MSO SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE

■ There is a fascinating backstory to Hector Berlioz’s dream-inspired composition Symphonie Fantastique (1830) that adds another dimension to this dramatic and impassioned work.

The French composer is said to have been in an opium haze and state of “infernal passion” for English actress Harriet Smithson (who he did later marry) when he composed the piece.

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s chief conductor Jaime Martin, a former elite flautist and Music Director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, expertly leads the performance with vibrancy and precision.

Sticking to the dream theme the bill began with an ethereal work by Michael Atherton Shall We Dream. The Gondwana Voices children’s choir entered the auditorium from the back, humming and creating eerie sounds by running their fingers around the rim of a half-full glass – that old party trick.

Accompanying the choir and MSO was soprano Alexandra Oomens whose voice was haunting and pitchperfect.

Excerpts from Mendelssohn’s a Midsummer Nights’ Dream: incidental music (1842) followed with a glorious and uplifting performance of the Wedding March.

Oomens and the Gondwana Voices appeared again with mezzosoprano Stephanie Dillon in a beautifully blended vocal piece, Ye Spotted Snakes.

While the first two works delighted, Symphonie Fantastique was certainly the highlight with its intensity and dramatic emotional expression.

The symphony has been labelled “programmatic” meaning each movement portrays specific events, but it also uses recurring themes throughout to add cohesiveness.

It is a work that transfixes the audience and while the precision of the strings, in moments of frenzied energy, enthralled, the woodwind, brass and percussion sections got their moment in the limelight.

The woodwind solos were exquisite and the deep rumbling of percussions in contrast to the thunderous explosions excited and delighted.

Congratulations to the MSO on an absolutely wonderful program, superbly performed.

- Review by Beth Klein

Christian Hull

■ Comedian and author Christian Hull returns to Melbourne with new stories to tell as part of a four-state tour, presenting his new live comedy show on September 8 - 9 at The Comic's Lounge in North Melbourne.

Perhaps best recognised for his enthusiasm over a T-shirt folder, excitement over guessing paint colours, reactions to content like five-minute craft hacks and trying to find the soy auce Coles mini, Christian has earned over 66M likes and 1.7M followers on TikTok, 1.2M on Facebook and 265K+ Instagram followers –with a total of 3.3M+ followers across social media.

Performance Details: September 8 and September 9 at 7pm

Venue: The Comic's Lounge, 1/26 Errol St., North Melbourne Bookings: www.thecomicslounge. com.au

-

Cheryl Threadgold

La Cage Aux Folles

■ The hit Broadway musical La Cage Aux Folles will open in Melbourne for a limited season at Arts Centre Melbourne from November 9.

The musical will star Paul Capsis in the lead role of Albin and internationally renowned singer and actor Michael Cormick (Beauty and The Beast, The Phantom Of The Opera) as his husband Georges.

he original 1983 Broadway production ran for more than four years and won six Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book.

The success of the musical spawned a West End production and several international tours as well as the box-office smash-hit film The Birdcage starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane.

Subsequent revivals have garnered considerable success, winning the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical in both 2004 and 2010, as well as the Olivier Award in London for Best Musical Revival in 2008.

“I am overjoyed to be bringing our production of La Cage aux Folles to Arts Centre Melbourne, it’s such a beautiful story with a timeless message of acceptance and love of who you are,” said producer David M. Hawkins.

“Paul Capsis is one of our greatest artists, he is a scream as Albin, hearing him act those lyrics of ‘I Am What I Am’ makes one realise how far we have come as a community, but also how much further we still need to go. Couple that with the rich luscious voice of Michael Cormick and it’s a match made in showbiz heaven,”

“La Cage Aux Folles is a fully Australian created production, led by exciting young Melbourne director Riley Spadaro with inspired choreography by Veronica Beattie George. I have adored bringing this to the stage and can’t wait for it to play our beloved theatre capital Melbourne,” he added.

A traditional Broadway musical with big, brassy dance numbers, La Cage Aux Folles was considered revolutionary in many ways when opening on Broadway in 1983, breaking down barriers for gay representation by becoming the first hit Broadway musical centred on a homosexual relationship. The show’s act one finale, I Am What I Am, received praise as a "gay anthem" and has been widely recorded, most notably by Gloria Gaynor.

Based on the 1973 French play of the same name by Jean Poiret, La Cage aux Folles boasts infectious melodies by Jerry Herman (Hello Dolly, Mame) and a book by Harvey Fierstein (Kinky Boots, Torch Song Trilogy).

The show tells the story of a gay couple who run a St Tropez drag club and when their (heterosexual) son brings his fiancée’s ultraconservative parents for dinner, chaos and hilarity ensues.

This production, by Showtune Productions, opened to rave reviews at the State Theatre in Sydney earlier this year with direction by Riley Spadaro (The Italians, This Bitter Earth), and choreography by Veronica Beattie George (The Boy From Oz, Guys and Dolls).

Further casting announcements will be made in the coming months.

Showtune Productions in association with Arts Centre Melbourne presents La Cage Aux Folles

November 9-19

Arts Centre Melbourne, Playhouse

Directed By Riley Spadaro

Choreography by Veronica Beattie George

Musical Direction by Craig Renshaw

Set Design by Grace Deacon

Lighting Design by Phoebe Pilcher

Design Associate and Costumes by Jozef Zoda

Wigs and Make-up Design by Drew-Elizabeth Johnstone.

- Contributed

SEN’s team

■ Sports Entertainment Network has been awarded the Suncorp Super Netball League’s newest team.

SEN was granted the licence after a competitive tender process run by Netball Australia, overseen by a subcommittee including consultants Colin Smith and David Gallop.

In granting the licence, Netball Australia will operate the team throughout 2023, before fully transitioning to SEN in 2024.

The team will be based in Melbourne’s south-east, with a name to be unveiled ahead of the upcoming season.

The group already owns four sports teams, all in basketball.

Chief Executive Craig Hutchison said acquiring this team was the first of many steps into netball, a sport the business believes in.

“We see an opportunity here to step up and ensure the Victorian netball community gets the second team it deserves,” Mr Hutchison said.

“We believe firmly in the direction of the Netball Australia Board, its Chief Executive Kelly Ryan and the leadership team.”

- Contributed

Sisu

■ (MA). 92 minutes. Opens in selected cinemas July 27.

A tremendously entertaining blend of graphic 80’s style action, and a not-so-subtle treatise on the Nazi plague that is again raising its ugly head, the new film from writer/ director Jalmari Helander (Rare Exports, and who hasn’t helmed a feature film since the fun Big Game in 2014) swings for the fences in a confident manner, and thankfully scores a large bullseye.

Set in Finland during 1944, the story focuses on grim, local prospector Aatami (Jorma Tommila), who has been crossing the scarred Finnish landscape on horseback looking for gold.

After much effort, Aatami succeeds spectacularly, but as he starts to journey back home, he encounters a group of German soldiers, who look all but defeated, as Germany is now clearly losing the war.

What these troopers don’t know however, is that Aatami is a former special forces soldier, who has killed so many Russians he has been seen by the enemy as an unstoppable ghost.

These soldiers, led by the cruel Bruno (Aksel Hennie) , begin to realise in growingly fatal fashion, that the legend is a brutal reality.

To put it mildly, Sisu is not for the squeamish (it is quite surprising that the film has managed to obtain an MA rating).

Every kill is presented in all its gory glory, and the whole endeavour is seeped in a vicious atmosphere, but Helander balances the material cleverly, making sure the expertly staged action doesn’t overwhelm the sombre nature of the story playing out around it.

Tommila is excellent as Aatami, convincing us that he can endure whatever punishment the enemy can throw at him, a major plus when the film does frequently ask us to suspend disbelief.

Hennie makes for an appropriately risible villain, and also leaves a strong impression.

It is disquieting that we are needing a growing number of films at this time to denounce Nazism (the recent sequel, The Wrath Of Becky, is another example), which has been scarily on the rise over recent years, with supporters becoming more and more public.

Sisu is the perfect film to warn us of these toxic horrors, while also offering top shelf entertainment.

RATING - ****

Alcarras

■ (M). 120 minutes. Opens in selected cinemas July 27.

Winner of the Golden Bear for Best Film at last year’s Berlin Film Festival, the latest film from Carla

Simon (Summer 1993) is a beautifully realised and crafted drama looking at family and generational change. The film gives us a large gallery of characters, as a family of peach farmers, who have harvested on the same land since the 1940s, discover with shock that Rogelio (Josep Abad), the clan’s quiet patriarch, has never had a formal contract with the Pinyols, who are the actual landowners. Only a handshake promise was made that the Pinyols would never sell the land, but with solar technology becoming a hugely profitable industry, that promise is broken, and the family have until the end of the harvesting period to vacate the property. Rogelio’s son Quimet (Jordi Pujol Dolcet) becomes obsessed with the harvest, and his behaviour starts to take a toll on those around him, who react in various ways, whether it be his wife, their three children, Quimet’s siblings, or the elder members of the family.

Simon is delicate in the creation of both the people and the world they inhabit, but doesn’t resort to cheap sentimentality or melodramatics, and gets remarkably natural performances from her non-professional cast, all of which have been chosen to perfection.

Those looking for a strong story with a propulsive pace will be disappointed and impatient with Alcarras, but for those who want a film where the time is taken to genuinely bring its characters to living, breathing life, while immersing them in a totally believable environment, then this will deliver a richly rewarding cinema experience.

RATING - ****

Quicksand

■ (M). 86 minutes. Now streaming on Shudder.

The Shudder streaming channel has provided viewers with some good-to-marvellous films (Brooklyn 45, Huesera : The Bone Woman, A Wounded Fawn, La Llorona and Hatching to name a few), but there have also been some misfires, and Quicksand definitely falls into that category.

The central premise of a couple ( Carolina Gaitan and Allan Hawco), whose marriage is breaking down, being stuck in quicksand while hiking in a Columbian rainforest, sets up an intriguing, character based chamber piece, but bad writing and direction flatten the material’s potential, making it almost impossible to become involved with the couple’s predicament and personal problems.

Even at 86 minutes, Quicksand feels long, indicating that nothing is working from an early stage.

RATING - *½ - Aaron Rourke

■ Don Cherry holds the unique distinction of being both a professional singer and a professional golfer.

In 1956 Don Cherry had his biggest selling popular song Band Of Gold which sold over a million recordings and went Gold.

Donald Ross Cherry was born January 11, 1924 in Wichita Falls, Texas and was the youngest of three children.

At the age of 15 he was working as a singing telegram boy.

Don began singing with the big bands before landing a recording contract with Decca Records in 1951.

Don had a smooth singing style and recorded songs such as Thinking Of You and Belle My Belle My Liberty Belle

In 1952 the great American composer Irving Berlin wrote a country song for Don. It wasn't a great song and unfortunately it was lost.

Don Cherry played golf on three Walker Cup teams winning the Canadian Amateur Championship in 1953 and the Sunnehanna Amateur Title in 1954.

During the day he was playing with the golfing stars such as Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.

In his night time singing appearances he was working with his showbusiness friends Dean Martin, Bing Crosby and Perry Como.

As an amateur he competed in the Masters nine times, the Walker Cup three times, the

Whatever Happened To ... Don Cherry

By Kevin Trask of 3AW and 96.5 Inner FM

America Cup twice and eight times in the US Open

Don managed his dual career very nicely and in 1963 he became a professional golfer. Don lost his hair at an early age and wore a hairpiece.

During a golf exhibition match at the Bay Hill Golf Club a wind gust blew his hairpiece off as Don hit the ball causing him to hit the fairway creating a huge divot - instead of replacing the divot Don threw the hairpiece into the hole, put the ball on top and then hit a great shot.

Don Cherry was a headliner in Las Vegas He did a concert in Cleveland with Elvis in 1956 and later Don was thrilled to learn that he was one of Elvis Presley's favourite singers. He appeared on many variety television shows and worked with Dean Martin for 11 years.

Whilst appearing on The Dean Martin Show, Dean was not happy with Don's hairpiece and sent him over to the make up department for a new wig.

When Don came back Dean was pleased and rang the make up people to say they were keeping it.

"You can't do that - that is John Wayne's hairpiece!" Dean replied, "Don't worry about that, we're keeping it anyway."

During his life time Don has never smoked or drank alcohol. He met his wife Francine whilst jogging one morning in Las Vegas and they were married in 1993. Francine is also a singer and appeared in 28 Broadway shows.

Sadly tragedy struck when Don's son Stephen was killed during the World Trade Centre attack in 2001.

Check out www.doncherry.us

Kevin Trask

Kevin can be heard on 3AWThe Time Tunnel - Remember WhenSundays at 10.10pm with Philip Brady and Simon Owens. And on 96.5 FM That's Entertainment - Sundays at 12 Noon. www.innerfm.org.au