Reviews

The Marvelous Wonderettes

Created by Roger Bean. Players Theatre, Ballina. Director and Musical. Director: Paul Belsham. Sept 8th – 24th, 2017

The Marvelous Wonderettes uses a compilation of songs from the 50’s and 60’s to tell the story of four college seniors who are asked to perform at their senior prom when the headline act cancels at short notice.

Act 1 sees them at the prom where we learn about their dreams and aspirations for the lives ahead of them. Act 2 finds the same four later at their ten year reunion.

Landscape with Monsters

CIRCA and Merrigong Theatre Company Co-Production. Created by Yaron Lifschitz and the Circa Ensemble. Canberra Theatre Centre, Canberra ACT. September 6 – 9, 2017

This is circus, but not how you expect it. No sparkly leotards or traditional trapeze acts here. Muted colours of grey, faded forest green, and denim blue complement the bare stage and projected art conveying a landscape in distress.

Three In The Bed

Book, Music, and Lyrics by Jonathon Holmes. Directed and Produced by Jonathan Holmes. King Street Theatre, Newtown. 1 – 9 September, 2017.

Fans of Group Sex rejoice! The genre that is musical theatre has now added your thing to its thing – and a very welcome thing your thing is. Just when I thought musicals were going to disappear into pretentious self-drear, along comes a show that wakes us up and reminds us that there will always be a need for Rocky Horror.

Assembly Operation

Speak Percussion. Arts House North Melbourne. September 5 – 9, 2017

This new work presented by Speak Percussion is a collaboration between composer/director Eugene Ughetti, performance maker Clare Britton and visual artists Cyrus Tang and Jia Jia Chen.

Three percussionists, Kaylie Melville, Matthias Schack-Arnott and Eugene Ughetti, draw us into the performance as they sit at a production line, totally focused on sliding, scrunching and tearing paper. This sounds banal, but the variation and rhythm created becomes hypnotic.

Angels in America Part 1: Millennium Approaches and Part 2: Perestroika

By Tony Kushner. Directed by Gary Abrahams. Produced by Cameron Lukey and presented by Cameron Lukey and Dirty Pretty Theatre in association with fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. 1 – 24 September 2017.

Angels in America is a tale on an epic scale and Kushner’s incredibly rich and profound text has a well-earned iconic position in the LGBTI political landscape. The challenges involved in staging this lengthy play, set in the US, are as monumental as the piece itself. The text explicitly and unapologetically addresses confronting issues such as the AIDS epidemic, the corrupt nature of politics, racism and homophobia. This production breathes life into the text and animates it with majesty.

Glorious!

By Peter Quilter. Christine Harris and HIT Productions. Riverside Theatre Parramatta. September 5 – 9, 2017, and touring.

Director Denny Lawrence and HIT’s production of Glorious hits all the high notes that Florence Foster Jenkins misses! It is slick – and as colourful as Foster Jenkins herself.

Who Wants to Be?

Mikey Weinkove. The Street Theatre, Canberra. 2 September 2017

On tour from the U.K., Mikey Weinkove is the originator of “Talkaoke”, a method of stimulating face-to-face conversation in the public spaces and thereby enriching democratic participation, which is the aim of Weinkove and his non-profit group The People Speak.

 

American Beauty Shop

By Dana Lynn Formby. Presented by Some Company and Oleg Pupovac in association with bakehouse. Directed by Anna McGrath. KX Theatre, Kings Cross Hotel, Kings Cross - 25 August – 16 September, 2017

Powerful characterisation is the strength of Some Company’s production of the Australian premiere of American Beauty Shop.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

usic and Lyrics by William Finn and Book by Rachel Sheinkin. Conceived by Rebecca Feldman. BAMS Theatre. Directed by Michael Skelton. Musical Direction by Christine Leah. Assistant Director and Choreography - Kaitlyn Carlton. Sep 1 – 23, 2017

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Beeis based on and original improvisational play called C-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E that was performed by ‘The Farm’, a New York based group.  It is basically a staged spelling bee for early secondary schools students who are desperately competitive and fraught with angst and ambition.  Outside America it was first staged in Australia by Melbourne Theatre Company in 2006.

Educating Rita

By Willy Russell. Hobart Repertory Theatre Society. Playhouse Theatre, Hobart. Director: Danni Ashton. 1 - 16 Sept. 2017

Educating Rita is a play which seems to come around every few years. It is a well-loved play known for the challenge which it presents to actors, a two-hander which requires enormous stamina and focus. In addition to talent, actors Anastasia Ward and Scott Burns display these qualities in abundance in the current Repertory Theatre production. Their performances are credible and engaging and one cannot help but be in awe of the virtuosity the roles demand.

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