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September 05, 2024

Theatre: Shore Break

Filed under: 2024,Archive,Australian Texts,Theatre

This solo work, written and brilliantly performed by Chris Pitman, explores how, in our midst, the lives of many are beached and marooned.

Written by Murray Bramwell

“I have tried to write a version of this story for many years but was never quite able to finish. A solitary figure, unable to connect, abandoned at the edge of the world.”

In Shore Break Chris Pitman has undoubtedly succeeded with this succinct monologue which crests and breaks like the intimidating waves …

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August 09, 2024

Musical Theatre Chicago

Filed under: 2024,Archive,Music,Theatre

Harking back to the Jazz Age of the late 1920s, Chicago is full of fizz and low comedy, great song and dance performances, and has a shrewd edge intended to make us think, even as we enjoy the razzle dazzle.

Written by Murray Bramwell

“This is a story of greed, corruption, violence, exploitation, adultery and treachery. All those things we hold near and dear…” Before the curtain even goes up we know there are no red shoes, and this is …

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June 19, 2024

Patti LuPone: A Life in Notes

Filed under: 2024,Archive,Cabaret

Adelaide Cabaret Festival

Patti LuPone: A Life in Notes

Patti LuPone comes back to Adelaide to perform a program of memorable songs and show us what timeless cabaret looks and sounds like.

Written by Murray Bramwell

She’s back. Better than ever. New York singer Patti LuPone returns to the Cabaret Festival with a crisp new show featuring songs that made her name as a Broadway star ,as well as other personal favourites that inspired and shaped her progress. You could …

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June 16, 2024

Hopelessly Devoted – A Celebration of Olivia Newton John

Filed under: 2024,Archive,Cabaret,Music

Adelaide Cabaret Festival

Hopelessly Devoted- A Celebration of Olivia Newton John

With Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

With four outstanding singers and the ASO at its expansive best, this celebration of an Australian music legend is a Cabaret Festival highlight.

Written by Murray Bramwell

The more time passes, the more extraordinary are the accomplishments of Olivia Newton John. Forty six years ago, Grease became the highest grossing movie musical ever, and the soundtrack still breaks all records. In 1981 “Physical” topped the …

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June 08, 2024

Adelaide Cabaret Festival – The 2024 Variety Gala

Filed under: 2024,Archive,Cabaret,Festival

Presided over by exuberant Artistic Director, Virginia Gay, this year’s Variety Gala – featuring an array of amazing women (and also some excellent blokes) – is one of the briskest and best we have seen for a while.

Written by Murray Bramwell

It’s that time again. A week into June, just when winter starts to bite, and the Adelaide Cabaret Festival convenes for the 24th year. And, as old as the festival itself, is the Variety Gala. They are …

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April 19, 2024

Music: James Taylor

Filed under: 2024,Archive,Music

For more than two hours, with a brilliant band and a portfolio of songs that have conquered time, James Taylor reminds us that we have still got a friend.

Written by Murray Bramwell

“I’ve got my RM’s on,” muses James Taylor, staring at his boots. And from that very first moment he endears himself to the audience in the Entertainment Centre. They, or I should say, we are very predominately of a certain age. We are here to listen again …

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March 09, 2024

Adelaide Festival – Qui a tue mon pere (Who killed my father)

Filed under: 2024,Archive,Festival,Theatre

Adelaide Festival
Theatre : Qui a tue mon pere (Who killed my father)

In his compelling monologue Edouard Louis meticulously describes a childhood ruined by poverty, abuse, and alienation. He blames his father but comes to realise there are also much larger social and structural cruelties in play.

Reviewed by Murray Bramwell

In the preface to his harrowing 2018 memoir Qui a tue mon pere, Edouard Louis hypothesises.

“If this were a text for the theatre, here is how it …

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March 08, 2024

Adelaide Festival – The Threepenny Opera

Filed under: 2024,Archive,Festival,Music

Adelaide Festival
Music Theatre: The Threepenny Opera

Barrie Kosky’s version of The Threepenny Opera has had a haircut and a makeover but the satire is still in there, along with the comedy, and Kurt Weill’s splendid music.

Written by Murray Bramwell

The Threepenny Opera is just four years short of its hundredth birthday and it has had a long history of popular successes and mixed receptions. In Berlin, in 1928, it did poorly when it opened and then became popular …

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March 06, 2024

Adelaide Festival – I Hide in Bathrooms

Filed under: 2024,Adelaide Companies,Archive,Australian Texts,Festival,Theatre

I Hide in Bathrooms
Astrid Pill and Collaborators
Vitalstatistix
Waterside.

I Hide in Bathrooms, we are told, by an offstage voice, is “based loosely on a true-ish story” but it is also “made-uppish”. We know from the program notes that this excellent theatre work had its beginnings when devisor and performer Astrid Pill became preoccupied with the notion of the death of a life partner, in response to the experiences of people in her intimate circle.

But it is …

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March 01, 2024

Goodbye Lindita

Filed under: 2024,Archive,Festival,International,Theatre

Described as a visual meditation on mourning, Goodbye Lindita eloquently, and sometimes convulsively, expresses feeling and wonder about the mystery of death – without uttering a single word.

Written by Murray Bramwell

“I feel like mourning has a silent, almost suffocating quality,“ Mario Banushi writes in the program notes, “This is why it is a performance without words.”

Conceived and directed by Banushi, Goodbye Lindita may be wordless but it has plenty to say. Inspired, or perhaps provoked, by the …

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