Reviews

Hard Quiz Live

Quizmaster Tom Gleeson. Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Melbourne Town Hall. 1 – 9 April 2022 (later in Sydney)

Based on the very popular ABCTV quiz show, Hard Quiz Live packs out the big room at the Melbourne Town Hall.  On my evening, the audience queue to get in stretches down Collins Street from the side entrance, and around the corner into Swanston Street for three hundred metres. Quizmaster Tom Gleeson, whose schtick is cruel, nasty, and politically incorrect putdowns, and scurrilous or snide remarks on his rivals, comes out onto the stage – and he revels in having no cameras, and a huge live audience. 

Anna Karenina

The Australian Ballet and Joffrey Ballet. Choreography by Yuri Possokhov. Composer Ilya Demutsky. Libretto by Valeriy Pecheykin based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy. April 5 – 23, 2022

International choreographer Yuri Possokhov and his Russian composer Ilya Demutsky have created a beautifully dark, modern retelling of Tolstoy’s great classic. 

So unrelenting is its narrative, so psychological its tone, that these dancers also must be fine actors. Robyn Hendricks as Anna Karenina, who sacrifices all for a passion which doesn’t last, and Callum Linnane as her remorseful lover, Vronsky, excel at both. 

She-Nanigans

By Chido Mwat. Melbourne International Comedy Festival. The Motley Bauhaus Black Box, Carlton. 4 – 10 April 2022

Chido Mwat came to Australia from Zimbabwe in 2015 to study medicine. She’s now a junior doctor with Western Health.  But what happened on the way through – from then to now?  Studying, of course, but part-time jobs and – because she knew there were stories to tell – learning improv, sketch comedy and film making.  But there were also the doubts, fears, racist discrimination, stupid questions, and assumptions suffered by many immigrants.

Mel & Sam SHIT-WRECKED

Written, choreographed & performed by Mel O’Brien & Samantha Andrew. Melbourne International Comedy Festival. The Toff in Town. 31 March – 10 April 2022

Last time we saw Mel O’Brien and Samantha Andrew they were being primary schoolgirls in their terrific, fast-moving, hilarious, and award-winning No Hat, No Play!  The Cabaret. 

What SHIT-WRECKED has in common with No Hat – apart from acid wit, original music, and in-sync-but-faux-desperate choreography – is that it’s a series of sketches rendered as songs, with dancing that is as expressive as the words – and a kind of grumpy resentment of authority and of life’s disappointments in general. 

Kurt Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins & Mahagonny Songspiel

Red Line Productions. Directed By Constantine Costi. Old Fitz Theatre, NSW. March 31 - April 23, 2022

My jaw dropped when I entered the theatre – what, 17 musicians in this tiny space? I read that in the promotional material but assumed it was a joke – how does an independent theatre manage such an extravaganza?

Up the road the Hayes Theatre typically squeezes a handful of players in their 111-seat theatre – but the old Fitz fits just 58. So, this is like trying to break the world record for fitting the most people into a Mini Minor. 

Judith Lucy & Denise Scott, Still Here.

Directed by Stephen Nicolazzo. Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse. 31 March - 24 April 2022.

Unravel Reckoning

By Susan Bamford Caleo and Elissa Goodrich. La Mama Courthouse. Mar 29 – Apr 3, 2022.

Susan Bamford Caleo offers a heart wrenching performance as the scorned woman in her strikingly dramatic interpretation of Euripides tragic play Medea in Unravel Reckoning. She has reunited with musician Elissa Goodrich, with whom she brought us the much-heralded Fragments at LA Mama in 2017, returning post Covid with a powerful new show.

The People’s Dance Party

Bring a Plate Dance Company. New Benner Theatre, Metro Arts, Brisbane. 2 April 2022

Immersive theatre could not get more smile-inducing than The People’s Dance Party by Bring a Plate inclusive dance company. Their show is just over an hour of pure fun for all ages. The format is straightforward: the audience stand in the round and do a pre-show warm-up with DJ/MC and dance instructors. Then six dance artists demonstrate their individual styles from different cultures and eras in a showcase performance, and then invite the crowd to join them in copying and showing off their moves.

Glamazonia

Written and Directed by Rhonda Burchmore. HOTA Gold Coast. April 1, 2022, and touring (dates below).

There’s every chance that if you look up entertainment in the dictionary, you will find Rhonda Burchmore’s name in the definition.

Celebrating 40 years as a STAwaRt of our industry, Rhonda was never going to let a little thing like a pandemic get in her way. Like most born entertainers, she needs to connect with an audience. It’s her very reason for living, her life’s blood, and she does it brilliantly. So, if the big shows aren’t happening for her, Rhonda simply creates her own.

Heathers: The Musical

Book, Music and Lyrics by Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe. Based on the film written by Daniel Waters. Millennial Productions (Qld). Director: Kade O’Rourke. Choreographer: Lauren Bensted. Musical Director: Caitlin Wall. Ron Hurley Theatre. April 1 – 10, 2022

It was clear from the number of raised eyebrows, dropped jaws and thunderous applause after the opening number, that Millennial Productions hit their debut musical out of the park!

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