Reviews

Grease

Book, Music & Lyrics by Jim Jacobs & Warren Casey. Toowoomba Philharmonic Society. Director/Vocal Coach: Cherie Vera. Musical Director: Joe Goodman. Choreographer: Daniel Erbacher. Empire Theatre, Toowoomba, Qld 23-25 Sep 2016

Daniel Erbacher’s choreography was the star of this production. The first act finale “We Go Together” had the entire company of 36 dancing in synchronisation and it was euphoric with the energy levels off the charts. Every musical number was enhanced by Erbacher’s movement, which captured the 1950’s era to perfection, as did the wailing tenor saxes in Joe Goodman’s pit band, and Emma-Jane Apsey’s leather jackets, bobby-sox and pedal pusher costumes.

She Stoops to Conquer

By Oliver Goldsmith. Canberra Repertory. Directed by Tony Turner. Theatre 3, Acton, Canberra. 22 September – 8 October 2016

Goldsmith’s classic comedy, commissioned to revive a dying genre and completed in 1771, takes a couple of love matches and throws in their path obstacles arising chiefly from the human need to be sure of the suitor’s suitability.  In this universality of motives, it translates successfully as comedy for modern audiences.  Relying less on linguistic cleverness than on straightforward deceits of universal application, the tale leads seemingly inexorably to disaster and disownment before resolving with a satisfying twist.

Deckchairs

By Jean McConnell. Ipswich Little Theatre. Directors: Ann Collyer, Aaron Evans, Chris Austin-Greenhill. Incinerator Theatre, Ipswich, Qld. 21 Sep – 8 Oct 2016

These days, one-act plays are the domain of community theatre with most companies programming a season of them each year. Ipswich Little Theatre’s 2016 offering took three stories from British playwright Jean McConnell’s Deckchairs series of 16 one-act duologues for women.

Not Another Indie Cabaret

Written & performed by Jessamae St James. Directed by Steven Gates. The Butterfly Club, Melbourne CBD. 20-25 September 2016

Jessamae St James, in a spangled frock and platforms, plays piano, kazoo, electric ukulele and some kind of weird electric keyboard on her knees.  She claims that she cannot play any of these instruments very well – but, hey, it’s cabaret – right?  - and a kind of rambling, confessional address is integral.  She also uses an electronic ‘effects station’ to make loops of her own voice.

Three Blind Mice

Isabella Yena, Ruby Johnston and Benjamin Nichol. Victorian College of the Arts. 28 Dodds Street. Production Coordinator David Harrod. Audio Designer Sidney Millar. Set Designer Joseph Noonan. 22- 25 September, 2016

Shaz (Ruby Johnston) suffers from agoraphobia, the fear of open or public places, and hasn’t left her house in five years. Her contact with the outside world is limited to what she sees on television, what is expounded by politically domineering neighbour Lorraine (Izabella Yena), and delivered by the worldly and desirable postie Johnno (Benjamin Nichol).

A Dingo Ate My Baby / Small Brown Supporting Role

By Louisa Wall / Nisha Joseph & Tenielle Thompson. Victorian College of the Arts. 28 Dodds Street. Production Coordinator David Harrod. Set and Costume Design Christiana Garvie. 22-25 September, 2016

This distinctly contrasting double-bill staged as part of Frisk, a festival of new performance works cocooned within Melbourne’s Fringe Festival, showcases some of the emerging talent of the VCA.

Young Frankenstein

Music and Lyrics: Mel Brooks, Book by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan. Miranda Musical Society. Co-Directors and Co-Choreographers: Lolly Butler and Gavin Leahy, recreating the original direction and choreography of Susan Stroman. Sutherland Entertainment Centre. September 21 – 25, 2016.

Miranda’s Young Frankenstein is as spectacular as it is fun. The cast gets all the vaudeville, innuendo, double entendre, single entendre, and slapstick (or should that be schlappshtick?) absolutely right.

The Record

600 Highwaymen. Created and Directed by Abigail Browde and Michael Silverstone. OzAsia Festival. Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre. 21-24 September, 2016.

An ordinary girl in a private school uniform takes the stage. A cellist sits off to the side, ready to play, but he waits in silence – as do we, for a long, long time – while the girl poses inscrutably – and very slowly…as the tension threatens to morph into irritation.

The Paris Underground Cabaret

Aleksandar Vass and Vass Productions present a Madotti & Vegas production of Paris Underground. Alex Theatre St Kilda. Sept 21-24 2016

The Paris Underground Cabaret returns to Melbourne and the opening of the new season went off with quite a bang, I expected nothing less and received more, expectations exceeded. Treated to a feast of sophisticated performances, we had a taste of magic, circus, song, dance, burlesque, and if all this is not enough to satisfy, there was clever comedy to carry us gracefully through the show.  All this packaged into a seductive cabaret, a visual sensation that delighted the eye accompanied by the pleasure of French singing and music to be relished throughout.

The Great Gatsby

By F. Scott Fitzgerald, adapted by Simon Levy. Epicentre Theatre Company. Ku-ring-gai Town Hall. September 16 – October 8, 2016

Like the novel itself, this adaptation by Simon Levy relies heavily on the character of Nick Carraway to carry the story and connect the many scenes. It is basically true to the novel, moving between East and West Egg and The Valley of the Ashes in a host of small, filmic scenes that are probably more suited to a much larger stage.

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