Mozart’s delicious tale of skulduggery from inveterate womaniser Don Giovanni is given life anew by Melbourne Opera. This is a man who can’t help himself when it comes to the fairer sex. Large or small, pretty or plain, attached or single, from noble stock or otherwise, with the help of his hapless servant Leporello he…
He’s rude, crude, remarkably observant and lightning quick with one liners. In short, a force of nature. I speak of the indomitable Reuben Kaye, who wears his heart on his sleeve and totally owns his audience like few others I have come across. His stage presence is remarkable. He walks, talks and warbles like an…
Anne Frank’s story is a tragic but inspiring one and it is played out in dramatic fashion on stage. As Jews, when her Dutch family was forced to go into hiding during the Holocaust, she was gifted a diary, which she wrote in religiously. It contained her innermost thoughts about those she was with and…
The dark storyline in Saturday Night Fever is a sharp contrast to the detail and stunning clarity in the video design and lighting, which are mainstays of this production. Based on the 1977 film starring John Travolta and featuring the Bee Gee’s soundtrack, the jukebox musical set in Brooklyn concerns youth and ambition. It was…
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 ……
