Reviews

Unsorted

By Wesley Middleton. Midsumma. Bluestone Church Arts Space. April 10 – 25, 2021

Unsorted, playing as part of the Midsumma Festival, is a play for children between the ages of 4-12. Written by LA based playwright Wesley Middleton in 2014, some three years before the passing of the Gender Equality Bill in the USA, it aims at addressing acceptance of gender diversity and freedom of choice. Director Tara Daniel felt the message is as relevant today as it was before the passing of our own legislation.

Legally Blonde

Music and Lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin. Book by Heather Hach. HAMA Productions. Directed by John O’Hara. Crown Theatre, Perth, WA. Apr 16-25, 2021

HAMA Productions burst into Crown Theatre with this beautiful, big pink production, that is delighting huge audiences. HAMA’s first full-scale production in this venue is pushing boundaries, with great production values and a gorgeously polished show.

While HAMA presented Legally Blonde at The Regal three years ago, with a number of performers reprising their roles, this is not really a remount, with a new director, some fresh sets, new costumes and a different vibe.

The Wedding Singer – the Musical

By Chad Beguelin and Tim Herlihy, Music by Matthew Sklar, Lyrics by Chad Beguelin, based on the New Line Cinema film written by Tim Herlihy. Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide, April 9 – 24, 2021, and touring

‘Love is what I do,’ croons Robbie Hart, the titular character of The Wedding Singer in the big opening number of this new stage production of the Tony Award nominated show, based on the Adam Sandler movie of the same name. And once your strip back the bold colours of the costumes and neon lights, this is the mantra of this simple story.

Robbie is New Jersey’s number one wedding singer. That is until his own fiancée strands him at the altar. His broken heart is only saved by a kind waitress, engaged to a Wall Street trader.

Mamma Mia!

Book by Catherine Johnson.  Music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus.  Free-Rain Theatre. Directed by Jarrad West.  The Q, Queanbeyan.  15 April – 8 May 2021.

 

Shaun The Sheep’s Circus Show

Circa and Aardman. Regent Theatre Melbourne. April 14 – 18, 2021

Shaun the Sheep’s Circus Show has hit the Regent Theatre in Melbourne for the school holidays. Two creative powerhouses have come together for the first time and developed a dynamic new visual extravaganza. Circa, an international touring circus company based in Brisbane, have collaborated with Aardman UK animation studio, uniting their audiences for an adventurous and wholesome new theatrical experience that offers a contemporary mix of dynamic circus acrobatics with cutting edge visual storytelling.

Reference Material

Directed and choreographed by Alisdair Macindoe. Darebin Arts Speakeasy, Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre. 14 - 24 April, 2021.

The nature of Reference Material is undoubtedly informative and pedagogical, as the title of the show suggests. This new contemporary dance show ventures into unexpected territory in terms of performance; almost the entire show is accompanied by a running commentary delivered by the performers while they are dancing. 

Is There Something Wrong With That Lady?

By Debra Oswald. Griffin Theatre Company. SBW Stables Theatre, Kings Cross. April 13 – 24, 2021

Debra Oswald is a success, writer of three novels and about ten produced plays (albeit last century) and creator of the acclaimed Offspring series and heaps of other telly. 

Now she takes to the stage with this solo memoir about what a fraught and thankless journey it’s been.  Sensibly, she admits her good blessings, professionally and with family, before launching into her lifetime of anxieties, and shares these with such an engaging, self-deprecating wit.

Mrs Robinson: A Soap Cabaret

Book, lyrics & direction by Ella Filar. Melbourne International Comedy Festival. La Mama Courthouse. 13 – 18 April 2021

Four characters, all in funereal black, carry a boat onto the stage.  Is it a boat or a coffin?  At any rate, they are emigrees – and hedonists – fleeing persecution only to wash up somewhere like the Riviera.  It’s the 1920s.  The black costumes come off.  Underneath, svelte period swim wear that reveals as much as it conceals. 

Margaret Fulton – The Musical

Music: Yuri Worontschak. Book & Lyrics: Doug MacLeod. Director: Aarne Nemme. Musical Director: Meg Kiddle. Choreographer: Dan Venz. Jally Entertainment. QUT Gardens Theatre, Brisbane. 13-14 April, 2021

Australians love to celebrate their heroes in song and dance - Peter Allen in The Boy From Oz, Shane Warne in Shane Warne – the Musical, and now comes Margaret Fulton, the 60s cooking guru in Margaret Fulton – The Musical. This little show, which had its beginnings in Melbourne in 2012, is currently on an Australia-wide tour, and if last night’s audience is any indication, it’s going to sell out wherever it appears.

Because the Night

By Matthew Luton, Kamarra Bell-Wykes & Ra Chapman. Malthouse Theatre. From 23 March 2021 and ongoing

Because the Night takes the story of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, removes all Shakespeare’s language, tweaks the story here and there, reduces the cast to six, changes a gender, relocates it to a 1980s timber town called ‘Elsinore’ where the timber workers and the very forest itself resist the old regime, and, boldest step of all, locates the production in an enclosed thirty-three room set through which the audience wanders at will, witnessing (but sometimes missing) the key confrontations of the drama.

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