Reviews

Originally produced and presented by Second Chance Theatre at the Blue Room, Black Swan State Theatre Company’s rendition of Playthings, featuring the same director and cast as the excellent original, allows this show to stretch and grow as well as exposing this expertly written, beautifully crafted show to a much wider audience.

CLOC Musical Theatre takes a very traditional approach to this iconic and fun-filled musical. The characterisations, music and costuming remain completely faithful to the original text. CLOC goes out of its way to ensure that the sense of grandeur and extravagance that characterises Priscilla is also faithfully reproduced. These extraordinary efforts result in an effervescent and vibrant performance.

One of the most powerful things about music is its ability to strike hard at your emotional core. It is a language without words, that inexplicably elicits feelings and sparks visualisations and memories. Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Pictures at an Exhibition could move even the hardest of hearts and most stoic of countenances.

It’s not often that the Australian premiere of a production is bigger than Broadway, but in the case of Fun Home that is exactly the case.

The chamber musical, which won the Tony for Best Musical in 2015, was originally produced in Broadway’s second smallest theatre – a 700-seater where there is a small open stage surrounded by the audience.

Having been fortunate enough to see the original in New York, I can report that Australian audiences will enjoy a much grander production of this musical.