The subject matter might be stomach churning, but its entertainment and engagement value certainly is not. Soundworks Productions’ Sweeney Todd is triumphant thanks to strong performances, astute direction and compelling staging. If you have never seen Sweeney Todd before, I dare say that having done so you will never look at meat pies quite the…
I fell big time for the two leads in James Terry Collective’s production of Disney’s High School Musical On Stage! Their chemistry is unmistakable. Individually and collectively Sophia Kouknas and Gabriel Tiller’s vocalisation is pure, strong, melodic and engaging. They harmonise magnificently. They play Gabriella Montez and Troy Bolton, who meet on New Year’s Eve…
Change of life never looked as good as it does on stage in the hilarious musical Menopause. It mashes four strong artistes, delivering power packed vocals on familiar, up-tempo tunes, cleverly reworded, with slick choreography. Add in colourful lighting, striking sound, easy to navigate staging with smooth transitions between scenes and evocative costuming and you…
Did you know that the first recorded women’s cricket match in Australia took place at the Bendigo Easter Fair on 7th April, 1874? It was a charity event organised between two teams of 11 players – labelled the Blues and the Reds – by 19-year-old schoolteacher Barbara Rae. Her father, John, was headmaster of Rae’s…
A superb showcase of future musical talent, Patrick School of the Arts’ presentation of Carrie: The Musical is a beauty. There are so many talented performers in the 18 strong cast, all drawn from third year musical theatre students at the school. Based on Stephen King’s debut novel, integrating elements of the 1976 supernatural horror…
Bold and bawdy, provocateur extraordinaire Moira Finucane has been turning heads with her fierce brand of variety for 30 years. To mark the auspicious occasion, she is back with a new offering, marking the reopening of Luna Park’s iconic Luna Palace. Think music – popular, mellow and operatic – dance and striptease. I speak of…
Show Boat (1927) was probably the starting point for what is known as the Golden Age of Broadway. That was when the narrative and the music in musicals first came together cohesively. But it took a further decade for that style of show to really take off. I speak of song and dance integrated into…
Imagine turning a break-in at the British Museum in London into a compelling rock musical. Well – it has happened. And, I am not just talking about any run of the mill heist either. Rather, it is about stealing back stuff that didn’t belong there in the first instance. So it is that Artefact (or,…
Imagine making an occult-driven musical from the misfortune of a group of high school children losing their lives in a tragic Big Dipper incident. Your first reaction would surely be how dreadfully inappropriate, downright maudlin and an act of moral turpitude. And yet that is what Canadian writers and composers Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell…
With the reason only revealed late in the piece, global superstar Neil Diamond is presented as a tortured soul in the superbly written, directed and produced musical A Beautiful Noise. Aggressive and recalcitrant, an older Diamond (played by Terence Crawford) is in therapy, pushed to undertake soul searching by his third wife, Katie. Incidentally, while…
