Reviews

Savoyards first produced The Mikado on 2 November 1961. It was their inaugural production, so what better way to celebrate their fiftieth anniversary than to revive Gilbert and Sullivan’s most popular comic opera.

This straight-forward traditional production, complete with bits of pantomime and burlesque, was in the capable directing hands of Eric Hauff, who certainly knows his way around the G&S canon.

In Appalling Behaviour, performer Stephen House conjures a whole world of dirty laneways, windowless rooms, frenetic nightclubs and lost souls with little more than his voice and body. He has a black curtain behind him, a few blocks for props and minimal lighting. It is all House needs.

First impression as I settle into my seat is the audience reflected in the upstage wall of mirrors on the empty stage, enforcing the allegory of A Chorus Line. This is a show about everyone’s dreams, not just a group of dancers auditioning for eight places in a musical theatre chorus.

That said, it is, of course, the ultimate backstage dance musical.

Can an amateur cast meet the challenges of A Chorus Line?

Got an embarrassing sibling, or a soccer (baseball) mum?

Someone you just love to hate?

You’ll find plenty to identify with.

John and Jenis an affecting two-hander musical following the story of Jen (Naomi Livingston), and her relationship with the two Johns in her life, her brother, subsequently killed in Vietnam, and her son (Edward Grey). At the core is the guilt Jen carries at going to college, leaving her brother in an abusive home.