Articles by Byron Bache

The prolific Joanna Murray-Smith does meet-the-mother-in-law farce with her new play True Minds. Can she wring new blood out of a long-sapped comedy stone?

The new Melbourne production of Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins has its problems, but with a stellar cast and faultless material it’s still worth a look.

Music is one of Melbourne Theatre Company’s more tuneful endeavours this year. Playwright Barry Oakley is welcomed back to the stage with warm applause.

Across the road from Stephen Sondheim’s A Funny Thing in Melbourne, a new all-Australian musical from John-Michael Howson. To be on the same block is an insult.

There’s no reason why Stephen Sondheim’s first Broadway hit should work 50 years after it premiered. And yet — with Simon Phillips and Geoffrey Rush at the helm — it does.

This is one big broken promise. Melbourne’s Production Company vows to do more with less in musical theatre, but its adaptation of the Burt Bacharach tuner falls flat.

Board games are big business. Or so Hollywood would like you to think. Despite the big-screen adaption of Battleship sinking dramatically on its opening weekend earlier this year, we’ve still got Candyland (starring Adam Sandler), Risk and Monopoly (helmed by Ridley Scott) on the horizon for 2013. But long before Tinseltown’s top brass turned their eyes to the dusty recesses [...]