Reviews

A Chorus Line

Conceived by Michael Bennett. Book by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante. Music by Marvin Hamlisch. Lyrics by Edward Kleban. Drew Anthony Creative. Directed by Drew Anthony. The Royale Theatre, Planet Royale, Northbridge, WA. Aug 3 - 20, 2023

Pulitzer winning musical A Chorus Line, presented by Drew Anthony Creative. is playing at Planet Royale, to enthusiastic, capacity audiences. Featuring a fabulous cast, this well-known musical about the lives of Broadway dancers, is heartfelt, with some excellent acting performances and fabulous dance.

Captain Moonlite

By Jye Bryant. Richmond Players. Richmond School of Arts, Corner March and West Market Streets, Richmond, NSW. Aug 5 – 26, 2023.

The historical ambience of the Richmond School of Arts aids in transporting the audience back to the tumultuous time of bushrangers, stirring imaginations and combining them with the anticipation of witnessing a new production. Steeped in history itself, it is a location perfectly suited to the spirit of Captain Moonlite, a new musical shedding light on one of Australia's most intriguing historical figures. 

Elvis: A Musical Revolution

Book: Sean Cercone and David Abbinanti. David Venn Enterprises. State Theatre, Sydney. Opening Night: August 5, 2023.

Elvis of course never really left the building; with Baz Luhrmann’s film and now the premiere of Elvis: A Musical Revolution he’s having yet another comeback.

With snatches of some 40 great hits from the King of Rock’n’Roll, this bio-musical wins from the start, but it’s much more than a juke box show with slots for songs.

Parade

Book by Alfred Uhry. Music & Lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. Co-conceived by Harold Prince. Soundworks Productions. Chapel off Chapel. 27 July – 6 August 2023

Parade, a multi-award-winning music theatre piece from 1998, begins in Marietta, Georgia at the time of the American Civil War.  A young Confederate soldier goes off to fight and die so that a tiny proportion of the southern states’ population can keep their plantations and their slaves.  Scene two, it’s 1913 and the Confederacy may have lost the war twenty-eight years ago, but in the face of overwhelming evidence, the folks in Atlanta refuse to believe it.  Sound familiar?  They’re about to celebrate with a Confederate Memorial Day Parade&hell

The Wasp

By Morgan Lloyd Malcolm. Crying Chair Theatre. Directed by Richard Cotter. The Hidden Theatre, New Town, Tas. 2nd to 6th August 2023

The Tarantula Hawk is a wasp with one of the most painful of all insect stings. When paralysed, the tarantula becomes a living food source to the wasp egg planted within its abdomen. This play by UK playwright Morgan Lloyd Malcolm is equally appalling and fascinating.

Sydney based performers Emma Dalton (Carla) and Mel Day (Heather) co-founded Crying Chair theatre in 2017. Their goal is to provide opportunities for artists, crew & creatives at all levels & create theatre that is meaningful, relevant & accessible through diverse stories and characters.

Top Girls

By Caryl Churchill. Ad Astra, Brisbane. 20 July to 12 August 2023

When Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls premiered at London’s Royal Court Theatre in 1982, the unsuspecting audience was unaware that Margaret Thatcher was only a fraction of her way through her long leadership term as Prime Minister of the UK. In her play, Churchill deals with the shifting social sands as well as the feminist implications of Thatcher’s tenure.

Medusa

By Keely Moloney (with Silvia Lehmann, Samuel Addison, Teresa Izzard, Lauren Beeton, Sally Clune and Tate Bennett. Directed by Teresa Izzard. The Rechabite Hall, Northbridge WA. August 3 – 6, 2023

Feet First Collective invite audiences into the Temple of Athena (a happening venue with the vibe of a nightclub) for their World Premiere production of Medusa. An interactive production that uses multiple levels of the Rechabite Hall, this is an interesting production with lots to offer.

I Said This to The Bird

By Mammad Aidani. La Mama Courthouse, Carlton. Aug 2 – 13, 2023.

A small gesture of feeding a little bird through an open window inspires a yearning for friendship and love for a lonely refugee man. I Said This to The Bird is written by Mammad Aidani (poet, philosopher, and writer in exile from his homeland in Iran), as he investigates the diasporic anxieties of four Iranian men (for this production, a woman performs one of the male roles) during the pandemic crisis in Melbourne.

Spamalot

Book and Lyrics by Eric Idle. Music by John Duprez and Eric Idle. Additional material Neil Innes. Spotlight Theatre Company, Gold Coast. Directed by Clay English. July 28 - August 26, 2023.

It’s a cliche and a misnomer to say “You don’t have to be a Monty Python fan to love Spamalot.”

Actually you do.

If you don’t know Python in all their wondrous absurdity, you’d be hard pressed to make sense of this send up of musical theatre, full of old over-worked gags, farting jokes, scenes with no apparent meaning, and only one memorable song - and that taken from an unconnected Python film (but everybody loves “Always look on the Bright Side of Life”).

Mr. Bailey’s Minder

By Debra Oswald. St. Jude’s Players, Brighton, SA. 3-13 August 2023

Leo Bailey is one of Australia's greatest living artists, but does his art forgive his abuse and neglect of his family and friends? It's a question frequently asked today when the awful secrets of our best artists are revealed, and we have to decide if we can still enjoy the art when we dislike the artist. In St. Jude's imagining of Debra Oswald's play, that's nothing compared to what the artist's family have to endure, and its themes of shame and forgiveness are no less relevant today.

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