Opera Australia’s production of Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella is glorious from the get go. Though there is no real standout number, the musical’s soundtrack is glorious and easy-on-the-ear, filled as it is with recognisable Rogers and Hammerstein melodies and lyrics. Anna Louizos’ set design is superb, featuring slick transitions through scenes the sometimes include animal hand…
The Sunshine Club opens in the summer of 1946. Ambitious Aboriginal solider, former boxing champion Frank Doyle (Marcus Corowa) has spent years fighting for freedom shoulder-to-shoulder with troops from all over Australia. Despite its opening number “Lest We Forget”, the war does not set the narrative tone of Queensland Theatre’s bright revival of Wesley Enoch…
At certain times of year or at a certain age we have perhaps all felt a little like the Ebenezer Scrooge of Charles Dickens’ 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. As shake and stir theatre company’s adaptation reminds us, however, the cold-hearted elderly miser that we meet at the outset of the story is still capable…
Humans 2.0 begins with a flash of light as 11 bodies appear, moving in harmony around a round stage space framed by exposed lightbulbs, before their physical limits are pushed to extremes. Created by director Yaron Lifschitz, Humans 2.0 is circus at its best, an amalgamation of acrobatics, sound and light that builds and expands upon…
Trent Dalton’s debut novel Boy Swallows Universe captured hearts and minds and became a bestseller. It must have been a daunting prospect for playwright Tim McGarry to adapt the sprawling saga of nearly 500 pages for the stage, but if any doubts existed that his beloved story could morph successfully into a performance piece, they…
Dead Puppet Society is an Australian theatre company highly regarded for its creation of puppet-based visual theatre works of spectacle and wonder. Its shows have always been inventive. Its latest production is Ishmael. The puppetry comes courtesy of dozens of models and dioramas, which are projected in rotation on a massive scale through a live…
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…
Come from Away opened in Brisbane this week to rapturous standing ovations. This unique production tells the true stories of the people of Gander, Newfoundland (CA) and some of the passengers of the 38 planes that were diverted there during the day of September 11, 2001. As the small town’s population more than doubled with…
Even before the QPAC curtain raises on Chicago, its experience is evocative, with a black derby hanging on the back of a black downstage chair, as signpost to the show’s indelible choreographic style and Fosse-esque attention-to-detail. The story of murder, greed, corruption, violence, exploitation, adultery and treachery (as its opening lines impart) is set in…
Muriel’s Wedding The Musical begins with a ‘Sunshine State of Mind’ Porpoise Spit burst of hyper colour and brashly bright lighting that sets the tone for the joy of its satirical stage experience. What follows is an explosion of high energy, full of colour and movement to brighten any adult day. The affectionate stage realisation…
