Reviews

Magic Mike Live

The Arcadia, the showring, Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park. Sydney season resumed January 2021. Melbourne from June 2021

Welcome to the latest raunchy male show made for hen nights.

So move over those old Chippendales.  Touring Australia in its own Spiegeltent, Magic Mike Live sports 16 gym perfect American boys speeding through a kaleidoscope of dance styles, but all hip thrusting and humping, an endless sea of swivel snake spines and floor-nicating.  And coaxed by our girl-next-door MC Amy Ingham, still the hens cry for more.

The Love of the Nightingale

By Timberlake Wertenbaker. Produced & directed by Simran Giria. Theatre Works Glasshouse, St Kilda. 5 – 9 January 2021

Based on the Greek myth of Philomela, the abused and silenced princess who metamorphosed into a nightingale (according to Ovid), The Love of the Nightingale is Timberlake Wertenbaker’s take on this eternal story.  It has been adapted and referenced over and over, including by Shakespeare and Keats, and in our time by Margaret Atwood.  Wertenbaker’s version was first performed in 1988 and yet it is still ‘relevant’, it still reverberates, because it is about silence – the silence that precedes and allows abuse, and the silence that follows &nd

The Last Season

Text by Tom Wright. Music by Kelly Ryall. Choreography by Danielle Micich. Force Majeure / Sydney Festival. Carriageworks. Jan 6 – 10, 2021.

It’s a tough call making a show with kids about the world’s environmental collapse, but Force Majeure has an impressive record of working with non-dancers representative of different communities and current issues.

With the so-called Youth Company, the dance theatre troupe here re-constructs Vivaldi’s optimistic Four Seasons cycle into the last gasp of The Last Season – not that you hear Vivaldi’s symphony, or would even get the connection without being told.

Future Remains

Diary of One Who Disappeared by Leoš Janáček, with a new libretto by Pierce Wilcox & Fumeblind Oracle - Composer Huw Belling and lyricist Pierce Wilcox. Sydney Chamber Opera. Sydney Festival. Carriageworks. Jan 6 – 10, 2021

In this its seventh Sydney Festival show, Sydney Chamber Opera offers a dramatic and provocative counterbalance of two works.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

By William Shakespeare. Presented by The Australian Shakespeare Company. Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Melbourne Gardens, Southern Cross Lawn, 100 Birdwood Avenue, South Yarra. 18 December 2020 - 24 January 2021.

This is a highly energetic and entertaining performance of Shakespeare’s magical comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The Australian Shakespeare Company takes a very traditional approach to the play, incorporating some contemporary elements that preserve all the original features but make the play highly accessible, helping to accentuate the comedy. The staging of the production is truly remarkable and allows for a level of grandeur and spectacular effects not usually associated or feasible in an outdoor setting. 

Ring, Ring!

Written & directed by Ebony Rattle & Ellen Wiltshire. Virtual Waiting Room. Theatre Works Glasshouse’s Fringe Replanted. Theatre Works, St Kilda. 5 – 9 January 2021

Set in 1963, the central question posed in Ring, Ring! appears to be ‘What is Truth?’  The play begins with a death – a murder?

The Merry Widow

Music: Franz Lehar. Libretto: Viktor Leon and Leo Stein. Translation: Justin Fleming. Opera Australia. Direction & Choreography: Graeme Murphy; Conductor: Brian Castles-Onion. Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House. 5 - 16 January 2021.

If ever there was an argument about how essential the Arts are in the time of Covid, then look no further than OA’s elegant and fun production of The Merry Widow. On the practical side I’d suggest that such productions keep in gainful employment far more people than sporting events, and therefore are better for the economy.

James Galea's Best Trick Ever

A Rose Tinted Enterprises production commissioned by Sydney Opera House, enabled by Taylor Construction Group and COMVISION® Security Solutions. The Studio, Sydney Opera House. January 6 – February 14, 2021

Opening night of the 2021 Sydney Festival and it doesn't feel very festive. Circular Quay is virtually deserted. The giant passenger terminal is all locked up. Ferries run near-empty services. The Opera House is in lockdown, with masks for everyone and all entrances tightly patrolled.

RENT

By Jonathan Larson. Sydney Opera House, in association with LPD and Sugary Rum Productions. Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Until January 31, 2021.

With its potent tale of love and diversity, amidst New York’s impoverished yet still vibrant arts community living with the HIV/AIDS epidemic, 1990s rock musical RENT resonates powerfully today.

Baring the Drama Theatre stage to a black box - with a split-level podium as the central playing area, flanked by the almost obligatory moveable skeletal staircases and bridge - Dan Barber’s set design evokes urban decay. Unmatched chairs are strewn like kerbside detritus.

Bluey’s Big Play The Stage Show

Presented by QPAC’s Out of the Box in association with BBC Studios, Andrew Kay and Windmill Theatre Co. Playhouse, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), Brisbane. 22 December 2020 to 10 January 2021

Beth Keehn and young theatre fan Archie Humphries report on how family favourite, Bluey, translates from small screens to ‘real-life’ in a theatre world premiere.

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