Curtain Call: The Hits of Broadway, at The MC Showroom – concert review
Powerhouse performances and an electrifying vibe. That is the essence of a cavalcade of hits…
Morning Melodies – Orchestra Victoria with Caroline O’Connor: Music and Me at Hamer Hall – concert review
Caroline O’Connor is a living treasure – so gifted, so natural, so personable and so, so good. She sings with power, passion and precision. She dances, she acts and can she weave compelling stories! This is a musical theatre performer extraordinaire who has made it big on the world stage. And those who attended Morning…
Grey Gardens (Clovelly Fox), at fortyfivedownstairs – musical theatre review
It was the print media that exposed the tale of two reclusive, idiosyncratic, upper-class women – a mother and daughter – in the early 1970s. That was when an article in the National Enquirer and a cover story in New York Magazine shone a light on the pair’s living conditions. Home for them was a…
Curtain Call: The Hits of Broadway, at The MC Showroom – concert review
Powerhouse performances and an electrifying vibe. That is the essence of a cavalcade of hits from Broadway musicals brought to the Melbourne stage by Sam Steven Productions. Vocalists Hannah Underwood, Sylvia Kokkinas, Andrew Vassett and Craig Lough join a talented four-piece band to figuratively lift the roof off The MC Showroom. While many of the…
Rabbit & Watson, at Northcote Town Hall – theatre review
Innovative and highly creative, east meets west in playwright Shane Woon’s love story about Chinese gods and AFL football. The Rabbit in the title is the Rabbit God Tu’er Shen (played by Sean Yuen Halley), the patron saint of queer people. Watson (Anton Pan-Cassin) is a budding AFL player, at age 22 on his last…
Pride & Prejudice (Queensland Theatre), at Playhouse – theatre review
The appetite for Jane Austen adaptations seems to be relentless. Of course, Pride and Prejudice is one of the evergreen favourites for many Austen fans, with several film, TV and stage adaptations having been produced over the years. Queensland Theatre had a sell-out season of their joyous, Matilda Award-winning production last year (the 250th anniversary…
Pretty Woman: The Musical, at the Regent Theatre – musical theatre review
There is so much joy in Pretty Woman: The Musical. I adore what the collaborators have done with the beloved story of the Hollywood sex worker and the wealthy businessman. It is based on the 1990 feel good romance, written by J. F. Lawton and directed by Garry Marshall, starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere….
Heartbreak Hotel, at Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne – theatre review
Breaking up is hard to do. So it goes, as Karin McCracken and Simon Leary put on a most entertaining sketch comedy show, peppered with science and some musical numbers. In so doing, they unpack the angst associated with broken relationships. In character, she struggles big time to put the past in the past. It…
The Odyssey (M) – 172 minutes – movie review
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is an epic retelling of one of the oldest surviving works of ancient Greek literature. Homer composed the poem Odyssey in the 8th or 7th centuries BC. It concerns the exploits of the king of Ithaca, Odysseus (Matt Damon), as he attempts to make his way home many years after the…
Bring It On!, The Musical (theatrical.), at the National Theatre – musical theatre review
Lively, colourful and energetic, Bring It On!, The Musical focuses on the competitive world of cheerleading. Debuting in the US in 2011, the Tony award nominated musical was inspired by the 2000 film of the same name, written by Jessica Bendinger and starring Kirsten Dunst. The music is by Tom Kitt and Lin-Manuel Miranda, lyrics…
Árru (part of the Nordic Film Festival) – 95 minutes – movie review
Beautifully shot in Sápmi, the traditional homeland of the Sámi, the indigenous people of the Arctic, Árru is a slow burn, intense drama about deeply buried trauma. It concerns a family of reindeer herders whose ancestral land and livelihood is being threatened by a copper mining project. Single mother Maia (Sara Marielle Gaup Beaska) and…
