Reviews

The Last Five Queers

Music & lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, adapted and with a new story by Adam Noviello & Madi Lee. For the Midwinta Festival, Butterfly Club, Melbourne CBD. 28 July to 9 August 2015.

Five performers and a pianist present a radically reimagined version of Jason Robert Brown’s original music theatre show, The Last Five Years.  Adam Noviello and Madi Lee have taken the music, adapted some of the lyrics and ‘repurposed’ others, roped in a song or two from elsewhere (you’ll recognise a few) and created a very different scenario: the interwoven stories of five characters, three men and two women.  The performers and director Leanne Marsland make clever use of the club’s bare and tiny stage; the only props are five stools.

Happy Days

By Samuel Becket. Queensland Theatre Company. Billie Brown Studio, Brisbane. Directed by Wesley Enoch. 18th July - 15th August, 2015

QTC's version of Becket's famous play is in town, this production having an interpretation with a distinctively Australian feel. First impressions to set the mood are an eerie score in the foyer by Alan Lawrence followed by a design by Penny Challen with, firstly, a stage curtain depicting the Australian landscape, a painting by artist John Glover, followed by a surreal set influenced by contemporary artists like Drysdale and Nolan: all combined to create an expression of the bleak and desolate 'entrapment' of the central character, Winnie.     

Grease

Book, Music and Lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Presented by The Q, Queanbeyan Arts Centre. Directed by Stephen Pike. The Q, 253 Crawford Street Queanbeyan. 29 July – 15 August 2015

Director Stephen Pike triumphs again with a bright and brash take on this 70s-come-50s nostalgia classic. To sum it up, fabulous! The costumes, the singing, the choreography, the set design, the great use of LED lighting panels, and use of a largely young, enthusiatic cast all adds up to a vibrant experience. I can remember asking Mum what the phrase “a bun in the oven” meant after seeing Grease in Year 6, a class excursion the teachers had to fight to get past the P & C.

Women in War

Composer: Tassos Ionnides. Librettist: Deborah Parsons. Artek Productions Pty Ltd. Director: Alkinos Tsilimidos. Venue: Arts Centre, Melbourne. July 30 to August 1, 2015

Numerous theatrical events have commemorated this year’s centenary of Gallipoli. New Australian contemporary opera Women in War takes quite a different tack, showing how World War 1 affected women, through the eyes of three contrasting characters.

Medea

By Euripides. Complete Works Theatre Company. Union House Theatre, University of Melbourne. 28 – 31 July 2015.

The character of Medea will be known forever as ‘the woman who killed her children’.  Of course, it’s more complicated than that.  A despised outsider – a ‘barbarian’ - in Corinth, driven mad (or is she?) when she is dumped by her opportunist, social climber husband, Jason, for a younger model, and she and her children by him are about to be sent into exile…

Stars of Track and Field

By Amanda Miha. La Mama (Vic). Director: Darren Vizer. July 29 – Aug 9, 2015.

Stars of Track and Field sounded like my sort of gig, having been a practising athlete for my entire adult life. I couldn’t have been more wrong. This edgy drama about a dysfunctional family centres on the mother, who was preparing to sprint in the Olympics when involved in a car accident which left her with a broken body and shattered dreams.

Private Lives

By Noël Coward. Gold Coast Little Theatre, Southport.. Director: Roger McKenzie, July 25th to August 15th, 2015

Quoting NoëlCoward, "I've sometimes thought of marrying - and then I've thought again.”

Private Livesopened at GCLT, preceded delightfully - and appropriately - with French chanteuse Huguette Raman performing pre-show in the bar-foyer.

Coward's plays are a unique style; his wit is in portraying and sending up the questionable manners and sophisticated posturing of the 1920’s - 30's idle rich. In this case it is two couples who aren't quite sure to whom they want to be or whether they want to remain married.

The Insomnia Project

Written, composed and directed by Natasha Moszenin.. La Mama Courthouse (Vic). July 29 - August 9, 2015

Devised from personal experience by Natasha Moszenin, this piece captures the tortuous afflictions that sleep deprivation causes. A powerful piece of theatre, without being heavy handed, The Insomnia Project treats the problem seriously without taking itself too seriously and genuinely allows itself to discover moments of irony and humour.

Anything Goes

Music & Lyrics: Cole Porter. Book: Timothy Crouse and John Weidman based on the original by P.G. Wodehouse, Guy Bolton, Howard Lindsay & Russell Crouse. Producer: Opera Australia & John Frost. Director: Dean Bryant. Musical Director: Peter Casey. Choreography: Andrew Hallsworth. Lyric Theatre, QPAC. July 25 – Aug 16, 2015

I don’t know what we’ve done to deserve it but with Anything Goes the musical gods have sent us the most glorious musical-comedy package in years. A perfect cast bring Cole Porter’s quintessential piece of 1930s fluff brilliantly to life.

Legends

Performed by Tom McLean, Elliot Roberts, Carly Milroy and Chris Chosich. Directed by Harley Hefford. The Butterfly Club, Melbourne. July 21 – 26, 2015

Sketch comedy is currently enjoying a resurgence (if it ever truly went out of style) and the cast of Legends had the intention to"explore myths and legends ranging from the Boy who Cried Wolf to Prometheus, Atlas to Humpty Dumpty and much more."

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