Reviews

Malanda Theatre Company's production of Cosi is about as professional a performance as you could get. Set in a 1970s Melbourne mental asylum, the play revolves around Lewis, a young inexperienced theatre director. Lewis is given the job of directing a motley band of inmates in Mozart's opera Cosi Fan Tutte. The comedy has crazy moments as well as some very serious ones. Issues like the Vietnam War and relationships play a big part in some of the character interactions.

The multi-talented Dirty Diana performs her new comedy show at this year’s Melbourne Comedy Festival, currently running until the 21 of April at the Storyville Cocktail Bar, in the CBD.

Dirty Diana pumps the crowd with ‘high fiver’ fever, bursts onto the stage heralding all the way from Springvale and reminds us that her story comes in three phases. Diana Nguyen weaves titular story-telling with a refreshing energetic flair that connects homegrown family dramas with perpetual boyfriend problems.

It is a rare occasion that Perth sees a large scale World Premiere musical. Mimma, a musical of war and friendship, is a lavish professional production with beautiful production values, making its debut at The Regal Theatre.

Leonard Bernstein's modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet, complete with tragedy following the blossoming of forbidden love, is a compelling piece of theatre. Set in the Upper West Side of 1950s New York, the rival families are now two gangs - the Jets (first generation American-born from Polish immigrant parents) and the Sharks (Puerto Rican immigrants who are seen as invading interlopers) - although the boys clearly see their gangs as two very real families, with the unquestioning loyalty blood demands.