XANADU
"A place...where nobody dared to go..."? Apparently not; this season is officially sold out, and deservedly so. Director David Gauci's courage and vision in bringing as infamous a story/spectacle as Xanadu to the Adelaide amateur stage had paid off wonderfully. Audiences who come for non-stop fun will not be disappointed.
The tone of the stage adaptation is much more parodic and self-aware than the (apparently) sincere 1980 film, but the humour is smart enough to keep things from getting excessively silly or condescending.
In the lead role of Kira, Kate Dempsey is simply sensational. She sings superbly, she skates smoothly, she is a star - and dare we suggest, a more accomplished actress than our Olivia. Lindsay Prodea is given a far goofier version of the artistic Sonny Malone to play than Michael Beck did in the film, but he engages both our sympathy and our laughter. Brendan Cooney's character of Danny McGuire has also been made more interesting for the play than his cinematic predecessor (played by Gene Kelly) was.
Megan Humphries and Jenny Scarce-Tolley gleefully and enjoyably depict the witch-like villains of the piece (created especially for the play), though their delivery could perhaps have been made more sinister. Even so, dramatic tension is one area in which this show improves on the film, which was a surreal cinematic experience that sometimes got too slack in its storytelling. Apart from a slight lull during a scene involving a negotiation with Zeus (a sequence that is also burdened with slightly laboured jokes), this stage version skates swiftly through its continuous running time.
With a relatively small cast, and an even more compact stage, Gauci has achieved wonders. The costumes and set design are great fun, the choreography creates just the right amount of energy, and the four-strong band do a sterling job of recreating the pop/rock stylings of the Electric Light Orchestra and Olivia Newton-John hits (including all the original soundtrack numbers such as 'Magic', 'Suddenly' and'I'm Alive', plus a few added songs from various sources).
If you can't get a ticket this time, watch the skies for the hopeful return of Xanadu to the stage. The success of this show proves that some stories are destined to live on longer than anyone expected at the time. An endearingly bad movie has become a genuinely accomplished and enjoyable stage musical - and that's not magic, it's talent.
Anthony Vawser
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