Given the state of the world, the anti-war message carried by the tribal, love, rock musical Hair is as relevant today as when it exploded onto the stage in 1967. With a book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado, and music by Galt MacDermot, it began off-Broadway that year. It started its Broadway…
If you are into slapstick humour, you are going to have a ball. This riotous theatrical disaster is stumbling its way around Australia and has just opened in Melbourne. The premise is straight forward enough, but its execution something else entirely. The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society is attempting to stage a 1920s Agatha Christie-style murder…
Light-hearted and fun, Footloose: The Musical is centred around change in conservative America in the 1980s. Navigating it, especially when it is forced upon you, can be mighty difficult, especially when it leaves you feeling like a fish out of water. That is the situation for the central figure in the story, Ren McCormack. About…
With a powerful rock score, the talent on display in the new Australian tour of Hedwig and the Angry Inch is phenomenal. With music and lyrics by Stephen Trask and a book by John Cameron Mitchell (JCM), the storyline is hardly conventional. The musical burst onto the scene off Broadway in 1998, before beginning a…
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…
Just how far has society moved forward in 2024? We say we embrace the LGBTQIA+ community and yet not one AFL footballer has yet come out as openly gay. Why, one should reasonably ask? And the obvious answer remains: due the potential consequences, both on and off the field. Oh, the shame of that ……
If you are after something that is mighty special, you shouldn’t go past Melbourne Opera’s stunning rendition of La Bohème. It is simply sensational. The story. The music. The voices. The realisation. It is so lively and emotional. It is cheeky and sexy and fraught. Giacomo Puccini composed the opera in four acts between 1893…
Am I an ABBA fan? You betcha. I love what they created. I adore their songs and their harmonies. And while the closest thing we are likely to see to them performing together again is the hologram concert ABBA Voyage, there is something mighty special in town. I refer to a dedicated choir established by ABBA The…
The second longest running play (excluding musicals) in London’s West End, The Woman in Black is no neatly packaged fairy story. It is a dark tale of despair and revenge. It concerns a man driven to tell his truth after the death of an elderly and reclusive widow, Mrs Alice Drablow. I speak of Arthur Kipps (John Waters),…
Spectacular, colourful and creative headdresses, feathers and finery are front and centre as performers from Club Vegas hit the stage. Broad smiles, popular song and dance numbers, athletic, dare-devil acrobatics and comic interludes are the order of the day. It is a show that is dynamic, bold and brassy, and has the enthusiastic audience cheering throughout. For…
