★★★★★
Patrick Livesey. Holden Street Theatres. 17 Feb 2021
Producer Patrick Livesey has delivered another five-star show for the Fringe at Holden Street Theatres. His hit play in 2019, The Boy, George, was the hilariously plausible improbability of an impish Prince George plotting to save a Boris Johnson-lead government disaster from his bedroom in Buckingham Palace. Last year, his equally good Gone Girls did brisk business.
This year’s burnt offering is the world premiere of a ripper yarn penned by Melbourne playwright and perennial student of the arts, Angus Cameron. An Australian tourist in Moscow chats up one of those umbrella tour guides seen in all major cities these days, seeking the underground gay scene. In Russia, same-sex activity in private was de-criminalised in 1993 but is otherwise frowned upon to downright dangerous in a largely homophobic society. Say no more and enjoy the ride and climax, but what happens is a lot more than a gay tryst – yes, there are hidden agendas.
From ABC’s Millennials/Gen Z TV series, Why Are You Like This?, Wil King’s cherubim looks manifests his Australian’s naivety, enthusiasm, and idealism. His real-life partner and play protagonist, Patrick Livesey is a machine gun burst of the inscrutable Russian. His broken English is wonderful, and his Russian is mysterious, suspicious and tough. While I feel Russians love to complain and joke about their leaders and society, they absolutely love their heritage and are nationalistic at heart, and Livesey and Cameron nailed it. Together, the playwright and cast, aided by an edgy soundtrack, authentically invite us into a shabby and tiny Russian apartment for a few afternoon to evening drinks, followed by the drug-induced haze of a thumping nightclub. Menace is ever present, and malice seems not far behind. Stranger danger and the stakes inexorably increase with every round, yet the tense yearning for sex or at least connection is always palpable. And then there’s the stuff I haven’t told you about.
It is an edge-of-the-seat experience, wonderfully written and expertly performed. Bravo!
David Grybowski
When: 16 Feb to 21 Mar
Where: Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Therry Theatre. Arts Theatre. 11 Feb 2021
Emerging into the world of covid shutdown, Therry imposes strict conditions with lengthy instructions, including ordaining that no one leaves the theatre before the row-by-row exit rule has been explained. Since Therry attracts elderly audiences, this is admirable duty-of-care.
For its elderly audience, Therry’s first 2021 production proves to be a welcome chuckle in the dark.
It is Ken Ludwig’s 2004 adaptation of the 1932 Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur play, Twentieth Century, a showbiz-themed comedy set on a luxury train in the glamorous 1930s. It depicts a grandiose Broadway producer’s efforts to revive his collapsing career by exploiting the stardom of his one-time protégé and lover, Lily Garland. It’s all about vanity, glitz, fakery, and gullibility on a luxury train from Chicago to New York. It is also a comedy.
In this Kerrin White production, it is not a rib-rattling, guffawing comedy but more of a cackle-fest, "The Producers" on valium, perhaps. Its set is utterly fabulous, being a series of ritzy train compartments which are shunted to and fro across the stage to reveal and expand the action as the protagonists - a stage-struck doctor and his mistress, a nutty old conman, a rival producer, railway staff, and assorted members of the great producer’s entourage - bumble about in their assorted quests. The humour is hit and miss, rising towards the climax when all hell is breaking loose.
This work has been a vehicle for the likes of John Barrymore, Frederick March, and Alec Baldwin as the pompous producer Oscar Jaffe with Carole Lombard and Gloria Swanson as the female star. Following in such luminous footsteps is a daunting challenge for any actor and, indeed, one feels for stalwart Adelaide actor Lindsay Dunn as he seeks to embody the blustering egomaniacism of the lead character. Dunn is word perfect and diligent to a tee in his portrayal, but trying as he may to achieve blustering misogyny, he can’t help being just a wee bit too nice.
Playing opposite as the brattish movie star and wearing an exquisitely clichéd blonde wig, Shelley Crooks delivers some delicious vapid vanity in a funny, edgy performance.
The supporting cast is consistently strong and well-rehearsed with some pleasing characterisations and the production definitely lifts in the second act. But it is a clumsy, oddball old play, so much a period piece that the program contains a long glossary of references. Hence, it is a goodie for the oldies but it misses the mark for teenagers.
Samela Harris
When: 11 to 20 Feb
Where: Arts Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com
David Gauci & Davine Productions. Star Theatre One. 5 Feb 2021
Producer, director and writer David Gauci relies on the now-hackneyed title of Bryan Adams’s 1984 hit single, Summer of ’69, to signal to the punters that what’s on offer is a nostalgic magic carpet ride of ‘60s hits, and they got the message. The COVID-restrained, entertainment-hungry, post-middle age chardonnay set have come in droves to turn on, tune in, and drop out for a couple of hours in this blissful trip.
Gauci is a musical stalwart of Adelaide who sang in the inaugural Adelaide Cabaret Festival in 2001. His production of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical – a biographical jukebox musical of King and her ground-breaking songwriting companions from 2013 – was a huge success in the 2020 Adelaide Fringe, and not surprisingly, people have remembered that and returned for more.
In the first half of the show, Gauci chronologically chronicles the main news events and hits of each year in the decade. The use of television clips is helpful, but the employment of tag team narrators is less successful. Reading from scripts and pretending not to is as awkward as the dual MCs that occasionally mar the Academy Awards. Gauci’s pop histories – perhaps rehashed from late night SBS documentaries - forestalls what people really came to enjoy – THE MUSIC. However, my American companion loved it – “I had a combi!”, “I went to San Francisco!”, “I was at Woodstock”, “I was at the Kennedy assassination!” (Just kidding about that last one.)
Musical director Peter Johns and The Hip Beats accompany a bongful of vocal talent in flawlessly rendered hits that carry you off to some associated past be it pleasant or poignant. Carly Meakin’s rendering of Aquarius is soaring and Joshua Kerr’s and Trevor Anderson’s Sounds of Silence is particularly evocative. Jordan Coulter improves on Dylan with his The Times They Are a-Changin’.
Shenayde Wilkinson-Sarti’s choreography is unchallenging and the singers’s costumes lack ‘60s authenticity – more like a dress-up party. Space for backstage and front-of-house credit in the program is used up instead by the major sponsor. Seating around tables and an open bar exude the warm and welcoming social atmosphere that we missed in the truncated 2020 Adelaide Cabaret Festival.
The second half of the show is a delectable selection of what else you would want to hear. The Four Seasons’s Walk Like A Man is delightfully dispatched by women in pink suits. Maya Miller and Joshua Kerr correctly capture the playful rapport of Sony & Cher in I Got You Babe. Bravo! And still, Gauci left the best for last. Jemma McCullough reprises her role as Carole King from Beautiful… with powerfully performed interpretations of Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow and I Feel The Earth Move. Bravo!
After the encore and final round of applause, your table thanks Gauci for bringing back his Beautiful… singers and musicians for a much-needed night of sublime music and memory.
David Grybowski
When: Closed
Where: Star Theatre One
Bookings: www.trybooking.com
Zest Theatre Group. Victor Harbor Town Hall. 30 Jan 2021
They’ve done it again.
Zest has turned on a musical with a cast of nigh-Broadway talent. Is it the sea air?
Strikingly this production of the Dreamworks musical, introduces in the female lead one Matilda Boysen whose assured stage presence and vocal maturity belies her mere eighteen years of age. She really is quite a phenomenon.
As the Princess Fiona, her role is to be rescued by the ogre, Shrek, and be delivered as a bride for the evil Lord Farquaad who has thrown Fairyland into misery and disarray. Originally an animation movie, it’s a silly old plot, with lots of comforting corn but with book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire and music from Jeanine Tesorie, it is a thoroughly good-spirited and rightly popular musical.
Zest has assembled a huge cast and clearly rehearsed and tutored it thoroughly since its discipline, enthusiasm, and vocal abilities are rather accomplished for a community group. Indeed, the whole production is rather classy, from sound and lighting to choreography and costumes. It has been directed by Peta Bowey and Terry Mountstephen, a remarkable daughter and mother team.
For the role of the green-faced ogre, Shrek, they have found one Chris Stevenson, a bearded hairdresser who not only can roll out an excellent Glaswegian accent but also can belt out a darned good song. He makes a terrific Shrek with acting skills sufficient to imbue the gentle giant with pathos. Hence, his evolving relationship with the Princess achieves some credibility.
There is a very important donkey in this story and he is embodied by Joel Pathuis, an arrestingly talented 14-year-old with a very interesting voice pitched just a bit low for the demands of this show. He gives Donkey lots of wit and good shtick. Meanwhile, the vertically-challenged Lord Farquaad needs to be performed by an actor on his knees. Harrison Gollege braves this discomfort with panache and delivers a delightfully comic characterisation.
Hence, with this strong cast of principals surrounded by a riot of song and dance and colour, Zest has delivered yet another extremely creditable production and proved itself a theatre group worth taking seriously.
Samela Harris
When: 29 Jan to 7 Feb
Where: Victor Harbor Town Hall
Bookings: Season Sold Out
Adelaide Youth Theatre. Influencers Theatre. 16 Jan 2021.
Adelaide Youth Theatre’s (AYT) production of Les Misérables is a complete winner. It is a joyous experience to watch talented young people strut their stuff on stage, but when it is done as professionally and as competently as it is in this production, one’s enjoyment is taken to a new level. One forgets the tender ages of the performers and their relative inexperience and instead sees a theatrical event that any established community theatre group would be proud to put their name to.
Bringing any musical to the stage requires the collaborative effort of many skilled people. The audience’s first impression of the production is the music and the impact the orchestra has on them. In this instance Mark Delaine’s fourteen piece ensemble delivers the goods in spades. Claude-Michel Schönberg’s epic score is loved the world over, and audiences warm to its gentle ballads, rousing anthems and heart-rending verismo arias, so expectations are automatically high. Delaine and the orchestra are at the top of their game; especially the keyboards, horns and woodwind. We are then introduced to the cast – specifically the members of the chain gang and ensemble. Their vocal work with At the End of the Day makes the hairs on the back of your neck bristle with excitement and anticipation.
And it just gets better and better.
The story of Les Misérables involves many diverse settings, including a workhouse, taverns, village square, barricaded Parisian streets, and a church. This presents complex staging challenges which AYT overcome through judicious use of projected scenery, multipurpose furniture, haze and empathetic lighting effects. Matt Ralph’s excellent lighting design is a feature of the production. The stage also wraps completely around the orchestra allowing action to take place behind, in front of and to its sides. Director Ray Cullen uses all these elements with great impact and the action flows smoothly between up and downstage, which also cleverly disguises some of the more complicated scene changes.
The ensemble vocal work of the impressively large cast of seventy-eight is fabulous, and the singing coaches and directors (Mark Stefanoff, Georgia Broomhall, Jared Gerschwitz, and especially Mark Oats and David MacGillivray) are to be soundly congratulated. The choruses were well articulated and resonant. The tempi were quite brisk on occasion, such as in One Day More at the conclusion of Act 1, but the ensemble never faltered. The soloists for the most part were convincing and tamed the demanding score.
AYT productions feature two alternating casts, and this performance included the following principals: Connor Olsson-Jones (Jean Valjean), Matt Monti (Javert), Sophie Davies (Cosette), AJ Patel (Marius), EJ Downing (Eponine), Dianna Baddams (Madame Thénardier), Liam Tomlin (Monsieur Thénardier), Tiffany Gaze (Fantine), Jack Raft (Enjolras), Oscar Birkett (Gavroche), Ayla Kennedy (Young Cosette/Young Eponine).
The alternate cast (not seen) includes Kush Goyal, Kristian Latella, Issy Darwent, Oscar Bridges, Erin McGlone, Chloe Seabrook, Axel Flynn, Harrison Thomas, Noah Magourilos, Maggie Bridges and Jasper Darwent. Baddams and Tomlin play the Thénardiers for all performances.
Olsson-Jones imbues Jean Valjean with humanity and bookends his performance with strong and emotive vocal work. The vocal demands of Valjean are significant, and many tenor voices are tested by the required range. Olsson-Jones is challenged to consistently manage the lower registers at volume, however his mid-range in Bring Him Home, with its long sustained heart achingly beautiful notes, is simply outstanding and the audience’s applause is thunderous.
Tiffany Gaze plays Fantine with innocence and the right amount of vulnerability. This comes to the fore especially in her delivery of I Dreamed a Dream with equal confidence in both the high and low ends of the required vocal range.
AJ Patel has a fine and strong tenor voice with an attractive vibrato that allows him to excel as Marius. He has complete control over his instrument and extracts every last emotion to paint the highs and lows of the idealistic and passionate student who is in the throes of the first flush of romance and rebellion. AJ Patel is one to look out for.
Sophie Davies gives Cosette just the right amount of virtue and appeal that immediately makes her attractive to Marius. EJ Downing plays Eponine with beguiling restraint. Her Eponine is grudgingly tomboyish and stands in contrast to the more refined Cosette who enjoys the benefits that Valjean has been able to afford her. Cullen has directed Davies and Downing well to achieve this distinction. Downing’s I Love Him is a true delight, as is the trio A Heart Full of Love sung by Eponine, Marius and Cosette.
Dianna Baddams and Liam Tomlin have great fun as the Thénardiers. They are suitably over the top in almost everything they do, especially in the penultimate wedding scene, with Baddams taking every opportunity to hen-peck her hapless husband. Tomlin comes into his own displaying much malevolence in The Sewers (although his costume is too grand). Jack Raft gives strength and resolve to the role of Enjolras, the leader of the students, and is given solid support by Jaxon Roy who plays another of the students. Oscar Birkett’s Gavroche is totally endearing, and Ayla Kennedy who doubles as the younger Cosette and Eponine is pure innocence and sweetness.
Matt Monti is the standout in the role of Javert. His commanding and resonant bass baritone voice fills the auditorium and demands attention. He has crystal clear diction. Monti inhabits Javert: he plays the role with menace, authority, and imperiousness, but also with deep-seated reverence and respect for order in all things. His performance of Stars is the highlight of the show. Monti’s few vocal numbers with Olsson-Jones are also impressive, including The Cart Crash, in which their timing with each other and the orchestra is polished.
One of the remarkable things about this production is the speed with which the AYT team have brought it all together. Les Miz, as it is affectionally referred to, is a major endeavour. For it to work, all production elements need to come together seamlessly, and not least of all the vocal work and the music. This production was only auditioned last September with a few days of vocal rehearsals just prior to Christmas. The full cast only came together for the first time in early January and rehearsed for the first time with the orchestra a mere four days before opening night! Throughout that time a large group of volunteers, including parents and other theatre companies, worked on costumes, sets and the myriad of things that go into mounting a major production.
As the Director quipped, it was “Les Miz in a week”, and isn’t that just astounding?! To this reviewer, the high quality of the production across all elements seemed to indicate that it had been in rehearsal for months, not days!
Congratulations AYT. Just remarkable.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Influencers Theatre
Bookings: Closed