Reviews | Stage Whispers (2024)

The Brisbane Music Festival has been appearing in a range of large and small venues across Brisbane – and online – since February 2021. And, like other creative companies, the festival is taking advantage of the wealth of world-class talent that would normally be on tour, but is staying close to home in Queensland. Artistic Director, Alex Raineri, has put together a wonderful programme with a variety of performers and different music styles. As befitting our times, the festival also includes some exclusively digital performances.

Something different, something new. The name of this play brings to mind the original by William Shakespeare but the link is rather tenuous at most. Caesar has been written by five women who demonstrate talents both in theatre and writing. Each was responsible for a scene, or act, in this relatively short play but the overall effect was one of unity. It could be said that the script covered the actors as they rehearsed scenes from the Caesar play of old to rehearsing their own lives in an equally direct manner. This was challenging for both the cast and the audience.

It’s hard to believe that when West Side Story opened on Broadway in 1957 it only received two Tony Awards, one for Jerome Robbins’ Choreography and one for Oliver Smith’s set design. Running for only 734 performances, audiences were uncomfortable with the subject matter (street-gang warfare), as they were in Australia in 1960 when it was first produced here. It wasn’t until the 1961 movie version that West Side Story was acknowledged as the groundbreaker that it was.

Queensland Symphony Orchestra delivered quality entertainment yet again with the latest instalment in their Music on Sundays series of events. Each event is built around a different theme. Entitled Great Inventions this show included music that is highly inventive and/or written in salute to great inventions.

Bursting onto the stage at Spotlight, the Priscilla bus erupted in a giant wave of glitz, colour, fabulous costumes and brilliant performances from the extremely talented cast led by Dean Giltinan – Tick / Mitzi Mitosis, David Valks – Bernadette and Brin Jenke – Adam / Feliciajollygoodfellow.

Director/Choreographer Jamie Watt, Musical Director Peter Laughton and Associate Choreographers Jackson Kook and Jessica Ng have presented an outstanding production which rivals the professional show.

Overcoming lockdowns and floods, Stirling Players have come out against the odds to produce a delightfully charismatic show that captivates their intimate, sold-out audiences and draws them deep Into the Woods.

One of Sondheim’s most renowned musicals, Into the Woods follows the adventures of several fairy tale characters as they journey to, and beyond, their respective happily ever afters.

With a knowing wink and its tongue firmly set in its cheek, Schmigadoon! is a satirical spin on Broadway’s ‘Golden Age’ musicals. An ‘A’ list cast - Kristen Chenoweth, Aaron Tveit, Jane Krakowski, Ariana Dubose, Alan Cumming, Martin Short and Dove Cameron - do justice to this enjoyable spoof now streaming on Apple TV+.

Black Swan State Theatre Company's production of York has been over two years in the making - and was well worth the wait. A striking and compelling production, it is an unusual compilation of genres - the most dominant being horror - and I have it on reliable authority that multiple audience members from Opening Night are reporting nightmares,

It is more than 20 years since I last saw April de Angelis’ all female play about the very first actresses in London’s 17th century Restoration period. Brash and bawdy, the play is set in a playhouse that was formerly a bear pit. Its feminist message shows that, for women in any time period, freedom is mythological – there’s always a man somewhere pulling the strings and deciding our fate. A depressing thought but nonetheless beautifully masked in what is, after all, a comedy, albeit one with a poignant heart.

Andrew Bovell is one of our best and most frequently performed playwrights. His stage adaptation of Kate Glenville’s novel The Secret River won five Helpmann Awards in 2013, his 1996 Awgie Award-winning Speaking in Tongues became the critically acclaimed 2001 movie Lantana, whilst his When the Rain Stops Falling has become a modern masterpiece, was named the ‘Best Play of 2010’ by Time magazine and won 5 awards when it was produced at Lincoln Center, New York.