Stage Whispers March/April 2022 edition by Stage Whispers Magazine

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6 In this issue

What A Way To Make A Living! ........................................................................ 4 We chat to 9 To 5 director Jeff Calhoun and performer Casey Donovan An American In Paris Down Under .................................................................. 10 Our interview with visiting Broadway and West End star Robbie Fairchild Immersive Theatre .......................................................................................... 14 New productions getting up close and personal

Swings In The Wings ...................................................................................... 18 The unsung heroes keeping our stages alive during the pandemic The Kaleidoscope Of Dorian Gray .................................................................... 22 Digital design and video meets Oscar Wilde Curtain Up, Light The Lights, It’s Showtime! ................................................... 28 Peter Pinne interviews actor and best-selling author Judy Nunn

The Make-Up Box ........................................................................................... 34 How Coral Drouyn discovered ‘the smell of the greasepaint’

Song By Song By Sondheim ............................................................................ 42 Reflections by Geraldine Turner, Tyran Parke, Josh Piterman and Amy Lehpamer SPARK 2022 ................................................................................................... 45 School Performing Arts Resource Kit

Regular Features Behind The Scenes With Debora Krizak: It’s A Hard Knock Life 24

Stage On Page

Book Extract: Hamilton And Me

Broadway Buzz

London Calling

Stage Sounds

Choosing A Show

What’s On

Reviews

Musical Spice

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Editorial Dear theatre-goers and theatre-doers, In my previous life as a high school Drama teacher and director of school musicals, organising theatre experiences for students, both as performers and audience members, was at the heart of my job. So, working on this edition, with its School Performing Arts Resource Kit supplement, and the associated online SPARK publication, is special to me.

Online extras!

Stage Whispers TV parties like it’s 1985 with the cast of The Wedding Singer. youtu.be/2LUccJjpZgM The Wedding Singer. Photo: Nicole Cleary.

I welcome Performing Arts teachers to this edition, with its special focus on you. Of course, we also have lots of great features for our regular readers. Recently, I found a couple of bulging folders of paperwork relating to the excursions and incursions I organised as a teacher. Many years on, I have no idea why I kept them, stuffed away in a box in my garage. But I was reminded of excursions, ranging from travelling with small groups of a dozen or so students by train, to organising as many as five busloads to major musicals in the city. One of my fondest memories is arranging with the group bookings person at Sydney’s Theatre Royal to have the seats near the pipes from which cats suddenly sprang into the auditorium in Cats. For each of several excursions to that long-running show, I made sure I picked students who would get the greatest buzz out of that moment. The excitement which theatre experiences engendered amongst my students was undoubtedly the highlight of my teaching career. Between those theatre visits, school halls, gyms and other makeshift venues were our theatres, as touring productions visited the schools - the same venues where we would stage our own school musicals. Coral Drouyn’s make-up box article in this edition also reminded me of how I sometimes linked activities like a trip to a make-up school or a backstage tour with a visit to the theatre, or recruited specialists like professional make-up artists, lighting and sound designers, juggling tutors and choreographers for workshops and school productions. All the best with your theatrical excursions, incursions and productions in 2022. Our FREE online SPARK publication will be available from mid March at stagewhispers.com.au/spark. Yours in Theatre,

Neil Litchfield Editor

CONNECT

Cover image: Casey Donovan, Marina Prior and Erin Clare in the Australian cast of 9 To 5 The Musical. Read Coral Drouyn’s interview with the show’s director Jeff Calhoun and star Casey Donovan on page 4. Photo: David Hooley.

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Marina Prior as Violet Newstead, Erin Clare as Doralee Rhodes, and Casey Donovan as Judy Bernly in 9 To 5 The Musical. Photo: David Hooley.

Coral Drouyn looks at the bad old days in the workplace and the musical they inspired, which has now opened in Sydney.

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The show’s cast perform “9 To 5” from 9 To 5 The Musical. Scan or visit youtu.be/JcL_Gn6JeLU 4 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

Cover Story Do you remember 9 to 5? No, I’m not talking about the Dolly Parton song, or the 1980 film it inspired. I’m talking about the good old/bad old days - just two or three years ago, before we started wearing trackydacks to our Zoom business meetings, and we shared coffee in a real workplace and gossiped around the water cooler about how much we hated our boss...and we LOVED to hate him or her. Will those days just fade from our memories in a post pandemic world? That’s rhetorical...no answers necessary. Okay, all kidding aside...I really AM talking about the song, and the film, and the water cooler, and the boss, and the return of live theatre, and the homage to Girl Power (and doesn’t Dolly Parton personify that?) and the wonderful satire and broad comedy of the movie. The feminist movie (when female employees kidnap their boss because they can run the business far more efficiently, what else could you call it?) became a Broadway Musical that has taken 14 years to reach our shores in a full professional production, and we need its humour and broad aspirational message now more than ever. But don’t be fooled into thinking this is just a rehash of the film with a few Dolly songs thrown in. It would be easy to cynically imagine that a hit song led to a money-making movie, which in turn was capitalised on as a Broadway show. 9 to 5 is far more than that. It DOES have things to say to (and about) women. The show gained enough acclaim to earn it 15 Drama Desk and 4 Tony Award nominations. Though it wasn’t a success with New York critics initially, director Jeff Calhoun revamped the show in 2010 and completely reimagined it for the West End production of 2019, working closely with composer/lyricist Dolly herself. “This isn’t a juke box musical,” he tells me. “Dolly was completely immersed in the whole art of writing a musical. There was no pulling old (Continued on page 6) stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 5

Casey Donovan as Judy Bernly in 9 To 5 The Musical. Photo: David Hooley.

(Continued from page 5)

songs out of a bottom drawer. She understood that songs in a musical have specific functions and she committed whole-heartedly to writing the best songs for the show. She was an absolute joy to collaborate with,” Calhoun explains with real affection. Calhoun is no slouch himself. He started his career as a dancer, specialising in tap, and was discovered by the great Tommy Tune and offered a national tour of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, which Tune had directed on Broadway. And here’s where the six degrees of separation start. As he was touring in the show, Dolly Parton was filming “Whorehouse”, her follow-up to 9-5, and both films were directed by Colin Higgins. Neither Jeff nor Dolly could have guessed at the time that nearly 35 years later there would be zero degrees of separation between their careers. Jeff Calhoun is part of a tradition on Broadway where dancers who become choreographers go on to 6 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

become successful directors. Thinking of Fosse, Michael Bennett, Rob Marshall, Jerome Robbins, Susan Stroman and even Tommy Tune himself, I asked Jeff if it was inevitable that choreographers would move on to directing. “Well, choreography is direction of movement. All direction is spatial, so while it isn’t inevitable, there’s a pretty good chance of it happening,” Jeff tells me. And that “pretty good chance” has led him to a slew of awards and nominations, including an amazing collaboration with Deaf West Theatre which resulted in an acclaimed Broadway production of Big River, as well as such Broadway shows as Newsies. It’s a career that has spanned nearly forty years now, yet, strangely enough, this is the first time he has worked with Australian performers. “I knew of them, of course,” he says. “Caroline O’Connor is a star on both sides of the world. I love her. She brings back memories of the legends like Ethel Merman, Angela

Online extras!

Cover Story

The 9 To 5 The Musical cast perform “Change It” on Stage Whispers TV youtu.be/U_fuqTw72AM Eddie Perfect as Franklin Hart Jr. and Erin Clare as Doralee Rhodes in 9 To 5 The Musical. Photo: David Hooley.

Lansbury and Carol Channing powerful performers who can own an audience. Musical Theatre is changing, so thank heavens we still have performers like Caroline to keep the tradition alive. And Eddie Perfect the guy is insanely talented and so darn nice with it.” I question the idea of someone as ‘perfect’ as Eddie playing the role of the bullying boss Franklin Hart Jnr, the role which made us hate Dabney Coleman in the movie. Jeff laughs. “Let’s say we’re playing a little more subtle in the show,” he explains. “You don’t cast a bully to play a bully - far too obvious. Eddie’s Franklin has looks, and charm on the surface, but underneath...well you’ll just have to see for yourself.” Jeff sings the praises of his other stars - Marina Prior, Casey Donovan and Erin Clare - and the 18 strong ensemble. “This truly is a remarkable cast,” he says. “You have such a wealth of talent here. Triple threats everywhere. I promise you, this cast is exceptional.”

I hadn’t thought of 9 to 5 as a dance show, but Jeff sets me straight. “C’mon,” he chides. “How can you not dance to the title song? It’s a given. Even the set dances!” I’m not sure if he’s kidding or not. But if Jeff Calhoun is a huge fan of his cast, what do they think of him and the show? I caught up with Casey Donovan at the beginning of rehearsals. Casey, for those who have forgotten (or maybe never knew) burst onto the scene at the tender age of 16 when she won Australian Idol. No-one was more surprised than Casey herself. “I thought I would maybe be the flavour of the month for a little while, then struggle a little bit to stay in the business,” Casey tells me. “But everything changed when my thenmanager suggested I audition for a tour of The Sapphires. It’s an indigenous musical, so I guess that made it easier for me. But I had no experience in Musical Theatre or playing a character. Once I did, I was hooked.”

She went on to play the Killer Queen in We Will Rock You and Matron “Mama” Morton in Chicago. It was during the latter that she first heard 9 to 5 being touted. “A lot of the kids were planning to audition - this was in 2019 - but then COVID-19 hit the world and the production was postponed indefinitely, so it wasn’t really on my radar then. But the timing changed everything, and I’m really grateful for that,” Casey says. Casey brings a unique energy to every stage she steps on, but she does occasionally have doubts. “I’m very aware that I don’t have any formal training,” she tells me. “I didn’t go to Performing Arts school, or graduate from WAAPA, so I don’t have the same skill set. A lot of the time I rely on instinct, and it doesn’t often let me down.” And talent, I remind her. That’s something that can be honed but not taught. Casey agrees, but she has another explanation. (Continued on page 8) stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 7

Cover Story

Casey relished working with Jeff on music written by Dolly. “Dolly Parton isn’t just a country singer. She’s just a great musician and fabulous songwriter, full stop,” Casey passionately explains. “And Jeff is the real deal. He’s been there and done that to perfection, so I’m just soaking up every note he gives. How often does a girl get a chance like this? It’s an absolute joy and I’m loving being a part of it.” Jeff promises that the audience will also love being a part of it. 9 To 5 The Musical is now playing at Capitol Theatre, “It isn’t the kind of show where Sydney ahead of seasons at Lyric Theatre, QPAC from May 22 you sit back cynically and say ‘Okay...entertain me’,” he gushes. and Arts Centre Melbourne from July 10. “It’s an immersive, laugh out loud, 9to5themusical.com.au dance-in-your-seat celebration. You how to find ME in the character I’m can sit at home on your butt waiting (Continued from page 7) playing. With Judy in this show, she is for the world to end, or you can get “The upside is I am working so unlike me in every way that I out and have fun and tell the world, alongside people like Marina and wasn’t sure I could do it,” she ‘Hey, I’m alive!’ And there’s no better Caroline - artists who have been there confides. “But then we had the first place to do it than in a theatre.” and done that. Experience is always wardrobe call. I put on the costume Personally, I know which I’d rather the greatest teacher, and they are and there was Judy staring back at me do. It’s a no-brainer, but first I have brilliant tutors, so I watch and I in the mirror. And I stopped to...“tumble from my bed and learn...not how to do it like them, but worrying.” stumble to the kitchen...” 9 To 5 The Musical. Photo: David Hooley.

8 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

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Ballet dancers are seen but not heard. Yet the musical An American In Paris requires an extraordinary mix of skills. Broadway star Robert Fairchild - on tour in Australia explains to David Spicer how challenging the title role is.

10 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

In 2016, I scored a single ticket to An American in Paris in New York, and the combination of Gershwin’s gorgeous music, an eye-popping set, and a full ballet made this one of my most enjoyable nights in the theatre. The co-star of the romantic comedy, Robert Fairchild, is reprising his role alongside fellow Broadway star Leanne Cope, in a production with the Australian Ballet that is touring the country. The musical is based on the movie, which starred Gene Kelly, about an American G.I. who is about to return home after serving in France during World War 2, when he meets and falls in love with a Parisian. The skills required for the role include acting, singing and elite

dancing, which, Robert explained, are at cross purposes. “Your ballet body is different from the singing and acting body. It was fun for me to find out how to meld the two; how to get from one to the other as fast as I could.” Fairchild was an elite dancer with the New York City Ballet when the musical was being developed. “The muscles you need to sing are tight when you are dancing. In singing they must be released. It is like two different body types in one. I had to learn to change at the drop of a hat. “There are times in the show where you are dancing and you have 5,6,7,8 then you have to sing. It is like having a multiple personality disorder and you have to go into a completely different zone.” What are the muscles you use differently as a ballet dancer? I asked. “It is your lower abdomen that comes into play as a dancer, to keep your frame long. In order to sing, the lower abs have to be released so that your diaphragm can move freely.” So, you can’t sing and do extreme ballet at the same time? “It is really complicated. It took a lot of understanding and figuring it out to make that happen. It’s about learning techniques and ways to release those muscles as fast as you can and relax the core to get the air flowing.” So, do you have to break rules? “A little bit. You have to make it work.” Robert had a long period to rehearse the musical before it opened on Broadway, whereas he had just three weeks to prepare with the Australian Ballet. “We had the workshop in New York in 2013. It opened Paris in 2014, then went into New York

2015. It was a long process to hone skills not so bountiful in dance world.” Ballet dancers are not always good singers, but Fairchild, luckily, had spent some time on his voice. “When I was younger, I wanted to be a song and dance man. I went to singing lessons and sang in the school choir, but never took it as seriously as my dancing. “I could carry a tune, so when (the director) Christopher Wheeldon asked if I could sing, I said, ‘Yes, but it depends on who is listening.’ I felt comfortable singing, but in a Broadway show, with 2000 people eight times a week, that is a different kind of sing.” How rigorous is the dancing compared to the New York City Ballet? How big a workout is it? “We do a full-on ballet at the end of each show. It is the American in Paris ballet. It is a lot of dancing. On Broadway, to get through a week’s worth of shows, I’d stand in an ice bucket up to my mid-thigh. “The toll on my legs was just so crazy and they were so exhausted. If I did not do that my legs felt like sausages. (The ice) cuts down inflammation and gets new blood in there, so that anything which had gone awry could fix itself.” Would dancers normally dance that often with the New York City Ballet? “No. If you were doing a fulllength evening performance, like Swan Lake or Sleeping Beauty, you would have two a week max, so this was next level exhaustion.” In Australia, he explains, “I am doing six shows a week - one a day [Cameron Holmes is his alternate]. That is what I ended up doing on Broadway. After three months of eight a week I was a vegetable of a human. As soon as I got that one (Continued on page 12)

Online extras! Robbie Fairchild and Leanne Cope in An American In Paris. Photo: Darren Thomas.

An American In Paris is a tour de force making its way around Australia youtu.be/nhJbPaS9sX0 stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 11

Jonathan Hickey, Robbie Fairchild and Sam Ward in An American In Paris. Photo: Darren Thomas.

(Continued from page 11)

show off, I felt like a human being again.” For people who don’t know much about the musical, it is based on the movie but given extra value. “What we are able to do, telling the story now, is to turn up the heat about what it was like to be in Paris after it was liberated from the Nazis. These themes were hinted at in the movie, but it was very discrete. The lead character is a Jewish girl and we talk about this theme much more, which adds to the drama.” How close, musically, is it to the movie? “It has a lot of the songs you know and love from the movie - ‘I’ve Got Rhythm’ , ‘’S Wonderful’ and a couple of others. I think Gershwin’s orchestral numbers are my favourites, particularly before the prologue.” The production is filled with projections that range from black and white sketches of post-war Paris to extravagant song & dance spectacles. 12 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

The Melbourne and Sydney seasons of An American in Paris will be performed, as scheduled, from March 18 at Arts Centre Melbourne, then from April 29 at the Theatre Royal, Sydney. Seasons in Adelaide and Perth were postponed due to COVID-19 and will be rescheduled. americaninparis.com.au “Rob Crowley did such a good job with the set and projections, and of course the choreography - everything dances.” Robert Fairchild comes back to the role after playing the leading man in the West End in 2017. “I’ve got a lot of pent-up performance needs.” During the pandemic, like many actors, he was out of work and forced to looked for a new job. As Fairchild is a ballet dancer his pivot (or is that pirouette?) to a new career was stylish. “I started a flower company in New York City. The stages were closed, and theatres were dark, but I still felt the need to perform in some in capacity. “I was shocked at how similar flower arranging is to performing.

You create in a studio then bring it to an audience. It filled that void during lockdown. It started with a bunch of Broadway performers who were inbetween jobs.” With nothing else to do, Fairchild took part in the distribution side of the business. “In the beginning it was me and the car. There is nothing for me to do so to let me get out of the house I would go deliver these.” Was he invited up for cup of tea? “I was wearing a mask. We were barely seeing each other. I don’t deliver anymore.” Since then, his enterprise has grown and is delivering bouquets to lots of Broadway opening nights. When I spoke to Robert, he had just ordered a flower arrangement from a florist in Melbourne and he was

looking forward to being released from quarantine to check out the city’s flower market. Robert’s mantra is that everyone should try to be unique. Raised in conservative Utah, he said it was not easy being a male ballet dancer. “Stereotypes are brutal as a kid, especially in a place called Utah where everyone plays sport. I broke the mould. It came with challenges. “When I was bitten by the dance bug I had to do it. No amount of teasing and bullying could prevent me from doing it. It brought me closer to dance because this is who I am and it was empowering.” Did it turn people around when they saw the skill and athleticism needed? “Yes, especially now. I get messages from people from school, who were such buttheads when we were growing up, saying such nice things. When you are a kid you just want to fit in and when you are an adult you want to be unique. I find that fascinating. Why can’t you be

Robbie Fairchild and Leanne Cope in An American In Paris. Photo: Darren Thomas.

your own unique self from the getgo?” Is An American in Paris a career highlight? “For sure. It encapsulates all I love and train for. I will never do a show that is as physically demanding which stretches me as much as an artist to sing and dance at the same time.” What’s your warm up routine? “A ballet barre at the beginning to get your body warmed up, then vocal.

On a two-show day my body is already tight and activated, so to sing I just have to stretch. If you warm up the same way you did for the morning you are screwed because there is no flow - no room for ribs to expand and breath to enter to sing properly.” What happens on days when you feel tired and are not up to it? “The moment I hear that music, it is everything. Sometimes you are so dead tired, so you go, ‘let’s go, we’ve got a story to tell’. “

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Immersive Theatre: Up Close And Personal Audiences are being brought closer to the action than ever before. Productions ranging from The Great Gatsby, to Peter Pan, to Blindness and Monopoly are set to entertain and immerse Australian theatregoers. David Spicer surveys the new landscape.

Peter Pan - The 360° Adventure. Photo: Kevin Berne.

Online extras!

Step inside Neverland and discover Peter Pan - The 360° Adventure. youtu.be/PPWyvZBvOlw 14 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

It used to be a brothel, then it became a nightclub. Now Wonderland Bar, a three and a half storey building in Sydney’s Kings Cross, has become the venue for an immersive theatrical experience of The Great Gatsby. “Working as an actor, the best thing for me to enjoy feeling is the energy of being on stage. This is the ultimate experience - to give this to the audience so they can be part of the action - to what degree, they choose,” said Gatsby director Beth Daly. In Melbourne work is underway to build a hippodrome to stage Peter Pan in a way where every member of the audience is surrounded by the action. “In Peter Pan 360°, it does not matter where you sit, looking across and behind the stage. You are immersed,” said producer Craig Donnell. For major Adelaide Festival production Blindness, audience members will wear face masks and sit under glowing bars of criss-crossing, colour-changing lights, while a rumbling soundscape recreates an epic thriller. An interactive live game of Monopoly has opened in London, with producers eyeing opportunities to bring it to Australia. These productions are part of a new movement which breaks down the traditional boundaries of theatre. The best examples of immersive theatre include a physical environment that is different from a typical theatre, which normally has a proscenium stage and curtain. They include the stimulation of different senses such as smell, taste and touch, and the use of a venue as an art installation or a museum, giving audience members a unique experience and allowing for social interactions in small groups. The pioneer of this form of performance is the UK site-specific theatre company Punchdrunk, which launched its indoor production Sleep No More in 2011 in New York. Post COVID-19 shutdown, it has just relaunched for an open run. Sleep No More is a creepy film noir adaptation of Macbeth in a threestorey warehouse nicknamed the

McKittrick Hotel. Members of the audience wear masks and explore different rooms where, the New York Times explained, they find “jaded figures in bedrooms, bathrooms, ballrooms, hospital rooms and nurseries getting dressed and undressed, doing the foxtrot, making every kind of love, killing one another and washing off blood.” Probably the closest local experience to Sleep No More is The Great Gatsby, on stage at the Wonderland Bar in Sydney’s Kings Cross until June. Audiences of just forty are being led through the labyrinth of rooms inside the heritage building for a performance by ten actors, singers and dancers.

“They could be a fly on the wall. That is the frisson of excitement. They won’t quite know what they will do or might feel like doing. “Some rooms will feel they like the Sydney Theatre Company; other times the audience will wonder what private bar they have wandered into.” The Great Gatsby was published 100 years ago and is now out of copyright, allowing the company to take some liberties with the story. “We explore what the 20s mean in the 20s. It is a diffusion of 2020 into 1920s. “It is a big novel - we don’t have time to cover everything. We take the essence of Gatsby and distil that into a piece to satisfy someone who knows nothing about Gatsby, but it will also

The Great Gatsby. Photo: Aaron Lyon.

“The three and a half storey 1912 building in Kings Cross, at one stage a brothel, was best known recently as the former World Bar night club,” said director Beth Daly. “So, it has got the history of parties. Putting these themes into this building feels so right. It is another element of storytelling. “We explore every nook and cranny of the building. Certain characters will take you aside, to give you an intimate moment no one else sees. There will be bits of intrigue everywhere.” Should the audience dress up? “They can be part of the Gatsby party and bring their dancing shoes, but they won’t be made to be on stage if they don’t want to be.

satisfy an aficionado.” Beth Daly studied the novel in school but did not like it because it had an unhappy ending. “Now I appreciate the humanity of the story about the outsider not being let in - the feeling of hope and loneliness - of wanting to create a beautiful future.” Producer Craig Donnell’s new company Impressario Productions is also breathing new life into a classic Peter Pan - and giving audiences an experience, which he says immerses them into the production. “Technology is catching up to imagination. What we can achieve (Continued on page 16) stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 15

(Continued from page 15)

now is fantastic and engaging to bring stories out, told in a new way,” he enthused. Peter Pan - The 360° Adventure will open in Melbourne in June, in the centre of town, on the Yarra River. Originally staged in London in 2009, the production’s distinguishing feature is 360-degree surround video projection. “We have a custom designed CGI film that is choreographed to the production. So on the flight to Neverland, you are flying over Edwardian London,” he said. “We take people on the journey. They are surrounded by the nursery. When underwater with the mermaids it doesn’t matter where you are looking, you are immersed in the story.” The hippodrome is being built from the ground up in Australia. All members of the audience will be a few metres off the ground. “We have trap doors so the cast can scurry around like rats to get to all parts of the theatre. There will also be a massive staircase at the back of the stage. “We have a huge flying rig to allow cast to soar over the audience - up, down, around. All the flying is choreographed into the CGI film. When they get to the cathedral tower, it looks like they will crash into it, but they just manage to turn right.” Craig Donnell insists that technology will add to the story telling. “When the first LED walls were released, some people described it as the death of theatre as we know it. It has been embraced to tell stories more vividly. “I am looking at technology which families are using at home that are interactive and immersive. We have surround sound and have the ability to scan QRL codes on TV which dictate endings.” Does the audience become part of action? “No, the audience engagement is as an audience. Whilst it is immersive, it’s not always interactive.” 16 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

Online extras!

Blindness is an epic thriller told entirely through sound. Scan or visit youtu.be/KSVHiAXUeR4

Blindness at Donmar Warehouse, London. Photo: Helen Maybanks.

That is until the audience are prodded to affirm their belief in fairies. Immersive theatre can be used effectively to evoke terror. A highlight of the Adelaide Festival is a production called Blindness, which immerses audiences in binaural sound and lighting. The regular seating of a theatre is removed and replaced with scattered wooden chairs. Audience members wear masks and sit under light installations, whilst Nobel Prize-winner José Saramago’s dystopian novel Blindness is narrated. The story centres on the driver of a car who suddenly can’t go on, loses his sight, then his blindness soon spreads across the city causing panic. The Guardian wrote that the effect of the production is as if the narrator

is whispering into your ear. ‘At certain points, the room is plunged into a thick, heavy blackness. The piece is claustrophobic by nature, but when wearing the required mask on a swelteringly hot day, breathing suddenly feels much harder. At these points, the lack of sight is disorienting, and the sound design properly takes effect as the violence of the piece crawls beneath your skin.’ The director of Blindness, Walter Meierjohann, insists that the message from the production is not all bleak. “You can walk out of this and say: our epidemic isn’t as bad. The word catharsis means that you have to grow through the dark period in order to show the extremes of what human beings can do to each other in a negative way,” he said.

The Great Gatsby plays until June 26 at the Wonderland Bar (formerly The World Bar), 24 Bayswater Road, Potts Point. thewonderlandbar.com/experiences Peter Pan - The 360° Adventure opens at the Impresario Hippodrome at Birrarung Marr, Melbourne on June 4 ahead of a season at Northshore, Brisbane beginning in August. peterpan360.com.au Blindness plays at the Adelaide Festival from March 20, then Wollongong from May 11 to 15. adelaidefestival.com.au/events/blindness Monopoly Lifesized is ‘playing’ at 213-215 Tottenham Court Rd, London. monopolylifesized.com

Monopoly Lifesized. Photo: Helen Maybanks.

Online extras!

Discover the larger-than-life world of Monopoly Lifesized. Scan or visit youtu.be/nwlXWQrzJ6U At the other end of the entertainment spectrum is a new immersive experience called Monopoly Lifesized, which has opened in the West End and looks set to tour the world. It could best be described as a marriage of theatre and board games. The set is four life-sized 15 metre by

15 metre games of Monopoly themed into the categories of ‘luxury’, ‘classic’, ‘city’ and ‘junior’. Four teams of six are assigned their selected playing token (racing car, anyone?), who is an actor guiding them around the board, which has the traditional Monopoly properties and obstacles.

The property squares have a fullsized, location-specific room behind them that players enter to participate in a challenge to ‘acquire’ it. These challenges range from staging a heist in Mayfair, to building a London property, or solving a baffling murder mystery. “Games can become very competitive, and going to jail is indeed one of the many challenges. Each game play lasts approximately 75 minutes,” the publicist Dee McCourt told me. Stage Whispers has been told that Australia is actively being considered as a future destination for Monopoly Lifesized. David Hutchinson, CEO of The Path Entertainment Group, said, “The response has been phenomenal and what’s brilliant is seeing people’s passion for Monopoly translate to excitement around this fantastic new immersive experience. We’re already inundated with approaches to set up Monopoly Lifesized in locations around the globe.”

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Swings In The Wings Beth Keehn speaks to some of theatre’s unsung heroes, the understudies who are keeping theatre alive and kicking despite Omicron. At a recent curtain call for The Music Man, Hugh Jackman made an emotional speech, paying tribute to swings and understudies as “the bedrock of Broadway”. As Hugh knows only too well, the pandemic has unleashed a fresh focus on theatre’s practical strengths and shone a new spotlight on the vital role of theatre’s cover players. When you think of an understudy, it’s tempting to see the extremes: outrageous luck - Shirley MacLaine, stuck in The Pajama Game’s thankless chorus line when leading lady Carol Haney breaks an ankle, sending understudy Shirl on stage and hurtling on to a Hollywood career ‘overnight’; or ruthless Eve Harrington, scheming her way from stage door shadows into the life of ageing star Margo Channing, ready to usurp the throne in All About Eve.

Marika Aubrey as Beverley Bass with the cast of Come From Away. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

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But, take a more recent example. Sutton Foster, cast in Annie with no experience other than a love of musicals, goes on to understudy for Thoroughly Modern Millie and gets her break when the lead star walks off the production. Through determination and hard work, Sutton becomes, as Hugh Jackman said, “... one of the greatest actresses, singers, dancers of her generation.” He was, of course, speaking at the curtain call of a recent Broadway preview of The Music Man where, unfortunately, Sutton had tested positive for COVID19 and understudy Kathy Voytko had jumped in at short notice. So, reality would suggest that an understudy’s fortune is more along the lines of the quote attributed to movie mogul, Samuel Goldwyn: “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”

From Standby to Broadway Debut: Marika Aubrey For one Aussie performer abroad, Omicron caused chaos for her tour of North America, but was a springboard to her Broadway debut in Come From Away. Marika Aubrey tells us what happened. “I started my American career as a standby for Come From Away. After 10 months I was asked to audition for the tracks [the performers’ plots of their multiple roles in the show] I covered. I got the part and made my American stage debut at two hours’ notice in Los Angeles. I’ve been playing Beverly Bass in the touring production ever since. “In December 2021 I happened to be in New York for Christmas when Rachel Tucker tested positive for COVID-19. Associate Director Daniel Goldstein rang me on Christmas Day

and said ‘Hey are you still in New York? I need a Beverly.’ I got off the phone and said to my husband, ‘I think I’m going to make my Broadway debut tomorrow!’ There was no time for champagne or flowers - but that felt appropriate! “I called it our crazy ‘Franken-cast’ because we were a collection of people from casts past and present some hadn’t done the show for years but got the call and turned up the next day! And that’s been happening on the tour as well - it’s exciting. You get this grand final team spirit and it really unites everyone. “The pandemic means we’re having to get creative about how we keep the curtain up and keep Broadway alive - and I’m loving seeing this renewed attention on standbys, swings and understudies and how absolutely vital and what rock stars they are. We couldn’t run the theatre community without them. “I know how hard standbys work! In our show they learn five tracks and have to be ready to go. The show looks very simple, but it’s incredibly intricate, and they are all lead roles at different points. Without standbys, we would have had to close the show. “I think audiences are changing their perspective: seeing an understudy go on is a great opportunity to discover a new talent, and you are going to get a special show - and that is very cool. It’s a really special time to be on a stage and feel that added electricity.” comefromaway.com.au Upcoming Stars as Alternate Leads: Cameron Holmes and Dimity Azoury Because of their physically demanding lead roles, opera and ballet have always used understudies. And, in a new partnership with the Australian Ballet, the touring production of An American in Paris uses another safety net: double casting. When full-time ballet performers Dimity Azoury and Cameron Holmes were given the chance to prove their singing and acting skills for international director and choreographer Christopher

Cameron Holmes and Dimity Azoury in An American In Paris. Photo: Darren Thomas.

Wheeldon, they jumped at the chance. Now they have moved into musical theatre as ‘alternate’ leads for original Broadway and West End leads, Robert Fairchild and Leanne Cope. A cast injury meant they had to go on a week earlier than planned, but they were ready for the challenge. “Working on lead and ensemble roles means using a different head space,” Dimity told me. “But that’s not new for us, coming from the ballet - some productions will require us to learn five roles each. It’s been wonderful working with Leanne Cope. I think we portray Lise differently, but Leanne has been performing the role for about eight years, so her character is just beautifully fleshed out. For me, it’s inspiring to see how complete her portrayal is: it pushes me to go further in my own direction.” “We rehearsed for six weeks - and a lot of that time we spent learning Jerry and Lise and our ensemble track,” Cameron said. “For Jerry, there’s a lot more dancing, singing and acting, and I’ve learnt so much from Robbie Fairchild. He has taught me to enjoy the process and not be so tough on myself. As part of the alternate duty, we have scheduled shows and we also do our ensemble track when we are not performing

Jerry and Lise. We’ve had standing ovations from our audiences, which is a wonderfully warm feeling.” Back on Stage for One Performance Only: Theresa Borg When most of the cast of An American In Paris collided with COVID -19 before opening week in Brisbane, Resident Director Theresa Borg had to step back on stage herself! “As Resident Director it’s my job to maintain the excellence that we’ve established in rehearsals with our international creatives. I also train up anyone who joins the company along the way, including all the covers and understudies, but I never expected that I would have to step back on the stage myself! “Before our opening in January [at QPAC] we were doing so well, ‘bubbling’ by department - crew, creatives, orchestra - but then unfortunately we had a brush with COVID-19 and, just before we were due to open, we had 27 out of our cast of 33 out of action. With various strategies, five days after opening, we had a full company back on stage. We had one guest artist, Helen Howard, who came in over a weekend and (Continued on page 20) stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 19

the swings - and the people who develop them - who come through learnt Anne Wood’s part of Madame the ranks to become resident Baurel. And I stepped in for Annie directors. They are the people who Standford as ‘Olga’ in the ensemble have a brain that can juggle multiple for one night - Annie was out, and tracks and develop an outside eye on her cover was out too. Luckily I’m an the show. It’s a very special skill. And old showgirl and have performed in now the secret is out, it really shines a many productions in the past. I put light - for our audiences, for on a pair of character shoes and I was governments and education systems fine! It was a privilege to contribute what a great experience of teamwork theatre is, and how valuable it can be.” americaninparis.com.au (Continued from page 19)

Theresa Borg. Photo: Kurt Sneddon.

to keeping the curtain up for the producers and my colleagues. “Until now, understudies and swings may have been one of our industry’s best-kept secrets. Certainly, they have had a larger role to play in the last six months. And it’s usually

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on Deb. At the end of that week, (the director) Paige said: ‘You’ve got to go on as Deb.’ I had a little mini-season, an almost a two-week run before Christen (O’Leary) was back - currently I’m performing the matinees and we’ll take it week to week. I’ve only just started to go back into rehearsals for Clare - to sharpen that part up in case I must go on. “Of course, there’s no guarantee that I will get to perform the parts I’ve rehearsed. As understudies, we are here to provide support - to be gracious to the actors who originated the roles. But my mindset from the Stepping Up at Short Notice: beginning was ‘I’ll work like I’m going Cheree Cassidy to open the play, but not expect to’ After stops and starts, and I think that was the best decision cancellations in 2020, and an I made. Australian premiere season at “It’s my first time as an understudy Queensland Theatre in 2021, Triple X and it is sort of terrifying - it puts you began its Sydney Theatre Company to the test mentally and physically, season in January. The play has five but the whole thing has been main characters, covered by four rewarding. understudies. Even the semi“I love the resistance that theatres autobiographical role of Dexie, are putting up against COVID-19. And performed by Glace Chase, was it’s been amazing how warm and covered by Charley Sanders. Close responsive the audiences have been. I COVID-19 encounters meant that early in the run, understudies Anthony think they understand the predicament we are in, and those Taufa and Cheree Cassidy had to go coming to see shows in the middle of on. an Omicron wave are willing to go Cheree had only been rehearsing with those changes. They’ve been so for a week when she got the call. responsive. And a positive thing is “I am covering two lead roles,” that the door has opened for other Cheree related. “Both are quite demanding. I didn’t really have a map actors who might not otherwise have had the opportunity.” of how to do it, but I split my time: first week on Clare; the second week sydneytheatre.com.au

Covering in the Community: Brisbane Arts Theatre While they tend to grab the headlines, it’s not just our major theatre companies that are preparing for all eventualities. Our community theatre sector is also keeping cast, crew and audiences safe, and making sure the show goes on. That means using understudies, as Tallulah M.E. Grey, President of the Board at Brisbane Arts Theatre, tells us. “COVID-19 has definitely increased the need for a good support system! Since 2021, the majority of our shows are either double cast or include Understudying a One-Person Play: hopefully move around the set. With understudies. Our first 2022 Mitchell Butel and Rachel Burke COVID-19, the whole point is to keep production, The Importance of Being Mitchell Butel, Artistic Director at me and Justine separated: so that’s an Earnest, had each of the nine State Theatre Company South added challenge. characters covered by either another Australia, explained that enlisting “There are no plans for me to cast member who could play multiple understudies is all part of his job in perform the play, unless something roles, or one of our three magnificent catering for audiences and is happens. I guess it is a strange thing, understudies, who have all worked especially important during the not knowing if you’ll get to perform. amazingly hard to make sure the pandemic. But that’s just part of the gig. Your show can go on, no matter what! “Musical theatre and commercial job as an understudy is quite specific: Alastair Wallace played the role of theatre have always had understudies you are making a representation of Lane, but learnt two other support - there’s a real financial imperative to that work, rather than being the roles and, if needed, could play a the shows continuing. So, even original conduit. third character in the same night! though it is a substantial cost to a “I’m terrified about the possibility Eleni Koutsoukis understudied the role company, I think this focus on of being on stage, but it’s also of Cecily Cardew, and performed on understudies will continue for a time. absolutely thrilling that I might get to our preview night after only “But cover roles and do this show. With any live theatre performing Act 2 in rehearsals once! understudying can also be a great there’s an element of excitement that She did a magnificent job. Ben Kasper platform for emerging artists, which is anything can happen, but in understudied both leads, Jack and wonderful. Sometimes it’s a chance to particular when an understudy is Algernon. The whole team was truly discover a new talent - such as Rachel performing.” impressive!” Burke who is understudying Justine statetheatrecompany.com.au artstheatre.com.au Clarke for our upcoming production of Dennis Kelly’s Girls & Boys. The [February-March] season is nearly sold out and with that demand for the play, it would be a shame to cancel and we can’t move people to other nights.” “I was initially going to work as assistant director, but that soon changed to being understudy,” Rachel Burke explained. “This current need for understudies is unprecedented especially in plays that feature a solo performer; it’s a whole different beast! “At the moment, I’m on tour with Bluey’s Big Play, so I’m Zooming in to Peter Van Werkhoven as Algernon and rehearsals - mostly to observe and ask Eleni Koutsoukis as Cecily in The questions. Once I am back from tour, Importance Of Being Earnest. I will get involved in rehearsals and Photo: Images by Anderson. Cheree Cassidy as Deb in Triple X. Photo: Prudence Upton.

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Eryn Jean Norvill in STC’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. All photos: Daniel Boud.

The Kaleidoscope Of Dorian Gray Actor Eryn Jean Norvill plays all 26 roles in the Sydney Theatre Company’s extraordinary production of Oscar Wilde’s classic The Picture of Dorian Gray. Ahead of its seasons in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne, Designer Marg Horwell tells David Spicer how the fusion of live theatre and film worked out. “Director Kip Williams told me about a scene he wanted to do at a dinner party, where Eryn Jean would sit down to dinner with five versions of herself,” Marg Horwell tells me. “They would play that scene as normal and react to each other. “Eryn Jean filmed each of those characters in real time. We would record her as one character listening to herself in one ear. “It’s a fun scene with extreme costuming, including latex face modifications, wigs and an age range from 19 to 90. The extreme differences had to be knitted together. “The main thing was to sell that illusion. We approached filming in a theatrical way, with single takes and not a lot of editing. “The character of Lord Henry (which is the only one performed live) had to be perfect to be inserted into dialogue. She had to be really sharp. “This whole story is based around looking at a portrait that is aging and becoming hideous. 22 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

This is a wonderful image of Eryn, in the role of Lord Henry as an old man on her own, with all these angles of an old face. The collage of her face was filmed live by five cameras. “Her movements are choreographed with 13 people (camera operators and stagehands) who make up the show. There are so many that they have to be careful not to be picked up by other cameras.

“For all its technical challenges, a lot of the smaller on-stage things were old school and created manually. All the backdrops were painted. “What you are seeing is a set which was facing in the opposite direction of the audience, who only saw this landscape projected on a screen.

“What the audience saw directly was this perspective through the window. For that reason, all of those pedestals were designed at height. “The room is full of flowers that were hand made by STC props. They were predominantly things from a junk shop including toys, plastic tiaras and a very silly pinata. Even her sleeves blend into the imagery of excess.

The Picture of Dorian Gray plays at the Adelaide Festival from March 13 to 20, followed by a return season at the Sydney Theatre Company from March 28 to May 7. A season at Arts Centre Melbourne follows from June 5 to July 17, as part of the RISING arts festival.

“This image was filmed through a glass screen. “In this scene she was in a carriage going to an opium den. It looks like window of a carriage but the way she is facing it gives it the motif of a portrait. “The scene was facing backwards so we got the reflection of a city street landscape changing around her. We drew on period imagery of old London streets which flashed forward to the future to include neon Tokyo streets. “The production is brutal for Eryn. In one scene she is shot wearing three costumes at once, plus a fur coat, whilst delivering monologues to herself and moving. “My favourite scene is when she has a costume change and all 13 stagehands are involved in the choreography until she lands on her doorstep. “We had to rehearse for the stage and delivery to camera. It is an incredible feat for a performer to remember where she is looking at any time.” stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 23

Behind The Scenes With Debora Krizak

It’s A Hard Knock Life In her latest Behind the Scenes column, Debora Krizak looks at how tough the pandemic has been on school performing arts.

SYMT’s The Addams Family. Photo: Grant Leslie.

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Cancelled. For most, this means a simple disruption to the social calendar. Throughout the pandemic, most of my friends continued to work from home. For those of us working in The Arts, putting on a show from home just doesn’t pay the bills. The ‘no singing, no dancing’ rule has also devastated the corporate events industry, with large events now on their third or fourth postponement. Unfortunately for our family, my husband works in events. It’s a bit of a double whammy, but resilience is in our DNA. The hard knocks are barely a grazed knee these days. It’s one thing to ponder the longlasting effects of COVID-19 on our industry, but I’ve been thinking a lot about the impact on our kids. As a parent of a 13-year-old daughter who enjoys her creative outlets, it’s easy to dismiss her extracurricular activities as “just a bit of fun” when the reality is much different. This is where likeminded kids come together, preferring to spend hours singing, dancing and rehearsing the school musical after hours, rather than engage over TikTok. I’ll be honest. I never wanted to encourage another performer in the family. But when my daughter started belting out Frozen at three years of age, I knew this was going to be a “thing”. I tried soccer, 7AM netball games, art classes, but nothing piqued her interest until she found singing and dancing. Ten years later, the dancing has taken a back seat, but her love of music and theatre remains strong. Various studies have shown that engaging in a performing arts curriculum has positive effects on a child’s academic performance and emotional wellbeing. Delve a bit further and the research also suggests that the effects on a child’s mental, physical, social and emotional development will stay with them for years to come - on and off the stage. Many academics argue that creativity is the single most important skill in the world. According to the authors of the book Creative Leadership: Skills That Drive Change, during group

problem solving sessions, teams which had some form of formal creativity training were able to devise 350% more ideas and were far more original than their counterparts. When COVID-19 hit our shores in 2020, kids everywhere had to adapt to home schooling with very little social interaction and extra-curricular activities. Once school returned, the first casualty of the coronavirus was The Arts. Music and band rehearsals ceased, dance prac exams converted to online and school musicals were cancelled. My daughter’s school musical production of Annie closed after one performance and in the same week, a youth production of The Addams Family she was in had also been postponed. Dance classes reverted to Zoom and after successfully auditioning as a principal vocalist for the NSW Arts Unit, her engagement in the arts initiative Pulse Alive also came to an abrupt halt. Fortunately, most have now been rescheduled, but when I asked her recently what she was most looking forward to this coming year, her response was “nothing”. She has lost faith in anything being a certainty. The once confident and excited young teenager now shrugs when I ask her how rehearsals went. Her light has dimmed. Weekends are now spent taking Rapid Antigen Tests and learning choreography on Zoom.

Dressing rooms are a thing of the past. Social distancing is paramount. Kids must be double vaccinated to perform in some theatres and venues and if you’ve ever tried to act or sing in a mask, I can tell you it’s tough. Opening night parties and cast gatherings are a no-go zone. Even mingling in foyers to greet friends after a show is considered high risk. Everything that was once fun is gone. But for these kids, the show must go on. Now more than ever. Secondary school Drama and English teacher Courtney Cassar experienced the first-hand effects of coronavirus on his cohort of Performing Arts students. “Ordinarily we have the school musical, Drama ensemble, Theatresports, choir and a variety of orchestras. The musical we’ve been able to delay, while the orchestras and choir have just not been able to run. It’s been hard for a lot of kids. The numbers have gotten smaller because you have whole cohorts who haven’t been introduced to Performing Arts programs from Year 7.” With The Arts already struggling for recognition, Courtney recognises the impact this can have on students in the years to follow. “Most of the arts programs foster real-world skills like collaboration, problem solving and the ability to (Continued on page 26)

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Pulse Alive rehearsals. Photo: Anna Warr.

Behind The Scenes With Debora Krizak

(Continued from page 25)

communicate and express thoughts and ideas in ways that are interesting and easy to understand.” Arts Coordination Officer for the NSW Department of Education Arts Unit, Peter Hayward, oversees programs in Music, Dance, Drama and Visual Arts for students in public schools in NSW. “What makes me sad is that a lot of students have missed almost two years of arts opportunities in some really formative years. I also think that, for lots of kids, the arts are their social outlet - especially in the programs I’m lucky enough to work on, bringing together like-minded students from a whole lot of different schools. Kids tend to ‘find their tribe’ in the programs that I oversee.” Having parented two children who transitioned into high school during the height of the pandemic, I often wonder what the reaction would be if numeracy and literacy programs were abolished in the same way as our arts programs. I was never a conventional 26 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

parent when it came to learning. My children learnt their times tables through music and song and the only reason they developed early literacy skills was due to the many nights spent learning the sounds and words to various nursery rhymes. I recall being pleasantly surprised when they grasped the concept of reading so enthusiastically in their first year of kindy. Peter shares a similar view. “I think the arts in schools (and sports, for that matter) are on equal footing of importance as learning to read and write and add and subtract! The whole reason I decided to become a teacher was because of the benefit I know I received participating in the arts programs at my primary and high school, and in The Arts Unit at the time.” Now that a new school year has commenced with the distribution of Rapid Antigen Testing for many students, what protocols are in place to ensure that our children don’t experience another two years of creative drought? Peter is currently working on restaging last year’s

postponed PULSE ALIVE initiative, which involves over 1000 primary and secondary students. “To see students making music and working together again had many of my team in tears. We worked with NSW Health and the NSW Department of Education to come up with a way to run rehearsals with COVID-safe settings in place - all the doors and windows to the rooms were always open, students and staff were in masks - including whilst singing - and we were able to source some Rapid Antigen Tests to enable all students to test before they arrived at the venue. What also worked for us is that we were able to provide schools, teachers and students with music and choreography to work on virtually at home.” Sydney Youth Music Theatre stages two productions each year for young people aged between 10 and 25. President Chrissy Strickland said when COVID-19 hit in 2020 they were scheduling their junior show, The Addams Family.

“We postponed the show to July 2021 but then had to cancel the week before opening. Having to cancel shows, delay shows, and communicate to cast and families was devastating. Then I had to apply for new musical licences, adjust dates for lighting, sound, venue, orchestras, cast, crew etc. Having such a young cast meant many were not vaccinated, so our risk mitigation plans had to be strict.” When drama was cancelled in my HSC year, I had three days to find another way to study acting as an arts subject. At the time it felt like the end of the world - leaving the friends that I had grown up with. It ended up being one of the best decisions of my life. I was introduced to a school with a wonderful Drama department, and I was also encouraged to pursue studies in Maths and Biology. I have always been grateful for that moment of adversity which opened the door to new pathways and opportunities. Reflecting on this, I wonder if there is any silver lining to all this disruption and upheaval for our kids.

“Our whole rehearsal process for Shrek this year has been a disruption, but the students’ desire to perform is so strong that they’ve been so flexible with every little change that’s happened. We held online auditions and over one hundred students auditioned because they’re so much more comfortable in front of a camera now, than walking into a room,” states Courtney Cassar. Peter Hayward has faith that we will eventually get back to some semblance of normal. “There may even be a net positive for all of us who have been in the arts through this time. We will go into the rebuilding phase with a renewed sense of why we do what we do and why it’s important - so, in a really crazy way, we could even get to a better place than we might have

without going through this pandemic.” With The Addams Family finally hitting the stage, after a coronavirusfree and successful season, Chrissy describes the feeling of making it to the finish line. “We talked about seeing this show on the stage and how we would feel. I totally underestimated the joy. I learned and was astonished by the resilience, courage and hope of those in The Arts.” Chrissy reminds me of a line from The Addams’s Family: ‘If we move toward the darkness, we might find love and acceptance. For when it is dark enough, we can see the stars.’ “And when our show went on stage, we finally got to see the stars...”

Pulse Alive (Peter Hayward) Featuring over 1000 student performers from NSW public schools. Ken Rosewall Arena on March 14 and 15. Sydney Youth Music Theatre (Chrissy Strickland) Into The Woods - The Showroom at Hornsby RSL July 8 to 16. Pennant Hills High School (Courtney Cassar) Shrek will be presented May 6 to 14.

Pennant Hills High School’s last production prior to coronavirus disruptions - Matilda (2020). Photo courtesy: Courtney Cassar.

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Curtain Up, Light The Lights, It’s Showtime! Actress and author Judy Nunn dug into her extensive theatrical background for her latest book Showtime! - set in Australia’s booming 19th Century post-gold rush theatre districts. Peter Pinne spoke with her about her writing, her life and her career. Judy Nunn’s long history of performing on stage began as a 12year-old playing Polly Hoppit in Emil and the Detectives at the Perth Playhouse. On moving east, she worked for J.C. Williamson’s, then spent five years honing her craft in London, before returning to Australia in the mid-seventies. Television famously followed, with Judy’s 13year stint in Home and Away, and then came the books, at first written on the TV set between takes, and now as a full-time novelist. 16 titles later she is one of Australia’s most successful authors. Peter Pinne: You couldn’t have chosen a better period for the setting of your latest book. Australian theatre in the late 19th century was a vibrant and exciting culture. The fact that you have captured it so brilliantly is no accident, as the pages reek of the smell of greasepaint. Judy Nunn: Theatre has always been my first performing love, so to go back and revisit my early years treading the boards was a labor of love and a sort of homecoming. PP: Are any of the characters based on real people? Judy with Stuart Wagstaff in Blithe Spirit (1983).

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JN: Actually, inspired is a better word. Will and Max Worthing were inspired by the Fullers. Benjamin and John Fuller were Englishmen who were remarkably successful in New Zealand entertainment and from 1912 in Australia. Their vaudeville circuit rivaled the Tivoli. John Fuller senior, like the fictional Max Worthing, was also a professional singer. PP: What about the entrepreneurs Carlo and Rube? JN: No, they’re entirely fiction. PP: And Rosie, the exotic dancer and contortionist? JN: An original creation. PP: And a brilliant one if I may say so. Sydney did not have a Colosseum Theatre at that time. Why did you create a theatre when the city had so many? JN: There’s so much historical data out there relating to those venues the owners, the lessees, the productions, etc, that one would be completely (and rightly) open to criticism. The mix of fact and fiction is very complicated, and it is actually a wonderful challenge for the novelist. Too many facts can certainly bog

down a book if a writer overuses historical research. But readers of historical fiction love to learn. Getting the balance right is the ultimate test. PP: What sort of research did you do for the book? JN: Normally I would go on field trips to wherever my novel was set, stay a while, get a feeling for the place, talk to historians, and visit various locations, but because of the lockdowns I couldn’t do that. When I acted, I toured a lot and I’ve played in a lot of the theatres I’ve mentioned. PP: I love the fact you bring in the theatrical ghosts, ‘Fred’ at the Theatre Royal, Hobart, and Frederick Federici at the Princess Theatre Melbourne. It adds great color. You’ve played the Theatre Royal, Hobart twice. Have you ever seen ‘Fred’? JN: No, but my good friend Jackie Weaver has. PP: You went onto the stage at an early age. Were there family influences? JN: Yes, my mother was a schoolteacher, but she was also heavily involved in Perth’s acting and theatre scene. She was a founding member of the Playhouse Theatre, which became the State Theatre Company of Western Australia. PP: Are there any writers in your family? JN: No, but we are all great readers. My father used to love Wilbur Smith novels and a few years ago someone called me the Wilbur Smith of Australia. I think he would have been very pleased to have heard that. He died in ‘78. PP: Do you write every day? JN: No, I’m not that disciplined to the point of daily commitment, but I do keep my head in the book when I’m not writing. When I know I’ll be

Judy with Hector Crawford, producer of The Box, in 1975.

Stage Heritage

Judy with Tim Brooke-Taylor in My Fat Friend (1977).

Showtime! is Judy Nunn’s 16th novel and every one of them has hit the bestseller list, several staying at No. 1 for some time. She is one of the biggest selling fiction authors in Australia with well over one million copies of her books sold worldwide. In 2015 she was made a Member of the Order of Australia for her ‘significant service to the performing arts as a scriptwriter and actor of stage and screen, and to literature as an author.’ Showtime! is reviewed on page 30 of this issue. booknook.com.au/product/showtime away from it for any period of time, I go into big print with no attempt at form, but just ideas and even scenes that will springboard me back into it upon my return. This avoids writer’s block. PP: Most readers will remember you for your 13-year stint as Ailsa Hogan (later Stewart) in Home and Away. Prior to that there was Irene Fisher in Sons and Daughters, but I remember you as far back as The Box, when you caused a scandal by giving Helen Hemingway Australian TV’s first lesbian kiss in 1975. JN: Yes, it was ten years before Ellen DeGeneres had her first lesbian kiss on TV in the U.S.. Australia was way ahead of the game in those days. Vicki Stafford was known as ‘The bitch of The Box’. She remains one of my favorite characters. PP: You’ve been married for a long time. Where did you meet your husband? JN: Oh, it’s so long ago and I’ve told the story so many times I’m sure everyone knows it. PP: No, where?

JN: A blind date at a dinner party. Judy is married to Bruce Venables, an ex-cop from Tasmania who also served in the Royal Hong Kong Police Force. He switched careers in the eighties and became a successful actor and author, with four thrillers and a book of poetry under his belt. PP: What’s the secret of a successful marriage?

JN: We make each other laugh. We stimulate each other and we admire each other’s brains. PP: Do you run everything that you write past him? JN: Yes, he’s a wonderful sounding board and reads everything, as I also read and discuss his work. We’re a greatly supportive team.

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Stage On Page By Peter Pinne NELLIE - The Life and Loves of Dame Nellie Melba by Robert Wainwright (Allen & Unwin) There are plenty of books out there about Melba’s life and career, most of them authoritative, so you have to ask yourself do we really need another one. When they’re as good as this, the answer is yes. Spending as many pages on her personal life as he does on her career, journalist and biographer Robert Wainwright digs below the notoriety and acclaim to find the woman underneath. Today we know her as the face on the Australian $100 note and for the dessert delicacy Peche Melba, but life was not at all easy for the singer, who became the greatest opera singer of her time and our first recognised ‘diva’. She had to battle her father for his acceptance of her singing career, she married in haste to Charles Armstrong and suffered spousal abuse, and she fell in love with the pretender to the French throne, Phillipe d’Orleans, who was eight years her junior. Born in 1861 in Richmond, Melbourne, the eldest of 10, to a God-fearing Scots stonemason, David

30 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

Mitchell, Nellie Mitchell attended Presbyterian Ladies College, Burwood, where her interest in music was first fostered by contralto Mary Ellen Christian, and later tenor Pietro Cecchi. Her young sister’s death at four had a profound effect on Nellie, who was tasked with her care. Aware of this, her father took her with him to Queensland where he had a contract to build a mill at Marian, 24 kilometres from Mackay. It was there she met Armstrong, nicknamed ‘Kangaroo Charlie’, who was a skilled horseman, a bare-knuckle fighter, and, like Nellie, had a fiery temper. They were ill-matched but they married in 1882 and the following year she gave birth to her son George. Money was scarce, so Nellie started singing in concerts, but when Armstrong’s violence constantly became physical, Nellie returned with George to Melbourne. In time, George would become the punchingbag between Nellie and Armstrong, who took him away from Nellie when he was nine. She didn’t see him for ten years. In 1886 in London Nellie auditioned for Arthur Sullivan, the composing half of Gilbert and Sullivan, who, to Nellie’s dismay, dismissed her voice as being ‘all

This title is available in paperback for $32.99 from Book Nook. bit.ly/34Btsb0 right’. Undeterred, she went to Paris and auditioned for the famed teacher Mathilde Marchesi. Marchesi was so excited by her voice that she told her husband, ‘I finally have a star.’ With her father reluctantly agreeing to support her, Nellie started taking lessons and Marchesi became a ‘mother’ figure to her. But Nellie was proud and strong, and when Marchesi told her not to come back until she had a new dress (she only had one because that’s all she

didn’t see Nellie again until he heard her sing in 1905 in the U.S. when he was twenty-two. A huge welcome awaited Nellie on her first homecoming tour to Australia, which was a great success. Even her father, although sick, got to see her, which was the one thing that thrilled her more than anything. After a lifetime of indifference, she finally received his approval. The only blot on the accolades was a threethousand word ‘open letter’ in the Truth newspaper column of John Norton, who claimed she was a ‘sad drunk who was destroying her own talents’ - an unfounded accusation which Nellie hotly denied, but the Get your copy of Showtime! claim left a sour taste and she vowed for just $32.99 from never to return. Book Nook. But she did, and Norton was nowhere to be seen, having entered bit.ly/3uGeFGF hospital for alcoholic addiction. At could afford), Nellie stood up to her, the height of her popularity in 1911 and Marchesi backed down. she toured in 12 operas in Australia, Nellie Mitchell soon became Nellie touring again in 1924 in a joint Melba, and a singing contract company with J.C. Williamson’s. Both followed from entrepreneur Maurice tours vindicated her belief in herself Strakosch. She was then asked to and her dream of pursuing a make her debut as Gilda in Rigoletto professional career. at Brussels’ Theatre de la Monnaie, Well-written, well-documented, but the Strakosch contract was a and brilliantly evocative of the times problem. It was resolved when he and attitudes of society, the book dropped dead just before opening. comes with B&W photos but no Melba captivated the audience and index. Highly recommended! critics with her performance, especially in the big aria ‘Caro SHOWTIME! By Judy Nunn Nome’, and from that moment on (William Heinemann) she became a ‘star’. In the late 19th century, London success followed, then Melbourne was the jewel in the Paris, New York and Milan. She crown of Australia. The industrial became friends with with royalty, boom had seen the city explode was feted by society, and met Phillipe following the gold rush of the 1860s, d’Orleans. They began their illicit it was wealthy and affluent, and of affair, which became common course entertainment thrived. J.C. knowledge amongst the glitterati Williamson arrived from America and and eventually reached the ears of stayed to build an empire. Other Armstrong back in Australia. entrepreneurs couldn’t wait to get Armstrong was jealous of his here. It’s this scenario that Judy wife’s stardom and even more angry Nunn, top-selling Australian author, at being cuckolded. He insisted has chosen for the background of George go to boarding school in her latest novel, Showtime! England. Nellie reluctantly agreed. Two brothers, Will and Max George spoke English with an accent, Worthing, arrive from England with which found him being called their wives Mabel and Gertie. An ‘Froggy’ at school. Armstrong later acrobatic team, lured by the wealth took him to America and George to be found in Australia, they set up

shop in Melbourne. They met at a Lancashire cotton mill when they were teenagers. Will is a Shakespearean expert, Max is a singer, and Gertie and their offspring are tumblers. They find success as a variety troupe, touring the country producing popular shows. Their rivals are Michael (Carlo) Carlosvsky and Marten (Rube) Reubens, also from England, who met at an orphanage and gained their theatrical experience working in a traveling boxing troupe. Infected by gold fever, they came to the colonies. They started out fighting for an Irishman in O’Banyon’s Boxing Bonanza, but soon became producers of the bawdy Big Show Bonanza. Carlo and Rube met the Fairweather Sisters, Rosie and Gilda, exotic dancers and contortionists, and Carlo fell in love. As we travel the country with these showmen, Nunn paints a vivid and accurate picture of theatrical life at the time as she weaves fiction and fact in a love story and series of events that take in Federation, the Black Plague and the horrors of the First World War. And that’s the joy of this book, as real characters like James Cassius Williamson, Harry Rickards, Charles Tait and the Fuller family pepper the text and rub shoulders with some riveting fictional characters like Will and Max Worthing, Carlo and Rube, and one marvelous femme fatale, Rosie. Variety stars of the time, Ada Delroy and Irving Sayles, make an appearance as well as the famous theatrical ghosts, ‘Fred’ at the Theatre Royal, Hobart, and ‘Federici’ at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne. It was a colorful period, and Nunn, whose forte is historical fiction, has written a sweeping novel of passion, ambition and love. It’s easy to get lost in the story and the images of a time when variety and melodrama ruled our stages. Stage Whispers readers will love it. I did!

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 31

Hamilton And Me What is it like being in the room where it happens in the musical Hamilton? West End star Giles Terera has written a book, from the inside, about his portrayal of Aaron Burr, the Vice President of the United States who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel. SUNDAY 22 OCTOBER The Legend of President Burr. I discovered something. There’s a book written by one of Burr’s contemporaries. As often happened in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when people of note died, their papers were given to some associate who collated a kind of memoir of that person. A posthumous autobiography of sorts. I found Burr’s. Long out of print and I’ve never seen it referred to in other books. But there it was, buried in the dusty far reaches of the internet. These types of books basically take the form of an official timeline of the person’s life. No dirt, but anything contemporaneous is useful. In the book, I suddenly notice something. Whoever wrote the book knew Burr as a young man. The writer details the well-known facts about Burr’s family. All theologians. All mighty ‘fire and brimstone’ preachers. He also notes the other much-spoken fact that Burr’s father, Reverend Aaron Burr Sr, was founder of Princeton University. But, whenever this writer, this contemporary of Burr’s, refers to Burr Sr he calls him ‘President Burr’. Not ‘Aaron Burr Senior’ or ‘Burr’s father’. President Burr. Aaron Sr, as well as being founder, was indeed also President of the university, and it appears that during and after his life he was known by one and all in New York as President Burr. Aaron never knew his father, but would presumably have spent his childhood, youth, formative years and adulthood hearing the legends of President Burr: ‘You’re President Burr’s boy...’ ‘I knew President Burr...’ ‘The night President Burr addressed the hall...’ 32 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

The Presidential Election of 1800 which leads to the duel was about more than politics then. MONDAY 23 OCTOBER I came close today. Tears. Only taken three weeks. I’ve never had that before. Ever. Partly because or mainly because I feel out of control. Or not in control of my process. The sheer volume of information being thrown at us is massive and multilayered. This in itself is not unexpected or unwanted. Information is what I crave, expect and welcome. The issue is how to collate and ingest the info I need. Choreography, steps, positions, cues to move, cues to arrive, cues to stop, which steps go with which lyrics. My life is bits of paper with instructions scrawled in pencil. I’m good at remembering things once I’ve been told. Any move I make I have to fix to whatever my intention is at the time, so it’s easy to remember once you have that connection, but that’s not the point. The point is I’m on stage for virtually the whole show, therefore in pretty much every scene that gets rehearsed. I’m struggling to find the time during the day to go over, collate and implement what we’ve done. Burr walks on stage at the top of the show, followed by the whole company, and pretty much everyone is dancing, singing, acting during every song (well, practically - see George III!). Therefore there’s twoand-three-quarter hours’ worth of music and choreography to learn. I’m finding it hard to process and practise. Steph [Klemons, Associate Choreographer of Hamilton] will often

give everyone their moves, steps, positions, all the lifts and jumps and combinations, ten or fifteen minutes of complicated instructions. Then to me: ‘Oh yes, Burr. You walk from here to here when she says “Alexander”. Okay?’ Which sounds simple enough a child could do it: the character walks from here to here - but inevitably, because it’s such a seemingly easy bit of staging, I won’t get to go through it with the company. Who are loudly, hurriedly going through the choreography they’ve just been given. Steph claps. ‘Okay! We’re going to go from “Raise a glass”.’ Cool. I have my cue to move. I know where I’m moving to. We start. As does the revolve. Wait a minute. No one mentioned the revolve moving. My cue coming up. Horror. Just as I am about to step, two actors are now standing right in front of me. Another is coming this way. Legs and arms whirl past. Do I go first? Do they go first? Who has right of way here? I haven’t even stepped on stage yet. Oh shit. My cue has come up. Actor Rule Number One: whatever else is happening, when your cue comes up, crack on. So. I step. Car crash. Horse-drawn carriage crash. Then, in the space where I was supposed to be walking,

Buy your copy of Hamilton And Me for just $39.99 at booknook.com.au/product/hamilton-and-me

Book Extract

Giles Terera as Aaron Burr in Hamilton. Photo: Matthew Murphy. Opposite page: Giles Terera and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

is a couple doing a beautiful lift, while the inner turntable is moving. Bodies, moving stages, traffic. Wagon crash. Me, attempting not to scatter everyone like bowling pins. Failing. Flailing. I look up and catch Steph’s eye, who, though trying to survey a stage full of expertly delivered choreography, cannot help but be

Hamilton opens at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne on March 15. hamiltonmusical.com.au/melbourne drawn to the chaos being wrought by Burr as he flaps his way through the scene like a seasick goose. Once we stop I get given the inevitable note about my bit. Which was by far the simplest task anyone just had to execute. ‘Um, Burr, what was going on over there?’ I’ll have completely understood what I ought to have done, but - and here’s the rub - I won’t have had the opportunity to practise it with the elements involved. Bodies. Sets. Revolves. Props. I never get that. Frustrating. Well. Keep going, boy. The higher the mountain... TUESDAY 24 OCTOBER I worked like a bastard between...well, overnight. The idea of falling behind does not appeal. The only option is work. Work, work and further work. I am getting closer. ‘The Schuyler Sisters’, ‘Helpless’, ‘Satisfied’

all contain a lot of movement for me. That which I could not do yesterday I can at least attempt today. Subsequently I felt less dejected today. Also, one has to keep a sense of perspective. Unless there is joy in the work, it cannot be all it can be. Just before lunch, Andy [Blankenbuehler, Choreographer of Hamilton] gave a brilliantly helpful insight into the character of Burr within the staging of the show. One thing he said in particular: ‘With the character of Hamilton, everything is staged in circles. The turntable. Everything is circular and spinning. A hurricane. With Burr, everything is square. Four-sided. Boxed in. Until he has no choice but to be staring down the barrel of a pistol at Alexander.’ This is an extract from Hamilton: An Actor’s Journal by Giles Terera. Published by Nick Hern Books, it is available at Book Nook. stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 33

The Make-up Box

Coral Drouyn remembers an icon of show business, and a part of her own family’s history. It was fifty years old when we first crossed paths - and that was more than seventy years ago. Once it had worn a coat of brilliant red, but that was back in its glory days. On the night we met, it was barely more than a tin box, rusting at the corners and worn, with a latch that didn’t close properly, but it was a part of history and I believed it was magic. When you opened the lid, various trays were raised up as if by a witch’s spell, revealing sticks that looked like plasticine...or maybe wax crayons. The insides of those trays were a mishmash of greasy colours, and there was a faded note stuck on the bottom of the tin. If I had been old enough to read, I would have known that it said, “To Bertha, on her first performance. Remember to smile. 1898.” It was my grandmother’s makeup box. I never really knew my grandmother’s real name, and that wasn’t so unusual in the last century. Show people often had a real name; a stage name for theatre; perhaps one for film. Quite often if you were “on the halls” you changed your name when you changed your act. Thus she was Bertha Baker (in films), Ella Haig,

34 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

Ella Coppin and (presumably) Mrs Denman, since my grandfather’s name was Charlie Denman, though his stage name was Charles Coppin, and the two of them, as a sophisticated double act, were billed at the London Palladium as “Haig and Esco - Britain’s Burns and Alan.” Life is very different when you are raised in theatres. I saw shows from the wings, hidden behind the front tabs and the first set of “legs” in the Stage Manager’s corner. Sometimes I just stayed in the dressing room, tired of the back of their heads and the blinding footlights. I have no idea why I was in my grandparents’ dressing room. It was 1948 and perhaps my own parents were on tour. It’s all tiny mosaic pieces of blurred memory, and yet I remember the make-up box as if it was yesterday. There was something evocative about the smell of stage make-up back then, and there was an old saying about the allure of theatre “The smell of the greasepaint, the roar of the crowd”. If you weren’t addicted to applause, then you were hooked on the smell. It was called

greasepaint because that’s exactly what it was, and you painted your face with it. Leichner was not the only brand available in the 20th century, but it was the best, and the most expensive. At the very least you needed a stick of No.5, one of No.9, a stick of Carmine, one of blue or green and smaller sticks of black and white. Then there was blending powder and a wonderful gooey make-up remover that looked for all the world like lard or goose fat and just dissolved on your skin, making the 5 and 9 run down your face and your eyes smudge so that you looked like a surprised Panda. Stage lights, both foots and follow spots (which were primed with lime - hence the term limelight) were unforgiving, and without makeup, your face looked like a squashed pancake. There was no such thing as mascara in my grandmother’s time, so she used to bead her eyelashes. That’s where the stick of black came in. She would line her eyes with it and then squash the end into a teaspoon or tin lid, then heat it with a match or cigarette lighter. When it had melted, she would use the end of the matchstick to coat her eyelashes with the thick liquid, ending with a little drop - or bead - on the tip. If she wanted the lashes longer, she would simply add more beads. Years later Max Factor brought in block mascara, which came with a little brush. She would spit on the block to wet it, then gather the mascara on the little brush and coat her lashes, which were already long and black. False eyelashes were far too expensive for all but “Star” celebrities. My mother used to make her own with a piece of black thread, with the hairs from her own head loop knotted over it. She’d then trim them to shape and use white latex glue (which went clear when dry) to apply them. They looked great, but she could never persuade my Nana to stop beading.

Years later Max Factor overtook Leichner as the preferred makeup. Their pancake foundation was applied with a wet sponge. It dried and cracked and left your skin drier than the Simpson Desert after a ten-year drought. It was replaced with Panstik, which came in twenty different skin tones but never quite managed to look as good as 5 and 9 Leichner, even though it had a snazzy dial up movement in the case. These days we have wand mascaras and so many foundation choices in a hundred different colours for the stage, with glittering eyeshadows and lipstick loaded with sparkles. But back to the good old days - and that one night in 1948. Nana must have thought she was seeing things when she entered the dressing room with my Grandad. There was this precocious brat with blonde ringlets (Sing out Baby June) dancing round the dressing room and singing “I’d like to get you, on a slow boat to China” (my go to performance piece), looking for all the world like a camp gargoyle who had

eyelashes because beading was simply beyond me...and still is. The carmine made my lips and cheeks match...and practically join up. The streaks of numbers 5 and 9 weren’t blended...the effect was something akin to the offspring of a giraffe and a zebra. My Grandmother was furious. She yelled so loud that the ASM had to knock on the door to tell her she could be heard on stage. Full of theatrical superstitions, she reminded me that you NEVER...EVER...USE SOMEONE ELSE’S MAKE-UP. I’m sure she didn’t know - and I certainly didn’t - that the tradition had started because in Shakespeare’s time, powder was blended with arsenic (talcum was very expensive) and caused hideous disfigurements and sometimes death. I had broken a rule, even worse than whistling in the dressing room, or always stepping on stage with your right foot. She was so angry she swept the poor make-up box off the dressing table, as if it was somehow complicit in my transgressions. I was too scared to ever touch it again. My grandmother was a charismatic but fierce woman, but I loved her dearly. She was part of the magic that was theatre; the second generation of her family to “tread the boards”. I was the fourth and my daughters and grand-daughter the fifth and sixth. Some 15 years later, when I did my first season of Repertory as an actress, my parents bought me a make-up box of my own. It was black and shiny and had a full-size mirror inside its lid. I looked and looked for the magic inside, but I could never find it. Some things are best left to memory. I wish they had given me my grandmother’s make-up box, but it got lost, along with hundreds of spectacular costumes, in storage, when my parents forgot to escaped from Notre Dame. Green reclaim it. I like to think, romantically, covered most of my eyes up to my that it was sold at auction, as eyebrows, and my attempts at black unclaimed items so often are. I wish I eyeliner just looked as if I hadn’t slept could have seen the look on the for a month. It wasn’t helped by the buyer’s face when they opened the lid fact that I appeared to have no - and let the magic out! stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 35

Broadway Buzz Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster in The Music Man. Photo: Joan Marcus.

Online extras!

The Music Man opened on Broadway with great fanfare. See for yourself! youtu.be/AOD6lKpgVnM

Sofie. Corey Hawkins plays Harpo and the cast also includes Halle Berry. Lynn Nottage’s play Intimate Apparel, about black seamstress Esther Mills in turn-of-the-century New York City, has been given the opera treatment by Ricky Ian Gordon, in a score that is ‘peppered with sounds of ragtime and klezmer’. Currently playing at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, the work is directed by Bartlett Sher, and stars Kearstin Piper Brown (Esther), Arnold Livingston Geis (My Marks), and Naomi Louisa O’Connell (Mrs Van Buren). The critics have been effusive ‘A glorious new opera’ (Frank Rizzo, By Peter Pinne who fakes a miracle by pumping Variety), ‘A knockout’ (Jesse Green, water out of a rock, thus creating a New York Times), and The reviews are in for Broadway’s new Lourdes tourist attraction. ‘Inspired’ (Helen Shaw, New York). new production of Meredith Willson’s Despite starring Angela Lansbury, it Accompaniment is by twin pianos. The Music Man, and they’re raves for only ran nine performances during Reviews for MJ, the new Michael stars Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster Broadway’s 1964 season. Elizabeth but not so much for the show - ‘Hugh Stanley (Jagged Little Pill) plays nurse Jackson jukebox musical, have been Jackman dazzles as Professor Fay Apple, Santino Fontana (Tootsie) mixed, with Rolling Stone claiming you’ll leave the theatre on a ‘giddy Hill’ (Variety), ‘If ever there was a is phoney psychiatrist J. Bowden high from Jackson’s music’, and New stage match for Jackman, Foster is Hapgood, whilst Douglas Sills (War York Post calling one sequence ‘novel it’ (Associated Press), ‘Even with Hugh Paint) plays comptroller Schub. Ted Jackman, The Music Man goes Sperling conducts and directs, and the and invigorating’, but both criticised the script as ‘indecisive’, while raving flat’ (New York Times), but the score includes such delights as producers won’t mind the odd ‘Everybody Says Don’t’, ‘There Won’t about Myles Frost who plays Jackson ‘absurdly talented’ (New York Post), negative quote with over $50 million be Trumpets’, the title tune, and the ‘the performance reminds you of how already in the box-office. Pre-show gorgeous ‘With So Little To Be Sure much Jackson brought to pop, hype was off-the-charts, with critics Of’. Williams is currently making her choreography and celebrity not allowed into the theatre before West End debut in City of Angels. mystique’ (Rolling Stone). The show’s the opening night, and a two-page According to Variety, after her best musical moment is Ayana George advertising spread in the New York scenery-chewing turn as Miss Times, unprecedented in modern Hannigan in NBC’s Annie Live!, Taraji as mom Katherine Jackson when she duets on ‘I’ll Be There’ with her son. Broadway history. ‘It’s increasingly P. Henson will star as Shug Avery in rare to see a pair of stage stars of this the movie musical adaptation of The The show is set in 1992, on the eve of Jackson’s Dangerous tour, and megawattage sing and dance Color Purple. Based on the novel by celebrates his greatness while mostly together’ (Vulture), and that’s what Alice Walker, The Color Purple tells this production is all about - the stars the story of Celie, her sister, who was avoiding the dark stuff. Eddie Perfect’s Beetlejuice returns - even including a curtain call where forcibly wed to an older widower, and to Broadway 8 April 2022, to a new they tap dance in matching white who becomes smitten with a juketheatre, the Marriott Marquis on bandleader outfits. joint singer. Marcus Gardley has Vanessa Williams will head the penned the screenplay, Blitz Bazawule Times Square. The original creative cast of the MasterVoices (formerly the will direct, and American Idol winner team led by director Alex Timbers will Collegiate Chorale) concert Fantasia Barrino features as Celie, the remain in place for the musical’s return. Based on Tim Burton’s 1988 production of Stephen Sondheim’s role she played in the Broadway movie, it has a book by Scott Brown cult-favorite Anyone Can Whistle 10 production. Joining her from that March 2022. Williams will play production will be Danielle Brooks as and Anthony King, and music and lyrics by Perfect. scheming mayor Cora Hoover Hooper, 36 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

London Calling

By Peter Pinne Although mandated mask wearing and COVID-19 passports have been dropped by the British government, the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, is still encouraging people to wear masks in crowded spaces. Theatres can now encourage audience members to wear a mask. There is also an end to mandatory COVID-19 passes to enter venues, such as theatres, concert halls, and nightclubs. LW Theatres strongly recommends masks in their venues and the Theatre Royal, Stratford East still requires a face covering unless you’re sitting down and eating. Grease will have its first new West End staging in 29 years when it starts previews 3 May and opens 17 May. It will be directed by Nikolai Foster (Artistic Director of The Curve), choreographed by Arlene Phillips (Starlight Express/We Will Rock You), and will star Dan Partridge (Mamma Mia!) and Olivia Moore (Waitress) as Danny and Sandy. Singer Peter Andrè will make his West End debut as Vince Fontaine at certain performances, while Darren Bennett will play Fontaine at other performances. Producer Colin Ingram has said the production will be “grittier” than usual, using the original, un-sanitised script. Ralph Fiennes will star as Robert Moses in the new David Hare play, Straight Line Crazy, which begins previews at the Bridge Theatre 16 March and opens 23 March. It follows the life of Moses, an American public official who transformed the New York City landscape during the 20th century. Even though he created new parks, bridges and roads, Moses’ campaigns were met with harsh criticism, and so began years of debate. The cast also includes Alisha Bailey, Samuel Barnett, David Bromley, Al Coppola, Siobhan Cullen, Ian Kirkby, Alana Maria and Danny Webb. Directed by Nicholas Hytner, it reunites Fiennes, Hare and Hytner following their 2020 collaboration on Beat the Devil at the Bridge. The hit version of To Kill a Mockingbird is to finally open its

Laura Osnes and Jeremy Jordan in Bonnie & Clyde (2011) on Broadway. Photo: Nathan Johnson.

London season, beginning previews at the Gielgud Theatre 10 March ahead of an opening night 31 March 2022. Olivier Award nominated actor Rafe Spall heads the cast as Atticus Finch, which also features Gwyneth Keyworth as Scout, Harry Redding as Jem Finch, Jude Owusu as Tom Robinson, Pamela Nomvete as Calpurnia, Jim Norton as Judge Taylor and Patrick O’Kane as Bon Ewell. Based on Harper Lee’s Pulitzer-Prize winning novel, it follows a court case in 1930s Alabama in which Finch defends Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of rape. The adaptation is by Aaron Sorkin, with direction by Bartlett Sher. The Broadway production is the most successful play in Broadway history, taking over $100,000,000 (and still counting) at the box-office. Following two concerts at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Bonnie and Clyde The Musical will now receive its official West End premiere at the Arts Theatre 9 April 2022. With a book by Ivan Menchell, music by Frank Wildhorn and lyrics by Don Black, it follows the infamous criminal couple who committed numerous bank robberies and went on a killing spree during the Great Depression. The musical premiered on Broadway in 2011 starring Jeremy Jordan as Clyde, who reprised his performance at Drury Lane. Menchell, speaking about the West End premiere, said ‘There is tremendous love for the show and it’s fantastic that it’s getting a West End

run. The only thing the British love more than Americans on stage, is Americans behaving badly on stage!’ Following a nationwide tour, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast will transfer to the London Palladium 24 June and play until 17 September. As she did on the tour, Courtney Stapelton will play Belle, whilst Shaq Taylor joins the company to play the Beast. The cast also includes Gavin Lee as Lumiere, Tom Senior as Gaston, Sam Bailey as Mrs Potts, Nigel Richards as Cogsworth, Martin Bell as Maurice, Samantha Bingley as Wardrobe, Emma Caffrey as Babette and Louis Stockil as Le Fou. When it opens there will be four Disney musicals playing in the West End, including The Lion King, Frozen and Mary Poppins. The full cast for the revival of Small Island at the National Theatre has been announced. Leonie Elliott will play Hortense, with Mirren Mack as Queenie, Martin Hutson as Bernard and Leemore Marrett Jr. as Gilbert. It opens in the Olivier Theatre at the National Theatre on 3 March and plays until 30 April. The musical explores the intricate shared history between Jamaica and the UK by following four characters: Hortense who arrived on UK soil for the first time, landlady Queenie, and servicemen Gilbert and Bernard. London Theatre called it ‘big, bold, poignant and powerful storytelling theater.’ stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 37

Stage Sounds

By Peter Pinne West Side Story - Soundtrack (Leonard Bernstein/ Stephen Sondheim) (Hollywood Recordings D003924502) Fans of West Side Story will be in seventh heaven with this new 2021 soundtrack recording of Leonard Bernstein’s remarkable score. As played by two Philharmonic Orchestras, New York and Los Angeles, under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel, the score has never sounded so fresh and alive, with the gorgeous orchestral colour tones enhanced and played with brio. David Newman has arranged and adapted it, and the result is probably one of the best versions of this iconic musical on disc. All of the orchestral pieces - the ‘Prologue’, ‘Scherzo’ and the ‘Rumble’ are breathtaking, whilst the ‘Dance at the Gym’ has that great 50s blues feel. Only Bernstein could make 12-bar blues sound so classy. Stephen Sondheim did not change any of his lyrics, but the version of ‘America’, as sung by Ariana DeBose

Stage Whispers Directory premium listing: $20 Get noticed on the Stage Whispers website with a premium listing at a great price stagewhispers.com.au/directory-central 38 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

West Side Story. Photo: Niko Tavernise. Courtesy: 20th Century Studios.

and the Latinas, uses lyrics from the stage version as well as the 1961 film. Unlike the 1961 film, the vocals in this version are done by the performers singing them. There’s no dubbing and some tracks are even sung “live”. It makes for a more inclusive soundscape. Ansel Elgort as Tony has a youthful and innocent wide -ranging sound which makes ‘Something’s Coming’ a beautiful ode to teenage hope, whilst Rachel Zegler’s Maria has purity and tenderness to spare, while together their ‘One Hand, One Heart’ is an emotionally moving delight. ‘I Feel Pretty’ reeks with the whimsy of teenage love, and it’s a brilliant foil to Zegler’s heart-rending ‘I Have a Love’. DeBose has all the fire of Anita, with ‘America’, danced on the street in this version, an absolute knockout, and ‘A Boy Like That’ a searing indictment of racially mismatched amor. Rita Moreno, a holdover from the 1961 movie where she played Anita, plays the new character of Valentina (Doc’s widow) and sings the repositioned ‘Somewhere’ “live” in a delicate and sensitive performance. ‘Cool’ has the beat-generation 50s snap, the ‘Mambo’ is exceptionally exciting, and the ‘Tonight’ quintet shines as one of the best pieces of vocal writing the musical theatre has ever produced. It’s first class all the way! 

Online extras!

Stream the West Side Story soundtrack on Spotify. Scan the QR code or visit spoti.fi/3BgB26T

Annie Live! (Charles Strouse/Martin Charnin) (Sony Masterworks 998354) The good thing about listening to the soundtrack from NBC’s recent Annie Live! is that you don’t to have look at Harry Connick’s distractingly bad bald-cap as Daddy Warbucks. It’s a pleasant walk down musical-comedylane, with some solid performances. Taraji P. Henson’s performance as the harridan Miss Hannigan kept the whisky flask hidden for most of the time, and still pulled off a respectable ‘Little Girls’ without the prop, and with Tituss Burgess and Megan Hilty brought delicious life and swagger to ‘Easy Street’. Together, she and Connick sang a lively duet, ‘Sign’, from the first movie version, but Connick was best at the piano singing ‘Something Was Missing’, and working with newcomer Celina Smith (Annie) on ‘I Don’t Need Anything But You’. Nicole Scherzinger (Grace) gave the show’s best performance, leading the chorus with ‘We Got Annie’ and ‘N.Y.C.’ The chorus punched the irony to the max on ‘Hooverville’, whilst the kids were rousing on ‘Hard Knock Life’ and ‘You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile’. Not the best version of the musical on disc, but it’s ebullient and hard not to like. 

Rating  Only for the enthusiast  Borderline  Worth buying  Must have  Kill for it Sweet Smell of Success, Gould’s character is a huckster and a heel. Rome, a Broadway veteran with several hits under his belt, wrote a score that was rich in character, with Yiddish influences, jazz, and a little touch of Bernstein. Sid Ramin’s brazzy orchestrations set it all up, and the cast deliver some notable performances. Roth’s two ballads, ‘Too Soon’ and ‘Eat a Little Something’, are heartstring tuggers, Gould’s ‘The Sound of Money’ and ‘The Way Things Are’ deliver big-band jazz, Cooper gets wry on ‘Who Knows’ and belts on ‘A Funny Thing Happened’, and of course Streisand makes ‘Miss Marmelstein’ into a show-stopper. The bonus tracks include a 12-track selection by Sy Oliver and his orchestra (first time on CD), plus studio demo recordings including one cut song ‘Grab Them While You Can’, which was obviously intended for North’s character, Martha Mills, and several pop-covers, notably Tony Bennett (‘Have I Told You Lately’), Robert Goulet (‘Too Soon’), and Jerry Vale (‘Who Knows’). It’s an underrated gem! 

Other Stories - Queenie Van De Zandt (Van De Zandt/ Worboys) (Awe-Os-20/712) Online extras! Other Stories is an impressive album of introspective Get your hands on the soundtrack of songs written by Queenie Van De Zant. Actually recorded NBC’s Annie Live! from Apple Music. in 2004, the songs reflect her life at that time, when her apple.co/33gE4eG relationships fell apart and she picked up the pieces. Innocence and intense yearning rub shoulders as each one I Can Get It For You Wholesale (Harold Rome) (Stage speaks to the heart. Door STAGE 9090) ‘I Never Thought’ finds her in break-up mode with a I Can Get It For You Wholesale has gone down in Latin beat, ‘Cold Blue Day’ is a tender goodbye, whilst history as the musical that launched Barbra Streisand’s ‘Your Eyes’ is arresting slow, smoky blues. Some songs are Broadway career, but there’s so much more to the show written with her writing partner Andrew Worboys, with than that defining moment. Opening in 1962, with music ‘Modern Fairy Tale’ (‘where do happy ever afters go?’) and lyrics by Harold Rome, it was based on a book by and ‘Meant To Be’ with its urban beats reminiscent of Jerome Weidman, who adapted it for the stage, and was L.A., two of the best. Vocally Van De Zandt has a great about New York City’s garment industry. range, and a voice that exudes warmth. She’s also an An ensemble show, the cast was headed by veteran accomplished guitarist, and Worboys’ arrangements and Lillian Roth as Mama, young song-and-dance man Elliot programming complement her every step of the way. Gould as the protagonist Harry The album ends with ‘I Will Bogan, Marilyn Cooper as his Never Love Again’ from Worboys’ former girl-friend, movie star 1994 musical Song of the Sun. Sheree North (Living It Up) as a It’s a big musical theatre piece Broadway show-girl, and that sounds like it escaped from Streisand as Harry’s secretary. Miss Saigon and is totally out of Like John O’Hara’s Pal Joey place on this album of tender and and Clifford Odets’ Hunsecker in fragile lost-love themes. 

Online extras!

I Can Get It For You Wholesale from Stage Door Records is in limited release bit.ly/3GLwWEM

Online extras!

Grab your digital download or signed physical copy of Other Stories. bit.ly/3BiFXnB stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 39

Adapting Laurinda

to draw themes out from the book and onto our google documents, discovering anew each character created by Alice, and bringing them alive.” Already a fan of Alice Pung’s work, Diana Nguyen is thrilled to now What does being a part of the have the author’s blessing to adapt her award-winning young adult NEXT STAGE program mean to you, novel Laurinda for the stage. personally? As part of her Melbourne Theatre that, to have Alice’s blessing to adapt “I am excited to step up my work Company NEXT STAGE commission to her book to a play - wow! and be part of the NEXT STAGE adapt the novel, Diana Nguyen will “I am excited to program. Having co-written web work with dramaturg and director work with dramaturg and series Phi and Me with Fiona Chau Petra Kalive to bring to life Pung’s director Petra Kalive to bring to life which we created to celebrate our funny, feisty and moving characters. Alice’s character of a high-school families’ Vietnamese refugee story - I What can you tell us about the student finding her way in the world.” am excited to learn the adaption project to adapt Alice Pung’s How does your process work for a process and work with Petra in novel Laurinda? project like this? bringing Laurinda to life. I know that “I’ve been a huge fan of Alice “I have been lucky to have worked being part of this program will give Pung’s work ever since reading her with Petra at Melbourne Playback me the courage to continue to tell first book, Unpolished Gem, in high Theatre Company for a number of human stories that move and affect school. To then contribute my own years, and entering the zoom writing us regardless of our gender, culture or short story, Five Ways to Disappoint room has been energetic and race.” wonderful to understand each other’s Your Vietnamese Mother, to her NEXT STAGE is made possible with processes again, albeit via the the support of Playwrights Giving anthology Growing up Asian in Australia was a great honour. To top internet. Through our work at Circle Donors, The Ian Potter Melbourne Playback we’ve been able Foundation, Naomi Milgrom Foundation, The Myer Foundation, Laurinda will play at Southbank Theatre, The Sumner from Malcolm Robertson Foundation and August 6 to September 10. The University of Melbourne.

mtc.com.au

Diana Nguyen.

40 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

...On Sondheim

“especially in the beginning. It feels as though the character is speaking thoughts out loud, they’ve never dared to utter. They’re almost trying them on and choosing to keep them The director and cast members of the Australian national tour of as the song progresses, even those Sondheim on Sondheim share some insights into the legendary that are challenging. For this reason, Broadway songwriter with Neil Litchfield. dynamics are very important, and Celebrating the life, music and effortless in performance. Like infusing the delivery with reverence lyrics of Stephen Sondheim, a line-up Shakespeare, there are rules and once for these ideas that builds and builds of our top musical theatre performers you’ve followed them, it feels as to an almost frenzied desire for the will star in the national tour of natural as breathing.” vagaries of life and connection “Make Sondheim on Sondheim, which earns Interestingly, performers Josh me confused/mock me with praise/ its name from the extensive filmed Piterman and Amy Lehpamer both make me feel used”. nominate ‘Being Alive’ as a favourite Director Tyran Parke’s big interviews with the legendary Broadway lyricist / composer which Sondheim song. Sondheim ambition will come as no are integral to the show. “One of my favourite Sondheim surprise to members of the musical Director and Sondheim devotee songs is ‘Being Alive’ from Company,” theatre community. Tyran Parke explains some of the says Josh. “On a personal level I’m “To direct each one of his works. challenges and rewards that lie ahead engaged now, so the idea of being in That’s part of the reason that in interpreting the show’s large a relationship and the complexity that Sondheim on Sondheim is so delicious section of Sondheim songs. comes with being autonomous and - I’m directing them all in one show, “Sondheim writes material that independent, breaking your heart with the best cast imaginable! To see comes from real life situations, and he open and having that risk to fill it is snippets of Into the Woods with expresses these experiences with such something I can relate to. Lyrics Rhonda Burchmore, A Little Night appropriate musical and lyrical include “Somebody hold me too Music with Katrina Retallick, West phrases that make it feel inevitable. close / Somebody hurt me too deep / Side Story with Josh They are not “bent” to fit in with Somebody sit in my chair / And ruin Pitterman, Sweeney Todd with Peter patterns or melodic phrases; there’s my sleep / And make me aware / Of Coleman Wright, Evening an economy of expression that is being alive”. Primrose with Fiona Choi, Merrily We direct, intriguing and lifelike. The “It works with a lot of repetition, Roll Along with Ainsley Melham, Do I experience of singing his work often which makes it feel like a prayer or Hear a Waltz with Anna feels challenging in rehearsals then even an incantation,” says Amy, O’Byrne, Gypsy with Amy Lehpamer, Follies with Anton Sydney - March 28 & 29, Capitol Theatre Berezin, Assassin with Rowan Witt and more is like looking into the Brisbane - April 4, QPAC portal of what might be possible.” Melbourne - April 5 & 6, Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall

sondheimonsondheim.com.au

Tyran Parke. Photo: Kurt Sneddon.

Amy Lehpamer.

Josh Piterman.

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 41

Song By Song By Sondheim Geraldine Turner reminisces about the late, great Stephen Sondheim, his songs and his shows, with Neil Litchfield.

Stephen Sondheim. Photo courtesy: Rex Features.

42 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

Geraldine Turner first met Stephen Sondheim in 1977 when she was part of the International Music Theatre Forum at the Sydney Conservatorium, for which director Hal Prince, My Fair Lady lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and Steven Sondheim came to Australia. After singing in two musicals at the Australian Musicals Day - the title role in That Mrs Langtry and a musical version of Ruth Park’s novel The Harp in the South - Geraldine received a note from Hal Prince asking if she would like to have supper with them. “When I walked in, Steve Sondheim was sitting there with a huge didgeridoo which he didn’t let go of all night. He’d just bought it from the Sydney Opera House, where he’d done a tour. “That began my acquaintance with both Hal Prince and Stephen Sondheim, and over the years they’ve been very kind to me, writing notes about various performances, etc., etc.” What was it like meeting Stephen Sondheim as a young performer? “It was just like having a dinner party with anybody, except this was a giant of the American musical theatre.” Geraldine had recently played Petra in the Australian premiere of A Little Night Music. “Stephen knew I’d done that because he always kept abreast of whatever productions of his shows were going on. I found him to be charming and terribly kind - they both were actually, and very formal in that kind of American way. When I walked into the room, they both stood. They were charming, told great stories and we laughed all night. It was just a great evening.” Fast forward to the early 80s when Geraldine recorded her first Sondheim

Geraldine Turner as Désirée Armfeldt in A Little Night Music (1990).

album - Old Friends - The Songs of Stephen Sondheim. “I didn’t know when I recorded it, but I was the first artist in the world to record a solo Sondheim album. Soon after that Cleo Laine brought one out, then Julie Wilson, then Barbra Streisand brought out her Broadway album, which had lot of Sondheim on it. I found myself on the cover of the American magazine ‘Show Music’ with Julie Wilson and Cleo Laine, with Stephen Sondheim in the middle, and we were called ‘Sondheim’s Ladies’.” Not everything was coming up roses, though, when Geraldine recorded volume two. “We recorded a couple of early songs that Stephen wrote when he was in college. I wasn’t going to release them without his permission, so I got in touch. He wrote back and said, ‘definitely not’. Then he started writing back and forth about how he didn’t like some of the chord structures and arrangements that we changed. I wrote back and said, of course I want to honour your work but who’s going to buy my album if I do the original Broadway arrangements. People would rather buy the Broadway cast. I’m not a famous person like, say, Barbra Streisand. “He wrote back and said, but Barbra respects me, why can’t you Geraldine. I didn’t know whether to be flattered or upset. I think I felt flattered to be quoted in the same sentence as Barbra Streisand. So, we just had to agree to disagree, but it didn’t ruin our friendship. Every time I went to New York I would call him or he would call me and sometimes we’d have coffee. “Along with everyone else, I feel that the world’s never going to be the same now. “I remember Steve saying years ago, ‘now that Disney’s moved into Broadway, Broadway will never be the same’.

Online extras!

Geraldine sings “Send In The Clowns” from A Little Night Music (2004). youtu.be/5TY9mTLyEis

“He was a fantastic person and I’m so privileged to have known him over the years.” For a musical theatre performer, what is it that makes Sondheim so great? “I guess it’s appealing to the actor in you because he’s done it all for you, unlike some other composers where you might have to bring something to it. Of course, you have to bring your talent to it. You’ve just got to look at the text, play it honestly

and follow the punctuation marks. It’s all there. He’s written the character into the song and you just have to do it the way he wrote it. That’s the way to sing Sondheim.” He wasn’t just a songwriter, then, but a dramatist of songs, I suggest. “And a wonderful observer of humankind. His songs of longing are particularly wonderful. Passion springs to mind in that way.” (Continued on page 44) stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 43

(Continued from page 43)

When I asked about a favourite Sondheim role or song, Geraldine was reluctant to choose. “I did a Mrs Lovett that I think was very different from other readings, and I’m proud of that. It’s probably the best all-round role of my career, apart perhaps from Nancy in Oliver! It just fit me like a glove, but all the Sondheim roles I’ve played have been absolutely wonderful. “When I first saw Sweeney Todd on Broadway I adored it - it was at the Uris Theatre, in that huge barn of a place and had that huge set, because they had to fill the stage, but in fact it’s a small story. “When we did the Melbourne Theatre Company production, we had a pared down orchestra. I was a little a little young to play Mrs Lovett, though now with the film with Helena Bonham Carter, you can be young and play it. Roger Hodgman directed and Peter Carroll was Sweeney. We decided together that the show is about obsession and that Mrs Lovett was obsessed sexually with Todd - that she was in love with him so that was a great clue to me to playing the character. By the time you get to the end act one, when we did “A Little Priest”, we played the black comedy in the song, but by the end of it, it’s as if the song turned us both on and we had this huge passionate kiss...then the blackout. Then by the time you get to “By the Sea”, where she’s rabbiting on about wanting to go and live by the sea in this lovely place, and we can do this and we can do that - by then he’s bored with her sexually. That interpretation of the whole show worked very well.” I encouraged Geraldine to take me down a path of other Sondheim songs or roles and her interpretation of them. “You approach any song in the same way if you’re playing a character - you know where you’re up to in the story, what your character is doing, and your motivation for singing that song. Sondheim said that the difference between musicals and plays is that the emotion gets so much, the 44 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

Geraldine Turner as Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber (1988).

stakes get so high, that you have to move into music. It’s a heightened reality - rather than speaking you must sing. If a musical is not written like that it’s not a good musical. “Then sometimes it’s different again. If everyone’s left the stage, and you’re singing a monologue - that’s real inner thoughts, which he’s very good at writing - like “Moments in the Woods”, the Bakers Wife’s song just before she gets stomped on by the giant. That is totally internal monologue, and he manages to make it funny as well, even though it’s tragic.” In fact, Geraldine’s first Sondheim song on a commercial stage was an internal monologue too, ‘The Miller’s Son’ in A Little Night Music. “It’s a fabulous song - a gift - and to give it to a minor character is a really interesting and brave thing to do. “I love A Little Night Music. It’s his most perfect musical. I never get tired of it. I did it again for the Sydney Theatre Company, playing Désirée, in 1990 - and played the same role 13 years later in New Zealand for an opera company. It was interesting because I’d never repeated a role before. Opera singers play roles again all the time, but musical theatre people usually don’t. It was strange, because I found that I didn’t really

have to relearn the dialogue. It was all there. I found it comforting, that all the roles you play in your life are probably somewhere in your brain. You think you’ve forgotten them, but you’ve just pushed them into a little vault in your brain and once you open that door it all floods back. I was doing a totally different production, but the lines were there. “It’s a great, great part and he wrote it for a non-singer, Glynis Johns, which is why you don’t have to hold a lot of notes in ‘Send in the Clowns’. He’s written that on purpose for a non-singer, but gee, for a nonsinging song it’s pretty bloody good.” In the end, what makes Steven Sondheim so fabulous as a composer / lyricist for musical theatre performers? “He writes with such layers - not that I’m suggesting someone like Irving Berlin did that any less. Berlin was a great tunesmith, wrote wonderful lyrics and was fantastic in an entirely different way, but Sondheim is a great observer of life. He stands at the side, like Joanne does in Company, and watches life and comments on it, and comments on the nuances and the follies in relationships, and that’s all very good fodder for a singing actor. “I think Sunday in the Park with George is brilliant - writing songs about making art is such a fantastic thing to have done.” Irving Berlin wrote ‘standards’, though, very much to a set formula for lyric and melody, but Sondheim likes to break formula doesn’t he? “A lot of people say he doesn’t write good melody. I disagree. I think he writes terrific melodies, and the way he sits the lyric on the musical phrase is perfection.” Could you share a favourite example or two of the way he does that? “I love - ‘then you career from career to career’ - in ‘I’m Still Here’. What a great notion that is. And in the song ‘Johanna’ from Sweeney Todd - ‘I feel you, Johanna. And one day, I’ll steal you’ - that’s the most perfect lyric, and the way it sits on the music is beautiful.”

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 45

Playbuilding Drama teacher and author Carol Wimmer shares her tips on helping drama students navigate their journey through group devised drama.

Funny how when you type ‘playbuilding’ many computers still don’t recognise it or want to convert it to two words - yet we’ve been using the term in Drama for years. Along with improvisation, playbuilding is the core of many Drama syllabuses. The process of playbuilding requires students to work in a group to devise an original script and performance. In doing so, they call on their practical skills, their knowledge and experience and their ability to work collaboratively. Every improvised task, every style, form or practitioner of theatre studied informs students’ knowledge of drama and theatre. Every workshop broadens their acting skills and their understanding of the wide variety of dramatic and theatrical techniques and devices. From every play they read or perform in, every play or musical they see, they learn more about dramatic structure and theatrical techniques. All of this informs the playbuilding process, beginning with sharing, improvising and researching ideas to finding the best way to structure them into a performance - then putting that together formally as a performance and a published script. Thus, playbuilding involves everything a playwright does...with the added task of performing the work. So if, as a director, you see young people typing or drawing madly on their iPads or taking photos of sets or costumes or props, this is their way of 46 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

adding to their knowledge and experience - and eventually their playbuilding expertise. It’s the reason they might ask to sit in and observe you at work, or ply you with questions about your ‘vision’ or your decisions about where you’ve set the production, your design ideas or the actors you’ve chosen. In NSW, students from Years 9 to 12 are given progressively more demanding playbuilding tasks. The stimuli they are offered vary: words, phrases, headlines, extracts from novels, historical events or personalities. The process varies little but becomes more informed and prescriptive as the students progress in their studies - and every stage is recorded. Logbooks are as important a part of drama as the Visual Diary is to Art. Students are encouraged to record all their drama experiences in their logbook, and this can include classwork, evaluations of their own work and the work of others, research, character studies, photos, theatre programs, reviews, script extracts... Playbuilding usually begins with brainstorming - discussing, recording, checking and researching words or ideas. This could involve each member of the group taking on a specific task, recording the results in their own logbook, copying it or sharing it with the group, and often collecting or summarising all the results in a group logbook.

The next step usually involves improvising some of the ideas and developing the characters. This process is fundamental in establishing a working scenario - but it can take a long time and change vastly as ideas develop, or further research broadens the theme. For instance, the stimulus “outlaws” could begin with improvisations of an American western, then evolve to a gold rush hold up or a biographical study of Ned Kelly or covert hackers invading a government department...or something totally different to the normal meaning of the word...like a family living ‘off the grid’ and evading laws and taxes. It is amazing just where brainstorming and impro can take an imaginative, thoughtful group of actors. As ideas are tried, changed and developed, formats and styles are discussed. It may be that the final idea will be best performed as a comedy, or as theatre of the absurd, or as a didactic Brechtian piece, or as street theatre using masks, puppets and banners. Senior students will have studied a variety of forms and styles, different theatre practitioners and a range of plays and scripts. Their study will have involved class workshops on all of these, group devised work based on their study, individual research and observations, and as many theatre visits as can be arranged, either as a class group or as individuals. Students will also need to work further on their characters, developing their personalities, their relationships with each other, establishing their background, and specific research if they are based on a real person or come from a period in the past. Acting skills are taught from as early as Year 7 in some schools and students develop and further their skills in voice, movement, character development, focus, tension and mood throughout their studies. The next stage is crucial. This is where structuring the performance begins. It’s important that, whatever the style, the piece has a clear beginning, middle and end, distinct scenes, realistic characters, a clear message, a defined style. To achieve this, students are encouraged all along

the way to keep their audience in mind. Is the piece easy to follow? Is the meaning clear? Are their ideas rational? Will the audience go away convinced rather than confused? It’s at this stage that the group must begin to look at their work critically. To do this, they may film their work and self-evaluate. They may perform for another group and their teacher and use their evaluations to inform further decision-making. This process can be extremely rewarding or very painful. They might find something that is very clear to them, because they are so close to the piece, is completely confusing to an audience. Students, nevertheless, usually take any evaluation on board - especially as their work is to be assessed. At this stage it is still a work-in-progress. If it isn’t working, it needs to be restructured. Sometimes they change the style completely. Disheartening as

that may seem, it often leads to a richer, more meaningful performance. Next comes the difficult work of editing: paring down scenes if they seem too long, paring down the whole piece if it is not within the time length designated in the task (the time of the Group Performance for the HSC is only 7-12 minutes!). Often this involves having to ‘lose’ a whole scene or changing a character. It might involve clarifying the opening or restructuring the ending. It will involve many rehearsals and reevaluations before the group is satisfied enough to begin finalising costumes, props, sound effects - and perhaps a lighting plan, dependent on the school’s facilities. With the ‘building’ part completed, the piece is ‘committed’ to paper as a finished script, including title, character list, setting and stage directions; and the polished performance, whether for assessment, other drama students, an invited

SPARK 2022 audience - or a panel of visiting HSC markers. As well as writing and acting, playbuilding teaches cooperation, creative collaboration, sharing, listening, watching, appreciating, evaluating, accepting, letting go...all the things that are important in any production - at school, in community theatre or on the professional stage. Drama students come to the theatre with this background. They have had their egos both boosted and battered and come back for more! Playbuilding is a very effective preparation for the exacting world of the theatre.

Carol Wimmer is the author of Acting in Person and in Style in Australia. Published by Cengage, it is available at booknook.com.au/product/acting-in-person-and-in-style-in-australia

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 47

Time To Play Again In 2022 Sport for Jove Theatre Company believes that teachers are unsung heroes of the pandemic for managing remote leaning. To lighten their load, the company is encouraging them to return to the theatre with their students in 2022, for seasons of Shakespeare, and mini productions of plays, in Sydney and on the Gold Coast. Shakespeare was certainly no stranger to a pandemic - in his own lifetime the plague saw the world shut down around him, but from that came the birth of some of his greatest creativity, and works such as Venus & Adonis, King Lear and Macbeth. Just like Shakespeare, Sport for Jove wishes to rise from their own pandemic and reinvigorate creativity in our children. The company has been delivering innovative productions of classic texts for the past 13years and offers comprehensive education packages for teachers. Three mainstage productions from the national syllabus will be presented this year for middle and senior school students - Macbeth, Othello and Romeo & Juliet - curated based on NSW teachers’ needs. “It is so critical that students and teachers are supported by our theatre makers in teaching these extraordinary texts and bringing them to life on stage. They are a visceral lived experience and just great human drama, and they make such a difference to our understanding of the plays,” says Sport for Jove’s Artistic Director, Damien Ryan. Macbeth and Romeo & Juliet are being brought to the stage for the Education Season for the first time in the 2022. In 2022 Sport for Jove is also offering Performance Symposiums under its HSC intensive programs. For the first time, students will experience the material they are studying in a 48 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

live, abridged performance by professional actors bringing to life characters from the pages. This brand new format will feature ‘mini-productions’ of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Richard III, The Merchant of Venice and Henry 4, Part 1 followed by detailed analysis and discussions. Jove’s detailed and experiential HSC Symposiums will be returning with contemporary text performances of The Crucible and Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. The company believes that getting out of the classroom, engaging with professional live performance of the written word on stage is an important and unparalleled learning tool. It aims to lighten the teacher workload, so accompanying each production is a free detailed Teacher Resource Kit comprising an analysis of the play, a guide to the production, lesson activities, videos, photos and design materials. The content in these kits is curated from the years of experience which Damien Ryan has in education, professional theatre, and teaching at secondary or tertiary levels over two decades. “Teaching these texts in high schools is easily the most rewarding professional experience I have ever had and it was also the central reason to build a theatre company for me to give students unforgettable

The Tempest. Photo: Seiya Taguchi.

SPARK 2022 Romeo & Juliet. Photo: Seiya Taguchi.

Macbeth Seymour Centre May 5 to 14 and Riverside Theatres, Parramatta May 25 to June 3. Othello Seymour Centre June 9 to 17 and Riverside Theatres, Parramatta June 21 to 24. Romeo & Juliet Seymour Centre July 21 to August 19 and HOTA QLD September 7 & 8. sportforjove.com.au

Online extras!

Join Sport For Jove as they announce their return to theatre in 2022. youtu.be/tmNytR6GXYA experiences of these works,” Ryan says. Sport for Jove also offers extracurricular opportunities for students outside of the standard production season. The Shakespeare Carnival is a state-wide performance competition for students; the Shakespeare Residency is a week-long, in-school program; and the Second Age Project is an acting training opportunity for young performers outside of school hours. Finally, for regional schools or those unable to get students out on an excursion or have an incursion, Sport for Jove has a library full of digital offerings of its productions and symposiums.

Online extras!

Check out a showcase of the plays in Sport For Jove’s HSC Symposium. youtu.be/oBadYB8WNys stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 49

SPARK 2022

Online extras!

“All the world’s a stage”...join the cast of MTC’s As You Like It on theirs. youtu.be/YYBoxjJmQ_w

MTC’s As You Like It. Photo: Jeff Busby.

MTC Digital Education Melbourne Theatre Company Education is inviting students to take a behind the scenes look at how ‘magic is made on stage’ through the MTC Digital Education program. Go behind-the-scenes of the MTC production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It with three new features that explore the theatre-making process: Creating Costumes, Playing the Part and Shakespearean Comedy. An education pack for As You Like It includes Q&A’s with the cast and creative team. Additional resources include a virtual tour of the set design and interactive script notes. MTC Education’s suite of ondemand digital resources are updated regularly. On the MTC website, you can walk through the Southbank Theatre, MTC’s production workshops and rehearsal rooms in 3D virtual tours. Learn more about the design processes behind the Company’s mainstage productions and explore 50 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

interactive images about the production lifecycle, whilst linking to key points of the VCE Drama and Theatre Studies curriculum. Upcoming events in 2022 include livestreams and webinars for schools to deep-dive into MTC productions and processes. A livestream of the MTC Education production SLAP. BANG. KISS. by Dan Giovannoni will be exclusively available for regional schools who cannot access live performances across the Southbank Theatre season and regional tour. An opportunity to step into the MTC rehearsal room will also be

available with MTC’s Actors at Work livestream workshop. Students are encouraged to prepare questions and offer direction to cast and creatives of an MTC show in this virtual event which will take place on 18 August. Revision webinars offer another opportunity to engage with MTC artists whilst preparing for exams. Sessions will be available for the VCE playlisted productions SLAP. BANG. KISS. and Fun Home. MTC Digital Education is supported by the Ian Potter Foundation.

Discover more about the MTC Digital Education program at mtc.com.au/discover-more/education/resources

Australian Musical Theatre Festival

Sound Of Musicals (2021). Photo: Melanie Kate.

A dedicated program for school students is being offered by the Australian Musical Theatre Festival in Launceston. Held in Launceston, Tasmania, the festival includes a diverse program with opportunities to teach, collaborate, engage, perform, learn and - of course - enjoy.

Participating students will attend workshops with some of Australia’s leading Musical Theatre artists and teachers, see public performances, meet students from other schools and

The 2022 Australian Music Theatre Festival will be held in Launceston from May 18 to 22. Download the school program from amtf.org.au

even have a chance to get on stage themselves. The headlining artists for the festival will all be hosting workshops in their areas of expertise. Philip Quast will present a masterclass focussing on deepening the connections to text and character. Chloe Dallimore’s masterclass will focus on the three most important areas of musical theatre - singing, acting and dancing. Paulini will also join forces with head of music theatre at the VCA, Tyran Parke, to present an advanced workshop on singing contemporary styles, covering everything from soul music to rap. A key feature of the program is a Schools Mega Workshop. Over two days students are taught a song and dance routine, and then have the rare opportunity to perform it on stage with one of Australia’s greatest Musical Theatre stars.

Online extras!

Check out highlights from the 2021 Australian Music Theatre Festival. youtu.be/lKEsSORkmyQ

stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 51

Black Swan’s Creative Learning The Black Swan State Theatre Company’s 2022 season celebrates family, friendships and the relationships that connect us. Four productions that will especially appeal to educators and students are accompanied by comprehensive Creative Learning Resource Packs. Personal, provocative and compellingly brilliant, Meyne Wyatt’s much-lauded debut play City of Gold is headed home to WA from March 17 to 27, in a brand-new coproduction with Sydney Theatre Company, as part of Perth Festival. Wyatt, a proud Wongutha-Yamatji actor/playwright, puts family centre stage in this semi-autobiographical story, fuelled with frustration and unflinching honesty, about growing up black in Kalgoorlie. It touches on grief, identity and rage. Shari Sebbens, who performed alongside Wyatt in the original Griffin Theatre and Queensland Theatre seasons, says she is thrilled to be joining this new production as director in Wyatt’s home state. “It’s a show that keeps the audience working; wondering where you will land once the lights go down on Meyne Wyatt’s thrilling and clever dialogue. This show cuts right to the core of Meyne’s lived experience as a young Black man in Australia. It’s unrelenting and honest,” she says. Also premiering in March/April is Barracking for the Umpire, a new play penned by comedienne Andrea Gibbs (Barefaced Stories). Hailing from country WA, Andrea witnessed the hard-knocks of football first-hand when her father’s injuries meant he had to put down the football and become an umpire. According to Andrea, “Mum would follow him to all his games, cheer him on. ‘Your Mum was the only one who’d be out there barracking for the umpire!’ Dad would say. A longstanding joke in our family.” This play centres around the Williams family as they prepare to celebrate their father Doug’s Lifetime Achievement award at the local football club. Barracking For The Umpire investigates the culture of football, family and the sacrifices Hayley McElhinney in Oil. Photo: Frances Andrijich.

Online extras!

BSSTC’s ‘22 season is a celebration and exploration of connection and family. youtu.be/A6MLTZccshk 52 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

made for the game. The issue of CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) resulting from football concussions is topical, and the play explores the effects of this advancing condition on the heart of a loving family. A must for Drama and English students is the beautifully crafted, semi-autobiographical play of the broken Wingfield family, in Tennessee Williams’ timeless drama The Glass Menagerie at His Majesty’s Theatre in

SPARK 2022 Book more than one BSSTC production in their 2022 season and receive a 10% discount. Receive one free Educator ticket per 10 students booked. bsstc.com.au

Barracking For The Umpire. Photo: Frances Andrijich.

August. This is the play that thrust Williams into the international spotlight and promises tour-de-force performances by Mandy McElhinney (Wakefield, Love Child), Bridie McKim (The Heights) and Joel Jackson (Ms. Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries). Joel said “What I’m most looking forward to is capturing and creating that instantly recognisable sense of memory that is the world of the play. The magic, the whimsy, the melancholic, the tragic, the wonder and the beauty.” The family theme continues with the co-dependence of mother and child, matched by the co-dependence on one of Earth’s most precious and finite resources in November with Ella Hickson’s play Oil. This epic drama asks: is blood thicker than oil? Spanning 150 years and traversing the globe through Tehran, Hampstead, Baghdad, and then back to Cornwall, Oil is an explosive collision of empire, history and family. It stars Hayley McElhinney (Doctor Doctor), with a formidable ensemble of nine actors.

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SPARK 2022

Study Musical Theatre In England Australian students are being invited to study Musical Theatre in England, in an accelerated course developed by the International College of Musical Theatre (ICMT) and Coventry University. The two-year degree has been designed to help get students on stage sooner, to cut the cost of their education and allow more people to enter the profession with a degree. Principal and ICMT co-founder Kenneth Avery-Clark says, “during our research, we found that 95% of students (who took a three-year degree course) said they would have preferred to do their training in two years.” The BA (Hons) Musical Theatre Performance degree will be delivered out of the ICMT Campus in Central London. A faculty of current performers, directors, choreographers, musical directors and singers take students through intensive practical-based 54 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

triple-threat training across the disciplines of singing, acting, and dancing. “It’s completely practical training, which makes us different from traditional university courses. There’s little written work, because, ultimately, you’re going into a practical industry. You don’t learn to be a chef in a classroom, you learn in a kitchen. Equally, if you’re going to be a performer you have to learn to perform.” Australians can apply for a Youth Mobility Scheme Visa at the website in the details box on the next page. “This allows them to study in the UK for up to two years. We currently have 24 different nationalities training at our college who want to experience

world-class practical training in the heart of London,” said Avery-Clark. The course co-founder explains that ICMT has campuses in multiple countries, including the US (New York) and Italy (Rome), and students will be trained to audition for musical theatre projects in Europe, in particular Germany, which has the European Union’s largest musical theatre industry. “We also offer a One-Year Level 4 Diploma in Musical Theatre, awarded by Trinity College London, which is ideal for a gap year. Practical training such as singing, dancing and acting take place every day of the course. This option is also available through the Youth Mobility Scheme.”

Applications are now open for the course starting in September 2022. To apply or for more information please contact info@theicmt.com theicmt.com/london BA (Hons) Musical Theatre Performance bit.ly/3p1bcif Diploma in Musical Theatre Foundation Course bit.ly/3v221BP Youth Mobility Scheme visa gov.uk/youth-mobility Judith Mossman, Pro-ViceChancellor for the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Coventry University said the collaboration is another chapter in the university’s proud history of championing the arts. “During the pandemic we have all missed the unique buzz musical theatre can give. Coventry University has a proud history of championing the arts, thinking internationally, and developing industry ready graduates,” she said.

ICMT student production of Rent (2021). Photo: Craig Sugden.

Online extras!

Discover the two-year BA (Hons) Musical Theatre Performance degree. youtu.be/mAI8F3rZj5Y stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 55

Online extras!

Studying drama teaches students creativity, confidence and empathy. vimeo.com/653631644

Reinventing Drama Australia’s oldest Drama teachers’ association has been forced to reinvent itself under pressure from the pandemic. Pamela Peelen from Drama Victoria reports. The past two years have seen Drama Victoria caught in the maelstrom of lengthy and recurrent COVID-19 lockdowns, whilst arts practitioners have lost employment and income. The loss of face-to-face communication saw the closure of Drama Victoria’s inner city Melbourne office, with industry members clamouring for remote teaching resources. Rallying to the demand, Drama Victoria developed a suite of content-rich, online professional learning workshops, conferences, festivals and networking events. This had the knock-on effect of increasing accessibility - allowing participants to attend events synchronously or asynchronously regardless of where, or in what time zone they lived. Inadvertently the 56 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

pandemic has led Drama Victoria on a journey of reinvention, providing new opportunities for connection across curriculum areas and the arts industry. Although Drama Victoria continues to respond to this unprecedented demand, the past two years have also seen an exodus of students from the Performing Arts. The political environment has steered students toward the Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Maths curriculum areas on the basis of increased employment prospects. Research, however, indicates that our workforces are looking for employees who are confident communicators, able to share their ideas and solutions and to work effectively in a team environment. Successful Drama students are critical thinkers and innovators. It has long

been demonstrated that ‘Drama based pedagogy has a significant positive effect on achievement, attitudes, 21st century skills, arts skills and motivation outcomes in literacy and has an important impact on students learning across many areas’ (Bridget Kiger Lee, PhD Patricia Enciso, PhD Megan Brown). To stem the exodus, Drama Victoria developed of a suite of promotional materials to showcase the diverse areas of employment in which drama graduates excel. The material highlights the role drama plays in facilitating curiosity, imagination, expression, planning, self -discipline, adaptability, initiative and a raft of positive attributes - qualities which enhance critical thinking, interpretation, analysis and problem solving. Drama Victoria maintains the acquired skills are transferable and highly relevant to real work scenarios. Drama Victoria is also advocating for the uptake of drama in primary schools and assisting rural and regional primary schools with support materials consisting of lesson plans for teachers, interactive videos, and

accompanying worksheets for their students. The principle of drama as a tool is applied across learning areas where the students establish a shared representation of a story or concept. This process enables students to visualise and empathise with the concept or story in ‘real-time’. The teacher invites reflection, encouraging students to question, comprehend and interpret. For example, learning about analysis of argument is in English and History, learning about effective responses to the environment is in The Arts, learning about the design of innovative solutions is in Technologies. Drama Victoria is creating practical programs where drama can be applied as an aid for deep learning across curriculum areas and capabilities in secondary schools. An example of this is their Connections Festival, which includes the ‘Get Back to the Land’ resource pack. The resource was developed with the involvement of a First Nations Artist and includes eight units of drama-based work guiding the teacher through a series of lessons and activities responding to an indigenous artwork. It provides learning intentions and outcomes exploring diversity, nurturing inclusivity and positive representations of culture and identity. These dramabased tools enable more schools to engage with First Nations artists and artworks and can be implemented to

SPARK 2022

Discover the range of teaching resources available at dramavictoria.vic.edu.au teach Reconciliation with confidence by any teacher accessing the resources. The Connections Festival culminates with participating schools sharing their creation of a 15 minute performance video using the indigenous artwork as a stimulus for developing the performance. Drama Victoria’s most recent initiative has been to create a new position, Director of Innovation. This position is aimed at facilitating drama across the curriculum by establishing strong links to other learning areas and capabilities including the Humanities, English, Arts: Music, Critical and Creative Thinking, Personal and Social Capability. This focus will provide opportunities to liaise and collaborate on the

development of drama-based teaching modules with other relevant subject associations. As we step out into a post lockdown world, Drama Victoria’s achievements in professional learning will also hone in on another critical dimension - wellbeing. In the rapidly changing Anthropocene era, creative solutions to issues are required. As has earlier been argued, Drama is a portal for creative thinking and problem solving. It can be used as a creative platform for the wellbeing of students, as well as to support teachers and industry members in their own wellbeing. Pamela Peelen is the Director of Innovation, Drama Victoria.

stagewhispers.com.au/ stageresources stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 57

Maverick Musicals & Plays’ picks maverickmusicals.com

Choosing A Show Music Theatre International Australasia’s picks mtishows.com.au Working - Localised version

songs from the animated film, plus five new songs written for the Broadway production. Available to schools in New Zealand, NSW, Victoria and Tasmania. West Side Story School Edition

Add local worker interviews to personalise Stephen Schwartz’s musical Working to create a special production honouring your own community. Updated for a modern age, this new version features songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Stephen Schwartz, James Taylor, Micki Grant and more. Live Stream rights available. Godspell

Rocktopus by Mark Bourgeois and Craig Chambers An undersea Recreating Jerome Robbins’ adventure set to a innovative choreography and playing fun 1950’s rock n Bernstein’s gorgeous score has been a roll score. When consistent challenge for high school Rocktopus and his performers. This School Edition band of squishy removes these obstacles by providing invertebrates try an official Choreography Manual and to make it big in videos featuring easy-to-follow the undersea music business, they instructions for the show’s iconic find that fame, fortune and stardom dance numbers. ain’t all they’re cut out to be. A Killer Party: A Murder Mystery Musical

The three versions of Godspell the original off-Broadway 1971 version, the revised 2012 version and the Broadway JR version - are now available for licensing by schools, amateur groups and professional This 90-minute online, theatres across the Australia and New Zealand. performance-ready show sends up classic murder mysteries. Created by 50 Broadway professionals during Pippin 2020, the production is available to stream in your community.

Pippin is the story of one young man’s journey to be extraordinary. The 2013 Broadway revival, with an updated book and orchestrations, is available for school performances. Frozen JR. Bringing Elsa, Anna and the magical land of Arendelle to life onstage, Frozen JR. features all of the 58 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

Bingle Jells by Tim Tuck The impulsive Andy Clapper has little hope of finishing his bellmaking apprenticeship when a mysterious customer seeks his help to stop the Snow Queen and Jack Frost from stealing the world’s bells.

Almost, Maine (School version) A version of John Cariani’s Almost, Maine about the small town’s residents falling in and out of love in unexpected and hilarious ways with language appropriate for conservative middle schools.

Wasteland by Chris Schuman Environmental musical featuring a child named Zeeco, who tries to turn around a dystopian community by starting a simple allotment. It’s an uphill struggle at first but with the help of some nearby talking animals and plants their plan comes to fruition. There is opposition from Baron von Slick, who learns that there is oil under the allotment. King Arthur (All Shook Up) by Mark Wheeller and Paul Ibbott A comic minimusical suitable for use in either a concert or staged version. It retells the Sword in the Stone story in a lively, up-to-date manner, fully sung by the large cast.

David Spicer Productions’ picks davidspicer.com.au The 2022/23 catalogue of plays and musicals is out now. To order a copy email david@davidspicer.com. We Will Rock You Young@Part There are now three editions of the blockbuster by Queen and Ben Elton - the Global edition, the School edition, which has a few of the adult themes removed from the West End production, and the new Young@Part version, which is a 60 minute edition for youth theatres and primary schools.

Peter Pan comes to the rescue, having fun with a band of clumsy pirates before facing Hook in a chilling showdown. This play with music has opportunities for young actors, dancers and gymnasts. Cast: 10 to 40. The Time Machine H.G. Wells’ classic tale, adapted by Mark Scharf, about a Victorian inventor who builds a time machine and visits the far future is beautifully adapted into a ninety-minute play. It explores how individuals fit into society and asks whether technology always leads to progress and where it is taking humanity. Cast: 11 and ensemble.

Masks, puppets, and a trip to the Starbucks in the cell-phoneobsessed city make this new adaptation of The Jungle Book a delight. Cast: 11 and ensemble.

Rockin’ Robin Judith Prior’s most popular high school musical has had almost 40 productions since she staged it in 2009. A drama group (or school) is rehearsing a number for the Rock Eisteddfod when an electrical fault in the special effects department causes The Jungle Book two of the cast, Maddie and William, Peter Pan’s Treasure Adapted by Briandaniel Oglesby. to be transported back through time Adapted by Helen Dickson. A fresh Mowgli struggles to fit in with the to medieval Sherwood Forest. take on J.M Barrie’s classic sees wolves, monkeys, and even the The swashbuckling Robin Hood Wendy, John and Michael Darling humans on his journey to discover adventure is set to songs from the return from their adventures in where he belongs, in this new 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s, including Neverland to find the world changed. imagining of Rudyard Kipling’s classic. “Horror Move” and “Locomotion”.

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On Stage A.C.T. The Wider Earth by David Morton. Dead Puppet Society. Mar 9 - 12. The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre. canberratheatrecentre.com.au Canberra Comedy Festival. Mar 16 - 26. Various venues. canberracomedyfestival.com.au King of Pigs by Steve Rogers. Mar 24 - 26. The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. theq.net.au Mother and Son by Geoffrey Atherden. Mar 9 - Apr 3. The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. theq.net.au The Alphabet of Awesome Science! That Science Gang. Apr 5 & 6. The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. theq.net.au

A.C.T. & New South Wales

COVID-19 Update The unpredictable nature of COVID-19 still has the potential to affect performances. Readers are advised to monitor the prevailing restrictions and public health advice in their jurisdiction. Check with the relevant theatre group, venue or ticket outlet for specific performance impacts, cancellation or rescheduling information. Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. sydneyoperahouse.com Opening Night. Based on the screenplay by John Casavetes. Until Mar 27. Belvoir Street, Upstairs Theatre. belvoir.com.au Hand to God by Robert Askins. Red Line Productions. Until Mar 26. Old Fitz Theatre. redlineproductions.com.au

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, The Musical. By Stephen Elliott and Allan Scott. Free Rain Theatre. Apr 26 - May 2. The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. theq.net.au

A Chorus Line. Music: Marvin Hamlisch. Lyrics: Edward Kleban. Book: James Kirkwood & Nicholas Dante. Darlinghurst Theatre Company. Until Mar 11. Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Hotel Sorrento by Hannie Rayson. Canberra Rep. Apr 28 - sydneyoperahouse.com May 14. canberrarep.org.au The Great Gatsby. By Aaron Robuck, inspired by the F. Scott Karen From Finance is Out of Office. Apr 22. The Playhouse, Fitzgerald novel. Viral Ventures and Immersive Theatre. Canberra Theatre Centre. canberratheatrecentre.com.au Ongoing. Wonderland Bar (formerly The World Bar), Potts Six The Musical by Toby Point. explorehidden.com Marlow and Lucy Moss. Apr 23 Otello by Verdi. Opera - May 15. Canberra Theatre. canberratheatrecentre.com.au Australia. Until Mar 19. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney New South Wales Opera House. 9 to 5 The Musical. Music and sydneyoperahouse.com lyrics by Dolly Parton. Book by The Addams Family. Book by Patricia Resnick, based on the Marshall Brickman and Rick screenplay by Resnick and Colin Elice. Music and lyrics by Higgins. Ongoing. Capitol Andrew Lippa. Based on Theatre, Sydney. characters created by Charles 9to5themusical.com.au Addams. Wyong Musical Six the Musical by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. Louise Withers, Michael Coppel & Linda Bewick. Until Apr 2. Sydney Opera House Studio. sydneyoperahouse.com Turandot by Puccini. Opera Australia. Until Mar 14. Joan 60 Stage Whispers

Oliver! by Lionel Bart. Port Macquarie Players Theatre. Until Mar 20. playerstheatre.org.au Nearer The Gods by David Williamson. Mar 4 - Apr 23. Ensemble Theatre. ensemble.com.au Oklahoma! By Rodgers and Hammerstein. Roo Theatre Co. Mar 4 - 19. The Harbour Theatre, Shellharbour. rootheatre.com.au The Addams Family. Book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. Music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa. Based on characters created by Charles Addams. Campbelltown Theatre Group. Mar 4 - 19. Town Hall Theatre, Campbelltown. ctgi.org.au 42nd Street. Music by Harry Warren. Lyrics by Al Dubin. Book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble. Gosford Musical Society. Mar 4 - 19. Laycock Street Community Theatre, North Gosford. gosfordmusicalsociety.com

Church, Mar 11 & 12; Bay and Basin Uniting Church, Mar 18 & 19; Adamstown Uniting Church, Apr 1 & 2; Bathurst Uniting Church, Apr 8 & 9; Parkes Uniting Church, Apr 22 & 23; Dubbo Uniting Church, Apr 29 & 30. thesilvertunnel.org North By Northwest. Adapted for the stage by Carolyn Burns. Mar 9 - Apr 3. Sydney Lyric Theatre. northbynorthwesttheplay.com La Juive by Halévy. Opera Australia. Mar 9 - 26. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. sydneyoperahouse.com White Pearl by Anchuli Felicia King. Sydney Theatre Company / National Theatre of Parramatta. Wharf 1 Theatre. Mar 11 - Apr 23. sydneytheatre.com.au The Spook by Melissa Reeves. Mar 15 - Apr 9. New Theatre, Newtown. newtheatre.org.au

Disney Moana Jr. Music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Song Contest - The Almost Opetaia Foa’i and Mark Eurovision Experience. Script by Mancina. Book adapted by Glynn Nicholas and Bev Killick. Susan Soon He Stanton. The Pinnacle Players. Mar 4 - 19. Regals Musical Society. Mar 16 Heritage Hall, Orange Public - 20. Bryan Brown Theatre, School. pinnacleplayers.com.au Bankstown. theregals.com.au

Theatre Company. Until Mar 12. Wyong Grove Theatre, Wyong. wmtc.com.au

Scapin. Adapted from Moliere by Bill Irwin & Mark O’Donnell. The Lieder Theatre Company, Goulburn. Mar 4 - 19. theliedertheatre.com

Orange Thrower by Kirsty Marilllier. Griffin Theatre Company. Until Mar 19. SBW Stables Theatre. griffintheatre.com.au

The Silver Tunnel by Warwick Moss. Rev Bill Crews Foundation. Tour dates Wollongong Uniting Church, Mar 4 & 5; Berry Uniting

Favourite Shorts. Armidale Drama and Musical Society. Mar 18 - 26. The Armidale Playhouse. adms.org.au The Full Monty by Simon Beaufoy. Tamworth Dramatic Society. Mar 18 - 26. Capitol Theatre, Tamworth. tds.org.au The Old People are Revolting by Devon Williamson.

Just $50 a month to reach thousands of theatre goers. Contact Stage Whispers for details.

On Stage Murwillumbah Theatre Company Mar 18 - Apr 3. Murwillumbah Civic Centre Auditorium. murwillumbahtheatrecompany.com.au

Barefoot in the Park by Neil Simon. Newcastle Theatre Company, Lambton. Mar 25 Apr 9. newcastletheatrecompany.com.au

The Mystery of Irma Vep (A Penny Dreadful) by Charles Ludlum. Castle Hill Players. Mar 18 - Apr 9. Pavilion Theatre, Castle Hill. paviliontheatre.org.au

The Phantom of the Opera. Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber. Lyrics: Charles Hart. Additional Lyrics: Richard Stilgoe. Book: Richard Stilgoe & Andrew Lloyd Webber. Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour. Opera Tinder Cindy. Jacinda Patty. Australia. Mar 25 - Apr 24. Newcastle Fringe and Fleet Steps, Mrs Macquaries Pattycakes Productions. Mar 16 Point. opera.org.au - 26. The Gal, Hamilton, Blood on the Wattle by Newcastle. newcastlefringe.com.au Geoffrey Sykes. Mar 25 & 26, Richard Wherrett Studio, Lady Windermere’s Fan by Roslyn Packer Theatre & Mar Oscar Wilde. Genesian Theatre 30 - Apr 29, Chippen Theatre, Company. Mar 19 - Apr 30. Chippendale. Genesian Theatre, Sydney. trybooking.com/BXCGY genesiantheatre.com.au Sondheim on Sondheim. Music Blithe Spirit by Noël Coward. and lyrics by Stephen Sydney Theatre Company. Mar Sondheim. Storeyboard 21 - May 14. Drama Theatre, Entertainment. Mar 28 & 29. Sydney Opera House. Capitol Theatre, Sydney. sydneytheatre.com.au sondheimonsondheim.com.au

New South Wales & Queensland The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Sydney Theatre Company. Mar 28 - May 7. Roslyn Packer Theatre. sydneytheatre.com.au Chicago. Music: John Kander. Lyrics: Fred Ebb. Book: Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse. So Popera Productions. Mar 29 - Apr 3. IMB Theatre, Illawarra Performing Arts Centre. merrigong.com.au

The Neverending Story. Adapted by David S. Craig, based on the novel by Michael Ende. Roo Theatre Company. Apr 8 - 16. The Harbour Theatre, Shellharbour Village. roo-theatre.com.au Nunsense II by Dan Goggin. Wyong Drama Group. Apr 19 30. Red Tree Theatre, Tuggerah. wyongdramagroup.com.au

A is for Apple by Jessica Bellamy. Griffin Lookout. Mar 29 - Apr 9. griffintheatre.com.au

The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare. Apr 19 May 21. New Theatre, Newtown. newtheatre.org.au

Potted Potter - The Unauthorised Harry Experience: A Parody by Dan and Jeff. Potted Productions. Mar 30 Apr 3, Seymour Centre, seymourcentre.com and Apr 8 - 10, Civic Theatre, Newcastle, civictheatrenewcastle.com.au

We Will Rock You School Edition. Story and Script by Ben Elton. Music and Lyrics by Queen. Wyong Musical Theatre Company. Apr 14 - 23. Wyong Grove Theatre. wmtc.com.au

Keeping Up Appearances by Roy Clarke. Metropolitan Players Inc. Mar 30 - Apr 9. Civic Playhouse, Newcastle. metropolitanplayers.com.au Heroes of the Fourth Turning by Will Arbery. Outhouse Theatre Co. Mar 31 - Apr 23. York Theatre, Seymour Centre. seymourcentre.com

Things I Know to Be True by Andrew Bovell. The Theatre on Chester. Apr 22 - May 14. Cnr Chester & Oxford Sts, Epping. theatreonchester.com.au Cabaret De Paris. Starring Rhonda Burchmore. Apr 22 & 23. State Theatre, Sydney. cabaretdeparis.com.au Brigadoon. Neglected Musicals in association with the Hayes Theatre Co. From Apr 27. Hayes Theatre Co. hayestheatre.com.au

Wayside Bride by Alana Valentine. Apr 2 - May 29. Belvoir Street, Upstairs Theatre. Unqualified 2: Still Unqualified belvoir.com.au by Genevieve Hegney and The Seven Deadly Sins by Weill Catherine Moore. Apr 29 - Jun and Brecht & Mahogany 4. Ensemble Theatre. Songspiel by Weill, Hauptmann ensemble.com.au and Brecht. Red Line Footloose. Music by Tom Productions. Apr 2 - 23. Old Snow. Lyrics by Dean Pitchford. Fitz Theatre. Book by Dean Pitchford & redlineproductions.com.au Walter Bobbie. Bankstown Shen Yun 2022. Apr 6 - 17. Theatre Company. Apr 30 Sydney Lyric Theatre. May 9. Bryan Brown Theatre, shenyunperformingarts.org Bankstown. bankstowntheatrecompany.com Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn. Hornsby Musical Society. Apr 7 Queensland - 10. Hornsby RSL. Disney’s Frozen. Music & Lyrics hornsbymusicalsociety.com.au by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Dale Burridge - At The Robert Lopez. Book by Jennifer Crossroads. Apr 7 - 10. Hayes Lee. Disney Theatrical. Lyric Theatre Co. Theatre, QPAC. Ongoing. 136 hayestheatre.com.au 246. qpac.com.au Advertise your show on the front page of stagewhispers.com.au

Stage Whispers 61

On Stage Dial M For Murder by Frederick Knott. Mousetrap Theatre, Redcliffe. Until Mar 13. (07) 3888 3493. mousetraptheatre.asn.au

Queensland

13. (07) 5491 4240. pottedpotter.com.au

The Games People Play - One Act Plays. Golf, Marriage and Other Murderous Matters by The Appleton Ladies Potato Debra Chalmers & Murder Play Race by Melanie Tait. by Brian J. Burton. Ipswich Centenary Theatre Group. Until Little Theatre. Mar 3 - 19. (07) Mar 19. 0435 591 720. 3812 2389. ilt.org.au centenarytheatre.com.au Fabulous 40s & 50s. Tweed Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Heads Theatre Co. Mar 4 - 20. Jenner by Jasmine Lee Jones. La Tweed Heads Civic Centre. Boite. Roundhouse Theatre, 1800 674 414. Kelvin Grove. Until Mar 12. tweedtheatre.com.au (07) 3007 8600. Snapshots From Home by laboite.com.au Margery Forde. Villanova One Hundred and One Players, Ron Hurley Theatre, Dalmations. By Dodie Smith, Seven Hills. Mar 5 - 20. (07) adapted for the stage by Glynn 3395 5168. Robbins. Arts Theatre, villanovaplayers.com Brisbane. Until Mar 26. (07) Little Shop of Horrors by Alan 3369 2344. artstheatre.com.au Menken & Howard Ashman. Potted Potter by Daniel Savoyards. Star Theatre, Manly. Clarkson and Jeff Turner. Mar 5 - 12. (07) 3893 4321. Playhouse, QPAC, Mar 1 - 6, savoyards.com.au 136 246 and Caloundra, Events Philip Quast. Concert Hall, Centre Sunshine Coast, Mar 8 QPAC. Mar 6. 136 146.

62 Stage Whispers

Mark Vincent & Mirusia Together in Concert. The Events Centre, Caloundra, Mar 5, Empire Theatre, Toowoomba, Mar 6, The Star, Gold Coast, Mar 12, & Concert Hall, QPAC, Mar 20. markvincent.com.au Priscilla Queen of the Desert The Musical by Stephen Eliot & Alan Scott, with a jukebox score. Redcliffe Musical Theatre. Redcliffe Cultural Centre, Mar 11 - 18, 0488 103 759 & Apr 7 - 8, Ipswich Civic Centre. (07) 3910 6100. redcliffemusicaltheatre.com

Ipswich Musical Theatre. Mar 11 - 19. Ipswich Civic Centre. (07) 3910 6100. ipswichmusicaltheatrecompany.com.au Classical Favourites. Mar 11. Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Moncrieff Entertainment Centre, Bundaberg. (07) 4130 4100. qso.com.au Calendar Girls by Tim Firth. Spotlight Theatre, Benowa. Mar 11 - Apr 2. (07) 5539 4255. spotlighttheatre.com.au

Giselle. Ballet by Marius Petipa. Queensland Ballet. Regional Tour. Mar 3 - 16. Empire Much Ado About Nothing by Theatre, Toowoomba; Cairns William Shakespeare. St Luke’s Performing Arts Centre; Brolga Theatre Group, Tarragindi. Mar Theatre and Convention Centre 11 - 26. (07) 3343 1457. Maryborough. stlukestheatre.asn.au queenslandballet.com.au Secondary Cause Of Death by Cabaret De Paris. Starring Peter Gordon. Sandgate Rhonda Burchmore. Mar 12. Theatre. Mar 11 - 20. Concert Hall, QPAC. 136 246. sandgatetheatre.net cabaretdeparis.com.au The Sound of Music by Three. Ballet. Australasian Rodgers & Hammerstein. Dance Collective. Mar 16 - 19.

Just $50 a month to reach thousands of theatre goers. Contact Stage Whispers for details.

On Stage

Queensland

Online extras!

The queens of Six The Musical are back on stage. Scan the QR code or visit youtu.be/yxz8Hw95lHM The 2021 Australian cast of Six The Musical. Photo: James D Morgan.

The six wives of Henry VIII take to the mic to tell their tales, remixing five hundred years of historical heartbreak into a 75-minute celebration of 21st century girl power. Currently at Sydney Opera House ahead of seasons at Canberra Theatre Centre from April 23; Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide from May 21; Comedy Theatre, Melbourne from June 17 with New Zealand and Brisbane dates yet to be announced. sixthemusical.com/australia

Playhouse, QPAC. 136 246. 2. (07) 5446 2500. australasiandancecollective.com coolumtheatre.com.au

(07) 3345 3964. sunnybank2020.com

We Will Rock You by Queen & Ben Elton. Empire Theatre, Toowoomba. Mar 18 - 26. 1300 655 299. empiretheatre.com.au

The Boys in the Band by Matt Crowley. Javeenbah Theatre Co, Nerang. Mar 25 - Apr 9. (07) 5596 0300. javeenbah.org.au

Celebration Of Swing. John Morrison’s Swing City. Concert Hall, QPAC, Mar 16, 136 246 or qpac.com.au, and Moncrieff Entertainment Centre, Bundaberg, Mar 18, (07) 4130 4100 or whatsonbundaberg.com.au

Creedence Clearwater Collective. Moncrieff Entertainment Centre, Bundaberg. Mar 26. (07) 4130 4100. whatsonbundaberg.com.au

Sondheim On Sondheim. StoreyBoard Entertainment. Mozart’s Clarinet. Queensland Apr 4. Concert Hall, QPAC. 136 Symphony Orchestra. Apr 22 246. qpac.com.au 23. Concert Hall, QPAC. 136 246. qso.com.au Boss Lady Tour. Jessica Mauboy. Apr 5. Concert Hall, Searching For Dr. Branovic by QPAC. 136 246. qpac.com.au David Tristram. Mousetrap Theatre, Redcliffe. Apr 29 Australia Day by Jonathan May 15. (07) 3888 3493. Biggins. Noosa Arts Theatre. mousetraptheatre.asn.au Apr 7 - 16. noosaartstheatre.org.au Cinematic - Movie Music. Queensland Symphony Sounds Like an Orchestra. Orchestra. Apr 29 - 30. Concert Queensland Symphony Hall, QPAC. 136 246. Orchestra. Apr 9. Concert Hall, qso.com.au QPAC. 136 246. qso.com.au Sweet Charity by Neil Simon, Sketches Of Spain. Australian Cy Coleman and Dorothy Chamber Orchestra. Apr 11. Fields. Gold Coast Little Concert Hall, QPAC. 136 246. Theatre, Southport. Apr 30 aco.com.au May 21. (07) 5532 3224. Giselle. Queensland Ballet. Apr gclt.com.au 14 - 23. Playhouse, QPAC. 136 246. queenslandballet.com.au

Four Seasons by Vivaldi and Piazzolla. Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Mar 18 19. Concert Hall, QPAC. 136 246. qso.com.au Jali by Oliver Twist. Mar 23 26. Cremorne Theatre, QPAC. 136 246. qpac.com.au Calendar Girls by Tim Firth. Coolum Players. Mar 25 - Apr

The Sopranos. Sarah HollandBatt & Patrick Nolan. Opera Queensland. Mar 29 - Apr 2. Concert Hall, QPAC. 136 246. oq.com.au Mystery of the Valkyries by Michael Futcher. Mar 29 - Apr 7. Playhouse, QPAC. 136 246. qpac.com.au A Little Murder Never Hurt Anyone by Ron Bernas. Sunnybank Theatre. Apr 1 - 16.

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

World of Musicals. Concert Hall, QPAC. Apr 19 - 21. 136 246. qpac.com.au

Stage Whispers 63

On Stage

Victoria

Harriet Gordon-Anderson in Bell Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Photo: Brett Boardman.

Online extras!

To be or not to be. That is the question. Scan the QR code or visit youtu.be/lHGjazM7Cts Peter Evans’ critically acclaimed production of Hamlet returns in 2022. Hamlet is a portrait of a young man struggling with the death of his father, his mother’s hasty remarriage to his uncle, and the vision of his father’s ghost looming in his mind’s eye. Featuring Harriet Gordon-Anderson as a young man experiencing grief in its most complex and profound state, Bell Shakespeare’s Hamlet is playing at Sydney Opera House from March 4 to April 2, Canberra Theatre Centre from April 7 to 16, and Arts Centre Melbourne from April 28 to May 14. bellshakespeare.com.au/hamlet

Company. Mar 3 - 13. BTC Arts Theatre, The Sumner. Shed. mtc.com.au Moulin Rouge! The Musical. bendigotheatrecompany.org.au Book by John Logan, based on Stay Woke by Aran You Could’ve Had It All. the Baz Luhrmann film. Global Thangaratnam. Until Mar 13. Mamma Mia! Music and Lyrics Cassidy La Crème. Mar 7 - 12. Creatures. Ongoing. Regent Beckett Theatre, Malthouse. by Benny Andersson The Butterfly Club. Theatre, Melbourne. malthousetheatre.com.au and Björn Ulvaeus. Book by thebutterflyclub.com moulinrougemusical.com Catherine Johnson. Maffra Chase. Devised by Carly Nothing by Janne Teller, Dramatic Society. Mar 3 - 13. J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and adapted by Fleur Murphy. Mar Sheppard & Kamarra BellThe Wedge, Sale. the Cursed Child. By Jack 1 - 13. fortyfivedownstairs Wykes, A Daylight Connection. maffradramatics.com.au Thorne. Based on an original Mar 8 - 13. The Tower, theatre, Flinders Lane, new story by J.K. Rowling, Melbourne. The Fall of the Roman Umpire Malthouse. Ongoing. Princess Theatre, fortyfivedownstairs.com by Dennis Coard. Mar 4 - 13. malthousetheatre.com.au Melbourne. La Mama Courthouse. Phantasmagoria by Bernadette Yelligbo by Tee O’Neill. Mar 9 au.harrypottertheplay.com lamama.com.au Trench-Thiedeman. Mar 2 - 12. 20. La Mama HQ. Jagged Little Pill. Music and Theatre Works. If/Then. Music by Tom Kitt. lamama.com.au lyrics by Alanis Morissette. theatreworks.org.au Book & Lyrics by Brian Yorkey. Yentl by Gary Abrahams, Elise Book by Diablo Cody. Ongoing. Theatrical. Mar 4 - 12. Chapel Hearst and Galit Klas. Mar 12 Stevie by Suzie J. Jarmain. Mar Comedy Theatre, Melbourne. Off Chapel. 2 - 13. La Mama Courthouse. 26. Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre jaggedmusical.com chapeloffchapel.com.au lamama.com.au Melbourne. Dracula: The Bloody Truth by Admissions by Joshua Harman. artscentremelbourne.com.au Beyond Reasonable Doubt by John Nicolson. The 1812 Melbourne Theatre Company. Jeffrey Archer. Bendigo Theatre Theatre, Upper Ferntree Gully. Mar 5 - Apr 9. Southbank Victoria

64 Stage Whispers

Until Mar 19. (03) 9758 3964. 1812theatre.com.au

Just $50 a month to reach thousands of theatre goers. Contact Stage Whispers for details.

On Stage Hamilton. Book, music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Inspired by the book Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. Produced by Michael Cassel. From Mar 15. Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne. hamiltonmusical.com.au Black Cockatoo by Geoffrey Atherden. Ensemble Theatre / Arts on Tour. Mar 15, Frankston Arts Centre; Mar 17, Clocktower Centre, Moonee Ponds; Mar 19, Bunjil Place, Narre Warren; Mar 22 - 26, Geelong Arts Centre; Mar 29, Ulumbarra Theatre, Bendigo; Mar 31, Horsham Town Hall; Apr 2, Harrow Discovery Centre. ensemble.com.au

Victoria & Tasmania

Waurn Ponds Hall. trybooking.com/BWLVT

Mama Courthouse. lamama.com.au

Chapel. chapeloffchapel.com.au

The Long Road by Shelagh Stephenson. Eltham Little Theatre. Mar 18 - 26. Eltham Performing Arts Centre. elthamlittletheatre.org.au

Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Mar 30 - Apr 24. Various venues. comedyfestival.com.au/2022

Empathy Training by Brendan Black and Martin Chellew. Apr 12 - 17. La Mama Courthouse. lamama.com.au

No Ball Games Allowed by Kristen Smyth. Mar 30 - Apr 9. Theatre Works. theatreworks.org.au

Mark and Declan Solve Nothing at La Mama. By Declan Furber Gillick and Mark Wilson. Apr 13 - 24. La Mama HQ. lamama.com.au

Waiting... But For...? Devised, designed and directed by Lloyd Jones and The Ensemble. Mar 23 - 27. La Mama HQ. lamama.com.au Happy End by Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht and Elisabeth Hauptmann. Victorian Opera. Mar 23 - 26. Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne. artscentremelbourne.com.au

Mr Bailey’s Minder by Debra Oswald. The 1812 Theatre, Upper Ferntree Gully. Mar 31 Apr 30. (03) 9758 3964. 1812theatre.com.au

Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Bell Shakespeare. Apr 18 - May 14. Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne. artscentremelbourne.com.au

Tenx10 2022. Bendigo Theatre Company. Mar 31 - Apr 3. BTC Subhumans by James Hazelden Arts Shed. and Nicholas Rasche. Apr 19 Present Laughter by Noël bendigotheatrecompany.org.au 24. La Mama Courthouse. Coward. Heidelberg Theatre lamama.com.au Tribes by Nina Raines. The Finucane & Smith’s Travelling Hartwell Players. Mar 16 - Apr Company. Mar 25 - Apr 9. (03) Dance Hall. Mar 31 - Apr 3. 4000 Miles by Amy Herzog. 2. Clayton Community Centre. 9457 4117. htc.org.au Chapel Off Chapel. Mordialloc Theatre Co. Apr 19 hartwellplayers.org.au Blithe Spirit by Noël Coward. chapeloffchapel.com.au - May 14. Shirley Burke Frankston Theatre Group. Mar Theatre. Fire in the Head by R. Johns. Shrek Jr. Book and lyrics by 25 - Apr 3. Mount Eliza mordialloctheatre.com Mar 16 - 27. La Mama David Lindsay-Abaire. Music by Community Hall. 0437 117 Courthouse. lamama.com.au Jeanine Tesori. Diamond Valley The River by Jez Butterworth. 881. Singers. Apr 1 - 9. Warrandyte Williamstown Little Theatre. Rumors by Neil Simon. frankstontheatregroup.org.au High School Theatre. Apr 20 - May 7. wlt.org.au Essendon Theatre Co. Mar 17 A Gentleman’s Guide to Love dvsingers.org 26. 0406 448 368 or The Heartbreak Choir by Aidan essendontheatrecompany.com.au and Murder by Robert L Sweeney Todd. Music and lyrics Fennessy. Melbourne Theatre Freedman and Steven Lutvak. by Stephen Sondheim. Book by Company. Apr 25 - May 28. The Darkening Sky by Richard Malvern Theatre Co. Mar 25 Hugh Wheeler. Fab Nobs Southbank Theatre, The Murphet. Mar 17 - 26. Theatre Apr 8. 1300 131 552. Theatre, Bayswater. Apr 2 - 16. Sumner. mtc.com.au Works. theatreworks.org.au malverntheatre.com.au fabnobstheatre.com.au Extremities by William The Weekend by Michael Palin. I Ought to Be in Pictures by Children of the Black Skirt by Mastrosimone. Geelong Geelong Repertory Co. Mar 18 Neil Simon. Peridot Theatre. Angela Betzien. Ballarat Repertory Co. Apr 29 - May 13. - 26. Woodbin Theatre, Mar 25 - Apr 9. Unicorn National Theatre Inc. Apr 2 - 9. Woodbin Theatre, Geelong Geelong West. 1300 251 200. Theatre, Mt Waverley Phoenix P-12 Community West. geelongrep.com geelongartscentre.org.au Secondary College, Mt College, Sebastopol Campus. Tasmania Waverley. peridot.com.au An American in Paris. Music: bnt.org.au George Gershwin. Lyrics: Ira Black Cockatoo by Geoffrey Chicago. Music: John Kander. In Blood by Zachary Kazepis. Gershwin. Book: Craig Lucas. Atherden. Ensemble Theatre Lyrics: Fred Ebb. Book: Fred Apr 5 - 10. La Mama HQ. GWB Entertainment & The production. Mar 10 & 11. Ebb and Bob Fosse. Footlight lamama.com.au Australian Ballet. Mar 18 - Apr Theatre Royal, Hobart. Productions. Mar 25 - Apr 9. 24. State Theatre, Arts Centre Sondheim on Sondheim. Music theatreroyal.com.au Palais Geelong. Melbourne. and lyrics by Stephen footlightproductionsvic.com Chicago by John Kander, Fred artscentremelbourne.com.au Sondheim. Storeyboard Ebb and Bob Fosse. Encore Yours Truly by Albert Belz. Entertainment. Apr 5 & 6. Arts Next to Normal. Music by Theatre Company. Mar 10 - 26. Powderkeg Players. Mar 26 Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall. Tom Kitt. Book & Lyrics by Princess Theatre, Launceston. Apr 10. Dempster Park Hall. sondheimonsondheim.com.au Brian Yorkey. James Terry theatrenorth.com.au powderkegplayers.com Collective. Mar 18 - 26. Dear Ida. Kelpie Cross Get Up Mum by Justin Kelly by Matthew Ryan. Mar 29 Chapel Off Chapel. Productions. Apr 5 - 10. La Heazlewood. Far and Away - Apr 3. La Mama HQ. chapeloffchapel.com.au Mama Courthouse. Productions. Mar 17 - 19. lamama.com.au lamama.com.au My Brilliant Career by Christine Theatre Royal Studio Theatre, Unravel_Reckoning by Susan Davey. Skin Of Our Teeth Don Juan. A Slightly Isolated Hobart. theatreroyal.com.au Bamford Caleo and Elissa Productions. Mar 18 - 27. Dog. Apr 5 - 9. Chapel Off Goodrich. Mar 29 - Apr 3. La Advertise your show on the front page of stagewhispers.com.au

Stage Whispers 65

On Stage Words and Music with John Bell and Simon Tedeschi. Mar 25. Theatre Royal, Hobart. theatreroyal.com.au Girl Running, Boy Falling. By Kate Gordon, adapted by Kate Gaul. Mudlark Theatre. Mar 30 - Apr 2. Earl Arts Centre, Launceston. theatrenorth.com.au The Wider Earth by David Morton. Dead Puppet Society, Trish Wadley Productions, and Glass Half Full Productions. Mar 31 - Apr 1, Theatre Royal, Hobart, theatreroyal.com.au and Apr 4 & 5, Princess Theatre, Launceston, theatrenorth.com.au

Tasmania, South Australia & Western Australia

Theatre Guild. Mar 10 - 20. Little Theatre. trybooking.com/BVYZE The Picture of Dorian Gray. By Oscar Wilde, adapted by Kip Williams. Sydney Theatre Company. Mar 13 - 19. Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide. adelaidefestival.com.au Wudjang: Not the Past by Stephen Page & Alana Valentine. Bangarra Dance Theatre. Mar 15 - 18. Festival Theatre, Adelaide. adelaidefestival.com.au Whisky Galore by Compton Mackenzie, adapted by Philip Goulding. Therry Dramatic Society. Mar 23- Apr 2. Arts Theatre, Adelaide. therry.org.au

Exposed. Restless Dance Theatre. Apr 6 - 9. Space Theatre, Adelaide. adelaidefestival.com.au Loot by Joe Orton. Adelaide Repertory Theatre. Apr 7 23. Arts Theatre, Adelaide. adelaiderep.com I’ll Be Back Before Midnight by Peter Colley. Tea Tree Players. Apr 20 - 30. Tea Tree Players Theatre. teatreeplayers.com Vincent in Brixton by Nicholas Bright. St Jude’s Players. Apr 21 - 30. St Jude’s Hall, Brighton. stjudesplayers.asn.au

Beautiful Thing by Johnathan Harvey. Old Mill Theatre. Mar 11 - 26. Old Mill Theatre, South Perth. oldmilltheatre.com.au School of Rock - The Musical by Mike White, Julian Fellowes, Glenn Slater and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Koorliny Arts Centre. Mar 11 - 26. koorliny.com.au City of Gold by Meyne Wyatt. Black Swan State Theatre Company and Sydney Theatre Company. Mar 17 - 27. Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of WA, Northbridge. bsstc.com.au

My Fair Lady by Alan Jay Lerner House Guest by Francis and Frederick Loewe. SA Light Durbridge. KADS. Mar 18 - Apr Opera. Apr 21 - May 1. Tower Human Ba La La. Great 9. KADS Town Square Theatre, Arts Centre. (08) 8294 6582. Southern Dance. Apr 1 - 9. Kalamunda. Tarantara! Tarantara! By Ian Theatre Royal Studio Theatre, kadstheatre.com.au Potted Potter by Daniel Taylor. Songs by Gilbert and Hobart. theatreroyal.com.au Clarkson and Jeff Turner. Mar Barracking for the Umpire by Sullivan. The Gilbert & Sullivan Aunty Donna - The Magical 25 - 27. Dunstan Playhouse, Andrea Gibbs. Black Swan Society of SA. Apr 27 - 30. Dead Cat Revue. Century. Apr Adelaide Festival Centre. 131 State Theatre Company. Mar gandssa.com.au 246. pottedpotter.com.au 6 & 7. Theatre Royal, Hobart. 24 - Apr 10. World Premiere. The Turn of the Screw. Subiaco Arts Centre. theatreroyal.com.au Girl From the North Country. Composer Benjamin Britten. bsstc.com.au A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Written by Conor McPherson. Libretto by Myfanwy Piper. Music and lyrics by Bob Dylan. By William Shakespeare, The Bright Side of Life by State Opera South Australia. State Theatre Company South Siobhan Wright. Roxy Lane adapted by Kelly Wilson. Apr 30 - May 6. Festival Original music by Karlin Love Australia. Mar 25 - Apr 10. Her Theatre. Mar 25 - Apr 10. Theatre, Adelaide. and Kelly Wilson. Adaptivity Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide. World Premiere. Roxy Lane adelaidefestival.com.au statetheatrecompany.com.au Theatre. Apr 7 - 9. Earl Arts Theatre, Maylands. (08) 9255 Western Australia Centre, Launceston. 3336. taztix.com.au Amy’s View by David Hare. The theatrenorth.com.au Stirling Players. Mar 25 - Apr 9. Blackadder Goes Forth by My Mother Said I Never Should Richard Curtis and Ben Elton. Stirling Community Centre. The Wharf Revue: Can of by Charlotte Keatley. Playlovers. Rockingham Theatre Company. Apr 1 - 17. Old Mill Theatre, Worms. By Jonathan Biggins, stirlingplayers.sct.org.au Until Mar 6. The Castle, Drew Forsythe and Phil Scott. South Perth. Les Misérables. Music by Rockingham. Soft Tread. Apr 12, Princess oldmilltheatre.com.au Claude-Michel Schönberg. rtcrockingham.com Theatre, Launceston, Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. Fame by Jose Fernandez, Steve theatrenorth.com.au & Apr 14, When Dad Married Fury by Original French text by Alain Margoshes and Jacques Levy. Theatre Royal, Hobart, David Williamson. Garrick Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel. HAMA Entertainment. Apr 16 theatreroyal.com.au Theatre. Mar 3 - 19. Garrick Additional Material by James 24. Crown Theatre Perth. The Adventures of Peter Rabbit Fenton. Northern Light Theatre Theatre, Guildford. (08) 9378 crownperth.com.au 1990. trybooking.com/855915 Company. Mar 25 - Apr 9. and His Friends by Joseph The Last Days of Judas Iscariot Playford Civic Centre, Elizabeth. Spaghetti From Graceland by Robinette. Hobart Repertory by Stephen Adly Gurguis. Irish Theatre Society. Apr 20 - May northernlight.org.au Noel O’Neil. Maverick Theatre Players. Apr 21 - 30. 1. The Playhouse Theatre, Productions and Harbour The World of Musicals. Rokitz Irish Club of WA, Subiaco. Hobart. playhouse.org.au Theatre. Mar 4 - 20. Camelot Entertainment. Mar 26 & 27. irishtheatreplayers.com.au Theatre, Mosman Park. (08) Festival Theatre, Adelaide. South Australia Freaky Friday by Bridget 9255 3336. taztix.com.au adelaidefestival.com.au Adelaide Fringe. Until Mar 20. Carpenter, Tom Kitt and Brian Romeo and Juliet by William Stage Kiss by Sarah Ruhl. adelaidefringe.com.au York. Stirling Players. Apr 22 Galleon Theatre Group. Mar 30 Shakespeare. Graduate May 7. Stirling Theatre, Adelaide Festival. Mar 3 - 20. Dramatic Society. Mar 9 - 19. - Apr 9. Domain Theatre, Innaloo. stirlingplayers.com.au adelaidefestival.com.au The New Fortune Theatre, Marion Cultural Centre. Tiny Beautiful Things by Nia University of Western Australia, galleon.org.au Nedlands. ticketswa.com Vardalos. University of Adelaide 66 Stage Whispers

Just $50 a month to reach thousands of theatre goers. Contact Stage Whispers for details.

Reviews

Wudjang: Not The Past. Photo: Daniel Boud.

Online extras!

Check out Jess Hitchcock’s moving performance of Sing Me Into Country. youtu.be/IaNFFnpBJHI Wudjang: Not The Past By Stephen Page and Alana Valentine. Bangarra / Sydney Theatre Company / Sydney Festival. Roslyn Packer Theatre. Jan 17 - Feb 12. STEPHEN Page’s magnificent, largest ever and probably last production after decades as artistic director of Bangarra blends his choreography with more theatrical forms and collaborators than ever. Page calls it a “contemporary ceremony”; Wudjang mixes opera and musical melodies and ditties, with live musicians, singers and actors working in both English and Stephen’s ancestral dialect of Mununjali of Yugambeh country (SE Queensland). And seventeen remarkable dancers. It’s the story of a mother spirit unearthed during an ugly mining operation, who then retravels the past centuries to speak to the present. Veteran Bangarra performer Elma Kris is hypnotic as Wudjang and transcendent dancing with her beautifully expressive fellow spirit (Lillian Banks). On Jacob Nash’s open stage, littered by rocks and one huge slate shard, they voyage through scenes of settler arrival, conflicting systems and identity, an hilarious scene of dancing white sheep (and a black one nabbed and sheared), and then great horrors of rape, shootings and bodies epileptic with smallbox. The mostly male ensemble are artful and kinetic in each of these varied, highly emotional scenes, giving impact to Page’s fine story-driving choreography. Dance fans may miss the full stage reach the Bangarra dancers

usually hurdle - here they share the space with rocks, musicians and everyone else. To enveloping music and songs composed by Steve Francis, under Alan John’s music direction, there are powerful vocal thrills from Justin Smith playing settler roles, and indigenous singer Jess Hitchcock wanting to just move on from the past, and Elaine Crombie with her blues-style scream of revenge against men who rape. Dramaturg and co-writer with Page, Alana Valentine, gives clarity to this huge storytelling arc and thankfully we mostly hear the bilingual lyrics. Like most of the creatives here, Valentine has worked on Stephen’s other highly applauded tellings of black/white narratives. Wudjang is his fourth - and biggest. It’s a long show, near 90 minutes, but still we leap too quickly into a reconciliation. But it’s a glorious climax as Wudjang is properly buried and the wattle gold falls through Nick Schlieper’s stunning lighting and across Jennifer Irwin’s endlessly inventive costumes. Martin Portus An American In Paris Music: George Gershwin. Lyrics: Ira Gershwin. Book: Craig Lucas. GWB Entertainment & The Australian Ballet. Director & Choreographer: Christopher Wheeldon. Musical Director: Vanessa Scammell. Lyric Theatre, QPAC. Jan 17 - 30. Touring nationally. DIRECTOR Christopher Wheeldon and his partner in crime - set and costume designer Bob Crowley - have

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

Stage Whispers 67

An American In Paris. Photo: Darren Thomas.

produced the most delightful homage to the original 1951 MGM musical. New York City Ballet principal dancer Robbie Fairchild is the ex-GI, Jerry, who decides to stay in Paris following the Nazi occupation’s downfall. He’s a painter, who gets involved with the ‘art scene’ and falls for Lise, or as he calls her Liza. Lise is played by Leanne Cope of London’s Royal Ballet. Both created the roles on Broadway and in the West End, and they’re perfect. She’s enchanting and he’s the ultimate ‘Prince.’ Their coupling is exhilarating and their solo work dreamily precise. What’s more they can both sing and act. Apart from Jerry, Lise also attracts the attention of composer Adam (Jonathan Hickey), and closeted wouldbe nightclub performer Henri (Sam Ward). Henri’s fantasy of singing at Radio City is brilliantly realised in the splashy, feathers and sequins showgirl routine ‘I’ll Build a Stairway To Paradise’. Lise, is now a budding ballerina, and rich American patron Milo (Ashley Rubenach) is financing the ballet that Adam is writing and Lise will appear in. Milo’s couture is more 50s than 40s, but she wears it well and sings a lively ‘Shall We Dance’, whilst Henri’s mother, the stitched-up Madame Baurel (last night played by Helen Howard), nicely gave more than a hint there could be more to the character behind the bourgeois pretension. The 14-minute title ballet did not disappoint, with the Australian Ballet corps coming into their own in some colorful and electrifying sequences of dance, and Fairchild 68 Stage Whispers

and Cope finding exquisite romance in their pas de deux finale. The familiar Gershwin tunes, with their iconic ‘bluenotes’ sounded robust and sweet under Vanessa Scammell’s musical direction. Musical theatre gems don’t often shine as brightly as this. It’s a five-star diamond! Peter Pinne Straw Brain Written and directed by Taylor Broadley. Fringe World. After Dark Pier St, Perth WA. Jan 26 - 29. STRAW Brain is a brand-new musical from the author of The Kildeer. Presented by HoneyBomb, this sweet little production leaves its audience smiling. This is a one man and one bird show. Subtitled “The wonderful adventures of Straw Brain and a defiant little crow”, it is a scarecrow’s voyage of self-discovery and realisation. Noah Goodsell is outstanding as the scarecrow, bringing a great deal of personality to the role, inhabiting it so perfectly that you wonder if the role was written for him. Conversing with the audience until the show begins, he has already won the hearts of many in the audience before the first note is sung. He sings well and dances beautifully in an excellent performance. Straw Brain’s voice is the only voice in the show. Musically, Straw Brain is strong (especially the title song and closing number “A Song to Sing for the Moon”.

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

Time Capsule.

Bird is played by a delightful little puppet, expertly puppeteered by Abbey McCaughan, endowing the little crow with an abundance of personality. Simply staged, Craig Delbridge’s set includes beautiful use of projections that are an artwork in themselves, greatly contributing to the tone of the show. Straw Brain is a simple but moving little musical that touches the hearts of its audience. A new work with such a lovely soul. Kimberley Shaw

Jacob Sgouros and Amy Fortnum, with Cherry and Mary given style by Holly Grace and Roshni Kaila. Ciara Taylor demanded attention as ultimate cool girl Ritz. Matthew Nixon made a sweet love interest as Sam. Cal Silberstein was excellent as decidedly uncool teacher Mr Jolimont. A scene-stealing cameo from Madeleine Shaw and El Finnie as Year Nine Media students. Very much an ensemble piece throughout, the cast was completed with strong performances from Felix Malcolm, Benjamin Quirk, Shannon Rogers and Tori Brown. Singing was strong, and the creative, sometimes Time Capsule comical choreography from Katherine Hooker was nicely Written and directed by Megan Rundle. Runaway Balloon. executed. Fringe World. Subiaco Arts Centre, WA. Jan 25 - 29. Originally slated for Subiaco Arts Centre’s smaller venue, an early sell-out led to a move to the larger RUNAWAY Balloon’s first musical kept its audience laughing throughout. It featured well-performed pop-rock theatre. Steph Forsyth’s clever converting set felt made for music and a strong cast. this venue, A bright new World Premiere musical that deserves a Everyone is invited to Dunaneen High School’s ten-year reunion - for sausage rolls, free drinks and the chance to further life. see how much everyone has changed in ten years. The Kimberley Shaw trouble is that for Bridget nothing has changed, so she decides to stretch the truth a little. This Is Where We Live Bridget Palmer was delightfully played by Natasha By Vivienne Walshe. Feet First Collective. Fringe World. Kayser, giving such a warm and personable vibe that the Directed by Teresa Izzard. Cookery, The Girls School, East audience adored her even when making very questionable Perth, WA. Feb 8 - 13. decisions. Her bestie Riley, who faces his own crisis on FEET First Collective’s This Is Where We Live is a reunion night, was adorably played by Harry Fenn. highly poetic, unusually staged production about The high school “it” couple, who now head the alumni teenagers in a rural Australian town. Sensitively directed and beautifully acted, this moving play is fulfilling committee, were played with outstanding presence by viewing. Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at stagewhispers.com.au

Stage Whispers 69

It has an unusual dialogue style, with some sounds, thoughts and actions verbalised rather than acted, at times feeling more like slam poetry than theatre. Actors also slip in and out of secondary characters. Chloe arrives in town, to yet another school, knowing that once again, she will be an outsider. Chris, the ‘weird kid’, and son of a teacher has his own pressures and doesn’t fit the mould. Forming an unlikely friendship, we follow them as they try to find their place in the town where they live. Switching between genres and styles, This Is Where We Live is at times highly presentational, yet at moments pushes for extreme realism - especially in acting choices. There are some interesting decisions made with intimacy both with physical contact and more romantic contact which adds to the layers of the production. Strong performances and outstanding cohesion from Lauren Beeton as Chloe and Samuel Addison as Chris, both delivering portrayals that are deep and nuanced. Fascinating and very moving, This Is Where We Live isn’t always easy to watch, but this excellent production is innovative and exciting. Kimberley Shaw This Is Where We Live. Photo: John Congear.

Triple X By Glace Chase. Sydney Theatre Company. Wharf Theatre. Jan 8 - Feb 26. LIKE any good rom-com, transsexual performer, and now celebrated playwright, Glace Chase begins her tale in an opulent New York apartment. Scotty (Josh McConville) is a big city finance man who seems to have everything. But on yet another bender, he’s rescued by Dixie (Chase), a downtown trans-queen - and so begins ten months of love, tenderness, shared anxiety and far more explicit sex than your average rom-com. McConville and Chase bring great chemistry and truth to this arc of growing intimacy. But the bite of Chase’s impressive comedy is in the reactions to the happy couple. Contessa Treffone anchors the production as Scotty’s lesbian sister, delighted by her newly “activist” brother. Up the other end is their Texan mother, fraught and cocooned, and Scotty’s best mate Jase who thinks he knows Scotty backwards. These roles were ably understudied by Cheree Cassidy and Anthony Taufa on the night I saw it - in a new normal for coronavirus-era theatre. Triple X is richly honest and involving in the personal and societal challenges of love between a man and a Triple X. Photo: Prudence Upton.

Online extras!

Triple X takes a deep dive into the unknowable contours of desire. youtu.be/CC8ri4Z5cdI 70 Stage Whispers

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

trans woman, spliced with wit and unforced insight into sexual identity, gender expectations and lessons on human frailty. Paige Rattray’s fine production sits well in Renee Mulder’s tall warehouse style apartment. It’s a truly modern love story - and perhaps an eye (and heart) opener for some - but it echoes similar landmark rom coms written three decades ago about gay couples. And that’s hardly shocking today. Martin Portus

Know”, highlighting what is right with the musical and what was sometimes overwrought. McKenna’s character was not the lead role. So why was the best song in the show not sung by one of the central characters? Well, it would not have suited the story. This exposes the compromises that are made when you turn an album like Jagged Little Pill into a musical. Alanis Morissette wrote the angst-filled songs when she was 19 - good fodder for drama - but she stipulated that the story have nothing to do with her life. During the first scene, MJ (Natalie Bassingthwaighte) is Jagged Little Pill sending a Christmas letter to her friends describing her Music and lyrics by Alanis Morissette and others. Book by perfect life in a wealthy family – flushed with success. Diablo Cody. Trafalgar Theatre Productions and GWB The shopping list of contemporary challenges afflicting Entertainment. Theatre Royal Sydney – Opening Night, the family was hard to digest at times, with so many Dec 9, 2022. Comedy Theatre, Melbourne from Jan 3, different dishes on the table. 2022. Crown Theatre, Perth from May 14. Sydney return The musical’s title Jagged Little Pill refers to MJ’s season from Jul 9. addiction to prescription drugs, following a car accident. WHAT a rolled gold night in a refurbished theatre! But there are other dark secrets which MJ must confront. Celebrating saving Sydney’s Theatre Royal from the Bassingthwaighte’s performance in this role was stunning. sledgehammer, the cast rose to the occasion, delivering Tim Draxl skilfully navigated the challenging role of one powerhouse performance after another. Steve, her sexually deprived husband with socially It was typified by Maggie McKenna’s volcanic rendition embarrassing habits. of Alanis Morrissette’s most popular song, “You Oughta Another stand out was Emily Nkomo as Frankie Healy, scoring many of Morissette’s most charismatic songs Jagged Little Pill. including “Hand in my Pocket”, “Ironic” and “Unprodigal Photo: Daniel Boud. Daughter”. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s choreography was jaw dropping as the story reached its climax. Fans of the music will be well satisfied with the cast and band under Peter Rutherford’s baton, which powered a second act that was engaging and moving. David Spicer

Online extras!

Join the crowd at Jagged Little Pill’s opening night in Melbourne. youtu.be/2tlidi7vZ0I

Fun Home Music by Jeanine Tesori. Book & lyrics by Lisa Kron. Melbourne Theatre Company/Sydney Theatre Company. Arts Centre Melbourne, the Playhouse. Feb 7 - Mar 5. ALISON Bechdel (Lucy Maunder) is writing an autobiographical graphic novel - and so we travel with her, a ghost witness to her past. She carries her sketch pad and as she draws, she asks, ‘Caption? Caption...?’ But no simple caption could be adequate. There’s Alison’s precocious nine-year-old self with her two brothers, emerging from a coffin to make a song-and -dance commercial for their father’s funeral home. And there’s goofy nineteen-year-old Alison (Ursula Searle) at college, and the comedy of her discovering her sexuality with her pal Joan (Emily Havea). But this is also the story of Alison’s father Bruce (Adam Murphy), who loves his children but can’t talk to them so he educates them instead. He’s a closeted gay man whose ‘secret’ affairs translate into shame and rage and pompous authoritarianism. And there is the ongoing heartbreak of his wife Helen (Silvie Paladino), who knows all along. Fun Home rises far above most music theatre shows. Mathew Frank is the musical director and with his six

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Stage Whispers 71

musicians gives us the songs that advance the narrative at every point. All is delivered by an exceptional cast, every one of them just right - including the children, who are breathtakingly good. It’s a most skilful adaptation of the real Alison Bechdel’s painfully honest graphic novel, telling a story that has comedy, the heights of happiness and the depths of suffering - and it tells that story moving seamlessly through three time frames - a feat helped by Alicia Clements’ superb set (one of the best uses of the revolve I’ve seen), her costumes, Matt Scott’s lighting and Nick Walker’s sound design. Director Dean Bryant maintains energy and momentum without ever sacrificing detail and nuance. Michael Brindley Death Of A Salesman By Arthur Miller. Hearth Theatre. Director: Christopher Tomkinson. Fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne. Feb 3 - 27. THIS astonishing production rises to all the challenges presented by such an important play. The artistic and aesthetic choices allow an interpretation that preserves the historical and universal elements of this story. The result is a refined and nuanced production that immerses the audience into this poignant universe. The performances are full of pathos, each one beautifully capturing the complex dimensions of their Fun Home. Photo: Jeff Busby.

character. Paul English is exceptional as Willy Loman; his portrayal of the volatile and heartbreaking emotions that Willy experiences are conveyed with compassion. Willy’s ambivalence towards his son Biff (Charlie Cousins) is especially well defined. Biff is put forward as the only character with a real grip on reality. His journey is conducted in a gradual manner and Cousins takes the audience on this sometimes-tortuous path with expertise. Happy’s (Ross Dwyer) optimism is well contrasted with Biff’s more defeatist outlook, but this is never presented as superficial. Margot Knight finds an incredibly fine balance between Linda’s positions of victimisation and empowerment. The performances are so well integrated that they fall perfectly into place. The set design faithfully reproduces the modest family home and evokes the sense of decline and decay which haunts this story. The use of the alleyway as a background opens up the performance area while simultaneously preserving the claustrophobic space in which the family is trapped. This is combined with clever and moody lighting and sound effects that clearly delineate the different psychological spheres and historical time references. The traditional approach to the play produces a purity that highlights the universal aspects of this story. The way the nuclear family unit is implicated in the acquisition of guilt, fierce capitalist competitiveness and the corrosive

Online extras!

Check out a preview of Melbourne Theatre Company’s Fun Home. youtu.be/uydFrVAQjvA

72 Stage Whispers

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

nature of materialism are all beautifully and profoundly revisited in this production. Patricia Di Risio

Death Of A Salesman. Photo: Ben Andrews.

The Construct aXis Ensemble and Circus Monoxide. Sydney Festival. Church St, Parramatta. Jan 22 & 23. PART of the free, outside entertainment of this year’s Sydney Festival, The Construct features six fearless performers who tumble, dance and contort their way through and around a unique steel sculpture. Set to an “urban, classical” music score composed by Dr Judith Stubbs, The Construct, choreographed by Zebastion Hunter, was created for public places as a direct response to COVID-19. It is performed by Johnny Brown, Melissa Kisela, Emma Goh, Campbell Clarke, Andrew Summer and Roya the Destroya - who boast vast and varied circus and dance experience. The narrative touches on a variety of emotional effects of the pandemic - fear, grief, loneliness, reaching out, rejection, mistrust, renewal - in a carefully choreographed and meticulously rehearsed performance. As they twist, snake and spin around each other, high on the poles at times, lying still on a hard road surface at others, the six talented artists portray how people deal with new fears and unusual restrictions. The underlying tension is even shown in their faces, not easy when balancing high on

Online extras!

The Construct is a poignant, playful mix -up of circus and contemporary dance youtu.be/Uz-ZpJEd0AA The Construct. Photo: Jacquie Manning.

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Stage Whispers 73

Killing Katie: Confessions Of A Book Club. Photo: Lisa Tomasetti.

metal poles, swinging away from, or supporting, each other in a twisting, trapeze-inspired reconciliation. The Construct is street theatre doing what street theatre is meant to do - telling an inspiring story to an audience that craves hope. Carol Wimmer

The club, run by up-tight Robyn (Kate Raison) at the home she shares with her up-bright mother Angela (Valerie Bader) has only two other members: over-sensitive Linda (Bron Lim) and over-energetic Sam (Georgina Symes). Robyn sees herself as the ‘leader’. The others ‘bow’ to her prickly ego to keep the peace. When Sam invites Katie (Chantelle Jamieson), who is younger, lively Killing Katie: Confessions Of A Book Club and brutally honest, Robyn feels threatened, and contrives to eject Katie from the group - with disastrous results. By Tracey Trinder. Director: Francesca Savige. Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli. Jan 9 - Feb 26. Ten years later Robyn publishes a book called Killing TRACEY Trinder’s characters have graced the small Katie: Confessions of a Book Club. Bron and Sam, spurred screen for many years. Killing Katie: Confessions of a Book by fear and guilt, relive Katie’s effect on the book club as Club is her first stage play - and it’s a winner. It is sad that the date of the book launch approaches. this talented writer did not live to see the premiere Director of Francesca Savige pays homage to Trinder production of her play that explores female alliances, guilt with a production that explores all the characters’ flaws and friendships - especially those of a small, tightly and frailties, the implications of their relationships, the group dynamics, the changes that are wrought. controlled book club. Carol Wimmer 74 Stage Whispers

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Into The Woods Music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by James Lapine. Watch This. Meat Market - Flat Floor Pavilion, North Melbourne. Jan 15 - 23. INTO the Woods combines and subverts familiar fairy tales: Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding hood and - a central thread - a Baker and his Wife who long for a child. It has all the hallmarks of Sondheim and Lapine’s work: the distinctive music, the clever, pointed lyrics, the switches from pathos to comedy, from joy to the deepest sadness, and a confronting moral ambiguity. Here, two inventive directors - Sonya Suares and Melanie Hillman - move their very talented cast of twelve playing twenty characters - across, through and around a space that can be deep in the woods, Cinderella’s kitchen, the Bakery, Jack’s house, Grandma’s house, or the Royal Palace (design by Sarah Tulloch) - with the audience on three sides. Cinderella (Ava Madon) is much put upon by her Stepmother (Jackie Rees) and her equally nasty Stepsisters (Raphael Wong and Caitlin Spears). Jack (Anthony Craig) loves his cow, Milky White, but his realistic Mother (Jacqui Hoy) insists the cow be sold. Little Red Riding Hood (Lily Baulderstone) is just the girl to ‘stray from the path’ in the woods and meet the Wolf (Nick Simpson-Deeks). The honest Baker (James Millar), stolid and fearful, will need to be fired up (or corrupted?) by his Wife (Fiona Choi). They are cursed by the Witch (Cherine Peck), who is indeed a central controlling force - and in the hands of Cherine Peck, she is a bombshell. This multi-strand storytelling could not succeed without Rob Sowinski’s bright-to-eerie lighting, Judi Hope’s appropriately fairy tale costumes, and Marcello Lo Ricco and Steve Cooke’s enveloping sound design. And in a vast space, all the cast are miked, so Jake Sipic’s sound operation is a marvel. Musical Director Ned Wright-Smith and Music Supervisor Trevor Jones execute the score with clarity and sparkle, making their seven musicians sound like much more. Michael Brindley

PERFORMING ARTS MAGAZINE MARCH - APRIL 2022. VOLUME 31, NUMBER 1 ABN 71 129 358 710 ISSN 1321 5965

All correspondence to: The Editor, Stage Whispers, P.O. Box 2274, Rose Bay North 2030, New South Wales. Telephone: (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. 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 April 8th, 2022. 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.

Into The Woods. Photo: Jodi Hutchinson.

CAST & CREW Editor: Neil Litchfield 0438 938 064 Sub-editor: David Spicer Advertising: Angela Thompson 03 9758 4522 Layout, design & production: Phillip Tyson 0414 781 008 Contributors: Cathy Bannister, Anne Blythe-Cooper, Mel Bobbermien, Michael Brindley, Rose Cooper, Kerry Cooper, Ken Cotterill, Bill Davies, Coral Drouyn, Jenny Fewster, Peter Gotting, Frank Hatherley, Jude Hines, John P. Harvey, Barry Hill, Tony Knight, Neil Litchfield, Ken Longworth, Kitty Goodall, Rachel McGrath-Kerr, Roger McKenzie, Peter Novakovich, Peter Pinne, Martin Portus, Sally Putnam, Suzanne Sandow, Kimberley Shaw, David Spicer, Carol Wimmer, Mark Wickett, Beth Keehn, Geoffrey Williams and Debora Krizak.

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Stage Whispers 75

Musical Spice

One of the perks of being a coThe prospect of owner of Stage Whispers is that when catching the ferry to the invitations come around from work and swanning into Opera Australia, I get the first pick. the Green Room of the For this season I told Neil Litchfield Sydney Opera House for that I was most excited about my debut at the Dame Joan Sutherland Theatre reviewing La Juive, a rarely performed French grand opera about the was thrilling. forbidden love between a My first appointment as Jewess and a Christian. an actor was with Opera Originally set in the Australia’s costume Middle Ages, it is being department, where I was transplanted into fitted out as a smartly 1930s Germany. dressed 1930s German Jew and a member of a militia. Alas I am unable to review this opera The black and white because - ahem - I costumes contrasted with am in it, and I the sparkling attire for can’t review from other operas that were left the stage can I? on the rack. How so? Wandering around Well, the the rehearsal studios is magical. You walk past director Constantine one room and a Costi bellowing baritone is requested warming up, then you La Juive plays at the Sydney Opera House from March 9 to 26. that some of peek through the sydneyoperahouse.com the nonwindow of another to singing find the cast of The acting extras be, if possible, of the My first and only professional Phantom of the Opera in action. appearance in an opera was a while Jewish persuasion, in line with the At my first rehearsal I was assigned new movement towards authenticity back. 28 years ago I sang in an some of my on-stage duties. I walk on in casting. outdoor production of Turandot. My as a soldier and supervise some hijinks The audition brief stated that the last community theatre production in a crowd, then after a costume preferred height of the extras was 180 was in HMS Pinafore with the now change back into the Jewish centimetres, so as to fit into the defunct Waverley Lugar Brae Players. character, I get roughed up. The costumes of the skinny, good-looking So imagine how surprised and director has often placed me right at French models, for whom the thrilled I was to receive a phone call the very back of the stage, which is production was originally created. from the director. probably for the best. This is common in the world of an Constantine Costi told me he was It is also a wise decision by the operatic extra - a part which has its excited to see my name on the production team to keep me fully own title: supernumerary. A major audition list and asked if I would be dressed. One of my extra colleagues, criterion for getting a role - apart prepared to play the extra roles of who is a body builder, comes on from some stage experience - is the downtrodden Jew and Christian? stage without his top on - which will ability to fit into the costume. Would I ever! please many opera buffs. I was resigned to not getting the (Con wrote a feature for Stage With only three weeks from the gig because I am 168 centimetres, Whispers in 2012 about a production first rehearsal to opening night, there and the request in the original of The Merchant of Venice he is no time to waste. I can’t wait to be audition brief for a photo with my directed at the Genesian Theatre at in the thick of the drama and shirt off I found a little intimidating. the age of 22. Now he’s getting beautiful singing. Could someone with a Dad body get regular directing jobs with Opera a look in, I pondered. Australia.) David Spicer 76 Stage Whispers March - April 2022

2022/2023 catalogue out now. Order your free copy at: davidspicer.com.au david@davidspicer.com (02) 9371 8458 KEEPING THEATRE GOING