The moral dilemma. Juicy. Delicious. Ideal for the stage. It is at the heart of Only Child, a new play from Leah Annetta. Divorced, uptight Veronika (Sarah Hallam) runs a wedding planning business. She lives with her mother Barbara (Michele Stayner) and her high achieving, 18-year-old daughter Anika (Alessandra Alessio). Anika, in her final year…
Being identifiable as Jewish today is more fraught than at any time since the Holocaust. Since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, the growing tide of antisemitism has been relentless. That is why Ron Elisha’s thought-provoking work could not be more relevant or timely. Many words are spoken in Rootless Cosmopolitans, at the heart of which…
Physical and improvisation comedy at its absolute, chaotic best. That is what you get when you venture in to Chapel Off Chapel to see the hilarious, contemporary adaption of The Trojan War. All the key characters are in play, the likes of Agamemnon, Achilles, Hector and Paris and, of course, Helen of Troy. The legendary conflict between the…
A corpse dressed to the nines being carted around the French Riviera in a wheelchair. What could possibly go wrong? Plenty in this farcical musical comedy that reminded me of the 1989 movie Weekend at Bernie’s, that became a cult classic. It is the second time the slapstick Lucky Stiff has played in Prahran in a little…
An adaptation of acclaimed film director Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 movie The 39 Steps, Hearth Theatre’s production of the parody is riotously funny. Patrick Barlow’s work from the 1915 novel by Scottish author John Buchan, brings slapstick humour to the mystery crime thriller … and it works b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l-l-y. Single, handsome, 6 foot 1, 37-year-old Richard Hannay (Sorab…
Imagine a sensitive drag queen – a gay man – falling for a bisexual man who has trouble with commitment and you have the starting point for Torch Song. It is a shortened, two act reimagining of the four hour plus, three act play, Torch Song Trilogy, which won the Tony Award for Best Play in…
Acceptance is the theme of the musical Kinky Boots, which is based on the 2005 film of the same name. Charlie Price is a young man destined to take over his family’s Northampton-based shoe manufacturing business – the fourth generation to do so. His father Harold has never thought otherwise. And yet, Charlie doesn’t have a passion for…
More than ever, in 2023 the theme has an ick factor. It made my skin crawl. Today, cyberbullying is unfortunately rife, with physical appearance being a common reason why. Dogfight, in the context of this musical, refers to the practice among Marines of placing bets on ugly women. This is the story of Eddie Birdlace, who is…
Hardly a conventional musical, The Tony Award-winning Songs for a New World* is thematic. It doesn’t follow a linear narrative. Dating from 1995, with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, it is about life changing moments and navigating uncertainty. The cast represents passengers on a crowded ship en route to a new land. Traditionally, the show is…
Sex, crime and bad behaviour characterise the ’60s dark period drama romance Roaring, the debut work for writer and director Staz Barres. Vera (Jackie von Lierop) desperately wants to make it in show business. She seeks fame. As it is, she works in a dead-end job as a waitress, alongside her friend Jane (Daisy Paxton-White). The pair…
