Etta James’ sassy soul anthem Tell Mama may reassure listeners to ‘tell mamma about it’, but when Vika Bull begins Act One of the smash hit show At Last: The Etta James Story with the funky, high-spirited number, it is the audience who has desire to hear more. Bull’s love for James is clear and…
Unbridled ambition gets a thorough workout in Gloria. This Pulitzer Prize-nominated drama from American playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is one of four MTC Australian premieres this season. Set in the offices of a prestigious Manhattan magazine, the play is a contemporary satire. The day-to-day drudgery is particularly wearing on a small group of editorial assistants. They…
Worst Little Warehouse is a funny, risqué and frenzied ode to housemates. Based on a true story, the cabaret’s inspiration was what happened to real-life couple – writer/performers Lala Barlow and Robbie Smith – while living in a converted warehouse in North London. Struggling with exorbitant rents and the city’s ongoing housing crisis, the pair…
Doesn’t matter whether you’re a ballet aficionado or novice, when one of the world’s most acclaimed ballet companies deliver the strength, beauty and purity of the timeless Swan Lake. The touring members of The St Petersburg Ballet Theatre – founded in 1994 – are on pointe from the get-go and don’t let up. You should…
Twenty new shows feature in the 9th annual Melbourne Cabaret Festival. Under the artistic direction of Dolly Diamond (for the second consecutive year), the festival is on right now at Chapel off Chapel, and runs until 1 July. Note that each show has only a small number of performances. The festival includes musical acts straddling…
George Bernard Shaw wrote Saint Joan, in 1923, six scenes and an epilogue. Imara Savage, the Director of this production, has ambitiously taken many liberties with the original text. This Sydney Theatre Company production of Saint Joan occupies the stage for one hour and forty-five minutes, straight through, without an interval. A great deal of…
The triumphant triple bill 4 Seasons won rapturous applause at its opening in Brisbane. A mix of dancers and choreographers from Hong Kong and Brisbane combine to create three performances intertwined by the title and yet so totally different in delivery. There were 20 dancers, six from Expressions Dance Company and 14 from Hong Kong…
Darwin is sweltering and it’s raining cats and dogs. Ruben’s (Dion Williams) life is in the toilet. A court has sentenced him to attend counselling after he hit a cop, but he isn’t willing to play ball and he makes his situation worse. He’s full of resentment, struggling to cope with his brother Joe’s death, for which…
I long to see whatever Joanna Murray-Smith generates (and her output is prolific) … with very good reason. Her writing is pithy and pointed, insightful and invigorating. The shocking and dynamic Fury is a case in point. Salt is rubbed into raw wounds and new scars created in this “take no prisoners” drama about cultural…
The letter i is the square root of -1, which cannot occur; it is impossible, not because it doesn’t exist as much as because it makes no sense. It is a metaphor, perhaps for theatre, but even more so for experience of The Mathematics of Longing, a co-production between La Boite, The Farm and The…
