The price of fame drives one of the most intense and remarkable films of the year. The Substance is about physical beauty, adoration, self-love and loathing. It explores the lengths someone will go to remain relevant. Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) used to be a movie star, before transitioning to hosting a successful workout show on…
What you read into and see in dance is very much about interpretation. Here is a piece where the mood is constantly shifting. What starts out as beautiful, gentle, caring and nurturing, turns into something frenetic and disturbing. So, what is at play? Why do we transition from calm to calamitous? Needs, wants and desires…
If you are after something that is mighty special, you shouldn’t go past Melbourne Opera’s stunning rendition of La Bohème. It is simply sensational. The story. The music. The voices. The realisation. It is so lively and emotional. It is cheeky and sexy and fraught. Giacomo Puccini composed the opera in four acts between 1893…
In the same way that Spider-Man transposed from live action back to animation so successfully, now Transformers has done the same. Transformers One is a high-octane adventure with umpteen twists and turns, and extremely well-realised. I’d also like to think that as with Spider-Man, the same will be the case for Transformers moving forward. This…
Stirring solos, captivating duets and soaring ensemble numbers are the hallmarks of a stunning world premiere concert production of an age-old story. The work, which is based around the tale of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, has been a labour of love for composer and librettist Samuel Kristy. With original orchestrations by Hamish Ander, under…
Survival is at stake when three young men find themselves lost in the middle of the ocean with no food and very little water and no way back to dry land. When they set off in Isaac’s 81-year-old grandfather’s small fishing boat, his grandad was with them, but now he is nowhere to be seen….
Outstanding performances distinguish an extraordinarily insightful, Pulitzer Prize-winning script about the human condition in Cost of Living. Unfolding with heart, humour and pathos, it is a bravura production in every regard – simply stunning. Eddie (Aaron Pedersen) is lonely and desperately missing his wife Ani (Rachel Edmonds) who has passed away. A former truck driver…
The cutthroat razor is sharpened and ready for the kill in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Forty-five years on, the musical thriller set in 19th century England retains its bite. It is a tale of murder, vengeance, cannibalism and entrepreneurial spirit. Benjamin Barker has been framed and is exiled to a penal…
A demonic-looking James McAvoy stars as a manipulative monster in the psychological horror-thriller Speak No Evil. An American family meets and befriends a British family while holidaying in Italy. Soon the Americans are invited to spend a weekend at the seemingly idyllic country estate of the Brits. What starts out with promise ends up as…
How very exciting for The Australian Ballet to be presenting the world premiere of a new full-length ballet … and it is spectacular. Oscar is based on the life and writings of acclaimed Irish poet, playwright and satirist Oscar Wilde (16thOctober, 1854 – 30th November, 1990). The work of Tony Award-winning choreographer Christopher Wheeldon (known…
