Review: Cabaret

Cabaret
David M Hawkins
1 May 2017
The Athenaeum
to 27 May
cometothecabaret.com.au

David M Hawkins's production of Cabaret may be as pretty as Sally Bowles's green nail polish, but the only person who loved the green was Sally* and we know her manicure was cheap and chipped.

After a mixed reaction to the Sydney season (now referred to as the preview season), Hawkins brought in director Gale Edwards to sort out the Melbourne run. With Paul Capsis as the Emcee, Kate Fitzpatrick as Fraulein Schneider and Chelsea Gibb as Sally, hopes were high.

Based on a short story Christopher Isherwood wrote in Berlin in the 1930s, Cabaret is seen through the eyes of American Clifford Bradshaw who arrives in Berlin and meets English cabaret singer Sally. The stage version surprises those who expect the 1972 film adaption by Bob Fosse, but the different characters and songs are always a welcome surprise.

Set in and around the seedy Kit Kat Klub as the truth of the Nazi's power is being realised, any new Cabaret defines itself with its design. And while the stage design with a wooden floor with footlights suggests a trip to Weimar Berlin – and is gorgeously accentuated by the plush velvet and fading decadence of the nineteenth-century Athenaeum theatre – the costume design doesn't declare a time or place. Spotlessly clean and very sequinny (and, oddly, not sexy), they don't seem to have been developed from or for character and stress that the approaching hell, that we know this world is about to descend into, is a facade that's as authentic as a Cabaret-themed dinner party.

The likes of a giant Hitler mask, some slick swastikas and goose-stepping chorey (which might be trying to be a nod to Fosse) remove the strength of the work's moral ambiguity and the direction doesn't let the dramatic tension of the loss of hope lead the story.

The direction seems focussed on scenes rather than the bigger picture and story. Choices like bringing Cliff into Kit Kat Klub numbers take away his strength as the observer who can see that it's about to collapse and that he has to leave. Making Jewish shop keeper Herr Shultz the Jewish gorilla in "If you could see her" takes away any hope for his fate. And giving Sally an "I will listen" line in Frauline Schneider's "What would you do" diminishes the older woman's desperate plea to find any way to let herself marry and be happy – let alone that Sally's story is that she doesn't listen.

Capsis is, of course, the ideal choice as the Emcee, but his role on the stage is confusing. Neither benevolent or indulgent, he's left side stage as observer more than a participant. Gibb lets Sally's fear and vulnerability show but, like Capsis, is restricted by the production that doesn't seem to want to be more than pretty. I'd love to see them both – and the rest of the cast – in a different production.

And enough has already been said about the technical difficulties on opening night.

* and me; I still wear emerald green nail polish thanks to Liza.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

Review: West Side Story

West Side Story

The Production Company

11 July 2015

State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne

theproductioncompany.com.au

to 19 July

West Side Story. The Production Company. Sean Mulligan and Jets.

The Production Company was formed in Melbourne in 1999 by Jeanne Pratt AC. Still supported by individual and business sponsors, they present three short-run musicals a year with the ongoing goal to "provide professional opportunities for local artists and to entertain Melbourne audiences with the best shows from Broadway and beyond".  They usually sell out the State Theatre and chose to celebrate their 50th production with the show that changed how Broadway, and beyond, saw and made  music theatre: West Side Story.

.It's hard to imagine just how mind blowing West Side Story was when it opened on Broadway in 1957. An opening-night critic from the New York Herald Tribune said: "The radioactive fallout from West Side Story must still be descending on Broadway this morning." Here was a story about teenagers, gangs, back streets, sex, racism and violence. Its music was influenced by opera and its dance by ballet but it felt and looked like the streets it was set on. This was Broadway without grinning showgirls and high kicks. This was romance without a happy ending. This was a story about New York and about the real anger, pain and love that wasn't far from the comfy seats and flashing cameras of the opening night.

And it was created by Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents, Leonard Burnstein and Stephen Sondheim: artists who had no idea how loved they were to become.

This production is as close to that 1957 production as we can get, being based on Robbins's original direction and choreography that was re-created by Gale Edwards and Michael Ralph. Thanks to the 1961 film, its familiarity – I almost expected the audience to finger click along – is immediately welcomed and loved and it was pretty amazing to see just how wonderful the school dance scene looked like on a stage.

The cast ooze their love for this show. They know how important this piece is; most of them would have been singing and dancing along to the film for as long as they could remember. Even if their accents are a bit dodgy, they are all stunning and their dancing is an tribute to Robbins.

The vocal highlight is Anna O'Byrne's astonishing singing of Maria. On opening night, laryngitis left Deone Zanotto playing Anita karoke style with Amanda Harrison singing and Natalie Gilhome, the assistant director, providing the dialogue off stage. The theatre is big enough for most people to not really notice, but it does question why there weren't covers in the ensemble.

In all, the show was kind of like being there in 1957, except it's no longer mind-blowingly new. Even Tim Chappel's costumes, which capture the 50s and hint at the decades since with super-bright colour and nods to trends like acid wash jeans and ra-ra skirts, don't bring it out of its time.

The expectations, familiarity and determination to be 'that' West Side Story takes away its edge and doesn't let it find its own voice.

It's a story of racism and anger about immigration in a big city where young people are unemployed and first generation immigrants despise the next generation of immigrants because of where they came from. It could be our story. But it's not. While in 1950s and 60s it was a story of the city and world its creators lived in, this one is a piece of history.

Which is exactly what this company aim to do. And they do it well. Sold out theatres really don't care if anyone disagrees. I loved seeing it, but I'd love to see the next Australian telling of the extraordinary West Side Story as a show about us and now (like Barrie Kosky's re-told the piece as  Berlin's story at Komische Oper Berlin). I want to see one that blows our minds all over again.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

Review: Ghosts

Ghosts
MTC
22 May 2014
The Sumner
to 21 June
mtc.com.au

Photo by Jeff Busby

Overwrought and underwhelming, the MTC's Ghosts is as haunting as the Luna Park ghost train, but not as fun.

The 1880s critics generally despised Henrik Ibsen's play for being a pit of degenerate ickiness that dared to talk about nice middle class people knowing about syphilis, sex and incest.

Widowed 40-something Helene Alving (Linda Cropper) is thrilled to have her 20-something son, Oswald (Ben Pfeiffer), back home from Paris and is excited that her old crush, Pastor Manders (Philip Quast), is visiting to bless and open the orphanage she built in honour of her late husband. Meanwhile her maid, Regina (Pip Edwards), is leaning français to impress Oswald and Regina's dad, Jacob (Richard Piper), wants Regina to work at his new house for wandering seamen.

Gale Edwards's translation so simplifies (and Aussifies) the script that the seamen pun is a highlight in a tale that now states the obvious, explains it a bit more and yells it again. And it's directed by Edwards to focus on that translated script.

In performances described to me as "a bit shouty" (I said over played and under felt, but shouty is better), it relies on its words to tell the story. Words tell a story in a novel, on a stage they are the base to start from.

To find the emotional connection with the world and its characters, there has to be a belief and understanding on the stage that sex outside of a good-god sanctified marriage is unforgivable. Unless we can understand and feel that, all that's left is a "so what?". Even the final scene between breaking mother and broken son are close to dull because there was no relationship in the space between the actors.

At least Shaun Gurton's striking design of rain and fog creates some mood and sense of place with Paul Jackson's lighting.

Perhaps the 1880s critics might have liked it.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

The Rocky Horror Show

The Rocky Horror Show

Dainty Consolidated Entertainment, Ambassador Theatre Group 

18 September 2008

Word on the street was that iOTA is the best Frank N Furter ever. That’s some pretty big, stiletto, patent boots to fill. Last night Melbourne got to see if what all the fuss was about, as The Rocky Horror Show opened in the less-sunny capital.

Let me take you (if I may) back to 1980. The Time Warp was a contender on the Countdown Top Ten, with Ashes to Ashes as its main competition for the number one spot. It was close, but Richard O’Brien beat David Bowie. So that means it’s about 28 years since I discovered and fell in love with The Rocky Horror Show. I’ve seen many Franks since then. (I am too young to have seen Reg Livermore though.) Frank remains an original, intriguing and unforgettable character. When he’s played right, every member of the audience wants him; when he’s played wrong, he’s a boring and offensive parody. I expected a lot from iOTA, not only from hearsay about this performance, but because his original music is rarely off my iPOD play lists.  Did he live up to expectation, comparison and hope?

Oh, yes! iOTA is a goddam super star. It’s hard to describe the difference between a very good performer and a great one, until you see one of the greats. iOTA is one of the great ones. He doesn’t perform Frank – he is Frank.  He owns the room and no matter how amazing the rest of the cast are, they almost pale in comparison.

This cast is indeed fabulous. The ensemble is as tight as a corset and their skill, talent, dedication and enthusiasm are undeniable. But has Gale Edwards directed a great production?

This Rocky plays with the rhythm and melody of the music, the design has been described as a bit too ‘Bratz dolls’, and the characterisations are slightly different from the well-known expectations. I didn’t like all of the choices, but this production offers something new and reveals unexpected and original moments, like the "Don’t Dream It" cock chariot that is simply going to be adored or hated.

However, to get an opinion different from my own, I went with a friend who had never seen a Rocky (not even the film). He didn’t get what the fuss was about and said that he had no idea why the audience where whooping and cheering. After some intense questioning, he admitted that he didn’t understand what was going on.

From the biggest arena to the tiniest theatre, success comes down to understanding the characters and following their journey. The Rocky Horror Show is a surprising and original story about unique characters who all grow, act and change. This production relies heavily on an assumption that the audience knows what’s going on. The rushed first act doesn’t allow time to create or discover an empathy with or understanding of the brilliant characters.

After some thought, my friend also said, “It’s like watching a technically amazing band performing covers. You can’t fault it, but it just doesn’t feel right.”

Despite everything that is terrific about this Rocky Horror Show, in it’s determination to be a Rocky that we haven’t seen, it loses the essence of what made this show so great when it all began.

But iOTA is the best Frank ever. If you love the show, see this Frank.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com