Tim Carney - Page 4

Over the past 3 weeks the Melbourne Cabaret Festival has been entertaining audiences. I was fortunate enough to see two great cabarets along the way!

Having never seen The Producers, but having heard so much about it, I was genuinely excited to see a performance of this show on a stage. The lasting impression that I took from The Production Company's version is that Mel Brooks is one very funny man who's writing stands alone in the musical comedy genre. Whether on the expanses of a full scale broadway stage, on the West End or on the minimalist stage confronting us at The Arts Centre, this show genuinely works and is so clever in its nuance and wit that you can't help but admire its creator.

It is so hard to know what to make of last nights world premiere of Yusef/Cat Stevens musical Moonshadow. I would like to talk to you about the story but unfortunately there is no delineated plot to speak of. I would like to tell you what it's about, but at interval I was unsure, by it's conclusion I had no idea. The script is so banal, devoid of purpose and meaning that a concert version would have been far more enjoyable. However, this was not the case and so we delve a little further.

A polite smattering of applause rang around The Regent Theatre at the conclusion of last nights opening of Annie. Then came a hesitant standing ovation almost out of forced habit. For this production of Annie, filled with a cast of the highest order, was performed with a great deal of precision and technicality, but which,however, left me with an ambivalent feeling of....oh yeah. Australian theatre royalty Anthony Warlow and Nancye Hayes take on the roles of Daddy Warbucks and Miss Hannigan. The pairs acting skill is both effortless and flawless and we all know Warlow's voice cuts deep into the crevices of our own body and has the ability to illicit spontaneous excitement within us.

A rousing standing ovation met the cast of Mary Poppins at the conclusion of their opening night in Perth on Saturday night. And They had deserve it. The show is filled with magic and joy but most importantly it comes with heart. This quality is not achievable without quality performances. British actress Lisa O'Hare takes over the role as Mary Poppins and delivers a performance of someone who has clearly made the character hers over a long period of time. She is fun, frivolous, and overwhelmingly loveable. O'Hares unassuming soprano voice is exquisite.

On January 26 1974 the first taped session of a group of dancers was recorded at the Nickolaus Exercise Centre in New York. It delved into the lives of professional artists, their hopes, dreams and sacrifices and would go on to form the nucleus of one of the longest running shows in Broadway history.

Walking into the Forum Theatre last night was like walking into the latest, funkiest nightclub and then taking a very legal dose of the world class Australian Tom Tom Crew. This all male troupe can seemingly do anything they put their mind to. One moment these boys are acrobatically flying through the air, the next on turntables mixing the music, the next accompanying the action on electric guitar...oh yeah and why not throw a bit of contortion in just for good measure. These are the type of guys that make you wish you hadn't bought your girlfriend that ticket for her birthday.

Theatre is designed to educate and The New York Theater Workshop's production of Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen's Aftermath is a lesson that forces us to learn. This is the principal feature of a show that is, by the very nature of its style, repetitive. Don't get me wrong I left the Malthouse Theatre last night completely captivated by the performances of a stunningly talented cast traversing the dialogue of the real people that Blank and Jensen interviewed post reign of Saddam Hussein. For this is what Aftermath is, a recount of the transcripts from the interviews that these talented collaborators have interwoven into a creative piece of educational history from the point of view of 9 Iraqi's across varying class and status.

Hold The Pickle, a one woman autobiographical journey through Rachel Berger's fascinating upbringing, can be summed up simply in one word...Real. Everything about Berger's performance is real, and it should be, with Berger traversing between the three central characters in her life, her Mother, Father and herself. And while the reality of the dialogue cannot be questioned it is the nuance that Berger elicits in her performance that mould this piece and transport it (without trying to sound pretentious) into the spectrum of creative art. At its simplest we are being told a story, as if we are children being recounted a tale before bedtime. At its most complex Hold The Pickle is a raw account of the life of an immigrant family fleeing war torn Poland to Melbourne via the corners of the globe in a desperate struggle for survival and the chance of a safer life.

You forget just how good the Golden Age of Musical Theatre is when you are saturated by contemporary shows in today's evolving theatre world. Tonight, however, The Production Company's revival of Cole Porter's Anything Goes reminds us of how the foundations of the modern musical were formed and just how strong these foundations were. Anything Goes is a show filled with moments. Moments of love, moments of hilarity, family and comradeship all of which crescendo towards the happy ever after that we are longing for. To get there however, takes great skill. Enter the cast. An all-star cast of Australian musical Theatre royalty is at hand to land each and every one of the desired moments. Todd Mckenny's over-enthusiastic Lord Evelyn Oakleigh is so completely embodied that an initial feeling of 'too much' is soon proven to be a whole heartedly secure character choice. Wayne Scott Kermond as Moonface Martin was dynamic, and full of tricks that had the audience craving more. Further, John O'May and Anne Wood as Elisha Whitney and Evageline Harcourt compliment the show with their experience and poise.

Melbourne's Musical Theatre community came together at The BMW Edge on Monday night in a celebration of togetherness for a wonderful cause. Thousands were raised for Oz Showbiz Cares/Equity Fights Aids. Hosted by the highly entertaining Leah Howard and Brent Hill, the programme featured performers from musicals being performed around Australia including Rock of Ages, Mary Poppins, Wicked and Love Never Dies. The concept was simple with performers singing songs originally written for the opposite gender. There were many highlights of the night including Gareth Keegan's charismatic performance of Life of The Party from the Wild Party, David Rogers Smith and Troy Sussman's highly comic version of I know Him So Well from Chess was vocally effortless and the riotous Amy Housewine had the audience in stitches with her outrageous parody of If I Only Had A Brain from the Wizard of Oz, (If I Only Had Cocaine). Matt Robinson's Original Composition from his show Sing Through Tomorrow was also a real feature of the evening.

Based on Broadway Backwards, The Benge Group's Twisted Broadway is playing for one night only on Monday July 18 at the BMW Edge at Federation Square. The show features a cast of 50 performers from Rock of Ages, Wicked, Love Never Dies, Next to Normal Mary Poppins and many others. The concept is unique and fun with performers singing songs originally written for the opposite gender.

Turns Starring Nancye Hayes and Reg Livermore at the Arts Centre Melbourne

The Australian Premiere of David Stevens' play The Sum of Us opened in Melbourne this week. It will be followed by an Australian Tour throughout the rest of the year.

A lack of enthusiasm embodied me as I entered the Regent Theater on Saturday night for the Australian opening of Love Never Dies, the sequel to Andrew LLoyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. Having seen the show twice at the Adelphi Theater in London I had a fair idea of what I was in for and quite honestly I felt that the two previous times where more than enough to convince me that this show, no matter how hard LLoyd Webber tries, simply does not work. How wrong I was. This is a brand new show from Overture to Curtain and even the familar story and score seemed to rise in this herculean effort by an Australian creative team led by Director Simon Phillips and Designer Gabriela Tylesova. The vast minimalist expanses of the Adelphi stage were now filled with a carnival of lights, carousels, and a cast of freaks and outcast characters that finally gave the show the vibe it needed. One cannot help but be wowed by the spherical design employed by Tylesova in the Coney Island Waltz in the early stages of Act 1, and in reality, it is the design of the show that is its star attraction. That and Phantom Ben Lewis. Lewis' character is vocally as powerful a Phantom that I have seen. However, it wasn't Lewis' vocal ability that won me over, it was his tender acting performance. So much so that what in the past was a particularly unmoving final scene became one of the most finite and complete in recent memory. The audience either side of me were fossicking for their handkerchiefs and it left me wishing I had brought one myself.