Written and Directed by Tony Briggs – Musical Direction
by Nathaniel Andrew
Choreographed by Leonard Mickelo – Set and LX Designed
by Mark Howett
Presented by HIT Productions
Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre 13 – 18th
February 2019
Reviewed by Bill Stephens
In deference to another production currently touring,
the capacity opening night audience at the Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre
could have been forgiven for thinking they were watching a performance of “The
Sapphires Goes Wrong”.
HIT Productions is to be commended for bravely mounting
this stripped back production of Tony Briggs hugely successful musical play with
the aim of touring it to over 140 locations across the length and breadth of
Australia during 2019/2020. In some of the more remote indigenous Australian
communities it will be performed on a specially designed ‘pop-up’ stage.
It was a shame therefore that despite the talented
cast and the three-piece live band, the supportive opening night audience, and
the fact that three of the remaining five Queanbeyan performances are already sold
out, this seriously under-rehearsed opening night performance turned out to be
such a lack-lustre, dispiriting experience.
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| Aljin Abella (Joe) - Lorinda May Merrypor (Julie) - Mindy Kwanten (Cynthia) Matilda Brown (Kay) - Ngaire Pigram (Gail) - Mike Smith (Dave) |
Inspired by a true story of four young Aboriginal
women from regional Australia, who enjoy singing country music, “The Sapphires” tells
of how they enter a local singing competition and are spotted by a would-be entrepreneur.
He persuades them to develop an act singing the soul hits of popular American
girl-groups like The Supremes, then signs them up to tour army bases in
Vietnam. Their relationships and adventures during this tour provide the basis
of the musical.
At this performance, Calen Tassone had the unenviable
task of lifting the audience out of the sombre mood established by the Welcome
to Country, acknowledgement of elders present, and one minute of silence
observed in respect of the recent passing of a local elder, performed
immediately before the show began.
Responding to Tassone’s loud, largely unintelligible
introduction, the four Saffires, Matilda Brown (Kay), Mindy Kwanten (Cynthia),
Lorinda May Merrypor (Julie) and Ngaire Pigram (Gail), make their entrance to
perform “Heatwave” costumed in sparkling sequin dresses, to recreate their
final Vietnam performance.
Unfortunately the moment was spoilt because some of the
microphones weren’t switched on, and two of the singers missed their marks
leaving two unoccupied circles of light indicating where
they should have been, while they performed in the dark.
Rattled by this unfortunate beginning, it took the
cast a little while to establish their characters as they bickered and bantered
in a series of short scenes depicting their preparations for the singing
competition, the competition itself, and the offer to tour Vietnam.
 |
| Mindy Kwanten (Cynthia) - Aljin Abella (Joe) - Calen Tassone (Jimmy) Don Battee (MP ) - Ngaire Pigram (Gail) |
The show consists of a succession of short scenes,
some quite effective, but in this production, all performed on a bare stage,
with long blackouts separating each scene. The blackouts were often longer than
the scenes which followed them, as stage staff fussed over various props, and the
onstage band resorted to ever longer riffs in an attempt to cover the delays. The
largest prop, an unconvincing army truck, had to be manhandled around the stage
by stage staff in full view of the audience. No theatrical magic in that.
The clumsy staging effectively destroyed the
storytelling and it says much for the cast that they were able to engage the
audience as well as they did. Each of the four Saffires acquitted themselves
well in their acting scenes but seemed less comfortable when singing as a
group. Attention is needed to intonation, to the detail of the unison hand
movements, and to actually selling the songs. At this stage it is difficult to
believe the original Saffires would have been as successful as they obviously
were, had their presentation been so untidy.
Diminutive, Aljin Abella, as the opportunistic
Vietnamese boy, Joe, steals the show with a confident, well-judged performance.
Mike Smith also impresses as the bumbling, well-meaning, but incompetent entrepreneur,
Dave, while Don Battee, brings warmth, good humour, and some much needed panache
to his role as Robby.
There is a good show here waiting to happen, unfortunately it wasn't right on the night. Hopefully,
the company will take advantage of its relatively long season in Queanbeyan to
sort out the stage management problems, lighting and sound cues, and polish the performances to those
expected of a professional touring company.
