The Gilbert & Sullivan Society. Arts Theatre. 26 Apr 2018
A Little Night Music is arguably one of the wittiest, most well-written and elegant musicals in the business. With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, it was inspired by an Ingmar Bergman film and a book by Hugh Wheeler. It shines as Sondheim at his best, albeit very demanding on the cast.
Pam O’Grady, with Richard Trevaskis as her sidekick, has directed the latest Adelaide production for the G&S Society and it is a delight.
She has brought an excellent, salon orchestra onto the stage which scenic artist Brian Budgen has adorned with a handsome background of towering birch trees. The chorus arrives, swishing and swaying in a lavishness of period costumes, and ostentatiously tune up their voices around the grand piano - the first clue that this musical has a touch of the tongue in cheek.
The tale unfolds of the widowed middle-aged lawyer whose vapid 18-year-old second wife remains a virgin 11 months into the marriage. He reconnects with his one-time lover, the fading stage star, Desiree, and is challenged by her pompous militaristic current lover. A comedy of marital manners and sexual mores unfolds as all the protagonists head off for a notorious Weekend in the Country.
The musical features one great hit song, Send In the Clowns, but tunes such as Night Waltz, The Glamorous Life and Weekend In the Country linger in the mind long after the curtain has fallen.
O’Grady has assembled a cast with lots of musical nous and has chosen lead players who deliver the level of acting prowess which can convey the comic nuances of hypocrisy and betrayal on which this show’s success must lie. As they say of this show, it was written for actors who can sing and not singers who can act.
Nerves were evident on the first night and the early bedroom scene is hard to play but one soon could see the cast settling into their skins and then the production was humming along in a life of its own with the audience right in the groove, catching the delicious darts of humour and responding with hearty laughter.
That’s the contenting point in a production, the sweet spot where the audience and cast meet as one, having made that connection that makes the living magic of theatre, the raison d’etre of the whole ancient art form. It makes a critic’s heart sing.
There was Robin “Smacka” Schmelzkopf as the foolish Frederik Egerman, dreaming of his lost true love while his brooding young son, gently played by William Richards, tries to practise sex with the maid while drooling over his infantile new step-mother. Schmelzkopf slips into the soul of that misguided romantic dad and plays him true to form through the cut and thrust of love lost and found and lost and found to the reward of denouement. He’s a stylish actor and an endearing singer. Come the show’s defining moment, Send In the Clowns, he underscores the sorrow and irony of it all with a lovely depth of empathy, complementing the emotion evoked by Bronwen James as she delivers that extraordinary song in the role of Desiree. She is fabulously defined as the star in decline: vivacious and audacious, sentimental and simpatico. The audience understands why men love her. They love her, too.
And they love bristling at Nicholas Bishop who braves the role of the licentious hypocrite, Count Carl-Magnus. It’s a role of stuck-up buffoonery and Bishop, of the beautiful baritone voice, plays it to the hilt. Has the man ever turned in a half-hearted performance? One thinks not.
Ah, and there is Deborah Caddy as his elegant and long-suffering wife, Countess Charlotte. Caddy’s professionalism and her powerful stage presence are stand-out. She sings to suit and, oh, plays irony with a capital “I”. She’s another joy in the wonderful casting of this show.
But there’s more.
Norma Knight plays the crusty old matriarch, Madame Armfeldt. From a wheelchair she resonates like a latterday Bette Davis. She’s wise and facetious, and as she comes to the song, Every Day a Little Death, audience members find themselves holding their breath.
And going from the elderly of this Norwegian family to the youngest, there is also Frederika Armfeldt. Henny Walters has been a popular nominee for best emerging actress awards and here with her crystalline fresh voice she works true to the high standard that attracted such acclaim and doubtless will garner more.
As the ingenue bride, Anne, lovely Emmeline Whitehead is delightful to behold but in this difficult role of simpering silliness, she has taken something of shrill tumble over the vocal top. A spot of direction would soften those twittering high registers.
Amid the chorus, Vanessa Lee Shirley shines and is hilarious with James Nicholson, Josine Talbot, Monique Watson, Laurence Croft, and Macintyre Howie Reeves in sterling vocal and physical support. Megan Doherty plays the maid, Petra, and holds the house to ransom as she delivers the overly long and difficult solo, The Miller’s Son.
Christine Hodgen and her lovely orchestra are just there on the stage throughout, mellow and well-balanced against the vocals and with an aesthetic of their own.
And thus does the G&S have another hit show on its hands.
Now to get the word out and fill the houses, for it is a fabulous night’s entertainment.
Samela Harris
When: 26 Apr to 5 May
Where: Arts Theatre
Bookings: gandssa.com.au
Hills Musical Company. Stirling Community Theatre. 20 Apr 2018
The story may be tragic, but the production is not.
Hills Musical Company has thrown a massive and extremely weird-looking cast upon their little Community Theatre stage. Call it freakish, for indeed that was the old buzzword and the theme of the show. The denizens of the old-school travelling side show were indeed society's oddballs and outcasts.
The conjoined Hilton twins, Daisy and Violet, were the superstars of the variety show genres of the 1900s. They were joined at the hips and, although they shared no organs, their shared blood vessels made separation very risky under the medicine of the day. So, despite being mercilessly exploited and ill-treated by family and managers through what was to become a headlining showbiz career, they vowed always to stay together by choice as well as necessity.
Hence, the one great I Will Never Leave You anthem of this musical show, devised in the 1990s around the life and times of the twins by Bill Russell and Henry Krieger.
Despite its colourful content, this tribute show is rarely performed, not only because of the difficulty of finding matching singers to play the twins but, one concludes, because the music doesn’t really hold up. It is very demanding of the singers and it is devoid of memorable tunes.
This said, the HMC’s orchestra under conductor Mark DeLaine is absolutely stunning; strings and wind sublimely balanced and a pleasure on the ear.
Indeed, with direction from Amanda Rowe, the production itself is slick and schmick with the very able cast well-rehearsed and focused. Similarly classy are the costumes which have to depict the assorted sideshow characters from lizard man to half-man-half-woman. They swarm and mass across the stage, a cast ranging beanpole tall to utterly diminutive, from dog hairy to billiard ball smooth; a vast parade of vivid diversity in a set which transforms from tent flaps to vaudevillian glamour and a few other things in between. Designer David Lampard had the crew busy moving large wooden frames into austere compositions to represent the evolving scenes as the girls’ lives progressed from cruel side show subjugation to mere showbiz exploitation. The girls might have been talented singers with defined personalities, but they were always the ingénues under the control of one or other manager or producer.
HMC scored brilliantly in casting Scott Nell as the first of these, the ruthlessly Cockney carny called Sir. In voice and characterisation, Nell gives a powerful performance. He is followed by an opportunistic song and dance talent scout called Terry who, with his gay mate, Buddy, woos the girls away from the freak show and onto the main stage where they are to become glamorous stars of the day.
Paul Rodda, something of a song and dance man in his own right, embodies Terry and does so with a professional polish which is the talk of the foyer at interval. It is a finely nuanced performance.
Meanwhile, as the sidekick Buddy, Jared Frost is exceptionally engaging in both characterisation and song.
There’s some terrific singing coming from stage, all powered by mikes so the rafters sometimes ring. A few cast members use their acting skills to cover for the challenges of the difficult musical score.
Not so the two principals, Rebecca Raymond and Fiona DeLaine as Violet and Daisy, the hapless conjoined twins. They’re superior singers, both. They move well together with their costumes joined at the hips. They harmonise exquisitely and they each assert credible and interesting characters who elicit audience sympathy.
Thus, with its torrent of complex musical numbers and some neat choreography, the show flies along at a good pace, albeit some of the songs are a bit long. There are more stand-out performances, not the least of them Ray Cullen as Houdini and others.
Wendy Rayner, Jared Gershwitz, Elle Nichelle, Alana Shepherdson, Cassidy Roberts, Shelley Crooks and, of course, Omkar Nagesh as the girls’ dear friend and protector, all merit mention and the list could go on: the dancing girls, for instance and the male ensemble in its moment.
There is a mass of life and light and bright talent in this great, big, offbeat show. It is definitely worth a night in the Hills.
Samela Harris
When: 20 Apr to 5 May
Where: Stirling Community Theatre
Bookings: hillsmusical.org.au/tickets
Editors Note: Paul Rodda, who plays Terry Connor in the show, is also the Editor of The Barefoot Review.
Windmill Theatre. Space Theatre. 14 April 2018
The Grug team are back in Adelaide after numerous successful tours locally and internationally. This gorgeous show garners rave reviews and repeat audiences where ever it goes, and with very good reason.
Combining a number of the picture books from Ted Prior's much-loved series, the piece is built around the title story 'Grug and the Rainbow'. Starting with his provenance after toppling from a Burrawang tree, we see Grug build his burrow and glimpse his first rainbow. After sadly failing to catch the rainbow, despite much effort, Grug's mission is to find a rainbow of his very own.
The plays three narrating puppeteers break through the fourth wall and excitedly decide that we should all help Grug to find the colours he needs. This fun and educational twist sees director Sam Haren weave in characters and storylines from other popular Grug books, including his adventures painting a house, visiting the beach and learning to ride a bike. The stories and the audience themselves provide the source for each new rainbow hue.
This show is a wonderful stage adaptation that breathes life into Prior's endearing and inquisitive treetop character. It is also one of the few truly brilliant theatre pieces for toddlers and preschool children.
The three performers are well cast and add much to production without upstaging the main event. Hamish Fletcher, Ezra Juanta and Astrid Pill are warm and friendly on stage and coordinate seamlessly between the numerous puppets. Juanta is a particular stand out, with his larger-than-life stage personality making him a fast favourite with the thigh-high contingent of the audience.
Jonathon Oxlade's small but delightfully intricate and versatile set is a joy to experience, and Tamara Rewse's Grug is just perfect.
This is a show for anyone, of any age, and if you've seen it before then treat yourself again. It's just as good the second time around.
Nicole Russo
When: 10 to 22 Apr 2018
Where: Space Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au
State Theatre Company of SA. Dunstan Playhouse. 11 Apr 2018
Andrew Bovell’s first play.
Methinks the boy has a future.
After Dinner is a beautifully crafted play which falls somewhere between farce, comedy drama and tragic comedy.
Every which way, it is gorgeously funny while at the same time it is piercingly and memorably poignant.
It is a study of classic Aussie characters drawn by the playwright as stereotypical but not clichéd. The play is set in 1988 in a suburban pub or club wherein dinner is only served to tables at the back of a room where a band plays Friday night gigs. Designer Jonathon Oxlade ruthlessly creates a classically bland hospitality wasteland. Just one lacklustre quasi-Pro-Hart print relieves the big, boring wall. The room is fitted with utility tables and chairs. These were the drab venues in which singles made their desperate search for partnerships in the days before online dating. Blokes went to chase a bit of skirt. Lonely girls went in hope.
Dympie is a bit on the OCD side and she is keen to be early to secure a favoured table not too near the bar and the band. She likes to ensure that everything, including her work friend Paula, fits into her neat, tidy and judgemental comfort zone. The well-known actor, Jude Henshall, is unrecognisable within the guise of twitchy, bitchy Dympie. She is a mass of well-observed mannerisms; sour, smug and manipulative. Her friend, Paula, is a would-be free spirit who always ends up succumbing to Dympie’s passive-aggressive bullying tactics. As Paula, Ellen Steele somehow makes her eyes seem eternally startled. In itself, this is funny. Indeed, Steele shows very fine form as a physical comedienne and evokes a character one comes to cherish.
On this Friday night, the two girls have invited their recently widowed friend Monica to join them. She’s late.
At a nearby table Gordon waits alone, toying with the table setting, drinking water, reading the absurdly large menu, failing to get the waiter’s attention and killing what seems to be a lot of time. He is a very beige man. He is played immaculately by Rory Walker and as the play opens, he is positively Tati-esque in his uncomfortable relationship with his surroundings.
The characters emerge through banter and small personal outpourings. In Monica’s case, it is right over the top and into suspend-your-disbelief territory as she throws off the weeping widow image. Elena Carapetis is delicious in this wild ride of a role. Then again, under Corey McMahon’s astute direction, comic timing is right on the spot throughout the production and all cast members are bloody funny. There’s lots of physical comedy with lovely old suggestive shtick. Then there are the misunderstandings and cross purposes in which the hilarity escalates to produce rewards of rib-aching laughter.
Bovell clearly watched carefully that life of the lonely-hearts losers in the 80s. He has drawn them with a pen that is both cruel and compassionate.
Patient menu-gazing Gordon is finally joined by his mate Stephen - to which end Nathan Page, the TV heartthrob of Miss Fisher fame, bursts upon the stage all tousle-haired and louche. If all Gordon wants to talk about is his failed marriage, Stephen just wants to suck down the booze and engineer a one-night stand. Unmarried and in his 40s, such brief encounters are all he knows of relationships. Page’s performance as Stephen is sublime. He makes one love that eternal predator and, by play’s end…
Ah, let’s not give away some of the twists and turns of this beaut Aussie play.
Let’s just be glad that Bovell wrote it and sad that it is not produced more often.
Samela Harris
When: 11 to 29 Apr
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: bass.net.au
Promise Adelaide. Bakehouse Theatre. 7 Apr 2018
Ben Francis. His is a name to remember. Not only did this eighteen year-old Scotch graduate render an outstanding performance in this one-hander, one-act play, but he also produced it. Not only that, his production company, Promise Adelaide, has raised a significant amount of dough for charity and has provided a creative outlet for over a hundred young people. But wait, there's more! He is the lead vocalist of The 60 Four, and an acquaintance of mine was amazed at his crystalline falsetto applied to the personage of Frankie Valli. He's been in a Gale Edwards's musical. I think the sky is the limit for this talented hard worker with a heart in the right place.
Private Peaceful began life as a novel by Michael Morpurgo (War Horse, no less) in 2004, and was adapted for stage by Simon Reade (Pride & Prejudice, Midnight's Children) in 2008. It's a British project concerning poor Peaceful in a WWI bunker in France during a single long night. Something not good is going to happen in the morning. Poor Peaceful reflects on his short sixteen year-long life via a sequence of scenes where Francis narrates and performs Peaceful's recollections. He takes us from primary school right through to the terror of the trenches.
Francis in his youth is already a consummate actor and under director Rob Croser, the cream rises to the top. Francis performed Peaceful's bucolic innocence to perfection. There is a plethora of other characters to flesh out and these were done distinctively. He made the terror of the artillery bombing so palpable that you want to reach out and give him a reassuring hug. Director Croser had him blasting across the stage, and Croser's and David Roach's set is Spartan and evocative. Sounds of sustained explosions and machine gun fire are nerve-wracking.
I was exhausted and sad after the show. Private Peaceful represents the 306 soldiers executed by the British high command during the war (Australia did not execute deserters). This project sprung from Ben's invitation - from winning an essay-writing contest - to attend the centennial services at Gallipoli. I have been there myself and it is a profoundly moving experience like this play. Double bravo!
David Grybowski
When: 4 to 14 April
Where: Bakehouse Theatre
Bookings: bakehousetheatre.com