The Misanthrope, Bell Shakespeare and Griffin Theatre Company, Playhouse, Sydney Opera House

Moliere's comedies often feel a tad formulaic - one or two characters are obsessed by something (money in "The Miser", religion in "Tartuffe", hypochondria in "The Imaginary Invalid", literature in "The Learned Ladies" etc), most of their household tries to dissuade them, their obsession starts to threaten young lovers, eventually the obsession is broken and the young lovers get married. "The Misanthrope" is a bit different, as Moliere doesn't entirely disagree with the titular obsession - the dislike of human kind and their foibles - in particular, in this play, the polite fictions that society runs upon with small talk and false praise. It's also far more of a social rather than domestic comedy with most of the action taking place in fashionable salons and drawing rooms.

This production fiddles with the timeframe, milieu, and genders of a few of the cast - most noticeably, the titular Misanthrope switches from male to female, their beloved Celimene becomes the male Cymbeline, and events move from the 17th century aristocracy to the 21st century fashionable world of pop music. Not all of this works, but I don't know that it's necessarily the updating that's at fault so much as particular aspects of the translation - Justin Fleming's rhyming dialogue is a little too keen on indulging in cheap Australian colloquialisms for quick laughs rather than really delving into the characters and their issues - and while that's worked with Moliere's other plays, "THe Misanthrope" really does get pretty deep into philosophical argument and takes its characters a bit more seriously than this production really chooses to. Cymbeline in particular suffers - the translation I know best, the Tony Harrison one from the 70s, treats her as a delightfully bitchy and witty figure who's seductive power is never in doubt, while this version has him being largely a standoffish himbo (Ben Gerrard gets to show off very impressive abs, but we never quite get the sense why he's an object of romantic fascination for about half the cast). Danielle Cormick does capture a lot of Alceste's frustration with the world, and the age gap between her and Cymbeline isn't, in theory, a bad idea, but it pushes things into shallow infatuation more than I think the work requires. Rebecca Massey as Alceste's more reasonable (or alternatively, more pliable) friend Phillipa, shows why I've always loved seeing her on stage - she's funny and pragmatic and always enjoyable. The remaining cast are pretty reasonable but not given quite as much material to work with as these key three.

Dan Potra's set gives a convincing air of a music-video studio, slowly stripped of clutter as the cast get closer to truth, and the music by MAx Lambert and Rodger Lock has a chilly elegance that suits Cymbeline pretty well. And this isn't a complete writeoff - Lee Lewis is too skilled to completely fail. But I do wish that the central dynamic worked just that little bit better and the script respected the show's "villain" just a little bit more.

Dogfiht, ANU Musical Theatre Company, Belconnen Community Theatre

"Dogfight" was an early work for the powerhouse team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who've since succeeded wildly both on Broadway ("Dear Evan Hansen") and in Hollywood ("La La Land", "The Greatest Showman"). For all that, it's a piece that has its natural home in a smaller theatre - the focus is mostly pretty tight on the two protagonists, with everybody else in the background. The genre is familiar stuff (three soldiers on their last day before shipping out meet up with girls for a night on the town ... it's pretty much "On the Town"!), but with a couple of harsher twists - the boys are shipping out to Vietnam, not World War 2, and the girls are being chosen as part of a "Dogfight" - the guy who brings the most "unattractive" girl wins a cash prize.

Its' a clever choice for a student musical theatre company - it has depth, it has writers with good credentials, it's got a lot of roles for a young student-aged cast. I must admit I don't entirely love the show on this presentation - Pasek and Paul's songs tend in this one to be very much of the "the idea of the song is in the title, and it repeats it as much as possible" persuasion, with not a lot of interesting development or storytelling going on within the songs. And they never entirely get past the simple problem with the scenario- you don't really want boy to get girl because boy starts as a bit of a creep and, while he attempts to reform later, he mostly ends up only as an apologetic creep rather than anyone likeable. THe musical form isn't always known for the greatest character depth, but in this case nearly everybody is written just a little too thin - the occasional character notes that spring up feel throwaway rather than anything that really shapes something rounded.

In this production, there's a couple of standout things. The best material in the show is written for the female lead, Rose, played here by an exceptional Tegan Braithwaite. Her innocent open-book attitude means she's the one character in the show who's really engaging and interesting, and she manages to make believable that Rose would return to a guy who's never really quite worthy of her. The band under musical director Jack Quail is tight and strong, delivering funky rhythms throughout. Set design by Kat Carrington is the best I've ever seen in the tricky space of the Belconnen Community theatre - it's never been my favourite Canberra performance space, but she makes the best case for it I've seen. Daisy Sibtain as Marcy is impressive in the brief moments she has material, playing sardonic and bitter as the one character who seems fully self-aware and has everybody else pegged pretty well too.

I didn't regret seeing this - it's a chance to see a show that I doubt I'll see many other places - but between only being a middling show and some less-impressive performance in the rest of the ensemble, I can't call this a complete success. But it's a nice demosntration of some of the strengths of ANU musical theatre.