Performing Arts Reviews:
2008–2022

  Sydney Theatre Company presents Noel Coward’s HAY FEVER, in the Drama Theatre, at the Sydney Opera House, 11 April – 21 May, 2016. Noel Coward, at the age of 25, wrote and starred in THE VORTEX, opening in December in 1924, which settled into a long London run. Sheridan Morley tells us in his biography of Noel Coward, A TALENT TO AMUSE: On the principle that success breeds other successes, once THE VORTEX was an established hit both HAY FEVER and FALLEN ANGELS, which had previously been turned down by every management in London, went into rapid production; by…

Ensemble Theatre presents, GOOD PEOPLE, by David Lindsay-Abaire, at the Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli. 7 April – 21 May, 2016. GOOD PEOPLE, by David Lindsay-Abaire was first performed in 2013 for the Manhattan Theatre Club, at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, on Broadway, New York and was awarded the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, The Horton Foote Prize, The Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award, and two Tony nominations. It follows on from his previous play RABBIT HOLE, which among other prizes won the Pulitzer Prize. GOOD PEOPLE sustains the quality of writing exhibited in his other…

  Seymour Centre presents, Squabbalogic Independent Music Theatre’s Production of THE ORIGINAL GREASE, Book, Music and Lyrics, by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, in the Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre, City Rd. Chippendale, April 6 – May 7, 2016. THE ORIGINAL GREASE is a return, from the Broadway and 1978 film “bubble-gum” version of GREASE, to the roots of the original invention of the writers, Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Its reconstruction was made in 2010 via a collaboration with PJ Papparelli of the American Theatre Company in Chicago and GREASE author Jim Jacobs. Director, Jay James-Moody writes in the program, that…

Photo by Heidrun Lohr Monkey Baa presents, THE PEASANT PRINCE, by Eva Di Cesare, Sandie Eldridge and Tim McGarry, based on the children’s book, by Li Cunxin, illustrated by Anne Spudvilas, at the Lendlease Darling Quarter Theatre, Darling Harbour, 9-20 April. THE PEASANT PRINCE, is an adaptation, in book form of Li Cunxin’s MAO’S LAST DANCER, for children, and has served as the inspiration for the Monkey Baa Theatre Company to bring to life on the stage. It is a rudimentary ‘rags to riches’ story, of a kind of ‘fairytale’ journey of a young Chinese boy from a backwoods Chinese…

Sydney Theatre Company and Adshel present the Almeida Theatre production, KING CHARLES III, by Mike Bartlett, at the Roslyn Packer Theatre. 31 March – 30 April. In the program notes from the author of KING CHARLES III, Mike Bartlett: The idea of KING CHARLES III arrived in my head with the form and content very clear, and inextricably linked. It would be a play about the moment Charles takes the throne, and how his conscience would lead him to refuse to sign a bill into law. An epic royal family drama, dealing with power and national constitution, was the content,…

  Griffin Theatre Company presents, REPLAY, by Phillip Kavanagh, in the SBW Stables Theatre, Kings Cross, 2 April – 7 May. Memory. The tricks of memory. I have recollections of what I believe to be ‘turning points’/’defining moments’ in my life and each time I replay them, either, mentally or verbally, both in speech and writing, they subtly change – more or less. If that ‘point’/’moment’ was between two of us, or more, each of us remember it differently, if sometimes, not at all. It is the Rashomon Effect (the Kurosawa film) – where a victim is raped and it…