Stage Whispers September/October 2018 edition by Stage Whispers Magazine

2 Stage Whispers September - October 2018

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In this issue

Musical Of The Mob ................................................................................ 8 Taking a walk on the dark side of Jersey Boys Time To Rock ......................................................................................... 12 Brent Hill, taking on Jack Black’s role in Lloyd Webber’s School Of Rock Mandy Patinkin - Honouring The Gift ..................................................... 14 Our chat with the Broadway legend and Homeland star Madiba The Musical .............................................................................. 18 Perci Moeketsi on playing Nelson Mandela

A Cyclonic Festival ................................................................................. 20 Geoffrey Williams’ round-up of this year’s Darwin Festival Helpmanns High Farce ........................................................................... 24 David Spicer reports on the controversy at this year’s Helpmanns Narrating Evita ...................................................................................... 30 Ex-pat Kurt Kansley returns from the West End to play Che

Newcastle’s Treasures ............................................................................ 34 Inside Newcastle’s heritage theatres Costumes And Props.............................................................................. 38 A marketplace for dressing your musical production A Cabaret Collection .............................................................................. 62 Highlights from the Adelaide Cabaret Festival

Regular Features Stage Briefs

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Technical Showcase

Stage On Page

Stage On Disc

Broadway Buzz

London Calling

Amateur Stage Briefs

On Stage - What’s On

Reviews

Choosing A Show

Musical Spice

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Editorial Dear theatre-goers and theatre-doers, Whilst proof-reading the current edition of Stage Whispers, I’ve added another theatrical experience to my bucket list. Geoffrey Williams’ splendid coverage of this year’s Darwin Festival, both here and on our website, has me itching to catch The Ghan to the north end next Winter. Our overview of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival reminds me, of course, that this is another event which has sat on my bucket list for far too long. Recently I had the pleasure of talking to Kurt Kansley, an ex-pat Aussie performer returning after 15 years in the West End to play Che in Evita. By sheer coincidence, this edition we’ve also interviewed Broadway’s original Che, Mandy Patinkin, who will tour shortly after Evita concludes its Sydney season. In fact, we’re bursting at the seams with features on the big professional musicals opening across Australia in the next few months, both new shows and revivals. On a different part of the theatrical spectrum, as you’ll see in the photo to the right, I’m giving the musical in which I’m appearing during October a shameless plug (and I’m not talking about The Boy From Oz), as I chalk up 48 years in Community Theatre, playing yet another fun character role, complete with the chance to sing a terrific song.

 Rohan Browne, our new Boy From Oz, enjoys Stage Whispers backstage at Arts Centre Melbourne. Photo: James Terry.  L-R: Tim Wright (Shellhammer), Louise Jaques (Doris Walker), Neil Litchfield (R H Macy) and Rod Herbert (Kris Kringle) in Miracle on 34th Street at Shire Music Theatre in October.

Chookas to everyone else who is treading the boards in a Community Theatre production over the coming months. Yours in Theatre,

Neil Litchfield Editor

Cover image: Cameron MacDonald, Bernard Angel, Thomas McGuane and Glaston Toft as The Four Seasons in Jersey Boys. See our feature story on page 10. Photo: Brian Geach.

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Stage Briefs

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 Clock and Spiel Productions will present Freud’s Last Session by Mark St. Germain at the Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre, Sydney from Oct 30 to Nov 10, with Nicholas Papademetriou as Freud and Yannick Lawry as C.S. Lewis. www.clockandspielproductions.com Photo: John Leung.  Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer will play at Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre, St Kilda from Oct 4 to Nov 4, featuring Jennifer Vuletic and Kate Cole. redstitch.net Photo: Work Art Life Studios and Black Photography.  The Beanies Egg-strodinary Day. The Beanies (best known for their award winning podcast) will be performing on September 29 and 30 as part of the Sydney Fringe Festival. sydneyfringe.com Photo: Jay La.  Jonathan Hickey, Stefanie Jones, Grant Smith and Caitlin Berry will star in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Aspects of Love, playing at Sydney’s Hayes Theatre Co from November 20. hayestheatre.com.au Photo: Chris Parker.

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Photo: Brian Geach.

Online extras! Listen in on rehearsals with the guys singing “Dawn”. Scan or visit https://youtu.be/zjXCPEXPaUw

Jersey Boys is like an episode of the television gangster series The Sopranos, with a great soundtrack behind it. Based on the 1960s rise to fame of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, the musical doesn’t shy away from the reality of the mafia dominated New Jersey neighbourhood they grew up in. Jamelle Wells reports that the criminal element is a big part of the show’s appeal. We are fascinated by true crime and by this story even more so because it’s about four people who, despite their run-ins with the law, went on to make something of themselves, even though the odds were stacked against them. The Jersey Boys were far from perfect, but they fought hard for their success and their long-term survival in show business is remarkable. Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi started recording in the 1960s with hits like ‘Sherry’, ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’ and ‘Oh What a Night’, selling 175 million records worldwide, all before they turned 30. People were at first intrigued by The Four Seasons because lead singer Frankie Valli’s falsetto sound was so different that 8 Stage Whispers September - October 2018

those who had never seen the group sometimes wondered if it was a black African woman singing. They grew up in a neighbourhood where a connection with the mafia and crime was a part of everyday life. Most of the venues and clubs they performed in were owned by the mob or by people connected to the mob. The Four Seasons knew the likes of Gyp DeCarlo, who was convicted of crimes that ranged from murder conspiracies to violent assaults and extortion. A major FBI investigation in the 1960s linked him to widespread corruption involving politicians and businessmen. In secretly recorded FBI conversations, he was busted talking about how he set fire to one of his victims but carried out a humane hit

on another one by shooting them through the heart. DeCarlo famously walked free from jail after serving just two years of a 12 year jail sentence, on being pardoned by then United States President Richard Nixon. The show’s creators Rick Elice and Marshall Brickman once told The Independent that The Four Seasons travelled to the jail DeCarlo was locked up in to perform for the inmates. He died in 1973, but Elice and Brickman also told the paper that during Jersey Boys auditions in California a mystery man pulled up in a dark car outside the theatre and phoned in to tell the producers he hoped the convicted criminal was being portrayed ‘favourably’ and ‘respectfully’.

Apparently they were quick to give a ‘yes’ reply. ** Although the group wrote their own songs and invented their own sounds in the 1960s they didn’t get nearly as much publicity as The Beatles, who were around at the same time. The Beatles had a recording run of less than a decade before they broke up, but The Four Seasons kept going. They are among the bestselling music acts of all Richard Hester time and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. Their story has been seen by over 25 million people around the world since Jersey Boys opened on Broadway in 2005. The show is now back in Australia, after a long season that wrapped up here in 2013 played to an audience of 1.6 million.

The Four Seasons had hits beyond the 60’s like ‘Oh What a Night’, and Valli recorded solo hits including ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ and ‘Grease’. Their music has never really gone away, even for a younger audience. As Cameron McDonald, who plays Tommy DeVito in the current Australian Jersey

Boys production puts it, “My first memory of a Four Seasons song was on a Flame Grilled Whopper ad for Hungry Jacks (‘My Eyes Adored You’). Jersey Boys is currently playing in five theatres around the world, including a purpose-built theatre on a Norwegian cruise ship where the performers have to be replaced every

Cover Story six months as required by maritime law. Production Supervisor Richard Hester has seen the show more than anyone, starting as stage manager

when it was put together in California in 2004. He says back then no one thought The Four Seasons was a good idea for a musical. “Director Des McAnuff did not want to leave another Broadway show he was working on and we didn’t see a (Continued on page 10)

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Cover Story Carols In The Domain 2017. Photo: Cole Bennetts.

Online extras! Watch the boys perform “Winter Wonderland” at Carols In The Domain. https://youtu.be/BBNpHQAB0hw (Continued from page 9)

script until the first rehearsal. We all thought it was going to be a two month job, but 14 years later the show is still going strong - although my hair is a little more grey now. “Each production needs constant attention and recasting and each one is in a different time zone, but if you were an audience member on the Norwegian cruise ship or in a theatre somewhere else you would basically have the same experience” The cruise ship show is about 35 minutes shorter and an Off Broadway production in New York also had a smaller cast because the producers wanted to keep operating costs down, but Hester reassures us this Australian production has the full complement of actors, dancers and musicians. “Everybody can relate to the story of these four guys who try to succeed in some cases not because they have delusions of stardom, but because stardom is their only opportunity to get out of their neighbourhood. “I’ve watched this show at least 2,000 times. I still marvel at how they got out and think that all the stars must have been aligned in the universe 10 Stage Whispers September - October 2018

to allow that to happen. The audience comes expecting to watch four guys sing, but then they realise there’s a full story there to tap into.” Hester says The Four Seasons were closely involved with the show from the start, from telling their story to the scriptwriters to having a say in the casting. It resulted in a biographical narrative told from four very different viewpoints, with Bob Gaudio writing the music for Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice’s script. “The script is very close to how things really were for the Jersey Boys, although some people they knew didn’t want to be in a musical, so their names have been changed,” says Hester. “I’m sure the guys would also prefer it if some details of their personal lives had been left out, like the tensions in their relationships with each other, but for the audience that’s what the drama is. “To their credit, Frankie, Tommy and Bob (who was the business brain of the group, despite not finishing school) still come to see the show from time to time but have allowed us to

Jersey Boys is playing at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre from September. It tours to Melbourne and Brisbane. create a musical about their lives with very little interference. “As a result, there are no completely unblemished heroes or completely tarnished villains. It’s four guys doing the best they can,” says Hester. Frankie Valli might have escaped from New Jersey in his youth but Sopranos fans will know that he has revisited it by acting in the television series as mob member Rusty Millio, who gets gunned down by a hit man in his driveway. There are also references to Valli peppered through the series, such as a character who buys flowers at the same florist ‘used by Frankie Valli’ and a scam involving selling ‘stolen Frankie Valli concert tickets.’ **Rhoda Koenig -’Mob music: How the creators of the Jersey Boys got a call from the Mafia.’ The Independent. March 6, 2008.

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hanging out with a group of younger kids. “Kids know how to play games and have fun. Amy Lehpamer (playing uptight headmistress Rosalie Mullins) is also on board and did The Sound of Music. She talked about leading the troop. “You need to be like a big kid but also have to be a little tough with them - make sure we do the work that is put before us.” The 36 children, aged between nine and twelve, have been selected from across Australia. He described them as “savants”. “One guitarist says I have only been playing for a few years. He jams out this Hendrix solo. I said to him, dude Brent Hill is stepping right into the shoes of Hollywood rock star Jack how are you doing this with no Black, playing the lead role of Dewey in Andrew Lloyd Webbers’ hit lessons?” musical adaptation of the film School of Rock, which is opening in Brent says he expects and hopes he Melbourne. The actor is well placed to mix it up with a group of is upstaged by them. precociously talented school children. David Spicer reports. The children who were cast needed to receive a tick of approval from When Brent Hill was 21 he ventured had to learn how to bring out the best Andrew Lloyd Webber. off on a summer camp in Seattle and in them.” “I’ve seen all of the audition tapes was surrounded by teenagers with a The American teenagers teased him for School of Rock in Australia and I range of challenges. about his accent, mimicking the way know we’ve got a really great cast. “It was just like in School of he said ‘pass the mustard’. At the end We’ve got great kids in a show that is Rock, where all the kids have their of the YMCA camp they gave him a all about how music can empower problems and Dewey (the unqualified special award. It was the Jack Black children,” says Lloyd Webber. stand-in teacher at the posh private Look-Alike Award. The musical opened in 2015 on school) deals with it. Some were more Now he is looking forward to Broadway and has since toured the US reliving his young adult experience of aggressive and others were insular. I and opened in the West End. It

Online extras! Brent Hill with the Australian cast of School Of Rock. Photo: Jim Lee.

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Can’t wait for School Of Rock - The Musical? Get a taste right now. https://youtu.be/xnqgLHZTC8w

A scene from School Of Rock at New London Theatre. features 14 new songs from Andrew Lloyd Webber and all the original songs Photo: Tristram Kenton. from the movie. Promoters describe it as a “high-octane smash that delivers face-melting guitar riffs and touching romance in equal doses.” Another unique feature of this production is that High Schools are being given special permission to stage the musical in the same town where it is playing on the professional stage. Normally amateur rights are restricted when a professional production is on, but in this case the thinking is that it only helps ticket sales. I saw School of Rock on Broadway and was impressed by the thumping score and great story-line. It marked a welcome return to the “hit” parade for Andrew Lloyd Webber. In the 20th century he penned one blockbuster after another. This century has been leaner. The Woman in White, The Beautiful Game, Love Never lighter contemporary end of the that person, but also something about Dies and Stephen Ward were, by his standards, far less successful. spectrum, with the occasional classical yourself.” The musical Spamalot lampooned flourish. He became very familiar with the his style. Brent Hill also recognises a familiar movie whilst preparing for a role tune in the score. in Rock of Ages. Sir Galahad: Now we can go “You can hear Music of the Night in “I loved the movie. I saw it 10 straight into the middle eight. A it.” He then sings “Daaaa da da da da times. Jack Black is excellent in the role. bridge that is too far for me. daaaaaah” down the phone to me. It was a great performance. He was Lady of the Lake: I’ll sing it in The WAAPA graduate has scored also believable and earnest. I love your face while we both embrace. some great roles in recent years in both that.” Both: And then we change the commercial musical theatre and meaty Brent intends to put his own stamp key. dramas. These range from appearing on the role, but it is safe to assume Sir Galahad: Now we’re into E! alongside Hugo Weaving in The that another group of happy campers *hem* That’s awfully high for me. Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui to starring might be giving the best Jack Black Lady of the Lake: But as as Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors. Look-Alike-Award in the not too everyone can see. We should have “At the moment I am doing An distant future. stayed in D. Ideal Husband (with the Melbourne Both: For this is our song that Theatre Company) which is exceedingly goes like this! different. It is more 1896 English upper -class witticisms, that are always very School of Rock certainly has a sharp and en pointe.” different sound to Evita, This a big leap to School of Cats and Phantom of the Opera although in the lead up the Broadway Rock, where he is portraying a grunge rock star who is a fish out of water - a premiere Lloyd Webber was keen to play up his rock credentials in a not too classic tool for drama and romantic comedy. shabby musical he wrote in the Brent says he will relish exploring 1970’s, Jesus Christ Superstar. But don’t expect School of Rock to the theme. “How far can you get pretending to have a hard rock sound. It is at the be someone else? What are the repercussions of that? Andrew Lloyd Webber’s School “One of the things about being an of Rock previews from 31 actor is that you embody these other October at Her Majesty’s people and discover something about

Theatre, Melbourne.

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Mandy Patinkin

meant to do. And I really believed that I was The Lord’s gift to Shakespeare.” He chuckles, and I could almost see him shaking his head in amusement, looking for all the world like a kindly Rabbi with Saul’s beard still very much a part of him. Patinkin still loves Shakespeare and considers that the playwright and Mandy Patinkin talks about his passions for life and work with Sondheim are poets and philosophers Coral Drouyn, ahead of his Australian tour in November. with the ability to turn darkness into There’s an old saying among actors “Saul is a better human being than light with their words. that one does ‘films for money, TV for I am,” he says, “but because of him I “We need them now more than fame, and theatre for love’, but the strive more to be compassionate, ever,” he comments. “The world is legendary Mandy Patinkin only partially tolerant and to aim for more than I going through huge changes and we agrees. thought I could be. I don’t want to have a moral and ethical duty to “Of course you do theatre for love - lose him from my life, but yes, Season question who we are and what sort it’s certainly not about making money, Eight will be the last. I just hope that I of a world we want to live in. and I would have said, a few years ago, retain all I’ve learned from him.” There’s a tendency to create fear; that television was just for fame,” he Long before Homeland or Chicago to make us suspicious of our tells me, “but in the last few years I Hope, The Princess Bride or Yentl, neighbours; to put ourselves first have been so privileged to be part of a there was the theatre and Broadway, at someone else’s expense. We television drama of which I am so and the voice that Stephen Sondheim have to fight that every time we proud. I love and admire the people I describes as a gift from heaven. encounter it. And those guys do. work with, the writers, my co-stars, the “My father and I would always sing They write about the human character I play - boy am I going to together in the synagogue,” he says condition, all our strengths and miss him - and the things we have to wistfully, “and I’m conscious that he frailties, and that’s so say about the world and the human lost his father far too young. Then I important. That’s why I love condition.” belonged to several choirs, but I never them.” The character of Saul Berenson in Yet, strangely, it was not saw myself being a singer, and when I Homeland has made him reportedly went to Juilliard it was to study acting. Sondheim, but an Andrew the highest paid television actor in It wasn’t what a good Jewish boy from Lloyd Webber musical which America but it’s more than that for a middle-class family was supposed to catapulted him to stardom. Mandy. do, but my parents always supported “I was appearing OffBroadway at the Public that I should do what I believed I was Theatre for Joe Papp. It was part of the New York Shakespeare Festival workshop and we were doing this musical called Leave It To Beaver Is Dead written by Des McAnuff,” Mandy reminisces. “Des went on to direct a heap of Broadway shows but back then we were all so young. Saul Rubinek and Dianne Wiest (well before her Oscars and Emmys) were also in the cast. I’d just auditioned for Evita and got the part of Che, and I remember saying to the others, ‘Boy, if the audience likes this they should love OUR show.’ What did I know? Our little show died and

Honouring The Gift

14 Stage Whispers September - October 2018

was never resurrected, and Evita keeps on keeping on.” Mandy’s life changed forever. Other triumphs like Sunday in the Park with George and Follies brought new accolades, but Evita was the start of it all. So, what was it like to receive his first standing ovation? “Oh boy,” he says like a kid, “I was in such a daze; I couldn’t believe it was happening. My wife (Kathryn Grody) has a brilliant memory. She frequently tells the

embarrassing story of that opening night, and I have no reason to disbelieve her, especially since we were newly married. I can’t believe it’s 38 years ago. Apparently when I came out to take my bow at the end the whole audience rose to their feet and cheered. I was frightened by the reaction. It was a shock and I threw up my arms to protect myself, arms outstretched to ward them off, as if I was terrified of being drowned by this wave of applause, and I suppose in a way I was. I’d never experienced anything like it. It happened many times after and I learned to be grateful for the reaction, but I couldn’t understand why it was so extreme when I’d been doing good work at the Public Theatre to audiences of two men and a dog, and the dog was a critic.” He is reflective before continuing. “Performing live is always going to be magic because of the instant feedback, the spontaneity, and the fact that you get to hone a performance over many shows encourages a different

interpretation. Every performer needs at least one - preferably more standing ovations, but audiences are getting more savvy and you really have to earn it.” I ask if he is at all concerned with the future of Music Theatre - with Lloyd Webber and Sondheim reaching the end of their careers and a spate of Disney type musicals. (Continued on page 16)

Online extras! Watch the trailer for Mandy Patinkin’s Australian tour. Scan the QR code or visit https://youtu.be/7YUzRYllDLs www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 15

Photo: Jennifer Altman.

(Continued from page 15)

“The writers for Musical Theatre in the past were the most gifted songwriters of their time, and yet they used their gift not just to write songs but to create stories and have conversations with their audience. They didn’t just create three-minute numbers, they integrated all of our thoughts and feelings about life into a narrative, and that’s why Musical Theatre is so important. I think, I hope, we will get something very special from our friend Adam Guettel in the next few years. He has it in his blood (he is the grandson of Richard Rodgers) as well as his heart. There’s so much honesty and belief in his writing.” I asked Mandy, as an artist who has won Tony and Emmy awards and garnered countless nominations, what a young artist needs to be successful. In a combination of talent, passion and commitment, which is the most important? “It’s the combination of passion and commitment,” he says without hesitation. “Talent isn’t it. Everyone has talent. You just have to find out what yours is. It’s a gift. But commitment, passion - those are things that come from within you. They’re what keep you going. Nobody ever said anything of importance, nobody changed a mind, an opinion, the WORLD even, without commitment and passion.” But what exactly is it - this “gift”? “It’s what you give back to the world; that part of you that has something to say,” he tells me earnestly, “and it isn’t confined to performing or creating. The right to vote - that’s a gift. It’s the way to change things, one person at a time, and you must honour that. My way is to be on stage - to entertain - that’s what I do. I’m not a politician, but - as I tell my colleagues - the first syllable of Actor is ACT, and action brings change, so we are all bound to search our souls morally and ethically and act on what we find.” Patinkin has a new album out. It’s called Diary and contains songs which have been milestones in his life. It’s his 15th or 16th recording - he’s lost count. It’s part of the reason he is touring in November. 16 Stage Whispers September - October 2018

Mandy Patinkin performs at Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne on Sunday 11 November, Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House on Wednesday 14 November and Concert Hall, QPAC on Saturday 17 November. “But the concerts aren’t a way to promote the album,” he explains. “It’s really the other way around. The albums are an excuse to do the concerts. At this stage in my life the concerts are the thing I love the most. It’s the most freeing thing in my life, just performing as me. I get to really connect with people. I’m not a character. I’m not a vision on a screen. Nobody has written lines for me to say like, “Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” Kids still quote that to me, and yes, I get a thrill that people remember it, but it’s a role. It’s not me. In concerts it’s all me - I get to sing the songs I like, tell the stories I want to hear again myself, share with everyone in the

theatre. I’ve written a few songs of my own of late, but really I’m a mailman, not a writer.” I’m confused by the analogy and ask him to explain. “All the great composers and writers over the years,” he says, “it’s like a personal message to everyone that hears them. But they would just be a reservoir of songs, some works of genius, if no-one delivers them to the audience. So that’s what I am, Mandy the Mailman, delivering Mandy’s choices so we can share them together.” I can’t wait to see what Mailman Mandy has in the post for us this time round.

New Sydney Screen Acting School The Screen Actors Space (SAS) is a new screen acting school formed in Sydney by four experienced screen drama teachers.

Stephen Wallace with Kay Hoyos on the set of A Suburban Love Story.

Check the website for more detail about the courses on offer thescreenactorsspace.com.au www.fb.me/TheScreenActorsSpace info@thescreenactorsspace.com.au

The school aims to engage with and develop the ‘whole’ actor (in physical, voice, acting and life skills), developing comprehensive craft confidence and a broad psychological understanding of human behaviour. The teachers are: Ross McGregor, an acting teacher with over forty years experience including working at NIDA, WAAPA, VCA, AFTRS, The Actors Centre London and The British Film School. Stephen Wallace, a director, writer and teacher, has directed six feature films plus many television features and serials, and taught screen acting for the last twenty years, fifteen of them at Screenwise. Chrissie Koltai has a 45 year history as a choreographer, producer and theatre maker as well as teaching body awareness and movement. Lisa Chouw is an Aria nominated singer/performer who has taught singing, acting, movement and voice at the Actors Centre, ATYP, NIDA and the ACTT. SAS is offering a one year part-time course, with a showreel, starting on February 4, 2019 and finishing December 2019, plus a six week shortened course starting November 12, 2018. Each course is nine hours per week. If you want ‘whole-istic’ screen acting training, training where the four main teachers in all the disciplines stay with you throughout the whole year, along with drop in specialist teachers (for ADR, Accent Training, Voice Over, Green Screen, Auditions), then this is a course for you. The aim of the school is to produce actors who have not only honed their acting skills but who have insightful knowledge about themselves and their possibilities, who are self-assured and understand themselves and the world they are entering better than when they started the course. It is called ‘whole-istic’ because the aim is to produce the ‘whole’ actor, a person with craft, confidence, selfknowledge and a positive outlook. For the one year course there will also be chances for participants to not only play scenes from films but to act in plays for schools during the year to hone their skills. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 17

“Privilege, humility - there are so many synonyms of gratitude that I feel. To be finally given the opportunity is beyond words. I will make sure I nail that character, to show I am so grateful for this.” To do justice to the role he must Perci Moeketsi was only six years of attending a chaotic school in a black focus on all aspects of Mandela’s age in 1994, when South Africans of township, he was enrolled at an elite character. all colours were allowed to vote in a private school, formerly the exclusive “He is someone who is represented general election for the first time. domain of the ruling white minority. as a saint. But he was human. He went “I remember moments when there “The education system was terrible. through three divorces. This should tell was tear gas being thrown around. My The teachers did not want to teach, as you of the challenges that life had mother and father had to run to get they were forced to teach in the brought his way. some towels to cover my sister and I Apartheid way. “He had common weaknesses that up,” he recalls. “I was one of the few who knew were a result of growing up in such an The memories are not strong Afrikaans. I went to their school, which unstable place and not being able to enough for him to remember the smell was a large private school with better offer his family stability.” of the tear gas, fired from canisters by teaching and resources.” Mandela’s strengths are legendary. Police, but what is clear to him is the The 29-year-old is now one of As a young lawyer he led the resistance tension around at the time. South Africa’s most sought-after movement - then spent 27 years in Soon that tension dissolved and performers, with credits in television prison, including long stretches of hard new opportunities arose that had not and film as well as being a genuine labour. When he was released, instead been available to his parents. He triple-threat stage performer. of seeking revenge he preached relished the opportunity to get a He says he now feels blessed to forgiveness. “proper education”. Instead of portray Mandela.

It’s the ultimate part for any black South African man to portray - the father of the nation, Nelson Mandela. Perci Moeketsi will play the role in Madiba the Musical on stage in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth and New Zealand. He told David Spicer how the end of the Apartheid regime in 1994 changed his life.

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“He was willing to die to make sure the black person was liberated and achieved equality. Then he came back and said this is not the time to die, but to live and establish the freedom which I was willing to die for. That is a wise man; a wise man knows how to change his mind. That is one of the best things that I love about him. He did change his mind about how to fight.” Madiba the Musical, which premiered in France, is being staged in an English-speaking country for the first time. The Associate Director Dennis Watkins says audiences will be surprised at how entertaining the show is. “Mandela went from prisoner to President. Audiences in France go wild at the end.” The musical has a sub plot which involves a love story between a white girl, who is the daughter of a Police Chief (who shot dead a black protester at Sharpville) and a black boy who is the brother of a political prisoner. “It is shocking that their relationship was illegal.” Dennis Watkins describes the music as contemporary pop with French and African influences. New rap songs have been written for the English-speaking edition. Perci Moeketsi is wildly excited at the rap music, describing with intense enthusiasm how much he enjoyed the musical Hamilton. But he admits Mandela was not such a big fan of modern music. “He loved authentic African choral music. But he appreciated all the arts, even if he didn’t understand them.” Nelson Mandela would have turned 100 in July this year. Milestones around him often prompt reflection on the state of modern South Africa. Perci Moeketsi believes that he would not be proud of everything that is happening. “His famous statement is making the rounds a lot today - ‘If the ANC

Online extras! Check out a trailer for Madiba The Musical. Simply scan the QR code or visit https://youtu.be/E-WO0KLYM0U Government does to you what the Apartheid Government did to us, then you to do the ANC what we did to the Apartheid government.’ I am quite a spiritual guy. (I compare Mandela to) Moses, who led the people of Israel from Egypt into freedom, but he couldn’t quite get them into Canaan.” But don’t expect too much politics in Madiba the Musical. The production is a celebration of the journey to the promised land. “What Mandela would be proud of is that a person can come to Australia and portray a character of black leadership and strength that has the acceptance of the world.” www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 19

20 Stage Whispers September - October 2018

Darwin Festival. Photo: Elise Derwin.

Geoffrey Williams reflects on his visit to this year’s Darwin Festival.

Her research took her to Palestine, Jordan, Jerusalem and Jericho. “My plan was to follow in the footsteps of the Australian Light Horse. So, I went from Jordan across to It is late afternoon on 24 December 1974. The residents Beersheva, up to ‘Armageddon’ (Megiddo, just below Nazareth), across to Jerusalem and Jericho. It was of Darwin were preparing for Christmas Day, with many believing the warnings of the approaching tropical cyclone fascinating. However, I kept getting lured into the much older history that features layer upon layer of conflict, right Tracy would amount to nothing. Earlier in the month up to the current Palestine-Israel conflict. What emerged Cyclone Selma was predicted to make landfall, yet Selma had vanished north. So in spite of the warnings, wild winds was a play that is not just about WWI, but about the nature of conflict and how it manifests within and between and torrential rain, the festive season celebrations families and nations.” continued in true Territorian style. “I’m interested in how people get along with each But between 10pm and midnight, the residents of Darwin realised that this time they were not going to be so other (or don’t), why and how borders change, people who fortunate. Cyclone Tracy, with gusts of up to 240 kilometres transgress and disrupt borders, and the ordinary, often vulnerable, people who are impacted by dominant per hour, made landfall at 3.30am on Christmas Day. The narratives on borders. Given that Darwin is right on the wrath of Cyclone Tracy claimed the lives of 71 people and edge of Australia, these issues are possibly more pressing destroyed 70 percent of Darwin’s buildings - leaving more for me than for people living in southern cities. The than 25,000 residents homeless. In the months following, there was talk of relocating the bombing of Darwin proved the precariousness of living at a border, as does the current US military facility that is always devastated capital further inland to Katherine. But others, a disturbing fact of life in the Top End.” including Dr. Charles Gurd, Director of Health in the NT, The many highlights of Mr Preval’s illuminating program were determined to remain and rebuild. He suggested for this year’s Darwin Festival included Chasing Smoke by celebrating the town’s revival with a festival that would draw the community together, and reflect the optimism of Casus Circus, born out of Circus Oz’s BLAKflip program that nurtures Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander circus artists. those rebuilding. And if the spontaneous standing ovation from the capacity In July 1979, the inaugural Bougainvillea Festival celebrated the beautification of the reconstructed city, and opening night audience was any indication, then this young featured Home Garden contests, a Grand Parade, sporting company’s future on Australian, and I predict, international stages, is assured. events, and a Birdman Rally. Today, the re-named Darwin Festival is the Northern (Continued on page 23) Territory’s biggest festival of arts and culture. Each August, Darwin Festival combines outdoor festivities with local, national and international talent over 18 days and nights to celebrate the incomparable spirit and energy of Darwin and its sensational Dry Season. “The people of Darwin have a unique character,” Darwin Festival’s Artistic Director, Felix Preval tells me. “It’s a very cosmopolitan city, but Darwinians share a strong sense of community and a fierce love for the Territory. There’s such an incredible wealth of artistry and spirit here.” Award-winning Darwin-based writer Sandra Thibodeaux is among the most ambitious of Australian writers, whose work knows no ordinary borders or boundaries. The facts and circumstances of her work are carefully camouflaged by masterful use of language and music, sequences of abstract absurdism, and deceptively playful, but deeply personal, politics. Her play A Social Smoke enjoyed a sell-out season, staged in the ruins of Darwin Town Hall. ‘Smoke Socials’ were presented to farewell troops from the Northern Territory who were shortly to be sent to The Front in World War 1. The original programme for the event in Darwin Town Hall on Thursday 22 April 1915, listed the names of the enlisting men and dignitaries attending the first event of its kind. It also included a range of performances, toasts and responses on the eve of their departure. Ms Thibodeaux’s reimagining is an epic poem - an engrossing evening of history, lullaby, music, vaudeville, guilt, blame, conflict and unexpected romance. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 21

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Max Streton in In Your Blood. Photo: Mark Marcelis

Online extras! See what the 2018 Darwin Festival program entails. Scan the QR code or visit https://youtu.be/dE2sIoqV0Pk professional and community dancers, In Your Blood redefined culture and inter-generational dance, ritual and celebration. Up here, time, place, consciousness and self-awareness. The culture, sound, sight and site, (Continued from page 21) floor-bound contortions were language, origin, country, place and Combined with stories from the interwoven with almost impossible full family assume an entirely new, yet world’s oldest living culture, told by body extensions in the blink of an eye. ancient, urgent potency and identity. ambitious, gifted, passionate young Every square inch of our tiny theatre With the majority of the In Your descendants of ancient dreamtime was utilised, and as we watched him Blood cast being female, identity stories, re-imagined for our time take a bath, beamed into the room through sport and culture revealed a through circus and comedy, you have onto the television screen via a CCTV timely juxtaposition between the agean unforgettable night at the theatre. camera in the bathroom, Biladurang old male domination of sporting Samoan-Australian director Natano assumed a fraught, voyeuristic culture and the reality of so many Fa’anana and his exceptional ensemble intention that was difficult to watch, people’s lives. Not that long ago, it wasted no time in smashing through but impossible to turn away from. would have been peculiar to see a stereotypes. White Australia was By the end, there was not a single football team existing exclusively of demolished, leaving its cruel legacy laid member of the audience who had not women. Today, we have a long bare in the stunning songlines that fallen in love with our damaged new overdue women’s AFL league, and In appeared on the stage, made from friend. As he picked up his backpack Your Blood celebrates this female-led sand poured from coolamons. and left our little room, shutting the renaissance of sport and culture in In the confines of a small hotel door on our intimate night together, I marvellous style. room, Joel Bray’s Biladurang (the watched hearts break. I could see it on What triumphed, ultimately, is the the faces of my fellow audience platypus) revealed a performer who way in which dance can truly inspire must be close to the peak of his members. I know mine did. and unify people of all ages. And when powers, presenting a riveting, rites of Tracks Dance Company’s In Your the Bollywood finale burst onto the passage contemplation through dance, Blood was an ambitious and stage, every messy contradiction spoken word, multimedia and silence. spectacular production. With evaporated into the glorious unity of Mr Bray used his exceptional choreographers ranging from artists of this very special company of dancers, dancer’s physique to create almost Sri Lankan, Balinese and Northern who continue to challenge, inspire and unwatchable (possibly) self-inflicted Territory descent, and boasting an entertain in unique, lasting and violence, angst, pain, resistance, selfenormous cast of professional, nonincredibly important ways.

Read Geoffrey’s complete coverage of the 2018 Darwin Festival at www.stagewhispers.com.au

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 23

Helpmanns 2019 High Farce Sydney hosted its last Helpmann Awards (for at least three years) in a celebration of excellence that once again exposed both the most professional and worst organised aspects of the Live Performance Industry. David Spicer reports. It felt like it was going to be a coronation for Muriel’s Wedding The Musical. At the First Act of the Helpmann Awards, held in the Sydney Town Hall on Sunday 15 July, the musical produced by Global Creatures and the Sydney Theatre Company won an impressive five awards including for Best Original Score, Costumes and Choreography. The Second Act, held at the Capitol Theatre the following night, was broadcast on the ABC. Surely this was going to be a night that celebrated an Australian musical success story and a local work would win the Best Musical award for only the third time. But no, the production came away empty handed on the second night, beaten in all categories by Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and Bennelong from Bangarra Dance Theatre. Global Creatures’ Producer Carmen Pavlovic released a meme on Facebook - “You’re Terrible Helpmanns.” She added: “Wasn’t it just awful? The whole thing was a complete embarrassment. And it will be years yet before they get another chance to honour a homegrown musical. What a stupid waste.” It was the talk of the party after the Helpmanns. How did the industry stuff it up so badly? Beautiful was a beautifully executed production from Producer Michael Cassell, but it was a carbon copy of a jukebox Broadway musical. How did it beat a hit home grown musical? Why on earth did the original director of the Beautiful, who did all his hard work in New York, beat Simon Phillips, who did all the hard work in Sydney to make Muriel’s Wedding a commercial and critical success? Why is the industry celebrating someone’s achievement six years ago in New York over someone’s efforts this year in Australia? The Chief Executive of Live Performance Australia Evelyn Richardson was unapologetic. “We don’t weight Australian works over international productions,” she told Stage Whispers. “Beautiful was an Amy Lehpamer (Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical). Photo: James Morgan.

24 Stage Whispers September - October 2018

(Continued on page 26)

David Campbell (Best Male Actor in a Musical) with his wife Lisa. Photo: James Morgan.

Online extras! Did you miss this year’s Helpmann Awards? Catch up on iView now. https://ab.co/2LaY6Z6

The cast of Muriel’s Wedding. Photo: James Morgan.

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 25

(Continued from page 24)

Australian production. It was very competitive. Both productions were neck and neck.” She said Live Performance Australia could not have predicted that the Australian production would receive all the awards on the non-televised night. “It was the way the winners fell.” The obvious answer to the stuff up is the amateurish voting system. Beautiful narrowly pipped Muriel’s Wedding because it was seen both in Sydney and Melbourne, whereas Muriel’s Wedding only was seen in Sydney. Likewise Bangarra Dance Theatre’s production of Bennelong, which won best Australian work, was also seen in more than one city. Evelyn Richardson said the producers of Muriel’s Wedding might have been better served to nominate the show in 2019 when it is scheduled to be seen in more than one city. “It would have been seen by a broader audience.” So that’s the answer - accept a second-rate voting system. Can you imagine this happening at the Tony Awards or the Oscars? Next year the Helpmanns will be staged in Melbourne for the first time. Sharing the awards around is a good idea, but it’s likely to lead to even more no-shows when the winners are announced. Will Live Performance Australia gets its act together by then and fly the winners into Melbourne? Probably not, based on past years.

26 Stage Whispers September - October 2018

Esther Hannaford (Best Female Actor in a Musical). Photo: Ian Bird.

Online extras! Full results from the Helpmann Awards are on the Stage Whispers website at http://bit.ly/2Ll2MeJ

Keeping The Lights On

Technical Showcase

Melbourne company Clearlight Shows has bought ‘mountains’ of Tungsten lamps to assist smaller venues and organisations as manufacturers switch to LED. As major venues and production companies transition to all-LED lighting inventories, big manufacturers are ceasing to make replacement lamps for traditional fixtures, and many distributors are no longer sourcing and importing them. This could be a financial catastrophe for small venues, community organisations, houses of worship and educational institutions across Australia, many of whom are years away from being able to upgrade to LED. Melbourne based company Clearlight Shows has recognised this looming issue, and stepped up to ensure that the lights will stay on across the country for years to come. “There are still thousands of venues and people in the market that need those lamps,” states John McKissock, Managing Director of Clearlight Shows. “Most community theatres, churches and schools just can’t afford the transition to LED yet. The big problem with getting replacement lamps is that most distributors have

John McKissock.

stopped stocking them due to the drop -off in the volume of sales. That’s affected their wholesale price too; the less you buy, the more they cost. It’s a vicious circle.” John realised that something needed to be done urgently when Philips announced that they would no longer manufacture tungsten lamps from 2017. “That’s when we invested heavily in stock and bought mountains of Philips lamps,” John explains. “We’ve also sourced replacements from other manufacturers overseas to ensure continuity in our supply lines. We’re supplying wholesale and retail, and have a secure supply for at least the next 10 years.”

Clearlight is stocking replacement lamps for classic fixtures like Strand Pattern 23s and 123s, Pacific 1K Blue Pinch lamps, discharge lamps, pin spot lamps, DWE audience blinder lamps, par lamps, 110V par lamps, and in some cases lamps for fixtures up to 50 years old. “Everybody else has walked away, but we’re still bringing them in,” confirms John. “It is getting harder, but at Clearlight we are committed to ensuring that organisations will be able to keep running their traditional fixtures as long as they need to.”

For more information visit www.clearlight.com.au

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Spotlight On Rosco product launches planned for the near Founded in 1910, Rosco is experience they’ve come to know future, Ross and his team are traditionally known for lighting from the manufacturer. Our core well-positioned to sell our products filters. The company offers product values align perfectly with Rosco’s, and service our customers in lines in more than a dozen and I look forward to continuing the Australia and New Zealand.” categories including LED fixtures, long-standing relationships Rosco The distribution of Rosco dichroic glass filters, lighting effects has cultivated with this region’s products through Creative Film and equipment, fog and haze machines, customers and dealers.” Theatre Solutions is effective May 1, flooring, green & blue screen paint “Creative Film and Theatre 2018. Creative Film and Theatre and backdrops for film, television Solutions is the right partner to Solutions will operate out of the and broadcast. grow our business and support our current Rosco location in Artarmon, “We are proud to become the customers in Australia,” said Mark with select inventory being sold from exclusive distributor for Rosco in Engel, Rosco’s CEO. “With a number a second location at Camperdown Australia and New Zealand,” said of exciting and innovative new for added convenience. Creative Film and Theatre Solutions owner Ross Hopkins. Creative Film & Theatre Solutions Pty Ltd “Rosco customers will have a Level 2, 42 Sawyer Lane, Artarmon NSW 2064 seamless transition and continue to (02) 9906-6262 or 0417 828 346 receive the exceptional customer sales@creativefilmandtheatresolutions.com.au

Rosco Laboratories, a global leader in lighting equipment for the live entertainment market, has appointed Creative Film and Theatre Solutions as its exclusive distributor in Australia and New Zealand.

28 Stage Whispers September - October 2018

Technical Showcase

Dressing The Stage Yeo Creative Solutions offers one of the largest selections of specialist scenic products in Australia. Their products include flame retardant fabrics and flooring, specialist theatre castors, scenic hardware and vacuum formed scenic embellishments such as brickwork and rock face panels. With an extensive theatre background as a touring stage and production manager in the UK, with companies such as the Royal National Theatre, Jonathan Yeoman formed Yeo Creative Solutions in 2014 with the aim of creating a go-to resource for all those useful items that designers and production managers wish they could find. The result is a “treasure trove of the best products from around the world. If we don’t have it here, we can probably get it for you,” says Jonathan. The company’s products and services have featured on Home & Away, Channel 7 News, ABC Checkout, Survivor, The Logies and many more TV

shows, as well as in feature films and productions at theatre companies including the Sydney Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre and Arts Centre Melbourne. “We are the Australian distributor for Triple E Engineering, manufacturer of a wide range of studio, touring and heavy duty drapes and scenery tracks, a supplier of rubber glass and break away plastics, mould making equipment, Varaform thermoplastic gauze for prop making, LED tape and control systems, specialist gaffer tapes … in short, a real Aladdin’s Cave of scenic products for every style of production,” Jonathan adds. “Our supplies website is also a resource library containing facts and datasheets on many of our 2000+ products, together with videos and articles on ideas and best practices.

“We have recently opened our Yeo Supplies ‘Crew Room’, that brings together a backstage crew’s favourite tools - riggers gloves from Dirty Rigger, including gloves with a built-in LED torch, Leatherman multitools, torches from LED Lenser and Coast, tool bags, Stanley tools and more.” The company has a warehouse and showroom in Crows Nest, Sydney and an online store on its website.

www.yeocreative.com www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 29

stood for everything opposite to what Eva and Juan Perón stood for. He’s a brilliant character who comes with a lot of layers. The way the piece is designed, there’s moments when he’s almost the conscience of Eva Peron, or Beginning his professional musical Superstar for The Production Company. of Magaldi, because he commentates theatre career in Australia 20 years While I was here the auditions for Evita on what they’re thinking, or what they ago, after first treading the boards on came along. To be offered the role of should be thinking. And it’s timeless Melbourne’s community musical Che is a dream come true. To get this the piece came out in the late 70s, but theatre stages, Kurt Kansley found opportunity to play such a fantastic it’s still very relevant today.” himself in the West End production of part in a beautiful version of this show What is Kurt most looking forward The Lion King, after appearing in the is the biggest thing I’ve done, ever, in to about the role? original Australian production. Disney’s my 20 years in the industry.” “I’m looking forward to the way he international casting policy provided Che is an intriguing character, real breaks the fourth wall and really the stepping stone to his fifteen year and from Argentina where the musical connects with the audience. In most British stage career. Evita takes place, yet he stands outside cases a narrator doesn’t really express Now Kurt has returned to Australia the plot. I asked Kurt about his take on an opinion, but his opinions are clear and strong. I’m looking forward to to play Che in the restaging of Hal the part, during a break from Prince’s landmark Broadway rehearsals. sinking my teeth into the fact that he’s production of Evita, produced by “The part is designed as the such a strong political character as Opera Australia, John Frost and David narrator. In actual fact Che Guevara well.” Ian. and Eva Peron never met each other. Kurt mentioned that Che never met “What brought me back to He’s a link to the audience, speaks Eva Perón in real life. Interestingly, Australia was that I had the directly to them and tells the story of while the two characters share the opportunity to do Jesus Christ Eva Perón, but as a political figure he

South-African born Australian performer Kurt Kansley has returned from the West End to play the role of Che Guevara in Evita at Sydney Opera House. He told Neil Litchfield that playing the revolutionary is a career highlight.

Online extras! Watch the trailer for Evita by scanning the QR code or visiting https://youtu.be/oruzdAcQe0Q 30 Stage Whispers September - October 2018

Tina Arena and the cast of Evita. Photo: Lightbox Photography.

stage, they never really speak directly to each other in the show either. “The only moment I can think of when he does is when he steps in as a journalist, and he asks Eva questions, and is a bit cheeky. Even the duet he has with Eva in Act 2, the ‘Waltz for Eva and Che’, is like a commentary on what they both believe in. Throughout most of the piece he’s very separate to everyone else.” I asked Kurt about those layers in the character to which he’s attracted. “He’s a very angry man, and then at the same time he’s angry at what the world’s become. He’s angry at capitalist society. He’s angry at the hypocrisy of the government. “Another side to him is that he’s really witty and cheeky. There’s a lot of pictures and documents of him, and he’s got this glint in his eye. Even the way that he writes in his novels; his language is not just poetic, but it’s got this irony and wit to it. He never took himself seriously - he was always a bit of a joker. “He was a very simple man who lived by simple means - he spent a lot of his time in a leper colony. The thing that inspired him, and ended up taking him to Cuba where he met Fidel Castro, was a big trip around South America, where he met all of these people who couldn’t afford medical care. “Another level to him was that he was educated - he was a doctor.” Putting Evita to one side, I asked Kurt what led him to a career in musical theatre. “It’s something I always wanted to do. My parents tell stories of when I was a little boy, growing up in the suburbs of Melbourne; of getting all my cousins and family friends together and putting on plays. My parents saw that interest in me, and they ended up sending me to piano lessons and drama classes. I did a lot of amateur shows in the Eastern Suburbs of

Melbourne. It eventually led to me going to Monash University and studying Dramatic Arts and Performing Arts. Later I studied classical singing at the Melba Conservatorium in Richmond.” “My first professional show was Show Boat, when I was 19, 20 years ago. Funnily enough it was also directed by Hal Prince. So 20 years later I’m back in Sydney, opening in a Hal Prince musical again. For a first professional production, that was a grand one to start my career on. The great majority of the African American

West End. They have their pool of casts around the world, and people chop and change and go to different companies. In the West End Simba is currently being played by Nick Afoa, who was Simba in the last Lion King cast here in Australia.” How did that transfer translate into a fifteen year career in the UK? “Originally my plan was to stay there for one year, and I ended up loving it. From there I’ve been lucky enough to have some fantastic experiences. I was in the 25th Anniversary cast of Miss Saigon and I

ensemble were brought from the Broadway cast, so I was soaking up the knowledge from this plethora of veterans, like a bright-eyed 19-year-old Aussie boy. “After Show Boat the next big thing for me was joining the cast of Rent. After that I did my first Production Company show, Hair, which we ended up touring. I finished Hair and then I did the original Australian production of The Lion King. After one year of The Lion King they transferred me to the West End cast, which was my ticket over to London, where I’ve had 15 years of great experiences.” I asked how that transfer to the West End came about. “The Lion King is very specific in its casting, in that they want an ethnic cast to play a lot of the parts. I was a Simba understudy. I was actually born in South Africa and migrated to Australia when I was very young, so there was also the South African element. I was the first of the Australian cast to be transferred to the

recently did a production of Guys and Dolls at the Royal Exchange, a fantastic theatre-in-the round in Manchester. They do great productions there, but they twist them a bit, so this version of Guys and Dolls was set in Harlem with an all-black cast. They made all the arrangements very jazz driven, and we had a fantastic choreographer, Kenrick Sandy, one of the leading street dance choreographers in the UK. “I’ve done a few plays as well in the UK. I worked at the Old Vic in Sweet Bird of Youth with the Tony Award winning director Marianne Elliott. That one starred Kim Cattrall. I played the part of Jackie, a jazz piano player, and luckily my first thing was learning the piano, so I was employed as an acting musician on that job. A few years later I was called in to do Sweet Bird of Youth again, but this time it was directed by Jonathan Kent and it starred Marcia Gay Harden. It was phenomenal working with both of those stellar actresses and those amazing directors. It was a real gift.”

Evita plays at the Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House from September 13, then at the State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne from December 5. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 31

Global Music Theatre Festival Down Under

The world’s largest musical theatre training program, The Junior Theatre Festival, is heading to New Zealand and Australia for a 3rd year in a row, with registrations doubling on last year.

brand new musicals from the MTI catalogue - Sister Act Jr and Newsies Jr. “MTI Australasia is so excited to be able to support the development of up Developed by iTheatrics, it The mission “to bring quality -and-coming musical theatre stars in celebrates the achievements of young musical theatre programs to young Australia and New Zealand through people in musical theatre all over the people everywhere” was no mean feat. Broadway Junior,” said Managing world, in conjunction with Music But this statement, made in 2006 by Director of Music Theatre International Theatre International’s Broadway iTheatrics Founder Timothy McDonald, - Australasia, Stuart Hendricks. Junior program. has come to fruition. The Celebrations will be held in Every year thousands of children, Registrations have already doubled Newcastle, Australia on 26th and teachers and Industry professionals from last year, and the festival will come together in Atlanta, Sacramento, culminate in a 12-day event including 27th October, followed by the U.K., and now Newcastle and the exclusive Pilot workshops of two Auckland, New Zealand on Auckland, to support the development 2nd and 3rd November 2018. of young theatrical performers and educators through workshops and masterclasses. Joining award winning playwrights and New York educators at the festival are star of stage and screen and Australia’s original Glinda in Wicked and Elle Woods in Legally Blonde, Lucy Durack, Australian Idol musical director John Foreman, My Fair Lady resident choreographer Erin James and renowned performer and vocal coach David Rogers-Smith (Piangi - The Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables), and many more. 32 Stage Whispers September - October 2018

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 33

Venue Spotlight

Newcastle’s Treasures In 2015 it was up for sale and extremely vulnerable to In the second of our series looking at the favourite venues of our reviewers, Ken Longworth examines the being sold to a property developer. A white knight emerged - Century Venues - famous for mixed fortunes of Newcastle’s heritage theatres. The Victoria Theatre is the oldest major live entertainment establishment in New South Wales, having been built in 1890-91. It has a highly decorated Victorian facade and interior Grecian flourishes, including gold ceiling motifs and a grand proscenium arch. Despite closing for live performance in 1966, and having been boarded up for the last twenty years, successive owners have maintained its facade and auditorium.

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restoring Sydney’s Enmore Theatre from “pigeon infested dump” into a lively entertainment hub. According to the Newcastle Herald, Century Venues’ owner “made a dash up the M1 to view the property less than two weeks before the scheduled auction, after its General Manager Greg Khoury was tipped off about the sale by a friend.” The family owned company has begun to restore the building to a performing arts venue, hoping to have it ready to re-open within two years as a live music and theatre space. It’s looking at a capacity of 900 seats, so that it will be the mid-size venue the inner city needs, between the 1520seat Civic Theatre and the 205-seat Civic Playhouse. The Victoria Theatre was a key community facility in its first 30 years. It was at the centre of Newcastle’s celebrations in 1897 of Queen Victoria becoming the longest-reigning British monarch and, later that year, of the centennial of Newcastle’s site being discovered by Lieutenant John Shortland. The Victoria was used by touring companies, with one of the centennial year shows appropriately being an adaptation of the then new Australian novel Robbery Under Arms. And events at the theatre included, in November 1913, a boxing match in which the legendary Les Darcy was beaten by his opponent. In 1921, the theatre underwent refurbishments which included equipping the building for use as a cinema as well as live action events. But while the theatre, increasingly,

only other space taken up by the retail work was the storage of goods on the theatre’s large stage. Newcastle’s other nationally-renowned theatre venue, the Newcastle City Council-owned Civic Theatre, was built between 1927 and 1929, and backs onto the City Hall, which was built at the same time. While the Civic was intended to be a live theatre, it was leased to successive cinema-operating companies, with Hoyts having the last and longest lease from 1941 until 1973. The Civic was designed by prominent theatre architect Henry Eli White, who also designed Sydney’s State and Capitol Theatres, and it has similar features to them. It is a finely crafted example of the Georgian Revival style, with the largely intact interior likewise seen as an outstanding example of the Spanish Baroque style on a large scale. A marble staircase connects the ground floor and dress circle, the traditional proscenium arch is crowned with a classical frieze, and there is a grand ornamental dome in the ceiling. The theatre has operated almost continuously as an entertainment venue since 1929, with the council undertaking renovations in the 1970s after deciding in 1971 to phase out film screenings and focus on live productions. The renovations included enlarging the 1929built orchestra pit and widening the stage. Film presentations ended in 1976. Victoria Theatre. The Civic was subsequently renovated between June was used mainly for films, it continued to attract live 1992 and November 1993, at a cost of $10.4 million. performers such as June Bronhill and Roy ‘Mo’ Rene, and The establishment in 1976 of the Hunter Valley Theatre companies including J. C. Williamson and Britain’s D’Oyly Company, Australia’s first fully-professional regional theatre Carte Opera Company. An amateur theatre company, company, led to a smaller auditorium, the Civic Playhouse, Newcastle Dramatic Art Club, staged the musical being built on the upper level of a building adjoining the Oklahoma! there in 1953 when it was the world’s first non- Civic. professional group given the rights. The Playhouse, designed by Newcastle architect Brian Suters, opened in 1979, with the intimate floor-level The cinema company Hoyts was given management rights in 1942, and when it surrendered its contract in performing space putting 200 audience members sitting in 1966, a time when television was cutting away film boxraised seating rows close to the actors. office takings, the theatre closed. Its foyer subsequently hosted a series of shops, most of which had small takings, (Continued on page 36) until 1999, when the retail trading ended. Fortunately, the

Civic Theatre.

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Venue Spotlight

Victoria Theatre.

(Continued from page 35)

Hunter Valley Theatre Company initially attracted large audiences, but increasing problems within the company led to it going into recess on several occasions and audience numbers declining. The company

36 Stage Whispers September - October 2018

folded in 1996 and the Playhouse closed in 1998. The closure led to a campaign by community members to have the Playhouse re-opened, with more comfortable seating and better facilities for actors. Newcastle City Council and the New South Wales Ministry for the Arts committed $1.5

million to the refurbishment of the Playhouse and it re-opened in December 2004, after eight months of constructive work. While it is used by professional companies touring smallscale productions, it has increasingly attracted local companies. Both the Victoria Theatre and the Civic Theatre are listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register. A third Newcastle venue on the register is the Kings Theatre, on Morehead Street, in suburban Lambton. It is now known as Lizottes Newcastle, after being taken over by theatre restaurant company Lizottes in 2009. The Art Deco venue opened in 1910 as Coronation Hall, in honour of the coronation that year of Britainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s King George V. It has been a dance hall, silent movie venue, skating rink, modern cinema, video store, music hall, and was briefly used for boxing bouts. In 1968, the then owner, Warren Murnane, changed the name to Kings Theatre. A more recent owner converted the venue to a theatre restaurant in 1989 and it has become a popular entertainment centre.

CLOC’s Strictly Ballroom Frocks

Costumes & Props

When CLOC Musical Theatre decided to stage one of the first Australian non-professional productions of Strictly Ballroom the Musical, they knew they had a monumental task ahead, in terms of producing the countless bedazzled, bejewelled and bedecked costumes that the show required. No problem - Vicky Horne, CLOC’s resident costume designer and lover of all things sequinned and sparkly, was up to the challenge. Vicky and her trusty CLOC sewing team were eager to flex their inner glitz in a show where no amount of sparkle was too much. And boy, did they let loose. For six months, 20 hardworking, talented and artistic sewers and milliners beavered away amidst metres of tuille, frills, pleats, feathers, beads, diamantes and crystals to produce over 200 costumes. Each costume was individually designed, crafted and made to fit a cast of 34, including eight ballroom couples, who were colour co‑ordinated, both to each other and the colours of the sets on which they were dancing. No two costumes were the same, and the male costumes had as much attention and detail as the females. Even the headpieces were individually designed and made to match the appropriate costume. Some mind-boggling statistics - each ballgown contained 20 metres of feathers, 20 metres of pleating and 50 metres of petticoats. The iconic Spanish costumes worn by the two leads were totally handmade and hand beaded, using literally thousands of crystals. Scott’s famous Spanish bolero jacket was covered with so many beads and crystals (all individually applied by hand) that it was a feat of strength and muscle just to lift. Each costume had up to five people

working on it at different stages to produce the finished result, plus the team of milliners to add the final touch. And at the end, was it all worth it? With a proud and satisfied smile, Vicky says it was the very best work she and her team have produced. And going by the ecstatic audience reactions to the visual splendour and wonderment before them, the CLOC costume team nailed it.

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COSTUME & PROP MARKETPLACE Tips From Costumes Without Drama Costuming school productions independent. The costumes need to be easy to put on and has a different set of take off. parameters to West End Costumes Without Drama productions. Children need to look great on stage but it is actually more important that costumes fit the children - child size, not adult size adapted. When you have 165 children getting dressed and on stage together, you cannot have wardrobe malfunctions. Costumes for school children need to be easy to put on, take off and look great - each time. There are teachers and parents helping to dress the children, but for the most part the children need to be

attempts to send costumes to schools approximately two weeks before the show, to allow children to try on costumes a couple of times before the production. This helps them get used to the idiosyncrasies of their own costumes and be able to help their friends look great too. Once the children have seen their costumes, there is always a huge spike in the quality of their rehearsals; they suddenly seem to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;getâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; what their role is, and it all becomes very exciting.

You can view the full range of costumes available at www.costumeswithoutdrama.com.au or call (03) 8838 2616.

38 Stage Whispers September - October 2018

Stage School Australia Costume Designer Jennifer McKenzie loves working on period pieces and her latest challenge is Les Misérables. The Young Australian Broadway Chorus production of Les Misérables in January 2019 at the National Theatre in St Kilda will require period-correct costumes for a cast of around one hundred. I anticipate that my favourite will be Cosette’s costume when she is a young adult, because her dress, gloves and bonnet will need to be spot on in terms of period correctness and so will be a joy to design and create. The challenge is to find the right balance of creating period-correct costumes using modern textiles and trims, all within the production’s budget and timeline. The bicorn hats I will be creating are a good example. I could source them, because they are still a part of some military uniforms internationally, but they are quite expensive. I can’t justify spending too much because the hats the characters in Les Misérables wear need to look

lived in. So, I’ve decided to make them using my millinery training. Historically these hats came to be the shape they are to channel rainwater away from the face by folding and pinning the hat brims up. They can be worn either way, with the point facing the front, or sideways, which was the fashion preference of both Napoleon Bonaparte and Horatio Nelson. Originally bicorn hats were either made out of plush cotton velour or felted beaver pelts. Mine won’t be made out of real felted fur. I’ve chosen quality felt instead. I started with a sourced hat as a base so I didn’t have to block out the head piece, then added the brims and detailing. I’ve even made the French rosettes, which I aged so they looked like they had been through a battle. If your school or theatre company is planning to present Les Misérables, the costumes and any sets created for the show will be available to rent through The Costume Dept from February 2019. www.lesmiz.com.au

For a complete range of available costumes visit www.costume-dept.com or call (03 8199 8345.

Fancy Dress Shop For Sale The Toowoomba Fancy Dress Shop, established in its current location for over six years, is up for sale. Owner Kerrie Edwards says it’s time for another creative genius to take over the business that covers a sizable part of Queensland. This is the only costume shop of its kind for a very big city, its surrounds and beyond, stocking over 1800 costumes plus another 500 individual items of clothing as well as hats and accessories. The shop is currently run by one person but an extra person is often needed. It is located on the main street, with plenty of off-street parking, just 1km from the CBD. The shop is leased, with a long lease available. Kerrie is the costume co-ordinator for the long-established Toowoomba Repertory Theatre, which produces five major plays a year, and she has wide experience in costuming. The shop is currently open 5 ½ days a week. www.toowoombafancydress.com.au

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Stage on Page By Peter Pinne

Something Wonderful - Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution by Todd S. Purdum (Henry Holt U.S.$32.00) Before Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim, the musical theatre was dominated by the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The two middleaged men had major careers before they worked together, but their pairing with 1943’s Oklahoma! saw them reinvent the genre, reverberating through the form to this present day. They created the ‘musical play’, which saw them integrate music, lyrics, dance and book in some of the most innovative musicals of the era. Their musicals became part of what is commonly called the “Golden Age” of Broadway. So many books have been written before about their partnership, you have to wonder if there’s anything new to say. Not really, but veteran political reporter Todd S. Purdum does a very good job of offering a new perspective on their work, whilst uncovering the occasional nugget. The overriding aspect to emerge is that despite working together professionally for 17 years, the two men never really knew each other on a personal level. Their coupling came at a critical point in both their careers; Hammerstein, after early success in the

twenties with The Desert Song, Sunny and the groundbreaking Show Boat, had had a string of failures in the thirties, and Rodgers, following success after success with On Your Toes, Jumbo, Babes in Arms and Pal Joey, was finding it continually harder to work with lyricist Lorenz Hart, whose alcoholic binges kept getting longer and more destructive. Into the mix came the Theatre Guild with the offer to make a musical of Green Grow the Lilacs, their unsuccessful 1931 folk play written by gay cowboy turned poet and playwright (Rollie) Lynn Riggs. Hart wasn’t interested but Hammerstein was, and so began Rodgers and Hammerstein, or as they came to be known R&H, the most influential composer and lyricist team of the modern musical theatre. Purdum begins their story when they were at the height of their success in 1957 with the telecast of Cinderella, their only original musical written for TV, which starred the young Julie Andrews (moonlighting from My Fair Lady) in the title role, with Jon Cypher (who would go onto fame as Chief of Police Fletcher Daniels in Hill Street Blues) as the Prince. Filmed in New York at Studio 72, a former Keith-Albee-Orpheum

Stage Whispers Books Visit our on-line book shop for back issues and stage craft books www.stagewhispers.com.au/books 40 Stage Whispers September - October 2018

vaudeville house, the production was seen by 107 million people at a time when the entire U.S. population was roughly 172 million. More people collectively watched Cinderella than any event in the history of the medium. Two brisk chapters about their early careers follow, before we get to Oklahoma! - which, in its day, according to Perdum, “was as radical in its way as Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hiphop, genre-bending Hamilton would be more than seventy years later.” Originally called Away We Go, their adaptation eschewed the typical musical comedy conventions of the day, dispensing with an opening chorus and creating the American theatre’s first fully realized psychological dance piece with the ballet Laurie Makes Up Her Mind. These ballets were to become a feature of their work. They also created the soliloquy “Lonely Room” for the character of Jud Fry, an angry resentful farmhand with a collection of dirty postcards who, in another first for a musical, is killed by the leading man. Rodgers’ daughter Mary said it was her favourite amongst her father’s ninehundred plus songs. Innovation continued with their next musical Carousel, which was based on Ferenc Molnar’s Liliom and depicted spousal abuse. The “If I Loved You” bench scene has become

justifiably famous for its brilliant melding of dialogue and song, whilst the seven minute “Soliloquy” has become a masterwork of musical stream of consciousness. The score also included the inspirational song that became a football club anthem, “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. When Mel Torme told Rodgers the song made him cry. Rodgers replied, “It’s supposed to.” It was Rodgers’ favourite score. Rodgers and Hammerstein followed with their most experimental work, the flawed Allegro, which became Broadway’s first “concept musical”. Inspired by Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, it was deliberately minimalist and set in small-town America in a simpler time. Running 315 performances it was the first, but not the last, flop for the duo. A 17-year-old Stephen Sondheim was employed on the production during his summer break as a gofer. It was his first job in the theatre. R&H continued to expand the boundaries of musical theatre with South Pacific, and its themes of racial discrimination, bigotry and prejudice, then followed with cultural and societal differences in Siam with The King and I, and later explored similar Asian themes on home soil in San Francisco’s Chinatown in Flower Drum Song. The early fifties saw them produce their most undistinguished work, the backstage musical Me and Juliet, which ran 358 performances and has never been revived, and a musical adaptation of John Steinbeck’s brothel-set Sweet Thursday, which became Pipe Dream and only managed to run 246 performances. Their last most enduring work, but also their most reviled was The Sound of Music, the story of the Von Trapp Family Singers and their escape from Austria over the Alps in the lead up to the Second World War. Called an operetta by the critics, Walter Kerr (Herald Tribune) complained that “the revolution of the forties and fifties had lost its fire.” Rodgers and Hammerstein were now labelled old-fashioned and out of step, and although it would go on to become one of the highest grossing musical films of all time, starring Julie Andrews, for Rodgers and

Hammerstein the first night reaction was bitter-sweet. Hammerstein died shortly after The Sound of Music opened, while Rodgers succumbed to cancer twenty years later, but lived “long enough to see his own best work recognised as immortal.” Both men had their demons. Rodgers suffered from bouts of depression and became an alcoholic someone who could down 16 whiskys after dinner and not show the effects. He was also a notorious womaniser and kept a room in a Times Square hotel for his assignations. Hammerstein was plagued by the fact that he was seen as a has-been operetta lyricist. Sentimental and lovable, he has always been portrayed as a family man, yet even he succumbed to adultery with showgirl Temple Texas during Pipe Dream. Rodgers was aware of it but it is unclear whether his wife knew. Both men were married to women called Dorothy, who were both interior decorators but with totally different tastes. Dorothy Rodgers came from affluence and, according to her daughter Mary, was “uptight, anorexic, and a chronic abuser of laxatives and Demerol.” Dorothy Hammerstein was a chorus-girl who came from Tasmania. Hammerstein wrote some lyrics for Allegro and Cinderella while he was visiting his in-laws. According to Purdum both men were keen businessmen, but “chary with collaborators, stingy with credit, and notoriously tight with a buck.”

Costume designer Lucinda Ballard claimed, “Dick loved money more than anybody I’ve ever seen, except Oscar.” Joshua Logan wrote 30-50% of South Pacific’s book yet R&H refused him any royalties except those he received for direction. It galled him until the day he died. Lyrics for “Someone Will Teach You”, an early draft version of “People Will Say We’re In Love”, are interesting, as are early drafts for South Pacific’s “Happy Talk” and “Now Is The Time”, a song that was replaced by “This Nearly Was Mine”. Orchestrator Robert Russell Bennett, arranger Trude Rittman and choreographer Agnes de Mille receive due credit in Purdum’s analysis of R&H’s success, but it’s a de Mille bombshell that startles. In an unpublished monograph written late in her life, she insisted (with the inferred backing of Rittman) that Rodgers lifted The Sound of Music’s “Praeludium” from a work by Orlando de Lasso, a sixteenth-century Franco-Flemish composer, and claimed it as his own. This well-researched book ends with Nicholas Hytner’s re-examined Carousel for London’s National Theatre in 1992, which kick-started a wave of reassessment of their body of work. Something Wonderful is truly a wonderful read, which offers insight into the creation of some of the most enduring musical theatre classics ever written. It comes with B&W photos, notes, and an index. Highly recommended.

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 41

Frozen (Kristen Anderson-Lopez/Robert Lopez) (Walt Disney Records D002738102) Disney’s stage version of Frozen adds eleven new songs to the existing film score but Elsa’s monster movie hit “Let It By Peter Pinne Go”, repositioned to end Act 1, is a show-stopper and a Beautiful - A Tribute to Carole King (Sony half, as sung by Caissie Levy, and wisely also ends the show. 88985436252) Maybe her version doesn’t quite match Idina Menzel’s but As there was no Australian Cast recording of Beautiful - it’s still pretty powerful. Patti Murin (Anna) scores heavily The Carole King Musical, this studio album which features with John Riddle (Hans) on “Love Is An Open Door”, and Esther Hannaford’s performance of the title song will have with Jellani Alladin (Kristoff) on “What Do You Know About to suffice. Released to coincide with the tour of Beautiful - Love?”, one of the new songs, while both girls thrill in full The Carole King Musical, it not only features Hannaford but diva-mode with “For the First Time In Forever” and its a roster of Australian Aria winners who include Tina Arena, encore. Olaf’s “In Summer” is still a cute idea and Greg Dami Im, Guy Sebastian and Samantha Jade. Best tracks are Hildreth performs it with charm. The oom-pah-pah second act opener “Hygge” is a load of fun, but it’s the new Daryl Braithwaite’s “Up On The dark power ballad for Elsa, Roof”, Vika Bull’s “Natural “Monster”, that’s got pop-single Woman”, Human Nature’s “One Fine Day”, Tina Arena’s “So Far written all over it. “When Away” (previously recorded on her Everything Falls Apart” is included as a bonus track. Cut early in the Songs of Love and Loss album) tryout, it’s a swing dance number and, of course, Hannaford’s sung by Murin, Alladin and “Beautiful”.  Hildreth. 

Stage On Disc

Online extras! Get your hands on this tribute album by scanning the QR code or visiting https://apple.co/2Ldvf6c Spongebob Squarepants (Various) (Masterworks Broadway 88985383482) A host of Grammy Award winning artists - including Cyndi Lauper, Sara Bareilles, Panic at the Disco and Aerosmith - contributed to the stage score of Spongebob Squarepants, a musical based on the animated TV series. Tom Kitt as orchestrator, arranger and musical supervisor has done a brilliant job of melding a pot-pourri of pop styles into one organic whole. An infectious country-styled opener, “Bikini Bottom Day”, sets it all up and is followed by the calypso flavoured “BFF”, a buddy-song “(I Guess I) Miss You”, a whacky-waltz “Poor Pirates” and the inevitable taproutine “I’m Not a Loser”, with a chorus line of Sea Anemones. The cast includes Ethan Slater (Spongebob), Danny Skinner (Patrick) and Gavin Lee (Squidward), and they’re all wonderful. 

Online extras! Download the cast recording of Spongebob Squarepants on iTunes now. https://apple.co/2Lcsu55 Rating

 Only for the enthusiast  Borderline  Worth buying  Must have  Kill for it 42 Stage Whispers September - October 2018

Online extras! Listen to the Broadway Cast Recording of Disney’s Frozen on Spotify now. https://spoti.fi/2LcPX6u Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Dan Gillespie Sells/ Tom MacRae) Absolute/Nimax NMX001/Concept Album (Wilton Way Records WILTON001X) This is far and away the freshest and most joyous musical score to appear on a West End stage in recent times. The songs by Dan Gillespie Sells, lead singersongwriter of chart-toppers The Feeling, have sincerity and verve aplenty with great melodic-hooks, and the lyrics, by TV writer Tom MacRae, have so much wit and punch that you get swept away by their exuberance. Based on a TV documentary about Jamie Campbell, a 16-year-old boy who lives with his single mum on a council estate in Sheffield and dreams of dressing in girls’ clothes, the album was recorded live at London’s Apollo Theatre. As the title character, the silver-voiced John McCrea is all over the tracks from the hip-hop opening “And You Don’t Even Know It”, to the poppy title tune and the raw self-hatred of “Ugly in this Ugly World”, but pulls the heartstrings on the duet with his mother “My Man, Your

Online extras! Buy Everybody’s Talking About Jamie from Amazon now. Scan or visit https://amzn.to/2Ldvmi8

Boy”. Josie Walker (The Beautiful Game) is perfect as the mother, giving a soulful reading of the “light-of-her-life” ode “He’s My Boy” (“my perfect mistake”) and the insightfully tender “If I Met Myself Again”. The album ends with the infectious dance-beats of “Out of the Darkness” (A Place Where I Belong) as a bonus track. The Concept Album, released before the live recording, also has the same song-stack as the live recording, with performances by McCrea and Walker singing the same tracks. There is also a bonus track, “At 16”, which was cut for the West End production. 

the World Burn”, Kate Rockwell (Karen) channels Katy Perry with “Sexy”, while Ashley Park (Gretchen) nails the introverted “What’s Wrong With Me”. Director/ Choreographer Casey Nicholaw shows his hand early with the high-kick chorus number “Where Do You Belong?”, led by the gayer-than-gay Damian (Grey Henson), and steals his company tap idea “Turn if Off” from The Book of Mormon for “Stop”, a 40s swing-number about sending texts. 

My Fair Lady (Alan Jay Lerner/Frederick Loewe) (Broadway Records BR-CD10018) The new Broadway cast album of My Fair Lady, with a Lost West End - Vintage 2 (Various) (2 CD set/Stage 30-piece orchestra, is a crisp, clearly articulated version of Door 9056) the score with vibrant sound. Harry Hadden-Paton is a more This companion 2 CD set to Stage Door’s earlier Vintage musical Higgins than we normally hear, whilst Lauren 1 features 50 tracks from London’s forgotten musicals from Ambrose (Six Feet Under) as Eliza is simply captivating. 1943 to 1962. It’s a marvellous collection of material from Jordan Donica brings his creamy tenor to “On the Street the West End’s major composers of the period - Ivor Where You Live”, one of Loewe’s most elegant melodies, Novello, Noël Coward, Julian Slade, Sandy Wilson, Vivian while Hadden Paton’s “I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Ellis, Lionel Bart and Leslie Bricusse - performed by a who’s- Face” is warmly romantic. The finale when Eliza returns to who of star performers including Mary Martin, Julie Higgins is deeply emotional. The Andrews, Sally Ann Howes, Dora Bryan, Julie Wilson, album also includes the rarely Barbara Windsor, Spike Milligan and Denis Quilley. recorded “The Flower Market”, Highlights include Millicent Martin’s “Our Language of when Eliza returns to Covent Love” (Irma La Douce), Frank Garden after her success at the ball, the reprise of “Wouldn’t It Be Sinatra’s “If Only She’d Looked My Loverly” and the “Embassy Waltz.” Way” (Gay’s the Word) and Billy  Cotton’s title tune from Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be”. One of the rare discoveries is a single by Online extras! Maggie Fitzgibbon from 1959’s Purchase the 2018 cast recording of My Kookaburra.  Fair Lady from Broadway Records. http://bit.ly/2Le8jUy

Online extras!

Mean Girls (Jeff Richmond/Nell Benjamin) (Atlantic 571543-2) Tina Fey’s formulaic 2004 movie Mean Girls has been turned into a formulaic Broadway musical with a score by Fey’s husband Jeff Richmond (30 Rock) and lyrics by Nell Benjamin (Legally Blonde). This is the ultimate sorority girls being mean musical with never-ending put-downs, superficial aspirations and tons of malevolence. Taylor Louderman (Regina) knocks it out of the park with the intense “Someone Gets Hurt” and “Watch

Redhead (Albert Hague/Dorothy Fields) (Stage Door STAGE 2450) The latest in Stage Door’s “Collector’s Series” is indeed a rare one, an English studio cast recording of this 1959 Gwen Verdon Broadway hit murder-mystery set in Edwardian London. Rita Williams and Bryan Johnson head the cast, with the Mike Sammes Singers and the Hill Bowen Orchestra. Williams shines on “I Feel Merely Marvellous” and “The Right Finger On My Left Hand”, with Johnson offering good support with “My Girl is Just Enough Woman For Me”. Also included on the release is the Mexican cast recording of the score, La Pelirroja, sung in Spanish, which features a rare vocal by Placido Domingo, and a selection of pop covers by Art Lund, Toni Arden and Tommy Leonetti 

Online extras!

Grab your copy of Mean Girls from Apple Music. Scan the QR code or visit https://apple.co/2Lcrk9J

Get the Redhead / La Pelirroja album on Amazon by scanning or visiting https://amzn.to/2Ldxiao

Buy Lost West End Vintage 2 from Stage Door Records. Scan the QR code or visit http://bit.ly/2LaCYCh

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 43

Directed by Alex Timbers (Rocky), with a book by John Logan (Red), choreography by Sonya Tayeh (Kung Fu), and music supervision, orchestrations and arrangements by Justin Levine (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson), Moulin Rouge! The Musical is based on Baz Luhrmann’s Oscar-winning 2001 movie, set in Montmartre, Paris, in 1900. The stage incarnation stars Aaron Tveit (Christian) and By Peter Pinne Karen Olivo (Satine) in the roles taken in the movie by Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman. Tveit has a host of impressive The world premiere of Moulin Rouge! The Musical reBroadway, TV and film credits which include Gabe in Next to opened Boston’s refurbished Emerson Colonial Theater to a Normal, Frank Jr in Catch Me If You Can, Danny Zuko in TVs slew of rave reviews, so it can only be a matter of weeks Grease Live! and Enjolras in movie of Les Misérables, whilst before a Broadway berth is announced. CEO of Global Olivo played Vanessa in In the Heights, Angelica Schuyler in Creatures and producer Carmen Pavlovic, currently in New Hamilton’s Chicago run, and won a Tony for her York for King Kong rehearsals, said “I’m overjoyed at the performance of Anita in 2009’s West Side Story. response Moulin Rouge! The Musical has received from the According to the critics, Tveit is a breath of fresh air and world’s leading theatre reviewers and audiences alike.” She was born to play this role, whilst Olivo was called added, “Moulin Rouge! was a complex transition to make “phenomenally gifted”. Other featured roles include Danny from cinema to the stage. On the one hand we wanted to Burstein (The Drowsy Chaperone/South Pacific) as the honour what fans loved about the film. On the other we impresario of the venue, Harold Zidler, whose cane spurts wanted to translate the film into a theatrical language that confetti over the audience, Ricky Rojas (Burn the Floor/Fame) had something new to offer audiences in 2018.” as the gigolo and tango dancer Santiago, Robin Hurder as “Hit songs to sin by in a smashing Moulin Rouge,” said the temptress Nini, who together with Holly James, Ben Brantley in the New York Times, going on to say it Jacqueline B. Arnold and Jeigh Madjus perform a “delicious “captures the sensibility of a movie-loving movie in a theatre raunch-and-roll” to “Lady Marmalade”, Tam Muti (Dr lover’s language. The glamour is still there, but there’s a lot Zhivago) as the wealthy and entitled club patron the Duke of more grit.” Variety called it “a socko stage spectacular”, the Monroth, whose introduction uses the opening lines of The New York Post claimed it had “the makings of a big hit”, Rolling Stones’ “Symphony for the Devil”, and Sahr Ngaujah whilst The Stage (UK) gave it five stars and said “a knock out. (Fela) as the artist Toulouse Lautrec, playing the character I could feel the ghosts of Michael Bennett and Bob Fosse with a cane and a crabbed walk in place of the painter’s nodding their approval.” diminutive size.

roadway uzz

Online extras! Discover the choreography of Moulin Rouge! The Musical. Scan or visit https://youtu.be/rgbnhDN4GU0

44 Stage Whispers September - October 2018

Karen Olivo as Satine in Moulin Rouge! The Musical. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

Danny Burstein as Harold Zidler in Moulin Rouge! The Musical. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

Karen Olivo as Satine and Aaron Tveit as Christian in Moulin Rouge! The Musical. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

According to Variety the show’s “most memorable - and quiet - musical moment, is a heartbreaking rendition of ‘Nature Boy’ by Ngaujah. Satine makes her entrance sitting in a chair lowered from the flies singing Shirley Bassey’s signature “Diamonds Are Forever”, but the list of recycled pop tunes has been updated and now includes excerpts of songs by Lady Gaga, Florence and the Machine, OutKast, Lorde, Sia, Beyonce, Pink, Britney Spears, Adele and Katy Perry. As Brantley opined “the jukebox has exploded.” King Kong director and choreographer Drew McOnie and cast members Erik Lochtefeld, Christiani Pitts and Eric William Morris recently gathered at the Jacob Burns Film Center for a special screening of the original 1933 film, in the Life on the Stage: Conversation and Film series. Producer Dori Bernstein led a Q&A conversation about the property’s fascinating transition from screen to technical marvel onstage, with set designer Peter England, creature designer Sonny Tilders and Global Creatures CEO Carmen Pavlovic. King Kong begins Broadway previews on Friday October 5, at the Broadway Theatre. FX, the Cable network, has given the greenlight to Fosse/ Verdon, an eight episode project from Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) starring Sam Rockwell, an Oscar winner for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and Michelle Williams, whose latest movie was the critically mauled but phenomenally successful The Greatest Showman. The project also reunites Miranda with Hamilton and In the Heights director Thomas Kail. Based on Sam Wasson’s Fosse biography, the series tells the story of the romantic and creative partnership between one of the theatre’s most influential director/choreographers and one of Broadway’s greatest dancers. Steven Levenson (Dear Evan Hansen) has written the pilot episode, which will be directed by Kail. Nicole Fosse, the daughter of Fosse and Verdon, will serve as co-executive producer, while Andy Blankenbuehler will coproduce. The series will have feature music by Miranda. Christopher Ashley, artistic director of La Jolla Playhouse, California, has announced that their 2018/2019 season will include the world premiere of Diana, a new musical by Joe DiPietro (book and lyrics) and David Bryan (music), the team

who won a Tony for Memphis. Directed by Ashley, with choreography by Kelly Devine, the show features an eclectic original score from classical melodies to 1980s-inspired pop and rock music. A recent lab presentation in May, arranged for potential investors, revealed there are 23 songs in the score including a showstopping Act 1 closer titled “A Pretty Girl in a Pretty Dress”, which takes place as Diana deals with the very public fallout from Prince Charles’ affair with his future bride, Camilla. The car crash which took Diana’s life is told through a poignant epilogue. Amy Morton (August Osage County) will make her Broadway directorial debut in a new all-female production of David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Glengarry Glen Ross, set in a cut-throat Chicago real estate office where four salespeople compete to sell mostly worthless properties to unwitting customers. The play was last seen on Broadway in 2012/13, in a production directed by Daniel Sullivan with a stellar cast that included Al Pacino, Bobby Cannavale, David Harbour, Richard Schiff, Murphy Guyer, John C McGinley and Jeremy Shamos. Performances for the new production are scheduled to begin in May 2019. Sierra Boggess is to play Countess Ellen Olenska in the upcoming world premiere production of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence, which plays the McCarter Theatre Center at Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, September 7 - October 7. Adapted by Tony nominee Douglas McGrath (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), the cast also includes four-time Tony Award Winner Boyd Gaines as the Old Gentleman, Helen Cespedes as May Welland and Andrew Veenstra as Newland Archer. The cast is joined onstage for each performance by pianist Yan Li. In 1920 Wharton’s novel won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, making her the first woman to win the prize. Set in the 1870’s in upper-class “Gilded Age” New York City, the story is described as “romantic and heartbreakingly unsentimental in its portrayal of a rigid society where people dreaded scandal more than disease.” Its not Boggess’s first straight play, having previously appeared opposite Tyne Daly in a 2011 production of Master Class playing Sharon, and appearing Off-Broadway in 2012 in Love, Loss and What I Wore. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 45

London Calling By Peter Pinne New Zealander Hayden Tee is to take over the role of Miss Trunchbull in Matilda the Musical for the first time on 11th September 2018, heading a new cast in the longrunning show. His previous credits include Javert in Les Misérables in Australia, on Broadway, in the West End and the International tour. Joining him will be Rob Compton (Bat Boy) as Mr Wormwood and Holly Dale Spencer (Annie) as Mrs Wormwood, along with child actors Isobel Hubble and Francesca McKeown, who will share the title role with Sarah Munday and Olivia Wells. Gina Beck continues for a second year as Miss Honey. The production is currently playing its seventh year in the West End and is booking until 20 October 2019. The National Theatre production of Network, which starred Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston, is to transfer to Broadway and begin performances at the Cort Theatre 10th November 2018. Lee Hall’s adaptation of the 1976 Paddy Chayefsky screenplay played the Lyttelton Theatre last year. Cranston won this year’s Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Play for the role. It is booked for a 16 week run at the Cort, with direction again by Ivo van Hove and scenic and lighting design by Jan Versweyveld. It is not yet known whether the production’s onstage restaurant, an integral part of the show, will be replicated for Broadway. Network tells the story of news anchorman Howard Beale, who, in his final broadcast, unravels live on screen and becomes the biggest thing on TV as a newfound populist prophet. The story depicts a dystopian media landscape where opinion Bat Out Of Hell. trumps fact. Photo: Specular.

Online extras! Watch the cast of Bat Out Of Hell perform at West End Live. Scan or visit https://youtu.be/1MmGC8rEMvg 46 Stage Whispers September - October 2018

Game of Thrones actor Iwan Rheon is to star in the West End premiere of Dawn King’s award-winning play Foxfinder, which will run at the Ambassador Theatre from 6th September until the 5th January 2019. The work was previously seen at the Finborough Theatre in 2011. William Bloor (Rheon), a foxfinder, is sent to a farm to investigate an infestation. The family-run farm he has been employed to search has hit well below its harvest targets, and when the government want answers as to why, Bloor finds more questions facing him instead. Heida Reed, best-known for appearing in the BBC series Poldark, is also in the cast. A revival of Hugh Whitemore’s Pack of Lies is to star Finty Williams in the role originated by her mother Judi Dench. It will play the Menier Chocolate Factory from 20th September to 17th November, 2018. The play premiered in 1983 at the Lyric Theatre and starred husband and wife Michael Williams and Dench as Bob and Barbara Jackson, who find themselves at the centre of an investigation into the Portland Soviet spy ring with their teenage daughter Julie. Inspired by true events, the play was adapted from Whitemore’s previous work Act of Betrayal, an episode of the BBC anthology series Play for Today telecast in 1971. Directed by Hannah Chissick, Williams will play Barbara Jackson alongside Jasper Britton, who will play Stewart. Dench won an Olivier Award for her performance. The producers of the Meat Loaf jukebox musical Bat Out of Hell have announced that between now and the end of the year, five performances of the musical have been scheduled as sing-a-long performances where audience members, in a break with tradition, will be encouraged to sing their heart out to Meat Loaf’s biggest hits. A surtitle screen will be set up to provide patrons with the lyrics to the tunes to aid them in their sing-a-long. The dates are 28 August, 25 September, 31 October, 27 November and 31 December, with two extra special costumed sing-a-longs announced for New Year’s Eve and Halloween. The best dressed audience member will win a show poster signed by Meat Loaf. Further casting has been announced for Pinter at the Pinter, a season of Harold Pinter one-act plays to run at the theatre that bears his name from the 6th September 2018 until 23 February 2019. Antony Sher, Kate Flynn, Paapa Essiedu and Maggie Steed kick the series off with Pinter’s first overtly political play, One For the Road, which is followed by New World Order, which the Independent described as “10 nerve wracking minutes” of two men threatening to torture a third who is blindfolded, gagged and bound in a chair. Then comes Mountain Language, a play about the Turkish suppression of the Kurdish language, and Ashes to Ashes, one of his “memory plays”, that alludes to the Holocaust. The first three plays are directed by Jamie Lloyd, with Ashes to Ashes directed by Lia Williams. The season also includes The Lover with Russell Tovey and David Suchet, Night School and Moonlight with Jessica Bardon, Landscape and A Kind of Alaska with Penelope Wilton, The Dumb Waiter with Danny Dyer and Martin Freeman, Party Time and Celebration with Celia Imrie, and Pinter’s first produced play, The Room, which features Jane Horrocks and Rupert Graves.

London Performing Arts Academy Expands To Australia London Performing Arts Academy Associated Studios is expanding to Melbourne. Applications are now open for the all-new one-year Foundation Course in Musical Theatre and one-year Intensive Course in Musical Theatre to commence on 25th February 2019. The courses offer a unique opportunity to study with one of London’s top drama schools in the heart of Melbourne. Students will have the opportunity to work with industry professionals leading to an agent showcase at the end of the advanced course. Further study options will be available at the London branch, where a significant number of students leave with industry representation, while many alumni currently feature as Leads and Swings in London’s West End. Founding Principal Leontine Hass, a vocal coach who has worked with many West End leads and contemporary pop performers, will be leading auditions in November this year in Melbourne, Sydney and New Zealand, with the newly appointed General Manager Briar Franks. “We’re thrilled to bring this top end vocational training in an exciting and fast-growing industry to Melbourne and can’t wait to meet some extremely

Photo: Andreas Grieger.

talented performers on audition day,” says Miss Hass. Patron Sir Tim Rice says, “Associated Studios will prepare you for a competitive but thrilling business and inspire you as a performer. You will be working with brilliant practitioners who have an extraordinary wealth of knowledge.” Other Associated Studios patrons include actors Jeremy Irons and Timothy West, composer Scott Alan, comedian/impersonator Rory Bremner and Opera singer Rosalind Plowright OBE.

Australian performers including Erin Cornell (Cats & Wicked), Rachael Ward (Singin’ in the Rain & The Wizard of Oz) and Ashleigh Fleming (Phantom of the Opera, West End) have studied with Associated Studios in London and have gone on to successful careers. “I studied with the Associated Studios London in their 4-month parttime professional program in 2014. The wealth of knowledge gained, personal growth achieved, and lifelong relationships developed throughout the time was remarkable. I recommend the studio and its teaching to anyone out there starting out in the field or looking to finesse their craft. As an Aussie who flew to London for this training, I am thrilled at the news of its opening in Melbourne and can’t wait for the future generation of Australian Musical Theatre artists to have the opportunity to thrive like I did,” says Rachael Ward (currently performing in Evita at the Sydney Opera House) Associated Studios has a long history of philanthropic contributions and are offering one full scholarship to an Indigenous applicant from either Australia or New Zealand. Eligible performers are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.

www.associatedstudios.com.au www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 47

 Shrek (Jeremy Curtin), Donkey (Adam Haynes) and Fiona (Nikole Mušić) in Willoughby Theatre Company’s Shrek The Musical, playing at the Concourse, Chatswood from October 13 to 28. willoughbytheatreco.com.au  CLOC’s Jekyll & Hyde at the National Theatre, St Kilda from October 12 to 27. L-R: Rachel Rai (Lucy Harris), Mark Doran (Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde) and Catherine Hancock (Emma Carew). cloc.org.au

48 Stage Whispers September - October 2018

Stage Briefs ď&#x192;Ş The Ghosts of Ruddigore, presented by Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Sydney, plays at Thirroul on September 23, Bundanoon on Sep 29 and the Smith Auditorium Lyric Theatre, Shore School, North Sydney from October 5 to 14. www.gsosydney.com.au Photo: Ron Bullions / Graphic Designer: Dawn Pugh.

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 49

On Stage

A.C.T. & New South Wales

A.C.T.

The Wharf Revue. Sydney Barnum. Book by Mark Bramble, Theatre Company. Oct 23 - Nov 3. The Playhouse, Canberra lyrics by Michael Stewart and music by Cy Coleman. Canberra Theatre Centre. (02) 6275 2700. Philharmonic Society. Until Sep Godspell. Music and Lyrics by 8. Erindale Theatre, Wanniassa. Stephen Schwartz. Book by philo.org.au/tickets John-Michael Tebelak. Queanbeyan Players. Nov 2 - 11. Madame Butterfly by Puccini. Queanbeyan Performing Arts Opera Australia. Sep 6 - 8. Centre (The Q). Canberra Theatre. (02) 6275 queanbeyanplayers.com 2700. Horror by Jakop Ahlbom. Canberra Theatre Centre and Stichting Pels. Sep 11 - 15. Canberra Theatre Centre. (02) 6275 2700. Fading by Laura Lethlean. Sep 12 - 15. The Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre Centre. (02) 6275 2700.

New South Wales

Hanmer & Phil Park. One Eyed Man Productions / Belvoir. Until Sep 30. Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir Street Theatre. (02) 9699 3444.

The Best of the Best. Songs from Tony-award winning musicals. Theatre on Brunker. Until Sep 8. St. Stephen’s Hall, Adamstown (Newcastle). (02) 4956 1263.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield. Newcastle Theatre Company. Until Sep 8. (02) 4952 4958 (3-6pm Mon-Fri).

The Grand Illusion by Tony Weir, Emily Ayoub and Alicia González. Old 505 Theatre. Until Sep 8. www.old505theatre.com

Ironbound by Martyna Majok. An Assorted Few. Until Sep 16. KXT - Kings Cross Theatre. www.kingsxtheatre.com

The Book of Mormon. Book, Music and Lyrics by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone. Continuing. Lyric Theatre, The Maids by Jean Genet. 25A Sydney. Season / Glitterbomb. Until Sep BookOfMormonMusical.com.au 15. Downstairs Theatre, Belvoir Street Theatre. (02) 9699 3444. Jersey Boys. Book by Marshall

Brickman and Rick Elice. Music The Season by Nathan Maynard. and lyrics by Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe. Dodger Theatricals, Sep 13 - 15. The Playhouse, Rodney Rigby and TEG-Dainty. Canberra Theatre Centre. (02) Continuing. Capitol Theatre, 6275 2700. Sydney. jerseyboys.com.au Cockfight. The Farm. Sep 26. The Almighty Sometimes by The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre. (02) 6275 2700. Kendall Feaver. Griffin Theatre Company. Until Sep 8. SBW S.A.D. by Charlie Wan. Oct 9 Stables Theatre. (02) 9361 13. The Courtyard Studio, 3817. Canberra Theatre Centre. (02) Nell Gwynn by Jessica Swayle. 6275 2700. New Theatre. Until Sep 8. Julius Caesar by William www.newtheatre.org.au Shakespeare. Bell Shakespeare. The Harp in the South: Part One Oct 12 - 20. The Playhouse, and Part Two by Ruth Park. An Canberra Theatre Centre. (02) adaptation for the stage by Kate 6275 2700. Mulvany. Score by Iain

50 Stage Whispers

Grandage. World Premiere. Sydney Theatre Company. Until Oct 6. Roslyn Packer Theatre. (02) 9250 1777.

She Loves Me. Book by Joe Masteroff, music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick. Hayes Theatre Co. Until Sep 22. (02) 8065 7337. Calamity Jane. From the stage play by Charles K. Freeman. Adapted by Ronald

The Misanthrope by Justin Fleming, after Moliere. Bell Shakespeare. Griffin Theatre Company. Until Sep 28. Playhouse, Sydney Opera House. 1300 305 730. Sydney Fringe Festival - Sep 1 30. sydneyfringe.com The 39 Steps by John Buchan & Patrick Barlow. Nowra Players Sep 1 - 15. Players Theatre, Bomaderry. 1300 662 808 or www.nowraplayers.com.au

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

On Stage

New South Wales

Humans by Yaron Lifschitz and the Circa Ensemble. Circa. Sep 4 - 9. Glen Street Theatre, Belrose. (02) 9975 1455. Findr by Adrian Kingwell. The Depot Theatre, Marrickville. Sep 5 - 8. thedepottheatre.com Horror by Jakop Ahlbom. Sep 5 - 8. Illawarra Performing Arts Centre, IMB Theatre. (02) 4224 5999. Ajax in Iraq by Ellen McLaughlin. Knock and Run Theatre. Sep 5 8. Tantrum Studio, Merewether (Newcastle). 0432 389 406. Avenue Q. Music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Mark. Book by Jeff Whitty. Holroyd Musical & Dramatic Society. Sep 6 - 9. www.hmds.org.au The Little Mermaid. Music by Alan Menken. Lyrics by Howard Ashman & Glenn Slater. Book by Doug Wright. Rockdale Musical Society. Sep 7 - 16. Rockdale Town Hall. www.rockdalemusicalsociety.com The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan. Normanhurst Uniting Church Musical Society (NUCMS). Sep 7 - 22. Normanhurst Uniting Church. www.nucms.org Luna Gale by Rebecca Gilman. Ensemble Theatre. Sep 7 - Oct 13. (02) 9929 0644. Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo, in a new adaption by Francis Greenslade, with Sarah Giles. Sydney Theatre Company. Sep 10 - Oct 27. Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. (02) 9250 1777. Shabbat Dinner by Jessica Bellamy. Griffin Theatre Company. Sep 10 - 15. SBW Stables Theatre. (02) 9361 3817.

National Theatre of Parramatta presents the World Premiere of Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam, based on the book by Australian author Peter Goldsworthy, at Riverside Theatres from Oct 18 - 27. For more information visit http://bit.ly/2BIoV7x Photo: Robert Catto. 13 - 15, Riverside Theatre Parramatta; Sep 20 - 22, Q Theatre, Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre, Penrith; Oct 3 - 13, Glen Street Theatre, Belrose, 9975 1455; Oct 16 20, Merrigong Theatre Company, IMB Theatre Illawarra Performing Arts Centre; Nov 6, Civic Theatre, Wagga Wagga; Nov 9 - 10, Civic Theatre, Newcastle. Evita by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Opera Australia / John Frost / David Ian. From Sep 13. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. (02) 9318 8200 or (02) 9250 7777. evitathemusical.com.au

Sep 13 & Nov 28. Lizotte’s, Theatre, Shellharbour. (02) Lambton (Newcastle). (02) 4956 4297 2891. 2066. Prize Fighter by Future D. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Music Fidel. La Boite Theatre and & Lyrics: Richard & Robert Brisbane Festival. Sept 19 - 22. Sherman. Book: Jeremy Sams & Civic Theatre, Newcastle. (02) Ray Roderick. Cowra Music & 4929 1977. Dramatic Society. Sep 14 - 26. Stalker: The Musical. Book and Cowra Civic Centre, Darling St, lyrics by Alex Giles and David Cowra. Russell. Music by Andy Peterson. www.facebook.com/cowramds The Depot Theatre, Marrickville. Shrek The Musical. Book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire. Music by Jeanine Tesori. Campbelltown Theatre Group. Sep 14 - 29. 0426 285 287. B2M - Mamanta. The title indigenous band looks at “mamanta” (friendship). ArtbackNT. Sep 15. Cessnock Performing Arts Centre. (02) 4993 4266.

Constellations by Nick Payne. Seated Ovation and Newcastle Theatre Company. Sep 12 - 15. NTC Theatre, Lambton. (02) 4952 4958.

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Hunter Independent Theatre Company and WEA Hunter. Sept 13 - 22. CAS (Community Arts Space), Hamilton (Newcastle). trybooking.com/407874

The Wharf Revue 2018. Written and Created by Jonathan Biggins and Drew Forsythe. Sydney Theatre Company. Sep

Faulty Towers - The Dining Verdict by Alexander Cuff. Roo Experience. Homage to the Theatre Co. Sep 19 - 23. Roo television comedy series. Interactive Theatre International.

Class of 2018 Musical Theatre Showcase. Griffith 3rd Year Students. Eternity Playhouse. Sep 18 - 19.

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

Sep 19 - Oct 6. thedepottheatre.com

The Producers by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan. Miranda Musical Society. Sep 19 - 23. Sutherland Entertainment Centre. mirandamusicalsociety.com.au Dave Upfold: Comedy Hypnotist. Michael Riley. Sept 20. Lizotte’s, Lambton (Newcastle). (02) 4956 2066. Communicating Doors by Alan Ayckbourn. Castle Hill Players. Sep 21 - Oct 13. Pavilion Theatre, Castle Hill. (02) 9634 2929.

Stage Whispers 51

On Stage

New South Wales Nov 3. (02) 4961 4895 (9am1pm Sat).

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of four productions currently at the Pop-up Globe, in the Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park, Sydney. Other productions during the season are Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice and The Comedy of Errors. For more information visit www.popupglobe.com.au

Lie with Me by Liz Hobart. Old 505 Theatre. Oct 2 - 14. www.old505theatre.com What The Butler Saw by Joe Orton. New Theatre. Oct 2 Nov 3. www.newtheatre.org.au The Legend of Dunhuang. Classic Chinese rescue story told through dance. CAEG and AUSFENG. Oct 2 - 3. Civic Theatre, Newcastle. (02) 4929 1977. Quartet by Ronald Harwood. Pymble Players. Oct 3 - 27. Pymble Players Theatre, Cnr Mona Vale Rd and Bromley Ave, Pymble. 02 9144 1523 (Mon-Fri 11am-7pm). Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare. Bell Shakespeare. Oct 5 & 6. Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre. (02) 4723 7600.

Online extras! The Pop-Up Globe in Sydney won’t be around for long. Scan or visit https://youtu.be/22XImiod9Wc The Ghosts of Ruddigore by Gilbert and Sullivan (Comic Opera). Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Sydney. Sep 22, Anita’s Theatre, Thirroul; Sep 29, Soldiers Memorial Hall, Bundanoon; Oct 5 - 14, Smith Auditorium, Shore School, Blue Street, North Sydney. www.gsosydney.com.au

Sep 26 - 30. Roo Theatre, Shellharbour. (02) 4297 2891. Lost in Yonkers by Neil Simon. Maitland Repertory Theatre, at its theatre, 244 High Street, Maitland. Sep 26 - Oct 14. (02) 4931 2800. www.maitlandreptheatre.org

Carrie: The Musical based on Stephen King’s novel, book by Yen by Anna Jordan. New Lawrence D. Cohen, music by Ghosts. Sep 24 - Oct 14. KXT Michael Gore, lyrics by Dean Kings Cross Theatre. Pitchford. An Alumni www.kingsxtheatre.com Production, hosted by WEA Humans. Acrobatic story Hunter Academy of Creative created by Yaron Lifschitz. Circa. Arts. Sep 27 - 29. The Creative Arts Space, Hamilton. Sept 24. Civic Theatre, trybooking.com/406992 Newcastle. (02) 4929 1977. The Season by Nathan Maynard. Tasmania Performs. Sep 26 - 29. Everest Theatre, Seymour Centre. (02) 9351 7940. Metamorphosis by Brian Howard. Opera Australia. Sep 26 - 29. Scenery Workshop, Opera Centre Surry Hills. (02) 9318 8200. Wild by Dylan Horvat & David Rienits. Roo Theatre Company. 52 Stage Whispers

Madame Butterfly. Dance version of the opera using Puccini’s score. Melbourne City Ballet. Sept 27. Cessnock Performing Arts Centre. (02) 4993 4266. This is Not Art. Theatre festival involving young performers. Staged by Octapod and including the National Young Writers Festival, Critical Animals

and Crack Theatre Festival. Multiple venues across the Newcastle CBD. Sep 27 - 30. (02) 4021 1605. Model Citizens. Circus Oz. Sep 28 - 29. Illawarra Performing Arts Centre, IMB Theatre. (02) 4224 5999. Hairspray Jr. Music: Marc Shaiman. Lyrics: Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman. Book: Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan. Arcadians Children’s Theatre. Sep 28 - 30. The Arcadians’ Miner’s Lamp Theatre. (02) 4284 8348. Candide by Leonard Bernstein, Lillian Hellman, John LaTouche, Richard Wilbur and others. Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Sep 29 & 30. Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House. sydneyphilharmonia.com.au Elf The Musical Jr. Book by Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin. Music by Matthew Sklar, Lyrics by Chad Beguelin. Young People’s Theatre Newcastle Inc, Hamilton. Oct 1 -

Deanna The Musical. New comedy musical by Dee Gatgens -Johnson showing an Australian royal family. Dee Johnson Entertainment & The Really Thoughtful Company. Oct 5 27. Royal Exchange, Newcastle. (02) 4929 4969. A Bunch of Amateurs by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman. Armidale Drama and Musical Society. Oct 5 - 17. The Armidale Playhouse. www.adms.org.au The Third Act. Premiere of comedy-drama by Emma Wood. Newcastle Theatre Company, Lambton. Oct 5 - 20. (02) 4952 4958 (3-6pm Mon-Fri). Madame Flute - French Classical Cabaret with flautist Jane Rutter. Oct 6. Cessnock Performing Arts Centre. (02) 4993 4266. A Russian Triple Bill. Short ballets and excerpts from Sleeping Beauty, Les Sylphides and Carmen. The Imperial Russian Ballet Company. Oct 7. Civic Theatre, Newcastle. (02) 4929 1977.

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

On Stage An Enemy of the People by Melissa Reeves after Henrik Ibsen. Belvoir. Oct 7 - Nov 4. Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir Street Theatre. (02) 9699 3444.

comedy with young performers. WEA Hunter. Oct 11 - 13. WEA Creative Art Space (CAS), Hamilton (Newcastle).

That Place in Between. Premiere of a touring dance show by Newcastle’s Catapult Flipside that looks at the games we play to hide insecurities. Oct 12 - 13. Civic Theatre, Newcastle. (02) 4929 1977.

Ebb and Bob Fosse. Dural Musical Society. Oct 12 - 27. Dural Soldiers’ Memorial Hall. www.duralmusicalsociety.org

Shrek The Musical. Based on the DreamWorks Animation Motion Picture. Book by David LindsayThe Drowsy Chaperone. Book by Abaire. Music by Jeanine Tesori. Bob Martin and Don McKellar, Willoughby Theatre Company. music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert Oct 13 - 28. The Concourse Trash Alchemy by Liesel Lords and Ladies by Terry and Greg Morrison. High Street Theatre, Chatswood. (02) 8075 Badorrek. Oct 10 & 11. Illawarra Pratchett, with Stephen Briggs. Productions. Oct 12 20. St 8111. Performing Arts Centre, IMB CHATS Productions Inc. Oct 11 Philip’s Christian College Theatre. (02) 4224 5999. 20. Jetty Memorial Theatre, Life + Love: An Evening of Theatre, Waratah (Newcastle). Coffs Harbour. (02) 6648 4930. Sondheim. Musical revue with Charlie and the Chocolate (02) 4960 6600. songs by Stephen Sondheim. Factory. Based on the Big Bad Wolf. Family comedy by Rock of Ages. Book by Chris Newcastle Young People’s novel by Roald Dahl. Hunter Matthew Whittet with many D’Arienzo. Arrangements & Theatre. Oct 14 - Nov 4. Young Drama. Oct 10 - 13. Civic fairy tale characters. Windmill orchestrations by Ethan Pop. People’s Theatre, Hamilton. (02) Playhouse, Newcastle. (02) 4929 Theatre Company. Oct 12. The Regals Musical Society. Oct 4961 4895. 1977. Cessnock Performing Arts 12 20. Rockdale Town Hall. Circle Mirror Transformation by Anything Goes. Music and lyrics Centre. (02) 4993 4266. www.theregals.com.au Annie Baker. Theatre on by Cole Porter. Book by P. G. Margaret Fulton: Queen of The Miracle On 34th Street by Brunker, in association with The Wodehouse, Howard Lindsay Dessert by Doug Macleod and Meredith Willson. Shire Music Lowbrow Outfit. Oct 14 - 22. and Russel Crouse. Hornsby Yuri Worontschak. Bondi Theatre. Oct 12-21. Sutherland St. Stephen’s Hall, Adamstown Musical Society. Oct 11 - 14. Theatre Company. Oct 12 - 27. Memorial School of Arts. (Newcastle). (02) 4956 1263. Hornsby RSL. (02) 9477 7777. Bondi Pavilion Theatre. www.shiremusictheatre.org.au Two Hearts by Laura Lethlean. bonditheatrecompany.com.au Roald Dahl’s Little Red Riding Chicago. Music by John Kander. The Anchor. Oct 15 - Nov 4. Hood and the Wolf. Musical Lyrics by Fred Ebb. Book by Fred The Feather in the Web by Nick Coyle. Griffin Theatre Company. Oct 10 - Nov 17. SBW Stables Theatre. (02) 9361 3817.

Ear to the Edge of Time by Alana Valentine. Sport for Jove Theatre Co. Oct 11 - 27. Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre. (02) 9351 7940.

New South Wales

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

Stage Whispers 53

On Stage

New South Wales The Wharf Revue’s Jonathan Biggins and Drew Forsythe. The Wharf Review plays at venues including Parramatta Riverside Theatres (Sep 13 15), Glen Street Theatre (Oct 3 - 13), Illawarra Performing Art Centre (Oct 16 - 20) and Canberra Theatre Centre (Oct 23 - Nov 3) ahead of its November/ December season at the Roslyn Packer Theatre. sydneytheatre.com.au

KXT - Kings Cross Theatre. www.kingsxtheatre.com The Wharf Revue 2018 by Jonathan Biggins and Drew Forsythe. Sydney Theatre Company. Oct 16 - 20. Illawarra Performing Arts Centre, IMB Theatre. (02) 4224 5999. Giving Up The Ghost by Rivka Hartman. Pop Up Theatre. The Depot Theatre, Marrickville. Oct 17 - Nov 3. thedepottheatre.com The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay. Oct 17 - 20. Glen Street Theatre, Belrose. (02) 9975 1455. Big Fish. Music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa and a book by John August. Engadine Musical Society. Oct 19 - 28. Engadine Community Centre. engadinemusicalsociety.com.au Sydney Comedy Festival Showcase. A mix of comedy routines from this year’s Sydney

54 Stage Whispers

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

On Stage event. Oct 19. Civic Theatre, Newcastle. (02) 4929 1977. Table Manners by Alan Ayckbourn. Ensemble Theatre. Oct 19 - Jan 12, 2019. (02) 9929 0644.

Lennon: Through a Glass Onion by John Waters and Stewart D’Arrietta. The Harbour Agency. Oct 20. Cessnock Performing Arts Centre. (02) 4993 4266.

We Will Rock You by Queen and Ben Elton. Blue Mountains Of Mice and Men by John Musical Society. Oct 20 - Nov 4. Steinbeck. Campbelltown Theatre Group Inc. Oct 19 - Nov Blue Mountains Theatre, Springwood. 3. 0426 285 287. www.bmms.org.au Seasons Greetings by Alan Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Ayckbourn. Woy Woy Little Book by Doug Wright. Music by Theatre. Oct 19 - Nov 4. Alan Menken. Lyrics by Howard Peninsula Theatre, Woy Woy. Ashman & Glenn Slater. Orange (02) 4344 4737. Theatre Company. Oct 26 - Nov Shrek. Book and lyrics: David 4. Orange Civic Theatre. (02) Lindsay-Abaire. Music: Jeanine 6393 8122. Tesori. Gosford Musical Society. Oct 19 - Nov 10. Laycock Street Living Together by Alan Community Theatre, Wyoming. Ayckbourn. Ensemble Theatre. Oct 26 - Jan 12, 2019. (02) (02) 4323 3233. 9929 0644. Grease by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Berowra Musical Little Shop of Horrors by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. Society. Oct 20 - 27. Berowra Eastwood Uniting Church Community Centre. Musical Society (EUCMS). Oct www.bmsi.org.au 26 - Nov 10. Eastwood Uniting Church. (02) 8061 7195.

New South Wales & Queensland Silent Night Lonely Night by Robert Anderson. Guild Theatre, Rockdale. Oct 26 - Nov 24. (02) 9521 6358.

The Next Room or The Vibrator Play by Sarah Ruhl, Cairns Little Theatre. Sep 14 - 22. 1300 855 835.

Four Flat Whites in Italy by Roger Hall. Arts Theatre Cronulla. Oct 28 - Dec 1. 6 Surf Rd, Cronulla. artstheatrecronulla.com.au

Cosi by Louis Nowra. Noosa Arts Theatre. Sep 13 - 29. (07) 5449 9343.

Prize Fighter by Future D. Fidel. La Boite Theatre Company / Brisbane Festival. Oct 31 - Nov 3. Illawarra Performing Arts Centre, IMB Theatre. (02) 4224 5999. Queensland Emma by Jane Austen, adapted by Pamela Whalan. Brisbane Art Theatre. Until Sep 22. (07) 3369 2344. The House of Blue Leaves by John Guare. Gold Coast Little Theatre. Sep 1 - 22. (07) 5532 3224. Class of 2018 Musical Theatre Showcase. Griffith University 3rd Year Students. Burke St Studio, Wooloongabba. Sep 5 - 8. 136 246. Beethoven’s 7th Symphony. Queensland Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall, QPAC. Sep 6. 136 246. Cinderella. Profofiev / Ballet by Ben Stevenson. Queensland Ballet. Lyric Theatre, QPAC. Sep 7 - 15. 136 246.

Strictly Ballroom - The Musical by Laz Luhrmann. Ipswich Musical Theatre. Sep 14 - 23. (07) 3910 6100. Outside Mullinger by John Patrick Stanley. Centenary Theatre Group. Chelmer Community Hall. Sep 15 - Oct 6. 0435 591 720. Sleuth by Anthony Shaffer. Ipswich Little Theatre. Sep 19 Oct 6. (07) 3812 2389. Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten. Brisbane Festival. Concert Hall, QPAC. Sep 20 & 22. 136 246. Ruthless! The Musical Comedy by Marvin Laird and Joel Paley. Nash Theatre, New Farm. Sep 21 - Oct 13. (07) 5532 3224. The Marvellous Wonderettes by Roger Bean. Spotlight Theatre, Gold Coast. Sep 21 - Oct 7. (07) 5539 4255. Alice In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, adapted by Ian Austin, Gloria Swenson and Gavin Hawley. Brisbane Arts Theatre. Sep 22 - Nov 10. (07) 3369 2344.

Brisbane Festival. QPAC. Sep 7 29. 136 246.

Fantasy and Nationalism. Queensland Symphony Spamalot by Eric Idle & John Du Orchestra. Concert Hall, QPAC. Prez. Tweed Theatre Co, Tweed Sep 23. 136 246. Heads. Sep 7 - 23. 1800 674 Hotel Sorrento by Hannie 414. Rayson. Empire Theatre, Toowoomba. Sep 26. 1300 655 Hello, Dolly! by Jerry Herman 299. and Michael Stewart. Toowoomba Chorale Society. Empire Theatre, Toowoomba. Sep 7 - 9. 1300 655 299

Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks by Richard Aldieri. Javeenbah Theatre Co. Sep 7 - 22. (07) 5596 0300. Prize Fighter by Future D. Fidel. La Boite. Logan Entertainment Centre. Sep 13 - 14. (07) 3412 5626. Advertise your show on the front page of www.stagewhispers.com.au

The Owl and The Pussycat. Written by Kathryn Marquet. Composed by Lisa Cheney. Brisbane Festival / Little Match Girls Productions. Cremorne Theatre, QPAC. Sep 26 - 29. 136 146.

Priscilla Queen Of The Desert The Musical. By Allan Scott and Stephan Elliott. Lyric Theatre, QPAC. From Sep 26. 136 246. Stage Whispers 55

On Stage Films and Flowers. Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Empire Theatre, Toowoomba. Sep 28. 1300 655 299.

Queensland & Victoria

Beenleigh. Oct 5 - 27. (07) 3103 Toowoomba. Oct 12-14. 1300 1546. 366 528.

Shrek - The Musical by Jeanine Tesori & David Lindsay-Abaire. Out Of Sight, Out Of Murder by Prima. Redcliffe Cultural Centre. Jean Bowra. Mousetrap Theatre, Oct 5 - 14. (07) 3213 0400. Redcliffe. Sep 28 - Oct 14. (07) Nearer the Gods by David 3888 3493. Williamson. Queensland The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler. Tall Stories. Empire Theatre, Toowoomba. Sep 29. 1300 655 299.

Chicago. Music by John Kander. Lyrics by Fred Ebb. Book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse. Savoyards. Iona Performing Arts Centre, Wynnum. Sep 29 - Oct 13. (07) 3893 4321. The Best of Movie Music. Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Concert Hall, QPAC. Sep 30. 136 246. Beauty and Power. Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Concert Hall, QPAC. Oct 5. 136 246. Rock of Ages by Chris D’Arienzo. Phoenix Ensemble,

56 Stage Whispers

Theatre. Bille Brown Studio, South Brisbane. Oct 6 - Nov 3. 1800 366 528.

Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett. Brisbane Arts Theatre. Oct 6 Nov 3. (07) 3369 2344. The Bard and Beyond. Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Concert Hall, QPAC. Oct 6. 136 246. You’ve Got Hate Mail by Billy Van Zabdt & Jane Milmore. Brisbane Arts Theatre. Oct 7 Dec 12. (07) 3369 2344. Shrek The Musical by Jeanine Tesori & David Lindsay-Abaire. Toowoomba Philharmonic Society. Empire Theatre,

Natalie Weir’s Everyday Requiem. Expressions Dance Co. Cremorne Theatre, QPAC. Oct 12 - 20. 136 246.

Empire Theatre, Toowoomba, Oct 21, 1300 655 299. Beethoven’s Heroic Symphony. Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Concert Hall, QPAC. Oct 25. 136 246.

Tradies and Artists. Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Concert Hall, QPAC. Oct 14. 136 246.

Neon Tiger by Julia-Rose Lewis & Gillian Cosgriff. La Boite. Brisbane Powerhouse. Oct 27 Don Giovanni by Mozart. Opera Nov 17. (07) 3358 8600. Q. Playhouse, QPAC. Oct 19 Legally Blonde by Laurence Nov 3. 136 246. O’Keefe & Nell Benjamin. Queensland Musical Theatre. Elaine Paige. Concert Hall, Oct 31 - Nov 4. QPAC. Oct 19. 136 246. queenslandmusicaltheatre.com Menopause The Musical by Victoria Jeanie Linders. Empire Theatre, Toowoomba. Oct 19. 1300 655 A Doll’s House, Part 2 by Lucas Hnath. Melbourne Theatre 299. Company. Until Sep 15. Amigos Para Siempre. Queensland Pops. Concert Hall, Southbank Theatre, The Sumner. (03) 8688 0800. QPAC, Oct 20, 136 246 & Empire Theatre, Toowoomba, Oct 28, 1300 655 299. A Russian Triple Bill. Imperial Russian Ballet. Concert Hall, QPAC, Oct 12-13, 136 246 &

Lovesong by Abi Morgan. Original composition by Gemma Turvey. Red Stitch. Until Sep 23. Red Stitch Actors Theatre, St Kilda East. (03) 9533 8083.

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

On Stage Dead Man’s Cell Phone by Sarah Ruhl. Malvern Theatre Company Inc. Until Sep 8. www.malverntheatre.com.au Blasted by Sarah Kane. Malthouse Theatre. Until Sep 16. Merlyn Theatre. (03) 9685 5111. Rock of Ages. Book by Chris D’Arienzo. Cardinia Performing Arts Co. Until Sep 7. Cardinia Cultural Centre, Packenham. cardiniaperformingarts.com Working with Children by Nicola Gunn. Melbourne Theatre Company. Until Sep 29. Southbank Theatre, The Lawler. (03) 8688 0800.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Ham by Elizabeth Brennan. Melbourne Fringe. Sep 10 - 16. The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 8107. Son of a Bitch by Felix Castaner. Melbourne Fringe. Sep 10 - 16. The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 8107. Yasgur’s Farm by Josephine Marchant. Melbourne Fringe. Sep 10 - 16. The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 8107. Stardust by Bec Johnston. Melbourne Fringe. Sep 10 - 16. The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 8107.

The Threepenny Opera Vere by John Doyle (aka (Adjusted for Inflation) by Rampaging Roy Slaven). Brecht and Weill with a modern Warrandyte Theatre Company. twist. Montague Basement. Until Sep 8. Melbourne Fringe. Sep 10 - 16. warrandytehallarts.asn.au/theatre The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 Love is Better in the Afternoon - 8107. C’est Encore Mieux L’après-midi. Two Animals (That Don’t Based on Two Into One by Ray Traditionally Get Along). Fireside Cooney, adapted by Jean Poiret. Theatre. Melbourne Fringe. Sep Melbourne French Theatre Inc. 10 - 16. The Butterfly Club. (03) Until Sep 15. La Maison de 9663 8107. Maitre Building - MFT Premises, The Rest is Drag by Darwent Carlton. (03) 9349 2250. and Gray. Melbourne Fringe. Ich Nibber Dibber. Created & performed by Mish Grigor, Zo Coombs Marr and Natalie Rose. Malthouse Theatre / post. Sep 5 - 23. Beckett Theatre. (03) 9685 5111.

Sep 10 - 16. The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 8107.

Lottie in the Late Afternoon by Ameila Roper. The KIN Collective. Sep 12 - 30. fortyfivedownstairs. (03) 9662 Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson. 9966. Williamstown Little Theatre. Sep Tomfoolery. The Words and 6 - 22. 0447 340 665. Music of Tom Lehrer. Loaded The Charitable Sisterhood of the Second Trinity Victory Church by Bo Wilson. Geelong Repertory Theatre Co. Sep 7 - 22. (03) 5225 1200. Blue Stockings by Jessica Swale. Heidelberg Theatre Co. Sep 7 22. (03) 9457 4117.

Heathers The Musical by Laurence O’Keefe and Kevin Murphy. SLAMS Music Theatre Company. Sep 14 - 22. Knox Community Arts Centre. www.slams.org.au The Capulets and the Montagues by Bellini. Victorian Opera. Sep 14. Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall. 1300 182 183. Murder Village. Improvised comedic mystery. Melbourne Fringe. Sep 14 - 21. Fringe Hub: Arts House - Studio 1, North Melbourne. (03) 9660 9666.

Echoes of Villers-Bretonneux by Shane Palmer. Melbourne Fringe. Sep 23 - 30. Jury Room, Courthouse Theatre, Nth Melbourne. (03) 9660 9666.

The Reveal by Katie Lee. Melbourne Fringe. Sep 17 - 23. The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 8107.

The Date by Dean Robinson. Melbourne Fringe. Sep 24 - 30. The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 8107.

Crash Pad by Rhian Wilson. Melbourne Fringe. Sep 17 - 23. The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 8107.

Funerals with Phoebe. Melbourne Fringe. Sep 24 - 30. The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 8107.

Fleur and Alexandra are Out of this World. By Fleur Blüm and Alexandra Fraser. Melbourne Fringe. Sep 17 - 23. The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 8107.

Foreign Woman by Nicola Kuiper, Sandy Whittem and Josh Cake. Melbourne Fringe. Sep 24 - 30. The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 8107.

Creatures of the Deep. Picked Last For Sport / Melbourne Fringe. Sep 17 - 23. The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 8107.

Rose Among Horns. Genevieve Butler. Melbourne Fringe. Sep 24 - 30. The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 8107.

Baby Bi Bi Bi by Annabel Larcombe, Erin Pattison and Samantha Andrew. Melbourne Fringe. Sep 17 - 23. The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 8107.

We Can Work It Out by Gabriel Bergmoser. Melbourne Fringe. Sep 24 - 30. The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 8107.

Productions. Sep 12 - 22. Gasworks, Albert Park. www.melbournefringe.com.au Melbourne Fringe. Sep 13 - 20. (03) 9660 9600. www.melbournefringe.com.au

Lashes. Melbourne Fringe. Sep 17 - 23. The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 8107.

D’Arienzo. Panorama Theatre Company. Sep 13 - 16. Frankston Arts Centre. panoramatheatre.com.au

Ballet with Orchestra Victoria. Sep 18 - 29. Arts Centre Melbourne, State Theatre. 1300 182 183. Wicked. Music & Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Book by Winnie Holzman. Based upon the novel by Gregory Maguire. Shepparton Theatre Arts Group. Sep 21 - 29. Riverlinks WestSide. stagtheatre.com

Age of Stephen by Stephen Valeri and Mark Taylor. Melbourne Fringe. Sep 17 - 23. The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 8107.

Class of 2018 Musical Theatre Showcase. Griffith University 3rd Rumors by Neil Simon. MOARTZ Year Students. Chapel off Chapel. Sep 13-15. (03) 8290 Inc. Sep 7 - 17. Monash Hall, Yallourn North. 0438 579 7000. 987 or (03) 5127 6514. Rock of Ages by Chris On Golden Pond by Ernest Thompson. Eltham Little Theatre. Sep 7 - 22. The Eltham Performing Arts Centre, Research. 0411 713 095.

Victoria

Death and Other Things by Eidann Glover. the hearsay theatre group. Melbourne Fringe. Sep 24 - 30. The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 8107.

Stock Take: Bitches in Business. The Daughters Collective / Melbourne Fringe. Sep 24 - 30. The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 The Gargoyle by Jake Matricardi. 8107. Melbourne Fringe. Sep 17 - 23. Sweaty Pits - Pity Party! by The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 Frances McNair and Miriam 8107. Slater. Melbourne Fringe. Sep 24 - 30. The Butterfly Club. (03) Horror by Jakob Ahlbom. Sep 18 - 22. Playhouse, Arts Centre 9663 8107. Melbourne. 1300 182 183.

Spartacus. Choreography: Lucas Jervies. Music: Arum Khachaturian. The Australian

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

Ambushed. Melbourne Fringe Festival. Chapel off Chapel. Sep 25 - 30. (03) 8290 7000.

Stage Whispers 57

On Stage

Victoria Horror, created by acclaimed physical theatre maker Jakop Ahlbom, tours to Merrigong Theatre Company, Wollongong, Sep 5 - 8; Canberra Theatre Centre, Sep 11 - 15; Arts Centre Melbourne, Melbourne, Sep 18 - 22 and Brisbane Festival, Sep 26 - 29. merrigong.com.au Photo: Sanne Peper.

Online extras! Watch the spine-tingling preview of Horror. Scan the QR code or visit https://youtu.be/PEb1TnV9iAA Dudebox. Melbourne Fringe. Sep 26 - 28. Lithuanian Club, The Ballroom, North Melbourne. (03) 9660 9666. The Architect by Aidan Fennessy. Melbourne Theatre Company. Sep 27 - Oct 31. Southbank Theatre, The Sumner. (03) 8688 0800.

Theatre Inc. Sep 28 - Oct 6. www.lyrictheatre.net.au The Boys by Gordon Graham. Wonthaggi Theatrical Group. Sep 28 - Oct 6. WTG Building, State Coal Mine, Wonthaggi. www.wtg.org.au Realism by Paul Galloway. The Hartwell Players Inc. Sep 28 Oct 7. Ashwood High School Performing Arts Centre. (03) 9513 9581.

Shrek The Musical. Music by Jeanine Tesori, with book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire. Western Arts Theatre. Oct 3 - 7. westernartstheatre.org Gulls by Robert Hewett. The 1812 Theatre. Oct 4 - 27. (03) 9758 3964.

Watt. Texts from the novel by Samuel Beckett, selected and performed by Barry McGovern. Melbourne Festival. Oct 4 - 13. That’s Life. Carla Mattiazzo. Oct Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne. 1300 182 183. 1 - 6. The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 8107. My Name is Jimi. Based on a Legally Thirsty. Leftovers. Oct 1 - story by Dimple Bani, Jimi Bani 6. The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 and co-created with Jason Grease by Jim Jacobs and Klarwein. Queensland Theatre / 8107. Warren Casey. Bendigo Theatre Melbourne Festival. Oct 4 - 7. Company (Tribe Youth Theatre). Suddenly Last Summer by Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Sep 28 - Oct 6. Girton Black Box Tennessee Williams. Red Stitch Melbourne. Actors’ Theatre. Oct 2 - 28. Red Theatre. A Conversation by David Stitch Actors’ Theatre, St Kilda bendigotheatrecompany.org Williamson. Powderkeg Players. East. (03) 9533 8083. Death and the Maiden by Ariel Oct 5 - 20. Dempster Park Hall, Melbourne International Arts Dorfman. Leongatha Lyric Sunshine. Festival. Oct 3 - 21. powderkegplayers.com www.festival.melbourne/2018 Trustees by Natalia Kaliada & Nicolai Khalezin (Directors of Belarus Free Theatre) with Daniel Schlusser and the cast. Malthouse Theatre / Melbourne Festival. Sep 28 - Oct 21. Beckett Theatre. (03) 9685 5111.

58 Stage Whispers

Flight. An adaptation of Caroline Brother’s novel Hinterland. Vox Motus. Melbourne Festival. Oct 5 - 21. Playhouse Rehearsal Room, Arts Centre Melbourne. 1300 182 183. On Broadway. Chapel off Chapel. Oct 6 - 7. (03) 8290 7000. This-That. Oct 8 - 13. The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 8107. Prize Fighter by Future D. Fidel. Darebin Arts Speakeasy / Melbourne Festival / La Boite Theatre / Brisbane Festival. Oct 9 - 20. Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre, Main Hall. (03) 9481 9500. The Vandal by Hamish Linklater. Sherbrooke Theatre Company. Oct 10 - 14. Doncaster Playhouse. 1300 650 209. Songs for a Weary Throat. Rawcus. Melbourne Festival. Oct 10 - 14. Fairfax Studio, Arts

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

On Stage Centre Melbourne. 1300 182 183.

Victoria, Tasmania & South Australia

Dickie Beau: Re-Member Me. Melbourne Festival. Oct 17 - 21. Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne. 1300 182 183.

Dr Zhivago. Based on the novel by Boris Pasternak. Music by Lucy Simon. Book by Michael Gruesome Playground Injuries Weller. Lyrics by Michael Korie by Rajiv Joseph. Chapel off and Amy Powers. NOVA Music Chapel. Oct 10 - 20. (03) 8290 A Ghost in my Suitcase by 7000. Gabrielle Wang, adapted for the Theatre. Oct 27 - Nov 11. 1300 stage by Vanessa Bates. Barking 304 433. Pelleas and Meliisande by Gecko Theatre / Melbourne Krapp’s Last Tape by Samuel Claude Debussy. Victorian Festival. Oct 18 21. Playhouse, Beckett. Starring Max Gillies. Opera. Oct 11 - 13. Palais Arts Centre Melbourne. 1300 Oct 31 - Nov 11. Theatre, St Kilda. 182 183. fortyfivedownstairs. (03) 9662 Nine by Arthur Kopit and Maury 9966. Elaine Paige. MJR with Nell Yeston. StageArt. Oct 12 - 28. O’Brien Entertainment. Oct 18. School of Rock by Andrew Lloyd Chapel off Chapel. (03) 8290 Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Webber, Julian Fellowes and 7000. Melbourne. 1300 182 183. Glenn Slater. GWB Jekyll & Hyde The Musical by Entertainment. From Oct 31. Resting Switch Face. Oct 22 Leslie Bricusse and Frank Her Majesty’s Theatre, 27. The Butterfly Club. (03) Wildhorn. CLOC Musical Melbourne. 9663 8107. Theatre. Oct 12 - 27. National schoolofrockmusical.com.au Theatre Melbourne, St Kilda. Paridigmatic Shape Shifter. Kate Eileen. An early 20th century cloc.org.au Mulqueen. Oct 22 - 27. The opera by Victor Herbert. Gilbert Speaking in Tongues by Andrew Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 8107. and Sullivan Opera Victoria. Nov Bovell. Encore Theatre Company The Mousetrap by Agatha 15 - 18. Ken Watson Theatre, Inc. Oct 12 - 27. Clayton Christie. Bendigo Theatre Forest Hill College, Burwood Community Centre. 1300 739 Company. Oct 25 - Nov 4. BTC East. 099. Arts Shed. (03) 5434 6100. www.gilbertandsullivan.org.au The Boy from Oz. Music & Holding The Man by Tommy Tasmania Lyrics: Peter Allen. Book: Nick Murphy. PEP Productions. Oct The Boy From Oz. Music and Enright. MLOC Productions. Oct 25 - Nov 3. Doncaster Lyrics by Peter Allen. Book by 12 - 20. Shirley Burke Theatre, Playhouse. Nick Enright. Burnie Musical Parkdale. (03) 9551 7514. pepproductions.org.au Society. Until Sep 8. Burnie Arts Dusty - The Original Pop Diva. Metamorphosis by Brian and Convention Centre. (03) Songs recorded by Dusty Howard. Opera Australia. Oct 6430 5850. Springfield, book by John25 - 27. Merlyn Theatre, Madame Butterfly by Puccini. Michael Howson, David Mitchell Malthouse. (03) 9685 5111. Opera Australia. Sep 12, Burnie and Melvyn Morrow. Babirra Tarantara! Tarantara! By Ian Arts and Convention Centre, Music Theatre. Oct 12 - 20. The Taylor. Songs by Gilbert and (03) 6430 5850; Sep 14 & 15, Whitehorse Centre, Sullivan. Malvern Theatre Theatre Royal, Hobart, (03) Nunawading. Company Inc. Oct 26 - Nov 10. 6233 2299 & Sep 18, Princess www.babirra.org.au www.malverntheatre.com.au Theatre, Launceston, (03) 6323 The Trojan Women by Euripides. Little Shop of Horrors by 3666. Dionysus Theatre. Oct 12 - 20. Howard Ashman and Alan Uprising by Patricia Cornelius dionysustheatre.com.au Menken. CenterStage Geelong. and Melissa Reeves. Tasmanian Mary Poppins. Music & Lyrics: Oct 27 - Nov 10. Geelong Theatre Company. Sep 19 - 29. Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Performing Arts Centre. Moonah Arts Centre. (03) 6234 Sherman, George Stiles, www.centerstage.com.au 5998. Anthony Drewe. Book: Julian Astroman by Albert Belz. Lennon: Through A Glass Onion Fellowes. Mansfield Musical & Melbourne Theatre Co. Oct 27 - by John Waters. The Harbour Dramatic Society (MMuDS). Oct Dec 8. Arts Centre Melbourne, Agency. Sep 21. Theatre Royal, 13 - 27. Mansfield PAC. Fairfax Studio. 1300 182 183. Hobart. (03) 6233 2299. www.mmuds.org.au A Gentleman’s Guide to Love A Russian Triple Bill. Imperial The Pastels. Oct 15 - 20. The and Murder. Book and lyrics by Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 8107. Robert L. Freedman, with music Russian Ballet Company. Sep 26, Princess Theatre, Launceston, Archetypal Orange. Oct 15 - 20. and lyrics by Steven Lutvak. The (03) 6323 3666 & Sep 28 & 29, The Butterfly Club. (03) 9663 Production Company. Oct 27 Theatre Royal, Hobart, (03) 8107. Nov 11. Playhouse, Arts Centre 6233 2299. Melbourne. 1300 182 183. Advertise your show on the front page of www.stagewhispers.com.au

‘Allo ‘Allo by Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft. John X. Oct 2 - 13. The Playhouse Theatre. (03) 6234 5998. [title of show]. Music and lyrics by Jeff Bowen. Book by Hunter Bell. The Old Nick Company. Oct 5 - 13. Peacock Theatre, Hobart. (03) 6234 5998. The Campaign by Campion Decent. Tasmanian Theatre Company. Oct 23 - Nov 3. Peacock Theatre, Salamanca Place. (03) 6234 5998. Calendar Girls by Tim Firth. Hobart Repertory Theatre Society. Oct 26 - Nov 10. The Playhouse Theatre. (03) 6234 5998. The Sound of Music by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Encore Theatre Company. Nov 1 - 17. Princess Theatre, Launceston. (03) 6323 3666. South Australia That Eye, The Sky. By Tim Winton - stage adaptation by Justin Monjo and Richard Roxburgh. State Theatre Company of SA. Until Sep 16. Dunstan Playhouse. 131 246. www.statetheatrecompany.com.au Rules for Living by Sam Holcroft. Adelaide Repertory Theatre. Until Sep 8. Arts Theatre. www.adelaiderep.com A Groovy Kind of Murder by Sue Oldknow. Wined Up Theatre. Sep 9 and 16. Blackwood Memorial Hall. www.trybooking.com/VBWK Our Man in Havana. Adapted by Clive Francis, from the novel by Graham Greene. The Stirling Players. Sep 21 - Oct 6. Stirling Community Theatre. stirlingplayers.sct.org.au or (08) 7481 6152. Faith Healer by Brian Friel. Belvoir/State Theatre Company SA. Sep 26 - Oct 13. The Space. 131 246. The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Charles Hart. Gilbert & Sullivan Society of SA. Sep 27 - Oct 6. Stage Whispers 59

On Stage

South Australia, W.A. & New Zealand

Players. Until Sep 9. Four short plays. Marloo Theatre, Tom, Dick and Harry by Ray and Greenmount. (08) 6270 1465. www.marlootheatre.com.au Michael Cooney. Tea Tree The Arts Theatre. (08) 8477 7239. www.gandssa.com.au

Players. Oct 10 - 20. Tea Tree Players Theatre. www.teatreeplayers.com

How the Other Half Loves by Alan Ayckbourn. Galleon Theatre Group. Oct 18 - 27. Domain Theatre. www.galleon.org.au/html/ bookings.html or 0437 609 57.

ITP One Act Season by various authors. Irish Theatre Players. Sep 5 - 9. Irish Club, Subiaco. www.trybooking.com/XHDC

Year Performance Making Students. Oct 10 - 13. Original bespoke work in response to venue. The Fremantle Arts Centre. (08) 9370 6636. www.waapa.ecu.au

Tarzan. Music by Phil Collins and book by David Henry Hwang. Stray Cats Theatre Theatre Allsorts by various authors. Stirling Players. Sep 6 - Company. Oct 11 - 14. Disney Musical. Boardwalk Theatre, 9. Short plays. Stirling Theatre, Innaloo. Morris News (08) 9445 Mandurah Performing Arts Centre. www.manpac.com.au 9120.

New Zealand Die Fledermaus by Johan Strauss. Wellington G & S Light Opera. Until Sep 22. Various locations. www.gns.org.nz Bloomsbury Women and the Wild Colonial Girl by Lorae Parry. Part of WFF! 2018. Until Sep 15. Circa 2. (04) 801 7992.

Bullies by Reg Cribb. WAAPA Second Year Acting Students. Oct 12 - 18. World premiere Xanadu. Book by Douglas Carter commissioned work. Enright Studio, WAAPA, Mt Lawley. (08) Beane. Music & lyrics by Jeff 9370 6636. www.waapa.ecu.au Lynne & John Farrrar. Coasters Cash on Delivery by Michael Musical Theatre. Until Sep 15. A Midsummer Night’s Dream by www.coastersmusicaltheatre.com Cooney. Noarlunga Theatre William Shakespeare. WAAPA Company. Oct 26 - Nov 3. Port Cash on Delivery by Michael Third Year Acting Students. Oct Modern Girls in Bed by Cherie Noarlunga Arts Centre. (08) Cooney. Melville Theatre 12 - 18. Classic comedy directed Jacobson and Alex Lodge. Part 8376 0611. Company. Sep 14 - 29. Fast of WTF! 2018. Sep 1 - 22. Circa by Stefanos Rassios. The Edith Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks paced comedy. Melville One. (04) 801 7992. Spiegeltent, WAAPA, Mt Theatre. (08) 9330 4565. by Richard Alfieri. Therry Lawley. (08) 9370 6636. Bright Star by Stuart Hoar. Dramatic Society. Oct 30 - Nov www.metltheco.org.au www.waapa.ecu.au Plumb Productions / Auckland 9. Arts Theatre. Shrek Jnr. Book and lyrics David Live. Sep 4 - 14. Herald Theatre, Rock of Ages. Book by Chris www.trybooking.com/32033 or Lindsay-Abaire and music by Aotea Centre. 0800 111 999. D’Arienzo. WAAPA Second Year Jeanine Tesori. APAN (08) 8294 7907. Music Theatre Students. Oct 13 Othello by William Shakespeare. Entertainment and HAMA Western Australia 20. 1980s juke box musical. Mirrored Faces Productions. Sep Productions. Sep 22 - 30. Roundhouse Theatre, How to Survive a Zombie 5 - 15. Te Whaea: National School holiday entertainment WAAPA. (08) 9370 6636. Apocalypse by Ben Muir. Dance & Drama Centre. 0800 under the big top. Hertha www.waapa.ecu.au Goldfields Repertory Club. Until Reserve, Stirling. 132 849. BUY TIX (289 849). Sep 8. Comedy. The Rep Club, www.ticketek.com.au Cinderella by Massenet. WAAPA Celtic Illusion. TSB Showplace, Kalgoorlie. New Plymouth, Sep 5; Napier Potted Potter by Daniel Clarkson Classical Voice Students and www.goldfieldsrepclub.org.au Faith Court Orchestra. Oct 15 Municipal Theatre, Sep 6; The & Jefferson Turner. Lunchbox Tilt. Devised under the guidance Theatrical Productions. Sep 26 - 20. Witty dark opera, directed Opera House, Wellington, Sep by Thomas de Mallet Burgess. of Frances Barbe. WAAPA Third 30. All 7 Harry Potter books in 7; Regent on Broadway, Enright Studio, WAAPA. (08) Year Performance Making Palmerston North, Sep 8; Royal 70 minutes. Heath Ledger 9370 6636. www.waapa.ecu.au Students. Until Sep 8. Two Opera House, Whanganui, Sep Theatre, State Theatre Centre of programmes of self-devised 9; ASB Theatre, Blenheim, Sep Western Australia, Perth. 132 A Clockwork Orange by pieces. The Blue Room, 849. www.ticketek.com.au Anthony Burgess. Life On Hold. 13; Horncastle Arena, Northbridge. (08) 9227 7005. Oct 17 - Nov 2. Dystopian crime Christchurch, Sep 14; Romeo and Juliet by William Ashburton Events Centre, Sep play. The Broken Hill Hotel, KADS One Act Comedy Festival Shakespeare. Wanneroo 15; Regent Theatre, Dunedin, by various authors. KADS. Until Repertory Club. Sep 27 - Oct 13. Victoria Park. 132 849. www.whatson.com.au/clockwork Sep 19; Civic Theatre, Sep 8. Four short comedies. Classic tragedy. Limelight Invercargill, Sep 21. KADS Town Hall Theatre, Theatre, Wanneroo. 0499 954 In The Next Room or The celticillusion.com Kalamunda. 0488 779 891. 016. Vibrator Play by Sarah Ruhl. www.kadstheatre.com.au Songs for Nobodies by Joanna Black Swan State Theatre www.limelighttheatre.com.au th Company. Oct 20 - Nov 4. Sassy Murray-Smith. Sep 6 - 9, 4 Looking by Norm Foster. Charitable Intent by David play about power and passion. Wall Theatre, New Plymouth; Rockingham Theatre Company. Williamson. Harbour Theatre. Sep 11 & 12, Clarence Street Until Sep 15. The only obstacle Sep 28 - Oct 7. Australian play. Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre, Hamilton; Sep 24 & 25, to finding love is yourself. RTC Camelot Theatre, Mosman Park. Theatre Centre of Western Kavanagh College Auditorium, Australia, Perth. The Castle, Rockingham. (08) 9255 3336. Dunedin, (03) 477 8597; Oct www.bsstc.com.au www.rockinghamtheatre.com www.harbourtheatre.com.au 30, Turner Centre, Kerikeri, (09) Xenides by Clare Watson and One Act Season 2018 by various The House on the Hill by Nona 407 0260; Collaborators. Black Swan State authors. Darlington Theatre Sheppherd. WAAPA Second Columbinus by Stephen Karam and PJ Paparelli. Promise Adelaide. Oct 24 - 27. The Parks Theatre. www.promiseadelaide.com

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www.stirlingplayers.com.au

Theatre Company. Oct 25 - Nov 11. New musical about Adriana Xenides. Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre of Western Australia, Perth. www.bsstc.com.au

Dracula. Adapted from Bram Stoker’s novel. West Australian Ballet. Sep 6 - 22. World Premiere neo-classical ballet. His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth. www.ptt.wa.gov.au

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

On Stage

New Zealand

0800 842 538; Oct 10, Ashburton Trust Event Centre, 0800 224 224; Oct 11, Oamaru Opera House, 0800 224 224; Oct 12, Civic Theatre, Away by Michael Gow. Invercargill, 0800 224 224; Oct Remarkable Theatre, 13, Regent Theatre, Dunedin, Queenstown. Sep 12 - 22. 0800 224 224; Oct 14, Arrowtown Athenaeum Hall. Rangiora Town Hall, 0800 842 www.remarkabletheatre.org.nz 538; Oct 20, Forum North, Promise and Promiscuity by Jane Medusa. Created by Nisha Whangarei, 0800 842 538. Madhan, Julia Croft and Virginia Austen and Penny Ashton. Sep Frankovich. Zanetti Productions. Badjelly The Witch by Spike 12 - 23. Centrepoint Theatre, Part of WTF! 2018. Sep 20 - Oct Milligan, adapted for the stage Palmerston North. (06) 354 6. Circa Two. (04) 801 7992. by Tim Bray. Tim Bray 5740. Productions. Sep 22 - Oct 13. Beauty and the Beast. Music by Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred The PunpHouse Theatre, Uhry. Detour Theatre, Tauranga. Alan Menken. Lyrics by Howard Takapuna, Auckland. Sep 13 - 29. 0508 iTICKET (484- Ashman and Tim Rice. Book by timbrayproductions.org.nz Linda Woolverton. South 253). Canterbury Drama League. Sep Rants in the Dark. Based on the Mr Burns by Anne Washburn. 21 - 29. Theatre Royal, Timaru. book by Emily Writes, adapted Silo Theatre. Sep 13 - 29. Q iTICKET for the stage by Mel Dodge and Theatre, Auckland. Lyndee-Jane Rutherford. Good Rent by Jonathan Larson. silotheatre.co.nz Ending HIV NZ. Sep 22 - Oct 6. Times Company. Sep 25 - 29. Circa Theatre, Wellington. (04) Mum’s Choir by Alison Quigan. Playhouse Theatre, Glen Eden, 801 7992. Sep 15 - Oct 6. Court Theatre, Auckland. iTicket Christchurch. (03) 963 0870 or Into The Woods. Music and Dr Seuss’s The Cat in The Hat 0800 333 100. Live on Stage. Sep 22, Hawkins Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by James Lapine. Upper Les Misérables. Music by Claude Theatre, Papakura, 0800 BUY Hutt Musical Theatre. Sep 26 -Michel Schönberg. Lyrics by TIX (289 849); Sep 29, Bruce Herbert Kretzmer. Original Mason Theatre, Auckland, 0800 Oct 13. Up-Stage Theatre. www.uhmt.org.nz French text by Alain Boublil and 111 999; Sep 30, Claudelands Jean-Marc Natel. Additional Arena, Hamilton, 0800 842 Goodnight Mr Tom by David Material by James Fenton. 538; Oct 2, Great Lakes Centre, Wood. Dolphin Theatre. Sep 28 Showbiz Christchurch. Sep 14 - Taupo, 0800 842 538; Oct 3, - Oct 13. dolphintheatre.org.nz 29. Isaac Theatre Royal. 0800 Theatre Royal, TSB Showplace, Hansel and Gretel by Dan Bain. 842 538. New Plymouth, 0800 842 538; Court Theatre, Christchurch. Sep Oct 4, Regent on Broadway, Matthew, Mark, Luke and 29 - Oct 13. 0800 333 100 or Palmerston Nth, (06) 357 9740; (03) 963 0870. Joanne by Carl Nixon. Howick Oct 5, Napier Municipal Little Theatre. Sep 8 - 29. Theatre, 0800 842 538; Oct 6, Blonde Poison by Gail Low. iTicket. (09) 361-1000. Plumb Productions. Oct 2 - 6. Theatre Royal, Nelson, 0800 Rendered by Stuart Hoar. Circa Theatre, Wellington. (04) 224 224; Oct 7, ASB Theatre, Auckland Theatre Company. Sep 801 7992. Malborough; Oct 9, Isaac 18 - Oct 3. ASB Waterfront Theatre Royal, Christchurch, Theatre. www.atc.co.nz Taken To The Twenties - A Speakeasy Experience. New Plymouth Little Theatre. Sep 6 15. iTicket.

The Girl Who Climbed a Mountain and Saved the World by Lisa Allan. Wintergreen Creative. Sep 20, Fairfield House; Sep 21, Ghost Light Theatre, Nelson; Sep 29, Takaka Village Theatre, Nelson; Sep 30, Riwaka Hall, Nelson. 0800 BUY TIX (289 849).

Breath of Spring by Peter Coke. Elmwood Players. Oct 3 - 13. Elmwood Auditorium, Merivale. www.elmwood-players.org.nz Ovation! Celebrating 50 Years. Taieri Musical Society. Oct 4 13. Coronation Hall, Mosgiel. www.taierimusical.org.nz The ACB with Honora Lee. Adapted from Kate de Goldi’s novel by Jane Waddell. South Canterbury Drama League. Oct 5 - 12. The Playhouse, Timaru. dramaleague.org.nz Snow White by Abby Howells. Oct 6 - 13. Fortune Theatre, Dunedin. (03) 477 8323. Uneasy Dreams and Other Things by Lori Leigh. Oct 9 - 27. Circa Theatre, Wellington. (04) 801 7992. Rock of Ages. Music & Lyrics: Various. Book by Chris D’Arienzo. Rotorua Musical Theatre. Oct 12 - 27. Casa Blanca Theatre. 0800 111 999. Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas. Oct 12 - Nov 10. Circa Theatre, Wellington. (04) 801 7992. The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht. Centrepoint Theatre’s Basement Company. Oct 23 - 27. The Dark Room, Palmerston North. (06) 354 5740 The Wiz. Music and Lyrics by Charlie Smalls (and others) and book by William F. Brown. Manukau Performing Arts. Oct 27 - Nov 10. www.mpatheatre.co.nz

Auditions Place your audition notice in the next edition of Stage Whispers magazine. Email stagews@stagewhispers.com.au or call (03) 9758 4522 Advertise your show on the front page of www.stagewhispers.com.au

Online extras! Check out all the auditions that didn’t make it to print. Scan the QR code or visit www.stagewhispers.com.au/auditions

Stage Whispers 61

Ali McGregor in Yma Sumac - The Peruvian Songbird. Photo: Claudio Raschella.

A Cabaret Collection This year marked the conclusion of Ali McGregor’s Artistic Direction of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. For the two years prior she shared the role with Eddie Perfect, but the 2018 festival reflected her sole stewardship and was another success. Lesley Reed reports on just some of the highlights of the 2018 Festival as reviewed by Stage Whispers’ SA team and looks forward to 2019.

Johanna Allen’s show Cake impressed reviewer Jude Hines, who described it as “a salacious celebration of reckless consumption and excess.” Said Jude, “She was coquettish, bawdy, flippant, flighty and passionate, all within minutes. She gambolled through the works of musical geniuses including Cole Porter, Madonna, Abba, Kylie Minogue and the Eurhythmics, demonstrating a powerful, soaring and compelling vocal range through a myriad of styles including musical theatre, pop, jazz The theme for the Adelaide Cabaret and light opera. The lighting was excellent; both mysterious, and when Festival this year was Eyes Open and needed, crisply focused to a Stage Whispers reviewers in Adelaide commanding spotlight. Harnessing certainly kept their eyes open for well-honed acting skills for carefully stunning shows. They were rewarded chosen effect, she interspersed with performances reflecting topical powerful vocal work with husky and issues, shows steeped in historical sexy spoken lyrics; songs like, ‘The content and, of course, plenty of Candyman’ and ‘Food, Glorious Food’. productions that were fresh, different Her rendition of ‘So in Love with You’ and above all, great fun. Artistic Director Ali McGregor nailed was note perfect and had the audience it, creating a very diverse program that spellbound.” There was a very different show on included many artists who had their offer with Sunglasses at Night: The origins in Adelaide as well as shows by 80’s Apocalypse Sing Along Cabaret. international artists. Anthony Vawser loved it, describing 62 Stage Whispers

himself as one of “the forever-youngand-childish Eighties-addicts for whom the show hit the spot”. His comments included, “Principal performer Geraldine Quinn came equipped with hair seemingly swiped from Rocky Horror’s Magenta, though her own description of it was ‘Ronald McDonald’s drunk mum’. She matched the striking look with an equally impressive talent for musical comedy routines. Needless to say, we were all encouraged to sing along heartily and complete lyrics - at times hilariously adjusted/embellished - were provided.” Jenny Fewster noted the topicality of the abuse Joanne Hartstone’s The Girl Who Jumped Off the Hollywood Sign reflected, as well as the history behind the show. “As the title suggests, the show focused on a fictional character Evelyn Margaret Edwards, stage name Evie Edwards, as she teetered atop the H of the infamous Hollywood sign, while contemplating her life and the string of events that led her to this point. Evie may be the creation of Hartstone, but in reality she is based in fact. She could be any one of so many young women

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

that the Hollywood dream factory has enticed, used and discarded in their quest for box office takings. The sad stories that Hartstone worked into the script were uncomfortable fare. There was Jean Harlow, who had ammonia and chlorine bleach applied to her hair every Sunday to maintain the platinum blonde locks that M.G.M. insisted on. She died aged only twenty six and Louis B. Mayer turned her funeral into a public spectacle, profiting from her even in death. Then there was Judy Garland, from a young age confined to a diet of black coffee, chicken soup and uppers and downers by the studio. Finally, there was the girl who really jumped off the Hollywood sign, Peg Entwhistle. Success on Broadway brought Peg to Hollywood where she was cast in Thirteen Women, which

was not released until after her death. The Girl Who Jumped Off the Hollywood Sign was a hit parade of the 1940s and Hartstone sung each and every song with flair. Close your eyes and it could have been Garland.” Reviewer Kerry Cooper said of Queenie van de Zandt’s Blue: The Songs of Joni Mitchell, “You know you are in for a special evening when a few bars into the opening song, the hairs on the nape of your neck stand on end. Van de Zandt painted a portrait of Mitchell as a complex and emotional woman. The same could be said for Van de Zandt. There were many times I was swept away by the beauty of her voice and stage presence.” As an Adelaide Stage Whispers critic, among many other of his activities in the city, Tony Knight is in a

very different world than when he was Head of Acting at NIDA, but he loves it and raved about the shows he reviewed in this year’s Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Among them was Broadway legend Patti Lupone’s show, Don’t Monkey with Broadway. “What Patti Lupone made very clear from the start is that she isn’t concerned with the specific gender or dramatic context of the chosen songs,” Tony said. “She just liked these particular songs, so she sang them - brilliantly. The show began with some of the songs that inspired her to become a Broadway star when she was a child. This included a wonderful version of ‘Happy Talk’ from South Pacific, ‘I’ve Got a Lot of Living to Do’ from Bye, Bye, Birdie and a hilarious version of ‘Big Spender’ from Sweet Charity. She also highlighted the

Geraldine Quinn in Sunglasses At Night: The 80’s Apocalypse Sing Along Cabaret.

Johanna Allen in Cake. Joanne Hartstone in The Girl Who Jumped Off The Hollywood Sign.

Online extras! Check out a trailer for Sunglasses At Night by scanning the QR code or visiting https://youtu.be/kFuiQV-O-iQ Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au

Stage Whispers 63

work and influence of Rodgers and Hart, notably ‘There’s a Small Hotel’ and ‘I Could Write a Book’ from Pal Joey. The second half began with Patti Lupone being backed by a chorus of young Adelaide Musical Theatre artists who were excellent. The opening number, ‘Trouble’ from The Music Man continued the dismissal of gender in the selection and performance of great Musical Theatre songs, and it was delightful. This opening section also included ‘Blow Gabriel Blow’ from Anything Goes, ‘Sit Down You’re

Rockin’ the Boat’ from Guys and Dolls, and ‘Sleepy Man’ from the lesser known The Robber Bridegroom, which Patti Lupone had helped create.” Joining next year’s Adelaide Cabaret Festival in its 2019 Class of Cabaret program, more young artists with just as fine talents as those that provided the chorus Tony enjoyed in Patti Lupone’s show will not only perform, but also learn from the country’s premier cabaret stars. And talented students from regional and outer metropolitan South Australia can Patti LuPone in Don’t Monkey With Broadway. Photo: Rahav Sagev.

currently apply for the Adelaide Festival Centre’s Nathaniel O’Brien Class of Cabaret Scholarship. Applications close on 30 September 2018. For further information visit adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au Reviewer Barry Hill was stunned by Ali McGregor’s performance in Yma Sumac - The Peruvian Songbird. “For those who have never heard of her, Yma Sumac is the legendary Peruvian soprano who possessed an astounding five octave range,” he said. “Ali McGregor has made Yma a passion of hers and it showed. She embodied Yma, her speech, clothing, movement and most particularly her magnificent voice. Through McGregor we were taken on a journey of Yma’s life, narrated both as Yma and McGregor herself. The vocal styles of Sumac were all there, performed with McGregor’s consummate control of a voice that soared to the whistling tone heights and then plunged to the earthy depths. Yma Sumac - The Peruvian Songbird was not a concert, it was an experience that will live in audience’s minds long after the event is over. Bravo!” Bravo too, to the very same artist as she leaves her sole tenure as Artistic Director of the glorious 2018 Adelaide Cabaret Festival. The 2019 Festival will see a very different captain steering the ship, multi-talented television, stage and film favourite Julia Zemiro. Julia has a broad knowledge of the music industry and plenty of curiosity about a range of genres. She said, “My mission has always been to have audiences and artists leave a gig feeling good. What thrills me about cabaret is the combination of the political, the personal, the sublime and the dangerous. It can soar in a way that is out of this world. I look forward to shaping a festival for you big on ideas, emotions, languages and all things shiny.” If the 2019 Adelaide Cabaret Festival shines as brilliantly as this year’s festival it will light up this town indeed.

Find links to all our Adelaide Cabaret Festival reviews on the Stage Whispers website at http://bit.ly/2BFW2Jb 64 Stage Whispers

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

Reviews: Premieres

The Long Forgotten Dream. Photo: Heidrun Lohr.

The Long Forgotten Dream By H Lawrence Sumner. Sydney Theatre Company. Director: Neil Armfield. The Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. July 23 - Aug 25. THIS first play by Aboriginal writer H Lawrence Sumner has been given the full Sydney Theatre Company works by star director Neil Armfield - including scenic magic and brilliant on-stage musicianship. The crème of Sydney theatregoers stood and cheered him, surely a life-changing moment. Sumner’s play, described by his director as ‘a great poem telling our history in a new way’, is based on real cases of Aboriginal remains being repatriated from museums and universities overseas. When Simone Tucker (Jada Alberts) returns from a couple of years in Mexico and England with PhD proof of the ‘stolen remains’ of her great -grandfather, King Tulla, her father Jeremiah (Wayne Blair) seems totally disinterested. Aboriginal woman Aunt Lizzie (Ningali Lawford-Wolf) asks her: ‘Do you know what it’s like to have your dream turn into a nightmare?’ As Simone, helped by the local Pastor (Justin Smith), plans the greeting and acceptance of the bones with absolutely no help from her father, we meet the 102-yearold white wife of King Tulla, Gladys Dawson (Melissa Jaffer). Ingeniously moving in and out of the story, alive or dead, she is most affecting.

Wayne Blair captures the exact despair of the story. As an Aboriginal man, how many times must he accept apologies for past indignities? Musically, the play is in the sure hands of William Barton. From his position downstage-left, he sings and plays beautifully - a didjeridoo features prominently among his instruments. Designer Jacob Nash delivers a brilliant theatrical account of South Australia’s coastal Coorong region where the principal action is set. Frank Hatherley Dancing On The Volcano A biting satirical journey through Berlin cabaret of the 20s and 30s. By Robyn Archer. Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne. July 9-11. MOVING its audience from laughter to tears, this show is a true delight. Robyn Archer’s extraordinary capacity to engage with some of the darkest aspects of human nature, and then rise above them, whilst ushering her audience on a deeply entertaining expedition to source rare gems of perception, is nothing short of an exceptional gift. Musicians Michael Morley (piano) and George Butrumlis (accordion) work in wonderful, well-oiled synchronicity with Ms. Archer on this intense and very moving journey. The 90 minutes of this show pass swiftly and leave one elevated. Ms. Archer is able to sing as though a bloated misogynist lecher - transcending gender - presented as a kind of statement of fact, with reference to the ‘Me Too’

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

Stage Whispers 65

Genevieve Hegney and Catherine Moore in Unqualified. Photo: Phil Erbacher.

Online extras! Get the low-down on Unqualified by scanning the QR code or visiting https://youtu.be/Nvdz67tnqMQ movement. By contrast she croons ‘Falling In Love Again’ with all the sensuality of Marlene Dietrich. And yes, an excellent rendition of ‘Mack the Knife’ from The Threepenny Opera is included. Then we also have the opportunity to listen to Frederick Hollaender’s satirical song set to Bizet’s music, ‘The Jews’, a sharp reminder of how easy it is to slip into the inhumane behavior of ‘othering’ and blaming minority groups. I expected a marvelous night and couldn’t have asked for more. Educated, entertained and deeply moved, my guest and I left the Fairfax Studio feeling satiated and uplifted. Suzanne Sandow Unqualified By Genevieve Hegney and Catherine Moore. Ensemble Theatre, Sydney. Director: Janine Watson. Jun 22 - July 21. BEFORE an over-insistent backdrop of Casual Jobs advertisements (‘Must be willing to wear coconut shells’) and on the setting for another play (Marjorie Prime), come two 30-something female actors with something to say. Between raising families and all the stresses of feeding acting careers, Genevieve Hegney and Catherine Moore have snatched the time to write and perform Unqualified, the story of two women who start a temp agency with no extra employees. They’re on to a winner. The play is based on an unproduced six-part television series which offers plenty of weight to proceedings, and features the real-life appearance of the ladies as huge 66 Stage Whispers

leaflet-distributing lotto balls, waitresses in a hair-raising Western Sydney bogan wedding, and carers for a 103-yearold woman who didn’t quite last the night. You get the impression that there are masses of unqualified jobs out there. They leave plenty of space to reveal their own backgrounds. Hegney’s Joanne Truebody was dux of her school, could have done anything except she was soon married to Stuart and crushed. Moore’s Felicity Bacon was trapped in her father’s butcher shop. The contrast between the two women couldn’t be stronger: Joanne is a confirmed vegan. ‘I’ve got nothing against sluts,’ she says. Artistic Director Mark Kilmurry suggested Hegney and Moore transform the script into a theatre show, and the current manifestation appeared, ready to travel light. Simon Greer’s adaptation of the setting for Marjorie Prime is fine, except that the over-blown-up adverts tend to invade the action. Janine Watson directs proceedings, keeping well out of the way of her two jet-fuelled actresses. Scene changes are achieved to excerpts featuring that deeply unqualified prima donna Florence Foster Jenkins. They could be cut further because Hegney and Moore are, more often than not, ready and raring to go. The world premiere at the Ensemble was quite a night. The audience rose as one and cheered. Frank Hatherley

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

You Got Older By Clare Barron. Mad March Hare Theatre Company and KXT Bakehouse. Directed by Claudia Barrie. The Kings Cross Theatre, Kings Cross Hotel. July 13 - Aug 4. FOR the most satisfying evening in ages you have to climb the (many) stairs in the Kings Cross Theatre and then clamber over the setting on the traverse stage to take your (uncomfortable) seat for You Got Older by Clare Barron. It’s an absolute cracker, a must for every mountaineering theatregoer. Director Claudia Barrie has assembled a peach of a cast for this brilliant play about a family returning home to Seattle to be with their failing and fast-fading father. Chief among them is Mae, played to perfection and beyond by Harriet Gordon-Anderson, who has been ditched and sacked by her lover and boss, hasn’t had sex in 41 days and consequently is coming out in a rash. Steve Rogers is excellent as the dying man, so grateful to have his daughter on hand, but what’s she doing here anyway? When he goes to hospital other members of his young family turn up. Hannah (Ainslie McGlynn) is there, perhaps nursing her own problems, and Matthew (Alex Beauman) and Jenny (Sarah Meacham); they form an amazingly coordinated team of believable family members, warm and caring.

Clare Barron’s play, by turns bawdy and touching, is a great joy, completely unpredictable, the final scene a neverto-be-forgotten release of pain and youthful energy. Frank Hatherley I Hope It’s Not Raining In London By Nicholas Thoroughgood. Bearfoot Theatre. Tantrum Studio, Merewether (Newcastle). July 18 - 21. NICHOLAS Thoroughgood, who wrote this play, was only 18 when he finished it late in 2017, but it is as impressive a new work as those done by much older people. He made its story of two young people who come together, after forgetting what has happened in their lives, a gripping and often amusing story as they occasionally recollect in a brisk one-hour running time incidents that affected them. Bearfoot Theatre is a company put together by people in their late teens and early 20s, and the masterly staging team, headed by director Riley McLean, used the small space of a former church hall well, sitting audience members on both sides of the platform stage. The production showed how the issues raised in the story could affect all people, with some performances having people of the same sex as the two central characters, and others having a male and female, with those from their lives that they eventually recall also having variable sexes.

Harriet Gordon-Anderson & Steve Rodgers in You Got Older. Photo: Clare Hawley.

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

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I saw two shows in which both the main characters were members of the same sex, and there were certainly some differences between the characters. The first had two females, Cassie Hamilton, as the One, the demanding person who had first come to the unit, and Taylor Reece as the initially nervous the Other. This One was at first very threatening, and the Other decidedly concerned. In the second, the initial relationship between males Jack Twelvetree’s One and Nicholas Thoroughgood’s Other was lighter, but the darkness gradually emerged. Both stagings were attentiongrabbing. Performers 3 and 4 likewise were substantially varied, occasionally just doing things that a stage manager would usually control, such as dropping off surprise parcels and boxes on the stage, or knocking on an unseen door and making sharp or gentle remarks. Ken Longworth King Of Pigs By Steve Rodgers. Red Line Productions. Old Fitz Theatre. Aug 1 - Sep 1. STEVE Rodgers is a fine actor, masterly at playing decent if uncertain blokes. Now as playwright, he’s created a fascinating kaleidoscope of four men acting out some level of violence against women. The women are played by the one, Ella Scott-Lynch, who authentically modulates across four scenarios this

vivacious, headstrong and expressive Everywoman. The Men too are given strong performances. Kire Tosevski plays a counsellor figure to whom she tells the stories, and also her husband: his violence really no more than pressurising their young son (Wylie Best/Thom Blake) with too many expectations. But another husband, a brooding, hulk of a rugby player (Mick Bani) does bash her when she slips from his control. Still another, a handsome banker (Ashley Hawkes) sings charmingly of love but threatens the children and turns to murder. And Christian Byers plays a careless millennial workmate who beds her in consensual sex but leaves her to unconsenting group sex with his household. The Men come with just enough back story to drive our interest in their developing relationship with the Woman, vignettes deftly intercut with each other by Rodgers. This fragmentation is ably staged by actor/ first time director Blazey Best. She makes good visual drama in the entrances of Isabel Hudson’s stripped back domestic set, using the sharp focus of Verity Hampson’s lighting. While the male motives for violence remain largely inexplicable, the total impact of this commanding play is urgent, powerful and tender - and leavened by lots of surprising laughs. Martin Portus

Mick Bani and Ella Scott-Lynch in King Of Pigs. Photo: John Marmaras.

68 Stage Whispers

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

The Rolling Stone. Photo: Clare Hawley.

Online extras! Get a taste of The Rolling Stone by scanning the QR code or visiting https://youtu.be/1oLlQa0ODFo The Almighty Sometimes By Kendall Feaver. Griffin Theatre Company. Director: Lee Lewis. SBW Stables Theatre, Sydney. July 27 - Sep 8. THIS story of a mother-daughter relationship has you continually shifting sympathy. One minute you’re on the side of the moody 18-year-old daughter, who has been on medication since she was 11 and who now has proof (Proof!) that all those pills have stopped her creative flow. Next minute you’re on the side of the single mother, desperate that her depressed, hormonal daughter is heading for self-destruction. Now she’s an adult, with a boyfriend, what will happen when the maternal chains are loosened? The balance between the two characters is the highlight of Kendall Feaver’s first play at the Stables Theatre and, in this gritty production by Lee Lewis, the performances of both Hannah Waterman (Renee, the mother, a teacher) and Brenna Harding (Anna, the daughter) are evenly matched. Both are excellent: Anna’s plight is brilliantly revealed and Renee doesn’t realise the extent of her own depression. Completing the cast are Vivienne (Penny Cook), star psychiatrist who must face the potential damage of her ‘cures’, and Oliver (Shiv Palekar), the local boy who keeps a tight rein on his own deprived upbringing while struggling to deal with the mood swings of his new girlfriend. All this is told on a plain, white stage with table and four chairs, designed by Dan Potra, and lit excellently and subtly by Daniel Barber. Frank Hatherley

The Rolling Stone By Chris Urch. Outhouse Theatre Co and Seymour Centre. July 3 - 21. “IT is the business of art to be dangerous,” writes Adam Cook of this play that challenges the religious, cultural and political powers that “struggle with the notion of homosexuality”. Humour and tension play out in pause-perfect scenes that pit lover against lover, brother against brother. It pulls at the heart strings of those who empathise, but tests the closed minds of those who don’t. Cook has brought together a strong cast to expose the intense emotions of the characters as they struggle against poverty, ambition and fundamentalist Christian fervour. Elijah Williams plays the taxing role of Dembe, a young homosexual who faces likely death if his sexuality is discovered. Williams reveals the anguish of impossible decisions, culminating in a final scene that shows the intuitive power of this young actor. Damon Manns plays his lover, Sam, an Irish-African medic, whose humour and physicality contrasts with Williams’ faltering hesitation. Together they establish a relationship that is tender, yet fraught. Mandela Mathia and Zufi Emerson are Dembe’s brother and sister. Mathia balances brotherly responsibilities with evangelistic zeal. Emerson is the watchful sister, protective in a community that will condemn unconditionally. Fervent Christian Mama is played with uncompromising, vengeful religious zealotry by Nancy Denis; her emotionally affected daughter, Naome, by Henrietta Amevor.

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Online extras! Watch the promo for Contest by scanning the QR code or visiting https://youtu.be/gBl0YEVzp9Y

Alice Ansara, Emily Tomlins, Natasha Herbert, Kate Hood and Sonya Suares in Contest. Photo: Sarah Walker.

Adam Cook has found stark authenticity in this compelling production. Carol Wimmer

All five women have their stories, all five have their say, but the play is Cass’s story: her fear of her own anger, her recurring nightmare in which she dreams of a burning house - and she is that house. All the strands build and Contest build until, led by Cass, there’s a breakthrough, a revelation By Emilie Collyer. Darebin Arts Speakeasy. Directed by Prue - and it comes so clearly and believably (that is, it’s earned) Clark. Produced by Erin Milne. Northcote Town Hall, Main that the audience laughs in relieved appreciation. Hall. July 25 - Aug 4. Contest (the very title open to multiple interpretations) is THE nexus of Emilie Collyer’s play is netball - a lot of fun, a highly intelligent, perceptive and deeply felt work, a lot of bonding - and a lot of commitment. It’s a rich, performed by an excellent cast. complex play that constantly poses contradictions: either/or, Michael Brindley this or that, open or closed, within the rules and boundaries versus breaking out. Come to play, come to win Skylab or don’t come at all. By Melodie Reynolds-Diarra. Black Swan State Theatre Contest is not naturalistic - there’s one team of five Company and Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company. Directed by players and no opposing team. The dialogue ranges from Kyle J. Morrison. Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre nicely observed bitchy gossip to searing intimate revelation of Western Australia. Aug 16 - Sep 2. in heightened prose. It’s exhaustingly physical. (The THERE was a lovely community feel at the opening night expressive, stylised movements are designed by Nat Cursio of Skylab. and Alice Dixon.) Described as “a contemporary Dreaming story with a There’s a lonely woman in an abusive relationship (Alice whole lot of magic”, this initially slightly larger than life tale Ansara). There’s a cool, tall blonde ‘change management’ takes a genre shift in Act 2, becoming a warm fantasy that consultant (Natasha Herbert). There’s a younger woman draws heavily on the style of TV show Monkey Magic as (Sonya Surares) with a fractious relationship with her well as Dreaming Lore. demented and dying mother. An older woman, a lawyer Matthew McVeigh’s set design immediately indicates (Kate Hood) is in a wheelchair but trying be positive about that the show will be less than conventional, with its it. The newbie, Cass (Emily Tomlins) doesn’t try to fit in, slightly crooked little home, revealing a myriad of surprises maybe a good player, but unreliable, awkward, disturbing, throughout the show. stand-offish. Gary Cooper’s Uncle Harvey is an instant hit with the audience - a dynamic creation of this tinfoil hat eccentric. 70 Stage Whispers

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Highly energetic and almost manic, we are gradually drawn completely into his world. Rayma McGrath Morrison is our link to old magic and dreaming in her theatrical debut. Strong performances from Alan Little (Nev) and Laila Bano Rind (Jem) as they create a believable parental team in likeable characters, with some lovely layers. The kids are delightful. These are huge, demanding roles, especially for very young actors in their first speaking roles. On opening night we saw Juliette Laylan, Liani Dalgetty and Benjamin Narkle (they alternate with Eva Bartlett, Donnathia Gentle and Jacob Narkle), who were impressive. While some sequences run slightly long, and a touch of judicious editing could make the show stronger, this is a lovely, new, quintessentially Australian show, with broad appeal. Kimberley Shaw

There were amusing scenes, for example, that had boy and girl students, who were in the school’s adjoining toilets when the lockdown began, trying to communicate through a narrow gap in the wall just below the ceiling. The students locked into classrooms reacted in very different ways, with some voicing feelings about others, the teachers, and things that had happened to them that they had previously not revealed. The teachers were frustrated by the lockdown, with the event helping a new young male teacher to make up his mind that it’s not the job for him. The staging, by Aspire artistic director Anna Kerrigan, who also wrote the play, and her team, had watchers sympathising with the characters at times, as well as laughing at the more amusing words and actions. The song and dance routines likewise had engagingly diverse styles. There was a Michael Jackson song, They Don’t Care About Us, which had children voicing their frustrations. And one song, presented while the students Dark Matter were discussing whether the lockdown had been caused by By Anna Kerrigan. Aspire. Civic Theatre, Newcastle. creatures such as vampires, had dance ensemble members Aug 1 - 4. dressed like white ghosts, with five of them moving around A STORY set during a lockdown in a secondary school on long white stilts. might not appear to be a good subject matter for a musical While many of the song-and-dance numbers had play, but this engrossing production by Aspire, the Hunter movement around the whole stage, there were scenes region Catholic Schools organisation that helps students where the focus was on just a few people in a small space. develop their skills in performing arts, showed the very The school’s four cleaners, for example, whom neither diverse impacts the event has on children, teachers and teachers or students like, had a very funny sequence where other people associated with a school.

Online extras! Skylab Director Kyle Morrison and the cast introduce the show to viewers. https://youtu.be/lvS6R9VfOFU

Alan Little in Skylab. Photo: Dana Weeks.

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they voiced an amusingly revamped discussion between the delightful as Jane, Rachel’s flat mate with a penchant for witches in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. pink and a drive for perfection. Ken Longworth While One Night, One Day wasn’t life-changing, this funny little world premiere (of sorts), gave us a good laugh The Man In The Attic and was a lot of fun. By Timothy Daly. Shalom & Moira Blumenthal Productions. Kimberley Shaw Eternity Playhouse. July 5 - 22. TIMOTHY Daly unearthed this intriguing, true story of a The Harp In The South Parts 1 & 2 German couple who kept a Jewish man hidden in their attic By Ruth Park. An adaptation for the stage by Kate Mulvany. for two years beyond the end of the War, living off his Sydney Theatre Company. Roslyn Packer Theatre. Aug 16 – resourceful work as a jeweller and watch repairer. Hitler, Oct 8. thought The Jew, had won the war. THIS epic adaptation of Ruth Park’s novels about love The Man in the Attic won Daly the prestigious Patrick and life in the slums of Surry Hills is a triumph. White Playwrights’ Award but in the decade since - despite Writer Kate Mulvany spent three years forging generations of the Darcy family and their neighbours into five productions overseas - has never been performed in Australia. Until now. five and half hours of compelling, heart-warming theatre Hugh O’Connor sets this promising story in an evocative (excluding intervals). set of broken bricks and war debris. The storytelling is so seamless across David Fleischer’s Barry French is The Jew stranded above in the attic, revolving stage, it looks like director Kip Williams has been relentlessly optimistic, with his telescope pushed out to the working with Mulvany since she started. stars, and a back-story left largely abstract. Danielle King as The show moves like a musical and, indeed, is rich with The Wife downstairs has more earthly concerns. She’s torn Irish songs, hymns and evocative sound (thanks to The by her morality, yes, but also the bullying Husband (Gus Sweats, Nate Edmondson and Luke Byrne). And it’s mostly Murray), a borderline Nazi keen to keep the Jew resourcing Irish strugglers, overflowing with pathos and defiant cheek, his lucrative trading. at the tender heart of this Australian saga. Next door, The Neighbour (Colleen Cook) is a nasty busy Park and Mulvany though focus on the women, poor, -body who blackmails The Husband over the secret; but the eventually disappointed, often beaten women but subsequent sexual conspiracy between them does not somehow unbowed. convince. Nor, disappointingly, does the play’s climax, Heather Mitchell is fabulous as the irascible Granny Eny, between the Wife and Jew - he finally leaves his prison with living in rural NSW, where the love story begins in 1920, between her daughter Margaret and handsome Hughie. All merely a shrug. Tim Daly is a fine, intellectually enquiring writer but in the women, when young, have the capacity to trust in this production from Moira Blumenthal his potentially dreams of love, to invest in their men: it’s a crosspowerful themes are eroded by often declamatory dialogue generational delight of the story, driving its romantic charm and an inexplicable lack of suspense. Even then, this – and bawdiness. fantastic moral tale almost wins out. Once in Surry Hills, Margaret (an intense Anita Hugh) Martin Portus eventually summons another female capacity, negotiating with loss and the erosion of love. Hugh (Jack Finsterer) just One Night, One Day turns to the bottle. By Martin Lindsay. Blak Yak Theatre. Directed by Melissa Contessa Treffone and Rose Riley are compelling as their Merchant. Shenton Park Community Centre, WA. two daughters, now post-War, opening us to more chapters of angst and longing, hope and social upheaval, Aug 9 - 18. SINGLE strangers Rachel and Greg wake up together, as development makes residents homeless. unable to recall the night before. They gradually realise that Part I bristles with theatrical energy, humour and an the evening before had far bigger consequences than they ensemble parade of nimbly drawn community characters. could imagine. This “little bit naughty” comedy, presented Notable is Bruce Spence as the conflicted priest, Helen Thomson as the gold-hearted brothel madam, Guy Simon by Blak Yak Theatre, played to enthusiastic full houses. as the upstanding indigenous suitor and Tara Morice as the Martin Lindsay’s play had its genesis in a one act play that played festivals a few years ago. While the one act puritan tenant upstairs. version is possibly stronger, this version doesn’t lag and Scaffolding effectively suggests this homely terrace but continues to delight audiences with its unlikely but it’s gone in Part II, the scrappy furniture scattered across an strangely plausible storyline. empty industrial space, and The Harp turns much darker. Sjaan Luis anchored the show beautifully as Rachel, in a The colour dims in Renee Mulder’s sensuous period likeable performance, handling tricky and witty dialogue, costumes and Nick Schliepper’s fine lighting is now and setting the pace nicely. Joel Sammels was a delightfully diffused. unlikely leading man as Greg, both brave and energetic. Here Williams’ production arguably loses some focus Jarrod Buttery was an audience favourite as a bizarre public through the shadows. But by the end, the audience are on their feet – and rightly so. official who turns up unexpectedly, and Ellin Sears was Martin Portus 72 Stage Whispers

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Online extras! See highlights from Cry-Baby by scanning the QR code or visiting https://youtu.be/S0tMLPCXnEs Cry-Baby Book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan. Songs by David Javerbaum and Adam Schlesinger. Based on the film by John Waters. LPD in association with Hayes Theatre Co. July 20 - Aug 19. CRY-BABY only lasted 68 performances when it premiered in New York in 2008. At the Hayes Theatre, with its intimate staging, the musical was a delicious treat. Cry-Baby is set in the early 1950’s, where the Cold War is at its most terrifying and bad boys wore leather jackets. It’s about teenagers from two different tribes who fall in love, in the flavour of Romeo and Juliet. Whilst the premise might feel familiar, very soon the audience is swept away by the hilarious cynicism. The opening song is set at an anti-polio picnic which promotes vaccinations by wheeling around a boy in an iron lung. The do-good upper crust tribe “watch for communists, keep tabs on UFOs (and) steer clear of weirdos.” They are contrasted with the lower crust tribe who declare “It’s a perfect day to raise some hell. To crash a car you’ve stolen.” The Romeo (Cry-Baby) Christian Charisiou and Juliet (Allison) Ashleigh Rubenach are appropriately handsome and sweet. On their first date they perform the song “Girl, Can I Kiss You With Tongue?”. Whilst the French kissing is a tad icky, it is saccharine compared to the more extreme images which the filmmaker John Waters has been known to place in some of his movies (Cry-Baby starred Johnny Depp when it was released in 1990).

Christian Charisiou and Ashleigh Rubenach in Cry-Baby. Photo: Robert Catto.

This production bursts with colour. The set, designed by Isabel Hudson, is a sweet box of tricks with hatches that open and close with dexterity. Mason Browne’s costumes and Cameron Mitchell’s choreography add to the juicy appeal. The bad girls were hilarious, led by Laura Murphy (Lenora) and the trio of Manon Gunderson-Briggs (Hatchetface), Amy Hack (Wanda) and Bronte Florian (Pepper), who are appropriately scandalous. They contrasted with the squeaky clean boys led by Joel Granger (Baldwin). Shining most brightly was Beth Daly as the matron, Mrs Vernon-Williams. Every dry line was milked with surgical precision. A fun night was had by all. David Spicer Baby Bi Bi Bi Created & performed by Erin Pattison, Samantha Andrew & Annabel Larcombe. A Flesh Coloured Panties Production. Melbourne Cabaret Festival. Chapel off Chapel, Prahran, VIC. Jun 30 - July 1. THE ‘Bi’ means bi-sexual. The show is explicit, graphic (verbally anyway) and not afraid to send itself up, delivered with panache, humour, charm and polish by three very talented women. Erin Pattison (who also produces), Samantha Andrew (the composer of the witty and/or sad songs) and Annabel Larcombe (an inspired clown) are scarcely out of the VCA. No director per se is credited, but

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this is the best directed cabaret I’ve seen in a long time and the best written. Their material alternates songs and brief comedy sketches. Not only are the songs smart, they are sung by performers who can sing, and they can articulate - so that we appreciate not just the ‘message’, but how clever Ms Andrew is - and not just as a musician. She does a good boofhead bloke too. Ms Pattison is the more ‘serious’ of the three, and in the second half delivers a haunting ballad that creates a stillness and a lump in the throat. Meanwhile, Ms Larcombe, with her huge ‘please like me’ smile, is into more physical comedy and, endearingly ‘clumsy’, fumbles around with some ‘interpretive dance’ and equally silly acrobatics. The set consists of a keyboard, microphones and a big, elaborate flat, which is totally covered with sort of mini Claes Olenburg creations of intimate body parts, brilliantly designed by Brynna Lowen - yet another product of the VCA. The message is, in the end, you can’t help whom you love - and the show, for all its laughs, is a plea for understanding. Yep, some people are ‘bi’: get over it. Michael Brindley

As Nadia, Ms Kotsimbos brings a kind of addled, solipsistic sweetness to the role and it’s extremely sad. Lainie Hart gives a fearless performance as Alison: bitter, brittle, resentful and irrational. Wendy Bos’s persona suggests a cool rationality, but her character’s self-justifying evasion is to care for others in Kenya. Scott, as played by Mr Desengano, has a complacent indifference - a determination not to care: that’s his strategy. Survival dramatizes that we are all on a psychological spectrum - all aberrant in our quest for survival and ironically - our attempts to stay ‘sane’. At less than an hour, a suicide attempt becomes a catalyst for revealing the inadequate ways the characters deal with it. It may be a ‘chamber piece’, but it is a truthful and poignant one. Michael Brindley

Sneakyville By Christopher Bryant. A Before Shot Production. fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne. Aug 1 - 12. SNEAKYVILLE is realised by bold, risk-taking direction, a stark, stripped back aesthetic and a cast capable of astonishing transformations. Its pretext is the murders carried out by members of the ‘Manson Family’ in 1969 Los Angeles. Christopher Bryant asks why. Why were people Survival mostly middle-class young women - drawn to Manson By Allee Richards. Directed by Marissa Bennett. Lonely petty criminal, failed musician, narcissistic sociopath with Company. La Mama at Brunswick Mechanics’ Institute. July his ravings about a racial war? 5 - 11. Why are people still fascinated by Manson? Director NADIA (Tatiana Kotsimbos) took all the pills she had Daniel Lammin says in his program note, Sneakyville is anti-depressants and whatever else - and her life hangs in about ‘all of us’. Implicitly, it’s a play about the rage that the balance. Her mother Alison (Lainie Hart) is adamant it creates violence against women, the alt-right, the revival of was an accident. Nadia’s other - and biological - mother Nazi emblems and ideas, and a populist leader whose any Heidi (Wendy Bos) doesn’t believe it. The two of them, once action is okay - in fact, great, really great - as long as it partners, pick up on all the old arguments that drove them feeds the rage. apart. Nadia and Scott (John Marc Desengano) broke up At the interval, after a sixty-minute Act I, you find your weeks ago. He’s not surprised or fussed at her suicide heart rate has increased, you are just a little breathless and attempt - more interested in all the fun things on his can’t wait for Acts II and III although you have no idea phone. where the play will take you next. Director Marissa Bennett sets herself a hard task. There’s Patrick Durnan Silva, ‘Tex’ Watson, Family member in a hospital bed on a bare stage, minimal lighting changes by Act I, becomes a call centre employee, his frustration and Georgie Wolfe and some atmospheric sound by Thomas rage palpable. He tracks down a Family member (a soft, Crawford…and that’s it. But throughout there is tension as ‘reasonable’ woman as played by Kristina Benton). And she, we wonder whether Nadia will regain consciousness and maybe rueful, but not that rueful, does not assuage the relieve her two mothers’ guilt. rage. Grace Travaglia, in Act I scared and distressed Family member Linda Kasabian, becomes a heavily pregnant journalist writing a book about Manson (a soft-voiced, spooky Wil King). The pregnancy is a reminder of Sharon Tate, and the pretext for one of the most chilling sequences in the play. Julia Christensen is fearlessly, frighteningly Susan Atkins, a manic, unrepentant, Family member, who smeared ‘Pig’ in Sharon Tate’s blood on the front door. Production design by Nathan Burmeister, the lighting design by Alexander Berlage and sound design by KellieAnne Kimber are all in stunning integration with and in support of text and direction. At the end, the journalist tells the audience, “We still don’t know why…’ Of course, Mr Get noticed on the Stage Whispers Bryant and his whole play has been telling us ‘why’. This is website with a premium listing great theatre which holds you from start to finish. Michael Brindley www.stagewhispers.com.au/directory-central

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Reviews: Plays

A Taste Of Honey. Photo: Brett Boardman.

Online extras! A Taste Of Honey cast and creatives weigh in on its cultural significance https://youtu.be/OHc-p1X5PiU A Taste Of Honey By Shelagh Delaney. Upstairs Theatre, Belvoir. July 21 - Aug 19. THERE seems initially little honey to taste in the slum lives of this young mother and her teenage daughter in 1950’s working class England. Shelagh Delaney wrote the hit play (and later film) when she was just 19. Yet the honey is in the women’s underlying exuberance, the humour in their flawed males and a 50’s soundtrack which blows away cobwebs. Director Eamon Flack elevates these theatrical qualities but A Taste of Honey still remains an odd choice for Belvoir. It’s unconvincingly reborn in 1950’s Sydney; yet it still carries the fog, clamour and prejudice of its English setting - that sense of kitchen-sink place is the play’s great strength. Despite hovering between hemispheres, the cast is good, lead by the bounteous Genevieve Lemon who’s more a man-hunting showgirl than a mother. Although a comic treat, Lemon is a couple of decades too old for the role, since the play’s nub is the competition between a young mother and her daughter. Taylor Fergusson is her abandoned daughter, Jo, all teenage angst and mania, and oddly unappealing. She follows her mother’s path, into a teenage pregnancy, thanks to a gentle black sailor, played authentically by Thuso Lekwape. And with Jo’s new homely gay friend (Tom Anson Mesker) and the drunk lover who threatens her Mum (Josh McConville), there’s plenty of social issues suggested, even if circa 1950s.

Kate Champion’s dance movement provides a welcome abstraction to the play’s sometimes stilted action and dialogue, confined on Mel Page’s elevated set of a slum apartment. Martin Portus The Kingfisher By William Douglas-Home. St Luke’s Theatre Society. St Luke’s Church Hall, Tarragindi, QLD. June 22 - 30. ST LUKE’S Theatre pulled a rabbit out of the hat with their production of The Kingfisher. Thanks to a fine cast and good direction, this gentle comedy, although dated, satisfied its target audience. Best-selling author Sir Cecil reads the Times obituaries and discovers Reggi Townsend, the man who stole the love of his life fifty years ago, has died. With incredibly insensitivity that only the privileged enjoy, he arranges for the newly widowed Evelyn to take tea with him on the way back from the funeral. What ensues is a rekindling of the affair, much to the chagrin of Sir Cecil’s butler Hawkins. John Grey enthusiastically played Sir Cecil’s self-centred arrogance with comic bravado - querulous and petulant, but likeable as a man who was determined to right his wrongs of yesteryear. Mary Woodall, looking a million dollars in stiletto heels, brought warmth and affection to a woman who married the wrong man, whilst Brian Cannon as the old retainer Hawkins bumbled and fumbled, cleverly disguising his intent to remain Cecil’s sole companion. Una Hollingsworth’s set was more rustic than manor house, but Gary O’Neil’s direction, which included some

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Online extras! Get a sneak peak of Torch Song Trilogy by scanning the QR code or visiting https://youtu.be/8u5ZAZIUMRU

Stephen Madsen & Phil Scott in Torch Song Trilogy. Photo: Clare Hawley.

very funny stage-business as Cecil and Evelyn replay their first kiss on a rug under the beech tree, ensured the play barrelled along to its satisfying conclusion. Peter Pinne

Tim Draxl is convincingly distressed as the bi-sexual schoolteacher, Ed, his emotive singing adding to the poignancy of his characterisation. Hilary Cole moves effortlessly between the roles of nightclub singer, Lady Blue and Ed’s girlfriend, Laurel. Torch Song Trilogy Arnold’s lover, Alan, is played with gentle tenderness by By Harvey Fierstein. Darlinghurst Theatre Company. Eternity Stephen Madsen. Imraan Daniels depicts his adoptive son, Playhouse, Dalringhurst (NSW). July 29 - Aug 26. David, with pert sassiness. His sticky introduction to STEPHEN Colyer’s production gives this iconic trilogy the Arnold’s mother, Kate Raison, and their eventual rapport is elegance, sophistication and chutzpah it deserves. a cute piece of writing and acting. Conceived in the late 1970s, when homophobia and Carol Wimmer vilification reigned, Feirstein’s character Arnold’s dream of a gay couple raising a family seemed inconceivable - but was Two a harbinger of a brighter, more tolerant future. By Jim Cartwright. STARC Productions. Bakehouse Theatre The plays are witty, warm, yet heart-breakingly realistic. (SA). July 4 - 14. Colyer’s direction is tight, his choreography timed precisely THERE’S froth, plenty of body and a lasting after taste in with the lighting effects (Benjamin Brockman) and sound the beer they serve in the Northern England working class and music (Nate Edmondson and Phil Scott). pub that’s the setting for STARC Productions’ staging of Jim Designers Imogen Ross (set) and Katja Handt (costume) Cartwright’s quirky play Two. endorse the collaboration that is a feature of this There are only two actors, but Stefanie Rossi and Marc production. Together they have made colour a facet that Clement each play seven diverse and complex characters unites the action. through monologues and short scenes. They change voice, The cast move with impeccable precision in intricate body language, hairstyle and facial appearance for the blocking. Deftly delivered dialogue and humour, subtly rapidly rotating vignettes, all the time supported only by accentuated by Colyer, endow the characters with the guts relatively minor costume changes and, due to the minimal and resolve they need just to get by in a hetero-normal, props, some skilled miming. bigoted society. As the characters appear, the magic, unexpected Simon Corfield expertly portrays the feisty but blighted surprises and even the powerful drama emerge through the Arnold Beckoff, his timing, physicality and vocal flexibility mostly unvoiced history of each character, particularly of capturing every nuance of Arnold’s struggle. the Landlord and Landlady. The backstory behind the latter 76 Stage Whispers

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couple comes into heartbreaking and stark relief in the closing scene. Rossi and Clement are wonderful, lulling us with gentle elderly people, along with the swaggerers, the flirts and some very funny characters; only to slap our shocked faces with the controlling and coercive menace lurking beneath some personas that results in the submission or desperation of others we meet. Tony Knight’s expert direction is unobtrusive, allowing the actors to truly embody each character, yet he ensures the pace is unrelenting. Stephen Dean’s crisply cued lighting is very fine and emotive of the dimly lit pub bar setting. The sound design is also very good. STARC Productions’ Two is an absorbing reflection of real life seen through the bottom of a pub glass. With such high quality on offer from this new company, I say, ‘Cheers! Bring me another!’ Lesley Reed Editor’s Note: Tony Knight is a Stage Whispers reviewer. The Unexpected Quest By Agatha Christie, Directed by Sharon White, New Farm Nash Theatre Brisbane. July 13 - Aug 4. ALTHOUGH not as well-known as The Mousetrap, Agatha Christie’s The Unexpected Guest still offers an intriguing plot that keeps the audience absorbed to the end. It starts on a foggy night when Michael Starkwebber enters the home of the Warwicks through a window. He finds the dead body, Richard Warwick, with Richard’s wife holding a gun that supposedly killed him. He believes she is innocent and they concoct a story to blame an enemy of the past. Sharon White has successfully melded the cast to produce the mystery of the murder sufficiently to keep the audience absorbed. Garry Condoseres brought strength, stability and belief to the key role of Michael Starkwebber, matched to a large degree by the underplaying of Mrs Laura Warwick by Susie Mitchell. The various members of the household were played by Rebecca Myers, Hazel Mephan, Robert Gettons, Ian Bielenberg and Ashan Kumar so well that I became more involved as the play progressed. Ashan Kumar was excellent in an over the top portrayal of the mentally deficient Jan Warwick. Barry Haworth and Edward Haworth as the police officers were as good at solving the murder as I was. The simple set, the direction and inter play of the characters made this a good production. I thought I had solved the murder but, as with so much of Agatha Christie’s writing, I was mistaken. William Davies

novel on sadomasochism Venus in Fur, when in bursts Vanda (Joanna Richards), crude, abrasive and assertive, two hours later than she was booked to arrive. Vanda, it transpires, has learned the entire play by heart. As they read, it seems Thomas’s own character has come to life, but unlike Pygmalion’s sculpture, this one is not content to bend to her maker’s will. Or is she really Venus come to earth to torture Thomas for fun? Joanna Richards is captivating, snapping instantaneously between the roles of the brash but intelligent actress Vanda with a Bronx accent, and the character Vanda von Dunayev with a Russian accent. As Dunayev she’s reserved and haughty, while actress Vanda is flirty to start with, becoming more dominant and manipulative as the play progresses and their characters merge. Craig Alexander as playwright Novachek scrabbles to maintain creative and real control of the play, gradually losing himself to the more intelligent, dominant character. The set is beautiful and unnerving, reminiscent of Georgio de Chirico’s art, featuring a concrete wall with dappled blue shadows, a grid of headshots and a mounted ram’s head, a chaise longue and animal skins. The varyingly stark white and muted rich warm lighting, along with a dramatic sound design with lightning effects, complete the unsettling mood. Again, Ms Stacey and The Street have created a fascinating, well-crafted surreal thriller. Cathy Bannister Joanna Richards and Craig Alexander in Venus In Fur. Photo: Michael Higgs.

Venus In Fur By David Ives. The Street Theatre, Childers Street, Canberra. Directed by Caroline Stacey. Aug 21 - Sep 2. “I’D be careful if I were you. When you obtain your ideal, she may be more cruel than you care for.” Playwright Thomas Novachek (Craig Alexander) has finished auditions for his play, an adaptation of the classic Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au

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Happy Birthday, Wanda June By Kurt Vonnegut. Canberra Repertory, directed by Cate Clelland. Theatre 3, Canberra. July 19 - Aug 4. HAPPY Birthday, Wanda June amusingly juxtaposes and caricatures disparate people with contrasting attitudes, clearly setting out to highlight our collective human foibles. But, rather than reveal the contradictions in the sociopolitical environment of 1960s and 1970s America, the play delivers somewhat blunt conclusions. It deals heavyhandedly with notions of war, ownership of others, naïve idealism, and killing for pleasure and status rather than show us the more nuanced motives for the actions of individuals, communities, and nation states - some of which might reveal themselves if approached with a lighter touch. Canberra Rep’s production of the play was staged imaginatively, with a detailed, colourful set that suited the U.S. city apartment circa 1970 setting and character; some beautiful costuming; carefully planned and controlled lighting; and surprising sound effects, in surround sound, no less. The audience may need to set aside some actors’ enthusiastic character interpretations in order to appreciate the play’s waggishness in mixing caricature, heavy irony, and frequent bursts of wit, but its waggishness was not lost. The performances in particular of Antonia Kitzel, David Bennett, and newcomer Iain Murray added a great deal of charm both to the play’s pedestrian concerns and to its playful depiction of a heavenly afterlife. John P. Harvey and Michele E. Hawkins

that they can enjoy an evening of illicit sex. Needless to say, we don’t see any sex and nobody gets the flat for themselves, but there is plenty of confusion, undressing and human traffic. Experienced director Narelle Shorey assembled a strong cast. It was very professionally performed on a realisticlooking set. Outstanding was Paul Carey as the totally confused Philip Markham. Carey cut a comic, bewildered figure as the chaos unfolded around him. Fiona Manders as Joanna Markham was equally good, adapting accent, manners and facial expressions worthy of the manor born. Matt O’Connor, as the interior designer Alistair Spenlow, gave an energetic performance as a deceptively effeminate character who in reality had heterosexual designs on the maid, a role that was well played by Chandra Ennis. Shawn Brack as Henry Lodge, Markham’s business partner, played his role to perfection. His strong acting and timing of one-liners was superb. Cath Willacy, as famous children’s author Olive Harriet Smythe, looked very much the part. It was Willacy’s introduction to the proceedings that almost brought the house down with laughter when the cast resorted to baby language while discussing Smythe’s Woof Woof dog book series. The cast was complemented by good performances from Jodi Williams (Linda Lodge), Wayne Rees (Walter) and Britt Gatto (Miss Wilkinson) in supporting roles. Move Over Mrs Markham was top entertainment that had this reviewer cracking up with laughter. Ken Cotterill

Pack Of Lies By Hugh Whitemore. Javeenbah Theatre, Nerang, Gold Coast. Director: Nathan Schulz. July 5 - 15. BASED on a true story, Pack Of Lies deals with the covert operations of two Russian spies in suburban London in the early sixties. Barbara - Kate Armon, Bob - Craig Smith and daughter Julie - Hope Di Sessa have lived in their comfy home for a number of years. About five years ago a ‘Canadian’ couple Helen - Amy McDonald and Peter - Ken Sauers moved in across the street and they all became the best of friends. Mr Stewart - Graham Scott, a ‘Government’ man, calls at the Jackson home and starts asking a lot of questions about their various neighbours. Without giving too much away he convinces the Jacksons to allow their upstairs room to become an observation post. Nathan Schulz has woven drama and intrigue with the strong performances of his cast and technical support, resulting in a first class production. An entertaining drama, full of suspense. Roger McKenzie

The Goat Or Who Is Sylvia? By Edward Albee. University of Adelaide Theatre Guild Inc. Little Theatre, University of Adelaide. Aug 4 - 18. THE Goat Or Who Is Sylvia? centers on relationships and secrets, but The Goat delves even deeper into the psyche. The play is also about love and loss; the limits of our tolerance. Matt Houston’s dedicated and detailed direction leaves us uneasy but fascinated. It is impossible to look away. Rachel Burfield as Stevie commands the stage, taking us through the gamut of emotions. She understands Albee and brings out his every subtlety. Gary George is perfect as the tortured husband Martin. His timing enables the play to move at the rapid pace demanded of this play. Peter Davies as Ross, shows us Ross torn between his friendship with Martin and his disgust at Martin’s relationship with Sylvia. I feel he could have used humour to a greater effect in the earlier scenes with Martin. Benjamin Quirk’s acting debut as Billy ‘the kid’ is particularly commendable. We can see, feel and sympathise with his pain. A compelling performance. I felt the use of a soundscape at the beginning of the play and in the transitions would have further developed the tension. The Goat or Who is Sylvia? is not a play for everyone, but it is an experience in theatre that will live with you for a long time. Barry Hill

Move Over Mrs Markham By Ray Cooney and John Chapman. Cairns Little Theatre. July 6 - 14. MOVE Over Mrs Markham is a classic farce, heavily dependent on chaos and mistaken identities. Set in the Markham’s flat over a small publishing company, the farce begins when various characters require the flat vacant so 78 Stage Whispers

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Perplex.

Perplex By Marius von Mayenburg. Joh Hartog Productions. Bakehouse Theatre, Adelaide. Aug 15 - 25. PERPLEX may well prove to be a show that lives up to its title for most audiences, but director Joh Hartog has come up trumps with this outstanding production: a funny, heady, potent blend of the surreal with the absurd, set within the confines of a seemingly ordinary middle-class dwelling that actually intensifies the strangeness of what transpires there… Four performers - Lisa Harper Campbell, David Hirst, Clare Mansfield and Eddie Morrison - sustain a rather remarkable ensemble effort throughout the non-stop 100 minutes of Perplex. They may present themselves to us with their own names attached, but it’s not long before identity in this particular environment proves itself to be a notably fluid construct. Equally capable of slipping and changing are the characters’ relations with - and feelings toward each other. There are all manner of possibilities to get pleasurably lost in here, and a great number of themes to chew on. Happily, lots of laughs are also served up for our enjoyment. Crucial contributions are provided by Tammy

Boden’s memorable set and costume design, while Stephen Dean’s lighting and sound are subtly effective. It is rare indeed to encounter a show that intrigues, challenges, stimulates, and entertains, all in one lively, wellpaced package. Perplex covers all these bases (and probably more). Anthony Vawser Lysistrata By Aristophanes. Tempest. Directed by Susie Conte. The Studio, Subiaco Arts Centre. WA. July 10 - 14. FEMINIST theatre company Tempest presented Lysistrata, written in 411BC, at least in part as a comment on femininity, sex, power and politics in 2018. A condensed version of Aristophanes’ classic, the aesthetic was unapologetically pink and pretty, while the vibe was power. Featuring an all-female cast, this production drew from contemporary catch phrases and situations. Recent WAAPA graduate Stephanie Somerville was excellent in the title role, bringing a mix of strength, sexiness and stubbornness to the leader of the world’s most famous sex strike. Amy Welsh was warm and funny as Kalonike, and her Trump-like politician a highlight. Natalie

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Online extras! Creditors Director David Mealor discusses the play’s impact on audiences. https://youtu.be/DcQTQgAVb_k

Matt Crook and Peter Kowitz in Creditors. Photo: Chris Herzfeld.

di Risio gave elegance to Stratyllis. Summary Botha was picture perfect as Lampito - with Spartan physical form, and her doubling as the sex starved husband of Imogen Rose Flint’s strong Myrrhine was one of the show’s funniest scenes. Tempest’s take on Lysistrata was funny, relevant and well-presented, while remaining loyal to the classic text. Kimberley Shaw

Manipulation is key to this story, in which Gustav uses words and half-truths to seed doubt in young sculptor Adolph’s perception of his slightly older wife Tekla and their male/female relationship, then later, parallel doubts in Tekla’s mind about Adolph. This is a coldly calculating and ultimately lethal deconstruction of a marriage, done by suggestion, all the while with Gustav’s disarming smile and ready laugh. Peter Kowitz embodies the vindictive Gustav in a Creditors towering and controlled performance. By August Strindberg - a new version by Duncan Graham. Caroline Craig’s brilliant and multilayered performance State Theatre Company SA. Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival as Tekla provides light in the play’s psychologically dense Centre. July 20 - Aug 5. atmosphere. Matt Crook as the jittery sculptor Adolph is compelling DUNCAN Graham’s adaptation of August Strindberg’s and effective in the context of the play’s style that pays Creditors is tense, thrillingly surreal and frequently very funny. homage to Strindberg’s wish to “reflect the unconscious In a series of encounters between three people on the through the language of the conscious”. stylish multi-level outdoor timber deck of a health resort, Director David Mealor ensures the tension builds as the the three only all come together in a powerful and shocking audience watches emotional debt and deception unfold. We begin to ask a question: what are the costs of love? scene near the end. Groups of two prevail. We are always just as aware of, or unsettled by, the one off stage, Lesley Reed however. With his feisty female character Tekla, Strindberg turns Festen the tables on people’s perception of him as misogynist and By David Eldridge. Play Dead Theatre. Rippon Lea Estate Ballroom, Rippon Lea House and Gardens. Elsternwick. July does it as frequently as he throws misogyny in our faces through the disarmingly charming yet manipulative older 5 - 22. man, Gustav. THIS production is a stunning example of site-specific theatre. The opulence of the ballroom and the depth of 80 Stage Whispers

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stage area it provides are all used in a highly creative and effective manner. The attention to detail in the set and the beautifully choreographed movement gives the performance a sense of elegance and eloquence. The arresting performances from each cast member maximise the impact of the disturbing narrative that unfolds without losing any of the irony and black humour. Christian (Mark Yeates) is a pivotal role, played with a good measure of intensity. Helge (Adrian Mulraney) effectively conveys the arrogance that makes his character so despicable. Poul (Tref Gare) captures the tone of the black comedy perfectly and provides some much-needed comic relief to the dark subject matter. The Little Girl (Eloise Henry) is particularly charming and adds a very spectral quality to the play. The production often appears to have a Visconti (The Leopard, 1963) style approach to the staging and this makes the performance quite unique. Some strategies to engage the audience more with the setting and the site overall, in order to allow the interactive potential of the space to emerge, would undoubtedly enhance the experience. Nonetheless, this is a well-crafted production that offers a powerful, unusual and visually stunning performance. Patricia Di Risio Dial M For Murder By Frederick Knott. Pymble Players (NSW). July 25 - Aug 11. PYMBLE Players’ production of the classic thriller Dial M for Murder was an intriguing and highly entertaining afternoon at the theatre. Tony Wendice (Brendan Estridge) is a retired pro Tennis player who has married Margot (Karen Pattinson) for money. Discovering she has been having an affair with an American friend, Max (Dan Ferris), Tony plans to have her killed, bribing an old university friend Lesgate (David Allsopp) to do the deed. Things don’t go to plan and a smart Inspector of Police (Tom Sweeney) is brought into the action. Joy Sweeney has delivered a tightly blocked show on the small Pymble stage and dressed it brilliantly, making you feel like you were in England in the 50’s. The lighting, designed by Graham Boswell, was effective to set the mood of scenes and overall tone of the show. The actors all played their roles perfectly. Estridge oozed charm and was brilliant when fumbling around trying to cover his tracks. Karen Pattinson looked and acted the housewife role down to a T and her chemistry with Dan Ferris as her lover felt very genuine. Tom Sweeney was impressive as the Inspector, quite comical with his spitfire questioning of Margot and Tony. David Allsopp played the smallish role of the mystery man Lesgate convincingly and never overplayed the attack scene. All the technical elements worked well except for a loud thunder clap that was way too loud for the small hall. A polished production of a classic thriller. James Russell

Peepshow By Isabel Wright. Newcastle Theatre Company. NTC Theatre, Lambton (Newcastle). July 14 - 28. AS the title suggests, English author Isabel Wright’s play gives audience members peeps into the lives of the residents of four adjoining apartments. And, in this staging by director Pearl Nunn, it was a brisk and enjoyable work. The set designed by Amy Wilde had rooms in the apartments side by side, with the walls denoted by such things as strings of glass beads and each having very different furnishings and decorations, such as wall photos and paintings. The people occasionally went into other apartments, in one case amusingly to borrow a bottle opener, and at other times wanting to see members of the opposite sex they have been attracted to. And their words and actions said a lot about them. Allison Van Gaal’s always drinking George told irritated hubby Ben (Carl Gregory) that she’s “entertaining” when consuming alcohol; Ben Louttit’s selfcentred Richard bossed Bridget Barry’s Sharon before heading off to look at a sexy neighbour; Belinda Hodgson’s Sarah, who has moved in with friend Kate (Milly Lambert), was uncertain about what she wanted to do, with the frustrated Kate giving her sharply worded advice; and a sole occupant, Loner (Roger Ly), spent most of his time looking at an attractive woman on his hand-held computer and hoping he would get the chance to talk to her. Not far into the brisk play, I was seeing people I have known. Ken Longworth Crazy Brave By Michael Gurr. La Mama Courthouse Theatre. July 4 - 15. OPENING night of Crazy Brave felt like an homage to the very perceptive, insightful and unique individual that was Michael Gurr. Crazy Brave is a play about, well, ostensibly the politics of the Labor Party and about individuals, on the far Left, motivated by a desire to deconstruct what we have to create a more ‘fair’ world. It is a moving and emotional work. Politics and identity appear inseparable for Michael Gurr. It is very much a play of its era, and a particularly courageous undertaking by Director Melanie Beddie. She proves herself to be strong and capable despite not having the writer on close call except perhaps in spirit. Crazy Brave is a little bit talking heads. It is best suited to a skilled cast with strong and well-trained voices. It’s a play of its time - first produced 18 years ago. The romantic old politician is played by Tom Considine in a marvelously clear and tangibly fleshed out manner. He is a witty true believer. His perspective is tinged with an ironic hindsight. Grant Foulkes is an engaging actor; his character Nick’s genuine, quirky and obsessive nature is convincingly conveyed. Alice, Crazy Brave’s main protagonist, is played well by Sharon Davis. She appears to be just a truly nice and ordinary looking young woman.

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The other three characters: Deborah played by Chanella Macri, Paul by Benjamin Nichol and Jim by Andrew Carolane are well fleshed out. Suzanne Sandow

Visually, the performance is stunning. The stage is set with piano which is masterfully played by Jayce Mcneill. There’s a chaise, a table with the letters and a ladder, plus a few surprise set pieces. The lighting by Emma Healy is great at creating the right atmosphere. Visual highlights involve The Dark Room the scattering of handfuls of rose petals. By Angela Betzien. Stooged Theatre. Civic Playhouse, Toward the end, Melina and Lia cleverly handle a Newcastle. Aug 1 - 4. costume change by inviting the audience to share their own AUSTRALIAN playwright Angela Betzien’s play, set in a Love Letters to F**kbois. The show’s power lies in room in a remote Northern Territory motel, had mainly rave authenticity and this genuine connection. The whole room reviews when its first overseas production opened in bonding over our past relationship failures reminds us of London last November. And, watching this engrossing and the shared human experience. often darkly amusing staging by Stooged Theatre, it was Kiesten McCauley easy to see why, because the situations could occur anywhere. Switzerland The play shows the interactions of three pairs of people, By Joanna Murray-Smith. Pigeonhole Theatre. Directed by who have been in the room at different times, with it Jordan Best. The Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre. July 3 becoming clear near the end that there have been links - 14. between them. The first pair to arrive are Anni (Jan Hunt), a GRIPPING. Tense. Hilarious. A sparkling gem of brilliant government youth worker looking after a troubled teenage characterisation and vicious wit. Pigeonhole takes Joanna girl, Grace (Maike Strichow), who was caught in a Murray-Smith’s Switzerland and applies Jordan Best’s dangerous situation. And it soon is evident that Grace is incredible facility for flow, timing and nuance to create a herself violent. breathtaking experience. At the centre of it all is the The next couple seen are Stephen (Mathew Lee), a virtuoso performance of Karen Vickery as Patricia policeman who has been the best man at a fellow cop’s Highsmith. Highsmith, in real life a massively successful nearby wedding and has clearly drunk too much, and his thriller writer whose novels formed the basis for Hitchcock’s concerned wife, Emma (Samantha Lambert), who is Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr Ripley, was pregnant with their first child. famously unlikeable. Vickery captures the cynical, abrasive The last arrivals are a bruised and bleeding Aboriginal and impulsive nature of the scripted Highsmith (and by all boy, Joseph (Neville Williams Boney), and another accounts, that is what she was like). She is both hilarious policeman, Craig (Mark Pegler), who has just been involved and compelling. in a brutal event. Her foil in this play is the underling sent by her publisher Director Vanessa Bates and the actors had watchers on to get her to sign a contract for one last Tom Ripley exploit. the edge of their seats, with audience members intrigued Lachlan Ruffy’s Edward Ridgway at first comes across as a by such things as the cloth dog’s head mask Grace was naif idealist, a juicy fly for Highsmith as spider to chase initially seen wearing and Joseph’s elegant white flooraround her study. As they talk, he starts exploiting chinks in length wedding gown. her armour: her curiosity, boredom and vanity. There are Ken Longworth hints of her maltreatment of a previous young man sent by the same publisher, and suggestions that she identifies Love Letters to F**kbois strongly with the murderous tendency of her psychopath Written, devised and directed by Melina Wightman and Lia protagonist. Adding to the tone of danger are Highsmith’s Stark. Metro Arts Theatre. Aug 9 - 18. prized collection of vintage weaponry, displayed in neat TWO women in wedding dresses, a pile of brutally shelves. And there develops a strange and dark sexual honest letters and a pitch perfect pianist. These ingredients tension between this older woman and the young man. form the recipe for an evening of absolute hilarity, tinged All this makes for a show which is riveting end to end. with the sharp pangs of heartache that is Love Letters to Beg, borrow or steal a ticket if you can. F**kbois. This engaging and interactive show speaks to the Cathy Bannister shared loneliness that runs rampant in modern society. The script isn’t sexist; it’s f**kboi-ist. It’s a heartbroken The Lion in Winter but ultimately hopeful show. The letters are wonderfully By James Goldman. Ipswich Little Theatre. Director: David written, directed and acted by Melina Wightman and Lia Austin. Incinerator Theatre, Ipswich. July 12-28 Stark. Plucked at random, the format creates a controlled WE all love characters to hate and there’s no shortage of chaos that builds your anticipation. It also keeps the show them in James Goldman’s 1996 dysfunctional-family fresh for the performers. historical drama The Lion in Winter. Set in France at These women are hilarious, strong, vulnerable and Christmas 1183, it sets up a battle for the English throne brave. While they harshly harpoon the myriad f**kbois that between the ruling monarch Henry II, his wife Eleanor of have crossed their paths, they apply the toughest critiques Aquitaine, and his three sons, Richard, Geoffrey, and John. to themselves. 82 Stage Whispers

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Danny Adcock & Rachel Alexander in Moby Dick. Photo: Marnya Rothe.

The fun and games begin when this family from hell all assemble at Chinon, France for the festive season. Adrian Carr’s King Henry is a lovable rogue, a serial philanderer, and a man who relishes pitting his sons against each other. In his hands, Goldman’s caustic wit ripples with venom whenever he is on stage. It’s a performance of pithy power. Opposite him as Eleanor, Linda Shapcott, who previously played the part for Ipswich Little Theatre nine years ago, is just as venomous, just as caustic, and just as devious in her desire to get what she wants. Together they spar brilliantly like prize-fighters searching for the killer punch. Steven Carmichael stands-out as the brooding warrior son Richard, whilst Kyle Breeze’s Geoffrey displays naked ambition that we know he’ll never fulfil. Kari Sterling (Alias), Matthew Levy (John) and William Sampson (Phillip) have their moments and all add to this high-octane drama. Set and costumes clearly delineate the period, while David Austin’s clear-cut direction is a cut above the norm. This is classy community theatre! Peter Pinne

for Jove, well-known now for their signature of poetic and physical skills, this Moby Dick has a fine pedigree. Danny Adcock is a compelling, nuggetty Captain Ahab obsessed with revenge against the mighty whale who took his leg. Also setting sail are Melville’s exotic, multi-racial characters, four here played by women with varied effectiveness - including a Polynesian prince/ss (Wendy Mocke), a proud Indian harpooner (Vaishnavi Suryaprakash) and a Nantucket Quaker (Francesca Savige). Tom Royce-Hampton is vitally true as the Irish Ishmael, narrating the tale, and Bryden White-Tuohey is a nicely malevolent sailor. Rachel Alexander is the crazed AfroAmerican boy, Pip; Badaidilaga Maftuh-Flynn, the African Daggoo; Jonathan Mill, the ever amiable Stubbs: and Mark Barry strong as the ship’s owner. The challenge for all and each is to voice Welles’ poetic often philosophising text, yet establish in brief time real and urgent characters, and drive the drama with good measure and clarity. Adam Cook’s production sometimes falls between these stools, despite Mark Thompson’s authentic and cluttered ship-deck, moodily lit by Gavan Swift. Moby Dick Vocals skills are this time not all uniformly powerful and By Orson Welles, based on the Herman Melville novel. Sport there’s generalised falsity in some of the on-deck carry-on. for Jove. Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre. Aug 9 - 15. There remains though, alive in the Melville/Welles text, BASED on Herman Melville’s one great novel, adapted some memorably powerful moments. And the whale gets for the London stage by Orson Welles, and staged by Sport to win in the end. Martin Portus Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au

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Company. Photo: Nick Morrissey.

Reviews: Musicals Company Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim. Book: George Furth. Griffith Musical Theatre. Director: Jacqui Somerville. Musical Director: Heidi Loveland. Choreographer: Joseph Simons. Powerhouse, Brisbane. July 28 - Aug 4. COMPANY the musical is so distinctively 70s that it’s difficult to revive. Jacqui Sommerville’s production tries a contemporary update; mobile phones permeate the action, skinny jeans are the fashion statement, and for most of the time it works. Like every Griffith musical theatre production, the vocals and harmony are excellent, likewise the dialogue scenes, which have snap and bite. Jerrod Smith was an appealing Bobby, a man with many acquaintances but few friends. His “Marry Me a Little” had genuine pathos. Julia Pendrith and Alex Watson brought warmth and reality to the continually competing-with-eachother couple Sarah and Harry, whilst Kyra Thompson was a marvellously manic Amy. Others to impress were Hannah Bennett as the much-married Joanne and Chenaya Aston as the dumb air-hostess April. But it’s the musical’s showpieces you remember and they all worked like a dream. Amy’s “Not Getting Married Today” was a riot, “Barcelona” with Smith and Aston was funny and sexy, “Side by Side by Side” was a showstopper, Bennett’s “The Ladies Who Lunch” was as dry as a martini and Smith’s emotional finale “Being Alive” couldn’t have been better. The only problem I had with Sommerville’s production was the languid pace of the songs, which made a long 84 Stage Whispers

show even longer. But this is minor carping about what was a very good production of a Broadway classic. The setting and attitudes of the original might have dated but the incisive examination of marriage has not. Peter Pinne Kiss Me, Kate Music and lyrics by Cole Porter. Book by Sam and Bella Spewack. Gold Coast Little Theatre, Southport. Director: Andrew Cockcroft-Penman. June 30 - July 28. GCLT’s production of Kiss Me, Kate blends culture, class and Cole Porter’s memorable score into a great theatrical experience. In this fresh approach, the director has assembled a talented cast and a basic, workable set complete with Shakespearian costumes in a predominately black and white theme to convey the off-stage/on-stage battles of the previously married leading lady and leading man with hilarious results. As the volatile Lilli Vanessi/Katherine, Naomi Mole gives a strong performance while as her ex, Fred Graham/ Petruchio, Simon Stone is masterful and commanding. Tess Burke, as the man-chasing blonde bombshell Lois Lane/ Bianca is a delight and is the perfect foil for Jack Harbour’s gambling Bill Calhoun/Lucentio. The supporting cast all have their opportunity to shine and the novel use of several different choreographers brought out the best in each of the ensemble routines. Alongside director Andrew Cockcroft-Penman, the production team included Caroline Taylor as musical

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Little Women the Broadway Musical, while based on a novel written in 1869, still holds relevance for a modern audience. Jo’s bravery in the face of the social norms that served to ‘keep women in their place’ serves as a great reminder of how much closer we are as a society to equality for all, yet how far we still have to travel. The cast and crew Little Women - The Broadway Musical of this production ought to be very proud of the high Book by Allan Key. Music by Jason Howland. Lyrics by Mindi standard of show they delivered and their abilities to convey Dickstein. Directed by Pip Mushin. Griffith University the important political subtext of the narrative. Queensland Conservatorium. Visy Theatre, Brisbane Kiesten McCauley Powerhouse. July 13 - 20. IT’S always a delight to view a performance packed with Avenue Q talent and enthusiasm such as this. Music & Lyrics: Robert Lopez & Jeff Marx. Book: Jeff Whitty. Nicole Herreen as Jo was wonderfully charismatic and Hobart Repertory Theatre. Director: Darren Sangwell. spunky. Every time she stepped on stage it was hard to Musical Director Aaron Powell. Playhouse Theatre, Hobart. watch anyone else. Emma Kavanagh played a perfect Beth July 14 - 28. and Paige Byrne was a beautifully loving Marmee. Paige AVENUE Q - a puppet show musical for grownups and Nicole in particular should be commended for their (sometimes referred to as the adult version of Sesame magnificent singing. The rest of the cast were entertaining Street) - is a show packed with characters, the puppeteers to watch. Everyone picked up their cues well and executed as important as their felt and fur charges. With ten puppets their blocking effectively. and eight handlers (often two handlers for a puppet) the The music was spectacular. The live band under the action could have looked awkward, but was smooth, slick baton of musical director and conductor Dominic and fast-paced, due in equal part to the excellent direction Woodhead was perfectly on point. Choreography from of Daren Sangwell and to the polished performers. Joseph Simons was lively and period appropriate. Sharon Jeremy Pyefinch (Rod) and Samantha James-Radford (as Clarke’s costumes were also right for the era in which the Lucy the Slut) are young, highly accomplished performers, story is set. Set design by Rachel Edwards was one of the and were in good company with sweet couple John most impressive aspects of the production. Rachel created Hoggart (Princeton) and Hannah Powell (Kate Monster). multi-purpose spaces for the variety of scenes needed. director and numerous choreographers including Tess Burke (who also doubled as dance captain). Bring back more of these fabulous shows! Wunderbar! Roger McKenzie

Little Women - The Broadway Musical. Photo: Nick Morrissey.

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The cheeky Bad Idea Bears struck a chord with the audience - Samantha Sangston and Esther Hoggart were hilarious. A special mention to Nick Paine (Brian), whose skilful experience assisted but didn’t eclipse newcomer Grace Nguyen (Christmas Eve). Musical director Aaron Powell led a fine band that rocked along at a pace. Sets, lighting sound and production elements were excellent in that they didn’t intrude everything added up, creating a fine show, with catchy songs - I’ll be singing “There’s a Fine, Fine Line” for days. This is a coming of age story. Diversity, difference and acceptance, with themes of unemployment, political correctness, being homeless and intimate relations, are just some of the life lessons to be learned from Avenue Q. Congratulations to Hobart Repertory Theatre for bringing it to Hobart - they have had to include three more shows. Bring your sense of humour and park your inhibitions at the door. Merlene Abbott Barnum Music by Cy Coleman. Lyrics by Michael Stewart. Book by Mark Bramble. Mousetrap Theatre, Redcliffe, Qld. July 27 Aug 12. THIS musical is based on the life of Phineas Taylor (P.T.) Barnum, as he followed his belief that there is a sucker born every minute and, with the right amount of humbug, you can achieve wonders that people will pay to see. He is supported by the rationality of his wife, Chairy, as he introduces the oldest woman in the world, Tom Thumb, Jumbo the elephant and tours with Swedish opera singer, Jenny Lind, before ultimately joining James Bailey to form the famous circus which bore their names. Director Theresa Kendal has amazingly brought the circus atmosphere to the Mousetrap stage, from the clowns greeting the audience, to the mood, singing, acting and movement on the stage. There was no trapeze artist, but there were plenty of acrobats, jugglers and even Jumbo the elephant. The music was well controlled by musical director and pianist James Bovill, but some of the soloists need

more oomph. The large cast moved so very well on this small stage - a credit to choreographer, Tamara Jackson. Jonathan Sweeper as Barnum and Karen Matthews as Chairy were the solid rocks on which the production succeeded. Courtney Perkins as the ring master of the circus, and this play, was very good indeed. He later appeared as Bailey. Fay Richards was an excellent “oldest woman”, while Rachel Harris sang and acted opera singer Jenny Lind. The rest of the cast, including the large ensemble, interacted, sang and moved really well. Mousetrap has brought off a good production of a challenging musical for a small theatre. Anyone going to the circus? William Davies The Mikado By Gilbert and Sullivan. GSOV. Director: Andrew McGrail. Musical Director: Timothy John Wilson. Darebin Arts and Entertainment Centre. July 19 - 22. I HAVE often seen Andrew McGrail perform for GSOV, but this is the first time I’ve seen him direct and I was impressed. It’s difficult to find something new to add to this old warhorse, but Andrew certainly did that. It opened with a prologue taken from the film “Topsy Turvy”, detailing the events that led up to the creation of The Mikado. The highlight was the Ko Ko of Luke Belle, whose cheeky smile, winning personality, lovely, clean baritone, excellent diction and comic timing were a delight. As Nanki Poo, Cameron Sibly had a more robust tenor than I am used to in this role. His singing was impressive and he reined it in to balance perfectly in the Madrigal. The Three Little Maids were very good as gushing teenagers, with frenetic energy. Melanie O’Brien displayed a warm mezzo as Pitti Sing, while Sofia Laursen Habel as Yum Yum has a less mature voice and will need to work on her intonation. She and Cameron were a most convincing couple. Jordan Kahler was a younger Katisha than we are used to, but her big voice and personality were used effectively.

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Legally Blonde The Musical. Photo: Grant Leslie.

She was very funny, towering over the hapless Ko Ko in the finale. Andrew Alessi, as the Mikado, has a lovely young baritone, while ever reliable Gianfranco Filonzi was a haughty Pooh Bah. The large chorus did well, and it was pleasing to see so many younger choristers. The costumes varied between English and Japanese, but it didn’t seem to matter. This was an entertaining and innovative look at one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most popular works. Graham Ford Legally Blonde The Musical Music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin. Book by Heather Hach. Packemin Productions. Riverside Theatre Parramatta. July 27 - Aug 11. SOME musicals show their age, but Legally Blonde is a production which has become more topical since it debuted, not less. The central character is Elle - a blonde, pink loving, Chihuahua carrying shopaholic who gives the outward impression of being on the shallow side. She turns the tables on the snooty law school at Harvard University and her ex-boyfriend - by displaying street smarts. On the way, a male lecturer Callahan (in the style of Harvey Weinstein) attempts to exploit the power he has over the vulnerable student, but is powerfully rebuffed. Packemin Productions piled plenty of pink on the Parramatta platform (pardon the puns). A well drilled and enthusiastic chorus was the backbone of this lively and colourful production, with lots of cute dancing.

Their discipline was upstaged momentarily by top flight performances from their two four legged colleagues. The Chihuahua and Bulldog pets (Bruiser and Rufus) did not put a paw wrong. What was the treat which kept these pooches running in the right direction so perfectly? Mikayla Williams, as Elle, was poised and professional. Rodney Dobson as Callahan had suitable gravitas as the law lecturer. The male leads Emmett (Kyle Sapsford) and Warner (Joshua Keane) also looked the part, but these characters are always put into the shade when the smoking hot UPS man swaggers onto the stage. The production sweeps from a restaurant to a campus, to a classroom, to a dorm. A clever set (built in regional Orange) which dropped down and rolled off the stage kept the action moving swiftly. This was a tight and slick production. David Spicer Urinetown Music and Lyrics by Mark Hollman, Book and Lyrics by Greg Kotis. Melville Theatre (WA).Directed by Craig Griffen. July 6 - 21. URINETOWN is not your conventional, happy musical (as you are informed several times during the show). Dark, bizarre, with a dreadful title, it is more than a little different. Melville Theatre’s latest production played to full houses, delighted with this odd, but well presented show.

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Stage Whispers 87

Rohan Browne, Phoenix Mendoza, Baylie Carson and Josie Lane in The Boy From Oz. Photo: Jeff Busby.

Online extras! Check out Rohan Browne performing “Not The Boy Next Door”. Scan or visit https://youtu.be/YI0mGnszzbk Director Craig Griffen designed a fascinating set, moved by the cast to create various locales. The most stunning element was a false proscenium made up of more than 700 toilet rolls - used to great effect. Taui Pinker conducted a hidden 5 piece band. Singing was strong throughout, although occasionally it was difficult to hear dialogue over underscoring. Bert Goldsmith played local law enforcer Officer Lockstock, providing a cynical, self-aware and funny narration. He worked beautifully with Erin Craddock - a delightful Little Sally, an urchin with attitude. Hero Bobby Strong was played Kai Thorpe in an impressive Musical Theatre debut. Grace Johnson was a beautiful leading lady as Hope. Daniel Burton relished playing villainous Caldwell B. Cladwell as well as rebellious Joseph Strong. He was wellsupported by Harry Stacey (a flamboyant Mr. McQueen) and Ellie Hart as Senator Fipp. Shanee Osborne brought a gorgeous voice to her first community theatre role as Penelope Pennywise. Urinetown was not a “nice” musical, but it is a very funny one - especially if you like shows that are more than a little dark. Kimberley Shaw Bring It On The Musical Music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Pelican Productions (SA). Norwood Concert Hall. Aug 2 - 5. LESS than a year on from winning the Adelaide Theatre Guide Award for ‘Best Show, Youth Theatre’ with Bring it 88 Stage Whispers

On The Musical, Pelican Productions has brought this slick show back. If audience numbers and enthusiasm are any indication, it has been a winning move. Chock full of competition and personal rivalry, high flying energy, angst, betrayal, young love and high school politics, this musical about cheerleading within two competitive American schools is really about self-image, friendship and being true to oneself. This is a truly ensemble production, with fantastic evenness of performance across the support areas. This includes wonderfully talented and drilled cheer leaders. However, a few individual performances stood out. Scarlett Anthony has star quality and a magnetic stage presence in her role as sweet as apple pie Campbell, while Stephanie Cole is dynamic as feisty, streetwise Danielle. Both sing beautifully. Two audience favourites when I attended were Billie Turner as a wonderfully funny, expressive and nuanced Bridget, together with Sean Jackson, who is fabulous and immensely believable in his role as transgender student La Cienega. The scene between these two, when La Cienega expresses empathy for Bridget’s sense of being different and not worthy, brought a lump to my throat. Director Adam Goodburn keeps the show running at slick pace. This short season of Bring it On The Musical has reinforced Pelican Productions’ ongoing high standard as well as its standing within Adelaide’s Youth Theatre circles. Lesley Reed

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The Boy From Oz Music & Lyrics: Peter Allen. Book: Nick Enright. The Production Company, Director: Jason Langley. Musical Director: Michael Tyack. Choreographer: Michael Ralph. State Theatre, Arts Centre, Melbourne. Aug 11 - 26. THE Boy From Oz is a powerhouse show for the title character, and in Rohan Browne they found the right man. He has a good singing voice and his dancing is amazing. However, it was his natural manner, chatting to the audience, which carried the show. Caroline O’Connor was excellent as Judy Garland. She died early on, but that didn’t stop her returning at various intervals to give Peter good advice. Vocally she really channeled the ageing Judy magnificently. Robyn Arthur was a constant delight as Peter’s mother. Loren Hunter did well as Liza Minnelli but didn’t have Liza’s powerhouse voice. Maxwell Simon was Greg, Peter’s partner, and his rendition of “I Honestly Love You” was heartfelt. The dancing of the ensemble was spectacular, particularly when the Rockettes danced with Rohan. The costumes were dazzling. There was a large set of stairs in the middle of the stage which was used effectively. Strings of lights hung from the flies and changed colour to stunning effect. By the finish there were as many fans of Rohan Browne as of Peter Allen in the audience. Graham Ford

2017 were brought into the present. I’ll never forget where I was that day. And while this play reminds us we’ve come a long way, it also reminds us (embarrassingly) that it all took too damn long. Rose Cooper

A Little Princess Books and Lyrics by Brian Cawley. Music by Andrew Lippa. Directed by Lyn Pelgrave. Beenleigh Theatre Group Inc. Crete Street Theatre. July 6 - 14. THE first thing that struck us about A Little Princess was the amount of work that had gone into the production. This was especially true for the show’s director. Lyn Pelgrave must’ve been very talented at multi-tasking. While A Little Princess wasn’t horrendous, it wasn’t without fault either. There were problems with pitch for some of the musicians and singers. While they weren’t always on the right note, the performers gave it their all. Everyone was very well rehearsed. There were some technical problems with the headworn mics. Even when working, there were times when the volume of the music drowned out the amplified vocals. It was fabulous to see such diversity in the casting of the ensemble. Stand-out performances were delivered by Janice Hancock as Miss Minchin, Brooke Spencer as Lavinia and Beth Hedt as Queen Victoria, while Sienna Alesana as Lottie gave an acting performance that showed a maturity beyond her years. Gaybies There were dozens of set and scene changes. All of By Dean Bryant. Directed by Joshua Maxwell for Jopuka them were handled very smoothly and quickly. The set Productions. Youth Arts Warehouse, Gosford. July 20 - 27. design, construction and painting was outstanding. THIS piece was first conceived (pardon the pun) for The costuming was excellent. It was location and period Melbourne’s Midsumma Festival in 2013 and performed as appropriate. Choreography by Izzy Smith was a highlight a moved reading to rave reviews. The text was derived from and the cast did well to execute the moves and work in a multitude of interviews with children (aged 4-40) of same unison with each other and the music. -sexed couples. To emphasise the authenticity of the While there were some areas for improvement in A Little dialogue, the cast maintain a book-in-hand prop Princess, it was a gallant effort from a dedicated amateur throughout. This updated version also includes reactions to theatre group that clearly puts a lot of time, determination the landmark political events of the past year. and love into their shows. These are the true stories of innocent victims of Kiesten McCauley ignorance and intolerance. And it’s a wordy piece indeed, but there’s enough light and shade and laugh out loud moments to break the tension. Josh Maxwell, himself a ‘gayby’ (a rather notorious one at that - his open letter to the PM going viral on social media last year), assembled a talented and diverse-aged cast of 12 to breathe life and into these stories and endow them with a charm all their own. There’s a palpable bond between cast mates which warmed this cavernous but intimate space on a cold winter night. The war for marriage equality might be over in this country, but this reviewer was brought to tears by the end as the events of December 7, Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au

Stage Whispers 89

Green Day’s American Idiot

Choosing A Show

New Releases Music Theatre International Australasia www.mtishows.com.au Kinky Boots

The exhilarating true story about a struggling shoe factory that will lift your spirits to high-heeled heights. Winner of six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Kinky Boots features a Tony-winning score by Cyndi Lauper and a book by four-time Tony winner Harvey Fierstein. Kinky Boots is full of opportunities for a theatre to flex its artistic muscles with elaborate costumes, exhilarating choreography and a moving and powerful story. Currently available for Community Theatres in Australia only. www.mtishows.com.au/kinky-boots

Green Day’s powerhouse album is brought to life in this electric-rock musical of youthful disillusion. The two-time Tony Award-winning musical Green Day’s American Idiot is based on the Grammy Award-winning multi-platinum album. Johnny, Tunny and Will struggle to find meaning in a post -9/11 world. When the three disgruntled men flee the constraints of their hometown for the thrills of city life, their paths are quickly estranged when Tunny enters the armed forces. American Idiot is a high concept show with strong social messages and endless creative possibilities. Currently available For Community Theatres www.mtishows.com.au/green-days-american-idiot David Spicer Productions www.davidspicer.com The Beast

Written by: Eddie Perfect Black Comedy. Length 140 minutes. Cast: 3 Females and 4 Males. After surviving a nasty near-death experience, a group of close friends wipe the slate clean and embrace a treechange, living a sustainable life in the country. But nature 90 Stage Whispers

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

isn’t always so welcoming, and when the friends are faced with the pressing task of killing a young cow, a chain reaction begins that will see them confront some ugly and shocking truths. Commissioned by the Melbourne Theatre Company in 2013, then revived for a national tour in 2016, this is a cutting, modern day satire that tears our notions of morality to shreds with a hilarious rant on urban culture, organic lifestyles and infidelity. “An enjoyable, laugh-out-loud entertainment.” Melbourne Age www.davidspicer.com.au/shows/beast Agatha Crusty and the Village Hall Murders

PERFORMING ARTS MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2018. VOLUME 27, NUMBER 5 ABN 71 129 358 710 ISSN 1321 5965

All correspondence to: The Editor, Stage Whispers, P.O. Box 2274, Rose Bay North 2030, New South Wales. Telephone: (03) 9758 4522 Advertising: stagews@stagewhispers.com.au Editorial: neil@stagewhispers.com.au PRINTED BY: Spotpress Pty Ltd, 24-26 Lilian Fowler Place, Marrickville, 2204 PUBLISHED BY: Stage Whispers PRE-PRESS PRODUCTION & DESIGN BY: PJTonline Solutions, email: pjtonline@pjtonline.com DISTRIBUTED BY: Gordon & Gotch, 25-37 Huntingdale Road, Burwood, 3125 DEADLINES For inclusion in the next edition, please submit articles, company notes and advertisements to Stage Whispers by October 8th, 2018. SUBSCRIPTION Prices are $39.50 for 6 editions in Australia and $60AUD elsewhere. Overseas Surface Mail (Airmail by special arrangement). Overseas subscribers please send bank draft in Australian currency. Maximum suggested retail is $6.95 including GST. Address of all subscription correspondence to above address. When moving, advise us immediately of your old and new address in order to avoid lost or delayed copies. FREELANCE CONTRIBUTORS Are welcomed by this magazine and all articles should be addressed to Stage Whispers at the above address. The Publisher accepts no responsibility for unsolicited material. Black and white or colour photographs are suitable for production.

Written by: Derek Webb Full length comedy. Length: 110 minutes approx. Cast: 4m 6f (or 3m 7f) Agatha Crusty (pronounced Croosty) is a crime novelist. She’s also pretty adept at solving crimes. And when her sister-in-law Alice invites her to spend a few days with her in the village of Chortelby, it’s not long before she gets caught up in a series of murders which seem directed at members of the All Saints Village Hall committee. With an investigating officer as incompetent as D.I. Twigg, there are plenty of laughs. “This is a play that is going to delight anyone who revels in a traditional comedy/murder with lots of witty lines and funny scenes. But there is also a genuine murder plot.” Amateur Stage Magazine review December 2013 www.davidspicer.com.au/shows/agatha-crusty-and-village-hall-murders Also Agatha Crusty and the Health Spa Murders Agatha Crusty and the Murder Mystery Dinner

DISCLAIMER All expressions of opinion in Stage Whispers are published on the basis that they reflect the personal opinion of the authors and as such are not to be taken as expressing the official opinion of The Publishers unless expressly so stated. Stage Whispers accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of any opinion or information contained in this magazine. LIMITED BACK COPIES AVAILABLE ADVERTISERS We accept no responsibility for material submitted that does not comply with the Trade Practices Act. CAST & CREW Editor: Neil Litchfield 0438 938 064 Sub-editor: David Spicer Advertising: Angela Thompson 03 9758 4522 Digital production: Phillip Tyson 0414 781 008 Contributors: Cathy Bannister, Anne Blythe-Cooper, Mel Bobbermien, Michael Brindley, Rose Cooper, Kerry Cooper, Ken Cotterill, Bill Davies, Coral Drouyn, Jenny Fewster, Graham Ford, Peter Gotting, Frank Hatherley, Jude Hines, John P. Harvey, Barry Hill, Tony Knight, Neil Litchfield, Ken Longworth, Kiesten Mcauley, Rachel McGrath-Kerr, Roger McKenzie, Peter Novakovich, Shannon O’Connell, Peter Pinne, Martin Portus, Sally Putnam, Lesley Reed, Lisa Romeo, Suzanne Sandow, Kimberley Shaw, David Spicer, Penelope Thomas, Anthony Vawser and Carol Wimmer.

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Stage Whispers 91

Musical Spice

Margaret Fulton - Queen Of The Dessert. Photo: Lightbox Photography.

Since I retired from the ABC I have been so busy that I can’t even conceive how I ever had time to work for “aunty”. With a little extra time to play with, I have had the pleasure of traveling around Australia (not in a caravan) but to attend extraordinary performances of We Will Rock You, which I represent on behalf of Queen and Ben Elton. A common thread is that the technical departments of each group has greeted the production with an unparalleled glee and determination to stage their best ever production. The Windmill Theatre Company in suburban Melbourne pitched a giant wall - made of transparent blocks - which were lit in remarkable patterns. CenterStage Geelong had an extraordinary lighting rig and built a giant Freddy Mercury statue, which I am pictured in front of. John X in Hobart commissioned his own unique AV spectacular, which dazzled Tasmanian audiences. And the Metropolitan Players of Newcastle once again lit up the beautiful Civic Theatre. When I stage my own shows at the Bondi Pavilion,

under the banner of the Bondi Theatre Company, they are less technically complicated. Big technical extravaganzas are not possible in the 220 seat venue on the top floor of the Bondi Pavilion. The space is tucked into the sturdy wooden plank lungs of the roof of the building, giving the theatre a unique sound but of course there is no fly tower. Our next production is a quirky musical - Margaret Fulton: Queen of the Dessert. The set will include bits of my old kitchen, left over from a well-timed renovation. I met the cooking icon in 2012 when she was next to the much taller Amy Lehpamer, who played the lead in the Melbourne premiere of the musical. They were quite a sight together. “I always dreamed of being a bluebell dancer unfortunately my legs did not make the grade, so I took up cooking instead,” Margaret Fulton is fond of saying. “Now my dreams have come true with the gorgeous Manon and cast taking on my life in a way I might have

92 Stage Whispers September - October 2018

done, if I had the pins.” (Manon GundersonBriggs is playing Margaret in Sydney season.) Margaret Fulton is about to turn 94 and this year her first cook book was rereleased on its 50th anniversary. Her life story is quite remarkable. Not only was she a single mother who became a national celebrity and taught Australians how to cook, but along the way she mixed with all types, from bohemians in The Rocks, marrying “elegant but

useless men”, to preparing a meal for every Prime Minister at the 1978 Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. The whole cast are waiting with breathless excitement to meeting Margaret in the lead up the production. The musical, by comic writer Doug Macleod and composer Yuri Worontschak, has very good ingredients. The recipe includes six ounces of excellent lyrics and one pint of good music, seasoned with lots of laughs. The title Queen of the Dessert (aka Priscilla) almost always gets a laugh. I discussed this with Margaret’s daughter and she informed that it is probably false advertising. Yes, it is true Margaret has released cook books dedicated to dessert, but at home their main last course was more often made up of a bowl of fruit. It doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, does it? Margaret Fulton: Queen of the Fruit Bowl. David Spicer David Spicer with David Greenwood from CenterStage Geelong.

Online extras! Tour CenterStage Geelong, where We Will Rock You has just wrapped up. https://youtu.be/w6hYt5XZISE

Read scripts, listen to music and order free catalogue at: www.davidspicer.com.au david@davidspicer.com (02) 9371 8458