Reviews

It is a good sign when you do not want a performance to end. I experienced this feeling at Adelaide Youth Theatre’s production of High School Musical Jnr on Friday night. A talented bunch of performers were split into two casts and I was fortunate enough to witness the talents of the red cast.

From the opening number there was an explosion of vibrant energy. Director Thomas Phillips has found his niche if this show is anything to go by. Phillips and assistant director Matthew Monti’s direction was flawless.

Brisbane Immersive Ensemble present an evening that’s more of an experience than a show. Forget sitting passively in the audience as a voyeur. This production invites everyone to dress up in 1930s costumes and become immersed in the narrative.

A brilliant production!

10 years ago Les Mis was given a re-tread, with the theatrical equivalent of botox, facelift, and tummy tuck. Twenty minutes were cut from the original run time, pictures added to the backdrop, more sets, more props, fancier effects, less barricade, more moving around on stage by everybody. This souped-up version was designed to appeal to a generation brought up on Marvel movies and the Fast & Furious franchise. This was the version that played in the Australian pro-revival from 2015 – 2017.

A man, known only in the text as the ‘Client’ (Rob Meldrum) goes for a walk…  No, he asserts he is walking with a purpose, to a destination, from one place to another, without interest in what lies between.  Or, his protestations to the contrary, does his walk have perhaps an entirely different but unadmitted purpose?  Somewhere in a city’s dusk, in a lonely place, he encounters the ‘Dealer ‘(Tom Dent), who offers to supply whatever it is the Client wants…  The Client claims the Dealer has nothing that he could want or need.&nb