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As music theatre opening numbers go, Razorhurst’s is hardly a showstopper. Crime maven Tilly Devine (Amelia Cormack) lumbers around the stage in a pathetic vaudeville display, slow of jazz hand and short of breath, at one point declaring “I’m not doing that” of a more athletic act of choreography. To be fair to Tilly, she
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Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd, the chorus sings. And that’s no small feat. Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece is an Everest musical for any company. It calls for a big orchestra. Big voices. Big emotions, from playful vaudeville to macabre tragedy. Complex staging. Subtle shifts in mood and musicality. There are variations, of course. Bryn Terfel
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I hated this play. Watching its premiere at the State Theatre Company in Adelaide a couple of years back, Andrew Bovell’s overripe melodrama had a pungent smell of the worst type of contemporary middle-class storytelling It presented as theatre by committee — which it is; a rehearsal room collaboration between writer, directors and the original
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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland works exceptionally hard to take us into a dream world – but does it truly transport our hearts and minds elsewhere? In the Australian Ballet’s trippy take on the Lewis Carroll tale, we journey with Alice from quaint Oxford gardens to deep under the sea; then to a sausage factory with
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The fluorescent lights are unflattering. The desks are too close together. The coffee is substandard. And now the photocopier needs paper. It’s grimly familiar, the magazine publishing office tableau of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ much-awarded Gloria. And peculiarly nostalgic at the same time — the scene and, in turn, the play. Magazines have had their day, right?
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After a few blazing years lighting up Sydney’s skies, last year saw some chatter that perhaps the Vivid concept is becoming tired. Whether it was the jam-packed crowds, overzealous security staff or an uninspiring format – there was comment from a few local punters that the festival was no longer for them. However, despite last
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What a vile piece of art is Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho. What a toxically sexist, nefariously homophobic, grossly classist, shameless celebration of undue privilege and abject narcissism. So why is this musical treatment of his novel, making its Australian debut at the Hayes Theatre, so much fun? Oh, it’s transgressive, we’re told, a satire
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On the morning of 19 May, a year ago today, Australians awoke to the news that Carlton’s beloved La Mama Theatre had been gutted by fire, the blaze sparked by an electrical fault in the two-storey brick building constructed in 1883. Coming so soon after La Mama had celebrated its 50th anniversary the year prior, the
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For an unadaptable novel, Tim Winton’s cherished Cloudstreet sure has been adapted a lot. Just a couple of years ago there was the admirable opera version (State Opera of South Australia). The inevitable prestige television mini-series (Foxtel) landed in 2010. There was even a radio play (ABC Radio National) back in the ‘90s. The most
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How do the major political parties understand Australia’s culture and what vision do they offer for our future asks Esther Anatolitis, the executive director of the National Association for the Visual Arts. We’ve got Labor who’ve launched a comprehensive policy after extensive consultation; the Greens, who’ve released a considered policy without a launch nor consultation;
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