Reviews

Billy Elliot the Musical

Book and Lyrics by Lee Hall. Music by Elton John. Based on the Universal Pictures/Studio Canal Film. The Very Popular Theatre Company. Director: Anna Kerrigan. Musical Director: Dan Wilson. Choreography restaging: Lauren Harvey. Civic Theatre Newcastle. October 7 to 21, 2023

You need binoculars to tell the difference between this performance and a fully professional one.

The Very Popular Theatre Company is now (arguably) the largest community theatre company in Australia (or more accurately pro-am), and has put together a production of the highest standard in every department.

Billy Elliot the Musical is a very challenging musical to perform, requiring excellence in dancing, music and staging.

Salted Pretzels

By Cezara Critti-Schnaars. APK Productions. Directed by Emily McLean. The Blue Room Theatre, Perth Cultural Centre, WA. Oct 3-21, 2023

The Blue Room is currently host to the World Premiere of APK Productions’ Salted Pretzels, a modern little romcom, with the message to be true to yourself while allowing others to be themselves.

Zaffé

Conceived and directed by Stéphanie Ghajar. Produced by Lara Week and Stéphanie Ghajar & Collaborators. Melbourne Fringe Festival. The Tower – Malthouse, 113 Sturt Street Southbank. 5-15 October 2023.

The tag line “You’re invited to a Middle Eastern wedding party like no other” captures this event in a very precise manner. Attending this performance is much more like attending a celebration and blends immersive and participatory theatre in a vibrant and extremely entertaining manner. Zaffé is a traditional ceremony that is hosted by Ghajar and her collaborators.

Swan Lake

The Australian Ballet. The Festival Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre. Oct 7 – 14, 2023

Swan Lake is a dazzling jewel in the Australian Ballet’s repertoire and the culmination of their sixtieth year of being Australia’s premiere national ballet company!

I still have vivid memories of the famous production starring Marilyn Rowe as Odette and Lucette Aldous as Odile and thought I would never see a production so full of exquisite dancing, life and emotion, until now.

A Vicar of Dibley Christmas: The Second Coming

Adapted by Ian Gower and Paul Carpenter from the TV series by Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer. Tea Tree Players. Tea Tree Players Theatre, Surrey Downs, SA. Oct 4-14, 2023

Tea Tree Players presented The Vicar of Dibley last year with a sell out season, so it makes perfect sense to present its sequel, A Vicar of Dibley Christmas: The Second Coming this year, reprising the original cast.

The play is based on the episodes "Dibley Live" and "Winter", in which the villagers set up a radio station and put on a nativity play at Owen's farm.

Singin’ in the Rain

Screenplay by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Songs by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed. Northern Light Theatre Company. Shedley Theatre, Elizabeth SA. 6-21 October 2023

‘Be an actor, my son – but be a comical one’. More than just a line from the famous slapstick song ‘Make ‘Em Laugh’, this feels like the foundation of Northern Light’s bold production of Singin’ in the Rain.

Douglas Rintoul: Brave and Bold

Written by Douglas Rintoul. Melbourne Fringe. The Corner Store, Festival Hub, Trades Hall, Cnr Lygon & Victoria Sts Carlton, Vic. 4-8 October, 2023

What do you do when you have been to WAAPA and are a musical theatre tragic who is “relatable, charming and coy” but your pursuit of perfection and the auditions don’t quite go the way you want? Obvious- you make your own show which is ironic, thoughtful, a little bit cutting and most of all funny.

Constellations

By Nick Payne. Presented by Artefact Theatre. Melbourne Fringe. Directed by Matthew Cox. fortyfive downstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. 4-14 October 2023

Constellations is a complex play about the mysterious nature of the universe, time and especially destiny. Marianne (Bridie Pamment) and Roland (Mark Yeates) are a couple who meet and fall in love, but the fate of their romance is contingent on so many cosmological factors that could make their story very tragic or wonderfully fulfilling. This play imagines this and many other possibilities in between. It thoroughly explores the nuances of the relationship and its potential from many different perspectives.

Iolanthe

The Fairy Opera: Re-Imaged. By W.S Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan. Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Sydney. Director: Sarah Pearce: Musical Direction: Tom Doubinski. Assistant Director: Zachary Aleksander. The Governors Centre, Sydney Boys High. October 6 – 8, 2023

A 24-piece orchestra opened the operetta with an extended overture during which projections onto a screen illustrated the back story. With some clever black and white footage, we learnt that the fairy Iolanthe was banished from Fairydom for the crime of marrying a mortal, and her current abode was at the bottom of a stream.

Venus and Adonis

Written and directed by Damien Ryan. Sport for Jove. Seymour Centre, Sydney. September 29 to October 21, 2023.

Damien Ryan has made good use of his years to perfect this triumphant multilayered telling of Shakespeare’s famous epic sonnet. COVID forced Sport by Jove to cancel its staging, and instead they made it into a celebrated film. Now it takes centre stage where it belongs.   

Subscribe to our E-Newsletter, buy our latest print edition or find a Performing Arts book at Book Nook.