Reviews

Elegies – A Song Cycle

Music & Lyrics: William Finn. Director: Jason Langley. Musical Director: Heidi Loveland. Choreographer: Joseph Simons. Griffith University Musical Theatre Students, Burke Street Studio, Woolloongabba, Qld. 10-14 Mar 2020

William Finn’s Elegies has love, loss, and a smattering of humor in its life-loving song cycle of family (particularly Jewish New Yorkers), friends and acquaintances. Using 9/11 as his jumping off point and also reflecting on the AIDS crisis, the songs chronicle the lives of those Finn has loved and those who have died in tunes that are melodic, catchy, and tellingly simple. Normally staged with a cast of five, this production uses twenty-three on basically a bare stage except for four meccano-like towers on which the cast pin photos of the characters they sing about.

Voices of St Petersburg

More Than Opera. Conductor: Alan Cook. Melbourne Town Hall – March 10, 2020 & Sydney Town Hall – March 14, 2020

More Than Opera is a small opera company which specialises in introducing opera in innovative ways to people who might otherwise not get to experience the art form. Artistic director, Alan Cook, who, during his European career had extensive experience conducting operas in Russia, had invited four of Russia’s finest for concerts in Melbourne and Sydney.

He brought together a 65 piece orchestra and presented an all-Russian program. It was excellent!

The Artist

Adelaide Festival. Circo Aereo. Adelaide College of Arts, Main Theatre. March 9 – 14, 2020.

If you are looking for an Adelaide Festival show that is a lot of fun and suitable for all ages, look no further than Circo Aereo’s The Artist.

An artist, obscured by a large canvas, is working in a shabby studio, complete with paint splattered floor, grubby curtains and sickly pot-plant. Inspiration has escaped him and he spends the next hour trying to recapture it in all manner of entertaining antics.

The Hitmen

By Mish Wittrup. Theatre Works and Baker’s Dozen Theatre. Theatre Works, St Kilda. March 4 – 14, 2020

The Hitmen is riddled with surprises, shocks and some fun local and popular culture references.  It is a great, lively, clever, imaginative play by Mish Wittrup, that keeps everyone on their toes.   

A handful of people come to a job interview for the position of Hitman for K O C (Australia’s largest agency of contract killers and assassins).  The stakes are very high as there is only one position and all rejects will be eliminated.

Baggage Limit

Peta Morris. Adelaide Fringe. The Bakehouse Theatre. March 9 – 14, 2020

Performer Peta Morris is no stranger to the creative industry; an accomplished singer, songwriter and art educator, she is expanding her talents to theatre performance. Using her vocals, she takes us on a musical journey interweaved with a story close to her heart.

Literally giving birth to herself is a sight you will not soon forget. Dressed in a giant costume resembling a vulva, she is liberated and sets the tone for this brave and confronting presentation.

Wicked Sisters

By Alma de Groen. Stirling Players Inc. The Stirling Community Theatre. Directed by Megan Dansie. March 6 – 21, 2020

It has taken me longer than usual to write this review because I came away somewhat conflicted about Wicked Sisters.

It is an interesting play and it strikes many connecting notes with members of the audience. There are some nice ripostes and some good one-liners which lift the atmosphere and make the audience laugh.

The Wild Unfeeling World

Adelaide Fringe. Lion House Theatre, Hartstone-Kitney Productions, and Holden Street Theatres. The Garden, Holden Street Theatres / Coventry Library Lawns, Stirling. 3 – 14 March, 2020

The Wild Unfeeling World by Casey Jay Andrews is a wonderful and thrilling one-woman show that has been inspired by Herman Melville’s ‘classic’ novel, Moby Dick. Like Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Melville’s Moby Dick has surfaced a number of times in this year’s Adelaide Fringe and Festival shows.

Renfield: In the Shadow of the Vampire

By Ross Ericson. Grist to the Mill Productions (UK). Adelaide Fringe. Bakehouse Theatre. 4-14 March, 2020

In this year’s Adelaide Fringe Festival there are a number of adaptations of ‘classic’ literary novels, exemplified by Grist to Mill’s productions of Moby Dick,and Renfield: In the Shadow of the Vampire, the latter based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula. For some reason it is these two novels in particular that are playing a role in the festival. Why?

The Hipster: A Musical for People Who Don’t Like Musicals

Adelaide Fringe. Sound Bowl Productions. Little Bang Brewing Company, 25 Henry Street, Stepney, SA, 5069. 8-17 March, 2020

Home-grown theatre with a home-grown setting: it’s a relative rarity in Adelaide, so any gesture in this direction by talented companies is welcome.

Tamara Linke has scripted/composed a breezily lightweight musical-comedy in which the plot may be rambling and fairly arbitrary, but the energy bringing it to life in this production is undeniable, which minimises the impact of the flaws and leaves you feeling grateful for the kind of silly uplift that Australia could do with right about now.

Falsettos

Music and Lyrics by William Finn and book by Finn and James Lapine. Theatre and Company. Lennox Theatre Parramatta. March 5 – 14, 2020

Falsettos is a fast-paced whirlwind of a musical that takes you on an emotional roller-coaster from start to finish. Boasting a score that includes some crazy and hilarious numbers along with ones that pull at your heart strings, the story takes you on the journey of three dysfunctional couples and one 12 year old, who is also on a journey towards his Bar Mitzvah.

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