In 1986 a science fiction movie called Short Circuit introduced us to a robot called Number Five, which became sentient and hence one of its expressions was “Five Alive”. I was reminded of that when I saw the new Australian musical Electric Dreams, which was actually inspired by another movie, which carries the same name….
A compelling and dramatic storyline and evocative score are matched by a series of stellar performances in MTC’s musical Kiss of the Spider Woman. The plot concerns the extraction of information through brutalisation and humiliation of prisoners held in an Argentine jail. More specifically, it involves the relationship between window dresser Molina (Ainsley Melham) and…
A compelling and dramatic storyline and evocative score are matched by a series of stellar performances in MTC’s musical Kiss of the Spider Woman. The plot concerns the extraction of information through brutalisation and humiliation of prisoners held in an Argentine jail. More specifically, it involves the relationship between window dresser Molina (Ainsley Melham) and Marxist…
It was a great rite of passage that many of us born before 1965 went through and remember fondly. The annual six-week school holiday casual job at a city department store. It was often our first foray into the world of retail and, at 16 or 17 years of age, it gave us a glimpse…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres for the week ending 18 October 2019. Australian musician Vancouver Sleep Clinic – a.k.a. Tim Bettinson – has released his much-anticipated album Onwards to Zion. This latest installment of dreamy melodies captures melancholy and sentimentality. Onwards to Zion unfolds the musicality first revealed…
Set at the height of The Troubles in Belfast, The Beautiful Game is a powerful and affecting musical that reveals the impact of the turmoil on members of an Under 21 soccer team and their partners. We’re talking the years 1969 through to the early ‘70s when political and religious violence has engulfed the community….
Caroline, or Change is a work, an autobiographical work from Tony Kushner. He is famous for Angels in America (1993). Born in Manhattan, his family moved to Lake Charles, Louisiana, when he was a young boy. He wanted to write about race relations, the civil rights movement, and African Americans and southern Jews in the…
West Side Story debuted in 1957 on Broadway. Four genius artists somehow subdued their egos to collaborate as an ensemble to produce one of the great works in the musical theatre canon: Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Laurents and Jerome Robbins. A motion picture version arrived in 1961 winning 10 Academy Awards – it created…
If you’ve ever heard (proper) jazz, it’s likely you heard Miles Davis. If you’re a jazz fan, you’ll know he’s part of the pantheon with the likes of Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. Stanley Nelson’s documentary Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool explores the man, his music and his legacy in a comprehensive…
Willy Wonka’s magic carpet ride hits town with its world of wonder and make-believe. Based on Roald Dahl’s children’s novel of the same name, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is the story of a boy from an impoverished family who’s obsessed with sweets. He’s Charlie Bucket and he lives with his mother and four bed-ridden…
