Cabaret Fringe Festival. Charlee Watt. Carclew Ballroom. 31 May 2024
In the immortal words of Mick Jagger “Charlie’s good tonight, isn’t he?”. That was 1969 and he was speaking of his drummer Charlie Watts, but it’s a fitting reference for this Charlee Watt; she was having a good night tonight.
Charlee has presented a few shows variously featuring the songs of Joni Mitchell, Carole King and Mama Cass Elliot in past Adelaide Fringes and as a recipient of the Nathaniel O’Brien Class of Cabaret in 2021, she performed the songs of David Bowie. Watt isn’t the most polished performer you’ll see this year, but much of that is to do with the fact that she is only 19 (cue another song title!) and is barely at the beginning of what promises to be a remarkable career.
Charlee performed with her own fab four, all of whom have passed through the jazz portals of the Elder Conservatorium, which gives an indication of where this show is coming from. Lewis Todd (drums), James Ho (bass) Christina Guala (saxophone) and Musical Director David Goodwin on keyboards set the tone of this show from the start; it might be an homage to the Beatles, but not as we know it.
Watt and the band have drawn on the rich history of Beatles songs as performed / arranged by such jazz greats as Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McCrae, Diana Krall and Nina Simone, and while she stands on the shoulders of giants she does so with the greatest of respect, and with a warning that she’s coming.
Because Charlee can sing.
She moves with ease from a soulful croon to a jazz swing, through to a full belt, and while her voice and style have yet to fully mature, it’s all there. And power? Waiting for her to really let rip was one thing, the surprise when she did so, quite another. The microphone threw a tizzy in protest.
Watt is an early career performer, and while this shows in areas such as stage patter, it matters little when she is doing what she does well. Working comfortably with Director Goodwin, they present some beautifully nuanced versions of some very overplayed songs, bringing to them a freshness and simplicity that gives a new perspective to these compositions.
The band worked their way through a selection of songs that of course goes nowhere near reflecting the lexicon; one assumes that each iteration of the show presents a slightly different setlist. Songs featured included Things We Said Today (A Hard Day’s Night 1964) Got to Get You Into My Life (Revolver 1966) and Carry That Weight (Abbey Road 1969). All are immediately identifiable, even when presented in a fulsome jazz setting. You might think this is because they are among the most recognisable pop songs, but it is the songs that Watt renders almost unrecognisable that are the stars of the show.
For my money, highlights were, I Saw Her Standing There, which she gender-reverses and delivers as a sassy paean to the boy meets girl dynamic; Hard Day’s Night, a bluesy soul rendition which turns the song on its head; and She Loves You which becomes a haunting and almost tragic call to uncertain love.
I just need to make a confession here; I’m not a fan of the Beatles, being more a ‘Stones kind of gal. Charlee Watt entranced me from the get-go, and the arrangements, many of which were co-labs between her and Goodwin, brought a texture to these songs that one suspects would delight the original authors.
In the old ‘do-yourself-a-favour’ kind of way, catch her next gig. If you miss this, she’ll probably be at the Fringe ’25. Get in on the ground floor with this girl, because Charlie was good tonight.
Arna Eyers-White
When: 31 May to 1 Jun
Where: Carclew Ballroom
Bookings: charleewatt.com.au
State Opera South Australia and State Theatre South Australia. Her Majesty’s Theatre. 25 May 2024
One cheers and laments at the same time for this historic production. One cheers its glorious might, its wit and perfection of production values, and one laments that it had an abysmally short run - too short for the word to get out properly and too short for enough people to see it. This is a tragedy. Everyone needs to know Candide and to have that immortal figure embedded in their knowledge.
But this is a very big production; far too big to be practicable for a long season. There are hundreds of people onstage. There’s the State Opera Chorus, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra assembled en masse, plus the myriad trained voices of the Elder Conservatorium, not to mention the principals. So, for those lucky enough to have snared a seat, it has been a treat of the lifetime.
Rarely have there been even Festival of Arts headliner shows of this scale and standard.
Bottom line: Magnificence is an understatement.
Candide was created by French philosopher Voltaire two centuries ago at a time of politico-socio-environmental upheaval. ’Twas satirical then and so is it now, with the world still in fermenting disorder. Its acid wit and pathos retain their currency.
And, while Candide does not rival West Side Story as composer Leonard Bernstein’s most popular work, it is indeed a rollicking operetta in which every word except the narration is sung.
Amid the operatic elite in this sizzling show cast as the vain and vapid Maximilian, is Adelaide’s Hans, the German, AKA Matt Gilbertson. He’s quite a musical maestro as well as the best showman in town, but an opera star? Well, yes, as it happens in this context. The opera bods have really discovered the breadth of our song-and-dance man and he is singing as never before. Takes the breath away. The creatives, Mitchell Butel, Amy Campbell, and Anthony Hunt, have also allowed him to maintain his comic identity and he has ‘Hansed’ it up all over the place.
Candide’s lyrics were penned over years by some of the greatest of Broadway lyricists including Stephen Sondheim and Dorothy Parker just for starters and they are delectably funny and quirky.
Then again, the operetta also carries Voltaire’s serious philosophic message: all will not necessarily turn out for the best in this best of all possible worlds, as espoused by the teacher Dr Pangloss. But, as is shown through Candide’s experiences as an innocent abroad in a big, wide, wicked world, the best is actually to be found in realising what one has in one’s own garden.
Clad in a glory of canary yellow, Mitchell Butel embodies Dr Pangloss and also the narrator in which latter capacity he has some of the best of all possible lines. Like Hans, he’s an accomplished song-and-dance man who brings verve to a stage. As does the inimitable Caroline O’Connor who plays The Old Lady who becomes one of Candide’s allies through the narrative. She’s stellar!
The other principals are opera stars led by Alexander Lewis, who belies his comical costume as Candide by delivering his lines in a divine tenor voice. Then there’s Candide’s adored Cunegonde, the love object and much-misused and abused heroine sung by Annie Aitken. She is entrusted with Glitter and Be Gay, which must be one of the funniest and most demanding coloratura compositions of all time, and she performs it with vocal brilliance only matched by the wit and whimsy of her delivery. It is truly a “brava” moment.
Taylah Johns turns heads as Paquette, the sweet servant girl, and popular Adelaide singer Michaela Burger, stepping in from time to time as the narrator, shines with a speaking voice which might teach an elocutionist a thing or two. Ah, but there are yet more glorious voices in which to revel: the richness of John Longmuir, Rod Schultz, Ezra Juanta, and Rosie Hosking. These performers leap from character to character as they embody the foreign lands of Candide’s travails.
Attired in a wild folly of outrageous costumes from Brendan de la Hay and choreographed by Amy Campbell, the principals besport betwixt and between the tiers of the stage whereupon, of course, conductor Anthony Hunt presides over his wall-to-wall expanse of glorious musicians. The massed choir sits as a human backdrop, adorning the story line with nods, costume embellishments, and Mexican waves according to the cue. And dare one forget the cubes? Ailsa Paterson, talent of a set realiser, has equipped the action with very clever multi-purpose cubes to light or not to light, depending on the action.
For those of us lucky to have seen this triumph, we shall carry it onwards through life as one of those magical achievements of high theatre. It really was the best of all possible shows in the best of all possible theatres in this best of all possible cities - which, indeed, all told is our very own hard-worked and beautiful garden.
Samela Harris
When: 23 May to 25 May
Where: Her Majesty’s Theatre
Bookings: Closed
Red Phoenix Theatre. Holden Street Theatres. 23 May 2024
References to Texan playwright Horton Foote as “America’s Chekov” really hit home with one experiences The Trip to Bountiful. One could add a slice of Tennessee Williams to the style and spirit he imparts. Or one could just say that he was a gifted writer and his plays sing with the social and psychological eloquence of a graceful pen.
This play first was produced on stage in the US in 1953 but not on stage in Adelaide until now, since it is a Red Phoenix principle that their productions are fresh to the local eye. Of course, it has been seen by many on the screen, firstly in 1986 starring Geraldine Page and again with a TV remake in 2014 starring Cicely Tyson.
It has held up through the years through the timelessly triste humanity of its theme. It depicts a frail old woman facing her final years under the thumb of a shallow and domineering daughter-in-law in a Houston apartment. Through sleepless nights she plots her escape dreaming to smell the trees and salt air of the old family farm in the obscure little country town of Bountiful while her hapless son tries to keep domestic peace with the wife who must be appeased.
Finally, she makes a break for it.
The play traces her trip and the people she meets along the way.
Red Phoenix has gone the whole hog, so to speak, with really complicated sets on Holden Streets’ Studio space, changing the theatre entrance and building partitions to create corridors and separate rooms. Even the dressing room door is cleverly a part of this ambitious Kate Preston design.
It took a large team to construct it and it requires some hefty action onstage for scene changes. They are clunky, but forgivably worth the work when one gazes upon, for instance, the bus station agent whiling away the night shift with a book in his wee ticket office. It is a vivid vignette superbly lit by Richard Parkhill, that stalwart quality lighting designer. On opening night, he had to actually come onstage to rescue the lighting after a show-stopping emergency with an audience member. The actors and crew handled the interruption with admirable professionalism.
It was a crucial moment in Sharon Malujlo’s performance as the old mother, Mrs Watts. Malujlo has been carving an honourable reputation and this characterisation, and this work under the direction of Libby Drake, is really a definitive display of her acting prowess, down to the "little Red Hen” display of her compulsive housekeeping in the Houston apartment. It tells the audience everything about the domestic status quo. Also, she captures the timbre of the old Southerner’s voice, albeit not every Texan nuance. There is no accent coach among the credits for this production and accents are unneven. Krystal Cave, however, as the ghastly daughter-in-law, Jessie May, captures both accent and a very complex and credible characterisation. Leighton Voight looks the part as the son, Ludie, and delivers some beautifully perceptive emotional moments, while Laura Antoniazzi, as the friend old Mrs Watts makes on trip, does what she always does when on stage, a jolly good job. The support cast also works well and hard - some fine old talents are among them such as Ron Hoenig, very touching as the Harrison sheriff with Brian Godfrey, Megan Dansie, and Stuart Pearce filling the bill nicely indeed.
The Trip to Bountiful is a very challenging play to stage, but a play very well worth seeing.
Old Mrs Watts is a classic character, not only of the time of the play’s setting, but of our day, too: old women who have had to lose their autonomy. Then there are inter-generational stresses expressed in the play, another universality and also, the private stress of some couples who are without issue. It is a play with a wealth of themes. It is a meaty piece of theatre one has been very glad to see.
Samela Harris
When: 23 May to 1 Jun
Where: Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: holdenstreettheatres.com.au
Red Peppers / Hands Across The Sea. Holden Street Theatres. 16 May 2024
In an era when short plays were really not the thing, Noël Coward decided to write a slew of them, primarily to showcase himself and Gertrude Lawrence. Under the collective title of Tonight at 8.30, the ten play cycle was intended to feature three plays across three evenings.
Holden Street Theatres is presenting two of these under the Cowardy Cowardy Custard moniker, which references Cowardy Custard (1972), a biographical revue featuring Coward’s work, produced in the latter years of his life. Red Peppers and Hands Across the Sea were written in 1936 and are quite contrasting in their depictions of society at the time.
Red Peppers was described by Coward as an “interlude with music” and so it is. Played respectively by Geoff Revell and Martha Lott, George and Lily Pepper are a very ordinary vaudeville act, playing the very ordinary vaudeville circuit in the days when England had such a thing. It is Lily’s bungle at the end of the first musical number Has Anybody Seen Our Ship which forms the basis of the ruckus that occurs in the dressing room afterwards. There’s a sadness to the second-rate, and both Revell and Lott portray the still burning ambition with an experienced balance, moving from pathos to cruelty to mutual affection with aplomb. Revell brings his marvellously mobile face to the role as he navigates the pair’s ongoing battles with the theatre manager (Brian Wellington) and orchestra conductor (David O'Brien) and defends his relationship with the star of the show, a fading Mabel Grace (Rebecca Kemp).
Rather than the Coward’s usual high society settings, Red Peppers is more the vaudeville set at the fag end of its era, with the pretensions of grandeur displayed by Mabel Grace an irritant to Lily Pepper, who in reality aspires to be where Mabel is (or has been).
The second play Hands Across The Sea is set in the high society drawing room of Lord Peter and Lady Maureen Gilpin (rumoured to be based on Lord and Lady Mountbatten). Lady Gilpin, known as ‘Piggie’ (Martha Lott), and her companion have been on a tour of the colonies, and have invited numerous people they met on their travels to come for tea when they are next in London. When one such couple turns up (Mr and Mrs Wadhurst, played by Geoff Revell and Rebecca Kemp), she mistakes them for another she has invited, and of course there is much comedic confusion as this is sorted out.
John Doherty as Lord Peter, a commander in the Royal Navy, portrays the character effortlessly, and is a strong anchor on the stage while Lott is the rather frizzy and dizzy foil. Piggie has invited other friends over at short notice to help out with the unexpected arrivals; Helen Geoffreys as the Hon Clare Wedderburn and Lieutenant Commander Alistair Corbett, known as Ally, played by David Archidiaco. Adding to the confusion is young Mr Burnham (Christopher Cordeaux) who arrives with plans for a speed boat for Lord Peter and is roundly ignored, being mistaken for someone else of course.
It is in this second play that Goers shows his hand at the direction of physical comedy. From slippery sofas to telephone cords and cumbersome cardboard tubes, there is some deft play here. Again Revell’s face is a star – he has few lines as the hapless Mr Wadhurst, but doesn’t really need them – he is a delight to watch.
At times the terr-ribly posh accents render the words unintelligible, and for both plays, the interaction between the characters is often left wanting. There is an over concentration on delivery; lines are spoken, cues are waited on, more lines are spoken; sometimes the characters don’t seem to be speaking to one another, so intent are they on reciting their lines.
Coward’s popularity may have waned over the years, but the writing is still very witty and diabolically clever. When the words are allowed to speak for themselves, these wonderful plays can be as enjoyable as they were for all the bright young things of his time.
Arna Eyers-White
When: 16 May to 1 Jun
Where: Holden Street Theatres – The Arch
Bookings: holdenstreettheatres.com
The Hills Musical Company. Stirling Theatre. 11 May 2024
The Hills Musical Company’s latest offering Urinetown - The Musical, now playing at the Stirling Theatre, first premiered in 2001, picking up 3 Tony Awards. It is based on the book of Greg Kotis with the musical was co-written by Kotis and Mark Hollman.
Against the then-emerging topic of climate change this is the story of the imaginary town of Urinetown, where after a 20 year drought private toilets are banned. Urinetown is but one of many towns throughout this world - and a poor one at that. It could even be Your-town, and so (as in all good revolutions), the seeds are sown and germinated of greed, power, and struggles, and ultimately rebellion - and sacrifice. But who will prevail?
This Urinetown is a victim of climate-change. But they are not immune - for there are Urinetowns everywhere - now and into the future. And if not climate change - what's next off the list? This is both political and social commentary in a musical guise and it beguilingly draws us in. And powerfully so. This is a well-crafted work - delivered with class, style, and excellent production & design values.
If Act I is its theme, then Act II is its story. And so intertwined.
Act I focuses on Urinetown - the town, its people and its 20 year drought, where only pay-as-you-go public toilets remain, its impact and impost on the poor, and against the perfidy of the big-end-of-town.
Act II is the rebellion and the replacement of something better. More equitable. Yet does it ultimately deliver this true panacea?
In one vein, Urinetown may not even be a musical - only a political piece with music. If so, then this Hills Musical Company production at the Stirling Theatre dispels any such notion. Quite simply this is both ambitious and outstanding. To suggest that it has transferred easily from the page to the stage would be incorrect - for it has all the hallmarks of thoughtful casting where everyone can (no must) sing, dance, act, and play comedy. This is brilliant ensemble stuff.
Urinetown has a mighty strong principal cast and is a great strength. Yet too the collective, and the individual performances are the strength of the on-stage delivery - particularly as this is as much about comedy, as it is musical. It just all works!
For Director, Ruby Pinkerton this is a remarkable collective group of skilled people who embrace and deliver beyond the plot on the page. She is well supported by the production team. Jemma Allen's choreography is pivotal to the pace and the continuity of the show.
If this is a courageous production - with some risk, then bravo!
Brian Wellington
When: 10 to 25 May
Where: Stirling Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com