A couple of fraught relationships and bygone days are at the heart of Stephen Sondheim’s pointed Tony Award-winning musical, Follies. Each year, between the world wars, Dimitri Weismann (Grant Piro) used to stage Follies, which featured beautiful chorus girls, in a Broadway theatre. It is now 1971. The theatre is in disrepair and facing demolition…
Life hasn’t turned out the way 42-year-old Liverpool housewife Shirley Valentine had envisaged. Married with two adult children – a boy and a girl – routine and boredom see her literally speaking to the wall for company and imbibing in more than the odd tipple. Her husband Joe (who we never get to meet) takes…
Writer and performer Frankie van kan came from a liberal family and, for the most part, was comfortable in her own skin. Now she pulls back the curtain to reveal her life as a stripper and sex worker … and she doesn’t hold back. In fact, Frankie is bold and bodacious, and we – the…
When I first saw 37 almost a year ago, I was suitably impressed by the authenticity, grit, vitriol and humour involved in the production. In fact, it was another MTC triumph. With only one cast change, the second helping is just as satisfying. It gets to the essence of why football is much more than…
A moving tale of rehabilitation, featuring many convicted criminals playing themselves, it is based on a theatre group at the notorious Sing Sing prison. Sing Sing is a maximum-security jail for men, some 50 kilometres north of midtown Manhattan, in New York City. The central character is John “Divine G” Whitfield (Colman Domingo), a foundation…
So far over the top, but fun, Flight Risk is a guilty pleasure. It is all about carrying a government witness across hostile terrain to testify against a mob boss when everything that could possibly go wrong does. Madolyn Harris (Michelle Dockery) is a Deputy U.S. Marshal. She is tasked with escorting crooked, scared, chatterbox…
Stunning. A masterpiece. The Brutalist is a richly woven tale of pain and perseverance. It is the film of the year that, at the very least, deserves the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor. Three hours 35 minutes, including a 15-minute intermission (with a countdown clock built into the movie one hour…
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…
Magicians, comedians and crowd pleasers extraordinaire with the Midas touch … and they have been doing it for 50 years. Oh my! In a nutshell, the statuesque and demonstrative Penn Jillet with the sharp patter and the diminutive, usually silent Teller are magnificent entertainers. From humble beginnings in the 1970s to becoming the longest-running resident…
We Live in Time may well be renamed The Cruel Price of Love, for this is a bittersweet romance, featuring striking performances. Set in London, Almut (Florence Pugh) is a 34-year-old master chef, highly dedicated to her profession. She used to be a champion figure skater. In short, Almut is not afraid to speak her…
