Life’s a Circus , MAgnormos, July 31, 2009 ***

Life’s a Circus 

Music and Lyrics by Anthony Costanzo, Book by Peter Fitzpatrick

Produced by Magnormos

Theatreworks, July 31 to Aug 9, 2009

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars:***

Published in Herald Sun

MELBOURNE LOVES A MUSICAL and we are fortunate to have Magnormos, an organisation that promotes new Australian music theatre. The Magnormos Prompt! Musicals Program is currently staging a new, boutique musical called Life’s a Circus, with music and lyrics by Anthony Costanzo and book by Peter Fitzpatrick.

Costanzo’s music is a close relation of popular, contemporary musicals we know and love and the voices of the three actor-singers in this production (Chelsea Plumley, Cameron MacDonald, Glen Hogstrom) blend perfectly and provide some thrilling harmonies and rousing choruses. Kris Stewart’s direction is slick and polished, keeping the focus firmly on the voices and music. Christina Logan-Bell’s architectural design and evocative lighting by Lucy Birkinshaw enhance the production. 

As resident director of Wicked in Australia and founding director of the New York Musical Theatre Festival, Stewart knows about fostering new music theatre. With a bigger production and budget Life’s A Circus would have a live orchestra, but the recorded backing is effective and Costanzo’s composition and musical arrangements are successful.

The story deals with not only an unusual love triangle between three circus performers but also the existential crisis of 30-somethings considering their choices in life, work and love. Tightrope duo, Vivien (Plumley) and David (Hogstrom), embark on another world tour with the slightly shabby Grande Illusion Circus troupe. Alex (MacDonald), the new, young circus clown, attracts both Vivien and David and their secret trysts and mixed messages form the basis of the romantic triangle.

In addition to these main characters, four circus performers (Vaughan Curtis, Annabel Carberry, Stephen Williams, Shannon McGurgan) provide a mostly silent chorus and some exhilarating feats of acrobatic skill and very funny, physical clown routines with choreography by Kate Priddle.

I saw a preview of the production and it is clear that plenty of script development took place during rehearsal and will continue during this season. The performers are warm and engaging, many of Costanzo’s songs are compelling and the show has great potential to grow.

The circus metaphor becomes a little laboured in both the narrative and lyrics, the narrative and dramatic arc need some attention and there is more than one ending. But the show is well sung and has some great tunes and entertaining moments.

By Kate Herbert

Queen: It’s A Kinda Magic, July 24, 2009 ***

Queen It’s A Kinda Magic

Her Majesty’s Theatre, 24 to 26 July, 2009 only

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on July 24, 2009

Stars:***
Published in Herald Sun, Melbourne

IF YOU FALL OVER YOURSELF when you hear Freddie Mercury singing Bohemian Rhapsody or you bellow along with We Are The Champions at sporting events, then this tribute show is for you. Queen It’s A Kinda Magic is a big, loud rock concert with stacks of speakers, rock event lighting and screaming fans.

This is not a theatre production about Mercury and Queen. There is no narrative thread or details about Mercury’s journey from son of an English diplomat through art school to 70s rock phenomenon. Who knows why they staged it in one of Melbourne’s fine, old theatres. It is better suited to an arena concert. Freddie was, after all, one of the first stadium rock stars.

Craig Pesco plays Freddie and he captures Mercury’s peacock strutting, pacing like a caged animal across the stage, wiping sweat from his head and bare chest. He grins and gapes open-mouthed, peels off layers of clothing, thrusts his pelvis, and uses his microphone like a phallic symbol just like Freddie did.

Pesco is decked out in all the costume finery of the very camp Mercury. He wears his signature clingy white pants, the glittering, red and white stripe jacket, black vinyl outfit and the red vinyl pants with Union Jack. Freddie belonged in the Village People.

But it is the music of Queen that the crowd comes to hear. Pesco’s vocal quality cannot compete with Freddie’s soaring upper register and fruity tones, but volume covers many vocal flaws. There is plenty of spectacular guitar work by Travis Hair playing Queen’s guitarist, Brian May, with a replica of May’s hand-made Red Special guitar. Matt Newton is bass player, John Deacon, and Brett Millican plays big, bold drummer, Roger Taylor.

The show saves the biggest hits till the second half so the first half is a little disappointing. However, the crowd leaps to its feet for Freddie, in drag, singing I Want To Break Free and for Killer Queen, We Are The Champions, Under Pressure and the rousing We Will Rock You. But it is the finale of Bohemian Rhapsody that they are awaiting. In 1977 it was voted Best British Single of the previous 25 years and it is still an extraordinary song. Queen will rock you.

By Kate Herbert

Bugger the Polar Bears, This Is Serious, Rod Quantock, July 23, 2009 ****

Bugger the Polar Bears, This Is Serious
By Rod Quantock

Trades Hall, Tues to Sat, July 23 to August 15, 2009

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on July 23, 2009

Stars:****

Published in Herald Sun, Melbourne

ROD QUANTOCK'S latest comedy show could be called Quantock’s War on Climate Change Deniers. No one does political comedy like Quantock and this show is comical scare mongering at its most effective – and strangely accurate.

It’s not often a comedian wants to send you home “rigid with fear” but this is Quantock’s aim. “If climate change doesn’t scare you sh…less, you just don’t get the science.”

His scathing attacks are directed at all sides of politics. His hit list includes Labour pollies, Peter Garrett – rock legend and Environment Minister who Quantock believes sold out – and Penny W(r)ong. Independent Senator Stephen Fielding gets a huge serve for being a simpleton about Climate Change. Even Maggie Thatcher warned us about climate change in 1989. Now, that’s scary!

Quantock’s shows took a technological leap over the last few years. He now uses a data projector and real theatre lights. The show opens with images from the Hubble Telescope. However, he still entertains us with low-tech chalk and blackboard and the History of the Universe is performed by audience volunteers, including the Big Bang depicted by a bloke leaping up and shouting, “Bang!”

It is Quantock’s gift to take terrifying data and turn it into jokes that make you think. There are worrying statistics about the increase in carbon dioxide in the air, sea levels and ice melts. He provides a hilarious perspective on the senselessness of carbon trading and proves that carbon has the Devil’s number, 666. He even considers doing a carbon neutral show because his microphone lead is directly connected to the coal-fired power station.

He attacks, brown coal burning and the Premier’s choice to build freeways for more cars to burn more oil.  His cynical view that people will be less interested in the Climate Change discussions in Copenhagen than what Princess Mary is wearing is likely to be true.

He creates a wonderfully bizarre link between people, water oil and food that predicts us eating each other in future when everything runs out and we are living in 70 degree heat. We even get to choose who we want to eat first.

Go see Rod Quantock and be afraid. Then, as he insists, “Go and do something!” Oh, and log on to www.350.org, the Global Warming Action site.

By Kate Herbert

Crazy For You, Production Company, July 15, 2009 ***

Crazy For You

Music & Lyrics by George Gershwin & Ira Gershwin, Book by Ken Ludwig

By The Production Company

State Theatre, Victorian Arts Centre, July 15 to 19, 2009

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on July 15, 2009

Stars:***

Published in Herald Sun, Melbourne

GEORGE AND IRA GERSHWIN wrote countless memorable songs for Broadway (Funny Face) Hollywood (Shall We Dance) and the opera stage (Porgy and Bess). Even posthumously, it seems, they can create new music theatre. Crazy For You first hit Broadway in 1992 decades after the brothers died.

How does one write a show after departing this world? Cunningly, Crazy For You was constructed from the 1930 Gershwin show called Girl Crazy and a bunch of other Gershwin songs from other productions and the rather silly story from the original show was replaced with a new book by Ken Ludwig. Enter Crazy For You.

Bobby, played with vigour by Christopher Parker, is a rich, young banker who wants to dance in Bela Zangler’s Broadway show. (Think Ziegfeld Follies.) When he is sent to foreclose on an old theatre in Deadrock Nevada, he falls in love with Polly (Natalie O’Donnell) the owner’s daughter, then attempts to revive the theatre by bringing his pals, the Zangler showgirls, to town.

This production brings together director, Terence O’Connell, choreographer Alana Scanlan and Orchestra Victoria under Peter Casey. The Production Company mounts its shows with limited rehearsal. This means that they do not have all the bells and whistles of a full-scale musical but often the urgency of short development gives the shows energy and excitement.

There are some wonderful moments, particularly the crazy chorus scenes, but also some flaws that may be attributable to restricted rehearsal. Natalie O’Donnell as Polly does not have the vocal power and control to carry the role and her upper register is unpredictable. The beautiful Gershwin song, Someone To Watch Over Me, seems out of her reach. We cannot help comparing her rendition of I’ve Got Rhythm with that of big-voiced Ethel Merman who sang the original version.

Parker’s warm, light voice is suited to They Can’t Take That Away From Me. He is at his strongest when he plays Bobby impersonating the showman, Zangler. As the real Zangler, Adam Murphy is a real highlight with his comic characterisation and his duet with Parker (What Causes That?) is fun.

The big chorus numbers are the feature of this production. The male chorus of cowpokes and the female chorus of showgirls provide plenty of colour in Slap That Bass, Tonight’s The Night and I Got Rhythm. And Chloe Dallimore, Robyn Arthur, Peter Hosking, Melissa Langton and Alan Brough provide strong support roles.

By Kate Herbert 15 July, 2009

Happy Days, Malthouse, July 8, 2009 ****

Happy Days  

By Samuel Beckett, Malthouse Theatre

Where and When: Merlyn Theatre, Malthouse,  July 8 to 25, 2009

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on July 8, 2009

Stars:****
Published in Herald Sun, Melbourne

There’s no denying it, Julie Forsyth has exceptional comic delivery and timing, an eccentric style, idiosyncratic, rusty vocal quality and a profound understanding of contemporary theatre. She is close to perfect casting as Winnie in Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days, directed by Michael Kantor. Peter Carroll, as her husband, Willy, is also a masterstroke of casting with his resonant voice and angular, scrawny physique.

Happy Days is a deceptive title for a play that deals with the tragedy of existence in inimitable Beckett style. Forsyth, as Winnie, is buried up to her waist and later up to her neck, in a mound of earth. Willy lives in a hole behind her mound. Despite her horrific, claustrophobic circumstances, Winnie remains relentlessly optimistic. “This is a happy day”, Forsyth trills, “so far.” Winnie has a repertoire of positive epithets. Even in the darkest moments she finds light. “That’s what I find so wonderful,” she cries. “Many mercies”.

Winnie wakes daily, embedded in her mound. To survive the day, she stoically completes simple tasks at specified intervals in “the old style”, dragging each object lovingly out of her oversized, black bag. She cleans her teeth, struggles to read her toothbrush, grooms her hair, puts on her hat, plays her music box, puts up her umbrella and sings her song. Timing is everything. If she waits too long, she may miss her opportunity and the dreadful, grating bell will sound the end of her day.

Winnie finds joy in little things such as Willy speaking to her or appearing in his silly formal get-up after a long, long absence. But her sudden bursts of wrenching sadness are more poignant when set against her fierce positivism. Always available for escape, but never used, is her gun. Perhaps Willy wants to use it on her in the final moments.  Time is painful. Like Winnie, we lose our memories and become incapacitated. Like Willy, we lose our speech and crawl toward our graves.

Anna Cordingley’s design fixes Winnie in a monolithic, black mound like a pile of industrial refuse. This is contrasted with the huge, blue drapes surrounding her like curtains around a royal bed. Paul Jackson’s lighting creates a sculptural landscape, accenting moments in Winnie’s days with shifting colour and pattern. High above Winnie’s head is a giant chandelier-like structure that glints with tiny star-like lights.

Winnie, like we are, is just another speck in the universe.

By Kate Herbert

Jersey Boys, July 4, 2009, ****1/2

 Jersey Boys

Book by Marshall Brickman & Rick Elice, music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe

Where and When: Princess Theatre, from July 4, 2009

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on July 4, 2009

Stars: ****&1/2

Published in Herald Sun, Melbourne
 
JERSEY BOYS stormed onto the stage at the Princess Theatre and had the opening night VIP crowd – including the Victorian Premier – cheering, stompin’ and dancin’ by its finale.

It’s a bio-play that follows the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, four Italo-American boys from New Jersey who created a distinctive sound that featured Frankie’s exceptional three and a half octave range, Bob Gaudio’s songs and four part harmonies.

What makes this show such a huge success? It’s the quality songs, the story of four boys from the wrong side of the tracks, Des McAnuff’s production, the script (Marshall Brickman, Rick Elice), the versatile, industrial design (Klara Zieglerova) and, finally, the performers who breathe new life into those four young men. That’s a recipe for first class entertainment.

Biographical shows do not necessarily follow the normal dramatic arc, but Brickman and Elice shape the show by dividing it into four seasons or four parts, just like the harmonies.

Spring is Tommy DeVito’s season. Scott Johnson is deliciously mischievous and full-voiced as the tough, ambitious, working class boy who teeters on the edge of petty crime. Without Tommy’s relentless drive to be a star and get out of Jersey, without his boys singing under a street lamp, Frankie (Bobby Fox), Bobby (Stephen Mahy) and Nick (Glaston Toft), the original Four Seasons, would never have existed.

Summer is Bobby’s time and Mahy embodies Gaudio’s intelligence, musical talent and charm. Bobby’s incomparable tunes including Sherry, Big Girls Don’t Cry and Walk Like a Man, launched the band’s career. Mahy is a formidable talent with his Brad Pitt looks, bright, clear vocal tones and acting skill.

Nick Massi, Tommy’s childhood pal and fellow petty crim, is the voice of Fall. Toft replicates Nick’s resonant, bass vocal tones and sense of style and we learn of Nick’s extraordinary ear for harmonies and musical arrangements.

The final season is Frankie’s, although Winter is no way to describe Valli’s still active career. The impish, charismatic Bobby Fox, although Irish, bears a striking resemblance to Frankie, and his upper register and falsetto has echoes of the timbre of Frankie’s beautiful, idiosyncratic voice. Fox captures Frankie’s emotional style, passionate commitment to life and loyalty and his compulsion to keep the band together.

The ensemble and band are outstanding as are principals Daniel Scott as producer-lyricist, Bob Crewe, and Enrico Mammarella as Gyp DeCarlo. But it is the thrilling combination of four male voices that rivets us with tunes including Oh What A Night, Let’s Hang On, Bye Bye Baby and Working My Way Back to You. And the finale of Who Loves You is heart stopping.

By Kate Herbert

Cold Comfort, July 3, 2009 ****

 By Owen McCafferty, by BoomShanka Productions

Chapel off Chapel
First season: July 3 to 12, 2009, Chapel off Chapel
Return season Nov 28 to Dec 6, 2009 

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on July 3, 2009

Stars:****

 Owen McCafferty’s play, Cold Comfort, has a profound, emotional impact despite its evident simplicity. 

The sole character, Kevin Toner (David Rock), is irrevocably flawed but his foolishness, errors, regrets and sense of loss are all symptoms of his humanity. He may be an emotional cripple and a drunken ruin but, through the bottom of his empty whisky bottle, we can see ourselves.

David Rock is compelling as Kevin and his twin brother, Brendan Rock, directs him without embellishment, keeping the focus on the inner and outer turmoil of Kevin. His performance is poignant without being sentimental. He is totally credible as the Northern Irish brickie returning to Belfast after a 15-year absence to be the sole mourner at his father’s funeral. McCafferty captures not only this sozzled, middle-aged man but all his aching nostalgia and childlike wistfulness that have lain dormant for decades.

Like sticky-beak neighbours peering through a window, we watch Kevin, wearing his father’s old suit, prowling around his Da’s living room, avoiding looking into the chipboard coffin where the old man lies. Kevin he relentlessly empties a Jamieson’s whisky bottle to lubricate his storytelling.

And what vivid stories he tells. McCafferty’s award-winning script is littered with Belfast idiom, expletives and drunken ramblings and Rock brings this vulnerable, shattered man to life. A character telling stories can feel contrived, but McCafferty provides a simple theatrical device. Rock, as Kevin, peoples the room with his absent family members.

He chats to his dead Da lying in his coffin – and we can hear the conversation as he demands explanations. A scruffy chair becomes his Ma and he grills her about why she abandoned him. Another chair is his wife and their sniping becomes audible. He invokes the “knowledge fairy” to give him what he craves – information. The entire event is geared to Kevin getting answers to questions that have plagued him his entire life.

Rock’s performance is painfully realistic. His eyes seem to glaze over and he stumbles over words and furniture as Kevin gets progressively drunker. Finally he tumbles to the floor and curls up like a sleepy child. Kevin’s wake is over but his tragedy is not. His questions will never truly be answered.

By Kate Herbert

The Weather and Your Health, July 1, 2009, ***

The Weather and Your Health 

By Bethany Simons

La Mama until July 1 to 12, 2009

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on July 1, 2009

Stars:***

Perhaps you have a granny over 70, or know a woman who grew up in a country town or have a neighbour who talks about her childhood during the war. If so, you may recognise the simple, optimistic woman in Bethany Simons play, The Weather and Your Health.

Simons plays this relentlessly cheerful woman who prattles constantly about her life in Gilgandra – or ‘Gil’ as the locals call it – a small town in country New South Wales. When this woman was young, Dubbo was the big smoke and the main street felt so long, one might never visit a shop at the far end.

David Wicks directs the play with a light, playful hand, maintaining the innocence of this woman and never presenting her through jaded, 21^st century eyes. She comes from another world – the past – where roles were clear, people were polite and paths were plainly set out for you.

Simons tiptoes, bare-footed, as if placing too much weight or making noise with her feet would be rude, or even a false assertion of her own importance. She is dressed in a colourful, 1950s frock, wearing a permanent wave, tomato red lipstick and a fixed smile.

This woman is no fool, she is merely committed to a positive world-view and does not know how to express such an alien idea as self-pity. Simons is charming and strangely doll-like as the woman who, we suspect, may be based on a family member from her own country childhood.

 She captures her childlikeness, strength and naivete. We see her joyfully revelling in simple pleasures: pining for a glorious red ball dress in a shop window, wearing the dress to a ball, dancing with a different boy for each tune or playing the piano every other week.

Although all the dialogue is hers, Simons is not alone on stage. Perched on a chair, reading the racing pages or listening to the races on his transistor, is her husband, played by Andrew Dodds. She refers to him like a shadow in her life, a presence in her home and in her past. He is symptomatic of the absent husbands or fathers of that generation.

When she meets him at the ball 50 or more years ago, his only responses are grunts. He speaks only once, in the final line of the play, to assure her, “You always were the prettiest girl in Gil.”

By Kate Herbert

The Burlesque Hour Legends , June 25, 2009 ****

The Burlesque Hour Legends 

by Finucane and Smith

At  fortyfivedownstairs, June 29 to August 2, 2009

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars:****

BEWARE! The Burlesque Hour will knock your socks off - and probably a lot of other clothing too. The five extraordinary women in this gob-smacking cabaret spend much of the show in varying degrees of undress ranging from kimonos to underwear and, well, nothing at all.

But burlesque is not only about feather dances and sassy strip teases. The cast teases us with their idiosyncratic and modern, almost satirical version of burlesque that blurs the lines between cabaret, vaudeville, sex shows, performance art, physical theatre and a rock concert.

Creators of this and previous Burlesque Hours, Moira Finucane and Jackie Smith, say that they want to “cherish and challenge their audiences”, and they do exactly that. The crowd is excited, cheering and whooping, grinning ear to ear and gaping with astonishment and sometimes shock at the visual, physical and verbal content of the acts.

Finucane has a penchant for drenching herself and the crowd with fluids, to the degree that the front row is given plastic ponchos to protect them from spraying milk. Her final act, Queen of Hearts, is a marvellous new take on the burlesque artiste who wears nothing but balloons. 

Maude Davey gives a riveting, brazen and challenging rave about the female body, while displaying her own lithe frame. She later slouches on wearing an extravagantly feathered headdress and sings You Don’t Make Me Feel Like I’m A Woman Anymore while dancing like a 70s skinhead.

Yumi Umiumare brings the precision of her Japanese Butoh dance background to Mouth Piece, a compelling

Physical performance that is as shocking as it is beautiful and her martial arts strip is inspired.

There is a hilarious drunken trapeze act by Jess Love that makes swinging trapeze interesting again and Harriet Ritchie and Holly Durant’s sexy big-bosomed dancers are a riot. The first fortnight features special guest, Ursula Martinez, who prattles rapidly in Spanish, plays Spanish guitar, sets her bikini on fire and does magic involving a hankie disappearing into unexpected orifices. Upcoming special guests will be Paul Capsis and Toni Lamond.

The Burlesque Hour leaves you gaping and cheerful. If you are sensitive about language or uncomfortable with nudity, this may not be your show. But it is confrontational, impudent and disrespectful for all the right reasons.

By Kate Herbert

Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story, June 27 ****

Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story 

Written by Alan Janes and Rob Bettinson

The Palms at Crown, June 27 to July 23, 2009

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Jun e27, 2009

Stars:****

BUDDY HOLLY DIED in 1959 at 22 after producing dozens of hit tunes in a couple of years. In a strange confluence of events, the opening of this 50^th anniversary production coincides with the death of Michael Jackson. 

Both are credited with changing popular music in their time. A chilling coincidence is that Buddy was the first white singer to appear at the Apollo Theatre, Harlem, the place that launched Jacko.

Another formidably talented 22 year-old, Scott Cameron, plays Buddy. Cameron started playing guitar at 5 and his playing surpasses Holly’s own skill.  He reproduces Buddy’s unusual vocal quality, his leaping stage antics and peculiarly attractive geek appearance. He may not be the most experienced actor, but Cameron does not disappoint as Buddy.

Cameron is supported by a superb cast that includes: Luke Tonkin as the booming Big Bopper, Flip Simmons as writhing Ritchie Valens and James Nation-Ingle and Simon Bentley as The Crickets. The stage band is tight and versatile directed by Peter Laughton, and the chorus is impeccable. One star turn is rich-voiced Clare Chihambakwe (OK) as Ruby at the Apollo.

The show tells the story of Buddy’s rise from Country and Western singer in Lubbock, Texas to a Rock and Roll star. He dumps a lucrative contract at Decca to record with Norman Petty (Gerard Carroll), in New Mexico. After ten hit songs, he marries Maria Elena (Laura Bunting) and goes solo.

The finale is an exhilarating rock concert, Buddy’s final performance in Clearlake, Iowa. Knowing that Buddy, Big Bopper and Valens died that night in a plane crash heightens the excitement and tragedy for the audience who are on their feet bopping and singing by the end.

It is a treat to hear Buddy Holly’s hit songs, including love ballads It’s So Easy, Think It Over and Words of Love, Raining in My Heart and Heartbeat. But it is the rockin’ numbers that hit the spot: Peggy Sue, Maybe Baby, Oh Boy. The finale includes the Big Bopper’s Chantilly Lace and Ritchie Valens’ La Bamba and finishes with Johnny B Goode and Oh Boy. 

What would Buddy Holly be producing now if, in two short years, he made such a mark on rock and roll history?

By Kate Herbert

The Birthday Party , MTC, June 24 ***1/2

The Birthday Party 

By Harold Pinter, Melbourne Theatre Company

 Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre, June 24 to August 1, 2009

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on

Stars: ***1/2

The Birthday Party, Harold Pinter’s first full-length play, was written in his youth in 1958, but it established Pinter’s idiosyncratic style. 

Although it is not the best of his plays, it has all his hallmarks: barely masked violence, male aggression, tense pauses that heighten both the comedy and menace; sudden changes of topic and comic non-sequiturs in his dialogue; and the sense that his characters are trapped in a claustrophobic environment. He may have loathed the term, but Pinter was already “Pinteresque”.

Julian Meyrick’s production captures the threatening atmosphere and the playful silliness of the script. Pauline Whyman is particularly delightful as Meg, the child-like landlady who asks only for a simple compliment for her Corn Flakes and fried bread.

Gregory Fryer plays Meg’s husband, Petey, with a quiet and obliging air. The pair runs a boarding house by the sea with only one lodger. When Isaac Drandic, as the secretive Stanley, first appears for his breakfast, the trio engages in teasing banter. But Stanley’s acerbic retorts and lack of courtesy to Meg provide a hint of impending darkness.

And danger is looming. Two thugs arrive to take a room for the night and it is clear that they are here for Stanley. Meyrick’s production shifts positions at this point. Stanley is afraid, the atmosphere becomes ominous, Louise McCarthy’s heavy, grey interior looms and Darrin Verhagen’s music becomes unsettling.

Marshall Napier is chilling as Goldberg, the smug boss thug. He is a bragger, an abuser, a smiling villain who steps through the door, taking control like a Mafia boss. Glenn Shea, as his offsider McCann is the muscle of the duo, and he has the bulk and the scent of violence of a killer. The two embody the simmering brutality inherent in this play.

Meyrick’s production explores the variations in rhythm of Pinter’s dialogue and narrative, shifting pace rapidly and changing gears frequently between comedy and drama. The rhythm falters a little in the second half but rights itself by the end of the play.

The setting is moved from coastal England to Australia and the casting of indigenous actors accented this choice. Initially the casting appeared to be what is known as “colour-blind”, but there was a fleeting reference to aboriginal language in McCann’s poem. The play didn’t need it. The actors spoke for themselves.

By Kate Herbert

Lobby Hero , June 12, 2009 ****1/2

 Lobby Hero 
by Kenneth Lonergan, Red Stitch Actors Theatre

 Red Stitch Theatre, Chapel St, St. Kilda, June 12 to  July 11, 2009

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ****1/2

There is something compelling and profoundly moving about Kenneth Lonergan’s Lobby Hero. Four ordinary people struggle to live according to their own moral code. How do we decide what is right and wrong, how to serve ourselves while not damaging others, or how to make the best of what we are given?

The Oscar winning screenwriter sets his play over several nights in the claustrophobic lobby of an American city apartment block. Jeff (Tim Potter), the night shift security guard, spends his time reading and waiting for his mentor and boss, William (Christopher Kirby), to visit on his rounds. Bill, (Daniel Frederiksen) a successful city street cop, and his rookie partner, Dawn (Eryn-Jean Norvill), drop by each night.

Lonergan’s script is beautifully crafted, with an impeccably structured narrative and sensitive, funny and vividly observed dialogue. Each character springs to life fully drawn, complete with complexities, contradictions and mistakes.

Denis Moore’s production is delicately wrought, balancing comedy with drama, and creating deceptively simple rhythms in both the story and characters. Shaun Gurton’s design provides two stark spaces: the cold, grey, apartment lobby and a cage-like exterior doorway.

Potter is on stage almost the entire two hours and he is riveting, capturing the vulnerable boyishness of Jeff, his playful humour and his moral dilemma when faced with telling the truth about his friend’s lie. Potter has an impish quality but balances this with Jeff’s soul-searching and grappling with right and wrong.

As William, the fine, upstanding citizen who takes seriously his role of Security Captain, Kirby is dignified and captivating. His entire physicality embodies the anguish that William experiences as he faces his demons and tries to protect his family.

Frederiksen as the hero-cop, Bill, has the brittle quality of a grimy, jaded, street cop accustomed to getting his own way. He is smarmy, dangerous and fiercely loyal to his friends and colleagues – when they play his game.

Norvill captures the girlishness and dogged ambition of the young officer, Dawn. She is desperate to be a good cop and to please her partner, She is faced with the decision to save her own skin or hurt others, and who can tell whether her actions were on the side of the angels?

Nothing is simple in this life that is riddled with moral choices – not even in the lives of simple people.

By Kate Herbert

Busting Out! June 11, 2009 ***1/2

 Busting Out! 

Written by Emma Powell, AG Productions

Athenaeum Theatre, June 11 to July 4, 2009

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: ***1/2

Boobs are bustin’ out all over in Busting Out! This is the new, improved, lifted and separated show about bazookas, norks, jugs and fun bags. D-Cuppetry, the first incarnation in 2006, was women’s answer to Puppetry of the Penis.

Writer-performer, Emma Powell, with her bosom buddy (sorry), Bev Killick, revamped the show. It now has a glossy design, a bigger sound and a huge video screen to enlarges a double-D cup to something inexplicable. Many original visual gags are still present but seen through the lens of a camera in technicolour and 3D – or 36D (sorry).

The 2006 show was cute, a bit naughty and very daggy and the women have maintained its simple charm for the second half of this show. The start of the evening almost steers it up a very wrong path. It opens with no boobs at all, but with Killick’s bold and crass stand-up routine that would sit better in a late-night, boozy, comedy bar. Her fast patter dragged shrieks from the audience and was peppered with colourful language and more references to genitalia and bodily fluids than a rugby locker room.

After a rather premature interval, the charming, goofy bosom gags come thick and fast. The girls get their girls out and manipulate them like putty into hamburgers, doughnuts, stubby holders, crying babies and even a wide mouth frog. Ah, the versatile mammary. They even have names for each breast.

The singing gives this show pizzazz. Powell has a rich, powerful voice while Killick does a mean Tina Turner.  The show is filled with music featuring various female singers fashioned out of bosoms and blown up on screen.

Powell’s breast appears as Roberta Rack singing Say A Little Prayer For You. Killick’s does afunny rap about mammograms. Two boobs do a parody of Anni-Frid and Agnetha from ABBA singing Mamma Mia –ironic because Powell toured in the musical, Mamma Mia.

They could skip the stand-up and go straight to the boobs if they are not performing in a grog-soaked bar – but then, maybe I’m just a bit prissy these days. The crowd laughed, roared and applauded. They even got on stage and took their bras off. And that was the blokes. Seriously.

By Kate Herbert

Avenue Q, June 4, 2009 ****

 Avenue Q 

Music & Lyrics by Robert Lopez & Jeff Marx, Book by Jeff Whitty

Where and When: Comedy Theatre, from June 4 , 2009

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars:****

AVENUE Q is the Tony Award winning love child of a threesome between Sesame Street, wicked South Park and urban grunge musical, Rent. Picture Muppets with booze and sex and you have Avenue Q. 

This slick, funny Australian production is deftly directed by Jonathan Biggins and set in a shabby, low-rent, tenement block designed by Richard Roberts.  The versatile cast of singer-actors is exceptional. All but three also manipulate puppets, which makes a fascinating performance challenge.

It is a mystery how writers, Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, got away with blatantly ripping off Jim Henson and portraying Gary Coleman (Cherine Peck). But Marx is a lawyer so he must have dotted his i’s The street, songs, cute lessons and the characters all echo the Muppets. There is a Trekkie Monster (Luke Joslin) instead of Cookie Monster, Lucy T. Slut (Michala Banas) replaces Miss Piggy and Rod, the gay banker (Butel) and his scruffy, room mate, Nicky (Joslin) parallel Bert and Ernie.

And here the show departs on its own adult tracks. Bright-eyed college graduate, Princeton (Mitchell Butel), laments his unemployability in his song, What Do You Do With a BA In English. He meets his low rent neighbours on Avenue Q, including soon-to-be-lover, the furry geek, Kate Monster. Everybody feels like a loser in this street when they sing the very funny, It Sucks To Be Me.

A very tight, off-stage band plays the vivacious, poppy tunes. The lyrics are cunning and cheeky rather than wicked. Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist is a simple but insightful commentary on contemporary racism and political correctness.

There are several poignant songs. There’s A Fine, Fine Line, sung by Banas, is about love and friendship while Nicky’s buddy song to Rod, If You Were Gay (but I’m not gay), is a sympathetic acceptance of his gay friend.

But there are plenty of rollicking numbers. The Internet Is For Porn is a big, raunchy rock tune. One of the wildest scenes involves the entire cast singing You Can Be As Loud As You Want (When You’re Makin’ Love) while Kate Monster and Princeton get down and dirty in a puppet way. It’s the funniest puppet sex scene since Team America. Another highlight were the sweet-faced and devilish, Bad Idea Bears.

Butel is compelling, funny and multi-talented playing Princeton and Rod, and is perfectly matched by Banas who plays Lucy T. Slut as well as Kate Monster. They perform some extraordinary acting feats by simultaneously playing two characters each.

 The show is a riot albeit a bit too long.

By Kate Herbert

August: Osage County, May 28, 2009 ***1/2

August: Osage County 

by Tracy Letts, Melbourne Theatre Company

Playhouse, Arts Centre, until June 27

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on May 28, 2009

Stars:

Tracy Letts’ award-winning American play, August: Osage County, is what could be described as a comedy with tragic undertones. To quote the English comedy playwright, Alan Ayckbourn, “The darker the subject, the more light you must try to shed on the matter.”

There is plenty of scathing humour in Letts’ play about a bickering, dysfunctional family as they return like homing pigeons to the family home in the barren, hot and soulless Midwestern town of Osage County, Oklahoma. At times, the uproarious laughter Letts’ cunning dialogue elicits undercuts the tragedy, interrupting the dramatic tension he so painstakingly builds.

For this reason, the play cannot compete with the great family dramas of American theatre that include Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, Miller’s Death of a Salesman or O’Neill’s A Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Letts’ play has less universal resonance or consistent tragedy. It is more focussed on its entertainment factor – and it is very entertaining for three and a half hours.

This play, with a huge cast of thirteen, is set during a stinking, hot August in the un-airconditioned home of the Westons. The alcoholic poet, Beverly Weston, played with dignity and restrained humour by George Whaley, is the patriarch of the Weston tribe.

The inimitable Robyn Nevin is deliciously wicked as his pill-popping wife, Violet, who is drug-addled from morning to night. Nevin one moment totters around like a dazed child in pyjamas and, the next, snipes at her benighted daughters whom she holds hostage with brittle humour.

When Beverly disappears mysteriously, the three middle-aged daughters arrive en masse to prop up Violet. Long-suffering, divorced Ivy (Rebekah Stone) is the butt of Violet’s constant criticism. Karen (Heidi Arena) is relentlessly cheerful and brings a dubious fiancé (Sean Taylor). Barbara (Jane Menelaus), the sensible daughter, is in the throws of a secret separation from her smug, academic husband (Robert Menzies) and struggles with her rebellious daughter (Kellie Jones).

Violet’s blousey sister (Deidre Rubenstein), her tolerant husband (Roger Oakley) and hapless son (Michael Robinson) make up the rest of the clan. A silent Native American housekeeper (Tess Masters) lurks in the background.

The ensemble is consistently strong and compelling with particularly powerful performances from Nevin, Whaley and Menelaus. Simon Phillips’ production highlights the comedy of the script that he stages on Dale Ferguson’s vast, naturalistic set.

By Kate Herbert

Melburnalia No. 2, May 22, 2009 **1/2

Melburnalia No. 2, by White Whale Theatre

fortyfivedownstairs, May 22 to June 6, 2009

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on May 22, 2009

Stars: **1/2

There is certainly potential in the plan to commission and stage a program of short plays based about the suburbs of Melbourne. Several of the five plays in Melburnalia No. 2 have incorporate a coherent style, structure and intention but the program is inconsistent with a couple of plays struggling to find dramatic merit.

One of the more successful pieces is Maribyrnong: I Could Be You, by Hoa Pham (OK), is a telling observation of the despair of three detainees of the Maribyrnong Detention Centre and the diverse reasons for their incarceration. A young Greek man (Grant Foulkes)  who has lived in Australia almost his entire life, is stripped of his residency and deported to Greece because he committed a crime. A Vietnamese student (Fanny Hanusin) worked more hours than her student visa permitted and a disoriented Eastern European woman (Margot Fenley) remains a mystery to us.

Mentone: Song #1 is an almost choral play for voices written by Aidan Fennessy. Five actors create a suburban landscape with snatches of dialogue from multiple characters. We hear families arguing, old friends reminiscing, schoolchildren chattering, footy players training. Finally, the entire chorus of voices makes sense when an old woman emerges, waiting for her husband to return from the war on a train. We have witnessed the scattered scraps of her memories. It is a well-executed and revealing poetic play.

On a lighter note, Danny Katz’s Caulfield: Motherfathers, portrays three couples of parents at a wine-soaked dinner party in middle-class Caulfield. They tease each other, taunt their partners and one wife reveals her husband’s naughty, little secret. Katz’s couples unmask their sulky, inner toddlers as their evening disintegrates.

Less successful is Andrea James’ play, Birrarung: The Forever Zone which muddles two completely different styles. The start is an almost cartoon-like representation of fascistic tram ticket inspectors (Shane Lee, Hanusin) who interrogate an unusual fare evader (Bryan Andy), a silent aboriginal man wearing a possum skin cloak. The angel of tram conductors (Shiralee Morris) appears to remind them of the past and the style shifts to an historical commentary by this modern, aboriginal warrior.

The least effective script is Preston: Porktown, by Kit Lazaroo. It is a very confused allegory about the takeover of the pig farms around Preston by real estate agents over the last century. The language is awkwardly pseudo-poetic, the characters are annoying and unclear in their intentions and there is a baby pig puppet with an illusive metaphorical meaning. I still don’t understand it.

David Mence’s direction is inconsistent and loose but two or three plays make it an entertaining, albeit not theatrically innovative evening.

About Face, May 19, 2009 **1/2

About Face 

By Tony Perez

La Mama Carlton Courthouse

May 19 to May 30, 2009

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Stars: **1/2

About Face is a peculiar theatrical beast – a series of six, short vignettes for a man and a woman (Bruce Hughes, Karen Lawrence). Each story is about a different couple but has the same premise: a married couple takes a long drive and talks about the marriage and the man’s affair with another woman.

Tony Perez’s script is not particularly insightful about marriage or communication nor does it take theatrical risks. However, it manages to conjure six totally different married couples, five of which seem to be totally dysfunctional and bonkers. This provides some laughs for the audience.

The first story is Tony and Charmaine’s Contract. Tony is almost silent and cowed by his wife’s antics as they drive the highway somewhere outside Melbourne. Charmaine is annoying and pedantic as she demands honesty at all costs. She gets more than she bargains for, but accepts Tony’s choice to maintain his love affair.

In Smaramaloola, Hughes plays a smarmy, lying Latin lover who spends the entire drive talking vivid, poetic drivel in order to convince his childish, weeping and histrionic wife that his affair was a mistake and is his one and only love.

Last Ride is a suicide drive in which the couple, a geek and his over-dressed wife, dress up and drive over a cliff into water at the end. They invite their friends and his lover to watch their end – and film it.

In the crazy dumb show, Roar Hide, the woman taunts her husband as he drives until she finally calls him a two-timer. The two loud, aggressive bogans in Gunbarrel Highway abuse each other with colourful language that is almost grunge poetry.

The final, poignant scene is between Tony and May, the only couple who seem to genuinely love each other and have a positive relationship. He quietly weeps and we slowly realise that May is dying.

Hughes and Lawrence, seated in a cartoon-like car, execute quick costume and character changes between scenes. Hughes is charming and versatile in his six roles and has great comic timing. Lawrence’s performance is strongest in the final, more realistic scene, but seems uncomfortable and forced in earlier scenes.

Speed-The-Plow, May 8, 2009 ***1/2

Speed-The-Plow 

By David Mamet by Human Sacrifice Theatre

Chapel off Chapel, Prahran,  May 8 to 24, 2009

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on May 8, 2009

Stars:  ***1/2

Everyone wants to be a maverick in Hollywood but nobody ever actually risks being a maverick, says the movie producer in Speed-the-Plow. They are too afraid to break the rules, too unwilling to make an arty film with a limited audience and too greedy to make a movie that loses money.

David Mamet’s play is a snapshot of two movie producers as they wrangle over the respective merits of doing good or making money. Bobby Gould (Mark Diaco) is the successful, newly appointed executive producer for a major movie studio. The world is his oyster. He now has licence to “green light” any project under $30 million or to pitch it to his studio boss.

His old pal, Charlie Fox (Colin MacPherson) is not so charmed but he thinks his luck is about to change when he brings to Bobby a sure-fire hit, action-packed, blockbuster script with a major star attached. What Charlie cannot predict is the impact of a pretty woman with a strong view on Bobby’s judgement.

Mamet’s signature of pithy, clipped dialogue, aggressive male characters and themes dealing with the emotional wasteland of our modern world are evident in Speed-The-Plow. The characters argue in short, sharp phrases, interrupting each other and repeating themselves in characteristic Mamet style.

Diaco is a boyish producer, which is probably accurate in the Hollywood world that favours youthfulness. As Bobby, he travels a journey from bravado to vulnerability. MacPherson vibrates with the anxiety of the unsuccessful producer teetering on the brink of disaster. As Bobby’s temporary secretary, Kasia Kaczmarek  balances naivete and manipulation.

The stage is sparsely decorated and the focus is on the actors. What is missing from Matt Emond’s production is the menace and boldness that is inherent in Mamet. Diaco and MacPherson spar with words but only occasionally reach the heightened, bold bullishness and implicit and explicit violence that give Mamet plays their edge.

Charlie says, “Sex, titillation and violence; people want it. No, they require it.” From the huge box office takings and queues outside cinemas, we have to believe he is right – sadly.

Kate Herbert

Optimism , May 27, 2009 ***1/2

Optimism  

Adapted from Voltaire by Tom Wright

Produced by Malthouse Theatre 

Merlin Theatre, Malthouse, until June 13

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on May 27, 2009

Stars: ***1/2

OPTIMISM is a charming, shambolic and peculiar adaptation of Voltaire’s 1759 novella, Candide. Tom Wright extracted and adapted 19 scenes from the book then director, Michael Kantor, tossed them into a blender with pantomime, vaudeville, slapstick and musical comedy. Violent war scenes are juxtaposed against cheerful, contemporary songs about joy. The result is chaotic – in a good way.

Frank Woodley plays the naïve servant, Candide, who is evicted by his master after Candide has a fling with the pretty daughter of the house, Cunegonde (Caroline Craig). Candide embarks on a journey across the globe, remaining relentlessly optimistic in the face of human suffering and violence. This is Voltaire’s satirical attack on the unrealistic and optimistic philosophies of the Enlightenment.

Woodley’s engaging, childlike style brings a whimsical quality to Candide. He looks like a bemused and leggy Harlequin in his polka dot jump suit and clown’s white face. Woodley often addresses the audience directly improvising on both his own thoughts and the musings of Candide. His Candide stumbles like a toddler from one human disaster to the next, seeking advice from mentors and chasing his one true love, Cunagonde.

The madness of Candide’s journey and the silliness of the songs (e.g. Shiny, Shiny, by Haysie Fantazee), highlight the inhumanity and horrors of war, torture, mutilation and rape that he encounters on his epic journey. Kantor sends Candide travelling in aeroplanes. Overhead projections, like huge airport signs, indicate his country of destination: Lisbon, Paraguay, Eldorado, Venice.

The action takes place on Anna Tregloan’s clever design. It is a multi-textured blend of the cold, metallic curves of an aeroplane shell, glittering curtains of the music hall, huge plastic shower curtains and a vivid and anachronistic mix of classical, clown and contemporary costumes. Paul Jackson’s lighting shapes the landscape and boldly conjures jet planes and war zones.

The ensemble is exceptional, employing their impeccable comic timing and characterisation to play multiple roles to create the parade of people in the complex landscape of Candide’s travels. David Woods is versatile playing various roles in his inimitable comic style and Barry Otto uses his “Ottoisms” to create the eccentric Pangloss, Candide’s mentor.

Alison Whyte is delectable as the aristocratic woman with only one buttock and the histrionic actress playing Queen Elizabeth. Francis Greenslade, Hamish Michael, Caroline Craig and Amber McMahon play with pizzazz various cross-dressing air hostesses, lovers, whores, apes, soldiers and villains. Iain Grandage fills the space with his live music.

Optimism reminds us that believing that all will be well if we just stay positive, is foolish in our world.

By Kate Herbert

Haul Away, May 5, 2009 ***1/2

Haul Away by Glynis Angell & Vanessa Chapple

May 5 to 16, 2009

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on May 5, 2009

Stars: 3 1/2

At the end of Haul Away, for a few moments the audience is still, silent and holding its communal breath. The play is comic-tragic and our journey bounces us between the poignant and the hilarious. We know from the beginning that the central character, a 38 year-old mother of two, will die by the end.

Glynis Angell tells the entire story through the eyes of her clownish, eccentric narrator who speaks with a broad Scots accent as he/she relates the tale of Kaye. The bright-eyed and engaging Angell rapidly shifts persona from her capering, gesticulating narrator to the languid figure of Kaye, supine on her bed.

Angell capably plays all the characters that surround Kaye allowing us to witness their pain and grief. Her mother cannot cope so she avoids her daughter’s sickbed, privately mourning and saying that parents should go first.

Kaye’s sister, the Gatekeeper, returns from abroad to take almost total responsibility for her dying sister and two bewildered children. We hear about, but do not see Kaye’s Beloved, her grieving husband. The only person who maintains some coolness is an efficient carer who buzzes about changing Kaye’s socks and incontinence sheets.

Marg Horwell’s set for this revised production, directed by Vanessa Chapple, provides multiple levels and secret compartments representing elements of Kaye’s life.  The idea has potential but the black rostra are bulky and almost dwarf the performer. Richard Vabre’s lighting is dramatic and evocative and establishes location and time more clearly.

Singer and musician, Fiona Roake, perches high above the stage underscoring scenes with electric bass and percussion. Her moving songs are sung simply but are repetitive in style and are sometimes not well integrated into the story. The relationship between musician and performer is not clear and the focus on the characters and action is at times lost.

Haul Away successfully blends a cheerful acceptance of death and dying with a recognition of the aching despair and searching for meaning that surrounds it. It is a gentle but touching experience.