Reviews

Dear Evan Hansen

Book by Steven Levenson. Music and Lyrics by Benj Pasek & Justin Paul. A Sydney Theatre Company and Michael Cassel Group production. Roslyn Packer Theatre. October 12 – December 1, 2024. Melbourne from December 14; Canberra from February 27, 2025 and Adelaide from April 3.

From the very first moment of the STC and Michael Cassel Group’s re-conceived production of Dear Evan Hansen, when we see Evan released from the short sleeved blue polo shirt that has been his uniform in every other production of the show, we know director Dean Bryant is not going to stick to the traditions of the West End/Broadway or (current touring) productions of the show.

Yentl

Based on the short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer. Written by Gary Abrahams, Elise Hearst and Galit Klas. Kadimah Yiddish Theatre, Monstrous Theatre and Neil Gooding Productions. Directed by Gary Abrahams. Playhouse, Sydney Opera House. October 17 - November 10, 2024

Oy vey, what a play! A delicious mix of mysticism, gender politics, lust, suspense, Yiddish, ancient Jewish lore and cross dressing. And yes, and there is some nudity.

Enough schmutz* to drag people away from the Hot Rabbi on Netflix.

Isaac Singer penned the short story Yentl the Yeshiva Boy – but hated Barba Streisand’s 1983 film adaptation. Streisand kept the core of the story about an orthodox Eastern-European Jewish woman, who dresses as a man so she can study Jewish scriptures, but shaped it as a vehicle for her own talent.

Yoga Play

By Dipika Guha. National Theatre of Parramatta and La Boite Theatre. Director: Mina Morita Riverside Theatres Parramatta. 17-27 Oct, 2024

Yoga Play is just as the LA Times described it: “a fresh new comedy with a sharp cultural bite."  The satire of the first act becomes laugh-out-loud comedy in the second act, making it a couple of hours of entertainment with cracks at political correctness, marketing techniques and social and cultural expectations.

Adam James: The Great First Nations Songbook

Redlands Performing Arts Centre (RPAC), Cleveland, Concert Hall. 19 October 2024

This show features 15 iconic First Nations songs, reworked by smooth singer Adam James, backed by a 13-piece jazz orchestra – and it is one of the most enjoyable evenings of Australian music you will ever experience. I absolutely loved every minute of it. Having made his mark as a country singer, Adam James is getting back to his childhood roots and reinventing himself as ‘The Quandamooka Crooner’, revisiting the African-American swing, soul, jazz and blues that he and his family grew up singing and dancing to.

Operation Boomerang

By Bruce Denny. Yirra Yaakin. Directed by Ian Wilkes. Subiaco Arts Centre, WA. Oct 4-19, 2024

Yirra Yaakin’s fresh and charming new production of Operation Boomerang is a loveable family drama, with a beautiful connection to lineage and country. Well-acted and directed, this was a pleasure to watch.

Matt McVeigh's set beautifully creates a pleasant room in a ‘nice’ suburban nursing home (with gorgeous individualism in the Indigenous Print bedding), surrounded by a stunningly created artistic representation of red dirt ‘country’. 

Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella

Music by Richard Rodgers. Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. New book by Douglas Carter Beane. Original book by Oscar Hammerstein II. North Queensland Opera and Music Theatre, Townsville Civic Theatre, Boundary Street, Townsville. 17 – 27 October 2024.

IF EVER there was a case of a reviewer’s reservations being swept away in one fell swoop then this is it.

I had always considered this to be a lesser work from the pen of Rodgers and Hammerstein, and when the announcement was made that this company was going to mount this work, I admittedly had some doubts as to the wisdom of the choice.  I need not have worried.

Antigone

By Lewis Galantière and Jean Anouilh after Sophocles. Graduate Dramatic Society (GRADS). Directed by E. R. Kinnear. The New Fortune Theatre, University of Western Australia Nedlands, WA. Oct 9-19, 2024

Graduate Dramatic Society (GRADS) presented Jean Anouilh’s 1942 adaptation of Sophocles’ two-thousand-year-old pay, Antigone.

Like the original Greek production, this Antigone was played out of doors, this time in UWA’s Shakespearian proportioned New Fortune Theatre. Ironically, despite the origins of this play, written for a much bigger theatre, this show feels a little lost at times in this large space, despite some strong performances.

Visiting Mr Green

By Jeff Baron. Galleon Theatre Group, SA. Domain Theatre. October 18th – 26th, 2024

Playwright and novelist Jeff Baron has many plays to his credit, none more performed worldwide than Galleon’s latest production, Visiting Mr Green. Experienced director Vicky Horwood took on the task of breathing new life into this two-hander. A story told by co-protagonists, takes place in the Upper West Side Manhattan apartment of Mr Green – an elderly Jewish gentleman with a cantankerous nature, who is still mourning the loss of his wife, Yetta.

Flat Earthers: The Musical

Book and Lyrics by Jean Tong & Lou Wall. Song Writing by Lou Wall and James Gales. Hayes Theatre and Griffin Theatre. Directed by Declan Greene. Musical Director Jude Perl. Choreography by Fetu Taku. October 17 - November 9, 2024

This just might be the most technically brilliant musical staged at the Hayes, which already has a long history of cleverly shoe-horning productions into its cosy venue.

Entering the theatre the audience is greeted by the simplicity of two rainbow-like arches and suspended cords, faced by a formidable row of digital lighting fixtures.

The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll

By Ray Lawler. Hobart Repertory Theatre Society. Robert Jarman (Direction). Karen Fahey (Costumes). The Playhouse Theatre. 16-26, Ocotber2024

The Summer of the Seventeeth Doll is a truly great play. This production, the first since the recent death of Ray Lawler aged 93, never allows the audience to forget that fact. Dominating the stage, a large photograph of Lawler is suspended.

Robert Jarman has eschewed the standard box set. Whilst beautifully dressed, the stage blacks frame the action like the dusty swags of a studio portrait. There is a piano and a table and the clutter of seventeen years, but none of it is as real as Olive would like to think it is.