Rosie is a 20-something year old florist shop owner and party girl for whom life has its challenges. She and her Irish best friend Cara are inseparable. They have been ever since they met in Year 8. But, of late, it has been all work and little play for Cara, due to a job upgrade. Rosie has just…
Succinctly put, intriguing. “What if I said I am not what you think you see? I am the wolf.” These are among the first words spoken in this remarkable drama by South Korean playwright Hansol Jung. She was inspired to write Wolf Play after reading a news article about Facebook and Yahoo groups used by some parents…
Three disaffected young men are at the centre of punk rock band Green Day’s rock opera American Idiot. The story is expanded from its album of the same name, (released in 2004) and also features music from its 2009 album 21st Century Breakdown. The band – formed in 1986 by lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong and…
We are in Paris in 1899. Take the best actor in the world, in this case a middle-aged woman with a particularly healthy ego that is constantly being stoked. Her last stage role was a critical success but failed to sell tickets. This is a woman who doesn’t hold back – who always speaks her mind. She spends what…
A riotously fun, thoroughly entertaining musical for our new, enlightened times, & Juliet picks up Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet where it ended and kicks it up a gear. It does so after the Bard himself (Rob Mills) is challenged by his wife Anne Hathaway (Amy Lehpamer), who has suffered as second fiddle to his writing for…
What a phenomenal piece of writing by Andrew Bovell (who wrote the powerful Australian film Lantana, which debuted in 2001). When the Rain Stops Falling is a magnificently rendered, complex work that continually shocks and surprises. Its drip feed narrative comes together to form a most disturbing picture. It is only when the full truth outs that you…
I am faced with a predicament that I can’t say I have confronted too many times after a few decades of reviewing. I have just seen a compelling piece of theatre, which I am about to highly recommend, but I will resist going into detail about the plot. I choose not to do so because of political…
Relationship often start with sizzle and succumb to pressure and misalignment between parties. Lion Heart Dance Company has cleverly captured that with movement and song. Don’t Go is characterised by star turns from principals Jemma Craig and Andrew J Liu. They are dynamic leads. As the saying goes, the “lovers” are “all over each other” at…
Very few stage productions can boast superlatives like Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (‘Joseph’), now on at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre. From start to finish, this production is magnificent musically, colourful in its presentation, engaging in its staging and outstanding in its efficaciousness. First presented by Andrew-Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice in 1968, Joseph loosely follows…
Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap opened in London’s West End on 25th November 1952 and has been running continuously (save for the COVID lockdown) ever since. It is fast approaching 30,000 performances, making it by far the longest running show (of any type) in the modern era. The play is also known for its twist ending – the audience asked…
