Reviews

Sweet Charity

Music: Cy Coleman. Lyrics: Dorothy Fields. Book: Neil Simon based on Federico’s Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria. Understudy Productions. Co-Directors: Kris Stewart and Maureen Bowra. Music Director: Shanon Whitelock. Choreography: Dan Venz. Brisbane Powerhouse. January 24 – February 10, 2019

What a blast this was! A classic 60s Broadway musical, a score of showstoppers, and at its centre the most electrifying performance we’re likely to see this year.

Man With The Iron Neck

By Ursula Yovich. Legs on the Wall / Sydney Festival. Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre. Jan 23 – 26, 2019

For most of us, suicides are inexplicable, that utter hopelessness incomprehensible. This moving part physical theatre work from Legs on the Wall and writer/performer Ursula Yovich begins by first listing half a dozen recent teenage Aboriginal suicides.  

Then we meet Mum Rosa (Yovich) living with her boisterous twins, and their best mate Ash, in a country town, but haunted by a Dad who hung himself from the tall gum still there onstage.  

Antony & Cleopatra

By William Shakespeare. National Theatre Live, from the Olivier Theatre, Southbank, London. Cinema Nova, Carlton VIC, and at participating cinemas nationally from 2 February to 6 February 2019

In this contemporary set production of one of Shakespeare’s late and most complex, layered and contradictory plays, Ralph Fiennes plays Antony as an already fading playboy.  The erstwhile war hero, in his mind responsible for young Caesar’s power, teeters on the brink of over the hill, trading on his past glories, drinks too much, getting a little porky, silver threads in beard and hair – and sexually obsessed with Sophie Okonedo’s quicksilver Cleopatra.  She is skittish, imperious, girlish, peremptory, sensual, cold, impulsive, calculating, uninhi

Soft Butch Show Queen

By Mark J Wilson. The Butterfly Club. Jan 22 – 26, 2019

Midsumma is always full of queer surprises and unusual treats and Mark J Wilson’s new solo show Soft Butch Show Queen ticks those boxes.  He is a mixed bag of all sorts, courageously up front, farcical, comical, political, drag queen and more.

He staggers about on stage with a starving artist story, selling his soul to pay the bills. He glazes over his job at Krispy Kreme more than twice, thrice between skits and costume changes.

MissCast

FringeWorld. Directed by Nicole Stinton. De Parel Spiegeltent, The Pleasure Gardens, Russell Square, Northbridge, WA. 18-26 January 2019

The actor’s dilemma is that there are always roles in which you will never be cast - you are the wrong gender, too old, too short, too blonde or just wrong. In this short and sweet production, which has already (deservedly) picked up a FringeWorld award, local performer Dixie Johnstone, and Melbourne’s Vincent Hooper, join forces to perform roles in which they would never be cast.

Beware of Pity

Based on the novel by Stefan Zweig. Schaübuhne Berlin and Complicité. Directed by Simon McBurney. Sydney Festival. Roslyn Packer Theatre. Jan 23 – 27, 2019.

The most interesting part of this evening in the theatre was the question and answer session afterwards with the German cast and crew, who gave an insight into an extraordinary different way of creating theatre.

Last of the Red Hot Lovers

By Neil Simon. STARC Productions. The Bakehouse Theatre. January 23rd to February 2nd 2019

On a day when Adelaide broke its hottest temperature record, I serendipitously went to the opening night of Neil Simon’s Last of the Red Hot Lovers, presented by Starc Productions. The company philosophy embraces presenting plays where theatre design is secondary and the actor is central. This production captures and highlights both the skill of the actors and the magic of the text.

Livvy & Pete: The Songs of Olivia Newton-John and Peter Allen

Performed by Michael Griffiths and Amelia Ryan. fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. 23 - 27 January, 2019.

Michael Griffiths and Amelia Ryan team up to create a fun-filled celebration of the songbooks of Olivia Newton John and Peter Allen. The show provides information about the humble small-town beginnings of these two iconic Australian artists but mainly focuses on the hits that brought them to world domination. The performers have no hesitation in displaying the level and intensity of sequins, lycra, and jumpsuits that were involved in catapulting Allen and Newton-John to mega stardom.

I Sing Songs

Performed by Steven Kreamer. fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. 23 - 27 January, 2019.

Steven Kreamer is an astonishing emerging talent as a musician, composer and performer who has also demonstrated his talents as an arranger and orchestrator. This show is a very personal account of his journey as a musician. The strength of this show is the numerous original compositions often written at important crossroads in his life. While the songs are predominantly reflecting on his experience of love and romance, they are often giving detailed accounts of episodes that have had some formative influence on his life and work.

One Infinity

Beijing Dance Theater / Dance North Sydney Festival. Carriageworks. Jan 23 – 27, 2019

Since leaving Chunky Move, the dance company he founded in Melbourne, choreographer/director Gideon Obarzanek has taken a lively interest in the spoken word and other storytelling techniques of the theatre.

One Infinity is, by contrast, an hypnotic collaboration between Chinese musicians and ten dancers from the Beijing Dance Theater and Australia’s Dance North. 

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