Guys & Dolls (Opera Australia’s Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour) – musical theatre review
Seventy-five years on, Guys & Dolls continues to charm and delight. The Handa Opera production…
One Man Musical (Arts Centre Melbourne) – musical theatre review
A horrendous sound mix – it was too loud and distorting – ruined what could have been one of the best shows at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. More is the pity, because the star of the piece is clever, highly creative, funny and musically dexetrous, and the fix would have been so damn easy….
Snow White – movie review
With charming characters and impressive special effects, the reimagined Snow White is delightful. The original 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, helped established Disney as an animation powerhouse. Based on the classic fairy tale by The Brothers Grimm, the movie introduced the iconic characters of Snow White, the Evil Queen and the…
Oh, Canada – movie review
Oh, Canada is a confessional … a reckoning for a dying man. Writer and director Paul Schrader collaborated with actor Richard Gere 45 years ago on American Gigolo and it has taken them this long to reunite. Gere plays feted Canadian documentary filmmaker Leonard Fife at the end of his life, while Jacob Elordi is…
Gillian Cosgriff: Fresh New Worries (Arts Centre Melbourne) – theatre review
As her show reveals, Gillian Cosgriff is a born worrier who Googles just about everything. But, of course, she is not the only stress head, which makes her immediately relatable. Before we enter The Show Room at Arts Centre Melbourne, we are invited to note what we are worried about on a small slip of…
Geraldine Hickey: Meander (Arts Centre Melbourne) – theatre review
There is nothing comedian Geraldine Hickey likes more to clear her mind than a bit of a wander – a walk or a run – or so she tells us. Against a backdrop of six bush panels, that reminded me of Frederick McCubbin paintings, she opens up about some of her experiences. She starts by…
Calamity Jane (Queensland Theatre) – musical theatre review
Folks of any age are likely to know the evergreen movie with Doris Day, from which this stage version was adapted. The name Calamity Jane is synonymous with Day’s iconic performance as the woman from the wild west who was as tough as any fella and prided herself on not having any of the traditional…
Luke McGregor: Okay, Wow (Melbourne International Comedy Festival) – comedy review
He’s quick-witted, natural, easy going and self-deprecating. He’s playful and he’s funny. Luke McGregor speaks openly about his autism, his looks, his marriage and his children. After thanking everyone for coming several times, he tells us that he arrived at the theatre late because he feared he had left the iron on … only to…
A Working Man – movie review
I cringe when I have to say this, but here is another one man against the world movie. Think quiet assassin. Action heroes like Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Liam Neeson, Keanu Reeves and Jason Statham all do it. I speak of taking out hordes of adversaries on their own, while living to tell the tale….
Guys & Dolls (Opera Australia’s Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour) – musical theatre review
Seventy-five years on, Guys & Dolls continues to charm and delight. The Handa Opera production on Sydney Harbour is polished, memorable and so much fun. I attended on a fine, still night and it was a privilege to be in the audience. There was a sense of the magical about the evening. Specifically in that…
Picnic at Hanging Rock (Sydney Theatre Company) – theatre review
Is the rock a portal to other worlds, the conduit for transformative magic, which allows people to simply disappear? These are questions raised in playwright Tom Wright’s adaptation of Joan Lindsay’s classic 1967 Australian novel, which spawned Peter Weir’s 1975 film. As Lindsay originally intended in her book, the theatre production raises important questions about…
