Reviews

The Rocky Horror Show

Book, Music and Lyrics by Richard O’Brien. Directed by Christopher Luscombe. Comedy Theatre, Melbourne. Opening Night, June 14, 2015.

I had heard wonderful things about this incarnation of The Rocky Horror Show. Including sparkling reviews for Craig McLachlan’s Frank N Furter.  The addition of Bert Newton as the Narrator added to my excitement of seeing one of my all time favourite shows. So was I to be disappointed? Well yes and no.

Under the Influence: Class of Cabaret Grads

delaide Cabaret Festival. Artspace Gallery, Adelaide Festival Centre. 13-14 June, 2015.

Combining the friendly, funky feel of a jam session with an awareness of stagecraft and a hopeful eye cast toward a possible professional future, Under the Influence is a most worthwhile venture, aimed at showcasing Adelaide’s youthful cabaret talent in a setting where each can test their skills and refine their craft.

Daniel Koek – Bringing Him Home With His West End Story

Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Festival Theatre Stage. June 13 & 14, 2015

West End sensation Daniel Koek is an Adelaide boy who has come home to perform highlights from his roles in musical theatre. Seated in a makeshift cabaret venue that was constructed on the Festival Theatre stage was ingenious and worked very well. A packed house full of anticipation and hometown enthusiasm was a great welcome to this incredible talent.

Reasons To Be Pretty

By Neil LaBute. Directed by Joh Hartog. Bakehouse Theatre Theatre, Adelaide. June 11-27, 2015

American playwright, Neil LaBute, is a polarising “love him or hate him” talent – considered by some to be a witty commentator on the darker side of the human condition, dismissed by others as a glib misanthrope whose work is loaded with gratuitous “shock for shock’s sake” vulgarity. LaBute’s 2009 work Reasons To Be Pretty is as confronting, challenging and divisive a work as one would expect, given the man’s iconoclastic reputation.

The Diary of Anne Frank

By Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. New Theatre, Sydney. June 11 - July 11, 2015.

Last week was Anne Frank’s 86thbirthday and one can imagine that had not World War Two intervened, most likely she would still be alive today, tending her flock of grandchildren and keeping her razor sharp mind amused with a busy schedule.

I found my visit to the now famous house in Holland where she spent two years particularly haunting. Peering at the pictures of Anne as a school-girl she very closely resembled my mother.  Only good fortune allowed some to escape Europe before it was too late.

Dash Kruck: I Might Take My Shirt Off

Cabaret at the Cremorne, QPAC Brisbane. Complete season: 11-20 June 2015. Then, Butterfly Club, Melbourne, June 23 - 28, 2015.

This is the first night of a series of seven different shows featuring a variety of performers strutting their stuff in true cabaret style at the transformed Cremorne Theatre. With a selection of tables and chairs scattered around the front stalls and a live band, Dash Kruck, a familiar face around the Brisbane theatre traps, plays Lionel, a shy, somewhat confused first-nighter on a reluctant World Premiere of his debut cabaret show, incorporating a musical evening of sex, booze, boys and mythical beasts.

Looking For Lawson

Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre. 12-13 June, 2015.

The theatre has been beautifully lit and elegantly presented. Three performers are here to inhabit this 'Space' for an hour or so, paying tribute to a man who has left behind him a legacy of human observation, of emotional expression, of poems that have now become songs, due to the initiative of singer/composer/keyboardist John Thorn.

Turner’s Turn

Geraldine Turner with Brad Miller (Piano). Qld Cabaret Festival. Brisbane Powerhouse & Enda Markey. Brisbane Powerhouse. 12 June 2015

Anyone who starts their cabaret act with “Rose’s Turn” has got guts, and Geraldine Turner certainly has plenty of that. The iconic song from Gypsy, immortalised by Ethel Merman as Mama Rose, is every diva’s dream role, and whilst Turner missed out on playing it three times, she was born to put her stamp on the part as she proved last night.

Jobim: The Sound Of Ipanema & Beyond

The Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Festival Theatre, Adelaide. June 12-14, 2015

Antonio Carlos Jobim was a Brazilian songwriter/guitarist/pianist who is probably best known to English speaking audiences as the composer of “The Girl From Ipanema” and “How Insensitive”, two of the most frequently recorded standards of all time. His earlier instrumental work was influential in establishing the “bossa nova” as a fixture in jazz music that endures to this day. Yet much of his wider body of work remains obscure (outside of Brazil anyway) and crosses over a more eclectic range of genres than his biggest hits might suggest.

The Songs That Got Away: The Music of Harold Arlen

Written and performed by Johanna Allen. Directed by Stuart Maunder. Melbourne Recital Centre. 12th-13th June, 2015 (3 shows only)

Although we don’t see it that often these days, we still know Class when we see it, and Johanna Allen is one very classy lady.

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