Adelaide Fringe. Strut and Fret Production House. Magic Mirror Spiegeltent at The Garden of Unearthly Delights. 19 Mar 2017
Perhaps seeing all of Strut and Fret’s shows is a bad thing? Perhaps one’s expectations are harder to meet when the company has already produced so much outstanding content? Like a sequel that fails to live up to the original.
The latest offering from the Strut and Fret Production House is entitled Blanc de Blanc, and is an homage to French champagne. The show is a celebration of that bubbly beverage, and the performers all take on their characters with guts and gusto.
Every one of them is extremely talented, absolutely gorgeous; supremely fit, and specialises in their own unique brand of entertainment, be it circus, clowning, acrobatics, contortion, comedy, or burlesque. But it seems they have all been thrust into a show which lacks a solid vision; the excitement and risk that has made Strut and Fret famous, fails to materialise for very long.
There are some really great acts in this show, and one hears people speak of them in absolute awe – a gravity defying pole performance in a concierge’s luggage trolley; the spectacular antics of a hula-hooping contortionist; a graceful and sexy mid-air dance between two soap soaked acrobats suspended from The Magic Mirror Spiegeltent – but this list is exhaustive. That is all of the truly edgy acts you are likely to see (Note: this performance didn’t feature Shun Sugimoto). Like an action packed film trailer you’ve just heard all the best bits. The rest of the 2 hour production feels a lot like self-indulgent fluff and filler; a selfie-break mid-show allows the audience to take photos with the performers, most of us awkwardly sit and watch!
Loosely based on champagne, and full of little dance interludes that are more like connective tissue than acts, Blanc de Blanc doesn’t really showcase the specialist skills of anyone, other than Spencer Novich and his perfectly timed comedy genius. One finds oneself waiting for something to happen… and being disappointed when nothing does.
The show is fast paced and high energy. It has all of the expected production values of a Strut and Fret show; spectacular sound and lighting, amazing costumes, and slick stage production. It is, however, not particularly well suited for the round, with much of the action on the main stage and almost everything performed out front.
For the most part the audience get into the celebration of champagne and they seem to love it. All of the feedback seems to have been positive, so one returns to the opening of this review to ponder why we failed to be inspired.
Blanc de Blanc didn’t seem to have the dynamics of its predecessors. It does have a lot more nudity, and as exciting as that can be, the novelty quickly wears off. Despite all this it still appears to be winning the praises of audiences and critics alike.
Paul Rodda
When: 19 Mar
Where: Magic Mirror Spiegeltent at The Garden of Unearthly Delights
Bookings: Closed. Tour continues around the country
Prima Donna A Symphonic Visual Concert, and Rufus Does Judy Highlights from the Carnegie Hall Concerts. Adelaide Festival. Rufus Wainwright. Festival Theatre. 18 Mar 2017
This one night-only show - an Australian premiere and exclusive to Adelaide - is a double bill comprising edited versions of two of Wainwright's creations. His opera, Prima Donna, opened during the Manchester International Festival in 2009, and in 2015, he converted the opera into an oratorio of its highlights, keeping the narrative and augmenting the music and libretto with a silent film directed by Francesco Vezzoli. This is called Prima Donna A Symphonic Visual Concert. Also, Wainwright recreates Judy Garland's comeback concert of June 1961 at Carnegie Hall, in 2006, and in the second half of the Adelaide show, he sings about sixteen American pop and jazz standards from his Garland show. So if you came to hear Rufus sing, he sings only in the second half and nearly all of it is channeling Garland.
There are plenty of critical words on the internet about the opera but I enjoyed it very much. His score - accused of being a pastiche of the greats - is indeed changeable but has a driving foreboding or ominous tone that invites anxiety and concern for the diva. Co-authored with Bernadette Colomine, diva Régine Saint Laurent attempts to resuscitate her career while in the grips of an interest in journalist Andre Létourneur, who will leave her coldly. Jacqueline Dark sings beautifully and has great emotional import. Andrew Goodwin shows Andre to be a perfect cad, while Eva Kong provides stunning soprano support as the diva's maid. The movie harkened to a parallel story as it features photos of Maria Callas and a very Maria Callas-looking Cindy Sherman. Of course, Callas was dumped by Aristotle Onassis when he began dating Jacqueline Kennedy.
The Judy show has punch. Honouring Garland by wearing a ruby red sequined tuxedo jacket with tails, Wainwright demonstrates a phenomenal vocal power similar to what most of us have only heard in Garland recordings. He goes through the songs pretty fast, wearing himself out, with little to enlighten us about Judy or the famous Carnegie concert, and never imitating her. He remains Rufus Wainwright, a rather amiably nice guy at the height of his career.
As Wainwright is not a frequent visitor to Adelaide, this double bill is an excellent way to sample a broad swathe of his talent and is a great night of mixed musical styles.
David Grybowski
When: 18 Mar
Where: Festival Theatre
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Fringe. Adelaide Youth Theatre. Star Theatre. 17 Mar 2017
13 The Musical was the first, and maybe only, Broadway musical with a cast and band entirely comprised of teenagers. Jason Robert Brown was commissioned to write the music and lyrics for a theatre group in Los Angeles in 2007. You may recall JRB from his concert of original tunes, Songs For A New World, in the 2003 Adelaide Cabaret Festival, or the musical itself when Adelaide Youth Theatre produced the South Australian premiere in the Adelaide Fringe of 2012.
Director Lindsay Prodea had the Herculean task of guiding two completely different casts - one of older and the other of younger teenagers for two shows each. I saw the younger cast put on a hearty and very professional show bursting with talent.
Librettists Dan Elish and Robert Horn rocket Grease into the 21st Century. While the gangs are gone, the moiety is still there, and issues of exclusion are more sensitively portrayed. Also the characters are younger and thus the piece probably more suited to the younger cast.
Evan, a Jewish kid from New York City, is plunked into a small town high school and is desperate to prove his popularity with a big Bar Mitzvah. Although initially befriending his neighbour, Patrice, he finds out she's an outcast in class and shuns her for the cool kids led by Brett. The schmuck spends the rest of the play scheming to set things right, and works with Patrice's friend, Archie, who is also on the out due to his muscular dystrophy or somewhat similar disease. Things go from bad to worse before they get better.
The score in the hands of musical director Ben Francis and his band is lively and energetic. Indeed, all things are good - Luke Bartholomew's lighting is flashy but sometimes leaves some in the shade. No costuming task was too daunting for Lisa Dandie, even when a dozen orthodox Jews or cheerleaders are called for. Joshua Maxwell managed a bunch of projections that set the scenes. All very incredibly good production values given the shoestring budget.
And into this staging vessel are poured some of Adelaide's brightest young talents under the swift and deft direction of Prodea and the relaxed and cheeky choreography of Nina Richi.
Undersized Ethan Schembri's Evan is effervescent and perky and a trier, but a schmuck nonetheless. Alana Iannace lends Patrice a nuanced voice and acting skills and I can't understand why nobody liked her. Jayden Prelc gives Archie a humorous sensibility. Kristian Latella made Evan's antagonist Brett an outwardly very lovely guy, but really, he's a bully. Lucy as played by Taylor Tran was a sly villainous skank and very watchable. Poor Kendra was not much more than an object of desire for Brett and Archie in the script but Georgia Firth lent her some dignity. Just to show that there was talent to spare, chorus girl Izzy Oppedisano was outstanding in the encore.
How all these kids and chorus channeled their hormonic energy into song and dance and nuanced performance was a real joy to watch.
Bravo to AYT!
David Grybowski
When: 16 to 18 Mar
Where: Star Theatre
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Fringe. Grapa. The Bakehouse Theatre. 16 Mar 2017
Where do you go when you're unconscious and maybe dying? Well, here's your answer. The Prime Minister flies himself into a mountain between meetings and is awaiting rescue, or not, in life and death's halfway house. There's not much there - nothing really - except two annoying men in white coats who are as helpful as Kafka's authorities and engaged with repeated Pinter-like dialogue. But then again, maybe they would be more helpful if the PM calmed down and pondered his mortality.
But he doesn't, and that's the situation playwright John Bolger wished to convey in this world premiere production - some people are so bound up with their busy lives and hubris that they don't change, even faced with their own demise. While an attempt was made to ratchet up the tension with the threesome moving to different rooms indicative of the rescue mission moving toward a conclusion, indeed nothing really changes, and the PM's unrelenting lack of self-reflection is tedious.
If Bolger wanted me to feel that I was in some weird place - that like the PM I would dearly wish to leave - he succeeded.
David Grybowski
When: 14 to 18 Mar
Where: The Bakehouse Theatre
Bookings: Closed
Adelaide Fringe. Second Breakfast. Tandanya Arts Cafe. 16 Mar 2017
Playwright and performer Mark Salvestro lived with a portrait of his great great uncle in military uniform on the wall of his parent’s house, and nobody really knew much about him. His extraordinary research - movingly documented on his website - takes us on the journey of George Edward Bradford, from adolescent athletics in the Central West New South Wales town of Forbes to the tragedy of Gallipoli.
It's obvious the love and reverence that Salvestro puts into his story. And poignant that he is about the same early 20s age as Bradford was when he was shot with thousands of other dead and wounded in the failed battles of August 1915 that effectively ended the campaign on the peninsula. They even look much alike - you cannot but secretly weep at the thought of such sensitivity, vigour and beauty wasted by bullets.
Salvestro sweetly counterpoints himself with Bradford most effectively in short alternating scenes comparing his alienation in a nightclub with Bradford courting his future wife in the calmer circumstances of a century ago. In exchanges of letters, Bradford finds out that his child dies in infancy. Evacuated from the beach, we learn in a most pitiful narrative deftly delivered by Salvestro that Bradford succumbed to his wounds and was buried at sea.
Director Phoebe Anne Taylor and Salvestro keep interest alive through the use of copious props, the switching between Salvestro and Bradford, and having Salvestro singing period ditties to his own accompaniment on the keyboard, and later to an uncredited pianist, who also underscored key narration.
A few details need to be attended to. Salvestro as Edwards wore his slouch hat backwards, and he says that he participated in a Camp Gallipoli event, probably the 2015 Anzac Centenary sleep-out. As a footnote, Camp Gallipoli - after taking millions of dollars in grants from government and business - was stripped of its charity status by the regulator, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission, as it was unable to demonstrate that it was indeed a not-for-profit organisation.
There's not much of an epilogue - there is no eulogy, and all the characters disappear including Salvestro who quickly evacuates the stage.
This is a warm and moving production straight from the heart and delivered with skill that resurrects one of our heroes and brings the past to the present with thoughtful reflection.
David Grybowski
When: 16 to 19 Mar
Where: Tandanya Arts Cafe
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au