Reviews

Buzzing Broadway

Free-Rain Nightclub. Directed by Cate Clelland, with musical direction by Nicholas Griffin. Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre Centre. 30 October – 1 November 2015

Buzzing Broadway is a kind of low-key cabaret, with a little food included, playing in the Canberra Theatre’s intimate Courtyard Studio.  Though the stage simply doesn’t support the glitz and polish that you might hope for in a sampling of Broadway numbers, there was an engaging presence in the cast that made such peripheral concerns hardly noticeable.

Cats

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Based on ‘Old Possum’s Book of practical cats by T.S Eliot. Capitol Theatre, Sydney. From November 1, 2015, then touring nationally.

A pre-show announcement informed the audience who was conducting the live band. It immediately became obvious why it was necessary to tell us the band was live. The new streamlined three keyboard dominated nine part orchestrations sound in part like a backing track.

It makes sense for one of the songs updated by Andrew Lloyd-Webber – a rap version of Rum Tum Tugger – to have this highly synthesized sound. At other times for those who have seen Cats before it was disconcerting.

No Former Performer…Has Performed this Performance

By Born in a Taxi, La Mama, EXPLORATIONS, 205 Faraday Street, Carlton. October 28, 29 & 30, 2015.

As the title suggests, the performance is unique and has never been performed on stage before. Born in a Taxi combines dance, movement, props, text and gesture with sound, music and lighting in a wonderfully humorous and quirky manner. The emphasis is on the body and its infinite possibilities of expression. The result is pure poetry.

Charles Manson and the Subtle Art of Radicalisation

By Scott Welsh, La Mama, EXPLORATIONS. 205 Faraday Street, Carlton. October 29, 30 & 31, 2015.

Cicero's Circle Theatre Company’s production provides an extremely penetrative insight into Manson’s hallucinogenic, schizophrenic and deeply delusional discourse. The troubling part is that his language is expertly constructed and alarmingly seductive. This is a very tight script that fully explores the process of radicalisation; an issue that has emerged as one of the more significant concerns in contemporary society. Scott Welsh is terrifying as Manson and the menacing presence he is able to convey on stage could be more fully exploited.

re:Loaded 2015

Choreographed by Raewyn Hill, Larissa McGowan, Gavin Webber Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of Western Australia, Perth, WA 28 October - 1 November, 2015

re:Loaded 2015 is the debut production from Co3, Western Australia's new contemporary dance company. Co3 is the result of an amalgamation of Buzz Dance Theatre and STEPS Youth Dance Company, and in addition to producing contemporary dance performance, Co3 aims to engage with education, youth and the community at large. Their first production shows that this is a fresh and exciting dance company.

Eurydice

By Sarah Ruhl. Directed by Yasmin Gurreeboo. Plant One, Corner Park Tce & Fifth St, Bowden. 27 October-7 November, 2015

The stark industrial surrounds of a warehouse floor are transformed into the stage for a surreal journey into a mystical underworld, for Foul Play Theatre Co’s intriguingly quirky production of Eurydice. Sarah Ruhl’s 2003 play is a modernised, absurdist take on the ancient Greek legend of Orpheus, the virtuoso musician whose love for the fair Eurydice is so strong, that when she dies he ventures into the underworld to retrieve her.

Little Black Bastard

Written and Performed by Noel Tovey. Directed by Robina Beard. La Mama Courthouse, Carlton. October 29 – November 1, 2015.

I had no idea who Noel Tovey was when I went to see Little Black Bastard at La Mama Courthouse, but by the time his almost two-hour one-man show had concluded, I felt as though I knew him personally. With startling courage and admirable dignity, he opened himself up to the audience, presenting the most intimate details of his childhood and adolescence. These ran the gamut from tawdry and disturbing to utterly heartbreaking, all delivered with a heartfelt sincerity and emotional depth.

Legally Blonde

Music & lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Neil Benjamin. Book by Heather Hach. Directed by Cat Baxter. Koorliny Arts Centre, Kwinana, WA. 22-31 October, 2015

Nine Lives Theatrical Production Company bumped into Koorliny Arts Centre to present this fun and upbeat musical.

Annika Kononen, a tall, striking natural blonde was a picture-perfect Elle Woods who revelled in the central role. She was nicely paired with Jethro Pitt, making a stirling West Australian debut, as a loveable and convincing Emmet, with a lovely voice.

Foreign Bodies

Written by Andy Harmsen. Directed by Chris Baldock. Sly Rat Theatre Co. The Owl and Cat Theatre, Richmond. October 22 – 31, 2015.

A high profile American female porn star with a long list of credits, who's recently written a tell-all autobiography, is in Mumbai ostensibly to play the goddess Kali in a 'serious' movie role, where she's interviewed by a male journalist from Sydney for the culture section of a magazine.

Monkey… Journey to the West.

Kim Carpenter’s Theatre of Image. Melbourne Festival at Geelong Performing Arts Centre, The Playhouse. 22-24 October 2015.

Monkey… or How To Tell an Epic Tale from Another Culture of an Epic Journey With Not Much Money But With Energy, Jokes, Puppets, Acrobats and Loads of Imagination.

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