Reviews

Swipe Right is billed as a “Musical…Almost” and, indeed, it is, with the music being the backbone of this fresh, funny new show. Maddi Byrne’s solo show is also very clever standup comedy, which had its audiences laughing heartily throughout.

Amazing Grace returns after its premiere in 2018 with a brand-new show that includes a line-up of over forty calisthenic and musical performers as well as live music by the Amazing Grace orchestra. The selection of numbers is impeccable as is the quality of the performance. The show adopts a Busby Berkeley approach to the choreography which is married perfectly with the calisthenics. 

Robert Louis Stevenson’s macabre novella about a dual personality, one good, one evil, was first published in early 1886. A year later the first adaptation for the stage opened in Boston. Many adaptations have followed, both on stage and screen. This adaptation by American playwright Noah Smith is a chilling science fiction thriller that demands meticulous direction, precision acting and accurate, split-second sound and lighting operation.

I HAD not seen any productions of this 20-year old jukebox musical before this, but I can see exactly why it has lasted the distance to become the ninth longest-running show in Broadway history.

We live in such uncertain political times and, coupled with a country that is still reeling from the effects of the bushfires and a hesitant first anniversary of Townsville’s floods, Mamma Mia! provided the perfect recipe on a warm and humid tropical night in North Queensland.