Reviews

Alice Tovey: Not Like The Other Ghouls

Melbourne International Comedy Festival. The Tower, Malthouse Theatre. March 30 to April 9, 2023.

Alice Tovey: Not Like The Other Ghouls - the rock star goddess punches out her eclectic exorcisms of what it means to love the horror genre. A ghoulish show, residing in the Palace of Frankenstein where sketchy bits and pieces are stitched together into a full hour of comedy-cabaret.

Sweeney Todd. The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Book by Hugh Wheeler from an adaptation by Christopher Bond Directed by Sonya Suares. The Geoff Gibbs Theatre, Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Edith Cowan University, My Lawley, WA. Mar 31- Apr 5, 2023

Sweeney Todd. The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a gorgeously dark production performed with strength by WAAPA Third Year Musical Theatre, and superbly designed built and crewed by WAAPA Production and Design students.

Orlando

By Sarah Ruhl from the novel by Virginia Woolf. Directed by Younghee Park. Enright Studio, Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Edith Cowan University, Mt Lawley, WA. Mar 30 - Apr 5, 2023

WAAPA’s Orlando is an excellent ensemble piece, performed by WAAPA Third Year Performance Making students, with design and production support provided by WAAPA Production and Design students. Expertly acted, Orlando includes a great deal of shared storytelling, with strong stage music and at times an almost Bollywood feel.

Much Ado About Nothing

By William Shakespeare. Directed by Clara Voda. The Roundhouse, Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Edith Cowan University, Mt Lawley, WA. Mar 30-Apr 5, 2023

Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing is performed by WAAPA Third Year Acting Students, with design and creative elements provided by WAAPA Production and Design students. A vibrant and colourful production, Much Ado About Nothing showcases the emerging talents from a range of WAAPA disciplines.

Dr. Brown Returns (USA)

Presented by MILKE. Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Malthouse Theatre, 113 Sturt Street, Southbank. 30 March – 9 April 2023

Phil Burgers has created the somewhat controversial character, Dr Brown, and has wowed audiences across various international comedy festival stages. It is not the least bit surprising that his unique talent translates well to the small and big screen where Burgers has created some very successful short sketches. On the surface Dr Brown appears as a somewhat crude slothful being but, actually, this character has a great deal of heart (literally and metaphorically).

Grey Arias

Performed and devised by Adrienne Truscott and Le Gateau Chocolat. Co-directed by John Jarboe. Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Malthouse Theatre, 113 Sturt Street Southbank. 30 March – 16 April 2023.

Adrienne Truscott and Let Gateau Chocolat are two renowned artists in their own right. Historically they both draw on often highly confronting material for their shows. As artists who have forged a career in working in the grey areas of performance art this show seems an inevitable collaboration and consolidation of the oeuvre that binds them together. The imagery is often crass, the content is always brutally honest, and the eclectic style of performance is equally brash.

Disney 100 – The Concert

Producers: MM Creative Productions. HOTA Gold Coast - March 31st –April 1st, 2023, and other states.

The digital traffic warning on the jammed road outside the Arts Centre told us “HOTA Special Event”, The event was, of course, the Disney 100 concert – not an imported package but, in fact, the brainchild of two super talented ladies from Perth who form MM Creative Productions.

Cherry Smoke

By James McManus. Crisscross Productions. Director Charlie Vaux. KXT on Broadway. 24 March – 8 April, 2023

Many industrial centres in the United States floundered at the end of the 20th century. In Pittsburgh, for example, after the steelworks closed in 1978, 300,000 people lost their jobs. By 2021 the U.S. Census Bureau declared that one in five citizens – over 56,000 people – in that once thriving city lived in poverty.

The Beryls: Cattle Call.

Presented by the Travelling Sisters. Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Malthouse Theatre, 113 Sturt Street Southbank. 30 March – 9 April 2023

Laura Trenerry & Patrick Dwyer form the partnership called the The Beryls and this performance sees two fictional characters they have created, Victoria Beauvoir (Dwyer), and sidekick Roger Seahorse (Trenerry) devise a show. They stage a casting call in their hometown of Schlumpsville where they want to stage the performance to reinvigorate their ailing careers. Their imaginary production requires the casting of 72 roles and as they ponder the characters that will populate their somewhat absurd scenarios, they invite some highly unlikely performers to test their talent.

Where There’s a Will

By Christine Croyden. Melbourne International Comedy Festival. La Mama HQ. 28 March – 9 April 2023

Three sisters fight over their mother’s will. In this play, the twist on the cliché, ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way.’, is ‘where there’s a will, there’s a fight.’  These sisters’ fight is vicious, malicious, irrational, childish, careless with the truth – and funny.  The nub of the battle is a beach house, once the scene of happy holidays of sun and surf, now dilapidated and stacked with years of memorabilia (i.e.

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