Book by Kevin Del Aguila. Music and Lyrics by George Noriega & Joel Someillan. GMG Productions. Associate Director: Nick Purdie. Sydney Coliseum Theatre, 16 Dec, 2022 – 1 Jan, 2023.

Reviewed : December 8, 2022*

Recreating animated characters as living beings is difficult enough if the characters are human. But animals? Big, upright, talking, singing and dancing animals! That calls for a great deal of talent and imagination – but costume maker Robert Allsopp and puppet designer Max Humphries had just that creative skill. Their original designs are stunning replicas of the movie characters and bring the caged animals of the New York Zoo to life in a production that is big, colourful, hoof-tapping fun!

The costumes are big too, but appear to be incredibly light considering the movement they allow. The features of each animal are carefully detailed – stripes, mane, the hippo’s tiny tail and ears – but retain the comic book images of the original animations. The faces of the performers, suitably and cleverly made up, give human attributes … and humour and charisma to their animal characters.

The penguins are puppets, cunningly operated by multi-talented puppeteers who sing and dance their web-footed friends through a variety of spaces and situations – including steering the ship that takes them to Madagascar.

Ten energetic performers and two faithful swings make up the ensemble. The pace they are set is fast with choreography carefully suited to the physical possibilities allowed by the costumes for some, and the flexibility of their manipulators for others. Together they bring the simple story of being “as free as the wind blows” to the live stage.

Former Titanium boyband member Andrew Papas plays Alex, a different kind of lion king, ruling from inside the cages of the New York Zoo. Papas is a practised performer. His confident characterisation reaches out to the young audience with genuine bobhomie and leonine appeal.

His relationship with Marty the giraffe, performed with suitable ‘cage-stuck’ yearning by Hi-5’s Joe Kalou, is established quickly and appealingly. Kalou’s expressive face shines through the make-up finding the sympathy of the young audience – and their parents. The Marty he creates is gentle, friendly but filled with an antipathy to restrictions that his young audience might understand.

Gloria the hippopotamus is playfully performed by Moniquewa Williams, who finds the equable nature of this particular hippo in gentle humour and a partiality for hip-hop! Light on her feet and expressively calm, Williams makes Gloria an audience favourite.

In this production Jack Stratford replaced Devon Neiman as Melman the giraffe, not an easy task as the animal’s long neck and head are attached to a stick which the actor operates by hand. It is fun to see his bespectacled face singing at shoulder height whilst he manipulates his neck and head via a double string arrangement on the stick.

King Julien, the ring-tailed lemur, is played Jonathan Martin, who makes this ground-loving lemur short but in command! The ring-tailed lemur is only found in Madagascar, so it is appropriate that King Julien welcomes the New York refugees to stay on his island and “Move it, Move it” with him and his sleepy pal Maurice.

The musical theatre version of Madagascar brings the animal characters to bright and tangible life on a comic book set that replicates the colourful illustrations of the movie. It’s lots of fun and short enough to sustain the interest of even very young theatre goers.

First published in Stage Whispers magazine.

*Opening performance

By William Shakespeare. Sport for Jove Summer Season. Director Sean O’Shea. Bella Vista Farm. 16 Dec – 30 Dec, 2022. Everglades Gardens, Leura. 7 – 22 Jan, 202.

Reviewed : 17 December, 2022*

The setting is wonderful. The high, open surrounds of a colonial farmhouse in Baulkham Hills. An outdoor stage framed by a garden of creepers and icehouse roses. Patrons picnicking on rugs or plastic chairs in summery December … or not!

Summer December it isn’t. The day has been cool, so we take a jacket. But the wind has come up, so we quickly grab a small blanket from the car. It’s not enough! Wiser patrons are wrapped up in rugs and scarves, some in all-weather gear. They’ve been here before! But none of us has anticipated the creeping cold or the brief shower of rain midway through Act 5!

Despite the weather, the vibe is wonderful. Happy Sport for Jove followers are excited to have them back with the Bard after two missed summer seasons. Families and friends are sipping and sharing snippets of news. Birds chirrup as they nest in the old trees that surround the homestead. Every now and then a bat squeals as it sets off on its night flight.

It’s an ideal setting for The Dream – especially a production directed as innovatively as this! One seldom expects productions of The Dream to be ‘straight’ these days, but director Sean O’Shea has incorporated twists that add some contemporary representative zing! None of the lines are changed – though one or two asides are added! – and all are articulated beautifully. But an innovative change in names – and a magical body swap – give O’Shea and his cast something more current to play with, and the opportunity to improvise ideas and clever bits of fun that add to the collaborative feel of the production.

Imagine, for instance, that the four lovers were three men and one woman! Or that Titania and Oberon could change roles. Imagine that, rather than being mercurial, Puck is a mature housemaid, who’d never be fast enough to “put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes”. Imagine that Nick Bottom is, in fact, Nicole Bottom, and that Peter Quince is besotted with her!

Imagine too, that the actors who play Puck and Nicole Bottom are the only actors who play just one role. In fact, the four actors who play the lovers – Jade Fuda, Darius Williams, Rupert Bevan and Toby Blome – also play Titania’s fairies and the artisans. And they never miss a line or the fast costume changes. They all are convincingly confident, whether as thwarted lovers, languid fairies or captivatingly over-the-top artisans, and fill the stage with spirited but controlled energy.

Claudia Ware plays Hippolyta … and Oberon; and Jake Speer plays Theseus … and Titania. That’s the ‘body swap’ – and the way the actual change is made is a nice piece of direction.

Giles Gartrell-Mills plays Egeus and Peter Quince, and obviously enjoys the possibilities that the change from patrician to peasant presented.

Bishanyia Vincent finds similar possibilities as Nicole Bottom, adding feminine panache to the over-confident enthusiasm Shakespeare wove into the weaver’s Role – and her wide-eyed disbelief when under the spell of “love in idleness” was beautifully played.

As Puck, Wendy Strehlow brought the experience of a skilled performer who accepts the challenge of a twist that completely rotates the character. Her Puck shows the measured assurance of age as well as the acknowledgement of ‘station’, and her appeal to the audience is immediate. Strehlow uses pace and timing to great effect – and both were obviously just what O’Shea envisaged when he decided how Puck would be represented.

This production finds all the mirthful possibilities of The Dream and adds some avant-garde daring!  Hopefully real summer weather will return and make the remainder of the season – a little more comfortable for this enthusiastic cast who bare a little more than their talent in this happy, pacy interpretation of the Bard.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening Night

By Sam O’Sullivan. Ensemble Theatre. Director Mark Kilmurry. 9 December, 2022 – 15 January, 202

Reviewed : 9 December, 2022*

“It’s Sydney. It’s Boxing Day. And it’s stinking hot. Grandad Stephen was the BBQ King and his adult children have gathered to honour his memory …”

Family traditions often outlive their raison d’etre. Sometimes it’s better just to let them go! But Peter is determined to honour his father’s legacy despite the heat, a bush fire burning not far away and the apparent indifference of the rest of the family.

The stage is set for a million possibilities and playwright Sam O’Sullivan makes judicious decisions about which to choose. In doing so he creates characters we get to know intimately, and a family where superficial bonhomie covers simmering bitterness and hidden hopes and decisions.

The style? Basically, realism with some comedy, some drama, some introspection, just a tiny bit of moralising … and a delightful touch of the absurd. It’s a crafty mix and O’Sullivan does it very cleverly.

In crediting the director Mark Kilmurry and cast in his writer’s notes – “The journey that this play has taken me on, with Mark and a wonderful cast of actors by my side, has been fascinating and joyful” – O’Sullivan highlights the significance of artistic collaboration in the theatre.

Kilmurry has nurtured that collaborative ‘vibe’ in his direction. It’s there in the authenticity of the characters. They feel like a family. They’re used to uncomfortable silences and brewing resentments that eventually boil over – and react accordingly. It’s there in the subsequent empathy that his cast establishes with the audience.

And it’s there in the continuity between the stage and technical designers and operators. Matt Cox (lighting) and David Grigg (sound) link the scenes effectively – and entertainingly – with particularly “Boxing Day” moments that O’Sullivan has built into the script. Towards the end of the play, those moments are linked guilefully to the plot.

Brian Meegan plays Peter, determined to carry on the tradition despite the apathy of the others. Peter is a successful small businessman, a wine snob. He and his second wife Val work together. Meegan makes him confident, seemingly in charge, but a bit touchy, especially when he finds out his daughter Jennifer has signed up to work as an unpaid  volunteer for a year.

Val is played by Aileen Huynh, who makes the most of Val’s different opinions and pushy bossiness. She relishes Val’s directness, her ability to control the family ‘action’ – and the irritating imperiousness that O’Sullivan has written into this character.

That directness is not appreciated by Jennifer, played with careful nonchalance by Harriet Gordon-Anderson. As daughter and niece, Jennifer is loving, understanding but her indifference to her step-mother is shown silently, in disbelieving expressions. Gordon-Anderson is often a quiet presence on the stage, but she watches, and listens – and the audience is acutely aware of her every reaction.

Danielle Carter plays her aunt, Connie, who is has strong, well-founded opinions about politics, climate change, social issues – usually the opposite to Val’s. This makes for some interesting banter – and comic moments. Carter brings verisimilitude to this role. She finds the different dimensions of the character, especially in her understanding relationship with her husband, Morris, despite their separation.

Morris is played by Jamie Oxenbould, who delights the audience with his interpretation of this gauche, easily influenced but very gentle character. Oxenbould shows the frailty of this character in hesitance – hesitant entrances, hesitant responses, hesitant exits – except when worrying about his bees who have ‘absconded’ from their hive.

Those bees add philosophical layers to the plot – and the “touch of the absurd” that takes this play beyond realism. O’Sullivan is a clever writer who knows how effective a creative twist can be.

Boxing Day BBQ is an interesting play, skilfully written and deftly directed. Its characters are real, tangible. The plot is multi-layered and very carefully developed.

What a great way the Ensemble has chosen to end 2022! A play that could become an Australian classic and an adaptation of A Christmas Carol that cleverly combines two literary classics – and both playing over the holiday season!

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening Night

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Concert Hall Sydney Opera House. 8, 10 and 11 December, 2022

Reviewed : 8 December, 2022*

What a sound! The Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and Orchestra led by the inimitable Brett Weymark bringing Handel’s magnificent Messiah back to the Concert Hall of the Opera House!

What a sight! The shining, intent faces of 523 choristers and 27 musicians following the Weymark baton!  What a thrill to hear soprano Lorina Gore, mezzo soprano Ashlyn Tymms, tenor Nicholas Jones and baritone Morgan Pearse sing the arias and duets – and smile as the choirs rise to sing the choruses.

What a thrill to be part of the enthralled audience rising to its feet – as tradition dictates – for the inspiring Hallelujah Chorus!

The tradition of standing for the Hallelujah Chorus began, it is said, when King George II was so ‘dazzled’ when he heard it for the first time, that he rose to his feet. When the King rose, so did everyone else! And so the tradition continues.

Messiah at Christmas – that too is a tradition. But it was originally written to be performed at Easter. It was Easter when it was first performed, on 13^th April 1742 in Dublin, Ireland, 280 years ago. It wasn’t until the 1790s that it began to be performed at Christmas – and that was in London.

Though Messiah traces the life of Jesus Christ, many of the words of the libretto were taken from the Old Testament. It is believed the librettist, Charles Jennens, did so to prove that the story of Christ was completely foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament.

For example, the chorus “For unto us a child is born” comes from Isiah (9:6); “Rejoice greatly … He is the righteous Saviour” comes from the prophet Zechariah (9: 9-10); and “I know that my Redeemer liveth” is from the prophet Job (19: 25-26). All written many, many years before the birth of Christ.

And yet Messiah was criticised as being “sacrilegious and heretical” by some, especially if being performed outside “proper places of worship”. Conversely, when Handel scheduled a performance in Westminster Abbey, some members of the clergy declared it sacrilege for a “public entertainment” to take place in a consecrated church. Poor Handel!

Messiah has a charitable history. That first performance in Dublin was a benefit performance for charity. It raised £400 and freed 142 men from debtors’ prison. From 1750 Handel himself directed annual charity performances at London’s Foundling Hospital. He even left a copy of the score and performance parts to the Foundling Hospital on his death in 1759.

Easter-time performances of Messiah continued each year at London’s Foundling Hospital until the 1770s. That’s why conductor Brett Weymark, when in London, always walks past the Foundling Hospital in Bloomsbury “as a kind of cultural homage” to this work that “is about more than the notes on the page”.

Perhaps this seems like too much ‘history’ for a review, but an oratorio that is so popular, that is performed annually in so many places around the world – and that is known, even in part, by so many people – makes history. And today all those little anecdotes are available on line to pique the curious and add to the splendour and allure of this work that has charmed the world for 280 years.

The Sydney Philharmonia Choirs bring that splendour to the Concert Hall again on Saturday and Sunday at 1pm. If you’re lucky there may be some seats available to hear these wonderful singers from all over Sydney.

If you’re very lucky – and very observant – you might even see a special ‘member’ of the Choirs. She’s a beautiful white Maremma dog who is trained as a mobility assistance friend. Her name is Jewel and she is just over 5 years old. If you look carefully you’ll even see she has a little black stage tuxedo. We watch Jewel every performance. She sits calmly through every performance, head on her paws. Her owner must be very proud of her. See if you can find her in the photograph.

George Bernard Shaw once said, “Handel is not a mere composer in England; he is an institution. What is more, he is a sacred institution.” Messiah is not a mere oratorio. It too is an institution. Sydney Philharmonia Choirs have made it a special December institution for Sydney audiences.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

*Opening Night

By Richard Greenberg. Corvus Arts Theatre. Director Jane Angharad. Meraki Arts Bar Darlinghurst. 17 November – 3 December, 2022

Reviewed : November 29, 2022

“Post Covid” Sydney is seeing some new, interesting and innovative arts venues. Meraki Arts Bar on busy Oxford Street is one of them. True to its name, it’s all about the arts. There’s an exhibition of art works on the ground floor, music on the first floor, and Corvus Arts production of The Dazzle tucked on the second floor. Every floor has its own bar, the décor is charming, and the pies and chips they offer are very ‘select’!

It’s a great initiative. A central location. A welcoming atmosphere. Small intimate performance spaces, ideal for a play such as The Dazzle where the audience is drawn inextricably into the strange relationship between two brothers and a rich, rebellious woman.

The Dazzle is loosely based on the ‘legend’ of the Collyer brothers who lived as recluses from the 1930s to 1947 in New York brownstone that, at their deaths, contained over 120 tons of collected rubbish and newspapers.

Greenberg’s story makes Langley Collyer a concert pianist, his brother Homer an Admiralty lawyer who has retired to tend his brother’s obsessive traits. As the play opens, Langley is fixated on the final note of his recital piece, Milly is fixated on Langley, and Homer is exasperated with their fixation! The atmosphere is tense, troubled. There is a strange lack of trust but also needy dependence between the brothers. Milly is oddly aware of this and plays to it bizarrely.

Using all the features of theatre of the absurd – pauses, repetition, dada-istic illogic, unfinished sentences – Greenberg’s characters exist in a self-created vacuum that becomes as fraught and oppressive as the collected rubbish filled that surrounds them.

Director Jane Angharad knows her play and has researched the possible frailties and psychological quirks of the characters carefully with her cast, then placed them on a set (Aloma Barnes) that is crowded with furniture, the piano and increasingly extraneous rubbish. Her blocking accentuates the distress of the characters, their anxieties, their disintegrating self-control.

Steve Corner, Alec Ebert & Meg Hyeronimus find all of that in performances that are as tightly contained as the script itself. It’s there in contorted faces, fixed eyes, clenched fingers, tense closeness, forced distance. Yet they are connected, reliant, clinging to the little control that remains of their lives.

Ebert finds the fragility of Langley Collyer in a tenseness that almost scary. His tight facial muscles, his incoherent repetition of phrases, his dependence on Homer are an internalised scream for help.

Corner uses the inferences in the script – deferring responsibility, then grasping to take it back, gradually relinquishing responsibility – show Homer’s fear of Lang’s dependence, his  realisation that he too is losing control. His gradual deterioration over the 100 minutes of the play is carefully directed and convincingly realistic.

Hyeronimus gives a performance that is beautifully controlled. She uses the proximity of the audience to show her fixed adoration for Langley, her dismissal of Homer, her need to control. She uses her eyes expressively in the opening scenes, but vacantly, feverishly in her final, diminished moments.

Under Angharad’s deft direction, they show how the human spirit can be misshaped and changed by the oppression of obsession and debilitating mental illness.

The Meraki Arts Bar theatre space is a perfect venue for this tight little piece of absurdist existentialism – and Jane Angharad and her cast and crew have used it perfectly.

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

School Spectacular 2022; Qdos Arena, Sydney; NSW Department of School Education (Arts Unit); Nov 25 – 26, 2022.

On the 25^th and 26^th November, four thousand and seven hundred (4,700!) talented arts students from over 200 state schools right across NSW hit the stage to create the magic of  that was the 2022 Schools Spectacular at QDOS Arena. It was an “Extraordinary Magic” that took the audience on a music, dance, acrobatics, puppetry and musical theatre journey that was, in the words of the incredible Mary Poppins Tribute, that concluded the first act, simply … Supercalifragilisticexpialidoious!

That magic, with all its colour, movement and harmony, will shine again on Saturday 17^th December at 7pm on Channel 7 and Prime. Don’t miss it!

Little did anyone think back in 2019 when the audience rose to applaud the exciting finale of the 38^th Schools Spectacular, that it would be two long years before our state school students would tread the Spectacular boards again. Little did many of us understand just how hard it would be to re-start the many engines needed to propel such an enormous juggernaut event. But … never underestimate the persuasive power of artistic people – or the determination and drive of the indomitable School Spec team!

Bringing the Spec back after two years was never going to be easy. The arts and arts venues were gravely affected by the pandemic – and schools’ arts courses and programs suffered just as badly. But, overcoming apprehension and economics is common in the arts … and education … and with support from ‘on high’ and some wonderful partners and sponsors – like Telstra, NSW Teachers Federation, School Bytes, Rode Microphones, Teachers Health, Smart Salary – the School Spec organisation team was off and running – and singing and dancing!

Conceiving a theme, choosing the music, devising the choreography, planning multiple rehearsals, finding venues for those rehearsals, getting those details out to schools … It’s a major feat of organisation and planning and a very expensive one. Not just for the Department of Education and the Arts Unit, but for all the schools, students and families who commit themselves to days of rehearsing … and travelling to Sydney for final rehearsals and performances.

Some of their students sang in the 2000 strong choir and the 32-strong core choir; some played in the 85-piece orchestra. Others danced in the 8 specialist dance ensembles, or the hundreds of dance groups from schools all around the state. Leading them were nearly 400 teachers, choreographers and conductors. Behind the scenes were sound, light and camera technicians assisted by a 58-strong student production team. Not to mention the back-stage crew who manned the dressing rooms and crowded stage entrances.

And the School Spec is inclusive. Students in the D’Arts Ensemble come from specialist classes in 28 schools, some as far away as Forbes and Finley. There are so many that they completely fill the arena stage. Some are in wheelchairs. This year their item introduced the segment called “The Crowd Go Crazy”. They knew every movement of this fast, toe-tapping segment, and loved every minute.

Another special feature of the School Spec program for many years has been the Signing Choirs. This year the signing choir was led by the very elegant and talented Josephine Woods, who has made signing into a very beautiful art form. Josey is an inspiration to many hearing-impaired students. It was amazing to watch her sign so gracefully beside many of the other featured artists – and see the whole 4,700 performers signing in the finale.

The dancers from the Aboriginal Dance Company come from twenty-two high schools, some as far away as Trangie, Armidale and Dubbo. Choreographers form Bangara Dance Company created a special indigenous magic to Miminga, with the ensemble and groups from nineteen other high schools.

It’s obvious that being part of the School Spec is special for everyone involved – but for some, like Josey and the other featured artists, who spend days auditioning and weeks rehearsing in Sydney, it’s more than just special. It’s the realisation of a dream …

I saw that dream being realised this year through the eyes of my 16-year-old my grandson. I watched the process from initial video audition through multiple live auditions until the scream that followed the arrival of the magical email that told him he had ‘made it’ as one of 40 featured artists in the 2022 School Spectacular!

For him, the dream began as a primary student, singing, as his younger brother did this year, in the massed choir, high behind the arena watching the action and excitement below. He began auditioning in Year 7 – and then Covid hit! But the dream didn’t die … and this year it came true! As it did for 39 other students from 35 schools across the state!  All their hard work – singing and dancing lessons, school and studio performances, vocal camps – had paid off! And the realisation of their dream was announced to the world on Friday 9^th September.

What a day that was! Lights! Cameras! Exuberant students! Proud parents and principals! It was a special moment – but it was just the beginning of long days of rehearsal and learning, because, believe me, the teaching and learning that took place in the next 8 weeks was intensive and extensive.

The School Spec teachers are specialists in their field – but they also have to be special people. Their role goes beyond teaching and training.  They nurture and care for these students, encouraging them to reach their best, preparing them for the strain of constant performance, emphasising the importance of being part of an ensemble and the etiquette of the stage. It’s the most extensive work experience creative arts students could possibly envisage.

It’s a big responsibility for the School Spec team, and one they and the Department of Education take very seriously.

Part of that responsibility is keeping the parents and schools informed and involved. Rehearsal schedules and ongoing information about where and when students will be working are essential. Schools need to know when students will be absent. Parents need to work out how to get students to various venues.

That’s hard enough if you’re travelling across the city, but from Coffs Harbour or Wagga Wagga or Yass or Lismore or Bungendore, travel – and accommodation – can be expensive. Schools help where they can – but it’s the School Spec families who provide most of the support. And their joy and excitement are just as infectious as that of their talented kids.

Sharing that joy and excitement this year and getting to know some of the performers and their families made reporting on this year’s Schools Spec especially poignant. What a lovely, happy, generous and proud group of people! Especially the “Schools Spec Mums”! Some met waiting patiently outside audition venues. Some at the publicity announcement. Others picking up students after rehearsals at the Arts Unit or other facilities, their excitement building along with the energy and anticipation of the performers.

They came together again on 25^th November, meeting outside the arena, or in the foyer, or at restaurants around Olympic Park. Their pride shone, one Mum wearing it visibly!

Whatever other dreams their talented kids achieve, to these kids and their parents, School Spec will always be a highlight, just as it has been to John Foreman, who returns each year to compere this special event. His words in the program echo those that have been made by so many School Spec alumni:

“Way back in 1986 when I was in Year 10 at Newcastle’s Kotara High School, I auditioned for what was then a relatively new show. My band played in the foyer of the Sydney Entertainment Centre that year. Things got even more exciting the following year when I got to perform inside the venue on centre stage. I couldn’t believe that I’d been given the chance to perform in front of 10,000 people on the biggest stage I’d ever seen. It was life changing … and it’s something I’ll never forget”.

As a Drama teacher, back in the 1990s and early 2000s, my students auditioned every year for that same opportunity – the chance to perform in the foyer of the School Spec. I know just how Mr Foreman felt! My students loved every minute of being just a small part of School Spec – and we got to sit in to watch the show in between performances. That excitement still lingers every year when I sneak in as soon as the doors open to hear the beautiful young voices of the massed choir warming up for the opening.

The Schools Spectacular is special – magic indeed – in so many ways. It brings kids and teachers from all over the state together. It gives them a chance to display their talents in a professionally organised ‘big event’ on a huge, arena stage. It’s inclusive from a whole host of perspectives … and it promotes the status and importance of the arts in education in a way that is remarkable – in fact, Spectacular!

Remember Saturday 17^th December at 7pm on Channel 7 and Prime. Don’t miss it! Record it so your children or grandchildren can watch it again and again. They’ll notice something different every time – and they’ll sing and dance along to that “magic”!

NB. My grandson is Alexander Billett from Riverstone High School! Watch for him in the Hip Hop item “Tick Tick Boom”!

 

 

 

Written for, and first published in Stage Whispers magazine.

By Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe, and Phillip Scott. Seymour Centre, Sydney. 17 November – 23 December, 2022

Reviewed : 17 November, 2022*

It’s a new dawn, a new day, and a new captain at the helm of the ship of state. And what a state we’re in!

That’s how it’s advertised – and that’s what it’s all about! But what the advertising doesn’t suggest is that there’s a new sang froid to the show. It’s cleverer. Sharper. Even more perspicacious.

Don’t get me wrong! All the highlights are there: the cutting satire, the crafty impersonations, the witty parodies, the music, the choreography, the wicked pace. But there’s something more.

Perhaps it’s a sign of the times. After all there’s a lot to cram into a revue about 2022 apart from the new crew in Parliament House. There’s the world economy, the war in Ukraine, climate change, a few tyrants, a continuing pandemic … and a shift in values that these astute creatives have ingeniously infused into their writing.

They open as Sideshow Alley clowns, fixed together, heads turning, singing Happy Days! Then come The Greens! Think green-skivvied Wiggles – with Amanda Bishop sporting Emma Wiggle’s bunches and bows – and sing some witty parodies including “Toot Toot Electric Car”!

And what of the title Looking for Albanese? He pops up all over the place, played by all performers and recognised by his new, black glasses! Phil Scott introduces him as Albo Baggins climbing The Mountain of Debt. Later Amanda Bishop plays him as Albo in Wonderland. Drew Forsythe finds him in an aged care facility after serving 6 terms as PM! Clever! Different! How do they come up with these new twists?

Pollies and policies appear intertwined in longer sketches – or in individual spots, all of which are interspersed with excerpts from interviews with “losers” in a spoof on the ABC’s program “You Can’t Ask That”.

Jonathan Biggins almost brings down the house as a very aggressive, hard-ass Peta Credlin. Scott hosts a last party at Number 10 as Boris Johnson. Biggins returns in a new, and even more kingly role!

Bishop appears and re-appears! She recites a Dylan Thomas-style dissertation as Katie Gallagher explaining the state of federal finances, becomes Allegra Spender – a ‘Real Contender’ ousting “Dave Sharma, Rose Bay farmer” … and later takes a ‘hip’ Jacqui Lambie to the Tamworth Country Music Festival.

In Wonderland, Albo goes to the Mad Catter’s Tea Party, where he meets not only Bob, but a yellow-clad Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee (Craig Kelly and Clive Palmer) – and the Queen of Hearts (Pauline Hanson) who flutters her eyelashes amid a host of malapropisms! The new Cabinet gets together in a skilfully written parody on West Side Story – and the three ex Labor PMs meet at a party Conference! Biggins (Keating), Scott (Rudd) and Bishop (Gillard) have perfected these roles and it was delightful to see them together in this very clever skit.

The Revue always comes up with an item that is just a little different, just a little deeper, often quite hard-hitting. This year that item is especially poignant. On a darkened stage, with Scott at the piano and Biggins on guitar, Forsythe pays tribute to those lost or languishing in the aftermath of Australia’s Longest War. Sung to the haunting tune of Ghost Riders in the Sky, it is a beautiful piece of theatre, breaking the satirical vibe for a few thoughtful, touching moments.

These four doyens of the Australian theatre scene never cease to amaze with their ideas, their quirky insights, their eclectic talents. They can write, compose, act, dance and sing. You Can’t Ask That of many performers!

If you haven’t seen a Wharf Revue before, start with this one! You won’t be disappointed … quite the opposite!

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine.

*Opening night.

By Elizabeth Coleman. Hunters Hill Theatre Company. Directed by Vivien Wood. Club Ryde. 11 – 27 November, 2022

Reviewed : 13 November, 2022

Elizabeth Coleman uses the occasion of a major commitment – namely marriage – to present a number of moral dilemmas. Is it important to tell the truth? Is love more important than fidelity? Is the cost and glamour of a wedding more important than integrity?

They are big questions. Serious questions. But Coleman cloaks their gravity in a story that could be the day before any wedding. Everyone is excited. There are little last minute problems – the guest list, place cards, shoes – but nothing that can’t be overcome. The bride, her bridesmaids and her slightly over-bearing mother have booked adjoining rooms in a hotel and the scene is set for a cosy night together.

Director Vivien Wood and her cast make the most of the very natural dialogue that introduces the characters and sets the mood. It’s not easy to make dialogue appear spontaneous, but, as  Wood says in her program notes, “relationships need work and attention”, and Wood has obviously worked hard with her cast to achieve the spontaneity with which they relate and the naturalness of their actions and reactions.

This is especially important in a play where characters could become two dimensional or stereotypical. Wood hasn’t allowed this to happen. Every character is believable, convincing. The women appear to have known each other for years, put up with each other’s foibles, and shared each other’s dreams.

This is especially evident in a scene where the bride, Meg (Anna Desjardins) reminisces with her best friend Lucy (Laura Stead). Desjardins and Stead chat with the warmth and intimacy of trusting friends. Sitting cross-legged on the bed, they giggle together, sharing treasured moments. This is an exceptional scene and one of which Wood should be proud.

Lighter, but similarly natural moments occur in the first few scenes where Meg and her matron-of-honour Angela (Kirsty McGowan) deal with the flustering of Meg’s mother Colleen (Lois Marsh). McGowan is restrained, accommodatingly keeping the peace between mother and daughter, while sharing some eye-rolling and raised eyebrows behind Colleen’s back! Bacon plays a fussy mother, advising and admonishing with the picky twitchiness of pre-wedding nerves.

All goes wrong when Lucy, who is well-known for her directness and honesty decides she must tell Meg about some gossip she has heard about Meg’s fiancé James and one of Meg’s friends.

Enter James (Dan Ferris) and Naomi (Chloe Horne) – and the part of the plot that is a little less convincing albeit emotional, confronting. As such, it requires some thoughtful directing and acting, which Wood handles cleverly.

I have no intention of spoiling the outcome! Audiences will react to the conclusion in different ways depending on their own beliefs and baggage! Suffice to say, this cast presents the dilemmas Coleman has imagined in a way that will make them think and evalute.

Coleman has broken the continuity of the play with fourth-wall-breaking monologues in which the characters elaborate on their objectives. These ‘interruptions’ are unnecessary adjuncts that break the action, especially with this cast who have established their characters and the situations so clearly. Nevertheless, Wood has incorporated them effectively on a set that is simple and effective.

Secret Bridesmaids’ Business is an interesting study in what a wedding is! Is the expense and the excitement more important that the commitment? Or doesn’t that really matter anymore? Secret Bridesmaids’ Business is a little deeper than it looks!

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine

By Irene Sankoff and David Hein. Rodney Rigby and Junkyard Dog Productions. Director Christopher Ashley. Theatre Royal, Sydney. 10 Nov 2022 to at least end Jan, 2023.

November 10, 2022*

Last night the Cenotaph and Martin Place were in readiness for Armistice Day. White plastic chairs and multiple arrangements of huge red poppies waited behind wire fencing for the sombre service that marks the end of the “war to end all wars” … and remembers the loss and destruction of the many wars that followed. As we walked past this sombre sea of poppies to watch the re-opening of a play that commemorates one of the ‘fall outs’ of a more wicked kind of warfare, we wondered at the coincidence of a play about ‘9/11’ opening so close to ‘11/11’…

I wrote about Come From Away when it first opened in Sydney, but this ‘coincidence’ led me to concentrate on what this very different musical achieves as a record of one of the “good things” that came out the devastating tragedy that history remembers simply as ‘9/11’.

Today’s history is recorded in graphic detail. Pictures fly across the world faster than the immediate effects ‘on the ground’ are realised. Those pictures will remain, cementing the shock, wreckage, loss of life … and the reprisals that might follow.

The history Come From Away records is different. It shows the other side of human nature. The side that the people of Newfoundland showed as they greeted 6,597 passengers from 38 aircraft that were diverted to the international airport at Gander as the airspace above America was closed. “The Rock” that is Newfoundland became what writers Irene Sankoff and David Hein describe as their “safe harbour in a world thrown into chaos”.

That chaos is an integral part of Come From Away.

It’s there in the pace and composition of the music – music that, in its tempo and timbre pays homage to the diverse backgrounds of the people of “The Rock” and the instruments that their settler ancestors brought with them – the button accordion, the Irish flute, uillean pipes, bodhrán drum, the fiddle. All mix with contemporary instruments to provide the almost mystical music of Newfoundland, mystique incorporated into the fourteen songs that carry so much of the story. Some are foot tappingly memorable, some are poignantly moving.

Chaos is there too in the pace and complexity of the choreography – not just in the dancing, but in the speed with which the 12 actors change character, change accent, change costume, and the dexterity with which they change the positions of the twelve chairs that are the basis of the set. Every movement is precise, every placement is exact. And no one misses a beat.

There is a different sort of chaos that is expressed in the changes of mood. There’s the chaos of the townspeople suddenly realising that they are part of a devastating event that has thrown the world into turmoil. That the planes that have landed will bring people from 92 different countries. That they will have to be housed and fed and comforted.

There’s the confusion of the travellers who are frightened, disoriented, worried about their loved ones. Many can’t speak English. They have no luggage. Some haven’t eaten for hours. Others have had to leave their medication on the grounded planes.

All these emotions are manifested in the reactions and words of the characters – words taken from the 1600 stories that Sankoff and Hein collected in the month they spent in Gander Newfoundland on the 10^th anniversary of the attack. Words expressed by the cast as they move between characters, one moment sitting, frustrated, uncomfortable and afraid in an aeroplane, next minute trying to find accommodation and food for 7000 people. This chaos is different for each character, and the 12 actors find each strange, busy, frightened, compassionate moment.

Come From Away is warm and poignant. It is fast and funny. It is both celebratory and commemorative. It shows humankind at its very best dealing with the result of humankind acting at its very worst. If you missed it last time … don’t make the same mistake again!

First published in Stage Whispers magazine.

*Opening night.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Concert Hall Sydney Opera House. Saturday 29 October, 2022

Reviewed : October, 29, 2022

What a sight! Over 350 singers surrounding the stage of the Concert Hall! 93 musicians on the cleverly stepped levels of the stage itself. A packed audience excitedly anticipating the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs’ return to the beautifully renovated Concert Hall.

What better way to celebrate than with the “glorious” music of Giacomo Puccini in a program that juxtaposed his sacred and secular music. In the words of Artistic Director and conductor extraordinaire Brett Weymark, they have brought together a program that reveals “the theatricality of the church and the reverence of the theatre” that that shines through Puccini’s work.

A very special Acknowledgement of Country preceded the work of the Italian maestro. Written by Deborah Cheetham and translated into Gadigal by Matthew Doyle, Tarim Nulaywas –  Long Time Living Here was first sung at the Dawn Chorus on the steps of the Opera House at the beginning of 2020 and has become a distinctive part of Sydney Philharmonia performances. Hearing it sung by so many voices and instruments on land that means so much to the indigenous people of the Eora Nation was a fitting spiritual introduction to an inspiring program.

The program began with the Messa di Gloria, Puccini’s Mass for four voices and orchestra, written as he finished his apprenticeship as a student in 1880. Amazing to think that such a complex piece of music, covering so much religious ritual was written by Puccini in his early twenties. Amazing too that it was ‘lost’ to the world until 1950. Celebratory, supplicatory, mysterious, celebratory again, the Gloria gave the Choirs the opportunity to show the beautiful possibilities of voices and orchestra coming together in praise. Joined by critically acclaimed tenor Bradley Daley and much-awarded baritone Peter Coleman-Wright, they told the story of Christ’s short life in glorious, reverential harmony.

It was in Opera that Puccini made his most important mark. Manon Lescaut, La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, Tosca, Turandot­ – all have been the mainstay of international opera seasons for over a hundred and twenty years. Different to the operas that came before them, Puccini followed Verdi’s idea to write verismo operas, where the themes and characters were more realistic. Some of the best-loved arias – and characters – from his operas were included in this tribute to his “glorious’ work.

From Tosca, the Choirs gave us the triumphant chant of the chorus in the Te Deum in Act 1, with Bradley Daley singing the words of the sinister police chief Baron Scarpia lusting after the fleeing Tosca and planning the death of the escaped prisoner Angelotti. Stirring, impassioned, this was a dramatic opening to the theatricality of Puccini’s verismo operas. What could be more “everyday realism” than jealousy and lust!

Two of opera’s most popular and accomplished sopranos, Cheryl Baker and Antoinette Halloran, joined the Choirs to share some of the most evocative music from Madama Butterfly, the Flower Duet and the Humming Chorus. Cheryl Baker played the excited Cio-Cio-San, sighting the ship which she believes is bringing her American husband Pinkerton back to her. Antoinette Halloran played her maid Suzuki. Both brought verisimilitude to their roles, showing the longing and elation of the moment that ascends through the music – an elation that is overshadowed by three years of longing and waiting.

From Manon Lescaut, Puccinii’s first major success, the orchestra took the audience, via the Intermezzo between Acts 2 and 3, on the journey of the Chevalier des Grieux’ as he follows his lover Manon to North America. In the program notes, David Garrett describes how the “intermezzo’s big central tune, one of Puccini’s most memorable” finds the des Grieux’ “desperate passion”.

And then to Turandot! From Act 1, we heard the Invocation to the Moon and Prince Calaf imploring Liù not to cry in “Non piangere Liù’. From Act 2 Turandot’s story of her background in ‘In questa reggia’ (In this palace). And lastly, from Act 3 the much loved ‘Nessun dorma’ where Calaf confidently predicts he will follow Turandot’s command that ‘non shall sleep’ … and the very beautiful and touching ‘Tu che di gel sei cinta’ (You who are enclosed in ice). Beautiful because it is Liù’s dying aria, touching because it is also the last music that Puccini wrote.

In this special tribute the Philharmonia Choirs, the soloists and the orchestra celebrated ‘glorious Puccini’. In his 1982 biography Kulian Budden wrote: ” No composer communicates more directly with an audience than Puccini”. That communication was evident in the response of the audience last Saturday night. But it wasn’t just Puccini nor the singers and musicians who made that special ‘direct’ communication …

Brett Weymark has been the driving force behind the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs since 2003. For nearly twenty years his passion for singing and the importance of music to the world has inspired hundreds of music lovers to sing with the Choirs – and to follow their many concerts. It is easy to see why as one sits in the audience watching Weymark at work. He is ‘in’ every moment, every note. His energy and enthusiasm is exciting. It’s evident in the way he holds the baton, the way he almost leaps into stirring moments, the smile as he turns to congratulate his first violin and invites the audience to celebrate the wonderful work of his choristers, soloists and musicians.

Bravo Brett Weymark! Bravo the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs!

Also published in Stage Whispers magazine.