South Coast Choral and Arts Society. Victor Harbor Town Hall. 14 Oct 2022
The old Victor Harbor Town Hall is not the greatest venue in the world. Its sightlines can be miserable and the council has decreed its lovely balcony as out of bounds. But, such limitations have never held back the regional thespians from mounting huge and wildly ambitious productions.
And here they are again: Disney’s Beauty and the Beast on an ambitiously-tiered stage, a large orchestra, and even a cast promenade through the auditorium.
A very large cast it is, too. SCCAS has a mass of enthusiastic support from local theatre aspirants as well as local businesses. It is a fine example of good community spirit, along with the region’s rival producer of musicals, the not-for-profit group, Zest. They both do the Fleurieu and its citizenry proud.
Beauty and the Beast, with its Alan Menken music and Howard Ashman and Tim Rice lyrics, is a very tricky show to mount since it is based not only on a fairy tale but on the Disney cartoon version of a fairy tale. Hence, it is an offbeat spectacular with ridiculous fancy costumes and some very difficult singing. In her first voyage into stage directing, Eloise Morriss has gathered a huge team of costumiers who have done the show proud with the teapot costume of Mrs Potts and the gorgeous teacup of her boy, Chip. These are characters cursed to live as objects in the tale, just as the Prince has become a beast. There’s the living chest of drawers and, quite deliciously here, the clock and the French lamplight, known as Lumiere. There’s even call for the whole ensemble to dance as giant cutlery.
Of course, it’s a love story with villains and heroes and, in the end of the day, true love allows The Beast to be revealed as the handsome prince. In this case, among all the brilliant, detailed costumes and complex and effective set, it feels odd that The Beast, sung with gravelly emotion by Chris Stevenson, turns out to be just as hirsute as his character and the big reveal is to a long wig and a very big beard which now is neatly braided at the bottom.
The ensemble work is very strong albeit some of the soloists are uneven. The sound eventually gets the balance just right. Katie Marshall’s orchestra is very on-cue with the singers although its big entre-acte is a tough test.
While the lighting tends to dull, the talents shine through. Notable are Flynne Turley in the character part of Lumiere, along with Elise Hall as his offsider Cogsworth. Jemma Sims is a radiant Belle and she has the acting chops with immense promise in the singing. John Grear, Hope Meffle, and Sean Kelley are very good in support with Lukas Barker standing out as Kefou and also beautifully-spoken young Felix Stevenson. Molly Sutherland and Tia Stevenson get a big tick. And, well, the shrill squealing of the Silly Girls Megan Hawke, Leila Hollingworth, and Payton Stevenson makes one wish one had brought the earplugs.
The ensemble works with focus and enthusiasm and one shares in the joy they clearly feel in being onstage.
This might not be SCCAS’s greatest production, but it is great in its proportions, its good spirit, its fantastic costumes, and absolute fearlessness.
Samela Harris
When: 14 to 29 Oct
Where: Victor Harbor Town Hall
Bookings: sccas.org
Crossroads Live and Suzanne Jones. Adelaide Festival Centre. Festival Theatre. 13 Oct 2022
9 to 5 began the work week as a comedy film in 1980 starring formidable females Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton in her first film. The American Film Institute has it in their list of 100 funniest movies. By Wednesday, it was a TV series that ran for five seasons. And Friday after work, Yahoo! 9 to 5 The Musical opened on Broadway in 2009 with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton. It had a record number of nominations but no awards, go figure! It reprises regularly somewhere in the world, and now that the Australian tour has been warming up in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, 9 to 5 The Musical is ready and rootin’ tootin’ hot for where it matters (to us anyways), Adelaide!
The narrative arc is every wage slave’s dream – revenge on the boss! And is there any sweeter come-uppance than reversing the gender dystopia by having three feisty gals bail up the male manager-tormentor? Hell, no! Add in a traitor to the cause and the situation is highly flammable and funny.
This is a cast to work yourself to the bone for to buy a ticket.
Marina Prior has had musical theatre coursing through her veins from childhood. An early success was playing Guinevere opposite Richard Harris in the Australian production of Camelot in 1984, and more recently, the eponymous role in Hello, Dolly! Prior to that, Prior was Christine in the original Australian Phantom of the Opera – a gig she held for three years.
Casey Donovan is simply a winner. She won the Australian Idol singing competition in 2004 – the youngest to ever do so at age 16 – and in 2017, she took the gong in I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here. You might have seen her in Sydney mega-events like New Year’s Eve and Australia Day celebrations.
Erin Clare finished her musical theatre study in 2013. Two years later, she had the plumb role of Christine in Phantom of the Opera. Besides a continuous musical theatre career since then, Clare works on her own music and musical collaborations, recently culminating in featuring on a song that was Number One on the Australian iTunes Electronic Chart.
Caroline O’Connor, AM needs no introduction but here goes. O’Connor is a one-woman tour de force who has sung, danced and acted her way into the hearts of Australians since 1982. Besides musical theatre hits and other performances here and in the UK, there are four albums. For all this, she has garnered a closetful of Helpmann, Mo and Green Room awards – including for leads in West Side Story, Chicago and Piaf – and became a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the performing arts, particularly to musical theatre.
Singer/songwriter/musical lyricist Eddie Perfect was Artistic Director of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2016-17. Besides his discography and concerts, Perfect created Shane Warne: The Musical before a Broadway bout writing the music and lyrics for Beetlejuice The Musical and aurally patching up King Kong Alive. He regularly tours his own music.
And you may know who Dolly Parton is? Dolly Parton is the most honoured female country performer of all time with forty-one career Top 10 country albums. Her main occupation these days is dreaming up ways to give away her money. There is no doubt who oversees this musical. Credited with music and lyrics, many songs echo Parton’s country roots irrespective of the narrative, but that’s fine.
9 to 5 is good fun from go to whoa! Ms Parton appears from inside the 9 to 5 clock motif like a cuckoo to chime at the beginnings and ends of the two acts. Hello to Adelaide, even the Torrens gets a mention. And she leads off with the opening song she wrote for the movie 9 to 5, which became an immensely popular anthem of office workers in the early ‘80s. Banks of old desktop computers echo the proscenium (square) arch and disappear into infinity downstage – providing a never-ending office – backdropped by a fabulously lively New York skyline. The computer screens dance in coordinated technicolour. Indeed, the drab grey of the office and work clothing is steadily transformed into a pulsing chromatic feast (set & costume design – Tom Rogers). From the opening, the saucy choreography is stunningly kenetic, lewd and lascivious – a fun theme throughout (choreographer – Lisa Stevens). The all-singing/all-dancing chorus must have drunk the copy fluid to keep up the pace and includes three Adelaideans: Lily Baulderstone, Matthew Prime and Jordan Tomljenovic.
Patricia Resnick’s book (movie and musical) is full of irony and idioms and challenges stereotypes. The women of the conspiratorial sisterhood don’t actually know each other at the beginning, and we watch their grievances align. Women should be seen for what they do and not underestimated due to their societal status. The age gap in relationships is challenged. Prejudices are challenged when a country bogan-looking fellow is a pillar of strength in his marriage. Even the office lush gets reformed.
The only stereotype beyond redemption is the cruel predatory chauvinistic pig of a boss epitomised by CEO Franklin Hart Jnr (Jnr is code for spoiled, undeserving, inherited wealth). Eddy is perfect! His bad boss was highly animated and imaginatively physicalised like a strip tease, and Perfect endowed him with his sonorous vocal range. Bravo! His PA with a unrequited crush is Caroline O’Connor’s Roz. She lays on a lust-laden song that showcases her formidable and familiar vocal and physical and comedic skills. Brava!
But the transformative narrative belongs to the three office girls (oops! women). Marina Prior employs her well-honed show biz glitz in the Lily Tomlin-created role of the super-competent office supervisor who is once again looked over for promotion. Casey Donovan inhabits Jane Fonda’s Judy Bernly – a newcomer to office work trying to overcome a creepy marriage. Erin Clare gets the platinum blonde country girl gig of guess who? Dolly Parton. This is a terrific trio of talent in a once-only ensemble of sisterhood. Their story of steady empowerment is beautifully told as Resnick (book) raises the stakes and lowers the tone into farce. The three stars shine in their solo numbers and in the warm emphatic relationships they convey. Donovan’s vocal virtuosity in her empowerment number put the show on pause. Brava!
Because 9 to 5 has had so many incarnations, this production directed with aplomb by Jeff Calhoun is tight and taut and loaded with eye candy. Musical director James Simpson hits all the right notes.
9 to 5 from 7:30 to 10 is simply the best thing to do right now in Adelaide. Take as a time capsule with a gulp of something sparkling. The underdog triumph theme is timeless!
PS The program is big on bio and full of photos, but omits the song list.
David Grybowski
When: 8 Oct to 5 Nov
Where: Festival Theatre
Bookings: premier.ticketek.com.au
State Theatre Company South Australia. Dunstan Playhouse. 8 Oct 2022
Persuading political entities to acknowledge lethal viral outbreaks is agonisingly difficult. We know this because of the ongoing abrasiveness between health professionals and political authority throughout the Covid crisis.
But even with the perversity of the anti-vaxers' push, Covid has been easy street compared to the early 80s and convincing politicians that the AIDS crisis was killing gay men.
So much of the gay world was in the establishment’s closet at the time. Shame was loaded upon gay sexual behaviour and, indeed, on homosexuality itself.
Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart documents this socio-medical ordeal. It was a brave and controversial play in its day, the 80s. Today it is a history piece and indeed, in this era of gay marriage, it is important that a traumatic past must not be forgotten.
Hence, it is passionately revived in this State Theatre production in which the artistic director himself, Mitchel Butel, undertakes the role of the tenacious New York campaigner who took on the powers of the day to plead action on behalf of the growing plague of dying young men.
It was a terrible time. No one understood the virus. There were no treatments. It caused terrible deaths. AIDS sufferers became untouchables.
It needed the likes of Ned Weeks to gain attention, and during his quest his strident style alienated him from many of those who were right behind him. Butel plays it in a growing lather of frustration. It’s a valiant performance with his character facing off against his heterosexual brother for support. Mark Saturno embodies that brother and their interactions are powerful, extrapolating so many of the establishment’s arguments against the promiscuity of the gay lifestyle. It’s a bravura performance by Saturno.
Since it is a play of arguments and explanations, didactic in its very nature, it demands of its actors substantial speeches as one after another, they break down and give voice to their pain, grief and frustration. So impassioned and effective are these deliveries that the audience responds with spontaneous applause.
Michael Griffiths, leaves his post as onstage pianist alongside cellist Clara Gillam-Grant, to embody the besuited mayoral authority who has the task of putting the AIDS campaigners in their place as unworthy of official attention. He is exquisitely loathsome.
Indeed, there are intrepid characterisations all round, notably from Emma Jones as the courageous AIDS clinic doctor whose experience as a childhood polio sufferer has given her a particular empathy for this new viral horror story. From simpatico to bravura, Jones is a powerful member of this cast. As is Anthony Nicola playing fey Tommy Boatwright. He delivers light in the darkness and also, unusually in 2022, performs the act of smoking onstage with some credibility.
Matt Hyde in flares, cuban heels, and wig, supports as a strong member of that early campaign cohort, along with Evan Lever, as under-appreciated Micky Marcus with young A.J. Pate strong in the minor parts.
Ainsley Melham delivers the pivotal role of the victim, the handsome young New York Times journalist, Felix. He carries Felix’s transition from glamorous confidence to the last-ditch with impeccable conviction. If there is any levity in this play, it is in his early interactions with the edgy Ned Weeks. And, if there is a weird moment, it would be the audience meeting him at his NY Times desk writing with pen and paper. A newspaper desk without a typewriter in the early 80s? If the company can access rotary desk phones, they could surely get a typewriter.
It is not an easy or happy night in the theatre. The play is relentless and just a bit dated. Designer Jeremy Allen has taken the set to appropriately old-school proportions: the full expanse of the Playhouse stage with one tier as domestica for the musicians and medical rooms; the other as the offices, clinics, and mayoral parlor; all of the above suggested by brick walls, crumbling facades and even an heroic frieze of ancient Greek battle, a certain parallel of which was to be found in the AIDS phenomenon. Set changes wheel here and there quite effectively while Nigel Levings keeps mood in the lights with resting cast members sitting stage-side in the shadows.
Dean Bryant’s direction enables all the torrents of dialogue and, while perchance they could use a blue pencil, the audience’s respect for and engagement with the subject matter underwrites its attentiveness. At denouement, there is not a dry eye in the house.
For a few of us, the production is particularly heart wrenching insofar as it reminds poignantly of a man called Norman Hudson, understood to have been Adelaide’s first AIDS fatality. He had been marketing manager right there in the Festival Centre back in the 80s. He caught the virus when on a fellowship trip to New York. He was a one-time dancer and a vivid, handsome, accomplished, popular man. His name and that of his partner Dr John Downton, a distinguished plant scientist at Waite, are remembered now only by those who knew and loved them. Their relationship, the way in which John tenderly cared for Norman until the end and, subsequently, very quietly succumbed himself to AIDS is the heartbreaking illustration of what this play was and is all about.
Few people remained untouched by that epidemic through its years of fear and suffering, waiting for it to be understood and treated. And, while Norman Hudson may be remembered by a certain theatre-world inner sanctum, at least the name of Ian Purcell, South Australia’s great champion of AIDS care and understanding, resonates and is honoured.
These people deserved mention in the program notes.
That they were not, speaks volumes about the way in which AIDS generally is now the forgotten epidemic. Monkeypox is news now, along with Covid. It is ironic, since HIV is still extant.
Samela Harris
When: 8 to 15 Oct
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: statetheatrecompany.com.au
Northern Light Theatre Company. Shedley Theatre. 7 Oct 2022
Like musical director, Leanne Savill, I also saw the London production of Jersey Boys and was wowed by it. The Jersey boys are of course New Jersey’s favourite sons of the 60s who evolved into the Four Seasons with lead crooner Frankie Valli and singer/songwriter Bob Gaudio. The number and quality of their juke box hits – identifiable by Valli’s tenor tenderised with a sweet and soaring falsetto and Gaudio’s catchy lyrics and melodies backed up with faultless harmonies from Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi – earned them places in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. With over 100 million record sales, they are one of the best-selling musical groups of all time. And Valli is still touring solo! The Jersey Boys musical ran on Broadway from 2005 to 2017 and won four Tonies including Best Musical.
I hate to agree with a perennial season ticket holder for Northern whom I met at intermission that this production gets off to a slow start. The opening number, Ces Soirées-La, is a rap derivative of a Four Seasons hit, Oh, What A Night, but it simply appears strange and out of place, although it sets up Sanjay Mohanaraj as somebody to keep an eye on. The gentleman also opined that the show didn’t kick into gear until the Jersey boys had their first big hit. I retorted that it's nothing to do with the performances but the nature of the narrative. The book is a detailed and chronologically forensic lookback at the band’s development, and obviously the music wasn’t that good until the hits written by Bob Gaudio were introduced halfway through the first act. Director Ceri Hutton says Sue Pole captures the choreography of the era – and that’s true – but the era’s moves were pretty rudimentary.
Director Ceri Hutton didn’t have the show technically ready on opening night. Lights couldn’t find their actors and sometimes actors couldn’t find their lights – more the former. Several times, monologues began in theatre darkness. At one point, a stagehand tried to steal the keyboard stage left during a band scene, only to be snatched back in the nick of time by the actor. The following song fell flat, but the foursome’s mojo was recovered by the next number. Ironically, the keyboard was used for several more scenes and exited stage right. Go figure. The metallic elevated walkway suited the 2-minute jail scene perfectly but not much else. In fact, it was unsafe. An actor mis-stepped the bottom rung and landed on his knee, and the opposite staircase was missing most of its balustrade. An anachronous LED display identifies various nightclubs whereas the bowling club neon sign looks authentic (and expensive, I get that). I wasn’t the only one put off by the unpleasant-smelling smoke effects.
Setting aside multitudinous peccadilloes, Hutton scores high on selecting the sweetest voices for the fabulous foursome. Deon Martino-Williams is absolutely stunning in re-creating the Valli sound. His virtuosity in the falsetto was a marvel. Bravo! The other three, Michael Coumi, Kristian Latella and Sam Davy provide heavenly harmonies. Coumi’s Gaudio was as nice as Latella’s DeVito was unpleasant, and Davy, as scripted, did a great Ringo to the other three. Together, the emotional rollercoaster of the Four Seasons’ domestic and professional and sometimes criminal misadventures were palpably played in ensemble. Fabulous supporting roles of music execs, mafia types and excitable boys were rendered by Gus Smith, Gavin Cianci and Jaxon Joy. Musical director Leanne Savill directed the band flawlessly to my ears. Ceri Hutton also keeps the whole shebang of 51 scenes on the move.
Matt Byrne was only weeks away from holding auditions for his production of Jersey Boys when serious illness took hold of him around Christmas 2020. He left the world stage late last year (2021) and Northern Light Theatre Company took up the torch with this ambitious production which they dedicate to his memory. Indeed, several cast members in the program notes reflect on Matt’s mentoring role in their theatrical life.
You have hiccups, you have a drink of water, and then they stop. Ceri Hutton’s production has all the bones for maturing into a first-class night out of nostalgically familiar 60s and 70s hits. For the oldies, it’s great to hear the songs in dramatic context and for their kids, it’s a whole new world of musical wonder.
David Grybowski
When: 7 to 22 Oct
Where: Shedley Theatre, Elizabeth
Bookings: nltc.sales.ticketsearch.com
Wickedly Good Productions. Rumpus. 4 Oct 2022
Big questions; director Nate Triosi executes a deceptively ‘simple’ modus operandi exploring them.
Which questions? After All This goes after the conflicting business of religious belief, the great beyond and the origins of morality.
Marcel Dorney’s play spawned a 2012 Green Room award winning production by Melbourne company Elbow Room. It’s easy to see why. Dorney’s writing disavows being buried in complicated, over egged atheism versus religion discourse.
Dorney pitches logical questioning of Christian belief, nature versus nurture debate and death cult beliefs of transitioning to a higher level of existence in beguiling stylistic dark humour.
Director Triosi’s achievement; a keep it simple approach on every level, ensuring simplicity of presentation in performance and design, allowing the deep nature of Dorney’s text to subtly embrace and challenge without any sense of disturbing angst.
Angst - maybe, maybe not, as the hour progresses.
The audience travels space to space three times within the Rumpus building. Cast members are hidden amongst the audience. We have no idea who they are until they sprout.
Characters Emily and Angus spring from the foyer bar. Emily has pasted a child-like Jesus themed drawing to the wall. We’re welcomed musically and emotionally to the conflicts of childhood and religious belief. Playwright Dorney has split his characters function. They directly address the audience as narrators, yet play children (and others), in struggled remembrances. We get the ‘simple’ yet complex confusion and denial. Do we?
We’re moved on.
A screen projected equation greets us. Another hidden cast member emerges. We’re entertained by a slapstick style take of Dr George Price and John William Hamilton, purveyors of two vastly opposed schools of thought on morality and faith. It’s as slapstick funny as it’s vicious. We just stand there, gazing at the projected equation encompassing the issues the characters fight over.
We’re moved on.
Most disturbing experience of all is this line of characters in uniform, espousing with gentle warmth and sincerity the mystery of death cult belief.
This is the point at which After All This resolves into an endless experiential conundrum. Nothing offered up is neutral. Comprehendible, consistent, but always pushing towards a favoured position dependent on personal reaction. It’s the very function distinguishing great theatre, as an experience, as a means of really knowing what we think we ‘know’.
David O’Brien
When: 4 to 16 Oct
Where: Rumpus 100 Sixth Street Bowden
Bookings: rumpustheatre.org