Goodbye, and hello, as always

This will be the last week of Sydney Arts Journo. I am taking an extended hiatus away from arts journalism and reviewing to take up a position as an Arts Policy Advisor to the State Government.

It's been nearly five years since I penned my first opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald to then start a blog, review for The Daily Telegraph, write for Crikey and now finish up at the Sun-Herald.

In that time the beautiful blogosphere has grown and expanded and Sydney now has an impressive online reviewer landscape.

When I started out companies, organisations and groups didn't quite know how to take me or this weird thing called 'online opinion'. And I've had my run-ins.

But now bloggers, online reviewers stand side by side with the mainstream media ... it's nothing short of joyful. And debate continues to grow and opinions broaden.

Thanks to all of you for clicking, reading, contributing and having your say over the last three years of Sydney Arts Journo.

It's been a joy.

Nick

Review: Josh Thomas In Things That I Have Said Before

Josh Thomas in Things That I Have Said Before
Comedy Store, Moore Park
Until 7 November
Tickets $15-22
Bookings (02) 9357 1419
Critic’s Rating 6/10


As published in the Sun Herald

Living most of my life in darkened theatres, I didn’t know who Josh Thomas was when my editor told me to go and review him. He’s the guy from that generation show, my friend said. I still didn’t recognise him, which probably says more about me than him.

The first thing you notice as he shuffles on to the stage is how young he is. And he knows how to joke about it. In fact, the majority of his skit is about how young he looks.

There’s the jokes about facial hair, how he looks like an adult baby (or Ellen DeGeneres) and his nervousness around women.

It’s all par for the course and it makes girls between the ages of 16 and 22 giggle.

That’s until he takes the lid off and he lets fly with his more R-rated material – and then suddenly older cackles come from the crowd and the teenagers are left behind.

Blending coriander, marzipan and abortion is just the start of it. And he always acts relieved when the dirty jokes get a response. But he’s always got that glint in his eye that gives you the suspicion the he knows he’s funny. And he is.

Review: Taming of the Shrew

Taming of the Shrew
Sydney Opera House
Until 21 November
Tickets $30-60
Bookings (02) 9250 7777
Critic’s Rating 4/10

As published in the Sun Herald


It’s amazing that a production starring some of this country’s finest female stage performers could be so badly conceived. On the page, the idea of having an all-female cast performing in Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, looks interesting.

It certainly has sex appeal. The misogynist Petruchio (Jeanette Cronin) who has been historically played by swaggering Don Juan leads (Kenneth Branagh, Peter O’Toole, Michael Siberry to name a few) tames the wild and disobedient Kate (Lotte St Clair).

It may have worked if the women were mocking the male species through caricatures but instead director Marion Potts hurtles head first like a train-wreck into a mock-lesbian world that is confused, predictable and unwittingly sacrifices the beauty of the text.

Setting the action in an atypical leagues club Chinese Restaurant doesn’t help. It certainly looks good as the lights go down, with its glitter balls and karaoke machine, but as soon as the characters enter the space in their mixture of '30s, '70s, '80s, '90s and contemporary clothing, you start to feel dizzy, unable to give the setting any context or meaning.

In one corner you have Kate’s wealthy father Baptista (Sandy Gore) playing cards and acting like a Sopranos mafia boss next to her slightly goofy mob. In the other corner you have a Sly Fox Hotel/The L Word love tryst of the butch Lucentio (Luisa Hastings Edge) and Tranio (Ksenja Logos) wooing their way to Baptista’s beautiful daughter Bianca (Emily Rose Brennan).

Sadly, this all-female Shrew is full of colour and possibilities but in the end it’s not thought through. The contemporary parallels shift so much that neither the actors nor the audience can focus in on what is actually being said. A perfect example of this is in the final scene when Kate delivers one of the most beautiful Shakespearean passages written for a female character to be then upstaged by Bianca for a cheap laugh.

All the performers fulfil their roles as well as they can, although some of the younger performers could learn some stillness from their older colleagues. The stand-out among them is Judy Farr, who steals the show with barely a line to say as the widow and Biondello.

Bell Shakespeare is a unique company in that they tour extensively through the country and caters to both schools and the general public. Creatively this can be a blessing – at other times it can be a burden as production teams try to find "contemporary parallels" to make Shakespeare more palatable. This Shrew is one of the latter.

Review: The Ruby Sunrise

The Ruby Sunrise
Ensemble Theatre
Until 14 November
Tickets $23-63
Bookings (02) 9929 0644
Critic’s Rating 5/10

As published in the Sun Herald


The character of Ruby Sunrise is as American as apple pie. A Midwest teenager, she dreams of a better world and thinks her new idea of a Tele(from the Greek) vision (from the Latin) will stop wars, educate and bring humanity closer together.

Set in the 1920s, at a time when television science was racing ahead in leaps and bounds, it’s a world away from daytime soaps and episodes of Bridezilla.

When Ruby’s daughter, Lulu (Catherine McGraffin), gives the idea to writer Tad Rose (Glenn Hazeldine) 30 years later at the height of Joseph McCarthy’s anti-Communist investigations, they think they have a hit on their hands with a story that is an optimistic tale of determination that has a female heroine.

But censorship rears its ugly heads and the story gets diluted and changed along the way.

For The Ruby Sunrise to have its full impact, the stakes need to be high and the opening scenes set in the '20s need to have a gravity and realism that will drive the rest of the play.

Unfortunately this doesn't happen. It would have been a perfect opportunity to explore audiovisual styles but instead, director Sandra Bates has opted for a realist production, where even the make-up and costumes look like they’re straight out of a community theatre wardrobe.

Review: Silver

Silver
Belvoir Street Theatre
Until 25 October
Tickets $10-29
Bookings (02) 9699 3444
Critic’s Rating 6/10

As published in the Sun Herald


Welcome to the land of nightmares and dreams, where the imagination of a child could be illusion or reality. Silver, written and performed by Matthew Whittet, is a first-person account of a journey of a little girl who finds her way miles from home.

With the horror of Blair Witch Project and the charm of a European fairytale, there’s a great simplicity at work here in this production; but to my mind is over-simplified.

Theatre is the best place in the world to tell and hear a story but Silver would be just as riveting if it were read off the page.

Director Ben Winspear has split the already small downstairs space and has Whittet sitting plainly on a chair in front of only about 40 people.

There’s some novelty in the fact that Whittet is a charmingly good male performer telling the story of a girl's life but that’s about where it ends. Nick Schlieper does a good job with the lighting to create a mood at the beginning but it isn’t followed through with anything physical to carry that further.

If however, you’re up for a good romping tale with no bells or whistles, then this is the ideal production.

After all these years it's still Liza with a zing

Regal yet humble, the Cabaret star still has energy and talent to enthral her fans, writes Nicholas Pickard.

FIRST REVIEW

It's the eyes and the giggle that do it for you - that innocent glare that Liza Minnelli flashes at you to give you a window into the career of a musical star who has been honing her talent for more than 50 years.

The voice has become shaky and the body isn't as agile as it once was but this is Liza - with a Z - and no one in the packed 2000-seat auditorium at the Sydney Opera House was complaining.

When she appeared dressed in her white sequins it felt like the roof of the Opera House was about to lift off. Everyone rose to their feet for the star who first came to Australia with her then husband, Peter Allen, 42 years ago.


Full Review Published HERE.