The Metropolitan Musical Theatre Co. of S.A. Inc. Arts Theatre. 14 Oct 2021
Nice Work If You Can Get It is the love child of Broadway’s Tony Award-winning Joe DiPietro. After a long trial-and-error period starting in 2001, this little number was itself up for Tonies in 2012 which were won by a couple of the performers (ie not DiPietro).
DiPietro employs brothers George & Ira Gershwin’s instrumental compositions and many of their best-known songs from the ‘20s & ‘30s in a narrative of the screwball romantic comedy type which emerged in the American films of the 1930s; lots of dames, sly grog, and low-life petty criminals pulling a fast one on the rich and privileged. Sounds great, but while the baseline froth and bubble is initially very attractive, it takes too long to bedazzle with comic expertise or to press the emotional buttons.
Yet over all, Selena Britz directs a ritzy, dazzling high energy affair. Choreographer Carmel Vistoli, I suppose, is perforce stuck in flapper mode, but impels the cast into fits of stage-wide activity with sometimes something different and more challenging moves. All the major female characters are rather unappealing persona and cliché, which is a barrier to connection. Unfortunately, the lack of substance is often compensated with over-expression. Melodrama is part of the art, and it’s tricky for sure to get the balance right - and it may yet come after opening night.
What does work in DiPietro’s book is the dry humour and one-liners. Plenty of enjoyable imbecilic naivety is conveyed by Joel Amos whose male lead character is rakish within an alcoholic haze. Kristel Dally’s dilettante bride-to-be soaking in the suds and toweling off with the help of nymphs – all the while pumping out Delishious; - was a sweet-smelling soap opera. I tip my hat to Barry Hill who made the most of the mischief and mirth with his Cookie McGee’s double identity device and DiPietro-given zingers. Dancer Iman Saleh draws attention with his smooth moves and exuberance. The orchestra under musical director Jesse Budell makes Gershwin fresh and lively.
The painted drop of foreboding Brooklyn-brown brick tenements under the bridge and across the road from the pizza shop in Scene 2 was a work of art (set design: Selena Britz & Leonie Osborn). The colourful and plentiful costumes could sing and dance all by themselves (costume coordination: Carmel Vistoli & Leonie Osborn). The sound levels were right after testing them out in the first scene, but unintended aural disturbances as loud as gunfire crackled the air a couple of times.
A for effort, B for better next time.
PS The aforementioned Barry Hill will be directing Hello Dolly! for The Met next year and I’m looking forward to that.
David Grybowski
When: 14 to 23 Oct
Where: Arts Theatre
Bookings: themet.sales.ticketsearch.com
University of Adelaide Theatre Guild. Little Theatre. 9 Oct 2021
Some Americans walk the Appalachian Trail. Some do the Trans-American Trail, a 4000-mile bike epic whence a back wheel is dipped in the Pacific waters and the front in the Atlantic.
Feckless student Leo takes on this journey, ending up on the doorstep of his grandmother’s apartment in Greenwich Village. He’s extremely grubby and traumatised by the death of his riding companion en route. Grandma is in the early stages of dementia. She barely knows him but takes him in and blithely gives him play money to explore New York. It’s a tenuous relationship which Amy Herzog’s play gently develops. Oddly, none of the characters are truly likeable, including the two girls who pop into Leo’s life. Set in 2007, it could be described as neo-kitchen-sink drama. Embodying a sense of urban vérité, families and neighbours co-exist but never really get close; the people seem to listen but never hear each other.
The triste of the tale is grandmother Vera for whom the month of unexpected cohabitation fractures her solitude and gives her a taste of unlikely fellowship.
It is a play in which nothing happens and life is a series of incidents. The old girl is caught without her teeth. She doesn’t bother with her hearing aid. The lad reunites with a fellow biker girlfriend but does not connect. He brings home a rich Chinese “valley girl” called Amanda who is attracted to his mountain-man scruffiness but appalled by his politics.
The scenes with grandmother Vera deliver a lovely observation of the eternal domination of trivia over daily life and poignantly, of the vulnerabilities of aging. In this context, Julie Quick gives a superb performance, artfully assuming the posture and vocal modulations of this stoic New York senior toughing it out against the odds of her own diminishing capabilities. She is pure New York, the loneliness of the long-term tenant.
Jackson Barnard shows a very easy, naturalist acting skill as grandson Leo, and a lovely sense of humorous nuance. For, indeed, this minor work is not without its funny moments. It blooms into wild comic relief when Amanda comes onto the scene, a torrent of OMG vapidity exquisitely delivered by Naomi Gomez, a bright new actress to watch out for.
The cycling girlfriend, Bec, is played by Laura Antoniazzi who has steadily established herself as a talented and versatile ensemble player and in this production, capably directed by Eric Strauts, she builds on this reputation.
Designer, Nicole Puttins has cleverly used every inch of the Little Theatre’s performance spaces with a comfy domestic set, including an apartment door on the upper level of the auditorium and a balcony or rooftop setting on the mezzanine, which could be a little further forward to improve visibility. But, apart from somewhat slow scene changes and some oddly sketchy continuity in the script, this Guild production is strangely satisfying, and a triumph for Julie Quick.
Samela Harris
When: 9 to 23 Oct
Where: The Little Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com/BGSOX
IpSkip Productions. Bakehouse Theatre. 2 Oct 2021
Infidelity as a history lesson. The premise of this 1975 play by Canadian Bernard Slade remains so wildly unlikely that Same Time, Next Year has kept its currency in the contemporary drama world, aided by the fact that it is a beautifully written piece of lightly comic theatre. Its unusual raison d'être shines from the stage under the sleek directorship of Jude Hines.
She has cast two extremely pleasing actors to portray the unlikely couple who, after an adulterous one-night stand, agree to have another assignation on the same day every year in the same hotel room. With the timeline of these scenes introduced by pop songs and news grabs and subtle updates to the set, including styles of telephones, the actors are required not only to be re-costumed for each scene but also to impart the moods, mores, and physical ageing of the passing decades. These evolving portrayals from Patrick Clements and Allison Scharber, are achieved in a quiet tour-de-force of exquisite credibility. Clements’ George changes from a highly-strung and ambitious loudmouth accountant to a mellow academic while Scharber grows from diffident young mum to self-made powerhouse. It is vocal intonations, demeanour, hair and make-up which deliver these transformations - most especially in Clements who at first reminds one of Nick Cage on steroids.
The production is simply a delicious package of theatrical accomplishment in the hands of a creamy director with intelligent and skilled actors at her bidding. And, of course, an often pithy and always interesting script delivered with the expert embellishments of a Gary Anderson set, Stephen Dean lighting, and Ray Trowbridge sound. Oh, and dare one forget a couple of essential extras with Gillian Cordell aiding in the costumes and Daphne Quadrio behind the scenes as dresser for those myriad quick costume and hair changes.
Bless them all, and the cherished Bakehouse Theatre which has been giving audiences some of the best experiences of atmosphere and intimacy that any theatre in Adelaide has yet achieved. If only this seamless and snappy work could have had a longer run. And, the Bakehouse, too.
Samela Harris
When: Closed
Where: Bakehouse Theatre
Bookings: Closed
Mighty Good Productions. Star Theatres. 29 Sep 2021
One steps into cutting-edge technological “now" at Star Theatres as one holds one’s phone up to a QR code to access the big, bright program for Mighty Good’s production of Cinderella.
It is virtually glossy, “virtual” being the operative word. And, of course, it is an oddly perverse reason to have one’s phone alight during performance in a darkened theatre.
This is a growing trend among theatre companies and, for those who care about collecting programs and the history of local theatre, it is an arduous print-out job or just a loss. For critics who like to scrawl their notes on programs, it is a disaster. For theatre companies, however, it is a significant dollar saving.
In the case of the Mighty Good panto, it is anachronistic mind-spin, because when the curtain comes up on Malcolm Harslett’s 2021 school holidays show, it is a huge leap back in time.
Harslett is the bravest man in Adelaide theatre today.
There is no ground-breaking experimental theatre work to rival him, so stand away Rumpus.
Down there on Sir Donald Bradman Drive, he is delivering a retro experience which is filling that darling old theatre to the brim with lots of puzzled but mostly pleased youngsters.
Little do they know that this lavish production of colourful nonsense is absolutely historic and people like Harslett who recreate it are now as rare as hen’s teeth.
It goes right against the grain of the short-grabs, Tiktok culture of the day.
It is a slow business. In this particular production, perhaps a bit too slow.
It is adorned with very old-school song and dance routines and traditional comic schtick.
Ah, but ye olde slapstick! It will never die.
Cinderella’s ugly sisters, more politically correctly described in the program as “beauty challenged”, are a riot. Their over-the-top nastiness and stupidity are a tour de force of vigorous knockabout clowning from the wonderful Richard Laidlaw and Richard Carpenter. Layered in pancake makeup and clad in outrageous mock-period hooped gowns, they are loud and fearless and super-funny. They are exquisitely contrasted by their nasty old mum who appears as a bedazzlement of period glamor in a red gown so huge at the hips that she has to enter the stage sideways.
If ever there was a show for which to exclaim “the frocks were lovely”, this is it.
Malcolm Harslett knows all about costumes and the expertise shines from the stage. Even Buttons, sweetly played by Michael Evans, has a costume of proper powder blue bellboy perfection.
Harslett not only has a lavish kingly costume for himself but also a very familiar fanciful number for his routine as Cyril The Servant in which character he turns on an age-old interactive “where’s my glasses?” routine which has the children screaming with incredulous helpfulness.
Lovely Talia Monaghan embodies Cinderella and she is adorable. While she and the multi-role Emily Jo Davidson are competent as singing pipes, Charles Herkes is heartthrob handsome and light on his feet as the Prince but not quite born to sing.
As ever, the Harslett sets are fabulous. And the touch of $5 tiaras in the foyer is lovely.
But it is his respect for the dying genre of pantomime which must be truly admired.
He is diligently wooing an instant-gratification digital generation and he might yet succeed if he cuts and sharpens the songs and knocks out the pauses. If he can’t win them, no one can.
Samela Harris
(Disclaimer…had to leave early cos child became queasy)
When: 29 Sep to 9 Oct
Where: Star Theatres
Bookings: cinderellathemusical.com.au
Her Majesty’s Theatre. 27 Sep 2021
Roll up, roll up to Her Majesty’s Theatre for this holiday romp targeted at school age children. Circus The Show takes the big top on stage for 60 minutes of clowning, dancing, magic, and acrobatics and the kids lap it up!
Leaping onto the stage our Ringmaster, Justin Williams, is a shock of ragged dreadlocks reminiscent of Tim Minchin. He is besequined in Ringmaster-red and sports a top hat and a bottomless bag of fantastic dad jokes. Doubling as the stunt act, Williams is a rubber chicken, machete juggling, chair-stack balancing whiz.
Ably supported by Simon Wright as Clown, every act is hilariously ruined with over the top slapstick antics which culminate in a giant balloon swallowing trick to rival them all – and the balloon does all the swallowing!
Chelsea Angell astonishes the kids as the whirling and twirling, dizzying and dazzling hula-hooper and aerialist, who splits, spins, flexes and contorts her body in the aerial straps. She doubles as the beautiful assistant to Sam Hume the magician, Sam the Magic Man, when he makes her mysteriously levitate. Hume’s magically appearing bunny David Hopperfield hops to it, and his quick change outfit tricks, and flame transformations impress.
Local Adelaide brother and sister act Arwen and Calin Diamond of Diamond Duo defy gravity with their acrobatic couple's dance, showcasing shoulder and hand balances, leaps and twirls. Lyndon Johnson puts on a few twirls of his own oscillating all over the stage at dizzying speeds in the Cyr Wheel and Freestyle Basketball Manipulator Bavo Delbeke spins, balances and juggles multiple basketballs with apparent ease.
With pressure from the Victorian lockdowns and border restrictions impacting cast availability, Circus the Show has filled those gaps wonderfully and given local talent a chance to shine.
It’s an hour of fun and laughter for the kids and not a bad afternoon's entertainment for the family, so get out and support the Arts this holidays with a ticket to this little-big top.
Paul Rodda
When: 27 & 28 Sep
Where: Her Majesty’s Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au