La Vie, Les 7 Doigts de la Main, Feb 7, 2012, ***1/2

Spiegel Tent, Arts Centre Melbourne, Feb 7 to April 22, 2012

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars:  ***1/2

LA VIE IS THE THIRD SHOW I’ve seen by Montreal circus company, Les 7 Doigts de la Main, (7 fingers of the hand), and the programme of acts certainly embodies the dexterity and absurdity of a 7-fingered hand.

This black comedy does not features all of the company’s 8 original artists, but it boasts some spectacular acts, although this version could be more effective and cohesive without a few of the later routines.

La Vie is an intimate circus show performed on a tiny stage in the centre of the exotic Spiegel Tent and comprises multiple acts: floor acrobatics, aerial acts, music, song, juggling, dance and comedy.

The sadistic, almost demonic Master of Ceremonies, Philippe Trepanier, wielding an elaborate cane, introduces us to his cosmic waiting room. It is Purgatory for those newly dead who arrive on the cheerfully named La Vie (Life) Airlines because La Mort (The Dead) Airlines would not fly with customers.

For the entire show, the MC torments Adam Kuchler, the newest arrival, and initiates him into the afterlife by confronting him with case studies of other deaths presented as circus acts. Case # 73, however, is an unsuspecting audience member.

Good People, by David Lindsay-Abaire, Feb 6, 2012 ****

By Red Stitch Actors Theatre

Red Stitch Actors Theatre, Rear 2 Chapel St. St. Kilda, Feb 5 to March 3, 2012

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Feb 6, 2012

Stars:****

 Andrea Swifte and Dion Mill in Good People, Red Stitch Actors Theatre

SOME PEOPLE DIG A TUNNEL and escape from their tough neighbourhoods, down at heel families and deprived childhoods to forge a new life, while others get stuck in the land of lost opportunities.

Margie, played with passion and commitment by Andrea Swifte, is one of those trapped in working class, South Boston, known as ‘Southie’ by locals.

She is both tragic and inspiring in her determination to survive, her resilience in overcoming adversity, including losing her job, living on peanuts and caring for her intellectually disabled, adult daughter.

Now, 30 years after their short-lived, teen romance, she meets Mike (Dion Mills), now a wealthy doctor, and Margie confronts her lost opportunities and hopes that Mike can help her find a way out of the hole.

Swifte is sympathetic as Margie, portraying her wry, self-deprecating humour, warmth and toughness as well as her volatile temper, deep resentment and desperate need for change.

Mills is compelling as Mike, playing him like a caged lion: restrained, watchful and elegant but ready to revert to his wild state at any provocation.

A Chorus Line, Her Majesty's, Melbourne, Feb 4, 2012 ****

Conceived, originally directed & choreographed by Michael Bennett
Book- James Kirkwood & Nicholas Dante; Music - Marvin Hamlisch; Lyrics - Edward Kleban; Co-choreographed - Bob Avian; Restaged by Baayork Lee
Produced by Tim Lawson & John Breglio

Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne, Feb 4 to March 3, 2012 
Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Feb 4, 2012

Stars:****

 

A Chorus Line, Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne Feb2012

A CHORUS LINE is a musical about the rocky careers and physical hardships of Broadway chorus hoofers, and it is definitely the dancing that zings in this Australian revival of Michael Bennett’s 1975, Tony Award winner.

I Hope I Get It, the spectacular, opening song-dance routine, led by the impressive Joshua Horner as director Zach, provides a preview of the vigour and passion to come.

On a bare stage in a New York theatre, 17 hopeful and desperate dancers – bright-eyed novices and jaded veterans – audition for eight coveted roles in a Broadway musical.

Between the gruelling, sweaty audition routines, Horner, as taskmaster Zach, compels all to reveal their personal lives, secrets, fears and dreams.

Their shared aspirations and individual stories are set to rousing music (Marvin Hamlisch), captivating song lyrics (Edward Kleban) and dazzling choreography (Michael Bennett) which is recreated here by Baayork Lee.

Although this is an ensemble show, Anita Louise Combe is a stand out with her impassioned plea as Cassie, the older dancer, who sings and dances her desperation and commitment in The Music and the Mirror.

Yes, Prime Minister, Melbourne, Feb 2, 2012 ***1/2

By Antony Jay & Jonathan Lynn

Produced by Andrew Guild, Simon Bryce & Tim Woods with YPM (International) Ltd. 
Comedy Theatre, Melbourne, Feb 2 to March 4, 2012 
Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Feb 2, 2012 
Stars:***1/2

John Lloyd Fillingham, Mark Owen-Taylor & Philip Quast in Yes, Prime Minister

EVEN IF YOU ARE A DIE-HARD FAN of the original, BBC TV series of Yes, Prime Minister, you may still enjoy this updated, two-hour stage version of that biting political satire of British government.

This Australian production, directed with a dab hand by Tom Gutteridge, may not have Nigel Hawthorne and Paul Eddington, but Philip Quast’s Sir Humphrey is just as supercilious, manipulative, arrogant, deceitful and shamelessly self-promoting as the original.

The audience cheers Quast’s performance of Sir Humphrey’s convoluted, florid arguments as he protects the privileged Civil Service and his own position. 

Mark Owen-Taylor’s Jim Hacker is a youthful, ambitious and fearful PM who manages to score a few points against his smarmy advisor, Humphrey, and finally compromise his position to achieve something useful for his career if not for the country.

Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn’s stage script is as cunningly wrought as their TV series, incorporating contemporary issues such as global warming, human rights, the European Union, the GFC.

Their story, set at Chequers, hurls Hacker into a moral and political dilemma when he receives an astonishing, illegal request from his guest, a representative of the government of Kumranistan who is about to sign a lucrative loan agreement with Hacker.

In Vogue – Songs by Madonna, Jan 20, 2012 ****

Performed by Michael Griffiths, written by Dean Bryant

fortyfivedownstairs, Jan 19 to 28, 2012

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Jan 20, 2012

Stars:****

( published in Herald Sun on Tues Jan 24, 2012)

 Michael Griffiths: In Vogue - Songs of Madonna

WHO CAN EXPLAIN why pop divas such as Madonna, Bette Midler and Kylie are gay icons – they just are.

Singer-pianist, Michael Griffiths, directed by Dean Bryant, performs Madonna’s hit songs, speaking in first person as Madonna but without any drag-queen costuming, accent or attempted impersonation of that feisty, Italo-American pop idol.

Griffith’s performance is super-camp and his delivery of Bryant’s witty dialogue is sardonic and intimate as he weaves Madonna’s songs among stories of her personal and public life.

Seated at a piano, he chats personably with us, underscoring tales of Madonna’s success, loves, ambition and ageing with moody music and cheesy lyrics read from Madonna’s diary.

Griffiths voice is warm, his piano playing effortless and his interpretations of Madonna’s songs often have blues and jazz tones that make them more affecting and personal.

Landscape Dreaming, Midsumma, Jan 19, 2012, *1/2

By Charles Mercovich 
Company White Wolf, Midsumma Festival 
La Mama Courthouse, Jan 18 to Feb 5, 2012 
Reviewer: Kate Herbert 
Stars: *1/2

LANDSCAPE DREAMING is a comedy that will attract an audience in the Midsumma Festival, but Charles Mercovich’s script and the production need radical reworking and rewriting to make it successful theatre.

The narrative premise has some promise; Marco (Gavin Williams) needs a suitable male date to accompany him to an Italian family wedding but none of his friends are presentable, so he hires a straight actor to play the role of his boyfriend.

However, the narrative is muddled so we keep chasing it down rabbit holes and getting lost or bumping into dead ends.

The most interesting part of the idea – taking the straight guy to the wedding – is omitted, and Marco’s wedding speech furthers neither the comedy nor his argument about whether marriage or friendship is the happier path.

Britney Spears: The Cabaret, Jan 18, 2012 ****1/2

By Dean Bryant
The Harbour Agency & Luckiest Productions
Midsumma Festival

Chapel off Chapel, Prahran, Jan 18 to 29, 2012

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Jan 18, 2012

Stars: ****1/2
Published in Herald Sun on Mon, Jan 23, 2012 (See review on this blog of first production, Oct 7, 2010)

Christie Whelan in Britney Spears: The Cabaret

Nearly 18 months after the 2010 premier of Britney Spears: The Cabaret, the charismatic and mischievous Christie Whelan still makes us laugh and cry at her depiction of the vacuous but troubled pop star and her demented behaviour.

Whelan, with her versatile voice and wearing a frighteningly brief, black frock that reveals her knickers more than once, lights up the stage with Brit’s own hit songs and Dean Bryant’s mercilessly satirical versions of them.

Britney’s personal life is now less controversial with her upcoming, third wedding, but her past remains absurd and chaotic.

Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, MTC, Jan 16, 2012 ***1/2

By Ray Lawler 
Melbourne Theatre Company present Belvoir St production 
Playhouse, Victorian Arts Centre, Jan 16 until Feb 18, 2012 
Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Jan 16, 2012 
Stars: ***& 1/2

 

Helen Thomson and Travis McMahon. Photo by Jeff Busby.

 

RAY LAWLER'S 1955 classic Australian play, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, is a domestic tragedy in which nothing dies except illusions.

It slowly and meticulously dismantles its characters’ romantic dreams and memories to reveal the bleak ordinariness of their lives.

We peer like voyeurs into the old Carlton house where hopelessly romantic barmaid, Olive (Alison Whyte) lives with her crotchety mother, Emma (Robyn Nevin).

There, Olive entertains two cane-cutters, Barney (Travis McMahon) and Roo (Steve Le Marquand) for five months during their layoff season.

What keeps Olive alive for seven months of the year is the romantic excitement of the past 16 years and the tantalising hopes for this 17^th year and the 17^th kewpie doll that Roo will bring her as a gift.

But the gloss goes off their summer fantasies because Nancy, Barney’s girl, is now married and time finally catches up and reality confronts them.

Olive’s obsessive fantasising and embellishment of their summers is accentuated by Pearl (Helen Thomson), the newcomer who sees their lives warts and all and insensitively shares her views.

In 1955, this play broke boundaries with its Aussie vernacular and working class characters and, although that is commonplace now, it blazed a trail for our playwrights of the 70s.