★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. Regal Theatre. 2 Mar 2024
007 Voices of Bond is a celebration of everything musical about the James Bond movies which first exploded onto our silver screens in 1962 with Dr No. Regardless of whether you are a Bond aficionado or merely a dilettante, everyone knows and is shaken (not stirred) by the sound of the iconic main signature theme, or hearing the phrase “Bond, James Bond”, or listening to their favourite title song from whichever movie, and there have been so many.
This is exactly what to expect from 007 Voices of Bond presented by the quality UK company Night Owl Shows. On stage there are four musicians playing rhythm and bass guitars, drums, shakers, and keyboard (synthesizer / organ / piano / other sampled instruments), and two vocalists (one of whom plays the saxophone as well). Between them they produce a hugely impressive sound which is at all times musical and well mixed. Only occasionally one might question the orchestration selected on the synthesizer, but that’s being really picky! I repeat, the sound they produce is just so good, and the vocals are first rate.
Presenting a concert of famous James Bond songs is a real challenge for singers. Most films in the franchise have a theme song, and over the years they have been written by various luminary composers, including John Barry, Lionel Bart, Don Black, Paul McCartney, Carole Bayer Sager, Tim Rice, Duran Duran, Madonna, Adele, Sam Smith and Billie Eilish and the list goes on. The songs have been sung by the likes of Matt Monro, Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, Nancy Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Paul McCartney & Wings, Lulu, Carly Simon, Duran Duran, A-ha, Tina Turner and so it goes on. The styles of the songs and the very nature of their composition and structure makes some suited to one type of voice and not to another. So, to bundle a selection together would seem to require a battery of different singers. But, for 007 Voices of Bond Night Owl have found two singers of enormous talent that relatively easily manage the demands of diverse songs and styles.
From the serenading style of Matt Monro in From Russia with Love to the mournful tones of Billie Eilish in No Time to Die, Agent 006 (aka Angus Munro) wows the audience with his high energy, tuneful, and generously warm voice. He also knows how to turn it on for special effect, such as in Writing’s on the Wall made famous by Sam Smith and which requires a robust and sustained falsetto. Munro nailed it.
Similarly, Agent 004 (aka Ella McCready) does Shirley Bassey proud in Goldfinger and Diamonds are Forever, and shows the versatility of her voice in For Your Eyes Only (and, for this reviewer, rivals Sheena Easton’s original).
The concert is a veritable cornucopia of songs. Others included Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, A View to a Kill, The Living Daylights, and more. They are all delivered with great style, sincerity, and sustained excellence.
Songs are introduced with quips, anecdotes and comic lines about the films and the songs, but the patter doesn’t always hit its mark. But they are musicians, classy ones at that, and not stand-up comedians, and it’s the music we came for.
Of course, singers need musicians behind them, and the ensemble is excellent, with every instrument taking its share of centre stage and contributing to mostly excellent orchestrations. The musician on keys is very fine indeed. The sound engineering is well done and empathetic to the venue, and the lighting and staging is a cut above what one normally expects in the Fringe.
Night Owl have many other “show-umentary” shows in the Fringe, featuring the stories and music of some of the greatest singers and songwriters, including The Elton John Story, California Dreams – Sounds of LA 1965-75, The Music of Adele, The Fleetwood Mac Songbook, and many others. These are not merely tribute band shows, they are thoroughly enjoyable and classy musical events.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Regal Theatre
Bookings: Closed
★★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. Adelaide Academy & Theatre Bugs. 1 Mar 2024 (Oz cast)
There aren’t too many musicals where the iconic song comes in the first act of the production, but Somewhere Over the Rainbow comes crooning in almost before you’re ready for it in The Wizard of Oz. Samara Perkovic as Dorothy Gale is sweet, curious, and just a bit sassy, interpreting the character beautifully. And Toto is just perfect, Caterina Landi in doggy costume, with such an expressive face!
The scenery is pure Kansas, with rear projected sepia photography depicting the middle America farmland where Dorothy lives with her Aunt Em (Steph Andrejewskis) and Uncle Henry (Thomas Wake-Dyster). The transition to full colour after Dorothy and Toto are caught in the twister and land in Oz is seamless. At this point one of the limitations of the Concert Hall becomes clear, when younger members of the audience cannot see over the heads of larger people in front of them, and there’s a bit of standing and craning to see the legs of the Wicked Witch of the East trapped under the house. For the most part however, the action is further back on the stage and visibility is pretty good.
Director Georgia Brass has ensured that all the young players get their moment in the sun, and while there are a few extraneous moments, for the most part the direction is sharp and intelligent, keeping the action moving along in what is quite a long show for youngsters. She’s also had a bit of fun with the script, dropping in a few more contemporary references eg The Lion King. At times the adherence to the twangy American accent got in the way of articulation and there were some lines that we just didn’t get, but for the most part, they played it well. The greater issue on the night was gremlins in the onstage sound; fortunately, this was corrected fairly quickly.
Vasileia Markou as the Wicked Witch of the West is suitably nasty, and one young audience members was moved to a terrified scream as her green face appeared! Her strong performance showed that she relished the role, and who wouldn’t?
The Scarecrow (Emily Rawlings), the Tinman (Elliot Purdie) and the Lion (Ryan Tillman) had a lot of fun with their roles (particularly Lion) and all exhibited impressive comic timing – they were amongst the best stage portrayals of these characters that I have seen. The classic costuming was superb, contributing to the trio’s outstanding performances.
Musical Director Nicole Willis has worked the young cast well, and while the high notes escaped the principals occasionally, the ensemble numbers were performed with a skill and enthusiasm which belied the ages of some of the performers.
Choreography by Jacinta Vistoli and costumes must get a special mention. Just sensational. While there are clearly some experienced young dancers in the fold, the choreography was geared to an inclusive experience for all skill levels, and the cast took it up with gusto and determination. She should be very proud of the outcome of this cast’s performance.As for the costumes – the creativity and attention to detail of the ensemble players was exemplary. Each scene change brought a new and delightful change of costumes – Munchkins, Winkie Guards, Winged Monkeys, Apple Trees, Lollipop Guild – there were no secondary characters when it came to their wardrobe.
The Wizard of Oz is one of the best productions I have seen from this company, and all involved are to be congratulated. Accomplished, delightful, engaging, and entertaining – brava!
Arna Eyes-White
Where: Norwood Concert Hall
When: 1 to 3 Mar
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Adelaide Festival. Festival Theatre. 1 Mar 2024
From the moment the performance of The Nightingale and Other Fables begins, it’s wonderment quickly engulfs you as you regress back to childhood when the distinction between fantasy and reality was vague. For the duration of the show, you are aware (just) as an audience member that your face is constantly smiling, and you are frequently and innocently uttering oohs and ahhhs. As internationally renowned Canadian playwright, actor, film director, and director Robert Lepage says in his program notes: “…each time, we should go to the theatre: with the open mind of a child”.
The Nightingale and Other Fables is the headline event of the 2024 Adelaide Festival, and it is truly remarkable. Please go if you can. It is a wondrous experience and celebration of exciting orchestral music composed by modernist Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971), superb operatic singing by both international and Australian artists, and world class puppetry including shadow, hand, and marionette puppets in which puppeteers, who are also singers, can be seen working them.
The Nightingale and Other Fables is a co-production of Opera national de Lyon, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Canadian Opera Company, and Dutch National Opera, in collaboration with Ex Machina, which is a multidisciplinary Canadian theatre company founded by Lepage himself. Ex Machina foregrounds the use of puppets in their various forms and their use is the perfect medium for bringing the stories told in The Nightingale and Other Fables to life.
The Nightingale and Other Fables is an all-Stravinsky extravaganza. It is a concatenation of Stravinsky’s short opera The Nightingale, which is performed after the interval, and other shorter works in the first half of the program. Both halves work very well together, and this ‘pairing’ was devised by Lepage for the 2009 Canadian Opera season. It is genius.
The first half of the evening is introduced by less well-known works by Stravinsky: some up-tempo jazz-inflected orchestral music and solo clarinet pieces, Russian folk songs, a song cycle about cats, and a performance of the small chamber opera-ballet The Fox. The clarinet is performed superbly by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s principal clarinet Dean Newcombe. The vocal selections are carefully chosen to allow stories to be told through puppetry to the largest extent possible, and to create a sense of the unusual. The puppeteers are in full view of the audience who are exposed to their artistry in all its glory. It is often humorous, sometimes melancholy, but always thrilling. It is also an enjoyable challenge to divide one’s attention between observing the process of the art of the puppeteers as it is to watch the actual outcome. (“What are they doing? How did they do that?”). In fact, one almost feels like a voyeur at times but always rapt by the performance!
The performance of the opera The Nightingale is however the showstopper. The full might of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (including expanded percussion section, two harps, celeste, and an infrequently seen cimbalom) is upstage with the State Opera Chorus in two files in front, and a smaller acting area. The choristers have been beautifully prepared by Chorus Master Anthony Hunt, and are superbly costumed, with costumes, wigs and makeup designed by Mara Gottler. To top it off, the orchestra pit has been transformed into a swimming pool in which small oriental boats are paddled and delightful exotic creatures frolic. Carl Fillion’s set design is a visual feast, and Etienne Boucher’s lighting design carefully and evocatively reveals all its fine detail.
The plot of The Nightingale is simple. Based on a tale by Hans Christian Andersen, a Chinese Emperor is introduced to the beautiful singing of a nightingale, and is deeply moved. However, the Japanese Emperor makes a gift of a mechanical nightingale and the real nightingale flies away in disgust. The Chinese emperor later falls deathly ill and desires for the return of the real bird, who agrees to do so if Death will spare the Emperor, which indeed happens, and … they all live happily ever after. All characters in the opera are ‘played’ by exquisitely made and costumed puppets, and expertly manipulated by their singer/operators. The puppets are designed by Michael Curry and choreographed by Martin Genest. It is mesmerizing. Of course, none of it happens without people singing and bringing the puppets to life. The principal singers are all excellent, and feature sopranos Yuliia Zasimova and Yuliya Pogrebnyak, tenors Owen McCausland, Robert Macfarlane and Norbert Hohl, basses Taras Berezhansky, Jud Arthur and pelham Andrews, contralto Meredith Arwady, and baritone Nabil Suliman. They are well supported by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and conductor Alejo Pérez.
It is too easy to flatter this production, but it merits every single praiseworthy word.
Kym Clayton
When: 1 to 6 Mar
Where: Festival Theatre
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au
★★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. Ben Roberts. Grace Emily Hotel. 29 Feb 2024
During this performance, Ben Roberts notes that he primarily performs original music, and that you won’t usually find him performing covers outside the Fringe. But occasionally, he enjoys a deep dive into his favourite albums, and Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska is one of these.
The audience on this night is clearly happy that he has decided to showcase this album; bar for enthusiastic applause at the end of each song, the intimate space of the Grace Emily is almost pin-drop quiet during the performance.
Nebraska is an oddity in Springsteen’s career, it was made in 1982 post the incredibly successful ‘The River’ tour. As Roberts explains, he recorded a bunch of songs on a four-track recorder, playing all the instruments, including backing vocals. But when he took it to the E-Street band, they pushed most of it back and told him to release it himself. The result is this stripped back, raw collection of songs, with the title song a re-telling of the Badlands killing spree of Charlie Starweather, when 11 people were murdered by Charlie and his 14 year old girlfriend. Roberts added laconically that the death toll would grow exponentially by the show’s end.
Roberts presented this show for the first time in 2023, and for this production he’s gone beyond Nebraska and added some favourites from the Springsteen canon. He opens with Factory from Darkness On The Edge Of Town, which reflects the bleak despair of the elder Springsteen’s working life, a theme to be returned to on Nebraska.
The title song follows, then Atlantic City gets an almost hoedown treatment in parts, with Roberts demonstrating his virtuosity on the ukulele, pulling sounds that non-uke fans would find surprising and quite remarkable. After Mansion On The Hill, which again has Springsteen directing his gaze to the gulf between the haves and have-nots, Roberts brings out I’m On Fire (Born In The USA) before diving back to Nebraska and upping the body count with Johnny 99 and Highway Patrolman. Some very fancy fretwork comes with State Trooper, and the audience members applaud as he starts into the oh-so-familiar but stripped back Dancing In The Dark.
While the added songs inject a bit of light into the dark stories that are Nebraska, it is still the songs from that album that cut the deepest, and Roberts has developed this production into a masterful performance. A minor quibble is the sound where the bass is too loud at times, vibrating through the (thankfully provided) chair, but as a one man band, Ben Roberts presents a brilliant performance of storytelling, songs and impresario uke playing. What a deep dive.
Arna Eyers-White
When: 29 Feb to 14 Mar
Where: Grace Emily Hotel
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Adelaide Festival. Dunstan Playhouse. 29 Feb 2024
In a sparsely-furnished, grey-walled room, a family sits around a glowing television. A woman slumbers in the double bed. A man folds clothes. The tinny sound of the tv bounces around the room. Dogs bark, traffic hoots and rumbles. The familial rhythms lull us into quiet observation. But gently, almost imperceptibly, the quotidian calm begins to vibrate with uncertainty. A black woman appears at the window, singing, a woman cries loudly then retreats into soft weeping.
A cabinet is wheeled to centre stage. It opens to reveal the lifeless, naked body of a young woman. The family gathers around her, smearing her with soil, then lifting her body centre stage, where she is washed, clothed in her unworn wedding dress, and surrounded by flowers. From here, we watch the family cycle through rituals of death and sorrow, some intimate, some solitary, some raw and scarifying.
Greek-Albanian director and creator Mario Banushi’s astonishingly assured second production meditates on the spinning, battling contradictions of grief. Inspired by deaths within his immediate family, Goodbye, Lindita is a profound and muscular insight into the unpredictability and elusive nature of sadness. It soothes and unsettles us. The piece is entirely wordless, constructed with progressing tableaux, as the emotional pitch of the performance shifts disconcertingly into turmoil and moments of chaos.
Banushi is assisted by a mesmerising score and sound design (by Emmanouel Rovithis), that moves from urban soundscape, through folk singing, to grating, buzzing interjections of noise. The sound tracks the changing emotional pitch of the scenes with brilliant effect. The lighting, too, (by Tasos Palaioroutas) is evocative: by turns murky, soft, and amber-hued like a Renaissance painting, bright and direct, and swirling mysteriously through fog.
The performance, at just over an hour’s duration, is perfectly paced, moving from modest, almost dull action into something monumental and emotionally jarring.
The scenes are precisely crafted and observed with unerring accuracy and compassion. That said, despite the undoubted meticulous creative process, there is no sense of artifice – it feels natural and organic. The images are both beautiful and confronting. There are moments of gentle intimacy – the family clustered around the television with the silent corpse, a belly-laugh coinciding with another’s wail of pain, and the exquisitely confronting washing of the naked corpse. Equally, we see moments of almost pagan turmoil, as the sisters shed their clothes and convulse in a frenzy. The spiritual world is near, but obscure: a black Madonna icon on the wall gives way to a portal to the unknown, a disembodied hand reaches through a wall to give comfort.
This is a beautiful, moving and powerful highlight of the Festival program.
John Wells
When: 29 Feb to 3 Mar 2024
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au