Reviews

Nautanki Theatre continues its double aim: sharing the history and legends of India with a larger audience, as well as sustaining a strong sense of heritage for those of Indian descent. This play, however, also raises issues that are more universal – and certainly very relevant today - issues of people who feel displaced or unsafe in their own society and people who feel the need to flee religious, political or social persecution.

The much maligned musical version of Carrie plays surprisingly better than its spotty performance record has led us to believe. An infamous flop in the UK and New York in 1988, the show based on Stephen King’s Gothic horror novel was heavily revised for a successful Off-Broadway production in 2012. It’s this version of the script and score that Wax Lyrical has chosen to launch their company and the musical’s first Brisbane Season.

Tomorrow’s Parties is not an easy show. Not easy to perform and not exactly easy to watch either.

That’s because it’s anything but conventional theatre: it’s a performance that isn’t very physical and doesn’t really progress in any substantial way. It’s two people speaking, in turn, about ideas of the future, often insightful and profound, but when it comes down to it, for a very long time.

There’s much to love in Ladies in Black; for a start it’s a genuine home grown musical with all the traditions of Musical Theatre, and that makes it as scarce as hen’s teeth. Based on Madeleine St John’s novel “The Women in Black”, this show proves that lightweight doesn’t have to be a derogatory term….in this case it helps the show to fly and feel good throughout.