The Therry Dramatic Society. Arts Theatre. 6 Jun 2015
A single mother and child find themselves forced to share their apartment with a stranger. The woman’s vanished lover has sublet it without notice. It’s a little “precious” as one blog commented on the musical version of Neil Simon’s 1977 film The Goodbye Girl.
However “precious”, Bernadette Peters and Martin Short were nominated for Tony awards for performances as Paula and Elliot, the mother and an actor pushed into an unusual relationship beginning with fights at first sight, and developing into love.
What tends to be overlooked is the true focus of the piece which lies in the title. How can this wonderful girl break the curse of men leaving her for ‘better things’?
There is no slack in Director Pam O’Grady’s masterful shifting tableaux of epic scene to scene moments. Brian Budgen’s smartly constructed mobile set pieces and Musical Director Mark DeLaine’s orchestra ensure capacity to deliver highlight moments is fiercely maximised.
The cast have what it takes to deliver O’Grady’s grand production. Leads Fiona DeLaine (Paula McFadden), Lindsay Prodea (Elliot Garfield) and Henny Walters (Lucy McFadden) form a riveting trio as feisty ‘take no prisoners’ Mother Paula; eccentric, well-meaning actor Elliott; and smart as a button daughter Lucy.
If the premise bringing Paula and Elliot together is “precious”, the catalyst taking them to a serious relationship is brilliant in its outlandishness. The hilarious concept of Elliott playing Richard III as flamboyantly effeminate in a doomed production offers genuine emotional gravitas, not to mention fantastic opportunity for brilliant stock comic characters played by Prodea and Paul Rodda as Mark, the director.
DeLaine and Prodea own the stage with gusto in each appearance together. They work hard finding means of expressing the gentle growth of attraction between their characters - the robust score they work with tends to militate against - yet they manage to find the moments both comic and tender.
Walters holds her own with singular confidence, as Lucy. Her ability to play the middle line between Paula and Elliot is exceptional, ensuring moments Lucy actually takes control have real dramatic impact on the unfolding relationships between them.
O’Grady’s bright, sharp paced, smooth Broadway production is worth a peek.
David O’Brien
When: 4 to 13 Jun
Where: Arts Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com or 8410 5515
Here we go. I’m pinch hitting for my dearest friend and mentor the doyenne of theatre critics Samela Harris who has notifiable influenza and is in bed with the doctor and sadly and unusually since she's an indefatigable critic could not leave her bed of pain to review, so this is from her poor understudy whose last notices where nearly 20 years ago in the "Istanbul Daily News" and sometime shmick mick school shows for the "Southern Cross". So…
Cabaret Festival Gala
Adelaide Festival Centre. Adelaide Cabaret Festival. 5 Jun 2015
Well, it was Weimar and Pa Kettle! Fan me with a George Grosz sketch, hard to believe but it's taken 15 years but there is actually cabaret in the Cabaret Festival! Mercy! The fullest full house in the Festival Theatre's history rejoiced in cabaret and extraneous variety entertainment.
Festival Artistic Director Barry Humphries is one of the four greatest living Australians - t'others are Edna, Les and Sandy. He is our greatest theatrical genius and he lends his ingenious, impressive imprimatur of the great, good and grotesque to this fest. He cheekily quipped after an elegant early entrance; "I'm looking forward to the show tonight so I can finally see all the acts I've been recommending". He also asked the merry, messy Mistress of Ceremonies (and his protégé) Meow Meow if he could call her by her first name. Ha!
Miss Meow Meow is cabaret. She is to cabaret what Fanny Brice was to vaudeville - simultaneously superbly fulfilling, deconstructing and bloody funny! She owns the stage. Her audience participation shtick turns a French cabaret number into a three act farce. Glorious.
Tap Pack is old chorus boys gainfully redeployed. Lovely. There's lots of glamourous edginess from The Clover Club, Marney McQueen (with great voice and ripper Julia Gillard gag), My Vagabond Boat and Strange Bedfellows. All comely, cutting cabaret.
Jazz legend Karrin Allyson is juneful and very classy and the Paris Combo is similarly all that jazz. Adelaide's own larger than life David Gauci is splendid and Michael Griffiths runs hot and Cole with "You're The Top" but isn't quite yet.
Glamorous Teddy Tahu Rhodes and Greta Bradman (grand children of Kiri Te Kanawa and Merv Hughes) were very nice in a duet by Australian composer of yore Jack O'Hagan.
Rueben Kaye has to be seen to be disbelieved. He's kinda Peter Allen on acid and chews the scenery in sheer killer theatrical outrageousness.
The rightly celebrated comedian, nice chap and unidexter Adam Hills almost stole the show with a great Adelaide gag and his patented and tremendously rousing version of our hideous national anthem to the tune of "Working Class Man".
The old vaudeville hook was needed for the curious John O'Hara who, despite talent, sang a pornographic number about being sodomised by a total stranger and ended in a crucifixion. Hopefully this experience is not autobiographical and won't be repeated... Rocker Christa Hughes sang "Bad" and was. Much-hyped local boy Daniel Koek, who made "Les Miserables" in London recently, is chockful of vibrato in the less than cabaretesque "Gethsemane" strangely supported by the sadly uninspiring Class Of Cabaret. The latter proved dismal in an inept version of a number from the local and over-hyped musical "The Front".
Vanessa Scammell led the customarily excellent Adelaide Art Orchestra beautifully and lighting and sound and set design were at the world best Festival Centre standard. Director Andy Packer an under-rated, quiet achiever, understands the style and pace and energy required and it's to his great credit the show triumphs. Onya Andy.
And, the finale is the greatest Australian export since penicillin and loads more fun, the gigastar Dame Edna Everage - the juicy cherry on this delicious cabaret cake. This gala and galah prelude presages great cabaret (at last) in the great, highly popular cabaret fest. Onya Bazz!
Peter Goers
When: Closed
Where: Festival Theatre
Bookings: Closed
Presented as part of the 2015 Come Out Children's Festival.
Circa and QPAC's Out of the Box Festival. Dunstan Playhouse. 30 May 2015
With a thud of the Ring Master's staff, tent wings rise, music starts and performers gather. The carnival begins.
This unspoken, physical theatre performance is part-pantomime, part-circus, featuring acrobatics, juggling, mime and dance. Led by Artistic Director Yaron Lifschitz, production company Circa have a well-deserved reputation for defining new works. Rising to meet this challenge,The Carnival of Animals is glorious.
The cast are superb both in acrobatics and dance. Set to classical music by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns, they leap and creep about the stage as a multitude of animals, each more marvelous than the last.
Combined with a colourful set and gorgeous cinematography, it's a heady and riveting result. The digital backdrop is matched with both movement and music to brilliant effect. As heavy rain falls on the screen behind the performers, the sound of raindrops envelops us and one can almost feel them hitting your face and shoulders.
The ultimate in an array of highlights comes almost at the close. As we zoom from a barking dog on a hill down to the fleas in it's hair, performers appear armed with red balloons. Super-sized spheres launch into the crowd and meet cheers as they bounce from stall to stall. The child-like delight that bubbles up as the balloons dance high over our heads is unexpected and quite wonderful.
The Carnival of Animals is genuinely exceptional; if you get the opportunity, don't hesitate to see it.
Nicole Russo
When: Closed
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: Closed
State Opera of South Australia. Adelaide Festival Theatre. 23 May 2015
Are you a virgin? An opera virgin that is. If so, then the State Opera of SA’s production of Mozart’s ever-popular Don Giovanni is precisely the musical saddle you should mount to satisfy your curiosity! It is sassy, sexy, passionate and disturbingly provocative. It is high art, but it is totally accessible. Most importantly, it is thoroughly enjoyable.
Don Giovanni, the eponymous character of the opera, is a hedonistic sex addict who simply cannot get enough. For the Don it is as much about the chase as it is about the conquest. Age, race, creed – none of it matters to him. If it’s in a skirt, he’s ready to saddle up, and if her husband or father is nearby, that just firms up the Don’s resolve! Inevitably, the odds shorten and Don Giovanni meets a fiery end in the smoky pits of Hell!
Carl Friedrich Oberles’s granite-grey monolithic single set, beautifully lit by Nigel Levings, serves as a multitude of locales – from laneway to villa courtyard, from town-square to graveyard. It works a treat and one is never in doubt where one is. The final scene, when it all comes crashing down – literally – is especially dramatic.
The principals are almost all Australian artists with strong connections to Adelaide, and they form a very strong ensemble. Grant Doyle reveled in the role of Don Giovanni. His rich baritone voice was uniformly strong across the register, and he cut a very swashbuckling and rakish figure. He was animated in the extreme, and convincingly portrayed Don Giovanni’s final slide into depravity.
Teresa La Rocca imbued the role of Donna Elvira with just the right ambivalence of coquettishness and prudishness. Her aria Ah! chi mi dice mai, clearly showed her vocal talents. Gisele Blanchard was innocence personified as Zerlina, and Jeremy Tatchell was suitably bruised as Masetto, her cuckolded soon-to-be-husband. Stephen Gallop was statuesque as the ghostly Commendatore and his rich bass voice made an easy meal of Don Giovanni! A cenar teco m'invitasti.
Douglas McNicol, an Adelaide audience favourite, had great fun with the role of Leporello, Don Giovanni’s servant. Leporello can almost steal the show, but McNicol’s ample experience allowed him to take the role to the brink without falling over – he perfectly complemented Doyle.
Virgilio Marion played Don Ottavio, the only tenor role. His vibrato was tight throughout Act 1, but more relaxed after the interval when he gave his best performance.
The star performance for the evening was given by Sharon Prero in the role of Donna Anna. Her honed acting skills were only eclipsed by her fine soprano voice that combined to give a special edge to Don Ottavio...Or sai chi l'onore.
Conductor Graham Abbott also conducted Don Giovanni for SASO when it was last performed in 2002, and he clearly knows and understands the work. He is especially busy during the current production as he also plays and conducts occasionally from the fortepiano.
This was a pleasing production, and the large opening night audience left well satisfied.
Kym Clayton
When: 23 to 30 May
Where: Festival Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au
Marie Clark Musical Theatre. Arts Theatre. 22 May 2015
If the first night audience was any indication, The Wedding Singer is in for a honeymoon at the box office. The audience whooped and stood and cheered, having been loudly enthusiastic throughout the performance.
It was a youngish audience which could readily relate to the emotional roller coaster of the weddings world.
Then again, most everyone has had wedding experiences of the love/hate variety.
The Wedding Singer as a musical was based on the movie and adapted by its writer Tim Herlihy with Chad Beguelin and adorned by lots and lots of jolly Broadway-style music by Matthew Sklar. It has the same utterly corny love story as the movie. Having been stood up at the altar by a ghastly bride, the Wedding Singer Robbie Hart thereafter stumbles against the odds towards happiness with the nice waitress, Julia, who is betrothed to the sleazily successful Glen Guglia. Heaven forfend, it is only at the eleventh hour that she realises she would be stuck with the name Julia Guglia.
The Marie Clark Musical Theatre team has thrown extraordinary resources and energy into mounting an extravagant show with glossy production values. It is right up there at the big end of town with dazzling costumes and a really slick, high-tech, multimedia set.
The huge cast is largely ensemble - and a hard-working, well-drilled line-up it is. Choreographer Rachel Dow has well and truly earned her keep in training a very diverse group into fine co-ordination while at the same time, conveying the sense that it all comes naturally and they are having a wonderful time.
Musical director Ben Stefanoff, similarly, brings out the best among singers trained and untrained through a daunting array of about 30 musical numbers large and small. And, his 10-strong Wedding Singer Band in the semi-dark up there on the stage is fabulous.
The lighting plot is a very ambitious indeed. It was a bit hit and miss on opening night, but its design aligns with the generally upmarket approach that director Max Rayner has given the whole show. All the stops are out. Even the American accents are convincing.
As the Wedding Singer, Rohan Watts is very credible. He has an everyman look. He's appealing without oozing heartthrob glamor. His jilted plight quickly wins audience sympathy and, with seeming ease, he belts out song after song with and without his guitar. His backing band of musicians Sam and George are beautifully cast. Sebastian Cooper does have some of that Broadway glamor in the role of Sam while Damien Quick simply brings the house down with a bedazzling performance as the androgynous George. Diva-vine.
Tegan Gully plays sweet Julia, everyone's love interest. She's a glowing strength in the cast - a seasoned performer with a good musicals voice and she doesn't put a foot wrong.
Gavin Cianci absolutely shines as the ghastly Glen Guglia and is definitely a rising talent in the town. Meanwhile, Rachel da Graca Costa, Laura Villani, Sarah Wildy and Casey von Einem are quality support performers ahead of the powerful ensemble.
The only real weaknesses in the show are the cliched and grotesquely ageist portrayal of the granny (get another wig) and the fact that the whole thing is a couple of songs too long.
But, on these cold nights, this foot-tapping production is a sure-fire heart-warmer.
Samela Harris
When: 22 to 30 May
Where: Arts Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com