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In this issue
Hot Shoe Shuffling For 21 Years ...................................................... 8 Aussie musical that conquered the West End returns. Kristin Chenoweth ......................................................................... 10 Original Broadway star of Wicked tours.
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How flowerchildren and Magnormos Bloomed .............................. 14 Melbourne’s little musical theatre company goes Big Time. Building The Dream ....................................................................... 16 Talking to the creatives behind King Kong. Ode To My Grandmother .............................................................. 20 Driving Miss Daisy writer Alfred Uhry. Wild About Toby ........................................................................... 22 A huge year for Toby Schmitz.
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Two Musicals, Two Families ........................................................... 30 The Addams Family and Jersey Boys co-writer Rick Elice.
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Dame Julie Drops In....................................................................... 34 Julie Andrews visits Australia for the first time. Lighting Up Our Stages ................................................................. 38 Priscilla’s LED Magic, Carmen on the Harbour and more. Social Media and Sold Out Shows ................................................. 50 Musical Theatre New Zealand’s Biggest Night ................................ 52
Regular Features
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Stage On Page & Disc
25
Broadway & West End
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History Feature
59
Auditions
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On Stage - What’s On
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Reviews
72
Puzzles
99
Musical Spice
100
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Editorial Dear theatre-goers and theatre-doers, In this edition we focus on the technical wizardry casting its spell on our stages. Given the increasing accessibility and affordability of new technology including LED, I was reminded of a conversation I had with the Lighting Designer at a suburban venue many years ago. “You write great reviews about the performances,” I was told, “but you never mention our lighting.” My reply was along the lines that my unintentional omission was because their lighting had always been good - no black holes, great cueing, etc., but I would be careful to acknowledge that aspect in future.” That seems like ancient history now. With the growth in the use of LED and multi-media, the distinction between scenery and technology grows less clear almost daily. Even in community theatre lighting design is often far more sophisticated now than it was nearly 20 years ago when I had this conversation. Willoughby Theatre Company’s recent production of Les Mis is just one recent example of the way in which community companies are combining minimalist designs with effective atmospheric lighting design. What next? How long till the lighting desk is replaced by a smart-phone app? In the meantime, we raise a toast to our newly-wed layout designer Phillip Tyson and his lovely bride Pariyanut. Apologies for interrupting your honeymoon to start work on the layout.
Idina Menzel, Tony Award winning original Broadway star of Wicked and Rent, headlines the closing weekend of the 2013 Adelaide Cabaret Festival on June 22 ahead of concerts at Sydney Opera House on June 26 and 27 and Hamer Hall, Melbourne on June 30.
Married to the job: Stage Whispers designer Phillip Tyson with his wife Pariyanut.
Yours in Theatre,
Neil Litchfield Editor
CONNECT
Cover image: David Atkins as Max, Jaz Flowers as April and Bobby Fox as Spring in the 21st anniversary production of Hot Shoe Shuffle, opening in Brisbane on May 4, Sydney on July 6 and Melbourne on August 10. See our story on page 8. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 5
Caroline O'Connor will play Rose in The Production Company's first production of 2013, Gypsy, playing from July 10 - 14 at the State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne.
6 Stage Whispers May - June 2013
Online extras!
Caroline O’Connor discusses the thrills of her role in Gypsy. Scan or visit http://youtu.be/LaGwATjkP5w
Online extras!
Stage Briefs
Watch our interview with the cast of One Man, Two Guvnors. Scan or visit http://youtu.be/zphDAf9JXts
The cast of the National Theatre of Great Britain’s One Man, Two Guvnors. Sydney Theatre until May 11. Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse from May 17 to June 29. Photo: Lisa Tomasetti.
Cast members of the new Australian production of Grease: Anthony Callea, Bert Newton, Rob Mills, Gretel Scarlett, Lucy Maunder and Todd McKenney. Photo: Matt Watson.
Online extras!
Stage Whispers chats with Rob Mills, our new Danny Zuko. Scan or visit http://youtu.be/zIx0OjOiQTc www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 7
Hot Shoe Shuffling for 21 Years The Dancing Man - David Atkins is dusting off his tap shoes to help introduce a new generation to Hot Shoe Shuffle - the musical he cocreated. He’s jumping out of his skin to get back on stage because the director of iconic sporting ceremonies in recent times believes that performing is less stressful than pulling the strings behind the scenes. David Spicer reports.
Hairspray, which he directed, you could say that Jaz was a shoe in (pardon the pun) to play April, the long lost sister of the Tap Brothers. The seven lads named after tap moves - Slap, Spring, Buck, Tip, Wing, Slide and of course Tap - are sent on a mission to recreate the famous Hot Shoe David Atkins relishes telling the story about how the musical which has Shuffle to secure their father’s inheritance. now been performed in six countries, and was a hit in the West End, got started. “We had been doing a couple of shows such as Dancing Man and Dynamite and the Hills Centre (in Sydney’s North-west) told us they had a three week vacancy in 12 weeks time.” “Overnight I wrote a one page document of a show called Hot Shoe Shuffle. They said we will have it. But there was no show. The next weekend I got together with Max Lambert and over the weekend, with the help of white wine, we created it.” It went on to tour Australia three times and won an Olivier Award in the West End. David Atkins “It’s a tribute to the musicals of the unapologetically describes it as 40s and 50s and in lots of ways Dein a ‘good old fashioned musical’ Perry (the choreographer) and I which relies on the talents of the dedicated it to the tap dancers who cast. inspired our careers, people like Fred In the original season, aged in Astaire, Gene Kelly and Sammy Davis his thirties, David Atkins could Junior.” twinkle with the best of An avid watcher of a BBC TV special them. The boys are on Hot Shoe Shuffle in those early days required to dance at a level was five-year-old Jaz Flowers. of athleticism which might The Master of Ceremonies. “My grandmother taped it for me. I bring water to the eyes of See David Atkins’ favourite used to watch it every day with my elite sportsmen. Opening Ceremony brother. We split the cast in half and How will he cope 21 But he still needs to moments on page 42. performed everyone’s role. I played years later? dance and work out David Atkins in my lounge room,” she “The role I am playing to keep in form. said. in the show is not a particularly taxing “My Mum passed away about six Auditioning for the only female role dance role. That is one of the reasons I weeks ago and she was dancing until in the musical for the latest season was was attracted to it. It’s more an acting her 80s. You don’t really ever lose a breeze. role. He has two numbers in the show those skills. You hone them and get fit “They asked me to learn this song. I done in soft shoe. again. It is a bit like riding a bike or a said I knew it when I was five.” “It’s the boys that do the heavy horse.” Having already impressed David lifting.” Tackling big projects is in David’s Atkins with her talents as the star of blood. For more than 20 years he was 8 Stage Whispers May - June 2013
the Producer for shows that he was performing in. In 1992 the song and dance man even made the cover of Stage Whispers Magazine (see above). Then came the opportunity of a lifetime. “The dramatic change was in 1998 when I became the Artistic Director for the Sydney Olympics, (and later) the Producer. I became much more engaged behind the scenes.” The success of the Olympics saw David Atkins Enterprises engaged to stage a host of mega events. They ranged from the snow-laden spectacle of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, to the beauty of the opening of the 2011 Rugby World Cup in Auckland, to the desert landscape of the 12th Arab Games in Dohar.
Tap Brothers, David Atkins and Jaz Flowers.
It struck me while watching him at the Sydney launch of Hot Shoe Shuffle that he is relishing the chance of getting back under the spotlight. “It is a lot of fun. Getting back into the show was like meeting an old friend.” This begged the question, is it less stressful being a performer than producing and directing? “Being a producer is much more stressful. As a producer you are responsible for the entire show - for everyone’s salary, the marketing, raising the capital and looking after ticket sales. As an actor you are worried about your performance. That is daunting but you can control how good you are. You can’t predict whether the market is going to buy tickets or what your costs are going to be. There is a whole range of things
that makes commercial producing much more nerve-wracking.” Landing a big part in a major production might be the most stressful part for today’s performers with intense competition from a wider pool of dancers. David Atkins noticed this from the quality of people who auditioned. “More people are dancing, more people are tapping and like all skills in life each generation improves on the previous.” Commercial TV shows like Dancing with Stars obviously helps but he also especially credits Tap Dogs (created by Dein Perry) for making dancing more popular for boys. “Tap Dogs is grungy and street wise. It was like when Michael Jackson released Thriller for the first time. It made dance more masculine, so it was easier for boys to do it. ” It’s also a great way to stay fit and lose weight. Hot Shoe Shuffle has been performed by some highly skilled amateur companies in recent times. My favourite question to cast members is how many kilograms did you lose during the season? I think the record is about eight. Given the furious dancing on display at the launch I suspect that the cast of Hot Shoe Shuffle might need to add some new notches to their belts by the end of the season. Hot Shoe Shuffle opens in Brisbane on May 4, Sydney on July 6, and Melbourne on August 10.
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Kristin Chenoweth From Broadway with Mum and Dad Known to local theatre fans mainly though the Internet, this top Broadway diva is about to tour Australia with her Oklahoma parents - and she couldn’t be more excited. Frank Hatherley phones her in New York.
Kristin Chenoweth
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To Australian ‘musical theatre tragics’ Kristin Chenoweth is best known as the exotically named star of the original Broadway Wicked album. As Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, she sang the brilliantly funny ‘Popular’: just one listen and you were hers forever. Thanks to YouTube, you could also see what the fuss was about. For beginners I recommend starting with the ‘Proshot’ version of ‘Popular’ to delight in her articulation, sense of fun and exquisite comic timing. Then go on to the handheld-from-the-audience recording of her July 2004 final performance of the scene, with Idina Menzel laughing along as Elphaba. Then try one of the several available YouTube versions of her rendition of ‘Glitter and Be Gay’ from Leonard Bernstein’s Candide. Most astonishing is the one she recorded in 2004 with the Boston Pops Orchestra. It’s just her, in a little black dress, with a box of jewellery on a stand, but the delivery is stunning. You might have spotted her on television where she’s appeared in the long-running series The West Wing (04 -06) and Pushing Daisies (07-09), or in three much-loved episodes of Glee (0911). But it’s as a singing/dancing theatre/concert star that we know her best.
So when Stage Whispers was the first to carry the news, via Facebook, Twitter and the website, that she was coming to Australia in June for five concerts the immediate reaction was remarkable. Thousands of readers responded. “It was the biggest reaction we’ve ever had to such an announcement,” says editor Neil Litchfield. When I tell Chenoweth this in a telephone call to New York she literally shrieks with delight. “Yea, yea, that’s fantastic!” she yells. “That makes me so happy! “The internet can be our friend and our foe. But I’m really grateful for it when I hear that people in Australia even know who I am or what I do because of the Internet. “I am more excited for this than I’ve been for anything for a long time. I get fan mail from Australia and I have a lot of friends here in the States that have come from Australia, so I am frankly excited to come and just perform for the community that I love so much which is the theatre folks. “Plus I get to bring my parents over. It’s been their dream to go to Australia, too. It was their 50th wedding anniversary in January and when it looked like the tour was going to work out I gave them a card which said ‘2 tickets to Australia on me’! We’re
coming in a little early and staying a little late so that I can enjoy myself.” I ask about her unusual name. “It’s actually Welsh,” she says. “Yep, the Chenoweths came over from Wales many, many years ago. Last Spring I was excited to be going to perform in Wales and just take a look around and see where those Chenoweths came from because, I don’t know, I’m in the last half of my life surely [she’s 44] and I want to see everything I can see. “But I had a little accident. I’m trying to make up my European dates, so hopefully I’ll get to Wales one day soon.” [Her ‘little accident’ occurred during filming of an episode of The Good Wife in July last year. A lighting rig fell and struck her in the face, leaving her with a skull fracture and rib and hip problems.] “Actually, I’m adopted,” she continues. “I have a lot of Native American heritage but I’m also a Welsh Chenoweth - so I’m both.” Her birth parents were Native Americans? “Yes, we have the information through doctors and lawyers and such. If you look at me, if you REALLY look at me, you can see it - the high cheekbones, the olive skin, how I have spick straight hair.” She giggles. “Of course nobody would know that (Continued on page 12)
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(Continued from page 11)
because I do everything I can to cover it up.” She grew up in Broken Arrow, a suburb of Tulsa, Oklahoma. “It’s in what we call the Bible Belt very, very conservative and Southern. It’s the state next to Texas so it’s very much in that vein - you know, cowboys and ranchers. I go back when I’m feeling homesick and I get on the farm and help my uncle and help my cousins, and remind myself where I’m from, because I think that’s important, especially in this industry. But I’m a
New Yorker and I live in LA as well, so it would be hard for me to go back to Oklahoma and live.” Some of her most recent US concerts can be tracked down on YouTube. Will her Australian tour be an extension of what she’s been doing lately? “I can’t tell my secrets but I’m tailoring my material for Australia. It’s a little bit of opera, musical theatre, country and original music. I have a cast of three - singers, actors and dancers. There’ll be scenes and dancing, not just me standing there.
“I want people to feel sadness and happiness and laugh their butts off. I tell you, it’s a challenge for me to do it.” I did notice, I carefully venture, that ‘Glitter and Be Gay’ and ‘Popular’ have not been in your recent repertoire. We ‘Chenoweth internet fans’ might well be miffed. She laughs. “Well, ‘Glitter’ may or may not be on the docket - wink, wink! And I might have to do ‘Popular’ in a way Australian people have never seen.”
Kristin Chenoweth
Kristin Chenoweth plays the Adelaide Cabaret Festival on 8-9 June, performing with the Adelaide Art Orchestra. She plays Melbourne on 12 June, Brisbane on 14 June and Sydney on 17 June, taking the Adelaide Art Orchestra rhythm section with her, adding local musicians in each state. [Oh, and by the way, she recently told Channel Seven’s The Morning Show that she is “scheduled to get back to Broadway in about a year”.]
Online extras!
Kristin puts her unique spin on great moments for women in Broadway musicals. http://to.pbs.org/13tpI4i 12 Stage Whispers May - June 2013
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The cast of flowerchildren.
How And Magnormos Bloomed Melbourne production company Magnormos is entering its second decade in style, stepping up to stage a season of flowerchildren - the Mamas and Papas story at the Comedy Theatre. David Spicer and Lucy Graham report.
on the work of Australian writers. Aaron has staged new Australian musicals, international works and regular concerts. It’s all been on his ‘credit card’ without one cent of Government funding. The early days were tough. I vividly recall Aaron struggling to pay for a coffee when I met him for a chat (David Spicer paid). Written by AFI award winner Peter The small start for the company has Fitzpatrick, flowerchildren is a musical been a ‘blessing in disguise’, now that about late sixties band sensation The it is about to produce a fully Mamas and The Papas. It has great professional production in the city with music and Jersey Boys style off-stage a budget of many hundreds of drama including a debilitating lovethousands of dollars. triangle, drugs, sex, deceit, alcoholism, “We have had ten years to work out and chronic over-eating. Aaron Joyner the puzzle. We made our mistakes Director Aaron Joyner says the conflict was out in the open. Dedicated to the One I Love, Dream a when we weren’t on the radar. I was “When John Phillips found out his Little Dream and San Francisco (be sure forced to be frugal (to survive) and now our investors think we are not wife was having affair with Denny to wear flowers in your hair) are paying ourselves enough.” (another member of the band) he among the group’s well known hits. He is relaxed and positive about the penned a song for Denny called I Saw Since its original 2011 production, step up in theatre grade. Already the Her Again Last Night and made him the flowerchildren script has been company has had a higher box office sing it as an act of revenge.” tweaked, and, while the intimate It’s hard to imagine how any group setting is being maintained, it has been gross than for all Magnormos’ productions combined for the last could survive such tumult. developed into a fully professional decade. “They were very co-dependent and production with the same cast: Casey He is still taking it step by step but encapsulated the hippie era. There was Donovan as Mama Cass, Laura is hoping to tour flowerchildren across so much tension going on that they Fitzpatrick and Mama Michelle, Matt Australia and New Zealand. were like a bright star which burst. It Hetherington as Papa John and Dan Scratch the surface and Aaron still only lasted four years.” Humphris as Papa Denny. seethes about his company ‘blessing’ The show pivots on the music. Established in 2002 by Aaron California Dreamin’, Monday Monday, Joyner, Magnormos is an independent of missing out on every application to Words of Love, Creeque Alley, musical theatre company with a focus every funding body. 14 Stage Whispers May - June 2013
“We were not doing commercial work. It was funding-friendly work but just kept getting knocked back. “ The Australia Council came up with hundreds of thousands of dollars for Musical Theatre. Instead it went into other programs in Melbourne and Sydney which involved workshops and performances of new work. “Some bright sparks pushed us aside to create a job for themselves. Those have now fallen apart and incredible amounts of money have been wasted,” Aaron Joyner asserts. “We really could have used funding in those days. They knew what we were doing but chose to give it elsewhere.” While those other initiatives disappeared as soon as the Government funding ran out Magnormos keeps marching forward. In September this year it will present a musical triptych at the Melbourne Recital Centre, celebrating the work of Broadway’s Stephen Schwartz, also the company’s international patron. He is flying out for the occasion. Each of the three musicals will be
Online extras!
Check out a trailer for flowerchildren by scanning the QR code or visiting http://youtu.be/iTJsuy90qlw presented on one night, one week apart, beginning with Godspell on Monday 9th September, Pippin on the 16th, and the third show, yet to be announced, on the 23rd. A balance of Australian and international work is the key to its success. “flowerchildren is the story of an American Band, but the writer and the director (me) are Australian.
“I would not even put it on my website Australian.musicals.com. “But doing this type of international work has allowed us to grow. It gets us another step towards staging Australian musicals at a commercial level.” flowerchildren - the Mamas and Papas story plays at Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre from May 18. flowerchildren.com.au
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Building The Dream King Kong will be theatre on the kind of scale producer Carmen Pavlovic dreamed of, but we can barely imagine. Making that dream a reality was entrusted to three key creatives, and Coral Drouyn took the opportunity to get inside information from the dream builders themselves. What transpired is a lesson in collaboration.
The face of Kong. Photo: James Morgan
So the challenge for the team was first to determine IF it could be done, and then HOW to do it. This meant creating the show back to front…with the writer and composers being among the last elements to be added rather than the first. If, as designer Peter England said, it simply wasn’t possible technically, having the book and the score would be a waste of effort. The process defied the laws of logic and musical theatre, and yet there was no other way, they He fills the entire “fly space” above the stage, hovering simply had to have faith in the dream. there like some great flying monster. He is still, waiting, Coral Drouyn: So tell me how it all started. What was harmless and yet intimidating. Normally the flies would the process in the early stages? hold enough scenery for an elaborate production of any other musical - but not any more. He is both astounding Peter England (Production Designer): Well, after the and terrifying….he is Kong, the star of probably the world’s success of the two arena shows (Walking With Dinosaurs and How To Train Your Dragon) we were looking for a new most expensive musical King Kong, which opens in challenge, something on a grand scale but with maybe Melbourne only, in June. To take a B-movie monster and turn him into a leading more heart. Carmen was surfing the net looking for possibilities and we found King Kong, the original 1933 man…er…creature with a heart and emotions that an audience can relate to, is a mammoth task. And then to film. We knew instantly this was it, but we didn’t know if it surround him with a spectacle and original music, as well as could be done. So of course we called Sonny (Global Creatures). a top supporting cast, in a proscenium arch theatre production; well, the difficulties are compounded tenfold. Sonny Tilders (Creature Designer): It’s one of those It’s not surprising it has taken seven years to come this far; strange coincidences, because my team and I had been throwing around ideas about King Kong for a while, but to grow from dream to reality. Musical Theatre is a strange beast; almost as strange as when Carmen and Peter contacted me and we all were thinking on the same wavelength, that really locked it in for Kong himself, and audience reactions can never be predicted in the way that they can for an arena event. me. So my first thoughts were size and scale and Whilst arena audiences will gasp and ask “How did they do animatronics. Initially Kong was to be seven and a half metres high. that?” a theatre audience wants to be swept away, to suspend disbelief and to be emotionally moved. Only later Daniel Kramer (Director): When I was first approached, there were discussions about it being an arena event and I will they ask “How did they do that?” 16 Stage Whispers May - June 2013
said I wasn’t interested. I’m a theatre person, and what excited me was the idea of actually doing this story on a stage. It’s a double love story and, although it’s dominated by Kong’s presence, it’s actually Ann Darrow’s journey through two loves….the creature who loves her, and the man she falls in love with. It’s personal - and you can’t do personal effectively in a huge arena and still totally engage with an audience. PE: Luckily Carmen and I had a background in theatre. It was challenging to think of it on stage, but ultimately Daniel was right, and we were really excited. A personal story, moving and emotional, coupled with awesome spectacle beyond the mere human. So then it became a question of scale….how big a stage could we get and what kind of theatre? How big could Kong feasibly be and still move across the stage, how many people would fit on the stage, what kind of set would still allow enough playing space? In many ways it would have been easier to do it as an arena show. ST: It would have been so much easier as an arena show. I don’t have a theatre background. My expertise is very specific and geared to a different kind of production. This was right out of my comfort zone so I just concentrated on the idea of Kong; he was going to be my part of the production. I knew I could create him using the same animatronics as I used for Walking with Dinosaurs and How to Train Your Dragon. DK: Well, I threw a curved ball then. I did NOT want to have a creature entirely made of animatronics. Yes, it works, but it doesn’t give the subtlety, the sense of humanity that I wanted from Kong himself. We have to feel what he is feeling, and animatronics wouldn’t give us that. I think Sonny felt I was encroaching on his territory. After all I swanned in and started saying things like, “No-one wants to see technology at work” to someone who had made an art form of that technology. I don’t blame him for feeling confronted. ST: I think it’s fair to say that was the first time I was pissed off. I mean, I just didn’t get it. Time Out. Over a period of around two years Peter, Daniel and Sonny worked on the vision for Kong and how to integrate the overall vision through the creature and the set. Peter was fascinated by the 1930s posters of steelworkers standing on huge girders being hoisted into the sky. He started working on a series of lifts and hoists to bring them to life. But scenically there were also the challenges of a ship wreck for which a series of hydraulics allows the ship to actually move, an island with a volcano, and of course the Empire State Building. Add to these, the LCD screen which stretches like an old fashioned Cyclorama with stylised images (like a giant computer screen); all new technology to take the place of old fashioned “back projection”. In Sonny’s case, there were multiple prototypes of the creature which involved creating new kinds of technology to allow Kong’s muscles to move, his facial expressions to change, and yet still allow him to be light enough to move quickly across the stage and to be stored “off stage.”
Esther Hannaford as Ann Darrow in Kong Hand. Photo: James Morgan
Online extras!
Meet creature designer Sonny Tilders by scanning the QR code or visiting http://youtu.be/jLjNDJLM88E Daniel had to impart his vision to Craig Lucas who was writing the “book” and to the composers. The decision was made to stay true to the 1933 time frame and to incorporate music from that era along with a brand new score and show-stopping songs. The process was coming together, even though all three were working separately. CD: So were there many compromises, and how did you deal with them? Did you ever feel like walking away? PE: I don’t like that word compromise because people think it means settling for something less. We never did that …there was push and pull, and give and take but at every turn it meant something better in the long run. Of course it wasn’t without pain. Nothing worth having is. And this is a smashing together of 1933 and 2013. The simplicity of the story and its presentation on stage, married with all this technology. The music of the thirties meshed with new fresh music….everything about it is different. But not compromise. Even when it seemed impossible it never crossed my mind to walk away. (Continued on page 18)
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There was one day when I left the workshop, after we had tried out a marionette version and I thought Wow…we’ve got it. This can actually work in a way none of us would ever have thought of when we started. I have an incredible team and they never once said “this can’t be done” though I’m sure there were times they wanted to. DK: Compromise? No! Arguments…? I’d call them passionate disagreements… and they were pretty passionate, believe me. But it wasn’t about us wanting to have our own way. It was always about pushing each other and the vision to the maximum. John O'Connell and Daniel Kramer I guess of the three of us I have the Photo: James Morgan broadest theatrical experience. I was brought up on circus, and musicals and opera. I love King Kong opens on June 15 at Melbourne’s Regent Puccini and Lady Ga-Ga. I grew up on Jerome Robbins. I’m Theatre, with previews from May 28. eclectic. BUT, in the long run it’s about excellence and redefining ST: Of course there was compromise…lots of it. And that with every production. We all wanted that, but it yeah, I don’t remember specifics but I think I spat the meant different things to us. dummy a couple of times. I felt a sense of ownership of the For Sonny, and rightly so, it was more about the creature…all seven variations of him. creature, about making the audience gasp when it ran to I was very protective of the idea and physically I even ran the front of the stage. If the creature was awesome and on-stage to protect Kong himself when he was being brilliant, then the show would be too. That’s a perfectly moved. Everything seems pretty petty now, but I really felt logical point of view. challenged. But I’d been around theatre so long I KNEW that wasn’t Daniel kept pushing me. Every time I thought I had the a given. I knew that without heart and humanity the perfect creature, he wanted more…less workings on audience wouldn’t connect. I don’t like horror films and I display, but more results. We actually had a prototype never saw this as a horror story. It’s always been a love which was built on a rope motif! It was frustrating, and story which happens to have a huge creature as one of the yes, there were times when I had had a gutful. lovers. So I would say it’s been evolvement…and part of But I never felt like walking away. I wasn’t going to be our job has been to allow it to evolve. We have to trust beaten by it. When I saw War Horse and realised how well each other in that process. puppetry could work, that’s when I was ready to give up on ST: I still don’t get it…but I know it will be fine. We have a fantastic projection designer in Frieder Weiss. And when animatronics as the main technology. So now we have a combination of things… we have animatronics, puppetry, a Daniel tells me that Kong is going to wrestle this giant marionette, a series of high pressure air beams working the snake and it won’t be a puppet, it will be projection, I can’t forearm and the Creature’s facial expressions. envisage it. But I know it will work. It’s part of what makes He was right to push me…and I’m horrified to think this project so scary and so awesome at the same time. I that maybe I would have settled if he hadn’t. don’t have to get it …I just have to trust that Daniel gets it. CD: So whose vision is it overall? PE: It’s Carmen’s dream…but it’s Daniel’s vision. No question about that that. ST: Oh it’s Daniel’s, definitely. Only a small piece of it is mine. DK: You know, it would be nice to claim it’s mine, but sometimes a vision takes on a life of its own, and it becomes far bigger than the sum of all its parts. That’s what King Kong has become. There’s no magic potion. PE: But if there was, it would be a love potion.
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Postscript: Because the three key creatives had such gruelling schedules, the interviews took place separately and were then integrated but all were asked the same questions.
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Angela Lansbury and James Earl Jones in Driving Miss Daisy
Ode to my Grandmother Playwright Alfred Uhry is best known for his hit play Driving Miss Daisy which is wrapping up its national tour in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. What’s not so well known is that the story is based on real life. David Spicer caught up with Alfred Uhry before the opening night in Sydney
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David Spicer: How did you come up with the story behind Driving Miss Daisy? Alfred Uhry: It’s about my grandmother. Unlike the play she lived with us, my mother and father. The fact was she wrecked a car and wouldn’t drive anymore. So we hired somebody, which she didn’t want and wouldn’t talk to him, and it all took place in our house. I just had to remember what happened. DS: Did you see the relationship between the driver and your grandmother develop? AU: Yes. I think I tried to write something about two people from different cultures who try their best to see the other’s point of view, who, without becoming firebrands, without switching sides and within the perimeters of their own lives were able to move forward. DS: What are the similarities between Afro-Americans and American Jews?
AU: In the America I grew up in, they were both outside of the loop. The Afro-Americans were further outside, but it was pretty much a white Christian hold on social events. You couldn’t climb to the top unless you were a white Anglo Saxon Protestant. So both were excluded, yet the Jews weren’t exactly white but they weren’t black. They had similar problems. DS: Don’t Afro Americans love the Passover story - about being freed from slavery? AU: That’s true. My own sect of Judaism was German Jewish. They were not terribly religious. Although the Jews of the South were able to become monetarily successful, they were not socially up at the top. In the 40s and 50s there were places Jews were not allowed to go. You could not join certain clubs, you couldn’t join professions, couldn’t live in certain neighbourhoods. It was much more like that for American blacks.
DS: How did the story of your grandmother end compared to Driving Miss Daisy? AU: It never becomes fictional. DS: So it is literally the story of your grandmother and her growing relationship with her driver? AU: The reason I wrote the last scene was that the last time I saw my grandmother she was in a nursing home. She was in her 90’s and it was Thanksgiving, so she was trying to make a pumpkin pie. I knew that Will, her Alfred Uhry driver, went to see her quite a bit on his own. I just put that together. You could say it was made up but it was not. It all happened. DS: Is that a secret of a great play, in that it has got to connect with real people? AU: I think the reason it has had the amazing success that it has is that I told what I thought was the truth. Apparently my grandmother existed in a lot of forms in a lot of countries. And so does Hoke; Hoke is a man who couldn’t read, probably went through to the fourth grade, but that never stopped him from being the best he could be. There are a lot of people who live their lives the best they can, without being greedy or selfish or making fools of themselves, doing quietly the best they can. DS: You are seeing Angela Lansbury in the role, how exciting is that for you? AU: I have wanted her to do it for 25 years. When we started out in New York it was very small theatre with 74 seats. Angela was at the pinnacle of her TV success in Murder She Wrote and wanted to do it as a TV movie, but it jumped past that as a film. After that she was interested in a doing a TV series but it didn’t happen. When the revival came up, she chose to do Blithe Spirit. Then all out of the blue she wanted to come down here.
DS: When you see it on stage, do you see your grandmother? AU: I wish my grandmother looked like Angela or Vanessa Redgrave or Jessica Tandy; then I could be the offspring of those genes, but I’m not. I have had a lot of famous women play the role and I see different sides of my tiny little grandmother in them, but not quite so beautiful, but the spirit is the same? DS: Do you find it remarkable how sharp they remain? AU: Angela is incredible. She shows no signs of aging. They were running a lot of films in New York last week. I saw movies like Gaslight in 1944. She has done a movie where she tries to steal Spencer Tracy from Katharine Hepburn. So it’s unbelievable. DS: If your grandmother was playing cards with Angela Lansbury what would they talk about? AU: My grandmother would be stunned. My grandmother was a teacher; she would like to talk to Angela about how her children were educated. My grandmother, when we wrote letters to her would send them back with pencil marks through them. She was very much interested in doing things the right way. Standing up straight (for example). She would say if you hold your shoulders back, you really become someone. DS: Finally I really enjoyed your musical Parade when I saw it recently. What else are you working on? AU: I am working on two. One of them is a musical of (the novel) Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil with a lot of gold old southern gutbucket music and a lot of Johnny Mercer. And the other is a score by Charles Aznavour, much of it written, about the story of (the painter) Toulouse-Lautrec. So I am in two different worlds at the moment. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 21
Toby Schmitz. Photo: Gary Heery.
Wild About Toby Toby Schmitz can’t seem to put a foot wrong. As a writer, director and actor, he’s been described as “elegant, talented, witty and charming”, a “comic natural with a mobile, expressive face and eyes that do funny without any words being necessary”. Sam Whiteley caught up with him ahead of another huge year. ‘A devil in a dressing gown’ is how one critic described him. The accolade came last November when Toby Schmitz played the lead role of rakish Elyot Chase in Coward’s 1930 comedy of manners Private Lives to packed audiences in Sydney and Canberra. Spending most of the play in what Schmitz describes as a “sumptuous hotel bathrobe pretending to be incredibly wealthy, erudite and naughty,” the actor adored his role and embraced the infamous, troubled role of Elyot that Coward had written for himself. “It doesn’t matter how long the hours are,” says Schmitz. “Theatre is play, it relies on a kind of fun, even in tragedy, to get it across the footlights. The tension between echoing real life and doing something that is innately dramatic is always fun, it’s play.” It’s a comment that goes a long way to explaining Schmitz’s palpable love of theatre and healthy respect for the challenges comedy can bring to the stage. “Comedy can be extremely affirming. People are quite generous to you once you’ve made them laugh. You can slip all sorts of bitter pills in amongst the gags, which is what Coward does brilliantly in Private Lives, arguably his great masterpiece.” After graduating from NIDA in 1999, Schmitz admits he knew he had it in him to be a fine actor but it was persistence and faith that eventually bore him the fruit of his labours. “Other than a tentative support from my parents, no one had any ideas about how I could make a life out of my art. I found that out by myself through a combination of luck, sacrifice and work. I just kept doing stuff. When I was at school I organised
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the House Play, when I was at university I dedicated myself to UDS and stand-up at the painful loss of a tertiary education. At NIDA I put stuff on at lunch, even though it was discouraged, and after NIDA I threw myself into the un-paid fringe theatre scene and made as much noise as I could there until someone noticed me.” While Schmitz admits he has always had a natural propensity to perform and write and he’s performed on screen in a number of roles (both in TV and film), it’s treading the boards amongst like-minded creative types that truly lights him up. “Most people are in theatre for the right reasons. The greater the pay cheque, the greater the chance of meeting very strange, often completely unartistic cats. Theatre is so collaborative in comparison to the other mediums. Everyone has the right to a say and no one will be fired for speaking up. It’s the extreme sports of acting, live performance, and it’s noticeable that many great theatre actors develop screen careers while the reverse is extremely rare. “All performance has its roots in live performance from the first camp-fire stories. All stage actors have to be, by definition, attention seekers on some level; if you haven’t their attention you aren’t going to be able to tell the story with any effect. “One of the major aspects that drew me into theatre at a young age at school was the collegiate nature of it. It’s a big family with a long tradition and very little pay. This keeps things honest and vibrant and at the same time the whole job bristles with customs and lessons passed down from the Greeks, from Shakespeare, from Noël Coward and the generation above you. This blend of club rules and immediate art for a live audience I’ve always found extremely sexy. Then, there’s the actual actress.” Fresh out of NIDA, Schmitz was taken under the wing of the Sydney Theatre Company. He’s performed in David Williamson’s The Great Man, Cowell’s Ruben Guthrie, Stoppard’s Travesties, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, The Importance of Being Earnest (alongside Geoffrey Rush) and
Inset: Toby Truslove, Zahra Newman, Toby Schmitz & Eloise Mignon in Private Lives. Photo: Heidrun Lohr.
Toby Schmitz as Hamlet (La Boite Theatre Company)
his award winning comedy I Want To Sleep With Tom Stoppard. In August Schmitz takes to the stage with long time buddy Tim Minchin in Stoppard’s absurdist comedic creation Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at Sydney Theatre Company. The play, which falls under the final season of STC’s coartistic directors Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton, is one Schmitz looks to with relish. “It’s going to be an absolute hoot. It’s a genius play with a genius co-star. Tim and I and a grand team of others did it at University of Western Sydney when I was there doing a drinking degree in the nineties and we had a defining, glorious time. How wonderful
to be acting with Tim again; he sounds a bit anxious about it but of course that’s his natural state.” In October, Schmitz will also reprise his role of Hamlet at Sydney’s Belvoir. A role coveted by many an actor; Schmitz explains how the complex protagonist evolves with each performance. “Any actor worth their salt will always be intrigued by Hamlet and I’m no exception, though my salt may be debatable. I was lucky enough to play it a few years ago and have the extreme good fortune to be having another crack at it at the Belvoir. He is as bottomless as Shakespeare himself, he has infinite facets and the character (Continued on page 24) www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 23
Toby Schmitz and Tim Minchin. Photo: James Penlidis/Ellis Parrinder
(Continued from page 23)
has the quality of making the actor present a large portion of themselves in order to pull it off. Richard Burton is very Richard Burton in his Hamlet, Olivier is very Olivier and so on. It talks to a new generation each time too.” Schmitz (35) is astonishingly grounded and introspective and chooses his words carefully. When asked what he thinks sets him apart in his chosen field, his eloquent word smithing shifts into gear. “One must boldly claim the role of actor if that’s what they have chosen or life has chosen for them. There’s no use shilly-shallying around the subject, which is very easy to do in a young, brutish country that still thinks it’s acceptable to deride the arts or dismiss artists as lesser citizens when in fact they are the gatekeepers of the very culture that defines a country or a people. Once you have confidently signed on the line to be an artist, the subsequent result is that who you are, the very qualities that define your makeup, start appearing in your art. The final ability that an artist has in 24 Stage Whispers May - June 2013
their arsenal is the ability to change, to Toby Schmitz will perform in disappear even.” Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Far from disappearing, it seems Dead at Sydney Theatre Company from we’ll be seeing a lot more of the everAugust 6 to September 7 and in evolving, diverse Toby Schmitz. Hamlet at Belvoir from October 12 December 1.
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Stage on Page
Wotan’s Daughter - The Life of Marjorie Lawrence by Richard Davis (Wakefield Press $45.00). Richard Davis’ biography of Australian opera star By Peter Pinne Marjorie Lawrence is one of the best biographies I’ve read of recent times. Not only is the research exhaustive, but it fills in the gaps of Lawrence’s life that she omitted from her Mug Shots - A memoir by Barry Oakley (Wakefield Press ghost-written (by Charles Buttrose) autobiography $24.95). Interrupted Melody. Prize-winning Making her first appearance at a church concert in novelist, playwright and critic are just some of rural Victoria singing “Push the Pram for Baby” from the epithets one could Our Miss Gibbs, Lawrence went on to become one of the greatest Wagnerian singers of her time, only to be apply to Barry Oakley, but the one that fits tragically struck down by polio in her prime. At 18, against her father’s wishes, she went to Melbourne best of all is logophile. and studied singing with Ivor Boustead, later winning Words, big, little, common or obscure, the coveted Sun Aria in 1928. From there she went to Paris and studied with Madame Cecile Gilly, making have been his currency for the last eighty years her debut with the Monte Carlo Opera Company in in books, newspapers Wagner’s Tannhauser in 1932. She then joined the Paris Opera and sang Ortrud in Lohengrin the and on stage and this highly readable memoir following year before getting the opportunity to sing abounds with his verbal Brunnhilde in Die Walkure, the role she would be virtuosity, irreverence and associated with throughout her career. wit. She later conquered New York where the Americans Oakley has cleverly took her to heart after she caused a sensation riding chosen to tell his life in a a horse into the flames of the ‘Immolation Scene’ in series of short, sharp Gotterdammerung. During this period her gay anecdotal incidents. From brother Cyril was her manager but their brother/ a Catholic upbringing in sister bond turned acrimonious when she married a Melbourne, an Arts Degree, young Southern doctor Thomas King in a stint as a poetry teacher in rural Victoria, to 1941. writing advertising copy, before he found his first Lawrence was struck down success as a novelist with A Salute to the Great with polio in Mexico City a McCarthy, it’s a colourful story. Later success as a few months later. At the time she was the world’s playwright at the Pram Factory produced The Feet of Daniel Mannix which became the springboard highest paid opera singer. With the help of Australian for Max Gillies’ career. More plays followed; nurse Sister Kenny at Beware of Imitations with Gillies as Bob Menzies, Minneapolis Hospital, she Bedfellows, again with Gillies, and Marsupials, a made a recovery and corrosive comedy of middle-class mediocrity set in although physically disabled Carnegie where Oakley had lived for several years. returned to singing. Her only McCarthy made it to film in the hands of eccentric appearance in Opera in film-maker David Baker, but was a spectacular Australia was as Amneris in casualty of the 1970s film renaissance. In the 80s, whilst holding down a ‘Head of Aida for Gertrude Lawrence’s (no relation) National Theatre Writing’ position at the Film and TV School, Opera Company at the Oakley became a theatre critic for the National Princess Theatre Melbourne, Times and the Sydney Morning Herald, and later in 1951. literary editor of The Australian from 1988-1997. MGM filmed her story as Columnist Frank Devine claimed Oakley was the best literary editor the paper ever had. This is Interrupted Melody in 1955 with Eleanor Parker as Oakley’s book, with no reference to his kids, wife or family except their names. He built an impressive career, sired six Lawrence, Glenn Ford as King and Roger Moore as Cyril. It kids, and did it all without government handouts, which is was a big success. Lawrence was originally scheduled to not only commendable in this day and age, but downright have sung her role in the film but MGM went for the revolutionary. If only more autobiographies were as candid, younger-voiced Eileen Farrell. This excellent book comes with an extensive discography and a thorough index. refreshing and witty.
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Broadway virgin Christopher Curtis, it’s a second-tier effort, not great, but enjoyable. Rob McClure does well in the title role and is particularly touching in the finale. By Peter Pinne Christiane Noll is wasted in a one-song part, but Jenn Colella makes her mark as Jesus Christ Superstar (Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice) (Universal DVD). Reports columnist Hedda Hopper in “All Falls Down”. Erin Mackey as Chaplin’s wife Oona has a sweet coming out of the UK last year said that moment with “What Only Love Can See”, while “That Man” critics and audiences were going ballistic is an effective and stirring closer. over this new arena production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Now that the DVD has been released we can understand why. It’s Leap of Faith (Alan Menken/Glenn Slater) (Ghostlight 8-4465). Leap of Faith, another brilliant! Rice and Webber’s 40-year-old casualty of the past Broadway season, was rock opera has never looked or sounded based on the 1992 movie which starred better. Reimagined as urban street grunge with the cast in jeans, t-shirts, hoodies, scarves, boots, and Steve Martin as a charlatan evangelist. Menken and Slater’s score is almost wall-towith tatts, mobile phones and back-packs, this is a wall gospel, with “Step into the Light”, production for today. The 12 Apostles become suits, The “Dancing in the Devil’s Shoes” and “Rise Up” terrifically Temple a dance club, and King Herod a game show host. Against a powerful and poetic collage of visuals, a group of rousing pieces. Stepping into the preacher role Raúl Esparza fabulous rock voices deliver the definitive version of this rock is perfect whether leading the chorus on the first act closer Andrew Beale and Kelvin Harman “King of Sin” or finding a conscience on “Jonas’s Soliloquy”. -opera classic. Edge-of-your-seat tension starts during the He’s magnetic. Jessica Phillips as his love interest does well overture and never lets up. Ben Forster, the winner of the UK TVs Superstar talent show, brings raw passion to the title on the tender country tune “Long Past Dreaming”, and role with “Gethsemane” the highlight. Former Spice Girl Mel together with Kendra Kassebaum belts the insightful powerballad “People Like Us”. C finds soul in her Mary Magdalene performance and is especially poignant on “Could We Start Again Please” and “I Don’t Know How to Love Him”, while Chris Moyles as King The Land Where Good Songs Go (Jerome Herod in game-show mode makes “King Herod’s Song” into Kern) (PS Classics PS-1211). This CD is the an OTT dazzling showstopper. But it’s Tim Minchin’s show. best of the latest Broadway releases. A gem As Judas he’s astonishingly charismatic with strident vocals of a show, it’s a collection of rare and standards songs by Jerome Kern, the that reach into the stratosphere. Orchestrations have been master of the Broadway musical in the tweaked with the live band under Louise Hunt’s direction especially good. Technically it’s superb; lighting, sound and early twentieth century. Amusing ditties like “Never Marry a Man with Cold Feet” and (I’m video. Looking for) An Irish Husband”, rub shoulders with “The Way You Look Tonight”, “The Last Time I Saw Paris” and Bombshell (Marc Shaiman/Scott Wittman) (Columbia 88765446792). This CD, which is “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes”. An exemplary cast, headed by Rebecca Luker, Kate Baldwin and Philip Chaffin, breathe new sub-titled The New Marilyn Musical from Smash, is a collection of the songs from the life into this tuneful material. show-within-a-show of NBC’s TV series about creating a Broadway musical. All of Chita Rivera featuring the albums Chita! And Now I Sing! (Stage Door Records the show’s principals get their chance in Stage 9032). Two albums made by Chita the spotlight, but as they do in the show, it’s Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty who shine. Both eat up Rivera in the 1960s have been bracketed in this new Stage Door reissue. Produced in “Let Me Be Your Star” and solo deliver powerhouse vocals 1961 when Rivera was appearing in London on “Cut, Print, Moving On” (McPhee) and “They Just Keep in Bye, Bye Birdie, Chita! features show Moving the Line” (Hilty). Bernadette Peters brings all her tunes (“Ten Cents a Dance”/“The Surrey With the Fringe On Broadway sass to the tap-routine “At Your Feet”, whilst Top”) in big-band arrangements by Alyn Ainsworth, while Julian Ovenden pleasantly croons “Our Little Secret” with And Now I Sing! is a collection of standards (“Moon McPhee. Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman have done a masterful job of recreating the sounds and style of the fifties River”/“It’s Easy To Remember”/“Hit the Road to in their score which at times echoes the songs associated Dreamland”). Best tracks are Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Love Look Away” from Flower Drum Song and Martin and with Marilyn. Blane’s “An Occasional Man” from the Rosalind Russell movie The Girl Rush. Chaplin (Christopher Curtis) (Masterworks Broadway 88765439502). A short-lived entry from the last Broadway Rating season, Chaplin told the story of the rags-to-riches career of Only for the enthusiast Borderline London music-hall performer Charles Chaplin. Written by Worth buying Must have Kill for it
Stage On Disc
26 Stage Whispers May - June 2013
Canberra Drama School Learns From NY Eco-actor
CADA’s Artist-in-Residence brings ecological design concepts to new premises. Canberra Academy of Dramatic Art (CADA) is currently host to Doug Chapman, a New York-based actor and teacher. Chapman, 39, performs regularly in New York theatres and also has a regular teaching role as adjunct professor of acting at Manhattanville College. His own training took place at Harvard University, in a special program incorporating training with the renowned American Repertory Theatre and the Moscow Art Theatre. As Artist-in-Residence with CADA this semester, he is working with students on a Russian theatre project exploring the works of Anton Chekhov. Prior to becoming an actor, Chapman worked extensively in ecological design and sustainable architecture, and will be presenting CADA with a sustainability master plan to assist with the “greening” of the school. Specific recommendations may include things like sourcing and recycling materials for sets and props, an energy retrofit to CADA’s new premises, passive heating and cooling strategies, using non-toxic paints and varnishes, building an outdoor “green lounge” for students and even a special compost system that uses worms to eat food-waste.
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Cameron Daddo’s Family Affair Things were so tight that Cameron Daddo had to sell his house and get a ‘proper job’. Now the singer, actor and one-time Perfect Match host is back on stage and returning to his home turf in Legally Blonde. He spoke to Coral Drouin.
tele-movies and hosted a TV series, but L.A has lost some of its gloss. “Before the GFC you could earn a very nice living with one or two series episode guest roles and a telemovie every year. But it’s not that way now. Everyone, studios, producers, actors, have all taken a hit. Even veteran star “Coming home to Melbourne this time is extra special. I Robert Wagner said he’d never seen it so bad. We were have three families, and this will be a chance for us all to be working together on an NCIS and he was giving me a together in my home town. We’ll even get to go to the reality check. Luckily I had things to fall back on.” Cameron and Ali sold their Los Angeles home and Cam footy. I’m still an avid Essendon fan, no matter what.” took a job as a consultant for a pure water company. Cameron Daddo sounds genuinely excited about the prospect. He is a Melburnian born and bred, one of four “It’s not like we were truly broke, but private school fees are very expensive in the States and we wanted to make brothers, and it’s the home of his childhood and his first sure the girls’ education was taken care of when the work family. His second family (chronologically) is wife Ali and wasn’t as plentiful.” their three daughters (based in Los Angeles), who jumped It was only the second real job he had ever had outside at the chance to spend winter in Melbourne, even though it meant leaving California’s summer. His latest family is the of show business. “I helped my dad sort beads for his costume jewellery cast of Legally Blonde, which opens its Melbourne season business when I was a kid, but the only paying job I had on May 9th. He plays the suave Professor Callahan in this delightful musical romp and is having a ball. outside of performing was as a waiter in a South Melbourne restaurant, and I was pretty rubbish at it from “It’s twenty something years since I did a musical in memory.” He laughs delightfully. Melbourne. Big River was a revelation for me and I loved Even at 48 he is an astonishingly handsome man, every minute. Before that I’d been modelling, writing my though the “prettiness” has gone. Were those amazing own songs and hosted a kids cartoon series on TV, but I good looks a hindrance or a help? He’s disarmingly honest. was itching to get on stage.” “You know, they were both, and they were also It was his success in Big River that led to him going to Los Angeles to try his luck. He starred in some high profile Cameron as Professor Callahan in Legally Blonde.
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embarrassing because I just had good genes. It wasn’t like I had done something special, that was just me. “So, whatever ‘The Look’ I had, yes it opened doors and I often got cast because of that perception. Ultimately though I couldn’t rely on looks. They could pave the way, but they couldn’t carve a career for me. I had to learn my craft, so I just had to work hard and hope I would get better with each role. I remember an acting coach making me watch myself on screen in the TV series Bony. ‘Stop smiling,’ she said to me. ‘You’re investigating a murder.’ I had great teeth and I showed them a LOT,” he chuckles. There’s no doubt that he is comfortable in the role he’s playing now. “The show is pure entertainment and I love every minute. It’s just a fantastic cast. Lucy Durack should be on Broadway,” he says. How does he stay fresh in a role he’s been playing for three seasons now? “I was taught a little trick many years ago to keep varying the performance. I write a different adjective on a piece of paper each night and slip it into my pocket before I go onstage. Then I try to incorporate that attitude into the performance. It’s one way of keeping me on my toes and changing things slightly each night. From Big River to Legally Blonde is a break of more than twenty years, but Cameron’s music is a constant in his life, as is the guitar. “I’m always writing songs. I constantly need to say things and express myself, and writing and singing are as important as breathing to me. There are little cafes and restaurants near where we live and I go and gig there when I am trying out new songs. I put out a new CD last year called Ten Songs - and Change. I’m not expecting gold records, but it was such a joy to do and so much fun to play gigs with my friends. So does Cameron consider himself first and foremost an actor, a Musical Theatre star, a TV Personality, a songwriter or a singer if he had to choose just one. “You know,” he says after thinking for a moment, “I really couldn’t choose just one. I hope I’ll be remembered as a storyteller…if that doesn’t sound too trite. Telling the story is all I ever wanted to do, whatever the medium.” www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 29
Two Musicals, Two ‘Families’ No matter what the subject, great musicals need to explore issues and themes everyone can relate to. Rick Elice, the co-writer of Broadway musicals The Addams Family and Jersey Boys (with Marshall Brickman), explains to Neil Litchfield about the stories connected with these two very different musicals.
believe, or like us, you decide it’s not really important what the truth is, because it’s such a damned good story.” Is there an element, rather than their stories being viewed as contradictory, as being the truth as Rick Elice seen through four different sets of eyes? “Sure, in that kind of Rashomon way you’re watching four different As we sat in the stalls of Sydney’s perspectives that evolve over time. Capitol Theatre during previews for The What we’re doing is telling the story of Addams Family, Rick Elice reflected on four guys who become a second family the differences and similarities between in this rock band they have, The Four writing a show like Jersey Boys, where Seasons. They become, in many ways, you have the songs around which to the way second families become in our weave the show, and a more real lives - it’s dysfunctional and conventional book musical like The wonderful. We screw things up like we Addams Family. do with our real family, and we have “Jersey Boys is a show that’s based the same issues of wanting to be on real events, that happened to real accepted, wanting to be respected, people, who really lived and are still wanting to be loved and wanting to alive. That means you function first as find a home. a sort of a journalist. We sat with “As dramatists, we realised that Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio and Tommy was universal. Everybody in the DeVito, and listened to them tell us audience may not be anything like their versions of things that happened those four guys, trying to escape from to them over the 40 year period, and the influence of the Mafia while contradict each other and often-times “Then the first thing that will contradict themselves. happen when the narrative of the time making two and a half minute bubble“We realized we could present the has passed is that the next season who gum pop songs, while leading these show in four sections, because it’s sort has that relationship with the audience very dark lives, but we’ve been through some version of what they’ve been of nifty that there’s four seasons, and will say, ‘Don’t listen to what he’s through, so we can relate to them. the seasons of Mother Nature kind of talking about, I’ll tell you what really “The songs, of course, which follow the evolution of the group. happened.’ So it becomes an existed 40 years before we wrote the Spring, to the full flower of success, interactive game, almost, with the show, are the reason why people which would be the Summer, to the audience. You get to decide who to
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dissolution of the original group, the Fall, to the Winter, in fact, of Frankie’s discontent. And in each of those seasons, we will assume that as they’re the narrator that they are telling the truth.
come, but the story that was woven, in which the songs occur, seems to be the reason why people come back. You know those movie posters that say ‘based on a true story’, well it’s not just a true story, it’s a good story … and luckily for me and Marshall (Brickman) it’s an untold story. The specifics of their lives were never written about, and if they had been their records would never have been played, because in the 60s you couldn’t be in prison and on the radio at the same time. It just wasn’t cool. Nowadays that’s changed, but fortunately for us, as writers, the tragedy of their lives at the time, plus 40 years passing, it became the stuff of great musical theatre.” Moving on, with the Australian production of The Addams Family playing at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre, we shifted to the making of the current show. “With The Addams Family we’re not writing about real people or real events. We were given the characters from 150 or so cartoons that Charles Addams created for The New Yorker magazine from the late 1930s to the mid 1960s. Inside of those single frame cartoons are characters who have become famous for their characteristics, but they’re two dimensional because there’s just a frame of a cartoon in that magazine. But nothing ever comes before that frame and nothing ever comes after. It has a great little joke in it, then you turn the page and you’re on to something else. There’s never any consequences. There’s no logic necessary to the telling of a one-frame story, and if you try to apply any logic to it, your brain starts to implode like an old grapefruit. The producers said, take these characters and breathe a third dimension into them for the theatre, which is good, because we’re charging three-dimensional prices, so it has to be a real show which has to be able to connect, so find a story to tell. “The first thing we found was that while the Addams Family may strike us on the surface as being very macabre, bizarre people, they’re really very much like people we know, like the strange cousin or the bachelor uncle who shows up once a year at Christmas, or
The cast of The Addams Family. Photo: Lightbox Photography.
the ultra-violent kid who can only play video games and texts 24 hours a day. “We can recognize these characters today, almost more than ever before. That family pushes our reality just a little bit, and it’s great for the theatre because we get to see it from a distance. “The great similarity between Jersey Boys and The Addams Family - what we discovered writing about these four Roman Catholic first generation Italian boys in the States was that they were a family, whereas the Addams Family is a quintessential family. It’s kind of a wonderful thing to write about connection, acceptance, continuity and ritual that keeps all of our families together.” How did the extended story of Wednesday falling in love and the Bieneke Family visiting come about? “One thing about the Addams Family is that they have never changed. They look exactly the same as they did when they first appeared in 1937. That’s the sort of thing that can only happen in a cartoon. It can’t happen in real life. We know that theatre, as life, only becomes interesting with conflict. You need conflict, you need turmoil, you need dischord. “In order to have dischord in a family that never changes, you need to have something change. So we picked one thing, which is Wednesday has grown up and she’s fallen in love with
a ‘normal’ boy. This comes as something of a shock to the other members of her family, because they’ve always seen themselves as being perfectly normal. Emotionally, of course, it’s that moment in the life of every parent when they realize their kids are starting to grow up. “Also, introducing the boy and his family into the story, they become stand-ins for us. They crack the family open and everything seems to go wrong. Why? Because the daughter Wednesday does something which we’ve all done, or had done to us; she goes to her father and says, ‘Daddy, I have to tell you something, but I don’t want you to tell mummy.’ At that moment he is caught in a trap which there’s no success for - you’re either going to break your kid’s heart, or get your wife really pissed off with you, probably both. The girl, by asking her father to keep a secret for her, that she’s in love, and to get the father’s help to keep them together, inadvertently drives a wedge between this husband and wife, Gomez and Morticia, who have always been one unit - they have been emotionally so caught up with each other from the very first time we’ve seen them. They’re highly sensual, highly sexualized, a very -hot-for-each-other husband and wife, even after all these years. That kind of conflict is the kind of thing you can build the show around.” www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 31
Mother Courage In The Desert It’s the first time a major state theatre company has produced an ‘epic theatre-piece’ with an all-indigenous cast. Peter Pinne speaks about the project with QTC Artistic Director Wesley Enoch. Of all the theatre productions announced for this year, Mother Courage and Her Children would have to be the most ambitious, brave and riskiest concept. Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children is considered by some to be the greatest play of the 20th century, and perhaps also the greatest anti-war play of all time. Wesley Enoch thinks that is “questionable”, but he says, “what makes it great is its timing.” “Coming out of World War 2, it encapsulates a specific time in history. Its themes of survival in a world that is hostile to you and the moral ambiguity around making money out of something you disagree with are themes we can all relate to.” And that’s how the idea of this totally new Australian adaptation came about. When actor and co-adaptor Paula Nazarski was working with 32 Stage Whispers May - June 2013
Aboriginal kids out in Cherbourg, near Murgon in Central Queensland, they read some Brecht and she noticed the kids had a strong connection to Mother Courage. They related to the character’s sense of survival. So Enoch and Nazarski decided to reset the play in the near-future against a bleak backdrop of a post-apocalyptic Australian desert. The original play’s Thirty Years War of 1600s Europe in this version becomes mining (mining = war), with other themes addressed including land ownership and the Stolen Generation. “Brecht is regarded as being unemotional, but I don’t think that’s the case. His idea of theatre is not to be seduced by the fourth wall. It’s all about engaging an audience to still feel something. Not by the trickery of illusion.” On his last visit to Europe in 2012 Enoch was lucky enough to see a production of the work at the Berliner Ensemble. He was struck by how much they played around with the text and cut various sections. As he said, “I thought the script was like the bible untouchable. But it wasn’t the case.
Mother Courage
“We have just sent off our 3rd draft to be approved by the Brecht Estate, but there’s probably another draft needed before we open.” Enoch is directing the piece, and when asked did he think it was a good idea for a playwright to direct his own work, he unequivocally said yes. “In this case it’s an adaptation, not a totally original work. Paula is working on the writing while I’m busy with how it’s going to be staged.” The cast of 11, who will play 24 characters, will be headed by Ursula Yovich in the title role. Yovich has previously dipped her toe in the Brechtian waters when she did The Threepenny Opera for Belvoir in 2003, but this will be the first time she will have performed this ‘female-King Lear’ of a part. Others who have played the role include Meryl Streep in a Tony Kushner adaptation at the Public Theater, New York (2006) and Australia’s Gloria Dawn, in an MTC production with staging by Berliner Ensemble at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne (1971). Enoch, who has worked with her before on his own musical The Sunshine Club, believes Yovich is up to
the task. He thinks it’s a “good role for her to play and although she might be a bit young for the part, she’s found an older soul.” Like the original play the production will include songs. Brecht’s lyrics have been modified, but the music will be original, mainly country and western, and played on guitars, percussion and digeridoo by the actors. Brecht originally wrote Mother Courage and Her Children as a comment on Fascism and Nazism in response to the invasion of Poland by the German armies of Adolf Hitler in 1939. It premiered two years later at the Schauspielhaus, Zurich, Switzerland. The play was not produced in Germany until after the Second World War, in East Berlin in 1949. It was the production that influenced the formation of Brecht’s own company, the Berliner Ensemble. As I sit with Enoch in his office, currently overtaken by the set model for the play, it strikes me that here is a man who is not only passionate about his craft, but a true theatre visionary. Filling the 900-seat Playhouse is a big ask, but despite the risk Enoch thinks the numbers will add up. He also believes there will be an afterlife for the production. “It’s an ideal festival show, and it’s been built to tour.” The QTC production of Mother Courage and Her Children plays the Playhouse Theatre, QPAC, 25 May - 16 June, 2013.
Bolshoi Ballet For Exclusive Brisbane Season For the first time in twenty years Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet will perform in Australia. Peter Pinne reports.
The Bolshoi Ballet will perform Le The Bright Stream Corsaire and The Bright Stream when they play the Lyric Theatre, QPAC, from May 30 to June 9. Le Corsaire is a swashbuckling, romantic tale of pirates, slaves and intrigue set in Turkey inspired by Lord Byron’s epic poem The Corsair. It is typical of the exotic and ambitious ballets created during the Tzarist era. Alexei Ratmansky’s The Bright Stream has an original score by Dimitri Shostakovich. A comedic romp set on a collective farm, it incorporates Cossack as well as other ethnic dances and a hilarious cross-dressing spoof of classical ballet. The June 4 performance of Le Corsaire will be simulcast live to eight regional Queensland cities. QPAC will also host Backstage Tours during the Bolshoi season, and will mount two exhibitions, Steppe by Step and Tools of the Trade - Exploring the Traditions of Ballet Costume. The Bolshoi Ballet, founded in 1776, made its first international tour to London and New York in 1956, followed by an historic visit to Australia in 1959. In that season only 12 dancers from the Bolshoi appeared in a program of excerpts from International classics and works by Soviet choreographers. When the company visited a second time in 1961, 45 dancers came with a program that included Swan Lake (2nd and 3rd Acts), the Grand Pas from Paquita, Seven Beauties (3rd Act) and divertissements. Read Peter Pinne’s extended article by scanning the QR code or visiting http://bit.ly/10f0IWs
www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 33
Dame Julie Drops In Like Mary Poppins with her magical umbrella, the great Julie Andrews is dropping in for a series of onenight stands round Australia and New Zealand. And she’s bringing one of Captain Von Trapp’s sons with her. Frank Hatherley talks to Nicholas Hammond, the American born Aussie who learnt his most important show business lesson from Julie Andrews, whilst playing Frederich in the movie of The Sound of Music.
When Dame Julie presented an earlier version of An Evening with Julie Andrews in London some members of the audience complained that she wasn’t singing any songs. True fans, of course, knew about the botched throat operation in 1997 that had forever robbed her of her thrillingly pure singing voice. The current management is taking no chance: the tour website is blunt. “Please note that Ms Andrews’ appearances feature a
Online extras!
Check out a preview of An Evening by scanning the QR code or visiting http://youtu.be/lLS6MEFtNj0
Julie Andrews Nicholas Hammond
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live ‘interview-style’ retrospective of her extraordinary career and does not feature live singing.” Even so the prospects are mouthwatering. This is Dame Julie’s first-ever visit Down Under; she’s a fit and energetic 77 with an extraordinary 65 years of top-flight show biz history to talk about; and her ‘Special Guest Host’ will be Nicholas Hammond, the Australian actor/writer who, at the age of 13, played one of the Von Trapp children. “It’s going to be fascinating,” Hammond tells me. “Shows like this can be incredibly effective - to have the real person there, integrating film clips from their work with narration and behindthe-scenes anecdotes. “She’ll go into areas that are far more than simply ‘and then I did this film and then that play’. She talks in a holistic way about her whole life and the way she’s dealt with things both good and or challenging like the deaths of people she loved dearly or her own surgery. She’s quite frank about all that. Julie is the most astonishingly positive human being I’ve ever met. “I can’t think of any other entertainer who, from the age of seven to the age of 77, has been on stage performing to full houses all that time, from English Music Hall with her performing parents, huge international film star, huge Broadway star, recording star, television star, all of her Disney films.” He talks about the easily available YouTube clips of Julie as a pigtailed kid. “She was considered sort of a prodigystroke-freak. She had a range of four octaves when she was like eight years old. You can hear her singing opera at the age of 12. She could have had a brilliant career as an opera singer as well.” Hammond had been among the 4000 child actors who auditioned for The Sound of Music in 1964. Born in Washington to an actress mother he had already been in a Broadway play, done some New York television and been one of the feral children in Peter Brooks’ startling movie version of Lord of the Flies. What had been his first impression of Julie Andrews?
“She was extremely friendly and an American in the 1987 Channel 9 extremely professional. She was 27 miniseries Cyclone Tracy. This led to him years old. Poppins hadn’t come out yet, playing the American skipper of the so no one on the crew knew who she yacht that lost The America’s Cup in an was. She was just this English blow-in ABC miniseries, The Challenge. He met who they’d never heard of before. Yet his partner, leading actress and former she was there before anyone else in the Artistic Director of the STC, Robyn morning, and she’d be there after Nevin, applied for citizenship and, everyone else had left, practicing the simply, “I’ve been here ever since”. dance steps, practising the routines, Now 62, he still acts when a project practising the songs. takes his fancy, but has branched “We had almost three months of successfully into screenplay writing. He’s rehearsals before we started filming, got three big projects currently on the but I never walked into a rehearsal go, including a film set in Shanghai for when Julie wasn’t already in there, in director Pauline Chan. her dance outfit, quietly working away Does he ever feel that playing young on her own or with the choreographer. Frederich Von Trapp had been It was a wonderful example for kids to something he was never see. This is the way a allowed to forget? in Julie and olas Nich ic Mus Of real star behaves. They “I was in Shanghai The Sound don’t throw tantrums, recently,” he says they don’t complain, animatedly, “and I they don’t keep people wanted to buy some waiting, they just turn DVDs of Chinese up, work their arse off, movies, just to see deliver the goods and what they looked like. go home with a smile This department store on their face. occupied an entire city “It’s a lesson I’ve block. It was nine always remembered. The stories high, and the ninth story was way you have the most fun on a film, or nothing but DVDs and CDs, literally as indeed on a play, is by being incredibly far as the eye could see. And over in well prepared. The more prepared you one corner was this enormous crowd of are, and the more confident you are people. I thought ‘they must be giving that you know your lines, you know something away’. So I went over and what you’re doing, you know what there was a big flat screen on the wall happens next, then the more you can showing the Blu-ray of Sound of Music. relax, let go of the tension and enjoy “I thought, well, here we are, 48 the experience. And that’s what Julie years later, in China, and all these did. people are standing there agog “She taught us how to sing the watching this film. entire score of Mary Poppins. We were I feel incredibly lucky to have been a all running around singing part of something that is so adored all ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ when over the world and which has brought no one had heard of it before. And so much happiness to so many people. she’d tell us riddles and jokes and make “You’d have to be pretty bloody funny faces - very, very clever because churlish to have been in something that Julie knew that we all had to look like one and a half billion people have we absolutely adored her and she knew loved, and have told you your entire life that, particularly with the little ones, how much they loved it and thank you they’re not going to be able to turn it for making it: it would take a particular on like a tap when the director says type of misanthrope to have received ‘action’. She created that environment that all your life and not be grateful and all the time so that when we were in happy about it.” front of the camera it was just there naturally.” An Evening with Julie Andrews plays After a successful career in US Brisbane (May 18), Perth (May 21), television - he was the first live-action Sydney (May 24 and 25), Adelaide Spider-Man on television from 1977-79 (May 28), Melbourne (May 31) and - Hammond came to Australia to play Auckland (June 5). www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 35
Contagion’s Kiss
Lepers’ Story Inspires Play Northern Territory physical theatre company Business Unusual draws on stories from Darwin’s history to create its theatre. Its latest work Contagion’s Kiss is inspired by stories from Darwin’s Channel Island Leprosarium. Nicola Fearn, the co-founder of the company, is also the co-director and co-writer of the work. She spoke to Neil Litchfield from Bordertown, on her road-trip from Melbourne to Darwin, in a fully laden car, complete with dog and a pair of crutches strapped to the roofrack.
people on the island including this young woman, whose piano ended up being shipped out on the barge, and the story of her friendship with an indigenous woman. “When we met this old, old lady we discovered that she was one of the first indigenous health workers. We’re not slavishly devoted to documentary style theatre. Basically we’ve taken these incredibly rich stories about people, and survival, and the strength which is inside us. That was our leaping off point to create a piece of visual theatre. “Business Unusual is a visual theatre company, not driven by text, but I’m somewhat ashamed to admit working with visual image and mask that I know very little about the theatre and puppetry. We’re exploring how to scene in Darwin, I confessed to Nicola tell this quite complex story through Fearn. “Darwin has gone through some the Channel Island Leprosarium. It was visual imagery, and get a resonance highs and lows in relation to theatre,” an incredible, little known, story about from it, and spark something in the she tells me, “and there isn’t a great this little barren island in the middle of audience from that. “We’re working with a combination deal happening, which means there Darwin Harbour, that had nothing at are openings for independent all, not even fresh water. In the 1930s of core creatives from Melbourne and producers.” and 40s people were forcibly placed on Darwin. Marg Horwell has created this installation-like set for us to play in and Where did the inspiration for this island and everything was taken we’ve got a film animator Contagion’s Kiss spring from? across to them from Darwin by boat. collaborating with us. I get excited by “I’d just finished another piece “We found a story about a young based on stories around displacement white girl, a beautiful pianist, who was theatre when actors keep their mouths and Cyclone Tracy. Sarah Cathcart (co- hoping to make a career out of it. She shut, basically (she laughs). Too often I go to the theatre and I’m intrigued, writer and co-director) and I were in got diagnosed with leprosy and was and I love it, then people begin to the museum and saw an exhibition on put on this island, the only white girl speak and it goes all wrong. So this the Catholic nuns working in the amongst predominantly aboriginal remote communities. We came across people. That led us to the stories of the time we’re not using any text at all.
Blak
Bangarra Dance Theatre premieres Blak, a brand new work with stories about a contemporary clan and the collision of two worlds, at Arts Centre Melbourne from May 3 to 11. Blak will tour to Wollongong from May 17 to 18, Sydney Opera House from June 7 to 22, Canberra from July 11 to 13 and Brisbane from July 18 to 27. Bangarra dancer Yolande Brown speaks to Neil Litchfield about the work in an extended online interview, including the way in which indigenous languages became a modern electronic part of the soundtrack and how the sacred place of water in Dreaming has influenced the work. Read the article online now at the Stage Whispers website by scanning the QR code or visiting http://bit.ly/15OBXss. 36 Stage Whispers May - June 2013
Yolande Brown
It’s a long way from Europe to the Northern Territory. How do you find yourself producing theatre in Darwin? “I went there as a teenager, just after the cyclone, so I’ve had quite a long connection with Darwin over the years. We actually lived on the old ship that was brought in because there was no housing after the cyclone. It was a pretty interesting time to be there. “I come and go. It is remote and it’s extraordinary when you first go there. When I go back, initially I’m quite horrified, but after two weeks I think, yes, this is an extraordinary place because of the different people that live here, the land, and the stuff that goes on. You need to leave there - you need to go and get fed from other parts of Australia and the globe, just because it is so remote.” “We’re working with a fine managing to tell were just so powerful, You’ve obviously found a rich vein puppeteer, Conor Fox, who trained at without using any language at all. for theatrical storytelling in the the VCA, is actually from Darwin “We did lots of touring to South Northern Territory, though. originally and works in remote America and all through Europe and “It’s really rich. The stories are communities, and an indigenous our work could go everywhere because interesting because it’s a meeting point woman, Samantha Chalmers, who is we had no language. We went to tiny for so many different cultures and the cultural consultant. If you’re telling places in Hungary, Slovakia and the people. They’re the springboard, so it local Darwin stories, of course it’s Czech Republic, and it was fantastic to doesn’t always have to be rooted in going to be cross-cultural because it’s offer some theatre that could historical stuff, but I find it an such a melting pot of different groups communicate immediately, crossincredibly rich starting point, because of people. culturally, without any language issues. all the stories always have a “We also have a live, on-stage I just think it’s beautiful and magical contemporary relevance and theme in musician, Biddy Connor, who plays and powerful, that world of the mask them.” with Missie Higgins, and does music and the puppet, and how that is able Contagion’s Kiss, co-presented by for films.” to touch people in different ways. Business Unusual and Brown’s Where has the music sprung from? They tend to understand the Mart Productions, will premiere at “Originally from the white girl who general narrative, but people will Brown’s Mart Theatre, Darwin, was a pianist, which started me hopefully be touched in different ways from Tuesday 4 - Sunday 16 June. thinking, great, let’s have her play on by the images which we offer them.” stage. From there it became, well you can’t really have piano the whole way through this piece; we want a soundscape. That led us to Biddy, who’s done both. “I really relish the opportunity to work with live music because when you’re working without text the silence and the sound is so important. That’s what’s audibly in the space.” Where does the passion for actors who don’t talk come from? “I found myself in Europe travelling and living in Amsterdam and Italy, where I fell into mask work, and I just developed a passion for it. I worked for a UK company called Trestle for many years and the stories they were Images from previous Business Unusual productions
www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 37
How LED Lighting Saved Priscilla Queen Of The Desert
Original touring cast. Photo: Joan Marcus.
It’s Australia’s most successful musical theatre export, having been staged on Broadway, in the West End, Brazil, Italy and soon Sweden and Korea. But the size of the bus saw the production stalled. Producer Garry McQuinn explains what changes were made to make regional tours of the US and UK possible.
had not solved it there would probably be no Priscillas apart from the large productions. Priscilla is the bus. You can’t not have it. Those US regional markets would only accept a big bus. For a year there was an impasse, with me protective of what the bus was and how it would look, until I let our US partners take over. Quite remarkably they manage to Everyone loved the big show but increasingly the people who wanted to bump in Priscilla into a new venue in two days (compared to six weeks for do Priscilla could not afford it. If we
Online extras!
See the Priscilla bus lit up by LEDs on its US tour. Scan the QR code or visit http://youtu.be/gLiYP62DzOY
Original touring cast. Photo: Joan Marcus.
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the first production). There were some sacrifices. They sliced it up like a loaf of bread - with five slices. They come in their own pre-prepared crate with wheels. It is wheeled off a truck and onto the floor of a theatre. The whole thing is assembled in three or four hours maximum and plugged up. It does not have everything we had in the big bus. The shoe on top does not move. Some of the moving elements are less complicated. The theatres in North America, by and large, are big theatres with great access from the road. You can generally roll off the back of a truck onto the stage. But you could not do it in the UK where theatres sometimes have access as cramped as a double door, then you have to go downstairs in a lift. (The solution was to build a bus which has an outline of the vehicle like a big coat hanger.) LED screens are the windows. On the windows we have (moving) content of the passing Australian bush. (The action on the windows starts in inner city Sydney, passes eyesores on Parramatta Road and enters the bush where a stylized Skippy the bush kangaroo gets a whipping.)
A terrific young Australian talent, Jamie Clennett, has put it together. I ring him up in the middle of the night and ask him to add a few extra seconds here or there to allow for adjustments. The fact is you can do more with the choreography without that great silver house brick on stage, which literally sucks out the rest of the stage. When the big bus is on stage, the performers may as well go off the stage and have a fag. I prefer some of the scenes, as you see the dancers and chorus. Now that we know it works I am about to commission a new bus, which uses fibre optics...to define the outline the bus. Aside from that in a world major engineered theatre with mechanical complexity, every now and then you have to remind yourself you are telling a story about people. The production standards are a very nice picture frame. What they do is tell the story of Priscilla and I think the story holds up. Where is Priscilla Going Next? The UK tour bus will next go to Turkey. It will be part of an English
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Original touring cast. Photo: Joan Marcus.
speaking tour that will travel to places like Athens and Budapest. The big bus went from London to Brazil to Sweden for a production in Swedish. The new improved bus will go on a regional Italian tour. Believe it or not, it is still running in Rome. Already we are the most successful musical Rome has ever had. My aim over the next two years is bring Priscilla back to Australia. It’s not
that far from the 10th anniversary. I got a big red flag. Get this show back to where it came from. That’s an exclusive for you! Priscilla Animator Jamie Clennett explains how he put it together. I studied Theatre Design at NIDA and the process is similar in that you are given a brief to follow. (Continued on page 40)
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Original touring cast. Photo: Joan Marcus.
(Continued from page 39)
The biggest challenge is matching the colour on the LED screens to the design. There is a lot of jiggery-pokery to get it right. Whenever I tested it on the bus, Brian Thompson the designer was there, and would say things like that is not the red I want. The red on the computer screen might be red but once it goes onto the bus it might be orange or purple. You have to use high contrast images boiled down to its simplest forms. Anything with any high detail won’t read on the bus. I use mostly Adobe Suite for the animation and Photoshop. For the first West End production it took me three months to make less than 3 minutes of animation. So that is one minute per month. It is time-consuming, but with animation you can do it in isolation sit in a room by yourself. Whereas as a set designer you have to co-operate with many different disciplines. www.abitofargybargy.com 40 Stage Whispers May - June 2013
Online extras!
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For all the info on ENTECH 2013 or to register, scan the QR code or visit www.entechshow.com.au
Light Up Your Life Australia’s largest Sound, Light and Staging Show will take place at Sydney’s Darling Harbour from July 23 to 25.
to work out if it’s the shutters, the patching, the dimmers, the control desk, the substation or a dyslexic programmer. (2) DMX strangeness. Identifying Entech 2013 is set to be bigger and DMX system problems. Is a fixture brighter than their last outing in 2011, flickering, are channels appearing in strange places, are devices which attracted more than 4500 visitors. intermittently not answering the console, is your device stuck in a A new attraction this year is the ENTECH Technicians’ Lunch Series. This parallel universe? unique two hour session will bring (3) Scheduling your way out of mayhem. The fit-up was going together some of the local industry’s best practitioners. With a limited smoothly until a truck went to the wrong venue, or the welders cleared number of seats available, join hosts Show Technology as they facilitate the the stage to rebuild a riser, or the following sessions over lunch. engineers decided the only EWP on site was too heavy for the stage, or a transformer blew up in the sub-station. When things go wrong The 65,534 most common Getting your production back on track when the ship hits the sand. production problems and some well road-tested techniques for sorting Bulletproof production data networks them out. The majority of data networking A group of seasoned lighting techs will look at three general topics before equipment and practices are based around the electronically-benign and throwing the discussion open for an peaceful environments found in offices, interactive Q&A problem-solving session. homes and schools. Led by a couple of battle-hardened (1) That light won’t come on. How
network gurus, this session is about designing, building, running and maintaining Ethernet/IP networks for the hostile, demanding, high-pressure and complex environment that is live production. ENTECH is THE pro-audio, visual, lighting live technology and installation show in Australia. Held every two years in Sydney, it is co-located with SMPTE and was the largest attended industry show of its kind in 2011.
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The Master Of Ceremonies
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David Atkins is returning to the stage in Hot Shoe Shuffle. We asked him about the favourite moments he’s experienced off stage, as the Director of international ceremonies. Cathy Freeman lighting of the cauldron in Sydney. Standing underneath it as it rose out of the water was a quintessential moment of that opening ceremony. Nikki Webster and Djakapurra with 1200 indigenous performers was an incredible moment. Steven Jefferys riding out on ‘Ammo’. That lone horseman is also a favourite moment of mine. I never get sick of seeing that. After that it would be Vancouver (Winter Olympic opening and closing ceremonies) which I think is one of the best things I have done. The projected whales with squirts of water across the arena, KD Lang singing “Hallelujah” and the young boy flying across the fields of wheat. There are a couple things in that show that I am proud of and emotionally connected to. In terms of projection and technology there have been enormous changes (in the ten years between Sydney and
Vancouver). The Whale scene was a combination of video mapping and video content, then marrying the timing content and execution of that with three-dimensional action. So we projected an object and as those whales breached - and it was projected onto a flat surface - we had real water spouts which just gave a three dimensional element to a two dimensional element.
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LED Shines in New Zealand
With increasing demand for video content to be incorporated in theatre productions, and the difficulties that projection of video presents, the use of LED screen surfaces is becoming more prevalent.
and event work across NZ. The LED surface is made up of 3m x 2.4m panels, which have the LEDs imbedded in a foldable fabric. The full cloth can be suspended from a theatre flying system, and weighs around 320kg. Video or still imagery is sent to the cloth in much The Light Site, based in the same way you would to a data Christchurch, NZ, has a 12m x 6m projector, using either a laptop or LED screen surface in its rental stock which is being kept busy with Theatre media server.
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For the New Zealand consortium tour production of Hairspray, The Light Site supplied the LED surface, complete with a Hypnotizer media server. This media server allows for the LED imagery changes (cues) to be synced with the shows’ music. The lighting and sound cues were also able to be cued in this manner, giving fully integrated cueing. The recent production of Beauty and the Beast, by NASDA, at the Ashburton Trust Event Centre, called for the use of the LED surface to replace some of the back drop scenery from an existing set which was too large for the venue. The LED surface was flown on the house counterweight system at the rear of the stage, allowing it to be flown out of the way when scenery needed to be moved past it. LED Surface available from: The Light Site Ltd Christchurch, New Zealand david@lightsite.co.nz +64 3 372 9101
One Stop Shop MultiTek Solutions is uniquely placed to provide all the technical demands of a production - Sound, AV and the latest in LED and regular lighting fixtures. Based in Geelong, but serving Greater Melbourne and regional Victoria, the company’s ethos is to make complex technology simple and reliable with knowledge & enthusiasm. MultiTek Solutions delivers Audio Visual and Theatrical installations to the Corporate, Educational and Entertainment sectors and thrives on projects that challenge their knowledge and skills and require them to deliver a very specific customised system. “We are big enough to handle large scale jobs such as the Lighthouse Theatre refurbishment in Warrnambool,” says Trent Young, the Co-Director, “but small enough to remain equally as passionate about smaller and more challenging spaces.” Shane Haugh, who heads up the theatre arm adds, “Our level of advice and assistance is completely guided by the client. Large organisations know their spaces and they know what they need so we work with them to achieve the outcomes they want, however for our clients that have limited knowledge, we offer our skills and experience to guide them through the process and ensure the final result ticks every box.” MultiTek Solutions have established relationships with all major suppliers and distributors which provides access to a vast range of products and services to compliment their desire to install the right products for a project.
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Stage Management: The Glue That Holds A Production Together By Marcus Pugh from Resolution X
The good stage manager is early and late, they’re the first one to arrive Once the curtain opens, the most each day and the last to leave at night important person in that theatre isn’t because they need to know about out on stage, they’re not in the every element of the show from artistic audience and they’re not even in the to technical. A stage manager will bio box or foyer. It’s the stage manager usually be attached to a production standing in the prompt side wings before the cast is even auditioned and (that’s stage left for the uninitiated). will still be working on cleaning up The work of a good stage manager accounts and paperwork days or even should never be under-estimated weeks after the last curtain call. because it doesn’t matter how good As with theatre and life in general, the director or actors are, or how great communication and control is key. A the costumes, set and lighting looks, if good stage manager will take control the stage manager isn’t calling the cues and keeping the inner mechanisms of the show running it just won’t work. While there are the basics of stage management we all see, like calling the show and creating the ‘prompt book’, it is all the other stage management tasks that go unseen that can be the difference between a great show and one that doesn’t open. It is these ‘unseen’ things that are also the difference between production suppliers, be it in sales or hire. Choosing a quality supplier can ensure that your show or venue runs smoothly. Don’t just go with the cheapest option because this will come back to bite you when those ‘unseen’ tasks haven’t been completed.
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of a production from the first days in the audition or rehearsal room, while not stepping the on the ego of the director or producer. This control does not mean being loud and the centre of attention (that’s the actor’s job), a good stage manager will communicate the appropriate information when it is needed. Once a show hits the theatre, communication from the stage manager becomes even more important because they are accountable for the safety of all cast,
crew, front of house staff, not to mention the room full of paying customers. For this reason a quality reliable talk-back (or intercom) system is the most useful resource to any stage manager in the theatre. A reliable talk-back system should consist of quality components and cabling to eliminate interference; the whole system is only as reliable as its weakest link. While all good stage mangers are good listeners and effective communicators, they can be hamstrung by an unreliable talkback system when things ‘heat up’ in the theatre. For any stage manager to stay in control and communicate they must stay calm, no matter how chaotic things might get leading up to and during a show. A good stage manager stays calm because they know the show inside and out as well as having backup plans B, C, D etc. in place. This is
where the ‘after-sale’ service of a quality supplier comes into play. No matter what role you might be filling in your next show, know that whatever happens you can look to the stage manager, they will know what to do because they are the glue that holds the show together. There are a range of talk-back systems available for sale and hire from Lightmoves and Resolution X. Lightmoves also designs and builds custom Stage Manager’s Consoles. Please contact them for information or a quotation - they know all the ‘unseen’ things that go towards a smooth running venue or production.
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Contact Lightmoves for theatrical lighting sales: Ph (03) 9701 2500, theatre@lightmoves.com.au www.lightmoves.com.au Contact ResolutionX for theatrical lighting hire: Ph (03) 9701 2411, info@resolutionx.com.au www.resolutionx.com.au
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Lighting up Sydney Harbour John Rayment has been the lighting designer for the spectacular Opera on the Harbour for the last two years. He shared his favourite moments of Carmen with David Spicer. I like the journey you take with lighting. The set sits there waiting for light to transform it - give it place, time, flavour and emotion. What I enjoy most is when the set transforms. I enjoyed the moment after interval with the fire lights. The whole set became another space. This stood in contrast to before interval where it was harsh and had the big café scene. I love the top of Act 4 when suddenly the (Carmen) sign is red and gold with flags, big and vibrant and brassy. I enjoyed it with the café scene with all the red bulbs. Some scenes were also pleasing with just Carmen and Don Jose performing with two side follow spots and a red ring. It was a nice moment which stood in contrast to everything else. The set made it feel intimate. Last year (for La Traviata) it was very important to have the Opera House and skyline part of the experience. Having established this thing on Sydney Harbour, we could close the city off a bit and make it a much more theatrical story. How did you go with the rain? If you are using digital equipment there are a lot of electronics you have to protect and have to waterproof. When the weather gets nasty it can knock a few lights out. Any big rig always has a five or ten percent failure rate. On the Harbour salt can make a mess of sensitive electronics. Then wind can wave everything about. Sometimes watching Gobos bounce up and down can be a little distracting. What equipment did you use? I don’t like to have a lighting rig that has one type of light or one brand. All have qualities that are useful and I like the mixture of them. I used Martin Mac III Performance, Vari Light 3500 profile and Clay Paky Alpha 1500. They all behaved well. The ring on the floor was LED (built into the stage) as
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was the big red bull that lit up. The big ring was a metaphor for the whole work. It’s a big game; someone is going to fight and someone is going to lose. It was a very powerful image.
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Do you use bold strong colours to convey emotions or are you working to balance that with the costumes and the drama at the time? There is both. Any lighting designer worth their salt will make the most of the costumes, lift them out of the piece and support them, also wanting to use the set to vary it visually and do that in a way that is emotionally supportive of the storyline and music. Stage Whispers understands that Opera on the Harbour will return in 2014 with Madam Butterfly.
No Flash in the Pan Training, safety and quality are the hallmarks of Geelong Fireworks. All shows are fired electronically, ignited by a senior pyro technician. The company has recently provided theatrical pyrotechnics and special effects for productions of Beauty and the Beast, Wizard of Oz and The Witches of Eastwick. The company has been serving theatres, schools and corporates in Victoria and throughout Australia with its mail order service for over a decade. Recently Geelong Fireworks has been getting many requests for magicians’ flash paper. A sparkling flash paper was used for Dorothy’s shoes in The Wizard of Oz, set off with a very small TOUCH IT
ignition system, and also for the fireballs from Daryl’s fingers in The Witches of Eastwick. Steve Lawrence, Director and Senior Pyrotechnician of Geelong Fireworks says, “We continued getting enquiries for different types of flash paper and products to ignite, shoot them across the stage etc. We have now the largest range of flash products in Australia.” Geelong Fireworks also offers the AIRSQUIB bullet hit system, a remote controlled unit that allows bullet hits on stage with complete safety and no pyrotechnic bullet hits. Anyone can use it and no surprises, as with other bullet hit blood bags leaking at the wrong time!
They even have fake beer concentrate to turn soft drink into realistic beer! And if you need to keep the crew away from food, check out their realistic fake cakes. If you have an idea you want to see turn into reality, or just want to chat about options, get in touch with the team at Geelong Fireworks.
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Social Media And Sold Gary Gumbleton, Head of Sales at Iticket, explains how theatres can ride the social media wave to fill their theatres. Why should you be using social media? Well, above all, it’s free (although you can pay for additional reach). It allows you to feed information directly to the people who are specifically interested in what you have to offer. There are plenty of social media sites online. If you’re new to all of this, it’s best to focus on Facebook and Twitter. Facebook is a very personal thing. You see your friends’ daily activities in one vertical feed and you slot in your 10c worth. Twitter on the other hand is a realtime list of both the general public and famous people’s updates and opinions; it’s fast paced and often people distribute news first on Twitter. Consider if you’re asking people to ‘like’ your Facebook page or follow your Twitter account ‘Why should they bother?’ You need to offer your fans something they can’t get anywhere else (or at least get it first online). Once you have the content to post online, the second question you should ask yourself is ‘How do I get people to interact with this content?’ An example I like to use is the recent Coke campaign where they printed people’s names on the bottle. Before my name was written on the side of the bottle, I would never have thought of taking a picture and posting it on my Facebook page. Now that I see something on the bottle I can interact with, I feel the impulse to share this
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Out Shows experience with my friends. Let’s bring it back to theatre. If a company posted about the musical Chicago starting in May, unless I am a truly avid fan of Chicago then I am not going to interact with this post. If you asked who your favorite character in a show was and included the poster of your up and coming production of Chicago, people will answer your question AND see your poster. The reason you want people to interact with the post is Virality. You want your current fans to see your post but one of your goals should be to increase your fan base. If I interact with the post, this interaction will show up in my friends’ feeds. If they are interested in the post, they will then ‘Like’ your page to find out more. There are only three reasons why a post becomes viral: Unexpectedness, Audience Participation and Tastemakers. A superb example of this is when Music Theatre New Zealand posted an image of the full Sound Of Music cast ‘then and now’. As the image was unexpected, people wanted to interact and share it with their friends. Now, bearing in mind that MTNZ has a healthy 2000 followers, this image was seen by almost 400,000 people because of the public interaction. Without paying for advertising, MTNZ had been inserted into almost half a million Facebook feeds at the flick of a wrist. This kind of virality is near on impossible to replicate; sometimes you just hit the jackpot. Any image you post on Facebook should be seen as ‘Marketing’. Your Facebook page itself is free ‘Marketing Real Estate’ so use it as much as you can. Ask cast members to use a show poster as their image for the duration of the season. A month or so ago I presented a forum on exactly this topic. When I opened up to questions, we came up with the perfect idea to offer exclusivity to your fans and increase virality without paid advertising: For your next show, get the lead actor/actress to be on your Facebook page (within a specific time period) to answer questions. People will not be able to be a part of this experience anywhere else online AND every time someone asks a question, this will show up in their friends feeds. The more questions answered the more virality. Easy! This is how you use social media to get sold out shows. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 51
Musical Theatre New Zealand David Spicer reports from Dunedin, where New Zealand’s Musical Theatre companies met for some serious business, learning and a fair bit of fun for their 53rd AGM in mid March. The night before I was due to fly to Dunedin I opened my passport to discover it had expired a few months back. Oops! After ringing Foreign Affairs that night, I all but wrote off any possibility of making my flight the next morning. But I managed to dash off to the passport office, and amazingly got a new one issued within a few hours and made a later flight. It was worth the effort. Dunedin is a city with a population of just 120,000 but it has exceptional entertainment facilities. It now boasts a spectacular undercover sports/concert stadium and the magnificently restored 1600 seat Regent Theatre. Organisers of the conference had the brilliant idea of holding forums, meals, entertainment and dancing on the stage. The proscenium of the Regent Theatre is stunning. Take a peek on the special episode of Stage Whispers TV on the conference (link on opposite
page). The original baroque style moulds are in almost the same condition as when the building opened in the late 1920’s. Dunedin is known as The Edinburgh of the south. Appropriately the entertainment included Bagpipes and a healthy dose of The Proclaimers. The keynote speaker was an insurance broker. Ashley Owen from AON insurance told the delegates of his passion for the art-form. “A simple musical has the ability to heal a community, simply because it brings people together in an atmosphere of enjoyment, entertainment and simplicity. In those hours of the show you get people to show parts of themselves and tell the truth about themselves.” The truth about Musical Theatre companies in New Zealand is that they are facing new challenges. The larger societies band together to stage productions with large sets. Hairspray is currently on tour. The Phantom of the Opera is about to kick off. The President of Musical Theatre New Zealand Ian Reid says “The big shows are going well, although most of the theatre companies are in debt to the bank. But we are still in a recession.
Drama In New Zealand! Murray Lynch - the Director of Playmarket New Zealand - tells Stage Whispers TV what are the hottest plays in the country in 2013. To watch the interview, simply scan the QR code using your smartphone or tablet, or use your web browser to visit http://youtu.be/Ri0_dyyF0wk 52 Stage Whispers May - June 2013
People are picking and choosing what they want to do.” Natural disasters are also posing problems. “Because of the Christchurch earthquake we have taken a long hard look at older buildings around the country. And a lot of our societies use church halls or school halls. Insurance companies won’t insure them for school or church use. Immediately they become a venue for hire they won’t insure them,” he said. “I am aware of five companies that are affected by hall or theatre closures. Worryingly, the Porirua Little Theatre (near Wellington, already evicted from their regular theatre) thought they had a ‘pop up home’ for 12 months but they have been told they have to get out.” Dunedin is luckily away from any seismological hot spots. Marie Maker, the Senior Vice President of Musical Theatre Dunedin showed Stage Whispers TV around their impressive club house/theatre restaurant/costume and scene workshop. The club was founded 80 years ago under the name Dunedin Operatic.
“We changed to Musical Theatre Dunedin. We were getting confused quite often with the Dunedin Opera Company. People also thought the word Operatic was a little dated.” They have three venues to choose from. Their clubhouse for theatre restaurant, the 400 seat Mayfair Theatre and the 1600 seat Regent Theatre. But they all don’t suit every show. “The Regent is sometimes too large, so we would love a theatre about 800 seats. That would be perfect.” “Last year we did Joseph at the Mayfair Theatre. The year before that we had a year off. The year before Miss Saigon was at the Regent and Dusty at the Mayfair Theatre.”
Online extras!
Watch our extended coverage of the 53rd MTNZ AGM from Dunedin by scanning the QR code or visiting http://youtu.be/Xdmvmvo-sDE Dunedin Musical Theatre is staging Hairspray this year and hoping to sell 9,000 tickets. Isn’t that 20 percent of the population? “I know, but we are hoping to draw people outside of Dunedin.” There is another musical society in the town and relations between them are good. “We’ve got Taieri Musical Society in Mosgiel, which is a suburb of Dunedin. But they don’t have their own rooms. We work in with them with setting
dates because we use a lot of the same backstage people and performers. I was in their My Fair Lady the year before last. We share people power. I enjoyed performing with them as I went to rehearsals and didn’t have to think about organising the production. I loved it.” That spirit of co-operation was on display at the Saturday night dinner where the dress up theme was come as a star. You can see from the photos above that there was definitely no shortage of star power that night!
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B
roadway uzz
By Peter Pinne
There’s nothing like a couple of big musical blockbusters to get the boxoffice buzzing and Kinky Boots and Matilda, recent Broadway entries, fit that bill nicely. With a score by Cindy Lauper, a book by Harvey Fierstein, and direction and choreography by Jerry Mitchell, Kinky Boots looks destined to stick around for quite some time. A mashup of La Cage Aux Folles and Priscilla Queen of the Desert, with drag queens taking centre stage, the musical is based on the 2005 British arthouse movie about a provincial UK shoe-factory facing closure until they hit upon the idea of making leather boots for drag queens. Critics have called it “a well-fitted, wellstaged toe-tapper in the contemporary big-Broadway idiom,” and said Lauper’s score is “chock-full of memorable dance hits and soulful ballads.” According to the New York Times ‘Raise You Up/Just Be’ is one of the “best curtain numbers since ‘You Can’t Stop the Beat’ sent Hairspray audiences dancing out of the theatre.” Tim Minchin’s Matilda, that came to New York with seven Olivier Awards, has repeated the critical raves of the London press. The New York Times called it “the most satisfying and subversive musical to ever come out of Britain,” and said Minchin’s songs were “addictive”. The Hollywood Reporter gushed, “This captivating musical
about a pint-sized protagonist is a giant in terms of its charm and originality,” while Time Out thought the score was “a deft blend of Britpop, show tunes and Danny Elfman with clever (sometime overly winking) lyrics that balance subversion with simple truths.” Two holdovers from the London cast, Bertie Carvel (Miss Trunchbull) and Lauren Ward (Miss Honey), have been equally lauded with Carvel’s performance called “a magnificent comic creation”, and Ward being praised for her “touching sweetness”. August Strindberg’s classic 1888 Swedish drama Miss Julie has had an update by playwright Neil LaBute (Fat Pig/ The Shape of Things/Reasons To be Pretty) to Long Island on Labor Day 1929, just a month before the infamous stock market crash. LaBute has remained true to the text which in the original had the daughter of a Swedish count seduced by an ambitious footman. The play, currently playing at the Geffen Playhouse, Los Angles, until 2 June, was directed by Jo Bonney and stars Lily Rabe, who won a Tony in 2011 for Portia in The Merchant of Venice, and Chris Messina, a principal on TVs The Newsroom. It’s not the first time the play has had a change of time and location; a recent production set it in modern day Africa with an interracial couple, while an English country manor in 1945 was the setting for Patrick Marber’s version After Miss Julie. A stage adaptation of Tucker Max’s book I Hope They Serve Beer on Broadway is set for a limited run 5-26 June at The Cabaret at Roy Arias Studios and Theatres, 300 West 43rd Street. Christopher Carter Sanderson adapts and directs the piece based on Max’s collection of short stories about his alcohol and sex-laden exploits. The production, which stars Abe Goldfarb, is scheduled for a national tour following the Off-Broadway run. Producer Ben Sprecher is still hoping to raise the $15 million needed to restart the troubled Rebecca in time for an official Broadway opening in December. The production was scuttled last year when financing fell through at the last minute forcing cancellation. Sprecher has apparently raised $8 million and is confident he will get the rest in time. The previously announced creative team, Michael Blakemore (Kiss Me Kate/City of Angels) and Francesca Zambello (The Little Mermaid) as co-directors, and principal cast, Jill Paice (Curtains) and Ryan Silverman (Passion), are still attached. The European created musical version premiered in Vienna in 2006 where it played for three years. It has since been seen in Budapest, Hungary; Bucharest, Romania; Helsinki, Finland; Stuttgart, Germany; St. Gallen, Switzerland and Tokyo.
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London Calling
Robert Lopez, Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Casey Nicholaw at the opening night of The Book Of Mormon at the Prince of Wales Theatre.
By Peter Pinne Daniel Radcliffe will star as Cripple Billy in Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple of Inishmaan, the third production in the Michael Grandage Company’s season at the Noel Coward Theatre. It previews from 8 June, opens 18 June and runs until 31 August. The play premiered in 1997 at the Royal National Theatre. The fourth production in the series of five plays will be A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Sheridan Smith (Legally Blonde) and David Walliams (Little Britain) from 7 September, to be followed by Henry V with Jude Law from 23 November. Currently the theatre is housing John Logan’s Peter and Alice, about Alice Liddell Hargreaves, the inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and Peter Llewelyn Davies who provided the name of the main character in J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. Judi Dench stars as the aging Hargreaves, with Ben Whishaw as the grown-up Peter. The Daily Telegraph said, “They both give beautiful, heart-catching performances in this haunting play that sounds profound notes of loss and grief.” Australian playwright Brendan Cowell’s Happy New, which premiered at the fringe venue the Old Red Lion Theatre, Angel, North London, in early 2012, plays the Trafalgar Studio 2 Theatre from 4-29 June, 2013. Set in the Australian outback, Danny and Lyle, abandoned by their mother and taken into care, over the years have become media celebrities. But things change when TV journalist Prue enters their lives. The play will be directed by Robert Shaw (who helmed the original), designed by Lily Arnold, with a cast that includes Lisa Dillon, Joel Samuels and William Troughton. This is not the first Cowell play to be produced in London. In late 2012 the award-winning Ruben Guthrie played a season at the New Wimbledon Theatre. Two hit Broadway musicals have just crossed the pond with mixed results. After spending squillions of pounds on advertising, Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone’s irreverent romp The Book of Mormon did not generate the expected raves. Quentin Letts (Daily Mail) said, “Its satire is insistently US college-campus adolescent. I tired of it after ten minutes,” while Charles Spencer (Daily Telegraph) claimed, “it strikes me as a decadent and self-indulgent musical, and its mixture of satire and syrup ultimately proves repellent.” Once, last year’s Tony winner for Best Musical fared better. “Once has a delicate soulfulness and a truthful charm,” thought Henry Hitchins (Evening Standard), while Paul Taylor (Independent) said it was a “charmingly funny and affecting production.”
Seth Numrich, recently on Broadway in Golden Boy and as Albert Narracott in the Lincoln Center Theater’s production of The War Horse, will join Kim Cattrall in the revival of Tennessee Williams’ Sweet Bird of Youth which opens at the Old Vic Theatre 12 June, and plays until 31 August. Numrich will play Chance Wayne to Cattrall’s Alexandra del Lago. It will be Numrich’s London stage debut. The Williams classic, about a fading Hollywood legend who finds refuge in the arms of a young dreamer turned gigolo, will be directed by Marianne Elliott. Critics only have superlatives for Helen Mirren’s performance in Peter Morgan’s play The Audience about Queen Elizabeth II and her weekly meetings with her Prime Ministers during her 61-year reign. As they’ve said, Mirren has had a decent rehearsal for the role having won an Oscar in 2006 for her portrayal of the same person in the film The Queen, but on stage she gives a “luminous performance”. Stephen Daldry’s production also came in for its fair share of praise; “Absorbing”, “pitch-perfect”, and “a right-royal great night out”. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 55
Laura Slavin as Christine Daaé and Toby Truscott as the Phantom in CLOC Musical Theatre’s World Amateur Premiere production of The Phantom of the Opera at the National Theatre, St Kilda from May 10.
56 Stage Whispers May - June 2013
Community Theatre groups across Australasia are swinging from the chandeliers after securing the first bite of the cherry to stage The Phantom of the Opera. Melbourne’s CLOC Musical Theatre will present the World Amateur Premiere production of Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber’s legendary masterpiece at St Kilda’s National Theatre from May 10. Toby Truscott, who will play the title role of the Phantom, is a seasoned, and much admired performer in the Melbourne theatre scene. He returns to CLOC for the fifth time to play a role that has long been his dream, but one that at times he doubted he would ever get the opportunity to perform. “I have had to pinch myself that I have been given this amazing opportunity to play one of the greatest male roles in musical theatre,” says Toby. “And to do this working with a first class professionally run company with such high technical, production and artistic standards is the icing on the cake for me.” Laura Slavin, playing Christine Daaé for CLOC, says, “I have been overawed to be part of a cast and company of such high quality. And now watching the massive sets and intricate costumes take shape around us has only added to my excitement as we get closer to opening night.” Savoyards open their Queensland premiere production on May 25 at the Iona Performing Arts Centre, Wynnum. Steering the production is director Jason Ward Kennedy who knows his way around the work having performed it professionally in German in Hamburg. This will be the first time he has done the show in English. Originally from New Zealand, Kennedy has performed in Australia and Europe professionally for over 20 years appearing as Old Deuteronomy in Cats, Tanz Der Vampire (Dance of the Vampires) and Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar, amongst others. In New Zealand, the first production by the NZ Musical Theatre Consortium, produced by Wellington Musical Theatre, plays at the St James Theatre from June 13.
Stage Briefs
Lionel Theunissen as The Phantom and Monique Latemore as Christine Daae in Savoyards' Queensland Premiere of The Phantom of the Opera.
In NSW, Newcastle's Metropolitan Players will lead the way in August / September, with Miranda Musical Society first up in Sydney in September 2013. Matt Byrne Media will present the SA Amateur Premiere in July. Free Rain Theatre Company will stage the Canberra Premiere in August, a pro-am production starring Michael Cormick and Julie Lea Goodwin.
www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 57
Chae Rogan (Lion), Lauren Beatson (Dorothy), Tyler Hoggard (Tinman) and Temujin Tera (Scarecrow) in Engadine Musical Society’s production of The Wizard of Oz, at Sutherland Entertainment Centre (NSW) from May 15 to 19.
Playlovers (WA) presents Nevermore, a new musical based on the loves, life and creative passions of Edgar Allen Poe, from May 3 - 18.
58 Stage Whispers May - June 2013
Stage Heritage
The Blue Moon
1905 London Musical Comedy success The Blue Moon premiered in Australia at the Princess Theatre Melbourne in June 1907, performed by J. C. Williamson’s New Musical Comedy Company, with a largely imported principal cast, with two Australians (Celia Ghiloni and Pat Bathurst) and a recent Kiwi import, Amy Murphy, amongst the ten main principals. Blue Moon is a young girl, stolen in infancy by Moolraj, a soldier who adopts Eastern manners and dress after deserting his regiment. When Blue Moon grows up, he bargains for her betrothal to an Indian prince. An English officer who has seen her at the head of a singing band of Burmese maidens, falls in love with her, seeing her next on the eve of her betrothal. The Burmese prince, wanting to be ‘more English than the English’, leaves the decision to Blue Moon. She chooses the officer who has won her heart, then finds out that she is really the daughter of an English lady and not a Burmese maiden after all. The Crocodile Dance, performed by Victor Gouriet and eight girls, was described as "very acrobatic". The Theatre commented, "The crowding in of imported stars often means the crowding out of local talent." The Bulletin said, “The piece is much like many other Asiatic song-and-hop-and-frivol successes of the past, and the arrangement of the incidental dances is perhaps its brightest feature.” Postcards from the Editor’s collection.
www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 59
Auditions Online extras!
Don’t miss out on auditions that didn’t make it to print. Scan the QR code or visit www.stagewhispers.com.au/auditions
60 Stage Whispers May - June 2013
On Stage A.C.T. I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change by Joe DiPietro and Jimmy Roberts. Queanbeyan City Council. Until May 5. The Q, Queanbeyan. 6285 6290. Frankenstein by Nick Dear. Ensemble Theatre production. May 7 - 10. The Street Theatre. 6247 1223. Natalie Weir’s R & J. Expressions Dance Company. May 14. The Q, Queanbeyan. 6285 6290. The Hollow by Agatha Christie. Tempo Theatre. May 17 - 25. Belconnen Theatre, Swanson Street, Belconnen. 02 6275 2700. Melbourne International Comedy Festival Road Show. AList Entertainment. May 17 & 18. Canberra Theatre Centre. (02) 6275 2700. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. Action to the World. May 22 - 25. Canberra Theatre Centre. (02) 6275 2700.
Symmetries. The Australian Ballet. May 23 - 25. Canberra Theatre Centre. (02) 6275 2700. How to Be (Or Not To Be) Lower by Max Cullen. May 25 - June 1. The Street Theatre. 6247 1223. Return to the Forbidden Planet. Book by Bob Carlton, various composers (Musical). Queanbeyan Players. June 7 - 22. Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre (the Q). 02 6285 6290. G by Garry Stewart. June 13 14. Canberra Theatre Centre. (02) 6275 2700. Jazz Garters: 4. Canberra Rep. June 21 - July 6. Theatre 3. (02) 6257 1950. Apalling Behaviour by Stephen House. June 22 - 29. The Street Theatre. 6247 1223. New South Wales War Horse by Nick Stafford from the novel by Michael Morpurgo. National Theatre of Great Britain, Handspring Puppet Company and Global Creatures. Until June 30. Lyric
A.C.T. & New South Wales Theatre, Sydney. 1300 795 267. The Addams Family. Book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, and music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa. Rodney Rigby, Stuart Oken, Roy Furman, Michael Leavitt and Five Cent Productions by special arrangement with Elephant Eye Theatrical. Ongoing. Capitol Theatre Sydney. 1300 723 038. One Man, Two Guvnors by Richard Bean. Based on The Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni. STC / National Theatre of Great Britain. Until May 11. Sydney Theatre. (02) 9250 1777. Dance Better at Parties by Gideon Obarzanek. Syndey Theatre Company. Until May 11. Wharf 2 Theatre. (02) 9250 1777. Young Frankenstein by Mel Brooks. Coffs Harbour Musical Comedy Company. Until May 5. Jetty Memorial Theatre, Coffs Harbour. (02) 6652 8088. The Wizard of Oz adapted by
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William Ford from L. Frank Baum’s novel. Young People’s Theatre. Until June 8. Young People’s Theatre, Hamilton (Newcastle). (02) 4961 4895. Fury by Joanna Murray-Smith. STC. Until June 8. Wharf 1. (02) 9250 1777 The Mikado by Gilbert & Sullivan. Players Theatre Inc, Port Macquarie. Until May 12. (02) 6581 8888. Forget Me Not by Tom Holloway. Belvoir. Until May 19. Upstairs Theatre. (02) 9699 3444. Ninth Annual Sydney Comedy Festival. Until May 11. www.sydneycomedyfest.com.au Comin’ Home Soon by Alana Valentine. Lieder Theatre, Goulburn. Until May 11. Lieder Theatre. (02) 4821 5066. All My Sons by Arthur Miller. Newcastle Theatre Company. Until May 11. NTC Theatre, Lambton (Newcastle). (02) 4952 4958 (3-6pm Monday - Friday).
Stage Whispers 61
On Stage At Last - The Etta James Story by John Livings. Until May 5. Playhouse, Sydney Opera House. (02) 9250 7777. The Ham Funeral by Patrick White. New Theatre. Until May 25. 1300 347 205. Wrong Turn at Lungfish by Garry Marshall and Lowell Ganz. Arts Theatre Cronulla. May 1 June 15. (02) 9523 2779 (Box Office open 9am-12pm Saturday 4 May or any perf night). A Butcher of Distinction by Rob Hayes. we do not unhappen and Old 505 Theatre. May 1 26. The Old 505 Theatre, Surry Hills. Richard III (or almost) by Timothy Daly. Emu Productions. May 1 - June 1. Newtown Theatre. 0423 082 015. Physical Fractals by independent dance maker Natalie Abbott. May 1 - 10. PACT Centre for Emerging Artists. 4000 Miles by Amy Herzog.
62 Stage Whispers
New South Wales
Atyp Under the Wharf, MopHead and Catnip Productions. May 1 - 18. ATYP Studio 1, The Wharf, Walsh Bay. (02) 9270 2400. The Bull, the Moon and the Coronet of Stars by Van Badham. Griffin, HotHouse Theatre and Merrigong Theatre Company. May 2 - June 8. SBW Stables Theatre. (02) 9361 3817. Pull Up Your Shorts. Funny short plays by local playwrights. RAPA Inc. May 2 - 11. Concord RSL. MCA Ticketing 1300 306 776 They’re Playing Our Song by Neil Simon, Marvin Hamlisch and Carol Bayer Sager. HIT Productions. May 3 & 4. Theatre Royal, Sydney. 136 100. Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Sport for Jove. May 3 & 4. Riverside Theatre, Parramatta. (02) 8839 3399. Grease by Jim Jacobs & Warren Casey. Hornsby Musical Society. May 3 - 11. Hornsby RSL. 9477 7777.
Murdered to Death by Peter Gordon. Guild Theatre. May 3 June 1. Guild Theatre, Rockdale. (02)95216358 (9-5, Mon-Sat). Eurobeat - Almöst Eurövision by Craig Christie and Andrew Patterson. Penrith Musical Comedy Company. May 3 - 11. Q Theatre Penrith. 4723 7600. It’s My Party (And I’ll Die If I Want To) by Elizabeth Coleman. Christine Harris and HIT Productions. May 3 - 4. Civic Theatre, Newcastle. (02) 4929 1977. May 7. Cessnock Performing Arts Centre. (02) 4990 7134. The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Carillon Theatrical Society, Bathurst. May 3 - 11. Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre. 12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose and adapted for stage by Sherman Sergal. Glenbrook Players. May 5 - 11. Glenbrook Theatre. (02) 47391110. The Young Idea by Noel
Coward. Genesian Theatre Company. May 4 - June 8. 1300 237 217. Nunsense by Dan Goggin. Parkes Musical & Dramatic Society. May 5 - 25. Parkes Little Theatre. The Shape of Things by Neil LaBute. Pymble Players. May 8 June 1. Corner of Bromley Ave and Mona Vale Rd, Pymble. 1300 306 776. Breast Wishes. Music and Lyrics by Bruce Brown, book by Wendy Harmer. Shire Music Theatre. May 9 - 12. Sutherland Memorial School of Arts. 0458 642 553 Happiness by David Williamson. World Premiere. Ensemble Theatre. May 9 - July 6. (02) 9929 0644 The Baulkham Hills African Ladies Troupe by Ros Horin. May 9 - 18. Lennox Theatre, Parramatta Riverside Theatres. (02) 8839 3399. Aladdin by Stewart Ardern.
Just $40 a month to reach thousands of theatre goers. Contact Stage Whispers for details.
On Stage
New South Wales
Gilbert and Sullivan and Musical Society. May 15-19, Maitland Town Hall, (02) 4931 2800; May 25-26, Hawks Nest Community Centre, Door sales & June 1 - 2, James Theatre, Dungog, Door sales. Cavalia: A Magical Encounter Between Human and Horse. Cavalia Inc. May 15 - June 2. Under the White Big Top, on The Showring at the Entertainment Quarter in Moore Park. 1800 765 955. R & J. Natalie Weir / Expressions Dance Theatre. May 16 - 18, Riverside Theatre, Parramatta, (02) 8839 3399; May 21 - 22, Cessnock Performing Arts Centre, (02) 4990 7134. G by Garry Stewart. Australian Dance Theatre. May 16 - 18. Sydney Theatre. (02) 9250 1999. The Wizard of Oz by L Frank Dural Musical Society Inc. May Public School, Lane Cove. Baum. Music and lyrics by 10 - 25. Soldiers Memorial Hall, 1300 306 776. Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg. Old Northern Rd, Dural. 1300 The Bold, the Young, and the Strathfield Musical Society. May 306 776. Murdered by Don Zolidis. 17 - 25. The Latvian Theatre, A Midsummer Night’s Dream Newcastle Gilbert and Sullivan Strathfield. (02) 8007 7785. The Rock Musical by George Players. May 10 -18. Wesley BLAK. Bangarra Dance Theatre. Griggs. NUCMS. May 10 - 25. Hall, Hamilton (Newcastle). May 17 & 18. IMB Theatre, Normanhurst Uniting Church 0413 304 863. Wollongong. (02) 4224 5999. Hall. 9487 2786. Danny in the Toybox. Adapted Urinetown by Mark Hollmann A Season of One Act Plays. Woy by Richard Tulloch, music and and Greg Kotis. The Regals Woy Little Theatre. May 10 - 19. songs by Catherine Martin. Marian Street Theatre for Young Musical Society. May 16 - 25. Peninsula Theatre, Woy Woy. Bexley RSL. 0449 REGALS 4323 3233. People. May 11 - July 13. RENT by Jonathan Larson. Manly Marian Street Theatre, Killara. Joseph and the Amazing Musical Society. May 16 - 25. 1300 306 776. Technicolor Dreamcoat by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Next to Normal by Brian Yorkey Star of the Sea Theatre, Manly. The Pirates of Penzance by Rice. Chatswood Musical & Tom Kitt. Newcastle Theatre Gilbert and Sullivan. Holroyd Society. May 10 - 18. The Zenith Company. May 15 - 25. (02) Musical and Dramatic Society. 4952 4958 (3-6pm Monday Theatre, Chatswood. May 17 - 25. The Redgum 1300662212. Friday) Centre, Wentworthville. The Wizard of Oz by L Frank The Wizard of Oz by L Frank Let the Sunshine by David Baum. Music and lyrics by Baum. Music and lyrics by Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg. Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg. Williamson. May 17 - June 1. Orange Theatre Company. May Engadine Musical Society. May Hunters Hill Theatre, Woolwich. 9879 7765. 10 - 18. Orange Civic Theatre. 15 - 19. Sutherland (02) 6393 8111. Entertainment Centre. 1300 616 Gypsy. Music by Jule Styne, 063. lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and A Streetcar Named Desire by The Servant of Two Masters by book by Arthur Laurents. Roo Tennessee Williams. Theatre Co, Shellharbour. May Campbelltown Theatre Group Carlo Goldoni adapted by Nick Inc. May 10 - 25. Town Hall Enright and Ron Blair. Castle Hill 17 to June 1. www.roo-theatre.com.au Players. May 15 - June 1. The Theatre, Campbelltown. (02) 4628 5287. Pavilion Theatre, Castle Hill Narnia by Tasca and Tierney. Showground. 9634 2929. Eastwood Uniting Church The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Musical Society. May 17 - June Lane Cove Theatre Company. HMS Pinafore by W.S. Gilbert 1. Eastwood Uniting Church. and Arthur Sullivan. Maitland May 10 - June 1. Mowbray James Millar (Noël Coward) and Lucy Maunder (Gertrude Lawrence) in Noël and Gertie
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8061 7195. Heloise by Rie Natalenko. Phoenix Theatre. May 17 - June 1. Phoenix Theatre, Bridge St. Coniston. 0407 067 343 Guys and Dolls by Frank Loesser, Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. Waverley Lugar Brae Players. May 18 - 25. Coleman Auditorium, Church in the Market Place, Bondi Junction. 9389 5361. Play in a Day 2013. Writers, directors and actors develop and stage plays in 24 hours. Newcastle Theatre Company. May 18. NTC Theatre, Lambton (Newcastle). (02) 4952 4958. Tomaree Musical Theatre Company - 25-Year Anniversary Celebration. Musical numbers from all the shows of the company’s first 25 years. May 18 - 26. Soldiers Point Bowling Club. 0468 898 073. 13 - The Musical by Dan Elish, Robert Horn and Jason Robert Brown. The National Theatre Company. May 22 - 25. Civic Playhouse, Newcastle. (02) 4929 1977. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Blue Mountains Musical Society Inc. May 24 June 1. Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre, Penrith. 4723 7600. Up Pompeii! by Miles Tredinnick. Murwillumbah Theatre Company. May 24 June 9. Civic Centre. (02) 66725404. An Evening with Julie Andrews. John Frost and Phil Bathols. May 24. State Theatre, Sydney. 1300 139 588. Money Honey. Musical revue developed by Maureen O’Brien. Novocastrian Players. May 24 June 8. Theatre on Brunker, Adamstown (Newcastle). (02) 4956 1263. Side by Side by Sondheim by Stephen Sondheim. Roo Theatre Co. May 28 - June 1. Harbour Theatre, Shellharbour. (02) 4297 2891. Stage Whispers 63
On Stage
New South Wales
Slava's Snowshow - Theatre Royal, Sydney from June 11, Lyric Theatre, QPAC from June 26, Canberra Theatre Centre from July 3 and Comedy Theatre, Melbourne from July 17.
Oliver! by Lionel Bart. Berowra Musical Society. May 25 - June 1. Berowra Community Centre, The Gully Road, Berowra. Shoe-Horn Sonata by John Misto. Riverside Lyric Ensemble. May 28 - June 1. Riverside Theatres, Parramatta. 8839 3399. Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes by Tony Kushner. Belvoir. May 28 Jul 14. Upstairs Theatre. (02) 9699 3444. Jack Charles v The Crown by Jack Charles & John Romeril. Ilbijerri Theatre Company. May 29 - June 1, IPAC, Wollongong, (02) 4224 5999; June 5 - 8, Glen Street Theatre, Belrose, 9975 1455; June 12 & 13, Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre; June 15, Orange Civic Theatre; June 19, Cessnock Performing Arts Centre, (02) 4990 7134; June 21 & 22, Glasshouse Entertainment Centre, Port Macquarie. Ruff 1 New Works in Progress. Merrigong Theatre Co. June 1. Gordon Theatre, Wollongong. (02) 4224 5999 The Maids by Jean Genet. A new translation by Andrew 64 Stage Whispers
Upton and Benedict Andrews. STC. June 4 - July 20. Sydney Theatre. (02) 9250 1777. Anthony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare. Emu Productions. June 4 - 15. Newtown Theatre. 0423 082 015. Graceland and Asleep on the Wind by Ellen Byron. Operating Theatre. June 5 - 16. Sidetrack Theatre. (02) 9550 3666. The Nutcracker. Choreography by Marius Petipa, music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Moscow Ballet La Classique. June 5. Civic Theatre, Newcastle. (02) 4929 1977. Phèdre by Jean Racine, translated by Ted Hughes. Bell Shakespeare. June 6 - 29. Sydney Opera House, Playhouse. (02) 9250 7777. Seussical the Musical by Stephen Flaherty & Lynne Ahrens. Singleton Theatrical Society. June 7 - 22. Singleton Civic Centre, Civic Avenue, Singleton. Bookings: Singleton Bloons & Blooms. Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow. June 6, Cessnock Performing Arts Centre, (02) 4990 7134; June 7 - 9, Civic Theatre,
Newcastle, (02) 4929 1977. Jesus Christ Superstar Arena Spectacular by Andrew LloydWebber and Tim Rice. Really Useful Group and Frontier Touring. June 7 & 8. Sydney Entertainment Centre. Ticketmaster. One Act Play Festival. Players Theatre Inc, Port Macquarie. June 7 - 9. (02) 6581 8888. Return to the Forbidden Planet. Book by Bob Carlton, various composers. Queanbeyan Players. June 7 - 22. Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre (the Q). 02 6285 6290. Euröbeat - Almöst Eurövision by Craig Christie and Andrew Patterson. Wyong Musical Theatre. June 7 - 15. 1300 366 470 Noël and Gertie. Devised by Sheridan Morley, with the words and music of Noël Coward. CDP Theatre Producers. May 21 - June 1, Glen Street Theatre, 9975 1455; June 5 - 8, Q Theatre Company, Penrith, 4723 7600; June 11 - 15. Lennox Theatre, Riverside Theatres, Parramatta. (02) 8839 3399; June 26 - 29, The Concourse, Chatswood, 1300 795 012.
Slava’s Snowshow. Lunchbox Productions. June 11 - 23. Theatre Royal, Sydney. 1300 889 278. Deathtrap by Ira Levin. Maitland Repertory Theatre Inc. June 12 29. Maitland Repertory Theatre. 02 4931 2800 (9 to 5, 7 days a week). The Wedding Singer. Music by Matthew Sklar, book by Chad Beguelin & Tim Herlihy and lyrics by Chad Beguelin. The Hills Musical Society. June 13 - 16. Castle Hill RSL. Stepping Out: The Musical. Book By Richard Harris, Lyrics by: Mary Stewart-David, Music by: Denis King. Based on the original play by Richard Harris. Miranda Musical Society. June 14 - 23. Sutherland Memorial School of Arts. 8814 5827 Cinderella by Peter Denyer. Nowra Players. June 14 - 29. Players Theatre, Meroo St, Bomaderry. 1300662808. The Immigrant by Paul Rybak. Phoenix Theatre. June 14 - 29. Phoenix Theatre, Coniston. 0407 067 343 Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen with a world premier adaption by Jeremy Johnson. Castle Hill Players. June 14 - July 6. The Pavilion Theatre, Castle Hill Showground. 9634 2929. Leader of the Pack by Ellie Greenwich. Arcadians Theatre Group, Corrimal. June 15 - 30. 4284 8348. Kristin Chenoweth. June 17. Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House. 02 9250 7777 This is Where We Live by Vivienne Walshe. Griffin Independent. June 19 - July 13. SBW Stables Theatre. (02) 9361 3817. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis tale, dramatised by Glyn Robbins. Roo Theatre Co. June 20 - 22. Harbour Theatre, Shellharbour. (02) 4297 2891 Disney on Ice: Princesses and Heroes. Feld Entertainment. June 20 - 23. Newcastle Entertainment Centre.
Just $40 a month to reach thousands of theatre goers. Contact Stage Whispers for details.
On Stage (02) 4921 2121. Happy Days - A New Musical Based on the Paramount Pictures television series created by Garry Marshall. Music and Lyrics by Paul Williams. Rockdale Musical Society. June 21 - 30. Canterbury Hurlstone Park RSL. Sesame Street Presents Elmo’s World Tour. June 26. Civic Theatre, Newcastle. (02) 4929 1977. Boeing Boeing by Mark Camilleri, adapted by Beverly Cross. Orange Theatre Company. June 28 - 30. Orange Civic Theatre. (02) 6393 8111. Private Lives by Noel Coward. Newcastle Theatre Company. June 29 - July 13. Newcastle Theatre Company, Lambton. (02) 4952 4958 (3-6pm Monday - Friday) Queensland The Boy from Oz by Nick Enright, with songs by Peter Allen. Ignatians. Until May 3. Schonell Theatre, Brisbane. 0420450070.
Next to Normal by Tom Kitt & Brian Yorkey. Oscar Theatre Company. Cremorne Theatre, QPAC. Until May 4. 136 246. Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Gold Coast Little Theatre, Southport. Until - May 11. 5532-2096. Caught in the Net by Ray Cooney. Cairns Little Theatre. Until May 4. Rondo Theatre, Cairns. 1300 855835. Billy Buckett: New Original British Rock’n’Roll Musical. Beenleigh Theatre Group. Until May 11. Crete Street Theatre. 3807 3922. Red by John Logan. QTC. Until May 19. Cremorne Theatre, QPAC. 1800 356528. Rumplestiltskin is my Name by Vera Morris, Arne Christiansen & Ole Kittleson Arts Theatre, Brisbane. Until June 15. 3369 2344 Hot Shoe Shuffle by Larry Buttrose & Cathryn Riding. David Atkins Prods. Lyric Theatre,
New South Wales & Queensland QPAC. From May 3. 136 246. Pack of Lies by Hugh Whitmore. Centenary Theatre Group, Chelmer. May 4 - 24. 0435591720. This is Capital City by Sandra Carluccio. La Boite Indie & Sandra Carluccio Prod. Kelvin Grove Village. May 8-25. 3007 8600 Blindscape by Skye Gellmann & Lieran Law. La Boite Indie & Skye Gellmann Prod. Roundhouse Theatre. May 8-25. 3007 8600. The Séance by Mark Pritchard & Bridget Balodis. La Boite indie & No Show Prod. La Boite Foyer, Kelvin Grove. May 8-25. 3007 8600. The 60's Theatre Restaurant. PRIMA (Pine Rivers Musical Association). May 10 - 24. 0439 955 825. St. Trinian’s A Musical Comedy by David Barrett. Mousetrap Theatre, Redcliffe, Redcliffe Showgrounds. May 10 - 25.
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3888 3493. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. Nash Theatre, Merthyr Road Uniting Church. May 11 - June 1. 3379 4775. The Book Club by Roger Hall, adapted by Rodney Fisher. Christine Harris Prod. Gardens Theatre. May 14 - 15. 3138 4455. Animal Farm by George Orwell. Shake & Stir Prod. Cremorne Theatre, QPAC. May 15 - 25. 136 246. Reefer Madness by Dan Studney & Kevin Murphy. Phoenix Ensemble, Beenleigh. May 17 June 15. 3103 1546. An Evening with Julie Andrews. John Frost and Phil Bathols. May 18. Concert Hall, QPAC. 136 246. Delicacy by Julian Hobbs. Arts Theatre, Brisbane. May 24 - Jun 15. 3369 2344. Our Man in Havanna by Graham Greene. Javeenbah Theatre Co.,
Stage Whispers 65
On Stage Nerang. May 24 - June 8. 5596 0300. The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Qld Amateur Premiere. Savoyards Musical Comedy Society Inc. May 25 - June 12. Iona Peforming Arts Centre, Iona College, Wynuum West. (07) 3893 4321. www.savoyards.com.au Mother Courage & Her Children by Bertolt Brecht, translated by Wesley Enoch & Paula Nazarski. QTC. May 25 - June 16. Playhouse, QPAC. 1800 355 528. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. Les Currie & GHP. Cremorne Theatre, QPAC. May 28 - Jun 9. 136 246. Le Corsaire. Inspired by Lord Byron’s Poem. Bolshoi Ballet. May 30 - Jun 5. Lyric Theatre, QPAC. 136 246. Anne of Green Gables by Josephine Robinette. Villanova Players. The Theatre, Morningside. May 31 - Jun 15. 3395 5168. Brigadoon by Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe. Queensland Musical Theatre. June 5-10. Schonell Theatre. 0419 413 905 The Bright Stream by Dmitri Shostakovich. Bolshoi Ballet. June 7 - 9. Lyric Theatre, QPAC. 136 246.
66 Stage Whispers
Queensland & Victoria
Jesus Christ Superstar Arena Spectacular by Andrew LloydWebber and Tim Rice. Really Useful Group and Frontier Touring. June 11 & 12. Brisbane Entertainment Centre. Ticketek. Closer Than Ever by Richard Maltby Jr & David Shire. Harvest Rain. June 12. Mina Parade Warehouse. 3103 7438. Kristin Chenoweth Live in Concert. QPAC in association with the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. June 14. Concert Hall, QPAC. 136 246. It’s My Party (And I’ll Die If I Want To) by Elizabeth Coleman. Christine Harris Prod. June 14 & 15. Gardens Theatre. 3138 4455. Venus in Fur by David Ives. QTC. June 22 - July 27. Cremorne Theatre, QPAC. 1 800 355 528. What’s New Pussycat? By Judith Prior. Arts Theatre, Brisbane. June 26 -Aug 24. 3369 2344 Slava’s Snowshow. Lunchbox Productions. June 26 - 30. Lyric Theatre QPAC. 136 246. Disney on Ice presents Princesses and Heroes. June 27 30. Brisbane Entertainment Centre. 132 849. Idina Menzel in Concert. QPAC, QSO and The Music House. June 29. Concert Hall, QPAC. 136 246.
Victoria Past Perfect by Trudy Hellier. The 1812 Theatre. Until May 11. 9758 3964 or 0406 752 067. About Tommy by Thor Bjørn Krebs, translated by David Duchin. Red Stitch Actors Theatre. Until May 25. Red Stitch Theatre. (03) 9533 8083. Dance of Death by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, English text by Tom Holloway. Malthouse Theatre. Until May 12. Malthouse Beckett Theatre. (03) 9685 5111. Breaker Morant by Kenneth G Ross. Torquay Theatre Troupe. Until May 11. (03) 52619035. True Minds by Joanna MurraySmith. Melbourne Theatre Company. Until June 2. Southbank Theatre, The Sumner. (03) 8688 0800. The Club by David Williamson. HIT Productons. May 1, West Gippsland Arts Centre, (03) 5624 2456; May 2 - 4, Knox Community Arts Centre, (03)
9729 7287; May 6, Wonthaggi Arts Centre, (03) 5672 1083; May 7 & 8, Shirley Burke Theatre, (03) 9556 4440. August: Osage County by Tracy Letts. Heidelberg Theatre Company. May 2 - 18. (03) 9457 4117. Nunsense by Dan Goggin. Peridot Theatre Inc. May 2 - 18. Unicorn Theatre, Mount Waverley Secondary College. 1300 138 645 (Toll Free for landlines) or (03) 9898 9090 (if using a mobile). Scarborough by Fiona Evans. The Honeytrap. May 2 - 18. Brunswick Arts Space. Hotel Sorrento by Hannie Rayson. Croydon Parish Players. May 3 - 11. Croydon Uniting Church. Sweet Charity by Neil Simon, Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields. Williamstown Musical Theatre. May 3 - 18. Williamstown Mechanics Institute. 1300 881 545.
Just $40 a month to reach thousands of theatre goers. Contact Stage Whispers for details.
On Stage How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel. Mockingbird Theatre. May 3 - 18. Brunswick Mechanics Institute Performing Arts Centre. Jack Charles V the Crown by Jack Charles. May 3 & 4, Whitehorse Centre, (03) 9262 6555; May 9, West Gippsland Arts Centre, Warragul, 5624 2456; May 11, Clocktower Centre, Moonee Ponds, (03) 9243 9191; May 15 & 16, The Drum Theatre, Dandenong; May 18, Altona Theatre; May 21 - 25, The Butter Factory Theatre, Wodonga. The King and I by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Geelong Lyric Theatre Society. May 3 - 11. Playhouse Theatre, Geelong Performing Arts Centre. 5225 1200. Double the Risk in Love [La Double Inconstance] by Marivaux. Melbourne French Theatre Inc. May 7 - 11. Collingwood College Theatre. (03) 9349 2250.
Legally Blonde The Musical by Laurence O'Keefe, Nell Benjamin and Heather Hach. From May 9. Princess Theatre, Melbourne. 1300 111 011. Sweeney Todd by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler. NOVA Music Theatre. May 11 25. The Whitehorse Centre. 1300 305 771. True Love Travels on a Gravel Road by Jane Miller. May 15 June 2. fortyfivedownstairs. (03) 9662 9966. One Man, Two Guvnors by Richard Bean, based on Goldoni’s The Servant of Two Masters, with songs by Grant Olding. National Theatre of Great Britain, MTC and Arts Centre Melbourne. May 17 June 22. Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse. (03) 8688 0800. Phèdre by Jean Racine, translated by Ted Hughes. Bell Shakespeare. May 17 - June 2. The Malthouse, Merlyn Theatre. (03) 9685 5111.
Victoria No Child by Nilaja Sun. Theatre Works. May 7 - 19. (03) 9534 3388. The Adventures of Aladdin: The Rock Panto by Rob Robson and Gary Wong. The Colac Players. May 9 - 11. COPACC. (03) 5232 2077. The Mating Game by Robin Hawdon. Southern Peninsula Players. May 9 - 19. Rosebud Memorial Hall. (03) 5982 2777 and 5976 4494. Calendar Girls by Tim Firth. Eltham Little Theatre. May 10 25. Eltham Performing arts Centre. (03) 9437 1574. The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe. CLOC Musical Theatre. May 10 - 25. (World Amateur Premiere). National Theatre, St Kilda. 1300 362 547. The Producers by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan. JYM Theatre Company. May 11 - 25. Phoenix Theatre, Elwood.
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0408 024 224. Anything Goes by Cole Porter. BLOC Productions (Ballarat). May 16 - 26. Her Majesty’s Theatre, Ballarat. The Merry Widows by Cenarth Fox. Strathmore Theatrical Arts Group (World Premiere). May 16 -26. Strathmore Community Hall. 9382 6284 (ah). Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Warragul Theatre Company. May 17 - 25. West Gippsland Arts Centre, Warragul. 5624 2456. The Woman in Black by Stephen Mallatratt. The Basin Theatre Group. May 17 - June 8. 1300 784 668. Sundowner by David Denborough . KAGE. May 21, Portland Arts Centre; May 23, Lighthouse Theatre, Warnambool, (03) 555 94 999; May 25, Wyndham Cultural Centre, (03) 8734 6000; May 28
Stage Whispers 67
On Stage & 29, West Gippsland Arts Centre, Warragul, 5624 2456; June 6, Wangaratta Performing Arts Centre, (03 5722 8105); June 12, The Capital, Bendigo, 5434 6100; June 25 & 26, Clocktower Centre, Moonee Ponds, (03) 9243 9191; June 28 & 29, Whitehorse Centre, (03) 9262 6555. The Death of Peter Pan by Barry Lowe. Fly-on-the-Wall Theatre. May 22 - June 2. Chapel Off Chapel. (03) 8290 7000. Hairspray. Music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Shaiman and a book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan. LaTrobe Theatre Company. May 23 June 8. Latrobe Performing Arts Centre. 5176 3559. Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring. Moreland Theatre Co Inc. May 23 - June 1. Mechanics Institute Performing Arts Centre, Brunswick. 0426 577 346. Picasso at the Lapin Agile by Steve Martin. Brighton Theatre Co. May 23 - June 8. 1300 752 126. The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, adapted by Marc Blitzstein. The Mount Players. May 24 - June 16. Mountview Theatre, Macedon. 1300 463 224 13 A Musical by Jason Robert Brown, Dan Elish and Robert
68 Stage Whispers
Victoria & South Australia
Horn. Wonthaggi Theatrical Group. May 24 - June 8. Wonthaggi Union Community Arts Centre. 5672 1083. The Wedding Singer by Matthew Sklar, Tim Herlihy and Chad Beguelin. Phoenix Theatre Company Inc. May 24 - June 1. Doncaster Playhouse. KING KONG. Writer: Craig Lewis. Music overseen by Marius de Vries. Lyricist: Michael Mitnick. Global Creatures. From May 28. Regent Theatre, Melbourne. 1300 111 011. Laughter on the 23rd Floor by Neil Simon. Lilydale Athenaeum Theatre Co. May 29 - June 15. (03) 9735 1777. The Vicar of Dibley by Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew Archer. The 1812 Theatre. May 30 June 22. 9758 3964 or 0406 752 067. Annie by Charles Strouse, Martin Charnin and Thomas Meehan. Babirra Music Theatre. May 31 to June 9. The Whitehorse Centre, Nunawading. 9262 6555 (10am - 4:30pm weekdays) Chicago by John Kander, Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse. Swan Hill Theatre Group Co-op Ltd. May 31 - June 16. Swan Hill Memorial Theatre. 50323033 or 1800 625 373. Set Build by Andy Payne. Beaumaris Theatre Inc. May 31 -
June 15. (03) 9583 6896. Frankenstein by Nick Dear. Ensemble Theatre Production. May 31 & June 1. Clocktower Centre, Moonee Ponds. (03) 9243 9191. An Evening with Julie Andrews. John Frost and Phil Bathols. May 31. Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne. 1300 182 183. Palace of the End by Judith Thompson. Theatre Works. June 5 - 16. (03) 9534 3388. Solomon and Marion by Lara Foot. MTC. June 7 - July 20. Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio. (03) 8688 0800. [title of show] by Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell. Joint production by Williamstown Musical Theatre and Fab Nobs Theatre Inc. Victorian Amateur Premiere. June 7 - 15. The Fab Factory. June 20 - 23. Williamstown Mechanics Institute. Heroes by Gerald Sibleyras, translated by Tom Stoppard. Geelong Repertory Theatre Company. June 7 - 22. Woodbin Theatre, West Geelong. 5225 1200. Cosi by Louis Nowra. Kew Court House Arts Association. June 7 16. Doncaster Playhouse. 0450572522. Genesis to Broadway by Frank Howson. June 11 - 20. Chapel Off Chapel. (03) 8290 7000. Kristin Chenoweth. June 12. Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne. 1300 182 183. Albert Nobbs by Gordon Steel. Mordialloc Theatre Company Inc. June 13 - 29. Shirley Burke Theatre, Parkdale. (03) 9587 5141. Season of One Act Plays. Peridot Theatre Inc. June 13 - 16. Unicorn Theatre, Mount Waverley Secondary College. 1300 138 645 (Toll Free for landlines) or (03) 9898 9090 (if using a mobile) Big the musical by John Weidman, David Shire and Richard Maltby, Jr. MLOC. June 14 - 22. Phoenix Theatre, Elwood.
Fiddler on the Roof by Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick and Joseph Stein. MDMS. June 14 22. The Karralyka Centre, Ringwood. 0402 221 681. Jesus Christ Superstar Arena Spectacular by Andrew LloydWebber and Tim Rice. Really Useful Group and Frontier Touring. June 14 to 16. Rod Laver Arena. Ticketek. One False Move. NICA Second Year Students. June 19 - 29. NICA National Circus Centre, Prahran. Circus Oz 2013: Cranked Up. June 19 - July 14. Circus Oz Big Top, Birrarung Marr. 136 100. Noël and Gertie. Devised by Sheridan Morley, with the words and music of Noël Coward. CDP Theatre Producers. June 20, Frankston Arts Centre, (03) 9784 1060 & June 21 & 22, Whitehorse Centre, (03) 9262 6555. What the Butler Saw by Joe Orton. Malvern Theatre Company Inc. June 21 - July 6. 1300 131 552. The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe. Windmill Theatre Company. June 21 - July 12. Drum Theatre, Dandenong. (03) 9771 6666. The Crucible by Arthur Miller. MTC. June 22 - Aug 3. Southbank Theatre, The Sumner. (03) 8688 0800. Melbourne Cabaret Festival. June 26 - July 7. www.melbournecabaret.com The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh. Williamstown Little Theatre. June 27 - July 13. (03) 9885 9678. Idina Menzel with the Melbourne Pops Orchestra. June 30. Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne. 1300 182 183. South Australia The Producers by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan. Hills Musical Company. Until May 11. Stirling Community Theatre. 8339 3931. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Music
Just $40 a month to reach thousands of theatre goers. Contact Stage Whispers for details.
On Stage and lyrics by Richard M Sherman and Robert B Sherman, adapted for the stage by Jeremy Sams and Ray Broderick. Tim Lawson. From Ap 30. Festival Theatre. 131 246. Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Joanna MurraySmith. State Theatre Company of SA. Until May 18. Dunstan Playhouse. 131 246. Harry’s Hotter at Twilight & Oz by Jonothan Dorf & Don Zolidis. Kapunda Musical Society. May 3 - 11. Kapunda Chapel Theatre. (08) 85662902. House Guest by Francis Durbridge. Noarlunga Theatre Company. May 3 - 11. Arts Centre, Noarlunga. 0499 870 929. Away by Michael Gow. University of Adelaide Theatre Guild. May 4 - 18. Little Theatre, The Cloisters (off Victoria Drive), University of Adelaide. 131 246. 2 One Another. Sydney Dance Company. May 8 - 11. Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide. 131 246. MUFF by Van Badham. five.point.one. May 8 - 25. Bakehouse Theatre. Brigadoon. Music by Frederick Loewe. Book & Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. The Metropolitan Musical Theatre Company of SA Inc. May 9 - 18. The Arts Theatre, Adelaide. 8264 3225 /
South Australia, Tasmania & Western Australia
131 246. Sundowner by David Denborough. KAGE / Country Arts SA. May 10, Northern Festival Centre, Port Pirie; May 13 & 14, Hopgood Theatre, Noarlunga, (08) 8207 3977; May 17, Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre, Mount Gambier. High School Musical. Book by David Simpatico. Various composers. The Murray Bridge Players & Singers Inc. May 19 June 1. Murray Bridge Town Hall. 85391142. I Bet Your Life by Fred Carmichael. Tea Tree Players. May 22 - June 1. Tea Tree Players Theatre. 82895266. Leading Lady - Marina Prior. May 23 - 25. Regal Theatre, Kensington. Venuetix. White Horse Inn. SALOS. May 23 - 26. Tower Arts Centre. 8294 6582. How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying by Frank Loesser, Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert. Marie Clark Musical Theatre Company. May 24 - June 1. Adelaide Arts Theatre. 8251 3926. An Evening with Julie Andrews. John Frost and Phil Bathols. May 28. Festival Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre. 131 246. Little Women - The Musical.
Therry Dramatic Society. June 5 - 15. The Arts Theatre. 8296 3477 / 8410 5515 (from June 3). Jesus Christ Superstar Arena Spectacular by Andrew LloydWebber and Tim Rice. Really Useful Group and Frontier Touring. June 4 & 5. Adelaide Entertainment Centre. Ticketek. Wind in the Willows. Adapted from Kenneth Grahame’s story by Josh Sanders. Hills Youth Theatre. June 14 - 23. Stirling Community Theatre. 8339 3931 (from 27 May). Adelaide Cabaret Festival. June 7 - 22. www.adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au Neville’s Island by Tim Firth. Adelaide Repertory Theatre. June 20 - 29. Arts Theatre, Adelaide. 8212 5777. The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare. State Theatre Company of SA. June 28 - July 14. Dunstan Playhouse. BASS. 131 246. Tasmania Peter Pan. Hobart Repertory Theatre Society. Until May 4. The Playhouse Theatre. (03) 6234 5998. Freefall (Circus Theatre). Gravity and Other Myths. Until May 2. Theatre Royal, Hobart. (03) 6233 2299. The Mudlarks by Hannah Malarski. Mudlark and Arthur / Theatre North. May 2 - 4. Earl Arts Centre, Launceston, (03) 6323 3666. Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow 2013. May 2 & 3. Theatre Royal, Hobart. (03) 6233 2299. 2013 Uni Revue. Old Nick Company. May 10 - 25. Theatre Royal, Hobart. (03) 6233 2299. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. G-String Productions. May 16 - 19. Longford Town Hall Theatre. 0459 592 229. Don Juan by Robert Jarman. Blue Cow Theatre. May 29 June 8. Theatre Royal Backspace, Hobart. (03) 6233 2299. Private Lives by Noel Coward.
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Hobart Repertory Theatre Society. May 31 - June 15. The Playhouse Theatre. (03) 6234 5998. Conan the Barbarian. Stephen Beckett Productions. May 31 June 2. Earl Arts Centre, Launceston, (03) 6323 3666. Frankenstein by Nick Dear. Ensemble Theatre. June 5 & 6, Princess Theatre, Launceston, (03) 6323 3666; June 7, Devonport Entertainment and Convention Centre, 13 61 00. June 11 & 12, Theatre Royal, Hobart, (03) 6233 2299. Sundowner by David Denborough. Kage. June 14 & 15, Princess Theatre, Launceston, (03) 6323 3666; June 19 - 22. Theatre Royal, Hobart. (03) 6233 2299. Western Australia OVO. Cirque du Soleil. Until June 16. Big Top at Langley Park. Jersey Boys - The Story of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons. Until May 26. The Crown Theatre Perth (formerly Burswood Theatre). Ticketek. Sex Toys by C. Aspden Pomfret. Darlington Theatre Players. Until May 11. Full length version of popular one act play. Marloo Theatre. (08) 9255 1783. Oleanna by David Mamet. KADS. Until May 18. Town Square Theatre, Kalamunda. (08) 9257 2669. Nevermore by Matt Conner, Edgar Allan Poe and Grace Barnes. Playlovers. May 3 - 18. Mysterious musical based on Edgar Allen Poe. Hackett Hall, Floreat. 0415 777 173. The Cripple of Inishman by Martin McDonagh. WAAPA 3rd Year Acting Students. May 3 - 9. Directed by Irish director Patrick Sutton. Roundhouse Theatre, WAAPA, Edith Cowan University, Mt Lawley. Ticketek. Speaking In Tongues by Andrew Bovell. WAAPA 2nd Year Acting Students. May 3 - 8. Tapestry of dislocated relstionships. Enright Studio, WAAPA, Edith Cowan University, Mt Lawley. Ticketek. Reflect presented by Sue Stage Whispers 69
On Stage
Western Australia WAAPA’s Thoroughly Modern Millie. Regal Theatre June 15 - 22.
Ticketek. Born Yesterday by Garson Kanin. Old Mill Theatre. June 1 - 15. Old Mill Theatre, South Perth. 9367 8719. The Book Club by Rodney Fisher from the play by Roger Hall. Christine Harris and Hit Productions. June 4 - 8. Subiaco Arts Centre. Ticketek. One Act Plays by various authors. Stirling Players Youth (SPY). June 5 - 8. Stirling Theatre, Innaloo. 9440 1040. Hairspray by Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman, Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan. Wanneroo Repertory. Jun 6 - 22. Musical based on the John Waters film. Limelight Theatre, Wanneroo. 9571 8591.
Peacock. May 3 - 11. Perception defies reality. Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre of WA, Northbridge. Ticketek. No Worries by David Holman. WAAPA 2nd Year Acting Students. May 4 - 9. Issues of economy and racism. Enright Studio, WAAPA, Edith Cowan University, Mt Lawley. Ticketek. Rites by Jo Finaki, Justin Rutzou and Xiaoxiong Zhang. WAAPA 3rd Year Dance Students. May 4 - 10. Prelude to WAAPA performance in China. Geoff Gibbs Theatre, WAAPA, Edith Cowan University, Mt Lawley. Ticketek. Death of A Salesman by Arthur Miller. Black Swan State Theatre Company. May 4 - 19. The great American father - son drama. Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of WA, Northbridge. Ticketek. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. Les Currie and GHP. May 8 - 19. Subiaco Arts Centre. Ticketek. A Comedy Retreat by Peter Flanigan. Stirling Players. May 10 - 25. World Premiere. Stirling 70 Stage Whispers
Theatre, Innaloo. 9440 1040 Sheerluck Holmes by Simon Denver and Ian Dorricot. Murray Music and Drama. May 10 - 25. Sherlock Holmes musical. Pinjarra Town Hall. 0458 046 414. On Golden Pond by Ernest Thompson. Harbour Theatre. May 10 - 28. Harbour Theatre, Port Cineaste Building, Fremantle. 9255 3336.
La Sylphide. Originally choreographed by August Bounonville. West Australian Ballet with West Australian Symphony Orchestra. May 17 Jun 1. Archetypal Romantic ballet. His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth. Ticketek.
I’ve Got A Little List by Andrew and Donna Foote. The Gilbert and Sullivan Society of WA. May 20 - 26. Story of the team that founded the Savoy Operas. Maul of the Dead by Mitch Octagon Theatre, University of Brian. Phoenix Theatre and Dark WA. Ticketek. Psychic Productions. May 10 An Evening with Julie Andrews. 18. Zombies and disco. John Frost and Phil Bathols. May Memorial Hall, Hamilton Hill. 21. Riverside Theatre, Perth 9255 3336. Convention and Entertainment The Starting Stalls by Cate Smith. Centre. Ticketek. Mandurah Little Theatre. May Moving Object by Ragle Ogle, 15 - 18. WA Play. Fishtrap Theatre, Mandurah Performing Kynan Hughes & Alessio Silvestrin. LINK Dance Company. Arts Centre. 9550 3900. May 22 - 25. Contemporary Goodbye Jamie Boyd by dance. Geoff Gibbs Theatre, Elizabeth Fensham Buzz Dance WAAPA, Edith Cowan University, and Monkey Baa. May 17 - 25. Mt Lawley. Ticketek. Dance adaptation. Studio Jesus Christ Superstar Arena Underground, State Theatre Spectacular by Andrew LloydCentre of WA. Ticketek. Webber and Tim Rice. Really Next to Normal by Brian Yorkey Useful Group and Frontier and Tom Kitt. Bunbury Musical Touring. May 31 - June 1. Arena Comedy Group. May 17 - 25. spectacular. Perth Arena. New Lyric Theatre.
Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry. John Frost. Jun 8 - 15. Starring Angela Lansbury and James Earl-Jones. His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth. Ticketek. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by William Finn, Rachel Sheinkin and Rebecca Feldman. Koorliny Arts Centre. Jun 14 - 29. Musical with adult themes. Koorliny Arts Centre. B9467 7118. Love and Money by Dennis Kelly. WAAPA 3rd Year Acting Students. Jun 14 - 20. Roundhouse Theatre, WAAPA, Edith Cowan University, Mt Lawley. Ticketek. Thoroughly Modern Millie. Lyrics by Dick Scanlon, music by Jeanine Tesori. WAAPA 2nd and 3rd Year Music Theatre Students. June 15 - 22. Regal Theatre, Hay St, Subiaco. Bookings Ticketek. Day One, A Hotel, Evening by Joanna Murray-Smith. Black Swan State Theatre Company. June 15 - 30. Three couples, too many ways to be unfaithful. Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of WA. Ticketek. Opera Concert. Morning Melodies. Jun 19. Featuring 2013 WA Opera Young Artists. His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth. Ticketek.
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On Stage Project Macbeth by Simon Sharkey. Garrick Theatre Club. Jun 21 - Jul 13. Macbeth, hero or villain. Garrick Theatre, Guildford. 9378 1990. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. Melville Theatre Company. Jun 21 - Jul 6. Roy Edinger Theatre, Melville. 9330 4565. Romeo and Juliet. Choreographed by Youri Vamos. West Australian Ballet. Set in the 1930s. Jun 21 - 22, Queens Park Theatre, Geraldton, 9956 6662; Jun 28 - 29, Albany Entertainment Centre, 9844 5005; July 2 & 3, Mandurah Performing Arts Centre, (08) 9550 3900.
Theatre, Greymouth; May 5, Ashburton Trust Event Centre & May 8, Theatre Royal, Nelson. Hairspray. Music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Shaiman and a book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan. Napier Operatic. Until May 5. Municipal Theatre, Napier. Ticketek. Frost / Nixon. Point Blank Productions. Until May 4. TheatreWorks, Auckland.
Bullshot Crummond by Ron House, Diz White and others. Tauranga Repertory Society. May 15 - June 1. 16th Avenue Theatre. (07) 577 7188.
Greenwich, and lyrics by Greenwich and others. TALOS, Te Awamutu. May 11 - 24.
845 0295 ext 2. Two Fish ‘N’ a Scoop by Carl Nixon. Centrepoint Theatre, Palmerston North. June 8 - July 6. 06 354 5740.
Patua by Renae Maihi. Blanket Chicago by John Kander, Fred and Musket Protuctions. May 15 Ebb and Bob Fosse. Morrinsville - 26. TAPAC. 09 845 0295 ext 2. Theatre. June 8 - 22. iTicket. Chicago by John Kander, Fred Joseph and the Amazing Ebb and Bob Fosse. Showbiz Technicolor Dreamcoat by Queenstown. May 16 - 25. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim No Holds Bard by Michael Hurst. Downstage Theatre, Wellington. May 16 - June 10. (04) 801 6946.
You Can Always Hand Them Back by Roger Hall, music and lyrics by Peter Skellern. Fortune The God Boy by Ian Cross. Theatre, Dunedin. Until May 25. Stagecraft (Wellington). May 22 (03) 477 8323. - June 1. iTicket. Essgee’s HMS Pinafore. Miss Saigon by Claude-Michel Musikmakers Hamilton. May 1 - Schonberg, Alain Boublil & 15. Riverlea Theatre. Richard Maltby Jnr. Variety
The Producers by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan. Playlovers. The Glass Menagerie by Jun 28 - Jul 20. Hackett Hall, Tenessee Williams. Auckland Floreat. 0415 777 173. Theatre Company. May 9 - June Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert 1. Maidment Theatre. and Sullivan. Phoenix Theatre. Madame Butterfly by Giacomo Jun 28 - Jul 20. Memorial Hall, Puccini. NBR NZ Opera. May 11 Hamilton Hill. 9255 3336. - 18. Wellington - St James Alienaton by Lachlan Philpott. Theatre. 0800 NZOPERA/696 Perth Theatre Company and Q 737. Theatre Company. Jun 28 - Jul Leading Ladies by Val Currie. 13. Studio Underground, State May 9 - 18. Upper Hutt Musical Theatre Centre of WA. Ticketek. Theatre. New Zealand Peter Pan The Musical by Piers Midnight in Moscow by Dean Chater Robinson. Theatre Parker. Auckland Theatre Whakatane. May 10 - 24. Little Company. Until May 4. Theatre Whakatane. Maidment Theatre. Joseph and the Amazing Shop Til You Drop by Alison Technicolor Dreamcoat by Quiglan and Ross Gumbley. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Centrepoint Theatre, Palmerston Rice. Blenheim Musical Theatre. North. Until May 25. 06 354 May 10 - 18. Civic Theatre. 520 5740. 8560. The Dragon of an Ordinary The Nutcracker. Moscow Ballet Family by Margaret Mahy. Tim La Classique. May 10. Bruce Bray Productions. Until May 4. Mason Centre, Auckland. 970 The PumpHouse Theatre, 9700. Auckland. 09-489-8360 Steel Magnolias by Robert Mum’s Choir by Alison Quigan. Harling. Howick Little Theatre. Whangarei Theatre Company. May 11 - June 1. (09) 534Until May 4. 1406 Calendar Girls by Tim Firth. Leader of the Pack by Anne Harlequin Musical Theatre. Until Beatts and additional material May 5. by Jack Heifner, music by Ellie Taking Off by Roger Hall. Starring Alison Quigan. May 1, Malborough Covic Centre, Blenheim; May 2, Regent
Western Australia & New Zealand
Theatre, Ashburton. May 24 31.
Slice of Saturday Night by The Heather Brothers. Auckland Music Theatre. May 25 - June 8. (09) 361 1000. The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe. Wellington Musical Theatre. June 13 - 20. St James Theatre, Wellington. Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me by Frank McGuinness. Elmwood Players. June 12 - 22. Elmwood Theatre. 355 8874.
Rice. Waipawa Musical and Drama Club. June 8 - 22.
Anne Boleyn by Howard Brenton. Auckland Theatre Company. June 13 - July 7. Q, 305 Queen Street, Auckland. Hairspray by Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman, Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan. New Plymouth Operatic. June 13 - 22. TSB Theatre, New Plymouth. Tribes by Nine Raine. Fortune Theatre, Dunedin. June 15 - July 13. (03) 477 8323. Les Misérables by By ClaudeMichel Schönberg, Alain Boublil and Herbert Kretzmer. Taleri Musical Society. June 19 - 29. Coronation Hall, Mosgiel. Ticketdirect. The Sound of Music by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Thames Musical Theatre. June 20 - 29. Sydney Bridge Upside Down. Adapted from David Ballantyne’s comicnovel. Taki Rua. Downstage Theatre, Wellington. June 20 - July 6. (04) 801 6946.
Tarantara! Tarantara! By Ian Taylor, with songs by Gilbert and Sullivan. Centrestage Theatre Company (Orewa). June The Vicar of Dibley. Detour 8 - 22. Centrestage Theatre. Theatre, Tauranga. June 26 (09) 426 7282 July 13. 5777188 A Night in the West End. The Mousetrap by Agatha Coasters Musical Theatre. June Christie. Hutt Repertory Theatre. 7 - 22. June 26 - July 6. Theatre 108. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. MATS Musicals, Masterton. June 7 - 15. Majestic Theatre. 027 2102308.
04 939 7529.
On Golden Pond by Ernest Thompson. Titirangi Theatre. June 4 - 16. 817-7658.
The Wizard of Oz. Hawera Repertory Society. June 28 - July 6. Memorial Theatre, Hawera. 06 278 8599.
…With a Stranger… The Dust Palace. June 6 - 22. TAPAC. 09
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Pride and Prejudice. Adapted from Jane Austen by Joy Hellyer and Amy Whiterod. Stagecraft (Wellington). June 26 - July 13. iTicket.
Stage Whispers 71
-liners and visual humour, crafted in the classic Broadway style of which director Jerry Zaks is a pastmaster. Excellent performances from the fine Australian cast are essential to engage audiences with such iconic characters in their new context. John Waters’ debonair, conflicted Gomez is charming, sympathetic and engaging. If his Latino is a tad stereotyped, it harks back to John Astin’s wellloved portrayal. Chloë Dallimore brings a scintillating mix of elegance, sexiness and wit to Morticia. Russell Dykstra’s Fester breaks the fourth wall to draw the audience along, affectionately channelling the childlike innocence of Jackie Coogan’s TV original. His love song to the moon is a highlight. Meredith O’Reilly’s Grandma is delightfully eccentric. Ben Hudson has the perfect presence and silent or appropriately garbled wit as Lurch. Teegan Wouters’ John Waters and Chloë Dallimore in Wednesday Addams is The Addams Family. Photo: Jeff Busby. unmistakably that gorgeously creepy, sadistic The Addams Family little girl grown up. Wouters combines a Broadway belt Book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. Music and lyrics voice to set musical theatre pulses racing with a steely glare by Andrew Lippa. Based on characters created by Charles which could freeze the blood. Tim Maddren is extremely Addams. Capitol Theatre, Sydney. Opening Night: March likable as Lucas, complementing Wouters in a romantic plot 23. with it’s own share of twists. DANCING off black and white TV screens onto the The Addams ancestors (the ensemble), cleverly stage, The Addams Family now springs to life in its own individualized in movement and costumes, are a treat in their deathly white make-up, wigs and costumes. The small joyous musical comedy. Based on the Charles Addams cartoons that inspired the ensemble is slick and stylish in their choreography, made TV show, black, white and shades of grey still pervade, even more appealing by frequent individualized moves. allowing judicious splashes of cleverly placed colour to Out of their Mid-Western comfort zone, ‘normal’ illuminate plot and character in striking designs. parents Mal and Alice Beineke both undergo Wednesday Addams has grown up and fallen in love transformations. Thanks to an accidental dose of Granny’s with a Lucas Beineke, a boy from a ‘normal’ family, truth potion, the tightly-laced Alice lets loose, and Katrina throwing the Addams clan into chaos when Lucas and his Retallick ensures it’s an outrageous, high octane turn. Tony Harvey’s delightfully bemused Mal makes his rather parents come to dinner. Modestly successful on Broadway, the revamped musical formulaic transformation work despite itself. was overhauled for the US National Tour. The result is a Highly entertaining musical comedy, with a creepy, stylish, slick musical thick with gags (some a tad corny), one kooky twist of Addams. Neil Litchfield
Reviews: Premieres
72 Stage Whispers
Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au
One Man, Two Guvnors By Richard Bean. National Theatre Of Great Britain. Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide, Feb 28 - Mar 9; Auckland, Mar 14-23; Sydney, Mar 30 - May 11 & Melb, May 17 - June 29. NATIONAL Theatre Of Great Britain’s international hit One Man, Two Guvnors is now touring Australia. Written by Richard Bean but based on Carlo Goldini’s The Servant Of Two Masters of 1743, the work is set in Brighton, England, in 1963. It tells the tale of the bumbling, overweight Francis Henshall (played so wonderfully by Owain Arthur) who becomes the minder of Roscoe Crabbe while also finding himself in the employ of Stanley Stubbers (Edward Bennett). It is his attempts to keep this fact from each that gives way to much silliness; especially when we all know that Crabbe (actually being played by Rosie Wyatt) is the gangster’s ‘identical’ twin sister Rachel and that Stubbers has killed Crabbe and is in love with his sister. If it sounds complicated, it is, but all this only adds to the farce. The work begins with a four-piece band, The Craze, playing Lonnie Donegan-inspired skiffle numbers on stage as the audience makes their way to their seats. The large sets are cleverly designed - they easily slide on stage and off - and depict a sitting room, street scenes, the Brighton Pier and the inside of a pub and during the many changes, The Craze keep the audience amused with original songs penned by Grant Golding. This also gives key cast members a chance to shine on an array of obscure musical instruments.
One-liners come so thick and fast it’s sometimes difficult to keep up with them. The cast look like they are enjoying the play as much as the audience which, at times, leads to them also being barely able to hold their laughs. This then steers the work towards some clever improvisation and amusing ad-libs. It’s a great ensemble but Peter Caulfield really shines as Alfie, an 87-year old waiter who gets pummelled during a series of cleverly timed pieces of slapstick involving swinging pub doors and a cricket bat. It’s Owain Arthur as Francis, however, who gets the most laughs due to his crazed antics and highly amusing facial expressions along with ability to tease audience members unfortunate enough to be placed in the front rows. I have not laughed so much during a play since I can’t remember when. Robert Dunstan Penelope By Enda Walsh. Directed by Alister Smith. Red Stitch Theatre Company. Theatreworks, St Kilda. Mar 22 - Ap 13. THE JURY is still out on whether Irish playwright Enda Walsh is the natural successor to Samuel Beckett. Walsh’s black comedy is loosely borrowed from Homer’s Odyssey. With Odysseus lost for many years, four suitors (all inappropriate) vie for the hand of the “widow” Penelope, shut in her “ivory tower”. They do so from the bottom of a decaying drained swimming pool. Why a swimming pool? Perhaps it’s a metaphor for a society that should be
One Man, Two Guvnors
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drowning, but doesn’t even have the assets (water) left to do that properly; or perhaps Walsh thinks it’s bloody funny. For the most part Director Alister Smith succeeds admirably with this oddball play….but I am confused by his casting of Dion Mills as Dunne. Effete to the point of high camp he’s a commanding presence whose narcissistic image alone tells us he is courting Penelope for power and status, not for lust. He’s also a remarkable physical specimen, toned, tanned and terrific in all respects. Walsh’s Dunne is written as an overweight, paunchy and out-ofshape profligate, but there’s no denying Mills is superb in his interpretation. Lyall Brooks as Quinn is the perfect Alpha male, a bully who can’t stand not having his own way. He threatens, he uses stand-over tactics, he drives competitors to suicide. Brooks nails every level, and when the play has him resort to burlesque… dressing up for a pantomime performance which has us muttering “WTF?”… he’s also very funny. The subtle and jaded (and slightly drug-fogged) intellectual Fitz is given gravitas by the beautiful acting of James Wardlaw. Matthew Whitty is very promising as Burns, but lacks the assurance that vast experience brings. Rosie Lockhart is beautiful, serene, and suitably detached in what little she has to do. Peter Mumford once again excels with his set design and Linda Hum’s lighting is excellent as always. What does it all mean? Who cares? It’s exciting to see Red Stitch in a larger venue. Actually, it’s exciting to see Red Stitch anywhere. Coral Drouyn
mesmerizing beauty, which leaves the audience with as many questions as answers. Spectacular. L.B. Bermingham
Thursday By Bryony Lavery. World Premiere - co-production by Brink Productions and English Touring Company. Director: Chris Drummond. Norwood Concert Hall - Feb. 25 - March 16. ULTIMATELY a meditation on the fragility of life, Thursday is a riveting piece of theatre, ingeniously designed by Dan Potra and intricately lit by Colin Grenfell, inspired by the story of Adelaide woman, Gill Hicks, who lost her legs in the London bombings of 7th July 2005. The opening sequence offers audiences a simultaneous fly-on-the-wall view of the beginning of the day of each of the characters - three couples and three singles. Director Chris Drummond masterfully choreographs his characters through rapid-fire sets of micro-vignettes. Watching each character go about their morning rituals in six different locations across London is reminiscent of watching speedy jump cuts in a film. Common purpose links the ensemble’s parallel actions, as we observe voyeuristically through the transparent walls of bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens and closets. We are privy to the pre-occupations and obsessions of each character on this fateful day - a day that will profoundly change, and in some cases end their lives. Characters cross paths as we meet them briefly. Initially the characters are consumed by navigating the minutiae of their inner worlds as they struggle with how A Clockwork Orange they see themselves now and in a perceived future in the By Anthony Burgess. Directed by Alexandra Spencer-Jones. external world. The character of “Someone” (played by Action To The Word. The Malthouse, Melbourne, from April various actors throughout) serves as narrator, providing 9; Sydney from April 23; Subiaco Arts Centre (WA) from ‘stream of consciousness’ running commentary soliloquies May 7; Canberra from May 22 and QPAC from May 28. of the characters’ inner thoughts as they navigate their WHEN Anthony Burgess wrote his novella A Clockwork physical reality. Whilst this works beautifully, giving a Orange over 50 years ago he had no idea the impact and poignant and expansive insight to the thematic concerns of cult following his tiny text would have. the fragility and mysteries of life, often it takes the place of Director Alexandra Spencer-Jones and her Action to The action, which sometimes dilutes the potential dramatic Word theatre company have staged an all male adaptation dynamics. There are also deftly handled comic moments of Burgess play and it is immaculate. With the use of four that deepen our sense of the characters. chairs, a table, a hospital bed and four glasses of milk she The split second that changes everyone’s lives (the bombing) happens in the space of a sigh. Travelling on has managed to transport the audience into the streets, “milk-bars”, schools, prisons and homes of a futuristic their way to work on the London packed underground train dystopian London. This is achieved in large part by the the characters jostle for space. Suddenly Rose seems to rise utterly mesmerizing performance of Martin McCreadie as into the air and then all is darkness. the lead droog Alex DeLarge. McCreadie has a foreboding It is not the big explosion that we anticipate. It happens physical presence and yet seemingly effortlessly switches almost silently and in slow motion. The devastation it between the naughty schoolboy aspects of Alex and the wreaks is like a silent scream. insanely violent and nihilistic leader of his droogs. As the darkness disperses we see Rose alone in the carriage, bodies strewn around her. Her soliloquy is heartMcCreadie is backed by a wonderful ensemble of male actors. Neil Chinneck effortlessly switches between the wrenching, but also measured and clear sighted, qualities snide and overly confident Dr Brodsky into the troubled F that partner well with the stark reality of unexpected Alexander and even takes a turn at playing one of only two tragedy. When her rescuers arrive her injuries are so horrific female characters in the play, Alex’s mum. The ensemble is they cannot determine if she is male or female. solid and focused. As the third act plays out a more ‘present’ consciousness In the end McCreadie holds the audience in the palm of prevails. Characters are forced to root themselves in a reality his hand as Alex, matured, looking for love and having more of the concrete plain of the flesh and blood material grown out of his ultra-violent ways. It’s a thing of 74 Stage Whispers
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world, in deep contrast to the characters’ inner preoccupations of the opening scenes. This is true ensemble work, with good solid performances by all cast members - Emma Handy stands out as the grieving Bonita, struggling to come to terms with the death of her fiance, Ryan, whilst supporting Rose, with whom she has developed a friendship. Kate Mulvany gives a passionate performance. Quentin Grant’s live score is evocative and poignant. It contributes an emotional impact to the narrative, an essential ingredient, particularly as the characters (with the exception of Bonita) do not always engage us deeply, in an emotional sense. The complexity of Bryony Lavery’s writing pays testament to the advantages of developing a new play through a workshop scenario that includes the input of the director, actors and in this case Gill Hicks, whose real life experience of the London bombings informed the play. Annie Fox
Musical accompaniment was by a live guitar and percussion-heavy four-piece group with occasional interludes of brilliant cello work by Anne-Louise Gilbert. But above all, it was the horses, magnificent and regal, playful and proud, that won the audience’s heart. Cavalia is a second-cousin to Cirque du Soleil, which is not surprising seeing it was created by one of the cofounders of that phenomenal franchise, Norman Latourelle, and for those who love their shows, it will not disappoint. Created in 2003, the work has already been seen by over 3.5 million people in Europe, North America and Mexico. Australia has a rich history in its love for all things equinine and this show with its spectacular visuals and riding skills covers all bases as great entertainment. Peter Pinne
Other Desert Cities By Jon Robin Baitz. Melbourne Theatre Company (Vic). Southbank Theatre (The Sumner). Director: Sam Strong. Set Designer: Callum Morton. Costume Designer: Esther Marie Cavalia Hayes. Mar 2 - Apr 17. Creator: Normand Latourelle. Equestrian Director & COUCHED in real-life events affecting Republicans Choreographer: Benjamin Aillaud. Director, Images & Ronald and Nancy Reagan, and James Oughton, Other Projection Design: Erick Villeneuve. Composer: Michel Desert Cities not only explores family politics, but the Cusson. Choreographer & Staging Artistic Coordinator: complexities inherent in families addicted to preserving a Alain Gauthier. Costume Designer: Manon Desmarais. public image. Lighting Designer: Alain Lortie. Set Designer: Marc Labelle. Jon Baitz’s explosive script has the audience Under the White Bog Top, DFO, Brisbane Airport. March 6 - eavesdropping on the family reunion of Senator Lyman 31, and touring Wyeth, his wife Polly, their grown-up children Brooke and BREATHTAKING in its Olympian equestrian skills, Cavalia, Trip, and Polly’s sister Silda. When Brooke, a writer, reveals a celebration of the relationship between man and horse, she has written her account of the most painful chapter of galloped into Brisbane on the first leg of its Australian tour. the family’s history, all hell breaks loose. With a cast of 42 horses and 36 riders, aerialists, acrobats, Baitz has written repeatedly about ‘the accidental dancers and musicians, they brought a new dimension to process by which we discover what our real politics are, the art of horsemanship, with a show that also embodied which are quite distinct from the ones we announce’, and trapeze, rope-twirling, trampoline and bungee jumping. in Other Desert Cities the catalyst of personal crisis has the The displays of bare-back riding throughout were thrilling. layers peeling away. Against a 50-metre wide backdrop of constantly The superb cast, Robyn Nevin, John Gaden, Sacha changing digital images, the tableau created at times had Horler, Sue Jones and Ian Meadows, swan around the set, the feel of the Spanish Conquistadors, and at others of as the audience is positioned ostensibly beside the pool. Elizabethan grandeur. It was very European. The scenes of Family exchanges proceed behind full-length glass autumn with the gently falling leaves, was elegiac, likewise windows, and other times as they emerge poolside for air. winter with its magical mist of snow. For the most part the dialogue is the action, and there is little time to draw breath. Other Desert Cities is emotionally intense and densely Cavalia written. The opening night audience, often moved to audible reaction, was riveted for its 2½ hours. Lucy Graham Dance Better at Parties By Gideon Obarzanek. Sydney Theatre Company. Wharf 2 Theatre. April 3 - May 11. THIS compassionate two-hander about why a bloke wants to learn ballroom dancing was one of the stories used by choreographer Gideon Obarzanek in his 2004 dance work with Chunky Move, I Want To Dance Better At Parties. Here Obarzenek returns to the story for what is his first text based work. Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au
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Steve Rodgers and Elizabeth Nabben in Sydney Theatre Company’s Dance Better at Parties. Photo: Gideon Obarzanek
Dave is a slumped-shouldered, slouch who wants to learn a bit of agility at picking up chicks. In an empty fluoro -lit dance studio, Rachel promises she can deliver. We then watch Dave slowly develop under her lithe professional touch - one step back, two steps forward - through her ten lessons and the final presentation, and we see his secret grief unfurl. What saves this simple story from being a dance reality show is the dignity and pathos of Steve Rodger’s Dave, despite his two left feet, and the grace and enigma of Elizabeth Nabben as Rachel. Her story is less explored and that’s a lost opportunity. Otherwise, Obarnazek’s script and direction is impressive in its stuttering dialogue and awkward pauses and, ultimately, its reliance on the choreography by Jessica Prince to reveal the drama. Nabben also moves masterfully as the dancer instructor. Dance Better At Parties is grounded by Obarzanek’s passionate quest to find meaning and social context for his choreography. Here he moves confidently into the realm of words to artfully combine forms and tell a very moving human story. Martin Portus
other small theatre companies. What’s more, Chris Baldock cements his position as an exciting director poised to take on all comers. The story is simple…Is Chris, from Shepherd’s Bush, simply a borderline personality disorder who believes his father is Idi Amin, or is he a paranoid schizophrenic who could damage himself and others? Old school psychiatrist Robert believes the former, and the sooner he can get him out of the NHS and back home the better. Bruce is a new school shrink who believes it is in Chris’ best interests (and his own) to keep the young man in hospital, sectioned if needs be, until a proper diagnosis is made. Chris, lonely and confused, is the disturbed black man they objectify in their power struggle, to the point where his welfare becomes expendable. VCA graduate Kane Felsinger is nothing short of gobsmacking. His restless, insecure, delusional portrayal of Chris is both powerful and heartbreaking, and he possesses an impressive originality in his approach to the text. Christian Heath, an actor with so much natural ability, plays Bruce with controlled earnestness until he finally snaps and reveals his own human flaws. Richard Edge, as Robert the senior consultant, is emotionally spot-on and creates a man who is equally pathetic and reprehensible. New from across Blue/Orange Written by Joe Penhall. Mockingbird Theatre. Director: Chris the Tasman, he’s another actor to watch out for in the Baldock. Broken Mirror Studios, 2C Staley Street, Brunswick. future. This is theatre of the highest order. Feb 28 - Mar 9. WITH Blue/Orange, Joe Penhall’s 2000 award winning Coral Drouyn play, Mockingbird Theatre clearly emphasises its commitment to excellence and lays down the gauntlet to J C Williamson
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Trybe - An Opera in Paint By Anthony Breslin. Chapel off Chapel (Vic). Mar 14 - 24. TRYBE - An Opera in Paint is a 65-minute assault of the senses. Using a mixture of eclectic music, drawing, painting, multi-media, technology and dancing, directors Anthony Breslin and Stephen Agisilaou drag the audience into the strange imagination of a visual artist, with the intent of revealing the artistic process. The piece begins with three musicians with faces painted like creepy skulls, playing guitar on a stage overlooking a graffiti strewn pen. Within the pen, the artist sketches a chalk outline of a face, which is projected on to a screen behind the musicians as he works. Slowly, six dancers make their way separately into the pen, each one carrying a tin of paint (in different colours). The artist and dancers splash the paint on each other and the floor, using their bodies as brushes and making the chalk outline become more and more vibrant as the performance progresses, to the point where the painted face is almost grotesque. After each solo is performed, the dancers become part of the painting, with their own bodies painted; gently twitching on the floor so the projection of the face onscreen seems alive and vibrating. There are some elements of the performance that seem overly drawn out and laborious, but as the piece progressed I liked it more and more, especially the frenzied painting and dancing as the music escalated into a mad fusion of rock and electronic and the painted face became more garish. Astrid Lawton At Last: The Etta James Story By John Livings. Room 8. Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne. Director/Producer: Simon Myers. Musical Director: John McAll. Feb 19 - Mar 3, and touring. ELECTRIFYING and down right seductive singing by Ms Bull is the centrepiece in a narrative concert focused on the life of music’s ‘original bad girl’, Etta James. Bull’s is a supreme voice, charged with passion and underwritten by technical brilliance. It’s only a matter of time before Vika Bull is declared a National Living Treasure. In the meantime, I’m hanging out for the CD release. On keys musical director John McAll leads an undisputedly compelling band including the cream of Australia’s crop: Tibor Gyapjas (narrator and trumpet), Ben Gillespie (trombone, vocals), Chris Bekker (bass), John Watson (drums), Dion Hirini (guitar), and Remco Keijzer (saxophones). Man, these guys are good. At Last is the latest in Room 8’s narrative concerts, a new genre in which songs are interspersed with an account of the subject’s life. To date Johnny Cash (Tex Perkins), John Denver (Rick Price), and Gram Parsons (Jordie Lane) have been honoured with a show. The narrative concert is a promising formula, although the relentless demand on the central performer is extraordinarily intense. But consummate musicians are not necessarily gifted storytellers, and the narrative delivery was unconvincing in the early stages.
But it’s the music we have come for, and it is a special treat that lovers of R&B simply must not pass by. Lucy Graham. Picnic at Hanging Rock Carol Burns’s stage interpretation of Joan Lindsay’s novel. Brisbane Arts Theatre. Feb 22 - Mar 16. MORE than a premiere, this is a once-in-a-lifetime theatrical event! The story obviously burned in Carol Burns’s mind for a long time until she created her own true-to-the book interpretation of the Lindsay novel. Shane Rodwell’s brooding set exudes either mystery or reality according to Alan Lawrence’s ingenious soundscape and Geoff Squire’s illuminations. Angela Tonuri’s costumes establish the early 1900s and the actors convince us how cumbersome they were, even for girls in a relaxed picnic situation. Burns’s ensemble engages us from lights-up and teases us all the way to the end, heaping disasters and mysteries on each other. We leave the theatre questioning and puzzling: what really happened? Gold star icon of Brisbane theatre that she is, Ms Burns has created a masterpiece of entertainment for us. Despite the emotional clout the ensemble delivered, a few actors inevitably remain in the memory: clearly, Brenna Lee-Cooney as Mrs Appleyard carries the weight of the drama with aplomb as waves of the peculiar drama destroy her school’s reputation and her own sanity; Amy Clarke’s gorgeous, svelte Mme Dianne charms us; we can identify with the emotional state of Hannah Schuurs as Sara and Elodie Boal as the ‘plump girl’ who renegs on the adventure; Andrew Lowes’ charmingly naïve and unaffected turn-of-last century young Aussie, Albert, wins the hearts of young females in the audience. It is a night of stars. The director’s attention to detail is evident in every character’s portrayal. That each is committed and lives the part is testimony to Carol Burns’s careful rehearsal procedure. This is truly a rare experience of theatre par excellence! Jay McKee One Scientific Mystery or Why Did The Aborigines Eat Captain Cook? By Victoria Haralabidou. TAP Gallery. April 9 - 14. VICTORIA Haralabidou's first play is full of mystery and is an interesting attempt at exploring fleeting relationships between human beings and our need to connect and be connected. Staged at the Tap Gallery (which can only be described as one of the last bastions of fringe theatre and art in Sydney) this production has a top-notch cast and crew. Victoria Haralabidou's Doosia is a subtle etching of a woman with street-smart savvy, a power punch of intelligence and humour and a waif-like fragility. Aaron Jeffery's Rhys is a man worn down by compromise, selling his dreams short and the realisation that living a life full of passion is sadly and probably beyond his reach. The
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occasional appearance of Dallas Bigelow's Ben is perfectly timed and just irritating enough to be exasperating. It must be said that Bigelow plays a dickhead so well that it evokes a visceral response. And under Iain Sinclair's direction the cast are given the guidance and freedom to explore their characters, each of whom are lost souls. Antoinette Barbouttis' design also transforms the tiny theatre into a claustrophobic apartment in St Petersburg. It has a short run, so try to see it if you can. Whitney Fitzsimmons Billy Buckett Story, music and lyrics: Jay Turner, script: Peter Cann, Jay Turner & Cath Mundy. Beenleigh Theatre Group. April 26 May 11. World Premiere. A BRAND new rock‘n’roll musical, an insight into love and family affairs in post-war England, enough unbridled energy onstage to light Beenleigh for a whole weekend ─ the adrenaline rush should send theatregoers home smiling so people at work will think they’re in love. As they ought to be, with this new show! Wartime baby Billy Buckett, with dreams of being a rock star, was reared in an orphanage and trained as a mechanic. He gets a job in a workshop, meets a smashing lass from the other side of the tracks, pursues her until her rich industrialist father finds out, almost loses her … well you know how these things were dealt with in 1959-60. Stephen Dorrington’s charismatic Billy is matched nicely by Lauren Lee Innes-Youren as upper-class Jan Burns, his boss’s daughter. Both have super voices for this genre (and I congratulate Lana Christensen for maintaining the sound balance between all the modern-miked principals). They are ably supported by Doug Rumble (Big Ted), Lachlan Clark (Marty) and Scott Young (Brian) - Billy’s workmates - and Alison Nipperess (Maureen), Jermia Turner (Shirley) and Kate Davies (Betty) respectively - their girlfriends as the plot develops. Jan Burns’s parents, Arthur Burns (Ian Maurice - whose baritone enriches every song in which he participates) and his wife Helen (Linda Hall) give us insight into how families functioned back then, when sometimes power in emergencies came from the kitchen. This company acts, sings, dances with passion and commitment. Their joy rains over the audience. I applaud the rock band; the choreographer; the voice coach who got all the right actors sounding like people from Essex; the many invisible techies who contributed their talents; and the wardrobe personnel who, I suspect, wiped out several Op Shops to find costumes right for 1959-60. Billy Bucket is a great night out! Jay McKee
Billy Buckett
She drops many gems, including the advice that when angry it’s wise not to respond for the first five minutes, but laments that in that time the most exciting words come to mind. Her husband Patrick, played by Robert Menzies, is a firebrand novelist. He laments that the only literary groupies he attracts look like Susan Boyle. One idea which Joanna Murray-Smith plays with is how we manage our instinctive desire to shape our children and our children’s refusal to oblige. Alice and Patrick’s son Joe, played deliciously by Harry Greenwood, commits an act of vandalism and infuriates his parents by rejecting all their excuses for his behaviour. Alice can’t accept that he did it because he wanted to. The sharpness of the dialogue is bounced off the stark modernist set. It was made of a ‘real terrazzo floor’, which is marble set in a tinted concrete honed to a super shiny finish. It was a little over the top but succeeded in its aim of heightening the psychological drama being explored. The drama, which all takes place in one act - lasting one hour and three quarters, takes a fascinating twist when Alice’s own indiscretions as a youth are revealed. An interval would have helped digest the turn of events more readily. The minor characters in the play were easiest to warm to. Tahki Saul as the teacher with the awkward news to reveal, Geraldine Hakewill as the precocious journalist Rebecca, and the central couple’s friends Yure Covich as Bob and Claire Jones as Annie had moments to shine or surprise. The consensus from the audience afterwards was that Fury is a like a diamond which needs a little more polishing. David Spicer
Girl in Tan Boots By Tahli Corin. SBW Stables Theatre. Collide and Griffin Independent. April 1 - 20, 2013 HANNAH hasn’t turned up for dinner on Sunday. She Fury By Joanna Murray-Smith. Directed by Andrew Upton. hasn’t been seen since Friday evening. Her mother (Odile Sydney Theatre Company. April 19 - June 8. Leclezio) reports her missing and Detective Carapetis FURY is a play of ideas which entertains and confounds (Linden Wilkinson) begins investigating. It seems like just its audience. another Missing Persons case, but Carapetis’ investigation Sarah Peirse plays Alice, an acclaimed Neurologist, being uncovers a complicated situation that becomes almost a interviewed by a student journalist about her latest award. modern fable. 78 Stage Whispers
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Madeleine Jones, Francesca Savige and Zindzi Okenyo in Girl in Tan Boots. Photo: Patrick Boland
Playwright Tahli Corin has created a fast moving and complex play, taking as her stimulus the ‘personal contact’ page in a Melbourne commuter magazine. Carapetis finds that Hannah’s work friends had sent a message aimed at Hannah - ‘Girl in Tan Boots’. Another four messages ensued. Other women in tan boots read the messages. One of these (Sara Zwangobani) complicated things further. And it all got out of hand. Any more and Corin’s very carefully tiered and layered plot will be ruined. Suffice to say, there are intricate twists and an unexpected ending, all of which director Susanna Dowling has managed creatively. Corin’s characters ring true through realistic, economic dialogue. She intersperses social comment with dry humour, which Dowling and her cast approach with impeccable timing. Carapetis needs to share this story and the audience is her sounding board. Linden Wilkinson moves from these confidences to the actual interviews with consummate ease. Her use of tiny pauses, carefully developed mannerisms and increasing pace and confusion set the pace of the play. There is little one could fault in this production, apart from some sight line problems. Direction has followed the pace of the writing. Scenes move swiftly, especially those involving Hannah’s work mates, (Madeleine Jones, Zindzi Okenyo and Francesca Savige). They are contemporary misses. They talk fast, move fast, are convinced of their worth. The tempo changes slightly in scenes between Carapetis and Hannah’s mother, but the pace remains - and builds right up to the surprising last moments. Carol Wimmer
The Past is a Foreign Country Developed and staged by The Paper Cut Collective, in association with Tantrum Theatre. Civic Playhouse, Newcastle. April 10 - 13. WHERE would we be without our memories of things past? As this engaging work made clear, we might have fewer arguments but much of the colour would go out of our lives. The Past is a Foreign Country intertwines a story about the members of a family having different memories of a holiday fishing trip and the recall by the show’s five actors of incidents that have stayed in their minds for years, in some cases since childhood. The show arose from a family gathering attended by one of the actors, Tamara Gazzard, at which the facts of the fishing trip were debated: when the holiday was held, the nature of the waters where the fishing took place, and what was actually caught. There was a lot of humour in this lively retelling, with audience members occasionally caught up in the action, and, at the end, the audience heard the voices of the real people portrayed. The interludes in which the actors - Emily Daly, Callan Purcell, Lucy Shepherd, John Wood and Gazzard reminisced about events in their lives, including a school playground incident, bad childhood dreams, a date with a stranger, the spiking of a drink, and a European holiday, and how they or others changed what happened, were moving and prompted those watching to ponder on how they have played around with memories. The performers self-directed. Often, that results in a messy product, but here it produced a memorable outcome. Ken Longworth
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Frankenstein Adapted by Nick Dear from the novel by Mary Shelley. Ensemble Theatre Production. Sydney Opera House March 27 - April 13, 2013 and Ensemble Theatre, April 17 - May 4, then touring nationally. REGULAR Stage Whispers reviewer David Spicer took to the Red Carpet with his daughter Rebecca, currently studying the novel Frankenstein for her HSC, for opening night of Frankenstein at the Sydney Opera House. She shares her perspective, having dissected Mary Shelley’s original in HSC English classes. The novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is one of the comparative texts for advanced English students doing the HSC this year. After analysing the novel to a point where you wonder, “did the author actually think of all these underlying messages and meanings or are we just completely over thinking it,” Nick Dear’s fresh perspective was extremely welcome. He travels in the same direction as the renowned novel, but shows it from a different perspective. The audience sees the true struggle the monster was subjected to and makes us question humanity as a whole. The stand out actor was Lee Jones, who is a very convincing monster. Using movements, speech that starts out as grunts and develops into advanced English, and facial expressions which make us fear him and feel empathy towards his plight. The director Mark Kilmurry creates an opening birth scene where no words are needed. Although it is confronting to the audience, it helps us understand the struggles and neglect of this monster through movement, shadow, light and absurdist techniques. A few adaptations are made to the story line. In the novel women are depicted with no voice, often absent and their deaths are not shown to the audience. In the play you see the missing scenes in the novel. These unheard stories worked well for a modern audience. Throughout the course of the play there is a live cellist on stage, adding ominous layers of sound. It added to the atmosphere of a special performance all round. It is hard to find a film or play that gives the original book justice. Many people made Frankenstein adaptations that have butchered the story line and meaning. I can happily say I feel Dear’s adaptation serves the book justice whilst adding new and interesting themes. Rebecca Spicer Coronation Street On Stage By Jonathan Harvey. Director: Fiona Buffini. Sean McKenna, Phil McIntyre Ents Inc., ITV. The Civic Auckland. March 28 April 6, and touring New Zealand. BRITAIN’S best-loved television soap-opera Coronation Street celebrated 50 years on-air in 2010. Coronation Street On Stage is the third stage incarnation of the series. All have been written by head-writer of the series, Jonathan Harvey, who has done an amazing job of reducing 50-years of storylines into a two-hour fast-paced tribute. Hosted by original cast member William Roache, who has played Ken Barlow in the series since it began, and 80 Stage Whispers
Coronation Street
using six actors playing 55 characters, the show basically followed the turbulent lives and loves of the Barlow and Pratt families, offering a highlights look at the series done as short, sharp sketches with a mini-burlesque ballet sequence that encapsulated Tony Gordon’s relationships with the Connor family, and a mimed silent-movie to breakup the decades of births, deaths and marriages. Death by electrocution with a hair dryer, drowning, and even being hit by a Liverpool tram were hilariously recreated, in an inventive production by Fiona Buffini that made full use of the many-levelled set with steep stairs that (naturally) one character fell down and died. All actors worked their butts off changing wigs, clothes and characters in a split-second with the men frequently in drag. Jo Mousley made a good fist of Ena and Karen, but her Deidre was spot on, likewise Lucy Thackeray who captured the vocal cadences of Gail perfectly. In the hands of Claire Wyatt and Mark Sangster, Hayley and Roy Cropper came vividly alive, while Daniel Crowder and James Lailey had their best moments as Martin Platt (Crowder) and murderer Richard Hillman (Lailey), a storyline that pulled 20 million viewers nightly when it was shown in 2003. At times there was a feeling of revue and at others of panto, but thankfully the actors held the reign on caricature. Yes, it was a show strictly for the fans and they loved it. Star of the night was writer Jonathan Harvey who gave the piece affection, honesty and heart. Peter Pinne
See our coverage of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2013. Over 40 reviews online now. Scan the QR code with your phone or tablet or visit http://bit.ly/15MCqeQ
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Reviews: Musicals
Assassins Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by John Weidman. Director: Tyran Parke. Fortyfivedownstairs Melbourne. April 11 - 21. SONDHEIM is the master of the musical and this little seen dark comedy has a delightful score. Mark Dickinson’s portrayal of John Wilkes Booth struck the perfect note between hilarity and tragic irony. The duet, The Ballad of Booth, performed by Dickinson and Nick Simpson-Deeks, as the balladeer, was impeccable, and without a doubt the best song of the evening. Simpson-Deeks is an accomplished vocalist and owned his role as the balladeer whilst later transforming into a heart-breaking portrayal of possibly America’s best-known assassin. Aaron Tsindos gave a brilliant performance at Charles Guiteau, endearing all the way to the gallows. Again Simpson-Deeks was called upon to chronicle the demise of Guiteau, creating the second stand-out number of the evening. Nadine Garner proved she has great skill as a comedic theatre performer with possibly the best part of the book, Sarah Jane Moore. Her comic timing was impeccable. And while we’re on the topic of impeccable comic timing, Shane Nagle rates a special mention. As a struggling Santa Claus and would be Nixon assassin, Nagle delivered his monologues with such pathos that you almost found yourself rooting for him to succeed in his plot. A highly entertaining night of theatre. L.B. Bermingham Euröbeat - Almöst Eurövisiön. By Craig Christie and Andrew Patterson. Directed and Chroegraphed by Patt Ryan Fab Nobs Theatre, Bayswater (Vic). Mar 8 - 23. FAB NOBS continues to amaze with each production. This time, in a flawless cast, top honours go to Tony “Bones” Burge and Ang Cuy as the Sarajevo hosts Sergei and Boyka. Apart from the delicious physical contrast between them (Sergei all angles, Boyka all curves) they complement each other’s comic styles…Boyka’s dry,
throwaway wit the perfect foil for Sergei’s goofy physicality. Both actors have superb comic timing and considerable ad-libbing skills. The “contestants” are all in great voice under the direction of Vicki Quinn, and although the songs are so kitsch you’re too busy laughing to remember them, there are some highlights. It was a treat to finally hear Sarah Somers’ beautiful soprano and Colin Morley was a hoot in a zoot suit representing Germany. Shannon Pendry shows vocal and comic talent in a delicious send-up of Bjork and Rob Medica really MUST stop showing off that body (one of his many talents). Zachary Alaimo is hysterical as the Assassins monk who won for Ireland on opening night, and the remaining cast - Andrew Amos, Gemma Considine, Lauren Cox, Janette Diab, Sheona Gregg and Thomas Kit-Thompson all shone in a variety of roles under the direction of the wonderful Patt Ryan. We laughed, we cheered and we went home ready to face a world that is, for the most part, nowhere near as exhilarating as a night with Fab Nobs. Coral Drouyn Kiss of the Spider Woman By Terence McNally, John Kander and Fred Ebb. Bankstown Theatre Company (NSW). Bankstown Art Centre. Mar 15 24. COMMUNITY musical theatre rarely gets better than this … a tight, all-encompassing production concept, smartly executed, with leading performers in roles that seem made for them, strong supporting players and a capable ensemble of male dancers. Kiss of the Spider Woman isn’t the most obvious choice for musicalisation, still the cinematic flights of fantasy into which gay window-dresser Molina escapes create a tour-deforce opportunity for a triple threat performer, which charismatic Rozlyne Howell seizes with vengeance. She creates the cinema diva and her various film sirens in Molina’s fantasies with style and panache. Her costumes and wigs add vibrant bursts of colour, contrasting to the bleaker grey tones of the broader design. Gavin Leahy absolutely inhabits the flamboyant, high camp role of Molina in a sympathetic, convincing portrayal. His revolutionary cell-mate Valentin is played with inner strength and humanity by Nelson Padilla. As Molina’s mother, Diane Wilson proves there are indeed ‘no small roles’ for our most talented and experienced community theatre performers. Director / choreographer Edward Rooke has a clear, creative vision, splendidly and thoroughly realised. Musically too, the show is top notch, accompanied by a compact band led by musical director Greg Crease.
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Stage Whispers 81
The design serves the piece and the performance most effectively, with cleverly conceived, fluid transitions between the play’s twin worlds of cinematic fantasy and prison. For some community theatre excellence, outside the usual repertoire, Bankstown’s Kiss of the Spider Woman is hard to go past. Neil Litchfield Fiddler on the Roof Book by: Joseph Stein. Music by: Jerry Bock. Lyrics by: Sheldon Harnick. Hobart Repertory Theatre Society. Playhouse Theatre, Hobart. Director: Don Gay. Feb 22 - Mar 9. WHEN director Don Gay suggested staging Fiddler on the Roof at the Playhouse Theatre, the Hobart Repertory Theatre Society board said the stage was not large enough for the cast numbers. Experienced director Don Gay extracted the most from the 31 cast members. Although there was a small amount of uneven-ness in standard, overall, it was an excellent production. Some of the ensemble numbers were lovely, especially Sunrise, Sunset. The most notable thing about the production was that it was a totally acoustic sound. Mark Morgan and Karen Kluss as Tevye and Golde gave believable, charismatic performances. Belinda Tyrell, Evie Anderson and Rachel Mirk were confident and assured as Tevye’s elder daughters Tzeitel, Hodel and Chava. Congratulations to the cast for consistently maintaining the Russian-Jewish accents. Under the skilful musical direction of Amanda Harper, the nine-piece orchestra maintained the pace. Choreographer Cassie Xintevelonis made good use of the athleticism of the energetic Cossack dancers, who in turn gave big dance moments in a very tight space. The set was effectively changed throughout, providing several scene changes suggesting interiors and exteriors of the village, with no disruption to the action. A thoroughly entertaining production! Merlene Abbott Tell Me on a Sunday By Andrew Lloyd Webber & Don Black. Harvest Rain’s Mina Street Theatre (QLD). Mar 20 - 23. ERIKA Naddei, emerging star from Harvest Rain’s Musical Theatre Internship Program, tackles a very demanding role, the love experiences of an English girl newly arrived in America. The show received a great response from the audience, which should encourage all involved. However, there were times when I missed Erika’s softer (usually last) song lines; and her journey required a greater range of passions than Erika depicted. She has a good voice for musicals and will be a force to be reckoned with as she develops vocal strength. She is supported by co-graduates of the Harvest Rain training program: Director, Meg Ham (and assistant director, Danielle Carney); Music Director and accompanist, Sophie Woodward; Production Manager (Megan Whiting) 82 Stage Whispers
and Stage Manager (Casey McCollow). I was impressed by the simple but effective set, and minimal props ─ just enough to suggest ‘moving on’. Set and Lighting Designer, David Lawrence (and assistant, Fiona Lynch) take the credit for that. This is a great first step towards a career in the entertainment industry for all involved. Jay McKee You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown Book, Music, Lyrics Clark Gesner. Spotlight Theatre, Benowa, Gold Coast. Director: Darryl Vine. Feb 22 - Mar 16.. SURPRISINGLY, this enjoyable production of Charlie Brown, the second I have seen this year, was the first show in the creative capacity for each of the production team: Director, Darryl Vine; Musical Director, Liam Cruz and Choreographer, Brad Wilmhurst. The end result was full of humour and pace. Under Liam’s baton, the orchestra was one of the finest I’ve heard for a long time and didn’t overpower the performers. Brad’s routines brought the best out in the young cast. Clever scenery and great technical support helped maintain the steady flow of the storyline. Sisters Emily and Courtney Monsma played Lucy and Sally with Bryn Jenke and Jordan Baldan-Vine as Charlie and Schroeder with Luke Perrin as Linus and Clay English as Snoopy. For a first time effort, the production team did a great job and I look forward to their future work collectively and individually. Roger McKenzie. Eurobeat: Almost Eurovision Book by Craig Christie. Music & lyrics by Craig Christie & Andrew Patterson. SUPA Productions (ACT). Directed by Emma Tattam. A.N.U Arts Centre. April 5-20. THIS truly enjoyable send-up of the Eurovision Song Contest and of several famous European entries into it had the audience engaged and laughing throughout. Although by and large the competition's performances (of which there are a great variety) were sung (and danced!) more than competently, the real entertainment in them lay in their comedic moves and lyric suggestiveness. Jordan Kelly's tight, sometimes very subtle, choreography added a rare kind of comedy to the entire satire, and the contest hosts' nonverbal interactions added much to their verbal ones in painting the behind-the-scenes frictions colourfully that must accompany contests on this scale. (And complementing this portrait was the clear discrepancy between the participating countries' voting and the declared winner.) The dancing performances were energetic and fun. Lighting, as I've come to expect of SUPA's productions, was entertaining in itself and was used to good effect in adding to the comic value of at least one act. Costumes were remarkable in their variety. Musical accompaniment was believable, professional, and well-integrated into each
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performance, and sound, often a little intense in the high frequencies, was otherwise faultless. Be warned: voting occurs at the end of the contest, and it does not mark the end of the performance but merely interval. A thoroughly diverting two and a quarter hours' entertainment. John P. Harvey
Oliver! By Lionel Bart. St George Theatre Company / Rockdale Musical Society. Hurstville Entertainment Centre. Mar 1 10. DICKENS’ story of an orphan in 19th century London’s Underbelly, and the Lionel Bart’s musical version, need little introduction. Col Peet’s production flows smoothly, thanks to Bob Peet’s impressive fixed set, with additional elements flown or trucked in. This Oliver! really gets underway with a lively little army of kids for ‘Food, Glorious Food’. The orphans are generally less synchronized and played with more individuality than in some productions I’ve seen. Sweet-voiced Oliver Noakes gave a quiet, gentle interpretation of the title role. Geoff Gordon and Cathy Boyle effectively characterised Mr Bumble and Widow Corney. Minor opening night niggles included spoken word being lost to underscoring, my sole complaint related to David Lang’s stunning orchestra. On his first entry, Jack Paterson (Artful Dodger) brought animation and energy, in combination with the small adult ensemble, particularly an exuberant troupe of troubadours. Osman Kabbara’s naturalistic Fagin carefully avoided caricature (making a late show sight gag jarr). Charmaine Gibbs, charismatic and vocally outstanding as Nancy, gives the production real impetus, joyously supported by Jade Schofield as Bet. Bill Sikes’ (Andrew Symes) dramatic first entry effectively establishes the brutal menace to come. Act 2 of Oliver! charges along with an inevitable momentum, which this production captures. Minor opening night hiccups and insecurities can be put down to nerves and limited rehearsal and technical time, in a production which is certain to gain assurance. Neil Litchfield
SPANK! The Fifty Shades Parody Twelfth Night Theatre, Brisbane. From Mar 14. THIS is ribaldry run riot! Twelfth Night Theatre has added SPANK to its repertoire of shows about ‘below-the-belt’ topics. There are mysteries for a reviewer to explore here: no programme, merely an advertising brochure showing the performers’ names? Who wrote the show? Who is the director? Clearly it sends up the million-seller book with a similar name. My research suggests several people developed it but only one co-writer (who directed the Toronto production) is prepared to speak about it. He assures us that lawyers examined the script closely and cleared it for performance. So what’s the show about? It’s a tongue-in-cheek …no, it’s more tongue-in-groove … that’s not entirely right either …let’s settle for tongue-in-any-orifice satire about sex in all its variations. Rebecca de Unamuno (a clever vocal gymnast) plays a housewife writer rummaging through her life experiences to write a best seller; she also plays several memorable parts. The focal stallion of the piece, Stephen Mahy, acts, dances, seduces, strips - anything to drive a woman mad. Caitlin Berry is the innocent being indoctrinated into this wild, unfamiliar world. All three sing well in the raunchy parodies of popular songs. SPANK is rough and vulgar theatre, best enjoyed in a group or with a partner. It laughs at us in our most vulnerable moments. Go prepared! Jay McKee Shout! The Legend of the Wild One Book by John-Michael Howson, David Mitchell and Mel A Chorus Line Morrow. Miranda Musical Society. Sutherland Book: James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante. Music: Marvin Entertainment Centre. March 20 - 24. Hamlisch. Lyrics: Edward Kleban. SUPA North. Directors: CHOREOGRAPHY is the star of this Shout! And, of Sue and Paul Belsham. R.S.L. Ballina. Mar 1 - 9. course, the energetic ensemble who give their all to pull it AN ambitious project for any company, SUPA North’s A off in such great style. Chorus Line made good use of the strengths of their cast Kira Nelson has choreographed vibrant dance routines, and delivered a great performance. transporting the audience back to the studios of late 1950s Although the show calls for an ensemble cast several or early 1960s TV pop music shows. performers stood out: Mike Sheehan as the Broadway Colourful skirts and jackets complete the look, while director Zach, Dylan Wheeler as Paul - suffering an accident director / designer Bob Peet wisely keeps the concept for a which ends his dancing aspirations and Lali Gill as Diana show with 30 scene changes simple, integrating period with her interpretation of ‘What I Did For Love’. projections. As usual, Jaime Whittingham’s choreography The classic Top 40 rock’n’roll score gets a strong complemented the direction of Sue and Paul Belsham and treatment, vocally and instrumentally. Paul’s musical direction. I can’t remember ever suggesting that the music should What this company lacks in experience it more than be louder, but the excellent band, led from the keyboard by makes up in enthusiasm and a happy feel floods across the Jennifer Parbery, really deserves a bit more juice to get footlights throughout the performance. things really rockin’ n’ rollin’. Roger McKenzie Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au
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The show is a jukebox bio-musical celebrating Aussie rock legend Johnny O’Keefe, and Luke Loseby displays a great feel for the Wild One’s songs. James Jonathon, Nathan Sandercock, Tim Wotherspoon and Rory Chatterton land well as The Delltones, while Chatterton’s Col Joye cameo is great fun. When the show interpolates other pop tunes as character songs, rather than as pop performances, the context is sometimes shaky, but the interpretations are generally good, particularly from Erin Bruce as O’Keefe’s first wife Marianne. While I have reservations about the show itself, I left on a considerable high, having had a terrific night. Neil Litchfield
Marion was sympathetic and real, but the revelation of the performance was Liam Wigney as Young Peter. His vocals were spot-on, his tapping was terrific, and his enthusiasm was infectious. Shaun McCallum’s (Greg) shaky and off-thenote warbling of “I Honestly Love You” ruined a key emotional moment in the show. Anne Manton’s costumes were appropriately flashy while Jenny Usher’s choreography worked well with its occasional nods to Bob Fosse’s style. Ben Murray’s musical direction at times could have been tighter, which was also a fault with Catarina Hebbard’s direction. Too often key performers were lost in shadows in a lighting plot that was messy. Peter Pinne
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. By Rachel Sheinkin and William Finn. Stage Artz Theatre Company. Glen Street Theatre. Mar 21 - 23. THIS lovely little musical might be about precocious children - but it has some themes which are awkward to explain to little ones. Mummy what is that song about Erections about? This curly question was delivered to the Director Sam Neaves by her child. The publishers have released a G rated edition. It replaces an awkward erection with an awkward distraction. The good folk at Stage Artz are using that version for the matinee. This tamer edition is being replaced with an M rated version for their 10pm audience. Members of the audience, who are asked on stage to take part in the spelling bee, might be asked to spell words about places where erections sometimes end up! In case they can’t quite pick it then there is always help from the judge by having the word read out in a sentence. This was return season for the Stage Artz team and the cast was in fine form. The stand out was Liz Webby as Logainne Schwartzandgrubenienne. Her intense plaits were just made for yanking. It’s clearly a fun show to perform in. The characters include cheesy judges, a delinquent, a goodie goodie and assorted little ones who drink too much green cordial. This joy is infectious. David Spicer
Oklahoma! Music: Richard Rodgers. Book & Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein 2nd based on the 1931 folk play Green Grow the Lilacs by Lynn Riggs. Director: Tim O’Connor. Musical Director: Maitlohn Drew. Choreography: Callum Mansfield. Harvest Rain Theatre Company, Concert Hall, QPAC, 17-20 April 2013 TWO performances stood-out in Harvest Rain’s fullyprofessional production of Oklahoma! - Ian Stenlake as Curly and Andy Conaghan as Jud. You couldn’t wish for a better Curly than Stenlake who was jocular and winning as the cowboy who finally got his girl. His previous experience playing the role in 2006 for Melbourne’s Production Company shone through. (He won a Green Room award for it). Although Conaghan brought out the dark side of Jud he also made him human, and was especially thrilling on “Lonely Room.” Angela Harding was a feisty and pretty Laurey, but her vocals were thin and rarely sweet, while Erika Naddei eschewed subtlety and went for the obvious as Ado Annie. Old-stagers Val Lehman (Aunt Eller) and Stephen Tandy (Andrew Cairns) never missed a laugh, nor did Matty Johnston as Ali Hakim, with Glenn Ferguson turning in a likeable Will Parker. Callum Mansfield’s choreography was of the rumbunctious hoedown type, Maitlohn Drew’s 24-piece orchestra produced a big, sweeping sound, and Tim O’Connor’s production kept things lively in a long show. Peter Pinne
The Boy From Oz Music & Lyrics: Peter Allen. Book: Nick Enright. Director: Catarina Hebbard. Ignations Musical Society. Redcliffe Cultural Centre. April 11-20 / Schonell Theatre, Brisbane, April 26 - May 4. EVERY production of The Boy from Oz hinges on the performer playing Peter Allen, and Ignations scored a coup when they cast Dale Pengelly in this iconic part. Bringing a ton of professionalism to the role, Pengelly sang, danced and sparkled his way through this popular bio-musical and even managed to make his asides to the audience seem like fresh bon-mots. Angela McIntosh was a convincing Judy Garland delivering “All I Wanted Was the Dream” in a bigvoiced tremolo, with Jessica Papst matching her as a driven Liza Minnelli. Marie Hughes’ portrait of Allen’s mum
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee By Rachel Sheinkin and William Finn. Canterbury Theatre Guild. Director: Rachael Thompson. Canterbury Bowling Club. April 19 - 28. ADULTS play kids absolutely joyously in this delightful little musical - finding resonances of all our childhoods, and inner childhoods. An aging bowling club auditorium, feeling just like many an older school hall or gymnasium, has the perfect ambience for this heart-warming little musical about six nerdish kids gathered for a fiercely competitive regional Spelling Bee. You’d be hard-pressed to assemble a stronger, betterbalanced singing and acting ensemble in Sydney
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community theatre, all playing their roles with absolute truth and belief. Melissa Goman is top-notch as compere Rona Lisa Peretti, anchoring the show securely. The six quirky kids are delightfully and credibly developed as individuals. Anita Margiotta’s Olive is achingly shy, awkward and insecure. Philby Mack’s Chip Tolentino is more mini-jock than nerd. Jess-Yvette Hansby’s Marcy Park gives attitude to burn, but it’s all a front. Clinton Griffiths’ William Barfee is borderline Aspergers, sensitively portrayed. Rosemarie Olk’s Logainne Schwartzand-Grubenierre has two fathers and carries a heavy burden of parental expectation. She balances the character’s lisp with the need for clarity impressively. Brad Facey’s Leaf Coneybear is a gentle eccentric soul. Michael Gooley’s Panch constantly feels like he’s on the edge of a breakdown, while Sam Ardasinski’s Mitchell Mahoney really conveys the out-of-his-element ex-con. Splendidly supported by Cathy Boyle’s compact band, and well-balanced sound engineering from Jessica Legg, the score is delivered to great advantage. I’ve enjoyed several productions of this musical, but none more than this one. Neil Litchfield Les Misérables By Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil and Herbert Kretzmer. Willoughby Theatre Company. The Concourse, Chatswood. April 10 - 21. AN OPEN stage is draped with a worse-for-wear Tricolore, a striking image suggestive of a French revolution or two too many. The battered flag becomes the backdrop, where its three separate panels create the entrances which help ensure the cinematic fluidity and pace vital to this sprawling epic musical. Multi-level mobile metal scaffold ‘Megadeck pods’ which will serve for most of the locales emerge. Tom Sweeney’s direction takes a fresh, rewarding approach to the musical mega-hit, with a top-drawer community theatre cast doing the rest. Stig Bell sings the demanding role of Jean Valjean impressively, heading a strong musical performance, vocal and orchestral, under the baton of Mark Pigot. Kimberley Jensen’s Fantine has the right blend of bravura and vulnerability. Elizabeth Garrett’s quietly determined Cosette and Julian Gonçlaves’ ardent Marius make charming lovers. Philip Yougman and Emily Kimpton are comically villainous Thenadiers. As Eponine, Caroline Reed’s ‘On My Own’ tears at the heartstrings. Peter Meredith’s Enjolras is a passionate determined revolutionary. Nick Gilbert portrays Inspector Javert with authority. The ensemble also excelled - vocally strong, dramatically focused and well drilled in Janina Hamerlok’s wellconceived musical staging. Mood is constantly evoked by Sean Clarke’s atmospheric lighting design, with some particularly striking moments of lighting and set design synergy.
Les Misérables
Minor niggles though, include the timing of the movement of the Megadeck pods, Fantine’s still luxuriant locks after the cutting of her hair, and Javert walking off prior to the lighting cue in his suicide scene. Too frequent opening night gremlins, glitches and miscues in sound, credited only to The Concourse, let down the professionalism of this splendid suburban venue. Such issues, thankfully rare enough, provide only minor hiccups, which don’t significantly detract from the enjoyment of this impressive production. Neil Litchfield Hairspray By Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman, Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan. Mar 1 - 16. CAMBELLTOWN Theatre Group's Hairspray was an entertaining production comparable with many of the amateur shows playing around Sydney. This production was bright and lively. The hard working cast were at times upstaged by a set that screamed "money was spent on this show and I'm the star!" It worked in the small scenes but was no help in the crowd scenes, as often you couldn't tell what was meant to be going on, or the dancers were restricted in their moves. Some lines were rushed or not spoken clearly but that felt more like first night nerves. The singing was mainly spot -on (especially Laura Glynn as Tracy) but some members of the cast were straining their voices. The show tries hard to copy the film and recent professional production, but on such a small stage I felt it would have been better to go with a more original approach so the show could "breathe". A bright spot was Fiona Brennan’s performance. She was brilliant considering she stepped in as the villainess Thelma with two weeks' notice. Kudos also to Lee Copp and Mark Power as Tracy's parents, who steal the show every time they're on stage. The mother is meant to be played by a man. Mr Power played her as a human being, not as a drag queen, and the show is all the better for it. Peter Novakovich
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Reviews: Youth
Pea!
Pea! A Tale of Truly Vegetariable Proportion Presented by The Street. Director: Barb Barnett. Writer: David Finnigan. The Street Theatre, Acton, ACT. April 20 27. PEA! is a funny, short play for children and parents who haven’t forgotten what it’s like to be a child. It was advertised as being for children aged from 4 years to 10 years, though I think maybe 5 years would be a better lower age as the audience seemed to drift in the first 5 minutes while there was a long preamble involving histories of vegetables. While many of us may know The Princess and the Pea by Hans Christian Andersen, do not assume that this is a traditional telling of that story. Rather, it is a clever narrative with the Pea (a fabulous green talking pea puppet wearing spectacles) telling how he was involved in a daring clash and helped the young prince to find a princess (actually a 86 Stage Whispers
princess of wolves and thieves, decked in fur and with hilarious wolf-like actions). The actors, Cathy Petocz (Princess Gwendolyn) and Josh Wiseman (Prince Gregor), were delightfully funny as well as alert to the reactions of the audience, which on this occasion was a full house of youngsters sitting on cushions on the same level as the stage. The audience’s attention was caught by clever shadow puppets using “windows” of voile in the set. The designer, Gillian Schwab, has done a very good job. Around the walls of black drapes are set many vegetables from history, celebrated in portrait, and in jars, in the manner of a museum. More traditional flats at the back are cleverly painted and accommodate the puppeteering requirements. Mention must be made of the good lighting and audio design (Seth Edwards-Ellis), which truly add to the show. Miss Seven, who attended the play with me, announced her verdict as we left: “That was lots of fun and they are very clever!” Rachel McGrath-Kerr X-Stacy By Margery Ford; Director: Arminelle Fleming. TheatreiNQ. School of Arts Theatre, Townsville. Feb 6 - 9. WHILE primarily a play aimed at secondary school students, this production of X-Stacy was also pitched at a general adult audience and the result was an outstanding success. A cast of 15, of which only two were not teenagers, shone a brutal light on drug use and family tensions in an incredibly realistic production. Most of the performers have been involved in TheatreiNQ's The Bridge Project and their training shone through. Director Arminelle Fleming was able to make the poignant and eventually tragic story-line so real that there were many tissues and handkerchiefs evident in the auditorium through the last 20 minutes. The two mature actors, Kellie Esling as the mother and John Goodson as the priest, showed their professional training. Amazing performances by James Thomasson as big brother Ben and Brittany Santariga as little sister Stacy stood out. Their scenes together and with their mother were electrifying and emotional. There was not one weak link in the entire ensemble. The simple set was ably manipulated by the cast in a most effective manner. This was no "kids show", it was a marvellous piece of theatre that appealed to everyone. Ray Dickson (Ray is a member of TheatreiNQ's administrative committee.)
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John Bell as Falstaff in Henry 4. Photo: Lisa Tomasetti.
Henry 4 By William Shakespeare, adapted by John Bell. Bell Shakespeare. Director: John Bell with Damien Ryan. Arts Centre Melbourne. Mar 14 -30 and touring. FROM the moment a stainless steel beer keg is thrown through the upstage Union Jack milk crate wall of Stephen Curtis’s fabulous set, this contemporary re-imagining of Henry IV parts 1 and 2 is imbued with a punk energy which holds us in thrall. John Bell’s Falstaff is a magnificent creation who shakes empty his treasure trove of debauchery, ambition, licentiousness, amorality and disregard for authority. Dressed as an aging biker, he primps, he burps, he farts, he laughs, he indulges himself in a way we can envy but would not dare to imitate. Ethically and morally bankrupt, he manipulates the future king and those around him with so much good humour that we laugh when we should be appalled. It is a stunning performance by an actor at the peak of his powers. David Whitney is superb as Henry 4, balancing his guilt over his crown with the anger filled love he feels for his son. Matthew Moore (Hal) is undoubtedly a fine young actor, but for me he lacked the vocal timbre to do justice to the rhythms of the text, and some endings to lines were lost or muffled. Tony Llewellyn-Jones brings his customary finesse to Westmoreland; Terry Bader is a wonderfully earthy Bardolph; Arky Michaels, that most versatile of actors, makes a feast of multiple roles; Wendy Strehlow’s Mistress Quickly is both a screaming harridan and an endearing partner for Falstaff, and Sean O’Shea is impressive as Worcester and downright hilarious as the demented Justice Shallow.
Reviews: Plays
The remaining cast is excellent throughout. With background music by The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Cure and the onstage guitar and drums, this very special production pits anarchy against the monarchy in a way that is as fresh as tomorrow. Coral Drouyn Cat on a Hot Tin Roof By Tennessee Williams. Belvoir. Director: Simon Stone. Feb 16 - April 21. SIMON Stone’s decision to use a contemporary setting and local accents for this very American play seems to work for the first half hour or so as Maggie “the Cat” (Jacqueline McKenzie) hits the revolving stage through a cascading curtain of crepe paper streamers, complaining to her off stage husband Brick (Ewen Leslie). Maggie’s continual tirade about Brick’s family and their own relationship, and Brick’s brooding silence when he does enter, could be happening anywhere, it’s true. In fact, the turmoil of their relationship and the underlying pain of each is manifest in very fine performances. But, once the whole family is assembled, the ‘here and now’ becomes a little less plausible. Williams’ messages are still clear, and they still resonate today, but some of the characters don’t seem to bridge the forty odd years quite so effectively. There is nothing wrong with the portrayals or the pace and timing of the performances. Lynette Curran (Big Mama) and Marshall Napier (Big Daddy) are well cast in these roles, and their energy and emotion build strongly. But who they are and what they have to say just don’t seem to ring true in a contemporary setting.
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Nevertheless, the production is slick and the pace fast, helped by imaginative use of a revolve, which, towards the end of the play, turns constantly as relationships fall further apart. An effective directorial ploy, but a little overdone. Alice Babidge’s costumes establish the characters perfectly. Robert Cousins has used the revolve and his colourful crepe curtain to keep the set minimalist but the effect unusual. This may not be a production for purists. It is up-tempo and modern - but worth seeing for the strength of the performances. Carol Wimmer Bombshells By Joanna Murray-Smith. Ensemble Theatre, Sydney. Director: Sandra Bates. Mar 14 - Ap 13. BOMBSHELLS is an evening of six short plays, all monologues - think Short & Sweet meets Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads - all delivered by the one necessarily versatile actress. Sharon Millerchip gives her considerable all to the concept’s acting-singing-dancing demands and was rewarded on opening night with a standing, cheering ovation. Directed by Sandra Bates in front of an oddly unhelpful setting that resembles a large IKEA wardrobe/cupboard, Millerchip triumphs. She’s at her best as a desperate and distracted young mother of three kids, as a hilarious Western Sydney bride straight out of Kath & Kim, and as an ageing, boozing, Marlene-Dietrich-type cabaret singer on her final Australian tour. Her appearances in the two plays most indebted to Talking Heads are less successful, perhaps because the texts are overstretched and less convincing, but the Ensemble crowd are enchanted by Millerchip’s transformations. Throughout the evening she remains focussed on giving us the full range of her talents, non-stop, no holds barred; and we love her for it. She shares the co-choreography credit - mainly for her schoolgirl talent quest improvisation to the theme from Shaft - and shares the stage for the Dietrich play with brilliant pianist Lindsay Partridge. Frank Hatherley The 39 Steps Adapted by Patrick Barlow from the novel by John Buchan. Director: Terry Hackett. Town Square Theatre, Kalamunda (WA). Feb 22 - Mar 16. TERRY Hackett and a superb cast brought this campy, comic interpretation of the Hitchcock masterpiece to the stage with warmth and love. Adrian Wood played the central role of Richard Hannay with dapper perfection. Aundraea Stevens played a gaggle of roles, all with outlandish accents and extreme characterisations, which were strangely believable due to her talents. As the 'Clowns', Paul Treasure and Adrian Lewis played a myriad of roles, transitioning swiftly (sometimes in seconds) from one to another. Creating lovely characterisations 88 Stage Whispers
throughout, impeccable timing and excellent physical comedy endeared them to the audience. Claire Taylor played Pamela, the comic ingénue with seemingly unconscious sensuality and boundless enthusiasm. Extremely funny, her interactions with Adrian Lewis were a delight. The multi-locale scenes were established with the use of surtitles, stage blocks and clever lighting by Joy Miles and Aaron Stirk. Set changes were beautifully choreographed and executed with the aid of a team of mummers, adding a conspicuous theatricality to the show. The soundscape of period music and clever effects was well chosen and accurately executed. Gorgeous costumes by Liza Mollan were true to both the era and characters. This was a luxuriously silly production, beautifully done and a delight to watch. Kimberley Shaw Quartet By Sir Ronald Harwood. Centenary Theatre Group (Qld). Mar 2-23. IN the late 1990s Ronald Harwood, obviously beginning to experience scourges of the seventies himself, decided to write a play that would engage the predominantly grey set among theatregoers. By 2012 it had been made into a film. Centenary Theatre Group chose the play prototype to open their 2013 season, little expecting they would be playing against the movie version. Don’t be put off. CTG’s Quartet is well worth your visit for its broader character development and the philosophical comments on life that the film leaves out. All four characters are aged opera singers, now residing in the same retirement home. Director Gary O’Neil chose four top actors he has worked with frequently in the past: Octogenarian Brian Cannon is a bass, Wilfred Bond; Penny Murphy, the contralto Cecily (Cissy) Robson; John Grey, tenor Reginald Paget; and Jenny Brunner, a soprano and new arrival to the home, Jean Horton. Wilfred has become an incorrigible dirty old man; Cissy is a born organiser, becoming amnesic; Reg is an obsessive reader and note-taker; and Jean’s arrival is the catalyst for chaos within the group. This is a wry, bawdy comedy, done to a delicious turn by a perceptive director and an inspired cast. Jay McKee. End of the Rainbow Play by Peter Quilter. QTC & QPAC Production. Director: David Bell. Musical Director: Andrew McNaughton. Playhouse, QPAC, Brisbane. Mar 2 - 24. WHEN Christen O’Leary belted out “The Trolley Song” towards the end of the first act, the stage lit up, the excitement built and the atmosphere was electric. In that one moment O’Leary captured the performing essence of show-business icon Judy Garland. Peter Quliter’s End of the Rainbow, set in London in 1968, dealt with the final weeks in the star’s life as she attempted to fulfil an engagement at London’s Talk of the Town struggling with alcohol and pill
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addiction. The action oscillated between Garland’s suite at the Ritz Hotel and the nightclub stage, giving O’Leary the chance to sing some classic Garland songs. In these musical sequences the show soared. Quilter’s play focused on two men in Garland’s life, her latest toy-boy and much younger husband-to-be, Mickey Deans, and her accompanist, Anthony, an older gay man who’s been around the Garland block many times. Anthony Standish as Mickey was effective playing an ambitious young man completely out of his depth, while Hayden Spencer found great tenderness as Anthony. O’Leary’s Garland was not helped by the script which had far too many platitudes of the “I gave them everything, there’s nothing left” variety. What little emotion there was came at play’s end when Anthony asked Garland to ditch Mickey and go and live with him quietly in Brighton. It was a moment beautifully captured by Spencer and O’Leary. Andrew McNaughton’s musical arrangements, based on the Garland originals, managed to make the sixpiece combo sound much bigger, particularly with McNaughton’s terrific solo trumpet work. Peter Pinne The Pillowman By Martin McDonagh. New Theatre (Newtown, NSW). March 19 - April 13, 2013. HALF thriller, half comic Kafkaesque nightmare, this thoughtful play begins in an unspecified police state where a writer is being interrogated by two cops, one laconic, the other violent and vengeful. As his mentally retarded brother is tortured in an adjoining cell, Katurian discovers why the cops are so edgy: a series of local murders and torturing of children have been copied from his own grim stories. A thriller pace drives the discovery of who did these foul deeds, but also the playing out of the stories which inspired them, and other tales dramatising the curious bond linking the two brothers. Soon everyone is telling stories, fact or fiction; even the cops. While Martin McDonagh is writing about the freedom and accountability of the artist, he is also dramatising our compulsion to tell tales, to make some metaphor from our lives or just simply spin a yarn. McDonagh’s genius is to drive his play to its final countdown but also rivet our attention onto these often tangential stories. The staging of them by director Luke Rogers with supporting actors behind a central scrim is artfully done. Oliver Wenn also brings an everyman normality to the vital role of Katurian and Michael Howlett excels as his wounded brother. Once the shouting has settled, Peter McAllum and Jeremy Waters as the cops are convincing. Impressively staged, The Pillowman is a theatrical gem of play which makes best use of its form and keeps resonating. Martin Portus
It has a competent cast including the necessary ‘star’ Henri Szeps, but it doesn’t quite make it - and that seems to be the result of the writing rather than Denis Moore’s directorial decisions. The plot is farcical. Ron Patterson (Szeps) has been told he has three months to live. On the last day of the three months he calls his family together. The family is, predictably, dysfunctional. His wife Dawn (Robyn Arthur), is the thread that binds them. All three children have issues - and they shout them at each other relatively constantly. This might be fine if there were also the twist and pace of farce. It almost gets there towards the end when the undertaker (Matt Furlani) joins the action, but the dialogue just doesn’t seem to allow it. Trent Baker as Ron’s only son, Michael, has a fine command of the stage, and manages to find some light and shade in the role. His sisters played by Sharon Davies and Freya Pragt, make the most of sketchily written characters and fairly repetitive dialogue. Robyn Arthur and Henri Szeps bring the drawing power of reputation and experience. They are old hands, and they know their stuff. Arthur comes into her own in the second act and Szeps fills Ron’s shoes with his usual aplomb, but he has played similar roles with a lot more assurance and credibility. The laughs are there however - and most audiences will find that entertaining enough. Carol Wimmer
Kid Stakes By Ray Lawler. Villanova Players. “The Theatre,” Seven Hills TAFE, Morningside, Brisbane. Director: Leo Wockner. Mar 8 -23. VILLANOVA’s production of Ray Lawler’s Kid Stakes, the first play in The Doll Trilogy, was a very happy walk down memory lane revisiting his iconic set of Aussie battlers. Once again it was set in a two-storied Carlton terrace house in Melbourne, but eighteen years earlier than The Doll in 1937. Down from Queensland for their lay-off, cane-cutters Roo and Barney hook up with milliners but soon-to-bebarmaids Olive and her friend Nancy. The girls are happy to indulge in a seasonal affair, but by the end of summer secrets have been revealed and true feelings have surfaced. The joy of the production was watching Leanne Shellshear, as Olive, blossom from a young innocent girl into a not-soinnocent woman. It was a fine and impressive performance. Also good was Michael McNish who brought strength to Roo. Lucy Moxon was a blousy, but beaut Nancy, while David Dellit found humor in the hard-drinking Barney. Undoubtedly, Olive’s mum, Emma, is one of Lawler’s most enduring and accurate characters. In this version she’s younger but still cranky and sly, which Elizabeth Morris handled well. Shane Fell as the wimpy Dickie Pouncett had It’s My Party (and I’ll Die If I Want To) little to do but be a bland unrequited secondary love By Elizabeth Coleman. HIT Productions. Glen Street Theatre. interest for Olive. At over two hours, the play by today’s April 10 - 20. standards is long, but director Leo Wockner kept it pacy IT’S hard to tell whether this play was written as a despite some occasional lighting glitches. comedy or a farce - and this production doesn’t make the Peter Pinne confusion any clearer. Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au
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The Importance of Being Earnest By Oscar Wilde. Black Swan Theatre Company. Director: Kate Cherry. Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of WA. Mar 9-28. BLACK Swan embraced this classic comedy with themed pre-show announcements, sumptuous settings and beautiful costumes. The audience quickly warmed to the Wildean wit, accentuated by playful blocking and physical humour. I particularly enjoyed the performances of the younger lovers, Scott Sheridan as Algernon and Adriane Duff as Cecily. Complimenting each other beautifully, their characters were wonderfully balanced. Real life married couple Rebecca Davis and Stuart Halusz played Gwendolyn and Jack, and as would be expected, conveyed genuine affection and visible warmth in beautifully timed performances. Well known WA actress Jenny Davis, who is also Rebecca's mother, played Gwendolyn's mother Lady Bracknell. An understated yet powerful performance, she underplayed the well-known "A handbag?" line, but managed to quietly convey a rather formidable woman. Michael Loney played both butlers, giving Lane sophistication and cynicism while Merriman was excitable and over-eager. Pauline Whyman was a competent Miss Prism. While I could see merit in Peter Rowsthorn's Doctor Chasuble as a stand-alone performance, I felt it jarred with the cast as he seemed to be acting in a different play in terms of style and presentation. While the sets and costumes were exquisite, the mirrored stage floor was at times distracting. A celebration of the talents of the author, in a lavish production, nicely executed. Kimberley Shaw Beyond Therapy By Christopher Durang. Cairns Little Theatre. Director: Lance Helms. Feb 22 - Mar 2. FAST-paced comedy Beyond Therapy had the first night audience in stitches. Directed by Lance Helms, Beyond Therapy centres on the American obsession of having a personal therapist. The witty one-liners come at regular intervals, punctuated by long spells of crisp dialogue. As the folks in dire need of a therapist, Bonnie Towers (Prudence) and Shawn Bracks (Bruce) acquit themselves beautifully. Both actors play fast-talking neurotic characters, pummelled by the American way of life. But the cream of the acting roles goes to the two therapists. Tash Riedel (Mrs. Wallace) and Adam Libke (Dr. Framingham) are outstanding as the unbalanced and even more neurotic therapists. Riedel creates a bizarre but unique comedy character, while Libke is brilliant as the frustrated Dr. Framingham. Bruce Whitehead (Bob) and Simon Collier (waiter) complement the madcap cast that acted out the play on a simple but functional set. The only impediment to an excellent night of theatre were cumbersome scene changes that could have been smoother in transition. Ken Cotterill 90 Stage Whispers
Peter Pan By J.M. Barrie. Hobart Repertory Theatre Society. Director: Danni Ashton. Playhouse Theatre, Hobart. 19 April - 4 May, 2103. THE opening night audience of Peter Pan by Hobart Repertory Theatre Society gave it the full pantomime treatment. The J.M Barrie play had a cast of 34, comprised of at least 12 children, about 12 teens, and a few young-ish adults. The rest of the cast, although adults, have of course refused to grow up. With such a mixed-age cast, one would expect unevenness in quality of acting, especially from the very young ones, but the enthusiasm and joy in the production, by the whole cast, was contagious. More experienced cast members supported those less stage savvy. The play didn’t flag for me, except that that diction could have been improved, and the projection by some characters could have done with some volume. Although there was no flying, director Danni Ashton keeping the action buoyant and fast moving. Aidan Fagazza-Furst was Peter Pan: light, bright, and perky. Hannah Just as Wendy was suitably sweet, mothering, and lovely. Peter West played Mr Darling and Captain Hook very well, but could have been even more sinister and louder in the Hook part. Six scene changes, in two locations, the nursery and everywhere else in Neverland, worked well with a beautifully designed and constructed set. Another fun, competent production, showcasing how well a good company can make an enjoyable production for audience and cast. I can’t wait to see more from the youngsters from Peter Pan. Merlene Abbott Under Milk Wood By Dylan Thomas. Canberra Repertory, directed by Duncan Ley. Theatre 3, Canberra. April 12-27. TURNING Dylan Thomas's radio play into a visually satisfying drama is a stiff challenge, all the greater in retaining the poetic narration as the action and dialogue unfold; it would be understandable if a director determined the narration and the dialogue to be mutually exclusive. But Duncan Ley's translation of the work to the stage brings it to dramatic life. Ley's efforts here received the able assistance of narrator Duncan Driver's stage command in unobtrusively directing our attention to the action and infusing it with meaning. Driver's voice, facial expressions, mannerisms, and posture were fine-tuned to assist in connoting multiple meanings in the action as Dylan Thomas would want us to understand it, and made the entire experience entertaining as well as intriguing. Anne Kay's sets added nice touches to the play's highlighting of human foibles; the exacting lighting was executed flawlessly; the audio was brilliant (though the opening soundtrack was frustrating in being nearly comprehensible); and all actors played their parts to perfection. The production marks a significant reworking of a classic, and will be one to remember. John P. Harvey
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The Farndale Ave Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society Murder Mystery By David McGillvray and Walter Zerlin Jnr. Director: Tanya Ryder-Barnes.. 1812 Theatre, Ferntree Gully (Vic). Feb 28 Mar 23. 1812 HAS started its new season with a fabulous production that even outdoes its last offering of 2012 - The 39 Steps. Structured as a play within a play, “Farndale” introduces us to the Ladies of the housing estate as they put on their annual murder mystery. The botched set keeps falling down, cues are missed and one character cuts five pages from the play, resulting in “poor dead Auntie Joan” coming downstairs very much alive. It’s deliciously funny, and full marks to Director Tanya Ryder-Barnes for being surprisingly original with “sight gags” and understanding the nature of farce. Tina Bono gives us five delightfully different characters but truly shines as Mrs Reece, the Guild chairman and as an OTT saucy French maid. Patricia McCracken uses her wonderful comic timing and nuances to full advantage. Brett Hyland as the hapless stage manager Gordon is a gift to any community theatre. Imogen Martin is a threat to Rebel Wilson and capitalises on all the sight gags. Dhania McKechnie gives Thelma - the reigning Miss Farndale - the right degree of vanity and is charmingly funny within the play. The lighting, sound and set (especially when going horribly wrong) were excellent throughout. 1812 Theatre has excelled itself with this absolute corker of a play. Coral Drouyn Little Mercy Sisters Grimm. Wharf 2, STC. Mar 7 - 24. TRUE to Hollywood’s Golden Age, Little Mercy begins at cocktail hour in the comfortable New England home of a theatrical producer and his statuesque if neurotic housewife. Roger and Virginia are desperate for a child and their pleas are answered this stormy night with the arrival of an eight-year-old foundling. She’s dressed like Shirley Temple but, as played by elderly bug-eyed actor, Jill McKay, there’s something very odd about Mercy. Soon a trail of blood and murder spins us into a homage to the Hollywood horrors of the evil child and hysterical heroines, the world of Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist. Created by the Sisters Grimm (director Declan Greene and lead drag actor Ash Flanders), Little Mercy was a hit in a Melbourne carpark, but is here given witty extravagance with the production support of a visionary STC. Ash Flanders plays the desperately elegant Virginia, and is always the camp truth at the centre of this madness. That tongue-in-the-cheek is never let go, which is the genius of this hilariously mad production. The playful queer perspective is further sharpened by Luke Mullins as Roger as well as Mercy’s aggressively lesbian tutor. Steve Toulmin’s musical score is richly foreboding and he does a cool drag trick as Gloria, the streetwise vamp
who gets Virginia back on her heels. Little Mercy is wicked funny in its cinematic satire and gender bending wit; it’s queer theatre for all the (older) family. Martin Portus Summer of the Seventeenth Doll By Ray Lawler. Ballina Players. Director: David Addenbrooke. Players Theatre, Ballina. Mar 8 - 23. A FANTASTIC set including fly-paper traps complete with a few ‘captives’ greeted the audience as they entered the theatre. With great attention to detail, it created the perfect setting for this time-honoured Australian classic, set in 1950s Melbourne. David Allenbrooke’s production was full of humour and pathos, tugging at the heart strings and tickling the funny bone in true Aussie fashion. Defined characterizations were on display: Bubba’s (Claire Mason) naivety; Barney’s (Graeme Speed) larrikinism; Roo’s (Carl Moore) generosity and pride; Emma’s (Mary Richards) lovable, no-nonsense hospitality; Olive’s (Natasha Kilby) past memories; Pearl’s (Christianne Hopley) realistic outlook and Johnnie’s (Chris Crane) personality. Evoking a bygone era, the story was played out by identifiable characters in situations reminiscent of a less prosperous period in Australia’s history. Roger McKenzie The Importance of Being Earnest By Oscar Wilde. Newcastle Theatre Company. March 9 - 23. DIRECTOR Peter Trist changed the setting of Wilde’s witty comedy from England in the 1890s to Australia in the 1920s and the play lost none of its humour or charm, with Trist careful to alter just the names of places and institutions. Indeed, the Down Under settings - a gentleman’s flat in Sydney and a rural estate south-west of that city - added to audience smiles. The city versus country jokes took on an extra dimension and Anglophile attitudes reflected the fact that 25 years after Australia ceased being a series of English colonies, many people still regarded Britain as the “home country”. Michael Byrne, as bush property owner Jack Worthing who regularly visits Sydney in the guise of a brother called Ernest to woo Gwendolen Fairfax, was an elegant gent. His reaction when he discovered on returning to Oscaroo that city friend Algernon had arrived before him pretending to be Ernest to court his ward, Cecily, was priceless. Owen Sherwood’s Algernon had a sly wit that frequently caught Jack out. Leilani Smith was a decorously determined Gwendolen and Phoebe Rafty’s Cecily a country girl with a fervent resolve, with a verbal duel between the two a delight. Nola Wallace made Lady Bracknell a frightfully funny figure of colonial aristocracy, and there was an amusing English superiority to two personages clearly from Britannia, Fiona Mundie’s governess Miss Prism and John Dickeson’s clergyman Canon Chasuble.
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Sam Conway generated laughter with his two very different servants: Algernon’s uniformed butler Lane and Jack’s khaki-clad man-of-all-trades Merriman. Ken Longworth
neighbour Clyde Salt (Ian Barton) and Harry’s nephew, new congressman Jack Maguire (Andrew Black). Lurking around the house is scandal rag journalist Betty Morrison (Leanne Guihot) who is out to prove that her nickname for the womanising senator, “Hormone Harry”, is apt. There are Food also visits from a policeman (Stephen McLauchlan) assigned By Steve Rodgers. A co-production of Belvoir Theatre, Force to protect the senator. Majeure & La Boite. La Boite (Qld). April 16-27. In the best tradition of farce, chaos sets in and escalates, THIS extraordinary comedy is entertaining, thoughtwith mistaken identities, drugged drinks, a snow storm and changes of mind putting people throughout the house, provoking theatre. The title suggests nothing of the sentient depths with six in and under a bed in one hilarious scene. depicted. All senses are explored to produce sensuality and Director Margaret Spencer and the actors kept the eroticism. Then there is the delicate interface of two quite laughter coming with the rapid movements between different cultures, which results in the climax, and generates rooms, closets and garden. Timing is everything in a farce and here it was perfect. much of the laughter. Elma (Kate Box) and her younger sister, Nancy (Emma Ken Longworth Jackson) are fine examples of Aussies doing it tough. They were brought up roughly by an amoral mother who took Romeo and Juliet serial lovers, at least one of whom had his way with young By William Shakespeare. Tantrum Theatre. Shakespeare in Nancy. She left without a word shortly after for 17 years. Gloucester Festival, Mar 7 - 9. Pacific Park, Newcastle, Mar Now returned, she is helping her sister run the café/ 21 - 23. takeaway joint on the highway at the edge of town. THIS Romeo and Juliet was set in a camping ground at They reminisce and argue, but the sisterly dependence is Verona, an Australian coastal town, with hordes of holidayobvious. Then a Turkish tourist, Hakan (Fayssal Bazzi) turns makers arriving to set up tents in the opening scene. up out of the blue looking for casual work. By the time local boys led by Romeo Montague used the With charm, wit and oozing sex appeal he talks his way campground as a short cut to the beach the audience was into joining their business. It expands to a restaurant and aware that belligerent Lord Capulet was the boss cocky enjoys brief success. among the visitors. And the Capulet party gatecrashed by Direction by playwright, Steve Rodgers, and artistic Romeo and his mates was here a barbie, with the title director of Force Majeure, Kate Champion, is brilliant. The characters seeing each other for the first time across a latter’s control of movement and physical interaction space being used for dancing. provides the sensory aspects and complements Rogers’ Shakespeare’s story of the love affair of two young words. Stu Spence devised projections on the bottoms of people from rival families had colourful, moving and often the multitude of hanging industrial pots and pans (Anna amusing treatment in this production. Tregloan’s design) as well as on other unexpected places. Director Amy Hardingham trimmed the play to a brisk This Food is a feast of sensations. two hours and drew uniformly good performances from a Jay McKee large cast. The initially funny banter between Harry Gelzinnis as The Sensuous Senator Romeo, Scott Eveleigh as his serious friend Benvolio and By Michael Parker. DAPA Theatre, Hamilton (NSW). Feb 22 - Drew Holland as always joking Mercutio gave way to more Mar 9. sober words and actions when they were confronted by ENGLISH actor Michael Parker wrote this farcical comedy Capulet offsiders led by the aggressive Tybalt, in this case an angry young woman (Brittany Ferry). in 1988 after settling in the United States and finding Americans weren’t fond of English-style farce. It was The character’s sex change worked well, acknowledging inspired by a US congressman’s sexual exploits and became that women are now not the subservient figures they were in Shakespeare’s day. And the tender moments between a hit. Watching this production, it was easy to see why. From Gelzinnis and Jasmine Duff, as Juliet, showed that young the opening scene, a Washington press conference at love is a many-splendoured thing. which senator Harry Douglas (Mark Spencer) announced Ken Longworth that he was putting himself forward as a candidate for the presidency, with support for “the great American family” Macondo’s Clothesline and “trust and fidelity” foremost in his campaign platform, Marquez Laundry Theatre Company. Creators: Alicia it was one of the funniest and best-staged farces I have Gonzalez, Naomi Livingstone, Natalia Ladyko. Live Music: seen in decades of theatregoing. Matt Thomson. Lights/Sound: Erin Harvey. Old 505 Theatre With his wife Lois (Louise Page) flying out for the Surry Hills. April 11 - 21. weekend to promote his candidacy, Harry invites secretary THIS fifty minute presentation of improvised movement Veronica (Jan Hunt) to stay for the night. When she is centric performance was inspired by a micro-tale from unavailable, he calls an escort agency and call-girl Fiona Gabriel García Márquez. A woman is falling, maybe she’s (Sonja Davis) is soon at the door. So, too, are congressman committing suicide or maybe she’s just another Alice falling 92 Stage Whispers
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down a rabbit hole. As she falls she experiences some of the fundamental pleasures and terrors of life; friendship, work, food, sex, music and dance, as well as exclusion, drudgery, deprivation, isolation, dumbness and confinement. Maybe life is worth living, maybe not. You have to take the journey to discover the beauty and grotesqueness of your surroundings. Then it ends. The thread that links this series of visually interesting movement, dance and musical vignettes is the clothesline strung across the stage, perhaps representing the story arc of the play. Apart from the laundry, what is on show in this show are some little gems, a few rough nuggets and the occasional dull pebble. Whilst these diverse little bites are often captivating, sometimes amusing and occasionally stunning, they do tend to exist in isolation to any connecting story. The play was well performed, costumed, set and lit. A stand out was the excellent synchronisation of live music by Matt Thomson, lights/sound from Erin Harvey and the movement, dance and some singing from the actors. They are a company to watch. Stephen Carnell
the work. Director Victor Emeljanow likewise added new elements in staging this ever-changing and surprise-filled comedy so entertainingly, while brightly dressed actor and stage manager Charlotte De Wit appeared, generally on roller skates, to provide guitar backings to songs. The trio delivered Othello’s plot as a rap, after arguing about the political correctness of white actors staging a play that has a dark-skinned Moor as its title character. Shakespeare’s most bloody play, Titus Andronicus, became a hilarious TV cooking show, with contestants lacking limbs and tongues, and Macbeth sounded as it never has, with Rule delivering the title character’s lines in a thick Scottish brogue after declaring that the play needs that realism. The second half was devoted to Hamlet, with funny digs at the psychological analyses and other interpretations scholars have made of the play and its characters. In this section especially, the show was a rib-tickler for Shakespeare devotees and Bard yawners alike. Ken Longworth
It Just Stopped By Stephen Sewell. Theatre on Chester, Epping, NSW. April Macbeth 12 - May 4, 2013. By William Shakespeare. Gold Coast Little Theatre, THERE’S no electricity; the phones, intercom and lifts are Southport. Director: Stuart Lumsden. April 20 to May 11. out; the internet is down; there’s no network on the WHILE ‘The Scottish Play’ (as thespians superstitiously mobiles; no radio or TV, and the batteries in the flashlight refer to it) was written 400 years ago, Stuart Lumsden’s are dead. production demonstrates that it is very relevant today. Not good when you live in a 47th floor apartment! Although modern in setting and style - a gathering Is it just a massive catastrophic blackout, or is this, place for a current day, leather clad, outlaw ‘Bikie’ gang literally, the end of the world? the original dialogue is intact and all the murder and After a funny though somewhat black first act, Sewell’s mayhem of Shakespeare’s script seems right at home. play becomes even blacker in the second act until we’re not The dimly lit black set is bare except for a few pieces of laughing anymore, as the façade of civilization breaks bike junk and scattered black milk crates, and the eeriness down. of the entrances and exits of the 3 ghosts emphasises the Four fairly unlikeable characters people the play, a selfdeathly undercurrent of the story. centred younger American couple and the neighbours, a Director Stuart Lumsden also took on the pivotal title vaguely (at first, and progressively more so) menacing role, delivering a bloodcurdling performance that sent middle-aged Australian couple. shivers up the spine. Andy Madden as Franklin and Miranda Drake as Beth, Graham Simpson’s choice of music added to the the younger couple, sustain a lively though strained murderous atmosphere. repartee through the opening passages of the play. As the Shakespeare’s masterpiece is a triumph for all older couple, Phil Lye creates a credibly ‘ugly’ Aussie as Bill, concerned. while Margaret Olive’s Pearl is quite a mix of inner guile, Roger McKenzie outer simplicity and rather creepy sexuality. Their relationship carries an interesting conspiratorial edge. All The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) four performances are strong. By Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield. The Popular Along with the wit of the play comes a constant sense Theatre Company, at the Civic Playhouse, Newcastle. Feb 20 of dramatic tension, and Linda Lorenza’s well-paced - Mar 2. production never lets that tension flag. THE production company and director of a 2006 Luke Wallyn’s set design provides a functional Newcastle production of this tongue-in-cheek comedy that apartment loungeroom, while for mine not quite achieving includes at least a few words on each of Shakespeare’s 37 the feel of a modern high-rise apartment, though the plays got together for this new staging. massive jelly-bean feature was very striking. The hilarious production, though, was far from a carbon It’s the kind of comedy that has you laughing freely and copy of its predecessor. The work was recently revised and regularly until that moment when you find a knot updated to include amusing references to technology such tightening in your stomach. as iPods. And the actors who shared the stage this time Neil Litchfield with 2006 cast member Daniel Stoddart - Theo Rule and Callan Purcell - brought their impressive comedic talents to Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au
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Reviews: Opera
The setting helps too. Removing the characters to a different time and place softens the critical blow a little, without losing the effect of the punch. Whether it is Eurydice and Orpheus, or present-day politicians and bureaucrats - hypocrisy abounds, and with it the opportunity to satirise. And satirise it does. There are some wonderful stage images: Suzanne Johnson as Public Opinion towering on a high moving plinth, censoriously admonishing those below; Todd McKenney’s transformation from Aristaeus to Pluto; Eurydice’s bubble bath; Mercury’s arrival on a flying bicycle; the ‘Galop Infernal’ itself … Todd McKenney, in patent leather tights and silver heeled boots, is a resplendent Pluto and Rachel Durkin a sexily tempting long legged Eurydice. Andrew Brunsden, with a high blonde Mohawk, is a reluctantly repentant Orpheus. It’s nice to be able to laugh so much in the opera theatre. It doesn’t happen often, but as in Offenbach’s Paris, there are times when we need a little comic relief, and if it’s mixed with great music and clever writing and direction, all the better! Carol Wimmer
Carmen By Georges Bizet. Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour. Director: Gale Edwards. Set Design: Brian Thomson. Costume Design: Julie Lynch. Choreography: Kelley Abbey. March 22 - April 12. OPERA Australia pulls out all stops to make Carmen a showcase of excellence in all departments. Even the late afternoon storm that threatened to wash out the opening night cleared to reveal the gorgeous calm Online extras! backdrop of Sydney Harbour. Watch our interview with Todd But the spectacle of the Opera House, Harbour Bridge McKenney by scanning or visiting and city lights could not distract you from the eye candy on http://youtu.be/0LNB_YFo6g8 the stage. At the centre was a tilted ring under the bold red lights of a large illuminated Bull and Carmen sign. Orpheus in the Underworld Against this, costumes and flags in a kaleidoscope of By Jacques Offenbach. Updated by Jonathan Biggins and glimmering colours flashed onto the stage. Phil Scott. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. This was perfect for outdoor carnival and bullfighting Feb 28 - Mar 27. scenes. “LIFE’S a bore without amour” - and in the present Just one of the special moments was the arrival of the political climate, a bit depressing too. Thanks be, therefore, flashy bullfighter Escamillo in a gleaming vintage car and that Opera Australia brought Jonathan Biggins and Phil jacket to match. Scott in to rework their 2003 adaptation of Orpheus. It’s The dancing too was bold and rich. The challenge of bright, fast, funny, colourful and very topical, without pushing the dancers to the limit on a stage that was at an losing the Arcadian imagery of its original setting, or angle, was highlighted when a male dancer leaned back detracting from Offenbach’s beautiful music. and almost toppled over. Offenbach’s first Opera Bouffon, set in Ancient Greece, Just as exciting as the staging was the cast. depicts the questionable behavior of the French middle class Rinat Shaham as Carmen was provocative and feisty. Her of the time. Today it still provides the opportunity to mock passion and larger than life theatrics took control of the and satirise, but why? stage. Perhaps it’s the music. The phrasing and the tempo And making the hairs stand up on the back of your neck allow for quirky lyrics, rousing chorus reprises, a little bit of was Dmytro Popov as Don Jose. His arias soared over the ballet and of course, the ‘Galop Infernal’, the can-can. The Harbour, music is at once lyrical and foot tapping.
94 Stage Whispers
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Every note from the orchestra and cast was crystal clear, the microphones giving the Opera the feel of a commercial musical. The only shame was the audience’s applause was not also helped by microphones so the cast, creatives and crew could not hear more fully the ovation they richly deserved. David Spicer
feast for those who know their music. Given the virtuosic abilities on quick display, both are true. Highlights of the highlights included Puccini’s Nessun dorma (Oleg Dolgov); The Dying Swan (melancholically danced by Yaroslava Araptanova); Gounod’s stirring Romeo (Yaroslav Abaimov); Bellini’s Norma (Elizaveta Soina) and heaps of Russian pride in some mesmerising Tchaikovsky. There’s a preference though for the “funny” bits of Mozart, Rossini and Verdi Elle and, while even odder without context, these Russians By Francis Poulenc. Lyric Opera of Melbourne. Chapel off prove adept at light-hearted carry on. Sure, the dancers Chapel. Director: Nathan Gilkes. Conductor: Pat Miller. April don’t have room to fly and the whole experience feels like a 18 - 21. sugar overload, but you can’t beat the quality. LYRIC Opera of Melbourne continues to introduce rarely Martin Portus heard operas to the Melbourne public and this was one of Die Fledermaus their most ambitious. La Voix Humane is a little-known one-woman opera by By Johann Strauss II. Co-Opera. Director: Frank Ford. Choreographer: Nick Carroll. Conductor: Julie Sargeant. Poulenc. Elle spends the evening on the phone to her Darebin Arts Centre. March 15, and regional touring. former lover, who is getting married the next day. The SOUTH Australia-based professional touring opera unreliable telephone service adds to her agony. company Co-Opera has been around for over twenty years, In this performance excerpts from two of Poulenc’s and this year is touring Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus chamber works, for clarinet and cello, were inserted. (The Revenge of the Bat). Instead of a full orchestra it was just clarinet, cello and Set in 1920s Australia, with broad Aussie accents and a piano, but that worked well in the intimate venue. lot of slapstick, the production featured an excellent small This is a tour-de-force for the soprano and Marilla orchestra led by Julie Sargeant from the keyboard. Homes met every challenge without losing the beauty in Though I wasn’t personally keen on the slapstick her voice. More importantly, her voice was a means to approach, the performances were uniformly strong, as was express the raw emotions demanded by the composer. At the singing. I was particularly impressed with Raymond times very sexy and at others writhing in anguish, every Khong’s beautiful tenor as Eisenstein, Kate Bright’s strong emotion of this abandoned woman was felt by the mezzo as Orlofsky and Jeremy Tatchell’s clean baritone as audience. Falke. Sara Lambert was a bright and effervescent maid. The instrumentalists were also made up and very much The diction was excellent and the choreography tight. part of the action, interacting with Elle and making her It was a pleasure to hear unamplified voices projecting agony more potent. The sets, lighting and direction were clearly in well-balanced ensembles. The bubbles which excellent. emanated from the stage during the final champagne Marilla is sharing the role with Julie Torpy, who should ensemble were a nice touch. be equally effective. Touring mainly to country venues, the single set, with a This was one out of the box for Lyric Opera and I hope couch and tables moved on stage to signify the various the public get behind one of the operatic highlights of the acts, was designed for a more intimate venue, as was the year. production. Graham Ford Unfortunately the publicity wasn’t successful for the sole Melbourne suburban performance, judging by the Operamania attendance. I trust rural Australia will support this Moscow Novaya Opera. City Recital Hall, April 13 - 17, then worthwhile project better than Melbourne. touring. Graham Ford AN invention of Valery Raku and Moscow’s respected Novaya Opera, Operamania is a manic if artful rush through the highlights of the world’s best operas, ballets and symphonies. Ten exceptional singers and four ballet dancers leap through tragedy, comedy and lyricism, backed by an onstage orchestra of 44 musicians. And it’s all squeezed onto the City Recital Hall stage. Never mind the boring bits. Never mind all those absurd plots. This kaleidoscopic experience mashes together extracts which last barely minutes, knitted together with an engaging theatricality and some showy costumes. Projected Have any costumes and props for sale images from Russian artists add more colour and another slim thread of continuity. or hire? Get noticed now! Operamania simultaneously bills itself as a tailor-made www.stagewhispers.com.au/costumes introduction for the first time opera-goer and an irresistible
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Stage Whispers 95
Choosing A Show
What if High School students are doing a show and need a video for their qualifications. What do you do there if students can’t use it? Is there wriggle room? Or should we not ask? Answer: Most plays for school SH: Over the past six or seven years It’s a question many companies putting assessment are covered under the on a show want answered. Can a play we have gone back to rights holders. Department of Education. Such or musical be videoed for an archival We now have 40 shows with video permission. All our Disney shows have instances are mostly approved at no copy, sale to cast or just a YouTube permission plus other shows like Fame cost. promotion? DS: It is really up to the writer of and Eurobeat are OK. You need to the show. There is no blanket rule to it. check our website to see if the rights Rights holders - Stuart Hendricks Some of them are cool about it, others are available. Unfortunately it is not (SH) and Nikol Mckail (NM) from Hal are not. Leonard Australia, Kim Ransley from every show, but it is constantly SH: It also depends if the writer has growing. Also the types of video Origin Theatrical (KR), David Spicer from DSP (DS) and a representative licences vary. Sometimes it is those rights. KR: We have some Rodgers and from APRA answered for archival, other times for distribution. But Hammerstein musicals that they own questions at a forum the film rights to, so they can assign held in Dunedin by you can’t just them. But for The Sound of Music they assume that you Musical Theatre can video it, purely don’t own the film rights so they can’t New Zealand in allow it to be videoed. March. for archival SH: Sometimes the writers don’t purposes. have video recording rights. For KR: Yes that is a misconception out instance Annie is based on a cartoon. So the people who wrote the musical there. don’t own the film rights. It is controlled by a third party who has not made this permission available.
Can I Video a Show?
Is there a cost involved? SH: Usually about $150 to $200. Some are about $400. KR: In particular the owners of Chicago and Grease won’t allow you to video the show. 96 Stage Whispers May - June 2013
Social Media...How much can you video, even in a restricted work, for YouTube for a promo as a piece of journalism? KR: We allow three minute promo videos of most shows. But you can’t have more than 30 seconds of any one song. You can show these promo videos on Facebook or your theatre website. Some owners say no YouTube, but you could use Vimeo. Most of our shows you can do a three minute video teaser, however you have to ask for permission and we then advise you of the terms and conditions of this approval. NM: Taking a step back, speaking of our catalogue. We actually need to make sure you have permission to video it in the first place. Always check with each show. It is not automatic
What happens with that? Are people turning a blind eye? SH: No. Various publishers employ people to monitor and remove unauthorised content.
that you can do a promotional video or post onto YouTube. SH: We’ve just signed Bonnie and Clyde and that is the first show we have that states in the representation that you have YouTube permission. That may be the way of the future. DS: I represent many shows with popular songs in them and I just have to say no. Although you can video some dialogue in these jukebox shows - Back to the 80’s, for instance, has a song by Madonna in it, and you can’t get permission for the song to be videoed. Can I ask APRA does the rule apply that you can have a 30 second clip of a song on YouTube? APRA: You stilll need a special event licence to film which would go through AMCOS. For YouTube you need individual permission for each song from the publisher. DS: Even thirty seconds of it?
Maverick Musicals Gail Denver: All requests must be received in writing. If the recording is for a school or group's reference (library, collection) only, and/or sold at cost no charges apply and permission is granted. If the recordings are to be sold for a profit, we charge a ten per cent royalty of the price charged by the group/school. We allow upload to YouTube. APRA: Yes. DS: What about those clever people in Brisbane - Harvest Rain. They often do four or five YouTube episodes of a rehearsal diary. They use piped music under the rehearsal action...is that a model others can follow? APRA: If it does not come from a grand right (that is performance in a theatrical context), it has to go to the publisher. KR: We look after grand rights of whole musical. If you want to use snippet of music on your website or for advertising purposes a publisher (for example Universal Music or Warner Chappell) has to approve it. DS: We all know if you go to YouTube that rules are being broken. There are whole channels devoted to it.
Dominie Drama Policies vary from publisher to publisher, and in summary: Nick Hern Books, Hanbury Plays, Society of Authors & IT&M Permission to video requires approval from the publisher and is usually dependent on the title, however permission is often granted for assessment and archival purposes. Permission would also need to be received from prior to uploading a clip onto YouTube/Facebook, etc. Pioneer Drama Services Encourage customers to use YouTube, Facebook, video blogs and other social media tools to promote productions. In addition friends and family are welcome to videotape performances for their own personal use and they also allow companies to produce videos to be onsold.
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Schools On Stage
Whistle Down the Wind brought particular challenges most especially the need for outstanding male tenor voices, the difficult orchestration and the special FX. We would not have attempted it without the voices and a fantastic mix of expertise and cooperation in everything musical. My lighting designer and I discussed the fire and train requirements and between us arrived at very satisfactory results. His fire was stunning. Our 90-strong student company became very tight and, with adult supervision, took full ownership of the production, on, off and behind stage, performing to a level which was highly acclaimed. Our students love being challenged; they loved the show and the concept of an Australasian premiere certainly made it very special. Our patrons were surprised by the way the story drew them in and drove them on - we had a strong chorus, and set design and blocking supported the libretto in making them the focal point on a number of occasions. Chris Burton, Director
Rumours By Neil Simon. Oakhill College (NSW). THERE is an old theatrical saying that goes: “Dying is easy, comedy is hard”. Over sold out performances in March, Oakhill College’s Year 12 Drama students performed Neil Simon’s classic farce, Rumours. Simon wrote the comedy when he was going through some difficult times and he thought it would be “really good just to get into a comedy”. Imagine how you’d feel if you arrived at a black tie dinner party, only to find the hostess, cook and butler have Whistle Down The Wind disappeared and the host in shock with a bullet through his ear. Rumours run rampart as the various guests arrive…wild Whistle Down the Wind tales abound…. and the surprise ending suggests that truth Palmerston North Boys High School (NZ). is indeed stranger than fiction! I HAVE always encouraged students and staff involved in The play afforded the Drama staff with a wonderful our productions to aim high - very high - and so over the opportunity to work with ten very talented and diverse last 17 years we have developed a reputation in the wider people - each characterising a unique persona designed to community for top class musical theatre and this supports a add hilarity to an already zany plot. season of 9 performances over 10 days. Our amazing girls come from PNGHS, our sister school, but Rumours for various reasons the artistic control and financial backing has remained with PNBHS. Whistle Down the Wind is our third NZ premiere following Paris (2004) and The Wedding Singer (2008). For PNBHS the show is a major flagship and senior management have consistently given us the same support and kudos as the top sports teams. I am left to run the show in every aspect and have recruited a longserving team of experienced adult coaches who have specialist skills in areas such as dance, orchestration, singing, sound mixing, lighting design and administration. We would not have survived this long without spreading the load and getting a lot of fun out of each other’s company! 98 Stage Whispers May - June 2013
Puzzles PERFORMING ARTS MAGAZINE MAY/JUNE 2013. VOLUME 22, NUMBER 3 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/Fax: (03) 9758 4522 Advertising: stagews@stagewhispers.com.au Editorial: neil@stagewhispers.com.au PRINTED BY: Spotpress Pty Ltd, 24-26 Lilian Fowler Place, Marrickville, 2204 PUBLISHED BY: Stage Whispers PRE-PRESS PRODUCTION & DESIGN BY: PJTonline Solutions, email: pjtonline@pjtonline.com DISTRIBUTED BY: Gordon & Gotch, 25-37 Huntingdale Road, Burwood, 3125 DEADLINES For inclusion in the next edition, please submit articles, company notes and advertisements to Stage Whispers by June 3rd, 2013.
ACROSS 1. J. Wayne '53 film 5. B'way's Raul 9. Mr. Torn 10. Musical, She… (5,2) 11. Actress, Spencer 12. B’way’s Ms Maxwell 13. Actor, Bloom 15. Singer, Dury 16. 1776’s ‘But, Mr…’ 17. LND character 19. Pajama’s ‘Heat’ 21. Theatre producer Lawson 23. Fame-ous singer (5,4) 26. ‘Take Me or, Me’ 28. Yeston number 29. It struck back 30. Band, Leppard 33. Actor, Bolger 35. Putnam’s bee 41. Ms. Travers (1,1) 42. Ms Burchmore 43. The, Tree 46. Rent’s Santa 47. …in Toyland 50. Ibsen’s House (1,5) 51. Don’t Bother Me, Cope (1,4) 52. The, Barber of Fleet Street 53. They who lunch 54. 70, 70
DOWN 1. Musical, …Again 2. Secret Garden’s Craven 3. Mr Welles 4. Machete’s Danny 5. Les Mis character 6. Sister Act-ress (6,6) 7. Theatrical re-do 8. Ballet position 14. Leonard play 17. Ephron’s Imaginary 18. Actor, Howard 19. Dir. Jim 20. Breakfast, Tiffany’s 22. ‘A change in…’ 24. B’way’s Sabella 25. Oz Music Award 27. B’way’s Mr. Karl 31. Finn trilogy 32. Mr. Jolson 34. Rice/John/Disney 36. Three Days of Rain character 37. ..Abner 38. King’s clown tale 39. …Union Cinemas 40. Play, Rabbit 43. Musical, I Had… (1,4) 44. Song, …Mary 45. Show Boat’s May Chipley 48. Mama, I Want to…
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Musical Spice
Secrets Of The National Theatre
Owain Arthur and Amy Booth-Steel from One Man, Two Guvnors with Stage Whispers' feature about the production.
Touring Australia at the moment are three remarkable productions from one publicly funded theatre company. War Horse, One Man Two Guvnors and Frankenstein are products of The National Theatre in London, which must be the world’s most successful drama companies. Sir Laurence Olivier, the National’s first artistic director, must be looking down rather pleased from an A reserve seat in heaven. One of the National’s producers casually remarked to me words to the effect that, ‘we were sitting around trying to think of a play we could produce for children. War Horse came up. Then someone chipped in. I have just seen this amazing South African puppet theatre - why not bring them in on it?’ Eureka! Last year alone the National had an income of £22 million from various productions of War Horse making a tidy profit of £3.6 million. In 2012 the National Theatre had a whopping 2.3 million paying customers world-wide. At their South Bank home in London, where they have three theatres, they enjoyed 92% capacity, producing 12 new plays and 23 new productions. To help foster youth interest, those aged between 15 and 26 can buy tickets for £5. And through the National Theatre Live program, David Spicer and David Atkins. (Note how dancers are skinnier than journalists.)
audiences around the world can watch their productions at the cinema. What to do they do with all their spare cash you might ask? How about spending £70 million on refurbishing their theatres? Most of this was generated not from a Government grant but from profits from War Horse. Of course they are upgrading a theatre or two and their backstage areas, but the public are the big winners. Included will be a high level walkway above the backstage workshops so people can see how theatre is made, expanded opportunities to film their productions, plus a library to view past performances. There is also a public garden and a refurbished entrance from the Thames - all of these will only expand audience opportunities in the future. Did all this happen because of one Eureka moment that led to a once in a generation blockbuster? In my view this was no lucky break but a dividend from serious long-term commitment to investing in new work. According to their annual report the company last year invested £1.7 million in research and development because its charter requires “a specific responsibility for the creation of new work and representing the widest range of voices.” It has an initiative called The Studio, where new work can be tested before it is seen by the public. The annual report says, “The Studio plays a vital role in promoting the health and renewal of theatre at large by providing an environment in which writers, actors and practitioners of all kinds can explore, experiment and devise work.” Last year there were 61 development workshops, allowing it to pick only the cream for public viewing. What a fantastic model for other publicly funded companies to emulate, even on a smaller scale. David Spicer
100 Stage Whispers May - June 2013
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