As you enter the theatre, all you can see is a steel-framed bed with a thin mattress and blanket. To the left is an old wooden chair; with an army-issued flask and food container, a pair of worn boots. Think the World War I. At nearly 18 years of age, Private Thomas “Tommo” Peaceful –…
The expression Hail Mary refers to a last-ditch attempt at an unlikely outcome. And so it is that Project Hail Mary is about a desperate effort to save planet Earth from a destructive force. The sun is dying and with it half the world’s population is expected to be wiped out within 30 years. The…
Good People, by David Lindsay-Abaire was first performed in 2013 for the Manhattan Theatre Club, at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, on Broadway, New York and was awarded the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, The Horton Foote Prize, The Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award, and two Tony nominations. It follows…
Three outlandish, revelatory stories told to an unseen voice, who pushes those in the proverbial hot seat to go on, to say more. At first these tall tales appear unrelated and yet, as more and more is revealed, the threads start to weave together. They intersect and congeal. The yarns capture our attention and imagination…
I like a good spy movie; but The Spy Who Dumped Me isn’t a great spy movie. It is however a decent comedy exploring the dynamics of female bonding, and that makes it worth seeing. Director Susanna Fogel and her writing partner David Iserson have crafted a rollicking tale that taps into (without ever subverting)…
Before Hamilton, there was In the Heights. Cultural phenomenon Lin-Manuel Miranda finally brings his Broadway musical about the largely Latin-American community of Washington Heights to the big screen. He once again collabs with Quiara Alegría Hudes (who wrote the book for the musical) and brings in Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) to direct. The…
Senior high in the US in the late 1950s is re-energised in the colourful new production of Grease The Musical at Her Majesty’s Theatre. It is set in fictional Rydell High School (named after pop singer Bobby Rydell). That is where Australian blonde beauty Sandy Dumbrowski unexpected bumps into her summer love, the too cool for school,…
What a clever idea. Take a huge musical figure and add an element of intrigue to captivate an audience in a period thriller. In writer-director John Stephenson’s Interlude in Prague, that figure is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Aneurin Barnard). The year is 1787. Mozart – usually based in Vienna – is still recovering from the death…
Razor sharp writing by Joanna Murray-Smith (featuring acerbic put downs), and bravura acting performances, are features of the brilliant two-hander Switzerland. The focus is the best-selling author of The Talented Mr Ripley, Patricia Highsmith, who is living as a recluse in the Swiss alps. She finds solace in her seclusion, her cats, her booze and…
With selective taste appeal, A Nightime Travesty is a walk on the wild side. It is a parody, an extreme First Nations’ cabaret with music. Earth is a smouldering mess. The crew of a plane is on the last flight out of there, heading for the afterlife. Angel is buckled in, alongside Alexa, while a…
