The Wharf Revue 2020: Good Night and Good Luck

The original Wharf Revue trio, with the talented assistance of Amanda Bishop, is back on tour with another collection of pithy parodies and caustic caricatures!

Based on the chaos of the year gone by, they wittily appraise everything from the bush fires (How do we Solve a Problem from Hawaii) to pork-barrelling (The Adventures of Bridget McKenzie) to more ‘intimate relationships’ (The Premier’s Dating Service).

As usual, few lampoonable luminaries escape their satirical sketches. Phil Scott returns as Kevin Rudd advising not to “touch the Super in the bank”. Drew Forsythe re-envisages a Pauline Hanson even more discombobulated by the English language and the “all those people living in towers in Melbourne”. Jonathan Biggins reprises Donald Trump – and Amanda Bishop is a very elegant First lady. The New Seekers become the Jobseekers and four slinky “Cats” recall Labor Party branch stacking with a visit from Julia Gillard and her “Memories”.

Of course, there are some new personalities as well. Dr Norman Swan, the Brazilian president (“there’s an awful lot of coughin’ in Brazil”) and the oft’ ignored American medical advisor, Dr Fauci.

We have also come to expect some pieces that are just as topical but a touch more poignantly remembered – and this year has given the team much on which to reflect. In front of a backdrop of fire blackened eucalypts, Biggins at the piano, and Bishop as a furry ‘koala from Sofala’ ruminate on the fate of our native animals, the destruction of their habitats and the possibility of them ending up in “that concentration camp at Pennant Hills”.

Later in the program Biggins leads a sadly sensitive parody on The Sound of Silence as images of the empty streets of New York linger on the screen behind him lending extra pathos to the tragedy of which he sings.

The show finishes, as always, with a little musical theatre interlude. This year it’s set in the American wild west. Titled “The Man Who Shot Liberty”, it features a yellow-haired, narcissitic mayor, his Italian lawyer, a grey-haired doctor who warns him constantly of a pandemic – and his increasingly socially distanced wife who explains “why the Lady is a Trump”.  

It isn’t hard to imagine the atmosphere in the ‘writing room’ as these creative intellects pool ideas! I wonder how many ideas are suggested before they decide on the program. Or how many are reluctantly rejected or shelved for another day.

I wonder also if the artistic director of the STC to whom Biggins, Forsythe and Scott first broached the idea of a revue twenty years ago had any inkling of just how popular it would become.

The very first productions were scant on props and financial backing – but big on ideas and energy. There were no recorded entr’acts, no orchestral backings, little back stage assistance – yet the trio came back for more. And eventually the STC realised that it had a gem – and a money spinner, one that would eventually ‘spin’ its way right around the state and the ACT to audiences starved of live topical satire.Though this show says “Good Night and Good Luck” please don’t go into lockdown guys! We need you to keep the turkeys on their toes – and to keep us sane!

Carol Wimmer

John P. Harvey also caught the show in Canberra

After two decades, the 2020 Wharf Revue is the last that the Sydney Theatre Company will produce.  More popular than ever (its month-long Sydney Opera House season from February 2021 already sold out as of this writing), the Revue is the brainchild of the combined genius of Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe, and Phillip Scott, and this year’s revue delivers skits and songs fresher, livelier, cleverer, and funnier than ever.

And it might surprise you to learn what tragedies, and what perfectly good sense, Biggins, Forsythe, and Scott, along with Mandy Bishop, can make you laugh over.

Essentially a mockery of all things political — or, more precisely, a poke at any politician standing out for any reason — in the past twenty years, The Wharf Revue has taken undiscriminating aim at our most loathed and our most beloved political figures in five decades.

Certain beloved figures of fun can’t stay away from the Revue.  And just when you think certain pollies have left the spotlight, their relevance will shine again, and — Bang! — they erupt again from the revue’s canon of parody and song, landing on stage in highly recognisable shape.

This year’s revue impressed me for its wide range, especially so considering that the year’s news may seem to have entirely related to a pandemic.  The revue reminds us that in fact far more has been going on.  And everyone from the current White House incumbent and Brazilian rainforest smasher Jair Bolsanaro to Barry Jones and Jacinda Ardern, every musician from Abba to Elton, and every gift from hepatitis to herpes contributes to the joy.

Two things in particular stood out in this year’s revue: the stage-sized graphics accompanying many skits, and the brilliance with which musical director Phillip Scott (doubtless with Forsythe and Biggins’s input on lyrics) has turned hit songs to the Revue’s purposes.  The graphics impressed with their artistry, their seamless integration into the live action, the degree of detail, their animation, and their sheer size.  But the Revue’s musical adaptations too have only increased in sophistication over the years, their four-part harmonies increasingly outstanding, and this year’s Revue rested squarely on musical parodies of impeccable production and stunning cleverness.  The satisfactory balance between voices, the great balance of stage lighting and background graphics, the cast’s beautiful echoes of its characters’ real-life mannerisms, and the fact that every word — muttered, shouted, or sung — came across with perfect clarity made this production, ingenious in its planning, flawless in its execution.

John P. Harvey

Images: (L–R) Jonathan Biggins and Phillip Scott, & (L–R) Drew Forsythe, Phillip Scott, Mandy Bishop, and Jonathan Biggins, in The Wharf Revue 2020: Good Night and Good Luck. Photographer: John P. Harvey.

Tour Dates

ACT: 1-19 December - Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre

Port Macquarie: 22 December - The Glasshouse

Belrose: 5-17 January 2021 - Glen St Theatre

Penrith: 21-23 January - Q Theatre, Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre

Orange: 29-30 January - Civic Theatre

Wollongong: 2-6 February - Illawarra Performing Arts centre

Wagga: 9-10 February - Civic Theatre

Newcastle: 13-14 February - Civic Theatre