Reviews

The Wizard of Oz – a Pantomime.

By John Morley. Director: Barb Wainwright. Musical Director and Song Writer: John Da Cruz. Mousetrap Theatre, Redcliffe. January 7 –16, 2022.

Naturally, when you go to a show with this title you immediately remember the film of that name, a film that still appears regularly on our television screens. Well, this pantomime has some connections with the action centred on Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion as they travel from Munchkinland on the yellow brick road to the land of Oz. The good and wicked witches are essential but the path they take is far more complex and crowded. This was an interesting version which kept the audience absorbed by, and sometimes vocally reactive to, what they were viewing.

Girl From The North Country

Book by Conor McPherson. Songs by Bob Dylan. Sydney Festival. Theatre Royal, Sydney. Opening Night: January 8, 2022.

1934. The Great Depression. Duluth, Minesotta, northern regional USA.

A bleak boarding house raises its spirits for one last Thanksgiving, as foreclosure and dispossession loom.

Certainly not escapist fare for the times if that’s what you’re looking for, but for a couple of years now I’ve been attracted to the idea of a musical theatre score drawn from the songs of Bob Dylan, part of the soundtrack of my youth. It made such sense to me, if done right.

Decadance

By Ohad Naharin. Sydney Dance Company. Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. January 6 – 9, 2022.

Stage Whispers invites me to cover the opening night show at the Sydney Festival 2022. I say ‘sure thing’, and turn up at the Opera House’s Drama Theatre ready to go. It’s at the very heart of the Covid Omicron epidemic, with masks, close contacts and tests at every turn.

360 Allstars

Playhouse, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), Brisbane. 5 to 16 January 2021

360 Allstars hits the Playhouse at the right time to provide perfect for-all-the-family entertainment to break up the school holidays. This is a nifty showcase of what could be considered traditional circus skills that involve the 360 degrees circle of the group's title – juggling, spinning, aerobatics, acro dance, balancing – as well as good old-fashioned buffoonery. At exactly an hour long, it's just the thing to keep easily distracted children and teens enthralled and parents entertained too.

Jersey Boys

Music and lyrics by Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe. Book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, Directed by Thomas Armstrong-Robley. Produced by Robert Clark and Shane Rushbrook – for Legend House International. Star Casino Gold Coast. Jan 6th-16th, 2022

Broadway, The West End, The Gold Coast - that’s not a combination you’ll see mentioned very often. The GC is a great holiday destination, but it’s not noted as a cultural Mecca and locals (there are more than 600,000 of us) either have to travel for an hour to Brisbane – where the train stops right outside QPAC – or rely on the many enthusiastic Community Theatre productions locally.

The Pulse

By Gravity & Other Myths. Sydney Festival. Roslyn Packer Theatre, Sydney. Jan 6 – 9, 2022.

Pulses did not race as the show got underway at the Roslyn Packer Theatre. On a big screen, after a filmed ‘Welcome to Country’, came Margaret Beazley, the Governor of New South Wales, smiling sweetly; then a Liberal gent who spoke for far too long about the ‘incredible excitement of the program’ to loud groans and intensifying mock applause; then a colourful Clover Moore in big close-up; finally Olivia Ansell, director of the Sydney Festival, looking a bit lost. Thank God that’s over.

Death and the Discotheque

By Jessi Lewis. Butterfly Club, Melbourne. Jan 5 – 8, 2022

“Grief is a strong and overwhelming emotion for people; it is a natural reaction to loss.” Definition.

Jessi Lewis, reckless performance artist and writer, has created a hauntingly stunning piece of work in an aptly timed Covid pandemic. Death And the Discotheque is a vivid reflection of life in Lewis’s twenties. Now in their thirties, it felt it an opportune time to air tthat morbid drug fuelled world, marked by many dearly departed friends and loved ones.

La Bohème

Composed by Giacomo Puccini. Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Opera Australia. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Jan 4 - Feb 4, 2022.

I almost felt like giving the cast a round of applause as soon as the curtained opened, for the herculean achievement of making it to the stage.

Covid-19 has paused rehearsals and performances in Sydney and performing arts productions with large casts have been particularly vulnerable. Gaps in the audience were noticeable and the odd cough made me a little nervous.

But by and large for the vaccinated in the theatre, which was three quarters full, there was great appreciation that the show had gone on.

The Wizard of Oz

By L. Frank Baum. Music and Lyrics by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg. HAMA Productions. Directed by Olivia Collier. Crown Theatre, Perth. Dec 31 – Jan 22, 2022

The Wizard of Oz might almost be considered a revival of HAMA Productions’ 2019 production at the Regal Theatre, which featured many of the same cast, but this production is bigger, brighter and re-imagined. A huge scale production that delighted the opening night audience at Crown Theatre – this is set to be a holiday treat for old and young alike.

Imaginaria

Next to the Maritime Museum, South Bank, Brisbane. Until 30 January 2022

Imaginaria is a sound and light show in a darkened space inside a giant white bubble. The multimedia exhibition promises to be 'an immersive play experience from the future' so, on top of the excellent visual displays, I was expecting a little bit more interactivity. You enter the space like any other exhibition, check your ticket, take off your shoes, don some supplied socks and enter a room full of tic-tac-like seats and a circular screen. Once your eyes have adjusted to the dark, you are in a sort of stargazing planetarium. How long you stay is up to you.

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