Reviews

Charming. That’s the word I’d best use to describe what Moulin Rouge! has bought to a Sydney crowd that’s absolutely aching for a playful musical following the previous few years. While he’s busy doing the round in Australia right now for his new movie Elvis, Baz Luhrmann has no doubt already been through the Capitol…

It is 1899 and the world’s most famous actress, Sarah Bernhardt, is rehearsing for Hamlet. But, to the horror of critics and the delight of the Parisian gossip mills, she won’t be reprising her role as Ophelia. Nor will she be embracing the age appropriate Gertrude. Bernhardt craves something more audacious, something bold. Something that…

The Australian production of Once, the eight-time Tony Award-winning musical (based on a critically acclaimed 2007 film) has come to The Regal Theatre in Subiaco. It’s a charming, joyous story, and even before the show started, there was a palpable feeling of excitement in the air – assisted by musicians wandering between the rows, playing…

Intimate, heart-breaking and occasionally very funny, Jason Robert Brown‘s The Last Five Years has taken to the La Boite Roundhouse stage under the direction of Darren Yap. Chronicling two 20-somethings as they fall in and out of love, the musical navigates the years of miscommunications, crossed wires, and heartfelt attempts to salvage something that perhaps…

Whip out your retro windbreaker, rock the double denim look and prepare to relive the good old ’90s in all their glory with the nostalgia-fuelled Cruel Intentions: The ’90s Musical. Following successful runs across the US and the UK, garnering rave reviews from original film stars Sarah Michelle Gellar and Reese Witherspoon, this throwback musical…

Experience the timeless Cinderella story you know and love, now with a contemporary spin in Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, a Tony Award winning Broadway musical from the minds behind The Sound of Music. After captivating audiences across the US, this spellbinding production has floated into Melbourne, lighting up the famous Regent Theatre with dazzling costumes…

Presented by Circa, Wolfgang’s Magical Musical Circus has a short stint at the Theatre Royal, adding a cheeky element of fun to the school holidays. The show is a more ‘child-friendly’ version of its adult counterpart, Circa’s Peepshow, which runs parallel in the evenings. The classical composer’s music comes to life on stage as the…

Hamilton has a new home in Australia – officially opening in Melbourne’s theatre district after spending much of 2021 and the early months of 2022 based in Sydney. The Tony Award-winning blockbuster, at the centre of a premiere bragging rights battle between the two capital cities, was eventually won by the New South Wales Government….

Song Lines are the way of sharing knowledge along generations of Indigenous people. In this multimedia performance, the relationship to the land is explored, not just in song, but in visual poetry. Drone art specialists, Celestial and First Nations Artists have collaborated to tell these stories from First Nations peoples. Renowned singer, songwriter, Archie Roach…

The worlds of ballet and musical theatre collide in An American in Paris, creating an extraordinary blend of timeless music, breathtaking choreography and a captivating love story set against the romantic backdrop of Paris. Inspired by the 1951 Oscar-winning film of the same name, and incorporating music from George and Ira Gershwin, An American in…

The opening song in Bethany Louise’s Broadway Baby cabaret show is both a tribute and lament that she is singing at Arthur’s Bar for the Adelaide Fringe. Not that Arthur’s Bar is a bad place, it’s more because her dreams of starring on Broadway were dashed by the dreaded COVID virus. In an autobiographic style,…

The Cocoon is four vignettes of love, with two monologues and two duologues. Written by New York’s Kotryna Gesait & directed by Brisbane-based Timothy Wynn, The Cocoon has previously been performed at the Adelaide Fringe in 2018 and again in 2019. For 2022, the performance takes place in Peter Rabbit in the West End of…

Before walking into the theatre, the quality of the storyline has already been confirmed as this play is based on the 1959 film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock who brought audiences iconic classics such as Vertigo (1958), Strangers on a Train (1951) and Psycho (1960). Considered the first ‘James Bond’ before there was any,…

The recent renovations to Her Majesty’s Theatre in Adelaide have been in keeping with the charm of the old building, while modernising it to a current standard. More room in comfortable seats, an additional dress circle, better bar facilities; these all add up to a sympathetic improvement of a classic theatre. What better place to…

Opening Night at Belvoir in Sydney is the story of an actor, Myrtle (Leeanna Walsman), who finds herself at a point in her life where her age begins to make her feel invisible. She starts to question her relevance and her ability as a performer as she undergoes rehearsals for a new play. Everyone around…

It’s not a particularly good start when the venue doors open late, and the show starts before everyone enters. Then again, it’s probably a reflection of the popularity of Kira Yang filling the Nexus Cabaret room. Kira, front and centre, is the subject of Not Your Average Asian Girl, following her transformation from being quiet…

WA playwright Kate Mulvany’s adaptation of the classic Friedrich Schiller play Mary Stuart has come to Perth Festival and it’s ready to live up to the reputation of its predecessor. The two hour production focuses on the last days of Mary, Queen of Scots and explores her complex relationship with cousin Queen Elizabeth I of…

An 80s-lover’s neon-filled fantasy, come to life! After selling out performances across Broadway and the UK, and lighting up the Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne in 2021, The Wedding Singer brings its neon lights, flashy perms and dazzling choreography to The Arts Centre’s State Theatre – updating the already brilliant performance with spectacular new sets and…

Described by Bangarra Director Stephen Page as “narrative dance theatre and contemporary ceremony”, Wudjang: Not the Past follows the journey of a young woman Nananhg (Jess Hitchcock) as she struggles to understand her cultural heritage while existing in a white system. When ancestral bones are discovered during excavation for a dam, one of the men,…

For Perth’s annual Fringe World festival, the delightfully ridiculous Shakespearean drinking game Booze & the Bard has returned for 2022 with two shows: their tried and true Macbeth, the Scotch Play and the brand new Twelfth Pint (or What You Spill). We caught the Saturday night showing of Macbeth on the 15th of January and happily…

Forming part of the 2022 Sydney Festival, A Chorus Line at Riverside Theatres in Parramatta delivers a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a dancer trying to forge a career on Broadway. Set on the stage of a theatre during auditions for a chorus line, the musical centres on the lives of seventeen hopefuls and…

Released in 1995, Jagged Little Pill was a cultural moment, packaging themes of angst, sexism, loneliness and self-discovery from the perspective of a young woman to over 30 million albums sold. 25 years later, the Broadway production takes us back to the anguish of the original text, albeit with an updated rap sheet. Designed as…

Put on your finest dress, button up your best tux and step into an extravagant world of glitz, glamour and romance at the Moulin Rouge! Based on Baz Luhrmann’s iconic 2001 film, it tells the story of an aspiring composer, Christian (Des Flanagan), who falls in love with Satine (Alinta Chidzey), a prominent cabaret actress and…

A musical about 9/11 might feel a bit risky, so it’s fortunate that Come From Away has a particularly refreshing angle on the subject. With airspaces locked immediately after the tragedy, 38 planes were forced to land on the island of Newfoundland, Canada. Over 7,000 stranded passengers were sent to nearby towns including Gander, where…

Trigger warning: this review contains discussions of sexual assault. Spoiler alert: this review also discusses how the play ends. Set in 1990s Boston, Spike Heels focuses on the intertwined lives of four individuals and one woman’s journey to self-actualisation. Written in 1992 by Theresa Rebeck and directed by Serhat Caradee, Spike Heels is based on…

An 80s-lover’s neon-filled fantasy, come to life! After selling out performances across Broadway and the UK, The Wedding Singer brings its neon lights, flashy perms and dazzling choreography to Melbourne – filling the Athenaeum Theatre with a sense of resounding joy and classic 80s nostalgia. Based on the beloved Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore romantic comedy, The…

You could be forgiven for having never heard of a French sculptor named Camille Claudel. Like many talented and brilliant women history forgot, she existed in the shadow of a man and within the confines of a society that feared the ambitions of women. Growing up with a father who encouraged her and a mother…

Written by David Henry Hwang, Yellow Face at Kings Cross Theatre is a semi-autobiographical play that features the playwright himself as the protagonist. Set in America over the course of the 1990s, Yellow Face focuses particularly on the inception, creation, release and subsequent failure of Hwang’s 1993 play Face Value, and everything that follows. When…

Jackie French’s much loved children’s book, Pete The Sheep has been a staple of households since its first pressing in 2004, with the story of a loveable shearer and his ‘sheep sheep’ Pete teaching children about differing viewpoints and acceptance of change. Theatre company Monkey Baa have lovingly produced a stage musical based on the story,…

Staging an Australian production of a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical is always a daunting task, particularly when that show is one of the most acclaimed and successful musicals in Broadway history. The one benefit for local productions is knowing the audience likely have little first-hand experience with the version seen on The Great White Way….