Froth and bubble, Legally Blonde: The Musical remains a fun-filled romp and genuine crowd pleaser … more than a decade after it opened on Broadway and was nominated for seven Tony Awards. A spirited 20-strong cast and 14 talented musos bring to life the story of a vacuous blonde who comes into her own once…
State-sanctioned lies underpin the political thriller Official Secrets. The lies cost as many as a million lives. The US and the UK were looking to justify starting a war in Iraq; with or without the backing of the UN (which wasn’t forthcoming). They do so on the pretense that the Iraqis have weapons of mass…
Some of the most intoxicating circus acts I have had the good fortune to see are among the highlights of Santa’s Magical Kingdom, which has reappeared in Melbourne in the lead up to the festive season for an eighth time. The word “wow” doesn’t do them justice – they are that good. The experience is…
Dream$ong may not be Hillsong, but this sure feels like a parody of that church, founded in Sydney’s western suburbs in 1983. Everything is exaggerated for the sake of comic appeal … and it works. The pastor, Richard Sunday (Nelson Gardner), is a slime ball who saw his first wife off in a catastrophic sky…
Creativity abounds in The Drill, which is unlike anything I have seen – a combination of circus arts and interactive experiences. We’re in the midst of WWI and campaigners for peace are adamant they want politicians to listen to their pleas. A rally is planned and a petition for an end to the war is…
In 1986 a science fiction movie called Short Circuit introduced us to a robot called Number Five, which became sentient and hence one of its expressions was “Five Alive”. I was reminded of that when I saw the new Australian musical Electric Dreams, which was actually inspired by another movie, which carries the same name….
A cleverly conceived and executed song cycle about the vicissitudes of life, Songs of the Northern River features six talented women who weave 12 graphic melodic tales. Some are harrowing, others amusing. They deal with pain, cruelty, kindness and achievement. Book, music and lyrics are by Alex J. Ridefelt. First up, a long-term worker has…
As they say, only lawyers benefit from divorce proceedings. That rings true in Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story. Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) and Charlie (Adam Driver) have been married for a decade. They live and work in New York. She’s an actress originally from Los Angeles. She met Charlie when she travelled to New York as a…
A compelling and dramatic storyline and evocative score are matched by a series of stellar performances in MTC’s musical Kiss of the Spider Woman. The plot concerns the extraction of information through brutalisation and humiliation of prisoners held in an Argentine jail. More specifically, it involves the relationship between window dresser Molina (Ainsley Melham) and…
A compelling and dramatic storyline and evocative score are matched by a series of stellar performances in MTC’s musical Kiss of the Spider Woman. The plot concerns the extraction of information through brutalisation and humiliation of prisoners held in an Argentine jail. More specifically, it involves the relationship between window dresser Molina (Ainsley Melham) and Marxist…
