Reviews

Ovid’s erotic and audacious 12,000 line epic poem ‘Metamorphoses’ was written in the first century of the Roman Empire. These were turbulent times of experimentation, licentiousness, love and violence. Ovid’s poem recalls one hundred and fifty stories from Greek mythology that illustrate these compulsions in man. Mary Zimmerman turned some of the tales into theatre and director Dino Dimitriadis and his team were drawn to her invitation to “create images that amplify the text, lend it poetic resonance or even contradict it”.

Jacobean playwright John Webster knew the older Shakespeare but shared none of his optimism in man’s ultimate nobility and good reason. Webster’s darker vision, captured in the hit premiere of The Duchess of Malfi back in 1613, is a relentlessly brutish view of man, instinctively violent and corrupted by power. Webster was perfectly enacted as that treacherous urchin in the film, Shakespeare in Love; the one who hunted back stage of the Globe killing rats and whinging that the plays weren’t bloody enough.

The experience of seeing A Chorus Line has been greatly enriched in recent years by the remarkable documentary Every Little Step, which traces the origin of the work – based on real stories of real dancers.

It adds another dimension that resonates when you see this musical again staged at the highest level and think back to the originally recorded interviews that form the basis of the book.

Adelaide missed out on the professional tour of Hairspray.

With such a void to be filled, enter director/producer/actor Matt Byrne with a vibrant, joyous, exciting version of the classic show.

He said his production was based on John Waters’ original 1988 film, rather than the 2007 version which featured John Travolta.

With Byrne’s biggest cast to date, 60 performers, the show ticked all of the boxes with a fantastic ensemble cast, an innovative pastel set and a rocking 12-piece band led by Rodney Hrvatin.