This colourful but corny reboot of the iconic Charlie’s Angels TV series has been kicked up a gear for a contemporary audience. It retains the basics of the original, but has a whole lot more attitude. Charlie’s Angels was a huge hit when it first aired on TV in 1976. It lasted five seasons and…
Or, Living With Your Self. Netflix’s new dramedy starring Paul Rudd is a small masterpiece about the petty cruelties of everyday life. And while some might expect more from its high-concept premise, the show’s quotidian concerns offer enough to make it worth sticking with. Miles Elliot (Rudd) is stuck in a rut. His job in…
Katherine Kovacic’s Alex Clayton series (all two books of them so far…) could be used as a teaching tool for aspiring Australian crime novelists on achieving balance between personal backstory and plot, and how to craft a realistic strong female lead character, because they are both extremely good examples of that and much more. There’s…
One attends The Underpants with some trepidation. The title alone could be a turnoff for some as it’s not a garment widely discussed in finer circles. But then you discover the masterful Hollywood comic Steve Martin has adapted and etched his own style of wit into a German play from early last century called Die Hose, written…
With its preposterous storyline, Tales of Hoffmann Ooh La La is an energetic mix of opera contemporised with modern references mashed with popular tunes … and it’s a beauty. Full of colour, drama and skulduggery, above all this Parisian jazz burlesque interpretation of Jacques Offenbach’s opera, which premiered in France in 1881, is fun. When…
In the tradition of Mafia movies like The Godfather (1972) and Goodfellas (1990) comes The Irishman. This tale is set around the fortunes of one man rising through the ranks of the organisation. And while the action centres on him, much of the plot concerns the fate of powerful Teamsters’ union boss Jimmy Hoffa. World…
Talk about a force of nature taking to a stage and theatrical space and making it her own. Meow Meow does so and how! She is a consummate performer with a golden voice and a smart mouth. First up a couple of musos run across the stage in shiny gold jackets and bright orange plastic…
Men treat women badly. Indigenous Australians are often unfairly targeted. Not all men. Not all indigenous Australians. Enough though to call it out … still, regardless of all that has been said and written about these subjects. She is Vigilante deals with these issues, with strength and purpose … with drama, pathos and humour. Seven…
Even before the QPAC curtain raises on Chicago, its experience is evocative, with a black derby hanging on the back of a black downstage chair, as signpost to the show’s indelible choreographic style and Fosse-esque attention-to-detail. The story of murder, greed, corruption, violence, exploitation, adultery and treachery (as its opening lines impart) is set in…
In Emu Runner, nine-year old Gemma (played by newcomer Rhae-Kye Waites) is a Ngemba aboriginal girl growing up in the NSW town of Brewarrina, some 800 kms north of Sydney. She is devastated when her mother dies during a fishing expedition to the local river. Gemma’s father Jay Jay (Wayne Blair, a filmmaker in his…
