Reviews

Stupid F**cking Bird

By Aaron Posner. Lightning Jar Theatre. Directed by Peter Blackburn. Mechanics Institute Brunswick. 8-26 February 2017

A melancholy love story based on Chekhov’s The Seagull, this play satirises our romantic desires and creative passion. American playwright Aaron Posner has turned it into a contemporary tale that explores the intimate emotions of Con and the people in his life. Con, Michael Mack, struggles with an inability to make the woman he loves love him back and to write as well as he wants to. He also has a dysfunctional relationship with his self-absorbed celebrity mother Emma, Carla Bonner.

An Extraordinary Tale

Holland Street Productions. Fringe World. Directed by Tyler Jacob Jones. De Parel Spiegeltent, Fringe Central, Perth WA. Feb 11-19, 2017

Charlie Franklin is very proud that he has written and directed his own musical, but the day before the show will open, he finds himself having lost most of his cast and half the orchestra. Can the show go on? Of course it can.

Disney’s Newsies: The Broadway Musical

Composed by Alan Menken, Choreography by Christopher Gattell. In cinemas for one night only, February 19, 2017. Screening at Event cinemas in NSW, QLD, SA, WA and NT, and at Village Cinemas and Cinema Nova in VIC and TAS.

Seize The Day This Sunday, 19 February! 

If you’re a Broadway buff that thought they’d missed the boat on Newsiesonce it bumped out of New York in 2014, this Sunday brings a rare and absolutely unmissable treat to you! For one day only, Australian cinemas will be joining the rest of the world in celebrating Disney’s Newsies: The Musical as a filmed event.

Saturday Night Fever

Book: Nic Cohn. Music: The Bee Gees. Spotlight Theatre, Benowa, Gold Coast. Director/Choreographer: Clay English. February 10th to March 4th, 2017

Saturday Night Fever opened last Friday night to a very enthusiastic audience. Based on the 1977 film starring John Travolta, Spotlight’s production had all the pizzazz of the era.

In the role made famous by JT, Jackson Brash gave a fantastic performance and danced brilliantly, receiving a standing ovation. The supporting principals: Hannah Rigby, Ruby Hunter, Jack Harbour, Johnathon Fife and Marcus Du Toit, all turned in creditable characterizations, complete with New York accents.

Blood Brothers

By Willy Russell. Beenleigh Theatre Group. February 10 – 25, 2017

Blood Brothers originally began its journey in the early 80s, starting out as a play in Liverpool before becoming a musical and achieving critical acclaim in the West End. It follows the story of Mrs Johnstone (Fiona Buchanan), a struggling single mother from Liverpool who can barely afford to feed her several children.

Little Shop of Horrors

Book and Lyrics: Howard Ashman, Music: Alan Mencken. Director: Kate Foster. Bangalow Theatre Co. A & I Hall Bangalow. February 10th to 18th, 2017

Bangalow is a little town a few kms west of Byron Bay and this is only their second production.

Little Shop of Horrors was a popular choice judging from the capacity crowd and their reactions.

Director Kate Foster made good use of the limited facilities at her disposal and along with the Musical Director Margaret Curtis and Choreographer Anouska Gammon created a fun show for all the family.

Chicago

Music: John Kander. Lyrics: Fred Ebb. Book: Fred Ebb & Bob Fosse based on the play by Maurine Dallas Watkins. Directed by Kim Angus, Musical Direction by Andrew Dobosz. Koorliny Arts Centre, Kwinana, WA. Feb 10-25, 2017

Koorliny Arts Centre kicked off their 2017 season with great style, presenting an exciting, very polished production of Chicago.

Directed by Kim Angus in a Brechtian, consciously theatrical style - with actors and stage management visible at the side of stage. This was an intelligent production with a wonderful sense of style.

The fourteen member band are seated across the rear of the stage. The orchestral performance is very tight under the leadership of Andrew Dobosz, and singing is top notch.

You’re My World - The Cilla Black Story

Fringe World. Directed by Danielle O’Malley. Downstairs at the Maj, His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth WA. Feb 7-11, 2017

In You’re My World - The Cilla Black Story, Danielle O’Malley transports us back to a Cilla Black Concert at the height of Cilla’s fame, a true celebration of the 1960s singing icon.

Barbu

Cirque Alfonse. Director - Alain Francoeur. Artistic Directors - Antoine Carabinier Lépine, Julie Carabinier Lépine. Sydney Opera House Studio. 8 February – 4 March 2017

It’s the show that dares to push the boundaries of contemporary circus.

Literally translated as “bearded”, Barbu is the creation of Canadian Circus Troupe, Cirque Alfonse and is something to be experienced!

Eclectic and original, the show melds together elements from the Montreal Circus at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries with art, cabaret, traditional Canadian folk songs and modern electronic music.

The Laramie Project

A play by Moises Kaufman and The Members of the Tectonic Theatre Project. Woy Woy Little Theatre's “Flash Community Art Project”. Directed by Jessica Alex. Peninsula Theatre, Woy Woy. Feb 10-12, 2017.

Once upon a time, the US town of Laramie, Wyoming, was best known as the setting for a famous TV western from the early 1960s. All of this changed in October 1998 when 21 year old Matthew Shepard was tied to a fence post, pistol whipped, beaten, tortured and then abandoned in freezing conditions. He was discovered 18 hours later, by a cyclist – who had mistaken him for a scarecrow and was rushed to hospital where he clung to life for the next five days as news of the brutal crime hit national headlines.

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