Reviews

It’s a heady feeling to be at the World Premiere of a new musical - an Australian musical at that. The excitement in the foyer was palpable, and I was amongst the most excited. We theatre lovers and Musical Theatre Tragics all want to see a smash hit created here, but perhaps our expectations are too high, and our patience is wearing thin. However, even the most generous of theatre-goers may have been a little disappointed at the end result of CROSSxROADS after nearly four years in development.

On 6 December 1938, some weeks after Kristallnacht in Germany and Austria, 78-year-old William Cooper led a delegation in Melbourne to the German Consulate. They presented a petition protesting at ‘the cruel persecution of the Jewish people by the Nazi government of Germany’. The consulate did not accept the petition. William Cooper was an Aboriginal man – a Yorta Yorta man – and his petition was on behalf of the Australian Aboriginal League, which he had founded.

Director Imara Savage has given Hay Fever all the panache that was Noël Coward. Fast and witty, colourful and provocative, it is the kind of production ‘The Master’ would relish were he alive today.

For ten years Alex Lykos has been putting his own plays onto the stage in Sydney's inner-west under the umbrella of his aptly named Bulldog Theatre Company. He has displayed bulldog-like determination to present his own works, which are often flavoured by his experience as a Greek Australian, but not in the league of success of Wogs Out of Work.

Australia's Game the Musical is good multi-cultural fodder. It’s set in a soccer team and charts the relationship between the Superstar, his coach (Alex Lykos) and an up-and-comer Tom.