What’s a physics graduate doing tangling with Don Giovanni? Jacqueline Dark talked to Curtain Call about the glories of Mozart, the darkness of Don G and life as an Opera Australia diva.
READ MORESeptember, 2011
REVIEW: Rent | Zenith Theatre, Sydney
It’s one of my favourite musicals. Which is saying something. I’ve almost lost count of the number of times I’ve seen it. So, it’s precious. It has an immensely difficult, stop-start score, with half-spoken, half-sung challenges for even the most versatile singers, so noone’s saying it’s easy to pull off. It also requires sensitive handling [...]
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REVIEW: A Chorus Line | Sutherland Entertainment Centre
OK, I know what you’re thinking. (And what my editor is thinking.) Has he gone stark-raving? Reviewing musicals, off, off, off-Broadway. In ‘the shire’. In my defence, your honour, I’m ever-keen to establish my contention that talent lurks in strange and unpredictable places, and there are fewer places stranger, at least by reputation, than the [...]
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REVIEW: And They Called Him Mr Glamour | Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney
You’ve got to love the the Sydney theatre scene. Well, sometimes. One night you’re sitting, laughing your arse off, in the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre for Loot, Joe Orton’s bent take on the comedy of manners. It doesn’t require vomiting, nudity, or similar would-be shock value, as the shocks comes as a series of [...]
READ MOREREVIEW: Product (Sydney Fringe) | The Reginald Theatre
As we enter, we see a woman, seated, her back to us, with a blindingly bright light, housed in a large, shiny black box, shining upon her. The lights go down, the black box slams shut, to reveal a man and a chair. It almost instantly becomes clear the man is a movie producer, James; [...]
READ MOREREVIEW: Earth Angel (Sydney Fringe) | The Reginald Theatre
Earth Angel is billed as “a mystical theatre production, that’s both visually and physically breathtaking”; or something like that. And there can be no doubt about its excellence, in certain respects. There are some breathtaking, acrobatic and aerial dance sequences. Those bodies really take a pounding. The choreography is tough, uncompromising, brave. And the dancers [...]
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REVIEW: Loot | Drama Theatre, Sydney
What was shocking in 1966, when Joe Orton’s Loot first hit the stage, is still surprisingly provocative even now. And it’s certainly funny. I can’t really remember a time in the recent past when I laughed so involuntarily, so heartily, or so often. In Sydney Theatre Company’s new production, director Richard Cottrell seems to be [...]
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REVIEW: Avenue Q | Rockdale Musical Society, Sydney
As we all know, 1939 was the year our world again lapsed into full-scale war which, on the historical evidence, would seem to be humanity’s default modus operandi. It was also the year Rockdale Musical Society got off the ground and, 72 years later (easily making it one of Australia’s oldest musical societies), it’s still [...]
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REVIEW: LadyNerd (Sydney Fringe) | Seymour Sound Lounge
I love a one-hour show. Well, to be a nerd about it, 55 minutes. And self-confessed ladynerd Keira Daley packs a lot into every one of those 55 minutes. If anything, it’s overwritten (by Daley). But, boy, is it well-written?! That’s a resounding ‘yes!’ All-singing, all-dancing Daley has done her homework. Which is nothing less [...]
READ MOREREVIEW: Broadway Bard (Sydney Fringe) | Sidetrack Theatre
To Morrow, and to Morrow, and to Morrow! Fans of The Chaser will know Julian Morrow’s a pretty smart guy. Perhaps less well-known is his dad, Melvyn Morrow, is, too. He’s a backroom boy, but if I mention that he’s written, way back when, for Phillip Street Theatre and The Mavis Bramston Show (both of [...]
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