Disney’s Frozen, The Broadway Musical, Free-Rain Theatre, The Q, 15 September – 11 October

 Image: Ben Appleton - Photox

Disney's 2013 animated film was an instant sensation, winning acclaim for its strong set of songs and its story of two sisters, both isolated from the world and each other and what happens when they emerge into the wider world on the day of Elsa's coronation. In 2017 it was adapted into a Broadway musical by the same team that wrote the script and music for the movie - the stage version wasn't quite as much of a sensation, partially because of the challenges of running a show over the COVID era, partially because the requirements of changing a 100 minute movieinto a two and a half hour stage show means there are extensions to fill in the bonus time that aren't always great (diva Elsa gets an act two ballad to match her iconic "Let it Go", and it doesn't quite) and some storytelling that worked great on screen with cross-cutting and editing looks messy on stage (in particular the last ten minutes, when to cover bits of plot the chorus suddenly show up to narrate some action that would otherwise be confusing). 

  Free-Rain makes a fairly good whack of some messy material, with a fine cast and production design uniting to give it a strong glossy feel. Sonically, it sounds epic from the echoey Sami-inspired chanting at the open across the entire score, with Charlotte Morphett's Elsa absolutely owning "Let It Go" (which, let's face it, is the reason most people are in the theatre in the first place) for a thrilling act one climax. Chloe Stevenson is an enduringly charming Anna, even as her own mistakes and needs put her in more dangers. Joe Dinn is an adorable Olaf, endearing and charming. Jackson Gibbs as Kristoff the ice-hauler is effective as he tries to dissuade Anna while they slide more and more into a side romance, while Joshua Kirk looks and sounds the part as a Prince who is not quite as charming as he appears at first sight. Cameron Thoms enjoys the chance to play with Scandanavian vowels as trader Oaken with his goofy act two opener defining the concept of Hygge (go to Ikea if you're not sure what that is), and Sam Thomson and Kate Lis are a lovely pair of mystic forest-figures for additional magic in the sidelines. Young performers Millicent Fitzgerald and Meadow Kuske ably reflect their older counterparts as the young Anna and Elsa.

This is a rare chance to see a show led by two strong female performers and it absolutely gives both of  them lots to play with, with a lot for the rest of the cast to enjoy too. And there's visual spectacle in the set design of John Nichols and Ethan Henderson and the lighting desing of Jono Gerdes, and a real feel of the wide outdoor Scandinavian ranges in Chris Neal's sound design. My main nitpick is in some of the adaptation choices in the original material - with some tighter storytelling and a better act two ballad for Elsa, this would be a 10 out of 10. Instead, it's a great team carrying a slightly limping vehicle. 

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Presented by LPD Productions in association with Hayes Theatre Co, 28 Aug-27 Sep

Image by John McRae

Frank Loesser and Abe Burrows reteamed 11 years after their hit "Guys and Dolls" - again, Burrows wrote most of the script after someone else's script was deemed not entirely useful (but the other writer got a credit anyway), with Loesser on music and lyrics duty. This time round, moving on from gangsters, showgirls and Salvation Army members to the far more dubious world of Big Business,  the duo told the story of the rise of J. Pierpoint Finch through a series of sketch-like scenes as he goes from mailroom to executive suite through a mix of charm, nerve and some gratuitous good luck when the plot requires it. It won the Putlizer prize over the likes of Tenessee Williams' "Night of the Iguana", Ossie Davis' "Purlie Victorious" and Paddy Chaefsky's "Gideon", and has recieved multiple revivals ever since, but this one serves it quite well - director/choreographer Cameron Mitchell gives it a jazzy, slinky style that suits the era, with a cast of 15 jazzing it up all across the Hayes stage. 

Primary among the cast is Jake Speer as the butter-wouldn't-melt-in-his-mouth Finch - a smooth singer and a smooth talker. Another member of the inexhaustible Laga'aia clan, Georgia, plays his love interest, Rosemary, who sells her blithe conviction that she and Finch belong together even as Finch only occasionally takes interest in her.Simon Burke plays the boss, JB Biggley, with an endearing mix of arrogance and stupidity. Elsewhere in the cast, Wayne Scott Kermond goofs it up in two separate roles, Noni McCallum is both intimidating as the queen bee of the secretaries and knocks her solo during "Brotherhood of Man" into a cocked hat, Kaeng Chan is wonderfully flip-flopping as the yes-man Brat no matter who he's saying yes to, Max MacDonald is glorious sneaky villainy as Bud Frump, and Lucy Lalor is a great dumb-like-a-fox Hedy. 

Musical Supervisor Damon Wade and musical director Kim Gilbert mostly makes a band of four sound a whole lot bigger, set Designer Dominic Foffani adapts various office locations from mailroom to washroom to boardroom very well, and Chrisitne Muutton gives them that professional sheen in a great set of outfits. 

This is a classic show that feels fizzy, fun and fresh 65 years after it first performed. Yes, it's definately of an era but it's a slightly acidic look at that era which knows both the flaws (the gender politics) and the glories (the outfits and the tunes). 

Housework, Sydney Theatre Company, Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, 5 Sep-17 Oct

 

Image by Prudence Upton

"Housework" is a contemporary comedy drama set in and around the corridors of power in Canberra when a first-term member of parliament decides to start campaigning on her pet issue and comes face to face with some sticky moral conundrums into the bargain. While this originally premiered early last year, it feels somewhat older, with a lot of COVID material at the top of the play suggesting the vintage of its early drafts, and writer Emily Steel gets a bit too enthusiastic to get into the salacious scandal elements of the plot at the expense of what begins more like a more contemplative piece about how women get socialised in politics and what happens to naive good intentions, before becoming more interested in throwing shock twists at the audience.

But to start with the high points - designer Ailsa Paterson uses the iconic look of Parliament House's columns for a stylish institutional design together with a large revolving table to represent the various meeting rooms, corridors of power, restaurants and serviced apartments where the action takes place. Emily Taheney as the lead, adviser Anna, has a strong authority as someone who has very much been around the block and is only starting to become aware how much it may have cost her. Susie Yousef as the MP gives the role some frantic crash-through style, showing the raw passion that probably got her elected along with the inability to stop herself that will hold her back later. Indira Naidoo brings her undoubted authority to a late-in-the-play cameo role (and also serves to assist with a fair number of set changes). Meanwhile Lawrence Boxhall, Franca Lafosse and Johnny Nasser are in thinner roles that basically exist to service plot more than character, and serve them well enough to keep the pot boiling.

This isn't bad but I don't think it really delivers much more insight than any number of other political thrillers - given what the last decade of politics has given us to work with, this feels like nothing much we haven't seen before done better. It's given a glossy production by Shannon Rush but it feels like a lot of style and not very much substance.

The Book of Everything, Belvoir St Theatre in co-production with Kim Carpenter's Theatre of Image, Upstairs Belvoir, 22 Aug-20 Sept

 Image by Brett Boardman

This is the return of Belvoir's 2010 production with a lot of the original crew back (four of the original 8 actors returning to the same roles, and the same design and directorial team) - so long ago that I missed it and have only seen Rep's outstanding 2013 production instead (reviewed here). So this is a chance to see a reproduction of a legendary production, with Kim Carpenter's astonishing original designs, Neil Armfield's warm and adorable direction, and with all the playfulness, heart and soul that this coming-of-age story needs.

To start with the newbies - John Gaden gets to be both a terrifyingly real threat as Father and a comical one as the Bumbiter, Pamela Rabe glories in her chance to play in an ensemble and to relish a spectacular pair of slacks as Auntie Pye, Rebecca Massey is both the egotistically superior older sister and the angry protective one when required, and Bridie McKim makes us fall in love with her as much as Thomas does with her gentle Eliza. The original cast are back owning their roles, from Matthew Whittett's central, innocent, hopeful Thomas to Julie Forsyth's endearing Mrs Van Amerhorst, Claire Jones' warm mother and John Leary's super-sociable Jesus. 

This is a play and a production that knows where the warmth and the hard-edged bits are, and plays both to the hilt. It was an instant classic then and it remains just as vibrant and powerful now, 16 years later. It's a great trip back in time to see something truly great. 

Mum Club, Griffin Theatre Company in association with Belvoir Street Theatre, Belvoir Downstairs, 22 Aug-20 Sept

  photo by Phil Erbacher

"Mum Club" looks at a recent indigenous mother who's moved to Sydney from Perth for her partner's career, and is suddenly raising a child without any of her family connections. Her attempts to join a local mothers club find her in the middle of what might technically be called "white women's nonsense", while the Redfern Medical Centre may just offer her the friendship she needs, together with some bonding over the power of Romantasy fiction. 

Jorjia Gillis' play wanders a bit in tone between broad satire and more emotional drama - protagonist Sadie faces threats both comic and more serious - but it captures the isolation that new motherhood can create and the desire to create connections that aren't necessarily the best for you. Stephane Somerville carries the weight of much of the dramatic side of the equation while also being the straight-women to some of the broader comic roles of the rest of the cast - Alex Malone and Ruby Teys are mostly playing broad caricatures, while Megan Wilding brings a warmth to her supportive role as someone slightly more trustworthy. Ian Michael's production tends to attempt to surf the tone shifts but in the tiny Belvoir Downstairs space feels slightly clunky as the shifts in location and mood aren't always achieved smoothly.

 It does feel slightly like a more pointed political comedy has been a little defanged in the rewrites and the production into something a bit more crowd-pleaser, and while it certainly gets the laughs, the truths underneath tend to go wanting a little. It's not unpolished but there does seem to be a gutsier version of this that would have hit harder on the genuine dillemmas of indigenous women traversing spaces that claim to value diversity but only seem to value diversity as a nice flashy token, not as a way to understand others' experiences. 

In short, this feels like this lands more in the "pleasant night out" than "essential theatre" - it is certainly still pleasant and, again, the ideas underneath seem interesting but they're not really brought out in the open to get full exploration. 

Saplings, Australian Theatre for Young People, The Q, 22 Aug (annd subsequent touring to Penrith, Bairnsdale and Warrnambool)

 

Image by Clare Hawley from original 2024

"Saplings" looks at a mixture of young people who encounter the criminal justice system in various ways (either directly as perpetrators or as family members of people in prison). Four actors play a variety of figures on an institutional grey set, co-designed by Angela Doherty and Morgan Moroney and lit strikingly by Moroney. The scenes are linked by a hip-hop soundtrack by Michael Weir. There's strong performances across all four actors-  Sam Harmon perhaps most strikingly in a monologue that ties together Mi-Goreng noodles, family dysfunction and a sense of purposelessness, but there's also strength that comes from Malyan Blair in a scene about his fear of what comes after prison, from Danny Howard as 

This is rough-edged material, writer Hannah Belansky drawing from direct contact with young people in the system and reflecting their raw experience back in her writing - and director Abbie-lee Lewis gives it a striking, physical production with the occasional moment of beauty and warmth in among the rougher edges. There are a couple of issues with audibility here and there - not sure whether actors are simply going at too fast a pace or if they're letting authentic language clash with diction too- but for the most part  the material comes across strong and impactful, in a production that holds a lot of interest to anyone who's interested in younger voices.

I love you, you're perfect, now change, Free-Rain Theatre Company, ACT Hub, 19 Aug-5 Sep

Photo by Janelle McMenamin

"I love you, you're perfect, now change" is a series of sketches and songs - act one looks at dating leading up to a wedding, and act two deals with what comes after  - children, routines and the possibilities of divorce and widowhood. Writer Joe DiPetro's gone on since this show to write the Elvis-themed "All Shook Up",  Tony-winning "Memphis", the cult favourite "Toxic Avenger" musical, the delightful "Nice Work if you can get it", and the somewhat tacky "Diana" musical, while composer Jimmy Roberts career hasn't gone very far since this - but this is a show that's played wide and long all over the world simply by being relatable, small scale and quite entertaining. 

It's written for a small ensemble playing multiple roles, and in Free-Rain's production it's immaculately performed by six performers - Amelia Andersson-Nickson, Connor McNaught, David Pearson, Deborah O'Toole, Sam Thomson and Sarah Copley - who cover multiple roles and relationships. As a show originally from the late 90s (though rewritten slightly in this version), it's very much from the "Men are From Mars, Women are from Venus" school of gender-essentialism, but the gags mostly hold up 30 years later. In this production, it's given a stylish look on an abstracted chessboard by Janie Lawson, with some sketches somewhat localised and other sketches staying in the US context of the original material. The musical accompaniment by Leo Amadeus (who has also coached the cast in the tight vocal harmonies) and Laura Ley on violin is small but impactful, going from speedy tense rhythms to touching ballads to genre spoofs. The cast is stylishly costumed by Louise Newey in a mix of reds, whites and blacks.  

The ensemble cast play very well together, whether it be Copley and McNaught exploring alternate personas as "A Stud and A babe", Andersson-Nickson and Thompson fast-forwarding through a relationship in "Better Things to Do", or O'Toole and Pearson finding gentle resolution in "I Can Live With That", or in solo showcases like Thompson's Baby song, Copley's videodate speech, Pearson's scared-straight monologue or Andersson-Nickson's Bridesmaid's lament (aided by some clever lighting by Craig Muller). 

As we transition into spring, it's not a bad time to think of mating-and-dating rituals, and this is a fun way to celebrate it - it's not a groundbreaking show so much as a pleasantly reassuring one. But it's fun to see this ensemble in some material that gives their talents room to show off.