The dark storyline in Saturday Night Fever is a sharp contrast to the detail and stunning clarity in the video design and lighting, which are mainstays of this production. Based on the 1977 film starring John Travolta and featuring the Bee Gee’s soundtrack, the jukebox musical set in Brooklyn concerns youth and ambition. It was…
From the trailer, you’d think No Hard Feelings was another Judd Apatow-movie clone full of raunchy comedy. But director Gene Stupnitsky and his writing partner John Phillips obviously didn’t get the memo. Because they’re crafted a slyly intelligent comedy with some actual heart. Stupnitsky’s most recent feature film was Good Boys (2019), which hit a…
Eighteen dynamos of dance and drums dazzle and delight at Arts Centre Melbourne. They are truly mesmerising in an energetic display of artistic brilliance. Let me set the scene. The curtain goes up to reveal two tiers. At ground level are nine dancers seated, ostensibly dressed in white with black highlights and taupe-coloured socks. Behind them, on a higher plane,…
The popular Agatha Christie play The Mousetrap has been a constant tourist drawcard in London since it was first performed in 1952, meaning that perhaps the whodunit’s biggest mystery is how the show is not outdated. Australian audiences can determine this for themselves in the latest on-tour production of the West End version of the…
On the 12th Eels album in 22 years, principal singer/songwriter Mark Oliver Everett, known as E, continues a long and lengthy practice of deconstructing the major myths of the American Dream, and the myths and fables of romance, capitalism and the pursuit of personal meaning. Deconstruction, according to Merriam-Webster, is “a philosophical or critical method…
Bob Dylan is his own man, someone who has forged his own path in music, not restricted by convention. A Complete Unknown focuses on what he did and how he did it between 1961 to 1965. Arriving unannounced, with guitar in hand, as a 19-year-old, Dylan seeks out the legendary Woody Guthrie, who is in…
Queensland Theatre has played it safe with the original two-person cast of Georgie Parker and Glenn Hazeldine back for a re-run of David Williamson’s 2010 hit play, Rhinestone Rex and Miss Monica. First staged at the Sydney’s Ensemble Theatre, the production returns with original director Mark Kilmurry, designer Veronique Bennett and composer and sound designer…
Let’s clear up the most obvious question about Better Man, so I can get on with talking about the film. Yes, Robbie Williams’ biopic sees the pop star portrayed as a CGI monkey and that is because he always saw himself as a little less evolved than others. While you obviously do a double take…
Harry Potter is casting a spell over Melbourne anew, as well it deserves to. How fitting, as speculation mounts about expanding the eight film Potter series, the last of which was released in 2011. As the saying goes, there is a lot of love in the room for this production at the Princess Theatre. You can readily…
Like the original that was released in 2014, the storyline of Bad Neighbours 2 is thin but the crude language and sight gags are plentiful, with the centerpiece again being Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne, along with Zac Efron. Direction is once more from Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall). The tone is set from the…
