Reviews

Magic, Mystique and Melancholy

Presented by QPAC and Southern Cross Soloists. Concert Hall, QPAC. October 20, 2024

Australia’s Southern Cross Soloists’ (SXS) final concert in the 15th QPAC Concert Series for 2024, where they have served as the company in residence, was a true celebration of their artistry. Titled Magic, Mystique, and Melancholy the program spanned a broad range of music, from timeless work by Stravinsky to the world premiere of a modern Australian composition.

The Roaring Twenties: George Gershwin’s An American in Paris

Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House. October 17, 2024

It’s hard to think of a more thrilling decade than the 1920’s, so catastrophically bookended by wars and tyranny, but so explosive in its arts, modernity and social advances.  

Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s one-hour concert series here squeezes in three compelling works from the roaring twenties.  It begins with Igor Stravinsky’s spirited suite drawing on works attributed to the 18th-century composer Giovanni Pergolesi , and relishing the Italian’s  theatricality and comedia dell arte.  

Kinky Boots

Book by Harvey Fierstein. Music by Cyndi Lauper. Presented by Encore Theatre Company. Director & Executive Producer: Belinda J King. MD: Andy Prideaux. Choreographer: Bianca King. Princess Theatre, Launceston. October 11-26, 2024

I’m not sure, but I’d hazard a guess and say I’ve been a reviewer for Stage Whispers for at least 18 years - so forgive this self-indulgent preamble. Over that time, I’ve been (mostly) fortunate to see dozens of professional and non-professional productions from Sydney and the Central Coast. While preparing to move interstate to Tasmania, I made sure to tee up a review opportunity to see Spring Awakening (Black Box Theatre Co.) when I visited in July.

A Figure In The Yellow Paper

By Eleanor Golding. Theatreworks, Explosives Factory. Melbourne Fringe. October 16 – 20, 2024

A loose adaptation of American gothic feminist/horror story The Yellow Paper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892), writer/director Eleanor Golding has offered an ambitious modern interpretation that takes this tale to another level.

Dear Evan Hansen

Book by Steven Levenson. Music and Lyrics by Benj Pasek & Justin Paul. A Sydney Theatre Company and Michael Cassel Group production. Roslyn Packer Theatre. October 12 – December 1, 2024. Melbourne from December 14; Canberra from February 27, 2025 and Adelaide from April 3.

From the very first moment of the STC and Michael Cassel Group’s re-conceived production of Dear Evan Hansen, when we see Evan released from the short sleeved blue polo shirt that has been his uniform in every other production of the show, we know director Dean Bryant is not going to stick to the traditions of the West End/Broadway or (current touring) productions of the show.

Yentl

Based on the short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer. Written by Gary Abrahams, Elise Hearst and Galit Klas. Kadimah Yiddish Theatre, Monstrous Theatre and Neil Gooding Productions. Directed by Gary Abrahams. Playhouse, Sydney Opera House. October 17 - November 10, 2024

Oy vey, what a play! A delicious mix of mysticism, gender politics, lust, suspense, Yiddish, ancient Jewish lore and cross dressing. And yes, and there is some nudity.

Enough schmutz* to drag people away from the Hot Rabbi on Netflix.

Isaac Singer penned the short story Yentl the Yeshiva Boy – but hated Barba Streisand’s 1983 film adaptation. Streisand kept the core of the story about an orthodox Eastern-European Jewish woman, who dresses as a man so she can study Jewish scriptures, but shaped it as a vehicle for her own talent.

Yoga Play

By Dipika Guha. National Theatre of Parramatta and La Boite Theatre. Director: Mina Morita Riverside Theatres Parramatta. 17-27 Oct, 2024

Yoga Play is just as the LA Times described it: “a fresh new comedy with a sharp cultural bite."  The satire of the first act becomes laugh-out-loud comedy in the second act, making it a couple of hours of entertainment with cracks at political correctness, marketing techniques and social and cultural expectations.

Adam James: The Great First Nations Songbook

Redlands Performing Arts Centre (RPAC), Cleveland, Concert Hall. 19 October 2024

This show features 15 iconic First Nations songs, reworked by smooth singer Adam James, backed by a 13-piece jazz orchestra – and it is one of the most enjoyable evenings of Australian music you will ever experience. I absolutely loved every minute of it. Having made his mark as a country singer, Adam James is getting back to his childhood roots and reinventing himself as ‘The Quandamooka Crooner’, revisiting the African-American swing, soul, jazz and blues that he and his family grew up singing and dancing to.

Operation Boomerang

By Bruce Denny. Yirra Yaakin. Directed by Ian Wilkes. Subiaco Arts Centre, WA. Oct 4-19, 2024

Yirra Yaakin’s fresh and charming new production of Operation Boomerang is a loveable family drama, with a beautiful connection to lineage and country. Well-acted and directed, this was a pleasure to watch.

Matt McVeigh's set beautifully creates a pleasant room in a ‘nice’ suburban nursing home (with gorgeous individualism in the Indigenous Print bedding), surrounded by a stunningly created artistic representation of red dirt ‘country’. 

Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella

Music by Richard Rodgers. Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. New book by Douglas Carter Beane. Original book by Oscar Hammerstein II. North Queensland Opera and Music Theatre, Townsville Civic Theatre, Boundary Street, Townsville. 17 – 27 October 2024.

IF EVER there was a case of a reviewer’s reservations being swept away in one fell swoop then this is it.

I had always considered this to be a lesser work from the pen of Rodgers and Hammerstein, and when the announcement was made that this company was going to mount this work, I admittedly had some doubts as to the wisdom of the choice.  I need not have worried.

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