Stage Whispers November/December 2015

2 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

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In this issue

The Hills Are Still Alive.............................................................................. 8 Our ongoing love affair with the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic Quiet Please, There Are Leading Ladies On Stage .................................... 12 We chat to several generations of our musical theatre divas

16

Making Australian Musicals Great .......................................................... 16 Inside Melbourne’s recent musical theatre think-tank Ladies In Black ....................................................................................... 20 A new musical collaboration between flagship companies Hey There, Georgy Girl ........................................................................... 22 Pippa Grandison on playing The Seekers’ Judith Durham Musical Theatre in 2016 ........................................................................ 26 Lots to sing and dance about in the new year Plays in 2016 ......................................................................................... 34 A big year ahead for collaborations and Australian content Postcard From London, Berlin and Vienna .............................................. 42 Best West End musicals and some risqué operetta

20

Mustering Cattle To Treading The Boards ............................................... 50 You can’t keep the singers down on the farm at Ballina

22

Rend The Air With Warbling Wild ........................................................... 52 A festival celebrating Gilbert and Sullivan

Regular Features Stage Briefs

26

38

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Stage On Disc

22

London Calling

24

Broadway Buzz

25

Stage To Page

26

Amateur Stage Briefs

54

On Stage - What’s On

58

Reviews

66

Musical Spice

92

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THE NEXT ISSUE OF STAGE WHISPERS IS FOCUSSING ON THE UPCOMING 2016 COMMUNITY THEATRE SEASONS

73 4 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

PLACE YOUR AD BY NOVEMBER 25 CONTACT (03) 9758 4522 OR stagews@stagewhispers.com.au

Editorial Dear theatre-goers and theatre-doers,

Georgia Campbell, who plays Gretl during the Sydney season of The Sound of Music, checks out Stage Whispers with her stage mum, Amy Lehpamer.

Photo: Lightbox Photography.

As we approach the Festive season, this edition of Stage Whispers looks forward to 2016 on our professional stages.

For a musical theatre tragic like myself, it’s shaping as a great year, with as many or more mainstage commercial productions on offer than I can recall in a long time, and ambitious programs emerging on our independent stages, with two new Australian musicals already announced for Sydney’s Hayes Theatre Co. Interstate transfers and return seasons of successful independent musical productions, plus a new production of Little Shop of Horrors beginning its national tour at the Hayes, augur well for our new twintiered musical theatre culture, with a healthy grass roots ‘Off Broadway’ community operating side by side, and often crossing over, with main stages.

I’m interested to see, too, if the arrival of Jonathan Church as new Artistic Director at the Sydney Theatre Company will see a renewal of interest in musicals by our flagship theatre companies. He has had an impressive record for creating musical productions which have transferred to London’s West End during his tenure at Chichester Festival Theatre.

On the mainstage theatre front, we’ve taken a particular look at the collaborations and the Australian works on offer in 2016.

With the Festive season approaching, your thoughts, like mine, are probably turning to Christmas gifts, and there’s no better gift for a theatre-loving friend than a subscription to Stage Whispers, especially when it comes with a free musical theatre CD, either as an extra gift for your friend, or a little treat for yourself. Check out our subscription page for more details Wishing you a happy Christmas and a New Year bursting with great theatre.

Yours in Theatre,

Neil Litchfield Editor

CONNECT

Cover image: Amy Lehpamer and Cameron Daddo star as Maria Rainer and Captain Georg von Trapp in The Sound of Music, playing Sydney’s Capitol Theatre from December 13, then touring nationally.

Read our feature story on page 8.

Photo: Brian Geach. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 5

 Dan Potra’s set design for Turandot, Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour in 2016. Wrapped around the edge of the major water-hovering structure will be a beautiful yet ferocious dragon stretching 60 metres long. With a tail that morphs into a structure reminiscent of the Great Wall of China, the dragon winds its way towards a 16 metre high iridescent pagoda.  Broadway and West End stars Sutton Foster (pictured), Betty Buckley, Aaron Tveit and Joanna Ampil will share the Sydney Theatre Royal stage with local musical theatre favourites Helen Dallimore and David Harris in Defying Gravity: The Songs of Stephen Schwartz on Saturday 13 February. Stephen Schwartz will also be in Sydney, participating in a special event, “Stephen Schwartz in Conversation with Leigh Sales”, on the same day. http://bit.ly/1QVAZyO Photo: Laura Marie Duncan.  The Chaser’s Craig Reucassel and Chris Taylor appear in the Ensemble Theatre’s World Premiere production of David Williamson’s Jack Of Hearts, playing from January 29, 2016

Online extras!

Craig and Chris discuss their roles in Jack Of Hearts. Scan the QR code or visit https://youtu.be/h1i04ndgwHo 6 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

Stage Briefs

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 7

Cover Story Cameron Daddo and Amy Lehpamer.

Photo: Brian Geach.

The Hills Are Still Alive With a new production of The Sound of Music due to open next month, Coral Drouyn explores why the musical holds so much magic for us.

What is it about The Sound of Music that sets it apart from other musicals?

Why are we welcoming yet another production, this time the award winning London Palladium production from 2006? After all, the show is 55 years old, so what is its magic appeal?

Certainly Maria Von Trapp couldn’t possibly have imagined, when she, her husband the captain, and the children escaped from Austria in 1938 just after the Anschluss, that nearly eighty years later their story would still be gracing stages around the world, and we would all (well, almost all) be singing “Doh, Re, Me” at the movie singalongs. Only The Rocky Horror Picture Show can compete with those nights, with everyone dressing up in costume and singing along with Julie Andrews or Tim Curry.

There are people who won’t admit they love the show, and those who are unashamed groupies (I have friends who sang “Climb Every Mountain” while ascending Everest). Most of us came to the musical via Julie Andrews and the film, but the stage show came first and originally it wasn’t even intended to be a musical. Vincent J Donehue was a Broadway stage

8 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

director, and good friends with Mary Martin, the darling of the musical.

Strangely enough, he tried to sell her on the idea of a play, with just a few songs from the repertoire of the Von Trapps added. But it soon became apparent that Ms Martin (the mother of “JR” - Larry Hagman) wanted songs more suited to her voice - and her audience. So Rogers and Hammerstein were commissioned by the producers to write a couple of original songs for Martin, and, once they’d been heard, everyone wanted more of that “sound” of music.

Although the show opened in 1959, it didn’t hit the big screen until 1965 - and by that time it was well and truly a favourite on Broadway, the West End, and here in Australia.

People think of Julie Andrews as Maria - very prim and proper and young. But apart from Mary Martin (who was 46) and Petula Clark (49), all of the wellknown Maria’s have been around 3035 - though the REAL Maria (who was apparently a very fierce woman and thought Martin and Andrews were “wet” and weak), was only 23. She was apparently quite opinionated and valued her judgement over that of everyone around her, something really unusual in the 1930s….hence the song “How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?” But we’re used to dramatic license being taken in all

forms of theatre, as long as we can believe what we’re presented with.

There will be some, like myself, who remember the original Australian production of The Sound of Music, with busty June Bronhill and her marvellous voice as Maria.

She was a forceful personality, more like the real Maria. Bronhill was known for her appearances in operettas, and some wondered if she would consider a mere musical beneath her, but Bronhill was far too down to earth to be a snob. The Australasian tour ran for around three years, playing the Princess Theatre in Melbourne and the Tivoli in Sydney, and Patti Newton (yes…Bert’s wife) was one of the Von Trapp children.

People didn’t just go to see it once, they went anything up to twenty times. They waited at the stage door for autographs and Bronhill, dressed in her mink coat, would happily oblige. People actually wept when the closing notices went up, such was the power of the show.

Later, in the 1980s, there was a new production with Julie Anthony playing Maria and, in 2000, after coaxing from John Frost, Lisa McCune left Blue Heelers and swapped her Maggie Doyle for Maria Rainer, with John Waters as her Captain. It was the first of her leading lady stage roles, and the part seemed tailor made for her. She and John were genuine television superstars, but also great stage

performers with real chemistry. At the time, it seemed there would never need to be another production because we had seen all that it had to offer. But great shows continue to grow, and to find new audiences they have a degree of immortality encrypted in them which can touch a new generation every fifteen years.

So is it the music, or the story, or the children on stage, or the fact that we’ve known the show since our childhood, that makes it so special to so many of us who love musical theatre? Maybe it’s a combination of all those things. There’s a love story (well…two actually, if you include the star-crossed Liesl and Rolf), a family story, a thriller with a race against time, a triumph over adversity, and all against a background of mountains and the prospect of war at a critical time in world history. And there’s the music, some of the best songs from perhaps the greatest collaborators in Musical Theatre history. You couldn’t

Jacqueline Dark, Amy Lehpamer, Cameron Daddo, Lorraine Bayly and Marina Prior.

Sydney’s von Trapp children together with Amy Lehpamer.

Photo: Lightbox Photography.

(Continued on page 10) www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 9

Cover Story

(Continued from page 9)

invent all that if you tried. Well, actually you could, and the creative team DID…but you have to admit that it’s much more exciting to think the Von Trapps escaped by slipping away one by one in a music festival and then crossing the mountains, than the actuality of them packing up and

10 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

catching a train to Italy, then a boat to America.

I got to ask two of the stars of the new production what they thought the mystique of the show is, and how they came to be a part of it.

Cameron Daddo, last seen here in Legally Blonde, admits he was

gobsmacked when offered the role of the Captain.

“It’s an iconic role, but it’s not one I ever expected to be offered,” he admits. “I wasn’t one of those kids that grew up knowing every word of every song. I hadn’t seen the film all the way through until I became an adult. We weren’t great theatregoers

Cameron has a slightly different suppose it will be anything but take. “I think it’s the relevance of the wonderful. story,” he explains, “and even the core So in a few weeks the hills will be values. Yes, the music is marvellous, alive once again with The Sound of but there are a lot of shows with great Music. Whether you love it or hate it, music. This show has real heart, and or have simply avoided it for all these nobility, and gravitas. People are years, one thing is certain, it’s a show surprised…as I was…at just how deep that cannot be ignored. the story goes. It’s about sacrifice too, and giving up everything for your Above left and opposite page: family. They’re important and timeless The original core values that we mustn’t let die.

Australian And it’s also fantastic entertainment. production of The Sound of Music.

A whole new generation of people will see the show and hopefully they will Main image: love it and in 15-20 years they will Amy Lehpamer.

Photo: Brian Geach. take their kids to see it. We still see operas and operettas hundreds of years down the track….why not a musical?”

Given that this spectacular and I was always out playing sports production received rave until late, so I didn’t get to stay awake reviews at The Palladium, through the whole film because it was and it’s taken years of very long. I didn’t ever have a ‘that’s a work to get it to role I have to play’ moment.” He Australia, there’s no sounds rueful as he explains. reason to The new Maria, Amy Lehpamer, has played raunchy roles in Rock of Ages and The Rocky Horror Show, and she has the opposite reaction to the show.

“I’ve adored it since I was a very little child. I watched it every time it was on TV and I knew every word of every song, and every move, long before I knew what any of it meant. It was almost like a babysitter for me. My mum knew I wasn’t going anywhere while The Sound of Music was on, and she could get other work done. I just loved all those songs, all the music, so much.”

And the mystique of the show?

“Well, it’s partly nostalgia for most people,” Amy explains. “It’s part of my childhood, it’s how I discovered who I was, just like the Von Trapp children themselves. And Maria, well…she’s like every child’s favourite teacher, or the teacher we wished we’d had.

When you’re a child and you’re trying to find out who you are, like all of us when we’re young, you need someone like Maria to guide you. So Online extras! yes, it’s the music, and the songs, but Meet the cast of the tour of Sound Of it’s part of our history and it’s touched Music by scanning the QR code or visiting all of us sometime.” https://youtu.be/gD2gI3j0axs www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 11

Nancye Hayes.

for those Leading Ladies. The Sound of Music was commissioned for Mary Martin and Gypsy for Ethel Merman, while Jule Styne championed then little -known Barbra Streisand for her career launching role of Fanny Brice. And so Funny Girl was born. That’s something that rarely happens in this day and age.

Streisand may have originated the role, but here in Australia it belonged to the incomparable Jill Perryman.

All too often we dismiss those leading ladies who have shaped Australian Musical Theatre. Nellie Stewart could fill every seat in a theatre for an entire run in the late 19th century. Gladys Moncrieff - “Our Glad” - was beloved even by people who never saw her on stage, yet knew her through her dozens of recordings in the 1930s and 1940s.

Evie Hayes may have been American born but we claimed her as our own.

Nancye Hayes, perhaps our greatest Musical Theatre star, remembers that it was seeing Evie in Annie Get your Gun that made her decide she had to be in Musical Theatre.

“I had been taking dancing lessons since I was three because of a hip problem, but I must have been five or so when I saw Annie Get Your Gun and I absolutely knew I had to be on the stage, doing what she was doing.”

More than 40 years later young unknowns would be inspired by Nancye herself and stars like Chelsea Gibb would break through in shows like Chicago with the great Caroline O’Connor.

Generally there is only one leading lady in each production. Imagine how excited I was by the prospect of seeing But there’s always a fabulous ELEVEN leading ladies on a stage woman playing that role, and if she together. It’s like imagining the classic does it well we forget that she’s an film “The Women” set to music; and actress, a singer, a dancer…we just believe she IS the character. That’s the not just any music, but the music of Jerry Herman, the man who wrote mark of a great leading lady.

Hello, Dolly!, Mame, Mack and Mabel, Audiences love them, possibly La Cage Aux Folles and Dear World. because more women go to see Musical Theatre than men, and women Herman’s adoration for his mother, who died when he was a young man, identify with or fantasize about being the Leading Ladies. But of course they is at the core of all his leading ladies.

She was a woman with “pizzazz” who wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the could light up any room, glamorous composers initiating our love affair with the strong charismatic women at like Mame, witty like Dolly, and she was an inspiration he could never the centre of so many shows. And many of the shows we still see revived replace - so instead he created some of every decade were written especially (Continued on page 14)

Quiet Please, There Are Leading Ladies On Stage Our writer Coral Drouyn is a self proclaimed “Music Theatre Tragic” and an outright fangirl where Leading Ladies are concerned. She talked to four of our best, exploring the history of those Divas who bring us the show stopping 11 O’Clock numbers we adore, in preparation for a show that is all about Leading Ladies.

We know them first by their character names. Often that name is in the title - Charity, Mame, Dolly - or else it is so closely connected that a show like Gypsy could just have easily been called “Rose”, while The King and I could have been “Mrs Anna”.

12 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

Christie Whelan Browne.

Rhonda Burchmore.

Online extras!

Silvie Paladino sings ‘Time Heals Everything’ from Jerry’s Girls. Scan or visit https://youtu.be/vYUDc3WP80Q

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 13

(Continued from page 12) anyone who had gone into even have to think about it,” she says, the best high-powered characters in professional theatre, so I never had “It’s ‘If He walked Into My Life Today’ musicals. that moment when the lightbulb goes … it’s maybe my favourite song from Now eleven of our most talented on. But I did some community theatre, any musical at any time. And yes, I will leading ladies take on a revue with 37 and the roles got bigger, and I started be singing it.” of Herman’s songs in The Production to think well…maybe I should try.”

‘I Won’t Send Roses’ is Chelsea’s Company’s Jerry’s Girls - opening this So, since the show is about Jerry choice. “It’s such an odd love song, month at Melbourne’s Arts Centre.

Herman’s music, what are their simple and yet really deep.

Despite singing those leading lady favourite Herman songs, and are they Christie’s choice comes out of left songs, the phenomenal cast field. “I love ‘Look What won’t actually be playing any of Happpened to Mabel’, but it’s Chelsea Gibb.

Herman’s iconic characters. because it has a nostalgic Instead they will be playing connection for me. My mum versions of themselves, and that used to sing it to me when I was gives us a chance to get closer to little.” them.

For me, I’d love to see Hayes and Four performers, representing Burchmore sing “Bosom different generations - Nancye Buddies”.

What would be the dream Hayes, Rhonda Burchmore, Chelsea Gibb and Christie leading lady role, past or Whelan Brown - agreed to share present, for each of them? their thoughts.

Nancye says wistfully “Oh, Dolly Nancye quipped that she put Levi, without a doubt. I was in the geriatric - or should it be the show, but I never got to play Jerry-atric? - into Jerry’s Girls.

Dolly.”

The truth is she has been a true Rhonda has recently been star for nearly 45 years, and is playing the witch in Sondheim’s still working. She has paved the Into The Woods, but her dream way for those who followed, just role is a little more offbeat. “I as Evie and Jill paved the way for would love to do Victor/Victoria, her. partly because it has never been Since Nancye had already told done here,” she tells me, “but I me how Evie Hayes inspired her, also feel I’ve reached the age I asked the other three Leading when I could really bring Jerry’s Girls runs from November 21 to Ladies what inspired them. something to Sunset Boulevard.”

December 6 at Arts Centre Melbourne, Rhonda played leads in Chelsea’s choices are Sally featuring Rhonda Burchmore, Nancye Hayes, school plays and somehow Bowles in Cabaret and….wait Silvie Paladino, Christie Whelan Browne, avoided having to play male for it….Ursula The Witch in The Virginia Gay, Claire Lyon, Kirby Burgess, roles because of her height Little Mermaid. She explains it Chelsea Gibb, Debora Krizak, Josie Lane and “they just got taller boys” - but it must be because she has young Natalie O’Donnell. wasn’t until she went to see her kids. sister on stage in Irene that she For Christie it’s Elle Woods in became determined. “I so Legally Blonde, but she knows wanted to be on that stage and I knew singing them in the show? that time has passed, and is not likely nothing was going to stop me.” And it Nancye loved Dear World as a to come again. Still, at least she got a show, and Angela Lansbury is her didn’t. role written for her in Shane Warne For Chelsea it was more a case of favourite leading lady. “I saw her in the The Musical. looking for somewhere to hide, and show the very first time I ever went to So, with all the new ensemble Cats was the show that inspired her. “I New York. There is this beautiful song musicals, is the day of the real Leading felt in my teens that I really didn’t fit in called “And I was Beautiful” … so Lady a thing of the past? “I hope not,” anywhere. I guess I was looking for an poignant, so lovely. I’m hoping to sing says Chelsea, “but it is exciting to see escape, and pretending to be someone that. And I got to have lunch with someone you don’t know break out else gave me that. But then I saw Angela and James Earl Jones when and steal the show.” Nancye is more Cats…and no-one was recognisable they were in Melbourne. I was totally pragmatic. “The day of the Leading behind the make-up. And I thought starstruck.”

Lady will only be over when composers ‘What a beautiful place to hide’.”

It was an easier choice for Rhonda stop writing fabulous larger than life because she has actually played the Christie is the youngest of the roles. I hope that day never comes.” super eccentric Mame in two group. “I never believed it was a And so say all of us, Nancye. possibility. I mean I didn’t even know productions of the show. “Oh, I don’t

14 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 15

Making Australian Musicals Great

Esther Hannaford in Miracle City.

Photo: Kurt Sneddon.

A new network to help develop Australian musicals has been born with a range of ideas including a million dollar fund to workshop new productions. David Spicer attended the symposium at the Victorian College of the Arts in September.

There are many gaps in the landscape. Australia’s major publicly funded theatre companies (think STC and MTC) lack interest in developing Australian musicals.

Casey Bennetto composer/writer of Keating! (which was first developed at a comedy festival then further developed by Belvoir) said that “all of Composer/musical director Max the recent hits have come from Lambert was pulling no punches. “A subsidised theatre.” lot of people in Australian musical theatre have no idea of what they are Matilda was developed by the Royal doing.”

Shakespeare Company, while the latest The composer of Miracle City has Tony Award winning musical, Fun seen plenty of hits and misses. He Home, was developed by the Sundance worked on The Boy From Oz, Hot Shoe Theatre Lab and New York’s Public Theatre. These organisations have Shuffle, Strictly Ballroom and King resources and expertise. They have Kong.

For a day, composers, producers, mentors, dramaturgs, directors and teachers, directors and theatre owners actors to help the writers/composers of attended a well organised symposium new work develop their musicals. They give the projects time to be developed to work out what has gone wrong in the past and how it can be improved in before they are thrown to the wolves the future. of the critical press.

16 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

Clearly Australia needs this infrastructure. Initiatives in the past have had limited success. Recipients of prize money and development grants have been steered to what might be described as more literary musicals with dark subject matter.

The Pratt Prize comprised a generous cash prize and workshop for a selected work. The first two recipients, Side Show Alley (2002) and Metro Street (2004), went on to have one professional season each but none since. The subject matter of both musicals was on the dark side - a murderous gay love triangle for Side Show Alley and breast cancer and divorce for Metro Street.

A few years later the Australia Council funded two initiatives, New Musicals Australia and Carnegie 18 at the Melbourne Arts Centre. Neither produced a musical that has been performed again more than once. If you look at the works selected, many

were musicals that were dark and brooding or only fit into a festival program rather than the likelihood of having repeat productions.

Adding insult to injury, the organisers of Carnegie 18 told the Australia Council that “we don’t need any more money. We have cleared out all the good musicals,” according to a producer at the symposium.

Kris Stewart, Artistic Director of the Brisbane Powerhouse and New York Musical Theatre Festival founder, told the symposium that musical theatre deserves ongoing public funding.

“Music theatre is an art form. It should be funded,” he said. “They should also be judged on their contribution to Australian culture.”

He has had success in getting oneoff grants for two new Australian musicals next year in Brisbane. “The Valley Burns, created by Brisbane’s own Matt Condon and Ed Kuepper, is a piece of music theatre based in the Joh Bjelke-Petersen era.”

The second project is GBH: Gonzo Bangkok Holiday. “Three Brissie girls will head to the heart of Bangkok’s red light district and deliver their experiences as an absolutely unreliable narrative.”

Paul Mason from the Music Theatre Board of the Australia Council said Government grants have come recently because of the quality of the works that have been produced.

“That is why Matthew Robinson got a fellowship (to develop his musicals),” he said.

Victorian College of the Arts.

the box seat if the show gets up, whereas in Australia more rigid awards make it challenging for writers to fund a professional reading.

A more viable option has been to workshop musicals in tertiary institutions. For many years WAAPA has developed new musicals. It pays creatives for two weeks and gives them first year students and facilities to conduct workshops and performances.

The VCA has had a similar program New Musicals Australia has also and Margot Fenley (Head of Music been reborn at Sydney’s Hayes Theatre. Theatre & Lecturer in Acting), who It received 48 submissions, two were organised the symposium, announced selected for a workshop and one will a dramatic increase in assistance. Two get a production. The winners were pieces will be selected each year with The Detective’s Handbook by Ian the creatives given honorariums, Ferrington and Olga Solar, and MELBA, student cast and facilities. This will

by Nicholas Christo and Johannes include music theatre recording studios Luebbers. for the first time, to allow for the The latest incarnation of New creation of cast recordings.

Musicals Australia more closely Federation University at Ballarat is resembles the successful development now also regularly giving try outs to models overseas. It also leads to a new musicals and The Australian staged production that has a pathway Institute of Music did the first public to future productions. The downside is performance of a locally written juke that works at the Hayes are reviewed box musical Popstars. by critics as completed shows rather The VCA and WAAPA recently than productions in development. collaborated on the development of a Getting a reading for a new musical new musical, A Little Touch of Chaos is much harder in Australia than the

by Peter Rutherford and James Millar. It US. The symposium heard there are received assistance over five years and three or four readings a week in New by all reports is exceptional. Yet it has York. Actors perform for concessional not been produced since a brief outing wages in “backer auditions”, at the VCA. which puts them in Why is this the case? Producer Neil Gooding expressed frustration at the main stage theatre companies’ prejudice against musicals. He says if it had been a play then it would have been treated as a classic.

What is the subject matter of A Little Touch of Chaos you ask? Yes, you guessed right, a dark and brooding drama. The synopsis reads like this “a young man suffocated by the trappings of life in a religious sect in the mid 70s and his son, Tom, an agoraphobic sketch artist in 2011, forced to live at home by his condition.”

Now let me make it clear, we should develop literary musicals with dark and brooding themes. They should receive Government funding.

Jason Marriner.

(Continued on page 18) www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 17

VCA’s A Little Touch of Chaos in rehearsal, 2014.

Photo: Drew Echberg.

(Continued from page 17)

There have been plenty of global blockbuster musicals with dark and brooding stories. Think Les Misérables and Next to Normal.

But why only fund dark and brooding musicals? Why not also workshop the occasional musical that has wide commercial appeal due to the accessibility of the music and story,

18 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

not necessarily only for a professional season but also amateur theatres, schools and colleges.

It is exceptionally disappointing that not one of the musicals developed by any of the programs over the last 15 years have had more than one repeat performance. In my Musical Spice column at the back this edition, I list the Australian written musicals that I represent that have dozens and dozens of repeat performances all over the world. All of this has happened without one cent of Government money.

In that spirit of private enterprise Jason Marriner stood up at the end of the symposium and made a swashbuckling statement. Don’t wait for a Government hand out. Go out and raise the money from the private sector. He has proposed setting up a million dollar fund to workshop and showcase Australian musicals.

As CEO of the Marriner Group, he oversees four of Melbourne’s iconic East End theatres, the Princess Theatre, the Regent Theatre, the Comedy Theatre and the Forum Melbourne.

The proposal came at the end of the symposium.

Mr Marriner urged participants to be ambitious and think about raising a million dollars to workshop ten Australian musicals, then seek to raise half the money needed to stage a full production every three years. Mr Marriner said he was confident of being able to raise the money in a short period. He dubbed the plan the ‘Million Dollar Babies’.

An advocacy group has been formed including musical theatre director Gale Edwards, composer Max Lambert, Brisbane theatre manager Kris Stewart and Sydney producer Neil Gooding.

There are bright notes on the horizon. QTC and MTC are currently staging Ladies in Black (see page 28) and State Opera SA will premiere a musical adaptation of Cloudstreet.

Two new Australian written jukebox musicals will also have their first outings in 2016 Georgy Girl and Dream Lover.

Let’s hope success breeds more success.

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Ladies In Black The MTC and QTC have joined forces to present the world premiere season of Australia’s latest original musical.

Stage Whispers’ Peter Pinne spoke with director Simon Phillips and actress Christen O’Leary about the project and its development.

Ladies in Black is based on Madeleine St. John’s classic 1993 coming-of-age novel about a young girl in the late 1950s who gets a seasonal job in a Sydney department store (think David Jones), changes her first name, and becomes embroiled in the world of haute couture fashion and the lives of her co-workers. The musical has been adapted from the book by Carolyn Burns and has music and lyrics

by Tim Finn (Spit Enz/Crowded House), his first original score for a musical.

From the beginning Finn has been the driving force behind the whole project which has already had three workshops since 2013. According to Phillips, “Tim alerted me to the book, which he’d picked up at Brisbane Airport, and been inspired to write some songs for. Paradoxically, given its determined gentility, I found it a total page turner. I was totally engaged by the characters, and certain moments were rivetingly evocative to me. I suggested to Tim that Carolyn (who, like our lead character, actually had a 20 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

part-tine job at David Jones when she was younger) would be an ideal candidate to adapt it. She’s done a fantastic job.”

I asked Simon what qualities he thinks make the book perfect for musicalisation.

“In some ways it’s a little unlikely, in that no boy gets and loses a girl (or vice versa), no barricades are stormed and there are no witches,” Simon said.

“It’s a story of gentle and subtle storylines, but the accumulation of all of them make for a surprisingly rich and resonant experience. You get three happy endings for the price of one.

And there is a sweet, suburban, chrysalis-to-butterfly story at the centre of it.”

The protagonist’s story in the book is very delicate and light. What has been done to strengthen the role into a leading lady part?

“In the book, Lisa is an intelligent and inquisitive girl, but she’s also shy and terribly unworldly, so the plot kind of happens to her. She doesn’t drive it.

She’s strangely passive, and in the book part of the joy is revelling in her ‘luck’ - that she meets the right people at the right time. We didn’t want to lose that entirely, but to be dramatically viable we had to clarify her desires and somewhat intensify her obstacles. So the character of her father, who in the book is essentially a passive-aggressive barrier to her ambitions, has been made a more

articulate adversary, a more obvious hurdle.”

The story is female centric, which in these times with the success of Wicked and Legally Blonde is a good thing. But the male characters in these musicals have often been given short shrift.

What has been done to strengthen them in this?

“Tim’s written them some great songs and while the cast is eight women to 3 men, I think the male characters emerge as clear and individual forces. There’s only one actively romantic male figure - the character played by Bobby Fox, Rudi.

Perversely, Lisa’s love interest, if one could call it that, never appears onstage. The lack of a really strong onstage romance for the leading lady is another unusual (perhaps fool-hardy) thing about the show.”

Tim Finn has an enviable track record of writing hit songs. Is it likely some hits will emerge from his score or are the songs all heavily tied to character?

“There’s at least half a dozen complete ear-worms, but most of the songs are strongly connected to plot or characters. Tim’s ability to write to character is one of the great revelations of the project - it’s so exciting. But there’s one central song for Lisa (she has half a dozen) that’s sufficiently generic lyrically to become a hit I think.

It’s about the lyrics. The melodies are nearly all hit material.”

Christen O’Leary agrees.

“This creative team has captured the perfect moments in the novel for music to soar,” says Christen. “And soar it does! Music has the ability to create something magical on stage - to break out moments of heightened emotion. St John has given Tim so many of these moments and he’s flown with them.”

And what about your character Magda?

“Magda is a Slovenian refugee who fled Eastern Europe following WW2.

She has built a new, sensually comfortable life in Mosman, Sydney, with her beloved husband Stefan. She is also a devotee of couture fashion and the voluptuous, beautifully dressed, coiffed and manicured attendant of Model Gowns at Goode’s

Carita Farrer Spencer and Christen O’Leary.

Ladies in Black opens at the Playhouse, QPAC, Brisbane, and plays 14 November - 6 December, then plays a season at the Sumner Theatre, Melbourne, 16 January - 27 February. The cast includes Christen O’Leary, Naomi Price, Lucy Maunder, Bobby Fox, Kathryn McIntyre, Andrew Broadbent, Carita Farrar Spencer, Greg Stone, Kate Cole, Deidre Rubenstein and Sarah Morrison. Design is by Gabriela Tylesova, lighting

by David Walters, orchestrations by Guy Simpson, and musical direction

by Isaac Hayward. department store.”

Have you done a lot of research into the period in which the show is set?

“It’s one of the most fascinating aspects of the work for me. Of course I’m researching Magda’s European background and her path as a refugee following the war. Then there’s the fun of the couture research. And naturally Sydney in the late 50s…not simply styles, dress and deportment, but very particular social expectations, tones, idioms.”

This is your third original musical since the nineties when you did

Horrortorio at La Boite, and The Sunshine Club for QTC. What is it about original work that attracts you?

“It’s always thrilling to be at the beginning of things. It’s hard work but there is a spirit of workmanship that takes over. You want to create a work that will inspire others to want to do future productions of it.”

What is it about musical theatre that thrills you?

“Nothing! Musicals scare the hell out of me! But for some reason I keep agreeing to do them. Must be something about feeding my children and paying the mortgage.” www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 21

Hey There, Georgy Girl

Online extras!

Catch the buzz of the launch of Georgy Girl by scanning the QR code or visiting https://youtu.be/DBrncwHpJsk

L-R: Mike McLeish, Pippa Grandison, Phillip Lowe and Glaston Toft.

As Georgy Girl - The Seekers Musical prepares to open on Australian stages, Pippa Grandison, who will play the iconic lead vocalist Judith Durham, speaks to Neil Litchfield.

catalogues which have become the scores for international juke-box musicals.

The Seekers’ singles were perennial favourites on portable record players at church fellowship and folk nights, while any group of kids gathered around a guitar at a party, café or wine bar would try to emulate those famous harmonies, with greater or lesser success. Their songs even found a

Did you grow up in the 1960s too?

If so, you probably share the same proud, joyous memories of a nation watching from the other side of the world on grainy black and white TV as Aussie folk music quartet The Seekers blazed the trail as our first international pop superstars.

It was an eclectic musical time; rock singles by greats like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones jostled for top spot on the Top 40 charts with folk icons Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Peter Paul and Mary and Joni Mitchell.

For Australian children of the 60s, songs like ‘A World of Our Own’, ‘Morningtown Ride’, ‘Georgy Girl’, ‘The Carnival is Over’ and ‘I’ll Never Find Another You’ are imprinted in the play-lists of our musical memories just as indelibly as the pop music Judith Durham and Pippa Grandison.

22 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

home in the popular folk church services of the time.

Children of the 60s will be out in force again, I expect, when Georgy Girl - The Seekers Musical hits our stages, celebrating their music and career.

I asked Pippa Grandison about her own earliest fond memories of The Seekers.

“I think it’s their music that gets to everyone. I was too young to go and see any of their concerts.

“I was telling Judith (Durham) earlier about how I went to buy a dress for the publicity call, and the young girl who was serving me asked what it was for. I told her ‘I’m going to play Judith from The Seekers’, to a blank look on her face, then I sang a little bit of ‘Georgy Girl’, and she said, ‘Oh Yes!’ “There were records in my parents’ collection, so I was a little more onto it than these young girls. I remember singing their music all the time.

“I was big into records as a child - whether I was at home by myself, or with my family or

friends - there would always be that picking up of the needle, and putting it onto the vinyl, that little crackle and then the music kicks in. It was my favourite thing to play records.

“Then there’s the wonder of YouTube today. I saw all these wonderful old clips when I was preparing to audition. I was amazed at how many of their songs I knew - so I must have been singing, or hearing, a lot more than I realized when I was a child.”

I asked about the challenges and the joys of playing a living person - and not just a person, but a vocally iconic ‘living legend’.

“The weight of responsibility, and joy, is not lost on me. There are fans out there who are particularly attached to The Seekers, and especially to Judith Durham - her style of singing and the ease of voice which she has.

“I feel it would be potentially insulting to the fans, and maybe even to Judith herself, to try and impersonate or imitate. There will never be another Judith Durham.

“It’s not lost on me; she’s an icon, and loved by so many. Hopefully we’ll help people relive their memories.

What would be fantastic is if younger generations come along to see the show, and that music is brought to life again for them.

“To my mind folk music is the best I’ve sung a lot of different styles of music, but there’s something about folk music that’s really from the heart, so that’s the way in for me to approach it as an actor. Otherwise I’d go crazy with the responsibility of it.”

Although she has no plans to imitate Judith Durham, are there vocal hallmarks Pippa will use to hint at her voice?

“I’m listening to Judith every day and I will go as close as I can to the style, but I don’t want people to think that I’m trying to be exactly the same, because I just don’t think it’s possible.

“Physically it’s not possible to sound exactly the same, so there’s ways I’ll work with the technique I have and the placement of sound. I’m going to have to move that around a bit so I can get the same sounds.

“Judith has a particularly recognizable vibrato in her voice, and

the ease of the sound. When I listen to “Yes. It was a major decision for all her it strikes me. It doesn’t detract of them, and not an easy one for from the notes - the music - at all, but Judith at all, and then of course it it’s just quintessentially Judith, so that’s affected everybody’s lives. something that I’ll move toward.

“It’s not going to lean on it too heavily, but we are definitely telling a truthful story, which I think is great.

There’s stuff in there which I had no idea about, and I don’t think even the die-hard fans will know.”

As Pippa prepares for Georgy Girl, I ask if there’s any Seekers song to which she finds herself particularly connected.

“That’s continually shifting. Right now I’m loving ‘I’ll Never Find Another You’. There’s something about it that I really relate to. I get quite emotional when I speak about my husband and my child, especially when I’m about to leave them for a long period of time.

There’s something about that song Pippa Grandison. that makes me really think about them - that support and needing them there - I’m so lucky to have that love in my Georgy Girl - The Seekers Musical life. And musically I love the way it has its world premiere at Her moves.

Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne on “But there’s such a range of styles Tuesday December 22, with for me in this show. Judith started in previews commencing December jazz, then ended up back there, so we 15, followed by a Sydney season have that going on in the show as well. at the State Theatre from April 2.

It’s hard to say what my favourite is www.georgygirlthemusical.com because their repertoire is quite “I’m an actor as well as a singer, eclectic. So right now it’s ‘I’ll Never and I think you need to be able to Find Another You’, but then I sing ‘The understand a character like Judith Carnival is Over’ and think, maybe completely to play her with truth.” that’s my favourite. There’s so much to The Seekers broke up at the very choose from, and that’s the beauty of peak of their success. Are we getting a it.” book that reflects that?

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 23

Stage Briefs

 Geraldine Turner appears in The Chain Bridge at The Street Theatre, Canberra from November 21 to 29, 2015. Photographer: Lorna Sim. ‘Almost failed’ academic Imre is struggling to write the book about his family’s Budapest history that will save his career and maybe his marriage.

Over the course of one night involving bad fish soup, day-old bread and a lot of red wine, Imre and his wife, Sarah, push and prod his mother and her friends for answers. The darkness of war-torn Europe seeps through the quiet night of an Australian suburb, as old refugees and their children try to find a way to love after horror.  Squabbalogic present the Sydney premiere of Grey Gardens, featuring Beth Daly and Maggie Blinco, at the Seymour Centre from 18 November to 12 December, 2015.  Jerry Hall will reprise her role as seductress Mrs Robinson in the Sydney season of The Graduate from December 2nd 2016 at Sydney Lyric Theatre.  Geoffrey Rush plays the title role in the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of William Shakespeare’s King Lear, directed by Neil Armfield, playing at Roslyn Packer Theatre from November 24, 2015 to January 9, 2016.

24 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

Ashleigh Cummings appears in the Sydney Theatre Company production of Angela Betzien’s The Hanging. Photo: James Green.

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 25

Seasons 2016

Musical Theatre In 2016

Jemma Rix (Molly) and Rob Mills (Sam) will star in the Australian production of Ghost The Musical, beginning its Australian tour in Adelaide on January 7. http://bit.ly/1PKrvZU

Stage Whispers takes a look at musicals around Australia next year and beyond.

Disney’s Aladdin When news broke that Aladdin will open at the Capitol Theatre, Sydney in August 2016, just two years after its Broadway premiere, Stage Whispers’ Facebook page almost went into meltdown from the excitement.

The musical by Alan Menken, Howard Ashman and Tim Rice also won over the most jaded of theatre critics.

The New York Times’s Charles Isherwood wrote “another weary night in the presence of a spunky youngster and wisecracking animals didn’t exactly set my heart racing.” He said however that Aladdin has a greater emphasis on broad comedy than most of Disney’s other stage musicals and the songs “pay energetic tribute to everything from the Cotton Club and Las Vegas to vintage Hollywood and current Bollywood.”

Get ready for a whole new world of costumes, sequins and flying carpets. http://bit.ly/1LjaLEW 26 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

James Monroe Ingleh art in Disney’s Aladdin.

Photo: Cylia van Tiedma nn.

Ghost The Musical Adelaide from 8 January then Melbourne (February 5), Sydney (March 18) and Perth (May 21).

It is time to unchain all those melodies as Rob Mills stars as (back from the dead) Sam, in the role created

by Patrick Swayze in the 1990 movie.

There are all sorts of special effects.

Sam walks through a solid door, inanimate objects move, and elaborate

video imagery allows for spirits to ascend to the heavens.

All this mixed with the comedy of Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg’s shonky physic character) and an array of pop songs.

Ghost the Musical received mixed reviews in the US and had more than the occasional technical difficulty. http://bit.ly/1Lj9QV6

The London Palladium production of The Sound of Music Capitol Theatre, Sydney (December 2015), Brisbane (March), Melbourne (May) and Adelaide (August).

How do you solve a problem like Maria in 2016? Cast some old favourites, some new talent and throw some technological gadgetry at it.

The London Palladium production from 2006 has a few surprises. After the opening in the convent, we’re transported to the Austrian mountains via an oval window which reveals Maria lying on a mountain slope.

Peter Brown from the London Theatre Guide described it as “both surprising and highly effective. When the window rises, Maria is seen singing and dancing on a giant tilting disc which looks like a sort of enormous pancake.

“The device comes into its own again when they’ve climbed the mountain and peer over the top of it at the end of the show,” he said.

Dancing on the pancake will be Amy Lehpamer as Maria Rainer and Cameron Daddo as Captain Georg von Trapp. Marina Prior plays Baroness Schraeder, with Lorraine Bayly as Frau Schmidt. http://bit.ly/1LjaGkI Georgy Girl - The Seekers Musical World Premiere (December 2015) at Her Majesty’s Theatre Melbourne.

State Theatre Sydney.

(April).

Australia’s own super sixties group The Seekers are the subject of the latest new

The cast of Georgy Girl - The Seekers Musical.

Photo: Jim Lee.

McLeish and Glaston Toft, respectively, relive their careers, and revive their hits.

No doubt if you love their songs including ‘Morningtown Ride’, ‘I’ll Never Find Another You,’ ‘The Carnival is Over’ and A World of Our Own it will be well worth the ticket price.

How it stacks up as a piece of drama will be the key to its success. Does their story have the same appeal as Frankie Valli and Four jukebox tribute Seasons’ wrong side of the track tale? which traces their With a small cast and large origins from following, Georgy Girl should have suburban staying power.

Melbourne in the http://bit.ly/1JxmhbT swinging sixties, to world-wide Fiddler On The Roof success.

Melbourne’s Princess Theatre It’s a biographical (January) Capitol Theatre Sydney musical, but unlike (March).

Buddy, Shout!, Anthony Warlow returns to Dusty and The Boy Australia as Tevye, the downtrodden From Oz, the Jewish milkman in the small Ukranian village under the rein of anti-Semitic subjects are alive and singing as Tsar Nicholas II. their musical The theatre slot was opened up by tribute is being the postponement of Jekkyl and Hyde developed (as which ironically Warlow made the per Jersey Boys ) most famous recording of, but declined to appear in. and Judith Durham, Keith Having spent so much time in New Potger, Bruce York, Warlow will have his Jewish Woodley and Athol Guy mannerisms down pat. We look will be sitting there on forward to hearing how he handles the opening night watching more bass baritone Idle-diddle-daidlePippa Grandison, daidle notes.

Phillip Lowe, Mike http://bit.ly/1LoTmL1 Anthony Warlow as Tevye in Fiddler On The Roof.

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 27

Matilda The Musical These summer holidays Melbourne’s ‘revolting’ children are heading north. Child cast members are learning the ropes in Sydney, as Matilda winds down, in preparation for a ten month stint at the Princess Theatre from March (other states will follow in 2017).

The children and choreography are dazzling. They twist, turn and cavort with a discipline that would challenge adult dancers. To get them there requires months of training.

The musical lived up to its hype with an almost universal positive chorus of reviews in Sydney.

Roald Dahl’s larger-than-life characters blend seamlessly with the quirky, rule-breaking, sweet and sour music of Tim Minchin. http://bit.ly/1Lj9vSl We Will Rock You Sydney (May), Brisbane (July), Melbourne (September), Perth (November), Adelaide (January 2017).

Ben Elton’s musical fantasy, using the best songs of Queen, is bullet proof.

It ran for over a decade in the West End and has had productions around the world every year since critics fired their water pistols at the premiere.

Yes the story is a bit silly. It is set 300 years in the future in a vaguely Orwellian earth called “iPlanet”.

But audiences love it and they can’t wait to sing along to ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, which they don’t even pretend is part of the narrative. http://bit.ly/1Lja6mX Kinky Boots Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne from October.

Kinky Boots tells the story of Charlie Price, who has reluctantly inherited his father’s Northampton shoe factory.

Trying to live up to his father’s legacy and save the family business from bankruptcy, Charlie finds inspiration in the form of Lola, a We Will Rock You.

28 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

fabulous entertainer in need of some sturdy stilettos.

First came the movie, then the Tony Award winning musical.

New York Times critic Ben Brantley described Cindy Lauper’s music as “a love- and heat-seeking score that performs like a pop star on Ecstasy.”

He described the book by Harvey Fierstein as “a shameless emotional button pusher, presided over - be warned - by that most weary of latterday Broadway archetypes, a strong and sassy drag queen who dispenses life lessons like an automated fortune cookie.”

Worth dressing up for. http://bit.ly/1Lj9ZYp Singin’ In The Rain Melbourne (May), Sydney (July) then Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

We are looking forward to welcoming home Aussie dance heartthrob Adam Garcia in the lead role of Don Lockwood in this classic dance musical, alongside Jack Chambers Billy Porter as Lola from the original Broadway cast of Kinky Boots.

Photo: Matthew Murphy.

Bella Thomas in Matilda The Musical.

Photo: James Morgan.

Seasons 2016

Online extras!

Check out our preview of Matilda The Musical. Scan the QR code or visit https://youtu.be/0yBTBSYEWZA

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 29

Singin’ In The Rain. Photo: Brian Geach.

Defined A Generation, which toured nationally in 2014, returns for a national tour in July-August 2016 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan, with a cast led by Ben Mingay. http://bit.ly/1LjavFZ Cats Sydney (November) then touring to Hobart, Melbourne and Brisbane in 2015, then touring to Adelaide and Perth in 2016.

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s mega 1980’s blockbuster Cats returns with changes including rap music, break dancing and Delta Goodrem as Grizabella for east coast audiences. http://bit.ly/1Lj9GNi

(Cosmo), Gretel Scarlett (Cathy Seldon) and Erika Heynatz (Lina Lamont).

The West End production originated at the Britain’s Chichester Festival Theatre, under the direction of the newly installed Sydney Theatre Company Artistic Director Jonathan Church.

Charles Spencer wrote in the The Telegraph that “Church’s splendid staging, with thrillingly inventive choreography by Andrew Wright that though clearly inspired by Gene Kelly’s original routines often takes off in

startling and delightful new directions of its own.”

Singin’ In The Rain is the story of the arrival of the talkies in Hollywood with “a broad buoyant humour, generosity of spirit and delightfully tuneful score”.

Don’t forget your umbrella. http://bit.ly/1Ljajqg My Fair Lady Sydney Opera House (August) Dame Julie Andrews was famously cast as the original Liza Doolittle in My Fair Lady on Broadway but overlooked for the role in the film for the nonsinger Audrey Hepburn.

Now she gets her own back by being able to put a new feather in her cap as director of the musical on its 60th anniversary.

Alas there is no chance of hearing Dame Julie sing as she is now 80 and tragically suffered vocal damage during a botched vocal surgery.

No doubt the production will be fit for a Dame. We can’t wait for the press conference. http://bit.ly/1JxmjAq Rolling Thunder Vietnam THE Australian concert drama Rolling Thunder Vietnam - Songs That

30 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

Dream Lover, The Bobby Darin Musical World Premiere, Theatre Royal, Sydney (September).

Dream Lover is a more conventional bio musical. Its subject Bobby Darrin died young (37) and had a life that was often on a knife edge.

Young Walden Robert Cassotto overcame a life threatening illness and a poor background to become one of the great entertainers of the mid20th century.

With a weak heart he knew he had to pack as much into his life as he could before it ran out.

His personal drama included - a volatile marriage to movie star Sandra Dee and the discovery that his “mother” Polly was actually his Julie Andrews.

Online extras!

Check out highlights from Rolling Thunder Vietnam. Scan or visit https://youtu.be/IWPNCuFxjhY

Seasons 2016

Rolling Thunder Vietnam.

Photo: Dylan Evans.

Cats.

Online extras!

Experience the worldwide phenomenon of Cats. Simply scan the QR code or visit https://youtu.be/G29eTr7FgVU

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 31

L-R: Nikki M. James, Andrew Rannells, Josh Gad and ensemble in the Broadway production of The Book of Mormon.

Photo: Joan Marcus.

Little Shop of Horrors.

Photo: Jeff Busby.

grandmother and his “sister” Nina, was really his mother.

The musical, penned by Frank and John-Michael Howson, includes the songs ‘Splish Splash’, ‘As Long as I’m Singing’, ‘Mack the Knife’, ‘Beyond the Sea’, ‘If I Were a Carpenter’, ‘Inka Dinka Doo’ and ‘Mammy’.

The musical has been in development under the direction of Simon Phillips for five years. http://bit.ly/1LjaySj The Book of Mormon Opening at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre in January 2017.

As 2016 draws to a close, the yet-to -be-announced cast of the highly anticipated January 2017 Australian premiere of The Book of Mormon will be rehearsing ahead of opening night.

Winner of nine Tony Awards® including Best Musical and the Grammy® for Best Musical Theatre album, The Book of Mormon follows a pair of Mormon boys sent on a mission to Uganda. http://bit.ly/1LjarpI Little Shop of Horrors Sydney (February), Adelaide (April), Melbourne (May), Canberra (May) and Brisbane (June).

The production team behind Sweet Charity, which launched Sydney’s Hayes Theatre into the stratosphere, is getting back together, promising to produce a Little Shop of Horrors for “the 21st century”.

They will join forces with master puppet-makers Erth to create a brand new Audrey II. Freed from King Kong’s clutches, Esther Hannaford plays Audrey alongside Brent Hill as the unassuming, hapless flower shop worker Seymour Krelborn. http://bit.ly/1Ljaodo And the rumours As Priscilla Queen of the Desert The Musical heads into Auckland in August 2016. Stage Whispers wonders if this might be followed by a 10th Anniversary tour of Australia.

Rumours are also circulating that Australia will see a revival of Gypsy following the success of the West End revival starring Imelda Staunton.

32 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

Heathers.

Photo: John McRae.

Seasons 2016

Online extras!

Check out a preview of Heathers by scanning the QR code or visiting http://youtu.be/tKBpyoaokaM

Indie Musical Theatre In 2016 If further proof was needed regarding the success of independent musical theatre companies, recently announced return seasons and interstate touring of four productions should put it beyond any doubt.

seen at NIDA, plays at the Arts Centre Gold Coast in January.

Sydney’s Hayes Theatre Company has announced its program for the first half of the year.

Helen Dallimore directs a new production of the world’s longest Highway Run Productions’ RENT, running musical, The Fantasticks, from 11 January. The first leg of the Little which sold out its season before opening night, has announced a return Shop of Horrors Australian Tour follows. season at the Hayes Theatre Co in March / April.

The Hayes Theatre Company and Melbourne-based StageArt will New Musicals Australia will present a revive their successful production of In brand new Australian Musical, The The Heights at the National Theatre, St Detective’s Handbook. It is set in Chicago, 1950. Frank Thompson, Kilda in March.

Two productions which debuted in police detective, is called into the Sydney will play Queensland seasons. station on Sunday morning to Heathers The Musical, directed by investigate the murder of two Trevor Ashley at the Hayes, travels to policemen in a disreputable neighbourhood. The Chief of Police the Playhouse, QPAC, with Kirby Burgess joining Jaz Flowers in the cast. assigns him Jimmy Hartman, a newly promoted detective.

Supply Evolution’s production of Bring It On The Musical, previously XANADU, the roller skating musical comedy adventure based on the 1980s

cult movie classic starring Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly, opens in May. Another new Australian musical, Melba, has been foreshadowed for later in the year.

The first of Melbourne’s boutique musical theatre companies to announce their plans is StageArt. Their season opens with Saturday Night Fever in February. Director/ Choreographer Luke Alleva, who starred in the West End production of Saturday Night Fever in 2005, will bring this revival to life. Titanic The Musical follows in July, then the Australasian Premiere of The Colour Purple in October, all at Chapel off Chapel.

For their Autumn production, Sydney independent company Squabbalogic’s production of Grease at the Seymour Centre promises to go back to the musical’s far grittier original version. www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 33

Picnic at Hanging Rock - Malthouse and Black Swan. Photo: Robert Frith.

Plays In 2016

To read more about seasons across Australia, visit http://bit.ly/1GjAoXm Alex Williams and Kelly Paterniti will appear in Bell Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet - playing Sydney in February / March, then Canberra and Melbourne in April.

Australia’s main stage theatre companies are working together to bring audiences the best of locally and internationally written drama in 2016.

“This novel has embedded itself in our national psyche, and still speaks to us about what it means to live in this country and be Australian today,” says Matthew Lutton, who directs the work.

Artistic Directors of two of our Great French playwright Molière will flagship state theatre companies have be represented by collaborations on announced their final seasons. Andrew two new Australian versions of his plays by Justin Fleming.

Upton departs the Sydney Theatre Griffin Theatre Company and Bell Company at the end of 2015, handing the reins to his successor, Jonathan Shakespeare will present The Literati, a Church, coming to Sydney with new translation of Moliere’s La Femme remarkable credentials from his tenure Savants, directed by Griffin’s Artistic at the Chichester Festival Theatre.

Director Lee Lewis and featuring Kate Wesley Enoch leaves the QTC to Mulvany. The Literati promises that the take up his new position at the helm of text will be brought screaming into the the Sydney Festival.

21st century with its cutting satire of the high-brow elite.

Black Swan and Queensland Collaborations Theatre Company will produce a Collaborations are a key element of farcical Australiana adaptation of seasons across Australia in 2016.

Moliere’s Tartuffe.

Malthouse Theatre and Black Swan Belvoir, Malthouse Theatre, State combine to produce the world Theatre Company of South Australia premiere of Tom Wright’s adaptation and Sydney Festival join forces for The of Joan Lindsay’s haunting Australian Events, David Greig’s chilling novel Picnic at Hanging Rock. exploration of the aftermath of a massacre, featuring Catherine 34 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

McClements and performed with different community choirs every night.

Machu Pichu by Sue Smith is a Sydney Theatre Company and State Theatre Company of South Australia world premiere co-production, starring Lisa McCune. It follows Paul and Gabby, two mid-life civil engineers who seem to have it all. After a horrifying car accident Gabby walks away unscathed but Paul is badly injured.

Both are forced to reassess priorities, and re-evaluate long held dreams.

Malthouse Theatre and St Martins collaborate on an expose on teenage boys’ relationship with internet porn in Gonzo, giving voice to a community who has been unheard in the conversation until now - the teenagers themselves.

Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Disgraced is an MTC / QTC coproduction, directed by Nadia Tass.

Hotshot lawyer Amir is living the dream. He’s happy, in love, and about to land a huge promotion. But to get there he’s had to renounce his culture and his faith.

Shaun Micallef and Francis Greenslade appear in the MTC production of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple in November / December.

Seasons 2016

Online extras!

Shaun & Francis discuss working together in The Odd Couple. Scan or visit https://youtu.be/NCtr1ZmPf_Y La Boite is collaborating with the State Theatre Company of South Australia to produce the comedy Straight White Men, written by Korean American Young Jean Lee.

Returning On New Stages

The multi award-winning stage version of Kate Grenville’s novel by two of Australia’s leading theatre artists, The Sydney Theatre Company’s Neil Armfield and Andrew Bovell, explores the conflict between hit production of The Secret transported thief William Thornhill and River returns to Sydney in February, before playing Arts the Dharug people on whose land by Centre Melbourne and the Hawkesbury River he attempts to settle.

Brisbane’s QPAC. Joanna Murray-Smith’s twohander Switzerland heads to the MTC with the original Sydney Theatre Company team of actors Sarah

Jasper Jones, based on the novel by Craig Silvey, adapted by Kate Mulvany, will play at Belvoir in January with a separate Melbourne Theatre Company production to follow in August.

Photo: Brett Boardman.

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 35

Peirse and Eamon Farren. Queensland Theatre Company will stage a separate production of the play, starring Andrea Moor.

Eamon Flack’s production of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, starring Pamela Rabe as Amanda Wingfield, heads to Melbourne for the first time, fresh from receiving the Best Play accolade at the Helpmann Awards.

Australian Content Nowhere is Australian content stronger than Griffin Theatre Company, at the SBW Stables Theatre in Sydney.

Its world premieres include Ladies Day by Alana Valentine (set in the gay community of Broome); Replay, a family comedy by Phillip Kavanagh about three brothers in the multiverse; Benedict Andrews’ play Gloria, about a fading superstar (which also offers a portrait of society on the brink of a nervous breakdown), while Gale Edwards will direct the winner of the 2015 Griffin Award, The Turquoise Elephant, a black, black, black comedy about environmental politics by Stephen Carleton.

Sydney’s Belvoir Theatre has The Drover’s Wife (penned by and starring Leah Purcell in her own adaptation of the Henry Lawson short story); The Tribe (a story of Arab-Australian migration from the backyards of Bankstown, to the backyards of Surry Hills, literally); The Great Fire by Kit Brookman (a sweeping family comedy set in Adelaide Hills), Back at the

Meow Meow’s Little Mermaid plays at Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre from January 28 to February 14, following a Sydney Festival season at the Magic Mirrors Spiegeltent.

36 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

Dojo by Lally Katz and Matthew Whittet’s Girl Asleep.

The STC premieres Angela Betzien’s The Hanging, about two private school girls missing in Melbourne’s hinterland.

Sydney’s Ensemble Theatre has the world premiere of David Williamson’s Jack of Hearts, with a company featuring the stars of The Chaser, as well as Mark Kilmurry’s adaptation of Tony Davis Novel The Big Dry (a drama which shows how far people will go to stay alive in a futuristic world of drought and dust storms).

At Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre Meow Meow’s Little Mermaid will offer a sexy spectacle, with just a little bit of punk in her un-Disney cabaret, a modern rethink of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale. Nakkiah Lui’s Blaque Showgirls is a satire of 90s dance films - the story of a white-skinned ‘blaque’ girl who dreams of becoming the best Aboriginal dancer in Brisvegas.

The QTC is staging Bastard Territory, a confessional human drama about identity with a 60s and 70s soundtrack, from Brisbane-based writer Stephen Carleton. St Mary’s in Exile, by Brisbane playwright David Burton, tells the story of beloved priest Father Peter Kennedy, excommunicated from St Mary’s in South Brisbane for preaching acceptance and equality.

Motherland, from Brisbane-based writer Katherine Lyall-Watson, explores the casualties of love, ambition and politics.

Black Swan in Perth is staging the Australian premiere of Clinton the Musical.

Seasons 2016 Darlinghurst Theatre Company stage David Mamet’s A Life in the Theatre in November.

Photo: Helen White.

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 37

Kate Mulvany appears in the Bell Shakespeare / Griffin Theatre Company co-production of The Literati.

Photo: Brett Boardman.

Seasons 2016

To read more about seasons across Australia, visit http://bit.ly/1GjAoXm

Lisa McCune appears in Machu Picchu, a coproduction between the Sydney Theatre Company (March / April) and the State Theatre Company of South Australia (April / May).

Photo: James Hartley.

The Melbourne Theatre Company’s production of the musical Ladies in Black (featured elsewhere in this edition) is their biggest new work. Their other major new work is Jasper Jones, adapted

by Kate Mulvany from the awardwinning book. Described as an Australian echo of To Kill A Mockingbird, Craig Silvey’s poignant novel follows three boys in a remote mining town - one Anglo, one Vietnamese and one part-Aboriginal - who join forces to track down a killer when a local girl is found hanging from a tree.

International Collaborations Black Swan’s first international collaboration, with the National Theatre of China, is Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle, 38 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

an epic work directed by Wang Xiaoying, bringing together Chinese and Australian Indigenous cultures.

The STC is staging Golem, from the British theatre company 1927.

Described by London’s Evening Standard as “unlike anything you will have experienced before ... officially the sexiest theatre company in town”, 1927 seamlessly synchronise original live music, performance and storytelling with film and animation in Golem, a satirical take on the misuse of technology.

Demonstrating a commitment to international partnerships, Malthouse Theatre collaborates with Berlin’s Gob Squad in a new production that tackles a 19th century icon of literature in the international premiere of War and Peace (Around a Kitchen Table).

State Theatre Company South Australia enters into its first

international co-production, with London-based physical theatre company Frantic Assembly. Things I Know To Be True is a brand new commissioned work by Australian writer Andrew Bovell that will have its world premiere in Adelaide, before seasons in Canberra and the UK. Sydney Theatre Company presents the Australian premiere of The Almeida Theatre production of the 2015 Olivier Award winner for Best Play, King Charles III, which imagines the aftermath of the death of Elizabeth II when Prince Charles finally ascends the throne.

Confronting the contradictions of monarchy and democracy and exploring power and betrayal, the ‘future history’ play turns a Shakespearean lens on relationships in the world’s most famous and exposed family.

Stage Whispers’ Not-To-Be-Missed Plays Of 2016 Sydney Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks by Richard Alfieri, starring Nancye Hayes and Todd McKenney.

The return of Ensemble Theatre’s hit comedy. When Lily advertises for a teacher to help her master some groovy dance steps, she doesn’t bargain on being landed with Michael and his dancing baggage.

Melbourne Switzerland by Joanna MurraySmith Inspired by crime novelist Patricia Highsmith, Switzerland is an original thriller that begins with a knock at the door and spirals into a calculated contest of wits and words.

Catherine McClements stars in the Belvoir, Malthouse, STCSA and Sydney Festival collaboration, The Events.

Photo: Brett Boardman.

Daniel Mitchell and Georgie Parker appear in the Ensemble Theatre’s August production of Barefoot in the Park by Neil Simon.

Brisbane The Secret River Based on the award-winning novel

by Kate Grenville, The Secret River, winner of six Helpmann Awards, is a powerful story of the bloody beginnings of colonial Australia, when pardoned convicts clashed with the traditional owners of the land they settled.

Adelaide Things I Know To Be True by Andrew Bovell Tells the story of the Price family, who appear to be living the Australian dream - a loving household in a solid brick house on a quarter acre block where the passing of time is measured by the seasonal changes in working class patriarch Bob’s beloved roses.

Perth Picnic at Hanging Rock by Tom Wright, adapted from Joan Lindsay’s novel.

Australia, 1900. An ancient land becomes the site of an impossible mystery. A group of schoolgirls and their teachers venture out into the sundrenched landscape, only for four of their number to disappear forever.

Sydney Theatre Company’s The Secret River.

Photo: James Green.

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 39

Seasons 2016

Tosca.

Photo: Lightly Salted Photography

Gale Edwards directs State Opera SA’s World Premiere of Cloudstreet! - an opera based on the Tim Winton novel - in May. Photo: Lightly Salted Photography

Opera For The 21st Century In 2016 Opera lovers will be able to enjoy something they have not been able to experience ever before … a genuine range of work written in the 20th and 21st centuries.

These new productions are balanced against traditional favourites Turandot (on the harbour), Carmen, La Boheme and The Magic Flute.

Terracini says introducing the new works is difficult as they can sell a Opera Australia is diversifying and fraction of the volume of the classics. contemporary operas are being staged Other companies are undeterred.

State Opera SA is staging “a across the country. ground-breaking interpretation of Lyndon Terracini, Artistic Director of Opera Australia, heralded its contemporary work Cloudstreet!”. The “broader repertoire” next year. adaptation of Tim Winton’s iconic “We are doing seven new novel about two Western Australian productions. There are two Australian families and the extraordinary events which bind them together will be operas in the Sydney season, The Rabbits, and Sydney Opera House The directed by Gale Edwards.

Opera, staged outside in the Tim Winton fans will also be drawn forecourt.” to the West Australian Opera. It is Previously called The Eighth staging the adaptation of his 1994 Wonder, and staged inside, this work novel The Riders, which premiered in will now have a much larger audience. Victoria last year. The ninety minute piece is so contemporary it features a “We are also doing more Russian scene in an American Express Office. repertoire - The Love For Three Oranges and a gorgeous Verdi opera Victorian Opera is premiering a for the first time, Luisa Miller.” new Australian work, Banquet of 40 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

Secrets, by Steve Vizard and jazz composer Paul Grabosky.

The VO is also working with State Opera SA and Circus Oz to devise Laughter and Tears, a production with a mix of circus and singing, which includes a performance of I Pagliacci.

The Pied Piper will tour regional Victoria, with local children and community choirs bringing to life this new work by artistic director Richard Mills.

There will be another 3D opera, Four Saints In Three Acts, and an opera produced only for online viewers.

Opera Queensland also has a world premiere. It’s a new adaptation of Snow White. Audiences will be up close and in-the-round with the sweat and muscle; blood and poison; sweet apples; shards of glass and moonlight.

Let’s just hope that parents heed the warning not to bring the kids.

Make Up Delivered All Over Oz Melbourne’s Face Paint Shop prides itself on an inside knowledge of what is needed for all types of performances and characters.

All staff at the Wantirna South shop have a theatre background.

“Usually, a theatre company or show will send through a list of characters, with notes on how they want that character to look, as well as any special info on that cast member such as sensitive skin, excessive sweater, etc,” said shop manager Michelle Drinnen.

“Our staff then put together the products for those characters to create the effect they need. We can even design step by step instructions for the exact design if you have volunteer make-up artists assisting.”

The shop supplies performance

paints for major events, theatrical shows, dance, gymnastics, calisthenics and recitals.

Michelle teaches a popular handson workshop focused on youth and newbies to theatre. It covers theatre

make up, with an emphasis on hygiene and looking after your supplies.

“Our most popular theatre kit is our “basics stage kit’ which includes everything you need for being on stage, including stage foundation in the right shade, eyeliner, mascara, blush, lipstick and a sponge to apply it with.

Companies will often purchase one kit for each cast member to ensure cast have proper make up, and the right colours.”

The Face Paint Shop also has a huge range of SFX make-up products to create effects like ageing, blood splatter and death, and a big range of makeup that glows under black lights.

The Face Paint Shop is open 6 days a week on Sherwood Court, Wantirna South, with friendly staff ready to help you. Phone (03) 9013 0840 or online at www.thefacepaintshop.com

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 41

Postcard From London, Berlin And Vienna

A dazzling Gypsy, Kinky Boots’ smash West End opening, Bend it like Beckham, and a 1930s operetta from Barry Kosky reminiscent of an orgy, are just some of Peter Pinne’s highlights from a recent theatrical jaunt in Europe.

Imelda Staunton’s sensational Mama Rose is one of the great performances of this Mount Everest of a musical theatre role.

Determined, strident and vulnerable, not only did every linereading have character, but also every song lyric. Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents’ musical masterpiece Gypsy could not be in better hands. The voice is perfect. She can belt, play it pianissimo, or colour the notes with warm honey, all the time delivering a powerhouse performance. Peter Davidson (Law and Order UK) as her long-suffering other half, was an OK Herbie, Lara Pulver is a bland and not very sexy Louise, but Anita Louise Combe, last seen in Australia as Cassie in the 2011 revival of A Chorus Line, is wonderfully vulgar as stripper Tessie Tura. The

42 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

production closes at the end of November and word is that it may be filmed.

sluttish as Pinky, with Sophie-Louise Dann almost stealing the show as the mother Paula. Aletta Collins’ staging and choreography London critics keep calling every managed multiple locations new British musical “the best British Southall Markets, Soccer fields in musical in years”. Billy Elliot was Germany, and a traditional Indian saddled with it, as was last year’s wedding - with incredible energy, Made in Dagenham, and now Bend in a clever half-stadium set design it Like Beckham. In this instance I

by Miriam Buether. agree that if it’s not the “Best British Musical in Years”, it’s pretty Cindi Lauper’s Kinky Boots was close. Based on the 2002 movie set good in New York, but the London in Southall, London, about a soccer version is much better. The mad teenager whose traditional performances are more honest, Indian parents try to stop her from have more heart, and the story achieving her desire to play works better on home-turf. The professional soccer, the story has story of a London high-flyer who been lovingly adapted by the film’s inherits his father’s failing shoe director Gurinder Chadha into a business and turns its fortunes smashing feel-good musical. The around by making shoes for drag score by Howard Goodall (The queens, has found its spiritual Hired Man) and Charles Hart (The home in the Strand’s Adelphi Phantom of the Opera) mixes Brit Theatre. It also helps that Britain pop, techno and traditional musical has a healthy respect for drag and its purveyors. Killian Donnelly, theatre with Bollywood, and it’s joyous. Songs to hit the mark whose West End credits include The included “Glorious”, “People Like Commitments, Billy Elliot, The Us” and “Tough Love”. Natalie Phantom of the Opera, Les Drew was terrifically appealing as Misérables and Memphis, could not Jess, Preeya Kalidis was marvellously be bettered as Charlie Price. But the revelation of the production was former BBC The Voice finalist Matt Henry as Lola. He preened, he pouted, he swished, and he did it all in heels so impossibly high you wondered how he kept upright.

From “Land of Lola” and “Sex is in the Heel” to “Everybody Say Yeah” and “Raise You Up”, he never failed to stop the show. And his duet with Donnelly, “Not My Father’s Son”, was a poignant masterpiece.

The guys who played the Drag Queens, “The Angels”, were just as responsible for the success of the show as the principals. All over six

foot, they danced like demons, were incredibly athletic, and they did it in those incredibly high-heels.

They deserve an Olivier Award of their own.

and his love for his boss, the hotel owner, Josepha, is the springboard for many marital escapades at the beginning of the tourist season.

And with guests arriving by boat, plane, train and bus, and the Beautiful - The Carole King hotel’s facilities stretched to the Musical is one reason not every limit, the stage is awash with songwriter’s life deserves to end up people and kids. on stage as a jukebox musical. In Vienna’s Volksoper’s new this bland piece of hocus-pocus production doesn’t stint on the King comes across as a housewife - numbers with chorus scenes a talented housewife, but including upward of 80 people. I’ve nevertheless a housewife. There’s known the score for years, but have little conflict in the story - she gets never seen the show and was pregnant at 16, marries Goffin, surprised at how funny it was and then he becomes a serial cheater, how contemporary it played. The they divorce and she reinvents sets were cartoonish in their herself as a solo act. The authors try simplicity, with a vaudeville feel to them, which was endorsed by the to infuse some drama into the piece by creating what seems like a appearance of two pantomime false rivalry between fellow cows. The humour was slapstick songwriters Cynthia Weill and Barry but, nevertheless, funny. Sigrid Mann, but it all plays like a “B’ Hauser as Josepha was formidably lusty singing the title song. With grade Hollywood bio-pic. Katie Brayben as King had pitch the orchestra numbering over 50, problems, while Ed Currie and and the complete cast of 80 on Dylan Turner as The Righteous stage at the finale, the sound was Brothers didn’t sound like them at incredible. It was old-fashioned but all. exciting musical theatre.

Operetta is alive and well in Europe where it all started over 150 years ago. These days operettas are mostly performed in opera houses which slot seasons of them in between the more traditional works of Puccini and Mozart.

Ralph Benatzky’s White Horse Inn has been thrilling audiences ever since it first opened in Berlin in 1930. Set in the Austrian Tyrol on the shores of the Wolfgangsee (lake) around the famous White Horse Inn, the show’s convoluted plot about the head waiter Leopold

Ball at the Savoy, which is in repertory at the Komische Oper, Berlin, is a jazz-age operetta that also harks back to the 1930s.

Composed by Paul Abraham, the show premiered at Berlin’s largest revue theatre, the Grosses Schauspielhaus, in 1932.

This is the first production since then. Directed by Artistic Director of the company Barry Kosky, Ball at the Savoy is a camp, self-indulgent, brilliant recreation of pre-Nazi Berlin theatre. Marital misunderstandings are again the

focus of the plot, which has a Marquis recently returned to Berlin with his wife after a 12 month honeymoon. He is summoned to the annual Ball at the Savoy by a former paramour, an Argentinian dancer named Tangolita. In order to get away from his wife for the night he is aided by Mustafa Bey, the Turkish attaché in Paris. But his wife Madeleine is suspicious, and, in disguise, also attends the ball.

Scandal ensues, but not before we have experienced the Ball, which is almost a bacchanalian orgy, with most of the dancers running around in flesh coloured tights, and one of the funniest chamber separee that results in mayhem.

Abraham’s score uses waltz, foxtrot, tango, gypsy and oriental styles, and in this production is supplemented by additional tunes from his most famous work Viktoria and her Husar. One of the songs is called “The Kangaroo” which is reminiscent of the dance crazes of the time. Another is the romantic and pretty “Toujours l’amour”.

At 3 hours and 15 minutes long the show drags in places and begins to wear out its welcome, but just when it does Kosky pulls another rabbit out of his director’s hat and the shenanigans continue.

Katherine Mehrling as New York composer Daisy Darlington stole the show. With spot-on comictiming, a voice that lifted to the stratosphere, and a dancer’s body, she totally captivated. Since expatriot Australian Kosky took over as artistic director, the fortunes of the Komische Oper have turned around and this year saw it named the “Best Opera Company in Berlin”. It’s obvious his mixture of grand opera and operetta have found an audience.

Both operettas were performed with surtitles in English, the Volksoper above the proscenium, and the Komische Oper behind the seat in front of you, also with options for German, French and Turkish.

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 43

Stage On Disc

By Peter Pinne

BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM (Howard Goodall/Charles Hart) (Sony 88875136992).

Howard Goodall’s score for this latest British hit is infectious and uplifting. The stage version of Jess (Natalie Drew), a soccer obsessed Asian teenage girl, is every bit as much fun as the 2002 movie. From the opening number “UB2” to the final reprise of “Bend It” the music has that euphoric charm that puts a smile on your face. “Girl Perfect” is a return to the Stock, Aitken and Waterman sound of 90s pop while “The Engagement” mixes traditional music theatre styles with Bollywood. Charles Hart’s well-turned lyrics come to the fore in “People Like Us”, the father’s (Tony Jayawardena) reflection on the prejudices he faced growing up, “people like us can serve in shops, varnish nails, wipe table tops”, or the coach’s (Jamie Campbell Bower) advice to Jess in “First Touch”, “don’t overplan it, there’s no formula carved in granite”, while Goodall’s music is stirringly anthem-like in “Glorious” and tender in the quartet for the mothers and their daughters, “Tough Love”.

Poignancy comes in the second act three-four reprise of “There She Goes”, when the mother (Sophie-Louise Dann) realises she has to finally let her grown-up daughter leave home. It’s beautifully orchestrated and arranged by the composer for a 9-piece group, with an assist from Kuljit Bhamra to give it a Bollywood overlay. The album was recorded live in July at the Phoenix Theatre.  GYPSY (Jule Styne/Stephen Sondheim) (First Night CASTCD 117). Do we really need another copy of Gypsy in our collections? When the Mama Rose is as good as Imelda Staunton is, then yes.

The musical theatre triumph of the current season, she’s electrifyingly brilliant in a role we’ve heard so many times before. Who knew Vera Drake or Harry Potter’s Dolores Umbridge had such classy musical theatre chops. From the moment she steps out in “Some People” until the climatic “Rose’s Turn” she grabs the role by the throat and with ferocious will-power delineates the dragon of all stage mothers. “Everything’s Coming up Roses” is a showstopper, but “Rose’s Turn” blows you out of the water. Lara Pulver and Gemma Sutton do well as Louise and June in “If Momma Was Married” and Peter Davidson adds some much needed male croak to the female heavy show, coming through on “You’ll Never Get Away From Me”. “You’ve Gotta Have a Gimmick” never fails to please, and Anita Louise Combe, Louise Gold and June Legrand make a meal of it. Composer Jule Styne was always critical of the standard of London pit musicians but he’d be jumping for joy if he heard the brass work on the Overture’s triplets, which almost surpasses the original for its virtuosity on this disc.  THE BODYGUARD (Various) (First Night CASTCD 120).

Despite running almost 2 years in the West End, neither Heather Headley, the original Rachel Marron, or her replacement, British soul diva Beverley Knight, recorded a cast album, although Knight did record a 4-track promo on her debut in the role. The final West End Rachel Marron was Alexandra Burke, who subsequently led the UK tour which has now turned up on CD. She’s good in the role, which requires anyone who sings it to be adept at the Whitney Houston canon. Burke doesn’t impersonate Houston, but she’s pretty impressive. Best tracks are “Run to You”, “Greatest Love of All”, and of course Houston’s signature tune, “I Will Always Love You”. 

44 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

ANN VERONICA (Cyril Ornadel/David Croft) (Stage Door 9042). Stage Door continue their policy of rescuing “lost” British musicals of the last 50 years with the first CD reissue of 1969’s Ann Veronica. Based on H.G. Wells’ novel, it came after Half a Sixpence and is a sister to that show being in the same vein - a knees-up turn-of-the-century tale of a young middle-class girl rebelling against her tyrannical father and becoming a new woman. But Ann Veronica is nowhere near as interesting as Arthur Kipps, although she has some pleasant music to sing. Ornadel’s score is professional but not in the same league as his Pickwick. Best tune is the title song, but Hy Hazell adds some much needed zest to several numbers, namely “Maternity”, “Glad to Have You Back” and “Too Much Meat.” 

Aznavour, Les Reed and Laurence O’Keefe. Performers include Alexander Hanson, Graham Bickley, Dollie de Luxe, Simon Burke, Meredith Braun and Essex. Best tracks are “Call Me Robin Hood” from Robin Prince of Sherwood, sung by Peter Howarth, “Like a Child” from Bernadette, sung by Miriam Stockley, “The World Was Changed This Morning” from Valentine’s Day, sung by Alexander Hanson, and “The Souvenirs are Second Best” from Lautrec, sung by Mary Carewe. 

NUDE - BENEATH THE BEAUTY SPOT (Various) (Citizen Theatre). This 5track CD was sold at Melbourne’s new Alex Theatre during the recent run of Nude, a cabaret show that purportedly explored the songs and stories of one of Hollywood’s greatest female stars, Marilyn Monroe. A one-woman LOST WEST END (Various) show, it starred Carina Waye as Monroe with Trevor Jones (Stage Door 9041). This is a accompanying on piano. Songs include “Diamonds are a 21 track compilation of shows Girl’s Best Friend” and “Bye Bye Baby” (both from that mainly had limited West Gentlemen Prefer Blondes), “I Wanna be Loved By End runs and spans from You” (Some Like It Hot), “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” and 1976 to 2009. Shows include “Incurably Romantic” (both from Let’s Make Love). Waye’s Bernadette, Which Witch, vocals lack charisma and warmth and are uncertain on all Leonardo, Gone With The tracks. Jones does better on accompaniment, but this is Wind, Valentime’s Day, very average all round.  Lautrec, Mutiny, The Far Pavilions and Prisoner Cell Rating  Only for the enthusiast  Borderline Block H - The Muscal,  Worth buying  Must have  Kill for it including songs by David Essex, Denis King, Charles

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 45

London Calling

Whether it be Broadway or the West End, star-driven vehicles put bums on seats. As soon as it was announced that Sheridan Smith was to play Fanny Brice in a revival of Funny Girl for the Menier Chocolate Factory, the entire 21 week limited season sold out. The musical, with music and lyrics by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, made a star of Barbra Streisand on Broadway in 1964 and has not been seen in

By Peter Pinne London since she repeated her performance in its West End premiere in 1966. Based on the life of Ziegfeld star Fanny Nicole Kidman’s return to the London stage certainly Brice, Isobel Lennart’s original book is being tweaked by had the critics salivating; “Luminous star reveals DNA Harvey Fierstein (Kinky Boots) for the revival. Direction is by pioneer’s passion, pride and vulnerability” and “Kidman is a Michael Mayer, design by Michael Pavelka and pure joy as lab-coated pioneer”. Kidman plays research choreography by Lynne Page. Smith most recently played chemist Rosalind Franklin in Anna Ziegler’s play Photograph Cilla Black in ITVs Cilla, and was the West End’s original Elle 51 about the woman who identified the structure of DNA Woods in Legally Blonde. Funny Girl opens 20 November and has been written out of the history of this discovery. and plays until 5 March 2016.

Franklin’s colleagues in the science room, Francis Crick and Another production with buyer frenzy written all over it James Watson, are “vigorously” played by Edward Bennett is the ENO’s Sunset Boulevard, with Glenn Close repeating and Will Attenborough in Michael Grandage’s production, her Tony-Award winning role as Norma Desmond. The semi with Stephen Campbell Moore as -staged production will play 1 Nicole Kidman in Photograph 51.

Maurice Wilkins, the man who April to 6 May 2016 at the Photo: Johan Persson. shared the Nobel Prize with Coliseum. The musical, based on Franklin in 1962, four years after the 1950 movie about a faded her death. The Times called silent-screen goddess living with Kidman “superb” and the play her illusions of the past, has music “pure theatrical DNA”.

by Andrew Lloyd Webber with Claire van Kampen’s criticallybook and lyrics by Don Black and acclaimed play Farinelli and the Christopher Hampton. It originally King, about the true story of the premiered in London in 1993 with 18th-Century’s most famous Patti Lupone, who expected to castrati and his servitude at the take the show to Broadway, as court of King Philip V, has made a Desmond. That never happened. stunning transfer to the West Close starred in the American End’s Duke of York’s Theatre for a production, making headlines limited 12 week season. The when Lupone was original cast headed by Mark unceremoniously fired. It will be Rylance has been royally Close’s West End stage debut. She applauded, with the Daily began her career on Broadway in Telegraph calling it “a celebration Harold Prince’s revival of Love for of the restorative power of music” Love, and later won Tony Awards and the Guardian saying it’s “a for The Real Thing and Death and pleasure that verges on the sublime”. The production the Maiden. She last appeared on Broadway in November features arias by Handel that were first sung by Farinelli in 2014 leading the cast in Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance. the 1730’s, live music played on Baroque instruments, and Her musical theatre performances include the original the theatre almost exclusively lit by the glow of candlelight. Broadway production of Barnum, playing the wife Chairy.

Brokeback Mountain is to make its debut as a stage play Martin McDonagh’s newest play The Hangman, in London in 2016. Based on the 2005 Oscar winning currently selling out at the Royal Court Theatre, will transfer movie which starred Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger, to Wyndham’s Theatre in the West End 1 December for a which in turn was based on Annie Prouix’s short story, it limited season until 5 March 2016. The play, about the tells the story of two young men who are hired to look after second-best hangman in England on the day hanging is sheep at a remote grazing range on Brokeback Mountain, abolished, is the perfect story for McDonagh’s darkly Wyoming. Alone in the wilderness they form an intense menacing penmanship. The critics have been unanimous in emotional and physical bond that changes their lives their praise; “a compelling evening that confirms forever. The play adaptation is currently in development by McDonagh’s prodigal, pluralist talent” (Guardian), “a first producer Tom O’Connell. The story has previously been rank cast of 12 … If this doesn’t get a West End transfer it adapted as an opera, with music by American composer will be a major miscarriage of common sense” (Telegraph).

Charles Wuorinen and a libretto by Prouix. This version McDonagh’s previous plays include The Beauty Queen of premiered at Teatro Real, Madrid in 2014.

Lennane, The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Lonesome West and The Lieutenant on Inishmore.

46 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

B

trying to decide whether the songs would be used to tell an original story like Mamma Mia or chronicle the band’s story as in Jersey Boys. Their song catalogue includes “Kick”, “Suicide Blonde”, “Never Tear Us Apart” and “Need You Tonight”.

Japan’s Tokyu Theatre Orb is currently hosting the tryout of Prince of Broadway, a new musical celebrating the

By Peter Pinne Broadway career of Tony-winning director/producer Harold Prince. The cast includes Ramin Karimloo (Les Misérables), Ever since NBC discovered “live” musical theatre was a Emily Skinner (Side Show), Tony Yazbeck (On the Town), rating bonanza, it was only a matter of time before the Shuler Hensley (Oklahoma!) and Nancy Opel (Urinetown), other networks jumped on board. Now it’s Fox’s turn, with choreography by Susan Stroman and musical direction announcing a summer “live” performance of Grease, which by Jason Robert Brown. Prince has earned an will air 31 July 2016. Heading the cast as Danny and Sandy unprecedented record of 21 Tony Awards, and his shows are Aaron Tveit (Catch Me if You Can/Gossip Girl) and include West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, Julianne Hough (Footloose). Vanessa Hudgens (the recent Company, Follies, Sweeney Todd, Evita and The Phantom of star of Gigi) plays Rizzo, while Carlos PenaVega (Big Time the Opera, the longest running musical in Broadway Rush) is Kenickie, with Carly Rae Jepsen (Broadway’s history. The show, which is written by David Thompson, Cinderella) as Frenchy and fellow Broadway Cinderella Keke features songs from 34 Prince musicals. Brown is writing Palmer as Marty. Pop singer Jesse J incidental and linking music and The cast of Grease Live. will open the show with an updated also a special song for the finale. version of the title song. Script William Ivey Long is responsible for adaptation is by Robert Cary and costume design, and direction is by Jonathan Tolins, based on the Prince with an assist from Stroman. original stage musical by Jim Jacobs It plays until 22 November. and Warren Casey and the 1978 November 5th sees the opening of movie adaptation. The Paramount On Your Feet at the Marquis Television production will be directed Theatre. Currently in previews, the

by Alex Rudzinski (Dancing with the new musical is based on the lives Stars) and Thomas Kail (Hamilton), of seven-time Grammy winner with choreography by Zach Woodlee Gloria Estefan and her husband, (Glee/Annie). producer/musician Emilio Estefan.

Kevin Bacon leads the cast in the Cuban/American singer/actress/ world premiere Hartford Stage production of Rear Window, dancer Ana Villafane plays Gloria with Josh Segarra currently running until 15 November. Based on crime writer (Lysistrata Jones) as her husband. The show originally tried Cornell Woolrich’s short story It Had to be Murder, which out at the Oriental Theatre, Chicago, in July. Estefan’s hits became the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock movie Rear Window, include “Rhythm is Gonna Get You”, “1-2-3”, “Mi Tierra” Bacon plays the role of L.B. “Jeff” Jeffries, essayed by James and “Conga”. The musical also features new music Stewart on screen. The plot is based around a man composed by the Estefans. Direction is by Jerry Mitchell confined to his apartment who thinks he may have (Kinky Boots), with choreography by Sergio Trujillo (Jersey witnessed a murder in the opposite building. It’s been Boys), and a book by screenwriter Alexander Dinelaris adapted for the stage by Keith Reddin, with direction by (Birdman).

Darko Tresnjak (Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder).

Jeff Daniels (God of Carnage/The Newsroom) and Michelle Williams (My Life with Marilyn) return to Broadway in David Harrower’s Olivier Award-winning drama Blackbird. The two-character drama follows the story of Una, a young woman, and Ray, a middle-aged man, who meet again for the first time since their sexual relationship fifteen years earlier when she was twelve. Direction is by Joe Mantello, who directed the work’s original 2007 New York outing, which also starred Daniels and his Newsroom costar Alison Pill. The 18-week engagement plays 5 February to 12 June 2016 at the Belasco Theatre.

INXS are hoping to follow in the footsteps of ABBA, The Four Seasons and Carole King and see their song catalogue turned into a Broadway musical as early as 2017. According to manager Chris Murphy, no theatre, dates, producer, casting or title have been set as the band are reportedly

roadway uzz

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 47

Stage on Page

service. The Abbey won and he is buried there alongside theatre immortals David Garrick and Henry Irving, and beneath the bust of Shakespeare.

Olivier was born 27 May 1907 to a prep-school father, who opened his own school before becoming a minister.

By Peter Pinne Olivier’s mother secured a place for him in a minor public school where he played Brutus in Olivier by Philip Ziegler (MacLehose Julius Caesar and Kate in The Taming $49.00). of the Shrew. A very young Sybil “I couldn’t believe anyone as goodThorndike described his performance looking as that could be such a in the latter as “wonderful - a bad rivetingly good actor,” said John Mills tempered little bitch”. He spent two to Noël Coward about Laurence years at Birmingham Rep where he Olivier’s performance in the original acted alongside Peggy Ashcroft and production of Coward’s Private Lives.

Ralph Richardson. He played Uncle Jane Lapotaire recalls how, when Vanya at 20. By the mid-30s he had playing the minor part of the butler in tackled six major Shakespearian roles Feydeau’s farce A Flea in her Ear, he at the Old Vic in eight months. turned “a play about a woman who Olivier’s sexual appetite was voracious. thinks her husband is unfaithful to He seduced almost every woman he her” into “a play about a butler who came in contact with and it continued works for a woman who thinks her throughout his three marriages, and, husband is unfaithful to her”. despite ill-health, into his 70s. It was Anecdotes like these abound in Philip frequently rumoured that he was biZiegler’s book Olivier, which was short sexual and had affairs with Marlon Brando and Danny Kaye, but Ziegler -listed for the Sheridan Morley Prize for theatrical biography in 2014. refutes these claims. He was married Although there have been over 40 three times, all to actresses; his first books written about Olivier, what marriage was to Jill Esmond, who later sets Ziegler’s apart is him having turned out to be lesbian, his second, access to long-time literary editor of The Spectator Mark and probably his one true love was to the bi-polar Gone Amory’s over 50 hours of tapes recorded in 1979 for a with the Wind star Vivien Leigh, and his third was to Joan book he was commissioned to ghost write for Olivier, but Plowright. which Olivier ended up writing himself.

Olivier became a Hollywood star in the 1930s in Frequently called “the greatest stage actor of the Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice and Alfred twentieth century”, the charismatic, earthy and outspoken Hitchcock’s first movie version of Rebecca. Following the Olivier succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, becoming the success of his 1945 film adaptation of Henry V (Olivier first member of the acting profession to be made a peer. received a special Academy Award for his outstanding When he died on 11 July 1989, St Paul’s Cathedral and achievement as actor, producer and director in bringing Westminster Abbey vied for the right to conduct the burial Henry V to the screen), he made two more Shakespearian film adaptations; Hamlet and Richard III, which were both highly acclaimed. Later movies included The Boys from Brazil, Sleuth, Marathon Man, Spartacus and The Prince and the Showgirl with Marilyn Monroe. He also made memorable movies of his stage performances in Long Days Journey into Night and as Archie Rice in The Entertainer.

Olivier and Leigh were treated like royalty when they toured Australasia with the Old Vic at the height of their popularity in 1948. The tour included R.B. Sheridan’s School for Scandal with Leigh as Lady Teazle and Olivier as Sir Peter, Richard III, which London had seen in 1944, and Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of our Teeth with Leigh as Sabina the maid and Olivier as Antrobus. The tour was hugely successful, playing to over 300,000 people and grossing £226,318.

Probably Olivier’s greatest achievement was establishing Britain’s National Theatre in 1963, which he ran until his retirement due to iIl-health. During his tenure he employed as dramaturge the enfant terrible Kenneth Tynan, a disciple 48 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

of the new kitchen sink drama, who had established a brutal reputation as a critic for The Observer. Tynan’s appointment was controversial, and in Ziegler’s portrayal of the scenario, Olivier’s Judas/Iago.

Throughout his life Olivier was an obsessive exercise freak and insanely jealous, especially of any actor who looked like they might be a rival. He was also poetically foul -mouthed. His final appearance on stage was as a holograph at the finale of the Cliff Richard musical Time in 1986. Olivier became a legend and remains one to this day.

Ziegler’s tome, and it is pretty hefty at 460 pages, is a highly readable account of one of the acting profession’s greatest practitioners.

It comes with a comprehensive index, source notes and black and white photographs.

Yes, Miss Gibson - The life and times of an Australian radio legend by James Aitchison & Reg James (Vivid Publishing $29.95).

Considering it was the main source of income for many Australian actors, very few books have been written about the hey-day of Australia’s radio industry in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. This informative volume by James Aitchison and radio pioneer Reg James goes some way towards redressing the situation in its appraisal of one of the pioneers of the industry.

Grace Gibson was born in 1905 in El Paso, Texas, to a rancher and taxi driver father who was a card-carrying member of the Klu Klux Klan, and a

Mexican mother. She started working in radio in Hollywood, selling radio programs, and arrived in Sydney in 1933 to do the same thing.

She soon became the highest paid woman working in pre-war radio in Australia. Frank Packer was an early influence and supporter. In 1944 she married Ronnie Parr and immediately set up her own production company, Grace Gibson Productions.

Gibson had the Midas touch and was soon producing more radio drama than any other production house in the country. Some of her most successful titles were Dossier on Demetrius, Dr. Paul, Portia Faces Life, Night Beat, Address Unknown and Deadly Nightshade, and the blue chip actors she worked with included Peter Finch, Rod Taylor, Michael Pate, Alastair Duncan and Dinah Shearing. But although radio drama lost its dominance when television arrived, Gibson continued to produce, creating her most successful series, Castlereagh Line, in 1982.

The authors both worked for Gibson; James started as a despatch boy and became a sales manager, Aitchison was a writer. The book lovingly documents Gibson’s achievements, notable in an industry dominated by men. The company still continues today, re-packaging some of its greatest hits for global consumption.

It’s nice to know that somebody somewhere in the world is still listening to Dossier on Demetrius. Eight pages of B&W photos accompany the text.

Stage Whispers Books Visit our on-line book shop for back issues and stage craft books www.stagewhispers.com.au/books www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 49

The cast of Oliver!

Rod Ramsay as Mr Bum ble in Oliver!

Mustering Cattle To Treading The Boards

and volunteers were busy working on costumes.

When I visited, the Director was having trouble getting the children’s chorus to march in time to the music (but I am told it was right on the night). Food glorious foooooooood….

Then onto the stage came the charismatic Mr Bumble, with sideburns that made him look like he had stepped straight out of Victorian England. He showed plenty of shtick in the duo ‘I could scream, scream, scream’.

I was intrigued to discover that Mr Bumble (Rod Ramsay) was a ‘local’ beef farmer. Even though he lives on a In sixty years the Ballina Players in northern New South Wales has grown 20,000 hectare cattle breeding farm at Drake, one hour and forty minutes from humble beginnings to a away, he has rarely missed a successful company with its own production since 2002. custom-built 142-seat theatre. David “I am a tenor. I do not know Spicer dropped in on a rehearsal. anyone else doing shows who is an It was a hive of activity. The first run active farmer. I am one of a kind,” he said. through of act one for Oliver! - a So keen is Rod that he often stays production which the company was proud to sell out for 17 performances. overnight in town during rehearsals and performances to get away from Owning their own venue meant they could rehearse on the set. Parents ‘old fart’ farmers and mix with younger people. were watching on from the audience 50 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

“Every other place I go out socially, people want to talk about their dog, their horse, the weather or whinge about the government,” he said.

“Theatre folk have a totally different language.

“I enjoy the egos and petty confrontations. It adds a little spice.

We are an egocentric lot. There is only one reason that we perform and that is to show off.”

Rod tries to ‘show off’ in two musicals a year, in the chorus or in character roles. The company values his on-stage personality and his farming skills.

“I often supply material for sets. For Big River I rocked up with a ute load of trees. I am also handy with a screwdriver and can run a gaffe tape.”

Occasionally Rod has missed a rehearsal when farming demands such as cattle mustering have overwhelmed him, but he’s proud that he’s never missed a performance.

Sometimes he is forced to rehearse in the paddock.

“I sing to my cows when I’m learning a role.”

Do they enjoy it?

“They don’t comment much. I imagine they should.”

Calendar Girls.

Characters like Rod are the lifeblood of small and regional community theatre companies.

In 1955 Joan Williams, newly arrived in Ballina and in need of a diversion, called a meeting of people interested in drama. Ballina Players was born and sixty years later Joan still proudly follows the fortunes of the group she has watched grow from strength to strength.

Initially the Players used small classrooms and local halls. They raised funds by travelling with shows to surrounding towns and villages.

Limited sets and equipment were loaded onto a borrowed truck on the understanding that it would be returned and unloaded in time for an early morning run. The local picture theatre occasionally made room to accommodate the company.

In 1984 construction under a Commonwealth Employment Grant gave the Players its home.

A vibrant amateur theatre group is seen as a great asset in a country town and its surrounds. The Players draw on cast, crew and audiences from a wide area of the Northern Rivers.

President Warwick Binney says he is proud to lead the company in its sixtieth year.

“It is gratifying to see members working together, extending their limits and always striving for the highest standards. The group has been prepared to tackle a variety of

The Boy From Oz.

demanding productions with great success.”

Each year two musicals, two plays and a youth musical are staged. The latter is widely respected for providing the region’s youth with an important training ground in theatre skills. A number of graduates have gone on to take up tertiary study in theatre arts.

The sixtieth season opened with a very successful Alice in Wonderland JR, followed by the radio play It’s a Wonderful Life, then Oliver!, Moonlight and Magnolias (a comedy about the making of the movie Gone With the Wind), with Big River to end the year. Legally Blonde Jr will be in rehearsal for performance in January.

There is much more to Ballina Players than just producing shows.

Newcomers to the group are struck by the friendliness and family atmosphere.

Clem Halpin, director of the 2015 production of Oliver! and new to the Players, said that the warmth of the Ballina welcome and the level of cooperation he received made it a very rewarding experience.

Each year Ballina Players participates in the Gold Coast Theatre Awards and has been nominated in a number of categories.

In 2012 the Players were gratified to receive the prestigious Platinum Palm Award for “all matters relating to front of house, hospitality, box office and the interface between community and the theatre”.

With such spirit the Players will have no trouble making another sixty years.

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 51

Rend The Air With Warbling Wild

The Grand Chancellor steps out in the National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Society’s Iolanthe.

Never mind the why and wherefore, Eric James discovered nothing ventured nothing’s gained, when he attended the 2015 Gilbert and Sullivan Festival.

were the enduring “hits” of the time and the dramatic formats they employed laid the groundwork for great musicals that followed.

Ian also founded the National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company, Yorkshire is surprisingly fun and complete with its own orchestra. It attractive, and the beautiful spa-town tours the UK for several months each year. From this grew the idea for a of Harrogate is small enough to be manageable, yet large enough to have Festival, to bring together the many its own Royal Opera House, the new troupes and enthusiasts as well as to home of the International Gilbert & foster interest amongst younger Sullivan Festival, in its 22 nd year. performers and audiences.

Over a three-week period in The brain-child of Artistic Director Ian Smith, the Festival began in 1994 August, 22 Opera Companies came to in Buxton, another delightful little town to perform and compete at town nearby in Derbyshire. His love of Harrogate. A further eight University the operettas commenced in 1949 or college groups were invited to when he was ‘drummed’ into playing showcase their productions in the a drummer-boy in The Gondoliers (his funky and charming little Harrogate theatre (still a 400+ seater). mother was the Duchess). At 16, he was catapulted into the role of Koko The main Opera House itself when an unfortunate lead actor really houses over 1,000 seats, which were did break a leg. filled most nights indicating the Festival’s growing popularity.

The D’Oyly Carte Company’s Troupes came from cities and demise in 1982 left the way clear for other groups to revive flagging towns all over the UK and Ireland. This interest in Gilbert & Sullivan’s 14 full- year there was also a company from scale light operas, completed during Cape Town and another (Blue Hill) their 27-year partnership. Their songs from New York - which then surprised 52 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

everyone by (most deservedly) taking out top honours in many categories for their marvellous re-interpretation of Patience (who ever thought that “Bob Dylan” would be represented in a G&S Opera?). Previous years have attracted groups from Japan (The Mikado, what else?), Portugal, Spain, several American States and also Melbourne (twice: 2007 - performing Patience and 2011 with Yeoman of the Guard). There is also a combined youth production, and what is politely called a “Bus-Pass” production (strictly for the 60’s plus).

Each company performs for one night only, occasionally with an additional matinée - all with full set and costumes, which means bump-in is 9am each day and bump-out needs to be completed by midnight, after the show, leaving the stage ready for others on the morrow. There were fifty-three fully-staged performances this year plus over 50 “fringe” events . . . compared to just 11 performances in the first year, 1994.

The Smith family (Ian’s wife Janet and son Neil are an integral part of their organisation), have sometimes

Eric with the festival founders.

L-R: Neil Smith; Eric James; Janet and Ian Smith.

gone into hock when experiments (such as an American tour) did not pay off. They run the Festival as a strictly non-profit venture; all proceeds are to cover costs and to prepare for the following year. In spite of the occasional set-back, Ian continues to dream up more and more G&Sthemed ideas: such as cruising down the Rhine - or the Nile, to the tune of HMS Pinafore.

It is a special treat to attend the Festival. There is an instant feeling of belonging as everyone is here with a love and keen appreciation of musical theatre, Gilbert & Sullivan in particular. Audiences are also increasingly coming from further afield than England itself. I wasn’t by any means the only Australian present, though I did have to be careful with my accent in Yorkshire as we (Ozzies) had just been thrashed in the Ashes Test.

As well as a choice of some 30+ different productions (the National Opera Company does perform their 3 choices for several nights), there are day-time talks on all manner of performance subjects from theatre construction through Harrogate history to in-depth analysis of Sullivan’s music. After each evening performance all audience members are invited for supper and drinks at an adjoining exhibition hall (whimsically named the Utopia Pavillion) where each evening’s cast comes out to entertain. Alternatively, a “pot-luck” concert performance may be presented, with audience members comprising the chorus (many attendees know all the words, which provides an additional element of concern for performers).

Gilbert & Sullivan’s works are now 100+ years old; the question arises are they still relevant? Attendances at this Festival - and at performances

from Opera Australia, or the quite recent Simon Gallaher/Jon English productions show a resounding yes.

Sullivan’s glorious music speaks for itself and Gilbert’s witty satirical comments on party political spats and abuse of privilege are as relevant today as they were “in the days when Victoria reigned”.

I personally saw 12 productions in Buxton and Harrogate, two of Patience, a couple of Gondoliers, a Grand Duke, an Iolanthe and others, all quite different, all extremely good. I hope to see them all another time; perhaps accompanying an Australian group to perform there.

Ian Smith is keen to host more overseas companies at the Festival and will provide accommodation, meals and transport once they arrive in Harrogate. The National Company’s orchestra is also ready and waiting there is even time for one (that’s ONE!) rehearsal...

The Mikado (National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company).

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 53

Stage Briefs

 The cast of the musical A Man of No Importance, a collaboration in Perth between Playlovers and the Irish Theatre Players, at Hackett Hall from November 20 to December 5. http://bit.ly/1LoSBSl  Michaela Leisk as Maria and Anthony Levin as Tony in Chatswood Musical Society’s production of West Side Story, at the Zenith Theatre, Chatswood from November 13 - 21. http://bit.ly/1LoSGFt Photo: Geoff Sirmai.  Joanna Tyler plays Jubilee Climax, an insane cross between a fierce sci-fi crime fighter and Barbarella in the Blak Yak production of Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens at Phoenix Theatre (WA) from November 19 to December 5. http://bit.ly/1LoSNkl Photo: Michael McAllan.  The Diary of Anne Frank at Arts Theatre Cronulla until November 28. http://bit.ly/1LoSTsl

54 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 55

Stage Briefs

56 Stage Whispers November - December 2015

 Lane Cove Theatre Company present The Vagina Monologues from November 6 to 13 at the Northside Baptist Church, Crows Nest, NSW. http://bit.ly/1LoSdDa Photo: Greg Piper.  The cast of the Stirling Community Theatre (Adelaide) production of the Stephen Sondheim musical Company, at the Stirling Community Theatre from November 6 to 21. http://bit.ly/1LoSl5N  Chris Hawkin (Gillette) and Gai Bryne (Daria) in the Javeenbah Theatre (Qld) production of murder mystery comedy The Game’s Afoot, from November 13 to 28. http://bit.ly/1LoSjLa

www.stagewhispers.com.au Stage Whispers 57

On Stage A.C.T. The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan. Canberra Philharmonic Society. Until Nov 7. Erindale Theatre. (02) 6257 1950.

Hairspray. Music: Marc Shaiman. Lyrics: Scott Wittman, Marc Shaiman. Book: Mark O’Donnell, Thomas Meehan. Hawker College.

Murranji Theatre. Nov 4 - 7.

(02) 6253 1454.

Laugh For Life. A stand up comedy night to raise funds for Camp Quality. Nov 6. Canberra Labor Club, Chandler St Belconnen.

A.C.T. & New South Wales

Management, Neil Gooding Productions and Canberra Theatre Centre. Nov 6 & 7. The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre. (02) 6275 2700.

The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan. Queanbeyan Players Inc. Nov 6 - 15. The Q, Queanbeyan. (02) 6285 6290.

The Other Guy. Stand up comedy by Matt Okine. Nov 7.

The Street Theatre. (02) 6247 1223

Nov 27 - Dec 6. Erindale Vikings The Wharf Revue 2015 Club. (02) 6121 2131.

Celebrating 15 Years by Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe Evangeline (Or, the Grief That and Phillip Scott. Until Dec 19.

Does Not Speak Whispers the Wharf 1, Sydney Theatre O’erfraught Heart, and Bids It Break). A butoh live art work by Company. (02) 9250 1777.

Chenoeh Miller. Little Dove Theatre Art. Dec 3 - 5. The Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre Centre. (02) 6275 2700.

Shakespeare Under the Stars.

The Illusionists - 1903. Dec 8 Griffith & Regional Association 16. Canberra Theatre. (02) 6275 of the Performing Arts (GRAPA).

2700.

Until Nov 7. Bidgee Gallery, Bridge Road, Griffith. Tickets Quidam. Cirque Du Soleil. Dec purchased on walkup basis on 11 - 20. AIS Arena. (02) 6214 performance nights.

1010.

Mort by Terry Pratchett.

Canberra College. Nov 11-14.

CCPAC. ccpactheatremanager@ed.act.edu.au Cara Carissima by Geoff Page.

Don’t Dress for Dinner by Marc The Acting Company. Dec 17 Camoletti. Canberra Repertory 20. The Courtyard Studio, Society. Nov 20 - Dec 5. Theatre Canberra Theatre Centre. (02) 3. (02) 6247 4222 6275 2700.

Free-Rain Nightclub presents A Taste of Tinseltown. Free-Rain Theatre. Nov 4 - 7. The Courtyard Studio, Canberra The Chain Bridge by Tom David.

Theatre Centre. (02) 6275 2700. The Street. Nov 21 - 29. The Thank You For Being A Friend.

Street Theatre. 02 6247 1223 Conceived and written by The Great Pretenders. Lip-sync Thomas Duncan-Watt & show. Dramatic Productions.

Jonathan Worsley. Mathew

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Budding Theatre (Youth Production). Dec 21 23. Teatro Vivaldi. 0468 467 229.

New South Wales Matilda. Music and lyrics by Tim Minchin. Book by Dennis Kelly.

Royal Shakespeare Company, Louise Withers Michael Coppel & Michael Watt. Ongoing. Lyric Theatre, Sydney. Ticketmaster.

Cats by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Capitol Theatre, Sydney. Until Nov 29. 136 100.

The Sound of Music. Music: Richard Rodgers. Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein 2nd. Book: Howard Lindsay & Russell Crouse. John Frost, Andrew Lloyd Webber, David Ian and the Really Useful Group. From Dec 13. Capitol Theatre, Sydney. 1300 111 011.

Annie. Music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, book by Thomas Meehan. Young People’s Theatre. Until Nov 14. Young People’s Theatre, Hamilton (Newcastle). (02) 4961 4895.

Dead Centre by Tom Holloway and Sea Wall by Simon Stephens. Red Stitch Actors Theatre and Red Line Productions. Until Nov 14. Old Fitz Theatre. 0422 198 955.

58 Stage Whispers

Hamlet by William Shakespeare.

Bell Shakespeare. Until Dec 6.

Sydney Opera House.

A Girl With Sun In Her Eyes by Joshua Rollins. Red Line Productions. Until Nov 14. Old Fitzroy Theatre, Woolloomooloo. www.oldfitztheatre.com

Private Lives by Noël Coward.

Guild Theatre, Rockdale. Until Nov 8. Guild Theatre, cnr Walz and Railway Streets, Rockdale.

(02) 9521 6358.

Mary Poppins. Music & Lyrics: Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman, George Stiles, Anthony Drewe. Book: Julian Fellowes. Gosford Musical Society. Until Nov 14. Laycock Street Community Theatre, North Gosford. (02) 43 233 233.

Hay Fever by Noel Coward (Farce/Comedy). Woy Woy Little Theatre. Until Nov 15. Peninsula Theatre, 93 McMasters Road, Woy Woy. (02) 4344 4737.

Good Works by Nick Enright.

Darlinghurst Theatre Co. Until Nov 29. Eternity Playhouse. 02 8356 9987.

It Runs in the Family by Ray Cooney. Newcastle Gilbert and Sullivan Players Comedy Club.

Until Nov 7. St Matthew’s Hall, Georgetown (Newcastle). 0432 886 149.

Duck Hunting by Aleksandr Vampilov, translated by Shai Alexander. Contemporarian Theatre Company. Nov 2 - 29.

King Street Theatre. www.contemporarian.com.au

Just $40 a month to reach thousands of theatre goers. Contact Stage Whispers for details.

On Stage Hissyfest 2015. Short play festival. Tantrum Youth Arts.

Nov 5 - 7. Civic Playhouse, Newcastle. (02) 4929 1977.

New South Wales

Matilda Ridgway and Josh McConville in Bell Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Photo: Daniel Boud.

Weekend Comedy by Sam Bobrick and Jeanne Bobrick. The Sutherland Theatre Company Inc. Nov 6 - 15. The Sutherland School of Arts.

Brief Encounter by Noel Coward, adapted by Emma Rice.

Hunters Hill Theatre. Nov 6 - 21.

Hunters Hill Theatre, Woolwich.

(02) 9879 7765.

Over The Moon And Far Away

by Carla Moore. The Theatre on Chester, Epping. Nov 6 - 28.

(02) 9877 0081.

The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan. Queanbeyan Players.

Nov 6 - 15. The Q Theatre, Queanbeyan. (02) 6285 6390.

Say Who You Are, by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall.

Theatre on Brunker. Nov 6 - 27.

St Stephen’s Church Hall, Adamstown (Newcastle). (02) 4956 1263.

The Marriage of Figaro by W.A. Mozart. Rockdale Opera Company. Nov 7 - 15. Rockdale Town Hall.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Richard M Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. Coffs Harbour Musical Comedy Company. Nov 7 - 29. Jetty Memorial Theatre, Coffs Harbour. (02) 6652 8088.

Mortido by Angela Betzien.

With Colin Friels. Belvoir / State Theatre Company of South Australia. Nov 7 - Dec 23.

Upstairs Theatre. (02) 9699 3444.

Orlando. From the novel by Virginia Woolf, adapted by Sarah Ruhl. Sydney Theatre Company. Nov 9 - Dec 19.

Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. (02) 9250 1777.

Natalie Weir’s Carmen Sweet.

Expressions Dance Company.

Nov 10 & 11, Riverside Theatre, Parramatta; Nov 13, Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre, Penrith; Nov 17, Bathurst Memorial Advertise your show on the front page of www.stagewhispers.com.au

Stage Whispers 59

On Stage Entertainment Centre; Nov 19, Orange Civic Centre; Nov 21, Capitol Theatre, Tamworth.

Lend Me A Tenor by Ken Ludwig. Wyong Drama Group.

Nov 12 - 21. The Wyong Grove Theatre. 1300 655 600.

Away by Michael Gow. Pantseat Productions. Nov 12 - 14. Civic Playhouse, Newcastle. (02) 4929 1977.

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella. Roo Theatre Company. Nov 13 - 28. Roo Theatre, Shellharbour. (02) 4297 2891.

Quartet by Ronald Harwood.

Players Theatre Inc., Port Macquarie. Nov 13 - 29. www.playerstheatre.org.au

New South Wales

West Side Story by Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim. Chatswood Musical Society. Nov 13 - 21.

Zenith Theatre, Chatswood.

1300 66 22 12.

A Bad Year for Tomatoes by John Patrick. Castle Hill Players, Nov 20 - Dec 12. Pavilion Theatre, Castle Hill. (02) 9634 2929.

Old English Music Hall.

Richmond Players. Nov 14 - Dec The Mumberley Inheritance by 5. Richmond School of Arts.

Warren Graves. Maitland (02) 8006 6997.

Repertory Theatre, at its theatre.

Dinkum Assorted. Book, lyrics Nov 20 - Dec 5. (02) 4931 and music by Linda Aronson.

2800.

New Theatre. Nov 17 - Dec 19. Beyond Therapy by Christopher I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright. Oriel Group in association with Red Line Productions. Nov 17 - Dec 5.

Old Fitzroy Theatre. www.oldfitztheatre.com

Evita by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Manly Musical The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. Upstage Society. Nov 20 - 28. Star of the Sea Theatre, Manly.

Youth Theatre. Nov 13 - 28. www.manlymusicalsociety.com Gracemere Gardens, Albion Farm, Woodville (Maitland). (02) The Vagina Monologues by Eve 4930 0964.

Ensler. Lane Cove Theatre Company. Nov 20 - 29. Xago,

60 Stage Whispers

Lane Cove.

Nov 24 - Jan 9, 2016. Sydney www.lanecovetheatrecompany.com Theatre. (02) 9250 1777.

Durang. Newcastle Theatre Company. Nov 21 - Dec 5.

Newcastle Theatre Company, Lambton. (02) 4952 4958 (Mon - Fri 3pm - 6pm).

Away by Michael Gow. Nowra Players. Nov 21 - Dec 5. Players Theatre, Bomaderry.

1300662808 (Shoalhaven Visitors Information Centre).

King Lear by William Shakespeare. Sydney Theatre Company. Starring Geoffrey Rush. Directed by Neil Armfield.

A Riff on Keef: The Human Myth

by Benito Di Fonzo. Ocelot Productions and Griffin Independent Theatre. World Premiere. Nov 25 - Dec 12. SBW Stables Theatre. (02) 9361 3817.

The Good Doctor by Neil Simon after Anton Chekhov. Ensemble Theatre. From Nov 27. (02) 9929 0644.

2015 Schools Spectacular. Nov 27 & 28. Qantas Credit Union Arena. 132 849 Violet. Book & lyrics by Brian Crawley, Music by Jeanine Tesori. Blue Saint Productions in association with Hayes Theatre Co. Nov 27 - Dec 20. Hayes Theatre Co. (02) 8065 7337.

City of Newcastle Drama Awards. Nov 28. West’s Leagues Starlight Room, New Lambton (Newcastle). (02) 4935 1200.

Just $40 a month to reach thousands of theatre goers. Contact Stage Whispers for details.

On Stage

New South Wales & Queensland

The Listies Ruin Xmas, a new Christmas tale playing at the Malthouse Theatre from November 25 to December 13, by Melbourne’s own slap-stick, gross-out comedy duo The Listies.

Hugh Jackman’s Broadway to Oz. Paul Dainty Group / Robert Fox. Nov 30 - Dec 3. Qantas Credit Union Arena. www.ticketek.com.au/HughJackman

and Simon Painter. Dec 19 - 29. The Chat by James Brennan. La Boite indie at Roundhouse Sydney Opera House Concert Theatre, Kelvin Grove. Nov 4 Hall. 9250 7777.

14. 3007 8600 Storytime Ballet: The Sleeping

Beauty. The Australian Ballet.

A Little Princess by Frances Dec 23 - 27, Sydney Opera Hodgson Burnett. Pymble House & Dec 30 - Jan 3, The Players. Dec 4 - 12. Cnr Bromley Concourse, Chatswood.

Ave & Mona Vale Rd, Pymble.

Queensland MCA Ticketing 1300 306 776.

The Boy From Oz. Music & Christmas Pantomime by Alessa Lyrics: Peter Allen & others.

Teunisse, Gilbert and Sullivan.

Book: Nick Enright. Spotlight Manly Panto. Dec 5 - 13.

Theatre Co, Gold Coast. Until www.manlypanto.com Nov 14. 5539 4255.

The Things I Could Never Tell The Odd Couple by Neil Simon.

Steven by Jye Bryant. In QTC. Playhouse, QPAC. Until association with Emu Nov 8. 1800 355 528.

Productions. Dec 9 - 12. King Avenue Q by Jeff Whitty, Robert Street Theatre, Newton. www.kingstreettheatre.com.au Lopez & Jeff Marx. Arts Theatre, Brisbane. Until Dec 19. 3369 An Evening With Oprah. Iconic 2344.

Entertainment and Dainty Hairspray by Marc Shaiman, Group. Dec 12. Sydney Scott Wittman, Mark O’Donnell Allphones Arena. 132 849. and Thomas Meehan.

Saviour’s Day: A Yuletide Queensland Musical Theatre.

Musical. The Grainery Theatre Schonell Theatre, St Lucia. Nov Company. Dec 18 - 20. St 3 - 8.

Phillip’s Christian College queenslandmusicatheatre.com Theatre, Waratah (Newcastle).

Rent by Jonathan Larson. Qld grainery.org.au Conservatorium Musical The Illusionists 1903. Sydney Theatre. Burke Street Studio Opera House presents in Theatre. Nov 3 - 7. 136 246 association with Tim Lawson

Grease by Warren Casey & Jim Jacobs. Phoenix Ensemble, Beenleigh. Nov 6 - Dec 5. 3103 1546.

Shall We Dance. Music of the 1950s. Mousetrap Theatre Co, Redcliffe. Nov 6 - 14. 3888 3493 The Pajama Game by Richard Adler, Jerry Ross George Abbott and Richard Bissell. Gold Coast Little Theatre. Nov 8 - Dec 6.

5532 2096.

Dusty by John-Michael Howson, David Mitchell & Melvyn Morrow. Sunnybank Theatre Group. Nov 13 - 28. 3345 3964.

The Odd Couple by Neil Simon.

Toowoomba Repertory Theatre.

Nov 13 - 28. 4632 8058 Dangerous Corner by J.B. Priestly. Centenary Theatre Group. Nov 14 - Dec 5. Chelmer Community Centre. 0435 591 720

The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society Murder Mystery by David McGillivray & Les Misérables by Claude-Michel Walter Zerling Jnr. Nash Theatre. Nov 14 - Dec 5.

Schonberg & Alain Boublil.

Merthyr Road Uniting Church, Cameron Mackintosh. Lyric New Farm, Qld. 3379 4775 Theatre, QPAC. From Nov 10.

Ladies in Black by Tim Finn & 136 246.

Amadeus by Peter Schaffer. Lind Carolyn Burns. QTC. Nov 16 Lane Theatre, Nambour. Nov 13 Dec 6. Playhouse, QPAC. 1800 355 528 - 21. 0419 664 149.

The Game’s Afoot by Ken Ludwig. Javeenbah Theatre Co. Nov 13 - 28. 5596 0300.

Gypsy by Arthur Laurents, Jule Styne & Stephen Sondheim.

Beenleigh Theatre Group. Nov 13 - 28. 3807 3922.

Advertise your show on the front page of www.stagewhispers.com.au

Allsorts. Qld Conservatorium Musical Theatre. Nov 16 - 19.

Burke St Studio Theatre. 136 246

Side By Side By Sondheim by Stephen Sondheim. Noosa Little Theatre. Nov 18 - 28. Noosa Arts Centre. 5449 9343 Stage Whispers 61

On Stage

Queensland & Victoria

Cirque du Soleil returns to Australia with QUIDAM from December 11 2015. Costumes by Dominique Lemieux.

Photo: Matt Beard. Cirque du Soleil.

Putting It Together by Stephen Sondheim. Ipswich Little Theatre Society. Nov 18 - Dec 5. Burley Griffin Incinerator Theatre, Ipswich. 3812 3450 Summer of the 17th Doll by Ray Lawler. Villanova Players. Nov 20 - Dec 5. Ft Barrell Auditorium, State High School, Yeronga. 3899 9962 James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. Arts Theatre, Brisbane. Nov 21 - Dec 19.

3369 2344 Christmas Belles by Jesse Jones, Nicholas Hope & Jamie Wooten.

Spotlight Theatre Group, Gold Coast. Nov 22 - Dec 20. 5539 4255 End of Year Showcase. Qld Conservatorium Musical Theatre. Nov 26 - 28. Burke St Studio Theatre. 136 246

The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky.

Qld Ballet. Playhouse, QPAC. Dec 11 - 23. 136 246 Spirit of Christmas. QPAC Presentation. Concert Hall, QPAC. Dec 18 - 19. 136246.

Victoria Jurassica by Dan Giovannoni.

World Premiere. Red Stitch.

Until Nov 7. 9533 8083.

Grease by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. NOVA. Until Nov 8. The Whitehorse Centre, Nunawading. 9262 6555.

Dracula. Created by Little Ones Theatre after Bram Stoker.

Theatre Works and Little Ones Theatre. Until Nov 15. Theatre Works, St Kilda. 9534 3388.

2015 Explorations. La Mama.

Until Dec 16. lamama.com.au/2015explorations / (03) 9347 6142.

Cinderella by Cath Willacy.

Buyer and Cellar by Jonathan Cairns Little Theatre. Rondo Theatre, Cairns. Nov 27 - Dec 6. Tolins. Melbourne Theatre Company. Arts Centre 1300 855 835.

Melbourne, Fairfax Studio. Until On The Docks by Rex Ablett. Qld Dec 12. Australian Premiere.

Conservatorium Musical 1300 182 183.

Theatre. Ian Hanger Recital Hall, Brisbane. Dec 4 - 6. 136 246.

62 Stage Whispers

The Man Who Came To Dinner

by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. Malvern Theatre Co Inc. Until Nov 14. 1300 131 552 Someone like Thomas Banks by Gaylene Carbis from the writings of Thomas Banks.

Platform in collaboration with Straightjacket Productions. Until Nov 8. Fortyfivedownstairs. (03) 9662 9966 The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Rupert Holmes. Lilydale Athenaeum Theatre. Nov 4 - 21.

(03) 9735 1777.

La Cenerentola (Cinderella) by Rossini. CitiOpera. Nov 4 - 8.

Hawthorn Arts Centre. (03) 9278 4770.

City of Angels. Book by Larry Gelbart. Music by Cy Coleman.

Lyrics by David Zippel. Life Like Company. Nov 5 - 8. Arts Centre Melbourne. 1300 182 183.

Cash on Delivery by Michael Cooney. Mooroolbark Theatre Group. Nov 5 - 14.

Mooroolbark Community Centre. 97264282.

The Last Man Standing by Steve Vizard, music by Paul Grabowsky. Melbourne Theatre Company. Nov 6 - Dec 12.

Southbank Theatre, The Sumner. World Premiere. (03) 8688 0800.

The Sunshine Boys by Neil Simon. Mordialloc Theatre Co. Inc. Nov 6 - 21. Shirley Burke Theatre, Parkdale. 9587 5141.

The Judgement. Conceived by Aaron Orzech and Samara Hersch after Franz Kafka’s short story. Nov 6 - 15. La Mama Courthouse. (03) 9347 6142.

Jesus Christ Superstar by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

MLOC Productions Inc. Nov 6 14. Phoenix Theatre, Elwood.

(03) 9551 7514.

84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, adapted for the stage by James Roose-Evans.

Cathouse Players. Nov 6 - 14.

Bluestone Theatre, Kynton.

0407 610 656.

Project: Hysteria. The Pretty Trap & Interior: Panic written by Tennessee Williams. TBC Theatre and The Poppy Seed Festival.

Just $40 a month to reach thousands of theatre goers. Contact Stage Whispers for details.

On Stage

Victoria, Tasmania & South Australia

Nov 10 - 22. Trades Hall Ballroom, Carlton. poppyseed.net.au

Daylight Savings by Nick Enright. Geelong Repertory Theatre Co. Nov 20 - Dec 5.

Woodbin Theatre, Geelong Briefs. Cabaret Burlesque. Nov 11 - Dec 5. Athenaeum Theatre, West. 5225 1200.

Melbourne. 132 849.

Are You Lonesome Tonight.

SPARC Theatre. Nov 20 - 22.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller.

Purely Pensive Productions. Nov Greyhound Hotel, St Kilda. (03) 9209 6530.

12 - 14. Northcote Town Hall.

(03) 9481 9500.

Street Community Hall, West Essendon. 0422 029 483.

The One by Vicky Jones. Poppy Seed Festival. Dec 2 - 13. fortyfivedownstairs. (03) 9662 9966.

An Evening With Oprah. Iconic Entertainment and Dainty Group. Dec 2. Rod Laver Arena.

The God of Carnage by Yasmina 132 849.

Reza. Peridot Theatre Inc. Nov The Last Waltz Revisited.

20 - Dec 5. Unicorn Theatre, Mt Featuring Tim Rogers, Dan Waverley. 1300 138 645.

Sultan, Marlon Williams,

The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart and Da Ponte. Opera Australia. Nov 12 - 28. State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne. The God of Carnage by Yasmina Olympia, Vika and Linda Bull, Reza. Warrandyte Theatre Kevin Borich, the RocKwiz 1300 182 183.

Company.

Nov 20 Dec 5.

Orchestra and MC Brian Shakespeare in Saigon by Cenarth Fox. Strathmore Theatre Don’t Dress for Dinner by Mark Nankervis. Dec 5. State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne. 1300 Arts Group. Nov 12 - 22. 9382 Camoletti. Heidelberg Theatre 182 183.

6284.

Co. Nov 20 - Dec 5. (03) 9457 Barefoot in the Park by Neil Simon. Brighton Theatre Co. Nov 12 - 28. Brighton Arts & Cultural Centre. 1300 752 126.

4117.

Tiptoe Through The Tombstones

by Norman Robbins. Frankston Theatre Group Inc. Nov 20 - Dec 6. Mt Eliza Community Centre.

1300 665 377.

Nunsense by Dan Goggin.

Eltham Little Theatre Inc. Nov 12 - 28. Eltham Performing Arts Jerry’s Girls. From a concept by Centre, Research. 0411 713 Larry Alford, Wayne Cilento and 095.

Jerry Herman, featuring the Away by Michael Gow. Torquay music and lyrics of Jerry Herman. Nov 20 - Dec 6. Arts Theatre Troupe. Nov 12 - 27.

Centre Melbourne. 1300 182 5261 4219.

183.

Accomplice by Rupert Holmes.

The Elixir of Love by Donizetti.

The Basin Theatre Group. Nov 13 - Dec 5. 1300 784 668 (7pm Opera Australia. Nov 21 - 28.

State Theatre, Arts Centre -9pm only).

Melbourne. 1300 182 183.

First Things First by Derek The 24 Hour Experience Ballarat.

Benfield. Sherbrooke Theatre 24 live art events running every Co. Nov 13 - 28. Doncaster hour for 24 hours. Nov 21 / 22.

Playhouse. 1300 650 209. www.24hourexperience.com.au Mazda Opera in the Bowl.

Opera Australia. Nov 14. Sydney Ricercar. Present Tense Ensemble. Nov 24 - Dec 12.

Myer Music Bowl. Admission Theatre Works, St Kilda. 9534 Free.

3388.

Middletown by Will Eno. Australian Premiere.Directed by Hugh Jackman’s Broadway to Oz. Paul Dainty Group / Robert Alice Darling. Red Stitch. Nov Fox. Nov 24 - 27. Rod Laver 17 - Dec 19. 9533 8083.

Arena. www.ticketek.com.au/ Over the River and Through the HughJackman Woods by Joe DiPietro.

Williamstown Little Theatre. Nov The Listies Ruin Christmas.

Malthouse. Nov 25 - Dec 13.

19 - Dec 5. 9885 9678.

Beckett Theatre, Malthouse.

Moonlight and Magnolias by (03) 9685 5111.

Ron Hutchinson. The 1812 Theatre. Nov 19 - Dec 12. 9758 Boeing Boeing by Marc Camoletti and Beverley Cross.

3964.

Essendon Theatre Company.

Nov 26 - Dec 5. Bradshaw

The Magic Toyshop. Melbourne City Ballet. Dec 14 - 19. The Alex Theatre, St Kilda. Ticketek.

Georgy Girl - the Seekers Musical. Written by Patrick Edgeworth with script consultant Graham Simpson.

From Dec 15. Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne. 132 849.

Storytime Ballet: The Sleeping Beauty. The Australian Ballet.

Dec 16 - 20. Arts Centre Melbourne. 1300 182 183.

Cats by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

From Dec 18. Regent Theatre, Melbourne. 136 100.

Coppelia. Choreographed by Maina Gielgud. Australian Conservatoire of Ballet. Dec 18.

Arts Centre Melbourne. 1300 182 183.

Fiddler on the Roof. Book by Joseph Stein. Music by Jerry Bock. Tim Lawson for The Works Entertainment. Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick. From Dec 29.

Princess Theatre, Melbourne.

Ticketmaster.

Mary Poppins. Music & Lyrics: Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman, George Stiles, Anthony Drewe. Book: Julian Fellowes. PLOS Musical Productions. Dec 31 - Jan 9.

Frankston Arts Centre. (03) 9784 1060.

Advertise your show on the front page of www.stagewhispers.com.au

Tasmania Forbidden Broadway Greatest Hits Volume 1 by Gerard Alessandrini. Hobart Rep. Until Nov 7. Playhouse Theatre, Hobart. (03) 6234 5998.

Mary Poppins. Music & Lyrics: Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman, George Stiles, Anthony Drewe. Book: Julian Fellowes. Encore Theatre Company. Until Nov 7. Princess Theatre, Launceston. 03 6323 3666.

Sick by Sean Munro. The Tasmanian Theatre Company.

Nov 4 - 14. Pop-Up Theatre 5, The Goods Shed, Macquarie Point, 12 Evans St, Hobart. (03) 6234 5998.

Strassman’s “iTedE”. RockCity.

Nov 12, Albert Hall, Launceston, (03) 6323 3666 & Nov 13 & 14, Theatre Royal, Hobart, (03) 6233 2299.

Disclosed by Caitlin Richardson.

Three River Theatre. Nov 12 15. Earl Arts Centre, Launceston. (03) 6323 3666.

The Wiggles - Big Show! plus CinderEmma Fairytale! Nov 15.

Princess Theatre, Launceston.

(03) 6323 3666.

The Fugly Ducking. Bawdy Panto. Nov 17 - 21. Theatre Royal, Hobart. (03) 6233 2299 Cats by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Dec 10 - 13. Derwent Entertainment Centre. 136 100.

South Australia A Murder Is Announced by Agatha Christie. Therry Dramatic Society. Nov 4 - 13. The Arts Theatre. 8358 3018.

The Popular Mechanicals. The State Theatre Company of SA. Nov 6 - 28. The Space. BASS 131 246.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged Revised.

Blackwood Players. Nov 6 - 14.

Blackwood 21. www.blackwoodplayers.com or 0481 373 949 Company by George Furth, music/lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Hills Musical Stage Whispers 63

On Stage Company. Nov 6 - 21. Stirling Community Theatre. www.hillsmusical.org.au/tickets

South Australia & Western Australia Western Australia

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Soulmates by David Williamson. Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler. Fresh Bred. Until Nov St Jude’s Players. Nov 12 - 21.

14. Musical. Octagon Theatre, St Jude’s Hall.

University of Western Australia, www.stjudesplayers.asn.au Rumours by Neil Simon. Galleon Crawley. Ticketek 132 849.

Faust by Gounod. West Theatre Group. Nov 18 - 28.

Domain Theatre. 0437 609 577. Australian Opera. Until Nov 7.

Traditional production starring Dimboola by Jack Hibberd.

Patrick O’Halloran. His Majesty’s Noarlunga Theatre Company.

Theatre, Perth. Ticketek 132 Nov 20 - 21. Port Noarlunga 849.

Arts Centre. 8386 2701.

Last Bus to Contrition by Noel Only an Orphan Girl by Henning O’Neil. Irish Theatre Players.

Nelms. Adelaide Repertory Until Nov 14. Locally written Theatre. Nov 19 - 28. The Arts play set in Ireland. Irish Club of Theatre. www.adelaiderep.com WA, Subiaco. 0406 085 620.

Pinocchio Pantomime by Carlo White Matter. Choreographed Collodi. Tea Tree Players. Nov 20 by Shona Erskine. Until Nov 7.

- Dec 5. Tea Tree Players Contemporary dance. The Blue Theatre. 8289 5266 or Room Theatre, Perth Cultural www.teatreeplayers.com Centre, Northbridge. 9227 SA Police Band Christmas Concert. Country Arts SA. Dec 3. Hopgood Theatre, Adelaide.

(08) 7009 4400

7005.

The Jungle Play by Rudyard Kipling. The Midnite Youth Theatre Company. Nov 4 - 7.

Family theatre. Drama Centre, Christchurch Grammar School. www.trybooking.com/GPZI Next to Normal. Music by Tom Kitt, book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey. Black Swan State Theatre Company. Nov 7 - 22.

Pulitzer and Tony Award winning musical. Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of WA, Northbridge. Ticketek 132 849.

Multiverse Theory in D by Jessica Messenger. Ellander Productions. Nov 17 - Dec 5.

Explores the age old question: what if? The Blue Room Theatre, Perth Cultural Centre, Northbridge. 9227 7005

Silhouette by Simon Brett.

Garrick Theatre. Nov 18 - Dec 5.

Thriller. Garrick Theatre, The Cockatoos by Patrick White, Guildford. 9378 1990. adapted by Andrew Hale. Happy Musical of Musicals the Musical.

Dagger Theatre. Nov 10 - 28. A Lyrics by Joanne Bogart and tale of suburban secrets. The music by Eric Rockwell. Kooliny Blue Room Theatre, Perth Arts Centre. Nov 20 - Dec 5.

Cultural Centre, Northbridge.

9467 7118.

9227 7005.

Cinderella. Choreographed by The Maids by Jean Genet.

Jayne Smeulders. West Tempest. Nov 11 - 14. For adult Australian Ballet. Nov 20 - Dec audiences. Subiaco Arts Centre. 15. Ballet fairy tale featuring Ticketek 132 849.

West Australian Philharmonic Evita by Andrew Lloyd Webber Orchestra. His Majesty’s and Tim Rice. MPAC and Prima Theatre, Perth. Ticketek 132 Donna Productions. Nov 12 849.

14. Rock musical. Mandurah A Man of No Importance by Performing Arts Centre.

Stephen Flaherty, Lynn Ahrens & www.manpac.com.au Terrence McNally. Playlovers.

The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan. Melville Theatre. Nov 13 - 29. Melville Theatre, Stock Rd, Palmyra.

9330 4565.

Bonnie and Clyde. Music by Frank Wildhorn, lyrics by Don Black and book by Ivan Menchell. Murray Music and Drama Club. Nov 13 - 28.

Contemporary musical directed

by Zoe Jay. Pinjarra Civic Centre.

0458 046 414.

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Adapted by Karen-Louise Hebden. Arena Arts. Nov 13 28. Christmas classic. LC Theatre, 60 Cleaver Tce Belmont. www.arenaarts.com.au Quartet by Ron Harwood.

KADS. Nov 13 - Dec 5. Set in a home for retired Opera singers.

KADS Town Square Theatre, Kalamunda. 9257 2668.

Rodeo Moon by David Milroy.

WAAPA - Aboriginal Theatre Students. Nov 14 - 19. A jack and jilleroo musical. Enright 64 Stage Whispers

Studio, WAAPA, Mt Lawley.

9370 6895.

Nov 20 - Dec 6. Musical.

Hackett Hall, Floreat. 0415 777 173.

Dick Whittington. Darlington Theatre Players. Nov 20 - Dec 12. Pantomime directed by Alex Sutton and Rachel Vonk. Marloo Theatre, Greenmount. 9255 1783.

Miss Lily’s Fabulous Feather Boa. Adapted from the book by Margaret Wild. Spare Parts Puppet Theatre. Nov 23 - Dec 4.

SPPT Short St, Fremantle. 9335 5044.

Sweet Charity. Music by Cy Coleman, lyrics Dorothy Fields and book by Neil Simon.

Wanneroo Repertory Club. Nov 26 - Dec 12. Musical. Limelight Theatre. 9571 8591.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Perth Waldorf School.

Nov 26 - 28. Story of Pip’s journey. Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre of WA, Northbridge. Ticketek 132 849.

The City So Nice They Named It Twice by Andrew Umney and

Just $40 a month to reach thousands of theatre goers. Contact Stage Whispers for details.

On Stage Jessica Herbert. Perth Theatre Trust. Nov 26 - 28. A love letter to New York. Downstairs at the Maj, His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth. Ticketek 132 849.

Calendar Girls by Tim Firth.

Stirling Players. Nov 27 - Dec 12. Play based on true story directed by Dale James. Stirling Theatre, Innaloo. 9440 1040 No Names, No Packdrill by Bob Herbert. Old Mill Theatre. Dec 4 - 9. Australian play. Old Mill Theatre, South Perth. 9367 8719.

Oliver! By Lionel Bart.

Taumarunui Performing Arts Inc. Nov 6 - 21.

All Our Sons by Witi Ihimaera.

Taki Rua Productions. Nov 6 14. Circa Theatre One, Wellington. 04 801 7992.

Evita by Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice. Pororua Little Theatre. Nov 7 - 21. Wellington Opera House. Ticketek.

Western Australia & New Zealand Nov 21 - Jan 23. Tonkin & Taylor Main Stage. 963 0870.

Aotearoa. Story by Jamie Lawrence. A New Zealand Rock Musical. Levin Performing Arts Society. Nov 27 - Dec 12.

3687453.

Mystery on the Orient Express.

Rotorua Musical Theatre. Nov 27 - Dec 12.

Roger Hall’s Robin Hood, the Pantomime by Roger Hall, songs

by Paul Jenden and Michael Nicholas Williams. Nov 21 - Dec 20. Circa Theatre One, Wellington. 04 801 7992.

A Child’s Christmas in Wales (and other memories of childhood) by Dylan Thomas.

Nov 28 - Dec 20. Circa Theatre 2, Wellington. 04 801 7992.

Grease by Jim Jacobs and Operatunity - The Many Faces of Warren Casey. Nelson Musical Theatre. Nov 18 - Dec 5. iTicket. Gilbert & Sullivan. Touring New Zealand during November.

Back to the 80’s by Neil www.daytimeconcerts.co.nz Gooding. Tauranga Musical Anyone For Breakfast by Derek Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

The Vicar of Dibley by Richard Theatre. Nov 20 - Dec 5.

Music by Alan Menken. Lyrics by Benfield. Harbour Theatre Inc. Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer. Westside Theatre, Tauranga.

Dec 4 - 13. Comedy. Camelot Howard Ashman and Tim Rice.

South Canterbury Theatre iTicket.

Theatre, Mosman Park. 9255 Book by Linda Woolverton.

League. Nov 12 - 28. Mill Forbidden Broadway by Gerard 3336.

NYTC & Auckland Live. Dec 4 & Theatre Restaurant. iTicket.

Alessandrini. Napier Operatic 5. ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre.

Stage One. Curtin University.

Le Noir - The Dark Side Society. Nov 20 - Dec 5. Tabard 0800 111 999; Dec 8 - 12. Premieres a brand of Cirque. Nov 12 - 17. Isaac Theatre Restaurant. (06) 835 An Evening With Oprah. Iconic new play by an established local Theatre Royal, Christchurch.

1059. playwright. The Blue Room Entertainment and Dainty 0800 TICKETEK (842 538) Theatre, Perth Cultural Centre, Group. Dec 16. Auckland.

Little Shop of Horrors by Alan Northbridge. 9227 7005 Menken and Howard Ashman.

New Zealand Whangarei Theatre Co. Nov 13 Guys and Dolls. Music and Lyrics 28. (09) 438 8135

by Frank Loesser/ Book by Jo ‘Allo ‘Allo by Jeremy Lloyd and Place your audition notice in our next edition. Email Swerling and Abe Burrows.

David Croft. Papakura Theatre stagews@stagewhispers.com.au or call (03) 9758 4522 Auckland Theatre Company.

Co. Nov 14 - 28. Off Broadway Until Dec 5. Q, 305 Queen St Theatre, Auckland. (09) 361 Auckland.

1000.

‘Twas The Fight Before Christmas. Detour Theatre, Tauranga. Nov 11 - 28. 0800 224 224

Auditions

Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

Music by Alan Menken. Lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice.

Book by Linda Woolverton.

Theatre Whakatane. Until Nov 7. Little Theatre, Whakatane. iTicket.

Ache by Pip Hall. Until Nov 21.

Circa Theatre 2, Wellington. 04 801 7992.

The Addams Family. Music and Lyrics by Andrew Lippa. Book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. North Shire Music Theatre.

Until Nov 14. The Pumphouse, Takapuna. 09 489 8360.

Flagons & Foxtrots by Alison Quigan and Ross Gumbley.

Fortune Theatre, Dunedin. Nov 14 - Dec 12. (03) 477 8323.

Be | Longing. Nov 17 - 21. The Dome, BATS Theatre, Wellington. (04) 802 4175.

Duets - 4 Comedies by Peter Quilter. Te Puke Repertory Society. Nov 18 - 28. Litt Park theatre, Te Puke. 5739849 British Invasion. Abbey Musical Theatre. Nov 19 - Dec 5. The Auditorium, Palmerston North. www.abbeymusicaltheatre.co.nz

Mary Poppins The Broadway Musical. Based on the book by P.L. Travers and the Walt Disney Film. Music and Lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert Rodgers and Hammerstein’s B Sherman. Book by Julian Cinderella. Centrestage Theatre Fellows. New Songs by George Company. Nov 7 - 15. (09) 426- Stiles and Anthony Drewe.

7282.

Court Theatre, Christchurch.

The Dark Side of Cirque LE NOIR. Auckland Live, Tim Lawson and Simon Painter. The Civic, Auckland.

Advertise your show on the front page of www.stagewhispers.com.au

Online extras!

Check out all the latest auditions online.

Scan the QR code or visit www.stagewhispers.com.au/auditions Stage Whispers 65

Reviews: Premieres

Sebastian Lamour and Matt Furlani in The Boy At The Edge Of Everything.

Photo: Jeff Busby.

The Boy At The Edge of Everything

By Finegan Kruckemeyer. Directed by Peter Houghton. MTC. Lawler Theatre. Sep 23 - Oct 3.

FINEGAN Kruckemeyer is (arguably) the world’s best and most prolific writer of children’s theatre. He provides a story of childhood, technology, time, and amazement that is just a little pixie-lated.

Simon Ives’ entire life is regimented, organised to the Nth degree. Always doing something, he longs to do nothing. If the Universe is expanding, then there must be an edge, and beyond that ….Nothing. On that edge lives The Boy, and he is staring out at Nothing. From the other side of his roof he can see EVERYTHING, and that’s what he longs for. When Simon is fired from the roof of Grandpa’s shed in a discarded flotation tank he lands, thousands of years later, at the Edge Of Everything, where he and the boy become friends and Simon learns that there are planets made entirely of dog poo, or only crossable via a giant water slide.

Peter Houghton is the perfect directing choice for this marvellous offering for all ages. With Andrew Bailey’s simple, stunning design, he brings us a universe where giant train sets travel between galaxies, a dining table devours lasagne, and boys can jump off the edge of the universe. No CGI, no projection, no technical aids….just wonderful stagecraft throughout, aided by Lisa Mibus’ excellent lighting and J David Franzke’s great soundscape.

Sebastian Lamour is a smart, but not sophisticated, twelve year old - and it’s easy to identify with his dissatisfaction with a life too well ordered with extra-curricular 66 Stage Whispers

activities. He’s an actor that impresses with everything he does. Matt Furlani is wonderfully offbeat as the Boy and Colin... it’s no stretch at all to imagine he is from another planet. Emily Goddard is delightful as Chloe, brilliant as Mum and totally convincing as the teacher Ms Chester.

Newly graduated from the National Drama School, Felix Berger-O’Neil shows great promise as younger brother Louie and the school bully Michael.

If you don’t have kids…borrow some; or wear your inner child like a badge of honour.

Coral Drouyn Extinction

By Hannie Rayson. Black Swan State Theatre Company.

Directed by Stuart Halusz. Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre of Western Australia, Perth, WA. Sep 19 - 4 Oct 4.

EXTINCTION is an interesting juxtaposition of conflicting viewpoints, diverse personalities and complex relationships, making a very watchable piece of theatre.

Director Stuart Halusz keeps a tight reign on this production. Extinction has outstanding production values, and features a gorgeous set by Brian Woltjen, with scene transformations that are exciting to watch and some lovely surprises. Sensitively lit, by Trent Suidgeest, there is a wonderful sense of place in this production, which is an asset to the story-telling.

Tight ensemble playing from the cast of four, with a quartet of very likeable characters, whose opposing viewpoints give the audience much food for thought.

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Hannah Day is a sweetly powerful Dr. Piper Ross, Matt Dyktynski is charming as ‘everyman’ billionaire Harry Jewell, Sarah McNeill paired sensitivity with strength as Heather Dixon-Brown, while Myles Pollard beautifully portrayed the conflicted Andy Dixon.

Hannie Rayson’s script is clever and complex and Extinction makes a thought provoking and very entertaining evening.

Kimberley Shaw.

the struggles and sacrifices made by this country’s stoic inhabitants.

A vast performing space with sheets of corrugated iron scattered with old torn posters of dictators; nothing is hidden. Audience members sit where there is space; we are quite literally a part of the haze and hurry.

A talented ensemble of musicians provides the soundtrack to this cross section of life in Jakarta. Beautiful individual performances of traditional songs provided normality, but it was all too brief.

A Flower of the Lips (Un Fior di Labbra) Powerful choreography and direction allowed us to

By Valentino Musico. Produced by Valentino Musico & EMU witness a captivating performance that highlighted the Productions. King Street Theatre. Newtown (NSW). Oct 6 - immense talent of this theatre collective.

Kerry Cooper 24.

SYDNEY playwright Valentino Musico’s new play, and fourth production with director Ira Seidenstein, A Flower of Speechless the Lips (Un Fior di Labbra) is a love letter to his greatBy Toni Main & Sara di Segna, dramaturge & director grandfather who was assassinated at age 34 after being an Georgina Capper. Helvetica at Melbourne Fringe Festival. informant to the Italian police during the First World War. Club Voltaire, North Melbourne. Sep 24 - Oct 4.

TONI, a playwright (possibly), contacts Sara in Rome and The production is a celebration of the legend’s life and legacy as well as other Calabrian Italians who came before invites her to join her project, which, Toni asserts, ‘is going and after him. to make millions’. Sara likes the sound of ‘millions’, and is The story is one that’s perhaps a little too close to thrilled that she will be ‘the pro-tag-on-ist’.

Musico’s heart because the dialogue is peppered with Speechless is a short, entertaining piece about Italian and feels like a series of private and intimate miscommunication - and the slippery, unreliable nature of moments about this one man. When combined with a words. Toni and Sara fail to communicate because neither series of sign-posted vignettes, this makes it difficult for the one of them ever checks out the other’s idea of what the audience to really understand and feel a part of the project is. Instead, locked in their own versions of reality, celebration of this extraordinary man’s life. It’s a shame as they are at cross-purposes throughout. This gives the piece the themes are universal and look at conflicting loyalties a certain relevance to contemporary life. Toni directs Sara to repeat, happily, then sadly, a list of words. It goes on and and moral questions about duty versus protecting the family. on until Sara is enraged and Toni is no longer even looking A Flower of the Lips is a dark and minimalist play full of at her. When Toni tries to explain the ambiguities of words, lots of different symbols, from the charcoal backdrop by her spiel turns into babble, drowned out by dramatic music. multiple Wynne prize nominee Vince Vozzo, to the staging Much of this solipsism is expressed in dance in which of a kind reverential semi-circle (to represent the church struggle, strain and fruitless hostility are clear. Sara Di that Aloi built in Calabria). It’s morbid and beautiful even Segna is a trained dancer and her elegant and expressive though some things are lost in translation. movements are a pleasure to watch. Toni Main may not be Natalie Salvo a trained dancer but she is equally expressive with a sort of calculated, panting, red-faced clumsiness.

The Streets Ms Main and Ms Di Segna improvised words and Teater Garasi. Oz/Asia Festival. Space Theatre, Adelaide. Sep movements around their concept. Georgina Capper joined 24 - 26 them, contributing a plot, directing and creating the PERFORMANCE collective Teater Garasi bring the streets effective counterpoint sound design. of Jakarta to Adelaide and they do so with a frenetic Michael Brindley energy. From the moment you are ushered into the performing space you are a part of the show. Hawkers Prize Fighter

By Future D. Fidel. La Boîte Theatre Company. Directed by selling their many wares, a karaoke singer with her mobile amplifier and the locals going about their daily activities.

Todd McDonald. Sep 9-26.

The background noises are structured yet offer a feeling of THE message behind this play is something one can’t chaos. ignore. Based both in war-torn Congo and Australia, it’s a Overlapping narratives paint a picture of the fear mythical representation inspired by the author’s own instilled in the poorer population by a government and the personal experiences. Some of these realities are stark and inequality of living standards within a nation. Anguish and grim, stemming from a part of the world ravaged by panic is shown through contemporary dance and it is conflict and tragedy, but what is relevant here is that successful in portraying the raw feelings of a generation. A Congo has some of the richest mineral resources and yet is wedding in the streets is minus the bride as she has had to one of the poorest nations on earth. It’s not surprising take employment abroad to support her family, symbolic of therefore that La Boîte have chosen to transform the author’s story into a stage presentation.

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Stage Whispers 67

With a cast of six, mostly playing a number of different roles, we are first introduced to a taste of what life is really like in Congo before moving into the Australian boxing ring.

With good performances all round and a theme worth exploring, this play still tends to educate rather than entertain. The scene is effectively set in the opening segment and the story succinctly told but contemporary theatre sometimes needs more gimmickry than simply bringing to light a political story.

Still, one can’t help but ponder on some of the philosophies behind this author’s profound determination and spirit: As he penned: ‘Defeating your opponent needs strategies but defeating your memories requires more ......’

Brian Adamson The Wharf Revue … Celebrating 15 Years

By Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Phillip Scott.

Riverside, Parramatta. Sep 9 - 12, followed by Canberra, Glen Street and Wharf 1.

DREW Forsythe as the flamboyant Geoffrey Robertson walks backwards along the wharf behind the STC. With hands clasped, eyes focused intensely on the camera, lips relishing every beautifully articulated syllable, he explains the origin of the Wharf Revue … before making an untimely exit. What an inspired opening to this celebratory ‘edition’ of the continuing collaboration of a very clever, talented team.

As expected, the show then swings into a string of sketches that leave very few politicians - past and present ‘unroasted’. From John Howard facing his final election to Bronwyn Bishop in full chopper flight, they are pilloried mercilessly in the nicest possible way by three very perspicacious observers and intelligent writers. Forsythe, Jonathan Biggins and writer/musical director Phil Scott are a formidable creative trio. They, and Amanda Bishop, are also very skilful all-round performers who have mastered the split second timing and panache essential for revue.

Highlights include ‘Clive Palmer’ and ‘Gina Reinhart’ riding high on the prow of the mining Titanic, a very effective look-a-like of Jackie Lambie struggling with the alphabet and mis-pronunciations, and Qantas’ Alan Joyce in a parody of James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake.

This annual revue is just a little more satirically biting and just a little more professionally staged each year.

Carol Wimmer The Great Gatsby

By F. Scott Fitzgerald, adapted by Rob Croser. Independent Theatre. Adelaide Festival Centre. Sep 3 - 12.

THE Roaring Twenties was an era of excess, extremes, both in wealth and poverty. Prohibition was in full force and the divide between the classes was evident. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote of the American Dream and a man who came from nothing to make his imaginings real.

This story chronicles the life of Jay Gatsby as told by his neighbour Nick Carraway (Will Cox). Director Rob Croser should be applauded for his perfect casting of Cox. The 68 Stage Whispers

ease with which he moves around the vast space and his clear and precise manner as he delivers his many lines holds this production together; he is engaging, magnetic and sincere. The same can be said for the play’s hero, Jay Gatsby (Lindsay Prodea); he is charismatic in his portrayal, giving a performance that reveals the young boy inside the man, full of dreams not yet fulfilled.

This script highlights some well thought out supporting roles. The object of Gatsby’s affections Daisy Buchanan (Madeleine Herd) displays just enough naïve charm and beauty to make her likeable. George and Myrtle Wilson (Nick Fagan and Kate Bonney) were feisty in their characterisations and captured perfectly the other side of the tracks.

Given the opportunity to take a glimpse into the lives of these Long Island residents was revealing, as it exposed the underbelly of many characters. Strong direction and an abundance of talent made this production shine.

Kerry Cooper Miss Revolutionary Idol Berserker Rehearsal Room, Adelaide Festival Centre. OzAsia Festival.

Sep 30 - Oct 3.

THE title may suggest social satire, or even a wild parody of some kind - but Miss Revolutionary Idol Berserker is almost beyond categories. Beyond words, perhaps...

Upon entry into the arena of the ‘Berserker’, socks and shoes are required to be cast off, ponchos are deployed for our own protection and preservation, and earplugs are ominously provided...

As it turns out, a sensible precaution. Spinal Tap’s amplifiers may go to eleven, but for this particular troupe, ‘eleventyleven’ would barely begin to describe the din they create.

For some poor souls, it may be nothing more than noise, but if you can handle the power, the relentlessness, the spirit of ‘everything louder than everything else’, it should be just about the most intense fifty-minute burst of sheer energy that you’ll encounter in any theatre, at any festival, in this or any other year.

It will certainly leave you in awe at what these performers (dancers/singers/live wires) are capable of. This is entertainment that leaves its mark; an experience like (very) few others. The next time they’re in your town, grab a ticket! (Be sure and bring a friend to share the buzz with plus help you recover...!)

Anthony Vawser The Red Balloon Adapted from the Albert Lamorisse film by Hilary Bell. Black Swan Lab. Directed by Chrissie Parrott. Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre of Western Australia.

Oct 1-17.

BLACK Swan Lab’s World Premiere of The Red Balloon, based on the 1956 Albert Lamorisse short film and adapted for theatre by Hilary Bell, is a loving homage to the source material; gentle, tender and relying more on aesthetics than words.

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Pascal, played opening night by Dylan Christidas (he shares with Rory McLaughlin and Jack O’Neill), lives in gloomy, rundown, post-war Paris. India Mehta has created a fluid Parisian set, that while obviously theatrical, captures the spirit of the original locale.

Unlike the film, we meet a collection of anthropomorphic animals ‘living rough’, who add commentary, narration and comedy. Cat (Sarah Nelson), Rat (Ben Mortley) and Pigeon (Ella Hetherington) all very likeable, are joined by popular St John Crowther, playing the adults in Pascal’s world, and all become puppeteers and help manipulate the red balloon (almost a character itself) as it makes its journey.

Rounding out the cast is The Girl With the Blue Balloon, Eloise Hunter (who alternates with Katie Price). Both children delivered sweet, enthusiastic performances.

Creatives shine in this very visual production. India Mehta’s set is vital to the action and integral to movement sequences, Trent Suidgeest’s lighting design gives ominous undertones while Ash Gibson Greig’s composition and sound design underscores the whole production, seemingly guiding the narrative and adding both warning and whimsy (a jazz section being a highlight).

The audience were spell-bound and clearly involved throughout. As suggested by Chrissie Parrott in her director’s notes, this is a perfect show for grandparents and children to enjoy together - but as a parent I suggest getting a seat too!

Kimberley Shaw

Eloise Hunter, Ben Mortley and Dylan Christidis in The Red Balloon.

Photo: Gary Marsh.

Jeremiah’s Tuesday Written and directed by Stefan Mrowinski. The Butterfly Club, Carson Place, Melbourne.

Oct 8 - 11.

THIS piece of drama was first written in Polish in 1990, however, its ability to be redrafted with more contemporary events and themes shows how its fundamental concerns will never be outdated. The wavering moral compass that guides the musings of the characters ranges from delusions of grandeur to touching and disturbing insight into the flawed and often rapacious character of humanity.

Mrowinski’s view of the dire state of politics comes from somewhere beyond mere cynicism or jaded perspectives.

The dark and grotesque scourges such as corruption, totalitarianism and the threat of Armageddon render the play elegiac yet this is finely balanced by its profound beauty and richness. This is a truly exquisite example of

Monodrama and the influence of practitioners such as Jerzy Grotowski and Peter Brook upon Mrowinski’s oeuvre is extremely palpable.

Kennedy brings this lyrical text to life in a manner that matches the passion and intensity of the language. He is fully in command and control of every syllable and expertly controls the complex rhythm and pace of its poetic quality.

The experience is enormously visceral while also stirring the imagination, allowing the characters or figures to be fully conjured in the space and present on stage. This brings him in direct dialogue with the spectator and produces a captivating and engrossing theatrical event.

Patricia Di Risio

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Stage Whispers 69

James Smith & Lucy Lehmann in The Aspirations Of Daise Morrow.

The Aspirations Of Daise Morrow Adapted from the short story by Patrick White. Brink Productions. Directed by Chris Drummond. Space Theatre, Festival Centre (SA). Oct 10-24.

ADAPTED from the short story Down At The Dump by Patrick White, The Aspirations Of Daise Morrow is an intelligent, sensitive, thought-provoking and at times surprisingly funny examination of the ripple effect that a death can have upon the lives of those left behind, especially in a tightly-knit small town environment.

The tale begins by focusing on the shambolic preparations for the funeral of Daise Morrow, whose youthful romantic exploits were once the scandalous talk of the small town of Barranugli. This serves as the catalyst for her various friends, family and acquaintances to reflect upon both their memories of Daise, but also upon the choices they have made in determining how to live a good life. The spectral figure of Daisy herself hovers unseen above the mourners, reflecting upon her legacy and influence.

Chris Drummond’s stage treatment takes the form of an immersive recital of the story. The audience is seated in a circle and four actors walk amongst the crowd, telling the story - each one alternating between narration and dialogue performed in character. Also seated amongst the audience is a string quartet, providing musical accompaniment.

Paul Blackwell, Lucy Lehman, Kris McQuade and James Smith do a sterling job of giving each character a distinctive voice and their movement is calculated to ensure that no 70 Stage Whispers

matter where one is seated, the show remains visually engaging.

The Zephyr Quartet’s scoring of the piece is tasteful and unintrusive, and Nigel Levings’ lighting design adds subtle texture to the drama.

Benjamin Orchard Narnia - The Horse and His Boy

By Pat Schafer and Jacqui Stephens. Atherton Performing Arts. Aug 28-Sep 13.

TO watch this fantasy musical is to step into the world of Narnia. Adapted by Jacqui Stephens and Pat Schafer from the novel of the same name by C. S. Lewis, the musical stays close to the original story.

The set and costumes are superb, capturing a strange land peopled by folk in medieval-style dress. The story is about kings, queens, princes, power and possession. The actors perform superbly in this strange land, created on the Silo Road Theatre stage.

Tom O’Connor as Shasta and Lani Annesley as Aravis skilfully lead the cast on a robust adventure through deserts and rivers to reach Narnia. To get there their horses, played brilliantly by Mark Eliot (Bree) and Tamara Turner (Hwin) lead the charge as they face Aslan the Lion (Neil Bryde in a great costume) and the cunning plotting of Prince Rabadash, played so well by energetic Hamish Nelson.

The music by Pat Schafer is original and highly entertaining. Particularly catchy was the song ‘Who Are You?’ sung by Tom and Brian O’ Connor, and the Caribbean-sounding ‘More or Less Important’. ‘What

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Business of Yours’, sung so well by Lani Annesley, is also a very good number. Other highlights were the graceful, ballet-like dancing skills of Frida Garate, the large colourfully-costumed chorus of Minstrels and the Clip Clop music.

Junior actors are dressed as frogs, beavers, leopards, bunnies, foxes, snakes, bats, stags, mice and squirrels. At the end, there is a ferocious but well-choreographed battle scene that should delight younger members of the audience.

The large cast, the orchestra and the army of behind-the -scene workers deserve praise for the work involved in getting this show on stage.

Ken Cotterill

melting pot of modern Cabramatta and the sleek designer mansions of Sydney’s yuppie jetset.

Colin Friels, Renato Musolino, Luisa Mignone and Calin Diamond assume multiple roles with a chameleonic ease which is doubly impressive given they are tasked with plausibly playing characters at extreme opposite ends of this conflict. Tom Conroy and David Valencio are the only cast members not tasked with frequently switching between multiple personas - but they bring a frightening intensity to their scenes together.

Mortido never falls into the trap of glamorising the unprincipled choices of the various characters, but neither does it descend into preachy, PSA-style finger wagging.

Angela Betzien’s dialogue is possessed of a rapier sharp wit, and moments of unexpected gallows humour abound.

Dear John Production design is spartan, but Geoff Cobham’s M.O.V.E. Theatre. Nexus Arts, Adelaide. OzAsia Festival. 1-3 meticulously nuanced lighting design, combined with the October, 2015. subtle shifts in Pete Goodwin’s score, serve to effectively SITUATED at the point where music, theatre, dance, and establish each different scene. The director, Leticia Caceres, artistic installation all meet, Dear John is an exploratory and does an impressive job of thinking outside the box in terms experimental piece of avant-gardism, presented essentially of representing acts of sex n’ violence, as well as scenes without conventional distance between performers and involving animals, that would be impossible to stage in a viewers, as a tribute to legendary musical figure John Cage. literal manner, though they remain disturbing, despite Whether you find the end result entrancing, or indifferent, being presented in an impressionistic fashion.

Benjamin Orchard or somewhere in between, will be largely a matter of personal taste.

There are certainly fascinating moments and aspects to The Bacchae Dear John. With a severely modified piano as its Conceived by Adena Jacobs and Aaron Orzech. Melbourne centrepiece, the opening images/sounds are graceful and Festival, St Martins, Fraught Outfit and Theatre Works enticing. Coloured lights that shone magically through the Theatre Works. Oct 8 - 24.

A STRONG sense of danger and menace lurks in this darkness, appearing almost to levitate over the performers, were another significant contribution to the presentation’s courageous contemporary interpretation of The Bacchae. It visual texture. is a vital production performed in raw and natural way, The more technical, scientific, and computerised without artifice, by girls and young women from St Martins elements were less interesting to this reviewer, as were the Youth Arts Centre. eventually tedious atonal sonic extremities that were Euripides’ original is an Ancient Greek play, first battered out of the ‘prepared’ piano. Fortunately, the performed in 405BC. Put very simply it looks at the soothing sound of ‘rain sticks’ would arrive to offer periodic conflicting sides of man’s nature - the controlled and relief. organized versus the passionate and hedonistic as An almost alarmingly physical display of percussive personified by the God Dionysius. intensity, performed atop a wooden crate within the Andrea Jacobson as Director achieves in subverting ways perimeters of a ‘light cage’, was worthy of applause on its of seeing through this carefully managed work. own. Ultimately, it is possible to admire the adventurous There is an inference of youthful defiance in the spirit of this troupe from Taiwan, without being completely performers’ commitment to the very strong fabric of the able to embrace the final product. Most likely, Dear John is ancient material, along with their retuning of ‘the gaze,’ a piece that can - and will - continue to adapt, evolve, and through blatantly watching the audience watch them, improve. often in a hostile way.

Sound (composition by Kelly Ryall and direction by Anthony Vawser Danielle O’Keefe), although often electronic, is live. Violin Mortido and voices combine exquisitely. And the drum is used

By Angela Betzien. Directed by Leticia Caceres. skilfully to underscore and vibrantly energize as well as to STCSADunstan Playhouse, Festival Centre. Oct 20-31. highlight and accentuate the perpetration of violence.

Tableaux and images allow for individual interpretation, MORTIDO is a sprawling crime drama that critically many of them are very simple but loaded with social examines all the sordid dealings inherent in the traffic and distribution of cocaine, as well as chronicling the human comment. wreckage that occurs as a consequence of this, blazing a These young women morph from gawky kids to trail through the impoverished barrios of Mexico, the temptresses and everything in between and beyond.

Challenging Theatre. jungles of Bolivia, the gay nightclubs of Berlin, the cultural Suzanne Sandow Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au

Stage Whispers 71

1984 Adapted and directed by Robert Icke and Duncan MacMillan. From the book by George Orwell, Playhouse.

Arts Centre Melbourne. Melbourne Festival. Oct 16 - 25.

FOR many, George Orwell’s surreal nightmare of society, 1984, ceased to have relevance on Jan 1st 1985. In the years that followed, Big Brother wasn’t watching us (except in a contrived TV reality show), Doublethink was twice unthinkable (unless you were a social media addict) and Newspeak hadn’t become the reality of mobile phones (though textspeak is more horrific than anything Orwell could have imagined). Could…or would…anyone’s life and identity be deleted at the press of a button? Yes, and yes, and the time could not be more pertinent for the reexamination of Orwell’s dark masterpiece. Robert Icke and Duncan MacMillan, as co-adaptors and co-directors, understand that, in a world gone mad, only the crazy can truly know sanity. Their vision, and version, of Orwell’s hell is harrowing, confronting, and at times terrifying. It’s also magnificent theatre that gives us new perspective and insight into Orwell’s overly familiar text.

There are no “star turns” from any of the cast. Instead they play almost anonymously, serving the truth of the ideas. And yet the performances are marvellous in an unobtrusive way. Matthew Spencer’s Winston lacks charisma…and Winston is all the more real because of it.

Tim Dutton’s O’Brien, the Inquisitor, is a nice man, a friendly man, which makes him all the more terrifying as a torturer - and the torture scene is especially horrific. Janine Harouni’s Julia is raw and visceral, intense and nervous beneath the bravura; no doubt aided by the fact that this is her professional stage debut.

All of the cast are exemplary, but the biggest praise must go to the creative team and the two Directors. They have created a production for now and the future, without disrespecting the past.

Coral Drouyn Bronx Gothic

By Okwui Okpokwasili. Arts House & Melbourne Festival in association with Performance Space 122, as part of PS122 GLOBAL. Arts House, North Melbourne. Oct 8-12.

OKWUI Okpokwasili shakes, quivers, undulates, trembles, turned away in the corner of the performance space. We watch this - and only this - for twenty minutes.

Finally, she turns and says, ‘There is something I got to tell you…’ The voice is urban Afro-American.

Bronx Gothic merges dance, movement, text and performance. At the centre is a friendship between two women, a relationship that can descend to vicious insult and rejection, and yet binds them inexorably together. It begins with an exchange of notes between two eleven-year -old black girls in the Bronx.

What’s an orgasm feel like? The answer is almost poetic - it like waves but inside your body. What does cum taste like? Depends what he have for lunch. It is so intimate, so honest that we are held like some transfixed voyeur. This friendship is a symbiotic relationship that cannot be escaped.

72 Stage Whispers

The director and lighting designer is Peter Born, a frequent collaborator. I could not say why his lighting works so well, but it does. When Ms Okpokwasili reads the notes, she holds them under a single down light and her face is lost in shadow above. And then, at the end, having created two beings and their lives and contexts, Ms Okpokwasili takes her bow and, suddenly, this powerful woman is awkward, as if surprised by our applause.

Bronx Gothic is part of an on-going collaboration between Arts House in Melbourne and Performance Space 122 in New York City. In 2016 the traffic goes the other way: some samples of Melbourne art goes to NY. Michael Brindley Youarenowhere Created by Peter Musante, Alessandra Calabi, Christine Shallenberg with Karl Franklin Allen, Daniel Jackson & Bobby McElver. Performance Space 122 (NY) & Arts House Melbourne, Melbourne Festival. Oct 15 - 19.

TO describe this show in too much detail means giving away not one but two remarkable coups de theatre. Each elicits an audible gasp from the audience. Let’s say that this presentation/performance is about time and space and relativity and quantum mechanics. Is time an arbitrary system that may or may not enable us to understand no more than a sequence of events? Is it possible, given the curved nature of time that there could be a parallel universe? Or universes? And if so… does that simply destroy any validity your life might have? As Andrew Schneider says in one of his frenetic monologues, ‘We exist in each other’s realities… but not in the way we think we do.’

Andrew Schneider is a consummate performer, despite the fact that his character’s efforts to explain things to the audience are constantly thwarted by a voice in his earpiece, time constraints (get it?), bursts of blinding and/or coloured lights, electronic failures and interruptions, and ultimately his own inability to deal with the unexpected. But we want him to succeed - more for his sake than our own - in telling us what he wants to tell us. This is theatre in the sense that it could only be theatre and can only happen in a theatre and it’s very exciting for just those reasons.

Michael Brindley Sunnytown

By Krystal Sweedman. La Boîte Indie Season. Director: Heather Fairbairn. Roundhouse Theatre, Brisbane. Oct 1531.

LA BOITE has again touched on a relevant subject very much a part of the media these days with the introduction of a new playwright, Krystal Sweedman, who, as part of her studies at NIDA, has broached the subject of writing about something her tutor has been encouraging his students to attempt: any topic you wish to avoid. Ms Sweedman chose domestic violence.

What is interesting about this work is the way she has designed it from an adolescent point of view, in particular with the use of Walter Mitty-like dream sequences stemming from the subconscious and brought about as a

Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au

A Rabbit for Kim Jong-il.

Photo: Brett Boardman.

coping mechanism when domestic scenes of volatility are beginning to escalate. Some of these sequences are most intriguing, though not always fathomable, and certainly capture a surrealistic quality worth exploring. There is some excellent dialogue in this work, true to character and full of psychological insight whilst also capturing a seamless flow.

This is particularly apparent in the interplay between the two girls with scripted scenes enviable in the profession.

Also impressive about this production is the exceptional cast - Olivia Hall-Smith in the central role, Vanessa Krummenacher, her friend and contrasting character, in a bubbly performance worth highlighting, Caroline Dunphy as the mother and Ron Kelly as the father both superbly cast - who bring to life characters and scenes all too familiar in Australian suburbia with the characteristic interplay between the parents dealing with a teenage daughter who is again dealing with her parents while developing a bond with those in her own age group. A complicated subject neatly packaged by the author and director.

Sunnytown demonstrates depth, character and theatrical nuance from a talented team ripe for further display.

Brian Adamson

was on the money. The premise was preposterous and just a little true. German rabbit breeder Johann Wertheim has attracted the attention of the “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il, who dispatches his agent to bring back a prized a giant rabbit, no matter what the cost.

Wertheim (Steve Rodgers) has childlike enthusiasm for his bunnies. Extracting the furry friend from him takes every bit of charm and bullying from special agent Chung DaeHyun played deliciously by Kaeng Chan.

From Berlin, the action moves to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea where Johann appears out of his depth, but with rat cunning and help from his pet shop owning side kick Sophie Amsel (Kate Box) hatches a rescue plot.

They have to get through another sinister loyal lieutenant of the dear leader Chung Dae-Hyun (Kaeng Chan).

Playwright Kit Brookman gives himself the sweetest role - Felix the Rabbit.

“When I was a kitten, when my whole world was barn and straw and my mother’s warm body. I would never imagine that I would see what I have seen. I have travelled across half the world and met so many different people.”

It becomes a little odd when the female agent wags her ‘tail’ over Felix.

A Rabbit for Kim Jong-il The 100 minute ‘comic-thriller’ could have been helped

By Kit Brookman. Griffin Theatre Company. Director: Lee by a trim or an interval. But even so the fast paced action Lewis. SBW Stables Theatre. Oct 17 - Nov 21. and farcical glimpse into one of the strangest countries on WORD leaked out from the rehearsal floor that this play earth left the audience happy little bunnies.

David Spicer was a barrel of laughs (or maybe a burrow) and the rumour Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au

Stage Whispers 73

The cast of Rent.

Photo: Kurt Sneddon.

Reviews: Musicals Rent

By Jonathan Larson. Highway Run Productions. Hayes Theatre Co. Oct 8 - Nov 1.

RAW and vibrant, Rent returns joyously to it’s OffBroadway roots at Sydney’s Hayes Theatre Co., with far greater proximity and urgency than the original Australian production.

Lauren Peters’ design strips back the stage to the brickwork, using props that might well have come from a kerbside collection and a curtain resembling a well used painter’s plastic dropsheet; all creating an aptly raw and grungy feel.

Director Shaun Rennie’s big-hearted production accepts the challenge of fleshing out the sparse scenario left behind when creator Jonathan Larson died before the show opened.

Stephen Madsen is a strong credible anchor for the production as the film-maker Mark. Linden Furnell broods convincingly as would-be rock star Roger, adding credibility with his live guitar playing. Lauren Hunter is an attractive, sensual Mimi. The chemistry between Furnell and Hunter simmers engagingly.

Nana Matapule and Christopher Scalzo establish a heartfelt relationship between Collins and Angel, doing justice to this major part of the soul of Rent.

The bantering, tempestuous relationship between Joanne and Maureen reaches its peak as Casey Donovan and Laura Bunting raise the roof with their in-your-face vocal battle of wills, ‘Take Me or Leave Me’.

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Matthew Pearce rounds out the principal cast effectively as landlord and former flatmate Benny.

They’re supported by just the sort of hot, young ensemble this show demands, adding to the wattage of big vocal numbers.

Andrew Worboys’ band drives the show with a lively rock pulse.

Totally sold out before opening, Rent will return in 2016.

Neil Litchfield Of Thee I Sing Music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and a book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind.

Squabbalogic and Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Sydney Opera House. Sep 26 & 27.

BOUTIQUE musical theatre company Squabbalogic and Sydney Philharmonia unlocked a Gershwin treasure chest, and the city’s music theatre tragics will be forever grateful.

While much of the American political satire in this 1931 Pulitzer Prize winning musical comedy has a timely ring, supported by a wonderful Gershwin score, the book is of its time, and often un-pc by today’s standards. Happily Jay James Moody’s direction is firmly tongue-in-cheek.

With party policy on the nose, it’s decided that a US presidential nominee will run on a platform of love. Initially his wife is to be chosen from a beauty pageant, but candidate Wintergreen falls in love with Mary, who wins his heart with her corn muffins, sparking a diplomatic crisis.

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The thrill of a sweeping interpretation of the Gershwin overture by conductor Brett Weymark and his 40 piece orchestra indicates that musical treats lie in store.

Seven talented musical theatre performers, five of them switching deftly between multiple roles, take on 20+ characters in a capably staged bare bones production.

David Berry’s President Wintergreen is suitably slick and suave. Courtney Glass is all style as Mary, with her clear, pure vocals, throwing in a deliciously gauche hotel chambermaid for good measure. Director Jay James Moody clowns his broad comic way through the role of gormless Vice-President Throttlebottom. Jamie Leigh Johnson delights as a kooky vacuous Southern belle. Blake Erickson, Nathan Farrow and Rob Johnson slip effortlessly between a range of supporting roles.

The vast choir gives splendid voice to ensemble numbers and revel cheekily in their mass hand choreography.

Neil Litchfield

Lippa and Greenwald’s songs are always good, yet not earth shattering, but Jaclyn DeVincentis (as the sister/ mother of the title) and Brenton Crosier (as brother/son John) are both superb.

DeVincentis is a powerhouse performer. She is one of those Merman type divas who bombards you with charisma and makes you wonder why she is not on the main stage.

Yet here there is a softness, a vulnerability I haven’t seen before. She plays uncertainty, idealism and guilt with absolute truth, as in the terrific “Hold The Fort”, and reduced me to tears with the terrific 11 o’clock number “The Road Ends Here”…where she finally finds the strength to let go of the past. It’s one of the strongest performances I’ve seen by a female artist this year.

Brenton Crosier is delightful, and his light tenor is pure and appealing. Though the two have no familial likeness, you believe they are related simply through the strength of the connection between them. Crosier shines in songs like “Bye Room” and there are powerhouse duets for them both Oliver! like “Graduation” and “Every Goodbye is Hello”.

By Lionel Bart. Directed by Barbara Hughes. OSMaD (Vic).

Sarah Tulloch’s set is an absolute triumph. The higgledyOct 15 - 24. piggledy children’s fort, made of scrap wood and old A MARVELLOUS 22 piece orchestra expertly directed by curtains, doubles as a dug out in the Vietnam War, and the John Ferguson; a superb ensemble of children with standgraveyard and works as all three. Imaginative in all respects out performances from the two leads; two stars in Fagin and very impressive. and Nancy; and the timeless collaboration of Lionel Bart John & Jen is everything you NEVER expected, and more. and Charles Dickens all combine to make this production an Coral Drouyn absolute triumph for OSMaD. Angelo de Cata is an actor who can take any role, twist Beauty and the Beast it inside out, then fill it with his own brand of passion while Music by Alan Menken. Lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim maintaining every nuance and subtlety. His Fagin is darker Rice. Book by Linda Woolverton. Strathfield Musical Society. and more complex than we’re used to, but boy is he Director Kathryn Meekings. Musical Direction by Brian charismatic. He holds the kids (and the audience) in thrall Hughes. Oct 9 - 17. from the second he enters. Stephanie Powell (Nancy) has SET maker Bob Peet and costume maker James Worner great command of the stage, a powerful singing voice and deserved an ovation for the visual splendor on stage. a great connection with the audience. She’s just a bit too Most delightful were the candles for Lumiere, which ladylike … a terrific performance nonetheless. always ignited on cue, and the grand French chest of Joshua Vass (Oliver) is suitably frail and angelic with a drawers for Madam De La Grande Bouche. superb soprano voice and excellent diction. Ben JasonAlso helping get the Strathfield Musical Society past Easton (Dodger) is a revelation…a seasoned performer at “the line” was the tight, lush orchestra under the baton of the age of 11. Keith Stubley (Mr Bumble) makes a welcome Brian Hughes and an enthusiastic well disciplined chorus. return to the stage, and his scenes with Colleen Johnson - a The stand out performer was Lachlan O’Brien (Lumiere) delicious harridan as Widow Corney, are delightful. who, according to the program notes, is a musician, Richard Perdriau’s set is functional; Danny Issko’s magician and has two science degrees. lighting design is subtle and expressive, and Glenn Others who showed their on-stage pedigree included Gareth Davis (Lefou), Alejandra Blandino (Babette) and Bardwell’s sound complements it beautifully. Chloe Thomas’ costumes are delightful. Both Bart and Dickens Melissa Stewart (choreographer and Madame De La Grande would approve of this highly enjoyable production.

Bouche).

Coral Drouyn Rebecca MacCallion was sweet as Belle and Haydn Allbutt (Beast) deserved a medal for performing in the thick John & Jen hairy Beast costume, under the spotlight in a hall with no air conditioning.

By Andrew Lippa and Tom Greenwald. Pursued by Bear Productions. Chapel off Chapel. Sep 18 - 27.

David Spicer JOHN & Jen is a diamond, bringing us two marvellous performers, and a delicate sung-through score full of Legally Blonde poignancy, charm and wit. Director Mark Taylor clearly

By Laurence O’Keefe, Neil Benjamin and Heather Hatch. loves the show and he handles it with a gentle passion and Launceston Musical Society (Tas). Sep 2 - 5.

OH to be young again, and Legally Blonde! Launceston a clear vision. Nothing is wasted; everything has meaning….and everyone involved shares the same vision.

Musical Society was fortunate to have some wonderful Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au

Stage Whispers 75

performers for this charming, funny cute, and yes, adorable, show. The show was tight and fast-paced, the cast well-drilled and energetic.

The ensemble/chorus work was excellent, with fantastic choreography from Trista Zammit and Matthew Johns. Lead female Abbey Hansson was a good choice, with a terrific voice and good moves. Andy Allison did a fantastic job directing this large ensemble and the pace and enthusiasm didn’t falter. Standout numbers were the Irish dancing scene and ‘Bend and Snap’. The ‘Whipped Into Shape’ routine, with Laurel Atkins (Brooke), Rod Beaver (Callahan) and the company was so good, fast and clever, that I wanted to yell out encore! and see the moves again.

Matthew Tomlin is very young, but gave a believable performance as the self-serving cad (Warner Huntington III), Elle’s love interest. Steve Thomas (Emmett) has a lovely voice, and was beautifully cast as the-nice-guy-gets-the-girl.

The chorus/ensemble was very well rehearsed, vibrant and energetic. The sorority sisters-cum-Greek-Chorus, led by Mikaela Campbell (Serena), Amelia White (Margot) and Charlotte Page (Pilar), gave lovely performances. Bonnie Cashion (Vivienne), Kellie Constable (Paulette), Tash McCulloch (Enid) and George Abbott (Kyle) were classy and funny support characters.

Music was good, costumes and lighting lovely, and sets and set changes slick and appropriate. A funny, cute, enjoyable show!

Merlene Abbott High Society Book by Arthur Kopit, music and lyrics by Cole Porter.

Additional lyrics by Susan Birkenhead. Hayes Theatre Co / Power Arts. Sep 4 - Oct 3.

HIGH Society is small-scale charm film (a star vehicle for Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong), tough to successfully expand into a stage musical. This production succeeds where grander attempts have fallen flat, remaining intimate. A few stylish archways and pieces of furniture suffice for a glamorous mansion, ensuring snappy scene changes.

Amy Lehpamer, a genuine quadruple threat (the usual, plus violin), adds brilliant physical clowning to the mix, and her singing, as usual, is to-die-for.

Virginia Gay brings warmth, comic flair and a fabulous set of musical theatre pipes to feisty photographer Liz Imbrie. Jessica Whitfield is bright and cheeky as Tracy’s very knowing younger sister Dinah.

Bobby Fox blends bravado, bemusement, and a dash of cynicism as journalist Mike Connor. Bert LaBonte croons amiably as Tracy’s ex, CK Dexter Haven. Scott Irwin is delightfully starchy, humorless fall guy as Tracy’s fiancé George.

Lecherous, forgetful and perpetually inebriated, Laurence Coy’s Uncle Willy is an archetypal, politically incorrect musical comedy throwback.

Mavis (Michelle Barr) and Chester (Phillip Lowe) provide bright Upstairs Downstairs commentary as the hired help, executing set changes with panache.

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Pacy and deliciously timed, this production is peppered with farce, and topped up with a feast of extra Cole Porter treats.

MD Daryl Wallis and his small band work impressively, making a diverse variety of Porter’s musical comedy songs, standards and sophisticated later career Hollywood blend into a fairly unified score.

Director Helen Dallimore and choreographer Cameron Mitchell have achieved what big Broadway bucks couldn’t; going far more tongue-in-cheek with High Society than previous stage incarnations, they concoct an affectionate, rib-ticking, mildly risqué musical theatre confection.

Neil Litchfield Footloose Book and lyrics by Dean Pitchford. Music by Tom Snow (and Sammy Hagar, Kenny Loggins, Jim Steinman, Eric Carmen).

Directed by Jordan Barr. OCPAC Theatre (Vic). Sep 13 - 20.

SOME terrific choreography, strong singing, excellent casting and lots of energy lift OCPAC’S production to a standard far higher than that of the actual show itself, and make for a thoroughly enjoyable night’s entertainment.

Casting is excellent and there is talent galore on the stage. Shannen Alyce is a marvellous Ariel. She’s a WAAPA graduate and it shows. A true triple threat, she’s a great singer/dancer with real acting ability and a strong command of the stage.

Joseph Spanti (Ren) looks a million bucks in the Kevin Bacon role. He has charm, a great smile, a strong singing voice, and some terrific dance moves. He does, however, lack the edgy bad boy broodiness appeal one expects from the role.

Warren Logan is terrific as Willard, with an easy and natural comic presence. He’s paired with the multi-talented Adriana Tascone (stunning vocals!), and they’re delightful together.

The rest of the cast are all excellent, and special bouquets to choreographer Remy Noonan. Her work is stunning. Jordan Barr’s direction works a treat for the most part, and she creates some lovely visual vignettes, inventing little back stories and relationships in her early blocking.

What she has missed though is the necessary edgy subtext.

Nevertheless I defy you to leave the theatre without singing the title song.

Coral Drouyn Big: The Musical Music by David Shire. Lyrics by Richard Maltby Jr. Book by John Weidman. Based upon the film by Anne Spielberg & Gary Ross. Director: David Gauci. Oct 9 - 24.

BASED on the popular 1988 film, this whimsical fable tells the story of a socially awkward tween named Josh (Jack Raft), who makes a wish upon a carnival fortune telling machine to become “Big” and then finds himself magically transformed overnight into a grown up (played

by Charlie Smith). Fortunately, a chance encounter with an eccentric tycoon (Angus Smith) lands him a dream job as the chief play-tester for a toy company, where he attracts the romantic interest of jaded advertising executive, Susan

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Into The Woods. Harvest Rain.

(Kate Dempsey) who is drawn to his instinctive kindness and wide-eyed zest for life.

The show is loaded with disarmingly witty dialogue, and the book maintains the film’s even balance of gently charming humour and grounded, unforced pathos. This musical adaptation also maintains the film’s late-80s setting, though the songs often feel like something from the 1950s. Still, the score remains irrepressibly catchy Scene transitions are generally both swift and smooth, in large part due to the minimalist set design, and the costumes evoke the right period flavour.

Jack Raft and Charlie Smith resist the temptation to overact and their mannerisms are well matched, ensuring that each individual’s performance seems like a natural extension of the other’s. Kate Dempsey’s performance is an endearing mix of spunk and vulnerability. Angus Smith, Sandy Wandel (as Josh’s world-weary Mum) & Daniel Vickers (as Josh’s wisecracking school friend Billy) effortlessly steal every scene they’re in. The large chorus is a tightly co-ordinated assortment, triple-threats all.

Benjamin Orchard

I mentioned the above because this particular production sits right in between my original recollection of the show and the more glossy versions I have seen since.

Director / Producer Tim O’Connor designed the show around the more traditional and rudimentary style of storytelling similar to that of the Shakespearean era.

Whether or not this was obvious to the audience it didn’t really matter because, like those bygone Elizabethan days, the accent was on the cast and the play itself. The story is intriguing enough in all it’s intricacy while its cast were mostly exemplary: Rachel Beck, Eddie Perfect and, of course, Rhonda Burchmore as the witch. Also worth noting is Tom Oliver as Jack. Steve Hirst was hilarious as Cinderella’s prince and the naughty wolf, whilst Georgina Hopson’s Cinderella was a polished and professional performance. Musical Director Jason Barry-Smith had the cast and orchestra at his fingertips.

How lucky we are to have an organisation like Harvest Rain who are able to support all this local talent and with no government funding.

Brian Adamson

Into the Woods Music and Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim. Book: James Lapine.

Harvest Rain. QPAC Concert Hall. Oct 1 - 4.

THE first production I ever saw of this show was a concert version presented in Melbourne. I don’t remember exactly when, but what I do remember was a superb score and a mesmerising cast obviously enjoying the experience as much as the audience. It brought the house down.

Evita Lyrics by Tim Rice. Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Miranda Musical Society. Sep 9 - 13.

MUSICALLY Evita is about as hard as it gets for a chorus.

It has a fruity mixture of clashing chords and notes that needed to be plucked from no-where. All this is swished together with regular refrains of the musical theme Don’t Cry for Me Argentina and (in this production) a coffin

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Stage Whispers 77

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Savoyards.

Photo: Christopher Thomas.

swinging around the stage with a plastic doll inside.

Evita picked up the Tony Award in 1980. Does it still gel today?

The Miranda Musical Society excited the audience most in the second act as the production reaches the glamorous era of ‘Evita’ as the first lady.

Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber give a realistic portrayal of her rags to riches elevation, but gloss over some of the more sordid aspects of her husband’s administration such as providing refuge for Nazis.

There were many fine performances in this production Adam Scicluna was charismatic and convincing as Juan Peron, local favourite Gavin Leahy held the production together with style as the narrator Che, and Lauren Butler hit the mark when she needed to as Eva. The costumes were glamorous, the chorus well drilled and the orchestra in fine form.

David Spicer How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

By Frank Loesser, Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock, Willie Gilbert. Savoyards (Qld). Director: Sherryl-Lee Secomb. Sep 26 - Oct 10.

THIS production was a slice of 1960s heaven. Well executed chorus work, a set that worked for the shallow proscenium arch stage it sat on, and a set of principals whose timing was a joy.

Newcomer Joel O’Brien was an excellent J. Pierrepont Finch; singing with clear ringing tones and dancing nimbly throughout, it was an endearing performance. A graduate 78 Stage Whispers

of the Griffith Musical Theatre course, O’Brien took hold of the show from the beginning and never let go until his coup d’etat finale. Sarah Copley as Rosemary, his betterhalf, was also a delight, bringing spunk and sass to a traditional female role not written like a traditional female role. Together they were perfect and massively appealing.

Rod Jones was a funny and pompous J.B. Biggley, while Jessica Ham flamboyantly sashayed sex-appeal into an art.

Savoyards stalwart Warryn James did well in the twin roles of Mr. Twimble and Wally Womper. Others to be noticed included Julie Eisentrager’s Smitty, Jacqui Cuny’s Miss Jones, Ian Moore’s Mr. Bratt, and Kyle Fenwick’s Bud Frump.

Desney Toia-Sinapati’s choreography was spare, but with nice clean lines. Geoffrey Secombe’s orchestra accompanied with verve, if not finesse.

Peter Pinne Forbidden Broadway Conceived by Gerard Alessandrini. Javeenbah Theatre, Gold Coast. Sep 4 - 19.

FORBIDDEN Broadway is a parody of Broadway Musical Theatre and the creation of author, composer and arranger Gerard Alessandrini. The show originated in New York in 1982, with regular “up-dates” over the years since.

Director Amy-Louise Anderson has captured the spirit of Alessandrini’s hilarious interpretation of musicals in a fast moving, fun-packed show.

The cast of eight talented performers - Kat Brand, Sabrina Durante, Jack Harbour, Todd Jesson, Trevor Love,

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Lauren Steiner, Simon Stone and Susannah Treacy, plus 1 piano, “glamour” drapes, continuous costume changes and a power point presentation brought the “Great White Way” to Nerang and the capacity audience loved every minute.

As well as the memorable songs, we were entertained

by Liza Minnelli, Ethel Merman and Mandy Patinkin.

Musical direction was under the baton of Kristine Dennis, assisted by pianist Paul Faughey.

Roger McKenzie Gypsy Music by Jule Styne. Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by Arthur Laurents. Stirling Players, WA. Sep 11-26.

STIRLING Players’ Gypsy played to full houses, deserving its warm reception.

Celeste Underhill directed her first community theatre musical superbly, ably supported by M.D. Krispin Maesalu, heading a solid orchestra, and choreographer Amber Southall, whose work was impressive.

Claudia Van Zellar was a powerful Mama Rose, in one of the most outstanding breakthrough performances of 2015, nicely supported by Trevor Preston, whose performance as Herbie was gentle, solid and believable.

Madeleine Shaw, in the title role, impressively transitioned from shy, awkward, teenager to confident star of the strip tease - singing beautifully, while Dainty June was given depth by Tania Morrow. Their duet was a highlight.

The children were delightful. Bella Freeman and Phoebe Tennant (I was able to see both) shone as Baby June, while Mia Martin and Caitlin Knock were lovely as Baby Louise.

Elle Simpson, Charlie Martin and Bailey Jubb are all talents to watch.

“You Gotta Get A Gimmick” is often a highlight, and strippers Mazeppa (Helen Marshall), Tessie (Paula Sayers) and Electra (Janet Brandwood) did not disappoint in flamboyant, funny performances.

Liam Gobbert made a likeable, charming Tulsa, while Liz Pemberton, David Cosgrove and Tracey Endlebrecht stood out among an enthusiastic well-focused ensemble.

This beautifully costumed, well-presented production also included some gorgeous animal performances and lovely surprises.

Kimberley Shaw Cocktails With Noël and Gertie Conceived and Directed by Kate Peters. Top Hat Productions. Spotlight Basement Theatre, Gold Coast. Sep 17 - Oct 4.

NOËL Coward devotees have a reason to rejoice, with another opportunity to enjoy The Master’s “talent to amuse”.

Billed as ‘A Marvellous Party’, Gold Coast Entertainer Kate Peters has not only captured the essence of Coward’s witty repartee, but also presented it in style.

In the role of Noël Coward, Rob Horton was the perfect foil for Kate’s portrayal of Gertrude Lawrence. These seasoned performers wove their magic on the audience, and were suitably supported by the wickedly irrepressible

Sheila Bradley, the enchanting chanteuse Kirri Adams and the multi personalities (in a good way) of Martin Jennings.

The music was in the capable fingers of pianists Marie Nicholson and David McNeven, with David also adding his voice when required.

A simple Art Deco set with shiny chrome furniture added to the ambience of the intimate venue.

Judging from the response of the opening night audience, they “went to A Marvelous Party” and enjoyed every minute!

I know I did!

Roger McKenzie Patience

By Gilbert and Sullivan. Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Victoria.

Director: Frank McCarty. Musical Director: Greg Hannan.

Oct 15 - 17.

WITH the potential closure of the Alexander Theatre, Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Victoria moved to the Darebin Arts and Entertainment Centre for this production. A long way from their home base, the theatre is a similar size to the Alex, and, moving toward the back for the second half, I had no problems hearing everything.

In the title role, diminutive soprano Sabrina Surace used her big eyes and expressive face most effectively and sang well. I have encountered the Lady Angela, Emily Crawford, before and was pleased that she has ironed out her vocal problems and her outstanding mezzo voice is now backed by a solid vocal technique. She was a constant delight.

As the aesthetic poet Bunthorne, I’m sure Rod Pidcock was reprising a role he has played many times before, and he was very funny and didn’t miss a beat. As his opponent, Grosvenor, Andrew Blair showed good comic timing and a pleasant singing voice, but had problems with the choreography for his duet with Bunthorne in the second act.

Brett O’Meara was a very good Duke with a good singing voice, and Andrea Tappe displayed a lovely voice as Lady Jane, but wasn’t big enough to get the laughs that should go with this role.

This production featured a lot of innovative choreography, particularly the Chorus of Dragoons and the Dragoons’ trio. The three Dragoons worked very well together. The ensemble singing was well balanced, but not always coordinated with the orchestra.

Graham Ford The Boy From Oz Book by Nick Enright. Babirra Music Theatre (Vic). Director: Chris Bradke. Musical Director: Danny Forward.

Choreographer: Louisa Mitchell. Oct 9 - 17.

BABIRRA’s production of The Boy From Oz was a triumph. The show lives and dies on the ability of the inhabitant of the title role, and Jonathon Guthrie-Jones met every challenge. He was a bit too good-looking for this role, but we soon forgot that as he delved into the depths of this complex character.

I have encountered Jonathon in a number of roles in the past and admired his comedic, dancing and vocal skills, but

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I have never seen him stretched this far. Apart from the highs, Peter Allen had many lows, and Jonathon made us feel his pain.

Caleb Waterworth, as the young Peter Allen, displayed an excellent voice and strong dancing and acting skills. As his mother, Gabrielle O’Brien was a constant presence and then sang a poignant “Don’t Cry Out Loud” to her young son after her husband’s suicide.

Melanie Ott was a vulnerable Liza Minnelli who sang extraordinarily well. Adrienne George was her over-the-top mother, Judy Garland. Shaun Kingma was Peter’s brooding partner, who sang a heartfelt “I Honestly Love You”.

The production was minimalist, with a walkway high up at the back and furniture rolled on for different scenes. A small white grand piano with lights on all edges was often central. The lighting was extraordinary.

The Sold Out sign said it all.

Graham Ford

swagger and ego, Tristan Entwistle is a carefree, boyish Giuseppe, Marisa Panzarin sparkles as a bright, vivacious Gianetta, nicely contrast with Anna Louise Finlayson’s romantically intense Tessa.

Enter the Duke of Plaza Toro ‘and Suite’. As the Duke, Dean Sinclair brings a somewhat fruity, affected foppishness, along with impeccable diction. Catherine Bulfin’s imposing, statuesque Duchess is accentuated by great costuming. Highlight of the ‘Suite’, though, is Stephanie Jennifer Poropat as Casilda. This young soprano blends lovely acting, poise and comic skills with a to-die-for voice.

Anthony Mason is an authoritative, vaguely menacing Don Alhambra with a strong baritone voice.

Even in the many minor roles, the diction and projection are strong.

Generally Elizabeth Lorencev‘s choreography provides effective blocking and groupings suitable for the nondancers in her cast, and nice featured moments for the Hairspray The Broadway Musical better dancers.

By Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman, Mark O’Donnell and Traditional in spirit, director Gordon Costello’s Thomas Meehan. Regals Musical Society (NSW). Directed by production doesn’t try anything new or startling, yet Julian Batchelor. Musical Director: Peter Sampson. provides a very pleasant treat for Savoy Opera lovers.

Choreography: Tracey Rasmussen. Oct 9 - 17.

Neil Litchfield IF you apply too much Hairspray, your head feels like a rock. Likewise I felt that I might have been applying too Company many Hairspray the Musical performances to my diary.

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by George So imagine my surprise at being thoroughly entertained Furth. Everyman Theatre. Directed by Jordan Best. The Q, by the Regals’ zippy production from go to woe … even Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. Oct 16 - 24. though it was the fifth time round.

WHAT a gem this production is! With Jordan Best’s The young energetic chorus crisply moved around the reliably slick comic direction and a cohort of some of the stage to the neat 60’s choreography and the large ACT region’s best triple threat performers, Everyman band was pitch perfect.

Theatre’s production of Company promised to be good and Hannah Barn was a dynamo, bouncing and flapping it doesn’t disappoint. around the stage as Tracey Turnblad, the teenager misfit We meet perpetual bachelor Bobby on the eve of his who woos her way onto the Corny Collins show.

35th birthday, as he feels the weight of the social Her ‘mother’, Peter Sharratt (Edna Turnblad), looked like expectation that he should marry sooner rather than later. a Rugby Front Row Forward wearing a tent, yet he Jarrad West’s Bobby walks a fine line - on one level he shimmied around in high heels with aplomb. thinks he should be married but his heart is transparently No principals let the team down, however, I felt that ambivalent, not the least reason being that his married some of the male leads could have been a bit cheesier and friends provide such bizarre and dysfunctional models of bit raunchier. wedded bliss. They each seem to be unhappily bound in The audience didn’t mind, giving the Regals a well loose configurations of convenience and mutual deserved standing ovation. antagonism, as is demonstrated in a series of loosely David Spicer connected comic tableaux.

Best has chosen a lively, snappy pace which doesn’t flag for a second. Picking stand-outs in this crowd is hard, but The Gondoliers

By Gilbert and Sullivan. Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Sydney. for mine Helen McFarlane and Max Gambale as a middleSep 25 - Oct 3. aged couple sampling pot for the first time were seamJOYOUSY setting the mood under Rod Mounjed’s splittingly funny. Vanessa de Jager, Laura Dawson and baton, a full pit orchestra delights with its rendition of Karen Vickery were all very good indeed. The choreography Sullivan’s overture to The Gondoliers, before the curtain (by James Batchelor) accommodated the varied dance skill sets in the cast to provide seamless movement that was rises on a gorgeous Venetian backdrop.

Within moments a vibrant ensemble of ‘contadine’, attractive to watch. Stand out was Michelle Norris, who looking fresh and fetching in attractive peasant dresses and performed a lithe, sinuous graceful contemporary dance flowers bursts onto the scene. Soon the male ensemble of number to the instrumental Tick Tock. gondoliers arrives in boisterous form.

This was a great opportunity to see this classic 1970s musical done justice.

An attractively balanced quartette of young lovers emerges. Spencer Darby’s Marco has the right touch of Cathy Bannister 80 Stage Whispers

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The cast of Urinetown. Waterdale.

Urinetown Book and lyrics by Greg Kotis. Music and lyrics by Mark Hollman. Waterdale. Director: Daniel Cooper. Musical Director: Ian Nisbet. Choreographer: Narada Edgar. Sep 25 - Oct 3.

THIS was my first encounter with alternative musical Urinetown. It was certainly different! A drought forcing a town to close all private toilets, making people pay to pee is smack bang in the theatre of the absurd.

The direction was good and the choreography amazing and tight in this thoroughly enjoyable production. The lighting was exciting.

Standing head and shoulders above the rest of the cast was Nathan Wright as Bobby Strong. One of the best looking leading men I’ve seen for a while, he moved well and sang divinely. He worked well with the petite Sarah Cuthbert as his love interest, Hope Cladwell. She also had an attractive voice.

Sam Marzden was the cheeky narrator, doubling as Officer Lockstock. He had wonderful comic timing and a pleasant singing voice. It was a big cast and the show was full of energy with everyone fully involved.

The bare stage had a walkway at the back, under which the five members of the band sat, occasionally joining in the action. Props were rolled onto stage for different scenes. There was some lovely harmony singing from the ensemble.

Sometimes the band was a bit loud, but more often it was microphones being turned on late, so that dialogue

was missed. When everything else was so good this was disappointing.

This season deserves to be sold out.

Graham Ford Altar Boyz

By Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker. Geneva Music Studio (WA). Directed by Joshua Brant. Oct 8-10.

ALTAR Boyz, a concert-style musical about a Catholic boy band, centres on the final concert of an extended tour as five small town boys try to save souls, using song.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, Juan and Abraham (who is Jewish), sing their way through the concert as we learn their history and relationships in a well-presented, high energy production with a rock concert vibe.

Ryan Dawson was strong as band leader Matthew, Zac Gower was gorgeous as gloriously camp Mark, while Matt Healy, in his first role outside school, was lovely as slightly slow Luke. Juan Carlos Albonese might have been born to play the role of Juan and producer David Gray pulls double duty playing Abraham with charming chutzpah.

A very solid four-piece band (Taui Pinker, Emily Gelineau, Vlad Sturdy and Nikki Gray) accompanies the show from the stage and both vocals (directed by Bec Pearce) and choreography (Renae O’Neill, Melissa Beadle and Kylie Baker) are professionally executed.

Easy to watch and entertaining, Altar Boyz is a lot of fun and possibly spiritually enlightening.

Kimberley Shaw

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Stage Whispers 81

John Howard and Airlie Dodds in Ivanov.

Photo: Brett Boardman.

Reviews: Plays

Ivanov

By Anton Chekhov, adapted by Eamon Flack. Belvoir, Upstairs Theatre. Sep 19 - Nov 1.

BELVOIR’s Eamon Flack both scripted and directed this remarkable reworking of Chekhov’s first full-length play.

With a strong comic cast, capturing both the pathos and full ridiculousness of Chekhov’s lost characters, Flack’s rollicking but sensitive production reaches beyond prerevolutionary Russia to our Australia today. The actors somehow inhabit both worlds - and point alarmingly to what we have in common.

Ivanov himself (Ewan Leslie) is a narcissistically depressed, failed landowner burdened with debts, guilt and a dying wife he no longer loves. He finds solace with his wealthy neighbours (John Howard and Helen Thomson) and their daughter (Airlie Dodds), who inexplicably is drawn to love the hopeless Ivanov.

Ivanov’s uncle Shabelsky (a colourful John Bell) has long swapped social ideals for the bottle, and Fayssal Bazzi is charismatic as Ivanov’s buffooning cousin. Both wish to wed the local wealthy widow, Sasha. Here Blazey Best, along with Helen Thomson, are scene-stealers as these trophy bogans, gilded and dressed to party in Mel Page’s costumes.

The outsiders are Anna (Zahra Newman) as Ivanov’s foreign wife and Lvov, her Turkish doctor (Yalin Ozucelik), respectively, silent and very direct accusers of Ivanov and this mad world.

Ewan Leslie brings subtle variety to Ivanov’s torments, but they remain obscurely poetic, and he’s not an 82 Stage Whispers

empathetic character. Nor are most of the others, as they spin together going nowhere.

MIchael Hankin’s quirky settings work well. It’s a fun, artful, contemporary adaption where the heart of Chekhov still survives.

Martin Portus A Steady Rain

By Kevin Huff. Old Fitzroy Theatre. Red Line Productions.

Sep 22 - Oct 17.

AMERICAN TV writer Keith Hoff has proven expertise at storytelling and snappy dialogue. It’s on show in A Steady Rain, a two hander about a couple of longtime partners patrolling the hardened streets of Chicago.

Justin Stewart-Cotta plays Denny, an explosively emotional cop obsessed with protecting his family, while Nick Barkla is Joey, a more thoughtful, heavy-drinking loner who’s cherished by Denny and his family. We mostly see them sitting side by side as in the patrol car, bickering, challenging but always looking out for each other.

A fallout with the station escalates into a brutal criminal entanglement which Hoff unwinds with clear and bloody detail, and which eventually smashes into Denny’s home and, as the stakes grow, polarises our buddies.

Adam Cook’s fine production makes imaginative use of this intimate space. Varied sound, especially, takes us into the streets, offices and crime scenes - and unrelenting rain of this underbelly Chicago.

Both actors are perfectly accented and emotionally pitched and their arc of suspenseful storytelling, to each

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other, or us almost rivets our attention for the full 110 mins. Such a TV style cop buddy story, especially around the meaning of family, is hardly an American original. But Cook and his actors make it worth braving the rain for the theatre.

Martin Portus An Inspector Calls

By J B Priestley. The Mount Players (Vic). Director: Julie Wade. Mount View Theatre. Aug 18 - Sep 19.

AN Inspector Calls - a theatre classic or ‘piece preserved in aspic’? We can be grateful to The Mount Players for reminding us how pertinent and relevant theatre classics can be.

To set the mood of the era, Christina Finch has gathered a delightful sextet to play the music of 1912 in the foyer.

The story is about a manufacturing family and their social standing, self-importance, ambitions and the societal structures that endorse secrecy, deception and unforgivable cruelty.

Directed with comfortable competence by Julie Wade, in this work all actors excel. Mr Arthur Birling is presented to us with just the right presence, imbued with power and determination by Christopher Haddon. Ingrid Gang is very impressive and imposing as Mrs Sybil Burling, who in her cruel actions epitomizes the double standards of a not so distant era. Inspector Goole is played in a very clear and level-headed manner by Frank O’Connor. Gerald Croft cuts a stylish figure and shows much promise, as an actor, as young buck and suitor Bradley Chivell. Ryan Vandersweep truly comes into character (Eric Birling) in the third act of the play where he elicits sympathy and understanding.

Leigh Tangee shines as the smart quick witted and kind hearted Shelia Birling. Zoe Shepard makes an appropriate and sweet maid Edna.

A rewarding and though provoking night.

Suzanne Sandow The Cripple of Inishmaan

By Martin McDonagh. Directed by Kerrin White. Adelaide Repertory Theatre. The Arts Theatre. Sep 3-12.

IN a world where some will doubtless be put off or offended by the mere presence of the ‘c-word’ in the title of this play, Martin McDonagh’s writing aims to confront our sensibilities at the same time as tickling our funny bones. That he succeeds as well in this as he does is a testament to his singular talent.

The ensemble cast could scarcely be better chosen. Matt Houston continues his sterling run of memorable portrayals with a title character that you’re sure to love, not through the kind of facile cuteness that a lesser writer may have indulged in, but simply because Houston’s Billy is a creation that wants, needs, and deserves your affection.

Making a tremendous impact playing Helen - a part both crucial and juicy - is Mary Rose Angley; she and Houston share the task at show’s climax of carrying the emotional load of the play and steering the audience toward a conclusion that both satisfies and makes sense.

Kudos to both performers for achieving this; kudos, in fact, is due to the entire team, on-stage and off.

If you’re an Adelaide theatre-goer who enjoys being entertained as well as challenged, who loves being swept up in the skills of a superb storyteller, and who wants to see a technically amateur cast performing at a standard that is practically professional, you really can’t afford to miss The Cripple of Inishmaan.

Anthony Vawser The Breakfast Club

By John Hughes. One Serve Productions. DAPA Theatre, Hamilton (Newcastle). Aug 21 - 30.

WRITER-director John Hughes’ script for the cult movie The Breakfast Club has been adapted worldwide for thousands of stage productions since the film, and this 30th anniversary presentation shows why it has been so popular.

The title group is a Saturday detention class of five diverse students who are required by a senior teacher to stay in the high-school library all day and write an essay about the misdemeanors that led to their weekend confinement. The students gradually discard their protective shields and discuss their lives and hopes for the future, with their moving revelations having the audience viewing them sympathetically.

The diversity of the characters, with the students noted at the story’s beginning by the teacher as “a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal”, requires solid performances from the young actors who are virtually on stage for the whole time. And this production had that, with director David Murray keeping the tale moving briskly along.

James Coates’ initially quiet “brain”, Brian, eventually revealed a far-from-perfect home life; Annie Wilson’s “princess”, Claire, was certainly not royalty in her family; Allyson (Cassandra Griffin), initially seated quietly alone in a corner, showed herself to no “basket case”; and the “athlete”, Andrew (Luke Baker), hoping to get away from detention early enough to take part in a wrestling bout, and the “criminal”, John Bender (Daniel Allsopp), who initially hinders, then helps, the others, likewise revealed a need for companionship.

The two adult characters, Alex Faber’s teacher and Jake Gillies’ janitor, while seen only occasionally, also had very human sides.

Ken Longworth Reserved Seating Only

By David Ross Paterson, adapted from a play by Peter B. Sonenstein. Director: Peter Houghton. Boxing Day Productions. The Q, The Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. Sep 4 & 5, and touring.

FAST-PACED wit from end to end, this play is sharp, funny and slick. Adapted from an unpublished Peter B Sonenstein script set at the baseball, David Ross Paterson moves the action to an Essendon v Fitzroy match, the first game of the season. The language and characters have been so beautifully translated to an Australian setting, it’s impossible to pick that the original script was American.

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Stage Whispers 83

For the past 14 years, Al has occupied the same reserved seat beside fellow disciple Dave. This year, however, that spot is claimed by Trina, Dave’s recently divorced ex-wife.

Trina is there to understand why Dave had loved the sport more than he had loved her. Through the play, we come to understand the place that football can have in people’s lives.

Much of the humour derives from how Paterson and Specht have perfected their characters. Even when he seems engrossed in conversation, Al will suddenly leap up and bark abuse at the umpire or a player. It’s startling; you almost laugh out of shock. Specht, for her part, gets laughs out of being awkward and out of place. To be honest, some of the AFL in-jokes will go straight over your head if you know as little about it as I do. There is plenty of hilarity even so.

One for the fans and the non-fans alike.

Cathy Bannister

the scheming Mortimer. There is arrogance and sneering determination his physical bearing and the clear articulation of his defiant lines.

Edward’s lover, Gaveston, is played with insolent intensity by Michael Whalley, as he galvanizes this character through a range of volatile emotions: fervent lust, bold impudence, brazen defiance and, eventually, powerless resistance.

Sport for Jove’s production thrills, shocks, horrifies … and resonates profoundly.

Carol Wimmer

Much Ado About Nothing

By William Shakespeare. Canberra Repertory. Directed by Cate Clelland. Theatre 3, Acton, A.C.T. Sep 17- Oct 3.

THE serious moments in this universal Shakespearean tale, generally classed as one of Shakespeare’s comedies, challenge acting ability every bit as much as its comedic moments do. The mistake of overacting, especially in the Edward II comic scenes, is a difficult one for actor, actress, and

By Christopher Marlowe. Sport for Jove. Seymour Centre. director to draw back from, and adversity easily becomes Oct 1 - 17. melodrama.

MARLOWE’S account of Edward II of England Several players managed very well to deliver condenses the twenty turbulent years of his reign into an Shakespeare’s language naturally. The surprise of the night exposé of love and lust, politics and power. was newcomer Marni Mount, playing Hero; but Colin The play opens as Edward is crowned - and immediately Milner and Tony Turner were outstanding in perfect pace arranges to have his exiled lover, Piers Gaveston, return to and genuine interaction with their fellow players through England, thus enraging the barons, the church and his movement, and Jim Adamik’s and David Kavanagh’s queen, Isabella. Thus follows a torrid, bloody struggle that performances warrant special mention. decimates the court and finally leaves a young Edward III to A single stage set served for the entire play: the back rule a country beleaguered by tragedy and civil unrest. garden of the local duke, and an adjoining thoroughfare.

Director Karabelas pulls no punches about the intimacy That this didn’t become stale is due partly to creative use of of Edward’s relationship with Gaveston. His production is the various entrances to the setting; partly to lively and fast, hard-hitting, gut-wrenching, his actors pushed to find comic use of the entire space to keep the story moving. The the intensity of every passionate moment, every horrific element of movement in the direction was particularly execution. impressive.

Julian Garner is powerful in his portrayal of Edward, In general the production succeeds, despite its comic calling upon the obvious strength of his physical and intent, in drawing us in to care a little about the characters’ emotional reserves to make this Edward impassioned, fates, and certainly succeeds in those comic moments disturbed, and ultimately destroyed by the havoc that he conveyed with greater subtlety. has wreaked.

John P. Harvey As Isabella, Georgia Adams convincingly plays scorned wife, plotting consort, jubilant victor, protective mother and The Return defeated queen. James Lugton is impervious as her lover,

By Reg Cribb. University of Adelaide Theatre Guild. Little Theatre, University of Adelaide. Oct 3-17.

IN tackling Reg Cribb’s psychological thriller The Return, The University of Adelaide Theatre Guild has taken on the challenge of balancing dark humour with maintenance of suspense, creating an immersive and commendable production.

Recently released from prison and bored, restless and looking for trouble, career thug Steve and his junior partner in crime Trev take the last train from Midland to Fremantle.

Then an attractive young law student enters the carriage.

Directed by Erik Strauts, the cast manage the physically demanding action very well, particularly on the excellent Get noticed on the Stage Whispers and authentic ‘train carriage’-sized set. website with a premium listing James Whitrow is totally believable as Steve, the leader of the pair of thugs. James King, in a very good www.stagewhispers.com.au/directory-central

Stage Whispers Directory Premium listing: $20

84 Stage Whispers

Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au

A Property Of The Clan.

performance as Trev, embodies a restless, amphetaminefueled and troubled young man. For both, I’d like to see the simmering anger and menace developed a touch more in order to balance the script’s humour and ramp up the overall tension in the carriage.

Sarah Cullinan produces a very natural performance as the young law student Lisa, while Steve Marvanek also does well as the writer.

The standout performance for me is that of Nicole Rutty as the downtrodden English housewife Maureen. She is mesmerising and her first desperate and terrified outburst at the thugs lifts the tension immediately.

Unfortunately, in the latter half of the play, the script lurches into unlikely coincidences. For me, the storyline then loses believability to some extent and this contributes to a lessening of the intrinsic sense of menace and suspense.

Lesley Reed A Property of the Clan

By Nick Enright. Blood Moon Theatre, The World Bar, Kings Cross. Sep 29 - Oct 17.

WHAT an appropriate time to mount a new production of Nick Enright’s cathartic 1994 play based around the rape and murder of a 15-year-old Newcastle schoolgirl. Covering many aspects of violence toward women, this short, forthright piece of theatre is a fine example of Enright’s ability to create real characters in dialogue that is raw, economic and uncompromisingly blunt.

The style and the frugality of the script demands both fast pace and touching introspection, as the actors depict a

range emotions: defiance, horror, sorrow, disbelief, grief, shame, self-reproach and denial.

Megan Drury plays both single mother, Diane, and highscrupled schoolgirl, Rachel, using carefully controlled reactions, beautifully timed delivery - and emotional veracity.

George Banders plays Diane’s son Jared: ‘one of the boys’, he is more sensitive than he admits. Banders gives a clear, intelligent portrayal that finds the angst, insecurity and frailty of mid-adolescence.

Jack Starkey plays the tough Brett Ricketson. He is loud, self-confident, assertive and brash. As well, he is juxtaposed as the gentle Glenn, editor of the student newspaper.

Samantha Young has the unenviable task of depicting a grieving 14 year old - and she does so with heart-warming clarity through her expressive eyes, the gentle variation of her voice, the awkward realisation of her own vulnerability.

No one can escape these characters and the trauma of their messages in this powerful production.

Carol Wimmer Macbeth

By William Shakespeare. Director: Andrew Lewis.

Roundhouse Theatre, WAAPA. Oct 9 - 15.

MACBETH was the last chance to see WAAPA’s Graduating Acting Class as an ensemble before they move out into the real world.

Benjamin Kindon is outstanding in the central role.

Sweet-faced and likeable, his lustful ambition and cruelty became more disturbing and his performance was heartfelt

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Stage Whispers 85

WAAPA 3rd year acting production of Macbeth.

Photo: Jon Green.

and powerful. Beautiful Shalom Brune-Franklin was a stunning Lady Macbeth, whose descent into madness was skillfully played.

The three witches were attractive manifestations of the dark side, powerfully played by Brittany Morel, Harriet Gordon Anderson and Stephanie Panozzo, while Megan Wilding brought comedy to The Porter and depth to The Gentlewoman.

Jessica Paterson was a regal, believable Malcolm in a cross-gender casting - remaining feminine yet powerful.

Dacre Montgomery was a charming Banquo and ominous, disturbing ghost.

Lincoln Vickery brought maturity and status to Duncan, while Hoa Xuande’s anguish as Macduff was palpable.

The murder of Macduff’s family was particularly strong, with excellent performances from Rian Howlett, Bevan Pfeiffer, Rebecca Gulia and Harriet Gordon Anderson.

Ashliegh Hodges’ set was simple and stark - an appropriate present-day reinterpretation of Shakespearian design, spiced up with AV screens and dynamic lighting design (Chloe Oglive).

The show was set in a present day corporate world and Dolly-Mere Nettleton’s heavily suited, cleverly considered costumes set the scene beautifully.

Andrew Lewis provides us with a production that showcases formidable talents of graduating WAAPA students, not only in Acting but in Production and Design.

Kimberley Shaw

86 Stage Whispers

They Saw A Thylacine Created & performed by Justine Campbell & Sarah Hamilton, with Matthew Lutton. Beckett Theatre, Malthouse, Melbourne. Sep 15 -Oct 4.

THEY Saw A Thylacine tells two stories of Tasmanian tigers. One dies in 1936 in the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart her story told by Alison (Justine Campbell), the zookeeper’s daughter. In the second, a tough bush woman, Beatie (Sarah Hamilton), tells of her attempt to capture a solitary tiger so as to save and protect her.

The two monologues run parallel, never intersecting. But such is the passion and commitment of the performers that we soon come to hang on every word. Ms Hamilton and Ms Campbell are contrasting performers: Hamilton tall, dark, fiery, with speech that is both rough and lyric; Campbell smaller, fair, bluntly forceful. As their stories come to complement each other, so do they.

Beatie competes with a sneering trapper who figures a tiger with a bounty on its head is worth more dead than alive. In Alison’s more ironic tale, the dunderhead zoo management refuse to promote her to zookeeper, as the zoo goes into decline through neglect and - how modern! budget and staff cuts. Over both stories is the implication of callous disregard - even hatred - for nature itself, especially for that which is native or indigenous.

Matthew Adey’s lighting of the near bare stage is nicely subtle, responding to the text and enhancing emotion - as does Jethro Woodward’s sound design.

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They Saw A Thylacine may be not far from agit-prop, but it is skilfully written, poetic, focussed in its anger, and funny agit-prop.

Michael Brindley The Fall of the House of Usher Adapted from Edgar Allan Poe’s short story by Jack Neary.

Castle Hill Players. The Pavilion Theatre, Castle Hill. Sep 25 Oct 17.

COBWEBS hang from the heavy rafters of a mysterious, dark room. Grim family portraits stare from a murky green wall. Wisps of smoke trail over worn, dusty furniture.

Thus has director Paul Sztelma set this carefully crafted adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s grisly story of a family steeped in intrigue and depravity. Jack Neary has cleverly transposed it into a macabre thriller that works disturbingly well - especially when directed with the precise timing and perceptive characterisation achieved in this production.

The play begins with New York detective Michael Shauhgnessy interrogating James Brookfield, who has been visiting his one-time friend, Roderick Usher, about the disturbing events that have culminated in a raging fire … and two charred bodies.

Gavin Jamieson is scarily gruesome as the depraved Roderick - a loathsome character who Jamieson plays with spine-chilling clarity. Ricarda Emanuel plays his wraithlike twin sister, Madeline, whose diminishing strength Emanuel captures with numbing apathy. The groveling Dr Tremblay is played with servile obsequiousness by Todd Beilby.

As Brookfield, Ben Freeman becomes increasingly tormented as he recreates the distasteful scenes and their horrendous implications to Shaughnessy, played by Stephen Snars, who depicts the consummate detective.

This is a spine tingling production that has all the elements of the thriller - disquieting characters, a carefully constructed plot, a spectral set and eerie lighting.

Carol Wimmer

Despite multiple settings being present on the stage, Jason Groves has created good lighting design against a complicated brief. Mark Reynolds excels in sound design, with effects as diverse as the ‘ting’ of a lift door opening, down to a funny fart or two. An inspired touch is the use of simple but effective projection to denote settings not physically part of the set, such as the doctor’s office and the airport.

The Stirling Players have rounded off their 2015 season with another fine production.

Lesley Reed Kinski and I Devised and Performed by CJ Johnson. 505, Newtown.

Sydney Fringe. Sep 16 - 27.

AN award-winner last year at the Sydney Fringe and a hit recently in Adelaide, ABC Radio movie critic CJ Johnson is back at the Sydney Fringe with his shocking revelations about German film star and sex addict Klaus Kinski. With images of the star projected behind, CJ stands astride a lectern mostly reading from Kinski’s posthumous and banned 1993 autobiography.

The relentless pornographic detail soon blurs into a psychotic story of his uncontrollable addictions, rages and artistic anarchy. Kinski’s most murderous tirades are directed against Werner Herzog who somehow produced four avant grade classics with this madman.

While Kinski’s text is compulsive, CJ is sometimes uncertain with the German accent and, not surprisingly, falls short of his anti-hero’s lunatic intensity. He is however fully engaging as himself, when he occasionally steps forward to share his knowledge of Kinski. Indeed, true to the title, Kinski and I, CJ could have shared more on what he thought motivated Kinski, why he drew so many fans and women! - and was so special as an actor.

Instead, the records of sexual depravity roll on. They are interrupted only by actor Jess Bush who, as Kinski’s oldest daughter Pola, finally reveals her father’s long abuse of her.

Pola published her story just two years ago. This is confronting stuff but ultimately Johnson wins applause for bringing life to such an obsessive, demonic and true story.

Martin Portus

Zigzag Street

By Philip Dean, from the novel by Nick Earls. The Stirling Players. Stirling Community Theatre. Sep 25-Oct 10.

THERE are times for all of us when life is just plain character projection during The crappy, but for some people, fate seems to hold a Live personal Game at Melbourne Gang Show 2011. grudge. The current production for Adelaide’s Stirling Moonlight and Magnolias Players epitomises this in a bittersweet way.

By Ron Hutchinson. Ballina Players. Director: Fran Legge.

Zigzag Street is a comedy about Richard Derrington, a Players Theatre, Ballina. Sep 4 - 19. hapless 28-year-old who lives in his late grandmother’s MOONLIGHT and Magnolias refers to the house in Zigzag Street, Red Hill, and is seen by his best romanticisation of the southern states prior to the friend, others and even himself as the embodiment of American Civil War. someone to whom ‘shit’ always happens.

The play is set in the office of David O. Selznick (Peter Philip Dean’s adaptation of Nick Earls’ novel is an Harding). Filming on Gone With The Wind has been halted episodic play, made up of multiple short scenes. A play abruptly. Selznick has replaced the film’s writer and director structured in this way would be a difficult project for even a and has summoned newspaper writer Ben Hecht (Trevor seasoned director, but in her first directorial undertaking, Stone) along with director Victor Fleming (Mike Miriam Keane does well.

Sheehan) who, at the time, was filming The Wizard of Oz. Leading the cast, Lee Cook as Richard Derrington gives All three men are locked in Selznick’s office, as he demands an unflaggingly energetic, funny and often poignant a new script and vision for the project within a week. performance. An accomplished anchor for the show, his The only contact with the outside world is Selznick’s strip scene is hysterically funny. long-suffering secretary Miss Poppenghul (beautifully Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au

Stage Whispers 87

Danielle Carter and Sam O’Sullivan in My Zinc Bed. Photo: Clare Hawley.

addict who brings two children from different men to the relationship.

The scene is set for intense action in the “modernist corridors” of Victor’s House, brilliantly imagined by designer Tobhiyan Stone Feller and lit by Nicholas Higgins. In some of the best-designed scenes I’ve witnessed at the Ensemble, the action goes forward unexpectedly.

When Paul is tempted by Victor to resume his drinking, this releases a creative burst that forms a new book of poems. As sullen Paul, Sam O’Sullivan is nicely contained.

We feel his journey.

Sean Taylor is perfect as Paul, the communist-turnedinternet boss. His ringing voice asks all the pertinent questions: he seems to have everything in hand, every move covered.

Danielle Carter was born to play Elsa. Silkily attractive, she remains aloof and mysterious throughout, handling Hare’s often-opaque dialogue with aplomb.

The threesome had to return to the stage more often than they expected, such was the volume and intensity of the opening night applause.

Frank Hatherley

Patient 12

By Kevin Summers. The Bakery, 1812 Theatre (Vic). Oct 1 24 PATIENT 12 is not an easy play to perform or watch. A young WW1 soldier, with his face blown off, is in a Melbourne Repat hospital and is going to die. There is no way to identify him except for the initials tattooed on his portrayed by Jennifer Briguglio) and the occasional phone chest. The doctor tracks down a number of people who call. The only food permitted is bananas and peanuts. may be family and they all dutifully visit. Meanwhile a shellThe three males work well, bouncing off each other and shocked patient, Percy, insists this is his best mate Leo. the fast paced action never falters.

Matt Phillips (Patient 12) is terrific in the many As the story unfolds, frustration and fatigue takes its incarnations and interactions with those who seek to claim toll: Fran Legge has drilled her cast well and together they him; it’s a fine performance. Blake Stringer, as the shuffling, produce a memorable piece of theatre. stuttering, shell-shocked Percy is a revelation and it can’t be Although a relatively short piece, this production was an long before we see him on bigger stages. He is totally outstanding example of pure entertainment. convincing and heartbreaking. Playwright Kevin Summers Roger McKenzie was in the audience and stated that Blake could easily have played the role in the original professional production.

My Zinc Bed Danielle Payet (Alice) is a young actress of enormous

By David Hare. Ensemble Theatre, Sydney. Director: Mark potential.

Kilmurry. Oct 8 -Nov 22.

Dexter Bourke’s direction seemed to need more pace, THIS oddly titled play is about addiction, mainly to but that will also no doubt bed in. Nevertheless his work alcohol, but also sexual addiction to the boss’s wife. with the actors was crisp and assured and this is yet Exclude addiction from your life, it warns, and you might another success to add to 1812’s long list of fine dramas also exclude real intensity and passion. Directed with for the people in the hills. particular passion by Mark Kilmurry, this three-hander by Coral Drouyn David Hare delivers a handsome and unexpected punch.

When depressed Paul (Sam O’Sullivan) goes to interview Charley’s Aunt wealthy internet entrepreneur Victor (Sean Taylor) for a

By Brandon Thomas. The Popular Theatre Company. Civic newspaper his expectations are low. Instead of participating Playhouse, Newcastle. Sept 4 - 12. in an interview, a routine “as modern and contrived as an IT was easy to see while watching this delightful 18th century gavotte”, Victor has other ideas. Paul is a production why Charley’s Aunt ran for a record four years published poet, a member of Alcoholics Anonymous on the when it premiered in London in 1892 and continues to wagon for over a year, so would he like a job? draw big audiences worldwide.

Included in this mephistophelean pact is Elsa (Danielle Playwright Brandon Thomas astutely put elements of Carter), Victor’s younger Danish wife, a recovering drug melodrama, pantomime and farce into this comic tale of 88 Stage Whispers

Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au

Masterclass.

Photo: Clare Hawley.

two Oxford University undergraduates encountering problem after problem as they try to propose to the young women in their lives, with another student persuaded to dress as an aunt, whose arrival is delayed, to chaperone the couples at a lunch.

Director Victor Emeljanow, the actors and production team kept the laughs coming, with the dialogue and movements alike bringing out the humour.

James Coates and Drew Holmes were a joy as the would -be wooers, and Daniel Stoddart, dressed as the aunt, had the audience in uproars with his delivery of lines such as “What devils we women are”. Michael Smythe’s hissable villain, the selfish guardian of one of the girls, and Patrick Campbell, as another parent, a colonel, amusingly revealed how expert older men can be at wooing. And David Owens, as the unsmiling valet of one of the students, showed how entrances and exits through doors can bring out the laughs.

Claire Williams’ real aunt, who became an adept observer of the chaotic events when she arrived unexpectedly early and used an assumed name, and Gabriella Stevens, Chloe Perrett and Nicola Fraietta as the tale’s young women, were charmers.

Ken Longworth

and vulnerability of a girl who was too fat and not pretty enough. Played in (virtual) real time, one might be tempted to see the other characters as mere dressing for a onewoman show. One would be wrong!

Daniel Lammin has done a fine job with his actors/ singers…and assembled a marvelous cast for the job.

Cameron Thomas brings his versatile and excellent music skills to the role of accompanist Manny Weinstock, and is totally convincing as the quiet Jewish pianist. Georgia Wilkinson, as the first student to be decimated by Callas, is excellent as the nervous and uncertain Sophie de Palma, but it is her glorious voice, pitch perfect and with the purity of a crystal bell, that is transporting. Teresa Duddy is suitably brittle and confronting as Sharon Graham, the student who wants too much too soon, but there is a weakness in her upper register, which is telling in her aria.

Blake Bowden - as Tony Candolino, the vain, posing tenor has a tendency to play OTT with the mugging, but there’s no denying the lyrical beauty of his voice. And then there’s Maria Mercedes as Maria; and, although it is not a singing role, Mercedes gives us two bars of an aria in her full soprano and makes the heckles on the back of our necks stand up, so laden with passion and nuance is it. Callas and Mercedes were/are both great actresses; and while the Masterclass audience is always conscious that Callas is giving a

By Terence McNally. Left Bauer Productions. performance in Masterclass, we forget entirely that fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne. Sep 1 - 13.

Mercedes is - her Callas comes entirely from a place of MASTERCLASS is ostensibly a set piece for a star, but it’s truth, not acting. It is superb performance on all levels…a also a marvelous insight into the workings of a woman who Masterclass in itself. was an Icon (and knew it), but was filled with the doubt Coral Drouyn Longer versions of many reviews can now be found at www.stagewhispers.com.au

Stage Whispers 89

The Rabbits.

Photo: Toni Wilkinson.

Reviews: Opera

The Rabbits Composer Kate Miller-Heidke, librettist Lally Katz, adaptation (from the book by John Marsden and Shaun Tan) John Sheedy. Opera Australia and Barking Gecko coproduction in association with West Australian Opera.

Melbourne Festival. Arts Centre Playhouse. Oct 9 - 13.

THE Rabbits is a fabulous combination of the visual and the aural into a wholly original, entertaining, funny, frightening and moving spectacle. The brown marsupials inhabit the land. Then the white rabbits invade - or ‘colonise’ - the land. A familiar story - and yet The Rabbits proves the familiar can become new and more meaningful than you knew.

Much credit must go to the unique imagination of Shaun Tan. His ‘illustrations’ of John Marsden’s deceptively simple poetic text provide the inspiration for Gabriela Tylesova’s costumes. There are the bilby-like marsupials (Hollie Andrew, Jessica Hitchcock, Lisa Maza, Marcus Corowa and David Leha) with their curly tails and huge soft eyes. And there are the conquering white rabbits with their long ears and pointed ship’s prow chests: a Scientist (Kanen Breen), a Society Rabbit (Nicholas Jones), a Convict (Christopher Hillier), a Lieutenant (Simon Meadows) and The Captain (Robert Mitchell), each a clear exaggeration of the qualities they bring to a new land.

The libretto is by Lally Katz and there is opera-like grandiloquence, Gilbert & Sullivan pastiche, pop and blues, her lyrics matching Mr Marsden’s text in sophisticated simplicity. The composer is Kate Miller-Heidke, who 90 Stage Whispers

moves with ease between pop and opera, sometimes colouring the former with the latter. She too is part of the action as ‘Bird’, overseeing the unfolding story from the top of a tower. The musical styles, with additional music and arrangements by Iain Grandage, run together seamlessly. Musical Director Isaac Hayward pulls together a mere five musicians who play multiple instruments and occasionally join the action, looking like buskers or a mob that’s escaped a circus.

Overall credit and much praise must go, however, to director John Sheedy of Barking Gecko Theatre Company.

He pulled his well chosen collaborators together and drove the show’s development - all the time encouraged and aided by Lyndon Terracini of Opera Australia. It is a most accomplished music theatre show. It depicts some events that did happen in its own allegorical way and, if it is didactic, never have didactics been more thoroughly refreshed and sweetened by theatrical brilliance.

Michael Brindley Mary Stuart (Maria Stuarda)

By Gaetano Donizetti. Melbourne Opera. Director: Suzanne Chaundy. Musical Director: Richard Divall. The Athenaeum Theatre Melbourne, Sep 2 - 12 and Alexander Theatre, Sep 19.

MELBOURNE Opera’s Mary Stuart was a triumph and cast from singers with international experience. In the title role we had Elena Xanthoudakis, returning to her home town while pursuing a very successful career in

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Europe. She was a suitably strong yet vulnerable Queen, and met every vocal demand.

As her nemesis, Rosamund Illing presented an imperious Queen Elizabeth with strong vocals, who was a good foil for her younger rival. Henry Choo was in terrific voice as the Earl of Leicester, and Caroline Vercoe, Phillip Calcagno and Eddie Muliaumaseli’i all made the most of their considerable talents.

I attended the VSO production in 1975 with Nance Grant and June Bronhill and remember some brilliant singing, but an ordinary production. This was anything but, and is the major difference at Melbourne Opera in 2015. The Tudor Rose was a recurring theme on the floor and front curtain, and the arches at the side seemed to hover threateningly over the performers.

Even when the chorus was on stage, the small stage did not appear as crowded as it has in the past and the steps at the back gave extra levels to add interest. The direction was strong and the relationships between the characters well defined. The costumes, borrowed from Opera Australia, were gorgeous.

This was a very impressive production of a rarely heard opera.

Graham Ford The Grumpiest Boy in the World Victorian Opera. Director: Cameron Menzies. Conductor: Simon Bruckard. Malthouse Theatre. Oct 2 - 4.

VICTORIAN Opera does some amazing work. They appear to have many streams, all running concurrently.

This world premiere opera involved their Youth Opera performers.

All the performers were between fifteen and twentyfive and full of the exuberance of youth. They were also well drilled. The venue worked well, as younger members of the audience could observe the orchestra in the open pit as well as the action on stage.

The opera is about seven-year-old Zachary, who is very unhappy at being average. So he visits other lands and eventually finds that he does excel - at grumpiness!

Most parents could relate to this.

The stage was well-used, with flimsy curtains being drawn across as scenes changed. The music was pleasant, the orchestra fine and the ensemble harmony was strong and well-balanced. The costumes were colourful and over the top.

But I came away feeling less than satisfied, and I think that was the mis-casting of the title role. Jacob Lawrence is a very promising young tenor with quite a mature sound, but that is not what you want in a seven-year-old.

A lighter, brighter sound in a smaller body would have been much more convincing.

Most of the roles, and there were many, were well taken, and I was particularly impressed with Shakira Tsindos as the mother and Stephen Marsh as the first Grump.

This was an entertaining hour and the young members of the audience appeared enthralled.

Graham Ford

PERFORMING ARTS MAGAZINE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015. VOLUME 24, NUMBER 6 ABN 71 129 358 710 ISSN 1321 5965

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Stage Whispers 91

Musical Spice In my feature “Making Australian Musicals Great” (Page 16) I lamented the ‘low batting average’ for new locally written musicals being staged a second time, after going through *past government/philanthropic programs.

A brutal assessment might be that the musicals selected were the best on offer but simply not good enough.

Another reason might be that the subject matter for works selected for development has been less commercial, or literary, with darker themes.

There is always going to be a low success rate. There are many stories of famous flops on Broadway from the best credentialed of writers and producers. Most new musicals do not recover their investments.

Even so, these programs need to demonstrate that the work they help develop has an ongoing audience.

Australian written musicals with entertaining stories and accessible music can be very successful.

Musicals based on pre-written songs such as The Boy From Oz and Shout! The Legend of the Wild One do best.

Very commercial youth oriented jukebox musicals such as Back to the 80’s are performed all over the world every year.

But what of entirely original musicals?

Maverick Musicals boasts of the

Australian Musicals On Stage thousands of performances of Man of Steel since it was written in 1978.

Would a spoof about Superman have been selected for development by a past Government funded development program? It would probably be deemed not of ‘high enough quality’.

Here are some experiences from my theatrical agency.

Paris by Jon English and David Mackay - a musical based on the Trojan War - has had 25 seasons in four different countries. It had a production this year in Germany and will be staged next year in Warragul.

Beach Blanket Tempest by Dennis Watkins and Chris Harriott - a surf rock musical inspired by Shakespeare - had half a dozen productions in the first year it was released.

Boy’s Own McBeth by Grahame Bond - a musical comedy set in a school - will be revived again next year.

The three musicals listed above have international themes, accessible music and none received any development grant.

What about Australian musicals based on local stories?

Sadly the more distinctively ‘Australian’ the subject matter, the

harder it is to get amateur theatres and schools excited about them.

Keating the Musical toured Australia for two years but has only been produced five times since then (happily twice this year, including one in Thirroul, NSW, in November).

Whilst Shane Warne the Musical by Eddie Perfect has great music, comedy and the potential to bring in a new audience - the cricketer is not popular (yet) amongst music theatre types.

Let’s hope the batting average for Australian musicals improves in the years ahead.

(I have been careful to critique past programs. The new incarnation of New Musicals Australia will have its first work staged at the Hayes Theatre next year.)

David Spicer

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