Reviews

Here You Come Again

Created by Bruce Vilanch, Gabriel Barre and Tricia Paoluccio. Presented by Kay & McLean Productions, Melting Pot and Fane Productions. Directed by Gabriel Barre. Comedy Theatre, Exhibition Street, Melbourne 12 - 20 July & 23 October - 2 November 2025, and touring.

Tricia Paoluccio is a multifaceted performer and visual artist who has worked across stage film and television as well as fine arts. Her uncanny ability to sing just like Dolly Parton is an opportunity for Paoluccio to consolidate a long-term dedication to the singer. Rather than constructing a traditional biographical account of Dolly Parton’s life, the show imagines her as a fairy godmother to superfan Kevin (Dash Kruck).

Kimberly Akimbo

Score by Jeanine Tesori. Lyrics and book by David Lindsay-Abaire. State Theatre Company South Australia and Melbourne Theatre Company in association with Wagnan Productions Sarah Rohrsheim. Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide, Jul 8-19, 2025 and Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse, Jul 26 – Aug 13, 2025.

Welcome to New Jersey 1999 and the life and times of an eccentric, somewhat unpredictable collection of characters who endure a few surprising plot detours (no spoilers here though).  With a phenomenal cast commanding the stage at Her Majesty’s Theatre and a dream crew fashioning the magic behind the scenes, opening night attendees were passionate in their appreciation of this production.

The Mikado or The Town of Titipu

Music by Arthur Sullivan. Libretto by W. S. Gilbert. GSOV. Alexander Theatre, Clayton, 17 – 20 July 2025, then Queenscliff Town Hall, 26 July; Stawell Town Hall, 2 August and Berninneit Theatre, Cowes, 10 August.

The Gilbert and Sullivan Society is celebrating its 90th anniversary. It is an outstanding achievement for the Society to have made Gilbert and Sullivan works available to audiences for nearly a century and to be a pivotal musical theatre company in Victoria.

The Mikado was the ninth of the fourteen collaborations between Gilbert and Sullivan, and one of their most popular works. The operetta opened on 14 March 1885 at the Savoy Theatre, London. So, 2025 is not only is the GSOV 90thanniversary, but it is also The Mikado’s 140th.

Garçon

Writer/Performer: wani toaishara. A part of Darebin Arts Speakeasy program. Director: Gideon Wilonja. Set designer: Jacqueline Tran. Northcote Townhall Arts Centre, 189 High Street, Northcote Vic. 16-20 July 2025

Wani toaishara gave the audience the gift of his memory of events and people he holds close to his sense of self and his heart during an almost hour-long meandering monologue. He was by turn funny, alarming, sad, innocent and wise. His script is still forming and there were some awkward jumps from person to event and back again following his memories. In his opening performance he read much of the script and yet the characters he called into being were strongly drawn and compelling.

Shakespeare in Hollywood

By Ken Ludwig. Adelaide Repertory Theatre. 17-26 July 2025

From a magic wood of Athens to a different magic wood of Holly, Shakespeare’s Oberon and Puck have somehow ended up in 1934, on the set of Max Reinhardt’s plagued film production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Their Elizabethan costumes and clipped English accents ensure they blend well with the extremes of those working within the Warner Brothers studio system at that time. With this Ken Ludwig re-telling of the making of the movie, stars Victor Jory and Mickey Rooney are absent, leaving a desperate director to re-cast Oberon and Puck as themselves.

Child

By Puvan Kumar Hari. The Blue Room and Ascension Arts. Saraswati Mahavidyalaya, Beaufort St, North Perth, WA. Jul 8-19, 2025

Presented by The Blue Room and Ascension Arts, Child is a multi-disciplinary piece of theatre, performed at Saraswati Mahavidyalaya, Beaufort St, North Perth, where lead artist Puvan Kumar Hari was trained and grew up, a fitting choice given the themes of his piece, which include embracing your inner child, and coming of age.

A lovely venue, which is shoe free, and which provided a foyer activation, meant that the audience felt welcomed and at home, although this was undermined somewhat by starting over twenty minutes late, without apology or explanation.

All The World's A Stage.

Shepherd's Purse Theatre Company. Directed by Solar Chapel. Flutterbies Cafe and Environs, Tyalgum NSW. July 10th -12th 2025.

I have written and raved about the Shepherd's Purse Theatre Company before; in many ways they defy description. They are situated in the vibrant arts hub town of Tyalgum, just 20 minutes out of Murwillumbah in the Tweed Valley, on the far north coast of NSW. Their cast consists of professional actors from Brisbane and the Gold Coast and a remarkable array of local residents. What they have delivered over the last few years would stand proudly on any professional theatre stage in any capital city.

My Cousin Frank

Written and told by Rhoda Roberts AO. Arts Centre Melbourne. July 9 to 12, 2025 and Hot House Theatre, Albury Wodonga from August 13.

Attending as a reviewer, a critic of the theatre, at this show is somehow an inaccurate power dynamic. For me to sit in the audience preferencing my critical eye over my felt sense would be wrong. It is NAIDOC week, a time of opening up to the experiences of existing on unceded Aboriginal land. Where the urgency of storytelling is so strong that the audience must stop thinking and start feeling. The need to share in community and be listened to is an archetypal human process.

Echo: Every Cold-Hearted Oxygen

By Nassim Soleimanpour. Directed by Omar Elerian. Merlyn Theatre Malthouse, 113 Sturt St, Southbank, Melbourne. 14 - 19 July 2025.

Nassim Soleimanpour is an unusual writer who is renowned for scripting text for unrehearsed performance. Echo is a deeply personal account of his own migration journey, which is fraught with the trauma of separation, the emotional tug of war between cultures, and the desperate desire to see peace and tranquillity in his homeland. The script is unrehearsed and deliberately unprepared, and a performer is invited to deliver his often-poetic prose and the experience of transporting the self into new geographical and psychological spaces.

Chicago - Teen Edition

By Fred Ebb, Bob Fosse and John Kander. Bel Canto Performing Arts. Directed by Blake Jenkins. The Old Mill Theatre, South Perth WA. Jul 11-19, 2025

Bel Canto Performing Arts presents Chicago Teen Edition at the Old Mill Theatre featuring a cast of teens, aged 15 to 21, with only two cast members over 18. Slightly shorter than the traditional version, this version omits the songs “Class” and “A Bit of Good” as well as some of the more overt sexual references, but otherwise packs as much punch as the adult version.

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