Superb chemistry between the male and female leads is a highlight of The Production Company’s 50th musical, which remains as poignant today as when it first appeared. The story, set in the mid 1950s in New York City’s Upper West Side, explores the rivalry between gangs of different ethnic backgrounds. The Sharks are Puerto Rican,…
What is art? That is one of the questions at the heart of Red. Another concerns pretension. American writer John Logan wrote Red about Russian-born painter Mark Rothko (25th September, 1903 – 25thFebruary, 1970), who migrated to the USA at the age of 10. The Broadway production won six Tony Awards in 2010, including Best Play. Rothko…
Snake Island, like other notable Australian mentions published in the last couple of years, straddles a literary space between dark drama and crime fiction. The term literary thriller has of late been used to describe such works. Acts of violence committed in small or otherwise closed communities offer rich opportunities for intensive explorations into what…
Just as it depicts Judy Garland’s life Judy, the movie, is a train wreck. In fact, I couldn’t wait for it to end. Garland wasn’t allowed to be a regular kid and was lauded over by the studio head Louis B. Mayer and her obnoxious, overbearing mother, Ethel. Given pill after pill at an early…
If you spent your young days suffering from Saturday night fever, then this is a show to rock you in your seat. It’s 80 minutes of sheer disco and noise with flashing lights, mirror balls, glitter costumes, and screaming vocals. And with those vocals came amazing verve and energy from all the performers. But on…
The low budget indie crime drama Good Time is the latest film from the Safdie brothers (Benny and Joshua). Their films, like Daddy Longlegs, often explore the struggles of losers who live on the edges of society. This is a gritty and downbeat black comedy and heist drama with plenty of energy. Connie Nikas (played…
What a lot of fun I had watching The Longest Minute. It had a terrific script, was filled with an array of great characters, had a brilliantly human storyline, and moved as fast as a winger with a try scoring intercept. And it all revolves around the 2015 NRL Grand Final and a Townsville family…
A Midnight Visit is an award-winning immersive live theatre show that, having previously been unleashed in Sydney, Perth and Melbourne, has recently resurrected in Brisbane. Inspired by the life and works of Edgar Allen Poe, the magnificently macabre multi-room experience, invites its guests to explore a dark dream world of gothic thrills, obsession, decadence and…
Written by Bryan Sipe (who also penned the recent adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ The Choice), Demolition is a rather downbeat and unpredictable drama dealing with death, grief, and the process of moving on. Davis Mitchell (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a hot shot financier whose wife is killed in a car crash. He goes into denial and…
