Reviews

Babirra’s Thoroughly Modern Millie was amazing! I don’t know how a professional company could improve on what we saw.

In the title role was Stephanie John, who I remembered as Mary Poppins. Her excellent voice and dancing, combined with lovely comic timing, made for a delightful Millie. Phillip Davies had a wide-eyed innocence about his Jimmy which made for an ideal pair, and he matched Stephanie with his singing and dancing.

Backbone is the most elevating and enjoyable celebration of human circus acrobatic feats, from Australia’s longest running acrobatic ensemble.  From the very opening moments when all performers stand up and start moving the audience is engaged in lively surprising, imaginative feats of strength, lifting, jumping, flipping and extraordinary balancing.  The whole is underscored with vital live music from Elliot Zoerner and Shenton Gregory.

One of the more delightful things about Seussical the Musical is that almost everyone has the source material somewhere in their childhood memories. It was easy enough to be swept along in the musical whirlwind of stories, characters and a liberal sprinkling of catch-phrases and cameos.  The production is simply and cleverly staged, and Wendy Braid's and Maree Castenmillerr's costumes are as vibrant and varied as Dr Suess' characters.

When Michael Ball and Alfie Boe opened their second-half with Gershwin’s “I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise” that’s where the audience were – paradise. It was just one of the electric moments these two superstars of song created during their two-hour concert Together. Based on their best-selling album of the same name, musical-theatre favourites rubbed shoulders with rock, pop and swing in a program that seamlessly mixed all genres.