Adelaide Arts Theatre is hosting the first ever Korean season for the Adelaide Fringe. AtoBiz and Global Cultural Exchange Committee have hand picked a small selection of physical theatre and music shows. The story Hello the Hell: Othello is a play by Creative Jakhwa, a young team that started with the meaning of “flowering a…
If you love your quiz shows, and are up for a spot of comedy, then WrestleBrainia at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival will be right up your alley. And if you happen to be a fan of wrestling, then this should be nirvana. But fear not, if wrestling isn’t your jive, then this still promises…
In his first trip to Australia to meet the local company of Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda delighted the Brisbane cast and surprised the city’s audience when he made a special appearance during the curtain call of a performance this past weekend. Speaking honestly, openly and humorously about the show, its creation, and the Australian production, Miranda…
The late night performance of Rouge is a little bit more saucy and raucous than the earlier evening shows, but with all the passion and fun that one expects. There’s a feeling of rawness and spontaneity that begins soon after the audience fills the Moa tent in Gluttony. In tight black pants, high heels and…
One of the more unusual Fringe events this year is the Celestial Gardens: The Secret Sounds of Plants. Set in the Adelaide Botanical Garden Bicentennial Conservatory, plants are wired with bio-sensors to create sounds. Visitors are invited to stroke and interact with the plants to create music. The whole conservatory is lit up and artworks…
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is just around the corner, and one of the acts we are particularly looking forward to is the Filipino-New Zealander comedian James Roque. James is bringing his much-revered Badong show to the festival, and will be performing it from the 28th March until the 9th April. ‘Badong’ is a light-hearted…
As the crowd filled the smokey Wonderland Spiegeltent in the Wonderland Festival Hub, the excitement in the air was palpable. And it was no surprise, considering that The Marvellous Elephant Man: The Musical had been described as The Book Of Mormon meets Beauty and the Beast. Just how on Earth were they going to pull…
Ben Hart is no stranger to the Adelaide Fringe, but this year he is surrounded by walls rather than being in a tent. He comes on stage, dressed in a black suit and tells us about his love for magic. His story is enchanting and soothing as he explains that the magic exists in us…
Calling all budding detectives! There’s been a murder in London and we need your expertise to find the killer before they claim their next victim. Put your wits to the test and feast your eyes on the world’s longest-running play, The Mousetrap. Born from the incredible mind of Agatha Christie, this genre-defining murder-mystery has astonished…
i am root begins with a traditional Acknowledgement of Country, before Canadian-born Olenka Toroshenko calls upon her own ancestors to join her performance. From fleeing war and settling in Canada, to following love to Australia, what follows is a personal and eclectic mix of Ukrainian poetry, storytelling, dance, comedy and even cooking. There are tragic…
If you can believe it, it’s been 50 glorious years of Rocky Horror, across stage and screen. It all started in a small 63-seater in London on the evening of 19 June 1973. Since, it has been performed worldwide in over thirty countries and has been translated into more than twenty languages. Of course, there…
Despite the name, Silence! is anything but quiet. The French performance artists, Les Commandos Percu created an incredible eye-popping mashup of fireworks, drumming and explosions. As the sun set over the Torrens River in Adelaide, the Zimbabwean-born R&B musician KYE warmed up the crowd. Encouraging everyone to dance, she gained some new young fans who…
The Maho Magic Bar has returned to Adelaide Fringe in The Garden of Unearthly Delights. Modelled on the Magic bars of Tokyo, tricksters entertain the audience whilst they sip on cocktails. Inside the Maho Bar, there are four bar areas and a separate table and each one hosts a conjurer. The atmosphere is loud, raucous…
Created by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber over half a century ago, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat has returned to Oz for the 2022/23 tour. It was this musical that gave Rice and Lloyd Webber the start in their illustrious careers which continued with theatrical collaborations including Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita. For…
Every now and then, there’s a show that reminds you how truly transformative theatre can be. A performance that has you holding your breath, unmoving, entranced, until the final moment. For me, one of these shows was Eddy Brimson’s one-man play, Naughty Boy, at Fringe World. In the dark theatre space of the Belgian Beer…
Yes, you read that right – the nostalgia party that swept Melbourne back to the good old ’90s is returning this month! After taking Australia by storm and garnering rave reviews, including a glowing 5/5 review from us, Cruel Intentions: The ’90s Musical is rounding out its Australian tour with one last romp through the…
When sitting down to review Liz Kingsman’s critically acclaimed One Woman Show at the Sydney Opera House, the real challenge is trying not to reveal too much while simultaneously describing one of the funniest comedic performances you’ll see this year. Written and performed by Kingsman and directed by Adam Brace, One Woman Show uses self-deprecating,…
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Mary Poppins descending on Melbourne’s own 17 Cherry Tree Lane for an unforgettable night of splendour. Adapted from the beloved writings of P.L. Travers, Disney and Cameron Mackintosh present this new and improved Mary Poppins production highlighting an all-Australian cast. The magical narrative follows Mr and Mrs Banks,…
Geordie-accented, WA-raised, Sydney-based comedian Rory Lowe is all action. Time flies when watching Rory, a non-stop comedian, with ready-made jokes and quick wit to keep the crowd on its toes. Scruffy-haired Rory is currently performing his Highs & Lowes show at The Rechabite‘s downstairs Goodwill Club as part of Perth’s Fringe World. George Zacharopoulos, who is…
WOMADelaide is just around the corner, kicking off in Adelaide on the 10th of March. As well as an incredible lineup of musicians and dancers, a key feature of the festival is the Planet Talks program. Planet Talks is a forum that runs over three days, featuring some of the brightest thinkers exploring the issues…
The Perth Fringe World started last weekend and often as a casual punter it can be hard to know what to go and see, but The Purple Rabbit (showing January 25 to February 5) stands out early as a must for keen audiences. The AU Review was lucky enough to be invited along for…
It’s always a risk to adapt a Shakespeare classic, as there are so many other versions to compete with—how can you find something new to say? Well, it’s never been said in bogan… Bogan Shakespeare Presents: Hamlet takes the most formal, complex material and transforms it into over-the-top Aussie slang, complete with local references and…
One of the most recent attractions to open its doors at the Intrepid Air & Space Museum on the waters of Manhattan in New York City, is an updated experience for one of the 20 Concorde jets built in the 70s and retired in 2003. The British Airways jet – a record breaking Concorde Alpha…
Coffs Harbour comedian Ben Stevenson is coping with grief in the best way that he knows how: through comedy. Using his wit as an outlet for the emotions surrounding the loss of his mother, Stevenson created Ratbag – a stand-up routine combining the darkest point in his life with uplifting stories from his childhood. The…
Best known as a finalist on the commercial television singing competition, The Voice, Prinnie Stevens is a singer and theatre performer, starring in productions including The Bodyguard and Thriller Live. In Lady Sings the Blues, Prinnie brings her Tongan Catholic heritage to stage and maps out a life and love of strong women in music….
Sitting in the audience at Werk It you’d be forgiven for rubbing your eyes and questioning what you’d imbibed prior. The 60-minute show performed by Circus Trick Tease was pretty much all killer, no filler. This was a crazy array of jaw-dropping stunts and circus artistry with lashings of sass and innuendo. As you walk…
Many Sydneysiders are already familiar with Blanc de Blanc. Strut N Fret’s incredibly flirtatious, Champagne-fueled stab at high-class cabaret has played around the city for years, popping up every so often at different views including a sell-out season at Sydney Opera House. Now, it’s back. And quite honestly, we should all be so glad that…
Girls & Boys is a one-woman play that had its Australian debut at the Adelaide Festival last year. The name can be deceiving given it is a rather quaint one for a story that packs a lot of punch. Across 110 minutes, we hear one woman’s story of how her picture-perfect life and marriage unraveled….
Antarctica is a new Australian exclusive opera performed by the Sydney Chamber Orchestra, jointly with The Netherlands’ music ensemble, Asko|Schönberg. It draws its audience in to the endlessness of the southern continent that is Antarctica. As the composers, Mary Finsterer (Music) and Tom Wright (Libretto) intended, the performance “hopes to awaken a vastness of thought”,…
If you’re going to The Cutaway at Barangaroo make sure to wear some flowers in your hair. As part of Sydney Festival, this will host A wonderful and immersive exhibition about Mexican artist and icon, Frida Kahlo. The result is a dazzling array of kaleidoscopic colours as we walk through a powerful homage to this…
