Reviews

Cheryl and Chardee met at dance class in their teens where they formed a strong bond over their mutual love for the much adored and sadly missed morning television show “Aerobics Oz Style”. From humble beginnings in Elizabeth Downs these two have forged a semi- professional fitness empire receiving testimonials from the rich and famous, including Oprah Winfrey no less.

Aladdin has become known as the musical which gets a standing ovation in the middle of the first act. It did it when I saw it on Broadway, and it did it last night when it opened in Brisbane. “Friend Like Me” is the number and it’s performed in a glittering and sparkling Aladdin’s cave and with its pop-culture references and an incredible rousing tap finish, it literally stops the show. You couldn’t ask for a better example of Broadway brilliance.

In a grey-carpeted Melbourne flat on an upper floor, with rolling doors to a small balcony, sits a sweet, chatty, pregnant woman. With her distinctive New Zealand vowel sounds, Emily Barclay tells us how she moved from handing out Green how-to-vote cards at a council election to lucking a job as Media Adviser at a Family Violence Centre.

You think that you are going to see a play at the rear of a rather noisy pub, but you discover that it is 1956 and you are attending the annual quiche breakfast of the Susan B Anthony Society for the Sisterhood of Gertrude Stein. You are greeted warmly, given an appropriate 1950s name tag and take your seat with other “widows” to wait for the meeting.

Cold War fever is at its peak, and when there is a huge explosion, we find that there is more going on than first appears.