Reviews

The Wizard of Oz

Story by L. Frank Baum. Music & Lyrics by Harold Arlen & E. Y. Harburg. Background music by Herbert Stothart. Director: Heather Goddard (assisted by Vanessa Parkinson). Musical Director: Dean Mulholland. Presented by Warrnambool Theatre Company & Holiday Actors. Lighthouse Theatre, Warrnambool, Victoria. July 15-22, 2023.

It’s not often you see a piece of community theatre in a regional city that compares to the bigger budget, semi-professional shows that Melbourne produces.

On the Beach

Adapted from Nevil Shute’s novel by Tommy Murphy. Sydney Theatre Company. Roslyn Packer Theatre. July 18 – August 12, 2023.

New Australian plays rarely win the sort of epic production treatment given here to Tommy Murphy’s stage adaptation of Nevil Shute’s novel On the Beach. But it’s a big story, nothing less than about the end of the world – as nuclear fallout from an annihilated northern hemisphere advances on Melbourne in 1963.

Teenage Dick

By Mike Lew. Divergent Theatre Collective. Flight Path Theatre. Directed by Dan Graham. 20 July-5 August, 2023.

Mike Lew’s Teenage Dick is a funny and shocking high adaptation of Shakespeare’s Richard III. 16-year-old Richard feels like an outsider at Roseland High because of his cerebral palsy and his general inability to socialize. He wants to hold power over the school so he schemes and enacts a plan to become senior class president, but he falls into a cycle of megalomania as he destroys the people around him.

Musical Theatre Gala

Queensland Symphony Orchestra. QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane. 22nd July, 2023

The ever-popular local host and conductor Guy Noble was again at the helm for this year's selection of musical theatre gems with the QSO in full flood not only as themselves but also as accompanists for the four guest vocalists. With twenty three items, including two overtures from successful musicals,

Bloom

Book & Lyrics Tom Gleisner. Composer Katie Weston. Direction Dean Bryant. Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse. 18 July – 19 August 2023

At the Pine Grove ‘retirement home’ – understaffed, under resourced and run by a ruthless cost-cutter, Mrs MacIntyre (Anne Edmonds) – the inmates – sorry, residents – are frustrated, bored and depressed.  There’s just nothing to do, the food is terrible, cleaning and maintenance are minimal, and the carers, Gloria (Christina O’Neill) and newbie Ruby (Vidya Makan) really care and are always struggling to keep up.  But, as the company sings in the first big musical number, they’ve ‘Nowhere Else to Go’. <

DIVAS

Created by Simon Phillips and Bernadette Robinson. Directed by Simon Phillips QPAC Playhouse 20th-23rd July, 2023, then Sydney Opera House and Arts Centre Melbourne.

If you find it impossible to conceive of the idea of Miley Cyrus side by side on stage with opera’s Maria Callas, then you are clearly not a devotee of the amazing Bernadette Robinson. Ms Robinson launched her new show Divas in Brisbane prior to upcoming seasons at Sydney Opera House and Arts Centre Melbourne, and, as always, awed her audience with her astounding vocal talents.

Beginning

By David Eldridge. Moonspark Productions. Pip Theatre, Milton, Brisbane. July 13 – 29, 2923

Step into the cozy and intimate world of Beginning by David Eldridge, a heartwarming play that takes place in the aftermath of a housewarming party. Presented at Pip Theatre, Milton, this two-hander one-act play provides a realistic and surprisingly touching inside view of the awkward first steps of new love. With Crystal Arons as the confident and captivating Laura and Jesse Blachut as the awkward yet endearing Danny, the show explores the vulnerability and hopes of seeking a real connection amidst life's baggage and the world of online dating.

Garage Girls

By Candace Miles, Madelaine Nunn and Anna Rodway in collaboration with Carolyn Bock and Helen Hopkins. Presented by Three Birds Theatre and Shift Theatre. Directed by Janice Muller. La Mama Courthouse, 349 Drummond Street, Carlton. 19 – 30 July 2023.

Garage Girls is a fun, feisty and fantastical story about trailblazing feminist figure Alice Anderson (Madelaine Nunn). Set in the 1920s with the backdrop of a recent world war and the Spanish Flu pandemic, the play brings to life the obstacles that Anderson faced in forging a career as a mechanic and pursuing her outback adventures. Interestingly, despite its historical setting, the story has some uncanny resemblance to the present.

Much Ado About Nothing

By William Shakespeare. Darlington Theatre Players. Directed by Siobhan Vincent. Marloo Theatre, Greenmount, WA. July 7-22, 2023

Much Ado About Nothing is one of the most often performed Shakespeare plays in Perth in recent years, and it is interesting to ponder its popularity. Is it the familiarity of an outdoor lifestyle in rural Italy, or its strong female heroine? Darlington Theatre Players’ production makes the most of both of these elements, in an intelligent production with strong production values.

Perceptions

FORM Dance Projects. Dance Bites 2023. Lennox Theatre, Riverside Theatres Parramatta. 20 -22 July, 2023

Spanish-Australian dancer Pepa Molina returns to Riverside in this fascinating performance based on interviews with the elderly Spanish community at a Spanish speaking aged care facility in Sydney.  That research revealed a range of perceptions about Flamenco that involved “superstitions and cliches that are traditionally linked to the artform and that are common to everyday life in Andalusia, Spain”.

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