Les Misérables

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

Skylight

Verendus Theatre with Red Phoenix and Holden Street Theatres. The Studio, Holden Street Theatres. 14 Jan 2021

 

The years have been kind to David Hare’s play, Skylight. Kyra, its principal character, has chosen a life of austerity in an unheated London slum flat. Her decision to reject newspapers, television, and the comforts of the modern world are central to the plot-line which is a timeless evocation of political extremes. So the lack of computers and cellphones is not jarring.

She is visited unexpectedly by Tom, her former lover, a wealthy older man from whose family she fled when his late wife discovered their long-term love affair. While Kyra grew up on the right side of the tracks and has chosen the idealistic path, travelling distances by bus to teach disadvantaged children, Tom came up from a working class background to acquire a string of successful London restaurants, a trophy wife, a holiday house in the sun, and a chauffeur-driven limousine.

 

Tom’s visit is prompted by his yearning to rekindle that old illicit love, now that his wife has died. And, he is appalled to find that Kyra swapped the luxury of living as part of his family for this life of principled poverty. And thus, just short of agitprop didacticism, the play devolves into a class war.

 

Hare’s skill has been both the credibility of the characters’ backgrounds and his sublimely astute mastery of dialogue. This is a wordy, intense play. But, the barrages of opposing logic emerge as a transfixing domestic drama; literally kitchen sink insofar as it is set in a kitchen and, indeed, Kyra cooks (and ruins) a spaghetti dinner right there on stage.

 

It is a superb set, with large windows showing treetops and falling snow, and long kitchen benches at which Kyra busies herself making pots of tea and chopping vegetables as she confronts the emotional landmines of Tom’s expectations.

The audience is swiftly enfolded within the tensions of their reunion.

From the moment he steps in the door, Brant Eustice's presence as Tom consumes the stage. He prowls around as a needy, vulnerable bully and the audience quickly falls into his thrall. The role could have been written for Eustice, so potently does he embody it. This puts him into pretty laudable company since Michael Gambon, Bill Nighy, and Matthew Beard earned Tony Awards in the role of Tom and, indeed, the 1995 play won a best revival Olivier Award when it was remounted in 2015. It is that sort of a play: a ripper; dense theatre for serious actors.

 

And therein does Alicia Zorkovic belong. Her Kyra is the perfectly underplayed counterpoint to Tom’s bombasticism. She is quite riveting with her beautiful voice, well accented to reveal her character’s breeding. As the play develops, so does she bring forth the quiet strength and integrity of Kyra.

Towards the end of Act I, there is a moment when chemistry between the two characters brings not only the actors to tears but also the audience. It is quite exquisite.

Bravo both actors and also director Tim Williams.

 

Can two former lovers reignite what they once had under different circumstances when one has chosen a life of idealistic, socialist, materialism denial, while the other is thriving on the cream of capitalist confidence? Each has strong arguments for their lifestyle and valid criticisms of the other. It’s an engrossing and still relevant debate.

The play is oddly bookended by a third character, Tom’s son, Edward, pleasantly played by Jackson Barnard. He appears uninvited at Kyra’s flat to beg her support for Tom’s shortcomings as a widower. This cameo gives context for what is to follow, but his return at the end of the play is perplexing enough for audience members to wander out into the night discussing it.

 

Indeed, Skylight is one of those eloquently-penned British plays which provide nourishing food for thought on several fronts and probably should be in the syllabus for secondary students.

It is what we call a “must-see”.

 

Samela Harris

 

When: 14 to 23 Jan

Where: Holden Street Theatres

Bookings: holdenstreettheatres.com

One Man, Two Guvnors

Blue Sky Theatre and Open Gardens SA. In the Garden. Crozier Hill, Victor Harbor. 8 Jan 2021

 

All hail to Robert Bell, the new funny man of Adelaide theatre.

There’s no element of comic performance this young actor does not embrace in his portrayal of Francis Henshall in Richard Bean’s One Man Two Guvnors. He channels the gauche physicality of a Michael Crawford in his prime and adds to it his own whip-swift timing, his boundless energy, and quick-witted improvisational skills.

 

James Corden won a Tony Award for his National Theatre portrayal of Francis Henshall in the West End. Our Bell is pretty hot on his heels. For which Blue Sky director Dave Simms must take some kudos since he mounts and casts these brave outdoor theatre shows and, year after year, stocks them with first class performers giving strenuous over-the-top characterisations.  When performing in front of an audience spread across an expanse of park-like lawn, staunch and powerful projection also must be part of an actor’s box of tricks.

Simms has the genre down to a tee, even providing Blue Sky knee rugs for audience members after the sun goes down. And the audiences return in droves, these picnic party nights having become ritual social events.

Similarly, with most cast members on return engagements, Blue Sky is as near to an ensemble company as a huge operation can get in these lean days of the arts.

 

Hence, there are regular names such as Lee Cook who has played not only in Blue Sky shows but also in Simms’ Mixed Salad Productions. Here, with sizzling panache, Cook plays the arrogant upper-crustish Stanley Stubbers, one of the Two Guvnors, while Blue Sky regular Miriam Keane plays Rachel the other Guvnor with androgynous alacrity. 

Leighton Vogt is a glory of strutting thespian vanity as Alan, playing suitor to the darling dunce Pauline. Ashley Penny is delicious in the role and, oh, kudos for her wonderful 1960s frock. Another of the hallmarks of Blue Sky are the bespoke tailored costumes. Five stars again.

 

This play, based on Carlo Goldini’s A Servant of Two Masters, is ridiculously, rib-achingly funny, so long as it has the calibre of performance to deliver the absurdity of it all. 

 

And so it goes that Gary George clearly is having a wonderful twinkle-toed romp as the scary heavyweight Cockney dad, with Steve Marvanek as the hopelessly staid lawyer, and the inimitable Nicole Rutty as the whacky hotel landlady with a past.  Georgia Stockham is great fun as useful love interest Dolly, while Simon Barnett brings the house down over and over again with his nimble nonagenarian shtick. Joshua Coldwell, Angela Short, and four skiffle band musicians round out the wild night on the lovely lawns.

 

And everyone does their bit betwixt and between the scenes with silly song and vaudevillian show-pony routines. Oh, and they even play the spoons.

 

Seamlessly organised between Blue Sky and Open Gardens SA, this presentation is just an all-round joy. 

One leaves, exhausted not only by watching the fast and furious athleticism of the cast but also from having laughed so loudly and so often for so long.

 

Samela Harris

 

When: 8 to 24 Jan

Where: In the Garden - Crozier Park, Victor Harbor

Bookings: Season Sold Out

Room on the Broom

CDP Kids. Dunstan Playhouse. 20 Dec 2020

 

Julia Donaldson’s books are familiar to most parents and grandparents, and loved by all who know them. Along with illustrator Axel Scheffler, Donaldson has tapped into that mysterious place where children connect with their imaginations, where anything is possible and even more, believable. The Gruffalo (1999), Stick Man (2008) and Zog (2010+) are amongst the most popular of her books; and then of course, there is Room on the Broom (2001).

 

It’s a simple story of kindness and friendship, and the adventures to be had in a magical world. There is of course a witch, for no self-respecting broom would be without one, and a cat, as no self-respecting witch would be without one of those! And just to be very clear where we’re going here, there’s also a dragon.

 

The story itself is a fairly quick read, and the plot is liberally expanded to create a 55 minute show. It opens with four friends finding a camping spot, and coming across the Witch. There’s a bit of humour here that goes over the kids’ heads, and this opening goes on a bit long before the storyline is really acknowledged, with some laboured padding to the scene. Nothing seems to happen without interruption, and when we finally get airborne there’s some relief from the short ones.

 

In this production, Witch isn’t the brightest; her spells don’t work, she’s not a very good listener (as pointed out by Mr Four), she has real trouble starting her broom, and Cat keeps her distracted by feeding her jelly babies. Essentially, Witch is off to give the Dragon a bit of a dressing down about his penchant for witch and chips (although he apparently quite likes kids on a stick as well). She and Cat set off on the broom into the high wind, and she promptly loses her hat. It’s found by a dog, who returns it to her and asks to ride on the broom to the moon. Well, there’s room on the broom and a grateful Witch says yes, much to the chagrin of Cat.

 

When Witch also loses her bow and then her wand, which are returned by Bird and Frog respectively, the broom gets very crowded indeed!

 

Dog, Bird and Frog are puppets, and beautifully realised. Songs (music and lyrics by Jon Fiber, Andy Shaw and Robin Price) have been added to the production and each character gets a go round, with Frog’s number the standout. A rollicking southern US twang delights the children and parents alike – who can resist a down home frog?

 

Of course, the broom just gets too heavy with all these people on board and breaks, leaving Witch on her own to battle the dragon. But alls well that ends well, and the friends turn up in the nick of time to rescue Witch and banish the dragon.

 

Unfortunately, there’s no program or cast notes distributed with this production and an internet search didn’t clarify the cast in this performance.

 

While the energy was a bit lacking, it was their third performance of the day and once the storyline kicked in, the audience was more than happy to listen to the unfamiliar parts. A bit more audience interaction would have helped them relate; what little there was seemed almost an afterthought, with minor reaction from the kids.

 

Overall, an enjoyable show; with music, puppets and witches, what’s not to like?

 

Arna Eyers-White

 

When: 19 to 23 Dec

Where: Dunstan Playhouse

Bookings: bass.net.au