Colour, movement, quirky characters and an up-tempo soundtrack feature in the animated musical adventure Sing 2. A troupe of performing animals led by impresario Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) – a koala – is playing sold-out shows in a small town. In the audience one night is canine talent scout Suki Lane (Chelsea Peretti), who is…
You have your eyes on the prize. You are so intent on making it that you can figuratively taste it. That is what confronts the couple of guys at the centre of Title of Show. They’re Hunter (Obed Wallis) and Jeff (Noah Janssen) … out to make it on Broadway. To that end, with just three weeks to cut…
Stephen Chbosky’s Dear Evan Hansen is a film adaptation of the Tony and Grammy Award winning musical of the same name. And it features the original Broadway lead actor in the pivotal role. Teenager Evan Hansen (Ben Platt) struggles with anxiety and depression, and is seeing a therapist. He is being brought up by his…
Jonathan Larson wrote the smash hit Broadway musical Rent. How he got there is the subject of Tick, Tick … Boom!, the new film from Lin-Manuel Miranda. Larson (Andrew Garfield) dreams of being a Broadway musical writer. His creativity is recognised by his close and loyal friends, but he is on the cusp of 30…
For quite a while now, Disney/Pixar has “owned” the animation space. The decline of Dreamworks Animation has left the field basically open to them. But competitors are emerging, including (relatively) smaller player Sony Pictures Animation. Their first animated musical, Vivo, is a swing for the fences. Vivo sees the storied Lin-Manuel Miranda (In the Heights)…
Stellar lead performances, brilliant staging, evocative lighting, a healthy dollop of Disney magic and a delightful sense of humour underpin a triumphant story of sisterly love in Frozen The Musical. It is the perfect blend of comedy, emotion and theatrics, and brings to life the story of Elsa and Anna, separated by a potentially deadly curse. The…
With book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and choreography by Jerome Robbins, West Side Story is one of the most celebrated musicals of all time. Opera Australia and GWB Entertainment’s production of the classic is vibrant and textured, balancing the contrasts in its story of gangs and love. The plot, which…
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…
Think back. You’re 14 and nothing in this world (and I do mean nothing) means more to you than your total infatuation with your teen idol. You can’t eat. You can’t sleep. You daydream of him having eyes only for you. You have to find a way. Whatever it takes. That is the starting point for the wickedly…
With book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and music by Stephen Flaherty, Once On This Island is a musical of pedigree. After an original Broadway run, its 1994 West End production won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical and its recent Broadway production the 2018 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical….
