Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, June 19, 2013 - Page 91
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Radio: Smooth 91.5 top favourites ................. Page 92 Veritas: Audience with Helen Mirren .................... Page 93 The Spoiler: Neighbours and Home And Away ........... Page 93 Jim and Aaron: Top 10 Lists, movies, DVDs .................. Page 94 Cheryl Threadgold: Local theatre shows, auditions ............. Page 95 PLUS THE LOVATT”S MEGA CROSSWORD
KING KONG: ‘DISAPPOINTING FAILURE’ ‘Phantom’ staged at Dandenong
● Richard Thomas and Kate Amos. Photo: Chris Parker ■ Andrew Lloyd Webber's famous Phantom Of The Opera has finally reached the community theatre world, and such is its popularity that in 2013 there are two productions being staged by highly respected companies. CLOC's fine show has been and gone, but Windmill Theatre Company's season opens on Friday (June 21) and runs until July 14 at Dandenong's Drum Theatre. Phantom is the story of a beautiful soprano, Christine, who becomes the obsession of a mysterious, disfigured musical genius. Playing Christine is another beautiful soprano from Brighton, 23-year-old Kate Amos, who is studying her honours year in a Bachelor of Music at Melbourne University, and who has already performed professionally with opera companies around Melbourne. For Kate, playing Christine is the fulfillment of a lifetime hope. "It has always been a secret dream of mine to play Christine - my first memory of Phantom was when I discovered at home a double CD of the original cast recording when I was about 12,” Kate says. “ I think Mum had bought it when she went to see the original production in the West End, and while I hadn't seen the show, there was something I just loved about it and I listened to that CD over and over for years!" Kate is a young singer going places, as she has won numerous awards and later in the year heads to Italy on a scholarship to study at the Fondazione Spontini Pergolesi, an award she won at the Italian Opera Acclaim Awards. Playing her love interest Raoul is North Balwyn Chris Buchanan, a personal trainer by day, and whose wife Julia is generously lending him to Kate on stage for the season of the show. Chris comes from a professional music theatre background, having toured with the musical Mamma Mia! Every musical needs a bad guy, even if in this case it's a sad character with whom we empathise - the title role of Phantom is playing by Box Hill North's Richard Thomas, whose practical day job as a partner in a city accounting firm is worlds away from his dark and brooding stage persona. Playing the other principal female role, the diva Carlotta, is Wyndam's Cassandra Beckitt, well known for her work as principal soprano with companies including Williamstown Musical Theatre, PLOS and Gilbert and Sullivan Society. Directed by Chris Hughes with musical direction by Julia Buchanan and choreography by Robert Mulholland, Windmill's Phantom is already generating an exciting buzz in the music theatre scene across Melbourne. Tickets: visit www.drumtheatre.com.au or call 9771 6666. - Julie Houghton
Laughing Behind The Piano ● King Kong has opened at the Regent Theatre ■ Saturday night’s grand opening of King Kong has been met with disappointing reviews by Melbourne’s theatre critics. Respected Melbourne critic Simon Parris, at his Man In Chair website, said: “As a groundbreaking theatrical spectacular, King Kong is a lavish, jaw-dropping success. As a ‘music theatre event’, however, it is a disappointing failure, setting the art form back 70 years. Excerpts of Parris’s stinging review include: ■ “As strong as each of these design elements are, the overall look and style are completely at odds with the 1930s setting, as is the music. ■ “There is a feeling of ‘too many cooks’ in terms of decisions related to where to spend the budget and creative energy. ■ “Direction, by Daniel Kramer, contains sufficient broad strokes to help audiences follow the simple plot, but is sorely lacking in character development and detail. ■ “Music theatre aficionados would be better advised to stick with Legally Blonde or Flowerchildren,” Simon Parris said. AussieTheatre.com.au forum critic ‘Sam’ said: “The book is pretty awful. I can’t believe this is the same man that gave us the glorious Light In The Piazza. The dialogue is banal and the plotting is very schematic. “The choreography is truly abysmal. It looks like a bad 90s video clip – even when the characters are supposed to be 1930s chorines. The women’s choreography in particular is vulgar and slutty. It’s out of place and just ugly. “Like Spiderman, I don’t think Kong is really a show for music theatre fans. It’s not a well-crafted musical by any means. Its strengths are its moments of spectacle. “If they cut out most of the songs (which are a waste of time) and developed the storytelling and narrative more, I think it could work as a ‘theatre spectacular’ – but currently there’s about 20 minutes of excitement mired in an ugly mess. Kim Choe of 3News.co.nz remarks: “The expectation of Kong's arrival makes the opening somewhat sedentary in contrast. “The dialogue is clunky in parts and initial character development is lacking, especially in film director Carl Denham, who is but a shadow of his previous delusional, megalomaniacal incarnations. Age reviewer Cameron Woodhead offered 3½-stars, and had some praise. He called the music “a (discerning) dog’s breakfast”. “Two main problems stand out: the disjointed transitions from stage action to song, and the fact that some numbers sound pretty without doing hard yards dramatically. "Some spectacular aspects of the production, when they fail, fail in a similar vein. A somewhat flimsy book is the show's weakest link, and there are scenes where you feel your senses boggled as a substitute for, rather than as a technique for enhancing, dramatic narrative. “The use of tits and arse, in particular, can feel utterly gratuitous. In a story that condemns the crass exploitation of an animal for entertainment, the portrayal of women is troubling.” Coral Drouyn, of Stage Whispers, listed positives about the King Kong production, adding: “In all probability the show needs to be rebranded as a spectacle, and the word musical eliminated from the marketing. “This score is a mishmash of styles (and truly abysmal melodies in some cases) tied together with Marius de Vries’s overblown underscore. “"There’s clunky dialogue in which one line of exposition is meant to replace real development. There are awful jokes which elicit embarrassed chuckles. There are anomalies that are never explained Kevin Trask, on his That’s Entertainment program on 96.5 Inner FM on Sunday, described the show as a “amzaing technical achievement ... musically, it didn’t grab me.”
■ Being an accompanist to a high profile performer is no laughing matter. Just ask well known Melbourne accompanist Peter Hurley, who promises to reveal all in his Melbourne Cabaret Festival show, Laughing Behind The Piano. When he is not doing his serious day job of lecturing in aural studies to the serious Bachelor of Music students at Melbourne University's Conservatorium of Music, Peter has a whole other life! Once he shuts the university lecture room door, he becomes Peter Hurley, accompanist and partner in crime to many famous names…but to drop them here would be to spoil the secrets he will share in Laughing Behind The Piano. While he may be best known as one of Melbourne's great piano men, Peter is no slouch as a singer, so he combines those skills plus a lifetime of stories in his cabaret show. So what is the unsuspecting audience in for? Peter takes up the tale … "Songs old and new, and stories that spill the beans on some of those whose strings might have been 'adjusted' by that not-so-quiet manual manipulator - the pianist for hire!' Peter explains gleefully. "Politics, sex, religious, special singers - they all get it in the neck!" Could this be subtitled the accompanist's revenge? Sounds like you will have to go along to Laughing Behind The Piano and join Peter Hurley and his musical 'mates' Noel Coward, Tom Lehrer, Blossom Dearie and the rest of the gang to find out. Laughing Behind the Piano is at the Globe Café, Chapel St, Prahran, on Friday, July 5 at 9pm and Saturday, July 6 at 7pm. www.globecafe.com.au - Julie Houghton
● Peter Hurley