Reviews

The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts’ production of Legally Blonde is their biggest production of the year. For many years, the combined Second and Third-Year Musical Theatre Students show has been held in an outside venue. Now back on campus, it is perhaps not surprising that this sold out quickly, but it is worthy of the excitement and buzz that surrounds this show.

It’s never easy directing – or acting in – a play based on a television series, especially when the characters are so well-known and quirky, and the play requires two sets used alternatively scene after scene! It works in film, but it’s darn hard in live theatre, especially when one character is required to move between scenes constantly!

Prima Facie is an epic solo performer experience that is akin to climbing Mount Everest and back again. It is a story in two sections, narrated in amazingly fast paced, first-person present tense by Tessa Ensler, an ambitious barrister in her early 30s who has risen from a Luton council estate via Cambridge to an up-market London practice.

It was a success in the West End and on Broadway, won multiple awards, and has alerted the legal profession to address the issues raised by the story.

Starkids Musicals very much have a cult following, with a good proportion of each audience established fans who already know the show well, and anticipate each moment, occasionally preempting punchlines. All of this Can be a little disconcerting for the “average theatre goer” who may wonder what they are missing. Thankfully, The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals is well directed, staged and performed, so even if you feel you are missing something, there is some good singing to enjoy.