Greetings have audience members smiling and It Could Be Any One Of Us laughing from the early moments. By Alan Ayckbourn. Directed by Erik Strauts. St. Jude’s Hall, Ayckbourn’s structure puts light and humour into Brighton (SA). Nov 13-22. potentially dark situations, with the action taking place in ONE dark and stormy night, frustrated composer dining and living rooms and a hallway backed by a Mortimer (Les Zeitlein) invites a former piano student, staircase. The audience often sees people in the three areas, Wendy (Bernadette Abberdan), to come visit him at his and the differences between their words and actions gives gothic mansion in the north of England, where his two rise to laughter. failed artist siblings, Brinton & Jocelyn (Jarrod Chave & Anita The strong teamwork of the actors, under the direction Canala), are also staying, along with Jocelyn’s philistine of Janet Nelson and Howard Rawlinson, ensured that the boyfriend, Norris (Jack Robins) and emo-teen daughter, humanity of the characters came through, with even the Amy (Georgia Bolton). Much bickering ensues until, most flawed people eliciting audience sympathy. eventually, someone dies and all the surviving guests are Brian Randell’s host, Neville, leaving his increasingly revealed to have a motive for murder. Ayckbourn wrote frustrated wife Belinda (Tracy Ebbetts) to do all the three possible endings, so the run will feature different planning and preparation of meals and other functions, murderers on alternate nights. was amusingly reflected in the behaviour of the male The argumentative dialogue contains many darkly comic visitors, with inept doctor Bernard (Patrick Campbell), zingers, but not enough to save the first act from dragging. married to Neville’s alcoholic sister Phyllis (Sandra Monk), Come act two, when the whodunit stuff kicks in, the pacing engaging in a laugh-raising rehearsal for a puppet show picks up, although the conclusion feels oddly abrupt. that he insists on staging every year for the children at the The formulaic material is given a lift by the hard work of family get-together. And the darker side of the people, the production team. Normajeane Ohlsson’s stylised set is especially Neville’s retired security guard uncle, Harvey suitably foreboding, the house’s twisted structure serving as (Michael Smythe), occasionally put chills into the comedy. a mirror of the characters’ fractured psyches. Leigh Season’s Greetings was certainly an appropriate show Wheatley’s eerie lighting and sound is similarly evocative. for the weeks before Christmas, as it made people reflect The colourful costumes (conceived by Maxine Bowles, Fran on their own seasonal behaviour while enjoying that of the Hardie, Myra Waddell & Jill Wheatley) are very eye catching onstage characters. and sometimes serve to provide an extra layer of comedy to Ken Longworth the proceedings. All of the cast deliver lively and uninhibited performances that are wildly unpredictable. Freud’s Last Session Benjamin Orchard By Mark St Germain. Director: Adam Cook. Strange Duck Productions. Cremorne Theatre, QPAC, Brisbane. Nov 26 Dec 7. Daylight Saving WHEN one of the world’s most infamous atheists meets By Nick Enright. Darlinghurst Theatre Company. Eternity a Christianity convert, the scene is set for a powerful Playhouse, Sydney. Director: Adam Cook. Oct 31 - Nov 30. INNER Sydney has recently seen professional revivals of meeting of the minds. When the atheist is the father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud and the Christian convert is three notable pre-1990 Australian plays. John Romeril’s Oxford Professor C.J. Lewis then the notches on the chilling The Floating World (1974) preceded the paint-fresh intellectual debate rise dramatically. In Freud’s Last Session, return of David Williamson’s Emerald City (1987), both at Mark St Germain imagines a meeting of the two the Stables Theatre. Now at the nearby Eternity Playhouse distinguished voices in Freud’s London study on the day comes Nick Enright’s 1989 farce Daylight Saving. Though England enters World War ll. The 83-year-old Freud is dying consistently entertaining, this one shows its age. 76 Stage Whispers

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Rachel Gordon and Ian Stenlake in Daylight Saving. Photo: Helen White.

While Romeril and Williamson constantly break free of their narratives to make points about their life and times, here Enright keeps his characters in their farcical straight jackets. There’s little else to consider except to admire the hurtling team of fine actors under Adam Cook’s direction. Felicity (Rachel Gordon) and Tom (Christopher Stollery) are a power couple living in a house with an allegedly stunning view of Pittwater. Tom leaves on business for America and, on the night the clocks go back after daylight saving, Felicity entertains Joshua (Ian Stenlake), a handsome US professor who was her first love. But their impending tryst is constantly interrupted by a horrendously selfish neighbour Stephanie (Helen Dallimore), and by Felicity’s ditzy mother Bunty (Belinda Giblin). Wine and oysters are scoffed; doors swing open and shut; mistakes are made and then swiftly remade. The Act Two arrival of brainless tennis ace Jason (Jacob Warner), “the Killer from Kiama”, adds further complications. Enright is happy to have set his bright theatrical mechanism into motion, but there’s nothing much else going on besides successfully fishing for laughs. Frank Hatherley

Court composer Antonio Salieri is celebrated in 1780s Vienna, even after the arrival of the precocious Mozart. But as he says on his deathbed decades later, Salieri’s curse was to see, beyond his peers, that Mozart was indeed a genius and his own music a mediocrity. He curses the unfairness of God and, driven by a corrosive envy, begins a life campaign to smile on Mozart but plan his destruction. This is a handsome, competent production and Stephen Lloyd-Coombs efficiently moves his sizeable cast around the small proscenium stage of the historic Genesian Theatre. Nick Hunter makes a strong voiced and credibly Italian Salieri but his envy, so vital in driving the play, appears just skin-deep. It should be etched into his smooth features and embitter every gesture - especially in the play’s stronger moments when we and poor Salieri hear flourishes of Mozart’s musical landmarks. Young Jasper Garner-Gore captures the likeness and scatological infantilism of Schaffer’s Mozart even if subtler character details are lost in the madness. Indeed, the play’s psychological drama is given less attention, and less imaginative use of the stage, than the more successful showpieces of court. These are nicely Amadeus dominated by the performance of John Willis-Richards as By Peter Shaffer. The Genesian Theatre (NSW). Oct 25 - Nov the eccentric Emperor Joseph and the striking costumes of 29. Peter Henson. AMADEUS is surely an eternal tale of genius and Martin Portus celebrity - and the vain struggle of us mere mortals to reach for the same blessings. Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au

Stage Whispers 77

Dangerfield Park By Sven Swenson. La Boite Indie and Pentimento Productions with the support of QPAC. Roundhouse Theatre. Oct 21 - Nov 5. DANGERFIELD Park and Angel Gear are companion pieces playing in repertory during October and November. In fact, Dangerfield Park is a much more pleasant and engrossing play than Angel Gear. The playwright examines the risks involved by gay men who seek sex partners in ‘beats’ at night. Hence danger field! A group of six gay men share a unit near a pleasant suburban wooded park. One goes into the ‘beat’, meets an attractive man who might be gay, and upsets his contact after which all his share companions learn is that he was attacked and is left critically injured. What works well is how Swenson examines all this Felicity Kendal in Hay Fever. objectively within the current legal Photo: Nobby Clark. parameters. In particular, the plot moves toward the court case. At this stage it almost becomes a documentary when the suspected attacker’s defence lawyers invoke the ‘gay panic defence’. Swenson obviously did a great deal of research, and quotes different stages of the development of the law. However, what engages us is the effect this physical attack has on the lifestyle of the friends. It is a sterling piece of theatre, well codirected by the playwright and Brian Lucas, for the cast of six. Jay McKee

Michael Simkins is beautifully bewildering as the diplomat guest Richard and handles his comic-business in Act 2’s word-game with riotous success, likewise Sara Stewart as the waspish Myra who effortlessly swishes around looking gorgeous and drinking cocktails. In the role of Clara, the hard-done-by maid, Lisa Armytage has no trouble getting multiple laughs, while Celeste Dodwell also scores as the vacuous flapper Jackie. Peter McKintosh’s sets and costumes are a period delight, instantly evoking the twenties and the grand country-house setting with eyecatching detail. This production has West End transfer stamped all over it, and following the Australian tour that’s where it’s heading. This is Coward as it should be done and it’s a blissful delight. Peter Pinne

The Darling Buds of May By Herbert Ernest Bates. The Therry Dramatic Society (SA) 6 to 15 November, 2014 THE Therry Dramatic Society, with Hayley Horton at the helm, have staged a delightful production of The Darling Buds of May, following the comings and goings of the loveable Larkin family, set against a backdrop of rural Kent in the 1950s. Pop Larkin, played superbly by Tim Williams, is rebellious in nature, providing for his family with various dalliances, but he has been remiss in paying income tax. When he and his brood return home from an expedition to buy fish and chips, they are met by an Hay Fever undernourished and timid tax By Noël Coward. Kay & McLean collector named Mr Charlton Productions and Theatre Royal (Charley); Ron Densley has Bath Productions. Director: Lindsay succeeded in creating a Posner. Playhouse, QPAC, multifaceted character; his transformation, ever so subtle, is a Brisbane, Oct 23 - Nov 8 and touring. joy to watch. Tracey Walker breathes life into Ma Larkin; NOËL Coward never dates, as this splendid production she is a wonderful foil for her boisterous husband and the of Hay Fever proves. His 90-year-old play is as fresh, frothy, chemistry between them is evident. Mariette, the eldest of and as frivolous as when he first wrote it, and this ensemble six children, played by Abby Hampton, has just the right amount of naughtiness to grab the attention of the play’s of actors, headed by the insouciant and delightful Felicity civil servant and the rest of ensemble of children work well Kendal, deliver each witty riposte with finesse. Judith Bliss, the aging actress at the head of the together to create the impression of a happy home life. household, is a comic gem, and Ms Kendal, who follows a Support roles were cast well with Megan Dansie as Edith long line of legendary performers who include Dame Edith Pilchester and Norman Caddick as The Brigadier Evans and Judi Dench, finally gets her chance to put her contributing authenticity and humour. Jamie Richards’ set design provided nostalgia and stamp on the part and the result is bliss. Whether seductively warbling a chansonette in French, being charm. The tree featured in the backyard was truly a work argumentatively disagreeable or chain-smoking, her comic of art. Costumes were of the period, but what transported timing is superb. Matching Ms Kendal for invention and you back in time were the catchy tunes from the 1950s that technique is Lindsay Posner whose direction is masterful. epitomised the rebuilding of a country after the war. Marvellous pregnant pauses are brilliantly built for laughs which continually stumble over each other. 78 Stage Whispers

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No real surprises here, in a simple, innocent script that provides a slice of family life that is full of innocence and appeal. Kerry Cooper

Les, he engages and beguiles the audience with snippets of his writing and funny anecdotes. Older, cold and a little lonely, he is much more introspective. Belle of the Cross looks at a different aspect of the Darlinghurst area - the street people of King’s Cross. Through the creation of ‘Belle’, based on people she met while living in the Cross, playwright Angelika Fremd recreates their “fragile and dramatic lives”. Directed by David Ritchie, Gertraud Ingeborg finds much of this as well as their tenacity and inherent strength. She is appealing, reaching out to the audience for understanding and acceptance of the choices people make, while not too far from the Old Fitzroy, the ‘Belles’ of today huddle in their doorways, on their benches, under their overpasses. Carol Wimmer

Farndale Avenue … A Christmas Carol Written and composed by David McGillivray and Walter Zerlin Jnr. Tambourine Mountain Little Theatre, Gold Coast. Director: Joan Stalker Brown. Nov 7 - 22. THE “girls” were at it again.... The members of The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Town’s Women Guild Dramatic Society decided to present Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol with the usual dysfunctional results. Joan Stalker Brown obviously had a ‘ball’ at rehearsals with this odd assortment of characters in the hands of the 5 ‘well intentioned’ members of the Guild. Tom, Dick and Harry The talented cast of Laney By Ray and Michael Cooney. McLean, Linda Simister, Sonia Adelaide Repertory Theatre. Nov Wagstaff, Tony Hall and Steve 20 - 29. Silansky between them, tackled 24 ADELAIDE Repertory Theatre has characters. chosen a ‘cracker’ of a comedy to Amid attempts to draft finish the year off. Farce can be a audience members to replace challenge to direct as pace and several of the performers delayed timing are vital, but director Ian due to traffic, the show began to Rigney’s wealth of experience gather speed not unlike a snowball shows as this play rockets along. careering down a hill. Tom and Linda Kerwood are The script gave everyone the preparing for a visit from Mrs opportunity to overplay to the hilt Potter from the adoption agency. including regular interference from As Linda, played nicely by Lana the local taxi drivers, police and Adamuszek, anxiously flits about talk-back radio via faulty audio preparing the home for their equipment. visitor she is coaching her equally The clever use of slides nervous husband Tom in the rules projected onto the back-drop of parenthood. Linda pops out to made scene changes very easy and buy some flowers and jn her with the assistance of the ladies absence we are introduced to “handy work” in making ALL the Tom’s brothers Dick and Harry Martin Portus in The Les Robinson Story. props; this show had all the (David Salter and Matt Houston); Photo: Katy Green Loughrey. trappings of a genuine “Farndale crazy misfits whose hare brained Avenue” presentation. schemes rain havoc on the Roger McKenzie responsible Tom and Linda. Salter and Houston were cast very well; their attention to detail meant every punchline The Les Robinson Story and Belle of the Cross was nailed. Straight-laced Tom, played by James Edwards, Sydney Independent Theatre Company. Old Fitz Theatre is a needed contrast to his wayward brothers. Glenn Vallen has fun as the drunken, trumpet playing, (NSW). Nov 18 - 29. SYDNEY Independent Theatre Company’s final non-English speaking grandfather, Andreas, while Tamara production at The Old Fitzroy is the revival of two short Bennetts is bursting with enthusiasm in her role as his plays set in the colourful precinct that SITCO has called granddaughter, Katerina. Stanley Tuck plays the curious home for 30 productions. local Constable Downs, who is forever trying to make sense The Les Robinson Story traces the life of an eccentric of the chaos he has encountered. Penny Hamilton-Smith writer who was part of Sydney’s bohemian scene from the plays Mrs Potter with just enough authority; add in 1920s to 1968. Based on Robinson’s zany stories in his gangster Boris, played by John Koch and you would be book The Giraffe’s Uncle, playwright Kieran Carroll and forgiven for thinking you were witnessing several plays director Ray Hadley resurrect Les Robinson in a moving concurrently. reconstruction. With a set and costumes that were fitting of the time and a well-lit performing space, the cast do justice to this Martin Portus plays Les with empathy and humour, finding the “Kafkaist fantasist” of his critics. As a younger Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au

Stage Whispers 79

Javeenbah Theatre Company’s Five Women Wearing The Same Dress.

ambitious tale. If you can forgive the absurdity of the plot twists then this show is sure to tickle the funny bone. Kerry Cooper Five Women Wearing the Same Dress By Alan Ball. Javeenbah Theatre Company, Gold Coast. Director: Dawn China. Nov 21 - Dec 6. ALAN Ball, the creator of TV shows and films like Six Feet Under, True Blood and American Beauty has penned this very witty dark comedy, set at the home wedding reception of Tracey and Scott: She is despised by all the Bridesmaids - the Five Women Wearing the Same Dress and he has had a fling (of sorts) with each of the Bridesmaids. The action takes place in Meredith’s bedroom: she is the bride’s sister and is joined by the four other rebels all taking refuge from the extended family and friends downstairs. The five are also related in one form or another - so let the bitching begin! Dawn China has directed a talented cast of Meredith Rachel Love, Frances - Riann Hartney-Smith, Trisha - Natalie Campbell, Georgeanne - Naomi Thompson and Mindy Kaela Gray, letting forth when they are joined by Tripp David Richardson, also escaping from the “celebrations” downstairs. The plot covers all the usual family discussions: sex, drugs, booze, same sex relationships, envy, more sex and so on...... The fabulous set, complete with floral wallpaper and great technical support, worked extremely well as the ‘den of iniquity’. Roger McKenzie 80 Stage Whispers

Sweet Road By Debra Oswald, Wyong Drama Group. The Grove, Wyong. Nov 6-15, RENOWNED as the creator of the phenomenally popular and successful TV Show Offspring, Debra Oswald had already carved a fine reputation for her witty and darkly humorous plays, most notably Mr Bailey's Minder. Sweet Road is a monologue-driven, inter-twining, bittersweet drama which would challenge any ensemble cast with it's multiple scene and set changes. Director Joshua Maxwell keeps it simple using chairs to imply cars (as well as chairs) and utilising projections, lighting effects and soundscapes to fill in the missing pieces of his eclectically-dressed, open, single set. Featuring a predominantly youthful cast of confident and capable performers, Sweet Road is as bumpy and meandering as the outback roads upon which it is set. While decidedly young for the roles they portray, Scott Russell and Jessica Pascuzzo are surprisingly well-cast as the bickering young white-trash parents; Kalani Hirst is a scene stealer as the ethereal, kooky hitchhiker; Marc Calwell and Scott Osborne poignantly portray male vulnerability, while Kyle Carlson and Cassie Room offer able support in their dual supporting roles. But it's Danielle Brame Whiting's pivotal character of Jo which provides the glue that holds the plot together, and she does a wonderful job of subtly exploiting both the humour and the drama in her dialogue without going over the top. Rose Cooper

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Richard Roxburgh and Dale March in Sydney Theatre Company’s Cyrano de Bergerac. Photo: Brett Boardman.

Cyrano de Bergerac By Edmond Rostand. Adapted and Directed by Andrew Upton. Original translation by Marion Potts. Sydney Theatre. Nov 11 - Dec 20. ANDREW Upton’s production blissfully resisted the temptation to update the period in which the play is set allowing the text and performance to shine. Richard Roxburgh played the “immaculately groomed on the inside” role of Cyrano with great charm and panache. He describes himself as looking like “a circus act stuffed with poetry”. Certainly his disfigured snout did not disappoint. Neither did the swashbuckling fencing scenes which made him sweat profusely. But the ugliest thing about Cyrano - as the text said was his self-pity. In love with his childhood friend Roxane (Eyrn Jean Novill) he is heart-broken when she arranges a secret rendezvous only to express her desire for the much handsomer soldier Christian (Chris Ryan). Christian knows that because Roxane can read he is sunk, because women run as soon as he opens his mouth. So (as anyone familiar with Steve Martin’s movie Roxane will know) Cyrano hatches a plan to ghost-write Christian’s love letters. The young attractive couple’s sweet appearance is a gorgeous foil for the frustrated Cyrano. The set was sparse but effective. The walls were stripped back, with a rotating set piece in the centre that doubled as a stage proscenium and building top. The original text has five acts and Upton’s adaption lasts over three years with interval.

But no one in the audience grew twitchy. They were hanging off every word swept along by a sublime night of comedy and romantic folly. David Spicer Charlie and the Chocolate Factory By Richard George, adapted Roald Dahl's story. Roleystone Theatre (WA). Nov 21 - Dec 6. ROLEYSTONE served up a delicious end of year treat for families. Director Lys Tickner has worked hard to add life to a lackluster script. The Golden Ticket winners were delightful. Patrick Butler a gorgeously gluttonous Augustus Gloop; newcomer Elise Maidment exuded pre-teen contempt as Violet; Stephanie Shaw showed lovely comic timing and facial expression as spoilt Veruca and Leo Rimmer beautifully focused with deadpan delivery as Mike. Seamus Harrison made an excellent Charlie, giving life, charm and personality to an underwritten role. Bradley Towton was dynamic as Willy Wonka, while Oliver Kaiser was an amiable narrator. An octet of Oompa Loompas added colour to the show. The plethora of parents were played with enthusiasm with Patrick Meyer, in a stage debut, Natalie Cox and Kim Fletcher standing out. It’s lovely to see family-friendly entertainment receiving capacity audiences, having a lovely time. Kimberley Shaw

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Stage Whispers 81

Reviews: Musicals

Online extras! Kirby Burgess as Baby and Kurt Phelan as Johnny in Dirty Dancing. Photo: Jeff Busby

Dirty Dancing By Eleanor Bergstein. Sydney Lyric Theatre, The Star, Opening Night, December 3, 2014, then Melbourne’s Princess Theatre from 1 March 2015, the Lyric Theatre, QPAC from 27 May, and the Crown Theatre, Perth from 2 August. THERE was enough Dirty Dancing and fleshy beefcake on stage to elicit squeals of approval from women in the audience, who gave the evening the festive feel of a hen’s night. Throbbing hips, provocative swivels and even the occasional face buried in a convulsing crutch made it a saucy night out, in a clean cut 1960’s kind of way. Since Dirty Dancing The Musical premiered in Australia just over ten years ago, it has become more of a filmsical. Replacing the set in many scenes are video projections. This works very effectively in hastening the transitions around the scenic New York summer hotel where the action takes place. It was most delightful when the leading lady Kirby Burgess (Baby) and Kurt Phelan (Johnny Castle) practised their high lift dancing routine in the water. The story is not very demanding on the audience. The daughter of a Doctor falls for a working class dancer at the summer holiday. Her father doesn’t like him because he mistakenly thinks he has put another woman’s life in danger. We always know where it is heading. 82 Stage Whispers

Kirby and Kurt perform ‘I’ve had (The time of my life’. Scan the QR code or visit http://youtu.be/DU2i36t7FwE The unusual aspect of this musical or filmsical is that the leads don’t sing. Instead backing singers provide all the vocals. In this instance Mark Vincent was the impressive crooner. How successful the musical is relies on the way the leads communicate their developing relationship through gesture. In this case, Kirby and Kurt had a sizzling on stage chemistry that steamed up the glasses. Another stand out was Gabrielle Brown as Neil Kellerman, heir to the hotel - making his professional debut. He played the daggy suitor with such aplomb that it was almost like he was made for the role. Dirty Dancing is a slick fun night out. David Spicer You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown By Clark Gesner. Mainstage Theatre Society. Peacock Theatre, Hobart. Oct 23 - Nov 2. YOU’RE a Good Man Charlie Brown, a musical play based on the popular comic strip Peanuts, is a good vehicle for adults to enjoy being children again. Mainstage Theatre Company presented YAGMCB with a young energetic cast who looked how we imagine these known and loved characters to be. It was so easy for the audience to relate to their own “inner child”. Andrew John was meek, nervous, un-confident Charlie Brown. Melanie

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Brown was convincing as Sally Brown, Charlie Brown’s four year-old sister. Christopher Forbes as Snoopy was one of the best dogs I had seen on stage. Anna Kidd was shrill, whimsical, capricious and cute as Lucy Van Pelt. Jeremy Pyefinch danced and charmed as Linus, while Bodane Hattan was a delightful Schroeder. Choreography by Kristy Baker was varied but not too complicated, while simple style costumes in primary colours echoed the cartoon strip look. A scrim curtain behind the simple set hid the four band members playing percussion, bass, piano and flute, under the musical direction of Amanda Harper, who played flute and set the pace for two hours of energetic action. Director Don Gay developed each character to show the cheerfulness of the play, complete with the hidden anxieties and vulnerabilities that we know so well. The show was carried by the energy of the performers, loving their roles and having a good time. An uplifting experience! Merlene Abbott Home Grown Various Australian Musical Theatre Composers. Chapel off Chapel. Oct 26. SIX months ago Home Grown was started in the back room of a pub to give a platform for new Musical Theatre composers to showcase their work. Since then it has transferred to this larger venue and features some of our finest musical performers. Last night, skilfully Mced by Michael Dalton, we heard songs from 7 or 8 new musicals in development, played by their composers. Highlight for me was Jamie Burgess’ haunting ballad ‘Wishing On The Moon’, from his forthcoming musical The Invincible Moon. Sung by Jennifer Reed, it’s a leading lady’s dream song. The Uber-talented Shannon Whitelock - composer of Oprahfication- wrote a special number ‘Possession’, and we heard about an exciting new project - a musical based on Rodgers and Hart. Peter Rutherford, one half of Rutherford and Millar, composers of The Hatpin, accompanied Bronte Florian in a stunning rendition of the Courtroom Scene. Anthony Costanzo wrote a funny and poignant song specially for the theme, called ‘Halloween in Australia’. Rob Tripolino (without writing partner Hugo Chiarella) accompanied Angelique Cassimatis on two of his numbers from Guilty Pleasures and Belinda Jenkin and Will Harrigan offered the perfect ‘Haunted’ and then a fabulous number on Paranoia with the addition of Alexia Brinsley and Michelle Brasier. Hedger and Nicholson, who devised the concept of Home Grown, gave us ‘Back to Salem’, where they and Hondo (Andrew Hondromatidis) played 3 witches. That was followed with a first taste of their new musical Fables, with the Pied Piper’s song….just stunning. There were others too, composers and performers, who impressed with every number. It’s astonishing how many new musicals are waiting in the wings. Coral Drouyn

Sweeney Todd Music by Stephen Sondheim. Book by Hugh Wheeler. Spotlight Theatre, Benowa, Gold Coast. Directed and Choreographed by Tess Burke. Oct 24 - Nov 15. IF you like your musicals bright, light and colourful, then Sweeney Todd is not for you. The curtain opens onto a dark foggy night in old London and you can feel the tone of the complex story covering everything from betrayal to lust, greed, and murder. The title role was played brilliantly by Lionel Theunissen, with a large supporting cast: all with excellent singing voices under the baton of Matt Pearson. Russell Williams, Justin Coleman and Shelley Henderson designed a very clever movable set, changed quickly and smoothly by the cast, from Mrs Lovett’s pie shop to the bakehouse, then Todd’s barber shop. Ann McMahon as Mrs Lovett was a musical delight, bringing some light relief to the evening with some very witty lines singing about “waste not want not”, if you consider using Mr Todd’s victims in her meat pies funny... With a strong cast, it is sometimes hard to single anyone out, but as Tobias, the lad befriended by Mrs Lovett, Josh Lovell brought something special to the role. Sweeney Todd is a brilliant, clever but harrowing musical, and not one for the feint hearted Natalie Trengove Songs so Far Music & Lyrics: Alanya Bridge. Director: Penny Farrow. Musical Director: Luke Volker. Powerhouse, Brisbane. Nov 5 - 6. SONGS so Far showcases the work of young Brisbane songwriter Alanya Bridge. It features songs from the musicals Connect Four and What We Began in the first act, and a staged reading of excerpts from her newest work-inprogress Just a Phase in the second. Director Penny Farrow has gathered a group of strong musical theatre talent who dynamically bring this virgin material, top-heavy with songs of wrist-slashing angst, to life. Astin Blaik scored with “You You You”, Erika Naddei had a major moment with “Nothing Can Change the Heart”, Rex J Ablett’s was “All Things Come to an End” and Stephen Hirst was a funny drunk partner in “Home at Three”. Astonishing musical accompaniment was provided by Luke Volker on piano and a trio of strings. His orchestrations shone with their brilliance and were absolutely the star of the night. In the second act’s Just a Phase, Bridge wrote about a family’s struggle for connection following the father being struck down with Aphasia, a language disorder which is often caused by a stroke. Gary Holley and Alison McLennan handled the adult roles believably, but it was the natural performances of the kids, Lucy Hincho and Georgia Gaddes, that carried the piece. Bridge is young, talented, and keen, three essentials to pursue a career in musical theatre. All she has to do is keep at it. Peter Pinne

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Stage Whispers 83

La Cage aux Folles Music and Lyrics by Jerry Herman. Book by Harvey Fierstein. Based on the play “La Cage Aux Folles” by Jean Poiret. SUPA Productions (ACT). ANU Arts Centre. Nov 7 - 22. FABULOUS? It’s SUPA - of course it’s fabulous! Leave your cynicism at home and enjoy this hilarious, high camp, unabashedly sentimental story of love and come-uppance. La Cage aux Folles is a glitzy musical that shines with the over-the-top SUPA formula of live music, great performances, gorgeous costumes, dance and an innovative light show. SUPA’s interpretation is slick, professional, sidesplitting and heart-warming. Ben O’Reilly is just sensational as the glorious, aging drag queen Albin. Everything hinges on Albin’s star quality, and O’Reilly has that in spades. Not only does he look beautiful in make-up and sequins, he has a fantastic rich voice. Add to this his rapport with the audience, exquisitely camp delivery and flawless comic timing and you get the perfect Albin. Playing opposite him, Jarrad West brings nuance, depth and showmanship to Georges, Albin’s partner. There’s real chemistry between these two, still obviously deeply in love after twenty years together. The talent stretches back to the most minor character or dancer. Backing this up was Eclipse Lighting and Sound, with LED pictorial light panels filling in the background scenes, laser lights and fog machine. Some of the LEDs even made it onto the costumes as well for the spectacular finale. Cathy Bannister

Cats Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber. Lyrics: Based on Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot. Nova Music Theatre (Vic). Director: Noel Browne. Musical Director: John Clancy. Choreographer: Wayne Robinson. Oct 24 - Nov 9. CATS is an unusual musical. Based on a series of poems, there is no clear story line, so it is difficult to get involved with the characters. However, Nova made a strong case for this unique show. The set, by Chris White, was impressive. Not the usual rubbish dump, it looked more like a graveyard with columns and marble angels, with some steep platforms at the back to give extra levels. This was enhanced by some effective lighting. The costuming and makeup were amazing. This is a big dance show and the dancing was impressive, though on a relatively small stage it must have been difficult. I was amazed at the number of very good young male dancers and all the solo dancers were strong, though I’d have preferred more reaction from other cast members to the dancing. I also particularly liked the chorus singing, some of which was very high. As Deuteronomy, John Leahy did well with his strong voice, though he struggled a bit with the high tessitura. Lauren Page as Grizabella gave an excellent rendition of “Memory”, the only song well-known by the general public. Doing a lot of the heavy lifting were Christopher Howe and Ju-Han Soon as Munkustrap and Rum Tum Tugger. Both sang well and were excellent dancers. Brendan Legally Blonde O’Sullivan also shone in his short innings as Mr Music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin. Mistoffelees. Others to impress were William Kim, a Book by Heather Hach. The Hills Musical Company. Directed confident Skimbleshanks, the Railway Cat, and Carol by David Sinclair. Choreography by Linda Williams. Musical Whitfield as Jellylorum. Direction by Mark DeLaine. Stirling Community Theatre. It was an enjoyable night at the theatre. Nov 7 - 22. Graham Ford THE film Legally Blonde was a moderately cute and enjoyable, though fairly unremarkable, romantic comedy, Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. but this stage adaptation is a major improvement, and a Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by Hugh major success as a piece of entertainment. It is light and Wheeler. New Theatre (NSW). Director: Giles Gartrell-Mills. bright and breezy, giddy and gaudy and rowdy and Musical Director: Liam Kemp. Choreographer: Trent Kidd. rousing, at a level that leaves the movie pretty much in the Nov 18 - Dec 20. dust. All members of the featured ensemble deserve an ADAPTED from a blood and thunder melodrama, equally high level of praise for their unrelenting energy, Sweeney Todd tells the tale of a barber, a former convict impressive abilities and unstoppable spirit. who returns to London from Australia bent on revenge, and Perhaps the most surprising and rewarding aspect of proceeds slit the throats his customers, who are this production is the way it takes its story into imaginative subsequently baked into pies by his accomplice Mrs Lovett. flights of fancy that were rather timidly avoided in the film. Written as a large musical on an operatic scale, it The specifics of these sweet surprises will not be spoiled becomes a very different piece when pared back and here; suffice to say that any audience member who doesn’t presented acoustically. have a huge grin on their face, virtually from first scene to Clearly it’s ripe for reinterpretations, including this last, is probably beyond help. fluent, purposeful retelling by director Giles Gartrell-Mills, Could it be the ultimate compliment to declare about a atmospherically lit by Liam O’Keefe. musical play that by the end, you find yourself wishing you Yet, there are implications for Sweeney when the were up on stage, taking part in it? Such is the phenomenal musical becomes a chamber piece. Rich harmonic level of fun that the makers of Legally Blonde generate and complexities and nuances embedded in the orchestrations communicate to an audience. If you loved the film, see this disappear when the scoring is reduced to three hardshow. If you didn’t love the film, see this show! working musos and the balance shifts to the vocals, which Anthony Vawser the small band generally supports nicely. 84 Stage Whispers

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Gold Coast Little Theatre’s The Pajama Game.

Ensemble passages are major highlights, really packing a punch. Jaimie Lee Johnson, a gorgeous, delicate Johanna, and Josh Anderson’s archetypal dashing hero Anthony handle the young romantic side delightfully. Byron Watson’s Judge Turpin brings authority to the lecherous villainy of the role. Simon Ward’s foppish Beadle Bamford deliciously combines comedy and menace. As the beggar woman, Courtney Glass brings her Broadway experience to bear in a highly accomplished performance. Top of the pile, though, is Lucy Miller’s darkly comic Mrs Lovett, mining every ounce of the role’s complexity, and the wit of Sondheim’s lyrics. Justin Cotta creates a dark, brooding Sweeney, yet lacks the authoritative unamplified vocal chops to really nail the moments where his vocals are so pivotal to the dramatic intensity. The excellent ensemble, a near-constant presence, purposeful as a ‘Greek’ chorus commentary, feel sometimes superfluous when they do more conventional chorus stuff, like the pie-catching in ‘A Little Priest’, but they’re constantly committed to the vision. On a shoestring budget at New, this compact Sweeney represents a huge achievement. Neil Litchfield

The Pajama Game Book by George Abbot and Richard Bissell. Music / Lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. Gold Coast Little Theatre, Southport Director: Stuart Lumsden. Nov 8 - Dec 6. THE Pajama Game is GCLT’s final offering for 2014 and what a great show to end the year. The production, in the capable hands of Stuart Lumsden, with musical direction under the baton of Mary Walters and choreography by Clay English. The talented cast was a mix of seasoned performers and new recruits who worked well as a team. Featuring Louise Harris (Babe) and Chris Catherwood (Sid), the supporting principals included Leigh Harrison (Hines), Becky Morgan (Gladys), Lee Paterson (Mabel) and Noel Thompson as Hasler. Bright costumes and an adaptable set gave the show a ‘happy’ feel which was reinforced by the slick comedic performances of Gladys and Hines. The chorus, though lean on experience certainly made up for it with enthusiasm. The standout performance of the show was that of Nigel Tolsten: he had to be seen to be believed. A thoroughly enjoyable presentation. Roger McKenzie

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Stage Whispers 85

Gosford Musical Society’s Phantom Of The Opera. Photo: Hannalise Paris Photography.

High Society Music & lyrics Cole Porter, book Arthur Kopit. Players Theatre, Ballina (NSW). Nov 14 to Dec 6. BALLINA Players’ High Society was well received by the capacity audience. This effervescent tale, made popular by Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra in the 1956 movie, filled the theatre with Cole Porter’s infectious score and had the patrons humming along and tapping their feet right from the start. The production team of Paul Belsham, Director; Warwick Binney, Musical Director and Jaime Sheehan, Choreographer steered the cast along the course of “True Love” with all the twists and turns of the musicals of that era with great success. Liz van Eck - Tracy, Mike Sheehan - Dexter and Brian Pamphilon - Mike followed in the footsteps of their celluloid namesakes and with Di Ennew, Tahnee Arnold, Graeme Speed, Carl Moore, Allen Ennew and Rod Ramsey combined to recreate the High Society of the late 1930’s. Jamaika Smith, as the young daughter Dinah, gave a strong performance alongside the seasoned adults in the cast. Ballina productions are known for their technical support and this show was no exception. A simple set with a revolving panel made for slick scene changes adding to the quality of the show. Roger McKenzie

Notable performances in this cast of over forty included Chantel Bell, lovely, with warm authority, as Miss Mona, working wonderfully with dynamic and impressive Lea Tunbridge as Jewel. Scott Blachford was flamboyant as Melvin P. Thorpe, while Jesse Watts opened the show well as the band leader. Carole Dhu stood out among Miss Mona's girls. The girls looked fabulous, always gorgeously attired. Costumes, by Lisa Watt, were stunning and thoughtfully chosen for both character and era. There were some lovely moments. I enjoyed the Aggies' song (though would have liked to have seen greater numbers of young men) and ‘Hard Candy Christmas’ was a highlight. A capacity audience loved this slightly naughty, but always tasteful, musical comedy. Kimberley Shaw

The Phantom of the Opera By Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe. Gosford Musical Society. Director: Christopher Hamilton. Musical Director: Chris Hochkins. Choreographer: Bronwyn Russell. Laycock Street Theatre, North Gosford. Oct 18 - Nov 15. ARGUABLY the most famous of all 'modern' musicals The Phantom of the Opera took its sweet time in becoming available to Amateur production companies. With its The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas dynamic, operatic score, the crucial need for versatile, By Larry L. King and Peter Masterson and Carol Hall. Pinjarra evocative set design, vibrant costumes, special effects and Civic Centre (WA). Nov 14 - 28. last but not least - convincing actors, it's little wonder really. MURRAY Music and Drama Club's production was a Any 'amateurish' attempts at this production in particular wonderful looking show that had a very positive audience would come off more tragic than most. response. GMS's production is not merely accomplished, it is emphatic. Having spent several years touring the globe as 86 Stage Whispers

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one of the Ten Tenors, prodigal son Ben Stephens has returned to his old stomping ground to play a role tailormade for his emotionally-exquisite vocal range. The (shared) role of Christine was played on this occasion by the comely, graceful Vivienne Calwell who, along with Joshua Keane as Raoul, Sally Loughnan as Carlotta, Russell Hull as Ubaldo, Helen Herridge as Madame Giry - all more than held their own alongside Ben's searing and powerful performance. You know the costumes must be good when they get their own round of rapturous applause at the opening reveal of Act II. Along with the sublime set design, lighting, sound and musical direction, there certainly wasn't anything to nit-pick about. This was as good as it gets. Director Christopher Hamilton has clearly put his heart and soul into every single aspect of this show and a hardworking and dedicated cast and crew has more than risen to the occasion. Bravo! Rose Cooper

Beefy Courtney Underhill as Rusty also nailed one of the show’s biggest hits “Let’s Hear It for the Boy”, and displayed well-timed comic-chops working with Tom Holmes-Brown who played her slow-witted cowboy partner Willard. Holmes-Brown also scored with “Mama Says”, a second act eleven-o’clock-number with the boys that brought the house down. As the hellfire preacher Reverend Shaw Moore, Chris Kellett brought a convincing adult perspective to this clichéd coming-of-age tale and sang a fine “Heaven Help Me”. Top marks to O’Connor and his team of interns who made Footloose appear to be a better show than it really was. It was a perfect choice to showcase this group of young emerging talent. Peter Pinne

Nunsense By Dan Goggin. Bankstown Theatre Company (NSW). Oct 24 - Nov 2. Anything Goes DAN Goggin’s off Broadway frolic remains light-hearted Music and lyrics by Cole Porter. Wanneroo Repertory Club. fun, even after numerous return visits. The Limelight Theatre, Wanneroo WA. Nov 27 - Dec 13. Bankstown Theatre Company’s production introduced a WANNEROO Repertory’s Anything Goes was directed variation on previous incarnations I’ve seen, adding a small and choreographed by Terry Pirlo with musical direction by ensemble, and while this causes a few anomalies in the Michelle Claire. show’s basic premise, director Richard Blomfield made There were likeable performances. Jen Edwards, was a things work smoothly. confident, mature Reno, Caleb Robinson-Cook charmed as Bankstown understands perfectly how to make their Billy, Genevieve Newman's Hope was elegant and Justin black box theatre work, and the simple setting of a local Vallow was admirably awkward. Ryan Perrin embodied an hall looked just right, while ensuring the production flowed amiable gangster, Meg McKibben made a sweetly sexy seamlessly. Erma, while Tim Riessen and Loz Haines were a lovely comic Casting the five core nuns well, as Bankstown has, then pairing. playing every moment of silliness with genuine belief, it’s There was impressive choreography, although timing hard to fail with Nunsense. could be better. A highlight was McKibben's beautifully Leonie Johnson is a pocket rocket Reverend Mother, sung ‘Buddy Beware’. playing her authority to the hilt, but wickedly funny when It was wonderful to hear a live band, but execution she gets high. Katie Young nails the friendly rivalry as could have been more clean. second-in-command Sister Hubert effectively, throwing in a A pleasant show that needed greater pace and faster rousing gospel finish. Melissa Goman is a delightfully down pickup of lines from some performers. An enjoyable night, -to-earth Sister Robert Ann, grabbing her moments as the well-received by the full house. ambitious understudy with style. Dale Selsby goes the Kimberley Shaw whole gamut, revealing a surprising new talent with convincing country vocals as Sister Mary Amnesia. Adele Footloose Gillies mostly satisfies as Sister Mary Leo, though typically Music: Tom Snow. Lyrics: Dean Pitchford. Adaptation: Dean this role would be played by a stronger ballet dancer. Pitchford & Walter Bobbie. Director: Tim O’Connor. Choreographer: Dan Venz. Vocal Director: Sophie Woodward. Harvest Rain. Powerhouse, Brisbane. Nov 2730. HARVEST Rain’s second and third year interns created a storm of irresistible dancing heat when they burned-thefloor at Powerhouse with Footloose. Dan Venz’s moves and the charismatic performance of Ethan Jones as Ren were the big plusses of Tim O’Connor’s zippy production. Jones was a singing and dancing powerhouse, and a nice little actor to boot. Whether leading the company on the title tune or pouring his heart out in “Almost Paradise” with Get noticed on the Stage Whispers Genevieve Tree he won the audience with his empathy and website with a premium listing talent. With a big chest voice Tree was also strong as Ariel www.stagewhispers.com.au/directory-central and vocally delivered on “Holding out for a Hero”.

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Stage Whispers 87

Theresa Borg and Kane Alexander in Passion. Photo: Ben Fon.

Expanding the cast helps make Nunsense a viable choice for companies wanting to let more female members have a whale of a time, with several numbers working equally well for twelve as for five. Neil Litchfield Passion Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by James Lapine. Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse. Nov 5-8. THE music is exquisite: soaring, lyrical, uplifting and quite operatic. It is, after all, Stephen Sondheim. But the story is very European-which is a euphemism, in this case, for excessive and, at the same time, oblique. It’s a hard ask for an audience to engage. The sumptuous mobile part-sets by Rob Sowinski and Dave Bramble work a treat, the lighting design by Sowinski with Tom Warneke is quite beautiful and atmospheric. Guy Simpson and the orchestra are superb on all levels. Fine performers such as Jolyon James, Cameron Macdonald, Tod Strike, Glaston Toft and Troy Sussman (a director of this new company Life Like) play what are minor roles with great panache and style. John O’May is, as always, impressive as Dr Tambourri, Mark Dickinson brings gravitas and his marvellous voice to the role of camp commander Colonel Ricci. The three leads are outstanding. Kane Alexander brings extreme masculinity to the role of 88 Stage Whispers

Giorgio and understands the character journey from lust of the flesh to passion of the soul. Therese Borg (another founding member of the company) is astonishing in the way she makes us uncomfortable with her plain and neurotic appearance, only to grow more beautiful as she allows herself to love without expectation, and experiences being loved in return. Silvie Paladino (Clara) has graced our stages for so long that we take for granted what a marvellous leading lady she is. Her voice soars, she looks divine and she understands every nuance in lyric and gesture. Neil Gooding’s sensitive and sensual direction is beautifully balanced. This is a quality production from a new company. Coral Drouyn The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Based on the novel by C.S. Lewis. Book Lyrics and Music by Irita Kutchmy. CHATSWOOD Musical Society. Zenith Theatre, Chatswood. Nov 14 - 22. THE pulse of young Benjamin Hamilton must have been racing when the Director Laura-Beth Wood gave him the news (at 5.30pm) that the boy playing Edmund Pevensie had been taken to hospital. The show must go on is the adage and Benjamin Hamilton wrote himself into Chatswood Musical Society

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Choosing A Show

New Releases From David Spicer Productions www.davidspicer.com.au

From Origin Theatrical www.origintheatrical.com.au

My Way - A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra Heathers The Musical “My Way was more than we had hoped for. You “A Rowdy guilty pleasure.” - The New York Times haven't got a show...you have a license to print money.” “Ingenious, naughty and very funny. Heathers still cliques.”- New York Post Allan Kollar - Venice Little Theatre An award winning music revue featuring more than 50 Heathers The Musical songs recorded by ‘Ol' Blue Eyes’. This is not about is the story of Veronica impersonating Frank Sinatra, rather it is a classy tribute to Sawyer, a brainy, his style, his era and some of the 20th century’s most beautiful teenage beautiful songs. It is set in a stylish 1950’s nightclub and misfit who hustles her performed by four singers who each bring out a facet of way into the most Sinatra with their vocal style. powerful and ruthless Currently staged by up to 20 different companies a clique at Westerberg year across the US, this edition is available in Australia and High: the Heathers. New Zealand for the first time. But before she can get Songs include: All of me, Fly me to the Moon, Love comfortable atop the and Marriage, I get a kick out of you, Moonlight high school food Serenade, My Way, Strangers in the Night, Theme from chain, Veronica falls in New York New York, The Way You Look Tonight. love with the dangerously sexy new kid J.D. When Heather Cast: 2m 2f. Chandler, the Almighty, kicks her out of the group, Veronica decides to bite the bullet and kiss Heather's aerobicized ass... but J.D. has another plan for that bullet. Based on the 1989 cult classic movie Heathers, this is a love story, laugh-out-loud comedy and unflinching look at the joys and anguish of high school. From the awardwinning creative team of Kevin Murphy (Reefer Madness, Desperate Housewives), Laurence O'Keefe (Bat Boy, Legally Blonde) and Andy Fickman (Reefer Madness, She's the Man). Cast: 9m, 9f, ensemble cast. Medium Orchestra. lore by taking to the stage with aplomb - script in hand. His performance grew in confidence as the night went on. Equally impressive were the stylish set, lighting and costumes. Bringing to the stage an adventure which starts in a bedroom wardrobe but ends in the mythical land of Narnia - replete with talking animals and a white witch who has ruled the land in deep winter for 100 years is a challenge. Chatswood made the evening a visual feast. The large well-disciplined chorus and ensemble had a few stand-outs. Zoe Landis was charismatic as the White Witch whilst Ben Dennis and Ema Franklin almost stole the show as Mr and Mrs Beaver. However the elephant in the room was the script and score. This adaptation by Irita Kutchmy is recommended by the publisher Josef Weinberger as most suitable for upper primary schools and lower high school students. Musically it lacks sophistication and was not satisfying for a mainstream musical theatre audience. David Spicer

Kiss Me, Kate Music and lyrics by Cole Porter. Book: Samuel and Bella Spewack. Darlington Theatre Players. Marloo Theatre, Greenmount WA. Nov 21 - Dec 13. DARLINGTON Theatre Players closed a Shakespeare inspired season with Kiss Me, Kate, directed by Neroli Burton, musically directed by Justin Freind and choreographed by Jessica Russell. Chris Gerrish made a commanding, convincing Fred with loads of personality and wonderful singing. He was paired nicely with Katherine Freind, as Lilli, whose gorgeous voice is a delight. Nyree Hughes stood out as a cheeky, wild Lois. I would have liked more energy from the supporting cast, as their enthusiasm did not translate into 'oomph' in group numbers. Pace slowed noticeably several times. Highlights included the title number and the audience loved the hijinks of ‘underworld heavies’ Keith Scrivens and Alan Markham. Congratulations to Darlington Theatre Players for closing a creative, inspired season with a bang. Kimberley Shaw

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Stage Whispers 89

Primary Teacher Inspires School Grant Durham from Brighton Primary School in Melbourne was the recipient of the prestigious Rob Galbraith Award in 2014. The award from Drama Victoria celebrates the achievement and contribution of an early career educator. He explains the challenges of establishing a Drama department from the ground up in a school which is sports oriented.

Grant Durham.

Being new to the school, I was determined to produce a high quality show, as close to a professional standard as possible. I came from a professional acting background, and the more people told me “don’t worry, it’s just a Primary School show”, the more I stood my ground and made things happen. We have a great source of human resources at this school; the parents. The ones who came forward as graphic designers, dress makers, set designers and builders who were willing to offer their services, was something I was so touched by. Having to mount a show with 210 inexperienced Grade 4 and 5’s was never going to be easy, but together with my colleague Kate Goosey, the Music teacher, we demanded a huge commitment from everyone involved. I was very determined, as I am in my Drama program, to give as many students as possible the opportunity to shine. In a big school it’s very easy to get lost amongst the confident kids, so I was very specific about casting and directing the show so it ran like a show and not hundreds of kids just moving on and off the stage. Students moved sets, everyone danced and whenever you were on stage, you were in character.

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PERFORMING ARTS MAGAZINE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015. VOLUME 24, NUMBER 1 ABN 71 129 358 710 ISSN 1321 5965

Annie.

The show (Annie junior) exceeded all expectations and really did inspire a lot of kids to go out and pursue Drama externally, so much so that I am now teaching on Saturdays at the school for anyone wanting to expand their knowledge of the craft. My program is also very rich in content from my Preps doing thought tracking, conscience ally and transformation of object, through to Grade 4 commedia dell’arte and Grade 6 Shakespeare. What’s great about Primary kids is that they still know how to play and don’t get lost in words and technical jargon. If you facilitate and scaffold it the right way, you can teach them anything…and there’s never a shortage of volunteers. We have managed to shift the idea of our school being a ‘sporty school’ to one that also is very strong in the Arts at a high standard. I never thought I would be teaching in Primary school but I love my job and the kids. Teaching 750 kids in a Government school, and sharing my space with before and after school care still has its trials, but it has taught me a lot about the foundations of the craft and finding the energy to teach it. Annie.

All correspondence to: The Editor, Stage Whispers, P.O. Box 2274, Rose Bay North 2030, New South Wales. Telephone/Fax: (03) 9758 4522 Advertising: stagews@stagewhispers.com.au Editorial: neil@stagewhispers.com.au PRINTED BY: Spotpress Pty Ltd, 24-26 Lilian Fowler Place, Marrickville, 2204 PUBLISHED BY: Stage Whispers PRE-PRESS PRODUCTION & DESIGN BY: PJTonline Solutions, email: pjtonline@pjtonline.com DISTRIBUTED BY: Gordon & Gotch, 25-37 Huntingdale Road, Burwood, 3125 DEADLINES For inclusion in the next edition, please submit articles, company notes and advertisements to Stage Whispers by February 3rd, 2015. SUBSCRIPTION Prices are $39.50 for 6 editions in Australia and $60AUD elsewhere. Overseas Surface Mail (Airmail by special arrangement). Overseas subscribers please send bank draft in Australian currency. Maximum suggested retail is $6.95 including GST. Address of all subscription correspondence to above address. When moving, advise us immediately of your old and new address in order to avoid lost or delayed copies. FREELANCE CONTRIBUTORS Are welcomed by this magazine and all articles should be addressed to Stage Whispers at the above address. The Publisher accepts no responsibility for unsolicited material. Black and white or colour photographs are suitable for production. DISCLAIMER All expressions of opinion in Stage Whispers are published on the basis that they reflect the personal opinion of the authors and as such are not to be taken as expressing the official opinion of The Publishers unless expressly so stated. Stage Whispers accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of any opinion or information contained in this magazine. LIMITED BACK COPIES AVAILABLE ADVERTISERS We accept no responsibility for material submitted that does not comply with the Trade Practices Act. CAST & CREW Editor: Neil Litchfield 0438 938 064 Sub-editor: David Spicer Advertising: Angela Thompson 03 9758 4522 Digital production: Phillip Tyson 0414 781 008 Contributors: Merlene Abbott, Cathy Bannister, Michael Brindley, Ken Cotterill, Paul Dellit, Ray Dickson, Coral Drouyn, Whitney Fitzsimmons, Graham Ford, Peter Gotting, Frank Hatherley, John P. Harvey, Shirley Jensen, Neil Litchfield, Ken Longworth, Rachel McGrath-Kerr, Jay McKee, Roger McKenzie, Benjamin Orchard, Alex Paige, Peter Pinne, Martin Portus, Lesley Reed, Kimberley Shaw, David Spicer, Anthony Vawser, Carol Wimmer and Maryann Wright. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 91

Musical Spice

Pro-Ams Take Off It’s a contentious topic - should you pay some performers in a community theatre production whilst the rest of the cast are volunteers? For the vast majority of companies the answer is a firm no. Mainly as there are not enough dollars coming in to afford this, and it goes against the ethos of being a true amateur - to perform for the love of it. The not-for-profit organisations are traditionally set up by groups of people who cherish the opportunity to be on stage. To give one of the lead roles to a visiting professional - and pay them - is very hard to get past the committee. That’s why it is most common in Australia in companies where there is no committee. Proving the point is new company in south-western Sydney called Birdie Productions run by a committee of one, Rodney Bertram. Known for his sound and light production company, he gave himself the herculean task of setting up a new theatre company in Bankstown, at a new venue the Bryan Brown Theatre. For those outside of Sydney, the demographics of Bankstown have changed in recent years making it dominated by ethnic communities who don’t traditionally attend theatre. His first production is Hot Shoe Shuffle, a tap dancing extravaganza with a small cast. A more traditional way of launching a company like this would be to produce a large cast musical - squeezing in as many chorus (and preferably kids) as possible. The committee of one put some feelers out for a star. A white night arrived - former Hey Hey It’s Saturday host Daryl Somers. How is this for a press release to send to your local paper? Daryl Somers will join the cast of our upcoming inaugural show, Hot Shoe Shuffle. Mr. Somers will be undertaking the role of Max, the long lost father of the seven Tap Brothers.   “I’m very excited to be part of Birdie Productions very first show, Hot Shoe Shuffle.” Mr. Somers said. “It’s a fun, high energy Australian Musical that 92 Stage Whispers January - February 2015

Daryl Somers (left), Sam Moran (right) and Ben Mingay (below).

should suit the intimacy of the Bryan Brown Theatre. Hot Shoe offers a wonderful opportunity for some young performers to kick-start their careers and to showcase the abundance of talent in the local community.” Word is that Daryl Somers is bending over backwards to help. Also in Sydney, Neil Gooding, a committee of one at Packemin Productions, has turned pro-ams into an artform. Coming up in January he has former Yellow Wiggle Sam Moran playing Jacob in a youth production of Joseph, then in February he has Ben Mingay playing the Phantom for him. These artists have confidence that the productions will be of a sufficiently high standard to maintain their reputation. Neil Gooding also says it is abundantly clear to his cast who is paid and who is not. This is a sticking point for many. In Melbourne CLOC Musical Theatre could afford to pay cast members but never does. CLOC President Grant Alley says he fears that once you start paying one cast member where do you stop? He says companies have been torn apart by this issue and folded. Besides, he

says CLOC has an abundant pool of talented cast members people prepared to do it for the love of it. Others give it a go. In Brisbane the Harvest Rain Theatre Company had enormous success last year with a huge pro-am production of Cats. In Canberra the Free Rain Theatre company (a committee one) bought in a lead for their Phantom - Michael Cormick. I do also recall that when I was a committee of one and produced a musical (Paris) a certain appearance by Jon English made a huge difference at the box office. New Zealand community theatre companies are less coy. Given the enormous budgets of their musicals, hiring professional leads for their mega touring productions is common. So in the right circumstances a proam production can be a happy marriage. There can be dividends at the box office and amateur casts can learn from the experience of being on stage with a visiting professional. It does need careful management and should be done for the right reasons. David Spicer

MUSICAL AND DRAMA CATALOGUE 2015 Order your free copy now www.davidspicer.com.au david@davidspicer.com Phone: (02) 9371 8458

Hacienda Del Toro

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Mr Bennetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bride