Lighting Design: Willie Williams – FOH Sound engineer:
Darius Kedros
Canberra Theatre - November 13th -17th, 2025
Opening Night performance on November 13th
Reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.
Watching Tim Minchin perform in the Canberra Theatre reminded
me of my first encounter with him.
Early in 2000 I read that Todd McKenney was preparing a
cabaret for presentation when his two-year stint with the hit musical The
Boy From Oz finished its run in Perth. I contacted Todd to invite him to premiere
his show at our School of Arts Café in Queanbeyan.
When Todd arrived from Perth, he had with him as his
accompanist, a young Perth pianist, Tim Minchin.
Although those two weeks performing with Todd McKenney at
The School of Arts Café in Queanbeyan in September 2000 represented Tim Minchin’s
cabaret debut on this side of the nation, nobody who saw those shows could have
suspected that that young musician was destined to become a world superstar.
It was the presentation of his break-out cabaret show,
Dark Side, at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, then later at
the Edinburgh Fringe in 2005, that set Tim Minchin on the path to international
fame as the extraordinary composer/performing artist/ provocateur par
excellence that he has become.
His show Songs the World Will Never Hear celebrates
the 20 years since Dark Side, along with the fact that he has just turned fifty.
His show is a remarkably personal reminiscence presented on
the scale of a Cecil B. DeMille movie with a red-hot band, pyrotechnics, and a stunning
light show.
During that 20 years Minchin has created an incredibly varied
career performing his own songs in theatres, concert halls, and cabarets around
the world, writing the music and lyrics for the Broadway musicals, Matilda
and Groundhog Day, played Judas in a Stadium production of Jesus
Christ Superstar, and written for, and acted in, hit television series, to
mention just a few of his accomplishments.
His show lasts almost three hours during which, (excepting the
interval), Minchin never leaves the stage.
He performs around twenty songs, some referencing career highlights,
like “Revolting Children” from his musical, Matilda and “I Know
Everything” from Groundhog Day.
Others are very personal, like his unlikely love songs to
his wife, “You Grew on Me”, and “I’ll Take Lonely Tonight”. There’s a moving
song for his parents, "Apart Together", and an advice song to a rebellious
teenager, “Ruby”.
But Minchin is also a potty-mouth entertainer who delights
in shocking, even if those shocks are hilarious. He’s a master communicator who
revels in disarming his audience with laughter while delivering observations on
the serious business of life, love and human existence. Most of his repertoire indulges
that gift.
The technical aspects of his show are also impressive.
Superb sound ensures that every lyric is crystal clear. A large video screen captures
Minchin’s performance in real time from various angles. It also displays superbly
edited archival footage and special effects, and the contributions of his band
of multi-instrumentalists, Jak Housden, Evan Mannell, Sarah Belkner, James
Hazelwood and Audrey Powne, who embellish his songs with playful harmonies and
lush musical arrangements.
But behind all the technical wizardry it is the humanity of
an exceptional mind that shines through this remarkably entertaining
presentation that makes Songs The World Will Never Hear such an
unmissable event.
This review first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 14th November 2025.
