Reviews

Diamonds are for Trevor: 80th Birthday Edition.

Performed by Trevor Ashley. Hamer Hall, Melbourne Arts Centre. 18 May 2017.

Trevor Ashley (Hairspray and Priscilla) has created a magnificent show that celebrates the career and life of Dame Shirley Bassey. His tribute to the iconic Welsh singer goes well beyond impersonation. Ashley inhabits the persona, and her power and flamboyance are remembered with great irony and humour.

Footloose

By Dean Pitchford and Walter Bobbie, based on the screenplay by Dean Pitchford. Music by Tom Snow (and others), lyrics by Dean Pitchford. MLOC. Director/Choreographer: Leah Osburn. Musical Director: Malcolm Huddle. Shirley Burke Theatre, Parkdale. May 19 – 27, 2017

I have not encountered Footloose before, but thoroughly enjoyed this MLOC production. Though the premise is a bit corny, the strength of the acting drew me in.

This was a colourful, high energy show with a large cast. There was a steel structure at the back for elevation, and different parts of the set were wheeled on and off swiftly to keep the action moving.

 

 

Miss Saigon

Music: Claude-Michel Schönberg. Lyrics: Alain Boublil & Richard Maltby Jnr. Stray Cats Theatre. Directed by Karen Francis. Mandurah Performing Arts Centre, WA. 18-21 May, 2017

The West Australian Community Theatre Premiere of Miss Saigon was a beautifully presented production by Stray Cats Theatre.

This large cast show was strongly sung, with the 50+ cast members well led by Vocal Director Kristie Gray. Musical Director David Hicks guided a tight thirteen-piece orchestra.

Two Brothers

By Hannie Rayson. Red Phoenix Theatre (SA). Holden Street Theatres. May 18-27, 2017.

In a world where schools in some countries are removing the Arts from the curriculum, Two Brothers by Hannie Rayson epitomises the reason why this is so wrong.

Theatre like this, that educates, builds vital emotional intelligence and helps generate political understanding is paramount, so that we question why things are as they are, how we feel about issues and where our moral compass points are, rather than follow blindly.

King Roger

By Karol Szymanowski and Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz. Opera Australia. Director: Kasper Holten. Conductor: Andrea Molino. Choreographer: Cathy Marston. Arts Centre Melbourne. May 17 – 27, 2017.

King Roger is a Polish opera about the 12th Century Sicilian King, Roger II, but in reality is a psychological drama of a man’s inner conflict between Christian restraint and pagan pleasure. This co-production with Covent Garden and Dallas Opera featured an eight metre high head, which revolved in the second act to become Roger’s three-tiered home, or a metaphor for what was happening in his mind.

It was totally engaging and enthusiastically received by the capacity opening night audience.

Sweeney Todd

Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by Hugh Wheeler. Director: J.J. Geelen. Musical Director: Derek Walter. The South Coast Choral and Arts Society (SA). Victor Harbor Town Hall. 12-28 May, 2017.

With a superb Phantom-style cathedral organ setting the scene (courtesy of keyboardist Jenny Boag), the talented and always-resourceful team at SCCAS have brought us the ghoulish tale of a vengeful barber on a bloody mission – but those expecting a headlong plunge into Grand Guignol may be surprised.

Minnie & Liraz

By Lally Katz. Melbourne Theatre Company. Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio. 12 May – 24 June 2017.

At the Autumn Road Retirement Village, Minnie Cohen (Nancye Hayes), bridge player extraordinaire, nearly ninety, is perplexed by the sudden, mysterious death of her bridge partner.  She also worries about her unmarried thirty-eight-year old granddaughter and guilty about the son who never contacts her from the other side of the world – all as she continues her lifelong preparation for widowhood.  Her husband Morris (Rhys McConnochie), deaf and grumpy, has two aims left: to be with Minnie and to outlive her – because what would she do without him? 

The Magnolia Tree

By Michael Griffith. Directed by Sara Grenfell. La Mama Theatre, Carlton VIC. 17-28 May 2017

Unashamedly a provocative ‘play for discussion’ – at the end of which the audience is asked to vote on the characters’ choices - The Magnolia Tree is no dry, academic exercise.  It dramatizes a situation – and a moral dilemma – particularly pertinent and pressing for Baby Boomers and an increasing number of Gen Xers. 

1984

By George Orwell. New adaptation created by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan. Ambassador Theatre Group, GWB Entertainment & State Theatre Company South Australia present the Headlong, Nottingham Playhouse & Almeida Theatre production. Touring Australia from May to August 2017.

What is reality? How much of our perceptions and beliefs are created or changed by insidious or even overt external influences? Can ‘alternative’ facts trump actual facts? How easily can the identity of individuals and societies be destroyed by power, propaganda and menacing officialdom?

These questions are contemporary, yet the themes defy time, demonstrated by George Orwell’s 1949 dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-four, which is equally as well-known as his other famous work, Animal Farm.

Bring It On: The Musical

Libretto by Jeff Whitty. Music by Tom Kitt & Lin-Manuel Miranda. Lyrics by Amanda Green & Lin-Manuel Miranda. Pelican Productions. Norwood Concert Hall. 12 May-21 May, 2017.

How do you fill an upbeat, lightweight, frothy musical entertainment – one that is hampered by pedestrian plotting and an uneven score - with both tension and spectacle, so that it emerges a winner? By making the show about cheerleading, that most intellectually meaningless yet physically undeniable American institution.

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