Reviews

It's not every day that you see a small scale local musical and come out thinking that not even Broadway could do this any better. Eclipsed by the musical Hamilton on Broadway, this little-known stage show by actor/musician Steve Martin & singer Edie Brickell is finally getting to 'shine bright' thanks to companies like Pursued By Bear. Inspired by a real event, Bright Star tells a tale of love and redemption set against the rich backdrop of the American South in the 1920's and '40's.

Kinky Boots! The title tells the tale! This Gold Coast production of the Fierstein/Lauper Broadway hit was a winner with the audience from the start. Lola and her Angels strutted their stuff to the delight of the full house. Many of the audience were so taken in by these guys that they couldn’t believe that they were not real Drag Queens but mere community theatre devotees!

Here is a boisterous, fast, romantic, ad-libbing, slapstick-funny production of Shakespeare’s malleable play.  Like all great comedies, there is more to it than comedy.  Director Nicholas Hytner freely admits the ‘influence’ of Peter Brook’s famous production of the Dream he saw in 1970, and the much more recent A Handmaid’s Tale - the first in irreverent  style, the second in sexual politics - and reflected in Christina Cunningham’s austere costumes.  Mr Hytner strips out the seats from the very adaptable Bridge Thea

This sketch comedy show has both whimsical and existential qualities. Gerry (Belinda Campbell) and Frankie (Jennifer Piper) are two close friends who are perpetually trapped by their own indecision, fuelled by fear and anxiety. Their limbo existence on a railway platform, aptly named Panic station, is interjected with comedy sketches that parody elements of society that are merely trying to mask the crippling realities that some people must endure, which can lead to mental ill-health.