Year: 2015

Sydney Theatre Company and Colonial First State Global Asset Management present, KING LEAR, by William Shakespeare at the Roslyn Packer Theatre, Hickson Rd, Walsh Bay, 28 November – 8 January, 2016. KING LEAR. Not another HAMLET. KING LEAR. Yippee! 1603. The ancient Virgin Queen is dying and she has tactically avoided naming an heir. The English Government, and hence her people, fear civil war if she has not – a divided kingdom of clamouring claimants. She has lost so many teeth she is difficult to understand and, so, when she lost her speech altogether those that tended her asked her…

  Andrew Lloyd Webber, David Ian, John Frost and The Really Useful Group present, THE SOUND OF MUSIC. Music by Richard Rogers, Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, suggested by “The Trapp Family Singers” by Maria Augusta Trapp. At the Capitol Theatre, Sydney, 17 December – 22 February, 2016. Alright, this is the first time that I have ever seen THE SOUND OF MUSIC, live. BUT, when I was 17 going on 18, my brother (a sibling only 18 months younger than I) had seen the movie and loved it. It was the paramount…

Photo by by Christine Chahoud The Goods Theatre Company in association with Red Line Productions presents, DROPPED, by Katy Warner, at the Old Fitz Theatre, Cathedral St Wooloomooloo. 8 December – 20 Decmber, 2015. DROPPED, is an Australian play first premiered in 2013, at the Melbourne Fringe Festival. Katy Warner, the Writer, was responding to the parliamentary decision to allow women to fight on the frontline. “The decision”, says the Director, Anthony Skuse, in his program notes: represented a significant shift; not only in terms of opportunities for women in the military, but more broadly, it challenged conventional notions of female…

Seymour Centre presents Squabbalogic Independent Music Theatre’s production of GREY GARDENS. Book by Doug Wright, Music by Scott Frankel, Lyrics by Michael Kori. In the Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre. November 18 – December 12. I first saw the musical GREY GARDENS  in New York on Broadway in 2007, in the Walter Kerr Theatre. I went, curious to see as to how the documentary film of David and Albert Mayseles’ of the same name, had been adapted for the musical theatre. I loved the documentary. (Sight and Sound Magazine rate it the ninth joint best documentary film of all time!) I…

Photo by Uwe Arens Australian Chamber Orchestra presents Sol Gabetta and the Basel Chamber Orchestra, in the Concert Hall, at the Sydney Opera House, 29 November, 2015. The Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) as part of an international exchange has brought the Basel Chamber Orchestra, under the Directorship of Yuki Kasai, to Australia. The ACO will be performing in Switzerland in July next year. The Basel Chamber Orchestra is one of the most important institutions in the Chamber Music world for the remarkable contribution to the expansion of repertoire, that they have made in its 30 year existence. At this concert…

Blue Saint Productions in association with Hayes Theatre Co presents, VIOLET. Music by Jeanine Tesori, Book and Lyrics by Brian Crawley. At the Hayes Theatre, Grennknowe Ave, Potts Point. 27 November – 20 December, 2015. VIOLET is a Musical based on a short story, The Ugliest Pilgrim, by Doris Betts. It first appeared Off-Broadway in 1997, but was produced on Broadway in 2014. The Book and Lyrics are by Brian Crawley. The Music is by Jeanine Tesori. Some of Ms Tesori’s other work includes: THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE (2000), CAROLINE, OR CHANGE (2004), SHREK THE MUSICAL (2008) and FUN HOME (2015),…