Reviews

Ruthless! The Musical

Book and lyrics by Joel Paley, music by Marvin Laird. New Farm Nash Theatre. Directed by Brenda White. September 21 – October 20, 2018.

This is an all female musical that spoofs Broadway musicals like Mame and Gypsy premiered Off-Broadway in 1992. As the director accurately says, it takes a satirical and jaundiced look at the whole business of show business: all the has-beens, the wannabes, the successes and failures and what some will do to make it onto the stage. This is not what we have come to expect as a musical theatre storyline but it still depends on the music and lyrics in carrying the story forward.

We Can Work It Out. Four Beatles. One Room. No Filter.

By Gabriel Bergmoser. Bitten By Productions. The Butterfly Club, Carson Place, Melbourne CBD. 24 – 30 September 2018

The title tells you what this 2015 one-act play is about.  We’ve got John, Paul, George and Ringo in a room.  We don’t know where – or even why - but it seems they might be on tour – although a single bottle of Scotch in a dressing room seems meagre for such huge stars.  We don’t know when, but the dialogue refers to ‘films’ – plural – so that’s after A Hard Day’s Night and Help!  It’s probably 1965 and – although he’s not named – it’s after they’ve met

Unsolicited Male

By Ron Elisha. Q44 Theatre. Abbottsford Convent, Abbottsford VIC. 17 September – 7 October 2018

This concise, focussed and beautifully executed play is – by accident or design – as timely as possible in the context of the #MeToo phenomenon.  But don’t think that Unsolicited Male (that title maybe is a little too cute) is a pamphlet or a piece of agit-prop.  As Ron Elisha says in his program note, ‘Theatre can only ask the questions.’

Rent The Musical

Music & Lyrics by Jonathan Larson. Playhouse Theatre Incorporated - Auckland New Zealand. Directed by Kit Haines. 22nd September – October 6th 2018

Rentis the 1996 Tony Award winning Best Musical. Set in a Bohemian Alphabet City in the 90s, a group of friends struggle with their careers, love lives and the effects of the AIDS epidemic on their community.

Written by Jonathan Larson as a “rock opera for the MTV generation”, the story captures the Bohemian lifestyle of Greenwich Village in a rock musical score loosely based on Puccini’s opera La Boheme. Its success as one of the longest running musicals on Broadway also transformed the direction and style of rock music theatre.

The Ghost Train

By Arnold Ridley. Genesian Theatre, Kent Street, Sydney. September 22 – October 28, 2018.

You may remember Arnold Ridley as Private Godfrey, the gentle, old medic in the British comedy series Dad’s Army, but as well as an actor, he was also a prolific playwright. Of his 19 plays, the best known is The Ghost Train, written in 1923 after Ridley was stranded overnight during a rail journey through Gloucestershire. The play has a long history. Its initial production ran to sell out houses at St Martin’s Theatre from 1925 to 1927. It has been adapted for many film versions, the first a silent film in 1927.

Blue Stockings

By Jessica Swale. Heidelberg Theatre Company. 7 – 22 September 2018.

Cambridge University, 1896.  Women are permitted to attend, they can pass their courses, but they cannot graduate, no matter how brilliant or, at the very least, as equally brilliant as the male undergraduates.  They struggle for their rights against prejudice, condescension, virulent misogyny and sheer gobsmacking nonsense - such as the claim that if women overtax their brains, it will affect their ‘vital organs’.  The play covers a year in the lives of four highly talented, committed women, each prepared – as if it’s an either/or choice – to sa

Shrek The Musical Jnr

Music by Jeanine Tesori, Book and Lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire. Directed by Olivia Collier. Hertha Reserve, Stirling WA. 21-30 Sep, 2018

Shrek Jnr is a big, high energy holiday treat presented in a big top in Stirling, with a large cast, great costumes and lots of fun. A highly immersive performance with opportunity to meet the characters and have photos, it is a great way to introduce little people to live theatre and a great school holiday outing for all.

Stalker: The Musical

Book & Lyrics by Alex Giles and David Russell. Music by Andy Peterson. RPG Productions. Directed by Kaleigh Wilkie-Smith. Depot Theatre, Sydney. September 19 - October 6, 2018

Imagine a place where the word “love” doesn't exist. Where people believe they'll be hurt if they touch each other; where the only form of intimacy is watching others do mundane tasks such as calculating taxes or playing solitary games.

Our Man in Havana

Written by Graham Greene, adapted by Clive Francis. Stirling Players (SA). Stirling Theatre. September 21- October 6, 2018

Shakespeare wrote, All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts.

Our Man in Havana brings this quote to life in a frantic, fast-paced satirical farce that is like nothing I’ve ever seen before in theatre. Exits and Entrances? There must have been over a hundred! Many roles? I lost track!

Spamalot - Schools Edition

By Eric Idle and John Du Prez. Platinum Entertainment and Perth Youth Theatre. Directed by Trevor Patient. Stirling Theatre, Innaloo (WA). 20-22 September, 2018

Platinum Entertainment and Perth Youth Theatre present the Schools Edition of Spamalot, in a rollicking celebration of a show. Spamalot purists will not be disappointed as this version leaves the plot intact and the 13-17 year old cast perform with joy and vigour.

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