Puttin’ on the Ritz is an all-singing, all-dancing affair with the occasional spoken interlude. Six vocalists and 10 dancers from London’s West End take us back to the Golden Age of Hollywood for a couple of hours. We’re talking about music from names such as Fred Astaire, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Al Jolson…
Wild Rose asks whether personal ambition should take a back seat to more immediate responsibilities. This feel-good story about a country music singer in the making features a stellar performance by Jessie Buckley in the lead role. In her early twenties, Rose-Lynn (Buckley) – single and with two kids under 9 – has just spent…
Men in Black: International is a disappointing resurrection of the franchise. Some elements of Men in Black I first fell in love with remain. But it features an overly convoluted storyline and too many awkward attempts at humour. It’s hard to believe that Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones kicked off the series in 1997….
Mayhem abounds in Travesties. Set in Zurich in 1917, the play follows a British consular official, Henry Carr, who locks horns with a Dadaist, Tristan Tzara. Dadaism is an artistic movement that started around the First World War, meant to ridicule the meaninglessness of the modern world. Carr also falls for Cecily, a librarian with…
Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti is a good-natured and lively affair with mistaken identities at its core. Emotionworks – the brainchild of former Opera Australia principal and before that a jazz musician and singer Julie Edwardson – presents opera shortened and performed in English mashed with contemporary music, all of which follows a theme. Edwardson’s aim…
A driven, high achieving woman melts down when two relationships go awry in Drive. Writer Rebecca Meston was inspired by the true story of former NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak. You might remember Nowak as the person who drove non-stop for 14 hours to confront her ex-lover’s new partner. Wearing a disguise, she also a knife,…
If you want a profound understanding of what inspired JRR Tolkien to write The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, you should look elsewhere. While Tolkien gives some insights into his creative mind when it comes to whole new languages, it’s essentially a tale of heartache and love. It unfolds as a dramatic and…
In Escaped Alone, society as we know it has fallen apart. Survivors are few. Four older women who are among the lucky ones reflect on times past over several summers … as the years run into one another. Vi (Margaret Mills) went to jail for six years after killing her husband. Sally (Caroline Lee) has…
My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) this isn’t. I found the absurdist My Big Gay Italian Wedding an embarrassment. Based on a long running off-Broadway play by Anthony J. Wilkinson, co-writer and director Alessandro Genovesi tells the story of a troubled trip to the altar. When Antonio (Cristiano Caccamo) pops the question to his boyfriend…
The restlessness and angst of millennials is on show in Disparate Scenes for Millennial Dreams. The show consists of three one-act plays in three rooms at the same venue, held together by a couple apparently arguing over performance art. I say apparently because frankly much of it was so obtuse I had no idea what…
