Reviews

Les Misérables – The Arena Spectacular

Presented by Cameron Mackintosh. Music: Claude-Michel Schönberg. Lyrics: Herbert Kretzmer. Original French text: Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel. Additional material: James Fenton. Directors: James Powell and Jean-Pierre Van Der Spuy. Musical Director: Adrian Kirk. Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne. May 14 – 25, 2025.

As a teen, I loved collecting cast albums of new musicals. I first encountered the Les Misérables original London cast album at Brash’s music store when I was 15. Listening on the headphones the sweeping, cinematic score and stirring and unapologetic lyrics astonished me. Returning home I regretted not buying the album. However, many of the melodies lingered in my mind causing a very sleepless night. I had to hear these incredible songs again! The next day I returned eagerly to the store to buy the ‘double cassette’.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Book by Jeffrey Lane. Music and Lyrics by David Yazbek. Based on the film by Pedro Almodóvar. Pinwheel Productions. Directed by Alex Berlage. Musical Director Dylan Pollard. Choreography Chiara Assetta. Set Designer Halley Hunt. Hayes Theatre. Opening Night. May 14, 2025. Plays until June 8.

This production is so much fun that it’s dangerous. From the hilarious Spanish accents to the outrageous flamboyance, fabulous costumes and brilliant performances, it rarely slows down to catch its breath.  

It starts from the premise of it being impossible to stage in the small box that is the Hayes Theatre, then remarkably pulls it off without a single major prop being moved.

Happy Days

By Samuel Beckett. Sydney Theatre Company. Wharf 1 Theatre. May 5 – June 15.

In a play where nothing happens, except for one static actor entombed in rock talking about nothing for 100 minutes, it’s surprising that Samuel Beckett’s absurdist classic is so often staged.  Pamela Rabe shows us why in this compelling and intriguing STC production.

When the Rain Stops Falling

By Andrew Bovell. Mockingbird Theatre Company. Director: Chris Baldock. Belconnen Arts Centre, ACT. May 8 – 17, 2025

To successfully stage this intriguingly-plotted play is definitely an achievement. Kudos to Mockingbird Theatre and its talented members who have brought this production to life. It is imaginatively staged in the round, where every audience member can see and hear clearly.

At Sea Staring Up

By Finegan Kruckemeyer. Directed by Helen Tronos. Hayman Theatre, Curtin University, Bentley, WA. May 6-10, 2025

This Australian play, “sort of” set in a laundromat, tells five seemingly disparate stories, some fantastical, others apparently realistic, which gradually merge into a single tale. Cleverly performed by Hayman Theatre Company, this was a top-quality production that is one of Hayman’s best.

Fair Punishment

Based on the translation of the novel La petite fille qui aimait trop les allumettes by Gaëtan Soucy 1998 Éditions du Boréal. Adapted by Nicky Fearn and Gail Evans. Director: Susie Dee. Designer: Dann Barber. Lighting Designer: Tomm Lydiard. Sound Design and Projections: Matt Cunliffe. Performed by: Gail Evans, Nicky Fearn, Thomas Midena, Merlynn Tong, and Melanie Mununggurr. Presented by Brown’s Mart and Business Unusual. Brown’s Mart, 12 Smith Street, Darwin. 13–24 May 2025.

Creative genius and the artists who possess it and spend their lives striving to create lived and performed experiences of it for us to share, often nests in the elusive realm of the impossible. The Theatre takes her prisoners – theatre makers and audiences alike – where our shared memories are often littered with flaws, mishaps, errors of judgement, indulgence, and unhappily unmet expectations.

The Black Woman of Gippsland

By Andrea James. Melbourne Theatre Company. May 5 to 31, 2025

The Black Woman of Gippsland, written and directed by Andrea James (Sunshine Super Girl) is a brilliant dramatization of historical events seen through the eyes of a budding black historian.

Tomas Clifford Got Stood Up

By Tomas Clifford. Directed by Tomas Clifford and Alexandria Henderson. The Rechabites Hall, Northbridge, WA. May 4, 2025

Tomas Clifford Got Stood Up, winner of Fringe World’s Martin Sims Award for Best New Western Australian Work, returned for a single performance as part of the Perth Comedy Festival.

This highly polished fusion of stand-up, rock concert, biographical drama and musical, feels like it is being played in a much larger venue (think Arena Concerts) and keeps its audience highly engrossed throughout.

Grand Horizons

By Bess Wohl. Directed by Phil Carney. New Farm Nash Theatre, Brisbane. 9 – 31 May, 2025.

Set against the backdrop of a tidy retirement community, Grand Horizons invites us into a world where appearances are deceptive and emotional complexity lurks just below the surface.  After fifty years of marriage, Nancy calmly announces she wants a divorce.  Her husband, Bill, responds with quiet indifference but their two adult sons are blinded.

Drinking Habits

By Tom Smith. Wyndham Theatre Company. Director: Cody Riker. Lighting and audio: Sam Victoria. Costume design: Amy Lowe. Crossroads Hall, Synnot St., Werribee. 9th – 17th May, 2025

Drinking Habits is high farce with secrets, lost loves, people pretending to be someone else, lightning costume changes, hiding places behind doors, under the table and in a trunk, all contributing to the mayhem. The setting in a very small convent during prohibition in America aids the necessary misunderstandings.

Subscribe to our E-Newsletter, buy our latest print edition or find a Performing Arts book at Book Nook.