Category: Theatre
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Switzerland (Ensemble Theatre) ★★★½
I can’t imagine the team at Ensemble Theatre knew that Netflix would drop its long anticipated ‘Ripley’, a new adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s ‘The Talented Mr Ripley’ at the same time as they had programmed Joanna Murray-Smith’s play Switzerland but synchronicity is a wonderful thing.
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Parade (Seymour Centre) ★★★½
There is a timeliness to director Mark Taylor’s new rendition of Parade that the creative team could not have anticipated when this went into production.
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London: The Musicals
Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) ★★★★★ / Standing at the Sky’s Edge ★★★1/2 / Sister Act ★★★ / London Tide ★★1/2 I saw a bit of an odd-ball selection of musicals to be honest. Some were more experimental than others.
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London: The Plays (Part Two)
Long Day’s Journey Into Night ★★★ / For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy ★★★★★ / Remembrance Monday ★★★ / Spirited Away ★★★1/2 This kind of variety is why I love London.
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London: The Plays (Part One)
The Hills of California ★★★1/2 / Machinal ★★★★ / Minority Report ★★★ / People, Places and Things ★★★★★ I saw a wide variety of plays from big West End blockbusters to fringe two-handers. As always, more money and bigger names doesn’t always mean it’s a better show.
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London: The Cine-theatre
Stranger Things: The First Shadow ★★★★ / The Picture of Dorian Gray ★★★★★ / Opening Night ★★ / ABBA: Voyage ★★★★. The collision of technology and the stage is nothing new but across all the shows I saw in London, a few used the blend of cameras, screens and live performance better than others.
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The Emerald Room ★★★★
Does Sydney’s new cabaret/dining locale make us green with envy, or send us all “Hulk! Smash!”? Well it’s more “Hulk! Get Smashed!” as The Emerald Room serves dinner, drinks, drag and more.
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Tell Me on a Sunday (Hayes Theatre) ★★★½
Erin Clare is remarkable in Lloyd Webber’s rather unremarkable musical.
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The President (Sydney Theatre Co) ★★★★
Olwen Fouéré and Hugo Weaving star as fascists on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
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Olivier Awards 2024 Winners mini-reviews
I was lucky enough to catch some of the eventual Olivier Award 2024 winners when I was in London last year. I’m putting some of my mini reviews of the winners here. These were all written in 2023.
Cultural Binge 