Reviews

June (Caroline Lee) has been silent for over a year.  Now she has decided to speak – to us, the audience.  She asks us to understand.  By the end of the play, we will.  June is an ‘ordinary woman’, middle-aged, in frumpy clothes, hair pulled back in a ponytail.  Married, two children.  Now an isolate who chose silence. 

Salieri is extremely displeased with God.  In fact, he’s furious.  God has not honoured their pact.  Salieri had vowed to serve God all the days of his life in exchange for becoming a famous musician.  Although for some years God had seemed to be fulfilling his side of the bargain, Salieri having been elevated to the esteemed role of Austrian Court Composer with his reputation growing and glowing, God suddenly turned on him by delivering into the world true musical genius in the form of the unutterably unbearable upstart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

This deliciously macabre story from the Victorian gutters of London has been savoured for two centuries.  As a kid I once thought it was true.

From penny dreadful to melodramas, to Christopher Bond’s 1970s play adding a back story of the cruel injustice suffered by the demon barber, to Stephen Sondheim’s musical thriller, the truth of this story lies in the grim and inhumane poverty of those times.

Currently touring Australia, Frankie’s Guys, a London based group and a winner of London’s Best Tribute, the world’s number-one celebration of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons group, is making its Australian premiere. This ensemble of 10 multi-talented performers switches cast members in and out, and whilst different audiences may see different casts, all have impressive theatre credentials internationally, so a ‘Four Seasons’ sound is assured.