Stage Whispers March/April 2015

10

In this issue

Les Misérables On Tour.................................................................... 8 We speak to Jean Valjean and Gavroche The Year Of Gallipoli...................................................................... 11 Theatre commemorates the 100th anniversary of the ANZAC tradition Guy Edmonds: Hyper Actor ........................................................... 14 Guy Edmonds’ diverse career across Theatre, Film and TV Wizard Helps New Pirates Stars ..................................................... 18 Simon Gallaher, directing Pirates while starring in Wicked

12

Miriam Margolyes ......................................................................... 22 The stage and screen star chats with Coral Drouyn

24

School Performing Arts Resource Kit .............................................. 33 Plays, productions and courses for students and teachers Technical Tips For Schools ............................................................. 42 Our technical gurus provide their best technical and design tips Perfectionist Performers ................................................................. 46 Tips for ‘Wellness from Wicked’s Sophie Wright

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66 80 86 4 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

Regular Features Stage Briefs

6

Stage On Disc

26

London Calling

28

Broadway Buzz

29

Stage To Page

30

Choosing A Show

44

Amateur Stage Briefs

50

On Stage - What’s On

52

Reviews

62

Musical Spice

92

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Editorial

Verity Hunt-Ballard (Sweet Charity) checks out the January / February edition of Stage Whispers.

Dear theatre-goers and theatre-doers, Stage Whispers lost a muchloved member of the family with the recent passing of Brisbane writer / reviewer Jay McKee. Jay’s reviews came from a place of deep love for the theatre, and were full of support and encouragement for performers and creatives alike, which was clearly appreciated, judging by the phone calls and emails I’ve received.

I will miss the phone calls and emails Jay and I shared, discussing our mutual passion for theatre.

While there’s no shortage of theatre articles for our regular audience in this edition, we are reaching out to schools across Australia with our special supplement, the School Performing Arts Resource Kit (SPARK). An even more detailed electronic version of SPARK will be available free online from mid-March.

Because my grandfather fought at and survived Gallipoli, albeit losing an arm during another battle in the Great War, I’ll watch with interest to see how our arts community commemorates the 100th anniversary of Gallipoli. Clem Gorman, whose own anti-war play will tour nationally, has surveyed some of the many productions we’ll be seeing in our theatres. Personally I’m intrigued to see Arts Centre Melbourne’s exhibition about the role of wartime entertainment from the Australian perspective.

I’m pleased to report that since I last wrote here, 13,000 of you are now following us on social media, across Facebook and Twitter, keeping up with the latest news between editions.

Yours in Theatre,

Neil Litchfield Editor

Cover image: Simon Gleeson as Jean Valjean in the current Australian production of Les Misérables.

See our interview on page 8.

Photo: Matt Murphy.

CONNECT www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 5

Le Noir, The Dark Side of Cirque, has its Sydney Premiere from March 19, when the Sydney Lyric Theatre will be transformed to seat audiences around a custom-built circular stage giving a spectacular 360 degree view of the performance. World class acrobats, musicians, specialty acts and comedians are the centre piece of the production described as surreal, beautiful, seductive and at times hilariously risqué.

Vale Jay McKee Stage Whispers reviewer Jay McKee (real name Rodney McElhinney) died of a brain tumour at Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane, on Sunday 4th January 2015. He was 76 years old.

Born 18 July 1938 in Atherton, North Queensland, he graduated in science and education from the University of Queensland in 1960/61. He taught at Mitchelltown High School (1972-73) and later at Anglican Church Grammar School (Churchie) (1976-1990s).

Jay’s first stage work was in Dramsoc’s (Queensland University Dramatic Society) Richard II working alongside David Clendinning and Paul Sherman in 1958. He had formal training with Hayes Gordon at Sydney’s Ensemble Theatre in 1963 and extensive experience with Dalby Players on the Darling Downs where he wrote and directed two revues. He established himself in Brisbane in 1966 and acted for all three city theatre groups; Brisbane Repertory (now La Boite), Twelfth Night and Brisbane Arts, where he also directed.

His acting credits include A Thousand Clowns, The Homecoming and Othello, and directing credits include The Golden Legion of Cleaning Women, Wanted One Body, It’s Back and Lola Montez. He was President of the Queensland publishing house Playlab for five years, a tutor in creative writing at USQ (1995-2004) and Vice President of Fellowship of Australian Writers Queensland (1999-2002, 2004).

As a playwright he wrote the children’s musicals Raggedy Anne (1969) which has been produced around Australia and in the USA, Bennie (1971) and Hansel and Gretel (1972). Jay is also the author of the theatrical biography Never Upstaged (2004), a book about the life and times of the doyen of Brisbane theatre in the 1960s and 1970s, Babette Stevens, and, co-authored with Rudi Stiebritz, the prisoner-of-war account Pawn of War (2001).

He is survived by ex-wife Pamela Page, a former ballet dancer and choreographer, and two children, Nathan and Caitlin.

A celebration of his life, No Regrets, held at Brisbane Arts Theatre Sunday 8 February, was attended by friends, family and industry associates. Jay has been one of the Stage Whispers reviewing team for the past seven years and he will be greatly missed. He will also be greatly missed in Brisbane theatre foyers. They will not be the same without his presence.

Peter Pinne 6 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

Stage Briefs

Stephen Mahy

Amy Lehpamer

ďƒ¨ Jodie McGuren at the design reveal for Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour: Aida.

Photographer Keith Saunders for Opera Australia. Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour: Aida will run from 27 March to 26 April.

ďƒŠ When Sydney finally gets its chance to see Craig McLachlan in the Howard Panter / John Frost revival of The Rocky Horror Show (at the Lyric Theatre from April 11), there will be a brand new Brad and Janet (Stephen Mahy and Amy Lehpamer).

Bert Newton will join the cast as narrator.

A return Melbourne season follows at the Comedy Theatre from June 12.

Production photo by Jeff Busby.

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 7

Cover Story

Online extras!

Watch Simon Gleeson perform “Bring Him Home”. Scan the QR code or visit http://youtu.be/yEGf3XOEdp4 Simon Gleeson as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables.

Photo: Matt Murphy.

Les Misérables On Tour Victor Hugo, the author of Les Misérables, wrote that “The realities of life do not allow themselves to be forgotten.” The cast and crew of the musical, half way through a national tour, know that all too well. David Spicer discovered that families are crucial to keeping them marching to the beat of the drum. He spoke with Simon Gleeson, playing Jean Valjean, and ten year old Harry Herbert, playing Gavroche.

an elite athlete. Other days are so much harder than others.”

But no matter how much he trained, nothing could fully prepare him for what he describes as the level of the attack needed in the first twenty minutes.

“You can’t replicate show conditions in your lounge room or rehearsal. You can’t replicate the pressure of 2000 eyes watching you.”

With more than six months of ‘match fitness’ under his belt he is in the groove.

Simon Gleeson started heavy duty “It is a lot more manageable. I can training for his role six months before bounce off the energy of the cast the production opened. around me.”

“It is a monster. It is incredibly The realities of life for Simon daunting. I started singing the show once a day. They sent me to a gym and Gleeson that he cannot forget are his young family. He has an eight-year-old I put on eight kilograms. I was often daughter, a three-year-old son and his getting up at five am to train then I’d wife Natalie O’Donnell is also a musical have rehearsals. It was a big theatre star. She left for Sydney for six undertaking but I knew unless I was fully prepared, the role would eat you weeks to star in Next to Normal, leaving him holding the babies in up.

Perth.

“The first time I sang the first “Just doing eight performances a twenty minutes of the show, I thought my goodness I will never be able to do week without kids is a lot of work.

There is no childcare for people who that again. It is amazing that we are 250 shows in. There are days I feel like work our hours. We are learning to 8 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

juggle all the commitments. We are (also) home schooling our daughter (in Perth).”

Whilst mum was away her parents were flown in to look after the grandchildren as dad was manning the barricades.

Relying on family and friends is crucial. Simon and Natalie are based in Geelong and often call on them at short notice.

“Especially when you are out of work. You might be told there is an audition and it is today at 2 o’clock. A lot of actors live (in Geelong) and they say yes I will take your kids when something has just thrown your life into turmoil.”

With such a heavy workload it is crucial that Simon looks after himself.

“I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I try to sleep and always warm up and down.”

He also avoids raising his voice with his children.

“I use the silent but deadly approach. I do it with looks and gestures. I was very adamant at the start of this process to avoid, ‘Daddy has to have a whole day of not

talking.’ This is not helpful for them.

But they are lucky I don’t go around screaming at them.”

At the other end of the spectrum is ten-year-old Harry Herbert, a primary school student from Sydney who is one of the four Gavroches for the Perth and Sydney seasons.

Like Simon he has to look after himself.

“I can play a lot of stuff. But not things that get me hurt such as soccer and skateboarding.”

He admits it is “pretty cool” having his own apartment during the season.

Not so cool is that the tutor gives him school work that is “a bit harder” than he is used to.

For every week that he is away from home Harry Herbert a chaperone has to live with him.

When I called his mother Carina Herbert was on duty. His dad and grandparents had other multiple week ‘shifts’.

She says he loves being in the show, especially the finale.

(Spoiler alert next two paragraphs.)

“He climbs up the barricades while he is singing ‘Little People’, and then he gets shot in the back and falls off the barricades. It is very dramatic.

“He practises by standing on the back of the sofa and falling off it.”

Does it bring tears to your eyes?

“Yes. I am quite happy not to watch it for a few months.”

Overall she says it’s a big difference from the Engadine Musical Society in Sydney where he last performed in the ensemble of The Little Mermaid.

“Unlike amateur theatre there is no place for stage parenting. Your job is to just make sure they arrive on time.

“They rehearse for two weeks instead of six months. The kids are given homework and they have to get on with it.”

She has noticed that he has

improved out of sight during the season.

Harry Herbert was encouraged to audition by his singing teacher and his parents agreed only so he could learn from the experience.

“It has been a pleasant disruption.

We just wanted him to experience a different sort of audition.”

By contrast Simon Gleeson had no training as a child.

He was born in a small town in the NSW Riverina called The Rock.

Population 300.

“I did a couple of amateur shows as a kid but my parents said no to singing lessons. I went to boarding school in Melbourne and did not study drama but always wanted to do it.”

He would sing to himself for his own pleasure.

“I had pretty good marks and to please my Mum, I did a list of all the things I could get into. In front of her I closed my eyes and with a pen went up and down the list. It stopped at Business (Banking and Finance) at Monash University.

“So I enrolled in that. I just wanted to prove it was inconsequential to me. Having said that I would have had much more financial security had I gone down that route.”

At the end of first year he was at his uncle’s place during the shearing season when he received a phone call from his friend Matthew Newton. They were in the same year at high school “dreaming the same dreams”.

“Matt said I have forged your signature. I have paid the money (for me to audition for WAAPA). You can pay me back by getting a monologue and a song prepared and getting to Melbourne at this date and time.

“I remember learning my monologue in the car as I was driving myself to the audition. You could not get away with it these days.” www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 9

(Continued from page 9)

He thinks he got in because he “could hold a tune”.

At WAAPA he thrived on the “43 hours a week” face-to-face teaching and also no doubt enjoyed the face-toface meetings with his future wife.

He was thrilled to be cast with her in 1998 in the ensemble of the previous professional season of Les Misérables in Perth and New Zealand.

“Les Mis was arguably the reason I wanted (to be a performer). I have always loved the show.”

When it came around again he was bursting for a second bite. Cameron Mackintosh himself attended the sixth and final call back.

“He is very hands on, which is a real buzz. He ran the audition and was very vocal. This is what I want. He was very clear and lovely and offered me the job that day.”

Despite numerous recordings to draw upon Simon Gleeson believes it is important to put his own stamp on the role.

“My decision very early on was not to listen to other versions. I have to not be influenced by others.”

If he does hear another voice singing it in his head it is that of Rob Guest.

“I was very fond of him.”

He only broke his embargo to

10 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

The Australian cast of Les Misérables.

Photo: Matt Murphy.

watch the movie on a plane. He describes Hugh Jackman’s performance as “brilliant” but in the context of a different medium.

Young Harry Herbert also had a daunting audition, which he described as ‘scary’. Luckily Cameron Mackintosh wasn’t there to frighten the pants off him.

Now he’s settled nicely into a lifestyle which his mother likens to being a rock star.

All four boys who play Gavroche are on stage two times a week and fill in as the official stand-by two other times.

Harry says he is getting a little homesick but the fun he’s having on stage makes up for it.

Going back to normal life will take some adjusting.

“I think I will miss Les Mis when it is finished. Hopefully I get to do something else.”

The Year Of Gallipoli

By Clem Gorman As might be expected, 2015 is shaping to be the year of the Gallipoli play. There are quite a few on offer, right across the country, although some of the war plays under production are not strictly about Gallipoli. They range from major tours of established plays to new works created by local community theatre groups.

Unless otherwise stated, all plays are to be staged during March or April, leading up to April 25.

The daddy of them all must be Hit Productions’ nationwide tour of Alan Seymour’s seminal and iconic work, The One Day of the Year. Its core theme is the time-honoured struggle between father and son, the former an ex-soldier who believes in the Aussie Diggers and all that they represent (conveniently ignoring the booze and bathos that used to characterise Anzac Day), the latter a university student rebelling against the celebration of war. An older character, Whacka, fought in the first war, while the father fought in the second. Directing the

play is Denis Moore, who has directed many for Hit Productions.

Seymour is my uncle, and he used me as the model for the son. He also inspired me to write my own antiwar play, A Manual of Trench Warfare, of which more later. He was brought up in what was then the working class area of Fremantle, the son of a wharf laborer, while I was brought up in the middle class, son of a lawyer and businessman.

Seymour was close to his sister and my father, and he watched with interest the conflict of values between myself, as a leftwing student, president of the university Labor Club, and my conservative Dad. As an example of the age-old father-son conflict it intrigued him, and he decided to write about it.

I was flattered by his interest, and hoped his play would rally young people to the antiwar cause.

Another offering is the Ensemble Theatre’s The Anzac Project, two one-act plays by Geoffrey Atherden and Vanessa Bates. Atherden’s Dear Mum and Dad revolves around a long-forgotten letter and an old secret revealed. Bates’s Light Begins to Fade follows a roomful of TV

writers trying to adapt the Gallipoli story for a modern audience. Mark Kilmurry is directing.

The Queensland Theatre Company stages Brisbane, by Matthew Ryan.

Described as a “life-affirming coming-ofage tale” about a 14 year old Brisbane lad in World War Two who befriends an American soldier, this play, directed by Iain Sinclair, depicts the tension and anxiety of a time when Australia was threatened with invasion.

In Gosford, the Laycock Street Theatre is presenting Flak, a one man show by actor/writer Michael Veitch about the airmen who flew in World War 11 - their bravery, their lives, and their deaths.

New Zealand shows no desire to be left out of the picture. The Hawera Repertory Society is staging ANZAC, by John Broughton. The play takes us through the short history of New Zealand’s involvement in the war, starting from the initial gung-ho enthusiasm and ending with cynicism (Continued on page 12)

Online extras!

Discover The One Day Of The Year by scanning the QR code or visiting http://youtu.be/NiOqLJ99CRQ Gallipoli: A Manual Of Trench Warfare.

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 11

Dale Shearman, David Laverty, Samuel Peacock and Andrew Lowe during rehearsals for Gallipoli: A Manual Of Trench Warfare.

12 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

(Continued from page 11)

and heartbreak, tempered with a continuing steely resolve to see the struggler through.

In Queensland, Beenleigh Theatre Group are presenting The First - An Anzac Tribute to the 1st AIF. Created in partnership with the Beenleigh RSL, this is a commemorative tribute play to the soldiers of the 1st AIF as they fought in Gallipoli and on the Western Front in France during World War 1. It follows the Buckley family, whose sons served in the 1st, and is based on Ted Egan’s work The Anzacs.

When to these are added the various film and television projects progressively being released, it is fair to call this the year of Gallipoli - or the other war. It is to be wondered whether the public will have the stamina or the appetite to digest them all, but then, competition cannot be too bad a thing. And one may wonder how live plays will compete with war movies which have the advantage of realistic-looking action on a wide screen, enveloping the audience. But then, plays deal in thought, language, ideas - not so much pictures.

Many people, especially those with education, will always want to get to grips with strong ideas, strong words, strong interpersonal conflict, leaving the special effects to a wider public.

A great war play is hard to write because the writer has to focus in on just a few people, leaving the shell blasts, the bayonet charges, and the burning villages to an audience’s imagination. Yet, surely, this is an advantage because an audience can see the effects of the battle upon real, vulnerable human beings - and this is the challenge facing the writer of a war play: to see, in small focus, what war really does, not just to villages, fields and tanks, but to frightened human beings, each encased in his or her all-too-frail body. So while a war movie shows individuals waging their struggles across a broad canvas, a war play is like a zoom, closing in on the “little battles” of just a few men whose uniforms might as well be made of paper.

My own play, Gallipoli: A Manual of Trench Warfare, produced by Jally Entertainment, will be touring regional venues and some schools in the period leading up to Anzac Day. Trench has had a long and roller coaster career. I wrote it in 1977 while living in London, and most of my research was conducted in the library at Australia House in the Strand. But its origin was a

kind of strange vision I had, years before, while sitting in an apartment in Potts Point, when I suddenly saw two men, stripped to the waist, dancing in a trench while a battle raged around them. I had long had a desire to emulate my uncle and write an antiwar play, and I knew then that it was time to do something with this irritating waking vision.

The first production, in 1979, was by the State Theatre Company of South Australia, and they obtained a grant for me to work with the director, Colin George, on the editing process.

This began a series of edits, each tightening and shortening the script, ending with the 2013 workshop by Jally, where Arne Neeme and I produced the final version - only 36 years later. Now the theme - how to retain one’s essential humanity in the midst of that most inhuman of humanity’s activities, war - is front and centre.

Perhaps, in some perfect future, there will be no war. Men will no longer be contained in trenches, challenged by their fear and the stench of their own excrement, trying to kill men they do not know. I for one will be happy if that time comes, and my play, and all the plays about Gallipoli or any other war, will disappear from human consciousness.

Until then, we need these plays, to remind of what must never happen again.

Two Women Play Anzacs Melbourne based Two Friends Productions has developed a new play for upper primary and lower high schools, with a women’s perspective on the ANZAC legend.

For actor Amanda Bermand, it has a personal connection, as her family was recently told that the body of her great uncle had been located in France - just under a century after he died during the Great War. The company’s new play is Our Anzacs And Their Legacy.

“If there are comedic moments we do it through physical comedy and song but always with due respect.”

The play is performed by two women.

“Our style allows for us to play men. After a moment you don’t think about it.

“We look at the role nurses as well. They were stationed in hospital ships. Some died during the war.”

Their new play Our Anzacs And Their Legacy will be available across Victoria from April 2015.

More Gallipoli Theatre Wartime Entertainment and the Australian Experience From April 18 until September 20 the Arts Centre Melbourne will present a free exhibition Theatres of War. It covers the experience from WWI to Afghanistan. From improvised theatrical performances used as a means of escapism in POW camps, to celebrities visiting the front line to entertain our troops, performing arts has had - and continues to have - a powerful role throughout Australia’s war history.

their home country (Indigenous men also had to hide their heritage to enlist) they took up arms to defend the free world, defending a culture that had provided them little reason to love it. Facing the horror of war on a Gallipoli beach provided an escape from the shackles of racism at home.

Black Diggers by Tom Wright Touring Nationally The untold story of our Indigenous ANZACS. Despite being unrecognised and oppressed, unable even to vote in

World Premiere New Zealand Drama Fortune Theatre Dunedin - March 28 to April 18.

In a brand new play that blurs the line between the real and the

imaginary, playwright Philip Braithwaite searches for answers about his great uncle, Jack Braithwaite, who was in WW1.

What he uncovers is a truth that has been locked away for nearly a century.

Soldier’s Song by Campbell Smith.

Wellington Repertory April 15 - 18.

A short play based on fact, telling the story of a young soldier in France, who fled from the trenches, and was caught and later executed by the British for “cowardice in the face of the enemy”. These executions took place immediately, usually without trial, and have been recorded as one of the most shabby episodes in British history. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 13

So our actor/director is a writer as well. “What’s Williamson like as a director?” I ask.

“Direct,” says Guy firmly, followed by a pause. “I like that. Because I’m pretty direct. I don’t like sugar coating.

He’ll say, “well, yeah, but, when you did that, I didn’t believe it, try this...

“A more sensitive actor - and I know some! - might go [sensitive voice] ‘oh, no, ooo, he hates me!’ But it’s not Actor Guy Edmonds doesn’t wait He’s tall, friendly, in need of a around for auditions. When he’s not shave, handsome with bright, deep-set personal, it’s to the point!

“And David really understands starring onstage, he’s producing, eyes. He is wearing a baseball cap, directing and writing his own musicals black with a swirling white ‘yh’ logo. “It physical action on stage. It’s a dynamic stands for Young Henrys, a new Sydney production, movement-wise.” and Super Awesome! movie.

Guy, at 32, has been a professional “Anything’s possible with enough beer,” he says when I ask. “I’ve just actor for ten years since graduating as effort,” he tells Frank Hatherley. directed a commercial for them.”

Interesting. This leading stage actor a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting) from the Queensland University of Guy Edmonds has energy, masses of also directs television commercials.

“I’m having such a ball with this Technology in Brisbane. He’d also done the stuff. We meet at Sydney’s 12 months of a film course there, play,” he declares for all the world to harbourside Ensemble Theatre where he’s preparing to play the male lead in hear. “I’m loving it. It’s certainly funny, learning the basics of directing, editing and production.

Dream Home, David Williamson’s but it’s a much more poignant and He started his acting career with a umpteenth and latest comedy, directed dramatic play than I first read it as.

“Structurally, it’s classic, pure well-paid rocket: twenty episodes of All by the playwright himself.

Saints, the Channel 7 soap, shot in There’s nowhere private to chat but storytelling. He’s a real master. My writer brain says ‘hey, this is really well Sydney. But after six months the show he couldn’t care less. His enthusiasm rings round the foyer where others are structured’: I should go back and read was cancelled and there followed what he describes as “a mixed run”. finishing their lunch break. more of his plays.”

Guy Edmonds: Hyper Actor

Holding The Man.

14 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

“I was in and out of work, inconsistently employed as an actor. I was considered ‘moderately successful’ but there was still a lot of downtime. I had to take day jobs. I was selling wine.

“Then one day I realised that with a little bit of savvy investment and education I could start making short films, mainly just to keep myself busy.

“I had had so many conversations with actors: ‘Ugh, I read this script for this Channel X thing, or I read this play for this X Theatre Company and it was so shit. I just wish we made shows like HBO or like Blah-blah-blah!’

“Well, if it’s so easy, I’d say to them, go and do it yourself! Of course it isn’t easy at all.

“You have to have the energy and you have to be tenacious and you have to be a little bit mad, because it is crazy and you have to have a bottomless pit of energy.”

Guy is warming up. By now we are alone in the foyer.

“So I started writing and making short films. Over the years I had made a pretty good network of filmmakers, cinematographers, editors - so I got

Guy Edmonds and Matt Zeremes in Super Awesome.

people together and I said ‘hey, let’s try this!’

“And the films got steadily more and more ambitious, to the point where they were getting quite costly.

And then after 4 years I made my first feature.”

He’s directed a full-length feature movie!? This theatre interview for Stage Whispers is heading into unexpected territories.

Let’s go back a bit. Guy’s first theatre breakthrough came in November 2006 when he was in the

original Griffin Theatre Company cast of Holding The Man, the stage adaptation of Timothy Conigrave’s gay memoir.

The hugely successful production, with Guy on board, moved from the tiny Stables Theatre to the Sydney Opera House, to the Belvoir, to Melbourne and finally to London’s West End. Television roles followed - in Home and Away, Underbelly ‘Razor’, A Moody Christmas and Wonderland. In (Continued on page 16)

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 15

(Continued from page 15)

2012 he toured widely in the successful one-person kids’ show The Witches, before scooping the co-lead in Rupert, David Williamson’s review-style portrait of Rupert Murdoch. Guy created the role for the MTC, toured to the Kennedy Centre, Washington, and revived it last year in a new production at Sydney’s Theatre Royal.

Also in Rupert, playing Murdoch’s second wife, the exotic Wendy Deng, was Vietnamese-Australian Haiha Le. She and Guy became engaged at the end of 2014. And now, together, they are playing the young apartmentbuying couple in the Ensemble’s Dream Home.

“As well as being a terrific actor, Haiha does film editing and photography and stuff in her downtime,” says Guy. She would need to, I imagine, just to keep up. ______________ It was in the Holding The Man cast that Guy bonded with fellow actor Matt Zeremes.

Guy Edmonds and Haiha Le in Dream Home.

Photo: Clare Hawley.

16 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

“He’s from Brisbane, too,” says Guy. “He was doing acting two years ahead of me at QUT but we didn’t really get to know each other. He was on a similar trajectory to me. We were both actors who wanted to do more.”

Now they own a production company together - Boomshaka Film making short films and corporate and viral videos for an ‘extensive client list’.

And there’s Super Awesome!, their immodestly titled first feature.

Produced, directed, written, edited and starring Guy and Matt, the comedy is about two straight guys who write a musical about gay marriage.

“We’ve had a public screening at Hoyts but it hasn’t been released here yet. It will be soon. We’ve got an international sales agent and it’s being shopped around world territories.

“Look, it’s not a perfect film but it’s pretty cool. I’m not quite sure how we did it, Matt and I, but we did the whole thing for around $55,000, which is peanuts. And we managed to film in Sydney and New York.

“Oh, mate, I’ve been in short films as an actor. I tell you, an 8-minute film can take a couple of years to be

finished. From inception of our idea to the completed film our feature took maybe 18 months.

“We’ve got two TV projects going, we’re just about to start developing another feature, and we’re writing a musical for the Griffin Theatre.

“It’s called Rock The Boat and it’s set in the detention centre on Christmas Island. Little bit of satire, not taking the piss, making a point.

“I’m a bit of a musicals tragic. I love musicals. Matt doesn’t so much. Super Awesome! is a musical. I think it’s our equal love and loathing that makes for what are some pretty funny songs. For a man who hates musicals, Matt seems to love making them.”

All this nonstop creative activity sounds exhausting to me. Is this what young actors have to do to stay afloat these days?

“No, no, not all actors. It’s me. I, I,” he stands, stammering, “I get, not bored, just, I like to move at a really fast pace. My brain’s always going. If I don’t stay occupied I just go a bit mad.”

“How might this madness show?” I ask.

“I can get easily frustrated. I might eat or drink too much. I just have to stay busy.”

“So where,” I wonder, “could all this relentless energy lead to?”

“Anything’s possible with enough effort and a little bit of luck. I would love to be running a TV series here or in America. I love high concept things science fiction, fantasy - that’s what I’m interested in making.

“It’s the modern way for actors now. The landscape for film and television is shifting. You can make quite a lot of money from YouTube channels, from internet TV streaming, Apple TV, networks - it’s easier to break in and tell the stories that you want to tell.

“I think it’s a really exciting time for film and TV in Australia. Just go and do it!”

With Guy in full flow, someone from the Ensemble office arrives to pin newly arrived Dream Home posters in the foyer. He and Haiha are featured.

“The characters we play in this are quite different from our roles in Rupert.” He studies his clean-shaven

image. “He’s definitely not an Alpha Male, he’s a Beta.

“Some acting couples have real difficulty acting together. But Haiha and I met as colleagues. The foundation of our relationship was respecting each other as actors, without any romantic connotation, so it’s actually made it easy.

“She’s a great actor,” he adds.

Guy has hardly stopped since our meeting began, though an afternoon and evening of rehearsals lie ahead. His energy and enthusiasm are electric.

“I could talk for hours!” he says. I never doubted that for a moment.

“I think it’s really important to find a balance between art and commerce,” he concludes. “I often see that if something is really commercial and successful that diminishes its ‘artistic’ value in the world. I think you can have both.

“I want to make stuff for audiences. Stuff that actually pays your rent can be of massive artistic merit as well.”

Guy Edmonds in The Moodys.

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 17

Wizard Helps New Pirates Stars

Simon Gallaher as the wizard in Wicked. Photo: Stephen Reinhardt.

Online extras!

Meet the cast of The Pirates Of Penzance by scanning the QR code or visiting http://youtu.be/MkCpEJY-tDE 18 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

For thirty years updated versions of The Pirates of Penzance have delighted Australian audiences. Now two recent graduates from the musical theatre course at Griffith University have scored the plum roles of Frederick and Mabel in Harvest Rain’s new production of Essgee’s Pirates. Green with envy is the Wizard of Penzance himself, Simon Gallaher. He will direct the production whilst appearing in Wicked at the same time. Peter Pinne jumped on board for a chat.

Billy Bourchier is the perfect age to play Frederick. He is 21 in real years and birthdays, having not been born on a leap day.

Simon Gallaher says the auditions were gruelling but then in wandered Billy.

“When he started to sing I couldn’t believe it. I knew immediately we had found our Frederick. He was perfect. He reminded me of myself at that age - a little bit cocksure, but so right for the character.”

The Pirates of Penzance also requires a beautiful maiden to steal Frederick’s heart. He says Georgina Hopson was perfect too.

“They both had an honesty that was right for the roles. Frederick and Mabel’s sweet little love story is really the heart of the show. There’s all this chaos going on around them with the Pirate King and the Major General, but Frederick and Mabel give it a reality. I’m so pleased we found them. And right on our back door. They were both about to graduate. What a wonderful start to their professional careers, straight out of Uni and into a job.”

Working on a new production of the show has brought back a lot of memories for Simon.

“Originally it was mounted as just a bit of fun for the Arts Centre in Melbourne. I’d seen the Linda Ronstadt and Kevin Kline version on Broadway and loved it. Well, I was thrilled when I got back to Australia and was cast in the role of Frederick. But they couldn’t find a Mabel. They searched

everywhere. So they held open auditions and that’s when they found Marina Prior. It was her first show.

They cast me because of my television profile, Jon English because he was rock royalty and June Bronhill because she was the operetta queen.

“Everyone thought it would be a disaster, but it wasn’t and it went on to tour the country. The only sad thing for me was we couldn’t play Brisbane.

There wasn’t a major theatre to put it in. Her Majesty’s had been demolished and QPAC was not open yet. But when it did open in 1985 it opened with our production of Pirates anyway.”

The Essgee versions of Pirates, The Mikado and HMS Pinafore which toured Australia for a decade are still popular in community theatre.

Simon explains the secret of the success of Essgee’s Pirates.

“It’s irreverent but at the same time true to the original. Although it’s updated, it’s not sacrilegious. Every note and every bit of harmony is still there. The integrity of the original is

The cast of Harvest Rain’s The Pirates of Penzance.

still present. Gilbert spent a lot of his later life going around the provinces and updating the material. It really was the Monty Python of its time and a little bit risqué. You can’t time capsule it. If you do it becomes creaky.

That’s what D’Oyly Carte tried to do.

You have to keep updating it for a modern audience.”

Both Billy and Georgina come from musical families. Billy’s father and brother play drums, his mother plays piano and bass, and Billy plays every kind of musical instrument.

(Continued on page 20)

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 19

Billy Bouchier as Frederick and Georgina Hopson as Mabel.

Photo: Nick Morrissey.

The Pirates of Penzance plays the Concert Hall, QPAC, 1922 March, 2015. It stars Andrew O’Keefe (Weekend Sunrise/Deal or No Deal) as the Pirate King, Nancye Hayes (Annie) as Ruth, John Wood (Blue Heelers/Rafferty’s Rules) as the Major General, with Billy Bouchier as Frederick and Georgina Hopson as Mabel. Direction is by Simon Gallaher.

Essgee Pirates is also being staged by the Gosford Musical Society, March 6 – 21, 2015.

Order perusals at www.davidspicer.com.au (Continued from page 19)

He was born and raised in Canberra and performed in amateur musical theatre.

“I was Sir Thomas Mallory of Warwick in Camelot, Joseph in Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and I sang Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar. That’s my favourite role. I hope to one day play it professionally.”

It was Billy’s headmaster who recognised his vocal talent and encouraged him to have vocal lessons. During his three-year musical theatre course at Griffith he played Mister Snow in Carousel, Woof in Hair and Jack in Into the Woods.

Georgina also performed in Into The Woods at Griffith playing Cinderella and Julie Jordan (a favourite) in Carousel, as well as being featured in Hair and I Love

June Bronhill and Sim on Gallaher in the 198 5 production.

20 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.

She was born in Toowoomba and at an early age began putting on shows.

“I used to force my brother and sister to be in them. Of course I was the star,” she said.

She plays piano, violin and cello, her mother plays piano, and her sister is a professional violinist. It was her singing teacher at school, Gwyneth Chappell, who saw her potential and encouraged her. The first musical she ever saw was Simon Gallaher’s production of HMS Pinafore. She loved it then and still loves it and hopes one day to play Josephine and later Buttercup.

“With Pirates I’ve sort of come full circle. My musical theatre education started with Gilbert and Sullivan and my first professional job is in Gilbert and Sullivan.”

Billy’s only brush with G&S was seeing Simon’s 2002 production of Pirates. As he said, “I’m a G&S virgin, but then I’m in good company because this is Nancye Hayes’ first G&S production too.”

Both kids are excited to be working with Simon and to be creating professional musical theatre in Brisbane. He’ll have his hands full as he is appearing as the Wizard in Wicked, luckily in the same theatre complex.

“It was something I thought might be too hard. But my wife Lisa said don’t be stupid, you’ve run your own company before and been in the show at night.

“That was really gruelling compared to sitting in a director’s chair telling people how clever they are.

“Luckily the theatres are interconnected. I can swish between one theatre to the other in my wizard costume. Look it’s magic.”

Simon loves playing the Wizard.

“I like the complexity of the character more than the way he is portrayed in The Wizard of Oz. Rather than just being a jolly old man and a snake oil salesman he is more conniving. You can bring your own interpretation to a character which has many layers.” www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 21

Miriam Margolyes And Popular character actress Miriam Margolyes, currently touring Australia in her brand new one-woman show The Importance of Being Miriam, chats with Coral Drouyn.

of charisma … a “Mantle of Awesome”.

Miriam Margolyes is a legend. She has graced stages around the world; brought incredible stature to many movies, including the Harry Potter Miriam Margolyes shares her initials series, and Scorsese’s Age of Innocence with one of the great stars of the 20th (for which she won a BAFTA - the British Academy Award); played 23 Century, Marilyn Monroe, but that’s different roles in Dickens’ Women - the where the similarity ends. Miriam is a brilliant character actress, but she definitive exploration of Charles would be the first to concede she is no Dickens and the female characters who sex symbol. shaped his world - and even played Noted for calling a spade a shovel, Queen Victoria in “Blackadder” - a role and with language far fruitier than the of which she is justifiably proud and average health bar fruit salad, she is happy to be remembered for. only 1.55 metres tall…with an “I loved working with those boys additional 15 centimetres of wilful grey (Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Laurie and Co). curls. She also emits a three-metre aura

Miriam Margolyes

22 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

They were just lovely and so generous to me.”

She is a star - though she doesn’t like the word - one of the few character actresses to become so, and, though jetlagged, she generously invited me to her apartment for an hour and a half’s chat. She has just woken up from a nap and is mortified that she can’t offer me even a cup of tea. It doesn’t matter. It’s not tea I came for.

Our conversation darts backwards and forwards and covers many subjects. She is super-smart, as you would expect from someone who has a degree in literature (Dickens was her specialised author) and might well have become an academic.

“I went ‘up’ to Cambridge with absolutely no idea of what I was going to do with the degree when I got it.

That’s how I’ve always been. I don’t have any grand agenda, and I didn’t then. I deal with what is here, now, without looking beyond it,” she tells me.

She might have seemed just a nerdy well-spoken college girl, most of whom have wealthy parents, but that was far from the truth. Her parents were distinctly middle class; her father a soft -spoken Glaswegian G.P. (she breaks into a few words in his accent) - her mother was a businesswoman, and an absolute powerhouse.

“I think the term is ‘larger than life’,” she tells me, seemingly unaware that the label has often been used for her. “She had such strong ideas, such vision, that I rarely argued with her.

We were incredibly close and it simply didn’t occur to me as a child to rebel. My thinking was her thinking. She was an amazing presence in my life.”

Sadly her mother suffered a stroke from

The Mantle Of Awesome which she never recovered, within days of Miriam coming “out” to her. It’s taken years for her to rationalise the connection and deal with the guilt.

It was her mother that suggested elocution lessons while she was still in primary school.

“Thinking about it now, everyone in Oxford, where I grew up, already spoke very gentrified English.” Nevertheless the lessons released ‘The Voice’ for which she is famous - pure, mellifluous, every word enunciated.

“I think my voice is different because it has authority, yet is not threatening, and it can be vulnerable without losing its strength. I’ve certainly been lucky, and it’s served me well…or perhaps I have served it.”

The voice is, beyond doubt, a thing of beauty, though Miriam, in a pragmatic way, sees nothing physically beautiful about herself.

“I’m a fat, old Jewish woman, those are physical facts. I am not bitter about it - bitterness is the great enemy of creation. If one spends time looking back, bitterly reviewing the parts you didn’t get, the looks you didn’t get, the people who didn’t love you, you cannot create with what you have now. It’s hard to delineate the creative process, you don’t need to add any extra obstacles.”

Miriam knew she wasn’t going to get to play the pretty ingénue, but she quickly discovered that those are not the best roles anyway.

Cambridge provided an outlet for all the stored up creativity in the young Margolyes. By the end of her three years as a student, Miriam had appeared in more than 20 productions.

“I learned my craft just being onstage, and I’m sure much of it was trial and error, but slowly I grew.”

It was both the best of times and the worst of times - the worst coming from her experiences with The Cambridge Footlights revue where she was less than welcomed by the likes of John Cleese and Bill Oddie. She doesn’t give details but concedes she was deeply hurt, and even though she has

Mirian Margolyes with David Gooderson, John Cameron, Eric Idle, Graham Garden and Susan Hanson in Footlights Review.

Photo: ITV/REX

let go of it as being personal, part of that memory still survives.

“I mourn the sadness that my young self had to endure,” she tells me, and a knot forms in my throat.

We talk about that complete lack of any formal training, though Miriam fondly recalls her days in Rep (Repertory Theatre) as being the best possible training. Acting is, after all, she says, “about truth and passion.

You can be a good actor with technique (we don’t want to see it, but it’s nice to know it’s there) but you can never be a GREAT actor without passion. Sometimes I think that some actors are too cloistered and theatre companies that are heavily subsidised are perhaps too cushioned. There’s a danger they may not burn with the same intensity. I don’t get much chance when I’m here to see other theatre, but I just adore what I’ve seen of Red Stitch. You can feel the intensity.”

Miriam’s career escalated quickly to include films both in Britain and America, including the role of Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter franchise and television roles such as Aunt Prudence in Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (“she’s a delicious old cow,” says Miriam). She’s been nominated for Olivier awards on stage, and has even played Madame Morrible in the West End and on Broadway opposite Idina Menzel. She was the voice of Fly, the sheepdog, in the movie Babe - the long and illustrious list of credits spans nearly fifty years.

“I have done jobs just for the money, parts I knew were crap…but I always tried to find some truth. You have to look for whatever it is in the character that will make it live for you.”

Oddly, Miriam’s first television appearance was as a panel member for Newnham College on the popular quiz show University Challenge in 1963. She (Continued on page 24) www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 23

(Continued from page 23)

Miriam Margolyes in MTC’s I’ll Eat You Last.

Photo: Jeff Busby.

Tom Hickey as Nagg and Miriam Margolyes as Nell in Endgame. Photo: Tristram Kenton.

24 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

was 22 years old and swore out loud when getting a question wrong. The epithet had to be bleeped out, but possibly that’s where the reputation for swearing comes from. It was certainly at Newnham that she first conceived the idea of Dickens’ Women - though it was more than 20 years later that it became something more.

“I told my friend Sonia Fraser about my fascination with the idea and she said ‘Well, we must do it.’ So we took it to Frank Dunlop (director) who had taken over at the Edinburgh Festival and I was astounded when he said yes, and commissioned it. Then we had to get it written; it really was no more than an idea. So we hired a very well known writer and when we got the script it was DIRE, just AWFUL. And Sonia said to me, ‘we’re going to have to do this ourselves’. And we did. We opened the show in a medical lecture hall in Edinburgh and it just…well, it worked.”

It was during the Australian tour of the production that Miriam worked with pianist John Martin. Whilst doing the play I’ll Eat You Last for MTC last year (in which she was simply brilliant) she and John caught up to reminisce about the fun they had together on stage and how marvellous it would be to do it all again.

“John said that he was willing if I was, and I certainly was.”

They approached producer Andrew McKinnon and, with the same serendipity she experienced in Edinburgh, he said yes. The result is The Importance of Being Miriam (she worries that some will find the title pretentious. It wasn’t her idea, but “An Evening With…was considered too clichéd). The show plays all over Australia throughout March and April.

“I worry about it because I’m not sure I am important. I’m still working out what I am but I am comfortable with that person. I’m certainly not a star … I’m not simply a gay woman… though I am lucky to be loved. I’m not a political activist, I’m a concerned human being. I’m just Miriam…I’m ME.” And that’s all that anyone can ask for.

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Le Noir - 2 Double Passes to the performance at Sydney Lyric Theatre on 20 March at 6pm.

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

The Importance of Being Miriam - double passes  19th March 8:00pm: Playhouse Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne  31st March 6:30pm: Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre  7th April 8:00pm: Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of WA, Perth  21st April 7:30pm: Playhouse Theatre, Sydney Opera House  3rd May 11:00am: Conservatorium Theatre, Brisbane

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dominates the disc. Her “Stay With Me” and “The Last Midnight” are excellent. Anna Kendrick (Cinderella) does well in “On the Steps of the Palace”, as do Chris Pine (Cinderella’s Prince) and Billy Magnussen (Rapunzel’s Prince)

By Peter Pinne with “Agony”. The late-in-the-show quintet “Your Fault” is BILLY ELLIOT - LIVE (Elton also beautifully realised. There are two versions of the John / Lee Hall) soundtrack, one with just the songs, and another deluxe (Universal Pictures DVD). version, which also includes the underscore.  When it was shown in ANNIE (Charles Strouse) UK cinemas this (RCA). The new hip-hop performance of Billy Elliot, taped live from the style version of Annie is Victoria Palace Theatre, a very enjoyable London, hit No. 1 at the contemporary update.

UK Cinema Box-Office Annie is now a foster care kid from a foster and it’s easy to home run by Miss understand why. It’s an emotional blockbuster.

Hannigan, while Daddy Not only is the cast Warbucks has become exceptional but the film Will Stacks, an iPhone direction by Brett Sullivan mogul. Some of Charles Strouse’s original score delivers every agonising remains the same; “Maybe”, “It’s a Hard Knock Life” and step of Billy’s fight to achieve his dream. Elliott “Tomorrow”, but others have had a percussion popHanna as young Billy gives a powerhouse performance that inspired makeover; “Little Girls”, “Easy Street” and “You’re rips your heart out. Ruthie Henshall is theatrical gold as Mrs Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile”. The score has also been augmented by 4 new songs written by Sia, who along Wilkinson, but it’s the gritty and realistic performances of with Greg Kurstin did the rewrites. Quvenzhané Wallis Deka Walmsley and Chris Grahamson as the Dad and brother Tony that continually elevate this musical. The close stands out as Annie. She can belt and she can emote which -ups of their real tears will have you reaching for the tissue she does on “Opportunity”, the best of the new material. box. Elton John’s score, which is serviceable rather than It’s a classy performance. Jamie Foxx is appealing as Will Stacks and does well with “The City’s Yours”. Bobby inspired overall, works well visually. Original cast member Cannavale, whose performance was the best in the film, Ann Emery is an irascible Grandma and gets pathos and laughs with “Grandma’s Song,” while Zach Atkinson as the gets a chance to shine on “Easy Street”, while Cameron cross-dressing Michael is fun. His and Hanna’s “Expressing Diaz’s limited three-note vocal range shows a softer side of Yourself” is a showstopper. The emotional bullseye of the Miss Hannigan on “Who Am I”.  show has always been the second-act Swan Lake pas de deux, and with the original Billy, Liam Mower, returning as JONAS KAUFMANN “You Mean the World To the Older Billy for this performance, the sequence is also multiple tissues time. But the best is yet to come. When the Me” (Sony). Jonas curtain-call reunites 25 past and present Billys for a mashKaufmann, recognised as up finale, it’s glorious musical theatre.  being the world’s greatest tenor today, turns his attention to a INTO THE WOODS (Stephen Sondheim) (Walt collection of operetta Disney). The soundtrack of favourites written by Stephen Sondheim’s German composers fractured fairytales musical between 1925 and 1935. It celebrates the is a well-sung version of songs made famous by the score. 30 minutes Berlin’s legendary tenor stars Richard Tauber, Joseph shorter than the stage show, some will quibble Schmidt and others. The idea for the album came from a at what has been omitted concert in Berlin’s Waldbühne in August 2011, and resulted but it’s an intelligent edit in a four-year project that painstakingly recreated the original orchestrations of the period. The concept is brilliant

by Sondheim and book writer James Lapine. The and the execution a delight. Kaufmann has never been in strongest roles in the show are the Witch, the Baker and his better voice. The selections include “Girls were made to love wife, and in the hands of Meryl Streep, James Corden and and kiss”, “You are my heart’s delight”, “Don’t Ask Me Emily Blunt, these roles dominated the film. Streep Why” and “My song goes round the world”, plus songs

Stage On Disc

26 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

from White Horse Inn, Countess Maritza, and Viktoria and her Hussar. Some are sung in German and some in English, with a version of “Girls were made to love and kiss” in both. Soprano Julia Kleiter duets on three tracks and is especially fun on “Divan Dolly” from The Flower of Hawaii.

Accompaniment is by the marvellous RundfunkSinfonieorchester Berlin, conducted by Jochen Rieder, who negotiate the occasional jazz-age dance-band insertions (particularly in “Divan Dolly”) with panache and play the whole with a vigorous bravado. 

the show’s big hit tune, “I Know Now”, sung with co-star Denis Quilley, the solos “Woman and Man” and “Soliloquy”, plus “The World Outside”, in which Valmai Johnston is heard briefly as Henrietta. There are also tracks from Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe, The Mikado and HMS Pinafore, as well as songs from Orpheus in the Underworld, The Land of Smiles, La Vie Parisienne, Porgy and Bess, The New Moon, and two songs from The Merry Widow, one of her greatest successes. One of the most touching tracks, with piano only accompaniment by Freddie Phillips, is “Fly Home Little Heart” from Ivor Novello’s King’s Rhapsody. The JUNE BRONHILL (Desiree discs also include excerpts from a range of operas (Mary Records - 3CD set). The Stuart/The Abduction from the Seraglio/Don Pasquale) plus third release in Desiree two tracks from Menotti’s The Telephone and two from Records’ “Great The Saint of Bleeker Street. All of the recordings are new to Australian Voices” is this CD with some taped during rehearsals and some during wonderful appreciation actual performances. Producer Brian Castles Onion has of June Bronhill, who was done a remarkable job in rescuing most of this material indisputably Australia’s which would otherwise have been lost. Bronhill’s voice was greatest musical theatre always glorious and these discs are a loving reminder of soprano during her four how great she really was. Castles Onion’s liner notes are decade career in opera, extensive and the packaging is superb. Two other volumes operetta and musical in the series feature the work of opera stars Nance Grant theatre which began in and Robert Allman. The recordings have been made the 1950s. The jewel of this collection for musical lovers is possible with the generous support of Alan Jones, who four tracks from the Australian production of her 1964 deserves a mighty big round of applause.  London hit Robert and Elizabeth. Recorded live at Rating Melbourne’s Princess Theatre with Alan Barker conducting  Only for the enthusiast  Borderline the pit orchestra, the previously unreleased tracks feature  Worth buying  Must have  Kill for it

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 27

London Calling

continued through seven books until 2007, is the bestselling book series in history having sold over 400 million copies. It has made Rowling the 12th richest woman in the world.

A second workshop in late summer is planned for the Tim Minchin musical version of the 1993 Bill Murray film Groundhog Day, with Matthew Warchus attached

By Peter Pinne as director. They both previously worked together on Matilda. Warchus is the new incoming Artistic Geoffrey Rush is to star as Director of the Old Vic and it is hoped the show will Lionel Bart in a movie called premiere there, but not before 2017. According to Consider Yourself about the life Minchin, the idea of turning Groundhog Day into a and career of the cheeky Cockney musical is not new. Five or ten years ago Stephen composer/lyricist who wrote Sondheim worked on the same idea but told Oliver! Scripted by Elliot Davis, the Minchin he was only ever tossing it around. film will tell the story of how Bart The play Taken at Midnight received mostly four became a musical theatre superstar star ratings when it opened in January. Starring despite being unable to read or Penelope Wilton (Isobel Crawley in Downton write music. The movie’s score will Abbey), the play is unusual in that it is by a firstfeature songs from Bart’s catalogue time playwright and produced by a commercial which include “As Long As He Needs producer, Mark Me”, “Fings Ain’t Wot They Used Goucher, who Online extras!

T’Be” and “Living Doll”. It will be commissioned the play Meet the creatives behind Taken At produced and directed by Vadim from the playwright Midnight. Scan the QR code or visit Jean and Paul Brooks and will also Mark Hayhurst after http://youtu.be/HMqgSK6q0OM star Stephen Fry, Olivia Colman, seeing a TV drama Michelle Dockery, Matt Lucas and he’d written on the Eddie Marsan, with Al Weaver as young Bart. Choreography same real-life figure. The story is about Hans Litten, a young will be by Peter Darling (Billy Elliot). Apart from Oliver! Bart Jewish lawyer who dared to put Hitler on the witness stand also wrote Lock Up Your Daughters, Blitz, Fings Ain’t Wot for the brutality of his SA men in 1931 Germany, and later They Used T’Be, Maggie May and Twang!! suffered the consequences when Hitler came to power.

James Corden (Into the Woods/One Man, Two Guv’nors) Wilton’s performance as the mother, Irmgard, has been and Sheridan Smith (Legally Blonde/Cilla) were OBE called superb. recipients in the New Year Honours list, along with Emily Sunny Afternoon, the new bio-musical based on the Watson (Breaking the Waves). John Hurt (The Elephant Man) early life of Ray Davies and the rise to fame of his band, The received a Knighthood, while Kristin Scott Thomas (The Kinks, has extended its booking period until 24 October. The English Patient) and Joan Collins (Dynasty) were each made a musical, originally produced by Hampstead Theatre, opened Dame. Meera Syal, currently appearing in Behind the in the West End at the Harold Pinter Theatre on 28 October 2014. It has music and lyrics by Davies, an original story by Beautiful Forevers, also received a CBE. Davies, with a book by Joe Penhall. Set in the late 1950s Sadly Made in Dagenham - The Musical has officially early 1960s, it features some of the Band’s best-loved songs, announced it will close on April 11th after playing for just five months in the West End. The musical opened to good “You Really Got Me”, “Waterloo Sunset” and “Lola”. reviews with praise for the score and lyrics but struggled to Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit star Ian McKellen and find enough of an audience to fill the large Adelphi Theatre. X-Men and Star Trek actor Patrick Stewart are to repeat their Blogs have been filled with the reasons why it did not enjoy Broadway performances in Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land in 2016. They originally performed the play in repertoire with a longer run. One of the reasons given was that it wasn’t Samuel Becket’s Waiting for Godot at Broadway’s Cort “tourist friendly”. The 2010 film in not widely known outside of the UK and neither is the town of Dagenham.

Theatre from October 2013 through to March 2014.

Why would a tourist pay 30 to 70 pounds to see a show Stewart was last on a West End stage three years ago in the they know nothing about? Sadly the comment is probably Young Vic’s 2012 Bingo, while McKellen’s last London right. Recent original score musicals like I Can’t Sing! The X- outing was in 2009 in Becket’s Waiting For Godot.

Factor Musical, From Here To Eternity and Stephen Ward Oscar-winner Al Pacino is also returning to the West End after a 30 year absence. He will star in a production of Oscar have not fared well at all. Here’s hoping Bend It Like Beckham, which opens at the Phoenix Theatre in May, Wilde’s Salome in 2016. He previously performed the play in breaks the curse.

Brooklyn and in Los Angeles, where it was filmed for a J.K. Rowling is to co-produce a new stage play based on theatrical release. It will be Pacino’s first London the early years of Harry Potter, along with Sonia Freedman appearance, apart from a Q&A Evening With Al Pacino in and Colin Callender. The Potter franchise, which began in 2013, since he starred in David Mamet’s American Buffalo at the Duke of York’s Theatre in 1984.

1997 with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and 28 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

B

(Timothy Omundson). The series is scripted by executive producer Dan Fogelman. Menken and Slater previously wrote the score for Disney’s Tangled.

Menken, along with lyricist Jack Feldman, has also been busy writing a new Act 2 song for the character of Crutchie for the road tour of Newsies, which has also had a choreographic and direction makeover. Since the tour

By Peter Pinne began in Philadelphia last October the musical has been doing smash business in every city it has played. The Disney’s movie adaptation of Sondheim’s Into the reworked production is the one that Disney’s will licence in Woods starring Meryl Streep, James Corden, Johnny Depp the future. and Emily Blunt has already broken records. When it And more Alan Menken news with the announcement opened on December 25th 2014, it had the biggest boxof the full cast for Paper Mill Playhouse’s production of his office opening weekend in history for a movie adapted and Stephen Schwartz’s musical version of The Hunchback from a Broadway musical. It was seen by four times the of Notre Dame, based on their 1996 Disney animated number of people who saw it during the runs of both movie score. The cast remains the same as that for the successful Broadway engagements combined. With the musical’s premiere run at La Jolla Playhouse with Michael worldwide gross currently on its way to $200 million, the Arden as Quasimodo, Patrick Page as Dom Claude Frollo, cinema version is already in profit, having quadrupled its Ciara Renee as Esmeralda, Andrew Samonsky as Captain production budget of $50 million.

Phoebus de Marin and Erik Liberman as Clopin Trouillefou.

It’s likely that Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s new The book is by Peter Parnell, direction is by Scott Schwartz musical Little Dancer will be treading the boards of Los and choreography by Chase Brock. It plays from 4 March Angeles Ahmanson Theatre in the summer following its until 5 April. At each performance, 32 local choir members sold-out run at the Kennedy Center, Washington. Set in the from the Continuo Arts Symphonic Chorus will serve as the world of art and dance, the musical dramatizes the life of onstage choral ensemble. The first stage production of ballerina Marie van Goethem, the model behind Edgar Menken and Schwartz’s adaptation premiered in Berlin in Degas’ controversial sculpture La Petite Danseuse de June 1999 where it ran for three years and became one of Quatorze Ans, and her relationship with the aging painter. the longest running musicals in Berlin history. The score The star-studded cast in the Kennedy Center engagement includes “Someday”, a hit for All-In-One, and “God help included Tony winner Boyd Gaines (recently in Australia in the outcasts”, recorded by Bette Midler.

Driving Miss Daisy with Angela Lansbury), as Degas, New The new Broadway musical Honeymoon in Vegas tripled York City Ballet principal dancer Tiler Peck as Young Marie, its ticket sales following the mostly positive reviews it and Tony nominee Rebecca Luker as the Adult Marie. The received after its official opening. Based on the 1992 cult cast also featured Karen Ziemba and Michael McCormack movie which starred James Caan, Nicholas Cage and Sarah with direction and choreography by Susan Stroman. The Jessica Parker, the new show could duplicate the movie’s Degas-inspired set was painted in his Impressionistic style cult success. Variety called it “good old lowbrow farce - the using pastel colours, while the score included some classical kind of show with silly songs, mindless physical comedy and references. Critics thought the work has the “potential to towering showgirls in feather headdresses.” It stars Rob break new ground.”

McClure and Tony Danza, but apparently two turns by Full casting has been announced for the Broadway David Josefsberg almost steal the limelight, one as Buddy production of Finding Neverland, the musical based on the Rocky, a house lounge singer, and one as Roy Bacon, the 2004 movie of the same name about the friendship “world’s funniest Elvis impersonator”. between playwright J.M. Barrie and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, a widowed mother whose four boys inspired the Peter Pan stories. Matthew Morrison (Glee) is to play Barrie, with Kelsey Grammer (Frazier) as the producer Charles Frohman, and Laura Michelle Kelly (Mary Poppins) as the widow Sylvia. The musical has a score by Gary Barlow (Take That) and Eliot Kennedy, a book by James Graham, and direction

by Diane Paulus (Porgy and Bess). It begins performances 15 April at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.

When Alan Menken and Glenn Slater’s new fairy-tale 30 -minute musical miniseries Galavant premiered on ABC TV 4th January the press reports were glowing; “Silly but fun”, “has so many clever bits and witty songs you’ll think someone wrote a sequel to Spamalot”. The plot follows Galavant (Joshua Sasse) as he seeks to take his true love Madalena (Mallory Jansen) back from the evil King Richard

roadway uzz

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 29

Stage on Page

By Peter Pinne THE NICK ENRIGHT SONGBOOK - Edited

by Peter Wyllie Johnston (Currency Press $49.95) The publishing of Australian musical scores is rare, and the publishing of any individual songs from them even rarer, so this collection is a welcome and worthy addition to any music library. It contains 50 songs from ten musicals with lyrics by Nick Enright. They also represent the work of five different composers; Terence Clarke, David King, Max Lambert, Alan John and Glenn Henrich, whose music is published in print form for the first time.

The album of songs covers a 24 year period, from Enright and Clarke’s hit Aussie version of Goldoni’s play The Venetian Twins in 1979 to Enright and King’s account of the life and times of boxer Les Darcy in The Good Fight in 2002. In between came the chamber musical Variations which won the 1983 New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award for Drama, the depression-era On the Wallaby (1978), the travelling show-folk salute Summer Rain (1983), a televangelist expose, Miracle City (1996), the epic convict story of Mary Bryant (1996), plus Buckley’s! (1981) and The Betrothed (1993).

Peter Wyllie Johnston’s “An Appreciation” at the beginning of the book gives an authoritative overview of Enright’s career in which he claims Enright was “the most experienced professional Australian lyricist of his generation and the most influential” and this volume of literate and eclectic material justifies his claim.

30 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

Johnston also writes at length about the history and performance of each production. Of particular interest is the saga of Orlando Rourke (1985), a musical about Australia’s early film industry mounted by the State Theatre Company of South Australia, which was cancelled in rehearsal. Enright’s dedication to the musical genre was rewarded when he posthumously received a Tony Award nomination (with Martin Sherman) for his book for the jukebox musical The Boy From Oz (2003) following the Broadway run. It was a fitting tribute to a short but illustrious career and this songbook is a fitting and lasting legacy. Songs include “Jindyworoback”, “Once In a Blue Moon”, “Sail Away” and “I’ll Hold On”.

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS - Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh by John Lahr (Bloomsbury Circus $49.99).

Has there ever been a better theatrical biographer than John Lahr? I doubt it.

After writing award-winning books on Joe Orton (Prick Up Your Ears), and Barry Humphries (Dame Edna Everage and the Rise of Western Civilisation: Backstage with Barry Humphries), he now turns his attention to one of America’s greatest playwrights, Tennessee Williams. According to Lahr there have been over 40 books written about Williams, but this new volume is undoubtedly the gold standard. It’s been short-listed for the National Book Award and deservedly so because there has never been a better book about Williams, his life and his career.

Between 1945 and 1961 Williams was the playwriting giant of Broadway. Beginning with The Glass Menagerie in 1945, a play that received 24 curtain calls on its opening night, Williams went on to write A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Summer and Smoke, Suddenly Last Summer, The Rose Tattoo, Sweet Bird of Youth, Orpheus Descending and Night of the Iguana, and worked with some of the greatest post-war actors of his generation; Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Anna Magnani, Maureen Stapleton, Eli Wallach and Ben Gazzara.

His plays won the Pulitzer Prize twice and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award four times. His partnership with director Elia Kazan was called “the most influential in 20th century American theatre.”

Eugene O’Neill freed American drama from its puritan corset, and Williams took it a step further with his mix of poetic imagery, melodramatic excess and Southern Gothic brutality. Once Williams got his foot in the door American drama was to never be the same again. His larger-than-life characters became part of American folklore; Amanda Wingfield, Blanche DuBois, Stanley Kowalski, Big Daddy, Maggie, Brick and Laura all transcended their stories and their dialogue became almost ‘anthems in the national

imagination’, i.e. “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers” from The Glass Menagerie.

Williams’ family DNA is all over his work. With a repressed mother who eschewed alcohol and sex as much as possible and a father who loved both, the family home was a constant battlefield. His mother Edwina became the model for Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie and his bullying, alcoholic father CC (Cornelius Coffin) was unmistakeably Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Edwina was so repressed about sex and sexuality, that when her daughter Rose, still a virgin, fantasised about abusing herself with altar candles, Edwina had her lobotomised to shut her up. This act had a lasting effect on Williams who lived with the guilt of not doing enough to stop it all of his life.

His other lifelong guilt was his homosexuality (his father’s nickname for him was “Miss Nancy”). Williams was a late bloomer, but when he discovered the joys of the flesh he was fervently promiscuous. He claimed his two loves were writing and sex and his appetite for both was voracious. The two great lovers in his life were both Latin; Mexican, Pancho Rodriguez, and Italian, Frank Merlo. His passionate and tempestuous affairs with both all ended up in some form or other on stage. When Pancho arrived home drunk one night in Key West, Williams refused to answer the door. Pancho eventually found his keys and upon entering proceeded to break all the light bulbs in the house. The incident ended up in Streetcar.

Lahr’s account of Bette Davis’ antics in the original Broadway production of Iguana, and the closed-out-oftown David Merrick revival production of The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore with Tallulah Bankhead and Tab Hunter take theatrical bad-behaviour to a new level.

Although his later work, written when he was heavily under the addiction of alcohol and prescription drugs, fell out of favour with the public and the critics, Lahr believes Small Craft Warnings and A House Not Meant To Stand are equal to many of his classics.

Williams’ closest female friends were his agent Audrey Wood, who Williams eventually fell out with after three decades, and “occasional actress” Lady Maria St Just (nee Britneva), who lived a fantasy where she believed Williams would marry her. It was never going to happen. But she was very persuasive and got him to make her literary executor of his work, which after his death proved disastrous. The wilful and devious St Just, piqued at Williams for only mentioning her 11 times in his book Memoirs, bullied the librarians at Harry Ransom Center, Austin, to leave her alone with Williams’ letters whereby she took a razor blade and cut out any derogatory references to herself, unaware that copies were preserved on microfilm.

Lahr’s sources for this magnificent appraisal of Williams’ oeuvre were diaries, letters, poems, and interviews with professional and personal friends. Each play and its production are meticulously researched while the use of Williams’ poetry excerpts to illustrate the content is masterful.

Stage Whispers Books Visit our on-line book shop for back issues and stage craft books www.stagewhispers.com.au/books www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 31

Australian Musicals: A Grass Roots Revival In John Senczuk’s recent Currency House Platform Paper “The Time is Ripe for the Great Australian Musical” he argues for both a funding mechanism and a production hub (called ‘The Perth Solution’) to encourage the development and presentation of big Australian book musicals.

We already have a smattering of very watchable shows in the Oz canon going back to Lola Montez and The Sentimental Bloke in sixties; Ned Kelly, The Venetian Twins, Variations in the seventies; Summer Rain in the eighties; Seven Little Australians, Bran Nue Dae and Boy from Oz in the nineties; Eureka!, Strictly Ballroom, King Kong, LoveBites and the current international blockbuster, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, enjoying productions in six countries around the world and soon to return for its tenth anniversary season in Australia.

It’s an impressive, albeit representative, list of both large and bijou repertoire with most relying on Australian history or popular film for their inspiration. The list of professionally un-produced material is also extensive with subjects substantially more diverse such as Rose Porteous and Lang Hancock (Prix d’Amour); a musical farce set around the 1956 Olympic Games (Old Flame); and an Australian reporter on assignment in Shanghai in the twenties (Night on Nanking Road).

Certainly, if we do value our cultural integrity and feel that we need to own an indigenous musical form - as we have done with our popular music, our television drama, our contemporary dance, and more recently our film - then we need to push back against the pessimism. It is surprising and somewhat disappointing, to hear the country’s most respected and influential music theatre producers - John Frost and Opera Australia chief Lyndon Terracini, the sector’s elders - so dismissive of the absence of home-grown work and any obligation on their part towards remedy.

New works are ‘very hard’, says Frost, ‘Our country is not big enough for 32 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

homegrown musicals. […] It’s very hard to sell them to investors and very hard to sell to the public.’ Terracini believes contemporary composers ‘haven’t got an audience […] No one wants to buy a ticket. We can’t responsibly budget to lose a fortune [on a new opera] to satisfy a very tiny group of people.’

What hope have we got for the survival of the local art form? But I agree with Nancye Hayes: “People are always saying theatre’s dying, but it’s a magnificent invalid!”

The many community societies and clubs across the country, who regularly produce musicals, draw on experienced amateur actors, musicians and creatives, and the work is of high quality and enthusiastically supported by strong ticket sales. The sector’s magazine Stage Whispers averages 50-60,000 unique visitors a month and its hardcopy distribution in excess of 3,500 attests to the vibrancy of annual programming.

Notwithstanding the strength, adventurous and fearless spirit of our community theatre culture, my Paper raises the significant question as to why so little Australian material is scheduled?

I quote one response from the copublisher of this publication, David Spicer (who also manages David Spicer Productions, the only dedicated agency in the country to license Australian musicals) who suggests that many of the financial imperatives of the commercial producer are also the community theatre’s concern. He notes one exception - “with amateurs,” he says, “love comes first … the choice of musical needs to both excite and attract the actors and creatives to volunteer to be involved.”

Not withstanding that he has licensed over thirty of the largest community theatres in the country to

produce The Boy from Oz, he still laments that ‘Australian musicals just don’t compete with international commercially tested musicals either in quality or subject matter.’ His observation is that the more Australian the musical the less inclined the committee is to schedule the work!

So, what are the factors that militate against choosing Australia repertoire for community theatre consumption? Could it be that:  the canon, as it appears, is regarded as inferior to the Broadway and West End ‘tried and tested’ musicals;  performers prefer the challenge of taking on ‘the great roles’ in preference to creating more local characterisations in their own language and idiom;  directors and their production teams find it easier to access a concept for production values because of the greater notoriety and visual reference for ‘golden era’ and other musical choices;  committees find access to the book and score of local work difficult; that, in many cases, local musicals don’t have the added advantage of a cast recording for, at the very least, a fuller musical and theatrical appreciation of the work;  audiences just aren’t interest in Australian themed musicals that attempt to ‘tell stories back to the tribe’;  it is all of the above, or perhaps there are other more prescient reasons?

For my, or any, proposal to work and to encourage the building of more home -grown book musicals and to give greater opportunity for Australian creative collaborations, these issues of perception and appreciation needs to be tackled with some urgency at a grassroots level, at community theatre level where the relationship between the performer and their audience is at its most immediate. The more opportunity for performance outcomes, the more skill evolves, the better the musical, the richer is our music theatre culture.

Platform Paper 42 “The Time is Ripe for the Great Australian Musical” by John Senczuk is available on line at www.currencyhouse.org.au/publications/papers John Senczuk is a director and theatre polymath. His musicals include Time, Gentlemen!, Eureka, A Coward in Vegas and Rose and Rodeo. He invites comment through his site www.janusentertainment.com.au

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 33

The Days Of The Old School Yard The Melbourne Comedy Festival has an act pitched perfect to High School students. It’s called Improvilicious: Improvised Guide to High School.

The opening line sets the scene.

“If TV and movie representations are anything to go by, it involves wizards, kids randomly bursting into song and dance numbers, witches, hot vampires, superheroes in terrible disguises and without a doubt, it will totes be the most mega important and dangerous six years of a your life. But what is high school really like and how does one survive it?”

Writer Jimmy James Eaton has his own wounds to draw upon.

“In year 8 I had no idea what to do when I liked a girl. I approached a poor young lass sitting at the bag rack on a Friday afternoon. I thought I was a young version of the Fonze and planned to say ‘How about you and I go to the movies.”

“But nerves took complete control of me. I was just squealed out the words. ‘I love you.’ The poor girl just shrieked. All the girls started running around. Oh My God. Jimmy loves…”

He also had some ‘amazing’ teachers.

“I had a religion teacher who swore he could speak in tongues. Another would throw white board markers at students.”

Ben Russell and Cassie Vagliviello in Improvilicious.

Photo: Nelli Scarlet Photography.

The comedy act sets up a range of ‘situations’ .

“How to deal with bullies. What happens when you start notice the opposite sex. Dealing with embarrassing parents. Also the

monotony of detention, and exams.”

Using audience suggestions and participation, they improvise their way through a typical first day at school.

They guarantee that no two shows are the same.

The comedy team believes improvisation is a dynamic way of keeping the attention of young people.

Last year they toured The Improvised Guide to Theatre. It started with Ancient Greek theatre and went all the way through to contemporary work.

“It allows you to be present and talk to the audience. High School students found that enthralling.”

Improvilicious: Improvised Guide to High School.

Melbourne Town Hall, Powder Room, 90-120 Swanston Street, CBD Saturday 28 March - Sunday 12 April (No Mondays)

34 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

NIDA On The Weekend

The National Institute of Dramatic Art is more accessible than ever.

From short one-day workshops to intensive year-long courses, NIDA Open offers a diverse range of education opportunities.

A popular option for many artists and performers are the Studio courses.

Offering intensive training every to: John Leung.

NIDA Open Studios. Pho weekend over six or 12 months, Studio courses include key elements of NIDA’s world-renowned techniques “We offer a very particular to deliver in-depth training across a independent training model, which range of disciplines including acting, touches on all aspects of the industry, physical theatre, filmmaking, musical so once students have finished their theatre, screen acting, TV presenting, studies, they are confident and writing, directing and designing. equipped with the knowledge to help NIDA Open Senior Course Manager navigate a successful career,” said Ms Jenevieve Chang said that the Studio Chang. classes provide a chance for passionate Delivered in selective classes ranging artists in Sydney, Brisbane and from 10 to 18, Studio courses are Melbourne to nurture and develop available to young people aged 15-18 their craft in a supportive environment. years and adults.

Entry into the courses is dependent on the individual’s experience, passion and drive, as demonstrated through the audition and interview process.

‘The ideal candidate for our Studio courses is someone that is serious about a career in the industry. They need to be committed, dedicated and above all, collaborative,’ said Ms Chang.

A Studio course provides a stepping stone to further study and is a fantastic foundation for a career in the performing arts industry. NIDA Open graduates have gone on to study at higher education institutions around the country - including NIDA - as well as securing successful careers, like stage and screen actor Lindsay Farris and writer Julia-Rose Lewis.

For more information and to find out about the mid-year auditions, please visit: nida.edu.au/studios

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 35

TV Week Logie Awards for Most Popular Actress in an Australian-made series.

Screenwise says Ashleigh is a prime example of how its Screenteens Course provides young actors with a real taste of As a high school student, Ashleigh on Sydney’s southern beaches, playing Cummings knew how to aim high. At 14 the teenager Debbie Vickers. This won life in the Film and TV Industry. She she travelled solo to New York City to her Best Actress in a Television Drama emailed the school when she was pursue her dream of a career in the film nomination by the Australian Academy of selected by ABC for Miss Fisher’s Murder & TV Industry. Albeit nerve-wracking at Cinema & Television Arts.

Mysteries: “Thank you so much Denise! I first, Ashleigh encourages any budding The career trajectory of the young wouldn’t be where I am now without Screenwise so I owe you everything. Ash actor to do whatever it takes to pursue actress continues to gain momentum with Ashleigh landing a starring role as xx” their dreams.

Celia Houghton in Channel Nine’s new Ashleigh is showing no signs of slowing down as she cements her name “It’s such an incredible thing to allow mini series Gallipoli, which depicts the your children to be alone in the world,’’ story of four young Australian boys as an Australian actress in the domestic she says now of her parents’ decision to joining the military and then sent to war. and international Film & TV Industry.

Screenwise was established fifteen allow her to travel by herself.

Ashleigh’s success has hinged heavily on her optimism and attitude, with the years ago to provide specialist, careerAn avid learner, Ashleigh enrolled in actress tackling “meaty” roles that she focused training in acting for film & Screenwise’s Screenteens Acting Course can bring something new to. ‘’I know television. In today’s industry, without a where her potential was quickly noticed

by Screenwise CEO, Denise Roberts. that sounds like something every actor strong screen profile, it is difficult for “Ashleigh’s ambitious attitude to start says, but it’s for a reason. When you play actors to progress in any facet of acting.

The school attracts students from around young has rewarded her with a wealth of different roles you learn from that. It knowledge. As a young actress, Ashleigh opens doors and exposes your emotional the country and the globe. range.’’ has learnt many essential skills which gave her an advantage on a film set,” Ashleigh’s dedication and Visit www.screenwise.com.au for says Denise. perseverance has been evident through information on the Diploma of Screen Acting, Showreel Course, Screenteens Since attending Screenwise, Ashleigh the catalogue of awards the actress has and other short courses. appeared with Denise in the popular been nominated for including the 2013 dance feature Razzle Dazzle. After a few episodes on Home & Away, Ashleigh Ashleigh Cummings played the role of Robyn Mathers in the Australian feature Tomorrow When The World Began and then quickly found herself in the career-making role of Dorothy ‘Dot’ Williams in Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries on ABC TV. Ashleigh went on to star in the recent Australian feature Galore.

Her most notable role to date has been as lead actress in Channel Ten’s series Puberty Blues, set during the 1970s

Big Dreams Pay Off

36 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

Transporting Large Costumes Tracey Nuthall from Costumes Without They are Drama explains how to squeeze a easy for teapot into a hula hoop. the children to My Beauty and the Beast costumes put on, to are, for the most part, very easily wear; they transported. I use black irrigation hose, are robust with my own way of joining the ends enough to be so that they can be very easily laundered and re used, and the assembled.

The plates are expanded out to the children like correct shape; they are flexible, so no wearing them. one gets hurt, and they re-shape I had to make the teapot up with themselves if children bump into only a day’s notice because the ‘professional’ teapot, which the school anything.

The teapot (Mrs Potts) has a simple was going to use, was deemed too fabric frame under the dress with three heavy and uncomfortable by the child. irrigation tube hoops - around the I went down a completely different neck, waist and knees. The teapot path to help solve the problem. I spout is ‘guided’ by the child’s arm; it believe the girl took one look at this teapot, and when she tried it on, she is actually a sleeve, but the child can use the spout to direct conversation. ‘owned’ the role, and because she

SPARK 2015 Beauty And The Beast costumes

could move easily, and get in and out of it easily, there were no more ‘dramas’!

All the costumes in this range can be packed down into a relatively small space between performances, so even though they are bulky on stage, the teapot is, in fact the size and depth of a hula hoop, as are the plates and the teacups.

Many of my bulky costumes are made in such a way as to be able to be deconstructed to post to far-flung places.

(03) 8838 2616 www.costumeswithoutdrama.com.au info@costumeswithoutdrama.com.au

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 37

Study Drama In London

SW: What was the best part of the course for you?

GK: After a broad undergraduate degree, it was exhilarating to be fully immersed in acting. The fact that the Master’s Degree is one year instead of three was perfect.

The international nature of the school was a highlight. In my course of sixteen students, half were from outside the UK with actors from Greece, America, Canada, Lebanon and Egypt.

The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London is And the teachers at Central create a beautiful teaching enticing Australians to study top courses that can be environment. They focus on the actor who turns up at the completed in a year. As the University of London’s drama start and they help to create, with their immense knowledge conservatoire, Central offers acting, applied theatre, theatre and skill, an actor who comes out the other side crafts and making, design, drama therapy, lighting, transformed. movement, performance, puppetry, performance research, Also, the ability to be able to see so much theatre in scenography, stage management, technical arts and London, both at Central and in the city itself. I found myself production, voice, and writing. at the theatre several times a week.

SW: How has your experience at Central helped prepare George Kemp, from Sydney, graduated from Central’s you for the work/education you’re doing now?

MA Classical Acting course in 2012.

GK: I emerged from Central markedly better at my job. It Stage Whispers: Why did you decide to study at Central? gave me a way of thinking about my work - a point of view.

George Kemp: Having been a Shakespeare-o-phile since It gave me confidence in range. Since graduating I have been 7th grade, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to study acting lucky enough to work with the Sydney Theatre Company and in the motherland - and follow alumni such as Olivier, Bell Shakespeare Company.

Dench, Redgrave…and French and Saunders!

The sheer amount of work at Central pushes you into SW: What is your training background? roles that you would never attempt. I never thought I could GK: I went to high school in Sydney and completed year play Iago, which I was lucky enough to do post study in 12 in 2005. I then went Charles Sturt University in Bathurst. I London, or play a 14-year-old boy prostitute who is completed a Bachelor of Arts - Communication (Theatre/ begrudgingly dressed up as The Queen of Denmark Media). I had also studied in Thailand at Makhampom alongside Tim Minchin in STC’s production of Rosencrantz Theatre. and Guildenstern are Dead.

38 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

SW: What skills and qualities are required for your course?

GK: Most importantly, an open mind. An ability to take risks is the only way to ensure that you get the most out of your time. Students are exposed to so much and it’s about soaking up as much as you can.

SW: How do you see your career developing?

GK: I have enjoyed some good fortune in finding work.

Theatre is my passion and I hope to work as much as I can within that crazy world while slowly dipping my toes into other exciting forms of acting.

SW: Has Central lived up to your expectations?

GK: Absolutely! The course was everything I hoped for and more and really has placed me well to build my career. It can seem a scary prospect to embark upon, but it is worth it 100%.

SW: What advice would you offer students thinking of applying to Central?

GK: Enjoy the work! You are in the luxurious position of being able to do what you love every day. From some of the rehearsal rooms at Central you can see office workers sitting in their desks across the road slaving at their computers. It used to make me laugh to think that they could see us doing some outrageous movement class pretending to be hyenas, or cartwheels, or clown workshops. Some students are fixated on finding an agent, or furthering their career, but all that can come later. I was delighted to be able to learn and explore and play full time - it’s a rare bubble and one worth treasuring. www.cssd.ac.uk

SPARK 2015

George Kemp

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 39

Singing Out Against Cyber Bullying CONNECTED, a new Australian musical aimed at teaching kids about the dangers of cyber bullying, is about to tour NSW schools. Writer Craig Christie speaks to Neil Litchfield about the musical.

OMG! LOL! Teenage kids today can’t function without being connected to the internet: chatting with their friends via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Skype or Snapchat and texting or posting selfies via their mobile phones.

Cyber bullying is ‘wilful and repeated harm inflicted through the medium of electronic text’ (Patchin & Hinduja 2006). Research has found that one in five students in Australia are cyber bullied. Students who are bullied suffer from higher rates of depression, anxiety, low self esteem, reduced concentration and helplessness.

photographs circulated, which caused a lot of trauma for the family. That made it much closer to home. I used those sorts of things to start with, and then more and more stories came up, and I started generating storylines from there.

NL: Tell me about the show.

CC: It’s set in a high school, with four main characters. The story unfolds Neil Litchfield: What inspired you to of a girl who comes into the school write a musical about cyber bullying? from outside. Through no fault of her Craig Christie: As a writer you’re own, she falls foul of the mean girl of always looking for stories that engage the school, who instigates a campaign you. About five years ago one of my against her, and manipulates other shows was in Singapore. I was in the people’s situations and stories and hotel room reading the paper and makes the new girl’s life a real misery. there was a whole page article about The other characters are the mean it. That was the first time it really hit girl’s ex-boyfriend, the popular guy in me what an issue it was. the school, who is nice and friendly, Not very long afterwards the though a little bit clueless. Then there’s daughter of a friend had some the guy who’s more of a social outcast, who begins a friendship with the new girl, but thanks to the intervention of the mean girl that all goes quite foul.

Part of the story is about how good people, either by accident or design, can do horrible things.

NL: How have you developed the music to be appropriate to the theme and the story?

CC: The style of the music is very Indie pop / rock, which is appropriate to the age group and the characters involved. It’s a very guitar driven, edgy style, which really helps drive the narrative. It’s quite a fast-paced narrative, as befits the culture of younger people.

NL: Was Connected written specifically to tour into schools?

40 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

CC: It wasn’t originally. I wrote Connected as a piece of music theatre for the general public. That’s how it was presented when we launched it in London, and then took it to Edinburgh.

It stood on its merits as a piece of musical theatre, and got some great reviews.

It’s not written specifically for schools, but what we’re hoping to do is deliver a quality piece of music theatre into the schools so it’s accessing new audiences and giving it the greatest chance of exposure with kids who may not go to a piece like this, because it’s a musical. It’s also a great springboard for conversation and discussion.

NL: Have you had to do a great deal of adaptation to make the show suitable to tour to schools?

CC: There was some adaptation necessary, because originally the language was much tougher, or, I guess, much more accurately reflecting how 16-year-olds talk to each other.

We’ve had to take out some of the swearing, and the climax of the show has been adapted to make it more appropriate for younger school groups.

But it doesn’t lessen the impact of the situation at all, and the important thing is we still see the emotional impact of the storyline, not just for the girl who is the victim of the cyberbullying campaign, but for all of the characters, because nobody gets off unscathed.

CONNECTED, presented by Origin On Stage in association with Theatre One Productions, is available for school incursion performances during 2015 throughout NSW as well as being available for student/parent performances out of school hours.

Following each performance Cyber Safety expert Leonie Smith will conduct a workshop discussion which covers safe and unsafe apps, social media and kids, cyber bullying, adult content filters, safer messaging, essential privacy settings, scams and traps online and smart online behaviour. www.connectedthemusical.com.au

Acting Coach To Oscar Winners Down Under

SPARK 2015

World-renowned acting coach Larry Moss is conducting four-day Masterclasses in Sydney and Melbourne in April.

Thornton and Jane Turner.

Learning how to interpret and inhabit a scene illuminates the story and is the basis for Larry’s approach to acting.

The American teacher of stage and To quote 16th Street Actors Studio, screen coached Helen Hunt in her “Larry’s passion is palpable. He is Oscar-winning performance in As tough. He is funny and he is deeply inspiring. He continually fights for the Good As It Gets; Hilary Swank in her Academy Award winning roles in Boys play, and in doing so, the actor’s talent Don’t Cry and Million Dollar Baby and soars. He knows the commitment it Leonardo DiCaprio in all of his films takes to achieve excellence and will since 2003 including Oscar-nominated dare participants to do the same.”

Larry Moss These Masterclasses have been roles in Blood Diamond and The Wolf opened up to allow an opportunity to of Wall Street. observe and learn (audit) about the Larry has been teaching actors for Melbourne - April 9th to 12th over 43 years in schools such as Julliard craft of acting from one of the greatest Sydney - April 15th to 18th in New York, Circle in the Square in acting teachers working today, 9am to 5pm. watching 32 Australian actors take to New York and his own Larry Moss Limited auditing places are available. the stage to work on exciting and Studio.

For more information He is being brought to Australia by dynamic plays. visit www.16thstreet.com.au 16th Street Actors Studio, which was or call 03 9533 0216 “Larry’s commitment to his craft, his founded by Artistic Director Kim Krejus.

16th Street provides actors with encyclopaedic knowledge of the arts, 16th Street is proud to support the ongoing training through their and his sincere enthusiasm for the art Pegasus Foundation. Scholarships for Masterclasses, Programs, Term Classes of acting itself make his process actors to train anywhere in the world exciting, inspiring and truly and the Youth Program. Previous pegasusfoundation.org.au transformational as an actor.” actors who have worked with Larry at Applications Now Open 16th Street include Kat Stewart, Sigrid - Leonardo DiCaprio.

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 41

Technical Tips For Schools Loud and Clear Les Mis crew at Shore, Sydney.

Stage Whispers asked our technical gurus for their most important tips in audio, lighting and building theatres for schools staging musicals or plays.

Loud and Clear (Sydney) www.loudandclear.com.au David Betterridge “A lot of the time they might think that the equipment in the school is

42 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

we buy four radio mics? There is not much point when you need 18 to do the show. Unless the school has a dedicated member of staff who looks after those things they end up in a state of disrepair very quickly. They are better off hiring, because they are not going to use it until the next year.”

Factory Sound (Melbourne) www.factorysound.com Artie Jones “Check your wireless frequencies.

That is pertinent. Some people’s wirelesses in the old range between 694 to 800 megahertz are still working in a few situations. That is in a sound check or rehearsal when there are only a few people milling around. The problem is when people come to the performance and they all bring their smart phones with them; that is when adequate for a show. By that I mean the sound system for the school hall. A they don’t work.

“Make sure you have done a scan in lot of the time it is not. It is there to reinforce the headmaster at assembly. the area for any problems in your own It is not going to cut it for a musical for frequency. If you are hiring somebody, kids, who do not sing very loudly, over make sure they are doing it. If you are buying wireless, make sure you are a bunch of squealing instruments. buying in the correct frequency banks.

“In most cases they are better off hiring equipment than buying it. Quite There will be different frequencies in a few schools come to us and say can different parts of Australia.”

GoboTech (Gold Coast) www.gobotech.com.au Joakim Odlander “The biggest problem is people being afraid of using what they have got. They think a professional set it up once and they are too nervous to change it, so they don’t end up using their equipment.

“You need someone in the school who is passionate about the equipment. It needs to be simple enough so that they use it. When they put in a complex sound or light desk, they get flustered by all the buttons.

“As far as Gobos are concerned, schools need to make sure their profiles (lights) have Gobo holders, so they can utilise the equipment they have got.

Selecon Phillips (New Zealand) www.seleconlight.com Stuart Mitchell “Understanding the show is the most important thing, and knowing what gear you have and what you can hire in.

“Government schools are generally under resourced to put on a big show.

A school I helped had four dimmer packs and around 20 lights. They were side, wash, frenels and profiles. They had to hire most of the kit to stage Les Misérables. They had less than fifty percent of the kit to do a decent show.

That is fairly normal.

“The biggest mistake is overdesigning; trying to do too much.”

Impro Mafia used 2 stainless steel gobos at the Brisbane Powerhouse last year for their Theatre Sports production.

Photo: Gobotech.

Light Wavez Design (Melbourne) www.lightwavezdesign.com.au Trish Carr “The biggest trap schools fall into is they want every child to have a part but their audio budget does not match it. Companies charge them huge amounts for radio microphones. They are better off hiring a group of hanging microphones, rather than the

Technical

living nightmare of sharing eight radio microphones among thirty children.

“For lighting, all the parents want is to see the kids. If you have money to buy equipment you should consider LED - although they are more expensive, they offer flexibility and are cheap to run.”

(Continued on page 44)

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 43

Technical

Westlake Boys High School, Auckland’s 2003 production of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Photo: Philips Selecon.

(Continued from page 43)

Barbizon Lighting (Sydney) www.barbizon.com.au Paul Lewis “The biggest thing for me is making sure there is a lot of student interaction in the lighting prep where it is safe for them to do the rigging. If an external company is brought in you can still get them involved.

“We do light operations that are pole operated so that students and teachers don’t have to climb ladders.

This includes LED lights.

“We are finding ways of setting up

44 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

lighting in an educational environment, performing arts venue works. rather than a Drama department giving “Very few schools can afford a up and getting an external company in. dedicated performing arts space, so We want students involved.” inevitably schools want the biggest bang for their buck to make it work for Jands (Sydney) a number of things. www.jands.com.au “Also never be scared of the found John Buckley place. I have seen terrific studios in “Jands has helped put together unwanted spaces in school campuses. dozens of entertainment venues for Places that look like a dungeon or a schools. storeroom can be incredible studios for “The most important thing is to get drama. an architect who has experience in “It might not suit grand musical performing arts venues. They theatre but absolutely suit a understand the dynamics about how a Shakespeare or student monologues.”

Passion For Filming Theatre Pays Off Melbourne based CVP Events Film and Television was founded 25 years ago by four men who loved filming theatre shows. They moved from doing souvenir recordings of all things theatrical into making television commercials, corporate videos and broadcasting live events. General Manager David McKinnon spoke to Stage Whispers.

Stage Whispers: How do you see video best used in a theatrical environment?

David McKinnon: Good projected elements need to integrate with all the other disciplines. A projector is a light source and therefore needs to work with the lighting design. The content is often scenic so it needs to integrate with the set design. There is the ability for audio so that needs to balance as well.

SW: What is your pet hate when you go and see a live show?

DM: In live theatre I hate it when the projection isn’t integrated into the show properly. The intensity isn’t matched with the LX cues, there’s no shutter so we can see the raster in blackouts, the cues don’t fade in and out, and the projected scenery doesn’t stylistically match the set.

SW: What do you think is the most

sized business. We are about to move into a new office/studio/warehouse facility that is five times the current size.

Our live to screen/broadcast department has recently been boosted with the addition of an OB Truck and our theatrical division now has a large interesting technology that’s going to collection of HD projectors ranging from 2,000 lumens to 22,000 lumens. change video?

SW: What makes you get up in the DM: In the world of projection, the morning and come to work each day? laser projectors that are now coming into the market are going to open up a DM: I enjoy most the solving of the whole new realm of possibility as they technical and artistic challenges presented by the live events we work are much quieter and can be rotated and tilted to any angle. We haven’t yet on. Watching a final product and being excited by the toys that have made it really seen LED successfully integrate into a theatre show, but it will happen. work (I’m a geek) but knowing that the We have recently been doing a number audience are enjoying the art that is of shows with 3D or stereo images, presented because all the technology is discreet. which has some interesting new SW: What is your Background? applications for live theatre. The most DM: I started life as a classically exciting stuff I see currently is where the performers can interact with the video trained musician and spent a lot of time live. playing with music technology. Over the SW: What is your favourite piece of years I have worked as a Sound Engineer and a High School Teacher video in a live production? before landing at CVP. DM: There are a number of dance pieces where the performers interact and control the vision, whilst a number www.cvp.com.au of depth perception tricks are played on the audience; they are very clever technically but at the same time when they work as a piece of creative narrative and the vision is supporting the artist not dominating, they are simply stunning. In too many works the two things seem to be mutually exclusive.

SW: Where is it CVP going?

DM: CVP is rapidly growing from a small family business into a medium

David McKinnon

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 45

Perfectionist Performers

How can performers stay positive in an industry where there are so many knock backs?

Sophie Wright has some suggestions. She draws on her experience of singing, dancing and acting from a very young age, through to studying Music Theatre at WAAPA. She has compiled a unique blog in rest time from her current role in the ensemble of Wicked and cover for Elphaba.

Sophie Wright

Whilst studying I had always been quite healthy and had been interested in keeping fit and eating good food. However I never really knew how interlinked the mind and body was until I became aware of my mind and thought processes in audition situations, performing and in general life. I wanted to know more and I felt that there wasn’t much of a support system for new actors or graduates, especially in a wellness/positive environment. So I created the blog, ‘Whole Wicked Wellness’, whilst in Wicked and then changed it recently to ‘Create A Wellness’.

By sharing numerous video blogs, articles, recipes and e books, I want ‘Create A Wellness’ to show performers

(or any creatives) that it is possible to create a balanced, happy and purposeful life by using mindfulness techniques, meditation, positive thoughts, healthy eating and fitness.

This is especially relevant in an industry where we are exposed to a lot of knock backs, rejection and uncertainty, Let’s try a little experiment. Just take a minute to mentally list a few things that we would love to just slightly change about ourselves.

Whether it be as simple as a pimple on our face we’d like seriously gone, more money, another audition, another job, longer hair, better attitude, better body etc….It’s scary how easy it is, isn’t it?

Now make a little mental list of the things we absolutely LOVE about ourselves?

Unfortunately we seem to be aware and notice that it is a lot easier for us to contribute to the negative parts of ourselves, the parts that we may spend longer time looking at, obsessing

46 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

about and wishing for an improved version of.

We spend time looking at people on different social media, such as Instagram, at the ‘inspiring’ people we choose to follow, but sometimes we get so caught up with some of these ‘perfect’ people with their perfect images that they take through their awesome Instagram filters, that we lose sight of what these people are actually trying to do and lose sight in the ‘editing’ process that goes along with sharing photos and videos on social media.

Especially as performers we can sometimes box ourselves into certain categories, certain roles or types. We sometimes forget that the right roles are right for us because it allows us to be our individual selves as actors and performers and not to box ourselves into someone that we are not.

Today is the day, I say, to celebrate our imperfections. Let’s all give ourselves a break and be less harsh. Our lives may take different turns that we didn’t expect or want to happen in the moment, but we can make it simple and ask the ultimate question. Are we happy? Do we have people in our lives that love us, for us?

For our crazy imperfections and silly nature, our lame jokes or our lame comments? If they do, then celebrate it!

What makes us different as performers? What makes us stand out?

What are our clever skills and talents that make us unique and passionate about doing what we love?

We must all stop counting every imperfection, every anxious thought, every silly comment made, every calorie eaten. If we spend our lives counting these imperfections our thoughts become consumed with them.

Celebrate how good it is right now. www.createawellness.com www.sophiewright.com.au

Just The Ticket Putting on a school theatre production these days is a whirlwind of competing tasks requiring enormous amounts of time and resources. Casting, rehearsals, sets, costumes, make-up, props, sound, lighting, the list goes on…..

With only a limited pool of dedicated staff and volunteers it’s always a battle bringing it all together for that opening night deadline.

their event page on the TicketHost website and we take it from there.”

TicketHost caters for just about every ticketing scenario imaginable. “We’ve been constantly working with schools and other organisations for over five years to add new features and TicketHost’s creator, Eric Staples, better meet their needs,” he said.

“The system now has just about every knows the plot lines only too well.

“There’s a massive amount of creative angle covered, but we’re more than happy to listen if they have a peculiarity energy required and the task of organising ticket sales is about the last they’d like us to incorporate.”

All credit card payments are safely thing on anyone’s mind,” he said. “The TicketHost system was built precisely and securely processed via the ‘bank grade’ security of the ANZ Bank’s with this in mind. The system takes Payment Gateway. PayPal and EFT care of the entire ticketing operation payment methods are also accepted and generally requires less than 15 and the system caters for parents who minutes to get it up and running.

“Schools love that it really is a ‘set still prefer to pay the school directly with cash or cheque. The system has a and forget’ system,” he said. “They wide range of reporting options so simply provide parents with a link to

Technical event administrators are easily able to monitor ticket sales.

“Expectations have shifted. Ticket buyers now expect to be able to make their purchases online at a time of their choosing,” Eric said. “If you can’t offer the flexibility and convenience of online ticketing, you’re behind the eight ball.”

TicketHost’s hosting fee is just 35 cents per ticket plus bank fees.

Event organisers can choose whether the fees are passed on to the ticket buyer or absorbed in the ticket price. www.tickethost.com.au info@tickethost.com.au (03) 9011 3221

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 47

Hot School Shows From David Spicer Productions www.davidspicer.com.au Popstars!

The world premiere of Popstars!

The 90’s musical will take place in late March at the Sacred Heart College in Napier.

The juke-box musical written by Neil Gooding (Back to the 80’s) and Nicholas Christo has more than a dozen productions booked around Australia and New Zealand.

A try out of the first act took place at the Australian Institute of Music (Sydney) in December.

The musical featuring blockbuster hits from the 90’s is set in a school and pits a boy band against a girl band. http://youtu.be/V9tILqElvQk

Based on the popular movie, Legally Blonde Jr and Legally Blonde: The Musical follow the transformation of Elle Woods as she tackles stereotypes, snobbery, and scandal in pursuit of her dreams.

Adapted for younger performers this show features an upbeat original score that’s sure to leave cast members and audiences alike seeing pink!

Maverick Musicals Hits www.maverickmusicals.com You’re History.

(Bain & Patterson) A nerdy teenager turns a portable classroom into a time machine, sending a mischievous detention class hurtling back From Hal Leonard through history. www.halleonard.com.au The package includes on stage graphics, SFX, backing Legally Blonde the Musical tracks CD additional to the band parts and MIDI files.

Hal Leonard Australia has announced expanded “Schools around the world have eagerly availability of Legally Blonde the Musical. The popular snapped this musical up” says Editor Gail Denver. “We production is available as a two act PG-13 rated version and get wonderful feed-back about it on many levels.” also as a one act G rated Broadway Junior edition.

Book Nook

The daily delight of promoting our collective performing arts culture is what Book Nook is all about.

The independent book shop is becoming a much less common sight,

48 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

and this goes for specialist bookshops in particular. It is difficult to remain viable amid the seemingly unlimited global marketplace.

So why do we do it? Because our culture, as it is expressed in theatrical performance, forms a quintessential role in reflecting our shared society and sense of ourselves.

Actors, writers, directors and teachers everywhere share this passion with us and it is a joy to be able to help bring exciting new plays as well as revered classics to the next generation of theatregoers.

Book Nook specialises in performing arts books, both plays and texts on acting, theory and history.

We stock every new Australian play and as many new international plays as possible. We also stock a large collection of popular and frequently studied plays from Ancient Greek to the present.

Throughout the 1990s I worked as a freelance theatre maker and designer in Melbourne working with Handspan Theatre and Polyglot Puppet Theatre

and many other companies and this gave me the opportunity to work with many of our leading playwrights.

The insight I gained has fuelled my lasting passion for theatre and assists me with recommending plays for the many different specific needs of schools throughout Australia.

Below is a list of new plays recommended for schools  Secret River by Andrew Bovell (from the novel by Kate Grenville)  In a Heart Beat by Jo Turner  Fearless by Mira Todd  Teenage Alchemist by Angela Betzien  Fly-In Fly-Out by Robert Kronk & Howard Cassidy  Compass by Jessica Bellamy Please visit our website for more information on all these plays. You can purchase plays on line or download purchase order forms for school use.

We have recommended lists for both NSW HSC and Victorian VCE. Mary Sutherland www.booknook.com.au

Battle of the Bands (Steven Harris) another cleverly themed musical for intermediate level, “It’s a great tale about every young band’s dream - to be rocking out on the big stage to thousands of screaming fans. Scored for a smaller rock ensemble, and easy to stage, it’s a feel-good musical with great characters, who see live rock’n’roll triumph over manufactured pop,” says Gail.

From Judith Prior www.davidspicer.com.au/author/judith-prior Judith Prior’s What’s New Pussycat Judith Prior was thrilled when her old school staged one of her most popular musicals What’s New Pussycat. She wrote to Nhill High School in Victoria to congratulate them.

“My final year was about 1957. My father was the local plumber in Nhill. My grandmother was an eccentric secondhand healer.

“I was an average student, often inattentive while I drew pictures of fairies and butterflies in the margins of my text books.

“I still don’t know my seven times table, but as I grew up I discovered that I was good at languages and music and eventually became a playwright.

“Pussycat is my second musical for schools. Rockin’ Robin was the first and I have just released The Kookaburra Kids.”

Choosing A Show

Judith Prior’s What’s New Pussycat.

From Dominie Drama www.dominie.com.au Animal Farm A powerful and straightforward dramatization of Orwell’s enduring parable on the perils of totalitarianism, for a cast of 6 - 14, adapted by Ian Wooldridge, remains faithful to Orwell’s original, retaining both its affection for the animals and the incisiveness of its message. This edition contains production notes for schools and other groups wishing to stage the play.

Arabian Nights (RSC version) A simple inventive re-telling of the stories from the Arabian Nights by Dominic Cooke.

It is wedding night in the palace of King Shahrayar. By morning, the new Queen Shahrazad is to be put to death like all the young brides before her. But she has one gift that could save her - the gift of storytelling. On her side are Ali Baba, Es-Sindibad the Sailor and Princess Parizade.

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 49

 When Miranda Musical Society presents Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel at Sutherland Entertainment Centre from March 25 to 29, Daisy Cousens, daughter of musical theatre star Peter Cousens, will take on the plum role of Carrie Pipperidge. Does Daisy ask dad for advice?

“I am always asking him for advice. He is, for lack of a better description, a bottomless pit of knowledge. We’ve had many a long car trip where I’ve sat in silence and awe as he describes ways to prepare, to convey truth, to avoid nerves, to tackle a character psychologically. I always kick myself for not recording everything he says.

Hearing about his experience is so interesting, and incredibly helpful. I’m very lucky.”

Read our full chat with Daisy online at http://bit.ly/1EA5Drx  Dust off your hip-hugging flares, your platform shoes and warm up your disco dance moves. Redcliffe Musical Theatre (Queensland) brings the music of the Bee Gees back to their childhood stomping ground with the World Community Theatre Premiere of the musical Saturday Night Fever at the Redcliffe Cultural Centre on March 19th 2015. Pictured is Adam Goodall, who plays Tony, striking that iconic disco pose.  Matt Burgess and Ben O’Reilly, joint winners of Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical at 2014 CAT Awards.

Matt from Batemans Bay, is the father of Dirty Dancing star Kirby Burgess. Strictly Ballroom star Ash Bee picked up three awards including the Gold Cat Award.

50 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

Stage Briefs

Main image: Daisy and Peter Cousens together in the movie Freedom.

Inset left: Daisy Cousens and James Jonathan in Carousel.

ďƒ¨ Following its successful professional tour, Grease is back on the community theatre circuit, with Bankstown Theatre Company staging the popular musical at the Bryan Brown Theatre from March 20 to 29.

Pictured are Alex Jeans, Steven McLeod, Claudi Acosta, Donovan Cleary and Jordan Janson. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 51

On Stage A.C.T. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.

Canberra Repertory Society.

Until Mar 7. Theatre 3. 6257 1950.

Evita by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

(Musical). Canberra Philharmonic Society. Mar 5 - 21. Erindale Theatre, McBryde Cres, Wanniassa.

A.C.T. & New South Wales

Canberra Playback presents an original improvised performance. Apr 3. QL2 Theatre, Gormon House, Ainslie (ACT). Tickets at door.

As You Like It by William Shakespeare. Bell Shakespeare. Apr7 - 18.

Canberra Theatre Centre.

(02) 6275 2700.

Opera House. (02) 9250 1777.

Opera House. (02) 9318 8200.

Blood Brothers by Willy Russell. Enda Markey / Hayes Theatre Co. Until Mar 15. 02 8065 7337.

Kill the Messenger by Nakkiah Lui. Indigenous theatre at Belvoir supported

by The Balnaves Foundation.

Feb 14 - Mar 8. Upstairs Theatre. 02 9699 3444.

Blue Wizard by Nick Coyle.

Belvoir / Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Until Mar 15. Downstairs Theatre.

02 9699 3444

Monkey … Journey to the West. Kim Carpenter’s Thriller Live. Featuring the Mary Poppins. Music & Theatre of Image. Apr 23 songs of Michael and the Lyrics: Richard M. Sherman, 25. Canberra Theatre Centre.

Jackson 5. Until Mar 15.

Robert B. Sherman, George (02) 6275 2700.

Sydney Lyric. 1300 795 267 Stiles, Anthony Drewe. Book: The Crucible by Arthur Julian Fellowes. Free-Rain.

Caress / Ache by Suzie Miller.

Miller. Canberra Repertory Mar 12 - 29. Canberra Griffin Theatre Company.

Society. Apr 30 - May 16.

Theatre. (02) 6275 2700.

World Premiere. Feb 27 Theatre 3. 6257 1950.

Apr 11. SBW Stables Black Diggers by Tom New South Wales Theatre. (02) 9361 3817.

Wright. Queensland Theatre Suddenly Last Summer by Co / Sydney Festival. Mar 25 Faust by Gounod. Opera Tennessee Williams. Sydney - 28. Canberra Theatre Australia. Until Mar 13. Joan Theatre Company. Until Mar Centre. (02) 6275 2700.

Sutherland Theatre, Sydney 21. Drama Theatre, Sydney

52 Stage Whispers

Mother Clap’s Molly House

by Mark Ravenhill, with music by Matthew Scott.

New Theatre / Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival.

Feb 10 - Mar 7. New Theatre, Newtown.

Gaybies. Written and directed by Dean Bryant.

Darlinghurst Theatre Co. Until Mar 8. Eternity Playhouse. 02 8356 9987.

Bard On The Beach - The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. Jan 16 - Mar

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

On Stage 15, every Friday, Saturday & Sunday night. Balmoral Beach Band Rotunda.

Until Mar 8. Rockdale Town Hall, Cnr Bryant St & Princes Highway, Rockdale.

Madama Butterfly by Puccini.

Opera Australia. Until Mar 28. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. (02) 9318 8200.

It’s My Party and I’ll Die If I Want To by Elizabeth Coleman. Hunters Hill Theatre. Until Mar 14.

Hunters Hill Theatre, Woolwich. (02) 9879 7765.

Enchanted April by Matthew Barber. Guild Theatre, Rockdale. Until Mar 14.

Guild Theatre, Cnr Walz and Railway Streets, Rockdale.

(02) 9521 6358.

Snake In The Grass by Alan Ayckbourn. Pymble Players.

Until Mar 14. Cnr Bromley Ave & Mona Vale Rd, Pymble. MCA Ticketing 1300 306 776.

Yes, Prime Minister by Anthony Jay & Jonathan Lynn. Woy Woy Little Theatre. Until Mar 15.

Peninsula Theatre, Woy Woy. (02) 4344 4737.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

by William Shakespeare.

Genesian Theatre Company Inc. Until Mar 28. The Genesian Theatre, Sydney.

1300 237 217.

New South Wales Equus by Peter Shaffer.

Stooged Theatre. Mar 4 - 14.

Civic Playhouse, Newcastle.

(02) 4929 1977.

Lismore Theatre Company.

Mar 6 - 21. Rochdale Theatre, Lismore. (02) 6621 8169.

The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan (Musical). Gosford Musical Society. Mar 6 - 21. Laycock Street Community Theatre, North Gosford. (02) 43 233 233.

Mucedorus. Shakespeare Apocryphal Play. The Acting Factory’s Shakespeare at Mamre. Mar 7 - 22. Mamre House, St Marys.

Haywire by Eric Chappell.

The Sutherland Theatre Company Inc. Mar 6 - 15.

The Sutherland School of Arts. (02) 9150 7574.

Spider’s Web by Agatha Christie. Theatre on Brunker.

Mar 6 - 28. St Stephen’s Church Hall, Adamstown (Newcastle). (02) 4956 1263.

Into The Woods. Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The Fabulous Singlettes. Mar Book by James Lapine.

Fawlty Towers by John 3 - 8. Glen Street Theatre.

Rockdale Musical Society.

Cleese and Connie Booth.

9975 1455.

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

Kitty Flanagan - Seriously? AList Entertainment. Mar 7.

Civic Theatre, Newcastle.

(02) 4929 1977.

Riverrun. The voice of the river in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake adapted and performed by Olwen Fouéré. Sydney Theatre Company presents The Emergency Room and Galway International Arts Festival in association with Cusack Projects Limited. Mar 10 - Apr 11. Wharf 2. (02) 9250 1777.

Stage Whispers 53

On Stage Freak Winds. Written by and starring Marshall Napier. Red Line Productions. Old Fitzroy Theatre. Mar 10 - Apr 11. www.oldfitztheatre.com Holly & Ado Get It On! Devised and performed by Holly Austin and Adriano Cappelletta. Old Fitzroy Theatre. Mar 10 -15 (Late Night Show). www.oldfitztheatre.com

New South Wales

Mar 11 - 14. Civic Theatre, Newcastle. (02) 4929 1977.

The Cemetery Club by Ivan Menchell. Wyong Drama Group. Mar 12 - 21. The Wyong Grove Theatre.1300 655 600.

Monty Python’s Spamalot by Eric Idle, John Du Prez & Neil Innes. Arcadians Theatre Group. Mar 13 - 28. The Arcadians’ Miners Lamp Theatre. (02) 4284 8348.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Christopher Hampton. Mar This House is Mine by Maree 14 - 28. Newcastle Theatre Freeman. Milk Crate Company, Lambton. (02) Theatre / Darlinghurst 4952 4958 (Mon - Fri 3pm Theatre Company. Mar 12 6pm).

22. Eternity Playhouse. 02 Sweet Charity. By Neil To Be Shore To Shore by 8356 9987.

Simon, Cy Coleman and Maureen O’Brien. Mar 15.

The Removalists by David Dorothy Fields. Luckiest The Dungeon, Adamstown Williamson. Epicentre Productions, Neil Gooding Uniting Church (Newcastle).

Theatre Company. Mar 12 Productions and Tinderbox Ticketebo.com.au.

28. King Street Theatre, 644 Productions. Mar 11 - 15.

King Street, Newtown. 0415 Freeway - The Chet Baker IMB Theatre, Wollongong.

123 169.

Journey. Starring Tim Draxyl.

(02) 4224 5999.

Hayes Theatre Co. Mar 17The Producers by Mel Brooks Jesus Christ Superstar. Music 22. 02 8065 7337.

(Musical). Campbelltown

by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Theatre Group Inc. Mar 13 - When the Rain Stops Falling lyrics by Tim Rice. The 28. Town Hall Theatre, 297 by Andrew Bovell. New National Theatre Company.

Queen St, Campbelltown.

Theatre. Mar 17 - Apr 18.

54 Stage Whispers

Le Noir. The Dark Side of Circus. Tim Lawson and Simon Painter. From Mar 19.

Sydney Lyric Theatre, The Star. 1300 795 267 Cosi by Louis Nowra. Roo Theatre Company. Mar 20 28. Roo Theatre Shellharbour. (02) 4297 2891.

Black Diggers by Tom Wright. Queensland Theatre Company and Sydney Festival. Mar 20 - 21. Civic Theatre, Newcastle. (02) 4929 1977.

360 Allstars. An Onyx Production. Mar 20 & 21.

IMB Theatre, Wollongong.

(02) 4224 5999.

Godspell. Music and Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz (Musical).

Lane Cove Theatre Company.

Mar 20 - 29. St Aidans Hall,

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

On Stage

New South Wales

People’s Theatre. Apr 6 May 23. Young People’s Theatre, Hamilton Grease by Jim Jacobs and (Newcastle). (02) 4961 Warren Casey. Bankstown Endgame by Samuel Beckett.

4895.

Theatre Company. Mar 20 Sydney Theatre Company.

29. Bryan Brown Theatre, Mar 31 - May 9. Sydney Mum’s The Word 2 Bankstown. (02) 9676 1191. Carousel by Rodgers and Theatre. (02) 9250 1777.

Teenagers! CHATS Hammerstein. Miranda Productions Inc., Coffs The Lion in Winter by James The Anzac Project. Two one Musical Society. Mar 25 - 29.

Harbour. Apr 8 - 19. Jetty Goldman. Tamworth act plays by Geoffrey Sutherland Entertainment Memorial Theatre, Coffs Dramatic Society. Mar 20 Atherden and Vanessa Bates.

Centre. (02) 8814 5827.

Harbour. (02) 6652 8088.

29. Capitol Theatre, Peel Ensemble Theatre. From Street, Tamworth. (02) 6767 Miranda Sings. Melbourne April 2. (02) 9929 0644.

Stories In Our Steps. Group Comedy Festival. Mar 25.

5300 developed show moving One Good Thing by Don Civic Theatre, Newcastle. through Newcastle’s historic Book of Everything by Zolidis. Eclectic Productions.

(02) 4929 1977. east end. Tantrum Youth Richard Tulloch. Nowra April 4 - 9. Lake Macquarie Arts. Apr 8 - 19. (02) 4929 Players. Mar 21 - Apr 5.

Jumpy by April De Angelis.

Performing Arts Centre, 7279.

Players Theatre, Meroo St, Sydney Theatre Company / Warners Bay. Bomaderry. 1300662808.

Melbourne Theatre Walking With Dinosaurs.

Mr Bennet’s Bride by Emma Company. Mar 26 - May 16.

Global Creatures. Apr 9 - 12.

Everybody Loves Lucy.

Wood. Newcastle Theatre Drama Theatre, Sydney Newcastle Entertainment Starring Elise McCann.

Company. Apr 4 - 5. NTC Opera House. (02) 9250 Centre, Broadmeadow. (02) Luckiest Productions / Hayes Theatre, Lambton. (02) 4952 1777.

4921 2121.

Theatre Co. Mar 22 - 28.

4958.

Peace Train - The Cat Stevens Hayes Theatre Co. 02 8065 Drum Struck. African One Good Thing by Don Story by Darren Coggan. The performance troupe.

7337 Zolidis. Eclectic Productions.

Abstract Entertainment. Apr Apr 4 - 9. Lake Macquarie 9. Cessnock Performing Arts Performing Arts Centre, Centre. (02) 4990 7134.

Warners Bay. The Sacred Flame by W. Disney’s Beauty And The Somerset Maugham.

Beast Jr. Music by Alan (Drama). Elanora Players Inc. Menken, lyrics by Howard Apr 10 - 18. Elanora Players.

Ashman and Tim Rice, book Elanora Heights. (02) 9982

by Linda Woolverton. Young 7364.

37 Arabella Street, Longueville.

Bravo Figaro by Mark Thomas. Richard Jordan Productions. Mar 24 - 28.

Bruce Gordon Theatre, Wollongong. (02) 4224 5999

Harbour Agency. Mar 28.

Cessnock Performing Arts Centre. (02) 4990 7134.

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

Stage Whispers 55

On Stage

New South Wales & Queensland

Deathtrap by Ira Levin.

Hayes Theatre Co. 02 8065 Darlinghurst Theatre Co. Apr 7337 10 - May 10. Eternity The Importance of Being Playhouse. 02 8356 9987.

Miriam. Miriam Margolyes.

Summer Rain. Book and Apr 14 - 19. Glen Street lyrics by Nick Enright. Music Theatre. 9975 1455.

by Terence Clarke. The Orphans by Lyle Kessler. Old Theatre on Chester. Apr 10 Fitzroy Theatre. Apr 14 - May May 2. Corner of Chester 9. and Oxford streets, Epping.

(02) 9877 0081.

The Listies Make You LOL! Richard Higgins and Matt Lights Out Nellie Martin by Kelly. Apr 14 & 15. IMB Wendy Richardson. Phoenix Theatre, Wollongong. (02) Theatre. Apr 10 - 25.

4224 5999 Phoenix Theatre, Bridge St. Coniston. 0407 067 343 Disney’s My Son Pinocchio Jr. Music and lyrics by 4000 Miles by Amy Herzog.

Stephen Schwartz, book by Castle Hill Players, Apr 10 David Stern. Opera Hunter.

May. Pavilion Theatre, Apr 14 - 19. Lake Macquarie Showground Road, Castle Performing Arts Centre, Hill. (02) 9634 2929.

Warners Bay. (02) 4943 Ross Noble - Tangentleman. 1672.

A-List Entertainment. Apr Swamp Juice. Bunk Puppets.

10. Civic Theatre, Newcastle.

Apr 14. Cessnock Performing (02) 4929 1977.

Arts Centre. (02) 4990 7134.

Simpson 202 by Richard The One Day Of The Year by Beynon. Genesian Theatre Alan Seymour. HIT Company Inc. Apr 11 - May Productions. April 15 - 16.

2. The Genesian Theatre, Cessnock Performing Arts Sydney. 1300 237 217.

Centre. (02) 4990 7134.

Sing Along To The Shows.

Five Properties of Chainmale Songs from musicals that

by Nicholas Hope. Arts Radar show the spirit of people in and Griffin Independent. wartime, to commemorate World Premiere. Apr 15 the centenary of Anzac Day. May 9.

Apr 11. The Dungeon, Adamstown Uniting Church Audrey of the Outback.

(Newcastle). (02) 4943 Adapted from Christine 5316.

Harris’s Beloved Children’s Book. Eaton Gorge Theatre Up And Running by Derek Co. Apr 15 - 17. The Benfield. Club 71 Dinner Arcadians’ Miners Lamp Theatre. Apr 11 - May 2. St Theatre. (02) 4267 3920 Peter’s Hall, Hamilton (Newcastle). (02) 4942 Boys Will Be Boys by Melissa 6015.

Bubnic. Sydney Theatre Company. Apr 16 - May 9.

Everybody’s Talkin’ ‘bout me.

Wharf 2. (02) 9250 1777.

Starring Tim Freedman. Black Yak Management & The The Drowsy Chaperone Book Harbour Agency in

by Bob Martin and Don association with Hayes McKellar and music and Theatre Co. Apr 13 - 19. lyrics by Lisa Lambert and 56 Stage Whispers

Greg Morrison. Shire Music Theatre. Apr 17 - 26.

Sutherland Memorial School of Arts. Bookings (02) 8091 0768.

Rent by Jonathan Larson (Musical). Wyong Musical Theatre. Apr 23 - May 9.

Wyong Grove Theatre, Wyong. 1300 366 470.

Hairspray. Music: Marc Shaiman. Lyrics: Scott Wittman, Marc Shaiman.

Book: Mark O’Donnell, Thomas Meehan. Parkes M & D Society. Apr 24 - May 16.

The Little Theatre, Parkes.

Storm Boy by Colin Thiele.

Adapted for the stage by Tom Holloway. Sydney Theatre Company and Barking Gecko Theatre Company. Apr 24 - May 17.

Wharf 1 Theatre. (02) 9250 1777.

Gallipolli:100 Years. Devised and Produced by Gabi Harding. Wollongong Workshop Theatre. Apr 25 & 26. Wollongong Workshop Theatre. 0455 896 501 Dolores by Edward Allan Baker. Old Fitzroy Theatre.

Apr 28 - May 9. (Late Night Show).

The School for Scandal by Richard Brisley Sheridan.

New Theatre. Apr 28 - May 30.

Gaslight by Patrick Hamilton.

Maitland Repertory Theatre, 244 High Street, Maitland.

Apr 29 - May 16. (02) 4931 2800.

Queensland WICKED by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman. Lyric Theatre, QPAC. 136246

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield. Arts Theatre, Brisbane. Until Mar 14.

33692344 Three Little Pigs by Roald Dahl. Arts Theatre, Brisbane.

Until Mar 28. 33692344 A Midsummer Night’s Dream

by William Shakespeare. La Boite. Roundhouse Theatre, Kelvin Grove. Until Mar 7.

30078600.

The Business of Murder by Richard Harris. Nash Theatre New Farm. Until Mar 14.

33794775 High School Musical. Book

by David Simpatico. Music and Lyrics by various writers.

Spotlight Theatre Company, Benowa. Until Mar 14.

55394355 Mother and Son by Geoffrey Atherton. QTC. Playhouse, QPAC. Until Mar 15.

1800355528 Perfect Wedding by Robun Hawden. Ipswich Little Theatre, Ipswich. Mar 4 - 21.

38122389 Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Moursetrap Theatre, Lamington Drive, Redcliffe. Mar 5 - 22.

38883493 Just The Ticket by Peter Quilter. Christine Harris/Hit Productions. Gardens Theatre. Mar 6 - 7.

31384455 Little Women by Peter Clapham. Villanova. Theatre, Morningside TAFE. Mar 6 28. 38999962 Humble Boy by Charlotte Jones. Centenary Theatre,

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

On Stage Chelmer. Mar 7-28.

0435591720

Oliver! By Lionel Bart. North Qld Opera & Music Theatre, Townsville. Civic Theatre.

Play It Again, Sam by Woody Mar 18 - 21. 47279797 Allen. Javeenbah Theatre, Saturday Night Fever by Nan Nerang. Mar 13-28.

Knighton with music by the 55960300 Bee Gees. Redcliffe Musical Stiff by April Phillips. Coolum Theatre. Redcliffe Cultural Theatre Players. Mar 13-22.

Centre. Mar 19-29. 3283 54462500.

0400.

Pope Head - The Secret Life Hot Brown Honey Burlesque. of Francis Bacon by Garry Judith Wright Centre. Mar Roost. Judith Wright Centre.

19 - 28. (07) 3872 9000.

Mar 13 & 14. (07) 3872 9000.

The 25TH Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Beauty and the Beast by Alan Conceived by Rebecca Menken, Tim Rice & Howard Feldman, music and lyrics by Ashman. Savoyards. Iona William Finn, book by Rachel Performing Arts Centre, Sheinkin and additional Wynnum. Mar 14-28. material by Jay Reiss. Arts 38934321 Theatre, Brisbane. Mar 21 Apr 19. 33692344 Abigail’s Party by Dawn China. Gold Coast Little Cloud Song - Opera Q, Theatre, Southport. Mar 14Cloudland. Mar 29.

28. 55322096

Queensland & Victoria The Fabulous Singlettes.

Theatre, Cairns. Apr 17-25.

Sound Management Aust.

1300855835 Gardens Theatre. Mar 30-31.

Gallipoli Concert.

31384455 Queensland Musical Theatre.

The Little Mermaid by Alan Masonic Memorial Centre, Menken & Howard Ashman. Brisbane. Apr 18.

Arts Theatre, Brisbane. Apr 4 ANZAC Bikkies by Paul - May 30. 33692344 Sherman. Arts Theatre You Must Remember This by Brisbane. Apr 21-25.

Pam Cooper, Carlean Steele 33692344 and Mark Weetby.

The Taming of the Shrew by Sunnybank Theatre Group.

William Shakespeare.

Apr 10-25. 33453964 Phoenix Ensemble. Pavilion La Traviata - A Boutique Theatre, Beenleigh. Apr 24 Opera. Spotlight Theatre, May 16.

Benowa. Apr 10-24.

The One Day of the Year by 55394255 Alan Seymour. Christine Brilliant Lies by David Harris/Hit Productions.

Williamson. Tweed Theatre Gardens Theatre. Apr 28-29.

Company, Tweed Heads Civic 31384455 Centre. Apr 10-26.

Victoria 1800674414.

Strictly Ballroom by Baz 84 Charing Cross Road by Luhrmann and Craig Pearce.

Helene Hauff. Toowoomba Global Creatures. Her Repertory Theatre, Majesty’s Theatre, Toowoomba. Apr 10-25.

Melbourne. 132 849 46328058 The Lion King. Music & Brisbane by Matthew Ryan.

Lyrics: Elton John & Tim Rice.

QTC, Playhouse, QPAC. Apr Additional Music & Lyrics: 11 - May 3. 1800355528 Lebo M, Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin, Julie Taymor, Hans Stories From The Sky. Flipside Zimmer. Regent Theatre, Circus. Judith Wright Centre.

Melbourne.

Apr 14 - 18. (07) 3872 As You Like It by William 9000.

Shakespeare. Australian Cruise Control by David Shakespeare Company. Until Williamson. Noosa Arts Mar 14. Royal Botanic Theatre. Apr 16 - May 2.

Gardens Melbourne. 1300 54499343 122 344.

Samson by Julia-Rose Lewis.

Jumpy by April De Angelis.

La Boite. Roundhouse Melbourne Theatre Theatre, Kelvin Grove. Apr Company. Until Mar 14 .

17 - May 2. 30078600.

Southbank Theatre, The Sumner. Australian Premiere.

Forget-Me-Knot by David 03 8688 0800 Tristam. Lind Lane Theatre, Nambour. Apr 17-25.

The Ritual Slaughter of 54411814 Gorge Mastromas by Dennis Quartet by Ronald Harwood. Kelly Directed by Mark Cairns Little Theatre, Rondo Wilson. Red Stitch.

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

Stage Whispers 57

On Stage

Victoria

Australian Premiere. Until Mar 7. 9533 8083

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

Company Inc. Until Mar 13.

1300 131 552.

What Rhymes with Cars and Girls. Music and lyrics by Tim Rogers, words by Aidan Fennessy. Melbourne Theatre Company. Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio.

Until Mar 28. World Premiere. 03 8688 0800.

When Dad Married Fury by David Williamson.

Heidelberg Theatre Co. Until Mar 7. 03 9457 4117.

The Peach Season by Debra Oswald. The 1812 Theatre.

Until Mar 21. 9758 3964.

Legally Blonde. Music & lyrics

by Laurence O’Keefe and Neil Benjamin. Book by Heather Hach. CPAC. Until Mar 7.

Legally Blonde. Music & lyrics Cardinia Cultural Centre,

by Laurence O’Keefe and Neil Pakenham. 0407 090 354.

Benjamin. Book by Heather Sweet Charity by Neil Simon, Hach. Ballarat Lyric Theatre.

Cy Coleman and Dorothy Until Mar 8. Her Majesty’s Fields. Arts Centre Theatre, Ballarat. 03 Melbourne in association 53347270. with Luckiest Productions, Wot? No Fish!! By Danny Neil Gooding Productions, Braverman. bread&circuses. Tinderbox Productions and Malthouse. Until Mar 8. (03) Hayes Theatre Co. Until Mar 8. Arts Centre Melbourne, 9685 5111.

Playhouse.

In the Heights. Music & www.artscentremelbourne.c Lyrics by Lin-Manuel om.au Miranda, Book by Quiara Alegria Hudes. StageArt. Gross Indecency: The Three Until Mar 8. Chapel off Trials of Oscar Wilde by Chapel, Prahran. 8290 7000. Moises Kauffman.

Strathmore Theatre Arts Sexercise - The Musical. By Group. Until Mar 8. 9382 Derek Rowe, based on the 6284 book by Aleksander Vass. Co -produced by Aleksander Halpern & Johnson by Lionel Vass and Malcolm Cooke.

Goldstein. Malvern Theatre From Feb 19. Alex Theatre

58 Stage Whispers

The Vicar Of Dibley by Ian Gower and Paul Carpenter.

Lilydale Athenaeum Theatre Co. Inc. Mar 4 - 22. (03) 9735 1777.

Depth of Field by Anouk van Dijk. Malthouse Theatre and Chunky Move. Mar 6 - 14.

(03) 9685 5111.

Ragtime. Book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and music by Stephen Flaherty. Waterdale.

Mar 6 - 14. Rivergum Theatre, Bundoora.

0413477703

e-baby by Jane Cafarella. A 10 in Ten: 2015. Shepparton play about surrogacy. Chapel Theatre Arts Group Inc. Mar Off Chapel, The Loft. Mar 4 7 & 8. Beakehouse BlackBox 15. 03 8290 7000.

Theatre. (03) 5832 9511.

Dirty Dancing by Eleanor Dance Massive 2015 at Arts Bergstein. John Frost. From House. Mar 10 - 22. 9 Mar 4. Princess Theatre, Productions - 7 World Melbourne. 1300 111 011. premieres. www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/ Young and Jackson by Don artshouse Reid. fortyfive downstairs.

Mar 5 - 22. 03 9662 9966.

Nothing to Lose. A Force The Little Mermaid Jr. Music Majeure Production.

Alan Menken, Lyrics Howard Commissioned by Sydney Festival and Carriageworks.

Ashman and Glenn Slater, Presented in association with Book Doug Wright.

Beaumaris Theatre Inc. Mar 6 Dance Massive 2015. Mar 11 - 21. Malthouse.

- 21. 95836896 Dimboola by Jack Hibberd.

Frankston Theatre Group Inc. Mar 6 - 21. Mt Eliza Community Centre. 1300 665 377.

It’s My Party (and I’ll Die if I Want To) by Elizabeth Coleman. Eltham Little Theatre Inc. Mar 13 - 28.

Eltham Performing Arts

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

On Stage

Victoria & Tasmania

Malthouse. Mar 17 - 21. (03) Absynthe by Spiegelworld.

9685 5111.

Rooftop at Crown Melbourne. From Mar 21.

A Doll’s House by Henrik Don Bradman Lives Next www.spiegelworld.com Ibsen. Encore Theatre Inc. Door by Cenarth Fox. Mar 13 - 28. Clayton Tangled Web Theatre Avenue Q by Robert Lopez, Community Centre Productions. Mar 18 - 22.

Jeff Marx and Jeff Whitty.

Theatrette. 1300 - 739 - 099 Doncaster Playhouse. 748 Trifle Theatre Company. Mar (9.00am - 9.00 pm) 1468 or 0404 942 143.

25 - Apr 11. Chapel off Chapel. 03 8290 7000.

L’heure Espagnole (Spanish Fake It ‘til You Make It by Time) by Ravel and Gianni Bryony Kimmings and Tim The Freedom of the City by Schicchi by Puccini. Lyric Grayburn. Theatre Works.

Brian Friel. Essendon Theatre Opera of Melbourne. Mar 13 Mar 18 - Apr 5. 03 9534 Co. Apr 9 - 18. West - 18. Chapel off Chapel. 03 3388.

Essendon Community 8290 7000.

Centre. 0422 029 483.

Warrandyte Festival Follies Wet House by Paddy “A Penny For Your Follies”.

Meme Girls. Created by Ash Campbell. Australian Warrandyte Theatre Flanders, Stephen Nicolazzo Premiere. Red Stitch.

Company. Mar 19 - Apr 11. and Marion Potts based on Directed by Brett Cousins.

Warrandyte Mechanics an original idea by Ash Mar 17 - Apr 18. 9533 Institute Hall. 0431572511. Flanders. Malthouse. Apr 9 8083.

May 2. (03) 9685 5111.

Endgame by Samuel Beckett.

Do You Speak Chinese.

Melbourne Theatre Killing Jeremy by Bridgette Victoria Chiu in collaboration Company. Southbank Burton. The 1812 Theatre. with Kristina Chan.

Theatre, The Sumner. Mar Apr 9 - May 2. 9759 3964.

21 - Apr 25.

A Few Good Men by Aaron Sorkin. Geelong Repertory Theatre Co. Apr 17 - May 2.

Woodbin Theatre, Geelong West. 5225 1200.

Centre, Research. 0411 713 095.

Stitch. Apr 28- May 23.

9533 8083.

One Act Play Season 2015.

Peridot Theatre Inc. Apr 30 May 3. Unicorn Theatre, Mt Waverley. 1300 138 645.

Tasmania Summer of the Aliens by Louis Nowra. Hobart Repertory Theatre Society.

Until Mar 14. Playhouse Theatre. (03) 6234 5998.

Evita by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.

Encore Theatre Company.

Mar 5 - 14. Princess Theatre Launceston. 63233666.

Alzheimer Symphony by Justus Neumann and Hans Peter Horner. Tasmania Performs. Mar 5 - 14.

Theatre Royal Backspace, Hobart. 6233 2299.

The 26-Storey Treehouse by Richard Tulloch, adapted from the book by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton.

CDP Production. Mar 10 12. Theatre Royal, Hobart.

6233 2299.

Travelling North by David Williamson. Sorrento Players.

Apr 23 - 26.

Hamlet, de los Andes. Teatro de los Andes / Ten Days as Visiting Mr Green by Jeff part of the Tasmanian Baron. Williamstown Little International Arts Festival.

Theatre Inc. Apr 23 - May 9.

Mar 21 - 23. Theatre Royal, 9885 9678.

Hobart. 6233 2299.

Timeshare by Lally Katz.

Rising. Contemporary dance Malthouse. Apr 23 - May 7. work by Aakash Odedra. Ten (03) 9685 5111.

Days as part of the A Month of Sundays by Bob Tasmanian International Arts Festival. Mar 21 & 22, Larbey. Mordialloc Theatre Princess Theatre Launceston, Co. Inc. Apr 24 - May 9.

63233666; Mar 26 - 29, Shirley Burke Theatre, Theatre Royal, Hobart, 6233 Parkdale. 9587 5141.

2299.

The Crucible by Arthur Pants Down Circus Rock.

Miller. Malvern Theatre Theatre Royal, Hobart. Apr Company. Apr 24 - May 9.

10 & 11. 6233 2299.

300 131 552.

The Flick by Annie Baker Directed by Nadia Tass. Red Advertise your show on the front page of www.stagewhispers.com.au

100 Reasons for War by Tom Holloway. Blue Cow Theatre.

Stage Whispers 59

On Stage Apr 23 - 25. Theatre Royal, Hobart. 6233 2299.

Kelly. Queensland Theatre Company. Apr 30 - May 2.

Theatre Royal, Hobart. 6233 2299.

Tasmania, South Australia & Western Australia

Darkle. Lazy Saturday Productions. Mar 1- 8.

Holden Street Theatres.

authors. Melville Theatre Company. Until Mar 7.

Melville Theatre, Stock Rd, Palmyra. 9330 4565.

Court Gardens, Perth. Free Event.

Performing Arts Perspectives.

Mar 12-13. Outstanding The First Henry by C.Apsden performances from 2014 Pomfret. KADS, Until Mar 7. WACE Exams. His Majesty’s Historical drama set in 1095. Theatre, Perth. 132 849.

South Australia Town Square Theatre, Happy Days. Northern Light Nice Girls…Don’t Stay For Dinner by Moira Buffini.

Kalamunda. 9257 2668.

Theatre Company. Mar 13Breakfast. Fat Lady Black Swan State Theatre 28. Shedley Theatre. 8281 Productions. Mar 12-14. The Madama Butterfly by Company. Mar 14-29. Black 5026 or BASS 131246.

Published Arthouse.

Giacomo Puccini. English satirical comedy. Heath National Opera, Ledger Theatre, State Death By Design by Rob Cut by Duncan Graham.

Metropolitan Opera, Theatre Centre of WA, Urbinati. Tea Tree Players.

Until Mar 14. The ManseLithuanian National Opera Northbridge. 132 849.

Apr 8 - 18. 8289 5266 or Holden Street Theatres. and West Australian Opera.

From the Rubble. Inspired by www.teatreeplayers.com Fake It Til You Make It. Until Until Mar 7, Starring Mary Sophie McNeill. Perth Quartet by Ronald Harwood. Mar 15. Royal Croquet Club- Plaza and directed by Theatre Company. Mar 16Anthony Minghella. His Adelaide Repertory Theatre. The Black Box. 28. Multi-artform piece Majesty’s Theatre, Perth, Apr 9-18. The Arts Theatre. about civilians in conflict Adelaide Festival Selection 6488 5555. www.adelaiderep.com zones. Perth Institute of Bookings: Black Diggers by Tom Contemporary Art, Adelaide Fringe Selection adelaidefestival.com.au Wright. Queensland Theatre Northbridge. 132 849.

Bookings: BASS 131 246 Company and Sydney Ruby Moon by Matt bit.ly/1zwhvaq Festival Co-production in Nufonia Must Fall by Kid Cameron. Arena Arts. Mar assoc. with Perth Theatre Chunderbelly by Matt Byrne. Koala. Mar 4-7. Dunstan 19 - Apr 4. Australian play.

Trust. Mar 4-7.

Matt Byrne Media. Until Mar Playhouse.

LC Theatre, Belmont.

Contemporary play about 16. Maxim’s Wine Bar. the Great War. Heath Ledger www.arenaarts.com.au Black Diggers by Tom Vanity Bites Back by Helen Wright. Queensland Theatre Theatre, State Theatre Centre The Laramie Project - 10 of WA, Northbridge. 132 Duff. Until Mar 16, Company. Mar 10-13. Her Years Later by Tectonic 849 or 6488 5555.

Producers Nook, Producers Majesty’s Theatre.

Theatre Project. Helena Hotel.

College. Mar 19-21.

Footrot Flats - The Musical.

Beauty and The Beast. ONE Verbatim theatre. Helena Adelaide Fringe 2015 At The OF US/Improbable. Mar 10- Book by Roger Hall, music by Phillip Norman, lyrics by A K College Performing Arts Bakehouse. Various shows 15. Dunstan Playhouse.

Centre.

Grant. Roleystone Theatre. continue throughout March La Merda. Silvia Gallerano/ Mar 4-21. Based on comic Fringe period. The Twelve Angry Men. Adapted Cristian Ceresoli.

Mar 1 8. strip. Roleystone Theatre, Bakehouse Theatre.

by Sherman L Sergi, from the Space Theatre.

Brookton Hwy, Roleystone, novel by Reginald Rose.

Baby Boomers R Us Dinner 9367 5730.

Bunbury Repertory Club. Mar Dylan Thomas-Return Show by Irish Albert. Mar 6 20-28. Bunbury Little Journey.

Richard Jordan After the Ball by David 13. Hotel Old Adelaide.

Theatre, Pratt Rd, Eaton.

Productions. Mar 8 -12.

Williamson. Darlington 2 States of Lauren Bok and State Dining Room, Ayers Theatre Players. Mar 6-21.

The Criminal Went That Way Bridget Fahey. Until Mar 15. House.

Australian drama. Marloo

by Peter Chikritzhs. New City Producers Cranny, Producers Theatre, Greenmount. 9255 Theatre. Mar 21-28. New Beckett Triptych.

State Hotel.

1783. theatre company’s debut Theatre Company SA. Until musical. Canning Town Hall.

Sway With Me: Crooning Mar 15. STC Scenic The Barber of Seville by 0406 107 255.

With Michael Coumi. Until Workshop.

Rossini. West Australian Mar15. Holden St TheatresOpera and City of Perth’s The Wiz by William F Brown Western Australia The Studio.

Opera in the Park. Mar 6. & Charlie Smalls. Iona Summer Shorts - An evening Starring Ian Clayton and College. Mar 28-30. Rock of One Act plays by various Emma Matthews. Supreme musical based on the Wizard 60 Stage Whispers

Flower Children-The Mamas and Papas Story. Davine Interventionz. Mar 4-7. Star Theatre One.

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

On Stage of Oz. Regal Theatre, Subiaco. 132 849.

Western Australia & New Zealand

Dolphin Theatre, University of Western Australia.

Gaslight Theatre, Cambridge. The Phantom of the Opera 0800 BUY TIX (289 849).

by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart and Richard Hail Mary by Noel O’Neill.

The Confidence Man by Zoe The Kitchen. Auckland Arts Stilgoe. Showbiz Old Mill Theatre. Apr 3-18.

Pepper and Adriane Duff.

Festival. Mar 14 - 18. SkyCity Christchurch. Apr 9 - May 2.

World Premiere. Old Mill Perth Theatre Company and Theatre. 0800111999.

Theatre, South Perth, 9367 Side Pony Productions. Apr Ugly Customers by Joe The Book of Everything.

8719.

30 - May 10. Audience Musaphia. Limelight Theatre Adapted by Richard Tulloch, Company. Apr 9 - 18. members become part of The Witches. Based on the action. Studio Underground, from the novel by Guus Carterton Events Centre. novel by Roald Dahl. Barking State Theatre Centre of WA, Kuijer. Auckland Arts 0800 BUY TIX (289 849).

Gecko Theatre Company and Northbridge. 132 849.

Festival. Mar 14 - 22. Q Griffin Theatre Company.

Rangitira. 0800111999.

The Cats of Ponsonby.

Apr 4-12. Madcap one man New Zealand Playhouse Theatre Glen White. Created by Andy show. Subiaco Arts Centre.

Eden. Apr 10 - 25. 0508 The Ladykillers by Graham Manley. Catherine Wheels 132 849.

484538.

Linehan. Auckland Theatre Theatre Company. Auckland Moomipappa. Adapted from Company. Until Mar 7.

Arts Festival. Mar 17 - 22. Q Golf - A Love Story by Roger the book by Tove Jansson.

Maidment Theatre. 09 309 Auckland. 0800111999 Hall. Centrepoint Theatre, Spare Parts Puppet Theatre. 3395.

Palmerston North. Apr 11 Glorious by Richard Huber.

Apr 4-18. Magical story from Mar 23. 06 354 5740.

Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward. Antics Theatre Company.

Finland. Spare Parts Puppet Mar 18 - 21. Theatre Royal Soldier’s Song by Campbell Theatre, Short St, Fremantle. Dolphin Theatre, Auckland.

Until Mar 7.

636 7322.

Nelson.

0800 224 224.

Smith. Wellington Repertory 9335 5044.

Theatre. Apr 15 - 18.

Evita by Andrew Lloyd The Movie Star. Circotica.

The Importance of Being Newtown Cultural Webber and Tim Rice. Napier Dunedin Fringe Festival. Mar Community Centre, Miriam by Peter J. Adams.

Operatic Society. Until Mar 19 - 21. Fortune Theatre Andrew McKinnon Wellington.

21.

Ticketek / Ticket Direct.

Dunedin. 0800 BUY TIX (289 Presentations. Apr 7-11.

I Love You. You’re Perfect.

849).

Miriam Margolyes. Heath Will You Still Love Me in the Now Change. Book and lyrics Ledger Theatre, State Morning by Brian Clemens Because of Beth by Elana

by Joe DiPietro and music by Theatre Centre of WA, Gartner. Howick Little and Dennis Spooner. Until Jimmy Roberts. Harlequin Northbridge. 132 849.

Mar 14. TheatreWorks, Theatre. Mar 25 - 28. 0508 Musical Theatre. Apr 18 iTicket (484-253) Darling Buds of May by H.E. Birkenhead. 419 0415 25.

Bates. Wanneroo Repertory. The Love List by Norm Foster. Bloody Murder by Ed Sala.

Honk! By Anthony Drewe Apr 9-24. Based on novel Howick Little Theatre. Until Whangarei Theatre and George Styles. Manukau and TV series. Limelight Mar 21. (09) 534-1406.

Company. Mar 26 - 29.

Performing Arts. Apr 18 Theatre. 9571 8591.

Riverbank Centre. 09 438 May 2. iTicket.

King Lear by William 8135.

Garrick Salutes Gallipoli.

Shakespeare. Manawatu ANZAC by John Broughton.

Garrick Theatre. Apr 9-25.

Summer Shakespeare. Mar 5 The War Play by Phillip Hawera Repertory Society.

Gallipoli Anniversary - 14. Victoria Esplanade Braithwaite. Fortune Theatre, Apr 18 - 25. Hawera & production. Garrick Theatre, Gardens, Palmerston North. Dunedin. Mar 28 - Apr 18.

District War Memorial Guildford. 9378 1990.

Open All Hours by Roy Clark. The Mystery of Edwin Drood Community Hall.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Mar 11 - 28. Detour Theatre, by Rupert Holmes. Circa Once on Chunuk Bar by Tenessee Williams, Stirling Theatre, Wellington. Mar 28 Maurice Shadbolt. Hamilton Tauranga. 0800224224 Players. Apr 10-25. American - Apr 25. 04 801 7992.

Playbox. Apr 21 - May 2. 07 Chess by Benny Andersson, classic. Stirling Theatre, 856 5450.

Two Mortals by Beatrice Björn Ulvaeus and Tim Rice Morris Rd, Innaloo. 9440 Centrestage Orewa. Mar 14 - Lewis. Circa Theatre, 1040.

Don Juan. Based on Don 28. iTicket.

Wellington. Apr 1 - 18. 04 Juan by Moliere, created by Spring Awakening by Steven 801 7992.

A Slightly Isolated Dog. Apr Chain Reaction by Stephen Slater and Duncan Sheik.

25 - May 23. Circa 2 Theatre, Davies.

Cambridge Repertory Aladdin Jr by Jim Luigs and Fresh Bred Productions. Apr Wellington. 04 801 7992.

Society.

Mar 14 28.

Alan Menken.

Harlequin 10-18. Musical based on Musical Theatre.

Apr 8 12.

Frank Wendekind’s play.

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Stage Whispers 61

Masquerade.

Photo: Jamie Williams.

Reviews: Premieres

Masquerade

By Kate Mulvany, from the book by Kit Williams. Sydney Festival. Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Jan 7 - 17.

IN Kit Williams’ book Masquerade, the Moon has fallen in love with the Sun and sends her special messengers, Jack Hare and the frog, with a jeweled amulet and a riddle to tell him of her love. The story, interspersed with beautiful illustrations, riddles and messages about life, love, and loss, has been special to many children around the world.

It was more than special to playwright Kate Mulvany: “Masquerade made the timelessness of a children’s oncology ward somehow bearable.” With Kit Williams himself as mentor and friend, she has interwoven her own story and the magic that is Masquerade into a beautiful and moving piece of theatre.

The play begins as Tessa starts to read Masquerade to her son Joe who is suffering the pain, uncertainty and isolation of chemotherapy treatment. This introduces the book and its characters, which then come to vivid life on the stage of Joe’s imagination.

Designer Anna Cordingley has lovingly contemporized and enhanced the landscapes and costumes of Williams’ illustrations, but lost none of their original charm and intricacy. Intricate lighting effects (Geoff Cobham) and audio visuals (Chris Petridis) take Jack Hare through the hazards of his journey. The musicians (Mikelangelo and The Black Sea Gentlemen) are cunningly placed on the stage and are intrinsic to the action.

Directors Lee Lewis and Sam Strong have been just as empathetic to the play as Mulvany has been to the book.

62 Stage Whispers

Their direction is light. There is a sense of evolution, a sense of warmth and togetherness.

Helen Dallimore plays Joe’s agonised mother, Tessa. She portrays heartache and desperation beneath the mask of positivity she must maintain as her son suffers and hope fades.

Nathan O’Keefe is energetically beguiling as Jack Hare.

Light on his feet, enthusiastic one moment, blighted the next, he makes the most of every comic aside and moving moment.

Jack Andrew and Louis Fontaine share the role of Joe. Mulvany’s dialogue has just the right vocabulary, sentence construction - and cheekiness - for a 10 year old, especially in the heart-breaking song, I Dream of Outside.

Tara Cheel and Zindzi Okenyo portray the other characters Hare meets. Cheel plays the Moon and Tara Treetops. Okenyo shows agility, flexibility and versatility in five diverse roles.

This is an amazing production that shows why Kit Williams’ book has meant so much to many children … especially to a sick little girl, in a hospital in Perth, not so many years ago.

Carol Wimmer Loving Repeating Music by Stephen Flaherty. Words by Gertrude Stein.

Adapted by Frank Galati. Directed by Jason Langley. Vic Theatre Company. Chapel off Chapel. Jan 21 - Feb 8.

ONCE in a rare while a show comes along that somehow transcends the sum of its parts and creates true

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

Love Repeating.

Photo: James Terry Photography.

magic. For 2015 (even this early in the year) that show is Loving Repeating, a boutique musical built on the writings of Gertrude Stein with a beautiful score by the award winning composer Stephen Flaherty, and Stein’s writing adapted by original director Frank Galati, serving as lyrics with Galati creating the book. Though Stein was an avantgarde and abstract writer, at the heart of everything is her love for her long time companion and “wifey” Alice B Toklas. Jason Langley’s exquisite vision, superb taste and quest for excellence have lovingly fashioned this pastiche… a series of vignettes, each with it’s own style, time and place, like paintings from different eras… into a truly beautiful 80 minutes of poignant, sexy and often hilariously funny entertainment that cannot fail to touch you.

There aren’t enough superlatives for Deirdre Rubenstein as Gertrude Stein. We mostly see Stein portrayed in old age as dry, intellectual, un-emotional - but Rubenstein gives us an eternal girl in an old woman’s body, all passion and romanticism with a huge appetite for life - a woman perpetually in love with her partner, words, and living…and herself. She is remarkable and a joy to watch. Nicole Malloy as Alice B Toklas brings her fabulous voice and acting chops, with the guidance of Langley, to create a flesh and blood living, feeling Alice from what is a sketchily written role, always in the reflected light of Gertrude. It’s a stunning and endearing performance The rest of the cast, many of them WAAPA graduates, are just superb, especially vocally.

Michael Ralph’s choreography is stunning and is danced beautifully with sharp precision. Ben Kiley leads a tight and super efficient band with great élan. Nathan Weyers set and Daniel Harvey’s costumes are quite astounding, while Travis McFarlane’s lighting and Macello Lo Ricco’s sound are of the same excellent standard.

This is a production created with love, integrity and the desire for excellence. It excels in all departments, and sets the bar exceptionally high.

Coral Drouyn Dream Home

By David Williamson. Ensemble Theatre, Sydney. Director: David Williamson. Jan 31 - Mar 28.

DAVID Williamson calls the Ensemble Theatre home.

Every year there’s a new Williamson drama/comedy, sometimes more than one. Packed houses and rolling laughter invariably ensue.

Now the Ensemble’s 2015 season begins with two solid months of Dream Home, an out-and-out farce this time, directed by the great man himself. No doubt the house will be regularly filled, though this is not among his more cherishable works.

A young couple, composer Paul (Guy Edmonds) and TV commercials wannabe Dana (Haiha Le) - she’s well pregnant - buy their first-ever apartment in ‘Shangri-La’, an ironically named block near Bondi Beach. The neat setting

by Marissa Dale-Johnson cleverly includes views of local high-priced real estate.

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Stage Whispers 63

The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas.

Photo: Dennis Kelly.

Going by recent Williamsons, one might have expected at least some passing discussion about Sydney apartment prices or politics or ethics. But, no, Dream Home remains a sex-obsessed romp, nothing more. The front door swings open and shut. Paul and Dana’s lustful immediate neighbours barge in uninvited at regular intervals.

There’s Sam (Justin Stewart Cotta), a bearded, bald, tattooed, Lebanese bouncer and his glamorous, unhappy wife Colette (Libby Munro), who just happens to be Paul’s former girlfriend and who is immediately ready to get started again.

There’s frustrated married couple Henry (Alan Flower) and Qantas stewardess Cynthia (Olivia Pigeot), both looking for kinky sex, but not with each other. And there’s cakebaking kleptomaniac Wilma (Katrina Foster), also with an eye for unlikely action with Paul.

The high-energy acting under Williamson’s confident direction is attractively led by Edmonds, who is rarely off the stage. Cotta’s gold-watch-flashing neighbourhood terrorist reveals his own sexual insecurities with considerable subtlety.

There are many good jokes. The one about Julie Bishop brought down the opening night house.

Frank Hatherley

it will confront you; and it will prove that the BEST theatre is not seen in the Main Stage or State Theatre companies.

Kelly’s play is a modern reworking of the Faustus story and the age-old dilemma of what is really goodness and what simply cowardice. Is any man’s soul buyable if the price is right? Mark Wilson is superb in his direction and understanding of all that is at stake. He works with very little space and the rostrum stage gives width but little depth. Yet the production seems both spacious and spatial, and the blank canvas of the white box focuses us clearly on the fabulous cast.

Richard Cawthorne (Gorge) manages to charm us at the same time as repelling us…he is both selfish and charming; complex and simple, manipulative and vulnerable.

If Dion Mills (M, Gel) becomes any more charismatic he will need a bigger stage to contain him. A stunning actor, he is equally convincing when menacing and intense, or inadequate and beleaguered.

Olga Makeeva is a pocket-sized force of theatre.

Classically trained in Russia, she nevertheless adapts brilliantly to every new role.

Jordan Fraser-Tremble, this year’s graduate actor, is a fitting successor to his predecessors Matthew Whitty (2013) and Jonathan Peck (2014). His performance as Pete, Gorge’s newly discovered grandson, is beautifully The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas measured.

By Dennis Kelly. Directed by Mark Wilson. Red Stitch. St Guest artist Elizabeth Nabben adds beautiful nuances Kilda (Vic). Feb 3 - Mar 7. and subtlety to the role of Louisa, the deeply damaged THERE are certain givens with any Red Stitch production. woman Gorge almost destroys in order to have her.

It will be superbly acted; it will punch well above its weight; 64 Stage Whispers

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

Mattea Davis has done marvels with the set, Clare Springett’s lighting design is impressive and Robert D Jordan’s sound design and composition, along with the video content, are excellent and integral to the production.

This is not an easy, crowd-pleasing play, but then Red Stitch is never interested in easy. It is, however, brilliant and mesmerising theatre.

Coral Drouyn

a bubble costume he has made and pursue her across the United States when she decides to marry a hot rocker.

The pursuit brings on stage a colourful collection of characters, among them a cult known as the Bright and Shinies, who initially see Jimmy as the divine being they have been waiting for, a less than capable biker gang, and an Indian ice cream seller who views cows as objects of worship. The acting team, mostly playing multiple roles under the direction of David Brown, made Jimmy’s Tabac Rouge interactions with these people very enjoyable, and the James Thierree and Compagnie Du Hanneton. Sydney songs and dialogue were upbeat in even the darkest Festival. Sydney Theatre. Jan 7 - 23. moments.

TABAC Rouge focuses on a once glorious society and its Sam De Lyall was an engaging Jimmy, delivering a vibrant Out of Here as he began his journey in his bubble slow descent into chaos and decay. We see a King (James Thierree) at the height of his command, adored by his suit (a protective cage-like attire by designer Gabrielle people and in control of a grand society. But it is the O’Connor), and Cara Pooles handled well the indecision of combination of indulgence, age and the duplicitous nature Chloe, a girl with a thing for “hot bad boys”. of politics that leads to his undoing and largely that of his Caitlin Allen was an unnervingly over-protective mother, dystopian/utopian vision. with Peter Drozdov as the husband and father who never is But the story of Tabac Rouge isn’t as important as how given a chance by his wife to say anything, until he makes the story is told. This is another of Thierree’s incredible his views amusingly and realistically known in a couple of displays of stunning images and performances using songs near the story’s end. gibberish, movement and contortion. The tapestry of The main roles of the other players included Sam images that Thierree produces are rich and at times Robinson, as Chloe’s bad boy, Precila Selui as his offsider, Astra-Lia England and Eden Scott as the leaders of the overwhelming in a visceral way.

Thierree is supported by an incredible group of Bright and Shinies, Nathan Villaverde and Ryan Burrett as performers, who tumble, dance and contort their way svelte biker twins, John Lopez as the travelling ice-cream around the massive Sydney Theatre stage. All are equally seller, and Brody Davidson as a controlling and unhelpful talented, but it is the contortionist antics of Valerie Doucet bus kiosk attendant. which have the audience squirming in their seats and Ken Longworth Magnus Jakobsson is the embodiment of a Machiavellian and manipulative right hand man - think Iago.

Thriller Live The Tabac Rouge set is an incredible feat of design and Crown Theatre Perth, WA. Dec 10-21, 2014, with seasons engineering - a massive steel frame covered with patchwork in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and New Zealand pieces of metal and mirror that is wheeled and flipped to follow. around the stage at an incredible pace is breathtaking. At THRILLER Live launched its Australian tour with a highly one point it breaks into heavy shards suspended by wires energised Opening Night at Perth’s Crown Theatre. The and dances dangerously over the cast, which is show, which originated in the United Kingdom, has played mesmerising. in 28 countries and had an extended run on London’s West Tabac Rouge is a jewel in the crown of the Sydney End. Festival.

The celebration of Michael Jackson’s life is part tribute show, part biographical and is flamboyantly theatrical. It Whitney Fitzsimmons features incredible dancing at outstanding singing.

Bubble Boy Two Australians, MiG Ayesa, in a very personable Songs by Cinco Paul, book by Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul. appearance, and Prinnie Stevens, who also shines, stand The Regional Institute of Performing Arts. Civic Playhouse, out in a cast of excellent singers which also includes Newcastle. Dec 11 - 13.

Britain’s Alex Buchanan, Sean Christopher, Wayne Robinson and Tyrone Lee and American J Rome.

HUNTER TAFE’s Regional Institute of Performing Arts invariably stages a little-known recent musical as the Simply set, Thriller Live features stunning lighting and graduation production for its advanced diploma acting projections and features a top-notch live band led by students, and 2014’s Bubble Boy, having its Australian Australian John Maher. Costumes, by Shooting Flowers, are premiere, was one of the best. a wonderful trip back in time and are a celebration of colour and sparkle.

The title character is a teenager born with an immune Thriller Live is a must-see for avid Michael Jackson fans, deficiency who is confined in a protective bubble room by should be compulsory for all serious dance students and his conservative, unsmiling mother. When the boy, Jimmy Livingston, and a girl, Chloe, who lives next door, see each provides non-stop, high quality entertainment for anyone other through a window it’s the beginning of a romance. wanting a fun and nostalgic night out.

Jimmy’s passion for Chloe leads him to escape the room in Kimberley Shaw Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au

Stage Whispers 65

In The Heights.

Photo: Belinda Strodder

Content-wise, she delivers no thoughts, images or emotions which will stay with us.

She conjectures that I Guess If The Stage Exploded… we’d remember that. And unable to deliver an “unforgettable” elephant, she instead walks back onstage with an owl (who looks at her and us as though we’re all very stupid).

Rimat’s one idea may be engaging but it barely lasts the hour.

Martin Portus

In The Heights Music and Lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Book by Quiara Alegria Hudes. Directed by James Cutler. A StageArt Production. Australian premiere. Chapel off Chapel. Feb 18 - Mar 8.

TAKE a fan with you when you go to Chapel off Chapel, regardless of the weather. In The Heights is so hot it could burn you. It sizzles, it makes you gasp for air, it sets fire to all your misconceptions about little-known musicals in small spaces, it burns the floor with fabulous dancing, and its energy is such that there are times you feel you cannot breathe. In short - it is Sensational!

The story is that of Latin Americans living in Washington Heights in NYC over two days, July 3rd and 4th, when the power goes out in the heatwave. That’s really all you need to know - the book is sharp, funny (“Does he dance?” “Like a drunk Chita Rivera”) and poignant. The music is infused with all the flavours of Latin America, and the energy levels in it make it impossible not to dance in your seat. It is brilliantly fused with Rap, and many of the songs are performed in rap style with Latin rhythms behind them. The brilliant band, under Musical Director Cameron Thomas, I Guess If The Stage Exploded never plays a note wrong; the set, by Merinda Backway, is a Sydney Festival. Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre. Jan 15 - delight and makes maximum use of the Chapel space; Kate 18.

Sinclair’s costumes are perfect; Marcello Lo Ricco’s sound DO you lovers of theatre really remember shows you design is spot on and Jason Bovaird’s lighting is stunning, saw decades ago or even one person shows from just as always. months ago?

James Cutler is proving himself a meteoric force as a British performer Sylvia Rimat works hard to make director. It isn’t simply how he blocks or works with the herself unforgettable. We hear the odd voice over from actors, it’s his deep understanding of the text and the some of the psychologists and neuroscientists she characters. We saw it in last year’s superb production of consulted, offering tips on how the brain can better Parade (The Collective), but he has made giant steps with remember. this production. Yvette Lee’s choreography brings the best Rimat shares all sorts of audience participation games so of the Broadway production to the far smaller space of this that we keep a visual diary of her, practice relaxation and venue with brilliant style, and that’s astonishing given the self-discipline, and exploit our power to remember locations ethnic mix the show requires. The leads are all superb: best of all. Via Skype, we cross to an eccentric sign bearer Stephen Lopez, Anna Francesca Armenia, James Elmer, on a Berlin airfield and then an unsmiling party maker in a Francesca Arena, Bianca Baykara, Laura Marucci, Andrew nearby suburb dedicating his efforts to the birthday of an Doyle, Clarence Marshall, Gareth Jacobs, Sarah Calsina and audience member.

Bianca Bruce. The ensemble are all perfectly cast. In a cast Drably dressed, surrounded by 1940’s furniture, of 21, there is not a single weak link anywhere including a tempting drinks table, Rimat speaks in a It would be a travesty if all this exemplary work ended monotonal accent, reminiscent of her native German and after a three week run. Sixty years on, this is West Side adapted Bristol home.

Story for this generation. Most of all, it is superb Musical Occasionally she dances mechanically in an old frilly Theatre. Don’t miss it. lampshade or walks the stage leaving white footprints. Yes, Coral Drouyn the questions are existential, with our own legacies all probably unforgettable, which, of course, is Rimat herself.

66 Stage Whispers

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Reviews: Plays After Dinner

By Andrew Bovell. Sydney Theatre Company. Wharf 1 Theatre. Jan 15 - Mar 7.

ANDREW Bovell’s insightful play about five lonely people seeking a little bit of fun in a pub bistro on a Friday night is a touching exposé of human frailties, with some hilarious moments that soften the blows.

There are three women who work together. Dympie is a control freak. Paula is into fashion and longs for a good time. Monika is recently widowed and new to a night out on her own.

Gordon, recently divorced, wants to talk about it.

Stephen likes to be seen as a ladies’ man, but has a few personal hang ups.

Rebecca Massey is exceptional as Dympie, her expressions and reactions as tight as the control she tries to exert. Anita Hegh is light and airy as Paula, finding a subtle mixture of gaucheness and warmth.

Helen Thomson’s versatility as a performer is a given. As Monica she uses her comic timing to accentuate the instability and yearnings of the character.

Glen Hazeldine finds all of Gordon’s inadequacies, hesitant, unsure of himself, socially inept, while Josh McConville’s Stephen is oily and sleazy.

All actors play off each other beautifully. Bovell’s script demands fast responses and snappy dialogue and they don’t miss a beat.

Carol Wimmer

Anita Hegh, Rebecca Massey and Helen Massey in After Dinner.

Photo: Brett Boardman.

Accomplice

By Rupert Holmes. Javeenbah Theatre, Gold Coast. Director: Nathan Schulz. Jan 16 - 31.

JAVEENBAH has opened its 2015 season with an intriguing comedy-thriller from the pen of Rupert Holmes.

Nathan Schulz has assembled a great cast with a plot that has more twists than Chubby Checker!

Needless to say, it’s one of those plays “you had to be there” to understand.

Great performances from (a very supple) Sarah Cooke, David Fraser, Tahlia Jade, and (understudy) Paul Del Gatto standing in for the leading man (Kit Sivyer).

A brilliant set and fantastic special effects really complement the artistry of everyone connected with this production.

This play has everything to satisfy even the most discerning of patrons: nicely packaged in a production where there are no “prima-donnas” but plenty of “wouldbe’s, if they could-be’s”.

There are, within the script, a number of “Adult” themes which some may find a bit raunchy, but, in the context of the story, seem totally in keeping with the overall plot.

Roger McKenzie Venus In Fur

By David Ives. Black Swan (WA). Directed by Lawrie CullenTait. Studio Downstairs, State Theatre Centre of WA. Jan 15 - Feb 8.

VENUS in Fur is theatrically conscious and cleverly written.

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Stage Whispers 67

Felicity McKay and Adam Booth in Venus in Fur. Photo: Gary Marsh.

Softly Pouting While Walking Into Breezes

By Jake Stewart. MUST (Monash Uni Student Theatre).

Midsumma Festival at La Mama, Carlton (VIC). Jan 14 to 1 Feb 1.

EIGHT actors, male and female, of varying shapes and sizes, bounce onto a tiny white dais and announce, one after another, ‘I am Ben.’ Ben is the protagonist; the play is his story. It veers from sharp to purple-pretentious to witty to touching to kitsch - but much is nicely observed and embarrassingly truthful.

By assigning bits of Ben’s story, in confessions and flashbacks, to eight actors, male and female, of varying shapes and sizes, the show reminds us that love, loss, pain and loneliness can happen to anyone, gay or straight.

Director Jessica McLaughlin Cafferty choreographs and moves things along with precision, pace and fluidity. But in the last twenty minutes or so it begins to drag a little because there isn’t, really, much story - it’s Ben’s situation and even otherwise perfect little scenes can feel repetitious.

Chris Edwards, the most obviously ‘gay’ and also the most detailed and touching ‘Ben’, stands out amongst the adaptable and engaging cast, as does Ariadne Sgouros, who seems so relaxed that she looks as if she is not acting at all.

Don’t ask me what the title means, but don’t let it put you off. It’s gay heartbreak with a light touch, moving and entertaining and very well realised.

Michael Brindley

Stop Kiss

By Diana Son. Boutique Theatre at Brunswick Mechanics Institute (VIC). Jan 22 - Feb 7.

NEAR dawn in a New York park, Callie and Sara finally reveal what both want with their first kiss. And some misogynist attacks them. The violence is a catalyst that opens the unexpected.

The play alternates scenes of the tentative, touching, Quirkily staged on an intimate thrust arrangement funny progress of Callie and Sara’s relationship with the within the end stage configuration of the Studio aftermath of the attack: Sara in hospital, Callie forcing Underground at the State Theatre Centre, it provides for a herself to visit, police interviews, newspaper stories, Sara’s very close audience experience, if you are sitting centrally. past lover coming to take her ‘home’ to St Louis, and Patrick Howe’s set design is tight, almost claustrophobic, Callie’s choice to commit - or not. but beautifully realised.

From 1998, Stop Kiss could come across as a period Venus in Fur is a play within a play, where the bounds of piece. And yet the relationship of these two ‘straight’ reality and pretend are often blurred, as are the young women could certainly happen now - as could the relationships between actor, director and writer. It relies on violence. excellent performances and we get them in the hands of Director Byron Bache has assembled a great cast. Cazz Adam Booth as Thomas Novachek and Felicity McKay as Bainbridge gives a finely detailed performance as Callie.

Vanda Jordan. Both deliver wonderfully complex characters Tamiah Bantum gives Sara naiveté, idealism and courage. and Felicity McKay makes the most of this gift-role for an Mathew Young is George, Callie’s ‘friend with benefits’, a actress with a wonderfully executed journey. likeable slacker. James Rosier is Peter, the man Sara Brett Smith’s sound design and composition is subtle outgrew back in St Louis. Thomas Kay plays the skeptical but emotive, while Joe Lui’s lighting adds much to the detective with great presence and Lindy Yeates is totally mood; beautifully and appropriately obviously at times. credible as the woman who called the cops, and as the There are many Black Swan debuts among the production sympathetic nurse who sees that Sara and Callie are a team, as there should be in a Lab production, and it is couple. exciting to see the work of these new, young creatives.

Stop Kiss resembles a screenplay in its short scenes, with Kimberley Shaw changes of location and costume. This production employs a revolve, so each of the five or six ‘locations’ has its own 68 Stage Whispers

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Boston Marriage.

set. Each scene requires a costume change. A wardrobe assistant appears on stage and assists Ms Bainbridge to change.

These choices are unfortunate. They disengage; they make the show seem longer than its ninety minutes. But the text, while not robust, is subtle, finely detailed and well observed. It survives.

Michael Brindley Boston Marriage

By David Mamet. QTC. Director: Andrea Moor. Playhouse, QPAC, Brisbane. Jan 24 - Feb 15.

DAVID Mamet’s plays are normally full of foul-language, testosterone-macho braggards, and sizzling word-play. To appease his critics Mamet did a complete switch and wrote Boston Marriage to prove he could write for women.

The play is set in Victorian-era America in 1905. At the time the phrase Boston Marriage was a euphemism for lesbianism. Anna is the paramour of a wealthy man. Claire is her younger lover. When Claire announces she has fallen in love with a younger woman and has invited her to Anna’s house for an assignation, Anna only goes along with it if she can participate as a voyeur. It’s a meaty plot, but it’s definitely second-tier Mamet. The play just does not engage.

Amanda Muggleton’s tour-de-force performance as Anna almost makes up for the play’s inadequacies. She pouts, she preens, she postulates, and delivers each line of dialogue as thought it were a rapier of Wildean wit, which it definitely is not. Rachel Gordon as Claire prances like a

panther on heat and answers Anna’s interminable ripostes with ferociously carnal intent. Together they are formidable.

The other character in this female ménage is Catherine, the Scottish maid (who Anna believes is Irish), and who is straight out of a West End farce of the 1950s. In the role Helen Cassidy is funny and never misses a laugh, but the character and the performance belong in another play.

In summary: minor Mamet, major performances!

Peter Pinne Playing Rock Hudson Written and directed by Cameron Lukey. Old Fitzroy Theatre, Sydney. Feb 3 - 15.

IT would be a fair to presume that a play written about the Hollywood actor Rock Hudson, who died in 1985 from an AIDS-related illness, would be an American import. But Playing Rock Hudson is by Melbourne playwright Cameron Lukey, who’s also artistic director of Left Bauer Productions.

It deserves to be an Australian export.

The play is engaging for each and every minute (and at just 70 minutes, is very concise). It tells the story of Hudson’s death and its messy aftermath, when his lover Marc Christian sued the actor’s estate, claiming Hudson had knowingly exposed him to the AIDS virus - and hid it from him. The story is largely structured through court proceedings, which also allow it to be told through two points of view - that of Christian and of Hudson’s lawyers, who portray Christian as a hustler.

In the tiny Old Fitzroy Theatre, Lukey’s direction is tight and economical, like his play overall. Nothing goes to waste

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Stage Whispers 69

Miranda Tapsell, Leah Purcell and Shari Sebbens in Radiance.

Photo: Brett Boardman.

- a significant achievement considering this play is running concurrently and on the same stage as the provocatively titled Cock.

Paul Dowson is a completely convincing Hudson, troubled by the clash of his public and private lives. He captures a masculinity and a self-assuredness (despite the obvious insecurities) that makes his Hudson an entirely believable Hollywood star. Mark Taylor is a fine Marc Christian too - a complex character who could well be a valiant and loyal partner, or simply a convincing liar. The play makes no judgment on this and nor does Taylor. It’s left completely to the audience to make up their minds.

Peter Talmacs is superb as Miller and Kim Knuckey a very good defence attorney. Grace Victoria is also a strong Elizabeth Taylor - she doesn’t capture her completely but I suspect that’s the point: she avoids impersonation. Tyran Parke and Benjamin Winckle are very good as the play’s smaller characters.

Playing Rock Hudson is not just a clever title but also a very clever play, using the courtroom as a fine dramatic base from which to explore character and motivation. The direction and performances are wonderfully succinct in such a beautifully intimate space.

Peter Gotting Radiance

By Louis Nowra. Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney. Director: Leah Purcell. Jan 3 - Feb 8.

LOUIS Nowra’s great Australian play here gets a fiercely acted revival starring and directed by Leah Purcell. You’d 70 Stage Whispers

think that would be a tough gig for Purcell; it’s a threehander, after all. But this is fine work, beautifully set and lit, and a tribute to the depth and intensity of Nowra’s writing.

The setting (by Dale Ferguson) is particularly good. The wide living room of an old North Queensland shack/house looking out to sea has many shuttered windows, through which tropical lightning flashes as the operatic intensity tightens. There’s no interval, and the second-half transformation to open mudflats is instantaneous and convincing.

It’s an Aussie Three Sisters, though the half-sisters here have only an untrustworthy, “derelict” mother to share.

Purcell is excellent as oldest offspring Cressy, a successful opera star returning from London for the funeral. At first talking posh, Purcell’s Aussie accent thickens as the story unfolds.

Less able to rise above their shared background is Mae (Shari Sebbens), who has spent many uncomfortable years looking after their mother, and Nona (the radiant Miranda Tapsell) who lives a sexualised, vagabond existence.

Tapsell’s remarkable vibrancy drives the play along. Perhaps, you think, their difficult mother had been something like this.

This uneasy family hides - of course - many secrets and lies, some quite shattering. Nowra ratchets up the tensions until they reach operatic proportion. Brilliantly, his allusions to Madame Butterfly only add to the convincing climax of shame, love and desperation.

Frank Hatherley

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

The Comedy of Errors.

The Comedy of Errors

By William Shakespeare. Directions Theatre. Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. Director: Ingrid Ganley. Feb 6 - 28.

DIRECTIONS Theatre in Hobart has been presenting Shakespeare at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens for sixteen years. This latest Bollywood-themed version of The Comedy of Errors matches the fun and physical style of Bollywood comedies with the frenzied nature of the play.

The style suited the mostly young cast. The two Dromios were a good physical match, as befits identical twins, and the fast pace of Ben Harvey and Christopher Forbes and the silliness of their almost slapstick-style gymnastics, had particular appeal, especially for the younger audience members. Although Robert Maxwell as Antipholous of Syracuse and Jared Goldsmith as Antipholous of Ephesus did not look similar enough to pass for identical twins, their differences added to the confusion nicely.

It is a delight to go to a play to see and hear actors rely on their vocal projection skills rather than technology. The actors also used pausing, mime and good old-fashioned engagement with the audience to maintain the pace, under the guidance of highly experienced director Ingrid Ganley.

Tamara Bloomfield, Megan Brockie and Brian Andrews played multiple roles, slipping in and out of costumes and character, as expected in ensemble theatre. Jessica Davies as Adriana the anxious wife of Antipholous of Ephesus and Sera Goldstone as her sister Luciana handled the confusion of the unfolding plot-line well. The audience enjoyed the

show, as did I, and once again Directions Theatre has reached another group of theatre-goers.

Merlene Abbott The Glass Menagerie

By Tennessee Williams. DAPA, at DAPA Theatre, Hamilton (Newcastle). Feb 13 - 28.

MOST people have feelings of guilt at some point in their lives about aspects of their family relationships.

Tennessee Williams used his as the basis for this moving and often amusing play that received beautiful treatment in this staging.

The family are a mother, Amanda Wingfield, and her young adult children, Laura and Tom. Amanda was abandoned by her husband when the children were young and the trio live in a backstreet St Louis apartment.

Laura is crippled in one leg because of a childhood illness, Tom is unhappy in his job, and Amanda tries to brighten their lives by telling stories about her gentleman callers in earlier years.

Incessantly badgered by Amanda to invite a workmate to dinner as a gentleman caller for Laura, Tom eventually does that.

Director Pamela Whalan and the actors brought the people vividly to life.

Mitchell Cox made Tom’s frustrations and ambitions understandable, subjected as he was in an early scene to a florid lecture by Amanda on his table manners. Renee Thomas’s stay-at-home Laura, in turn, tried to hide her frustrations by playing with a collection of glass animal

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Stage Whispers 71

As You Like It. Photo: Matt Deller.

ornaments (the menagerie of the title). Their behaviour was understandable given the excessive colour Lesly Stevenson’s Amanda put into the stories of her younger days, with an acknowledgment of reality occasionally coming through in more darkly voiced phrases.

And Lee Mayne’s effusive gentleman caller, Jim O’Connor, was shown to have a warm and supportive nature, albeit with limits, when he and Laura shared the apartment’s living room after dinner.

Ken Longworth

Orlando, but was swamped somewhat in his scenes with the always terrific Hugh Sexton as his brother Oliver. Scott Jackson gives us two delightful cameos as Le Beau (funny and charming) and the lovesick Silvius, and Lucy Gransbury is delightful as Phoebe. Add the offbeat whimsical antics of Tom McCathie as Adam/Corin and it’s easy to see why this is a fun production.

But the night belongs to Mark Dickinson (Jaques/ Charles), one of our finest Music Theatre performers. There doesn’t seem to be anything he can’t do and that glorious voice is always a joy. Dressed in black leather pants and As You Like It boots…with a red and white military jacket, he strides, he

By William Shakespeare. Directed by Glenn Elston. Royal swaggers, and has total command of the stage and the Botanic Gardens, Melbourne. Dec 30 2014 - Mar 14, 2015. audience.

IT was 1987 when Glenn Elston pioneered outdoor As You Like It is perfect summer entertainment. theatre in Australia and Shakespeare in the Park was born.

Coral Drouyn As always, there are restrictions on sets and costuming in such a venue, so Elston gives us a fair complete with Johan Padan and the Discovery of the Americas boxing tent, travelling minstrels and a lion in a cage. Later

By Dario Fo, translated by Mario Pirovano. Hoy Polloy & there’s an adorable sheep puppet and plenty of interaction Terra Incognita. fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne. Feb 4 - 15. with the audience. It all goes down a treat with a quiche, ALONE on a bare stage as the eponymous Johan Padan, some smoked salmon and a bottle of Pinot Grigio…or even Steve Gome delivers this ‘epic monologue’ in a cod Italian just some cordial and a vegemite sandwich. accent with relentless, restless, manic energy; he is almost The big find is the sassy and confident Louisa never still. Everything in this picaresque counter version of Fitzhardinge. Her Rosalind is a modern woman and she the ‘discovery’ of the Americas by Columbus is acted out, wrings every ounce of comedy out of her alter ego, mimed, with much falling down and jumping up. As it goes Ganymede. She works best with Claire Nicholls (as best on, despite the jokes, bizarre incidents, hair’s breadth friend/soul sister Celia). Between them is the jester/buffoon escapes and Dario Fo’s hit-you-over-the-head satire, the Touchstone and the very experienced Anthony Rive is show becomes monotonous and wearying. excellent. Charlie Sturgeon certainly looks like the hero 72 Stage Whispers

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The frenetic approach results in the story feeling way too long. Let’s face it: it is too long. It’s a one-damn-thingafter-another shaggy dog story.

Meanwhile, the lighting design by Kieran Hanrahan and Nicholas Moloney is imaginative and effective. They create storms, fire and fireworks and, most magical, under the sea.

Dario Fo wrote Johan Padan in 1992 as a riposte to the commemorations of Columbus’ voyage of 1492. His hero Johan Padan escapes the Inquisition in Italy, gets to Spain and sails with Columbus. An opportunist, shape-shifter, survivor, iconoclast and a root rat, he’s curious, open and kind-hearted and he just wants to eat, make love and stay alive. A total contrast to the vicious, greedy, Catholic proselytizing conquistadors - which is the point, really. That said, there’s another question here. Why mount this fantastical, what-could-have-been, alternative version of the conquest of the Americas now, in 2015? Perhaps that wouldn’t matter if the show were more entertaining. It could be.

Michael Brindley Doubt: A Parable

By John Patrick Shanley. Newcastle Theatre Company. NTC Theatre, Lambton. Jan 31 - Feb 14 THE opening scene of Doubt has Father Flynn, an amiable parish priest, declare at the end of a short and engaging sermon that “Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty. When you are lost, you are not alone.”

That statement is explored in the riveting Pulitzer Prizewinning play as the forward-looking Father Flynn and Sister Aloysius, the conservative elderly principal of a Catholic school in New York’s the Bronx, continually engage in verbal conflict.

Sister Aloysius believes she has found a way to be rid of Father Flynn when he takes a 12-year-old student and altar boy to the rectory after an incident in the church, and she tries to get the boy’s understandably reluctant young teacher, Sister James, onside.

Director John Wood and the four actors ensured that audience members’ assessments of the characters’ words and actions constantly changed as doubts arose.

While Luke Power gave warmth to Father Flynn in early scenes such as one which had him dressed as a physical education teacher and talking to unseen students about their basketball tactics, later incidents made some of those words unsettling.

Likewise, the smiles and laughs that Claire Williams elicited with critical remarks Sister Aloysius made about then new ballpoint pens gave way to more sombre looks when Father Flynn reacted to her insistence that they not be used by writing the word “intolerance” in his diary.

Britt Ferry, whose Sister James is often the voice of reason, was driven to express viewer-shared frustration when Sister Aloysius angrily declared that “I’ll bring him down, with or without your help.”

And though Precila Selui as Mrs Muller, the boy’s mother, had just one scene, the disclosures she made about

Doubt: A Parable.

her son revealed more to his background and relationship with Father Flynn than Sister Aloysius put forward.

Ken Longworth Couples

By Phillip A Mayer. Here There & Everywhere Theatre Company. La Mama Courthouse, Carlton (VIC). Jan 30 & 31.

COUPLES, a one act ‘comedy/drama’, is set in a sort of health spa for dysfunctional marriages. Four couples check in for a weekend of country air, bickering and therapy. Their hosts, Dr Edwin and Jessica Bialy, have a pretty rocky relationship too.

It’s a show of worthy intentions, but more of a ‘play for discussion’ in marriage counseling than an actual play.

Attitudes are stated (and re-stated) and grievances aired in a rather one note way. The comedy comes from insults, put -downs and zingers. With five couples getting equal time, there’s no climax. One couple leaves the stage because the woman reckons the marriage is over, but her obdurate husband goes after her. Another couple leaves because they are affronted by aggressive insults from another woman.

Those remaining admit that, yes, they might need to change. The show sort of peters out with some moral-ofthe-story advice on marriage from Dr Bialy.

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Stage Whispers 73

Noises Off.

The staging is static and awkward - a problem director Phillip A Mayer and co-director Rachel Lambert have yet to solve. Another is the uneven acting, but the text does not provide much scope. Is it a coincidence that Mr Mayer, as a macho businessman, and Ms Lambert, as a lawyer, turn in the best performances?

A good-natured but indulgent audience laughed obligingly, but final applause was short-lived. However, the play has received twelve awards and thirty-seven nominations at Touring Victorian One Act Play Festivals 2014.

Michael Brindley Noises Off

By Michael Frayn. Directed by Robert Andrews. Tea Tree Players Theatre. Feb 4-21.

THE Tea Tree Players present an impressively spirited and technically inventive take on Michael Frayn’s much beloved meta comedy, which chronicles a dysfunctional theatre troupe’s accident prone attempts to stage a second rate bedroom farce.

Noises Off is usually performed on an expansive, multilevel set but director Robert Andrews has done a great job of thinking outside the square in terms of choreographing the various slapstick hijinks, ensuring that the play works in a smaller performance space. Don Stuart’s set may be more modestly scaled than is typical for performances of this material, but is nonetheless striking in its visual detail and use of colour, as are the costumes, many of them contributed by members of the cast.

74 Stage Whispers

It serves as a reminder that the enduring appeal of Noises Off lies not in its visual spectacle, but in Frayn’s sharply witty dialogue, wildly unpredictable incorporation of Murphy’s Law into physical comedy and his authentic depiction of both showbiz personalities and prevailing genre stereotypes. Given such rich material to work with, the cast attack their roles with gusto.

Andrew Dowling, David Kinna, Amber Platten, Adrian Heness, Georgia Stockham, John Matsen, Tina Cini, Damon Hill and Rhiannon Shapcott have strong adversarial chemistry; their verbal interplay is snappy and their slapstick plays out with dexterous finesse.

Benjamin Orchard Signal Driver

By Patrick White, music by Carl Vine AO. Gold Coast Little Theatre, Southport. Jan 24 - Feb 7.

PATRICK White wrote Signal Driver at the request of director Jim Sharman.

A short play (approximately 90 minutes - including a 20 minute interval); a married couple face life through three progressive periods of the journey, which starts and ends with a transport shelter: at first - a tram stop and later, a bus stop. Their journey is shared with two ever-present “beings” that regularly break into little ditties and dances to enhance the plot (contributed by Order of Australia recipient, Carl Vine).

The quartet of performers is Theo - Noel Thompson, Ivy - Jackie Simmons and the 2 “beings” Jann Alcorn and Shayne Caddaye. Noella Johnson has the knack of assigning

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Rabbit Hole.

interesting people to interesting roles and the cast of this play is the proof.

Pianist Mary Walters provides the musical backing for the story.

Signal Driver is not everybody’s cup of tea but an interesting piece of theatre, never-the-less.

Roger McKenzie Rabbit Hole

By David Lindsay-Abaire. Arts Theatre Cronulla. Director: Cheryl Butler. Feb 6 - Mar 21.

RICHLY deserving of its Pulitzer for Drama, Rabbit Hole shares the journey of Becca and Howie as they grieve over the accidental death of their four-year-old son.

A sparse, poignant drama, it’s also rich in very human wit and ultimately opens the door to hope, evoking empathy, while eschewing the maudlin and melodramatic.

A strong community theatre cast performs truthfully, complemented by James Bruce’s set, a credible suburban house.

Gretchen Mach illuminates the richly scripted character arc of grieving mum Becca beautifully, from dysfunctional beginnings, through a touching rapprochement with her mum Nat (Suzy Wilds), to a genuine sense that she is moving on.

Husband Howie’s trajectory is totally out of kilter with Becca’s, creating a compelling dynamic. Howie begins crumbling just as Becca is making her first steps toward acceptance. A beautiful final scene caps off Gavin Leahy’s perceptive interpretation of this second great character arc,

and the volatile chemistry he shares with Mach; rich in subtext, they negotiate a tenuous path toward rebuilding their relationship.

As Becca’s erratic sister Izzy, Angela Gibson delivers wonderful humour, where the laughs spring from believable relationships, situations and the contrast between the two sisters. As Nat, Wilds delights in a tactless, tipsy scene early on, before a powerful and touching mother / daughter scene I will long remember. Dylan Yates effectively finds the teenage awkwardness of Jason, the young driver involved in the accident.

Sensitively directed by Cheryl Butler, this is a special night of community theatre.

Neil Litchfield The Winslow Boy

By Terence Rattigan. The Genesian Theatre (NSW). Jan 17 Feb 14.

RATTIGAN has painted a vignette of life and issues in Edwardian England. Ronnie Winslow, a fourteen-year-old naval old cadet is accused of stealing a five-shilling postal order. The family believes Ronnie to be innocent and begins a complicated and expensive effort to clear his name.

Ronnie’s sister Kate is a suffragette and his brother Dickie an Oxford student more interested in his social life than study.

Nanette Frew’s production brings this picture of 1908 England authentically to life. The suggestion of middle class prosperity is there in Owen Gimblett’s set and Peter Henson’s costumes are true to the period.

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Stage Whispers 75

Sonia Kerr is strong as Kate Winslow. She has a commanding stage presence and is totally at home in the character.

Roger Gimblett plays the barrister, Sir Robert Morton, establishing his character quickly and effectively. Both actors bring pace and vibrancy to the production.

Thirteen-year-old Matthew Balkus plays Ronnie Winslow and handles the various emotional situations Ronnie faces competently.

David Stewart-Hunter plays Arthur Winslow with controlled concern.

Tom Massey is amusing as the bumbling solicitor, Desmond Curry. Kate’s fiancé, John Watherstone is played

by David Prickett. Meg Mooney plays the indiscrete family retainer Violet, and Jane Thorpe a pushy journalist.

The Winslow Boy is a classic that loses none of its impact or the inferences of its themes.

Carol Wimmer

ruthlessly exploitative as Cougar. Brenda Palmer as landlady Cheetah Bee is a trouper, but unfortunately her naturalism lacks the oomph and style to carry off the heightened nonsense required. Ian Rose plays Captain low key, balancing dependence and muted aggression.

Robert Ricks as Cougar is too young to play an aging roué, but he doesn’t have a lot to do. In the first half, irritable and nasty, in the second, sulky, then violent.

The text bristles with references and ideas: Joe Orton, Harold Pinter, Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee. These echoes remind one that Orton, Pinter, et al., are rather better than what we’re seeing. The play’s Pinteresque sense of menace is weakened when it veers off into mere humour or excess. If you’re going to push the envelope, you need more substance than this with which to do the pushing.

Michael Brindley

The Beaux’ Stratagem

By George Farquhar. The Stirling Players. Stirling How The Other Half Loves Community Theatre. Feb 20-Mar 7.

By Alan Ayckbourn. Tugun Theatre co. Tugun Village EXUBERANT, witty and jam-packed with delightful Community Centre, Golf Coast. Director: Annie Lotocki. Feb characters, The Beaux’ Stratagem is the first production in 12 - 28.

The Stirling Players’ 2015 Year of Comedy.

SET in two London apartments simultaneously, this farce It is 1707 England and when young gentlemen Jack looks at the way some people cover up extra-marital affairs Archer and Tom Aimwell fall on hard times they decide to at the expense of innocent third parties. Annie Lotokie’s travel through various towns, seducing women and production was grand and middle-class at the same time, conning them out of their fortunes. The plan lasts only as as was the interesting set. The elegance of Frank (Chris far as Lichfield, where the entire townsfolk are more than Hawkins) and Fiona (Viviane Gian) Foster’s lavish decor as the young men can handle. opposed to Bob (Adam Skelton) and Teresa (Peta Simeon) Adam Tuominen plays Jack Archer with smooth aplomb.

Phillips’ meagerly furnished abode was visually great and James Edwards is equally good as Tom Aimwell. Alan workable.

Crawford is an absolute standout as cleric turned It was a little slow to start, as the plot was revealed, but highwayman Gloss. by the second act the play had developed a rollicking pace.

Another audience favourite is Joshua Coldwell as Sullen.

The cast bounced off each other beautifully and reached His marriage monologue was met with spontaneous an hysterical conclusion, thanks largely to the comedic applause. efforts of Gai as the downtrodden mouse turning into a Anna Bampton is very good, though a little too shrill at mouse that roared. times, as strong and willful Mrs. Kate Sullen, while Kate van Attention to detail added to the success of the der Horst creates a fine contrast as gentle Dorinda. production.

Lindy Le Cornu is a scream as Lady Bountiful, the Roger McKenzie obsessive healer. Peter Smith is terrific as Boniface the Innkeeper. Matt Houston and Debbie Tester play several The Fastest Clock In The Universe roles exceptionally well. Rosie Williams is delightful as

By Philip Ridley. Four Letter Word Theatre. Director: Robert Cherry and Brian Godfrey is extremely funny as Scrub.

Chuter. The Loft - Chapel off Chapel (Vic). Jan 21-31.

The action rollicks along, enhanced by the superb IT’S Cougar Glass’ twelfth ‘nineteenth’ birthday. This costuming and simple but effectively adaptable set. sociopathic narcissist refuses to acknowledge his real age.

Lesley Reed His acquiescent older partner and lover (if he’s lucky), Captain Tock, prepares for the birthday celebration. There Suddenly Last Summer will be only one guest, a schoolboy, Foxtrot Darling, whom By Tennessee Williams. Sydney Theatre Company. Drama Cougar plans to seduce. Foxtrot arrives, gawky, shy and Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Feb 9 - Mar 21. eager to please Cougar, his new best friend. William TENNESSEE Williams tells a haunting Gothic story, set in Freeman, as Foxtrot, injects some much needed vitality and the creepily verdant garden of matriarch Mrs Venable humour into the proceedings. But there’s a surprise (Robyn Nevin), as she tries to convince a young neurologist addition to the party, Sherbert Gravel, Foxtrot’s pregnant to lobotomise her niece. Catharine, you see, keeps spitting fiancée. out vile stories about her late son Sebastian, and how he Scout Boxall as Sherbert Gravel has a fine sense of was devoured last summer by paedophiliac demons on theatre and beautiful comic timing. She is the hit of the their annual Mediterranean retreat. evening, a raucous but incisive motor-mouth, in her way as 76 Stage Whispers

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Susan Prior, Paula Arundell, Eryn Jean Norvill, Robyn Nevin (foreground) and Mark Leonard Winter (background) in Suddenly Last Summer.

Photo: Brett Boardman.

This 1950’s moral horror unfolds through lengthy monologues and a rising hysteria from the others - Mrs Venable’s enigmatic assistant (Melita Jurisic), Catharine’s nurse (an officiously concerned Paula Arundell) and her scheming mother and brother (Susan Prior and Brandon McClelland), desperate that her crazy truth won’t rob them of a Venable inheritance.

Kip Williams’ masterful production takes the recent practice of live onstage filming and projection to the very limit. The first 30-minute garden scene is played unseen behind a huge stage wall, except for the projections upon it. Luckily, his leads in Nevin, in Mark Leonard Winter as the compromised doctor, and particularly in Eryn Jean Norvill, outstanding as the mercurial Catharine, provide the power and detailed truth of performance to feed the filming.

Some observers found all this faddish and the camera work badly handled.

While theatrical rhythms, especially at the end, occasionally went awry, for me the cameras added a psychological intimacy, a focus on the storytellers and their motives as opposed to just the long tale of Sebastian’s misadventure.

Designer Alice Babidge beautifully captures a late 1930’s costuming, matched well to character; her version of Sebastian’s strange garden has less impact.

Martin Portus

On The Harmful Effects of Tobacco

By Chekhov, Bach, Berio and Tchaikovsky. Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord / Sydney Festival. Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Jan 22 - 25.

CHEKHOV’s monologue, On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco, begins with an old man, a smoker, berated by his wife to give a free lecture on that subject. Nioukhine instead wanders through tangents about his bullying wife, his petty jobs slaving at her music school and his, typically Chekhovian, yearning to escape. .

By adding Nioukhine’s three daughters onstage, as a singer, pianist and violinist, Theatre des Bouffes du Nord transforms this tale into a theatrical and musical gem.

The young women begun formally, playing Bach, but are eye rolling with embarrassment, contempt and just a note of affection when Nioukhine begins his rambling intimacies.

Octogenarian actor Michel Robin is mesmerizing as Nioukhine, a shuffling veteran of disappointment relieved with the droll wit of the dispossessed. It’s a delight to watch the impact of his confiding differently reflected in the faces of his exhausted daughters.

Nioukhine, seemingly in fear and awe of them, coaxes the soprano (Muriel Ferraro) into full flight, but it’s Loraine Bonang’s violin solo which really drives home the nightmare. She shares his pain as she soars and scratches through Berio’s relentless scream of Sequenza VIII. Elsewhere, with pianist Emmanuelle Swiercz, the yearning of these unhappy Russians is played out with Tchaikovsky’s Romance Op47.

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Stage Whispers 77

Nikki Shiels in The Unspoken Word is ‘Joe’.

Photo: Eugyeene The.

Delphine Sainte-Marie’s music school set is a clutter of instruments, cases and stands, against a tatty red curtain slipping from its holding. Christian Lacroix’ costumes finely contrast different colours and tones in his otherwise functional period dress. Director Denis Podalydes drives all with just the right pace, poignancy and total truth.

Martin Portus The Unspoken Word is ‘Joe’

By Zoey Dawson. Griffin Independent. SBW Stables Theatre. Jan 21 - Feb 7.

A PLAY within a play within a play. Is your brain hurting yet? Griffin Theatre’s Independent season of The Unspoken Word is ‘Joe’ is meta theatre. The audience take their seats and see director/stage direction reader (Natasha Herbert) welcome us to tonight’s play reading of The Unspoken Word is ‘Joe’.

The play reading begins and the line between where it stops and starts continues to blur until 60 minutes later the audience are kindly asked to vacate the theatre.

Did we just witness a dramatic verbatim play reading or did off-stage drama compel the readers to break from the script? It’s anyone’s guess.

Clever in its contrived realistic nature, Zoey Dawson’s play, directed by Declan Greene, is funny and compelling. ‘In’ theatre jokes are rife and we are presented with over-the-top characters that are all too common in Sydney’s ‘real-life’ theatre scene. The 78 Stage Whispers

overbearing, spotlight hungry director (Herbert), the manic, tortured writer (Nikki Shiels), the boyfriend/costar turned hated and awkward ex (Aaron Orzech), the comedic actress who wouldn’t understand subtlety if it hit her square in the face (Annie Last) and the spunky actor who gets hit on from every which way at postrehearsal drinks (Matt Hickey).

Natasha Herbert is the star of the show with her convincing contrivance as director/stage direction reader. Romanie Harper’s lighting design is also outstanding - particularly during Herbert’s final monologue.

Maryann Wright Have I No Mouth Written and directed by Feidlim Cannon & Gary Keegan.

Sydney Festival / Brokentalkers (Dublin). York Theatre, Seymour Centre. Jan 15 - 18.

WELCOME to some truly reality theatre, an astonishing portrait of Irish family grief presented by young Dublin company Brokentalkers.

Feidlim Cannon and his mother Ann are on stage with their real-life psychotherapist Erich Keller. After a little audience relaxation, the session begins. As Feidlim bitches against his Mum’s melancholic display of object memories, the reality unfolds - both are desperately grieving the death 12 years ago of Feidlim’s father and, earlier, his baby brother.

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Have I No Mouth.

Photo: Prudence Upton.

Some family snaps and videos are projected but mostly this engrossing theatre is over a long table as mother and son question and recall these heartbreaking losses. Their filial banter, impatience and ultimate deep bond is a reality almost unscriptable.

Nudged by Keller, we hear of their despair, their impotence, their persistent routines, their shifting faith in God and self-healing, but most of all their anger.

This is deeply moving theatre staged with just the truth of lived experience and few devices. A flutter of snow passes for Christmas when the memories are worst and frozen into place.

Have I No Mouth, directed by Cannon and Gary Keegan, has a few minor moments of drag and repetition but is wrenching in its detailed sweep of what grief is, including for those with an eye for its professional treatment. The explosion of colour at the end is ecstatic.

Martin Portus

The work covers the plight of an ‘illegal immigrant’, who, although having experienced unspeakable loss is optimistic that his human rights will be respected in Australia. Compelling performer Ezekiel Day plays this character, Rajoo Mahalingham, with moving commitment.

It is a delight to watch Sean Scully’s refined underplaying of Immigration Ministers from both side of politics, the slightly left of center Gottileb Shortstraw and the slightly right of center Sly Moribund. The names say it all really; this work is a rollicking parody full of humour, highlighting the shamefully brutal treatment of desperate and courageous refugees by the powers that be.

There is a mix of acting styles. Jessica Muschamp errs towards going over the top in her portrayal of the enthusiastic junior lawyer Hope Springsey and bemused Psychiatrist Dr. Maddison Attar. This could be seen as a mismatch with the sincere and naturalistic journey Day travels with Rajoo, and a contrast to Sean Scully’s more The Process subtle interpretations. However Muschamp’s parodying A Play in Five Dubious Acts. By Ian Robinson. Cicero’s of her roles highlights the ridiculous irony in the callous Circle / Liberty Victoria. Director - Ian Robinson. La and morally shocking way Rajoo’s future and very existence is potentially obliterated.

Mama. Feb 4 -15.

This commendable production by skilled veteran THE Process coherently shines a bright light on the outrageously inhumane way we, as a nation, are dealing writer and director Ian Robinson has been beautifully with Asylum Seekers. It is particularly accessible and has managed by production team Cicero’s Circle. the power to galvanize.

Suzanne Sandow

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Stage Whispers 79

Jemma Rix and Suzie Mathers in Wicked.

Photo: Andrew Ritchie.

Reviews: Musicals Wicked Music & Lyrics: Stephen Schwartz. Book: Winnie Holzman based on the novel by Gregory Maguire. Marc Platt, David Stone, Universal Pictures, The Araca Group, Jon B. Platt, John Frost production. Lyric Theatre, QPAC, Brisbane.

Opening Night: Feb 15.

WICKED is phenomenal! A blockbuster of such dizzying magnitude in terms of audience adoration that it defies critical analysis.

This Australian production may have had a few cast changes since it first opened in 2008, but its magic is still evident in the performances of Jemma Rix and Suzie Mathers. Rix is the perfect Elphaba. With a voice of steel she negotiates Schwartz’s power-ballads like a true diva delivering an impassioned and star performance as the green-faced introvert. Mathers is also perfect as Glinda.

With her glittering soprano trills and delicious comic perk the role of the self-centred do-gooder could not be in better hands. The show lifts whenever they’re on-stage (which thankfully is most of the performance), with their final duet “For Good” a vocal knockout.

Steve Danielson gives a standard Disney-hero performance as Fiyero and registers strongly in his duet with Rix on “As Long As You’re Mine,” while Simon Gallaher’s Wizard is enhanced by some good vocal work and cakewalks. Emily Cascarino gracefully rises above the heavy-handed subtext of the wheelchair-bound Nessarose, whilst Maggie Kirkpatrick’s authority-driven Madame Morrible could comfortably find a home at Hogwarts.

Peter Pinne 80 Stage Whispers

The Addams Family

By Andrew Lippa, Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice.

Directed by Danny Ginsberg. PLOS (Vic). Frankston Arts Centre. Dec 31 2014 to Jan 10, 2015.

PLOS have another smash hit on their hands thanks to a stunning cast, the marvellous innovation of Director Danny Ginsberg, great costuming by Brett Wingfield and knockout choreography by Steve Rostron to Bev Woodford’s exemplary musical direction of a top notch orchestra.

The story is simple and clichéd. “Kooky and spooky” Wednesday Addams wants to marry a normal boy and the prospective in-laws come to dinner - the book is adequate, the songs are catchy, but it’s the production itself that truly dazzles. Mike Fletcher’s set is amazing and Brad Alcock’s lighting design is spectacular for the most part.

Karl McNamara fills the stage with charismatic stage presence and delights in the OTT character of Gomez. It’s more the flamboyance of Raul Julia than the subtlety of John Astin - but, since this is a musical, that only enhances the character. Nadia Gianinotti is a sensational Morticia.

She’s sexy, funny and original enough not to give us a copy of the more famous Morticias. She’s also a true triple threat, singing up a storm and making the most of Steve Rostron’s clever choreography. Michael Young drives all thoughts of Jackie Coogan’s original Fester from the mind.

Stephanie James is super-impressive as Wednesday - and what a belter of a voice for such a tiny girl. Matt Allen, as her love interest, Lucas, is perfect. Marisa Tunks (Grandma) gives her 33rd PLOS production (an astonishing record) her all in a crazy but adorable performance; Oliver Plunkett

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The Addams Family.

Photo: Michael Fletcher Photography.

(Pugsley) is developing in leaps and bounds, with new strength in his voice. Chris Higgins is a great Lurch (where do those bass notes come from) and Mike Fletcher (yes it’s him again) cements his reputation as one of our best musical theatre performers. The ensemble - playing the ancestors - are all outstanding. There’s not time to name them all, but once again Benny Burton was dazzlingly good.

But it’s Carolyn Waddell - as Wednesday’s prospective Mother-in-Law Alice Beinecke - who manages to steal the show by a mere fine hair’s breadth. Fabulous finesse, a great voice, superb timing and the ability to completely mesmerise an audience. This is the perfect production to kick off a new year - warm and witty, a joyous production in every respect.

Coral Drouyn

riding happily on the back of the accumulated solutions, sets, props and costumes - blending impressive staging elements from many productions into a striking whole.

The Pro-am model works well at Packemin. A core of professionals integrate nicely with strong principal talents from community theatre, supported by a non-professional ensemble.

In the title role, Ben Mingay’s vocal muscularity and masculinity make for a rewarding and surprising Phantom; singing in a strong baritone throughout.

Though scenery chewing isn’t usually a positive when you’re talking theatrical performances, when the role is outand-out melodrama queen, operatic diva Carlotta, and Johanna Allen dives right in, you get a delicious showstealing performance. Allen also has the vocal chops to really nail Carlotta.

Erin Clare sings the role of Christine attractively, though The Phantom of the Opera her acting portrayal seems rather too knowing, in a role

By Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe. where I’d expect a little more initial naiveté.

Packemin Productions. Director / Producer: Neil Gooding.

Joshua Keane impresses as a credible Raoul, with plenty Musical Director: Peter Hayward. Choreographer: Camilla of attitude and bearing. He shows potential for bigger Jakimowicz. Riverside Theatres, Parramatta. Feb 6 - 21. things with refinement of his stagecraft.

LAVISH spectacle is just as vital to the world’s most Community theatre ‘legends’ Christopher Hamilton and famous and popular musical, The Phantom of the Opera, as Michele Lansdown lend their authority to the roles of its score, performances, etc. So how do you compete with Monsieur Andre and Madame Giry. Hamilton teams fresh memories of the original on a small fraction of the splendidly with AIM graduate Gavin Brightwell as Monsieur original budget?

Firmin, to create a neatly balanced pair of opera managers.

Community based companies around Australia have Claudio Scaramella sings the role of operatic tenor been attacking the challenge with gusto for nearly two Piangi well, though when the Phantom suggests he needs to lose some weight, it’s clear a little padding is in order. years, and Packemin Productions has reaped the benefits, Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au

Stage Whispers 81

Christy Sullivan, Erin James, Helen Dallimore, Bobby Fox and Jamie Kristian in Blood Brothers.

Photo: Kurt Sneddon

A large, talented enthusiastic ensemble of 40 makes this a bigger Phantom than most on the community theatre circuit. It’s an ensemble bristling with principal and leading role experience, and a good share of professional background / training. The ballet works splendidly to create a convincing illusion of a mediocre 19th century opera ballet.

Notably, the iconic chandelier moment is the most effective version we’ve seen in Sydney, outside the professional version.

Neil Litchfield Sweet Charity Book by Neil Simon. Music by Cy Coleman. Lyrics by Dorothy Fields. Luckiest Productions, Neil Gooding Productions and Tinderbox; Arts Centre Melbourne from Feb 25 & IPAC from March 11.

AS soon as I walked in the joint, a man of distinction approached me to ask me to spend some time on stage with the provocatively clad dancing girls.

Overcoming stage fright I ventured up the stairs where Charity Hope Valentine brushed me off. She recommended another dancer who whisked me across the stage exposing my two left feet.

Settling down back in my seat it was a relief and treat to revisit this award winning production in the new surroundings of the Sydney Opera House - transplanted from the original at the Hayes Theatre Co. The simplicity and brilliance of the set lost nothing in the move. The swivelling glass panels that effortlessly 82 Stage Whispers

transformed from a pond, to the cupboard of a stylish apartment, appeared just as clever.

The glue for the production was the five-piece band led

by Andrew Worboys who deserved their place on stage, sizzling in the jazz inspired score.

Verity Hunt-Ballard’s performance as Charity has been celebrated, winning her a second Helpmann. Geoffrey Rush summed up her character as ‘a clown.’

Deserving as much recognition is Martin Crewes. He plays three characters - Charlie the thieving boyfriend, Vittorio a self-obsessed movie star, and Oscar the troubled soul. The contrast between the king of cool and the awkward claustrophobic accountant could not be more marked.

The crew of dancing girls and boys under the direction of Dean Bryant and choreographer Andrew Hallsworth also shine.

David Spicer Blood Brothers

By Willy Russell. Enda Markey in association with Hayes Theatre Co. Director: Andrew Pole. Musical Director: Michael Tyack. Designer: Anna Gardiner. Hayes Theatre Co. Feb 6 - Mar 8.

BLENDING Greek Tragedy with musical theatre, Blood Brothers’ powerful drama lays open the class divide and devastation of working class poverty in Thatcher’s Britain.

We know the story of twin boys separated at birth will end horribly from the start, dictated by the fates, an awareness constantly and effectively reinforced by a

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

malevolent narrator (Michael Cormick), commentating Greek chorus style throughout.

But it’s not all angst, with plentiful comedy and some delicate romance serving to heighten the tragedy.

As a tragic battler heroine (or is it anti-heroine), Mrs Johnstone’s dramatic stature towers over her working class status; Helen Dallimore is dynamic, driving the production in a touching, charismatic performance.

By contrast, Bronwyn Mulcahy creates a tightly wound, prim and proper, obsessive adoptive mother, Mrs Lyons.

Adults playing children on stage joyously has an extra texture here, in the overhanging sense of foreboding, from the moment the separated twins, carefree, cheeky Mickey (Bobby Fox) and Edward (Blake Bowden), aching to be just as naughty, become best friends. Slightly older brother Sammy (Jamie Kristian) has danger written all over him, while Linda (Christy Sullivan) is an endearing lively tomboy.

They develop delightfully through adolescence and young adulthood.

Vocally and dramatically Fox and Bowden establish a striking contrast between the two boys / men. As the girl/ woman they both love, Sullivan’s Linda is achingly credible.

Phillip Lowe and Erin James adeptly switch between a variety of supporting roles.

Michael Tyack leads an impressive four-piece band, with arrangements in period-perfect pop idiom.

Blood Brothers is a gut wrenching musical that resonates in your social conscience, finding a fresh voice in any age when the underprivileged struggle to find a heartbeat in their politicians.

Neil Litchfield

Legally Blonde Music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Neil Benjamin.

Book by Heather Hatch. Cairns Choral Society. Cairns Civic Theatre. Jan 16-31.

WHAT a good show this was. It was fast moving, funny and though the music didn’t stick in the head, it was a very lively production, one of the best in recent years by the Cairns Choral Society.

Andrea Mullens as Elle Woods was superb. Effervescent, with a surplus of stage presence, Mullens was unstoppable.

Mullens was ably supported by Dale Schultz as Emmett Forrest, Gemma Gould as the hairdresser Paulette and Ben Leonardi as ex-boyfriend Warner Huntington III. Rival girlfriend Cathy Knight did a great job as Vivienne and James Mousa looked like he had just come from central casting as the owner of a big law firm. Katie Jay and Sharee Baker were also strong in excellent support roles.

The scene changes were slick and the comedy, especially from Chris George as Kyle B. O’Boyle, came thick and fast.

The choreographers Alanna Rees and Danielle Mangano did a splendid job with a very young cast. The Greek chorus had energy to burn, but occasionally were let down by their diction. The musical direction by Katherine Hubbard was spot on and the overall direction by Wayne Rees was smooth and effective. All in all, a great production of music, dance, song, trained dogs and comedy.

Ken Cotterill

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Lyrics by Tim Rice. Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Packemin Youth Productions. Directed by Neil Gooding and Jordan Vassallo. The Concourse, Chatswood (NSW). Jan 9 13: The Musical 24.

Book: Dan Elish and Robert Horne. Music and Lyrics: Jason JOSEPH traverses many different styles of song.

Robert Brown. National Academy of Performing Arts It includes a parody of a French ballad “Those Canaan Summer School, Helensvale Cultural Centre, Gold Coast. Jan Days”, the Elvis inspired “Song of the King”, the western 21 - 24.

“One More Angel In Heaven”, the 1920s Charleston 13 - THE Musical was an ideal vehicle to showcase the “Potiphar” and also a slice of Calypso in “Benjamin talents of an amazing group of triple-threat teenagers.

Calypso”.

Director/Choreographer Kim Reynolds and her production The very large cast of under 20 year olds rose to the team of Assistant Greta Brinsley and Musical Director Matt challenge. The joyous impeccably drilled choir was bursting Pearson presented a very entertaining show. I found it with energy from beginning to mega mix finale. refreshing to see all characters being played by performers Tight choreography from Katrina Gooding also helped of that age. make this a celebration of the different genres on display.

The story line is that of a 12-year-old boy about to The impressive large orchestra under the baton of Peter become a “man” when he turns 13 and the importance this Hayward combined with the sweet philharmonic sized choir milestone has in the Jewish faith. His aim is to have a meant we could forgive the regular herding of scores of memorable celebration - his dilemma; having just moved very young performers out the very front of the stage which from the Big Apple to a small country town, he only has a appeared to be more for the benefit of their parents and couple of friends, so desperate times call for desperate grandparents than telling the story. measures.

The cast had a large and colourful set - designed by In a strong line-up of teen performers several rated Simon Greer - to play with. Helped by creative lighting from special mention: Flynn Anderson, Ebony Pitchers, Michael Sean Clarke and costumes from Audrey Currie was always Fryer, Nadine Chia, Ethan Robinson and Harmony attractive to look at.

Heathcote portrayed the lead characters in this very Onto the stage burst the very close to twenty-year-old entertaining production and the clever use of “projected Imraan Daniels as Joseph. He sang impressively and was scenes” gave the show pace. credible as he led the story from beloved spoilt son, to Roger McKenzie slave, to prisoner to Prime Minister.

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18-year-old Henry Wright’s Pharaoh (Elvis) gave an athletic hip-swiveling performance which delighted the audience.

Also impressive in never missing a note was 14-yearold narrator Harmony Lovegrove (what a fabulous stage name that is!).

Former Yellow Wiggle Sam Moran played Jacob. The schmaltz of “Those Canaan Days” in the second act endeared him to the audience.

Overall it was excellent family entertainment that will help inspire more youngsters to participate in and attend musicals.

David Spicer Disney’s Alice in Wonderland.

Ballina Players. Director: Geoff Marsh. Jan 16 - 25.

FOLLOWING the Ballina tradition, their first production for the year is their Junior Production of Disney’s Alice in Wonderland and in the same tradition most of the work on this production is done by the young members themselves, under the guidance of senior members.

Geoff Marsh directed the production and designed the set, Jacky Reidy designed the sound, Mike Sheehan was Stage Manager and Paul Belsham was involved with the set construction.

The kids did the rest and maintained the standards of the seniors.

Musical Director and Conductor (with all the flare of a more seasoned Artist) was 18-year-old Max Foggon.

With a score full of the Disney classics: “A Very Merry Unbirthday”, “How Do You Do And Shake Hands” and “Zipperty DooDah”, this affable young man got the performance off to a flying start with his style and musical knowledge.

Choreographer Chelsea Raeburn’s dance routines were effective and well executed by the cast of 44 youngsters and teenagers.

This popular children’s classic was a great hit with the oldies as well.

Roger McKenzie

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Reviews: Cabaret Blak Cabaret Malthouse Theatre and SummerSalt. Concept and Creative Production - Jason Tamiru. Text - Nakkiah Lui. Feb 10 - 22.

BETWEEN the two rusting and one old brick facade of the Malthouse Courtyard, place an elevated stage and an exceptional sound system. Then, as balmy evening is about to fall, add some of Indigenous Australia’s most glorious musicians playing and singing their own songs - and this beautifully blended recipe will just ‘take you away’.

But there is more - a crazy contemporary, wickedly provocative and sadomasochistic, big, black and beautiful Drag Queen - Queen Constantina - the monarch of a reversed colonialism demanding the audience’s allegiance at every turn. Perplexingly she is at odds with the rich spiritual milieu set up by the musicians, and yet, this cabaret is not jarring, just crude fabulous fun, acutely funny and acerbic - full of irony and wit.

Layer on layer - on the surface it is a clever, sharp and witty piece that inverts reality - pretty much successfully.

However this work, enigmatically, touches on the most vital, brutal and important issues affecting Indigenous Australians. Conversely, like a bare foot it treads softly, its heart is gentle and exudes the vast spiritual depth evoked by the music, songs and poems that call for understanding.

It is biting but not savage and maybe a testament to how these clever Indigenous Performance Makers have a foot in both cultural camps.

The totally rich and mellow sound of Kutcha Edwards seduces whilst he also displays wicked vocal dexterity. His voice blends divinely with those of Deline Briscoe and Emma Donovan and Bart Willoughby’s drumming is something to behold. Kevin Gilbert’s poetry touches the soul.

Suzanne Sandow Kaleidoscope Written and performed by Luigi Lucente. Directed by Nicholas Christo. 45 Downstairs, Melbourne. Jan 21 - 25.

LUIGI Lucente…if you don’t know that name then make a note of it. Lucente is a MAJOR (in capitals) world class performer who never fails to delight; whether it’s as the lead in a musical (Pippin, Parade) or, currently, in cabaret with a show devised and written by himself.

The subject is Jim Morrison - eclectic and tragic poet/ lead singer of The Doors who died in 1971 of a drug overdose. But it’s not the history of Morrison’s life that interests Lucente; this is an introspective rather than a retrospective. Lucente, himself charismatic, intense, with brooding good looks, gets inside Morrison’s mind to give us insights into what was going on internally in one of rock’s most iconic “Gods” - The Lizard King.

Superbly accompanying himself on piano…sometimes crashing, angry and threatening, at others, soft and vulnerable, his voice no more than a whisper to the tinkling

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

Blak Cabaret.

Photo: Pia Johnson.

of bell-like notes, we can almost feel the drug filled haze around the tortured Morrison’s life.

All of the songs and writings are there, as fans of Morrison would expect, but many are given a totally different twist; ‘Riders on the Storm’, ‘Touch Me’, ‘Love Her Madly’, ‘Light My Fire’, and two exquisite medleys called Love Opuses. Then he kills the lights with an outburst at the technician, and sings ‘The End’ in total darkness. If that doesn’t raise the hackles on the back of your neck, nothing will. Nicholas Christo has clearly tempered this performance to get the balance just right and the lighting design by Rob Sowinski is marvellously atmospheric.

This is cabaret of the highest order, and you certainly don’t need to be a Doors fan to enjoy it.

Coral Drouyn

Me’, which he manages to make sound quite beautiful) and even some audience participation to Michael Jackson’s ‘Pretty Young Thing’. But he touches us deeply with emotional poignancy when he reveals his confusion and anger at finding out (aged 28) that he was the product of a sperm donor. Amidst the chuckles we can see the very real affect the revelation had on him, and why he agreed to do a documentary (airing mid year) on the subject.

Don’t be fooled by the title - this is a fully developed, grown up, sophisticated performer of great style and charm who makes his considerable talent and performing skills seem natural - and that’s an art in itself. Cabaret at its best.

Coral Drouyn

Cougar Morrison Devilles’ Pad, Perth. Jan 25 - Feb 7.

Adolescent COUGAR Morrison is somewhat of an alter-ego of Michael Griffiths. 45 Downstairs, Melbourne. Jan 21 - Feb 1. performer Clint Strindberg and this show is the story of AUSTRALIAN performers do cabaret so well (they have to Cougar’s life interspersed with amazing singing and clever diversify to keep working) that it’s no surprise to discover banter. New Orleans born Cougar has studied and that Michael Griffiths’ new show, Adolescent, is a little gem. performed in France, New York and Australia. The songs are Griffiths is in the mode of Michael Feinstein….with an varied and wonderfully chosen and include some in French, easy laid back charm, marvellous rapport with his audience, as befits a Louisiana native. a lovely lilting voice and considerable talent at the piano as Supplemented with two lovely leotard clad back-up his own accompanist dancers, the show features fabulous costumes, and is partly a slow striptease. ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ is a Adolescent is basically a collection of Griffths’ thoughts about turning 40 …and yet still not having grown up. He showstopper, while Cougar’s performance and reference to chats openly and frankly about his life, falling in love, Piaf was my personal favourite. While the mood varies Jukebox musicals, and peppers the anecdotes with songs greatly throughout the short show, this is ultimately a that have been part of his life so far….songs from Priscilla wonderful celebration and leaves its audience feeling fulfilled.

Queen of the Desert, Jersey Boys, 80s pop, some kitsch Kimberley Shaw camp songs (‘I’ve Been To Paradise But I’ve Never Been To Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au

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Alexia Voulgaridou (Ciocio San) in Opera Australia’s Madama Butterfly.

Photo: Branco Gaica

Reviews: Opera Tosca

By Puccini. Opera Australia. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Jan 13 - Mar 17.

THIS production of Puccini’s Tosca has returned to the Sydney Opera House for a third summer season. And with a stunning and very popular cast, it promises to be just as successful.

Directed by the legendary John Bell, the opera has been transported from its original setting in Italy in 1800, to the Nazi occupation of Rome in 1943-44. The sets (Michael Scott -Mitchell) and costumes (Terese Negroponte) make the translation frighteningly credible - but still breath-taking in their detail and towering height.

Amada Echalaz (Tosca) revels in the duets and arias that Puccini crafted for his heroine. Her powerful voice is filled with sustained fear and tension as she pleads and bargains with Scarpia (Claudio Sgura), and the cut and thrust of their duets is beautifully executed.

Sgura’s Scarpia is a villain easy to hate, but even as he struts and sneers chauvinistically, his voice woos the audience with its great strength and power.

This is an opera for powerful and dramatic voices and Echalaz, Massi, Sgura and Parkin do not disappoint.

The orchestra, conducted with great dramatic verve by Italian conductor Andrea Battistoni, seems to revel in Puccini’s “deep and intuitive grasp of human psychology and the skill to translate it into music”. (John Bell).

Carol Wimmer

86 Stage Whispers

Madama Butterfly

By Puccini. Opera Australia. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Jan 27 - Mar 28.

THE design for this production is as stunning as the music.

The decision by director Moffatt Oxenbould and designers Peter England and Russell Cohen to include aspects of traditional Japanese theatre sets the production firmly in Japan.

Wooden platforms and sliding rice paper screens, surrounded by a moat of shimmering water, suggest how westerners were captured by the allure of Japan. The costumes too evoke the flowing lines and vibrant colours of traditional Japan - and accentuate the stark contrast with the restrictive European fashions of 1904 when Madama Butterfly was first performed.

This is not just a tragic love story, it is also an allegory on 19th century Imperialism and its exploitation of ‘new’ lands and their people.

Alexia Voulgaridou is heart-breakingly moving as Butterfly, her voice finding every nuance of Butterfly’s unwavering faith and eventual despair, especially in the sad optimism of her aria ‘Un be di’ (One Fine Day).

James Egglestone’s strutting, deceptive Pinkerton is a telling contrast.

As Suzuki, Sian Pendry is vocally rich and very authentically Japanese in her movements. Graeme McFarlane plays a very pompous and persuasive marriage broker.

Michael Honeyman as the United States Consul, Sharpless, brings stature and compassion to the role, while Jud Arthur and Samuel Dundas as The Bonze and Prince Yamadori are

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

Der Freischȕtz. Photo: Jodie Hutchinson.

pictures of oriental male splendour in their stunning costumes.

Carol Wimmer Der Freischȕtz

By Carl Maria Von Weber. Melbourne Opera. Director: Suzanne Chaundy. Musical Director: David Kram. The Athenaeum Theatre Melbourne, Jan 31 - Feb 14 & Alexander Theatre, Mar 13.

I EXPECT I was one of the few in the audience to remember the last Melbourne performance of Der Freischȕtz in 1969. It was very traditional. This was anything but.

The sets and costumes were generally in shades of grey, with colour being used to signify the magical events, particularly in the Wolf Glen scene. Much of the set was abstract with jagged shapes, and sometime shadows of people would appear. It was eerie and quite magical.

The orchestra, under the firm control of David Kram, was a highlight. Naturally some voices were bigger than others, and the orchestra was always there, supporting but not overwhelming. The chorus did sterling work, well directed on the small stage.

The critical role of Max requires a heldentenor and Jason Wasley did well. I have been critical of his acting in the past, but not this time and he played a passionate lover. As Agathe, Sally Wilson, recently returned from overseas, had a more dramatic voice than I expected in this role, but sang some beautiful pianissimo in her last act aria.

As her friend, Ännchen, Andrea Creighton displayed boundless personality and a lovely voice. Bass Steven Gallop’s big voice was ideally suited to the role of Casper and he was suitable evil.

A big thanks to Melbourne’s opera-loving German community, particularly Hans Henkell, for supporting this lesser-known work of one of the German masters.

Graham Ford Harvey Milk Music by Stewart Wallace / Libretto by Michael Korie. Left Bauer Productions. St Kilda Town Hall. Feb 7 & 8.

AS part of the Midsummer Festival, Left Bauer Productions introduced the Australian premiere of the American opera Harvey Milk, based on the first Gay Activist in America to be elected to public office.

This was an abridged version in concert, but much more than that. Though the augmented Melbourne Gay and Lesbian Choir had their music in front of them, most didn’t look at it and had their eyes firmly fixed on the conductor. It was obviously a work they felt passionate about.

The lighting was amazing. I wasn’t expecting any lighting effects in a concert, but a lot of thought had gone into the different effects which could be achieved and it was well worth the effort.

The music was very angular and dramatic and the soloists did an amazing job mastering this. A lot was written in the extremities of their range, but none faltered. I am familiar with tenor Jacob Caine, mezzo Dimity Shepherd and bass Jerzy Kozlowski and all were at the peak of their game. Music theatre professionals Tod Strike, as Harvey, and Nigel Huckle as his partner, were equally good.

Conductor Kathleen McGuire had only a pianist and percussionist but had clear control of her musical resources.

This opera was well supported and deservedly so.

Graham Ford

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Reviews: Adelaide Fringe

88 Stage Whispers

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

Papillon Highwire Events & Entertainment. Creative Producers, Elena Kirschbaum & Idris Stanton. Director: Derek Ives. Gluttony (The Lotus Palace). Feb 13 - Mar 13.

PAPILLON is a joyous fusion of circus, physical theatre and cabaret performed with impressive athletic finesse and endearingly cheeky good humour.

Idris Stanton provides the majority of the evening’s laughs, due to his adorably chipper “can-do” approach to humiliating himself and enduring great pain in the name of art - be it going the full monty in a burlesque styled juggling routine or keeping plates spinning to the tune of Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar On Me”, which is complicated somewhat by the troupe’s very literal interpretation of the lyrics.

Amy Nightingale-Jolsen’s trapeze routine set to a dubstep arrangement of “Rubber Ducky” is also highly amusing, as is circus songbird Minnie Andrews’ ironically sweet and soulful cover of Khia’s “My Neck My Back (Lick It)” The show’s more serious moments are no less accomplished. Nightingale-Jolsen’s balletic pas de deux with Elena Kirschbaum unfolds with poignant grace and Joshua Phillips takes ones breath away with his ability to balance atop a tower of precariously stacked chairs.

The colourful costumes and the bold lighting cues ensure that Papillon is a visually striking experience, and the eclectic soundtrack enhances the overall atmosphere enormously.

Benjamin Orchard Cut

By Duncan Graham. Holden Street Theatres. Feb 10 - Mar 14.

NOTHING is more intimate than being seated inches from an actor’s performing space. Nine seats either side of what appears to be a runway, audience members appear uncomfortable, but as we soon discover, that is the point.

Plunged into darkness for what seems an eternity, an uneasiness envelops me; a feeling that lasts the duration of the performance.

A pool of light appears revealing an intense softlyspoken woman; she has awoken early to prepare her face for her job as an air-hostess. A smile is required, a pleasant demeanour that masks bouts of neurosis. She is convinced that she is being watched, stalked by a man with eyes of ash. Hannah Norris draws you into her fear and ultimate awakening of senses, her movement stealthy as you witness her pop out of the darkness. Clever use of her handheld light gives depth where needed and keeps you alert. Her intense performance is brilliant.

The audience are never quite sure if this man is a figment of her imagination, symbolic of her unhappiness, a reason for her unravelling. It is this very thing that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Design adds to the show’s impact. The creative team of Elizabeth Gadsby, Russell Goldsmith and Sam Hopkins make this production a work of art, both visually and

auditory. Attention to detail and clever use of props create symbolic theatre and Miss Norris ensures you never want to shout CUT. Kerry Cooper No Privacy Moore Books SA. Holden Street Theatres. Directed and written by Tony Moore. Feb 14-28.

THIS is the type of enterprise that sums up what the spirit of the Fringe Festival should be. It begins with a premise of noble intent, then develops into an acutely insightful, quietly engrossing, and beautifully empathic examination of a life fallen from grace, fallen between the cracks.

A 40-minute monologue, delivered in the character of a homeless woman, has the potential to fall into a number of fatal traps, but writer/director Tony Moore impressively manoeuvres his way around pretty much all of them. His script is full of telling detail and credible back-story, while avoiding attribution of outright blame towards any single factor for this woman’s current state of existence.

Joanna Webb is simply wondrous, never stooping to anything resembling caricature or mannerism. She is presented as a fellow human being, sharing and revealing herself in a way that we so infrequently find ourselves doing with strangers.

Only at the very end are the audience directly confronted with statistics about the issues being dramatised - as well as the live theatre equivalent of a shrewdly-chosen Hollywood-style closing credits song - but by then, No Privacy has earned itself the right to end in this manner.

Anthony Vawser Limbo Strut and Fret Production House, Underbelly Productions and Southbank Centre. Garden of Unearthly Delights. Feb 13 - 28.

LIMBO showcases an eclectic mix of talented performers, each with their own unique finesse. A sexy cabaret circus that defies expectation, acts from varying parts of the globe are commanding, connecting with the audience in an almost seductive manner.

A feast of heart-stopping beats, dance, contortionists, sword swallowing, fire breathing, acrobatic daredevils that leave you shaking your head in amazement. A diverse musical ensemble led by Sxip Shirey showcase varying instruments of percussion, adding to the mood and flavour.

A circus with a twist lets us bear witness to a cast whose physical strength and agility is evident as they jump, swing, balance and fly through the air, cheekily grinning at the audience as they land one hazardous trick after another. Although there are no clowns to speak of, there is plenty of naughtiness and slapstick. Beneath the chaos were some touching moments, performers changing pace to let them catch their breath no doubt. Director Scott

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Stage Whispers 89

Maidment has woven a faint plot together with dark undertones as he explores heaven and hell.

This show is pure escapism, imaginative and quirky with a hint of burlesque. The danger is hypnotic and the soundtrack adds to the momentum. This is Cirque du Soleil on a tenth of the budget.

Kerry Cooper

Fake It ‘Til You Make It Theatre Works. Written and performed by Bryony Kimmings and Tim Grayburn. Royal Croquet Club. Feb 14 Mar 15.

IF one of the greatest barriers to the diagnosis and treatment of depression is difficulty in communication between those suffering and those who could possibly help, then this heartfelt and powerful presentation performs a great service on behalf of a challenging subject [title of show] Music & Lyrics by Jeff Bowen. Book by Hunter Bell. Directed matter. Bryony Kimmings and Tim Grayburn communicate their inner lives and personal experiences to us, and by

by Hayley Horton. The Bakehouse Theatre, Adelaide. Feb doing so, go some way toward achieving their stated aim 17-21. of breaking taboos and smashing stigma. [title of show] is structured as a series of comedic skits A number of the duo’s visualisations of depressive focused on the struggles of a songwriting team (Rod symptoms/effects are quite ingenious, and this helps to Schultz & Scott Reynolds) to put together a stage musical make their performance a multi-dimensional experience in collaboration with two quirky actresses (Claire McEvoy & that can’t simply be reduced to the level of a self-help book Amy Nagesh) and an oddly uncommunicative pianist (Peter -on-tape (though regular deployment of pre-recorded Johns). interview/confessional segments often pack a real punch).

The dialogue has a consistently snappy wit to it, and Some of the choreographed dancing can seem amateurish, the characterisation of showbiz personalities is often but charmingly so; on the other hand, there are interludes painfully authentic. Proceedings are enlivened significantly where movement and sound are slowed down and by some wildly unpredictable breaking of the fourth wall, precisely presented for maximum emotional effect. and all the tunes are quite 'earwormy'.

Fake It ‘Til You Make It has the potential to make a The show takes place on a bare stage with four chairs genuine connection with - and positive impact on - those being the only sets to speak of, and solo piano the only who need the assistance and support and understanding accompaniment. This stripped-down approach to staging of others in order to achieve their true potential in this life. works in making the audience get a feel for the humble Bryony Kimmings and Tim Grayburn are to be commended beginnings of the protagonists, the inventive lighting for attempting to increase the levels of understanding design does a marvellous job of delineating the transition about some of the more easily hidden aspects of our from one scene to the next, as does the incorporation of common humanity. some vividly evocative mime.

Anthony Vawser Reynolds, Schultz, McEvoy, Johns and Nagesh do a wonderful job of embodying the emotional journey of their characters, the technical quality of their singing and Chunderbelly dancing is first rate and they have a solid chemistry Matt Byrne Media. Maxime’s Wine Bar, Northwood. Feb 11 together.

- Mar 15.

MATT Byrne is wearing many caps including that of Benjamin Orchard writer, director, producer and actor for Chunderbelly, a

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spoof inspired by TV’s Underbelly, that focuses on the Moron family from the western suburbs. His script pokes fun at the absurdity that lies at the belly of all crime families.

Matt has assembled a strong cast, each responsible for bringing to life several characters. By glorifying the acts of violence and a life of crime they achieve the paradoxical effect of making them both trivial and hilarious.

Stereotypical characters were taken to the extreme with funny results. Even funnier was the ease with which the cast interacted with the audience. Some of the most comical moments sprang from accidental blunders and left the audience in stitches.

The family matriarch (Kim York) was as foul-mouthed as her sons and convincingly achieved the right amount of street smarts and sass to pull it off. Her sons, Snarl Moron and Joey Moron, were played by Marc Clement and Brendan Cooney. Both were likeable and milked the gags for every drop of laughter. Brendan’s portrayal of a llama was side-splitting. Matt Byrne rounds out the cast with his comfortable portrayal of Slippery Moron.

The script, although outrageous, at times elicits the right amount of shock, embarrassment and, of course, laughter. The toe-tapping soundtrack takes you back in time, but musical numbers were hit and miss.

The key is to not take it too seriously and enjoy the ride for we are witness to a slice of the underworld with hilarious results.

Kerry Cooper Death Comes At The End Devised by Scriptease. Adelaide Fringe. Ayers House, Adelaide. February 18-28, 2015 DEATH Comes At The End is a comedic slice of improvisational theatre inspired by the board game, “Cluedo”.

At the start of the evening, the six main actors - Anne Mayer, Kirsty Wigg, Joshua Kapitza, Kendra Pratt, Jarrad Parker & Noah Tavor - are randomly assigned the roles of murder suspects. Then, as with the game, the true perpetrator, their weapon of choice and the scene of the crime are determined by drawing cards. A series of skits ensue which detail the circumstances leading up to the murder. The audience is invited to pay close attention to the dialogue, lest the characters let slip information as to their whereabouts and such.

A revolving door of improvisational theatre luminaries will make guest appearances during the show’s run, including Eden Trebilco, Alia Syed, Phil Cowie, Catherine Crowley, Jaklene Vulkasinovic, and Coby Yolland.

Scriptease are a lively and quick-witted troupe that keep the dialogue coming fast and fierce. They also have a knack for physical comedy and are good at evoking time and place through the use of mime, which is just as well. A few colour-coded hats, scarves and neckties are the only costumes to speak of and events transpire on a bare stage, almost totally devoid of props. Still, whodunit fans are likely to get a kick out of this Fringe show.

Benjamin Orchard

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Stage Whispers 91

music recall, evolved before the parts of the brain that involve language. Because of this, our early ancestors Musical Spice would make up songs to remember everyday tasks such as recipes and directions.

I am not convinced by his argument. Haven’t we had a lot of practise with the written word since we got out of the cave?

One academic believes it is the combination of music and poetry that helps the grey matter.

Professor Ian Cross, the Director of the Centre for Science and Music in London, says quality music and lyrics are the key.

“We know that if the words don’t match with that temporal structure they can’t be the right words. So, it kind of narrows down the search space. Lyrics to a piece of music is probably even more so because there’s not only the rhythmic structure, but there’s also melodic structure - the tune, the ups and downs, and the pitch that the words accompany. Put all these together, and that gives you a very powerful set of cues that help you remember, much more perfectly than just remembering random stretches of speech.”

I think he might be onto something. Badly written songs are difficult to memorise and easy to forget.

A striking example came in a study of Alzheimer patients at a US elderly care home in 2013.

Researchers noted that dementia patients often demonstrate a striking ability to remember the lyrics and melodies of songs from their past. The more they practise the better it is for them.

Over a four-month study, the mental performance of patients who took part in regular group singing sessions improved compared with others who just listened.

In the sessions, patients were led through familiar songs from The Sound of Music, Oklahoma, The Wizard of Oz and Pinocchio. Only the most familiar show tunes were chosen, such as ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’.

Scores on cognitive tests given before and after the four months of singing classes showed that mental ability Have you ever wondered why you can remember the improved among the singers. Those who joined in the lyrics to showtunes but can’t recall something you were singing also fared better at another task that involved told ten minutes ago? This crossed my mind when I drawing the hands on a clock face to show a particular reviewed a production of Joseph and The Amazing time.

Technicolor Dreamcoat in January.

The sessions helped people with moderate to severe In 1979 I played Joseph at Epping West Primary School dementia the most. (pictured here ). My mother still talks about it and that Jane Flinn, a neuroscientist at George Mason University wonderful coat, lovingly stitched together by my in Virginia said, “A lot of people have grown up singing grandmother from all her scraps of material. songs and for a long time the memories are still there.

There are some difficult words to remember in Joseph.

When they start singing it can revive those memories.”

The colours of the technicolored dreamcoat are described Reaction to the results on-line have been amusing. One at length in a song. It was red, and yellow and green and wag said he thought singing show tunes was a sign of brown and scarlet and peach.... See I can type this up dementia not the other way around. without googling it. I think I could have sung along to I must confess that I am a bit of a hummer. I can be many of the songs. But at my workplace there are names of engrossed in a task on the computer while humming the people that I have worked for many years that slip away. show tune that is in my head.

I can now relax, safe in the A recent CNN article put it down to evolution. It stated knowledge that it is helping me ward off dementia. that musical instruments were first used approximately 80,000 years ago, and humans were singing long before David Spicer that. The article states that parts of the brain that involve

Showtunes And Dementia

92 Stage Whispers March - April 2015

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

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Mr Bennet’s Bride