Oh, Canada is a confessional … a reckoning for a dying man. Writer and director Paul Schrader collaborated with actor Richard Gere 45 years ago on American Gigolo and it has taken them this long to reunite. Gere plays feted Canadian documentary filmmaker Leonard Fife at the end of his life, while Jacob Elordi is…
As her show reveals, Gillian Cosgriff is a born worrier who Googles just about everything. But, of course, she is not the only stress head, which makes her immediately relatable. Before we enter The Show Room at Arts Centre Melbourne, we are invited to note what we are worried about on a small slip of…
There is nothing comedian Geraldine Hickey likes more to clear her mind than a bit of a wander – a walk or a run – or so she tells us. Against a backdrop of six bush panels, that reminded me of Frederick McCubbin paintings, she opens up about some of her experiences. She starts by…
Folks of any age are likely to know the evergreen movie with Doris Day, from which this stage version was adapted. The name Calamity Jane is synonymous with Day’s iconic performance as the woman from the wild west who was as tough as any fella and prided herself on not having any of the traditional…
He’s quick-witted, natural, easy going and self-deprecating. He’s playful and he’s funny. Luke McGregor speaks openly about his autism, his looks, his marriage and his children. After thanking everyone for coming several times, he tells us that he arrived at the theatre late because he feared he had left the iron on … only to…
I cringe when I have to say this, but here is another one man against the world movie. Think quiet assassin. Action heroes like Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Liam Neeson, Keanu Reeves and Jason Statham all do it. I speak of taking out hordes of adversaries on their own, while living to tell the tale….
Seventy-five years on, Guys & Dolls continues to charm and delight. The Handa Opera production on Sydney Harbour is polished, memorable and so much fun. I attended on a fine, still night and it was a privilege to be in the audience. There was a sense of the magical about the evening. Specifically in that…
Is the rock a portal to other worlds, the conduit for transformative magic, which allows people to simply disappear? These are questions raised in playwright Tom Wright’s adaptation of Joan Lindsay’s classic 1967 Australian novel, which spawned Peter Weir’s 1975 film. As Lindsay originally intended in her book, the theatre production raises important questions about…
What a powerhouse of a show this is. The music, the moves and magnitude of it all were certainly not lost on me. The setting is the rehearsal room in the lead up to Michael Jackson’s Dangerous world tour, which kicked off in June 1992 and finished in November 1993. Michael Jackson (Ilario Grant), ever…
Twenty-one-year-old Leo Joseph-Connell (Shiv Palekar) values his independence. He’s fallen out with his mother Jane and is on a cross-country bike trip. The family hasn’t heard from him in weeks and they are worried. Leo lands on the doorstep of his 91-year-old grandmother Vera Joseph’s (Nancye Hayes) apartment in Greenwich Village, dirty and smelly. He’s…
