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Music: Richard Rodgers. Book & Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein ll. Based on Ferenc Molnar’s play Liliom. Queensland Musical Theatre. Director: Ruth Gabriel. Musical Director: Julie Whiting. Choreography: Julianne Burke. Schonell Theatre, St Lucia, Brisbane. 2-6 November 2016.

Over seventy years ago Rodgers and Hammerstein broke the mold when they created Carousel with its wife-beating street-tough anti-hero, and it’s this dark spousal-abuse story thread that still gives the musical its contemporary currency. Their score, one of the finest in the classic musical theatre canon, registered time and time again in Ruth Gabriel’s production which wisely cast voices who could do justice to the songs.

Anna Bolena

By Gaetano Donizetti. Presented by Melbourne Opera and directed by Suzanne Chaundy. Athenaeum Theatre, 188 Collins Street, Melbourne 2, 5, & 9 November & Monash University 12 November, 2016.

Donizetti’s fascination with Tudor England and the women who feature in this tumultuous history is indulged in Anna Bolena. The opera recounts the period which sees the demise of Boleyn as Queen of England and King Henry VIII’s second wife. This period of history, and in particular Henry's court, is rich with intrigue, betrayal and espionage and in many ways sets the scene for the future reign of their daughter Elizabeth I.

Up For Grabs

By David Williamson. Hobart Repertory Theatre Society. Directed by Nick Lahey. Playhouse Theatre, Hobart. 28 October – 12 November 2016

Ouch! The David Williamson play Up For Grabs by Hobart Repertory Theatre Society is an observation of people who are greedy, affected, pretentious and acquisitive, and we saw some on stage in Hobart. Set around the contemporary art world of the 1990s and written in 2000, Up For Grabs is a fast-paced comedy of (bad) manners, first performed by the Sydney Theatre Company in 2001.

Frankenstein

The Q. Directed by Nick Atkins. The Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre, Penrith. November 3-5, 2016

A thought provoking, sensory experience.

When I agreed to review The Q’s Frankenstein, I was intrigued by the show’s description of a cross-disciplinary performance, using a live musical score, text from Mary Shelley’s original novel and parts of the classic film to retell a tale of doom and destruction.

Not having had a lot of exposure to contemporary theatre (I am more of a musical kind of gal), I didn’t know what to expect and wondered if I would find it weird or if I would even understand it.

White Day Dream

Weave Movement Theatre & Yumi Umiumare. 45 Downstairs, Melbourne. 27 October to 6 November, 2016.

Intrinsic to White Day Dream is a whimsical set by Jennifer Tran made almost entirely of white plastic shopping bags, in fact the plastic bags extend to the auditorium.  They are a marvelous canvas and make great props. 

Gutenberg the Musical

By Scott Brown & Anthony King. Holland St Productions. Directed by Erin Hutchinson. Hellenic Club, Perth, WA. Oct 27 - Nov 5, 2016

Holland St Productions is known for producing quirky, original work, so Gutenberg the Musical, developed by Scott Brown and Anthony King, which had a solid Off-Broadway run, is a departure from their usual fare in many ways. Stylistically though, this show could have been written by Tyler Jones and Robert Woods, Holland St’s usual musical collaborators - a wild and unusual, small cast musical, irreverent and clever, with an off-beat charm.

The Days Are as Grass

By Carol Hall. RPW & Stories About Humans. Depot Theatre, Marrickville. October 19 – 20, 2016.

RPW & Stories About Humans production of Carol Hall’s The Days Are as Grass is a moving collection of vignettes about relationships and life aimed at the older generation. Beautiful direction and acting from the cast.

Eight stories as separate montages flow in to one another on stage in a ninety minute performance at The Depot Theatre, connecting the universal themes of love, marriage, friendships, memory, aging and death.

The World Without Birds

Written by Christine Croyden; original songs by Ella Filar. La Mama Courthouse. 26 October – 6 November 2016.

The World Without Birds is a wry lament for a woman’s life.  The title is both metaphor and play on words.  The show could easily slip into a long whinge, but here any bitterness or rage is mitigated by rueful wit, humour, the incredulity of hindsight  (‘Did I really do that?’) and the philosophical shrug. 

Sholem Aleichem: Not Dead Yet

Curated and adapted by Shane Baker & Galit Klas with sketches, monologues and songs by Sholem Aleichem, Louis Gilrod, Abraham Goldfaden, Mikhl Gordon, Arnold Perlmutter, Peretz Sandler & Herman Wohl. New material by Arnold Zable. Presented by The Kadimah. Phoenix Theatre, Elwood, VIC. 29 – 30 October 2016.

‘Sholem Aleichem’ (‘peace be with you’) was the pen name of beloved Yiddish short story writer, novelist, poet and playwright Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich.  This show, on the centenary of his death, is a tribute to him and his work, the latter certainly ‘not dead yet’ – as Arnold Zable’s narration tells us.  Perhaps Aleichem is best known today, however, for the adaptation of his stories Tevye the Dairyman as the musical Fiddler On The Roof.  When he died in New York, his cortege attracted crowds of maybe 100,0

Othello

By William Shakespeare. Bell Shakespeare. Sydney Opera House, Playhouse. October 25 – December 4, 2016

The best thing about Bell Shakespeare’s Othello is Ray Chong Nee.

He brings strength and charisma to the warrior Moor but also an unusual humanizing lyricism of manner (perhaps from his Islander background), which helps makes true Othello’s impossibly fast slide into jealous obsession.   

Chong Nee in fact unravels too much, by the end dwindling into an epileptic animal shuffling off to strangle Desdemona.

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