Reviews

The Boy From Oz

Music & Lyrics: Peter Allen. Book: Nick Enright. Director & Choreographer: Rhylee Nowell. Musical Director: Alexandra Byrne. Presented by Theatrical & Andrew Gyopar. National Theatre, Melbourne. July 6-21, 2024.

Following the hugely successful season of The Sound of Music, Theatrical presents this true story about one of Australia's most beloved entertainers. If Peter Allen was alive today, he'd be around the same age as his close friends and musical contemporaries Bette Midler and Barry Manilow. Allen may have left this world over three decades ago, but his influence and impact continue to resonate through the enduring popularity of his extensive repertoire of songs.

Famished Future Feeders

Written by Jules Broun. Co-Directed by Lisa O’Neill and Anatoly Frusin. Presented by Metro Arts and Robert The Cat. New Benner Theatre, 4 – 13 July, 2024

Set against the backdrop of a dystopian future, Famished Future Feeders presents a haunting yet humorous vision of humanity's potential trajectory. The clever script by Jules Broun unfolds in a bafflingly backward yet ultra-advanced near-future where global famine, energy, and environmental crises have been resolved. The only problem is that it comes at the exorbitant cost of limited freedom, draconian punishments and cannibalism.

Top Girls

By Caryl Churchill. Graduate Dramatic Society. Directed by Virginia Moore-Price. Stirling Theatre, Morris Place, Innaloo. Jul 5-21, 2024

Graduate Dramatic Society’s (GRADS) production of Top Girls has been garnering a lot of attention, attracting very healthy houses during its opening weekend at Stirling Theatre. Written by a well-respected author, directed by the award-winning Virginia Moore-Price, and featuring a cast with some stellar actresses, this production should be a safe bet.

Tina – The Tina Turner Musical

Book by Katori Hall, with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins. Music – various. Original Director Phyllida Lloyd. TEG Dainty. Lyric Theatre QPAC. Opening night: July 5, 2024. Princess Theatre, Melbourne from September 24.

Jukebox musicals are a strange creature - they either work or they are a disaster. TINA – The Tina Turner Musical, takes the former and elevates it to a Supernova which makes the sun pale by comparison. I’m going to resist the trap of saying it’s S#m**y T*e B+^t …because every reviewer and his computer literate dog has used that song title – but the fact is it is all that and more.

Dalia Stasevska Conducts Sibelius’ 5th

Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House. July 5, 2024

The call of birds and contemplations of nature sweep throughout this beautiful SSO concert of three evocative Finnish compositions, ending with the oldest, Symphony No.5 by Finland’s greatest composer, Jean Sibelius. 

Cut The Sky

Marrugeku. Bay 20, Carriageworks. July 4 – 13, 2024

Climate change raises so many immense and challenging global complexities, that a physical theatre company is naturally overstretched in offering a meaningful perspective in barely an hour.

Marrugeku is well placed to give it a go, as an innovative yet decades-old company of Indigenous and non-Indigenous players, with one foot in Broome WA and another in Sydney. 

Prima Facie

By Suzie Miller. Black Swan State Theatre Company of WA. Directed by Kate Champion. The Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of WA. July 1-21, 2024

Following hot on the heels of the highly successful one-woman-play RGB: Of Many One, Prima Facie is another one-person show, from the same author, and is similarly stunning and expertly performed.

Vanguard

Australian String Quartet. Elder Hall, North Tce Adelaide. July 5, 2024

What better way could there be to warm your heart and soul than 120 minutes of the Australian String Quartet in their latest production, Vanguard!

Entertaining people from all over the world since 1985, the Australian String Quartet have been dedicated to musical excellence based in their home at the University of Adelaide’s Elder Conservatorium of Music.

To celebrate their almost 40 years of entertainment, they present an evening of contrasting composers and styles; Beethoven, Harry Sdraulig and Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

sixbythree

A festival of six dance works by three choreographers. FORM Dance Projects. Riverside Theatres Parramatta. 6-7 July, 2024

Image above from Epilogue. Photo by Yo.

sixbythree brings the rare opportunity to see how three different choreographers interpret the world in contemporary dance. Serious issues, unusual imaginings, personal reactions are told in dance stories that are contained and controlled in movement and rhythm and time. Five of the six performances are described below.

Photographer: Anne Moffatt.

Let’s Murder Marsha

By Monk Ferris. Directed by David Walpole Sinnamon. Townsville Little Theatre. Denise Glasgow Performing Arts Centre, Pimlico State High School, Townsville. 3 – 6 July 2024.

THE PLAYING of farce is a difficult thing – many community theatre companies think it is an easy programme choice. It is anything but. 

Farce requires much precision and the director needs to be aware of – amongst other things - the requisite physical comedy, comic timing and discipline. The actors need to create strong characterisations and be able to perform in a credible larger-than-life way as the absurdities of the plot unfold.

And to do this it can be boiled down to what I term the “ABCDEF” (or alphabet) of farce:-

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