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In this issue Mamma Mia! - Thank You For The Music ................................................. 8 Three divas who never tire of singing Abba
8 12 18
Making Muriel Into A Musical ................................................................ 12 Adapting iconic Aussie movie Muriel’s Wedding to the stage Doctor, Doctor....................................................................................... 18 Craig McLachlan and his two doctors: Blake and Frank’n’Furter Australian National Theatre Live ............................................................. 22 TV star Grant Dodwell is putting Australian theatre on film Musicals 2018 ....................................................................................... 26 Mainstage and independent musicals across Australia Seasons 2018 ........................................................................................ 32 World Premieres galore, starry classics and more Hit Play Homeless................................................................................... 44 An independent producer’s struggle to transfer his hit play
38
Regular Features Stage Briefs
46 59
6
London Calling
39
Stage To Page
40
Stage On Disc
42
Stage Briefs
46
Broadway Buzz
48
On Stage - What’s On
49
Reviews
59
Musical Spice
84
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THE NEXT ISSUE OF STAGE WHISPERS IS FOCUSSING ON THE UPCOMING 2018 COMMUNITY THEATRE SEASONS
66 4 Stage Whispers November - December 2017
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Editorial Dear theatre-goers and theatre-doers, Usually at this time Stage Whispers looks ahead to the musicals and plays which will fill our stages in the year to come. Imagine my surprise when our most popular Facebook post of all time, just days ago, skipped the entire 12 months, and more, before descending on its Quidditch broomsticks in 2019. It’s not really so surprising that Harry Potter’s Australian stage debut should unleash a wave of Pottermania across our pages. The epic production Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which took out a record 9 Olivier Awards, has been playing to sell-out houses at London’s Palace Theatre since June 2016, and opens on Broadway in April 2018, before heading to Melbourne’s Princess Theatre (for so long home to the wizardry of Wicked) in 2019. Performed in two parts, it’s intended to be seen in order on the same day (matinee and evening) or on two consecutive evenings, like earlier theatrical blockbusters including Nicholas Nickelby and Angels in America. This kind of experience segues neatly to our features on plays and musicals in 2018, where a highlight of the year seems destined to be the Sydney Theatre Company’s staging of Harp in the South, Kate Mulvany’s two-part adaptation of Ruth Park’s classic trilogy. For mine, the most exciting aspect of 2018 across our stages looks set to be the extraordinary number of new Australian plays we will see, and the diverse Australian voices we will hear. Read on to plan your year of theatre, and perhaps decide which tickets to ask Santa for. Yours in Theatre,
Neil Litchfield Editor
CONNECT
Cover image: L-R: Jayde Westaby, Natalie O’Donnell and Alicia Gardiner star in the upcoming touring production of Mamma Mia! The Musical. See our feature story on page 8. Photo: Peter Brew-Bevan. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 5
Stage Briefs Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will open in early 2019 in Australia, exclusively and only at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the first official Harry Potter story to be presented on stage. The production received its World Premiere in July 2016 at the Palace Theatre in London where it continues to play to sold out houses. It is the most awarded production in the history of Britain’s Olivier Awards, winning a recordbreaking nine awards including Best New Play. Read more: http://bit.ly/2yPJauP Photo: Manuel Harlan.
Online extras! J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany & Jack Thorne discuss bringing Cursed Child to Australia https://youtu.be/Tqqa3IZFm0o 6 Stage Whispers November - December 2017
Online extras! Check out the trailer for Jersey Boys. https://youtu.be/_UDWa422Pjg
The four leading men cast to play Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons in the 2018 Australian revival of Jersey Boys have been announced: Cameron MacDonald, Bernard Angel, Thomas McGuane and Glaston Toft. The production opens at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre in September 2018. Read more http://bit.ly/2yOZWu7 Photo: Brian Geach.
Reg Livermore returns to Sydney’s Ensemble Theatre in The Widow Unplugged from July 26 to September 1, 2018. Read more about theatre seasons in 2018 in our special feature beginning on page 42. More details at http://bit.ly/2yPb9dV Photo: Christian Trinder.
Online extras! Reg Livermore discusses his new play The Widow Unplugged. Scan or visit https://youtu.be/THZsaJEw2Ds www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 7
Hit show Mamma Mia! The Musical is back in Australia for a national tour, just months before a movie sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again reaches our cinemas. Peter Gotting speaks with cast members who never get tired of singing Abba songs and can’t wait to see the movie.
Online extras! Check out a trailer for Mamma Mia! The Musical. Scan the QR code or visit https://youtu.be/8riS4S0lMaM 8 Stage Whispers November - December 2017
There’s something about Mamma Mia! that makes Natalie O’Donnell more than happy to return and sing “here we go again”. Seventeen years ago she played Sophie, the bride to be in the first Australian production of the wildly popular ABBA musical. This time around, she’s playing Donna, Sophie’s mother (made famous by Meryl Streep in the film). “The experience for me was so special coming at that point in my career,” she says. “I was 23 when I came into it and I’d done a couple of things but it was by far the biggest thing that I’d done at that stage. It’s a good one to start off on.” This time it’ll be quite different. The new production, which opens in Canberra and then plays most of the country’s big cities, will be reimagined for the first time, with an Australian
director, choreographer and creative team. Also joining O’Donnell for a second crack at it are Jayde Westaby and Offspring star Alicia Gardiner. The three actors play “Donna and the Dynamos”, the former girl group and best friends that reunite on the Greek islands for Sophie’s wedding. These women are the backbone of a fittingly female-centric show (after all, strong women have always been central to ABBA). Like O’Donnell, Westaby and Gardiner played different roles in earlier productions. “This isn’t a carbon copy of the experience I had,” Gardiner says. “There’s certainly a familiarity but, at the end of the day, I’m experiencing it through the eyes of a totally different character. I’m being challenged creatively and discovering new things about the show at the same time.”
Cover Story There’s little doubt what draws these women back. “I’m so happy to return and hear this music every night,” Westaby says. “You can’t say that about everything when you’ve been in it for a year. But you never get sick of ABBA.” That’s what the producers are counting on too - but it’s a low-risk bet. The film was one of the most successful ever made in Britain and the musical, which premiered in London’s West End in 1999, is still running there. But it’s fitting that Australia - unparalleled for its admiration of the Swedish pop group will be the first to restage the show. “In a similar fashion to the way that Les Mis has been reimagined over the past couple of years - and Miss Saigon this company is the first company that has been given permission to reimagine it,” O’Donnell says. “It’s such a fresh take on it all.” She believes there is something authentically Australian about this production: “the aesthetic of it, the colour palette that Linda Bewick, our designer, and Suzy Strout, our costume designer, have come up with.” “There are definitely fresh eyes on it,” Westaby continues. “It’s going to look spectacular, it’s going to look different.” What won’t be different, however, is the story on stage. Mamma Mia! centres around the planned wedding of 20-yearold Sophie, daughter of Donna, on a (Continued on page 11)
The cast of Mamma Mia! Photo: Peter Brew-Bevan. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 9
Cover Story
Stephen Mahy and Sarah Morrison in Mamma Mia! Photo: Peter Brew-Bevan.
10 Stage Whispers November - December 2017
(Continued from page 9)
Greek island. Sophie wants her father to walk her down the aisle but she has one problem: she doesn’t know who he is. She reads in her mother’s diary of three romantic interests and so invites them all to her wedding (why wouldn’t you?). But the women remain central to this story, particularly Donna’s friendship with the Dynamos, Tanya and Rosie. “Mamma Mia! has very strong female characters,” Westaby says. “That’s extremely rewarding and inspirational for us.” The three women sing many of the big songs, including ‘Dancing Queen’ and ‘Super Trouper’. The reason for these strong female roles lies in how the show was created. It was the brainchild of Judy Craymer, a producer who once worked with ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus on their show Chess. Craymer was convinced the pop group’s songs could be turned into a musical but Benny and Björn were hesitant (after all, Chess was a box office flop). Craymer says she was inspired by one of ABBA’s most poignant songs, ‘The Winner Takes It All’. She saw dramatic potential: “The lyrics revealed a roller coaster story of love and loss that struck me as extraordinarily theatrical.” Alongside Benny and Björn, Craymer signed up British playwright Catherine Johnson to write the show’s book, as well as director Phyllida Lloyd. “It was unusual, if not unheard of, for three women to be the collaborative creative force behind what was to become such a commercial success,” Craymer has written. It’s probably not a coincidence there are three strong women in the story. A very different ABBA musical could have been made. Other “jukebox” musicals featuring the hits of famous pop artists - such as Jersey Boys and Beautiful: The Carole King Story - tell the personal stories behind those stars. There was, after all, a lot of potential here: ‘The Winner Takes It All’ was written when Ulvaeus was divorcing fellow ABBA star Agnetha Fältskog
(though he has denied that’s what the song is about). But the idea here was for a new, fictional story, written around the lyrics of the songs. “My brief to Catherine was that no lyrics could change, the story should be a contemporary, ironic, romantic comedy,” Craymer said. She also noticed that the songs largely fell across two generations - the younger, playful songs such as ‘Dancing Queen’ and ‘Honey, Honey’ and the more mature hits like ‘Winner Takes It All’ and ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’. That’s how the idea of a cross-generational love story was devised. “It’s really easy to underestimate shows like this,” O’Donnell says. “The show is deceptively honest and really hooks into human experience and a shared human experience.
cinemas next year. For added star power, Cher will also join the cast, playing Donna’s mother. This next film goes back in time to delve into how the relationships between the main characters were developed. We will probably learn more about Donna, Rosie and Tanya (as well as Donna’s love interests). The Australian cast are very confident they’ve got their own characterisations sorted out but they are wondering what the new film could reveal. “We were laughing because obviously we are doing backstory on our characters and they’re doing our research for us,” O’Donnell says. “All of a sudden it will be there. “I’m really intrigued to see whether the conversations that we’ve had - how similar it ends up being.”
Gardiner says that while “there’s certainly a huge amount of fun in a show like Mamma Mia! … the depth within ABBA’s lyrics shouldn’t be underestimated. “They were story writers. Look at ‘The Winner Takes It All’, a song of loss and heartbreak. And I can barely listen to ‘Slipping Through My Fingers’ without crying. As with all good stories, there’s certainly a depth.” There may well be even more depth in the characters to be revealed during this production. The new Australian cast will be about halfway through their run when a sequel film is released. Streep will again star with Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan and Julie Walters in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, due in
The film will be good timing for the producers, as it will probably create even more of a buzz around the musical. Not that it needs it - when the primary purpose of a show is simply to have fun, around an extremely popular songbook, it’s a sure bet for another box-office hit. These women know they’re lucky to be going to work on such a show. “I have had so much fun that I actually kind of freak myself out,” O’Donnell says. “Hang on is it supposed to be this fun?” It’s common to just “burst into hysterics” in the rehearsal room, Westaby says. “Yes, you have to look after your voice and your body - it’s eight shows a week. It’s no mean feat. “It is hard work but, geez, it’s fun!”
Mamma Mia! The Musical will commence its new national tour at the Canberra Theatre Centre on November 24, followed by QPAC’s Lyric Theatre, Brisbane from December 26, Sydney’s Capitol Theatre from February 11 2018, Crown Theatre Perth from May 15, Melbourne’s Princess Theatre from July 10, and the Festival Theatre at Adelaide Festival Centre from October 9. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 11
Maggie McKenna and company in rehearsals for Muriel’s Wedding The Musical. Photo: Christine Messinesi.
Online extras! Check out the cast performing “Here Comes The Bride”. Scan or visit https://youtu.be/yUHT8X4mUm4 12 Stage Whispers November - December 2017
Making Muriel Into A Musical As the curtain rises on the musical adaptation of Muriel’s Wedding, David Spicer speaks to PJ Hogan, whose real life story inspired the movie, and the young actress - Maggie McKenna - playing a lead role for the first time. It might be hard to believe, but many of the most cringe-worthy scenes from the 1994 hit movie Muriel’s Wedding were based on real life. PJ Hogan, the director and writer, can still vividly remember going to a family dinner in a restaurant when his father’s mistress turned up. “I don’t know if they said ‘what a coincidence’ but it was so obvious it wasn’t a coincidence. We thought how brazen, who
does he think he is fooling,” he recalls. “My Dad used to take us out to restaurants and get progressively drunker and would humiliate us in public.” PJ fled home at the age of 17, but his sister was stuck there and bore the brunt of his father’s behaviour. She was the original Muriel. Tom Hogan was a local Shire President on the NSW North Coast (Continued on page 14)
www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 13
PJ Hogan. Photo: James Green.
The story of Muriel cuts close to the bone for the young actress playing the and ended up going to jail for lead, Maggie McKenna. corruption. As in the movie, PJ’s “Throughout High School I was mother died prematurely and had a definitely Muriel. I did not fit in and sad life. had the mean girls bully me.” “When I went to the funeral, my She was teased sometimes because father was in trouble with the law; all her mother, Gina Riley, was one of the his cronies said (my mother’s death) stars of the TV series Kath and Kim. would be great for him, as the Judge “Of course, I always supported my would be more lenient on him. My mum and thought she was the most wife and I (overheard this) and were talented woman in the world. furious.” Sometimes when I went to school and PJ didn’t tell him about the content people would quote my mum back at of the movie and became very anxious me and tease me I would hate it. when his father arranged a screening “I was so shy in High School I could of the film at the local Leagues Club, barely speak to people. I didn’t feel inviting everyone he knew along. very smart, so I never spoke up in class. “He ended up seeing the film The only thing I was confident of was unprepared. My sister was sitting next singing, dancing and acting. to him. The lights came up (at the end) “When I was eight I found there and he looked a bit stunned. All he was a circus you could join. My eyes lit said was, ‘that cut a bit close to the up for the first time. I become a bone’.” different person when I get on stage.” (Continued from page 13)
Muriel’s Wedding The Musical produced by Global Creatures and the Sydney Theatre Company opens in November and is expected to tour Australia in 2018. 14 Stage Whispers November - December 2017
Maggie filled almost every minute of her spare time with different performing arts activities. “I did ten shows a year.” At the end of High School she scored a scholarship to the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. “I thought why not have an adventure, jump in the deep end and study in LA.” Maggie famously was cast in the role after urging her agent to send in an audition tape whilst she was still in the United States. When I spoke to her she was just a few weeks into rehearsal and enjoying the physicality of the role, after earlier just taking part in readings. “I have a bit of a hunched shoulder (because Muriel) does not want to be seen. The bridesmaids come out tits out, bums out into the mirrors, whereas I am trying to hide everything. I feel a bit awkward.” Thinking about opening night makes her nervous. “I am completely terrified. I knew, coming into this, there would be a lot of pressure. I haven’t even had a
moment to breathe or eat. I am in every number and scene. I get home, collapse and fall asleep. But it is the most riveting moment of my life.” PJ Hogan is also nervous and does not intend to sit in the audience on opening night. “I will only pose for photos on the red carpet.” He also never reads reviews, because he said he tends to always believe criticism of his productions and ignore plaudits. Producers from all over the world have been lobbying him to turn Muriel’s Wedding into a musical for years, but he resisted until now. “I always thought the material was too dark for a musical. My idea of a musical was Hello, Dolly! or The Producers.” “It was not until five years ago when I started to see musicals having a darker side, such as
Scenes from the 1994 movie Muriel’s Wedding.
(Continued on page 16)
www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 15
(Continued from page 15)
Maggie McKenna. Photo: James Green.
Online extras! Watch Maggie McKenna discuss how she relates to playing Muriel. Scan the or visit https://youtu.be/gzU0Ggllu6Q
16 Stage Whispers November - December 2017
The Book of Mormon, Once and Fun Home, that I began to think maybe Muriel will work.” The recent decision of ABBA to give permission for use of their songs in the stage production was another major impetus, and he thinks Muriel would love 2017. “She would love Facebook, and love Twitter because she could lie and get away with it. She would create Muriel, the person she wanted to be. “A lot of people said to me over the years that Muriel seemed to be a harbinger of a reality TV star. She got married for money, which is very Kardashian. “She sold the rights and became famous by creating the person she wanted to be.” PJ said he knew adapting Muriel’s Wedding into a musical would be difficult, but “didn’t know how difficult.” “I have been directing film and TV since I was 20. I think in terms of a close-up and cutting. In theatre it is much more fluid. When I am bored with the scene I can’t cut away.” He is leaving the lyrics and music to Kate Miller-Heidke and husband Keir Nuttall. “Story telling is always something I like to study and like to do. Ultimately telling a story is assisted by a song. Maggie McKenna predicts that audiences will be taken aback by the music.
Maggie McKenna and company in rehearsals for Muriel’s Wedding The Musical. Photo: Christine Messinesi.
“It is so beautiful and catchy. They have gotten into the heads of the characters; it flows so well. People are going to be shocked that it is a brand new beast, not the movie on stage.”
What is her favourite? “When Muriel tries on one of the wedding dresses pretending to be a bride. There is a beautiful song, ‘Here Comes the Bride’. It takes your breath away.” PJ Hogan’s father won’t ever see the musical as he died ten years ago. According to PJ he denied to his dying days that he behaved as badly as the character in the film. Should we expect a song ‘Your But family relations improved after Terrible Muriel’? he got out of prison. Derision of his Maggie thinks that would be children was replaced by a pride in his terrible. eldest son’s achievements. “They have done very well to “I was the oldest of seven children. choose the moments to use musically.” To give my father credit he looked after them after my mother died.” Still able to bask in the glory will be his sister. “My sister put up with a lot of crap. She found Muriel’s Wedding cathartic.” When he told her about the looming film, based on her own incident of running away to Sydney after pinching money from her father, she imposed two conditions. “One, never mention her name, and two, that she was the heroine of the story.” “The moment the film was a success she released a statement to the press. I am Muriel … Muriel speaks.” Now Muriel sings - and not just karaoke ABBA. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 17
Craig McLachlan in ABC TV’s Dr Blake.
Doctor, Doctor On the eve of stepping back on stage in fishnets and heels for The Rocky Horror Show, Craig McLachlan (aka the ABC’s Dr Blake) channels both the doctors in his life with Coral Drouyn. It’s over 30 years since the curly haired larrikin Henry Ramsay/Craig McLachlan burst onto our screens in Neighbours. It was meant to be a sixweek gig, but show business has turned into a lifetime career. Why? “It’s called acting Darlings,” Craig tells his many admirers. But the answer isn’t that simple. It never is when charisma is involved. Craig’s rise to fame is much more complex and it’s based on drive, belief, natural talent and the marvellous ability to re-invent himself when needed. He’s been a TV star on two continents and made his mark on the Musical Theatre stage internationally and nationally, with roles like Danny in Grease, Billy Flynn in Chicago, and, of course, Dr Frank’n’Furter. One constant remains, however, the idea of the curly headed larrikin an archetype that Australians over many generations have treasured. How much of that is Craig McLachlan, and how much is “Acting, Darlings”?
18 Stage Whispers November - December 2017
Craig is open and generous in talking about his multifaceted personality. “Look, I’m a genuinely happy person. I love life, I love my friends, I’m a pleaser to a certain extent; a peacemaker. I also want people to feel good when they’re around me. I like to have a good time. I can get quite high on life. I’m an extrovert. That’s why I love doing Rocky so much,” Craig tells me, in a voice that suggests he’s used to reeling off the attributes which the media always attributes to him. There’s a pause, and he continues more introspectively. “At the same time, I’m very organised when it comes to my work. That surprises some people who don’t know me, and it’s one of the reasons I wanted to play Doctor Blake (ABC TV), even though I wasn’t the obvious choice for the role. He’s very straight, very meticulous, and that’s also part of me. And (and I even surprise myself with this one), I’m a neatness freak. I want everything to be in its place - is that OCD? I do know that friends say
I’d make a great wife. It’s pretty normal to find me vacuuming the house or doing the washing - but never in fishnets and heels.” He chuckles at the thought. “I’m part larrikin, that’s true, but that’s not all I am; it’s not even the majority of what I am.” There had to be a moment when the ‘Shirley Temple on Steroids’ persona was born. So, let’s go back to the beginning, please Craig. “Well,” he says, “there’s more than a little of the Rocky Horror story in there. I’m a self invented rather than a self-made man. When I was a kid growing up on the Central Coast, I certainly wasn’t going to turn any heads. I was scrawny, with this unruly mop of curly hair, and I had very few friends. I remember once being in the schoolyard at break, and one of my classmates laughed and said to everyone…. ‘look at Macca’s shadow. He looks like a dunny brush’. Charming! I was just a stick with hair.” He laughs, but there’s a sense of vulnerability in his voice and I can’t
Craig McLachlan in Channel 10’s Neighbours.
Craig McLachlan as Billy Flynn in Chicago.
But back to the beginning. Did the music start at the same time? “Ah, that’s another story,” Craig muses. “The whole family loved music and we had a portable record player as you did back then (the late sixties, early seventies). I used to literally wear out 45s playing them over and over, singing along to them. So, when I was seven my Mum sent me to music help asking if he was hurt by the scenes for myself, and play all the lessons and I loved them. But there remark. characters. I was always very interested was a danger of that isolating me even “I’m not sure if hurt is the right in the scripts, and why the characters more. I was seen by schoolmates as an word,” he says carefully, “but it made were doing what they did.” arty-farty type and because, by some me realise that I needed - I wanted - to That trait has stayed with him. He is standards of the day, I was a bit of a have friends and to fit in, and that renowned for knowing every word of a pretty boy, I got the usual bullying and meant, in a way, playing a role they script and questioning, with a genuine accusations of being gay, a ‘poofter’, could all relate to.” lack of ego, the rationale of each (Continued on page 20) Was that why he took up surfing? action. “Absolutely,” he says. “I didn’t even like surfing in those days, though I love it now. But if you were a kid living by the beach and you DIDN’T surf, you were considered a weirdo.” But if surfing was originally about finding a way to fit in, how did Macca the adolescent lose himself? “Both my parents worked,” he continues, “and I would spend time on my own - probably when I should have been doing homework. My two obsessions were music and television. I just couldn’t get enough of them. I had a great memory and I would roleplay and mimic whole scenes from TV shows of the seventies. I’m told I still have a knack for impersonations. And then sometimes I would write little www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 19
Craig McLachlan with 2014 Australian cast members The Rocky Horror Show. Photo: Jeff Busby.
Online extras! Relive Craig’s time in Rocky as he sings “I’m Just a Sweet Transvestite.” https://youtu.be/yy3kj269iTg “It’s absolutely true and I had all this energy. I was like the Duracell which went hand in hand with the Battery Bunny. I must have been ‘weirdo’ tag. It’s just so wrong to stick exhausting to be around. I can labels on kids while they’re still finding remember playing guitar with Tommy out who they are.” Emmanuel on a TV Special and when I Once again there’s that vulnerable soloed I just went for broke. I threw tone. everything in, hoping to impress. The “Then something happened when I result was awful, a horrible cacophony. hit high school. I became pretty good And Tommy was restrained, and classy, on the guitar, and girls just loved it. I’d and made every note work. In the early have been crazy not to use that as one days I definitely tried way too hard. The of my strengths,” Craig says. idea that ‘less is more’ was an alien I confront him with the fact that concept to me. That’s why Dr Blake has he’s known as a tremendous flirt and been such a learning curve.” he laughs. But surely The Rocky Horror Show is “I love flirting; I guess I flirt with made for the extrovert part of Craig? everyone, male or female. Pathetic “Yes, it is, and when I was a kid I sometimes I’m like a puppy dog and I thought all I had to do was put on want everyone to like me, so I’m silly heels, sing a few songs and camp it up and clown-like and affectionate and on stage and that was enough. I had whatever a twenty-year-old’s idea of no idea that Richard O’Brien was trying sexy is, and somehow it worked. Plus, I to say things about judgement and genuinely admire women and love perceptions and what was ‘normal’,” their company. Hey, I’m a bloke after he says. “Then, a couple of years ago all.” more than twenty years on from first I tell him it’s rumoured that he doing the show, I got the chance to reflirted his way into Neighbours with explore the role. Everything gets the male producers and he laughs. clearer, the older you get, but I’m still (Continued from page 19)
20 Stage Whispers November - December 2017
not sure I would have truly ‘got’ the show if it hadn’t been for a girl at the stage door after the show one night. She was elated, but also tearful, and she told me that the show was cathartic to her - that she felt she wasn’t alone. That ‘weird’ didn’t have to be a bad thing and life could still be joyful if you didn’t fit in. And it all clicked.” Knowing now how carefully Craig explores and dissects a script and a character, I ask if there isn’t a danger in revisiting a role that he’s already ‘done to death.’ “I know there are things still to discover,” he explains. “I don’t plan to turn this into a stand-up comedy routine, but I want to push the boundaries further, explore the connection with the audience more. It’s still going to be visceral rather than intellectual. That’s just who I am. But I really believe I can open the role up further and still make sure everyone has a great time. I guess, at heart, I’m still that kid who wants to please everyone.”
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The Wizard Of Oz - 1 family pass (4x tickets) to a performance in Sydney. The Unbelievables - Family passes to performances at the Sydney Opera House Dec 19 at 7pm and Melbourne Arts Centre Jan 6 at 7pm.
Black Is The New White - Queensland Theatre - a double pass to the preview on Feb 2 at 7:30pm.
DVDs of TV show Acquitted DVDs of movie The Way We Were DVDs of Mirussa This Time Tomorrow CDs of Jemma Rix’s Gravity CDs of Elise McCann’s Dahlesque
Gift Recipient’s Name:.......................................................................................... Address: .............................................................................................................. Phone: ................................................................................................................ Email: ................................................................................................................. Gift Giver’s Name: ............................................................................................... Gift Giver’s Phone: .............................................................................................. Address for free gift: ........................................................................................... 1st, 2nd and 3rd free gift preferences: ................................................................ Send your money order, cheque, or credit card details to: Stage Whispers, PO Box 2274, Rose Bay North, NSW, 2030. ABN 71 129 358 710
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Australian National Theatre Live with a grant from a Seniors organisation. Around the same time that Britain’s National Theatre Live was being established, he thought “we’ve got the technology, lets capture live theatre” in Australia. With a number of partners he established Australian National Theatre Live. Now the company has an impressive list of filmed plays under its belt. By the end of year the company will have completed filming eight Australian plays from a variety of companies, featuring playwrights David Williamson, Louis Nowra and Katherine Thompson. Its most popular film so far has been the Sydney Theatre Company’s Wharf Revue. Stars of the revue have attended some of the sessions in regional centres. “Most people say, I thought I was going to see a film, but I felt like I was Away. Photo: Pia Johnson. at the theatre. When the Wharf Revue screens, everyone applauds and hoots Live theatre is being seen by more people than ever in the cinema. after each song. Actor/Producer Grant Dodwell is leading the way through his company “When you see a film musical like Australian National Theatre Live. Remote country towns and big city art La La Land no-one applauds after a song; when you screen a captured live house cinemas are introducing new audiences to the stage. performance they do it. David Spicer reports. “When the actors come out at the Grant Dodwell is best known to the theatre roles and TV cameos were end, the cinema audience applauds.” audiences (above a certain age) as the not regular enough to support his Grant believes that part of the beloved character of Dr Simon Bowen family. So “out of necessity” Grant reason for this is that the audience in the TV soap A Country Practice. The Dodwell turned to making corporate reaction is also filmed. clean-cut Doctor had a nice red sports theatre and videos. “They have a sensation of being in a car, a pet wombat called Fatso and a “It was still acting, but not on the theatre. They see the audience as we crush on the local vet played by Penny mainstage. I was still acting with actors mix in some of the audience laughs.” Cook. He rode the TV wave in the early that I’d shared the stage with at the The films have high production 1980’s, winning three Logies and Sydney Theatre Company but I was just values. gracing the cover of TV Week. putting on a different hat,” he said. “We use six drama camera “When my hair gets long people do One of his clients is the Australian operators and two fixed cameras. We a double take. I get ardent fans (aged Defence Force, which still gives him an film one production with an audience above 30) who were allowed to stay annual gig playing five different and don’t stop.” up in pyjamas to watch the show,” he characters in a role-playing exercise. Radio microphones are weaved into said. His expertise in corporate theatre the actors’ hair and make-up. In a After A Country Practice he and videos soon made a few light cinema, the audience enjoys surround resumed his highly successful theatre bulbs go off. sound. It began when he made a film of a career, including a national tour of Noises Off, and appeared with Hugh live performance of the play Codgers (Continued on page 25) Jackman in Sunset Boulevard. But soon 22 Stage Whispers November - December 2017
Upcoming Screenings www.antlive.com.au/screenings Rumpelstiltskin Windmill Theatre Co. and State Theatre Company South Australia. The Dapto Chaser Apocalypse Theatre and Griffin Independent. Away Malthouse Theatre Company and Sydney Theatre Company. David Williamson’s Emerald City Griffin Theatre Company. Liberty Equality Fraternity Ensemble Theatre. This Much Is True Red Line Productions. Diving For Pearls Griffin Theatre Company. The Wharf Revue Sydney Theatre Company
Online extras! See how Rumpelstiltskin went in Burra by scanning the QR code or visiting https://vimeo.com/226699853
www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 23
Red Line Production’s This Much Is True. Photos: John Marmaras.
The Wharf Revue. Photo: Brett Boardman.
Diving For Pearls. Photo: Brett Boardman.
24 Stage Whispers November - December 2017
(Continued from page 22)
Grant believes that filmed live theatre is creating new audiences for the performing arts and does not cannibalise theatre sales. “For the drama The Dapto Chaser we went to towns which the live performance could not get to. “We recently toured a production of Rumpelstiltskin (Windmill Theatre Company and State Theatre South Australia) with Country Arts SA to towns with no theatre and no cinema.” In the town of Tintinara (population 350) they had 100 primary school students watch the film in a “pop up cinema” in a community hall and 95 percent of them had never seen live theatre before. Grant loves quoting a statistic from the UK’s National Theatre Live, that
many “people who have never been to the theatre see a live captured film production and 25% who have never seen theatre will later go and see live theatre production.” However, he says, “we don’t just see ourselves as saviours of poor art starved regional areas.”
markets are switching to high quality drama on streaming services?” Turning Australian National Theatre Live into a profitable venture, though, is a long term project. Pre-production for each film often costs above $100,000. “It has taken National Theatre Live
Larger populated regional and suburban art house cinemas are booking the films. “Internationally it is a billion-dollar industry. We have had inquiries from Dubai, which has a 22 cinema complex and wants alternative content. “Audiences are dropping mainstream cinema. Why see a mediocre film from America when the
seven or eight years to go into profit and they had 21 million pounds thrown at them.” The local venture receives no Government funding. Grant is also passionate about touring indigenous plays to remote areas. “Hopefully we’ll get aboriginal actors to tour with their plays.”
Online extras! Watch the trailer for The Dapto Chaser by scanning the QR code or visiting https://vimeo.com/224617858
The Dapto Chaser. Photo: Robert Catto.
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Musicals 2018
r Show.
mbers The Rocky Horro 2014 Australian cast me Craig McLachlan with Photo: Jeff Busby.
O
Gr to ht 26 Stage Whispers November - December 2017
Phil Jamieson in Green Day’s American Idiot. Photo: Dylan Evans.
Australians will enjoy a mix of replica Broadway blockbusters, fresh interpretations of classics and a sprinkling of locally written musicals in 2018. Independent theatre companies are serving up a some of the more intriguing productions. National Tours Brisbane’s Shake & Stir company cooked up a storm with its premiere of Green Day’s American Idiot. Stage Whispers’ Peter Pinne described it as “the most exciting new rock-opera to appear on a Brisbane stage in over a decade. A blistering no-holds-barred journey that’s visceral and anarchic”. From January audiences in Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane will able to enjoy the musical, based on Green Day’s chart-topping 2004 political pop-punk album, starring Grinspoon’s Phil Jamieson. Whereas the 2010 Broadway original was conceived in the George Bush era, this version uses Donald Trump as its whipping boy. Pinne said, “The show feels like a close cousin to Spring Awakening.” In Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Esther Hannaford absolutely nails the lead role. Beautiful follows Carole King’s journey from awkward teenage prodigy (with loads of chutzpah) through professional and personal drama that gives birth to her world-conquering solo album Tapestry. Playing in Sydney until the end of January, with seasons announced for
Melbourne (February), Brisbane (July) and Adelaide (December). Muriel’s Wedding The Musical is slated for a national tour after its highly anticipated premiere in Sydney during November. Stage Whispers understands that the domestic tour is the reason behind a decision to put off a planned opening in North America. The production updates the famous story of misfit Muriel Heslop and her escape to Sydney from the fictional Porpoise Spit. Whilst Muriel’s Wedding has a few Abba songs, a full catalogue can be enjoyed in Mamma Mia! Its new national tour commences in Canberra on November 24, ahead of seasons in Brisbane, Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide. Coming full circle from the original 2001 production, Natalie O’Donnell, who played Sophie in that production, is playing Sophie’s mum Donna this time around. Tony Sheldon will be back on the bus, returning home to reprise his role of Bernadette in the 10th Anniversary Celebration Tour of Priscilla Queen of The Desert. Completing the trio of misfits who hop aboard a battered old bus bound for Alice Springs are accomplished leading man David Harris as Tick and Kinky Boots and Les Misérables alumni Euan Doidge as Felicia. Performances begin on Sunday January 21, 2018 at Melbourne’s Regent Theatre, before touring to Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane. (Continued on page 29)
Online extras!
reen Day’s American Idiot begins its our of Australia in 2018. Get a taste ttps://youtu.be/4F_B6dpyFLg www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 27
Musicals 2018
Online extras! The Book Of Mormon’s toe-tapping numbers are heading to Sydney https://youtu.be/LYypGYZ9Ec4
28 Stage Whispers November - December 2017
Calamity Jane. Photo: Daniel Boud.
Phyre Hawkins, Ryan Bondy and Nyk Bielak in The Book Of Mormon. Photo: Jeff Busby.
the original 1978 West End creative team. In the lead, playing the mother The London Palladium version of of the nation, Eva Peron, is Tina The Wizard of Oz continues its Arena. At the launch she said, “It is national tour at the Capitol Theatre, Blockbusters terrifying. There is an exquisiteness in Sydney from December 30, after The Book of Mormon - as every the character. I’m nearly 50 and I’m opening in Brisbane. Adelaide follows bus stop in Sydney tells you - arrives at emotionally ready to take this role.” in April and Melbourne in May. the Lyric Theatre on February 28. Aladdin is delighting Melbourne Anthony Warlow stars in the title role, Stage Whispers’ Coral Drouyn audiences until mid-January before the while Lucy Durack and Jemma Rix described it as “Quite simply the magic carpet takes it to Brisbane in reprise the two witches which they so funniest musical of all time. This February and Perth in July. When it successfully ‘prequelled’ in Wicked. It marvellous piece of buffoonery, for all opened in Sydney, the production got features a lavish new staging and a its crudity and brashness, is warm, two standing ovations. What pushed endearing and positive, with a terrific the audience out of their seats was an number of new songs written by Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Tim Rice. score.” extravagant song and dance routine The somewhat creaky musical Be warned that tickets are pricey. when young Aladdin steps inside a Calamity Jane became an unlikely hit Even so, the musical set a record for cave filled with eye popping gold and at Sydney’s Hayes Theatre in 2017, the highest grossing on-sale of any treasure. It’s the best scene in the thanks in part to the extraordinary musical theatre production in Sydney’s musical, or, to be more accurate, the performance in the lead role of history. That was 45,000 tickets with a elaborate pantomime, with a dash of Virginia Gay, described by Stage value of over $5,000,000 on one day. vaudeville, which Aladdin is. Whispers’ David Spicer as “a force of Evita returns to Sydney in 2018. Jersey Boys returns, opening its nature”. The intimate surrounds of the Fresh from their stunning production new Australian tour in September at Darlinghurst venue gave it an of My Fair Lady, Opera Australia and Sydney’s Capitol Theatre. The original immersive feel, with the audience John Frost are bringing an Andrew Australian production of Jersey coming through the salon to get to Lloyd-Webber musical to the Sydney Boys opened in July 2009. Its run their seats. Will the atmosphere be Opera House for the first time in concluded in Perth four years later just as exciting in bigger venues? The September. The legendary director Hal (Continued on page 30) production is moving to larger stages Prince returns with other members of (Continued from page 27)
in Melbourne, Canberra, Illawarra, Parramatta and back to the centre of Sydney at Belvoir.
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Musicals 2018 Opera Q’s Ruddigore, Or The Witch’s Curse! Photo: Stephen Henry.
Online extras! Join in the cast rehearsals of Opera Q’s Ruddigore, Or The Witch’s Curse! https://youtu.be/hbAizpucwmw (Continued from page 29)
having played to 1.6 million people across Australia and New Zealand. Frankie Valli will be played by Bernard Angel, who played Joe Pesci in the original Australian production. He will be joined by Cameron MacDonald as Tommy DeVito, Thomas McGuane as Bob Gaudio, making his career debut after graduating from the VCA, and Glaston Toft, reprising his portrayal of Nick Massi. Craig McLachlan again dons Frank N Furter’s legendary fishnet stockings in his Helpmann Award-winning role. The Rocky Horror Show will reopen the refurbished Festival Theatre at the Adelaide Festival Centre from December 28, 2017, then play at QPAC, Brisbane from January 18, 2018, and the Crown Theatre, Perth from February 17, 2018.
Fredericksen playing Sandra Dee, Bobby Darin’s wife and Marina Prior, Marney McQueen, Rodney Dobson and Martin Crewes. The more you learn about Bobby Darin the more intriguing he becomes. The son of a mafia figure who he never met, and being raised by his grandmother who he thought was his mother, are just a few of the fascinating chapters of his life. The songs he composed and sung are big band standards, sweet melodies, and 50’s and 60’s rock’n’roll. Melbourne’s Independent musical theatre scene starts the year with two productions at Chapel off Chapel. StageArt will present Falsettos from January 31 to February 12, while Humdrum Comedy and Left Bauer Productions will join forces to stage Gilligan’s Island The Musical from February 15 to March 4.
Melbourne Dream Lover - The Bobby Darin Musical will play at the Arts Centre Melbourne from December 27 to February 4, 2018. Joining David Campbell as Bobby Darin is Hannah
Sydney The Hayes Theatre has announced a year-long program for the first time, including two productions actually set in the neighbourhood. Classic Australian musical Darlinghurst Nights
30 Stage Whispers November - December 2017
takes place on the streets around Hayes Theatre Co itself. Inspired by the works of poet Kenneth Slessor, with a book and lyrics by Katherine Thomson and music by Max Lambert, this January production celebrates the musical’s 30th anniversary. Meanwhile Carlotta, the inspiration for Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, returns to Kings Cross in May with Carlotta: Queen of the Cross, featuring songs and stories from 50 years on and off the stage, accompanied by Helpmann Award winner Michael Griffiths. Winner of the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical, In the Heights, with music and lyrics by creator of Hamilton Lin Manuel Miranda, tells the universal story of a vibrant community in New York’s Washington Heights neighbourhood. It makes its Sydney professional debut in March. Gypsy, the Broadway musical based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee, with a celebrated Jule Styne / Stephen Sondheim score, is packed with classic songs including ‘Let Me Entertain You’, ‘Some People’, ‘Everything’s Coming Up Roses’ and the iconic
Laura Bunting and Blazey Best in Gypsy. Photo: Phil Erbacher.
George, which played to packed houses at the same venue. Perth Black Swan stages Stephen Sondheim’s multiple Tony Award winning musical Assassins at the Heath Ledger Theatre in June. Directed by Roger Hodgman, Assassins is described as a timely reminder that those in power ignore the marginalised in society at their peril. 1980s pop culture takes centre stage at Black Swan in October with a most intriguing new work - XENIDES, by Clare Watson and collaborators. It’s a musical exposé about Adriana Xenides, the 1980s game show hostess from Australia’s ‘Wheel of Fortune’, with original compositions by electronic pop group The Twoks.
Queensland In June, art deco design will come to the Lyric Theatre, QPAC, courtesy of Opera Q’s production of The Merry Widow. The new production, directed and choreographed by the acclaimed Graeme Murphy, will star David ‘Rose’s Turn’. Blazey Best will play by Louis Nowra & Stewart D’arrietta in Hobson (Count Danilo) and Natalie archetypal stage mom Rose, with October. Set in Texas, Queensland Christie Peluso (the Merry Widow). Laura Bunting as Louise, in an intimate during the terrible floods, a New York Opera Q’s Ruddigore, Or The production in May. university professor has escaped to the Witch’s Curse! returns for a regional American Psycho plays in July. safety of a railway waiting room where tour from August. Lindy Hume’s he meets his arch enemy in Sherlock Based on Bret Easton Ellis’ 1991 production of Gilbert & controversial best-selling novel, and Holmes studies. Sullivan’s Ruddigore, or the Witch’s featuring classic 80s hits from Phil Little Triangle will stage Merrily We Curse! will tour to the Gold Coast, Collins, Tears for Fears, New Order and Roll Along at The Depot Theatre in Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville, Huey Lewis and the News, this musical March, following their acclaimed initial Cairns and Toowoomba. tells the story of Patrick Bateman, a production of Sunday in the Park with young, handsome and wealthy investment banker living in the epicentre of excess: Manhattan during the Wall Street Boom of the late 1980s. In October, new Australian musical Evie May: A Tivoli Story takes the stage, telling a tale of the dying days of the Tivoli variety circuit. Andrew Lloyd Webber makes his Hayes debut with Aspects of Love. The heart-breaking romantic musical, set against the backdrop of post-war France and Italy from the 1940s through to the 1960s, will receive a new intimate production. Elsewhere in Sydney, the Old Fitz Theatre hosts the World Premiere of new Australian musical Sherlock & Me www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 31
Mainstage theatre companies are staging the largest number of World Premieres of Australian plays in years for their 2018 seasons. Many look like they might become classics. Advance Australian Plays A few years ago Andrew Upton, then Sydney Theatre Company Artistic Director, was in New York touring the company’s latest international blockbuster starring his wife Cate Blanchett, when someone asked him why he didn’t tour an Australian play. Upton is reputed to have replied that he struggled to find one good enough to take to New York. Upton’s STC successor Kip Williams has gone in a different direction. Eleven of the STC’s 16 plays next year are penned by Australian writers. The centrepiece of the STC season will be The Harp in the South: Part One and Part Two, adapted by Kate Mulvany from Ruth Park’s classic trilogy of novels. Set in the gritty streets of post-World War Two Sydney, it has a cast of eighteen, in a performance stretching over five hours. Now wouldn’t that be a more interesting play to take to New York? But the STC isn’t alone in adapting Australian literary classics. Sydney’s Belvoir Theatre is teaming up with Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne to stage Bliss, a new stage adaptation by Tom Wright of Peter Carey’s iconic Miles Franklin Award-
Seasons 2018
Online extras! Hear from Gina Riley, who leads MTC’s An Ideal Husband. Simply scan or visit https://youtu.be/NkP4kBuXDb8 32 Stage Whispers November - December 2017
winning novel. It will investigate whether Australia is Heaven on earth, or is it Hell? Another sweeping drama having its World Premiere at the STC is The Long Forgotten Dream by Ngarrindjeri writer H Lawrence Sumner. Inspired by true stories of stolen bones in Australia’s past, it is a sweeping family epic which examines four generations of history in a rural community. Meanwhile, the STC and Malthouse Theatre are co-producing Blackie Blackie Brown: The Traditional Owner of Death by Nakkiah Lui. It’s about an archaeologist who transforms into an arse-kicking Indigenous superhero with supernatural powers, tracking down descendants of those who killed her ancestors. Australia’s most prolific playwright will be represented by two new plays. Queensland Theatre is staging the World Premiere of David Williamson’s Nearer the Gods, about how Isaac Newton’s greatest discovery almost didn’t happen, while Sydney’s Ensemble Theatre will present the premiere of Sorting Out Rachel, Williamson’s new social comedy about legacy, entitlement and making good on past relationships. Williamson’s new comedy is one of three World Premieres with which the Ensemble is celebrating its 60th anniversary. Reg Livermore returns to the stage in his new play, The Widow Unplugged, whilst Unqualified, written and performed by Genevieve Hegney
and Catherine Moore, features two women who smash into each other at Centrelink, then decide to start a temporary employment agency but they’ve got no employees. Two football codes will take to our main stages in 2018. Queensland Theatre (in a coproduction with JUTE Theatre Company) presents the World Premiere of The Longest Minute by Robert Kronk and Nadine McDonald-Dowd, a story about football and family and one unforgettable NRL grand final (the 2015 North Queensland v Brisbane thriller). The play will premiere in Cairns and Townsville before playing Brisbane. The State Theatre Co of South Australia opens the year with In The Club by Patricia Cornelius, which explores the off-field culture surrounding AFL players and their treatment of women. Many other facets of contemporary Australian society will be played out on our stages in 2018 Lethal Indifference by Anna Barnes (at STC) tells a story of a young woman’s growing awareness, in a play which is also a meditation on society’s complicity in domestic violence. Still Point Turning: The Catherine McGregor Story by Priscilla Jackman, based on interviews with transgender woman Catherine McGregor, is a theatrical portrayal of one of our country’s most intriguing public figures. (Continued on page 34)
MTC’s An Ideal Husband. Photo: Justin Ridler.
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(Continued from page 33)
Queensland Theatre and Malthouse Theatre will co-produce Good Muslim Boy, adapted for the stage from Osamah Sami’s memoir about the hilarious observations of a young man adjusting to the realities of living in a post 9/11 world. Sydney’s Griffin Theatre opens 2018 with Kill Climate Deniers, David Finnigan’s controversial take on the climate change ‘debate’ in Australia. Also at Griffin is Brooke Robinson’s Good Cook. Friendly. Clean. - an examination of homelessness and the housing crisis. Belvoir is premiering The Sugar House by Alana Valentine, a story of how Australia changed from working class to middle class, set in the back streets of Pyrmont. STCSA premieres two new plays about regional South Australia. Fleur Kilpatrick’s Terrestrial, set in a regional town on the brink of implosion, will tour regionally. In Port Pirie, local playwright Elena Carapetis’ The Gods Of Strangers explores the stories of her Greek and Cypriot family’s post war immigrant experience. Illegal theatre company Belarus Free Theatre will join forces with a team of Australian theatremakers at Malthouse to present the world premiere of Trustees, about the mechanics of authority, selfcensorship and freedom of speech in Australia. At National Theatre of Parramatta, Julian Larnach’s Flight Paths
is a coming-of-age story of two young women exploring Australia’s place in the world. The Girl and The Woman, two plays by Aanisa Vylet, are the stories of two generations of Australian Arab-Muslim women. (Generation 3): Sleeplessness maps an Australian story about women revealing the impact of migration and institutionalisation on families, interrogating the experiences of three generations of women from 1920s Budapest to Western Sydney today. The STC and Malthouse Theatre are staging the World Premiere of Going
Online extras! Director Lee Lewis discusses Griffin’s Theatre Company’s Kill Climate Deniers. https://vimeo.com/225363313 34 Stage Whispers November - December 2017
Down by Michele Lee, a Sex and The City inspired romp through the neighbourhoods of Melbourne. Combining storytelling and cabaret, The Orchid and the Crow is Daniel Tobias’ comedic and outrageous look at faith, sex and identity, after he finds out he had Stage Four testicular cancer. Black Swan is staging a unique West Australian work called Skylab by Melodie Reynolds-Diarra, a 70s sci-fi comedy set in Esperance; it’s the company’s first co-production with Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company. Perhaps the Melbourne Theatre Company’s most exciting new work is the World Premiere of Astroman by Albert Belz, a coming of age story about a video games and maths genius who is always getting into strife, set in 1980’s Geelong. Independent Theatre Companies which do not receive any Government subsidy are also doing their bit. Sydney’s Old Fitz is presenting Permission to Spin by Mary Rachel Brown, about a rich but unhappy rock star who becomes a children’s entertainer. Also at the Old Fitz, King of Pigs by Steve Rodgers features one woman and four men. She could be with any one of them; at twentytwo on a date on the Gold Coast, at thirtyone moving into an apartment in Albert Park, or at forty, happily married with a nine-year-old son living in Campsie. Albury’s Hothouse Theatre joins forces with Sydney’s Sport for Jove to premiere The River at the End of the Road by Caleb Lewis, inspired by the
Griffin Theatre Company’s Kill Climate Deniers.
Murray River and described as an epic Huck Finn-style adventure. Flo and her dad live alone on the edge of the river, with Mum gone and dad busy operating the ferry. Every twenty years, a huge festival is held in the dry riverbed for a night and a day. Absent pets return home and families reunite, as the living and the lost come together for one last time. Sport for Jove will also premiere Alana Valentine’s Ear to the Edge of Time, the result of extended conversations, interviews and observations of radio astronomers working in the field of neutron star physics. The play describes what pulsars are and how they spin, what is inside them and what they tell us about the science of the universe as a metaphor for the relationship of art and science.
Yael Stone in STC’s Saint Joan. Photo: Renee Vaile.
Seasons 2018
Reviving Australian Plays Acclaimed productions of recent Australian plays will reach new audiences. Two Queensland (Continued on page 36)
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Amy Mathews as Olive and Kelton Pell as Roo in Black Swan’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. Photo: Cameron Etchells.
(Continued from page 35)
After Dinner by Andrew Bovell (STCSA) and Summer of the Seventeenth Doll productions will have seasons at Belvoir by Ray Lawler (Black Swan). - My Name is Jimi (Jan) and Single Asian Female (Mar). STC hit Black is the Australian Premieres New White by Nakkiah Lui will visit MTC and Arts Centre Melbourne Wollongong, Parramatta and Canberra. present the Australian premiere of National Theatre of Parramatta’s National Theatre’s international hit production of Jane Harrison’s Stolen production of The Curious Incident of will tour to Orange, Griffith, Cessnock, the Dog in the Night-Time, adapted by Tamworth and Byron Bay. Queensland Simon Stephens from Mark Haddon’s Theatre will present Jasper Jones. best-selling book. Picnic at Hanging Rock returns to Olivier Award-winning playwright Malthouse for an encore season ahead Mike Bartlett’s darkly comic twist on of its UK transfer for a season at The the Edward Snowden story, Wild, Barbican Centre. makes its Australian premiere at MTC. Revivals of Australian plays include Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s blistering satire and Pulitzer Prize finalist Gloria A Cheery Soul by Patrick White (STC), 36 Stage Whispers November - December 2017
makes its Australian premiere at MTC under the direction of Lee Lewis, starring Lisa McCune in the title role. A Doll’s House, Part 2 by Lucas Hnath makes its Australian premiere at MTC, continuing Ibsen’s story - 15 years later - with an intriguing and decidedly modern perspective starring Marta Dusseldorp as Nora opposite Greg Stone as her husband Torvald. Sydney’s Ensemble Theatre will present three Australian Premieres. John Bell and John Gaden will star in Diplomacy by Cyril Gely, a thriller based on Hitler’s orders to destroy Paris as the Nazis abandoned the city in 1944. Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer nominated play Marjorie Prime explores the mysteries of human identity and the limits - if any - of what technology can replace. Georgie Parker stars in the Australian premiere of Luna Gale by Rebecca Gilman, a drama surrounding a veteran social worker’s decision to place the infant daughter of two teenage drug addicts with the child’s grandmother. MTC and Sydney Theatre Company will co-produce the Australian premiere of The Children by British playwright Lucy Kirkwood - an incisive Broadway bound drama about the responsibility each generation faces in leaving a better world for those that follow. UK-based theatre company Complicité will team up with Malthouse Theatre for the Australian premiere of A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer, an uproarious and moving show about newfound friendships, pain and death, mundane treatment cycles, hairlessness and scars... with songs. The Australian premiere of Stephen Karam’s 2016 Tony Award winner for Best Play, comedy-drama The Humans, will be produced at Sydney’s intimate Old Fitz Theatre. Griffin will present the Australian premiere of The Almighty Sometimes by London-based Aussie expat Kendall Feaver. It looks at the complex terrain of parenting, the choices you make in your child’s best interests and what can happen when you no longer have a say. (Continued on page 38)
Malthouse’s Ich Nibbber Dibber. Photo: Document Photography.
Seasons 2018
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Seasons 2018
Online extras! Geoffrey Rush discusses reuniting with Director Simon Phillips in Twelfth Night. https://youtu.be/d-D8ywi73E0
Geoffrey Rush in MTC’s Twelfth Night. Photo: Justin Ridler.
(Continued from page 36)
Starry Classics The casts of classics and revivals across the country are studded with star names. Melbourne Theatre Company will close its 2018 season reuniting Geoffrey Rush with director Simon Phillips to star as Malvolio in Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night. MTC’s season also features Gina Riley and William McInnes leading an all-star cast including Simon Gleeson, Brent Hill, Michelle Lim Davidson, Zindzi Okenyo and Christie Whelan
Browne in Oscar Wilde’s effervescent society drama An Ideal Husband, directed by Dean Bryant. Sydney Theatre Company’s season will feature Hugo Weaving in Bertolt Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Jane Turner in Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Yael Stone in George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan and Helen Thomson in Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls. Adelaide will see Belvoir’s production of Brian Friel’s Faith Healer, with Judy Davis directing her husband Colin Friels.
Judy Davis will also direct Colin Friels, Pamela Rabe and Toby Schmitz in The Dance of Death, a deliciously venomous, masterpiece portrayal of a crumbling marriage, laced with black comedy and humour, at Belvoir, where Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, updated by Melissa Reeves, will star Kate Mulvany as Katherine Stockmann, who finds herself shunned from society when she speaks inconvenient environmental truths. Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night will be staged with new original songs by maestro Tim Finn at Queensland Theatre.
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London Calling By Peter Pinne According to The Sun newspaper, singer Adele, 29, in a total career twist, is in talks for her first Hollywood movie - to play Nancy in a new screen adaptation of the musical Oliver! It would be the first acting role for the multiple Grammy winner, who said in June she was finished with touring. Adele’s previous brush with Hollywood was penning the Oscar winning song for the James Bond film Skyfall. Cameron Mackintosh together with Working Title Films, who previously brought the musical version of Les Misérables to the screen, are producing the movie which is also rumoured to star Eddie Redmayne as Fagin. Redmayne has always wanted to play the role since appearing as one of the workhouse boys in a stage production of the musical directed by Sam Mendes. Based on Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist, the musical has a score by Lionel Bart and was originally filmed in 1968 with Ron Moody as Fagin and Shani Wallis as Nancy. It won six Oscars including Best Picture. Musical Theatre tragics should mark 16 November on their calendar, as that’s the date the National Theatre’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies will be screened to cinemas live. Blessed with almost unanimous five-star raves, the production stars Imelda Staunton as Sally, Janie Dee as Phyllis, Philip Quast as Ben and Peter Forbes as Buddy. Staunton was called a “bona fide national treasure”, Dee “witheringly sardonic”, while Quast’s Ben “transmits a sense of self-asphyxiation that leaves an audience catching its breath.” The production itself was called “jaw-droppingly great”, “towering” and “bleak and beautiful”. One critic claimed “There’s nothing like a Stephen Sondheim musical to make you wonder what the hell everybody else is playing at” and another said “It’s become commonplace to say that Follies is structurally flawed, and it is, and it doesn’t matter. The cracks are where its beauties lie.” It closes 3 January. Sheffield Theatres’ production of Tom MacRae’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is due to open at the Apollo Theatre in November. John McCrea, who created the role of Jamie in the original Sheffield production, will reprise his role in the West End, as will Josie Walker, who returns to play his mother, Margaret. The musical is based on a BBC Three documentary about 16 year-old drag queen Jamie Campbell and has music by The Feeling front man Dan Gillespie Sells. The cast also includes Tamsin Carroll, Daniel Davids and Mina Anwar. Jonathan Butterell directs, with choreography by Kate Prince. It previews from 6 November, opens officially on the 22nd and plays until 21st April 2018. Connor McPherson’s play Girl from the North Country, which features the music of Bob Dylan and is currently playing at the Old Vic, is to transfer to the Noël Coward Theatre where it will run from the 29th December until 31st March 2018. The original cast included Ciaran Hinds, Sheila Atim, Ron Cook, Bronagh Gallagher and Shirley Henderson,
Online extras! Check out the trailer for Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. Scan or visit https://youtu.be/OkfFvizbpf0 but it is not known if they will all transfer to the West End. The story is set in the town of Duluth (where Dylan grew up) and tells the stories of the numerous visitors who pass through a guest house. McPherson, who also directed the piece, wrote the play after the songwriter’s management approached him to write a work using Dylan’s songs. “Like a Rolling Stone”, “I want you” and “Forever Young” are just some of the tunes used in the production. Artistic Director Rufus Norris has announced the National Theatre’s 2018 season, which includes the first production of a Eugene Ionesco play by the company. A new version of Ionesco’s Exit the King has been written by Patrick Marber, who will also direct. It stars Rhys Ifans as a King who appears to be able to control nature and make others obey him. Indira Varma also stars. It plays the Olivier in July. Prior to that, in May, Ian Rickson directs Brian Friel’s Translations, which features Colin Morgan (Merlin) in his National Theatre debut. Spring will see two new Shakespearean productions, Antony and Cleopatra with Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo, and Macbeth with Rory Kinnear and Anne-Marie Duff. Also in July, Sam Mendes returns to direct Stefano Massini’s The Lehman Trilogy, translated by Ben Power. The play looks at the 160-year history of the Lehman family, who founded the successful American financial firm Lehman Brothers. In Autumn, the Littelton houses David Hare’s play about the Labour Party I’m Not Running, to be directed by Neil Armfield. April sees Joe Hill-Gibbins directing Rodney Ackland’s Absolute Hell in the same space, while Polly Stenham’s adaptation of Strindberg’s Miss Julie (retitled Julie), runs in June, directed by Carrie Cracknell and starring Vanessa Kirby. The Dorfman line-up includes Francis Turnly’s The Great Wave and Natasha Gordon’s Nine Night, whilst the Orange Tree Theatre features Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ An Octoroon and Laura Wade’s Home, I’m Darling. The new British musical The Grinning Man is set to transfer to Trafalgar Studios, where it will open 5 December. The musical, which had its World Premiere at Bristol Old Vic last year, has a book by Carl Grose and is based on the Victor Hugo novel about an orphan named Grinpayne, who is scarred with a smile so horrible he has to use a bandage to hide it. It has music by Tim Phillips and Marc Teitler, with lyrics by Grose, Phillips and director Tom Morris. Louis Maskell and Julian Bleach, who starred in the Bristol run, will reprise their roles in the West End. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 39
Stage on Page By Peter Pinne
FIFTY - Half a century of Australian Dance Theatre by Maggie Tonkin (Wakefield Press $75) Fifty celebrates 50 years of Adelaide’s Australian Dance Theatre, which was founded by Elizabeth Cameron Dalman two years before La Mama opened in 1965. It was not Australia’s first modern dance group Gertrud Bodenwieser and Margaret Barr were established in Sydney and Shirley McKechnie in Melbourne - but it was the first in Adelaide to shake-up the foundations of dance in that city. Dalman, a descendent of two of Adelaide’s oldest ‘establishment’ families, the Bonythons and the Cameron Wilsons, had studied Isadora Duncan inspired dance in Adelaide before embarking on a life-changing European experience which saw her working with African-American choreographer Eleo Pomare. Along with ex-Royal Ballet soloist Leslie White, she founded the ADT in 1965 and they performed both classical and modern works. The company, kept afloat with funds from Dalman’s dance school, was able to tour successfully to Europe, Asia, New Guinea and New Zealand. They received their first public funding under Don Dunstan’s regime in 1971, but with it came government control. After successfully steering the company for 10 years, Dalman and her company were unceremoniously sacked following a performance at Sydney’s Seymour Centre. Since then the company has been plagued by a litany of abrupt dismissals and sackings. Jonathon Taylor, ex-Ballet Rambert, and wife Ariette, followed Dalman’s reign where for a period between 1977 and 1984 the company was funded not only by the South Australian government but also by the Victorian Government on the understanding they toured each year to Victoria. Leigh Warren, also exBallet Rambert and Nederlands Dance Theatre, was appointed artistic director in 1987 but was terminated 40 Stage Whispers November - December 2017
in 1991, one year before his contract was due to expire. Meryl Tankard followed and was tremendously successful but even she was prematurely dismissed. Her sacking, which became very public, caused such an outcry that the government was forced to step-in, and following a review change the make-up of the Board. The current artistic director Garry Stewart was appointed in 2000. Maggie Tonkin writes with candour and a profound understanding of the genre. Each artistic director has been interviewed and in their own words tell the history of the company during their tenure. Taylor’s ground-breaking multi-media works Wildstars and High Flyers are discussed along with the controversial - Nigel Kellaway’s Fantastic Toys, and A Descent into the Maelstrom with a score by Philip Glass, Tankard’s Furioso and Stewart’s Birdbath, which has been seen at major theatres in New York and Paris. According to Tonkin, under Stewart’s direction ADC has become Australia’s most internationally recognised contemporary dance company. Tonkin’s prose is authoritative, with an emphasis on the company’s artistic achievements. A handsome publication, it features rehearsal and performance photographs and an index.
LA MAMA by Adam Cass (Melbourne University Publishing $55.00) Melbourne’s home of experimental theatre La Mama celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in August 2017 and this book by playwright Adam Cass lovingly captures the eras in essays, cartoons and photographs from the practitioners who built their careers at this venerable institution. When Betty Burstall founded La Mama in 1967 it filled a niche in Melbourne’s theatrical life that had been without an alternative theatre since Wal Cherry had closed Emerald Hill Theatre at the end of 1966. Jack Hibberd’s Three Old Friends was its opening production and what followed was a series of seminal works by playwrights who were at the forefront of the Australian playwriting renaissance of the seventies; Barry Oakley, Alex Buzo, Barry Dickens, John Romeril and David Williamson (The Removalists). Major playwrights to emerge in later years were Elizabeth Coleman, Tes Lyssiotis and Andrew Bovell. Blue chip actors who have trodden La Mama’s boards include Cate Blanchett and Judy Davis, whilst Graeme Blundell and Bruce Spence made auspicious debuts in productions by the Australian Performing Group, who were based at the theatre before they moved to the Pram Factory in 1970. Malcolm Robertson, a contract actor at the Union Repertory Theatre Company (later Melbourne Theatre Company), was a great supporter and director at the theatre in its early years because it exclusively championed new Australian work at a time when the major companies (MTC/St Martins) would be lucky to programme one Australian work a year. Robertson was also responsible for MTC performing part of their subscription season at the theatre in 1975. Poets, folk-singers, film-makers and artists were encouraged in the early years - nothing was off-limits provided it pushed the creative envelope. Performance art always created a stir. James Clayton’s late-night show consisted of him slowly wrapping and
his follow-up book to Little Black Bastard, basically tells of his success in London and his coming to terms with his Aboriginality. He sketches in his childhood, which included poverty and sexual abuse, his early appearances as a chorus boy in J.C. Williamsons’ Paint Your Wagon and Garnet Carroll’s Bells are Ringing and The Music Man, and getting married on the eve of his departure for England. From dancing on ITV’s Saturday Night Spectacular, ballet at Sadlers Wells Opera, to his biggest West End success as director/choreographer unwrapping himself in bandages, whilst Howard Stanley, in his Dada phase, sat on a toilet and defecated. During the 1980s a whole lot of scents (like fresh-cut grass) were bottled and released at strategic times during a show. But this book is a salute to the unsung, the people behind-thescenes, everyone from Burstall and her co-artistic director Liz Jones, to publicist Maureen Hartley and anyone who lit the fire, made the coffee, or sold the tickets. Set down a bluestone back lane in Carlton and seating less than 100, the two-story brick building, a former underwear and shirt factory, was named after its New York East Village namesake and became Melbourne’s hub of experimental theatre. Cass, a playwright who is best known for his play I Love You, Bro, has done an exceptional job of harnessing together the creative forces that made the theatre what it is today. Lavishly produced, illustrated with photos, cartoons, and containing a comprehensive index, it’s a marvellous walk down Australian alternative theatre history and a marvellous birthday gift to a theatre that became an institution. NOEL TOVEY - And Then I Found Me (Magabala Books $33) Noel Tovey is also a name from the annals of La Mama, having performed his one-man-show Little Black Bastard there in 2015. And Then I Found Me,
of the revival of Sandy Wilson’s The Boy Friend, it’s a familiar story of the highs and lows of an actor in England during the 60s, 70s and 80s. Tovey choreographed the West End version of the nude revue Oh! Calcutta, which he later was contracted to repeat in Australia but which was aborted twice. His production of Birds of a Feather made history in that it was the first all-male revue to appear in the West End, while Arnold Schoenberg’s Moses Und Aron was praised for its realistic orgy scene, courtesy of Tovey. During the 80s his passion for decorative arts saw him open L’Odeon in Kings Road, Chelsea, which became one of the most successful art-deco shops in London. Tovey never met a celebrity name he didn’t like. Everyone gets a mention, from Rod Stewart, a visitor to his shop, to Barbra Streisand who sat in the balcony when he took over as understudy in Ron Grainer’s West End flop On the Level. He doesn’t hold back on the details of his personal life, which include the breakdown of his marriage because of his homosexuality, his relationship with his estranged daughter who later died an alcoholic, and his lover Dave dying of AIDS. Show-business is in Tovey’s blood. His grandfather was one of the variety act the Royal Bohee Brothers, and his father played the Tivoli as the Original Coon Singer. They’d be proud of his success and they’d be proud of this book!
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 41
Stage On Disc By Peter Pinne
War Paint (Scott Frankel/Michael Korie) (Ghostlight Records 84515-02). Despite the presence of Broadway royalty, Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole, this score is unlikely to be remembered as one of the greats. In fact you’ll barely remember it when the CD is finished. By the same writers as Grey Gardens, and basically set in the same period (the 1940’s), it tells the story of the professional rivalry between cosmetic queens Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden. Musically the score trades in Kurt Weill dissonance but without his felicitous melody. Both stars get a solo with chorus upfront, Ebersole as Arden with the big-band swing “Behind the Red Door”, while LuPone as Rubinstein belts “Back on Top” in her ‘new’ New York debut. They both get 11-o’clock solos, “Pink” (Ebersole) and “Forever Beautiful” (LuPone), and two duets “Necessity is the Mother of Invention” and the finale “Beauty in the World”. None of them really register because by concentrating only on the women’s professional lives, the songs lack emotion. John Dossett and Douglas Sills score in a duet “Step on Out”, which clones Irving Berlin’s “Stepping out With My Baby”, and Erik Liberman as Charles Revson makes the most of the second-act’s Latin-styled “Fire and Ice”. The lyrics rhyme, and there are lots of them, but there’s no wit and nothing to make you smile. In Frankel and Korie’s eyes the cosmetic business is exceedingly dull.
Natasha enchants on the aria “No One Else” and her duet at the opera with Anatole (“Natasha and Anatole”), sung to an insistent percussive beat. The company excel in their choral work on “Letters” (‘In nineteenth century Russia we write letters’), “The Abduction” (‘Goodbye my Gypsy lovers’) and “Balaga”, with its Jewish folk music that wouldn’t be out of place in Fiddler on the Roof. A previous double-disc cast recording was released by Ghostlight Records in 2013. The song “Dust and Ashes”, not in the original, was added to the Broadway production.
Online extras! Listen to Josh Groban and the cast of The Great Comet. Scan the QR code or visit http://apple.co/2yTpZQO
Jacqueline Dark - Pinning Clouds (Jacqueline Dark). Mezzo-soprano Jacqueline Dark seems to be going for the classical crossover audience on her debut CD, with tracks that mix Barry Manilow’s “One Voice” with the Pilgrims Chorus from Wagner’s Tannhauser and another that melds Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from Carousel with Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “The Lark Ascending”. It sounds pretentious but it actually works quite well thanks to some excellent arrangements for piano, violin and cello by musical director Daryl Wallis. His arrangements also take centre stage on a Sondheim medley “I Know Things Now You Know”, with its attractive recurring piano underscore. Dark, who played the Mother Abbess in the recent production of The Sound of Music, repeats her performance of the stirring “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” and enlists the aid of the children’s chorus from Online extras! the production (billed here as The Purple Parrots), in a Get yourself a copy of War Paint on youthfully vibrant “Our Time” (Merrily We Roll Along). A iTunes. Simply scan the QR code or visit track from Mozart, “Gold von den http://apple.co/2yT708V Sternen” (“Gold from the Stars”), sung in German and English, is The Great Comet (Dave Malloy) (Reprise 560020-2). The something way out of left field, 2CD recording of the Broadway cast of Dave Malloy’s The but Leonard Cohan’s “Hallelujah”, Great Comet is seductively addictive. Based on a 78 page a duet with Opera Australia’s slice of Leo Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace, the sungKanen Breen, is along more through pop-opera follows the love affair between Natasha traditional lines. and Anatole in 1912 Russia. Variations of three-quarter time, Russian folk and Klezmer feature in a score that mixes rock, pop, soul and electronic dance with traditional Online extras! Broadway. The lyric style is original in that frequently Pick up a CD of Jacqueline Dark’s Pinning characters refer to themselves in the third person and that Clouds! Simply scan the QR code or visit the stage directions are sung. http://bit.ly/2ySkNwr Josh Groban leads the company as Pierre and his voice thrills constantly, particularly on “Dust and Ashes” (‘Is this how I die?’), which follows a duel, and “Pierre and Rating Anatole”, a duet with the golden-voiced Lucas Steele, who Only for the enthusiast Borderline almost outsings him. Denée Benton as the adulterous Worth buying Must have Kill for it 42 Stage Whispers November - December 2017
Vera Lynn - 100 (Decca 5737270). In 2009 at the age of 92 Vera Lynn became the oldest living artist to top the UK Album charts. This new CD, released on her 100th birthday this year, takes Lynn’s previous vocal tracks and adds them to new orchestral versions of her hits. Not surprisingly it reached No. 3 on the album charts. None of the new arrangements are as inventive as the recent Barbra Streisand/Anthony Newley coupling of “Who Can I Turn To?” from the Encore album, but they are enjoyable in a traditional way. Tenor Alfie Boe joins her for “We’ll Meet Again”, game show host Alexander Armstrong does likewise on “(There’ll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover”, soprano Cynthia Erivo duets on “When You Wish upon a Star” (Pinnochio), and Welsh favourite Aled Jones adds gravitas to “As Time Goes By” (Casablanca). There’s a nice version of “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” (New Faces) with The Ayoub Sisters on cello and violin, a brisk “Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye” (Shipyard Sally), and a big finish with the RAF Squadronaires joining her on “Yours”. Accompaniment is by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Brighton Festival Chorus, conducted by James Morgan. Like a BBC period drama, it’s all pleasantly nostalgic.
Online extras! Pick up your copy of Vera Lynn 100 on iTunes. Scan the QR code or visit http://apple.co/2ySl6HB Liz Callaway - The Essential (Working Girl Records). This collection is basically a career run-down of one of Broadway’s favourite performers, who recently visited Brisbane for solo concerts. Starting as a teenager back in the eighties in Merrily We Roll Along, and following with a stint in Cats, a Tony nomination in Baby, to voicing Anastasia in the 1997 animated movie, the song-stack features tracks from all of them, some previously released and others recorded live. Callaway’s version of “Journey to the Past” (Anastasia) is just lovely, as is her “Once Upon a December” from the same movie; she salutes her time in Merrily We Roll Along with “Not a Day Goes By”; sings “Memory” from Cats and “The Story Goes On” from Baby. She is the master of story songs and the album contains a good sampling of them, the best being “I’ll Be Here” (Ordinary Days) and the achingly real “Since You Stayed Here” (Brownstone). There’s a brilliantly clever Sondheim
send-up “Another Hundred Lyrics”, a bouncy “Downtown”, a soaring “My Heart Is So Full of You” (The Most Happy Fella), and a breathtakingly lyrical “Meadowlark” (The Baker’s Wife).
Online extras! Sing along to Liz Callaway’s collection of Broadway hits on The Essential. http://apple.co/2yS9l47 Jemma Rix - Gravity (Various) (jemmarix.com). Australia’s favourite green witch Jemma Rix has just released her first album, a collection of songs from shows in which she has appeared and songs from scores she admires. It’s a showcase of bravura performances from one of our most talented leading ladies. Two songs from Ghost, “Nothing Stops Another Day” and the hauntingly lovely “With You”, two from Jekyll and Hyde, the power-ballad “Someone Like You” and “Dangerous Game”, a duet with Kane Alexander, and two from Wicked, “I’m Not That Girl” and her definitive version of “Defying Gravity”, which finally makes it to disc. Rob Mills joins her for a low-key “Falling Slowly” from Once, she gives her pop-diva full reign on Queen’s “Somebody to Love” and sparks her Latin fire on Andrew Lippa’s “Raise the Roof” from The Wild Party. It’s a great album of contemporary show tunes and one to play often.
Online extras! Leading lady Jemma Rix’s first album Gravity is available to download now. http://apple.co/2ySj9ef
www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 43
Snobbery I had a meeting with the Artistic Director of a major inner city theatre run by a local council. I brought up the subject of the lack of producers. I told her my theory of momentum, for she, like most theatres, wanted premieres. In the meeting I brought up the fact that I’d just been to see a mate in a play in an outer Melbourne suburban venue. It was an amateur production of some obscure French play (amateur, a word so often used with derision). Now, not only did it have a jaw dropping set, but the house was full. Over four hundred paying people. I asked the old guy sitting next to me, “Do you come to the theatre a lot?” “Nuh,” he replied. “Only just started.” Getting a new play or musical up is not impossible. But restaging it in “Why?” I asked. the same city within a time frame that capitalises on the momentum is “Because,” he said, “there is shit on much more difficult. Melbourne playwright Michael Griffith wrote and TV.” produced a new Australian play that had success at its first outing, but It was a “Eureka” moment. For a taking the next step proved more difficult. wannabe producer it was like finding Eldorado. This was a wintery I write a lot of plays. I love it. I’m able to get some funding for that. I Wednesday night in the suburbs; just one of a dispersed yet passionate know someone who’s great at writing according to everyone I knew, this play group of artists addicted to creating grants. I hear there’s a new course in should have been Driving Miss Daisy and staging new theatre. If you lay your writing grants. You have to do it. and the theatre should have been ear to the theatrical ground you’ll hear Could it be possible that we have an almost empty. us discussing auditions, participating in industry so hooked on getting funding, So, let’s redefine this. Amateur readings, organising rehearsals, sucking that they try to appease the grant givers production, great set, 400 strong up to indifferent mass media outlets rather than concentrating on telling the audience. Lower rung professional and dreaming of breaking through the actual and marketable story? production, little to no set and an encrusted top soil to let our theatrical endeavours replenish the forest above us. Unfortunately there are a few problems stymieing this creative and economic growth. Whatever the answer, funding isn’t audience of twenty, two thirds of which show business, it’s show charity. When the cast are related to. Hello? Funding the Federal Government cut funding to It was then, while talking about this, I often hear voices from every rung several theatre companies, many of that this inner city Artistic Director shut stating that there should be more them went under. Good! My feeling is me down. She said she’d never heard of funding, or, even more often, I hear that funding should be used to help the outer suburban theatre, and when voices claiming it’s too exclusive. minorities tell their stories, and to assist we told her its location she said she The fact that in our industry the promising new companies to blossom. doubted she could be dragged there, word funding often trumps content is a But not to survive. Striving for economic ever! And I’m not stating this to put her problem. Our language drips with the independence should be the goal for down, but to emphasise how this word - Do you have funding? Have you everyone. exclusive thinking, snobbery, is applied for funding? Oh, you should be 44 Stage Whispers November - December 2017
L-R: The Magnolia Tree actors Rohana Hayes, Ezra Bix and Helen Hopkins. Inset: Ezra Bix as Jack in The Magnolia Tree.
hampering the ability for producers to thrive. What she should have said was, “400 people? I want that play!” But she wouldn’t say that because most inner city theatres want premieres, which brings us to our second biggest problem.
We only had a two week season, and despite doing the usual thing of rehearsing in living rooms and having no marketing budget or any stars in the cast, it went off. We attracted several stellar reviews, had 9 out of 11 full houses, with the Momentum last shows having waiting lists. We even We have an industry that doesn’t had the esteemed Simon Phillips and care about milking momentum. Or the MTC turn up to see what all the fuss rather their number one concern isn’t, was about. bizarrely, “bums on seats”. And from a Then, after we finished, Liz Jones, business perspective that is just stupid. the Artistic Director of La Mama, told OMG, have we funded ourselves into a me they were fielding loads of calls grant friendly, politically correct, elitist from people wanting to see it and quagmire that borders on being wanting to know when it would be on predictably inconsequential? again. The play had been transformed Recently one of my plays, The into a product. Now the business man Magnolia Tree, premiered at La Mama. in me wanted to put it on straight away. Why not? The cast was enthused, In the play three siblings had come together to choose a nursing home for and, more importantly, rehearsed up their ailing mother, but then their and I had a waiting audience. Together brother suggested they ‘let her go’ that that equated to profit and wages for all night. His argument was that it was the concerned. actual morally correct thing to do and But we could not find a single venue that was interested. It wasn’t that they what mum would want. The other motivation was the poverty of the other were booked up. They wanted characters and the realization of how premieres. Which means they want the much money the nursing home was glory not the business. going to cost. Finally, though, we found a space in At the end of act two the audience another inner city venue. In two votes on which way to go and, to our months, they had two weeks free in shock, three out of four times they their 80 seater venue. The person on voted to kill the mother. To participate the phone quoted us $950 dollars a in the vote was extraordinary. week. We did the maths and it was all Audiences would hang around for good. Profit, here we come. Then the quote changed. Other fees were added, over an hour chatting about how they voted and the issues touched on in the like $150 a show to use their CD player play.
for our one song. The new quote, $2450 a week. After recovering from the shock, we enquired that since the space was probably not going to get filled, something she concurred with, could we negotiate. No, they couldn’t. It was a council run venue. Fully funded. Which meant it had no economic flexibility. We were told that they would prefer to have it empty than offer a lesser fee, even if that was to a new Australian play. Another time I paid to go to a seminar. It was called “How to Produce a Musical in Australia.” My composer and I were very excited. Despite the great feedback our unproduced musical had received, we’d been unable to open a single industry door. When we turned up we discovered over two hundred other artists who, between them, had over a hundred Australian musicals ready to go. Like us they were also lost. On stage were four people. What we wanted was to know how to raise the money. Finally this producer stood up and started and ended his lecture with two words, “Forget it”. In case we couldn’t read between “the lines”, he was forced by an edgy crowd to elaborate. “This is Australia,” he said. “You have no chance.” Why? And no he didn’t say a lack of talent, or passion, and he didn’t say because there weren’t any original ideas. He said, it’s because it’s too hard for a producer to make a buck. Theatres were too expensive. Not just the rent, but all the costs they added on. You want to get your musical up, then go to where show business is an actual business, the USA. Now while some of you may be scoffing, why don’t you go to wherever there is new theatre in your town and with a secret camera-trap, try and take a photo of a self-employed theatre producer. So, what have you got there? No, no, that’s a Thylacine, also known as a Tasmanian Tiger. Congratulations, they’re believed to be extinct. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 45
Stage Briefs
ďƒŹ Millicent Sarre and Mitchell Smith who play Wendla and Melchior in the Hills Musical Company (SA) production of Spring Awakening from November 10 - 25. www.hillsmusical.org.au/tickets. Read more: http://bit.ly/2ySeaKR Photo: Mark Anolak. 46 Stage Whispers November - December 2017
Lane Cove Theatre Company’s young performers are set to appear in Beauty and the Beast - a family-friendly reimagining, adapted and directed by Sarah Edwards from November 10 - 25 at The Performance Space @ St Aidan’s 1 Christina Street, Longueville. Read more: http://bit.ly/2yRWTRN
www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 47
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roadway uzz
By Peter Pinne
Bernadette Peters is to replace Bette Midler in the current Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly! on 20 January 2018. Midler, who won a Tony for her performance, takes her final bow 14 January, after which the show will go dark for one week prior to Peters’ start. David Hyde Pierce will also leave the production with Midler, his role being assumed by Victor Garber. Peters’ last Broadway performance was as Sally Durant in the 2011 revival of Follies, whilst Garber most recently appeared on Broadway in the 2010 revival of Noël Coward’s Present Laughter. They both appeared in the 1997 TV adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, as stepmother and King Maximillian, respectively. Taylor Trensch, who currently plays Barnaby, is also leaving the production to take-over from Ben Platt in Dear Evan Hansen. His replacement is Londoner Charlie Stemp, who recently wowed the critics as Arthur Kipps in the West End revival of Half a Sixpence. Hello, Dolly! will mark his Broadway debut. Since it began previews in January the production has been one of Broadway’s hottest tickets and in recent weeks has grossed $2 million per week. There has been much speculation as to who would replace Midler and according to the New York Times, “the casting of the much-loved and much-honoured Peters appears to be a coup for producer Scott Rudin.” And while we’re talking Hello, Dolly!, Masterworks Broadway has announced the Bette Midler cast recording is to be released on Vinyl on 17 November. It will feature a gate -fold package plus 20-page book featuring production photos, lyrics, and liner notes. The cover returns to the original colour scheme of the 1964 cast album, paying homage to that release. Other recent Broadway vinyl releases include Dear Evan Hanson, Hamilton and SpongeBob SquarePants. Jerry Mitchell (Legally Blonde/Kinky Boots) will direct and choreograph the new Broadway-bound musical Pretty Woman, which is to play a five-week engagement at Chicago’s Oriental Theatre from 13 March to 15 April 2018. Based on the 1990 movie about a Sunset Boulevard prostitute who falls in love with a corporate raider, the musical will star Samantha Barks (Les Misérables), in the role made famous by Julia Roberts, and Steve Kazee (Once), in the part famously associated with Richard Gere. Orfeh (Legally Blonde) has been cast as Kit. An original score is being written by the Canadian team of Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance, whose hits include “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You”. The long-in-gestation project has a book by the late Garry Marshall, who directed the movie, and J.F. Lawton, who wrote the original screenplay. Following the Chicago tryout Pretty Woman - The Musical will play Broadway in autumn 2018 at a Nederlander theatre to be announced. A new docu-musical An Enchanted Evening: A Night With 48 Stage Whispers November - December 2017
Oscar Hammerstein II will play an off-Broadway engagement 8-17 December at 777 Theatre, featuring recording artist Doreen Taylor and Davis Gaines (The Phantom of the Opera). The show, which debuted in Philadelphia last August, traces Hammerstein’s path to becoming one of the most important lyricists of all time. The musical includes personal stories and rarely seen images and videos gathered by William Hammerstein, the lyricist’s grandson. Proceeds from the season will be donated to help save Highland Farm in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Oscar Hammerstein’s home and the birthplace of several Rodgers and Hammerstein classics; Oklahoma!, South Pacific, Carousel, The King and I and The Sound of Music. The Oscar Hammerstein II Museum and Theatre Education Center will use the proceeds to restore the house for tours, a museum, and a new theatre. Mary Rodgers’ enormously popular novel Freaky Friday, the inspiration for Disney films in 1976, 1995 and 2003, is to have another screen adaptation based on a musical version that was staged at La Jolla Playhouse earlier this year. It is set to premiere as a Disney Channel Original Movie in 2018. With music and lyrics by the Tony and Pulitzer-Prize-winning duo Tom Kitt (music) and Brian Yorkey (lyrics), who created Next To Normal, and book by Bridget Carpenter, the musical will star Heidi Blickenstaff, who originated the role of Katherine at La Jolla, with Cozi Zuchlsdorff playing her daughter, Ellie.
Online extras! Meet the team behind La Jolla Playhouse’s version of Freaky Friday. https://youtu.be/YAbrnXq8d48 Claybourne Elder and Annie Golden headed a cast of Kinky Boots, Orange is the New Black and Groundhog Day alumni in a recent workshop of the new musical Stonewall: A Rhapsody of Resistance, about the moments leading up to the violent police raid (and subsequent riots) on the gay Stonewall Inn bar, Greenwich Village, New York, at 1.30am on the morning of Saturday, 28 June 1969. Written and composed by Dave Bates, the workshop was directed by Karen Carpenter, with choreography by Joe Langworth and musical direction by Debra Barsha. The events are seen through the eyes of Mark, a newcomer fresh off a bus from Kansas, who is welcomed with open arms by the regular group of hustlers, lovers and drag queens. The riots are widely considered to constitute the most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States.
On Stage A.C.T.
Canberra Theatre. (02) 6275 2700.
Boys Will Be Boys by Melissa Bubnic. Until Nov 11. The Street Romeo and Juliet. Russian Theatre. (02) 6247 1223. National Ballet Theatre. Nov 30 - Dec 1. The Queanbeyan The Popular Mechanicals by Performing Arts Centre. (02) Keith Robinson, William 6285 6290. Shakespeare and Tony Taylor. Nov 1 - 4. The Playhouse, A Very Kransky Christmas. Canberra Theatre Centre. (02) Kransky Sisters. Canberra 6275 2700. Theatre Centre. Dec 13. (02) 6275 2700. Guys and Dolls. Music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo New South Wales Swerling and Abe Burrows. Beautiful: The Carole King Queanbeyan Players Inc. Nov 3 Musical. Book by Douglas 12. The Queanbeyan Performing McGrath. Words and music by Arts Centre. (02) 6285 6290. Gerry Goffin and Carole King, Australia Day by Jonathan Barry Mann and Cynthia Biggins. Canberra Repertory Weil. Michael Cassel in Society. Nov 16 - Dec 2. Theatre association with Paul Blake & 3. (02) 6257 1950 (10-4 Mon- Sony/ATV Music Publishing & Mike Bosner. Ongoing. Sydney Fri). Lyric Theatre. Mamma Mia! By Benny www.beautifulmusical.com.au Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Catherine Johnson. Michael Buyer and Cellar by Jonathan Coppel, Louis Withers and Linda Tolins. Ensemble Theatre. Until Berwick. Nov 24 - Dec 10. Nov 12. (02) 9929 0644.
A.C.T. & New South Wales The Kitchen Sink by Tom Wells. Wait Until Dark by Frederick Ensemble Theatre. Until Nov 18. Knott, adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher. Arts Theatre Cronulla. (02) 9929 0644. Until Dec 2. (02) 6523 2779. A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller. Old Fitz Theatre. Annie. Music by Charles Until Nov 18. Strouse. Lyrics by Martin www.oldfitztheatre.com Charnin. Book By Thomas Meehan. Tamworth Musical Rent. Book, music and lyrics by Society. Until Nov 11. Capitol Jonathan Larson. Hunter Drama Theatre, Tamworth. and Stoddart Entertainment. www.tms.org.au Until Nov 4. Civic Playhouse, The Anniversary by Bill Newcastle. (02) 4929 1977. MacIlwraith. Woy Woy Little The Wharf Revue 2017. Written Theatre. Until Nov 12. Peninsula & created by Jonathan Biggins, Theatre, Woy Woy. (02) 4344 Drew Forsythe and Phillip Scott. 4737. Sydney Theatre Company. Until Dec 30. Wharf 1. (02) 9250 Bloody Murder by Ed Sala. 1777. Genesian Theatre, Sydney. Until Dec 2. 1300 237 217. Atlantis by Lally Katz. Belvoir. Until Nov 26. Belvoir Upstairs A New Brain. Music and lyrics by William Finn and book by Theatre. (02) 8355 9341. Finn and James Lapine. NUCMS Boeing Boeing by Marc (Normanhurst Uniting Church Camoletti, translated by Beverley Musical Society). Until Nov 4. Cross. The Guild Theatre. Until Normanhurst Uniting Church, Nov 25. The Guild Theatre, Buckingham Avenue, Rockdale. (02) 9521 6358. Normanhurst. www.nucms.org
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Stage Whispers 49
On Stage She Rode Horses Like the Stock Exchange. by Amelia Roper. Until Nov 11. Kings Cross Theatre. www.kingsxtheatre.com
New South Wales
Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov in a new adaptation by Andrew Upton. Sydney Theatre Guys and Dolls. Music and Lyrics Company. Nov 6 - Dec 16. by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera Swerling and Abe Burrows. House. (02) 9250 1777. Move Over, Mrs Markham by Queanbeyan Players Inc. Nov 3 Ray Cooney and John Chapman. 12. The Queanbeyan Performing Muriel’s Wedding - The Musical. Newcastle G and S Comedy Arts Centre. (02) 6285 6290. Book by PJ Hogan. Music and Club. Until Nov 11. St lyrics by Kate Miller-Heidke and Roman and Jules. A Matthew’s Hall, Georgetown Keir Nuttall, with songs by contemporary musical version of Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus (Newcastle). 0432 886 149. the Romeo and Juliet story, by and Stig Anderson originally Plastic by Mark Rogers. Meri Bird. Theatre on Brunker. written for ABBA. Sydney Bodysnatchers. Until Nov 18. Nov 3 - 25. St Stephen’s Hall, Theatre Company / Global Old 505 Theatre, Newtown. Adamstown (Newcastle). (02) Creatures. Nov 6 - Dec 30. www.old505theatre.com 4956 1263. Roslyn Packer Theatre. (02) 9250 1777. The Sound of Music. Music by The Fury of Mungo Fogg by Richard Rodgers, Lyrics by Oscar Kent Mayo (Dinner Theatre). Cock by Mark Bartlett. Stooged Hammerstein II, book by Richmond Players. Nov 4 - 25. Theatre. Nov 9 - 19. Royal Howard Lindsay & Russell Richmond School of Arts. East Exchange, Newcastle. Crouse. Coffs Harbour Musical Market St, Richmond. www.trybooking.com/307980 Comedy Company. Nov 2 - 26. www.richmondplayers.com.au Jetty Memorial Theatre, Coffs Slut: The Play by Katie Cappiello. Disney’s The Jungle Book KIDS. Harbour. (02) 6652 8088. Hunter Drama. Nov 9 - 11. Young People’s Theatre Young Actor‘s Development The Merchant of Venice by Newcastle. Nov 5 - 25. Young Centre, Broadmeadow William Shakespeare. Bell People’s Theatre, Cnr Lindsay & (Newcastle). 1300 367 852. Shakespeare. Until Nov 26. Lawson Streets, Hamilton (Newcastle). (02) 4961 4895.
50 Stage Whispers
Sydney Opera House. (02) 9250 7777.
Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare. Maitland Upstage Theatre. Nov 9 - 18. Maddie‘s, Bolwarra. www.upstageyouththeatre.com.au The Worst Wedding Ever by Chris Chibnall. Sutherland Theatre Company. Nov 10 - 19. Sutherland School of Arts, East Parade, Sutherland. thesutherlandtheatrecompany.com.au Hissyfest 2017: Hot and Cold. Short plays, written to a theme. Tantrum Youth Arts. Nov 10 11. Civic Playhouse, Newcastle. (02) 4929 1977. Monty Python‘s Spamalot. Book and Lyrics by Eric Idle. Music by John Du Prez, Eric Idle and Neil Innes. Bankstown Theatre Company. Nov 10 - 19. Bankstown Arts Centre. 0481 869 858 Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Albatross Musical Theatre Company (Nowra). Nov 10 - 19. Shoalhaven Entertainment
Just $50 a month to reach thousands of theatre goers. Contact Stage Whispers for details.
On Stage
New South Wales
Christa Nicola and Simon London in the Ensemble Theatre production of Taking Steps by Alan Ayckbourn, playing from November 23. Bookings: (02) 9929 0644 or www.ensemble.com.au.
Centre, Nowra.1300 788 503 / Giacomo Puccini. Rockdale www.shoalhavenentertainment.com.au Opera Company. Nov 11 - 19. Rockdale Town Hall, 448 Princes Rumors by Neil Simon. The Hwy, Rockdale. Theatre on Chester. Nov 10 www.rockdaleopera.com.au Dec 2. Cnr Chester St and Oxford St, Epping. (02) 9877 Australia Day by Jonathan 0081 or Biggins. New Theatre. Nov 14 www.theatreonchester.com.au Dec 16. newtheatre.org.au The Sleeping Beauty. Australian Violent Extremism and Other Ballet. Nov 11 - 28. Capitol Adult Party Games by Richie Theatre, Sydney. 1300 558 878. Black. Bazonka Productions. Nov 15 - 25. The Depot Theatre. Mary Poppins. Based on the thedepottheatre.com book by P.L. Travers and the Walt Disney Film. Music and Daisy Moon Was Born This Way lyrics by Richard M. Sherman by Emily Sheehan. Puberty Blues and Robert B Sherman. Book by for the Gaga Generation. Nov Julian Fellows. New Songs by 16 - 25. Joan Sutherland George Stiles and Anthony Performing Arts Centre. (02) Drewe. Lithgow Musical Society. 4723 7600. Nov 11 - Dec 2. Union Theatre, Vicar Of Dibley by Ian Gower & Lithgow. Paul Carpenter. Nowra Players. www.fb.me/LithgowMusicalSociety Nov 17 - Dec 2. Players Theatre, Il Campanello by Gaetano Bomaderry. 1300 662 808 or Donizetti and Suor Angelica by www.nowraplayers.com.au
Night Slows Down by Phillip James Rouse. Don’t Look Away and bAKEHOUSE. Nov 17 - Dec 9. Kings Cross Theatre. www.kingsxtheatre.com Caught in the Villain’s Web (or More Sinned Against Than Sinning) by Herbert E. Swayne. Maitland Repertory Theatre. Nov 17 - Dec 3. Maitland Repertory Theatre. (02) 4931 2800.
lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B Sherman. Book by Julian Fellows. New Songs by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. Ballina Players. Nov 17 Dec 10. Players Theatre, Ballina. (02) 6686 2440. Tramp Steamer Tramp. Jazz cabaret musical by David Baker. Smokin’ Chops. Nov 17 - 26. The Black Malabar, Newcastle West. theblackmalabar.com
Five Women Wearing The Same Dress. The Players Theatre, Port Disney’s The Jungle Book KIDS. Macquarie. Nov 17 - Dec 3. (02) Music and lyrics by Richard M 6584 6663. Sherman, Robert B Sherman, and Terry Gilkyson. Young Wanted - One Body by Charles People’s Theatre. Nov 18 - Dec Dyer. Castle Hill Players. Nov 17 9. YPT Theatre, Hamilton - Dec 9. Pavilion Theatre, Doran (Newcastle). (02) 4961 4895. Drive, Castle Hill. (02) 9634 High Fidelity. Lyrics by Amanda 2929 or Green, music by Tom Kitt, book www.paviliontheatre.org.au by David Lindsay-Abaire. Neil Mary Poppins. Based on the Gooding Productions and book by P.L. Travers and the Highway Run Productions in Walt Disney Film. Music and association with Hayes Theatre
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Stage Whispers 51
On Stage Co. Nov 18 - Dec 17. Hayes Theatre. (02) 8065 7337 Relative Values by Noël Coward. Newcastle Theatre Company. Nov 18 - Dec 2. Newcastle Theatre Company, Lambton. (02) 4952 4958 (3-6pm MonFri). WOW Fest - Hip Hip Hooray! Short plays and musical numbers developed by the young cast. Hunter Drama. Nov 20 - 25. Civic Playhouse, Newcastle. (02) 4929 1977.
New South Wales
Christmas play). Pymble Players. Nov 24 - Dec 2. Pymble Players Theatre. (02) 9144 1523. Jay Laga’aia’s Classic Christmas. Sydney Opera House. Nov 28 Dec 17. Studio, Sydney Opera House. (02) 9250 7777. Beauty and the Beast by Sarah Edwards (Children’s Musical). Lane Cove Theatre Company. Nov 24 - Dec 9. www.lanecovetheatrecompany.com Moon Over Buffalo by Ken Ludwig. Hunters Hill Theatre. Dec 1 - 10. Hunters Hill Town Hall, 22 Alexandra St, Hunters Hill. (02) 9879 7765.
The Lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh. The Lowbrow Outfit. Nov 22 - 26. The Incubator Theatre, Hamilton Prada’s Priscillas - An All-Male North (Newcastle). Revue. Sydney Drag Queen. Dec www.stickytickets.com.au/58118 1. Civic Theatre, Newcastle. (02) Taking Steps by Alan 4929 1977. Ayckbourn. Ensemble Theatre. Barbara and the Camp Dogs by From Nov 23. (02) 9929 0644. Ursula Yovich & Alana The Magic Finger, from the Valentine. Songs by Alana novel by Roald Dahl, adapted by Valentine, Ursula Yovich & David Wood (Children’s Adam Ventoura. Belvoir. Dec 2 -
52 Stage Whispers
24. Belvoir Upstairs Theatre. (02) 8355 9341.
The Seymour Centre. (02) 9351 7940.
City Of Newcastle Drama Awards. CONDA Inc. Dec 2. Wests, New Lambton (Newcastle). (02) 4935 1200.
Wicked. Music & Lyrics: Stephen Schwartz. Book: Winnie Holzman. Based on the novel by Gregory Maguire. Manly Musical Society. Dec 8 - 16. Glen Street Theatre, Belrose. www.manlymusicalsociety.com
The Nutcracker. Russian National Ballet Theatre. Dec 3. Civic Theatre, Newcastle. (02) 4929 1977. Knots. Old 505 Theatre Company Dec 5 - 17. Old 505 Theatre, Newtown. www.old505theatre.com Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Australian Ballet. Dec 5 - 12. Capitol Theatre, Sydney. 1300 558 878. The Seagull by Anton Chekov. Secret House. Dec 6 - 16. The Depot Theatre. thedepottheatre.com The Bodybag - The Panto by Trevor Ashley and Phil Scott. Dec 6 - 16. Reginald Theatre,
A Very Kransky Christmas. The Kransky Sisters. Dec 9 & 10. The Seymour Centre. (02) 9351 7940. The Unbelievables. Sydney Opera House in association with the Works Entertainment. Dec 19 - 29. Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House. (02) 9250 7777. The Wizard of Oz by Harold Arlen, E.Y. Harburg, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. John Frost and Suzanne Jones production. Capitol Theatre, Sydney. From Dec 30. 1300 795 267.
Just $50 a month to reach thousands of theatre goers. Contact Stage Whispers for details.
On Stage
Queensland
The Unbelievables is a fast-paced entertainment spectacle jam-packed with acrobats and aerial acts, illusions, comedy, and ballroom dance, all backed by a six-piece swing orchestra. Sydney Opera House Concert Hall from December 19 to 29 www.sydneyoperahouse.com and Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall from January 3 to 13, 2018 www.artscentremelbourne.com.au.
Queensland Robin Hood by Arne Christiansen & Ole H. Kittleson. Arts Theatre, Brisbane. Oct 21 Dec 2. (07) 3369 2344. Les Misérables. Music by Claude -Michel Schönberg. Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. Original French text by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel. Spotlight Theatre, Benowa. Until Nov 11. (07) 5539 4255. Cinderella by Rodgers & Hammerstein. Queensland Musical Theatre. Schonell Theatre, St Lucia. Nov 2 - 4. 132 849. Shall We Dance. Film & TV Music. Mousetrap Theatre, Redcliffe. Nov 3 - 12. (07) 3888 3493. Hits of the Crooners. Concert Hall, QPAC. Nov 4. 136 246.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum by Stephen Sondheim, Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart. Arts Theatre, Brisbane. Nov 4 Dec 23. (07) 3369 2344. The Wizard of Oz by Harold Arlen, E.Y. Harburg, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. John Frost and Suzanne Jones production. Lyric Theatre, QPAC. Nov 4 - Dec 16. 136 246. There Goes the Bride by Ray Cooney. Centenary Theatre Group. Chelmer Community Centre. Nov 4 - 25. 0435 591 720. Australian Girls Choir. Concert Hall, QPAC. Nov 5. 136 246. Don’t Dress for Dinner by Marc Camoletti. Toowoomba Repertory Theatre. Nov 8 - 25. (07) 4632 8058.
The Naked Truth by Dave Simpson. Tugun Theatre Company. Nov 9 - 25. 0449 788 486. Blame It On - Bianca Del Rio. Concert Hall, QPAC. Nov 10. 136 246. Avenue Q by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx. Sunnybank Theatre Group. Nov 10 - 26. (07) 3345 3964.
Scenes from a Marriage by Joanna Murray-Smith. Queensland Theatre. Playhouse, QPAC. Nov 11 - Dec 3. 1800 365 528. Rhythms of Ireland. Redcliffe Cultural Centre, Nov 14 - 15, (07) 3283 0407 & Concert Hall, QPAC, Nov 21, 136 246.
Lipstick Dreams by Simon Hopkinson and Helen O’Connor. Noosa Arts Theatre. Nov 16 Anything Goes. Music and lyrics 25. (07) 5449 9343. by Cole Porter. Book by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse, Obsession by Kellie E. Silver. revised by Howard Lindsay and Javeenbah Theatre, Nerang. Nov Russel Crouse. Beenleigh 17 - Dec 2. (07) 5596 0300. Theatre Group, Beenleigh. Nov Broadway To Pavarotti. Redcliffe 10 - 25. (07) 3807 3922. Cultural Centre. Nov 17. (07) Little Shop of Horrors. Book and 3283 0407. Lyrics: Howard Ashman, Music: Much Ado About Nothing by Alan Menken. Gold Coast Little William Shakespeare. Villanova Theatre, Southbank. Nov 11 Players. F.T. Barrell Auditorium, Dec 9. (07) 5522 2092.
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Stage Whispers 53
On Stage Yeronga. Nov 17 - Dec 3. (07) 3395 5168. Calendar Girls by Tim Firth. Nash Theatre, New Farm. Nov 17 - Dec 9. (07) 3379 4775. Monty Python’s Spamalot by Eric Idle and John De Prez. Coolum Theatre Players. Nov 17 -26. (07) 5446 2500. Committed Quiche by Becky Mode, Andrew Hobgod and Evan Linder. Ipswich Little Theatre. Incinerator Theatre, Ipswich. Nov 22 - Dec 9. (07) 3281 0555. Carmen - In Concert by Bizet. Opera Q. Concert Hall, QPAC. Nov 23 - 25. 136 246
Queensland & Victoria
From Broadway To La Scala Greta Bradman, David Hobson, Lisa McCune & Teddy Tahu Rhodes. Concert Hall, QPAC. Dec 2. 136 246. The Messiah by Handel. Qld Symphony Orchestra. Concert Hall, QPAC. Dec 9. 136 246. Humans. Created by Yaron Lifschitz. Circa. Playhouse, QPAC. Dec 6 - 9. 136 246 The Nutcracker. Music by Tchaikovsky. Choreographer: Ben Stevenson. Queensland Ballet. Lyric Theatre, QPAC. Dec 8 - 16. 136 246.
Beauty and the Beast by Eric Steadman. Arts Theatre, Brisbane. Dec 9 - 23. (07) 3369 The Nightingale. Southern Cross 2344. Soloists. Concert Hall, QPAC. Nov 26. 136 246. Merry Motown Christmas 9. Redcliffe Cultural Centre. Dec Beauty And The Beast - a 16. (07) 3283 0407. Pantomime. Cairns Little Theatre. Dec 1 - 16. 1300 855 The Nutcracker. Music by Tchaikovsky. Russian National 835. Ballet, Redcliffe Cultural Centre,
54 Stage Whispers
Dec 19, (07) 3283 0407 / Gold Coast Arts Centre, Dec 23, (07) 5588 4000. A Very Kransky Christmas. Kransky Sisters. Cremorne Theatre. Dec 19 - 23. 136 246. Spirit of Christmas. Qld Symphony Orchestra. Concert Hall, QPAC. Dec 22 - 23. 136 246. Romeo And Juliet. Music by Prokofiev. Russian National Ballet. Redcliffe Cultural Centre, Dec 20, (07) 3283 0407; Gold Coast Arts Centre, Dec 22, (07) 5588 4000.
and Chad Beguelin. Disney Theatrical Productions. Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne. Ongoing. 132 849. La Mama Explorations Season. Until Dec 17. Various Works in Development. La Mama Theatre and La Mama Courthouse. (03) 9347 6142. The Book of Mormon. Book, Music and Lyrics by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone. Ongoing. Princess Theatre, Melbourne. BookOfMormonMusical.com.au Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare. Until Jan 12. Pop-up Globe, Sidney Myer Music Bowl. 1300 136 166
Mamma Mia! By Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Catherine Johnson. Michael Coppel, Louis Withers and Linda Henry V by William Berwick. Lyric Theatre, QPAC. Shakespeare. Until Jan 12. Popup Globe, Sidney Myer Music Dec 26 - Feb 4. 136 246. Bowl. 1300 136 166 Victoria As You Like It by William Aladdin. Music by Alan Menken. Shakespeare. Until Jan 12. PopBook by Chad Beguelin. Lyrics by Howard Ashman, Tim Rice
Just $50 a month to reach thousands of theatre goers. Contact Stage Whispers for details.
On Stage up Globe, Sidney Myer Music Bowl. 1300 136 166
The Father by Florian Zeller, translated by Christopher Hampton. Melbourne Theatre Othello by William Shakespeare. Company. Nov 2 - Dec 16. Until Jan 12. Pop-up Globe, Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Sidney Myer Music Bowl. 1300 Melbourne. (03) 8688 0800. 136 166 Birdcage Thursdays by Sandra Twentieth Century by Ben Hecht Fiona Long. Nov 2 - 12. & Charles MacArthur, adapted Fortyfivedownstairs. (03) 9662 by Ken Ludwig. Malvern Theatre 9966. Company Inc. Until Nov 11. 1300 131 552 The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín. Malthouse Theatre. Nov Les Misérables. Music by Claude 3 - 26. Merlyn Theatre. (03) -Michel Schönberg. Lyrics by 9685 5111. Herbert Kretzmer. Original French text by Alain Boublil and When Dad Married Fury by Jean-Marc Natel. Additional David Williamson. Torquay Material by James Fenton. Theatre Troupe. Nov 6 - 18. (03) NOVA Music Theatre. Until Nov 5261 6111. 12. The Whitehorse Centre, The Great Pretender. Max Nunawading. 1300 304 433. Riebel. Nov 8 - 12. The Butterfly Chicago. Music by John Kander. Club. thebutterflyclub.com Lyrics by Fred Ebb. Book by Fred Boob Juice. Nov 8 - 12. The Ebb and Bob Fosse. Fab Nobs Butterfly Club. Theatre. Until Nov 11. The Fab thebutterflyclub.com Factory, Bayswater. www.fabnobstheatre.com.au Occasional Suburban Witch. Written and performed by Benn
Victoria Bennett with Sarah Ward and Bec Matthews. Nov 8 - 12. The Butterfly Club. thebutterflyclub.com
Australia Day by Jonathan Biggins. The Basin Theatre Group. Nov 10 - Dec 2. 1300 784 668 (7pm-9pm).
The Return by Reg Cribb. Brighton Theatre Company. Nov 9 - 25. Bayside Arts and Cultural Centre, Brighton. 1300 752 126.
Death by Fatal Murder by Peter Gordon. Beaumaris Theatre Inc. Nov 10 - 25. www.beaumaristheatre.com.au
Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks by Richard Alfieri. Lilydale Athenæum Theatre Company Inc. Nov 9 - 25. (03) 9735 1777. Charitable Intent and Face to Face. Two plays from David Williamson’s Jack Manning Trilogy. Strathmore Theatre Arts Group. Nov 9 - 19. Strathmore Community Hall. (03) 9382 6284. The Savage Dilemma by John Patrick. Mooroolbark Theatre Group. Nov 10 - 19. 0490 769 245
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Leading Ladies by Ken Ludwig. Mordialloc Theatre Company. Nov 10 - 25. Shirley Burke Theatre, Parkdale. (03) 9587 5141. Roberto Devereux by Gaetano Donizetti. Nov 11 - 18, The Athenaeum Theatre & Nov 25, Monash University’s Robert Blackwood Hall. www.melbourneopera.com Desert. 6.29pm by Morgan Rose. Red Stitch Actors Theatre. Nov 14 - Dec 14. Rear, 2 Chapel Street, St Kilda East. (03) 9533 8083. Romeo Is Not The Only Fruit by Jean Tong. Nov 14 - 24. The
Stage Whispers 55
On Stage
Victoria
Online extras! Check out what’s in store for A Very Kransky Christmas. Scan or visit https://youtu.be/z_q61aQdSuo A Very Kransky Christmas. In this very special holiday season treat, the oddball sisters will invite audiences into their world of egg nog, panty-hose and painted chokoes in their signature dry-wit style. From Enya to Silent Night, Daft Punk to the Twelve Days of Christmas, these dysfunctional sisters take family get-togethers to a whole new level. Tour dates include Alex Theatre, St Kilda, Nov 20 – 26, ticketek.com.au; Seymour Centre, Sydney, Dec 9 & 10, www.seymourcentre.com; Cremorne Theatre, QPAC, Dec 19 – 23, qpac.com.au. More tour dates at www.thekranskysisters.com. 15 - 26. Arts Centre Melbourne, The 39 Steps by John Buchan, adapted by Patrick Barlow. Playhouse. 1300 182 183. Williamstown Little Theatre. Nov Livstagram by Olivia Betrayal by Harold Pinter. 16 - Dec 2. (03) 9885 9678. Charalambous. Nov 14 - 19. The Tangled Web Theatre Butterfly Club. Productions. Nov 15 - 19. The Butler Did It by Tim Kelly. thebutterflyclub.com Northcote Town Hall. (03) 9481 Geelong Repertory Theatre 9500. Company. Nov 17 - Dec 2. (03) The Merry Widow by Franz 5225 1200. Lehár. Opera Australia. Nov 15 - A Prudent Man by Katy Warner. 25. Arts Centre Melbourne, Nov 15 - 18. Gasworks Studio Bloody Murder by Ed Sala. State Theatre. 1300 182 183. Theatre. www.gasworks.org.au Peridot Theatre Inc. Nov 17 Dec 2. Unicorn Theatre, Mt Last Year’s Eve by Zac Kazepis. The Memory of Water by Waverley Secondary College, Mt Nov 15 - 26. La Mama Theatre. Shelagh Stephenson. Nov 16 Waverley. (03) 9808 0770 26. Chapel off Chapel. (03) (03) 9347 6142. (10am-2pm Mon-Fri). 8290 7000. Rainbow Man by Peter Dawncy. The Odd Couple by Neil Simon. Nov 15 - 26. Nunsense by Dan Goggin. The Sherbrooke Theatre Company. Fortyfivedownstairs. (03) 9662 1812 Theatre. Nov 16 - Dec 9. Nov 17 - Dec 2. Doncaster 9966. (03) 9758 3964. Playhouse. 1300 650 209 The Gruffalo. Based on the Murder’s in the Heir by Billy St Blood Brothers by Willy Russell. award winning picture book by John. Eltham Little Theatre. Nov Heidelberg Theatre Co. Nov 17 Julia Donaldson & Axel 16 - Dec 2. 0411 713 095. Dec 2. (03) 9457 4117. Scheffler. CDP / Tall Stories. Nov Butterfly Club. thebutterflyclub.com
56 Stage Whispers
Caught in the Net by Ray Cooney. Frankston Theatre Group Inc. Nov 17 - Dec 3. 1300 665 377 Vivid White by Eddie Perfect. Melbourne Theatre Company. Nov 18 - Dec 23. Southbank Theatre, The Sumner. (03) 8688 0800. Nanette by Hannah Gadsby. Token Events. Nov 15 - 26. Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse. 1300 182 183. Present Laughter by Noël Coward. The Mount Players. Nov 18 - Dec 3. (03) 5426 1892. Unnecessary Farce by Paul Slade Smith. Essendon Theatre Company. Nov 23 - Dec 2. 0422 029 483.
Just $50 a month to reach thousands of theatre goers. Contact Stage Whispers for details.
On Stage Collaborator by Yussef El Guindi. Left Bauer Productions. Nov 22 - 26. The Butterfly Club. thebutterflyclub.com Tandem: A Choose Your Own Circus Adventure. Poppy Seed Theatre Festival. Nov 28 - Dec 9. Chapel off Chapel. (03) 8290 7000. Songs for a Weary Throat. Theatre Works / Rawcus. Nov 29 - Dec 10. Theatre Works. (03) 9534 3388. Never Date a Songwriter by Shanon Whitelock. Nov 29 Dec 3. The Butterfly Club. thebutterflyclub.com The Man and the Moon. St John Cowcher. Dec 6 - 10. The Butterfly Club. thebutterflyclub.com Box and Cox by John Maddison Morton. Maniacal Arts. Dec 6 10. The Butterfly Club. thebutterflyclub.com Storytime Ballet: The Sleeping Beauty. Australian Ballet. Dec 13 - 17. Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse. 1300 182 183. Dream Lover: The Bobby Darrin Story. John Frost and Gilbert Theatrical. From Dec 27. Arts Centre Melbourne, State Theatre. 1300 182 183. Tasmania
Victoria, Tasmania, S.A. & W.A.
Backspace, Hobart. (03) 6233 2299.
Institute Theatre. Im Spiegel. Choreographed by www.independenttheatre.org.au Sam Chester. LINK Dance Company. Nov 9-11. Mirror South Australia The Sleeping Beauty Pantomime based performance. The Edith by Ben Crocker. Tea Tree Players. Spiegeltent, WAAPA, Edith Season’s Greetings by Alan Nov 17 - Dec 2. Tea Tree Players Cowan University, Mt Lawley. Ayckbourn. Galleon Theatre Theatre. (08) 8289 5266 or (08) 9370 6636. Group. Nov 1 - 11. Domain www.teatreeplayers.com Theatre. 0437 609 577 or Let The Right One In by Jack bookings@galleon.org.au All is Calm: The Christmas Truce Thorne, from the novel and film of 1914 by Peter Rothstein. by John Ajvide Lindquist. Black It Could Be Any One of Us by Promise Adelaide. Dec 21 - 23. Swan State Theatre Centre. Nov Alan Ayckbourn. Therry Goodwood Institute Theatre. 11 - Dec 3. Coming of age love Dramatic Society. Nov 1 - 11. www.promiseadelaide.com story. Heath Ledger Theatre, The Arts Theatre. (08) 8268 State Theatre Centre of Western 6782 or Elf Jr The Musical. Music by Australia. 132 849. www.trybooking.com/248320 Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin, and book by Thomas Screen to Stage. Murray Music The Conspirators by Vaclav Meehan and Bob Martin. and Drama Club. Nov 10 - 25. Havel. Red Phoenix Theatre. Nov Adelaide Youth Theatre. Dec 22 100 songs from 100 years of 2 - 11. Holden Street Theatres. - 24. The Arts Theatre. film. Pinjarra Town Hall. 0458 redphoenixtheatre.com TryBooking or BASS. 046 414. Aladdin a Pantomime by Ben Western Australia My Robot by Finegan Crocker. Noarlunga Theatre Kruckemeyer. Barking Gecko Company. Nov 3 - 11. Port Factory Girls by Frank Noarlunga Arts Centre. 0421 McGuiness. Irish Theatre Players. Theatre Company. Nov 10 - 25. 002 802 or Nov 9-25. Irish play directed by Theatre for children. Studio www.noarlungatheatrecompany.com Ryan Taafe. Irish Club, Subiaco. Underground, State Theatre Centre of Western Australia. 0404 006 005. Inlaws, Outlaws and Other 132 849. People (That Should be Shot) by Steve Franco. Blackwood Players. Nov 3 - 18. Blackwood 21. (08) 8289 5266 or 0481 373 949. www.trybooking.com/311176 Peter Pan by Stephen and Rachel Humphreys. Venture Theatre Company. Nov 10 - 18. Trinity Uniting Hall. venturetheatreco@gmail.com
Blood Brothers by Willy Russell. Encore Theatre Company. Until Nov 11. Earl Arts Centre, Launceston. (03) 6323 3666.
Spring Awakening. Music by Duncan Sheik, lyrics by Steven Sater. Hills Musical Company. Nov 10 - 25. Stirling Community Playing The Palace. Music, Lyrics Theatre. 0466 118 153 or hillsmusical.org.au and Book by June Walker Rogers. Hobart Rep. Nov 3 - 18. The Importance of Being Playhouse Theatre, Hobart. (03) Earnest by Oscar Wilde. St 6234 5998. Jude’s Players. Nov 16-25. St Jude’s Hall. 0436 262 628 or Jekyll and Hyde by Jessica Davies, after RL Stevenson. Loud (08) 8296 2628. www.stjudesplayers.aasn.au Mouth Theatre Company. Nov 11 - 25. The Goods Shed, The Palace of Varieties by Pam Macquarie Point, Hobart. (03) O’Grady. Adelaide Repertory 6234 5998. Theatre. Nov 16 - 25. The Arts Theatre. www.adelaiderep.com Ruthless! By Joel Paley and Marvin Laird. Bijou Creative. Nov Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn 16 - 25. Theatre Royal Waugh. Independent Theatre. Nov 17 - 25. Goodwood Advertise your show on the home page of www.stagewhispers.com.au
Stage Whispers 57
On Stage Solo Stage: Moments Of Being. Devised work, WAAPA 2nd Year Performance Making Students. Nov 10 - 13. Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s autobiography. Enright Studio, WAAPA, Edith Cowan University, Mt Lawley. (08) 9370 6636. Jumpy by April de Angelis. Melville Theatre. Nov 16 - Dec 2. Naughty and moving family drama. Melville Theatre, Palmyra. (08) 9330 4565. The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. Darlington Theatre Players. Based on the classic stories. Nov 17 - Dec 9. Marloo Theatre, Greenmount. (08) 9255 1783. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl, KADS. Nov 17 - Dec 2. Family entertainment. KADS Town Square Theatre, Kalamunda, Bookings Lucky Charm Newsagency, Kalamunda Shopping Centre. Windmill Baby by David Milroy. WAAPA Aboriginal Performance Students. Nov 17 - 23. Tale of true love. Roundhouse Theatre, WAAPA, Edith Cowan University, Mt Lawley. (08) 9370 6636. Peter Pan by J.M.Barrie. West Australian Ballet and the West Australian Philharmonic Orchestra. Nov 17 - Dec 10. Adaptation of classic literature. His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth. 132 849. Verge by multiple choreographers. WAAPA 2nd and 3rd Year Dance Students. Nov 18 - 25. Original contemporary work and a timeless ballet classic. Geoff Gibbs Theatre, WAAPA, Edith Cowan University, Mt Lawley. (08) 9370 6636. The Wedding Singer by Matthew Skler and Chad Beguelin. Wanneroo Repertory Club. Musical based on the film. Nov 23 - Dec 9. Limelight Theatre. (08) 9571 8591.
58 Stage Whispers
Western Australia & New Zealand
Cocky’s Crossing by Max Harvey. Garrick Theatre. Nov 23 - Dec 9. Musical shenanigans. Garrick Theatre, Guildford. (08) 9378 1990.
Bombshells by Joanna MurraySmith. Hawera Repertory Society. Nov 4 - 19. Repertory House, Hawera. TicketDirect.
Kindly Leave the Stage by John Terry Pratchett’s Mort by Chapman. Rotorua Little Stephen Briggs. Roleystone Theatre. Nov 8 - 18. Shambles Theatre. Discworld comedy. Nov Theatre. 0800 BUY TIX (289 24- Dec 2. Roleystone Theatre, 849). Brookton Hwy, Roleystone. (08) Animal Farm by George Orwell, 9367 5730. adapted by Peter Hall. Paeroa Love and Mistletoe by Raymond Little Theatre. Nov 8 - 12. 0800 Hopkins. Stirling Players. Nov 24 BUY TIX (289 849). - Dec 9. Seasonal comedy. Stones In His Pockets by Marie Stirling Theatre, Innaloo. (08) Jones. Nov 8 - 18. Boathouse 9440 1040. Theatre, Marlborough. 0800 The Railway Children. Adapted TICKETEK. by Mike Kenny. Harbour Body Double. BATS Theatre, Theatre. Dec 1 - 10. Family Wellington. Nov 9 - 25. (04) drama based on novel by E 802 4175. Nesbit. Camelot, Mosman Park. (08) 9255 3336. The 39 Steps. Adapted by Patrick Barlow from the novel by New Zealand John Buchan and the Alfred The Father by Florian Zeller, Hitchcock film. Ellerslie translated by Christopher Theatrical Society. Nov 9 - 18. Hampton. Circa Theatre, Stables Theatre, Auckland. Wellington. Until Nov 11. (04) iTicket. 801 7992. Romeo and Juliet by William One Perfect Moment by Ellie Shakespeare. Blackbox Creative. Smith. Fortune Theatre Co., Nov 10 - 18. The Meteor, Dunedin. Until Nov 11. (03) 477 Waikato. 8323. Venus in Fur by David Ives. Circa Venus in Fur by David Ives. Until Theatre, Wellington. Nov 10 Nov 11. Court Theatre, Dec 8. (04) 801 7992. Christchurch. (03) 963 0870. The Addams Family. Music and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Music Lyrics by Andrew Lippa. Book by & Lyrics: Richard & Robert Marshall Brickman and Rick Sherman. Book: Jeremy Sams & Elice. Whangarei Theatre Ray Roderick. Centrestage Company. Nov 10 - 25. Theatre Company, Orewa. Until whangareitheatrecompany.org.nz Nov 18. (09) 426 7282. Book Ends by Roger Hall. Sweet Charity. Book by Neil Howick Little Theatre. Nov 11 Simon, music by Cy Coleman Dec 3. iTicket. and lyrics by Dorothy Fields. Exit Laughing by Paul Eliot. Manukau Performing Arts. Until Detour Theatre, Tauranga. Nov Nov 11. iTicket 15 - Dec 2. 0508 iTICKET (0508 Mr Foote’s Other Leg by Ian 484-253) Kelly. Stagecraft Hudson & Halls Live! By Kip Theatre (Wellington). Nov 1 Chapman with Todd Emerson 11. iTicket. and Sophie Roberts. Fortune Ropable by Ross Gumbley & Theatre Co., Dunedin. Nov 18 Allison Horsley. Centrepoint Dec 16. (03) 477 8323. Theatre, Palmerston North. Nov Peter Pan by Pinky Agnew & 4 - Dec 16. (06) 354 5740. Lorae Parry. Based on the novel
by J.M. Barrie. Circa Theatre, Wellington. Nov 18 - Dec 23. (04) 801 7992. Avenue Q. Book by Jeff Whitty. Music and Lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx. Blenheim Musical Theatre. Nov 17 - Dec 2. 0800 TICKETEK. Jekyll & Hyde. Book and Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse. Music by Frank Wildhorn. North Shore Music Theatre. Nov 18 - Dec 2. The PumpHouse Theatre. pumphouse.co.nz Rock of Ages. Book by Chris D’Arienzo. Abbey Musical Theatre. Nov 23 - Dec 9. www.abbeymusicaltheatre.co.nz Sister Act. Music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Glenn Slater, book by Bill and Cheri Steinkellner and additional book material by Douglas Carter Beane. AMICI Productions. Nov 25 - Dec 16. ASB Waterfront Theatre, Auckland. 0800 282 849. Chicago. Book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse. Music by John Kander. Lyrics by Fred Ebb. Nov 25 - Jan 20. Court Theatre, Christchurch. (03) 963 0870. Mary Poppins. Based on the book by P.L. Travers and the Walt Disney Film. Music and Lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B Sherman. Book by Julian Fellows. New Songs by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. Hamilton Operatic Society. Nov 25 - Dec 9. Claudelands Arena. www.hamiltonoperatic.co.nz James and the Giant Peach. Based on Roald Dahl’s popular classic, adapted by David Wood. Mairangi Players. Dec 1 - 9. TheatreWorks, Birkenhead. 0800 BUY TIX (289 849). A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. Dec 7 Jan 28. Pop-up Globe Theatre, The Shakespeare Gardens, Ellerslie Racecourse, Auckland. 0800 BUY TIX (289 849).
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Reviews: Premieres
Esther Hannaford (as Carole King) and company in Beautiful - The Carole King Musical. Photo: Joan Marcus.
Online extras! Watch cast performances of songs from the show. Scan the QR code or visit https://youtu.be/i8w2Afp_-DU Beautiful: The Carole King Musical Book by Douglas McGrath. Words and music by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Michael Cassel in association with Paul Blake & Sony/ ATV Music Publishing & Mike Bosner. Sydney Lyric Theatre. Opening Night: Sep 23. IT’S often a little glib to say an Australian production is as good as the Broadway original, but in this case it rings true. Having seen the musical in both New York and Sydney, this production has lost nothing in the translation. Esther Hannaford nailed the role of Carole King. Beautiful follows her journey from awkward teenage prodigy with loads of chutzpah who turns up to a ‘song writing factory’ in New York with her first hit tune, through professional and personal drama that gives birth to her solo album Tapestry, which conquers the world. A common experience of a member of the audience is surprise that one artist could be responsible for such a diverse range of hit songs. No Kylie Minogue didn’t write “The Locomotion” - it was composed by King and her husband, lyricist Gerry Goffin. Whilst the songs don’t always advance the story or pack an emotional punch, they are sprinkled with perfect timing into the story. Beautifully dressed black American pop stars glide in and out of the gleaming gold painted song writing factory to sing the sweetest of pop songs. What makes the story compelling is King’s relationship with her philandering, brooding, anguished husband Gerry Goffin (played elegantly by Josh Piterman) and the
competition the duo face from song writers Cynthia Weil (Amy Lehpamer) and Barry Mann (Mat Verevis). There are no Jersey Boys style brushes with crime but rather an insight into the song writing industry and Carole King’s development as a song writer. After composing songs for others, she finds herself a single mother with two children with an album of music that did not suit any other artist. Carole King does not fit the glamorous mould of the pop industry but stepped up to the plate to become a celebrated artist. Her ordinariness became a strength as her songs touched a tapestry of common emotional anguish. Beautiful is a beautiful and compelling night in the theatre. David Spicer The Show Goes On Duet Productions. Director: Richard Carroll. The Playhouse, Sydney Opera House. Aug 25 - Sep 10. BERNADETTE Robinson does mean impersonations of famous singers. Garland, Bassey and Piaf are meat and drink to her; Julie Andrews puts in an appearance, and Patsy Cline; even Maria Callas turns up, top notes and all. She has a large and loyal following who adore her every move. This is her new show, following the success of Songs For Nobodies, and it features her multiple personalities chatting about what motivates them before she launches into song after song. At no stage (before taking her bows at the end) is Bernadette herself allowed to comment.
Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au
Stage Whispers 59
Where The Streets Had A Name. Photo: Michael Bourchier.
Plainly dressed in a sombre black outfit that most suits Piaf, she shows her versatility in a range of songs, accompanied by an excellent three-piece band - piano, bass and drums. From ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ to ‘Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien’ she exactly nails the quirks of delivery of a particular performer. Particularly impressive is her take on opera star Callas. As she ascends to Rossini’s operatic heights she far exceeds the limits of her audience’s expectations. Her thrillingly clear sound hits home. Even ‘Over The Rainbow’ can disappoint after that. The setting is a trio of performance spaces that, with a constant supply of pumped haze, she inhabits in turn. The onstage microphones must all be props for her voice rings without them. Only at the very end does she allow herself to become Bernadette Robinson, dealing with thrown roses and thunderous applause. I recommend more of this smiling, delighted, confident performer. Frank Hatherley Where The Streets Had A Name By Eva Di Cesare, based on the book by Randa AbdelFattah. Monkey Baa Theatre Company. Lennox Theatre, Riverside Theatres Parramatta. Aug 30 - Sep 1. EVA Di Cesare’s perceptive adaptation of Randa AbdelFattah’s novel captures the novel’s messages of the personal/political effects of occupation, violence and injustice on a Palestinian family who cannot return to their homeland. 60 Stage Whispers
Aanisa Vylet is outstanding as thirteen-year-old Hayaat, encapsulating the restlessness and vivacity of the teenager mixed with the draining effects of uncertainty and trauma. Dina Gillespie, as her mother, struggles to sustain some semblance of normality despite the loss of her home, while Alissar Gazal, playing Hayaat’s grandmother, Sitti, finds the necessary balance between loving matriarch and wistful old age and regret. In another role she uses her effective comic timing as a rakish bus driver. Sal Sharar is patiently stolid in the role of Hayaat’s father, Baba, mourning the loss of his one hundred tree olive grove. He is also a rather over-optimistic taxi driver and loses years as a young, naive soccer player. Mansoor Noor plays both Hayaat’s younger brother Tariq and her displaced friend Samy with whom she ventures ‘over the wall’ to fill a jar with soil from Jerusalem for Sitti. Di Cesare brings them together in scenes that speak clearly and compassionately yet sustain a pace that accentuates the stress and insecurity of their lives. Carol Wimmer Puttin’ On The Ritz Mellen Events. Concert Hall, QPAC. Aug 30. PUTTIN’ On The Ritz, a song-and-dance stage spin-off of the BBC TV series Strictly Come Dancing, has been touring the UK for years. If you like sequins, spangles and loads of bling then this show is for you. Against a deep-blue backdrop studded with twinkly stars, accompanied by a pre-recorded big-band, 10 dancers
Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au
and 6 singers effortlessly sang and danced their way through the songs of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and George Gershwin. Recreating the eras of the twenties and forties, Harlem’s Cotton Club, and Sinatra’s Rat-Pack, they did everything from a Charleston to a waltz (with plenty of tap thrown in for good measure) in costumes that looked like they had come straight out of the MGM wardrobe. They opened with a flashy “There’s No Business Like Show Business”, did a mean “Minnie the Moocher” and brought back Judy Garland memories with “The Trolley Song” and “Over the Rainbow”. Rob Mills was a popular guest artist and had the hall rocking with a big-band arrangement of Sinatra’s “That’s Life”, while charming his way through “On the Street Where You Live” from My Fair Lady. One of the best moments was the finale, with the fullcast doing a sit-down hand-jive complete with Mexican wave on the edge of the stage that had the audience whooping for more. It was old-fashioned entertainment but hugely enjoyable. Peter Pinne
of the supermarket oven as she appears in an elegant dress. And in the second act, set in the busy lead-up to Christmas, there is a jolly satirical song called “The Customer is Always Right”, which is shown not to be the case by the employees’ actions, with an increasingly weary delicatessen worker trying to roast an annoying co-worker. Ken Longworth
Birdfoxmonster Studio A and Erth. Carriageworks. Sep 21 - 30. IT’S hard to be critical when you’re invited to a theatre dinner where the three courses are great, and every plate, design and immersive theatricality is a very personal expression of the three performers. Harder still when the three artists have an intellectual disability they invite you to ignore. Birdfoxmonster is a collaboration between Sydney’s impressive driver of accessible arts, Studio A, and the usually epic, physical theatre company, Erth. At the ends of our darkened community table are Meagan Pelham as an owl-masked bride and Skye Saxon as the Fox Priest adorned in red hat, mask and gothic robe. Fair Retail They occasionally dance and prowl along the long table; its Written by the cast. Newcastle University Drama Society. white cloth is adorned with moving projections of animal The Factory Theatre, Adamstown. Oct 14 - 15. and owl motifs, naive portraits and colourful calligraphy. FAIR Retail was one of three locally written and staged These beautiful designs by Pelham are also on our fine shows that opened in Newcastle in the same October week, mud plates. And Thom Roberts takes time out from being with the works confirming the impressive young theatrical the be-robed, cube-masked Monster Train - who scarily is talents in and around the city. also the groom - to instruct us in assembling the makings The other shows were: Home, put together by Tantrum of our burgers. Youth Arts Trajectory Ensemble, and which also did a short James Brown’s sound design is stirring and two screens season at Sydney’s PACT Theatre, had the 11 cast members feature abstractions and mythical faces from digital artist looking engagingly at their views and experiences of home Elias Nohra. life; and Another Way, with six actors and the director The dramatic narrative and impact is muted - indeed looking at the often narrow views of people on issues that mostly voiceless - and obscure. Yet the totality and industry included, among other things, human nature, gender of the experience is so sweet and inclusive, it’s hard not to relationships and conformity. Both works were briskly leave that dinner in some wonder. episodic. Martin Portus Fair Retail was the third annual two-act show developed by Newcastle University Drama Society. And while this one Vessel needs further development, it could appeal to theatre Director, Composer & Design Irene Vela - in collaboration companies Australia-wide. with choreographers, dancers & musicians of Outer Urban Most of the people in the story have been involved in Projects. Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse Rehearsal part-time retail work during their university years, mainly in Room. Sep 20 - 23. supermarkets, and the amusing comments it makes about A BOAT is a vessel, carrying life across dangerous seas, staff members, employers and customers strike a nerve with and a womb is a vessel, carrying life across a dangerous audience members. world. Irene Vela, Artistic Director of Outer Urban Projects, The main character, Eric (played by Jack Madden, who began the creation of this dance work from some initiated the work), is increasingly frustrated with his heartbreaking images. Among those who drowned with supermarket job, but tries to bring the other employees the sinking of SIEV X, was a baby with umbilical cord still together, giving them cupcakes during a morning tea break attached to the refugee mother. Second, Kate Durham’s that he made at home. He accidentally put a wrong artwork of dolls covered in seaweed in the blue of the ingredient into the mix, and, as a result, the “hash ocean. Vessel’s stage is edged with dolls and the dancers brownies” have the eaters imagining things such as Eric put bind ‘babies’ to their backs in an image of care and of on trial for stealing a cooked chicken, and a Cinderella-style burden - and also the infant from whom the dancer grew. dream sequence with someone asking the price of a Sahra Davoudi, who speaks an introduction to the piece, pageboy. is Iranian. Victoria Canning, a dancer, is Tongan. Simone The show has several amusing musical numbers, Etheve, Thai-Australian; Josephine Inia, Tongan; Damian including “The Oven Song”, presented by the female spirit Seddon, the only male among the dancers, is Eritrean-Irish. Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au
Stage Whispers 61
Demi Sorono, dancer and choreographer, is a Philippina. And Tehyali Malone is indigenous. The music, composed by Ms Vela, with Greek influences but with folk song references from Armenia and Lebanon, mixes a pre-recorded score with the work of two musicians there on stage: Kelly Dowall on drum and clarinet, and Lebanese Fouad Harraka, who also sings, on violin and bouzouki. United by its theme, the piece conveys nurture, but also conflict, rage, loss, rejection, the chatter of gossip and unwanted advice - and then again joy and the warmth of community and, especially, family. Its outstanding choreography combines the work of Thomas E S Kelly, an indigenous man, Kurdish Nebahat Erpolat and Demi Sorono, who dances herself and is the intense, central figure of the ensemble. The Outer Urban Projects Team has another achievement (after their recent Poetic Licence) to be proud of - and they are proud and rightly so. Michael Brindley Big Heart By Patricia Cornelius. Directed by Susie Dee. Theatre Works, Acland Street, St Kilda. Sep 6 - 24. A WEALTHY woman adopts five babies: from Vietnam, Nicaragua, Sudan, Bosnia and Australia. She has a big Big Heart. Photo: Pier Carthew.
heart. Thus begins Patricia Cornelius’ and Susie Dee’s layered, ironic, subtly angry take on colonialism, privilege and the idea of ‘motherhood’. It is ambivalent, ambiguous and deeply unsettling. The ‘children’ grow up. Mother takes them on a world tour, so that they will know their birth culture. Bosnian Elizabeth (Kasia Kaczmarek) isn’t interested: manically competitive, she must be the best and loved the most! Nicaraguan Charlotte (Daniela Farrinacci) finds her mother in Managua and claims she has a ‘real family’ now. Edward (Vuyo Loko), from Sudan, hangs out with other black kids and comes home at 3 am. Daniela (Elmira Jurik), from Vietnam, is sprung taking a dangerous drug to make her skin ‘white’. Mother betrays no doubt at all at her actions. She is Mother and the bond is unbreakable. But Charles (Sermsah Bin Saad), the Australian indigenous boy, leaves: he finds a welcome elsewhere. It is an added pleasure to see such diversity among the cast on stage. All are pitch perfect - and Andrea Swifte’s near deadpan, near monotone delivery is a beautifully judged depiction not just of the character of Mother, but of the idea of the character in all her certainty. The ambiguities and contradictions are established with superb economy. Marge Horwell’s design is stark but expressive of the play’s themes. Darius Kedros’ sound design envelopes the action rather than coming in over it, at times sharply juxtaposing with what we see. Donald Horne wrote that Australian writers rarely write about the ruling class - almost as if there were none. ‘This is very convenient,’ he wrote, ‘for the ruling class’. Patricia Cornelius writes about them here and does so incisively and powerfully. Susie Dee’s direction amplifies and reveals the argument. Big Heart questions the myth of our ‘big heart’ by revealing the complexities beneath the myth. Michael Brindley Hotel Wild Rice - OzAsia Festival. Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide. Sep 28 - 30. COMEDY, pathos, singing and dancing, with more than just a touch of history, all meld together seamlessly to make the masterpiece that is Hotel. Set in the iconic hotel Raffles, Hotel traces the history of Singapore between 1915 and 2015 in 11 episodes. The two parts of the play seem to race by due to many factors - clever set design, multiple costume changes, multitasking actors taking many roles, singing, dancing and an extremely clever script, written by Alfian Sa’at and Marcia Vanderstratten, which successfully bridges the gap between east and west and has you laughing one minute and shedding a tear the next. Directors Ivan Heng and Glen Goei ensure every production detail is just right. Heng is also one of the cast members and provides a poignant portrayal of a husband who has come back to the Raffles to die Credit also to the rest of the cast. They portray so many characters it is difficult at times to determine who is who. Some of my favourites are the Indian psychic, the Chinese
62 Stage Whispers
Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au
Nick Bennett & Lucia Van Sebille in Julie. Photo: Ian Routledge.
grandmother and, of course, the two lady-boys from Bugis Street. A back-lit set serves to change the wallpaper to match each decade and also acts as a social comment to mark the important parts of Singapore’s history. This is the first time this production has been seen outside Singapore and I hope it is not the last we see of Wild Rice. Barry Hill
audience. Secondly, it centres on Julie and her state of suspended adulthood, hovering between choices which threaten her. Brindley, Gurreeboo and Lucia Van Sebilie (Julie) have delivered a Julie that we recognise in ourselves. Foul Play delivers an excellent piece of ensemble acting. Christine, brilliantly played by Emma Beech, is weary, conscientious and wise and her physicality had the audience laughing and sympathising with her. Brindley has split Jean’s role in the original play into two roles with excellent performances by Nick Bennett and Doug Mowbray. The Julie division of the role is symbolic of the choices Julie believes By Holly Brindley. Presented by Foul Play. Noel Lothian Hall, are available to her. Adelaide Botanic Gardens. Sep 29 - Oct 14. Brindley and Foul Play’s Julie retains the angst and leaves WHY and how do you re-imagine a classic of its period? out the lectures, once again engaging and challenging an Holly Brindley took on this challenge, commissioned by Foul audience. Play, and Julie comes alive and relevant for audiences in this Sally Putnam new production. Brindley has transformed Strindberg’s speeches into the Beep fast-paced to and fro of contemporary conversations, Writer and Co-Creator Katherine Fyffe; Co-Creator and cutting straight to the heart of Strindberg’s exploration of Director Sam Haren; Designer and Co-Creator Jonathon Julie on the brink of making decisive life choices. Oxlade; Composer Luke Smiles; Puppet Maker/Consultancy Strindberg’s plays shocked audiences for two reasons, Tamara Rewse; Technical Designer Chris Petridis. Windmill the content and the presentation. Strindberg left the Theatre Co / Adelaide Festival Centre. Space Theatre. Aug comforting evening out that was considered theatre and 24 - Sep 3. dealt with real people in real situations. BEEP was a delight from start to finish. I laughed, Holly Brindley and director Yasmin Gurreeboo’s wondered, enjoyed and marvelled at how much a “simple” production is true to Strindberg’s intentions. Firstly, the story supposedly created for the youngest of audiences had setting designed by Meg Wilson is a believable space where so much to teach all of us. Beep had messages that the a party could be held and is up close and personal with the Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au
Stage Whispers 63
“older” members of the audience could relate to and engage with - without feeling preached at. To describe something as “simple” often belies the complexity and deep thinking that has gone into the creation. The set was perfect both as an acting and puppetry space but also as an example of the art of concealment and revelation. For me it played on the excitement of opening a beautifully crafted box to discover that inside the box is a whole new world. However much I appreciate good sets and design, it is the story and the way it is told that holds the key and Beep was perfect. It worked well on so many levels. Yes, it did its job and told the story for the three-year-old target audience. Antoine Jelk, Ezra Juanta and Kialia-Nadine Williams were engaging and engaged in the show and found exactly the right tone; there was no patronising of children in this show. The story had enough repetition to establish the structure and emphasise the drama involved when routines are disrupted. It established relationships between the characters and the audience, carefully building in those moments that resonate with us at a human level. I had a constant smile on my face throughout the performance from the ripples of delighted laughter from the children in the audience and was in a state of total appreciation for the skill of everyone involved in creating and presenting this delightful piece of theatre. Sally Putnam Stage Directions Written & Directed by Aaron Evans. Ipswich Little Theatre. Incinerator Theatre, Ipswich. Sep 20 - Oct 7. THE egocentricities of actors are picked apart in Aaron Evans’ new play Stage Directions, which is set during the rehearsal period of a professional theatre company’s latest production. Simon McDrew (Peter Van Werkhoven), a soap actor who made it big for a time in Hollywood, is back in Australia to try and rebuild his career on the stage. He’s been cast because of his name value, and McDrew believes he can deliver until doubts start to cloud his confidence when his co-star and protégée Michael (William Sampson) accuses him of being a very bad actor. Throw in his egosoothing agent Sandra (Courtney Murrin) who’s more his personal assistant, a ruthless star actress Olivia Grand
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Matthews (Victoria Adair) who immediately takes Michael under her wing and beds him, and a director Gerald Adams (Cody Muller) who has a performance history with McDrew, and you have a backstage scenario ripe for exploitation. Whether he was playing air-guitar or showing off some dodgy dance moves, Van Werkhoven nicely created a conflicted artist full of insecurities and self-doubt. When his altruism came back to bite him in the butt he courageously sucked it up without displaying malice. Sampson, as the young protégée, on the other hand had all the naivety and arrogance of youth laced with a brutally thoughtless streak. Murrin was a great strength as the agent and confidante, at times naughtily upstaging to get a laugh, Muller displayed a ton of harassment as the beleaguered director Gerald, whilst Adair pouted prettily when she wasn’t being haughty. Ipswich Little Theatre is to be applauded for their foresight in programming a new local play by this promising young author. Peter Pinne American Beauty Shop By Dana Lynn Formby. Presented by Some Company and Oleg Pupovac in association with bAKEHOUSE. Directed by Anna McGrath. KX Theatre, Kings Cross. Aug 25 - Sep 16. POWERFUL characterisation is the strength of Some Company’s production of the Australian premiere of American Beauty Shop. Set in Cortez, Colorado in 2010, American Beauty Shop tells the stories of five women aged 17 to 81. The play delves into their dreams and their struggles to escape the cycle of poverty. Sue and her assistant Meg have big plans for the beauty shop, however, the effects of the 2008 recession mean that Sue is struggling to keep her business afloat and balance the future of her daughter, Judy, who has a chance of getting out of the small town. Sue also feels responsible for her younger sister, Doll, who is battling her own demons. The play explores the true cost of dreams, the joys and pain of familyhood and how life can change in an instant. Charmaine Bingwa (Meg), Caitlyn Curley (Judy), Jill McKay (Helen), Amanda Stephens Lee (Sue) and Janine Watson (Doll) all deliver performances that are very real. The tension between Sue and Doll is particularly powerful and I commend Amanda and Janine on an emotive and poignant performance. I loved the quaint and intimate KX Theatre and the way the director used a traverse stage, where the audience sits on two sides of the theatre space and watches everything from a side on view. You would think, with this kind of staging, that you would see quite a bit of the actors’ backs, but I didn’t really notice this as the performers moved around and engaged with the audience and it definitely added to the intimacy. While this is a tragic story, there are some comedic moments and this is a performance that has stayed with me since seeing it. Shannon O’Connell
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Reviews: Plays
Nathan O’Keefe in Macbeth. Photo: Chris Herzfeld.
Macbeth By William Shakespeare. State Theatre Company of SA. Dunstan Playhouse. Aug 25 - Sep 16. THERE has long been debate among scholars of Shakespeare’s Macbeth as to whether or not the Macbeths had a child. The script implies that although Lady Macbeth had suckled a child at some time, Macbeth himself probably had no children. There is also a tantalising possibility that the Macbeths lost a child soon after its birth. Director Geordie Brookman has used this latter premise as a ‘doorway’ into his uninterrupted two-hour interpretation of the epic tragedy for State Theatre Company SA. Constantly moving like a lost soul amongst the action on stage is a featureless, contorted and intensely unsettling figure. Here is the embodiment of several characters, including a witch, but primarily the figure represents various children of the warring characters: Fleance (son of Banquo), Macduff Jnr and, though not named, surely also the Macbeth’s possible ‘lost child’. Rachel Burke gives a wonderfully controlled and extremely physical performance as the faceless child figure. On stage for the entirety of the play, she creates startling and gory effects, being the vessel from which blood insinuates itself onto victims in scenes of murder. These death scenes are brilliant and each is uniquely achieved. Nathan O’Keefe is mesmerising as Macbeth, while Anna Steen gives an equally towering performance as Lady Macbeth.
All others in the experienced cast are excellent, particularly Peter Carroll, who, while playing several characters, shines in his portrayal of the Porter character, with a hilarious and stunningly inspired performance. Lesley Reed Diving For Pearls By Katherine Thomson. Griffin Theatre Co. SBW Stables Theatre. Sep 8 - Oct 28. KATH Thomson’s play takes us back to 1991, to those stranded in a coastal industrial city as manufacturing is closed down, and recession and economic rationalism rolls in. While Thomson sharply details this manufacturing revolution, her focus is on the heartfelt battle of those left behind, their humour, hopes and bitter disappointment. Barbara is a rough diamond trying to polish herself up for a job at one of those smart new tourist resorts; and she’s hooked back up with the shy steelworker Den, a loyal bloke to her and his workmates. Ursula Yovich is passionately outspoken, heart-rending, as Barbara while Steve Rodgers excels as the scruffy, kind Den. Jack Finisterer is true as Den’s brother-in-law, a reform consultant at the steelworks, ebullient and then shameful. Michelle Doake is wickedly funny as Barbara’s affected sister. And Ebony Vagulans is outstanding as Barbara’s palsy-affected, puppy dog daughter whose return to her Mum opens old wounds.
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A View From The Bridge. Photo: John Marmaras.
This is gripping theatre, rich with tears and humour, but against a powerful canvas of still very contemporary social issues. Director Darren Yap is blessed with his cast and keeps the action tight; even if detail is lost in the emotional climaxes. Max Lambert and Roger Lock create an evocative, thrilling, soundscape while James Browne has crafted an effective industrial set of pipes, found objects and work lights. A wall efficiently cranks down to form the hill, the place of retreat, overlooking this fast changing industrial city. Martin Portus
Italian brothers desperate for American opportunities (David Soncin and Lincoln Younes as Rodolfo). Rodolfo’s winning, almost feminine ways with Catharine triggers Eddie’s explosive jealousy. Giles Gartrell-Mills plays a mate who Eddie discards, along with his honour, and David Lynch is the local lawyer narrating Eddie’s downfall. Clemence Williams’ sound, Matt Cox’s inventive lighting and Martelle Hunt’s appealing 1950’s working class costuming provide the only visceral sense of Arthur Miller’s vitally important outside world. Somehow though, this cast conjures the grinding Brooklyn waterfront and the cheap tenements which so A View From The Bridge oppress these families and so shrink their life options. A By Arthur Miller. Red Line Productions. Old Fitz Theatre. Oct compelling, sensitive ensemble work, this A View From The 19 - Nov 25. Bridge is a must see. THE Old Fitz is so small it’s hard to imagine it as theatre Martin Portus in the round. But stripped of all props except a chair, and with the actors when offstage sharing front row seats with Educating Rita the audience, it’s amazing what little you need to make By Willy Russell. Hobart Repertory Theatre Society. Playhouse great theatre. Theatre, Hobart. Director: Danni Ashton. Sep 1 - 16. A View From The Bridge, in this fine stripped back TWO-HANDER Educating Rita requires enormous production by Iain Sinclair, is a view up close, more a stamina and focus. Actors Anastasia Ward and Scott Burns psychological study. Luckily the acting totally rewards the display these qualities in abundance. Their performances focus. are credible and engaging and one cannot help but be in Eddie Carbone (a dangerous Ivan Donato) resents the awe of the virtuosity the roles demand. growing independence of his adored teenage niece Frank is warm rather than acerbic, his well-modulated Catherine (a beautifully modulated Zoe Terakes). His wife, tones suggesting a rational moderation which is belied by the love-starved Beatrice (Janine Watson) looks on his drinking and disappointments. He is not the jaded Frank anxiously, and tensions grow with the arrival of two young of the iconic movie; self-doubt and self-indulgence are 66 Stage Whispers
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reserved for Act II. Burns is a talented and versatile performer. He wears his brown corduroy well but the bad wig is difficult to unsee. Anastasia Ward is a newcomer to the Hobart theatre scene and, undoubtedly, an asset. Her Rita is optimistic, brave and vibrant, less jaded than other portrayals of the role. Her physical and vocal characterisation are consistent and authentic but exuberant delivery sometimes compromises audibility. The space is used well by both performers and the cluttered set is visually interesting although statically lit. There is no indication of the passing of season or time. The actors manage all transitions of set and costumes by themselves to the accompaniment of an 80’s sound track used to signpost thematic shifts. The play may be dated but it still has something to say. It addresses such ideas as identity and authenticity, change and choice. In a metaphor which may apply equally to the curriculum or students, Frank says, “We pluck birds from the sky and nail them down to learn how they fly”. Some 37 years on, Educating Rita may yet teach us how to “sing a better song.” Anne Blythe-Cooper 4.48 Psychosis By Sarah Kane. Directed by Michele McNamara. IllumiNation Theatre. Gasworks Arts Park, Albert Park, Victoria. Sep 12 - 16. DIRECTOR Michele McNamara’s intention for Sarah Kane’s 1999 play was to depict ‘a world where we can see what we feel’ - to take us into the world of mental illness. We saw striking tableaux and urgent, frenetic movement created by her young cast, enhanced by Jason Bovaird’s expressionistic light design and Matt Brown’s music and sound. The text specifies only a ‘doctor’ (Pearce Hesling) and a ‘patient’, but Ms McNamara had ‘patient’ portrayed by four actors - Laila Thaker, Catherine Holder, Stephanie Pick and Andy Aisbett - to portray rage and fear, carrying the burdens of the past, the loneliest isolation, the yearning for love, the towering frustration at not being understood, the chemical solutions of hit-and-miss doctors, and suicidal depression. The ‘4.48’ of the title is the hour at which Sarah Kane woke each morning, locked in her own clinical depression. Kane, a leading dramatist of her generation, committed suicide before the play’s first production, so, knowing that, it is almost impossible to see the text as anything but autobiographical (even a ‘suicide note’). Seen simply as a text for performance, there is minimal narrative development, it can seem emotionally repetitious, and the ‘poetic’ or abstract nature of the text created difficulties for the committed but somewhat inexperienced players. The images have more impact here than the spoken word. Nevertheless, this is a brave production of an extremely difficult text and where it succeeds, it is moving and does help us to understand or indeed to recognise hidden or alien emotions. Michael Brindley
Dinner By Moira Buffini. Sydney Theatre Company. Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Sep 11 - Oct 28. DINNER parties of course are highly theatrical affairs and Moira Buffini really lets hers rip in her 2002 play, Dinner. Set in an English country manor, bitch hostess Paige supervises a surreal menu to mark the publication of her husband Lars’ hit philosophical opus. As for the guests, Hal (Brandon Bourke) is an indefinable microbiologist at war with his partner Sian (Claire Lovering), a celebrity newsreader; and Wynne (a masterfully true Rebecca Massey) is a bohemian artist. Unannounced is a cocky young removalist, Mike (Aleks Mikic), who provokes much entertainment and class confessions amongst these addled Brits. Bruce Spence is the silent waiter whose towering presence promises the night’s final farcical surprise. Buffini’s play is a riot of cynical comedy, especially from an elegantly malicious Caroline Brazier as Paige, while Sean O’Shea is also strong as her pompous, hostile husband. It is, though, a night of nihilism, great fun but as emptyheaded as the guests. Imara Savage crisply directs the comic and unravelling action at the table but breaks it with portentous pauses and touches of meta-theatre, suggesting thematic depths which are just not there.
Caroline Brazier, Bruce Spence and Aleks Mikic in Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Dinner. Photo: Brett Boardman.
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Elizabeth Gadsby’s design also inexplicably buries the actors behind a glass wall, but her brittle white and gold Queen Anne panelled dinning room is a perfect setting for this dinner party decaying to nothing. Martin Portus One The Bear Written and composed by Candy B and Busty Beatz. La Boite, Campbelltown Arts Centre & Black Honey Company. La Boite Roundhouse Theatre, Oct 10 - 21. AT first, One the Bear appeared to be a bit of jovial fun. The audience’s heads bopped to the hip hop beats and everyone hollered for the dancing, rapping kaleidoscopic spectacle. Beneath it was some much needed, biting social commentary. The cast and crew drew on cabaret, farce, satire, musical theatre, burlesque, fairy-tale and more. One the Bear was an allegorical tale about race, the beauty myth, ‘selling out’ and cultural appropriation. It got you thinking about the insidiousness of the fame machine and the way any difference is discouraged. You watch the homogenisation of One’s looks and talent even though it was her difference that made her great. There was unbridled energy and commitment from the talented performers, Candy Bowers as One and Nancy Dennis as Ursula. Their brilliant rapping covered a variety of vocal styles and their dance skills were on point. Nancy Denis, Candy Bowers in One The Bear. Photo: Dylan Evans.
Jason Wing’s set design was grungy, fun and evocative. Optikal Bloc’s video design added an entire layer of messaging and beauty to the set design, at times working as a coating of digital set and others as exciting video edits to extend on the storytelling. Busty Beatz’ sound design and compositions were world class and proven to give heads the bops. The amazing fluoro and fluffy costumes by Sarah Seahorse brought so much life and entertainment to the show. One the Bear was paradigm shifting, world changing theatre wrapped up in a delightful evening of entertainment. Kiesten McCauley Good Grief By Keith Waterhouse. Centenary Theatre Group. Director: Cam Castles. Chelmer Community Centre, Chelmer, Queensland. Sep 9 - 30. GRIEF is something we all encounter and all deal with in our own way. June Pepper, the protagonist in Keith Waterhouse’s play Good Grief, finds that swigging a bottle of vodka and eating mint Aero chocolate helps her through the pain of losing her tabloid-editor husband Sam. Moving on with her life is slow, but it’s done with wit, comic resourcefulness, and a touch of poignancy. Never off-stage, everything revolves around the character of June, and Selina Kadell not only brings stamina to the role, but a down-toearth realism as she puts a comedic spin on events in her life. It’s a performance of warmth, compassion and truth. Guy Smith was an ingratiating foil as “The Suit”, who came across as a lovable suburban con-man. Simone-Marie Dixon found some empathy in the step-daughter Pauline, which was not always evident in the writing. As man-fromthe-office Eric, Paul McGibbon was smooth slicked-back hair slimy, with Liam Castles unobtrusive as the nonspeaking barman. The effective set, variations on a B&W theme, had added character with a wall-screen that showed a collage of words taken from the script for each scene change, underscored with various music grabs. Not Waterhouse’s best play by any means, but a pleasant night in the theatre which finds director Cam Castles’ mixing the emotional and comedic content with skill. Peter Pinne Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll By Ray Lawler. Pigeonhole Theatre. Directed by Karen Vickery. The Q - Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. Sep 20 - 30. NUANCED, funny, vibrant and unmistakably Australian, Pigeonhole Theatre’s take on Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is refreshing in that it’s told firmly from the female perspective. Jordan Best’s Olive is magnificent. While other productions might have Olive as somewhat passive or in a state of suspended adolescence, Ms Best imbues her with inner strength. This Olive is a proto-feminist. She’s seen marriage and decided the daily drudgery wasn’t for her. Instead, she’s created a situation with the best of both worlds; five months of fun, parties and unadulterated
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Tom Conroy and Pamela Rabe in Belvoir St. Theatre’s Ghosts. Photo: Brett Boardman.
Online extras! Belvoir’s Ghosts received widespread critical acclaim. Get a taste for yourself. https://youtu.be/miwpDnOMJbA attention from her man, and seven months of sheer freedom. The new interloper, Pearl (Andrea Close), made more sense to me than she has before. Rather than being snooty, Ms Close’s Pearl is pragmatic. When Barney (Dene Kermond) spins that truly awful line about his womanising being “not because he’s after all the loving he can get, but because he’s got a lot of love to give,” Pearl laughs with incredulity. It isn’t the line that wins her over, but Barney’s gall in thinking she’d fall for anything so patently ridiculous. She seems to make a conscious decision - what the heck, what does she have to lose? Director Karen Vickery has brought a lighter, fresh tone to the script, squeezing humour out of lines that are sometimes tense, helped by the huge comic experience of the cast. This is a wonderful interpretation of the classic. Cathy Bannister Ghosts By Henrik Ibsen. Belvoir, Upstairs Theatre. Sep 16 - Oct 22. EAMON Flack describes his adaptation as “a fairly direct rendering of Ibsen’s play into a language that makes sense to us today, exposing as it does the “ghosts” of oppressive religion, domestic violence, adultery, alcoholism, incest, disease and euthanasia. Designer Michael Hankin sets the play in a sparsely furnished conservatory dominated by tall, grey-shuttered windows, the only relief the potted plants that seem to cower against cold walls.
Helene Alving is about to dedicate an orphanage she has built in the memory of her late husband, Captain Alving, despite the fact that her husband was an unfaithful philanderer. Her only solace is her son, who has been diagnosed with a debilitating disease. Pamela Rabe is exceptional as Helene Alving. She finds the taut restraint and tight control of this woman. Her face lights with joy as she talks of her and fades to sorrow and indecision as she faces the reality of their future. Tom Conroy is convincingly disturbed as her son, Oswald, portraying a gamut of emotions. His final request of his mother leaves them both in despair. Robert Menzies portrays Pastor Mandes. His stooped stance and defined personal space show the rigidity of his uncompromising religious dogmatism. The young maid, Regina, is played by Taylor Ferguson and Colin Moody plays her father, Engstrand, an English seaman turned carpenter working on the orphanage. Carol Wimmer I Am My Own Wife By Doug Wright. Black Swan State Theatre Company. Directed by Joe Hooligan Lui. Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre of WA. Oct 12 - 29. I AM My Own Wife is a fascinating one-person play by Doug Wright about the life of Charlotte Von Mahlsdorf, an off-beat and passionate museum curator and antiquarian who lived through the Nazi era and Communist East Germany, and was an openly transgender woman.
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Brendan Hanson in I Am My Own Wife. Photo: Daniel J Grant.
Director Joe Hooligan Lui, perhaps better known as a lighting and sound designer, brings sensitive but strong direction to this excellent story, and is also responsible for the clever and moving soundscape. Actor Brendan Hanson delivers a triumphant performance, playing Charlotte with depth, integrity and complexity, but also switching seamlessly to play a myriad of other characters. Brendan has the audience captivated throughout the 90 minute play. Cherish Marrington’s set and costume design is representational, simple and striking, with Chris Donnelly’s lighting design emotive and effective. I Am My Own Wife has an intriguing structure, and this production tells Charlotte von Mahlsdorf’s story with passion and care. Kimberley Shaw
Kiley’s role is the combination of minor characters in order to make her integral to the adaptation. Second is Roisin O’Neill. Cast as Macduff, she carries out the role with commanding presence. I cannot fault her performance, from the touching moments with her wife and daughter, to the brutal concluding fight. I have to make special mention of ‘The Movement’. Emma Sproule is known for embellishing poignant moments in her adaptations, utilising stylised movement. Sometimes they also become minor characters within the story. Interestingly, Sproule has decided to create a friendship between Lady Macbeth and Lady Macduff. This highlighted the callous nature of Lady Macbeth, yet made her downfall seem somehow humbling. Angie Tonkin moves though these tricky stages of characterisation with ease. For a production that celebrates the strength of women, Macbeth Sproule has chosen three talented men to offset the predominately female cast. Of note, Edan Goodall is By William Shakespeare. Dionysus Theatre, Victoria. Oct 13 - 21. charismatic as Malcolm. WITH a theatrical scene that has, in the past, been The staging choice for this production encompasses a flooded with classical adaptations, why should we pay crossroads, where actors traverse though the audience. attention? For Director Emma Sproule, adapting Macbeth is Placed in the hub of the action, the audience becomes a exactly the point. With 19 women (with two talented girls - direct part of the decisions and subsequent challenges of the characters. Leikny Middelton and Harriet Byron) and three males, this interpretation explores the challenges women still face in This is a pertinent adaptation of Macbeth, bold and attaining and sustaining positions of authority today. brash. There are two clear standout performers. For relevant and affecting theatre, Dionysus Theatre is a The first is Ellen Kiley. In the role of the Porter, which is MUST see company. largely enhanced, she is portrayed as the Everywoman. Penelope Thomas 70 Stage Whispers
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Birdland By Simon Stephens. New Theatre, King St, Newtown. Oct 3 - Nov 4. BIRDLAND by British playwright Simon Stephens belongs to that long tradition of stories about immoral rock stars lost to fame and the hedonism of, well, sex, drugs and rock‘n’roll. Bored on tour, Paul (played with a charming, almost ordinary cruelty by Graeme McRae) seduces his best mate’s beloved, fragile girlfriend (Louise Harding). The next morning she jumps from the hotel’s top floor. Paul’s crass efforts to assuage his guilt and mollify his mate Johnny (a trusting Jack Angwin), begins a slide hastened by drugs, underage sex and a dastardly manager. Yes, it’s a familiar story, but director/set designer Anthony Skuse keeps the narrative dancing across his raked and fractured, panelled stage. Without props, pause or fuss, a young ensemble expertly swaps roles as fans, victims, sycophants, staff and family hovering around the empty charisma of Paul. Two hours without an interval, this compelling, well-told tale sweeps across Europe and a kaleidoscope of (good) accents. All the cast are strong - including Charmaine Bingwa, Airlie Dodds, Leilani Loau and Matthew Cheetham. So is this crash and burn story of a rock star, and his Faustian deal with fame, some bigger story about the moral collapse of high capitalism or the egocentricity of modern youth? Probably not, and nor do we learn anything of Paul’s musical or artistic ambition, but this Birdland is inventive and focused theatre. Martin Portus
and reserved. Peter’s parents (Brian Randell and Jo Cooper) were respectively selfish and finicky, a dentist (Oliver Pink) was difficult to get along with, and the two warehouse workers (Anna Balfour, Alastair Anderberg) who brought the residents food and information were caring. Ken Longworth Love And Information By Caryl Churchill. WAAPA. Directed by Andrew Lewis. The Roundhouse Theatre, ECU, WA. Aug 25 - 31. WAAPA’s Third Year Acting students performed Caryl Churchill’s fast paced ensemble piece as their final full scale production. In this vignette play, the one through story was the recurring appearance of Audrey Blyde and Kingsley O’Connor as a couple, where he seems distant and uninterested. It eventually emerges that he is having an online affair with a ‘virtual’ woman. Love And Information allowed 18 actors to play over 100 different characters, and the ability to switch quickly and establish characters instantly was impressive. The myriad of roles played meant some actors must be playing against type, but they were successful in every scene. Georgia Manning’s set design allowed projections, screens and viewing boxes, imitating the iPhones, iPads and computers through which we view the world. Love And Information. Photo: Jon Green.
The Diary Of Anne Frank Adapted by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett from the title book. Maitland Repertory Theatre, at its venue. Sep 20 - Oct 7. DIRECTORS Guil Noronha and Lesley Coombes inspected the Anne Frank House while in Amsterdam and that came through in their staging of The Diary Of Anne Frank. The set reproduced the small three-level warehouse attic area where the Frank family and other Jewish refugees hid for two years from the Nazis, with the tightness of the rooms the eight residents shared impacting on their behaviour and attitudes towards each other. That was shown in the voices, expressions and movements of the actors, headed by Abbey Matt as the initially 13-year-old Anne. They were down-toearth figures, poignant at times, but also raising smiles and laughs in some situations. Abbey Matt’s Anne was a teenage girl who quickly adjusted to life in the restricted area. But her expressions and words as she got older showed her need for a more normal life, and she was attracted to Peter Van Daan (Chris Henderson), the shy son of another resident family, with an affecting and charming scene which had them meeting in the tiny highest level of the attic. The other actors brought out the natures of their characters, with Anne’s father, Otto (Ian Robinson), polite and practical, her mother, Edith (Dimity Eveleens), reserved and nervous, and older sister, Margot (Giverny Burke), quiet Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au
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Lighting and Vision designer Ciaran Russell made strong choices, including lighting actors with their own phones and phone torch illumination. Sound Design was well orchestrated by Anil Duratovic, including live performances of composer musicians Arund Pearce and Pavan Hari. Costumes (Georgia Manning) were simple, but plentiful, and credit must go to the costume crew for creating a plethora of different, appropriate looks. The final glimpse of the Acting Class of 2017 showed a diverse group of young people, with a wonderful depth of talent. They are versatile, well-trained and strong, and I look forward to seeing them in the industry. Kimberley Shaw
smart modernising touch changes Gerry, club administrator, to Gerri (Jennifer Mettner), a casting decision that works beautifully and believably. Andrew Rance as Danny, the player captain, looks like a star footballer and brings energy and force onto the stage. Geoff, the player for whom the club paid $80,000 in 1977 dollars, gets the right touch of charisma combined with doped-out cynicism from Abhi Peresher. His telling of his bizarre family troubles to old Jock (Bob Tyers), committee member and schemer, is a highlight. Mr Tyers is the performance here: a comic figure, yes, but sentimental and nasty as the sentimental usually are. Darren Gregor, however, as Club President and meat pie mogul, businessman Ted, pushes too hard: ‘forceful’ isn’t volume. We should see the pathos The Club underneath. By David Williamson. Heidelberg Theatre Company, As to the play itself, as a play, the dialogue does go Rosanna, Victoria. Sep 8 - 23. around in circles, making each point two or three times. But DAVID Williamson’s 1977 play is still entertaining and its the sharp delineation of how Aussie rules transformed from subject is a sport that is an obsession for millions of a game into the show business is there: players as cast and Australians. The play is also prescient: in 1977, the forces supporters clinging to club loyalty and buying the that would turn a once parochial game into a huge merchandise. televised commodity were already in the mix. The saving Michael Brindley grace of the ruthless machinations depicted is the grit and skill of the players, and the thrill of the game. The Night Alive This production, directed by Gavin Williams, has a clarity By Conor McPherson. O’Punksky’s Theatre in association with that lays out the contending forces in reveal after reveal. A Red Line Productions. Old Fitz Theatre. Sep 13 - Oct 14. CONOR McPherson mixes humour and the macabre in this gritty black comedy - and under the direction of The Night Alive. Photo: Rupert Reid. Maeliosa Stafford his characters meet with the rhythm and cadence that make them uncompromisingly Irish. The set (Amanda McNamara) is a squalid, one room flat, littered with clothes and other personal debris. The room is rented by Tommy from his uncle, Maurice, who lives above. As the play opens, Tommy has rescued Aimee, who has been beaten by her ‘boyfriend’. Sarah Jane Kelly is convincingly feisty and cagey as Aimee, using McPherson’s clipped dialogue to reveal the character’s watchful awareness and wry humour. She is self -protective, never really letting down her guard - for good reason … John O’Hare is very natural and engaging as Tommy. He is ebullient, bright and enthusiastic, whether attending to Aimee’s bloody nose, or coping with his friend Doc (Laurence Coy). As Doc, Coy is bumblingly disarming, creating a character who is awkwardly open and frank, easily deceived but relentlessly resilient. Patrick Dickson, as Maurice, is more worldly wise, more in control. Despite Tommy’s protection, Aimee’s vicious boyfriend, Kenneth, finds her. Played by Darren Sabadina, this character changes the tenor of the play completely. McPherson uses the pauses, unfinished sentences and monosyllabic responses of natural dialogue. Stafford’s direction emphasises this in the pace and complexity he and his cast have found in the characters. Carol Wimmer
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No End Of Blame. Photo: Kate Williams.
No End Of Blame By Howard Barker. Sport for Jove. Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre. Oct 12 - 28. SWEEPING through the brutalities of the 20th Century, No End Of Blame is a picaresque moral tale from British writer Howard Barker about a Hungarian cartoonist who refuses to bend his pencil to the will of regimes. We meet our “hero”, Bela Veracek, as a dehumanised, young WWI soldier trying to rape a naked peasant at gun point and then stripped himself and about to be shot. Later, as artists in Budapest, Bela (an intense, modulated performance by Akos Armont), his more amiable friend Grigor (Sam O’Sullivan) and his wife Ilona (Lizzie Schebesta) escape the arcane conventions of the art academy, and leave for the new world of Lenin’s Russia. Barker’s masterful writing mixes philosophical argument underpinned with vernacular truths and easy comedy, notably in the scene of a Soviet artistic committee arguing away their new freedoms. Alone, Bela emerges in Britain, a victim of wartime and then commercial censorship. Damien Ryan’s ensemble of eight actors expertly swap between many roles on Melanie Liertz’s high, off-balanced stage surrounded by the clutter of backstage theatremaking. The play’s artfulness is beautifully underlined by the projected drawing of cartoons by Cathy Wilcox (SMH), David Pope (Canberra Times) and artist Nicholas Harding.
No End Of Blame arguably unravels dramatically by its end but the defiant Barker probably intended it so, reflecting the unravelling life of the now depressive Bela. It’s a welcome break from Hollywood formulas and other soporific conventions of entertainment. Martin Portus Lady Windermere’s Fan By Oscar Wilde. Gold Coast Little Theatre, Southport, Qld. Director: Rob Horton. Sep 2 - 23. Gold Coast Little Theatre’s production of Oscar Wilde’s classic “Comedy of Manners” Lady Windermere’s Fan receives a period/punk interpretation from Director Rob Horton. The experienced cast includes: Chloe Dear - Lady Windermere, Stuart Lumsden - Lord Windermere, James Anderson - Lord Darlington, Jacki Simmons - The Duchess of Berwick, Andrew Cockcroft-Pennman - Mr. Cecil Graham and Susan Carey - Mrs. Erlynne. A skilful lighting design enhanced the workable set and the costumes (both period and modern) added colour to the spectacle. For a piece of theatre so typically English, I found the choice of Strauss waltzes a little puzzling. For me, the action landed on a plateau early in the piece and didn’t seem to progress until well into Act Two. No doubt the “spark” will fall into place when everyone has settled into their respective characters as the season progresses. Roger McKenzie
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Reviews: Musicals
Chicago. Photo: Jon Green.
Chicago Music by John Kander. Lyrics by Fred Ebb. Book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse. WAAPA. Directed by Crispin Taylor. Geoff Gibbs Theatre, ECU, WA. Aug 26 - Sep 2. WAAPA’s Musical Theatre students presented their final production - Chicago - a show Musical Director David King describes as “ideal for a performing arts school”. This production embodies Chicago’s subtitle, “a musical vaudeville,’ and is very consciously vaudevillian. Ashley King’s set design featured a stage within the stage and many scenes were played explicitly as vaudeville ‘turns’. Leading ladies Roxie and Velma were played with tangible antagonism and superb teamwork by Kelsi Boyden and Jenna Curren, bringing solid skills to iconic roles. Laura Jackson was impressive as Matron ‘Mama’ Morton, capping a trifecta of superb performances this year. The Merry Murderesses were excellent, with Mackenzie Dunn, Sarah Brideson, Meg McKibbin, Monique Warren and Daisy Valerio delivering a wonderful Cell Block Tango with pole dancing - while Lucy Ross stole the stage as GoTo-Hell-Kitty. Finn Alexander was a wonderfully understated Amos, while David Cuny clearly enjoyed the showmanship of Billy Flynn. Tom Gustard brought a brilliant falsetto to Mary Sunshine with Nick Errol a strong Fred Casely. Chloe Bremner, Joshua White, Tom New, Luke Haberecht, Benjamin Colley, Cameron Steens and Bailey Dunnage gave high energy, invested performances. 74 Stage Whispers
Michael Ralph’s choreography was clever, innovative and expertly executed. Costume Designer Eilish Campbell was true to the era, paying a homage to vaudeville - a lovely aid to Crispin Taylor’s directorial choice. Lighting (Matthew Glew) was deliberately ‘theatrical’, with some bold choices. This sold-out production was a fitting farewell to this cohort - an excellent show which showcases some wonderful emerging talent. Kimberley Shaw High Society Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter: Book by Arthur Kopit. Additional Lyrics by Susan Birkenhead. Based on the play The Philadelphia Story by Philip Barry and the MGM motion picture High Society. Lilydale Athenaeum. Aug 17 - Sep 2. SET in Philadelphia in 1938, High Society tells the tale of Tracy Lord, a rich woman (by family wealth), ecstatic about her impending marriage to George Kittredge. Her mother, Mrs. Margaret Lord, and busy-body younger sister, Dinah, are at the family mansion supervising last minute wedding preparations. Unannounced, Tracy’s ex -husband, Dexter, arrives to inform the family that the editor of “Spy” Magazine is determined to get the inside story on the wedding and has arranged for two journalists to pose as guests to obtain an exclusive story. Director Alan Burrows had a challenge on his hands with this musical script, purely because of the very small stage and numerous scene changes needed. It was
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achieved simply, without grandeur. At the back of the stage there was the clever use of three open windows, where actors could enter and exit. The cast was highly experienced in musical theatre, some coming from professional backgrounds. This showed with the talents of Catherine Bolzonello (Tracy), Quinn Cameron (Dinah) Emma Harris and Rachel Findley (Ensemble). The clear overall standout performer was Maree Barnett, who played reporter Liz Imbrie. Her performance was polished; she acted into the part and was the most accomplished dancer in the cast. Andrew Wild was completely charming and suave as Dexter. His cheeky persona enveloped the audience and it was hard not to smile when he was on stage. Unfortunately choreography and the pre-recorded backing track brought down the production slightly. Overall, a classically well sung and stripped down High Society for a well-established community theatre. Penelope Thomas Sunday In The Park With George Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by James Lapine. Little Triangle. The Depot Theatre, Marrickville. Sep 6 - 16. THE intimate Depot Theatre works a treat for Sunday In The Park With George, notably in the sometimes problematic second act, where adept inclusive direction sweeps the audience up into the gallery opening. It’s almost as though we’re mingling, sipping cocktails. Alexander Andrews’ production feels so immersive in act 1, that we might well be the water lapping at the shore of the island on which the action is taking place. The venue’s intimacy allows simple, stylish piano and cello accompaniment to blend with microphone-free vocal projection. Congratulations to M.D. / cellist Conrad Hamill for serving the score marvelously. A minimalist design makes no attempt to represent the painting central to the story. There are reproductions in the foyer and program, but the rest is up to your imagination. As the two Georges, consumed 19th century artist Seurat and his great-grandson, Owen Elsley gives a compelling tour-de force performance. Georgina Walker is entrancing as 19th Century George’s model / lover Dot, then credible down to the smallest mannerism in Act 2 as aging grandmother Marie. As Seurat’s fellow artist/ antagonist, Simon Ward convincingly counter-balances George’s idealism with pragmatism, not unlike his contemporary gallery director in Act 2. As Seurat’s mother, Tisha Kelllemen’s touching duet with George is a real highlight. An excellent ensemble cast establishes splendid contrasting characterisations, while meeting the vocal challenges of the Sondheim score impressively. Production company Little Triangle’s potential for presenting quality small-scale musical theatre on a shoestring is an exciting development on Sydney’s Music Theatre scene. Neil Litchfield
The Producers Music & Lyrics: Mel Brooks. Book: Mel Brooks & Thomas Meehan. Savoyards. Director: Gabriella Flowers. Music Director: Mark Beilby. Choreographer: Hanna Crowther. Iona Performing Arts Centre, Wynnum, Qld. Sep 23 - Oct 7. CULT movies make fabulous musicals, as Hairspray, The Full Monty and Kinky Boots have proved, and if Mel Brooks’ The Producers is not the best of them, it’s certainly the funniest. This Savoyards production blew me away. It gets it right in every department; cast, costumes, music, and most of all in the brilliantly accomplished direction of Gabrielle Flowers. Seamlessly melding plot and character, the production dances with joy, and her staging of the comedy set-ups, particularly the slapstick, is timed to perfection. The character of Max Bialystock is one of the glories of musical theatre; unscrupulous, conniving, a Broadway usedcar-salesman of the first order. It’s a gift of a role, which Gary Rose embraces with gusto. Whether fending off an overenthusiastic Granny or bemoaning his “Betrayal” by Leo, he was a riot. Joshua Thia’s Leo Bloom was his perfect patsy. Meek, self-confidence impaired and prone to hysteria, his timing was superb. And he also sang and danced with impish charm. Grace Clark was deliciously seductive as Swedish bombshell Ulla, Walter Lago wore the lederhosen of Franz The Producers. Photo: Christopher Thomas.
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Liebkind with storm-trooper zeal, David Morris was an outrageously flamboyant Roger De Bris, whilst Scott Edwards’ Carmen Ghia made mincing into an art-form. This is top-class community musical theatre. It’s wellacted, well-sung and well-danced. It deserves its own fivestar award. Peter Pinne Annie By Thomas Meehan, Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin. Northern Light Theatre Company. Shedley Theatre (SA). Oct 13 - 28. NORTHERN Light Theatre Company’s production proves this family musical has lost none of its charm, as director Fran Edwards recaptures the wonder of the heart-warming tale of red headed orphan, Annie. Holly Abbott looks every bit the feisty heroine with her mop of red curls, making the title role her own. She captures superbly the spunk and little girl charm required for the audience to fall in love with her, topped off with sweet, well controlled vocals. The ensemble of orphan girls does a great job, with special mention to Jacinta Atterton in her turn as Molly… just adorable. Robyn Brookes’ Miss Hannigan is sublime in her turn as the boozy matriarch, with her rendition of “Little Girls” a highlight. George Clooney look-alike Gavin Cianci plays billionaire Daddy Warbucks and after starting shakily through act one, he improved in act two with the heart-warming number “Something was Missing”. His lovely chemistry with Abbott makes their characters’ relationship authentic. Nikki Gaertner-Eaton as Warbuck’s secretary Grace is lovely, but on opening night she struggled, as many of the cast did, when it came to singing in a higher register. Sets and costumes are well thought through and scene changes are effortless. Choreography by Laura Brook meets the needs of the cast and highlights some fine dancers. On opening night, minor technical difficulties with backdrop projections distracted, but this is easily fixed. I feel the best is yet to come with this production. Kerry Cooper
Sweeney, with act-one’s “Epiphany”, when he holds his razor high and proclaims ‘at last my right arm is complete again’, a chilling moment. Young sixteen-year-old Gabe Tiller was a credible Tobias. Although his voice is still developing, he’s a performer who already knows how to command a stage and has a bright future ahead of him. Shannon Gralow and Justin Tamblyn sang well as the young lovers Joanna and Anthony, even if their characters appear to be marking-time in the plot, in essence a fault of the writing (Sondheim’s forte is not writing purity and innocence unless he’s sending it up as in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum). Even though Quade’s direction was bold, at times it was bewildering. Why stage Judge Turpin’s flagellation scene in a part of the set where nobody could see it? But the lighting (Ben Hunt) and musical direction (Shane Tooley) were excellent. Peter Pinne
Hello, Dolly! Book by Michael Stewart. Music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. Based on The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder. Miranda Musical Society. Sutherland Entertainment Centre. Sep 13 - 17. CLASSIC 1960s musical Hello, Dolly! has an infectious score and a witty, engaging script. It’s a show brimming with humanity and heart. Director Diane Wilson keeps the evening brightly paced and lively. Dean Turner’s musical direction ensures the Jerry Herman score remains quintessential Broadway. Choreographer Edward Rooke takes an ensemble of performers with mixed dancing abilities and shapes effective routines, which are performed with joy and enthusiasm. Dolly is ‘looking swell’ thanks to period costumes by James Worner and an effective set design, with lush red tabs disguising the changing of set-pieces, by Bob Peet. Title role Dolly Levi fits diva Michele Lansdown like a glove. She has the voice, acting chops and charisma to carry off this iconic role, and carry it off she does. Bravo! Christopher Hamilton balances Michele’s joie de vivre as her amply dour and stuffy foil Horace Vandergelder. I’ve never seen the roles of Cornelius Hackl, Barnaby Tucker, Irene Molloy and Minnie Fay more happily matched Sweeney Todd on a community theatre stage. Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim. Book: Hugh Wheeler Michael Johnson is engaging as Cornelius, capturing his from an adaptation by Christopher Bond. Toowoomba desperate yearning for a real life; Jack Paterson deliciously Chorale Society. Director: Mary Quade. Musical Director: exudes Barnaby’s boyish enthusiasm; Louise Jaques’ Irene Shane Tooley. Choreographer: Daniel Erbacher. Empire Molloy positively blossoms from a pragmatic introduction Theatre, Toowoomba. Sep 1 - 3. through to a joyous rediscovery of romance, while Skye AN absence of blood was one of the features of Mary Roberts’ Minnie Fay simply bubbles with fun throughout. Quade’s highly-stylised production of Stephen Sondheim’s Good support too from Tim Wotherspoon’s earnest Sweeney Todd. Ambrose Kemper, Bernice Keen’s constantly bawling Performance-wise the show could have been called the Ermengarde and Anne-Marie Fanning’s appropriately Mrs Lovett Show, with top acting honours going to Vicki appalling Ernestina Money. Bravery as the venal pie-maker, finding comedy in the The waiters at Harmonia Gardens have Hello, Dolly! macabre and pathos in her affection for her razor-slashing summed up after five decades - “You’re still glowin’, you’re partner in crime. Their “A Little Priest” was black-comedy at still crowin’, you’re still goin’ strong.” its finest. Kyle Dever’s sonorous tones were a perfect fit for Neil Litchfield 76 Stage Whispers
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Bobby Fox and Jason Kos in Assassins. Photo: Phil Erbacher.
Assassins Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by John Weidman. Director: Dean Bryant. Choreographer: Andrew Hallsworth. Musical Director: Andrew Worboys. Set and Costume Design: Alicia Clements. Hayes Theatre. Sep 15 Oct 22. ACTORS love playing villains - and Assassins delivers a whole fruitcake tin of them. The Hayes Theatre has baked the loonies together, inside the most stunning set, combined with the tastiest of ensembles, to create a positively scrumptious result. The biggest surprise is to read the program afterwards, when you discover that Sondheim and Weidman didn’t have to make much up about the motley crew of ‘successful’ and ‘unsuccessful’ assassins of U.S. Presidents over the years. Charles Guiteau (played elegantly and delightfully by Bobby Fox) did in fact smile and wave to the crowds on the way to the gallows for assassinating the 20th President, James A Garfield, in 1881. Bobby Fox’s stunning dance with a fluorescent rope (a highlight of the production) was not so much of a stretch. John Wilkes Booth (David Campbell) brandished a knife and announced from the stage a quote attributed to Brutus (Caesar’s assassin) after shooting Abraham Lincoln inside a theatre. Blending these together was the most stunning set and costume design by Alicia Clements, that looked, felt and smelled like a decaying carnival, complete with a rusty old dodgem car.
Assassins leads inevitably to the killing of JFK by Lee Harvey Oswald. Recent graduate Maxwell Simon looked every inch the brooding character that was Oswald, as all the motley crew of killers return to the stage to urge him on. These are not just troubled individuals but a whole nation troubled by a gun culture and love of celebrity, where in every generation obscure characters are tempted to change the world by moving one little finger on a gun and having their names etched in history. Onto the wall flickered a picture of Donald Trump. This was a mind spinning and brilliant production. David Spicer West Side Story Music: Leonard Bernstein. Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim. Book: Arthur Laurents. Lumina Theatre Co. Director: Daryl Stevenson. Musical Director: Daniel Aguiar. Choreographer: Narada Edgar. Aquinas College, Ringwood. Aug 25 - Sep 2. LUMINA Theatre Co is a relatively new company based at Aquinas College in Ringwood, and this was their second production. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but what I got was a lot of youthful energy from the mainly young cast, and a lot of pathos, as the drama was fully realised. Sets were minimal, with a cyclone fence and walkway at the back and various pieces of furniture moved on and off as appropriate. This worked well because of the excellent lighting. With two opposing gangs, there was a large male chorus. Although not all had dance training, the
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Ipswich Musical Theatre Company’s Les Misérables.
Online extras! Check out the trailer for Ipswich Musical Theatre Company’s Les Misérables. https://youtu.be/OP9QwmGgE0k choreography was tight and exciting. The fight sequences were well realised, the dream sequence in “Somewhere” was clever and the Jets presented a frenetic and very funny “Officer Krupke”. Jessica La Mari was a touching Maria who sang beautifully. There was real chemistry between her and her Tony, Matthew Frampton, who easily negotiated the fearsome tessitura. Perri Espinoza was a feisty Anita with a strong singing voice. Stewart Hawkey and Anjan Karnepati were strong as Riff and Bernardo, and all members of the gangs presented clearly defined characters. Apart from a few muffed notes in the overture, the band played well and the sound was good. But it was the drama of the piece which got to the audience as they really felt for the characters involved in this tragedy. Graham Ford Shrek The Musical (Jr.) Based on the DreamWorks Animation motion picture, and the book by William Steig. Book and lyrics by David LindsayAbaire. Music by Jeanine Tesori. Adelaide Youth Theatre. The Hopgood Theatre, Noarlunga. Oct 6 - 7. AFTER no fewer than four big-screen showcases, could any stage musical version of this story - let alone a junior edition that runs only an hour - possibly have anything fresh and engaging to offer? In the hands of the dependable team at Adelaide Youth Theatre - absolutely! 78 Stage Whispers
The self-aware humour that is a Shrek trademark may actually work even better on the stage, when it is delivered in wittily rhyming song lyrics; the music, meanwhile, has been pre-recorded but the young ensemble mesh well with it, delivering very nice harmonies into the bargain. Jack Conroy does well as the title character, and Zali Sedgman’s portrayal of Princess Fiona has an edge that is charming in the style of Carol Burnett. Izzy Oppedisano was a hit with the audience - and deservedly so - in the one-and -only role of Donkey; though line deliveries were occasionally a challenge to comprehend, this performer more than made it up for it with energy, attitude, and timing. Director Thomas Phillips has kept the show light and bright, with clever and colourful design work to enjoy throughout. There would be no better way to sum up this production than with a direct quote from the row in front of this reviewer, prompted by Shrek’s wedding serenade during the conclusion: “That’s so sweet!” Anthony Vawser Les Misérables By Claude-Michel Schonberg & Alain Boublil. Based on the novel by Victor Hugo. Music by Claude-Michel Boublil. Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. Ipswich Musical Theatre. Director: Christopher Bradtke. Musical Director: Robert Clark. Choreography: Ruth Gabriel. Civic Centre, Ipswich. Sep 8 - 17. IPSWICH Musical Theatre’s production of Les Misérables was top of the range community theatre - thrilling,
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emotional and exciting. I have rarely heard the show sung as well, nor has there been so much clarity in the story as there was in Christopher Bradtke’s concise direction. The musical’s big solo set-pieces were sung centre-stage for maximum effect, and with built in applause-buttons after every major number, it was community musical theatre at its best. Having operatic voices perform the two principal roles was a coup for the company, which was top heavy with vocal talent. Robert Shearer’s Jean Valjean was passionate and tender, giving vocal-heft to “Who Am I?” and the score’s immortal “Bring Him Home”, likewise Lionel Theunissen’s Javert, whose ringing tones sent “Stars” into the stratosphere. Sophie Salvesani (Cosette) and William Toft (Marius) were the epitome of young lovers, bringing youthful desire to “A Heart Full of Love”, whilst Toft’s low-key emotional “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” was achingly effective. Jessica Ham’s Fantine was a touch uncertain in the higher register on “I Dreamed a Dream”, as was Emily Pluckrose’s Eponine with “On My Own”, but the Thenadiers (Ian Moore and Carole Williams) were a bawdy delight in “Master of the House”. The 14-piece orchestra under Robert Clark’s baton sounded almost symphonic, Murray Keidge’s sound design was a star (you heard every lyric), and Wesley Bluff’s lighting blitzed the stage with mood. Peter Pinne
Thoroughly Modern Millie Music by Jeanine Tesori, lyrics by Dick Scanlan, and a book by Richard Morris and Scanlan. Babirra Music Theatre. Director: Karl McNamara. Musical Director: Vicki Quinn. Choreographer: Steve Rostron. The Whitehorse Centre. Oct 6 - 15. BABIRRA’s Thoroughly Modern Millie was amazing! I don’t know how a professional company could improve on what we saw. In the title role was Stephanie John, who I remembered as Mary Poppins. Her excellent voice and dancing, combined with lovely comic timing, made for a delightful Millie. Phillip Davies had a wide-eyed innocence about his Jimmy which made for an ideal pairing, and he matched Stephanie with his singing and dancing. Grace Kingsford and Ian Andrew were a suitably overthe-top pair as Miss Dorothy and Trevor Graydon. Both had excellent voices and worked well together. Natasha Bassett was a suitably brassy Mrs. Meers and she worked well with Ju-Han Soon and Clinton Gin as the pair of Chinese helpers. The impressive abstract sets allowed the show to flow and the excitement didn’t wane. There was a lot of tap-dancing in this show and the ensemble were up to the challenge. The choreography was challenging, tight and energetic. The orchestra were excellent and the sound well balanced. Graham Ford Pelican Productions’ Seussical Jr.
Seussical Jr. Music by Stephen Flaherty. Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. Book by Ahrens and Flaherty. Co-conceived by Ahrens, Flaherty, and Eric Idle. Based on the works of Dr. Seuss. Pelican Productions. Norwood Concert Hall. Sep 15 - 17. PRIOR knowledge of the character Horton, and his adventures, is advised preparation before attending any production of Seussical. The good news for those who never got beyond The Cat in the Hat or Hop on Pop is that Pelican have put together a show in which virtually anyone can find something to enjoy, whether it’s the crazily colourful decor, the consistently impressive performances, or the admirable level of energy. Some songs here display African and Latino musical influences, which helps add variety and spark to the score, while the climax goes for a semi-sinister gospel feel that works rather well. Standout performers include Georgia Firth, a charismatic and confident presence in the role of Mayzie La Bird, while Tia Rodger - as Horton the Elephant makes for a strong and pleasant central figure. David Lampard has directed, designed, and cochoreographed (with Bec Schembri) this rather challenging piece in a manner that successfully communicates the essential Seussian qualities of happiness and imagination. For a family theatre outing, it’s just what the Dr. ordered. Anthony Vawser
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La Cage Aux Folles Music & Lyrics: Jerry Herman. Book: Harvey Fierstein. Nash Theatre Inc. Director: Leo Bradley. Musical. Director: Mary Greathead. Choreography: Shai Lewis. Merthyr Road Uniting Church, New Farm. Sep 22 - Oct 14. THIS must be the most tawdry drag show in town, but also the funniest, thanks to Ross Waghorn’s turn as Zaza/ Albin. A performer who has street cred in ‘Drag’ (he frequently works as his alter-ego Wanda D'Parke), he commands the stage and with his smart delivery and ad-libs he finds a few more laughs than are on the page in Harvey Fierstein’s bubbly script. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a ‘Drag Queen’ play the role and it was a revelation. He never missed a bitchy retort, and brought natural warmth to the part in a very real and honest performance. Of course Zaza is one of the great leading roles in musical theatre with a showstopper of a first-act number, the defiant gay anthem “I Am What I Am”. Waghorn delivered it like a pro. Opposite him as his long-time and straight-acting lover Georges, Rod Jones was very credible, smoothly soothing troubled waters at his partner’s frequent hissy fits, and maternal to his son’s requests. Drew Buchanan handled Jean-Michel’s segue from ungratefully selfish to compassion with charm, whilst Jermia Turner moved gracefully as the fiancée Anne. The first-act moved smartly under Leo Bradley’s direction but the second appeared to be under-rehearsed, with the actors forgetting lines and the singing sometimes out of sync to the backing CD. Peter Pinne Les Misérables Based on the novel by Victor Hugo, with music by ClaudeMichel Schonberg, lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. Metropolitan Players, Civic Theatre, Newcastle. Aug 16 - 26. I HAVE seen many productions of Les Misérables, and the finest have been staged by Newcastle companies. That was again the case, with this wholly sung presentation having me on the verge of tears in very moving scenes. The performers, musicians and back stage personnel never missed a beat, with the use of a stage revolve enabling brisk changes of settings. The story follows the central character, Jean Valjean, through almost 20 years, starting with his release from a 19 -year imprisonment for stealing a loaf of bread to help feed his peasant family. Chris Maxfield was a riveting Valjean, delivering a heartfelt Bring Him Home, as he watched a sleeping student, Marius, who is attracted to the girl, Cosette, Valjean adopted after the death of the mother who worked in his factory. Likewise, Simon Redhead’s Javert, a police inspector who pursues Valjean, showed his failure to see people as they are in the passionate Stars. And the big group numbers, including Do You Hear the People sing, with the revolutionaries showing their determination, stirred watchers’ emotions. The production confirmed once again the remarkable skills of the Metropolitan staging team, led by director Julie Black, musical director and conductor of the 25-member orchestra, Greg Paterson, and choreographers Kirby Leigh 80 Stage Whispers
Coker and James Tolhurst. They contributed to making this story set 200 years ago very relevant to today. Ken Longworth Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Music & Lyrics: Richard & Robert Sherman. Book: Jeremy Sams & Ray Roderick. Wyong Musical Theatre Company. The Art House, Wyong. Sep 23 - 30. WYONG Musical Theatre Company has scored a coup by presenting the regional premiere of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Director Greg Derry has done a fine job finding endearing leads. Simon Castles as Caractacus Potts and Hannah Greenshields as Truly Scrumptious are vocally sublime - musical director Michael Partridge has been handed a gift with their casting. The haunting ‘Hushabye Mountain’ is a particular favourite due to Castle’s beautiful resonance. New choreographer Courtney Randall establishes the energy of the show with her dances - “Me Ol’ Bamboo” being a slick and polished standout of the production. The supporting cast all give enthusiastic portrayals of their cartoonish, larger than life characters. The Baron (Duane Shore), Baroness (Kathryn Peterson) and secret service spies Boris and Goran (delightfully played by brothers Jamie and Harrison Sturgess) provide titillating comic relief. However, special note must be made of Grandpa Potts - Peter Hellier. His huge stage presence was such a welcome treat; you were left counting the time until he was back on stage. This is a technically complex show - after all ‘Chitty’ is a flying car - and WMTC have done an admirable job attempting to satisfy the demanding requirements. Apart from a few hitches in this regard as well as some missed opportunities in regards to use of ensemble and characterisation, the production was extremely well received by its family orientated audience. Clare James Sweeney Todd Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by Hugh Wheeler. Produced by Dramatic Productions. Director: Richard Block. Gungahlin College Theatre (ACT). Oct 6 - 21. EVERY year Dramatic Productions showcases brilliant new talent. Last year, it was a very young Alex Clubb shining through in Catch Me If You Can. This year’s revelation is Meaghan Stewart as Mrs Lovett. She blew me away! Stage presence, comic timing, accent spot on even when singing, her lively By the Sea against a near comatose David Pearson (Sweeney) was just fantastic. The rest of the cast were great too. David Pearson as Sweeney Todd looked a bit like Wolverine and sounded fantastic, nailing the bitter percussive menace of No Place Like London, and imbuing Pretty Women with tension. Max Gambale made an intensely creepy Judge, Joseph McGrailBateup was almost typecast as the Beadle, and Lachlan Agett and Demi Smith (a beautifully clear soprano) made a stunning pair as Anthony and Johanna. Finally, young Liam Jackson as Tobias is another young triple threat to watch.
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Michael Ball & Alfie Boe - Together at QPAC, Brisbane. Photo: Mitch Lowe.
Online extras! Michael & Alfie sure know how to please the Aussies: Farnsey’s “You’re The Voice.” https://youtu.be/riEfejbN7jI
There were some lost opportunities with slightly stodgy blocking and bland lighting. I would have liked to have seen more blood, but the audience didn’t seem to mind. All in all, this was a creepily fun production which the audience enjoyed enormously, and Meaghan Stewart’s Mrs Lovett is worth the price alone. Cathy Bannister Michael Ball & Alfie Boe - Together Live Nation. Musical Director: Callum McCloud. Concert Hall, QPAC, Oct 5; Melbourne Oct 7; Sydney Oct 11; Adelaide Oct 14; Perth Oct 16. WHEN Michael Ball and Alfie Boe opened their secondhalf with Gershwin’s “I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise”, that’s where the audience were - paradise. Ball’s softer musical-theatre tones blended beautifully with Boe’s classical tenor, providing thrill after thrill, and with a 16piece band, a trio of girl backup-singers, a triptych of LED light screens, and superb lighting, it was an evening to truly remember. It opened with the band playing “Somewhere” from West Side Story and the disembodied voices of Ball and Boe singing off-stage before they entered to thunderous applause. They followed with a driving “For Once in My Life” before they got down to business with a stunning version of Phantom’s “The Music of the Night”. First-act highlights included a blistering pop-vocal of John Farnham’s hit “You’re the Voice” and a medley of Elvis tunes, with Boe doing an impressive hip-swivelling impersonation of the ‘King’ on “That’s Alright (Mama)”. A
medley of James Bond hits pleased, but it was the finale, a suite from Les Misérables that was the showstopper. Boe repeated his recent Broadway turn as Valjean with an astonishing “Bring him Home”, Ball essayed his original Marius performance on “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” and together they sang the heart out of “I Dreamed a Dream” and “One More Day”. When they encored with a roof-raising “You Never Walk Alone”, the hall was filled with Mexican hand waving acolytes. Power-ballads have never been more impressive. Undoubtedly the concert of the year. Peter Pinne Seussical The Musical By Stephen Flaherty and Lyn Ahrens. Waterdale Theatre Company. Rivergum Theatre, Parade College, Bundoora. Sep 29 - Oct 7. WATERDALE’S production is simply and cleverly staged, and the costume designs are as vibrant and varied as Dr. Seuss’ characters. Centred around the faithful Horton the Elephant (a sweetly stoic Isaac Stott), Seussical follows Horton’s quests to protect the microscopic planet of Whoville and guard a bird’s egg. He is ridiculed by the whole Jungle of Nool with the exception of Gertrude McFuzz (Kelly Trenery, who follows her own hero’s journey, imbued with beautiful, simple singing). His two famous refrains: “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful, one hundred percent!” and “a person’s a person, no matter
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how small!” place Horton as emotional centre of the musical. The Cat in the Hat, played with mischievous verve and glorious energy by Tim Addicoat, is Horton’s counterweight, acting as ringmaster, jumping in and out of cameo roles, and dancing tirelessly through the entire production. Young performer Thalia Osegueda, as Jojo, joins him as a fearless junior narrator. Against the swirl of colour and noise in the Jungle of Nool are the angularly civilised citizens of Whoville, devoted to order; standouts here were The Mayor (Jay Haggett), Mrs. Mayor (Bec Muratore) and Daniel Cooper as the deluded General Schmitz. The overwhelming sense of ensemble from the entire cast emerged as the most enjoyable element of the production, particularly in the high-energy full cast dance numbers. The orchestra, under the baton of Shelley Dunlop, played to great and accomplished effect. Alex Armstrong
Monty Python’s Spamalot. Photo: Kris Anderson.
Monty Python’s Spamalot Book and Lyrics by Eric Idle, music by John Du Prez & Eric Idle. PRIMA (Qld.). Directed by Miranda Selwood. Sep 29 - Oct 8. THIS is a musical “ripped off” from the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, popular for its innate absurdity. I was intrigued to see how the fight would be done where one combatant is left with no arms or legs but still wishing to fight on. Now that was all part of this musical adaptation with a large cast of diverse characters of the period of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Miranda Selwood, director, moves the quite large cast really well to emphasise the absurdity of the whole idea and maintain the pace. She had enough Arthurian period costumes mixed with a more modern attire for the Laker girls. Kris Kellet played the crucial role of Arthur as he galloped across the stage, fought off his enemies and sang to our delight. He had a good clear voice while maintaining his character so well. Heidi Enchelmaie, as the blonde Lady of the Lake, offered a good and effective contrast to burly 82 Stage Whispers
knights. Generally, the wide variety of the build and voices of the cast added to the necessary absurdity of the musical. PRIMA have again shown their ability to stage a musical of complexity in general staging, costumes to suit and, of course, to a high standard musically. If you like the John Cleese / Monty Python sense of humour, and even more so when it is coupled to music, then this Spamalot is for you. William Davies
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The Marvelous Wonderettes Created by Roger Bean. Players Theatre, Ballina. Director and Musical. Director: Paul Belsham. Sep 8 - 24. THE Marvelous Wonderettes, which features a compilation of songs from the 50’s and 60’s, tells the story of four college seniors who are asked to perform at their senior prom when the headline act cancels at short notice. Act 1 sees them at the prom where we learn about their dreams and aspirations. Act 2 finds the same four later at their ten year reunion. We learn about the highs and lows the girls have experienced in the decade since their prom and are charmed to find that no matter what life throws their way, they will conquer it together. The girls are: Jade Rushwood - Cindy Lou, Helen Jarvis Missy, Candice Baldwin - Suzy and Jo Fletcher - Betty Jean (B J) with Trevor Stone as Mr. Lee, their Headmaster. Joining Paul Belsham as director and musical director is Tim Roberts as choreographer, and together they bring the essence of these four senior students to life. On a basic set the girls guide us through the trials and tribulations of teenage love and their latest meeting ten years down the track to tunes including: ‘Lollipop’, ‘Stupid Cupid’ and ‘Lipstick on Your Collar’. A great trip down memory lane. Roger McKenzie Broadway And Beyond Queensland Pops Orchestra, with Teddy Tahu-Rhodes & Queensland University Performing Arts students. Concert Hall, QPAC, Oct 7 / Empire Theatre, Toowoomba Oct 8. IF it wasn’t enough to have the audience in tears once, Queensland Pops had to do it twice in their Broadway and Beyond concert at QPAC’s Concert Hall. With Patrick Pickett conducting and special guest-artist Teddy Tahu-Rhodes leading the whole faculty of Griffith University’s Musical Theatre Students (90), singing “One Day More” from Les Misérables, the sound was incredibly thrilling. The song, one of six from the musical, closed the first half. It also closed the show as an encore, so there were two bites of this emotion-charged epic-theatre piece. Tahu-Rhodes’ brilliant baritone was, as usual, brilliant delivering impassioned performances of “Some Enchanted Evening” (South Pacific) and “Stars” (Les Misérables) but he had the most fun with a character-driven “If I Were a Rich Man” from Fiddler on the Roof. He also coupled warmly with Jessica Mahoney, a recent Maria in the Conservatorium’s West Side Story, on Phantom’s “All I Ask of You.” The concert ended with an audience popular selection from Jesus Christ Superstar. Tahu-Rhodes ate up the bassline of “Hosanna”, Manda Flannery, Georgia Spark and Maddison McDonald did a well-sung trio version of “I Don’t Know How To Love Him”, Casey Martin in hippie gear with flares did a cute “King Herod’s Song”, assisted by a chorus of girls (also in hippie outfits), while the boys, Harrison Aston, Oliver Lacey and Elliot Baker gave rock-concert performances of the title tune. Peter Pinne
PERFORMING ARTS MAGAZINE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017. VOLUME 26, NUMBER 6 ABN 71 129 358 710 ISSN 1321 5965
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Stage Whispers 83
The company has a loyal audience and stages Musical Spice Agatha Christie murder mysteries, costume drama and occasionally Australian plays almost 50 weeks a year, often to nearcapacity houses. News of the looming sale upset audience member Jill Bruce, who has been attending the theatre for 40 years. “I think it will devastate a lot of people that love reasonably priced, great live theatre in Sydney,” she said. A spokeswoman for the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney said the Church is trying “extremely hard” to find an alternative venue for the theatre and an announcement on a possible new home is expected before Christmas. But if you are one to believe in the supernatural, the new property developer might be taking on more than it has bargained for. “There are two ghosts, one upstairs in the circle Sydney’s notorious property boom is having a devastating impact on local and one who appears at theatre companies, as landlords end their leases after being made offers far too stage right just before an good to refuse. actor goes on stage,” Mr Gimblett said. Making headlines to become the foyer of a “An endless parade of Other theatres are also recently was the decision new hotel. established actors [started having to reinvent by the Catholic Church to The president of the here]: the Prime Minister’s themselves. On Sydney’s end the Genesian Theatre Genesian Theatre mother (Coral Lansbury), North Shore, the Hunters Company’s tenure in the Company, Roger Gimblett, and I am told the Governor Hill Theatre company was centre of the city from the told the ABC that, “If you -General trod the boards recently evicted from its end of next year. look around there are very here at least once.” former church, and in the First built in 1868 as few theatres in the centre The Genesian Theatre inner-west the Woodstock the St John’s Church, the of Sydney that are left; we Company offered to buy Players lost their Councilbuilding has been home to are the only community the building off the Church run venue. the amateur theatre theatre and after 63 years but was told a property As entire suburbs are company since the 1950s. on this site it will be sad to developer, who has upended in a series of In return for a modest go.” secured two adjoining redevelopments, little rental, the amateur The company has an buildings, made a theatres are becoming company has kept the illustrious alumni that premium offer in excess of collateral damage. heritage building in good includes John Bell, Bryan $6 million for the former shape - but now it is likely Brown and Baz Luhrmann. church. David Spicer 84 Stage Whispers November - December 2017
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