Category: Jay James-Moody

HERRINGBONE – A Vaudeville Ghost Story, is a work by Tom Cone. With Music by Skip Kennon and Lyrics by Ellen Fitzhugh. It first appeared in 1981 and this is its Australian Premiere. It is a one man performance. Jay James-Moody takes on its mantle. For ninety minutes he sings – 14 songs – and dances everything. He gets to create and play and sustain 11 characters. SYBIL (1976), may pop into your mind. Or even the recent SPLIT (2017), may do, too, such are the amazing number of ‘possessions’ that Mr James-Moody delivers in this production. A ghost wearing…

Sydney Theatre Company presents, A CHEERY SOUL, by Patrick White, in the Drama Theatre, at the Sydney Opera House. 5th November – 15 December. A CHEERY SOUL, is an Australian play by Patrick White, written in 1963. It is a re-visit to the suburb of Sarsaparilla, first introduced to us in Mr White’s 1962 play, THE SEASON AT SARSAPARILLA. Next year is the 40th Anniversary of the Sydney Theatre Company (STC), and A CHEERY SOUL was its first production in 1979, Directed by Jim Sharman, upon the invitation of John Clark and Elizabeth Butcher who were the founders/creative artists of…

Hayes Theatre Co presents, SHE LOVES ME. Book by Joe Masteroff. Music by Jerry Bock. Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick. Based on a play by Miklos Laszlo. At The Hayes Theatre. 24th August – 15th September. SHE LOVES ME, is a musical appearing first on Broadway in 1963. Famously revived on Broadway in 1994. Roundabout Theatre again revived it in 2016 – all productions attracting Tony Award nominations – as did the Menuier Chocolate Factory in London. I first met the show as part of Neglected Musicals presented at The Hayes in May, 2012. Based on a play called Parfumiere, by…

  Photo by Brett Boardman The Sydney Theatre Company (STC) and Commonwealth Bank present, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, by William Shakespeare, in the Drama Theatre, at the Sydney Opera House. 16 September-22 October. How many productions of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM has one seen? Enough to have benchmarks of merit. From Peter Brook’s 1970’s version through to the recent Tim Supple, multi-lingual one, presented in the Sydney Theatre a few years ago. To the Benjamin Britten opera take, to the many, many university, drama school, high school goes-at-it.  The film and television recordings of it. Enough to have almost intimate…

  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 Michael Francis Squabbalogic Independent Music Theatre’s production of SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM. Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Conceived and Originally Directed on Broadway by James Lapine at the Reginald Theatre, the Seymour Centre, October 1 – 18. I loved my night at the Squabbalogic latest musical production, SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM, an Australian Premiere Season, at the Reginald Theatre, in the Seymour Centre. This is a homage to the musical genius of the most influential musical theatre artist alive today: Stephen Sondheim – he must be in his mid-eighties, or so, now. Imagine! I always hold Mr Sondheim in the…