MICF: Trygve Wakenshaw

Nautilus
Trygve Wakenshaw
29 March 2015
The Tuxedo Cat
to 19 April
comedyfestival.com.au

Trygve Wakenshaw

Trygve Wakenshaw is another performer whom I've heard nothing but great about, and I wasn't going to miss him this year.

He's from New Zealand and now lives in London. He was nominated for a Barry and a Golden Gibbo Award at last year's Comedy Festival and has brought us a new show called Nautilus.

It's still a work in progress (maybe), so changes to suit each audience. When I went, it was a bit too long and needed a tighten, but this didn't make it any less impossible to stop watching. It made me really want to see his other shows and anything else he does.

Wakenshaw's a physical comedian. Ok, he's a mime. And if the M word leaves you with show-trauma memories that you don't want to re-live, he'll banish them and leave you wanting an I HEART MIME sticker.

Dressed in pink, ribbed, high-waist leggings and a green jumper with added white tassells, he opens the show sinking into a black plastic bin; the line between genius and WTAF is slim.

There isn't a narrative, but there are stories about fish and sea critters, one about the massive logic gap in Rapunzel, and some that leave the audiences looking away from the grossness that isn't there. And it's all tied together with a character who becomes more intriguingly irresistible with each voiceless moment.

A long row of star fish: the nice ones, not the ones eating the Great Barrier Reef.

PS:  Trig-vee (thank you his website)

There's a version of this on aussietheatre.com.au.

MICF: Dr Professor Neal Portenza

Catchy Show Title
Dr. Professor Neal Portenza
3 April 2015
Melbourne Town Hall, Backstage Room
to 19 April
comedyfestival.com.au

Dr Professor Neal Portenza

I love Dr Professor Neal Portenza.

Not in a stalky way or anything like that.

But then who can resist a man whose badly-applied blush is the same 1950s-lipstick-red as his beret?

And I love Maria and Vanessa – and even Stavros.

Joshua Ladgrove does character comedy. He does a way-cool Jesus, but it's Dr Professor Neal Portenza who deserves his own chocolate festival.

It's hard to describe a Dr Professor Neal show, and description could scare people away.

It is likely you will be scared in a Dr Professor Neal show, or at least feel a bit nervy – so get a free hug at the beginning. But remember how brilliant it feels when you've confronted your fears, like your fears about performers leaving the stage. And ask the FOH staff for your fashion bracelet because, even though it's beautiful, you will want it to throw it away at some stage.

While the old school stand-ups are dribbling out the same jokes we've heard for ever, Dr Professor Neal and co are part of a generation of performers who are embracing everything about clowning and turning it into something that's contemporary and exciting and completely their own.

One star: one fucking exploding supernova star.

There's a version of this on aussietheatre.com.au.

MICF: WOMANz

WOMANz

Tessa Waters

28 March 2015

Melbourne Town Hall, Lunch Room

to 19 April

comedyfestival.com.au

WOMANz

The MICF bar was high and tingly when WOMANz grabbed my tits and gave me a snog. That's one way to get a good review, but being amazingly awesome helps as well.

Tessa Waters is WOMANz. After wow-ing the Edinburgh Fringe, she won Most Outstanding Comedy at the 2014 Melbourne Fringe and has been exciting people at festivals all over the country in 2015.

In a bedazzzled body suit and black tights that understand that big hair means having big hair everywhere (she talks about it; many of us bonded), she's part Oestrogen Goddess but more a woman who knows herself and knows that her self was meant to dance.

She dances when she feels happy, confused, sexy or just over it. If you want to understand what "dance like no one is watching" really means, see WOMANz. And if you're not crumping by the end, it's because you cracked a rib laughing.

Waters's combination of character, clown and physical theatre says more about gender and self-acceptance than the feminist section in Readings. Blending madcap with sophistication, it's comedy that makes feeling positive about yourself the only way to feel.

As many stars as sequins on her ART pants.

There's a version of this on aussietheatre.com.au.

MICF: Fake It 'Til You Make It

Fake it 'Til You Make It
Bryony Kimmings and Tim Grayburn & Theatre Works
19 March 2015
Theatre Works
5 April
theatreworks.org.au

Tim Grayburn & Bryony Kimmings

While, I'm writing about Hannah Gadsby's mis-diagnosis of depression, it's impossible not to talk about Tim Grayburn's diagnosis of clinical depression and the astonishing Fake It 'Til You Make It that finishes at Theatre Works on Sunday.

It's been difficult to get a seat for this one because the consistent raves about its Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth seasons have been consistent raves.

So I'm not writing a review of the production. Please read all the others, starting with Jane Howard's in The Guardian.

Melbourne's indie arts scene fell in love with Kimmings last year when she brought us Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model (my favourite show of 2014) and Sex Idiot (my favourite audience participation of any show).

In her performance art, she shares her life and experiences to make connections with people who have had similar experiences. You don't see one of her shows and leave thinking about Bryony, you leave thinking about yourself. This is what makes her work so powerful.

She made Fake It 'Til You Make It with her partner Tim Grayburn. He's wasn't a performance artist or any type of performer but quit his job in marketing to make this show with Bryony, which premiered at the Perth Fringe earlier this year.

It's about their falling in soppy get-a-room love, her finding out about his illness, what they did next, and how they continue to deal with being in love and everything that goes with it.

I didn't write about the show because I didn't know where to start. I knew/know too many people with diagnosed and undiagnosed depression who suicided or have thought of suiciding.

I also know people who found the help they needed and have helped others.

I've also seen a lot of work about depression. Why this one should be compulsory is because it makes the connection between this illness – this common and treatable illness – and how it makes the person think about death.

Like a symptom of the common cold is a cough, a symptom of clinical depression is thoughts of death. It's what this illness does to brains and, like a cough, it can be treated.

I have a friend who when he was really sick, made sure that his partner had the keys to the box where his medication was locked away. This person loved their life and knew that their illness made them think about death. He found a way to create time when those thoughts came; time that made acting on those thoughts very difficult and enough time to deal with the symptoms.

If Fake It 'Til You Make It can make even one person make the connection between depression and thoughts of death, between illness and symptom, maybe they will also get the time they need.

It finishes on Sunday and there are still tickets available, especially for Saturday.

MICF: Avenue Q

Avenue Q

Trifle Theatre Company

28 March 2015

Chapel off Chapel

to 11 April

comedyfestival.com.au

Trifle Theatre Company

Avenue Q is Trifle Theatre Company's first show. It's already sold out, so it sucks to be you if you didn't book a ticket.

There's not much left to say when there are no seats left, except to hold on tight to your tickets, know that you made the right choice and be excited for independent music theatre in Melbourne.

Avenue Q won the Tony for Best Musical in 2004. By Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx and Jeff Whitty, it's set on a Sesame Street–like street in New York, but the muppet-like rod and hand puppets have their performers visible, and songs like "The Internet is for Porn", "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" and "I'm not Wearing Underwear Today" ensure that it's not for pre-schoolers.

A lot of the jokes are caught back in the early noughties when the internet at home was new and Gary Coleman (What-you-talking-about-Willis?) was still alive (he's a character in the show) but missing the odd reference doesn't make it any less wonderfully funny or delightfully filthy.

The secret to Avenue Q is tone. It has to be as intimate, innocent and loving as Sesame Street and as filthy as the porn that Trekkie Monster loves so much. Director Stephen Wheat and the cast nail it.

The closeness of being in the small Chapel off Chapel theatre leaves little to the imagination, so puppets and performers (including Jordan Pollard, Zuleika Khan, Leah Lim, Michael Lindner, Kathleen Amarant, Brett Fisher, Imogen Moore and Jeff van de Zandt) can add the subtle or obvious that makes the sexy more sexy and the slutty more wonderful – as they let us know that there is no where else they would rather be than on that stage and ensure that it's impossible not to fall in love with everyone: furry, fluffy or smooth.

Produced by Sarah Golding (who also plays Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut) and Andy McDougall (who made the brilliant puppets and plays Nicky and Trekkie Monster), this new company, while running as a co-op, are hoping to develop an indie theatre that can pay equity wages. With such a successful first production, they may well be a company that sticks around and shows some of the commercial shows what great music theatre should be.

Let's hope for a return season because they deserve it and everyone who missed out deserves to see it.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

MICF: Hannah Gadsby, Donkey

Donkey
Hannah Gadsby
a Token Event
29 March 2015
Melbourne Town Hall, Supper Room
to 19 April
comedyfestival.com.au

Hannah Gadsby

A few days after seeing Hannah Gadsby's Donkey, I'm still thinking about it. The dishes that I didn't do before going out to see her are still there, and I'm still in awe of how she finds the spot where wanting to cry becomes needing to laugh so deeply that it makes you feels better about something you hate about yourself.

When I first saw Hannah, she was doing palindrome jokes about her brother Kayak and showing us where she lived on her map of Tasmania – I loved her. Over time, her work has become more personal and she's told stories that have reached the hearts of everyone who sees her.

She says at the beginning of Donkey that's she's always amazed to see a room full of people wanting to see her. People want to see her because she lets us share her experiences and discover that no matter how different we are, that we have far more in common then we ever thought.

For me, it was the dishes. Today, I'm writing rather than doing them. I WILL do them at the end of this review. I have a plan. I have done them in the last 19 days (Hannah's record) but I know I've gone longer. And it was the last-minute panic-cum-do-something-fundamentally-useless-and-time-consuming before catching a plane. Hannah once decided to pair her socks up rather than pack. I recently spent a couple hours trying to fix my printer when I didn't need to print anything because all the details were on my phone. The printer's still not fixed and I paid for extra baggage rather than pack properly.

The donkey in her show is Hannah. It starts when she hates the barista at her nearest coffee shop. She keeps going because it's the nearest. He's the type of person who, she knows, thinks he's better than she is. He's a dressage horse, she's a donkey. It's about feeling so out-of-step with the rest of the world that it's easier to stay inside with mounting dishes. And it's about her finding out that her diagnosis of depression was wrong.

So was mine. The symptoms of depression are broad but specific. If you have the broad symptoms, please have a professional check the specific.

It's also a show about winning and getting things right and knowing that of course a unicorn will love a donkey, because donkies are gorgeous and loving and so much more fun than a smarmy horse.

All of this is rolled up into a tightly written, beautifully structured piece that lets stage Hannah bring enough of real Hannah with her and leave them both safe and loved.

Hannah Gadsby is simply one of the best stand-up comedians around.

Now I'm going to go and do some dishes.

There's also a version of this on aussietheatre.com.au.

MICF: Bucket's List THIS HAPPENED

Bucket's List
to 5 April
comedyfestival.com.au

In 2010 Justin Kennedy and Sarah Collins got engaged on stage during run of their MICF show Donna and Damo.

They went on to make Bucket's List that premiered at the last year's Melbourne Fringe.

I loved it and saw it twice.

It's since been to New Zealand and is enjoying a return season at the Northcote Town Hall for MICF until Sunday.

But there's someone who hasn't seen it.

Sarah Collins was inspired to write Bucket's List when she met this guy when she was the photographer at a wedding (Love Katie + Sarah). Although new to the work, he wasn't the usual 20ish wedding DJ and his day job was a bucket salesman. He said that being a DJ was his dream job and when his wife saw an add for wedding DJs on Seek, she said that he should apply. He did.

All Sarah had was this photo that she took at the wedding and she's been trying to find him.

This happened on Tuesday night.

(Sorry you have to click to Facebook, but Facebook isn't playing nice with embed code and Sarah's internet isn't letting it upload to YouTube and technology is failing us.)


PS: in the background is the other wonder that Sarah and Justin's made last year and she's clearly trying to steal the attention.

Review: Endgame

Endgame
MTC
26 March 2015
The Sumner
to 25 April
mtc.com.au

Julie Forsyth & Rhys McConnochie. Photo by Jeff Busby

There's a double page in the program for the MTC's Endgame titled "explantion". It's about modernism, Absurdism and finding meaning in Samuel Beckett's writing. It's great for post-show conversations but it doesn't talk about the possibility of losing yourself in Beckett's world and not giving a toss about meaning.

For me, the joy of a Beckett stage is being lost in a WTF time and space with people for whom this is every day. There's a rhythm – a music – to his writing that moves his audiences through the text without having to stop to understand and interpret. This rhythm is easy to see in a script and it's a loss to anyone who doesn't let it beat on the stage.

The Endgame world is described as "grey light". Here Clov (Luke Mullins), who can't sit, is servant to Hamm (Colin Friels), who can't walk or see, and spends every day in a chair in the centre of the space. To his right are two large cans or bins where Nagg (Rhys McConnochie) and Nell (Julie Forsyth), Hamm's parents who have no legs, live. They talk about death and endings while knowing that the inevitable release may be too far away to offer much hope.

But it's not bleak, and being free to laugh is what makes it light and fun.

The essential grey light is created by designer Callum Mortum and lighting designer Paul Jackson (and not forgetting Eugyeene Teh's costumes). There's a literal fourth wall of grey cement slabs that disappears in the opening of perfect black out (and may those who chose that moment to deal with their phones, get parking tickets before the week is out); there's nothing like velvet of pure dark to guide us into the unknown.

The bare world is a bunker made of concrete slabs, and, even as it asks questions and offers answers from future apocalypse to last century's wars, we never know why or how or when. The passing of a day is in the lighting that's only black and white. The changes are imperceptible until the grey is darker or a shadow has moved. As the night draws in, the stage looks like it's pulling away from the audience and could be turned off with the flick of a remote control.

Sam Strong directs a cast who know Beckett and, at their best, bring a complex understanding to their characters that lets the audience find that rhythm. Mullins and Forsyth especially find the humanity and loss in the subtext, while still letting Clov and Nell be clowns.

But there are moments of indulgence that makes it all about the actors. This breaks the rhythm and takes us back to looking for an explanation rather being happily lost in the pulse of grey light.

This was on AussieTheatre.com

Review: Walking With Dinosaurs

Walking With Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular
Global Creatures in association with BBC Worldwide
25 March 2015
Hisense Arena
to 29 March
dinosaurlive.com

Stegosaurus 

The late William May told me that the idea for Walking With Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular came to him when he stopped hsi car to watch cranes working at Docklands at night. He saw dinosaurs and knew that the technology existed that could make something as close to a real dinosaur as we can get, or, as he often said, he saw "wonderment".

His dinosaurs are back in Melbourne for a four-night visit. First seen in 2007, it was developed in Melbourne (in conjunction with the BBC who made the tv series it's based on) by the company that become Global Creatures and has travelled to the USA, Europe and Asia and been seen by well over seven million people.

The puppetry and animatronics (design team led by Sonny Tilders) haven't aged and are still remarkable. With hand-painted skins and suspension that bounces like it's alive, the life-size giant dinosaurs are breathtaking. It's like seeing dinosaurs! Well, as close as we can ever imagine them. And who doesn't want to see that?

Its narrative is no where near as complex as a paleontologist in a Driza-bone talks about fossils and evolution with a few jokes older than the dinosaurs. But he makes the evolutionary connection to birds – not reptiles – and even though humans weren't even close to evolving when dinosaurs were about, the constant reminder of scale adds to the magnificence of the creatures.

Global Creatures have since produced How To Train Your  Dragon: The Arena Spectacular, King Kong and Strictly Ballroom. All have all been technically spectacular, financially popular, and critically unpopular for relying on spectacle. Walking With Dinosaurs could be so much more but millions have people have seen it because of the spectacle and feeling the wonderment.

PS. Head to your favourite last-minute ticket site for much more affordable tickets.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

Ten tips to get a Comedy Festival review

Or, How to make an arts writer read your email and say "Yes!"

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival starts on 25 March.

For arts writers, this means that we get more emails and messages than usual. Some won’t be read.

This festival, there are 559 shows wanting reviews. That’s 558 shows that your approach has to be better than.

Most review publications use the official festival media request form because it’s easier than making individual requests. (It’s by no means easy for the festival publicists, whom you should always be lovely to because they are awesome and put up with arts writers when we're difficult, tired or ditzy.)

BUT that doesn’t mean that your email – whether you're using a professional publicist or doing your own publicity – won't get a result.

1. Make it personal

“Dear reviewer” or “Hey guys” says, “I have no idea who you are and don’t read anything you write”. If you don’t know the name of the person you’re contacting, are you sure you want them to come?

Sending cut-and-paste individual emails isn’t much better. I’ve received emails asking me to review for publications I don’t write for and ones where my name has changed during the email.

And if you don’t know the person you’re writing to, introduce yourself.

2. Know what you want

Do you want your email to result in an interview, a listing, a review, an opinion piece, a news story, a ticket giveaway, an audition notice …

Tell the writer what you want.
And don’t ask for something that they don't do.

I’ve had complaints that I wasn't at shows I was “invited” to. Sending a media release with no other information is NOT an invitation.

3. Write a good subject line

Don’t write a witty or an obscure subject line, write a good one. A good subject line makes it easy to know what you want (and easy to search for when we need to check something).

For example:

Invitation: Name of show
Review/interview/listing request: Name of show
Reminder: Name of show (I appreciate reminder emails.)
Follow up: Name of show
Images: Name of show (the next ten tips will be all about images)

Media release: Name of show? – see point 2

4. Put the information in the body of the email

A beautifully designed pdf is cool, but make sure that the vital info is also in the body of the email. Opening an attachment takes time, is annoying to do on a phone and is one more excuse to move onto the next message.

Plain text also makes it easier to cut and paste so that names are spelt right.

5. Check spelling and grammar

This festival, I want to read ONE – really, just one – email or media release that has been proofread.

Writers do judge you by your ability to use an apostrophe.

6. Do your research

Read the writer and the publication. What do they like seeing and writing about? Do they interview? Do they review? Who else do they write for?

And check if the writer had reviewed the show/artist before. I’ve had invitations to review shows I’ve already seen – and not liked. Google really is your best friend.

7. Who, what, when, where

If the name, time, date and place of the show aren’t on your message, media release, invitation, web page, flyer and everything else about your show, don’t be upset if people don’t turn up.

8. Find the magic time

There’s a time that’s not too early or too late to make contact. It differs for everyone. For me, it’s four to five weeks from opening. Too late and I'm booked up, too early and I'm not ready to commit.

Some writers, especially those with mainstream publications, need longer, but a last-minute request can work, especially during a festival.

The secret to finding the magic time: ask the writer.

9. Follow up

A follow-up email is a great idea.
A second follow-up can work.
A third is a waste of time.

10. Be nice

558 other festival shows want reviews. As do the all the other shows on during March and April. Arts writers love seeing your shows (it’s why we do this, after all) and try to see as many as possible.

But this means that not everything will get a review.

This can be a kindness, or it can be because their brains imploded, the extra day in the week doesn't exist (it takes time to write reviews), they're sick or there wasn’t room to publish.

Never assume the worst, don’t get shitty and be happy with a tweet. And remember that a lot of word-of-mouth really is word-of-mouth.

Review: Sweet Charity

Sweet Charity
Luckiest Productions, Neil Gooding Productions, Tinderbox Productions, Arts Centre Melbourne
26 February 2015
The Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne
to 7 March
artscentremelbourne.com.au

Verity Hunt-Ballard and cast. Sweet Charity. Photo by Jeff Busby.

"There's gotta be something better than this." I don't think so.

This time last year, new independent company Hayes Theatre took over an old 110-seat theatre in Potts Point in Sydney and opened with a small-scale production of the Sweet Charity. This 1966 Broadway musical was directed by Bob Fosse and starred Gwen Verdon, and was made into a movie in 1969 that was directed by Fosse and starred Shirley Maclaine. It wasn't surprising that the small venue show sold out but it caused a stir when it was nominated for and won some Helpmann Awards (that don't cover indies). Its return season was at the Opera House in Sydney and it opened for a too-short season in Melbourne last night.

If you're choosing between the musicals on in Melbourne over the next couple of weeks, this is the choice. With a small cast (12), small band (four) and relatively-tiny budget, it packs more punch than the biggest shows on in town and reminds how musical theatre can and should grab you in the guts and make you forget everything except what's on the stage.

Director Dean Bryant, music director Andrew Worboys, choreographer Andrew Hallsworth, and designers Tim Chappel (costume), Owen Phillips (set) and Ross Graham (lights) prove that great musicals can be made without the spectacle and money that dominate commercial shows. Start and end with story and character and you've got a show.

In 1960s New York, Charity Hope Valentine works in dance hall and charges for her body and time but gives her heart away too easily.

The choreography and direction is part-tribute to Fosse's distinct style but is never lost to the memory of past productions, and the late-1960s story is told very much from the perspective of now that and put all hope in Charity getting herself a man.

Verity Hunt-Ballard is Charity. She's amazing. She makes Charity's unselfconsciousness seem natural, while letting her be vulnerable and hopeful underneath the tough-innocent shell that lets her pretend that she can see a way out of the world that isn't going to give her a chance to be more than a cheap dance-hall girl.

Supporting her all the way are Deborah Krisak, Kate Cole, Martin Crewes and an ensemble who always put character first.

The bonus is that every number, including the well-known "Big Spender", "If My Friends Could See Me Now" and "The Rhythm of Life", continues the story on the stage and brings an originality that lets each song stand alone and tell its own story.

The show has been tweaked for bigger theatre but it's still best to be close to really appreciate the performances. I moved from see everything to closer seats in interval and it was a different show.

Sadly Sweet Charity only has a two-week season. I'd love to go again, but that'd mean someone else misses out.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

Review: What Rhymes with Cars & Girls

What Rhymes with Cars & Girls
Melbourne Theatre Company
21 February 2015
Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne
to 28 March 2015
mtc.com.au

What Rhymes with Cars & Girls. MTC

What Rhymes with Cars & Girls was Tim (You Am I) Rodgers's first solo album in 1999. Aidan Fennessy loved it so much that he wrote narrative to sit between the tracks and be told on a stage. The result has the same listenable swagger as Rogers's songs and is as easy to enjoy as a Sunday afternoon in a cool beer garden with friends and hot chips.

Aidan Fennessy's characters tell their story directly to the audience and re-inact the moments that changed their paths. He evokes inner-west and outer-north Sydney perfectly as 28-year-olds Johnny Carr (Johnno) and Sophie Ross (Tash) are plucked from their under-the-flight-path and harbour/ocean-view-mansion worlds to sit in a Morten Bay Fig tree as lovers who cross Sydney's harbour and class divide. They talk about class a lot.

The metaphor-filled script shines with images like the Hills Hoist as apocalypse maypole, but is so over worked that instead of unexpected sparkles, the writing reminds that it's memorised words rather than a story to get lost in.

This is mostly overcome as Clare Watson's direction lets the warm and loving performances from Carr and Ross be more than a love letter to Rogers, and the split-level recording-studio design by Andrew Bailey (and Kate Davis's character-defining costumes) makes the presence of the band feel natural, while offering a future world for the couple.

And with Rogers, now in his mid-40s, and band (Xani Kolec from the Twoks and Ben Franz) on stage (they play, the characters sing), it's easy to feel the love for Rogers and equally as easy to send a little more his way.

I don't know how well it would work without the presence of Rogers. It's a sweet, if obvious, story and beautifully realised, but it's a bit wobbly to stand alone. Which is moot because Rogers ain't going anywhere and his old, and new, fans will love this version of the album.

This was on AussieTheatre.com

Review: Sexercise

Sexercise
Aleksander Vass & Malcolm C Cooke
27 February 2015
Alex Theatre
to 29 March
sexercisethemusical.com

Lyall Brooks, Nicole Milloy, Fem Belling. Sexercise

Sexercise could be a ripper of a show if it toned up and got rid of the flab.

Sexercise is a new Australian musical. Yay. It's opening in a great new theatre venue, the Alex Theatre in St Kilda (used to be the George cinema). Yay. But putting on a show at this stage of its development. Boo.

30-somethings Sam (Nicole Melloy) and Joe (Lyall Brooks) are married with a child are finding more time for exercising with their bffs (LuLu McClatchy, Cameron McDonald, Kristin Holland) than for each other or for sex. Their couple's counsellor (Fem Belling) suggests they try "Sexercise", which "loses" more calories than yoga. It does, and they get fit enough to set the iPad to record.

The super-brilliant cast make this show work. Each one bring more than the script and music offer and each deserve more than they're given. See it to see these six give everything they have to make the show work.

There's so much this story could explore: the demise of sex in long-term relationships, the impossible quest of body perfection, how porn affects perceptions of bodies and sex, forgiveness and understanding when someone really fucks up... But it's mostly easy jokes that everyone is thinking before they happen.

Great comedy relies on a core of great drama – make those stakes high, give them impossible choices, make them fail.  Sexercise fails with the too-obvious comedy and the never-really-care drama.

But there is something there that could be hilarious, shocking and real. Not long before the interval, the couple sing "Is it over yet?", about feeling obliged to have sex, and the show finally begins. Everything we needed to know about that couple is in that song. It's funny and honest – who hasn't been there! – and everything before is unnecessary back story. Act 2 is much better because things happen. They are still predictable and make serious issues trivial, but there's story and problems to be solved.

Successful and popular shows develop and grow. This is at workshop stage, not expensive ticket stage. At least cut the songs where the audience don't clap. But keep the McClatchy's "Vagina or penis" song; it's numbers like this that show how cool Sexercise could be.

And then there's the LED-screen design stolen from a 1995 screen saver and the Big-W-sales-rack costumes; Belling's baggy beige pantsuit is the highlight of costumes try for joke rather than reflecting character.

I really hope that this isn't the end of Sexercise. But it's still at kissing and downstairs outside grope stage of sex and not ready to move on.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.