Lunchbox Theatrical Productions, David Atkins Enterprises and Base Entertainment Asia in association with The Really Useful Group. Adelaide Festival Theatre. 20 Mar 2016
I love Cats; but it is well known as one of those love-it-or-hate-it musicals. It is easy to understand why… but amongst the well initiated, it is rare to find one who does not enjoy it immensely, or at-least sit in awe of the skill, talent, and sheer athleticism of the cast.
It is often said that the show has no plot – though this is of course not at all the case. The tail (pun intended) occurs on the one night of the year when a chosen cat amongst the Jellicles ascends to the Heaviside Layer to be reborn into a new life. As the Jellicle cats gather they notice they are being watched and decide to explain to the onlookers what a Jellicle cat is; The Naming of Cats. Victoria the White Cat (Jade Hui-Wen Coutts) performs a stunning dance that signals the start of the Jellicle Ball in The Invitation To The Jellicle Ball and the cats begin to speculate who might be chosen to ascend.
Munkustrap (Matt Edwards - swing) has a cat in mind, and introduces Jennyanydots (Holly Meegan) who fills her days and nights teaching the mice and cockroaches manners, music, crocheting and tatting. Edwards has a commanding presence, and towers regally over his Jellicle clan. Meegan leads a spectacular tap routine which instantly demonstrates the vast talents of the performers and kicks the show off with a huge injection of energy and life!
That is until Rum Tum Tugger arrives (Daniel Assetta), stealing the attention of the ladies, and doing as he pleases. Rum Tum Tugger has undergone a musical ‘update’ of sorts in this latest production, dragging it from its 80s, hip swinging, Elvis ways into a 90s hip hop, rap number – think of Will Smith’s opening theme in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
This update doesn’t work, and traditionalists will be quite put off.
As the show continues we meet Grizabella the glamour cat (Delia Hannah), Bustopher Jones (Josh Piterman), and Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer (Brent Osborne and Dominique Hamilton), each who impart their own catty tales before the arrival of the much adored and respected Old Deuteronomy (Jason Wasley).
Hannah reprises her role as Grizabella - a role she received a Helpmann nomination for in 2010 - and she returns with a much more mature interpretation of the glamour cat. Her performance of Memory is poignant, though at times, on opening night, rushed ahead of the orchestra.
Wasley’s Deuteronomy, despite being slighter in physical stature than his predecessors, is earnest and commanding in both voice and performance; more than compensating for first impressions.
After Munkustrap regales us with a tale of the Pekes and the Pollicles and the great Rumpus Cat, it is finally time for The Jellicle Ball; a spectacular dance break wherein the players deliver some of the most physically demanding and impressive contemporary and classical ballet and jazz forms.
Asparagus (Josh Piterman) is welcomed into the gathering and as the moon appears, Old Deuteronomy speaks about The Moments of Happiness. Jemima (Stephanie Silcock) picks up on his intention and sings, in beautiful soprano voice, a short reprise to Memory. Silcock has her work cut out for her playing in the role made famous by Sarah Brightman, and voiced beautifully by Helen Massie in the 1992 Really Useful Productions’ film; for the most part she pulls it off with aplomb.
As the cats continue to wait for the time of the Jellicle choice, Jellylorum (Samantha Morley) tells a short story about Asparagus (senior) in Gus: The Theatre Cat. Morley’s voice is reminiscent of Tanner’s from the original cast – as too are most of the castings, bar a few clear exceptions.
The whole production, save the few musical and theatrical modernisations, is very much a restaging of the original, down to each mannerism, characterisation and step of choreography.
Gus takes us on a journey into his memory wherein we relive one of his great performances as Growltiger. This number should be the first to go in an update. The dialogue is difficult to understand - as could be said for much of the production according to a first time spectator who joined me, completely unaware of the premise or contents of the musical – and the Italian aria really adds nothing to the overarching narrative.
With the introduction or Skimbleshanks the railway cat (Ross Hannaford) and an abrupt entrance by Macavity (James Cooper) to kidnap Old Deuteronomy, the final act is nearing its close. Hannaford’s Skimbleshanks is as bouncy as can be, and although the demanding choreography would be unbelievably taxing Hannaford sings up a storm in the character part.
As Macavity steals away, Demeter (Amy Berrisford) and Bombalurina (Erin James - swing) lend all of their sexuality to Macavity, eliciting wolf whistles from an appreciative and positively enthralled audience as they wiggle and grind their bums and tails. With a suggestion from Rum Tum Tugger on a way to get Old Deuteronomy back, Mr Mistoffelees (Christopher Favaloro) appears from the heavens and single-handedly outdances the entire cast with a show of balletic skill which would put most dancers to shame. Finally he conjures Old Deuteronomy from under a sheet and the Jellicle choice can take place.
As Grizabella makes her final return, she sings a rousing version of Memory which finally elicits the attention of the Jellicles and sees her selected to ascend to the Heavyside Layer. The show closes with Old Deuteronomy schooling the onlookers in the Ad-Dressing of Cats.
If you were unlucky enough to have been at the 2010 production which toured through Adelaide, don’t let that put you off seeing this reworked show from the original creators.
Cats is a terrific distraction from the real world and a chance to engage one’s imagination, letting these talented performers aid you in personifying each and every feline friend or foe you’ve ever had.
I highly recommend everyone sees this wonderful production. Don’t listen to the haters and detractors. A production of this standard is your best chance at enjoying the show, even if you don’t come away loving it – so check it out.
Paul Rodda
When: 18 Mar to 10 Apr 2016
Where: Festival Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au
DANDL. Adelaide Fringe. Bakehouse Theatre. 12 Mar 16
Inner life monologues don’t come more brilliantly written and performed at hyper speed than Eddie Morrison – Maximum Breakdown.
Eddie Morrison lumbers onto the stage of the Studio at The Bakehouse, which is liberally set up as if it was a cross between a back stage dressing room and avant garde one man show stage set. He whips off the Sonic The Hedgehog tshirt he’s wearing and precedes to pull another one off a rack of clothes and puts it on. The weirdness the audience is about to be enthralled by has been clearly telegraphed.
An hour of hyper edgy, egomaniacal, pump it to the max comedy ensues as the ‘completely bent on excellence before an audience’ Morrison blends surreal tales of his rather demented childhood, with artistic goals gone to seed, and battles with his manager sitting up in the bio box behind the audience.
The fabulist nature of Morrison’s writing and performance is superb, utterly gripping, giving us a sense of madness with so much imbued ‘truth’ behind it we happily accept the flipped out world he transports us to.
Eddie as a mad fool-like character is one you worry for, even as you laugh. One, whose desperation is recognisable to all, but easily deniable to ourselves that we too have been to this place, His nervous, poor microphone technique proving the perfect avenue to hook and keep the audiences’ sympathy. We care for this crazed maniac. How much, we’re not really sure, but we’re happy to listen, happy to laugh, and happy to marvel at the magic happening before us.
David O’Brien
When: 3 to 12 Mar
Where: Parks Theatre Two/Bakehouse Theatre – The Studio
Bookings: Closed
Parker and Mr French. Gluttony - The Octagon. 12 Mar 2016
I was lucky to get a ticket to this sold out show from Hugh Sheridan himself. He was catching the breeze in the Fringe Club one night and consulting with the chair of the Adelaide Critics Circle. The ACC gave California Crooners their Best-of-Fringe award for Week 1 and the show - lucky you - is back for a second week to Monday, 14 March.
Hugh, baby, is Adelaide's own. A graduate of Unley Youth Theatre, he is the Numero Uno ticket holder for the Port Adelaide Football Club. Internationalising after the Victoria College of the Arts by winning a scholarship to study acting in New York from State Theatre, he wound up in Packed to the Rafters and earned a Logie for the Most Popular New Male Talent. That's code for hunk. Currently he's tickling chins in Tinsel Town, but along the way he teamed up with a couple of equally high octane crooner-types and stapled together this show. What you would have seen three weeks ago was the world premiere including three Adelaide musos to blend with the canned horns.
Friday was extremely off scale hot and the a/c in The Octagon was no laughing matter. The crooners soon forsook their impressive tuxedo jackets and ties - even their shirts - and necessarily delivered all but the first two songs in T-shirts, not that anybody minded. The opening number, Come Fly With Me, is an incendiary tune in the mouth of one crooner, but as a melody and in parts Three Tenors style, the temperature was raised to boiling.
It was going to be a white hot night from then on.
The golden tunes were just a starter as the boys strutted with panoply of styles from hip hop and rap to Justin Beiber. Emile Welman of South Africa has a heavenly high voice. Gabe Roland of Kansas City channeled Ray Charles as only a white person could. Hugh Sheridan was on fire with a boy-next-door kind of sweetness - and his pride in premiering the crooners in his hometown was palpable. The boys mixed into the crowd, shook hands and serenaded when the occasion arose. Their friendly banter made you want to chum around with them. My wife thought they were all lovely to look at and that's an understatement. Even though the swelter in the shelter of The Octagon was raised by the general high quality on offer, the heat was maxed when the boys synchronised their vocal energies. Their debut single, Just A Little More, was alarmingly catchy.
I hope you can make time in your life to witness history in the making. Double bravo!
David Grybowski
When: 12 Feb to 14 Mar
Where: Gluttony - The Otagon
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Theatre Guild. The Little Theatre. 10 Mar 2016
Debra Oswald is a contemporary Australian playwright with credits in theatre, film and television, with hits on stage like Dags, and Mr Bailey's Minder. The Peach Season was first presented at the Griffin Theatre in Sydney in 2006. She seems to enjoy writing about and for young people, so I would have hoped for a better Peach Season.
It's a pretty straightforward yarn. Two young adults on the lam and looking for picking work lob up to Celia's peach orchard. Celia's overly protected and horny 16-year-old daughter, Zoe, makes a move on the young man and runs away with him. And then the fretting really starts.
That might work if Oswald had done something interesting with the situation, but the action is linear, and everybody is very busy being worried and concerned and looking out for one another, and asking how they are - there is an overabundance of anxiety and little real danger.
Oswald leaves nothing to the imagination and characters' thought bubbles are explained to the nth degree. The character of Celia's mother, Dorothy - of Hungarian-like accent and descent for no apparent reason except to complain about the seasons - is superfluous. Her only duty seems to be to repeat in words what you just saw or are about to see in the play's action. Dorothy's role as narrator just slows things down and makes tedium. For example, she says, "at night, she lives in this dark place, so in the day, she can face the world." But we just saw that in Celia's face and body language. In fact, all the acting in this production is of a very high quality and I wondered if Oswald gives actors any credit at all for conveying thought and emotion, or credits audiences for getting them.
Emma Kerr as Celia has a wonderfully naturalistic carriage. But how long can we expect her judgmental disapproval and later concern over Zoe to be effective? Overprotective mothers and rebellious daughters are indeed strong emotive premises, but they are unchanging in this play and provide no dramatic velocity or intrigue. James Watson is an amazingly energetic performer. While his Kieran's psychological condition was complex and highly physicalised - and probably undiagnosible - his mercurial nature and charisma were a pleasure to keep company with. I can see what Zoe was attracted to.
Zoe, played with some veracity by Zoe Muller, and Kieran, as impetuous young loves incomplete without the other, are exemplary of real life.
Timothy Tedmanson's and Rachel Lee's design of a fruit-sorting shed was peachy. The large photomurals were a great addition. Director John Graham played a straightforward play straightforwardly - nothing juicy here.
PS James Watson of Year 12 is already a playwright. Two of his short plays will be presented by the Theatre Guild in April, and if they are as colourful and raw as his acting, I should think they would be good viewing, and you may be witnessing somebody on the way up.
David Grybowski
When: 10 to 19 Mar
Where: The Little Theatre at the University of Adelaide
Bookings: trybooking.com
Erth Visual & Physical (Australia). Norwood Concert Hall. 10 Mar 2016
Only a few days to get the kiddies and your adult self to this enchanting giant puppet show of creatures past and present found in the deep blue sea. The Norwood Concert Hall proscenium stage is transformed into a giant aquarium glass and then magically into open ocean using sparkly light, bubbles and by getting a school of kids in make-believe deep diving suits to hold their breath and swim around on stage.
Instead of being hosted by an avuncular and earnest scientific type, like Erth's creator in the accompanying dinosaur offering, this show attempts a bit of humour by foiling the incompetent and loudly dressed "marketing manager" with a bright young marine biologist- and palaeontologist-type.
They start small with the sedentary Charniodiscus and one of the first swimmers, Dickinsonia rex, of the Precambrian Ediacaran Period. They proudly point out that this geological time period and a lot of its creatures were named and found right here in South Australia in and near the Flinders Ranges. In fact, all the prehistoric biota of the show were discovered in Australia.
Soon we do a detour to the present day deep ocean where equally bizarre creatures exist presently. They were represented by magnificently large and colourfully lit puppets that either loom over or travel right across the audience. The kids get a first glimpse of plesiosaurs gliding through the water in their cutesy juvenile state, foreshadowing an enormous puppet of this long-necked beauty. And no show would be complete without a scary villain, here represented by the even larger plesiosaur hunter Kronosaurus queenslandicus, whose head is as large and toothy as that of a T.rex.
The kids and the parents and I loved the learning and the graceful movements of these awesome puppets. I hope this show creates some budding paleontologists in the audience. A definite go see.
David Grybowski
When: 10 to 13 Mar
Where: Norwood Concert Hall
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au