Reviews

The Season is an undoubted crowd-pleaser – a rambunctious family comedy-drama that is warm, funny, sad, sexy and maybe just a little corny in the best sense.  It takes us somewhere we’ve most likely never been – Big Dog Island in wild Bass Straight for ‘the season’ when the Duncan family gather to return to country and to hunt the migratory mutton birds, or shearwaters, for meat, oil and feathers.  We see the hunting – in which knotted grey rags stand in for the birds – but the play tells us no more than is necessary about that.&n

The comic strip “Little Orphan Annie” was turned into a Broadway musical in 1977, followed by the smash hit movie Annie in 1982. In Northern Light Theatre Company’s production, this family musical has lost none of its charm as director Fran Edwards endeavours to recapture the wonder of the heart-warming tale of red headed orphan, Annie. Forgetting the old adage to never work with children or animals, Edwards takes on the challenge of steering the large cast.

With a crystal chandelier, a hint of plush red drapes suspended on either side of the stage, and some arresting lighting pools, the Cremorne Theatre was the perfect setting for Broadway star Liz Callaway to prove she knew her way around a cabaret room. Singing theatre songs, film songs, and little bit of vintage pop, her act was basically a run-down of her prolific career and life.

Harbour Theatre’s On A First Name Basis was a sweet, moving little comedy. Well constructed by playwright Norm Foster, it is written with lovely moments, but it is also very dependent on having an excellent pair of actors to steer it to success.

Directors Peter Kirkwood and Nicola Bond chose ideal actors. Jarrod Buttery and Meredith Hunter, both excellent, well-respected performers in their own right, have previous on-stage relationships and work together seemingly organically and intuitively.