This is one of those shows that's great fun to watch but a bugger to review. To even describe it is a challenge - it's sorta standup-philosophy, which as anybody who saw Mel Brooks' "History of the World Part I" know, means bullshit, but in this case it's erudite, thoughtful bullshit with an inate suspense created by the titular balloon and a visible sharp object. Andrew McMillan, fresh from playing Leo and Adam in "The Inheritance", tells a big scale story delving into some of the bigger questions of existance, while also not being above some jokes that could considered low comedy.
That Guy who Watches Canberra Theatre
Friday, 8 November 2024
A Balloon Will Pop * At Some Point During This Play, East and Under Theatre Company, ACT Hub, 8-9 November
Friday, 1 November 2024
Nice Work if You Can Get It, Queanbeyan Players, The Q, 1-10 November
This is another review of a show I've reviewed before, in the Hayes production in 2024 (link here), but this production uses the bigger stage of the Q and the opportunities it grabs for splashy production numbers to tell its ridiculous story of three bootleggers, an army of chorus girls and vice squad members, a carefree playboy, a wedding and a whole lot of Gerswhin classic songs squeezed into one show. The team of Dave Smith, Kirsten Smith and Brigid Cummins have assembled a fine cast, band and crew to create a fluffy November frolic for Queanbeyan Players that should delight anyone.
Leading the cast is Luke Ferdinands, singing Gershwin so perfectly you'd swear they were recorded on a 78rpm shellac record, and performing the role of an impulsive, frivolous playboy to sweetly dimwitted perfection. Alongside him is Sienna Curnow as tough tomboyish bootlegger Billie, with a sweetly yearning singing voice and a fragility lying just under the rough surface in the sweetest of ways. Anthony Swadling as bootlegger-turned-butler is a masterpiece in frustrated rage, grumbling through multiple plot twists with aplomb. Lillee Keating as the campaigning Duchess Dulworth sings grandly operatically and finds the joy when she's finally released from her straightlaced restrictions. John Whinfield delights almost instantly as he does a muppet-like dash across the stage with bobbing head, and adds in layers of goofy idiocy as he gets entwined with Kay Liddiard's playful Jeannie Muldoon. Steven O'Mara plays just as delightfully as goofy Chief Berry, caught up in the multitudes of deceptions and nonsense. Anna Tully's Eileen is delightfully condescending, blithe and looks great whether in a an elognated bathtub specialty number or in her wedding gear with ridiculously long train. Pat Gallagher gallumphs effectively as the stern Senator/Referend/Judge Evergreen, and Fiona Hale is a fun deus ex machina at the end as Millicent.
Dave Smith directs effectively with an emphasis on comedy but with just enough reality for us to care when boy is in peril of losing girl, and Kirsten Smith choreographs on a grand scale, filling the stage with undulating bodies in compelling patterns to Gershwin's rhythms, fascinating and otherwise. Brigid Cummings conducts a band that sounds perfectly period, taking us back into the 20s and swinging up a storm.
In short, this is a nonsensical, big scale retro delight. If it's not quite how they wrote them back in the day (back then the good songs were split over about 5 or 6 musicals and the plot made, somehow, even less sense than this one), it's a concentrated hit of all the best things of the era and a great fun night out.
Friday, 25 October 2024
Dear Evan Hansen, Sydney Theatre Company and Michael Cassell Group, Roslyn Packer Theatre, 12 Oct - 1 Dec (and subsequent touring to Melbourne from 14 Dec, Canberra from 27 Feb and Adelaide from 3 April)
"Dear Evan Hansen" is a teen angst musical about an isolated boy who finds an invitation into other's lives when he is mistakenly taken for a close friend of a fellow student who committed suicide - his engagement with the family of the dead student, his fellow students and his mother all spiral out of control as social media gets involved in spreading the mixed truths in the name of inspiration. Accompanied by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul's songs which sound grandly inspirational until you remember exactly how much falsitude is behind them, it's a thought provoking show given a speedy, grandly powerful production from Dean Bryant and a skilled Australian team.
Well Behaved Women, Belvoir Street Theatre, Sept 28-Nov 3
Based on Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's quote "Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History", this song cycle by Perth Born, New York Based compose Carmel Deane features four performers telling the stories of 16 women over the course of 15 songs plus a cycle-capping song at the end. From Eve to Malala via Grace Tame, Hariet Tubman and others, it's a simply-staged production, with a 4 piece band scattered around Grace Deacon's black levelled set, aided by Susie Henderson's Video design. There's power in some of these moments (getting to see Ursula Yovich sing Boudicca's song is a powerful experience, as is Zahra Newman's introductory tempting Eve or Stephani Caccamo's Mary Magdelene complaining about being the only girl in the picture). From a quick check, it appears the show's had a localising rewrite since its original run, with Elanor Roosevelt, the first 4 female Supreme Court Justices and Lady Liberty replaced by Julia Gillard, Grace Tame and Cathy Freeman, and it does feel like we've traded up at our end.
Thursday, 24 October 2024
Titanique, Michael Cassell Group, Grand Electric, 12 Sept-1 Dec (currently, though may extend)
A ridiculous spoof of the James Cameron movie, Celine Dion's career, the conventions of musical theatre and anything else going in the culture at the time they wrote this, "Titanique" as a show observes little sense of reality, spares little budget for props, has no respect for the fourth wall and runs about half the length of the James Cameron movie it's based on. And thank goodness for that - this is a good old fashinoed laugh riot. One might quibble, perhaps, that the song list lacks the obvious song for a flashback (It's all Coming Back To Me Now, presumably because Jim Steinman proved surprisingly less amenable to music liscencing than either the Walt Disney Corporation, Phil Spector, Diane Warren or any of the other writers of the 18 Celine tracks performed during the show). But it's a minor quibble.
Saturday, 19 October 2024
The Inheritance (Parts I and II), Everyman Theatre, ACT Hub, 12 Oct-2 Nov
Monday, 7 October 2024
Cost of Living, Melbourne Theatre Company, The Sumner, Southbank Theatre, 14 Sep-19 Oct
About a month after MTC presented the 2023 Pulitzer Prizewinner for drama in a Canberra Tour, they present the 2018 one (also this year I've seen the 1948, 2008, and 2010 winners and I'll be seeing the 2017 winner next month along with another go at the 2008). Martyna Majok's play looks at the relationship between two disabled people - one paraplegic, one quadriplegic - and their carers - in one case, an ex-husband who hasn't yet been removed from next-of-kin or the insurance, in the other a bartender looking for part-time work assisting a young grad student who needs casual assistance to fully function in the world. In both cases these are relationships complicated by the human needs of both of the partners - the push and pull that affects both of them in different ways.
It's a challenging show to cast, given the show presents the two cared-for characters with authentic casting - but it's found two skilled performers in Rachel Edmonds as the prickly, wary Ani and Oli Pizzey Stratford as the privileged, blithe John. They're matched by Mabel Li as the bartender-turned-caregiver and Aaron Pederson as the ex-husband still yearning for engagement with his wife. It's quite an intimate story for the massive Sumner theatre and Anthea William's production manages to draw the audience in (though I do think the sets are a little too grand-sized - even for the evident privilege John is meant to have, a New York apartment that size would cost an astronomic amount in rent that I'm not sure is even vaguely possible, and even Ani's apartment feels a little inflated despite the cramped quarters created by unpacked boxes - the Sumner stage is simply too wide for this show). Still, as Majok's story dwells into the needs of both cared-for and care-giver, it grabs the heart and doesn't let go for an hour fifty running time. The ending in particular is strong as it sees a crossover of needs between the two stories in a way that tentatively leans towards hope.
Matilda Woodroofe's set and costumes, allowing for the scale issue mentioned above, are beutiful and striking and reflect the different mileu's of the play, and it's strongly lit by Richard Vabre. This is a very skilfully put together, personal production made with heart and care.