The Phantom of the Opera REVIEW 4 Nov 2022 ****1/2

 

MUSIC THEATRE

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Lyrics by Charles Hart (additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe)

Book by Richard Stilgoe & Andrew Lloyd Webber

By Opera Australia & Really Useful Group at State Theatre Arts Centre Melbourne

Season run until 5 Feb 2023

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ****1/2

This review published only on this blog with a radio review on Arts Weekly, 3MBS on Sat 5 Nov at 10.15am. KH

The Phantom of the Opera Australia 2022 - Josh Piterman, Amy Manford- PIC DANIEL BOUD

The Phantom of the Opera is a story of impossible love of a beauty, Christine Daaé (Amy Manford), by a beast, the Phantom (Josh Piterman), a man whose facial deformity has blighted his life and sent him underground – literally - to dwell in the cavernous tunnels beneath the Paris opera house that he haunts.

 

Directed by Laurence Connor with balletic choreography by Scott Ambler, this dazzling, new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s long-running hit musical is bold, vivacious and beautifully designed with sets (Paul Brown) and costumes (Maria Björnson) that echo images from the Baroque, Renaissance, Commedia dell’Arte and even a tiny scene that recalls Degas’ ballerinas.

 

The score and orchestrations are soaring with memorable songs including The Music of the Night, Masquerade, Angel of Music and, of course, the title song.

 

Piterman is a rich-voiced and almost athletic Phantom, and his vocal range and tone are well-suited to the role that is described as “high baritone”, and his rendition of The Music of the Night is thrilling and potent. As Christine, the ingenue opera singer with whom the Phantom is obsessed, Manford has a bell-like soprano with a fine vibrato and a delicate, almost balletic physicality. Piterman and Manford’s voices blend beautifully in the duets of The Phantom of the Opera and I Remember/Stranger Than You Dreamt It.

 

Blake Bowden is a commanding presence as Raoul Vicomte de Chagny, Christine’s true love, and his singing has power but also an effortless quality. A high point of the show is Bowden and Manford’s heartfelt duet, All I Ask of You.

 

David Whitney as Monsieur Firmin and Andy Morton playing Monsieur André are a fine comic duo of opera house impresarios who, according to the Phantom, have no idea about art and should stay in their office.

 

This lavish production almost topples over with its bombastic “ham” opera scenes and colourful comic characters: conceited opera diva, Carlotta (Giuseppina Grech), and Piani (Paul Tabone), her over-eating leading man.

 

There seems to be an imbalance between these outrageous scenes and those quieter, sinister and menacing scenes between Phantom and Christine, and the tender, more intimate and beautiful duets between Christine and Raoul. The spectacle overwhelms any subtleties in the story.

 

Christine is perhaps a little too worldly, even sassy, for an ingénue and the Phantom loses focus as the core of the story. There was also some imbalance in the sound quality at times, with lyrics being lost or large chorus numbers sounding crowded.

 

However, this is a vibrant and beautifully performed and staged production that will thrill even the jaded or those who are not Lloyd Webber fans.

 

by Kate Herbert 

 

CREATIVE TEAM

Director Laurence Connor

Choreography Scott Ambler

Set design Paul Brown

Costume design Maria Björnson

Sound design Mick Potter

Associate Director Seth Sklar-Heyn of this new production in Australia

New production overseen by Matthew Bourne and Cameron Macintosh

CAST (37 total)

Josh Piterman- Phantom

Amy Manford -Christine Daaé

Blake Bowden- Raoul Vicomte de Chagny

David Whitney -Monsieur Firmin

Andy Morton -Monsieur André

Giuseppina Grech -Carlotta Giudicelli

Jayde Westaby -Madame Giry

Paul Tabone -Ubaldo Piangi

Mietta White Meg Giry

The Phantom of the Opera Australia 2022 - Paul Tabone and Company - PIC DANIEL BOUD

The Phantom of the Opera Australia 2022 - Josh Piterman, Amy Manford - PIC DANIEL BOUD

Girls & Boys, MTC, 27 Oct 2022 ****

THEATRE

Written by Dennis Kelly

By Melbourne Theatre Company

At Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars:****

This review is published only on this blog with a verbal review on Arts Weekly 3MBS on Sat Nov 5, 2022.

Nikki Shiels in Girl & Boys image Jeff Busby

In Girls & Boys, Nikki Shiels gives an impressive, rapid-fire performance playing a hilariously combative, loud, brassy and audacious young London woman.

 

The first hour of Dennis Kelly’s solo play is pretty damned funny, lulling the audience into a false sense of security that they are watching a comedy. However, the hints and cues keep coming, vague non-specific indicators that all is not well in the world of this woman who is evidently a successful documentary film producer, married to a passionate, supportive man who she has always considered a “doer” who encouraged her in her chosen career. She has two young children: Danny the rowdy boy and Leanne her orderly, smart daughter.

 

Directed deftly and vigorously by Kate Champion on a sparse set (Marg Horwell), Shiels’ performance is riveting, credible and nuanced, shifting from comical to tragic by the end.

 

Shiels addresses the audience directly with bold, honest, revealing and expletive-riddled stories about the character’s life and her colourful opinions. Speaking in a broad, working-class London accent, she trawls through her youthful past follies, dredging up images of booze-soaked, sex-filled partying, her chequered work history and dubious lovers – the life she lived until she met her husband and settled comfortably into marriage, motherhood and her award-winning career.

 

Scattered between the character’s evocative and revelatory monologues, Shiels brings the two little children to life as the woman plays with her recalcitrant son and more serious and obedient daughter. These playful scenes depict the joy and love she experiences with her children.

 

To divulge this woman’s shock revelations about the more recent, awful events in her life would be an unforgivable spoiler. Suffice to say I gasped, clutched my hand to my heart and jammed a hand over one ear (and would have covered both if I could), trying to avoid hearing her story.

 

Some dialogue is perhaps too didactic, preaching about problematic behaviours of men and the dialogue is perhaps more graphic or gratuitous than it needs to be to make its point. The gear shift in the latter part of the play is somewhat jarring.

 

Despite these small quibbles with the script, Shiels' performance in Boys & Girls is compelling and absorbing, taking us on an unexpected and shocking ride through laughter and pain.

 

by Kate Herbert 

Nikki Shiels in Girl & Boys image Jeff Busby

 

 

 

CAST
Performer Nikki Shiels
Leanne (image) Hannah Bickerton
Danny (image) Jared Bickerton

CREATIVE TEAM
Director Kate Champion
Original Set & Costume Designer Marg Horwell
Lighting Designer Amelia Lever-Davidson
Composer & Sound Designer Sidney Millar
Voice & Dialect Coach Geraldine Cook-Dafner
Set & Video Designer Romanie Harper
Associate Costume Designer Sophie Woodward
Assistant Director Stephen Phillips
Mime Consultant Steph Kehoe

 

Naomi REVIEW 16 Oct 2022 ***1/2

THEATRE

NB Trigger Warning: This play deals with suicide. 

Written by Patrick Livesey 

At Trades Hall, Carlton until 23 Oct 2022 

Reviewer: Kate Herbert 

Stars: ***1/2

This review is published only on this blog and I will do a radio review of it on Arts Weekly 3MBS on Sat 22 Oct 2022. KH

Patrick Livesey in Naomi photo by Jack Dixon Gunn

You might not expect to laugh during a production about the suicide of the playwright’s mother, but Patrick Livesey’s verbatim play, Naomi, peppers sad reminiscences with laugh-out-loud stories about Naomi’s character and antics.

 

In this play, directed by Bronwen Coleman, Livesey (they/them) stitches together extracts from interviews with family members and friends of Livesey's late mother. The extracts are arranged in a roughly chronologically order, beginning with Naomi’s own mother Nan’s recollection of Naomi as a plump, pretty, “sexy” baby. (Yes, an odd way to describe a tot but that’s what Nan thought.)

 

On a near empty stage, effectively using only voice and gesture to convey multiple characters from Naomi’s life, Livesey shifts from Nan to Naomi’s older and younger sisters, her friend from dental nursing college, her daughter, stepdaughter and second husband, Vince, who is a large-than-life character who boldly describes their fights and Naomi’s volatility.

All That Fall – REVIEW – 9 Oct 2022 ***1/2

THEATRE

A radio play by Samuel Beckett

At La Mama HQ, Carlton, until Sun 16 Oct 2022

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars:***1/2

This review published only on this blog. I plan to talk about it on Arts Weekly on 3MBS  on Sat 22 Oct, 2022. KH

Carole Patullo pic Melissa Violet

All That Fall, by Samuel Beckett the writer of Waiting for Godot, was commissioned for radio in 1956 but this is a stage production that gives the flavour of a 1950s radio play performed with the immediacy of a live theatre audience.

 

The production of this dark comedy, deftly directed by Melanie Beddie, is wickedly funny, absurd and poignant in similar ways to other Beckett plays. 

 

It is set in a village south of Dublin and tracks the path of a crusty old Irish woman, Mrs. Maddie Rooney (Carole Patullo), as she embarks on her laborious journey on foot to meet her husband at the station on his birthday.

We witness the actors reading from scripts and, as well hearing the sound effects, we are treated to seeing their creation by the cast using a motley array of bangers, clangers, whistles and other items. Walking feet crunch on boxes of stones, trains blow their whistles and rattle on rails, wind blows and voices produce the bleat of lambs, the mooing of cows and a donkey's bray. It adds a dimension that would be missing if the sound effects were created invisibly by audio technology.

The Meeting REVIEW Red Stitch 1 Oct, 2022 ****1/2

THEATRE 

Written by Jeff Stetson 

At Red Stitch Theatre, St. Kilda until 23 Oct 2022 

Reviewer: Kate Herbert  

Stars: ****1/2

  Dushan Philips, Christopher Kirby

 

“We may both give our lives for this thing called freedom,” says Malcolm X in Jeff Stetson’s gripping play, The Meeting. Written in 1987, the play depicts a fictional, secret meeting in 1965 in Harlem between Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, two towering, American black rights leaders, just one week before the assassination of Malcolm X in Manhattan. Three years later, Dr King was also assassinated. Their conversation in The Meeting eerily presages their imminent deaths.

 

In just 60 minutes, Stetson’s play presents us with the two seemingly opposing views of these men on achieving civil and human rights, revolution, freedom and how to bring about change for black Americans. It is a compelling argument, a competition between two men which, in the play, is not only an intellectual contest but also a physical contest that includes an almost absurdly brief tug-of-war and another test of physical strength.

Measure of a Moment- details only -1 Oct 2022

By Charles Mercovich

At La Mama HQ until Oct 2 2022

Live stream on Fri 29 Oct 2022 - available for 48 hours.

(Query: Digital season at La Mama on Screen after the live season.)

NB: This is NOT a review. KH

 L-R_ Asher Griffith Jones, Jordan Chodziesner -Pic by Cameron Grant

FROM MEDIA RELEASE:

Cyrano by Virginia Gay REVIEW 29 Sep 2022 ****

 

THEATRE

Written by Virginia Gay after Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano

By Melbourne Theatre Company

At Southbank Theatre, The Sumner until Oct 29, 2022

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ****

This review is published only on this blog, but I will do a radio review on 3MBS Arts Weekly on Sat 8 Oct 2022. KH

CYRANO_Robin Goldsworthy (front), Milo Hartill, Holly Austin, Virginia Gay-picJeff Busby

Cyrano is a rollicking good night in the theatre with an intelligent and witty script by Virginia Gay, inventive direction by Sarah Goodes and delightfully quirky performances.

 

The production literally breaks the fourth wall not only by frequently addressing the audience, but with its set design (Elizabeth Gadsby) that features a demolished brick theatre wall that allows us to peer into the performance space that appears to be a backstage area.

 

Gay’s interpretation of Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano begins with a motley bunch of actors wrestling with ways to represent the famous Cyrano story on stage. This is meta-theatre: art talking about itself as it is created on stage.

Bed & Breakfast REVIEW 8 Sept 2022 ****

THEATRE

Written by Mark Crawford with additional material from Tessa King & Ben Noble

At Chapel off Chapel until Sept 18, 2022

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ****

This review is published only on this blog. I'll present a verbal review on 3MBS Arts Weekly on Sat 10 Sept 2022. KH

Ben Noble & Alex Thew - photo by Cameron Grant

When Ben Noble and Alex Thew took their curtain call at the end of Bed & Breakfast I had a fleeting moment of expecting “the rest of the cast” to appear on stage; that’s how convincing the two actors were playing over 20 roles between them!

 

Canadian playwright Mark Crawford’s Bed & Breakfast, is a genuinely hilarious, warm, moving and clever play, superbly performed by Noble and Thew who play the central characters of Brett (Noble) and Drew (Thew) who move from Melbourne to a small country town to convert Brett’s Aunt Maggie’s rambling old house that Brett just inherited, into a B and B. The play charts Brett and Drew’s year of renovations and homemaking.

 

The production is directed deftly, precisely and inventively by Tom Healey who pushes the performers to their limits. These two versatile and admirable actors inhabit an entire community of people, transforming into old and young, male and female, progressive and conservative characters with a shift in posture, a change in attitude, accent or tone, or just a jacket.

Freaky Friday the Musical, 8-18 Sept 2022 PREVIEW ONLY

MUSIC THEATRE

Freaky Friday the Musical, Music & Lyrics by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey

Produced by Theatrical

At Chapel off Chapel until Sept 18, 2022

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

This is NOT a review but a short preview taken from the Media Release for this production and company. KH

Freaky Friday  photo  by Evangeline Kepler Studios

 

Quote from Media Release:

K-Box REVIEW 7 Sept 2022 ***

THEATRE

Written by Ra Chapman, Malthouse Theatre

At Beckett Theatre, Malthouse until Sept 18 2022

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ***

This review was published only on this blog. I’ll present an oral review of it on 3MBS Arts Weekly on Sat 10 Sept 2022. KH

Susanna Qian, Maude Davey, Syd Brisbane_c Phoebe Powell

K-Box, written by Ra Chapman and directed by Bridget Balodis, explores a story about racial identity and issues surrounding inter-racial and inter-cultural adoption and, although the themes and narrative ideas have potential, they are not yet fully realised. 

 

Korean adoptee, 34-year-old Lucy (Susanna Qian), returns to her parents’ home in an Australian country town, unannounced and after a long absence, after leaving her boyfriend and her job with no explanation.

 

Lucy’s well-meaning but confused parents, Shirley (Maude Davey) and George (Syd Brisbane), welcome their obviously despondent and disoriented daughter with open arms but are bereft of ideas to help her through what Shirley believes – correctly, it transpires – to be a breakdown. Lucy does not leave the house for weeks and is obsessed with a large, now empty cardboard box that she played in as a child and called something sounding like “Ship” or “Chip”, a name that she discovers has resonance with her early childhood in Korea. Lucy keeps her precious box close, weirdly seating it at the dinner table, stroking it as she watches TV or squatting inside it like a toddler.

Come From Away RETURN SEASON Sept 5 2022 *****

MUSIC THEATRE

Book, Music & Lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein

At Comedy Theatre, Melbourne until Oct 30 2022

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars:  *****

This review published only on this blog. It repeats much of my 2019 review but includes the new cast for this 2022 season. KH

Cast of Come From Away - photo credit Jeff Busby

Come From Away is a remarkable, exhilarating and joyous celebration of the human spirit at its best, and the audience at this return season in September 2022 leaps to its feet in a standing ovation at the rousing finale. This show is a rare creature you should not miss.

 

On September 11 2001, 38 planes were diverted to a tiny town in Newfoundland, Canada, almost 7,000 passengers were met with warmth and open-hearted generosity. On that dark day, the 10,000 residents of Gander and neighbouring towns gave shelter, solace and a warm hearth to complete strangers displaced by the events of 9-11. These people shared their lives. Remember sharing?

 

In their electrifying and outstanding musical, writers, David Hein and Irene Sankoff, condense 16,000 stories from real interviews into a narrative set over five days, with dozens of quirky characters portrayed by an exceptional ensemble of twelve.

La Cena Perfetta FILM REVIEW 2 Sept 2022 ****

(The Perfect Dinner)

ST. ALI Italian Film Festival 2022

At Palace Cinemas 15 Sept to 12 Oct 2022 

For dates: www.italianfilmfestival.com.au/films/the-perfect-dinner

2022 | 106 min | Italy | Comedy

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars:****

This review was published only on this blog. KH

La Cena Perfetta: Salvatore Esposito, Greta Scarano Gianfranco Gallo

 

La Cena Perfetta is a delectable romance seasoned with a dash of menacing mafioso and a splash of comedy. It tracks the path of Carmine (Salvatore Esposito) – a member of the Neapolitan Camorra who has too much heart and soul for violence and crime – after his Capo and “uncle”, Pasquale (Gianfranco Gallo), banishes him to Roma to launder Camorra money through a cheap and tacky frozen food restaurant called Picchio Blu (Blue Woodpecker).

 

When Carmine encounters feisty and attractive Consuelo (Greta Scarano), haute cuisine chef and former owner of the restaurant, he follows his own dream and embarks on a dangerous path to build a Michelin star-worthy restaurant with Consuelo at the helm – but he diverts Pasquale’s money into his project without the Capo’s knowledge or consent. Danger looms!

Heart Is A Wasteland REVIEW OF PREVIOUS PRODUCTION July 1, 2017 ***

 THEATRE 

NB: This is a review of the 2017 production with a different cast from that of the latest 2022 production.

Written by John Harvey, by Brown Cabs Productions and Malthouse Theatre 

At Beckett Theatre, Malthouse, until July 16, 2017 

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on July 1, 2017 

Stars:***

Review was also published in Herald Sun Arts online on Mon July 3, 2017 and later in print. KH

 Ursula Yovitch, Aaron Pedersen - Photo by Deryk McAlpin

Heart Is A Wasteland is John Harvey’s debut as a playwright and, despite the undoubted quality of the actors and the dramatic potential of its premise, this script is not yet ready for the stage.

Harvey describes his play as ‘a road trip, a crazy, black love story set over a few nights’, and when Raye (Ursula Yovich) meets Dan (Aaron Pedersen), the encounter between this seemingly mismatched pair rapidly becomes intense, lustful and increasingly fraught.

Pedersen is startling, compelling, totally credible and fully immersed in his role as the damaged, uncouth but endearing and sometimes inarticulate Dan, who was a youth worker but now works in the mines and nurses a sad secret.

More Than a Game REVIEW August 25 2022 ***

The Unauthorised Footy Show Musical

Book by Jacob Buckley & Michael Whyntie, Music & Lyrics by Walter Buckley

At Chapel off Chapel, The Loft 25-28 August 2022

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ***

This review published only on this blog. KH

Amelia Hender Ned Baulderstone Harry Fiedler Walter Buckley-pic Frank Lynch

It’s bad enough when your personal life goes to hell when your best friend hooks up with your recently ex-wife, but when you're a faded footy hero and TV footy identity, your private life explodes into a very public media frenzy. And so it was for the hapless Footy Show clown and former AFL footballer, Billy Brownless.

 

Of course, once the dust had settled, the last thing Brownless would want is a bunch of young musical theatre makers performing a totally unauthorised version of his personal horror story, complete with songs, parody and drunken histrionics.

 

With book by Jacob Buckley and Michael Whyntie and music and lyrics by Walter Buckley (I presume the Buckleys are related?), More Than a Game is a hoot. The songs are full of witty, well-observed lyrics and there are several rocking tunes played by a tight four-piece band led by arranger Regi Ashman.