Reviews

La Traviata

Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour. Opera Australia. Director: Constantine Costi. Conductor: Brian Castles-Onion. March 26th to April 25th 2021.

After a week of torrential rain, Sydney sparkles for the opening night of Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata … on the harbour! With the Opera House and the city skyline shining through a clear, balmy night, it seems impossible to believe that only three days ago the city cowered under torrential rain – and flood waters surged throughout the state.

Stop Girl

By Sally Sara. Directed by Anne-Louise Sarks. Belvoir. Upstairs Theatre. March 20 – April 25, 2021

Image: Sheridan Harbridge

In the year 2000, the ABC sent two young reporters to Indonesia to cut their teeth as the second in charge reporter in the Jakarta Bureau.

One was Sally Sara – who went on to become a celebrated foreign correspondent and now an accomplished playwright. The other was myself.

Scout Boxall: Good Egg

Written & performed by Scout Boxall. Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Trades Hall, Quilt Room. 25 March – 4 April 2021

As we enter, Scout Boxall, dressed as a fried egg, dances in faux awkward style.  You have to be good to get a laugh out of bad. Boxall knows, and deliberately sets a self-conscious faux awkward tone.

Hard Rock Café 25th Anniversary

Featuring Thirsty Merc, Shannon Noll and the Hard Rock Heroes. Hard Rock Café, Surfers Paradise. 22 March 2021

Ever since entrepreneur Jim Cavill built his Surfers Paradise Hotel in the 1920s, the corner of Cavill and Orchid Avenues has been the beating heart of live entertainment on Queensland’s Gold Coast. And after a lonely year in lockdown, live music is back on the road, and performing at that famous corner – now the Hard Rock Café. This venue celebrated its 25th anniversary on 22 March.

Scary Goats Tour

By Chloe Towan and Nathan Fernanadez. Melbourne Comedy Festival. The Butterfly Club, Melbourne. Mar 22 – Apr 4, 2021

After last year’s horrendous COVID lockdown, the Melbourne Comedy Festival is finally back on. Kicking off the season at the Butterfly Club is Scary Goats Tour, billed as a new Horror Comedy play written by Chloe Towan and Nathan Fernanadez.

Goats and spooky things are a match made in heaven, or should l say hell. When Mel, the famous sceptic and ghost debunker, accidentally books a goat tour for her new YouTube channel, she musters up her supernatural knowledge to free her sidekick videographer from the evil goat ghost.

Hamilton

Book, Music and Lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Inspired by the book Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. Produced by Michael Cassel. Sydney Lyric. From March 17, 2021

Image:  Chloé Zuel as Elizabeth and Jason Arrow as Alexander Hamilton in the Australian Production. Photographer: Daniel Boud.

Last of the Red Hot Lovers

By Neil Simon. Directed by Dale James. Old Mill Theatre, South Perth, WA. Mar 12-27, 2021

Last of the Red Hot Lovers is being presented in lovely retro style at Old Mill Theatre. Beautifully directed with a superb cast, it is entertaining capacity audiences.

Footloose – The Musical

Music by Tom Snow, lyrics by Dean Pitchford, book by Dean Pitchford and Walter Bobbie. Directed by Tim O’Connor. Harvest Rain & Students of BAMT. Hayward St. Studios Brisbane. March 17 – April 3, 2021

This musical follows the path of young students as they strive to have a school dance, something we take for granted. It begins with a teenager, Ren McCormack, who loves to dance to relax and what happens when he and his mother have to move from Chicago to an ultra-conservative town named Bomont. After a tragic death of four teenagers some four years before, the town had banned dancing, along with many other joys of the young, under the direction of Reverend Shaw Moore, an ultra conservative.

Firebird – An Instrumental Spectacular

Weber: Overture to Der Freischutz. Mozart: Piano Concerto No.19 in F, K.459. Stravinsky: Suite from The Firebird (1919 version). Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Umberto Clerici. Soloist: Simon Tedeschi. Concert Hall, QPAC. 19-20 March 2021

The Queensland Symphony Orchestra was in fine form for this concert, which married a vibrant suite from Stravinsky’s incomparable Firebird ballet, with some virtuostic playing by Simon Tedeschi, and a little pre-Wagner dark German folklore by Weber. It proved to be a great mix.

National Theatre of Parramatta's Launchpad Double Bill

Riverside Theatres, Parramatta. 18-20 March, 2021

The Sorry Mum Project

Written and performed by Pippa Ellams

Directors: Hannah Goodwin, Tasha O’Brien

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