Unfortunately for me, Saturday night didn’t just have a breeze that kissed your cheeks, instead, it was something akin to a gale-force wind (slight exaggeration) and my light, flimsy summer dress was definitely the wrong choice of attire. However I could be pleasantly whisked away into the comical farce of The Taming of the Shrew, a timeless classic that always offers up laughs and chuckles.

Director Julie Baz has put a modern twist on the play and has directed the actors in such a way that their actions, physical movements and tone are all modern. Costumes and styling are also modern, so modern in fact that at one stage I thought a person from the general public was walking onto the set! The only thing left that wasn’t modernised was the script.

John Michael Burdon was the stand out performer, playing Petruchio. He was quick, his delivery was fantastic and he seemed to be completely in character. The rest of the cast were very good but not outstanding. David Jeffrey as Gremio and Emily Elise, playing three different roles – Grumio, Pedant and Widow, performed tight, believable characters that generated lots of laughs.

Apart from being a little too long (starting at 8pm and finishing sometime after 11pm) it was an enjoyable evening. It’s definitely worth taking your rug, some wine and cheese and stepping out under the stars for a bit of fun at The Sydney Shakespeare Festival.

This work weaves an ancient music tradition from India with a modern western contemporary dance style. Supposedly the musician and dancer maintain a conversation through their art form, the dancer responding to a sequence she may be given or the musician following her formations through his musical voice. The idea is that this piece is like a dialogue or a cross-cultural conversation that looks like improvisation but in fact is highly choreographed.

The concept was created by Annalouise Paul who has a long standing career as a performing artist, she has recently set up Theatre of Rhythm and Dance which the website states as “Australia’s leading intercultural company presenting compelling, relevant and unique work.”

However, for me personally, this concept didn’t really work, the ‘conversation’ didn’t resonate with me. Paul explained afterwards in a Q&A that this piece was about a ‘3-way conversation’ between musician, dancer and audience. I didn’t feel I was part of the conversation, I felt like I was in a Sunday afternoon zone and the drumming was sending me into a sleepy meditation, either that or boredom.

I have seen many emerging artists, new works and cross cultural theatre pieces but this one unfortunately was right off the mark for me. I wont write this new company off just yet, but they will have to produce much more engaging work to hold my attention in future.

Why did I think I wouldn’t like 10,000 Beers? Perhaps it was the fact that I don’t really like sport, I’m not fussed on football players and I don’t know one team from the next. However, I was wildly entertained, madly laughing and thoroughly engaged at Darlinghurst Theatre last night on opening night of 10,000 Beers by Alex Broun.

The play is funny, incredibly physical, super slapstick-y and extremely well directed by Lee Lewis. Each scene moves smoothly and quickly into the next, there are no set changes so the actors rely on the super direction from Lewis. The four actors Gus Murray ‘Doug’, Matt Zeremes ‘Len’, Andrew Steel ‘Toby’ and Anthony Taufa ‘Reed’ have been chosen obviously on their looks but also for their ability to keep up to the demands of this highly physical and quickly moving play.

This play tries to delve into some deep issues but it just doesn’t hit the mark. Just after a karaoke scene one player ‘Reed’ starts to discuss some issues he has around his mothers’ alcoholism but it never goes anywhere, why? Another scene takes place in a bathroom where player ‘Len’ questions ‘Reed’ about why he never seems to get drunk like everyone else even though he drinks as much, you start to think that maybe there’s a secret he has, or maybe this will bring up some discussion later around the peer pressures of drinking in relation to football players and the team culture they have, but it doesn’t, the writer just doesn’t take us there.

There are some great scenes including karaoke scenes, a well-acted bus scene, a hilarious flirting scene over a pool table. There’s fights, nudity, lots of drinking and lots of can throwing. There really does appear to be 10,000 Beers, I kept thinking, where did they get all the cans from?

In the final 15 minutes of the show player ‘Len’ does a monologue about the other players demoralizing player ‘Toby’ in a hotel room. It’s as if at the last minute Broun wants to whack in something serious or important, why can’t he just write comedy for comedy’s sake? I think that Broun has tried too hard to create issues or drum up a controversial side to the play. He’s got a gift for writing sharp dialogue and creating characters that are like caricatures who live up to strong stereotypes which makes the play funny. That’s all he needs to do.

Photo: Brett Boardman.

Chatswood Musical Society’s production of RENT introduced me to the world of the mid 90’s drug addled, disease struck struggling avant-garde artists, in New York’s, Manhattan.

For a local, amateur group, CMS can boast a line up of great young talent including Hayden Barltop who played ‘Angel’, Barltop was extremely fitted for the part(s) and a duck to water in platform heels! Liam Whan played the lead role of ‘Roger’, image wise I didn’t think he really looked like a ‘struggling artist’ but vocally he was extremely on top of his game. The two strongest vocalists were Amy Toledano and Fiona Hamilton who play ‘Maureen’ and ‘Joanne’ respectively. These two women were the most professional and obviously have the broadest experience. Another superb vocalist who deserves a mention is ensemble artist Victoria Mahy who sings with the power of an African-American black soul singer, just a sensational vocal talent!

The choreography needs work, the movement for the performers looked unnatural and didn’t seem to sync with this particular style of musical, however the band were great and pumped out the hit numbers including: ‘I Should Tell You’, ‘Seasons of Love’, ‘Take Me or Leave Me’, ‘Goodbye Love’. The band were well positioned on the set, tucked under the upper section, sometimes the music was sucked into the set rather than reaching the audience, but the musicians played really well led by Musical Director Steven Kreamer.

Matt Cater deserves credit for his direction of this production of RENT for Chatswood Musical Society, he has chosen a strong group of performers who deliver with energetic execution and thoroughly entertain audiences!

I never quite know what a show at Sidetrack is going to serve up, I’ve been to various performances there and sometimes I enjoy them and sometimes I find myself containing and squashing internal yawns.

Luckily for me, John and Jen was one of those shows you just engage with and enjoy from beginning to end. The story takes us on a ride of emotions as we follow the lives of a brother and sister. The story is deeply focused on the sister, Jen and the bond she has with her younger brother, John. John goes off to fight, presumably in Vietnam, he get’s killed and Jen never quite recovers. She carries this desperate loss right through to when she has her own son and calls him John. It’s a beautiful piece about loss, relationships and regrets but it’s not mellow and dark, it has a delightful lightness and fullness to it which is quite heart warming and optimistic.

Naomi Livingston plays Jen and she is absolutely suited to the part, she is able to generate emotions ranging from loss and sadness to funny and jolly. Edward Grey fitted the part of John (both Johns) like a glove, not only could he play the younger brother who starts out at 7 years old believably but he could also embody the part of a brother who grows up and goes to war and then as a son to Jen. He is able to diversify himself when he is actually playing to the same character Jen who stays the same in a linear sense throughout the story. The voices of Linvingston and Grey just gel beautifully.

The band is visible onstage and they are excellent, I really thought they should’ve bowed at the end, as the show wouldn’t be possible without them. The set is minimal and somewhat strange and resembles different environments throughout the show. The actors pivot the wooden structure around in a circle and stand on it to create different levels. It’s very well utilised and the director has used it well, I just wasn’t a real fan of it.

Performances of this quality should get more airplay,  I recommend you get yourself there!

I started out as a Glee virgin and now I’m a Glee fan. How did this happen? In about 90 minutes.

I ventured along with my friend to the The Glee 3D Concert Movie at the Event Cinemas on George St. A crowd of eager teens and young adults were waiting to see the concert featuring the stars from the hit TV show. How could I have missed this phenomenon? Maybe I’m just getting old…

To get us in the mood for the night there were cheerleaders and dancers on the way in and we were offered everything from choc tops, lindt balls, glow sticks and popcorn. Once sat down a guy in the audience stood up and started singing the opening lines from ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey which seems to be a real theme song for this whole Glee thing, then all these dancers appeared down the front underneath the cinema screen and danced along to the song. I found this was all rather amusing and I was wondering how this concert was going to pan out but my inner cringing turned to outward grinning…

The concert was just so much fun! It really was just pure, positive clean fun! I felt like I was back in my mid teens watching a Spice Girls concert! This was like S Club 7 for a new era! It was honestly an absolute hoot! Glee as most people will be aware is a hit TV show about a Glee Club and features a cast of talented guys and girls. The show has touched the hearts of millions across the globe and inspires people to “embrace their inner Gleek”. It’s all about being individual, no matter who you are or where you come from.

The concert movie features many favourites from the series (which I haven’t seen) but as most of the songs are covers I was happy either way! I was “glee-fully” humming along to Slave for You, Silly Love Songs, Born This Way, New York, Don’t Rain on My Parade and many many more! The cast including all the famous characters (who were all new to me) like Blaine, Rachel, Finn, Brittany, Artie and Quinn really are superb, they must have scoured every corner of the states to find these incredible dancers and singers and it truly is a feast of fun!

I suppose the only annoying part of the concert movie was the spliced excerpts from Glee tragics. These fans really take Glee mania to another level, to them Glee is almost like visiting a therapist. The love for Glee and its characters are like some sort of religion that allows these people to feel at ease with their lives and allows them to ‘fit in’ with society through what they’ve learnt and felt from the characters stories in the show…I just hope they fully realize…that, umm, Glee and the characters are…fictional! Anyway, if it helps them on their journey then go them!

I absolutely recommend you check this movie out if you want a fun, sing along night out. It’s completely G-Rated and just so positive and uplifting you can’t really go wrong. It’s honestly just a bunch of young people having a jolly old time! Some people may find it’s more cheese and less glee but if you don’t take it too seriously and remind yourself of just how much fun it is to sing and dance, you’ll have a lot of fun with Glee 3D

GLEE 3D is out today in selected cinemas!

What were your thoughts? Are you a Glee fan?

Knowing how to interview people is really important. The online world is becoming way more video centric so it’s really important to be incorporating interviews onto your website or social networks. In this video Emma discusses 3 key elements to think about when interviewing talent.

Choreographically, the dancers seem to conceive their movements from their torsos as if this is where the movement starts and the result is that their limbs then move as a result of their body rolling and pulsing. Their limbs become flicky and floppy as the movement is coming from a central source.

All the dancers are dressed in tight, black non-descript costumes and look very similar and very androgynous.

Godani has the dancers perform solo, duo, trio and as a group of seven. Between each ‘scene’ there is often quite a harsh lighting change to enhance the following dance segment.

This whole work is intense with deep movements into the ground and lots of floor work. The bodies are like liquid – almost like oil. They wrap around each other, smoothly envelope the space and coil like snakes trying to get out of their own skin.

Raw Models is accompanied by an edgy musical score by German composers 48Nord. As described in the program they deliver ‘experimental electro acoustic music.’ It is very cool and complements the haunting mood of the dance work.

Act II is an amazing work by Rafael Bonachela. LandForms, encompasses the spirit of dance accompanied by outstanding musicians and the beauty of song. Bonachela says this piece was ‘inspired by our emotional responses to the landscape and set to a score inspired by the weather elements.’

The dancers bask in warm, golden tones of lighting which provides a richness and divinity to the overall look. The musicians headed up by pianist Ezio Bosso and accompanied by a cellist and violinist are just so good you actually find yourself watching them almost as much as the dancers! The music builds and the players have such passion, it’s truly sensational. The dancers and the musicians work so well together it’s as if the dancers are like instruments too or the musicians are part of the dance – they’re so in sync and you can sense an energy or a chemistry coming from all artists.

The choreography is earthy, open, fluid and grand. There are some beautiful highlights including one section, which is visually very effective. Squares of light beam onto the stage, creating a checkerboard or tile effect and the dancers move in the squares.

Once Katie Noonan starts singing you’re really drawn to watch her. Her voice is truly mesmerising – the timbre of her voice is so haunting, almost spiritual – it takes you to another realm.
LandForms all weaves together at the end – dancers, musicians, Noonan’s voice and then! – it starts to rain onstage – such a picturesque moment. This is an extraordinary collaborative piece where the synergistic blending of dance, song and music create something above and beyond the elements that create it. Bonachela should be grandly commended for this stand-out work.

THE MUSIC OF ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER playing in Sydney and then Canberra before heading overseas serves up an extraordinary array of songs from all the classics like Cats, Phantom of the Opera, Jesus Chris Superstar, Sunset Boulevard and Evita.

The show also includes songs from some of the not so well known shows like Tell Me on a Sunday, The Woman in White and Love Never Dies which is currently playing in Melbourne. Lloyd Webber’s music touches your heart and the lyrics whisk you away to a land of love and fantasy.

The eight singers taking the stage at the lyric are: Blake Bowden, Alinta Chidzey, Andrew Conaghan, Michael Cormick, Trisha Crowe, Delia Hannah, Kirsten Hobbs and Shaun Rennie. For me the stand out was Alinta Chidzey, she absolutely shines, especially when she sings the beautiful ballad ‘I Don’t Know How to Love Him’ from Jesus Christ Superstar.

The set consisted of three gigantic screens displaying either a mood-enhancing scene or the name of the musical. At times, even the man himself, Sir Lloyd Webber would be beamed onto the screen, sharing insights into what it’s like being him and how his shows have remained loved the world over even after all these years.

It was a highly enjoyable evening, taking us on a great journey and reminding us of the sheer enormity of his repertoire. If you love Webber’s wonderful music, be sure to head a long to this sensational night of song.

Verity Hunt-Ballard plays the prim and proper, ever so ‘spit-spot’ Mary Poppins, what an absolute knock out performance from Hunt-Ballard. So many people have grown up absolutely adoring the movie-musical led by Julie Andrews, the pressure to perform this part and rise to the expectations of the audience would be a weight on anyone’s shoulders, Hunt-Ballard has it, she absolutely carries us with her on the journey as Mary Poppins.

I remember back in 2005 I saw this show on the West End, Mary Poppins was played by Laura Michelle Kelly and I recall being somewhat put out that she wasn’t Julie Andrews and in my head I wanted someone to be just like Miss Andrews, however with Hunt-Ballard you don’t even think of the movie, she just transports you into her world and really becomes Mary Poppins.

Jane and Michael, the child characters were performed superbly by Ashleigh Ross and Cameron Holmes respectively, these kids clearly had their characters and dance and singing numbers down pat.

Other famous musical faces include Matt Lee who plays Bert, Marina Prior who plays a very convincing Winifred Banks, The Birdwoman (who sings Feed the Birds) is played by Debra Byrne and Judi Connelli who plays a minor but powerful role as Miss Andrew.

Act I is definitely superior to Act II mainly because it includes the famous songs you’re waiting to see. It moves quickly, the story is engaging and you’re really carried on the journey. The stand out song for me in Act I was Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, set in Mrs Corry’s shop, Mrs Corry played by Leah Howard is an engaging, energetic all-in-orange, larger-than-life character which reminded me a bit of the character of ‘Killer Queen’ in the musical We Will Rock You’. An absolute stand out moment is as the song speeds up the sharp, staccato choreography speeds up and the whole number just accelerates, then it switches from being in the set of Mrs Corry’s shop to having a curtain come down, footlights on and the word Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious projected onto the curtain, they continue the song and dance in real vaudeville style – I loved it!

Thinking back to the film, you may recall when Mary and the children meet Bert they jump into a painting and are transported into the world of the painting, of course being onstage this is difficult to do, so the park transforms into the painting, however there were some ‘statues’ which then proceed to magically ‘come alive’ and do ballet and I would’ve preferred it if they didn’t. There were too many pas de chats and not enough stretched feet. I was not overly amused with these statues and rather surprised that the level of balletic ability was not higher.

The magical elements of this musical are captured in songs like A Spoonful of Sugar set in the kitchen after the cook has left and the children and the servant end up crashing and smashing things by accident, Mary Poppins comes in and magically puts everything back in it’s place. The set is cleverly mastered so the elements of magic are possible.

The most magical part and the moment when all the children in the audience will be wide eyed and mouthed ‘like a codfish’ is right at the end. I wont spoil it, but it’s very impressive and someone told me after ‘that was my favourite part’, you’ll have to just get yourself a ticket to find out what all the fuss is about, before the wind changes.