Reviews

Beauty and the Beast

Music: Alan Menken. Lyrics: Howard Ashman and Tim Rice. Book: Linda Woolverton. Ballina Players, Players Theatre. Director: Jacquie McCalman. 11th – 20th January 2019

Ballina Players never cease to entertain their audiences and their first production of the year, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, has set a very high standard for the 2019 season.

With a cast of around 50, the stage sprang to life and there wasn’t one dull spot in the whole performance.

As is the practice at Ballina, the January show is their youth production and with the majority of the cast and their five piece band under 25 it was an exhilarating experience. The best show I have enjoyed for the ten years that I have been reviewing there!

The Voice Behind the Stars

Written & performed by Eliza Jackson. Chapel off Chapel, Prahran, 18 – 19 January 2019; Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre, Sydney, Jan 23 & 24; The Gold Digger, Fringe World, Perth, Feb 10 - 13.

The name ‘Marni Nixon’ is probably best known to the fans of movie musicals: she’s the singer whose voice was dubbed in to replace the singing voices of Deborah Kerr (The King and I), Natalie Wood (West Side Story) and Audrey Hepburn (My Fair Lady).  She also did some high notes for Marylin Monroe in ‘Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend’.

Brett and Wendy … A Love Story Bound by Art

Kim Carpenter’s Theatre of Image. Sydney Festival. Riverside Theatres Parramatta. January 18 – 27, 2019.

Using music, dance, projections and snatches of dialogue, Kim Carpenter’s Theatre of Image emphasises the visuality of theatre as it explores one of the most famous and vibrant Australian art stories. Brett Whiteley and Wendy Julius met and fell in love as teenagers at a time when social and artistic boundaries were being challenged and broken. Together they embraced a new era of excitement and risk-taking … in life and art.

Jane Austen Private Eye

By Jessica Messenger. FringeWorld. The Queen Room at Lady Beaufort, Beaufort St Community Centre, Mt Lawley, WA. 18 Jan - 3 Feb, 2018

Jessica Messenger is perhaps best known in Perth as one half of Sense and Spontaneity, famous for madcap fully improvised stories, in the style of Jane Austen and viral videos in the same vein. In her first solo show, Jessica becomes Jane herself, spinster, writer of fiction, time traveller and detective.

The Blueberry Play

By Ang Collins. FringeWorld. The Studio, The Blue Room Theatre, Perth Cultural Centre. 18-26 January, 2018

The Blueberry Play is a warm, funny coming of age play, beautifully performed, that deals woith serious themes, but leaves the audience upfifted and fulfilled.

Originally developed by the Australian Theatre for Young People, and shortlisted for a Griffin Award, Ang Collins’ play is a first person monologue about a seventeen year old girl whose father is both bipolar and suffering from prostrate cancer, who is struggling with her growing feelings for a boy, and discovering her sexuality.

The Greatest Show

Pelican Productions. Music Theatre Camp 2019. Michael Murray Centre, Westminster School (SA). January 12- 20, 2019

After watching The Greatest Show, by Pelican Productions, I know that the future of musical theatre in Adelaide will be safe in the coming years.

This is their 15th music theatre camp and judging by the number of students involved, it is extremely popular.

Impromptunes - The Completely Improvised Musical

FringeWorld. The Circus Theatre, Fringe Central, Perth Cultural Centre. 18-27 Jan, 2019

I’ll admit, reviewing Impromptunes was completely indulgent on my part. They have been reviewed before, but I just really wanted to see it. I was not disappointed.

Impromptunes is exactly as described. A completely new improvised musical at every performance. A cast of six (the line up varies) and a pianist, take a suggestion from the audience and perform that title over the next hour. Previous titles include Quarter Life Crisis, Texas Homeschool Prom, Mummies in Brunswick and Toyota Corolla.

Shrek The Musical

Music by Jeanine Tesori. Book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire. Directed by Lindsay Nobile. Townsville Choral Society, Townsville Entertainment Centre. 18 – 27 Jan 2019.

As far as the music itself is concerned, Shrek the Musical may not be the best-written musical in the world, but if affection for the 2001 animated classic that was displayed by the enormous cast is a yardstick by which to measure, then this latest Townsville Choral Society production has it in quids.

All I Really Need to Know I Learned by Being in a Bad Murder Mystery

By Werner Trieschmann. Bakehouse Theatre: Studio. Flinders University Performing Arts Society. January 17-19, 2019.

This year and over the last couple of years in Adelaide, we have celebrated significant milestones for a number of amateur theatre companies. It is these sorts of companies that are the lifeblood of amateur theatre and the training ground for many prominent Australian actors. These companies also serve to provide pleasure, skill development, leisure, team building and collaboration skills, and entertainment for audiences and performers alike.  

A Doll’s House

By Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Miriam Fietz and Nathan Quadrio. IpSkip Productions. Bakehouse Theatre, Adelaide. Jan 16-19, 2019

I have often started to read a review only to find the dreaded word ‘dated’ in it, used because the play was written last century or even the century before. Apart from the syntax, A Doll’s House could not be more contemporary as it presents a woman's dilemma as a human dilemma, relevant to both sexes when so often women's stories are treated as a special subject of concern only to women.

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