Reviews

Penrith Musical Comedy Company’s Australian Premiere production of the Dolly Parton / Patricia Resnick musical 9 to 5, based on the 1980 movie, was a thoroughly entertaining evening at the theatre.

This fresh new musical to the amateur theatre scene was a joy to watch, with a laugh a minute script, performed by a large cast of 30 with an exceptional leading trio of women. Taking on the bright new musical was the talented team of Grant Jones as Director, Kieran Norman and Michael Nolan, Musical Directors, and the highly experienced Laurie Tancred as Choreographer.

Terence Rattigan’s Ross is a ‘dramatic portrait’ of T. E. Lawrence, aka Lawrence of Arabia, one of the most enigmatic and charismatic characters of the twentieth century. The most famous ‘dramatic portrait’ of Lawrence is possibly David Lean’s extraordinary 1962 masterpiece film Lawrence of Arabia. Pre-dating Lean’s film by a couple of years, Rattigan’s Ross was first produced in London in 1960 with Alec Guinness as Lawrence.

Metanoia Theatre brings Ned Kelly My Love to the stage of the Mechanics Institute in Brunswick. This marvelous show is based on the previously untold love story between Ned Kelly and Ettie Hart, the sister of one of the Kelly gang, Steve Hart. In 2010 Ettie’s great-great-grandson Paul O’Keefe found her scrapbook at the family home in Sydney.

In 1988 David Mamet really let rip with this savage satire on the greedy gatekeepers of Hollywood and all their banal, money-making formulas.

These Hollywood gladiators attack with the same spitfire language and obscenities as those real estate salesmen who tear each other apart in Glengarry Glen Ross, Mamet’s other classic of the time. A Hollywood player himself, Mamet today is a touch more benign about the place.