Although billed in some quarters as “Hamilton: The Movie”, the Hamilton now streaming on Disney + is more of a filmed version of the stage production. Director Thomas Kail (Fosse/Verdon) captures a 2016 performance of the groundbreaking musical at the Richard Rodgers Theater in New York. The performance features the original Broadway cast, including Lin…
Could Stan’s new series Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist mark the birth of a new sub-genre – the comedy-soap-musical? It certainly gets props for trying something new. But having gone out on a limb with the concept, the producers quickly scamper back to safety as the series falls into some very tired tropes. Austin Winsberg – who…
Imagine you’re the partner or child of a soldier who’s sent off to war. How would you feel? Military Wives is inspired by the true story of a group of women in that situation. In this case, their partners were deployed in Afghanistan. Kate (Kristin Scott-Thomas) and Lisa (Sharon Horgan), are in a power struggle….
Energetic, colourful and captivating, this is up there with the very best productions of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s CATS and I have had the good fortune to see several of them. A massive cast of 87 (plus an alternative 13 “kitten” chorus) and a 16-piece orchestra breathe new life into a show that was first staged in…
Feel good entertainment in a good, old-fashioned pub – what could be better than that? Well … simple, really – feel good entertainment in a good old-fashioned pub on stage, with no shortage of audience participation. That is the show and the group known as The Choir of Man – nine talented singers and musos….
By the end I was bawling like a baby. CATS, the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical as a Tom Hooper-directed and co-written (with Lee Hall) film, is a triumph of theatrics – costuming, make-up, choreography, colour and emotion. In the original 1980s stage musical, CATS takes place on the night of the annual Jellicle Ball, when…
Sassy and darkly humourous, the stage musical Chicago circa 2019/2020 remains a sordid tale of corruption, given new life by headliners Natalie Bassingthwaite, Alinta Chidzey, Casey Donovan and Jason Donovan. With lyrics by Fred Ebb, music by John Kander and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse, the time frame is jazz-age Chicago. The musical is…
School of Rock: The Musical is an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical based on the highly successful film (2003) of the same name, which had Jack Black in the lead. Bursting on to the Capitol Theatre stage is a phenomenal performer, Brent Hill. He has impressive energy, immaculate theatrical instincts and a highly refined comic and…
Froth and bubble, Legally Blonde: The Musical remains a fun-filled romp and genuine crowd pleaser … more than a decade after it opened on Broadway and was nominated for seven Tony Awards. A spirited 20-strong cast and 14 talented musos bring to life the story of a vacuous blonde who comes into her own once…
Dream$ong may not be Hillsong, but this sure feels like a parody of that church, founded in Sydney’s western suburbs in 1983. Everything is exaggerated for the sake of comic appeal … and it works. The pastor, Richard Sunday (Nelson Gardner), is a slime ball who saw his first wife off in a catastrophic sky…
