Reviews

The Mathematics of Longing

Written by Suzie Miller. Co-created by Todd MacDonald, Suzie Miller, Ngoc Phan, Kate Harman, Gavin Webber and Merlynn Tong. Presented by La Boite, The Farm and The Uncertainty Principle. La Boite Roundhouse Theatre, 02 – 23 June, 2018

The Mathematics of Longingis a profoundly beautiful, meaningful experience. It seamlessly combines art, science, mathematics, drama, physics, music and dance. The result is a unique theatrical experience. The show’s text intertwined with physical theatre, explores the biggest of the big issues to the point where one feels smarter from having sat in observation in the darkened Roundhouse Theatre.

Fury

By Joanna Murray-Smith. Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre. Red Stitch, St Kilda East. 29 May – 1 July 2018

Two private school boys, Joe (Sean Rees-Wemyss) and his mate Ethan (whom we never see), deface and vandalise a mosque.  Joe’s happy but complacent parents, medical research scientist Alice (Danielle Carter) and stalled novelist Patrick (Joe Petruzzi) are horrified – but more by the completely unexpected vandalism and graffiti than by the beliefs behind them.  At least it seems that way since this shaming disruption comes at a bad time: Alice is about to receive an award for her research, the result of years of work and struggle and Joe’s actions won’t refle

Me, Myself and Everyone Else - Christina Bianco

Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Banquet Room Adelaide Festival Centre. June 8 - 10, 2018

Christina Bianco is a four foot eleven inch dynamo. Obviously excited to be making her debut at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, she swept a full house along on an A to Zee journey of divas.

From Edith Piaf and Marlene Dietrich, Billie Holliday and Judy Garland to Lisa Minelli and Julie Andrews, she used her love of these highly individual performers to produce a wonderful evening’s entertainment.

Glorious Misfits

Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre. June 9 – 11, 2018

Set in the multipurpose Space Theatre, Glorious Misfits is visually stunning, in your face, funny and entertaining all at once!

Artistic Director Ali McGregor has gathered seven of her favourite performers from the circus, burlesque and cabaret and formed a vaudeville show that has something for everyone.

The show is all around you, among the audience and on the stage, all set under a glittering mirror ball and multi coloured lighting.

 

South Pacific

Music: Richard Rodgers. Book & Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein 2nd. Queensland Musical Theatre Production. Director: Deian Ping. Musical Director: Gerry Crooks. Choregrapher: Ruth Gabriel. Schonell Theatre, St Lucia, Qld. 6-10 June 2018

Musicals from Broadway’s “Golden Age” were written for a different era and a different set of cultural and societal differences. Mostly their portrayal and treatment of characters, by today’s standards, can seem outmoded and outdated. South Pacific is no exception. Revolutionary at the time for it’s depiction of racism, to a contemporary audience it seems heavy-handed, yet it’s the racism spine (and exceptional score) that gives South Pacific its strength and longevity on stage.

The Merry Widow

The Australian Ballet. State Theatre, Melbourne. June 7th – 16th, 2018

In 1975 The Merry Widow was the first full-length original ballet created for the Australian Ballet and has been much loved ever since. Devised by Sir Robert Helpmann, the ballet has a long and esteemed pedigree for the company and this production does not disappoint.  There is a whimsical nature to Widow (in spite of some thankfully outdated ideas about love and marriage) that leaves the audience feeling delighted and charmed as they leave the theatre.

Holiday Inn

Book by Gordon Greenberg and Chad Hodge. Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. Therry Dramatic Society. Arts Theatre, Adelaide. 7-16 June 2018,

Growing up as I did in a time before Internet and before Netflix and Youtube, the Sunday Matinee movie was often the entertainment highlight of my week. I can’t honestly remember whether the 1942 Universal Studios’ Holiday Inn, starring Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire and Marjorie Reynolds, was one that I saw; I hope it was, but I can say that the adaptation staged by Therry Dramatic Society transported me, very happily, right back to that time.

Diary of a Madman

By Nikolai Gogol. Adapted for stage by David Holman. Developed by Geoffrey Rush and Neil Armfield. Directed by Caroline Stacey. Produced by The Street, 15 Childers Street, Canberra City. 2 – 16 June 2018.

A beautiful young woman in a shimmering silver dress, strappy heels and Jackie Onassis shades sashays across the stage in waltz time. Obsessed with this vision, Propishchin waltzes close behind her, his eyes half-closed in delirium, nostrils flaring as though to smell her. But then, the image evaporates. Right there, Propishchin’s mind breaks. It’s a moment of agonising poignancy, and one that doesn’t exist in the original story as Gogol wrote it. The scene captures the tone of The Street’s production of Diary of a Madman.

Bring It On The Musical

Book: Jeff Whitty, Music: Tom Kitt & Lin-Manuel Miranda, Lyrics: Amanda Green & Lin-Manuel Miranda. Stage Masters. Director: Alistair Smith. Choreographer: Michael Ralph. Musical Director: Daniele Buatti. Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne. June 7 – 23, 2018

Bring It On The Musical is a high energy, loud, athletic tour de force. Based on the hit film, it is the story of an ambitious Cheerleader who achieves her life-long ambition to be leader of the squad only to find her home has been rezoned and she has to change schools. She then convinces the dance team at her new school to take up Cheerleading and compete against her old school.

However, her aim for revenge, which appears to be the obvious way the story is heading, does not eventuate, and she learns something much more important.

Danny & the Deep Blue Sea

By John Patrick Shanley. Directed by Charlie Cousins & Laura Maitland. Produced by Charlie Cousins. Siteworks, 33 Saxon Street, Brunswick VIC. 4 – 23 June 2018

Somewhere in the Bronx, in a scrappy, empty bar, a woman sits alone, her coiled, angry misery overlaying her striking looks.  A younger man slouches in with a jug of beer and sits at another table.  His knuckles are bloody, his face is cut and bruised, his hoodie dirty, his boots held together with gaffer tape.  They are two damaged isolates.  It will emerge that he fears he killed a man the night before.  His workmates call him ‘The Beast’ – and he is afraid of himself.  We realise she is contemplating suicide.

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