Reviews

Letters To The Editor

Presented by Changing Jennifers. Adelaide Fringe. The Bally at Gluttony. 15th - 20th March, 2022

Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is a form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted - created spontaneously by the performers. In the case of the tightly performed 60 minutes of Letters To The Editor, the audience, using a random ‘marker pen voting model’ (possibly useful for the slew of upcoming elections across the country), choose a letter from the day’s local paper. In our case the theme and heading was, ‘Truth Telling’ done with a political flavour.

42nd Street

Music by Harry Warren. Lyrics by Al Dubin. Book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble. Gosford Musical Society. Director: Chip Gracia. Musical Director: Lindsay Kaul. Choreographer: Darren Disney. Laycock Street Theatre, Wyoming. 4 to 19 March 2022.

Gosford Musical Society is back. The iconic Central Coast institution has staged its first production since 2020 with the classic and beloved 42nd Street, and it does not disappoint.

42nd Street tells the story of Peggy Sawyer, a talented young performer with stars in her eyes who gets her big break on Broadway, through elaborate musical numbers with a full dance troupe and exceptional singers. 

Studio Sessions

Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO). QSO Studio, Brisbane. 13 March 2022

We were lucky to see the QSO perform in their studio for the first time in 2022 – given that their instruments were stuck in a storage room and couldn't be accessed due to the recent flooding in Brisbane. So, the musicians had to beg, borrow and steal replacements and fast-track their rehearsal time to only one week! That did not alter the top notch musicianship on display in the intimate space of the studio in the ABC's building on South Bank – which rises up an incline just enough to have missed the damage caused by the rising river.

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Written by Stephan Elliot and Allan Scott. Redcliffe Musical Theatre. Directed by Madeleine Johns and Taylah McLennan. Entertainment Centre, Redcliffe. 16 – 20 March, Ipswich 6 – 8 April, 2022

After lengthy delays because of Covid, this production hit the stage with great gusto, costumes and hair pieces, good choreography, singing and acting. It tells the story of two drag queens and a trans woman who contract to perform a drag show at a resort in Alice Springs. As everyone can imagine, their journey in their bus named Priscilla does not go to plan. The people that they meet in the country are so different from the more sophisticated city dwellers and add challenges and humour to their journey.

Brothers

By Kerry Drumm. Adelaide Fringe. Little Red Fox Productions. Bakehouse Theatre. 15-19 March 2022

On a large graffiti wall that punches out from the otherwise simple set, coarse one-word insults and tribal sports team tributes dominate a more poignant scrawl: ‘I adored you. You left me behind’.  It’s one of the recurring themes of Brothers, a new play by Kerry Drumm, premiering here at the Adelaide Fringe, before touring to its Edinburgh older sibling.

Norm and Ahmed

By Alex Buzo. Adelaide Fringe, Joh Hartog Productions. Bakehouse Theatre. 14-19 March 2022

‘Got a light?’ says a man at the bus stop to another walking by. The two could not be more different: the smoker is brash, street-smart, a Sydney ‘local’; the other is well-spoken, intelligent, and from Pakistan.

Snapshots From Home

Play with songs by Margery Forde. Villanova Players. Director: Maria Plumb. Musical Director: Rosemary Murray. Choreographer: Lynette Wockner. Ron Hurley Theatre, Seven Hill, Qld. 5 to 20 March 2022

Margery Forde’s Snapshots From Home calls for an ensemble cast who can sing. It’s ideal for community theatre and Villanova Players’ production, their second, captured the spirit, the fun, and the heartbreak of those stuck at home during the Second World War.

Originally a Prime of Life Arts Project, Forde culled through over six-hundred pages of oral history from 24 men and women from Queensland to extract a memoir theatre-piece. A mammoth achievement but one that saw her rewarded with a Writers’ Guild Awgie in 1996.

60 Four: In Concert

Adelaide Fringe Festival. Norwood Concert Hall plus 8 other statewide venues. March 11th to April 9th, 2022

One hundred and forty five minutes are simply not enough! I confess to seeing these exciting young performers in 2020, and at that time, their showmanship and finely honed harmonies were wonderful. How could this be made even better? By adding a spectacular nine-piece backing band (for all performances, except for those in Kangaroo Island and Victor Harbor), this already sensational group delivers a Las Vegas-worthy performance, jam packed with Rat-pack glamour and Jersey Boys style allure, performance and charisma.

Romeo and Juliet

By William Shakespeare. Graduate Dramatic Society. Directed by Sarah Guillot. The New Fortune Theatre, University of Western Australia, Nedlands, WA. March 9-19, 2022

Graduate Dramatic Society’s 2022 Shakespeare production is Romeo and Juliet, a modern dress production that uses the New Fortune Theatre’s entire space in an energetic, emotive presentation.

Admissions

By Joshua Harmon. Melbourne Theatre Company, Southbank, The Sumner. 6 March – 9 April 2022

Joshua Harmon’s plays are ‘confronting’, or ‘provocative’ as we saw with his previous Bad Jews.  Director Gary Abrahams reminds us of that in his excellent program notes.  Admissions may make you squirm, get antsy, or, at best, feel uncomfortable – even while laughing.  It’s a play about the racism that white folks don’t even know they have – and the ‘white privilege’ that, really, they’d rather not give up.  It’s an American play, but its general line of attack – and at

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