Adelaide Fringe. TB Arts. Odeon Theatre. 24 Feb 2017
Out and into the big league come the students of TB Arts with a great big musical production for the Fringe.
There’s a cast of thousands showing off their theatre skills in Singing in the Rain Jr at the Odeon and, with them, an audience which packs the theatre to the rafters long before the curtain comes up. Good seats in this General Admission house depend on early arrival. Be warned. Even 15 minutes before curtain, this ultra-punctual critic ended up in the lofty third-to-back row wherein audacious last-minute arrivals asked us to compromise the children's carefully-chosen sightlines by moving to fit them in.
As it was, one of the children still had trouble seeing, albeit she declared that she had seen sufficiently to enjoy the show and even make critical assessments, admiring the leads and ensemble work but noting “they need more bobby pins in the dancers’ hair”.
TB Arts uses the old alternating cast routine to give all their students a chance to shine and have the full production experience. Opening night was the “Gene Kelly Cast” which presented Gemma Caruana in the role of the ghastly silent movie star Lina Lamont whose vile voice brings sweet Kathy Seldon her big break to stardom by dubbing Lina behind the scenes. In a massive blonde wig, Caruana hams it up to the shrillest and most ear-splitting degree as awful Lena, playing it for laughs and getting them. Alongside her, another up-and-coming character actor is Josh Spiniello playing Cosmo, the good and vaudevillian funny offsider of heartthrob Don Lockwood. Spiniello mugs and hams all over the place. He is entirely appealing and his loony Make ‘Em Laugh performance is a treat. Oddly, compared to the other principals, he seems cruelly under-miked. Amelia Sanzo as Kathy is quite the opposite. Indeed the show’s sound needs quite a bit of tweaking. But, while over amplified on the opening night, Sanzo shows herself to be a very poised young performer with a good, strong singing voice. Opposite her in the Gene Kelly role of Don, Lachlan Zilm delivers matinee idol charm and braves some difficult tap routines.
Behind the scenes is a strong team under director, Michelle Davy. Some scene changes are a bit leisurely but the big numbers are nicely honed with choreography by Zak Vasiliou and Laura Brook and musical direction from Mitchell Smith. Costumes and lighting also are impressive but maybe not the big feature for which the audience waits, real rain falling for the title song.
It’s an underwhelming scene with just one line of water which is hard to see from the back. Zilm does his heroic tap dancing best to fill the stage.
The show shines on the big numbers, Broadway Melody particularly, and the massive chorus cast is ever effervescent.
The big high spot comes at the very end of the show when both stage and auditorium are filled with dancers under fairy-lit umbrellas giving a great big refrain of the title song. It’s a glorious, sparkling finale.
Samela Harris
Warning: The Fringe program gives this abridged show’s running time as 60 minutes but for whatever reason, TB has added an interval which brings the show down at 90 minutes.
When: 24 to 27 Feb
Where: Odeon Theatre
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Adelaide Fringe. Davine Interventionz Productions. Star Theatres. 24 Feb 2017
David Gauci once again brings a stunning premiere musical to Adelaide with his latest offering, Violet. The 2016 announcement of the production garnered much attention and excitement from local performers and as such an outstanding cast has been assembled to bring Gauci’s vision into reality.
The hype is true, this is a wonderful show, and at its epicentre, is one of the most exciting performances seen in local theatre for some time.
The central character Violet, played by Casmira Cullen, hails from a small farm on the side of a hill in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. Violet seeks the miracle working prayers of a televangelist in Tulsa, Oklahoma to heal the scars on her face, caused by the head of a wayward axe as a child. On her journey, aboard a greyhound bus, she meets two young men – both soldiers – who change her life. They are black army sergeant, Grady ‘Flick’ Figgins played by Fahad Farooque, and white army paratrooper, Montgomery ‘Monty’ Harrell, played by Mitchell Smith.
Cullen, in the title role, plays the self-shaming, tomboyish Violet with absolute conviction, laced with a subtle underlying vulnerability and an air of hope. Cullen’s Violet is easy to warm to even when her character is completely cold towards others. She nuances over the lyric with ease and transitions effortlessly from dialogue to song. Cullen perfectly encapsulates the helplessness and desperate desires of an isolated and seemingly naive young woman into the warm shell of a down to earth country girl who just wants to be loved; and it is stunning to watch.
She is ably supported by a stellar cast, many leads in their own right, but it is Farooque and Smith who make Cullen’s journey as Violet all the more rich with Eloise Q. Valentine brilliantly echoing Cullen in flashbacks to her youth, weaving detail into the rich tapestry of the story. They all give lovely performances, balancing Violet in their own way; Flick is generous and caring, Monty is charming and self-confident. Both are tenacious in the pursuit of Violet’s love.
Valentine’s Young Violet makes visceral the anger and resentment of her older self, revealing the girl who becomes the woman behind the scar.
Adam Goodburn is Violet's father and brings both heart and guts, manifested in his struggle to relate to Violet and through the guilt he suffers for her disfigurement.
The whole cast sing beautifully, and most especially when they are harmonising in chorus. On My Way is particularly stirring – sending shivers down one’s spine - as are numbers which draw threads through the show such as Water In The Well, and All To Pieces. Musical Director, Peter Johns has clearly drilled the voices and the orchestra to note perfection, and the hard work of many is a massive reward for the audience.
Gauci’s production tackles the difficult task of playing scenes in multiple locations successively and in some cases concurrently quite well. For the most part the setting of individual scenes is wonderfully successful, adequately conveying time and place, but on the whole there is a feeling of disjointedness and patchiness in the set, which is not aided by some poorly-focussed lighting design which brings parts of the set into the fore when it should be receding from view. Whilst all aspects of the set add to the overall storytelling in their own way, this is certainly a production that could benefit from a less is more approach where lighting plays a bigger part in the transitions.
That being said the performances of the entire cast still surpass any grievances, and the production is supremely enjoyable to watch.
It is Cullen’s outstanding performance that really makes this show soar. The fact that she shines so bright above a cast of such high calibre is tribute to her superlative abilities.
Bravo!
Paul Rodda
When: 25 Feb to 4 Mar
Where: Star Theatres, Hilton
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Adelaide Fringe. Prospect Productions. The GC At the German Club
It is sad how some of the world’s colourful figures can fall into oblivion. Coral Browne was an outspoken and much-loved star in her day. While her career played out largely overseas, she found her way into her Australian homeland's consciousness most particularly when she married the Hollywood star, Vincent Price. But, in her day, Coral Browne was definitely a beloved name in the theatre.
She could have stayed lost in time had it not been for Maureen Sherlock who has penned a bio monologue which zips through the outspoken star’s life, complete with the loathed critical mother who seemed determined to outlive her.
Genevieve Mooy has braved the task of embodying Browne and bringing Sherlock’s lively script to life for the Fringe.
The GC’s intimate surrounds work well for such a venture, albeit the venue should please ban noisy potato crisps from performance spaces. In its 6pm slot, noise from the adjoining restaurant does not seem to impact on the one-hander.
It’s a simple and effective set, designed by Rob George and Carol Yelland and representing Browne’s Hollywood Hills home in the 1990s. There’s a red chaise lounge, table, chair, hatstand and telephone with a painting on the wall which accommodates assorted slides of the star’s childhood, her many famous lovers, and various movie posters. There are also packing boxes and scrap books; the props which reference the fact that everything in the script has come from Browne archives boxed up in Melbourne and Adelaide.
From the hatstand, Mooy whisks headpieces which illustrate moments and, most significantly, create the costume for the scenes in which she becomes Browne’s dreaded mother. While mother is very Australian, Coral Browne’s accent, polished over the decades in the UK, is frightfully British. Mooy segues between the two with ease.
The script is dense and demanding, a tough call in the memory department and, by season’s end, Mooy should have it fully streamlined. But she is such an elegant pro that, even when calling for a line, she remains comfortably in character.
And she looks superb. Most courageously, she has aged up to play Browne looking back from the end of her career. She wears a stunning silvery top over loose black slacks and subtly bling shoes to reflect the glitter of the red carpet.
The show opens with Browne accepting her BAFTA award and then rolls back through the star-studded career on the London stage. Play after play, character after character, lover after lover, Mooy rattles through them at high speed, ensuring that a massive life’s work fits into the Fringe schedule’s one hour. The script is peppered with the bright wit characteristic of Maureen Sherlock’s works, the likes of Alzheimers the Musical and Ada and Elsie. While Browne was a funny woman in her own right, Sherlock has ensured enhanced entertainment value with just enough added gags.
It’s a fine actress onstage playing a fine actress and looking every bit the beautiful part.
The show is still being born and it promises to run in as a classic and classy bio piece which will have legs to play all over the country, and give the world the gift of a wonderful, vivid, provocative and fearless Australian artiste rediscovered.
Samela Harris
When: 23 Feb to 19 Mar
Where: The GC At the German Club
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Adelaide Fringe. Dream State Entertainment. 20 Feb 2017
Wandering the green fields of her father's proposed new mega mall and carpark, a child spots a strange looking circle. Unwittingly, she steps into a Faerie ring and is shrunk into a world of mythical creatures, where she meets a faery and an elf who are trying to save their world from the bulldozers.
Diamonds Found In Dreams is a collaboration between the experienced Dream State Circus husband-and-wife team, Jacob & Sophie McGrath, and the Diamond Duo sibling pair Calin & Arwen. Together, the foursome present a fun and educational performance that highlights the science of climate change and the importance of sustainable living for modern families.
Valiant in the face of an open-air theatre and unseasonably cold, wet weather, the show doesn't miss a beat. The professionalism of the two tween-aged siblings is particularly impressive. With buckets of talent and energy, they burst with confidence onstage and possess incredible acrobatic range. The show features juggling, acrobatics and comedy, with a wonderful group performance in the final minutes that showcases the strength and agility of the whole cast.
The performance feels a little loose and under-rehearsed, just needing a final lick of polish. However, it is clever in blending circus-style entertainment with a solid take-home message - quite literally! At the close of the show, the audience are encouraged to come forward and collect a sunflower seed and planting instructions.
A lovely touch that concludes an energetic and informative show.
Nicole Russo
When: 20 Feb to 19 Mar
Where: Empyrean at Gluttony
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Adelaide Festival Centre. Dunstan Playhouse. 17 Feb 2017
First released in 1973, Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells is one of the best known and more instantly recognisable pieces of modern music. Its early claim to fame was its opening piano solo being used in the soundtrack to film The Exorcist, also released in 1973.
At risk of becoming boring, it is worth commenting briefly on the composition first before singing the praises of this performance. Tubular Bells broadly comprises a suite of bright and catchy tunes that are subtly varied and played on a succession of instruments which gradually add together until the sound builds to a rich and detailed crescendo. For those of you, who are classically minded think of Ravel’s Bolero, which also features layer upon layer of music building on each other. Or, vice versa, think of Haydn’s Farewell Symphony, in which the complexity of the sound diminishes (rather than increases), as instruments are gradually removed one by one as members of the orchestra leave the stage. What makes Tubular Bells special, in this type of musical composition, is that Mike Oldfield played the majority of the instruments himself and in the original recording he overdubbed himself to create the musical snowball racing downhill towards its climax.
So what makes this evening’s concert performance different? Simple. Two musicians play all instruments between them in real time. Simple? No way. This is miraculous and exciting stuff! Australian musicians Daniel Holdsworth and Aidan Roberts have played this concert hundreds of times around the world to consistent and richly deserved acclaim. What they do is more to be seen than it is to be heard.
Between them they play four electronic keyboards, six or seven electric and acoustic guitars at various tunings, a mandolin, drum kits, glockenspiel, mouth whistles, their own voices, and tubular bells of course. They also simultaneously operate with their hands and bare feet a bewildering array of samplers and loop pedals all joined together by metres and metres and metres of electrical cabling. The stage is full to overflowing, and everything is oh-so-carefully positioned. These guys have to move at near lightning speed from one instrument to the other to maintain continuity, and mistakes can and do happen.
A highlight of the performance was Holdsworth momentarily losing his way in the music and improvising on whatever instrument was at hand. The expression on his face was priceless with “OOPS” written large from ear to ear on his beaming smile. Roberts, possibly oblivious but entirely caught up in what he was doing, kept going and the capacity audience loved them both even more for it.
Their musicality was only eclipsed by their exhausting athleticism. This was remarkable stuff. It was my very great pleasure to have seen this show before and it only gets better.
If you haven’t seen these guys, look them up on YouTube but do see them when they next return to Adelaide. They are pure genius!
Kym Clayton
When: 17 Feb
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: Closed