BROADWAY - National Capital Orchestra

 

Louis Sharpe and the National Capital Orchestra in Snow Concert Hall

Snow Concert Hall, November 16^th, 2025 - Reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.

Having just been awarded by the Canberra Critics Circle for its consistent quality of performance in presenting challenging repertoire and playing new Australian compositions, the National Capital Orchestra rounded out a successful year by presenting a dazzling concert in the Snow Concert Hall.

Although it didn’t include any Australian compositions, Sunday’s concert certainly demonstrated the orchestra’s mastery of challenging repertoire.

Louis Sharpe conducting the National Capital Orchestra in Snow Concert Hall

Under the enthusiastic baton of its musical director, Louis Sharpe, who also doubled as a jovial compere, the orchestra of nearly 80 musicians was a spectacular sight as it launched into a lush arrangement by Robert Russell Bennett of the overture from the Jule Styne musical, Funny Girl.

Then followed a feast of music from landmark musicals commencing with a rousing rendition by guest artists Joe Dinn and Jared Newall of "Agony" from the Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods and followed with a delightful rendition of Harold Arlen’s "Over the Rainbow" by Alira Prideaux.

Joe Dinn  - Alira Predeaux - Jared Newall - performing "Do-Re-Mi" in Broadway".

It was interesting to hear songs written for female artists but performed by male singers for this concert when Jared Newall offered,"You’ll Never Walk Alone" from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel, and Joe Dinn sang "Memory" from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats.

Compositions by Leonard Bernstein ended the first half of the program in sensational style when Alira Prideaux took the stage in a dazzling red sequined gown to perform a virtuosic rendition of "Glitter and Be Gay" from Candide; following which the National Capital Orchestra thrilled with a stunning performance of selections from Bernstein’s West Side Story arranged by Jack Mason, which left the auditorium abuzz.

How did they top that? Well may you ask.  

Selections from Lerner & Loewe’s, My Fair Lady, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s, Phantom of the Opera and Schonberg & Boublil’s, Les Misérables, superbly sung by the three guest artists, is part of the answer.

But Louis Sharpe still had some aces up his sleeve in the form of brilliant orchestral arrangements of music from the Stephen Schwartz musical, Wicked, arranged by Ted Ricketts, and a gorgeous new arrangement by Marcus Martin of the spectacular "Waltz" from the Rogers and Hammerstein musical, Carousel, both thrillingly performed by the orchestra.

Apart from the sheer pleasure of hearing the orchestral items so stylishly performed with thrilling precision and attention to detail by an orchestra of this size, there was also pleasure in marvelling at how sensitively the orchestra accompanied the vocal items, and the care taken by Sharpe to insure that the soloists lyrics were not lost in the orchestral sound, particularly evident in Jared Newall’s beautifully nuanced rendition of "The Music of the Night", and the lovely duet, "All I Ask of You", sung by Alira Prideaux, and both from Phantom of the Opera.  

Zahra Zulkapli performing "On My Own"

For the penultimate act of the concert Sharpe introduced a final guest artist in the form of fourteen-year-old Zahra Zulkapli who wowed the audience with her flawless rendition of "On My Own" from Les Misérables. She then joined the rest of the cast, the orchestra, and the audience, in a heartfelt rendition of "Do You Hear the People Sing", from the same musical, which brought a memorable concert to its rousing conclusion.

 

                                                          Photos by Peter Hislop

               This review first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 17.11.25

 

Equus by Peter Shaffer - Free Rain Theatre

 

Equus by Peter Shaffer.  Free Rain Theatre Company at The Hub, Kingston, Canberra, 12 - 22 November, 2025.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
Nov 14

CAST

Martin Dysart – Arran McKenna

Alan Strang – Jack Shanahan

Dora Strang – Janie Lawson

Frank Strang/Harry Dalton – Bruce Hardie

Hesther Salomon – Crystal Mahon

Nugget/Horseman – Sam Thomson

Jill Mason – Lily Welling

Nurse - Caitlin Bissett

Horses – Jamie Johnston, Finlay Forrest, Samara Glesti, Bianca Lawson, Robert Wearden

    

CREATIVES

    Director – Anne Somes
    Associate Director – Crystal Mahon
    Movement Director – Amy Campbell
    Set Design – Cate Clelland
    Director of Marketing – Olivia Wenholz


The drama Equus, based on a true report of a young man stabbing the eyes out of horses, is at its heart about a professional highly-regarded child psychologist becoming doubtful about the legitimacy of his work. 

Anne Somes’ production is top-class in design and acting quality – proof once again of the value of The Hub in our community.

Wikipedia records: The narrative centres on religious and ritual sacrifice themes, as well as the manner in which Strang constructs a personal theology involving the horses and the godhead "Equus". Alan sees the horses as representative of God and confuses his adoration of his "God" with sexual attraction. Also important is Shaffer's examination of the conflict between personal values and satisfaction and societal mores, expectations, and institutions, and between Apollonian and Dionysian values and systems.

For me, now 50 years on from the first production of Equus, personal confusion about one’s “God” and sexual attraction – which makes the play powerfully dramatic – is not the personal issue.  Canberra is replete with professionals, whose doubts about Apollonian and Dionysian values and systems make the character of Martin Dysart the one we can identify with.  

At a more purely bureaucratic level, consider the years of conflict and emotional confusion in the life of whistle-blower Derek Elias, assistant secretary for regional processing contracts in the Department of Home Affairs since 2019, reported in detail this very day as I write, November 15, 2025, in The Saturday Paper.

While the blatant male nudity in the final scene of Equus is no longer surprising and certainly not as controversial as it was in 1973, it brings to light Dysart’s dilemma.  He has engineered his patient into acting out what really did happen when he and the girl who worked with him in the horse stables met, presumably for his first sexual experience.  We experience watching how a young man’s twisted imagination, worshipping his all-knowing “god” named Nuggety, leads to emotional disaster and the blinding of the horse.

This is drama at its most demanding of our sympathy, even empathy if we dare, especially in close-up in the intimate space of The Hub.

So, what does Martin Dysart worship?  Not a horse, but the belief that he can really make a deluded child patient become normal – whatever “being normal” means.

This is where the writing skill of Peter Shaffer comes into play.  The essence of great theatre, as we all know from Shakepeare, is universality.  We all have our Nuggety.

Mine was my worship of the two young lads in autocratic Portugal who publicly raised a toast to freedom, leading to the establishment of Amnesty International in 1961.  In 2004 I represented Amnesty on the Australian Government Working Group responding, as Australia was required to do, at the end of the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education.

In the meantime I came to understand the necessity of the Arts – and in my case Drama and Theatre – in education, as basic to the understanding and practice of human rights.  It’s fair to say, I guess, that though my 33 years as a full-time professional teacher, trying often to achieve Martin Dysart’s aims in my own way, ended in 1995 as prostate cancer made its play – I’m still a human rights educator through drama as a nowadays unpaid reviewer.

So Equus means a great deal to me, even if I look around and wonder if Amnesty International is still as great a god for good in the confusing world of self-induced climate change, as I had hoped when I turned 20 in 1961.

See Free Rain’s Equus, find your Nuggety, and open your eyes to world betterment.

 

Lily Welling as Jill Mason – Jack Shanahan as Alan Strang 

 

 

 

TIM MINCHIN - SONGS THE WORLD WILL NEVER HEAR

 

Lighting Design: Willie Williams – FOH Sound engineer: Darius Kedros

Canberra Theatre - November 13^th -17^th, 2025

Opening Night performance on November 13^th 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.

EQUUS - Free Rain Theatre - ACT Hub/

 

Arran McKenna (Martin Dysart) - Sam Thomson (Nugget) - Jack Shanahan (Alan Strang) in "EQUUS".

Written by Peter Shaffer – Directed by Anne Somes

Set Design by Cate Clelland – Costume design by Anne Somes

Sound Design by Neville Pike and Patrick Dixon – Live soundscape by Crystal Mahon

Stage Management: Jill Young – Movement Direction by Amy Campbell.

ACT Hub 12^th – 22^nd November 2025.

Opening night performance on 12^th November reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.

A Court Magistrate in a small town in England visits a local child psychiatrist to implore him to interview a 17-year-old boy in an attempt to discover the boy’s motivation for blinding six horses. 

This is the pretext of Peter Shaffer’s acclaimed 1973 play, “Equus”, which is currently playing in the ACT Hub in a masterful production directed by Anne Somes for Free Rain Theatre. 

Presented on an atmospheric, stripped-back setting, designed by Cate Clelland, which eschews furniture and hand-held props in favour of dramatic lighting and sound to create drama and spectacle, Somes relies on the skill of her actors, and the imagination of her audiences to fill any gaps in the storytelling.   

Arran McKenna (Martin Dysart) - Crystal Mahon (Hesther Salomon) in "EQUUS".

Shaffer’s play is wordy, but in this production Arran McKenna shines in the demanding role of the psychiatrist, Martin Dysart, who is himself questioning his own sense of purpose and the nature of his work. As Dysart, McKenna delivers Shaffer’s wordy musings on human nature, the drivers of sexuality, and the value of psychiatry, with impressive aplomb.    

As the troubled boy, Alan Strang, who resists Dysart’s intervention by refusing to communicate other than by singing advertising jingles, Jack Shanahan is riveting, offering a brave performance that requires him to perform naked for much of the second act.

Arran McKenna (Martin Dysart) - Jack Shanahan (Alan Strang) in "EQUUS". 

Playing Dysart’s confidante, the magistrate Hesther Salomon, Crystal Mahon brings a re-assuring warmth and dignity to the role, while Janie Lawson also contributes a strong performance as Alan Strang’s uncomprehending mother, Dora Strang.

Bruce Hardie is effective as both Alan Strang’s father Frank, and as Strang’s employer Harry Dalton; as are Lily Welling as Jill Mason, the unwitting catalyst for Alan Strang’s atrocity, and Caitlin Bissett who plays a nurse.

Jack Shanahan (Alan Strang) - Janie Lawson (Dora Strang) - Arran McKenna (Martin Dysart)

However, it is Sam Thomson who displays remarkable presence in the non-verbal role of the horse, Nugget, and his stablemates, Jamie Johnson, Finlay Forrest, Samara Glesti, Bianca Lawson and Robert Wearden, who are most likely to remain in the memory. They are on stage for the full duration of the play, either as horses or observers, and it is the spectre of their presence which ultimately drives the play.

Jack Shanahan (Alan Strang) - Sam Thomson (Nugget) in "EQUUS".

“Equus” is a play that has fascinated audiences for more than 50 years. Anne Somes inventive and imaginative production at ACT Hub is a strong indicator of why this is so.

                                                     Photos by Janelle McMenamin.

MICHAEL SIMIC NAMED ARTIST OF THE YEAR AT THE 35TH ANNUAL ACT ARTS AWARDS

 Michael Simic has been named 2025 Canberra CityNews Artist of the Year at the 35^th annual ACT Arts Awards evening, held in the ANU Drill Hall Gallery on Tuesday, November 11.

ACT Arts Minister Michael Pettersson presented a certificate and cheque to the value of $1,000 to Michael Simic. One of the most colourful stage personalities ever to emerge from the Canberra region and better known through his flamboyant stage persona Mikelangelo, Simic and his band The Black Sea Gentlemen have performed to sold-out audiences on London’s West End and at major festivals across the UK, Europe, New Zealand, Canada and the US.

With his larger-than-life stage presence and faux-Balkan accent—a nod to his Croatian heritage—Simic was praised by the Canberra Critics’ Circle as a “consummate professional entertainer” known for his rich baritone voice, relentless energy and effortless rapport with audiences.

Michael Simic (Mikelangelo) - Photo: Sarah Walker

Earlier in the evening, the 2025 Helen Tsongas Award for Excellence in Acting was presented by Jordan Best, artistic director of The Q Theatre in Queanbeyan, to Andrea Close.

Described by members of the Canberra Critics’ Circle as “a formidable figure in Canberra’s arts community,” she has been recognised for her commanding performances this year — as the Machiavellian sister Agatha in The Moors at The Mill Theatre, Dairy Road (March–April), and as the powerful corporate figure Jen Lay in Enron, also at The Mill (July–August).

Andrea Close as Jen Lay in ENRON 2 - photo: Daniel Abroguena

The awards evening also featured the circle’s own awards, which went to:

MUSIC

The National Capital Orchestra

For its concert program during the course of 2024/25, recognizing consistent quality of performance, presenting challenging repertoire and playing new Australian compositions with great spirit and cheerful optimistic audience engagement.

 

Andrew Hackwill

For his outstanding contribution as a multi-instrumentalist and sophisticated jazz music arranger with numerous diverse Canberra ensembles.

 

Richard Johnson

For leading and sustaining the annual Sound Out Festival, a summit of experimental music, at the ANU Drill Hall.

 

Canberra Qwire

For its powerful and bold presentation of Henry Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas as Dido & Aeneas Reimagined, the story told with passionate and touching conviction.

 

Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen

For Journey Through the Land of Shadows, a visionary example of the timeless artistry of live performance.

 

THEATRE

 

Christopher Samuel Carroll

For his highly dexterous performance of his self-written play, Cadaver Palaver, Christopher Samuel Carroll. Carroll’s versatile physical and vocal virtuosity drew upon elements of the British comedy vernacular as produced by the likes of Peter Sellers and Terry Thomas while giving a light-hearted not to Australian comedy proponents like Drew Forsythe and Darren Gilshenan. There are very few actors who can integrate mimetic movement forms with high levels of delivery of spoken text as seen by Carroll.

 

Christopher Baldock

For his performance as the brain-damaged farmer, Angus in ‘The Drawer Boy  this actor extended a huge range of dexterity in both vocal and physical aspects of performance; establishing a true role model for performance. His grounded and intense performance highlighted the actor's propensity for creating a highly believable and challenging portrayal of an essentially sad character.

 

Jarrad West

For his bold direction of The Inheritance, a play by Matthew Lopez inspired by E.M. Forster’s ‘Howard’s End in which Lopez profoundly explores themes of love and legacy in the queer community in 2015 New York. This mammoth undertaking in two parts by Everyman Theatre showed how the past shapes and forms current existence as well as the future. Its message of love, loss, hope and healing resonated through the depth of performance, sensitively guided by the director.

 

James Scott

For a frightening and poignant interpretation of the luckless servant, Lucky, in Waiting for Godot at The Street Theatre in November 2024. For his sculpted impression of oppressed subjugation in which he inhabited the pain of his character before bursting forth with a cry for understanding in an uncaring universe.

 

The Street Theatre

For its investment in human creative energies by commissioning, developing and ultimately staging the production of Dylan Van Den Berg’s play The Chosen Vessel in August 2025, a significant and overdue exploration into a new dimension in Australian theatrical form.

 

MUSICAL THEATRE

 

Amy Orman

For her outstanding performance as Charity Hope Valentine in the Free Rain Theatre production of Sweet Charity which captured the indomitable spirit and vulnerability of the character.

 

Sarahlouise Owens

For her extraordinary achievement in conceiving, writing and performing as Anna Bishop in Opera’s Bad Girl which delivered superbly judged renditions of demanding arias with restraint, finesse and humour.

 

Queanbeyan Players

For its imaginatively staged and delightfully entertaining production of the Gershwin musical Nice Work If You Can Get It.

 

Alexander Unikowski

For his beautifully sung, moving and thrilling portrayal of the composer, Jon, in the ACT Hub production of Tick, Tick… Boom!

 

Amelia Andersson-Nickson

For her extraordinary rendition of Waiting, a complex song regarding the intimacy of a layered emotional journey, in the Canberra Philharmonic Society production of The Addams Family.

 

DANCE

 

Ausdance ACT

For providing young dancers with a professionally curated and technically sophisticated platform for dance and choreography as it celebrated its 40th Anniversary of the Youth Dance Festival at Canberra Theatre in November 2024 with the theme, What Do You Dream?

 

Akira Byrne

For her powerful solo A Destination Should Not Be Expected created and performed as part of the QL2 Dance Emerging Choreographers Program, inspired by her own battle with chronic pain and endometriosis.

 

Alison Plevey and Sara Black

For the exceptional production of a solo dance work, Essor (Thank You) in response to photographic material by renowned photographer Tracey Moffatt on display at the National Portrait Gallery; and for their mentorship of dancer Yolanda Lowatta.

 

VISUAL ARTS

 

Sophie Dumaresq and Asil Habara

For inviting questioning of the currents that shape our own material reality and cultural landscape, both online and In Real Life - in their exhibition Is somebody gonna match my freak? at M16 in January–February 2025.

 

Aidan Hartshorn

For his illuminating installations that render the ancestral craftsmanship of First Nations canoes, shields and hand axes in contemporary glass and neon works, evocatively capturing the disquieting incongruity of our reliance on hydro-electric power schemes and the environmental and cultural destruction left in their wake, for his solo exhibition Fulcrum at Canberra Glassworks (June—August 2025).

 

Maddie Hepner

For Paradox of Control, a sensitive and courageous multi-media exploration of compulsive hair pulling in September this year at Platform, the Contemporary Art space at Manuka.

 

Jo Hollier

For her exhibition Creek Walks at the Belco Arts Centre in August. The artist demonstrated her considerable technical skills in printmaking in a series of closely observed sensitive and emotive works that celebrated the birdlife and flora of the bush walks she had undertaken in the South East Forests National Park in NSW.

 

Al Munro

For her exhibitions Pattern/colour/space/form at the Australian National Capital Artists Gallery (ANCA), February to March 2025, and Pattern Recognition at Canberra Contemporary, November 2024 to January 2025. Her artistic concepts stood out for their bold originality, through geometric repetition and the intricate interplay of colour and shape that filled each work.

 

POETRY

 

Maggie Shapley

For Fruits of Exile, a poetry collection that offers an intimate re-reading of the works of Margaret Scott and Gwen Harwood while subtly exploring their resonances in women’s realities today.

 

S. K. Kelen

For The Cult of What Comes Next, a poetry collection of fantastical inventiveness, which holds on to love, dignity and sanity while surveying the shallow obsessions and rogue technology that foreshadow a world of madness.

 

John Foulcher

For The Night Stair, a collection of tender, elegant and candid poems that reveal the startling influence of distant memories on the waking moment.

 

NON-FICTION

 

Edmund Goldrick

For Anzac Guerrillas, an exceptional feat of research which, in illustrating the efforts by a handful of Australian soldiers to prevent a genocide, reconstructs an overlooked but profoundly valuable story of moral courage.

 

Emily Gallagher

For Playtime, a highly original work of history, which finds in children’s writings, artworks, toys and games a lifeworld of imagination, fears and hopes that compellingly reflect social change and freshly animate the modern Australian story.

 

SCREEN

 

Ann McGrath and Andrew Pike

For the documentary film Japarta, a work of sensitivity and insight into the important legacy of Minoru Hokari and his writing about the Gurindji people. Japarta tells a special story, moving and memorable, about an exceptional figure.

THE NUTCRACKER - BIG Live - Canberra Theatre, 2025

 

BIG Live dancers in the finale of "The Nutcracker".

Music by Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky – Choreographed by Joel Burke, after Marius Petipa

Set Design by Joel Burke, TVS Arcitect and Christopher Osborne

Costumes: Sophia Drakos, Anne Tytherleigh, Brisbane Arts Theatre.

Lighting Design by Ben Hambling & Steven May.

Presented by BIG Live, Canberra Theatre, 6^th & 7^th November 2025.

Matinee performance on 7^th November reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.

BIG Live dancers perform Act 1 of "The Nutcracker".

Christmas came early this year for Canberra ballet lovers with what now appears to have become an annual event, the BIG Live production of “The Nutcracker”.  

Since it was first created in 2021 by Co-Directors, Khalid Tarabay (Executive Director) and Joel Burke (Artistic Director) with a mission to broaden the audience for classical ballet, while creating more job opportunities for dancers, BIG Live has been steadily building its audience and touring schedules.

Commencing with International Ballet Galas and full-length productions of popular classics, “Romeo and Juliet” and “The Nutcracker”, the company broadened its ambitions to include original full-length productions of “Dracula” which premiered in 2025, and “The Great Gatsby” to premiere in 2026, as well as a Christmas Spectacular which will play Sydney and Melbourne, all choreographed by its Artistic Director, Joel Burke.  

It has also increased its international touring schedule, which already includes New Zealand, with performances of “The Nutcracker” in Singapore with guest artists, Iana Salenko and Marian Walter, both seen in Canberra this year in the 2025 BIG Live International Gala. 

Not content to rest on its laurels, BIG Live has enhanced its production of “The Nutcracker” with the addition of some sumptuous new costumes and settings. The company has   very noticeably, strengthened the line-up for the corps, and its attention to detail for the execution of the choreography, so that the spectacular Snowflakes scene that concludes act 1, and the Waltz of the Flowers in Act 2, can now truly claim to be of world standard.  

Burke’s version of Act 1 was always a highlight of this particular production because of the clarity of the storytelling and vivacious interaction of the party guests. But with Alexander Taber opting to create a warm and attentive Drosselmeyer, rather than the usual scary magician;  with Mia Zanardo, quite lovely as Clara, confidently partnered by Joel Burke as her Nutcracker, through a succession of  elegant overhead lifts for their swoon-worthy pas de deux, with William Cheung just a little too disobedient as Clara’s naughty brother, Fritz, and Janae Kerr (Doll), Timur Dymchikov (Jester) and Ervin Zagidullin (Sailor) each offering virtuosic solos, together with the well-staged battle between the rats and the toy soldiers, this act now becomes a delight in its own right, rather than something to be endured while waiting for the spectacle of act 2.

BIG Live dancers perform the Act 1 finale of "The Nutcracker"

With its new setting and costumes, Act 2 is a visual delight, even it the decision to have Clara and the Nutcracker sit on the steps of the great gates to watch the proceedings did create an odd moment  when both had to vacate the steps to allow the Nutcracker to open the gates to allow the Sugar Plum Fairy and her prince to make their rather awkward entrance.

 Elsewhere, each of the series of testing divertissement was well danced. Timur Dymchikov captivated with his energetic Russian Dance; Maria Zagidullina and Bella Collishaw delighted as the sprightly Merlitons; Brock Tighe, Janae Kerr, Jack Jones and Summer Duyvestyn offered a dramatic Spanish Dance; and Huw Pritchard and William Cheung were suitably oriental for the Chinese.

However, it was Charles Herkes and Giselle Osborne who really raised the temperature with their superbly executed Chinese. This fascinating pas de deux requires great strength and total trust from each of the dancers to execute the demanding lifts and manoeuvres, while appearing completely calm and showing no strain. On this occasion it was given a tour-de-force performance by both dancers.   

Abbey Hansen as the Sugar Plum Fairy partnered by Ervin Zagidullin as her Prince added the proverbial icing to the cake with their execution of the famous Grand pas de deux which climaxes the ballet before the whole cast take the stage for the rousing grand finale. 

                                                     Images provided by BIG Live 

   This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au

THE LOVERS A Musical by Laura Murphy. Theatre Royal Sydney until 16th November, 2025.

Loren Hunter (Hermia) - Mat Verevis(Lysander) - Stellar Perry (Oberon) -Jayme-Lee Hanekom (Puck) - Natalie Abbott (Helena) - Jason Arrow (Demetrius) in "The Lovers". 

Book, Music & Lyrics by Laura Murphy - Directed by Nick Skubij

Choreographed by Yvette Lee – Designed by Isabel Hudson

Lighting design by Trent Suidgeest – Sound and Video design by David Bergman

Fight and Intimacy direction by Nigel Poulton.

Presented by Shake & Stir Theatre Co and John Frost for Crossroads Live,

Theatre Royal, Sydney until 16^th November 2025.

Opening night performance reviewed by BILL STEPHENS.

Jayme-Lee Hanekom (Puck) - Stellar Perry (Oberon) in "The Lovers". 

Enjoying the rare phenomenon for an Australian musical, a second new production, Laura Murphy’s whip smart “The Lovers” was first premiered in Sydney by Bell Shakespeare in 2022.  

Reconceived by director, Nick Skubij for Shake & Stir Theatre Co, Queensland Performing Arts Centre in association with Brisbane Festival, and premiered in Brisbane in September of this year, “The Lovers” now returns to Sydney fresh from its Brisbane season, for this very brief season at the Theatre Royal, courtesy of Shake & Stir Theatre Co and John Frost for Crossroads Live.

Now, Frosty knows a good show when he sees it, and his interest in this particular musical, bodes well for its international potential.  

10 years in the making for Murphy, who wrote the book, music and lyrics, “The Lovers”, offers a contemporary riff on Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, concentrating on the four lovers, Hermia, Lysander, Helena and Demetrius, and the complications caused in their relationships by Puck’s careless handling of Oberon’s love potion.

Loren Hunter as Hermia in "The Lovers".

With Loren Hunter as a feisty, Hermia, who’s in love with Lysander (Mat Verevis), who’s in love with Helena (Natalie Abbott), who’s in love with Demetrius (Jason Arrow),  the four lovers commence the show in an imaginative designer’s version of Elizabethan gear complete with white ruffs, which they eventually doff for more practical creations for the hilarious shenanigans in which they later become embroiled.    

Stellar Perry, costumed in a sparkly red cowboy suit, plays Oberon, while Jayme-Lee Hanekom wears fluffy red pants, red & yellow striped stockings and pom-poms on her head to play a delightfully mischievous, Puck.  All are uniformly excellent in their roles, responding to Nick Skubij’s erudite direction with enthusiasm and flair.

Although she draws on Shakespeare’s text for her spoken dialogue, most of the storytelling is told through Murphy’s catchy songs. There are about 27 in the show.  Each crammed with clever, ear-catching, rap-style lyrics, quite a few of which were lost on opening night, due to a sound balance that tended to favour the excellent on-stage band.  

Natalie Abbott (Helena) - Mat Verevis (Lysander) in "The Lovers"

Visually the show is gorgeous. Utilising revolving stages, ultra-romantic lighting design by Trent Suidgeest, and melting video imagery by David Bergman, designer, Isabel Hudson has created a lusciously romantic forest environment dominated by a huge blossom-laden tree, with a huge love-heart which drops in at appropriate moments.

The over-all effect is of dream-like, original, young, fresh and very funny show, which was given a rapturous reception by the Sydney opening night audience.   

Not only is “The Lovers” an outstanding addition to the growing list of musicals inspired by Shakespeare’s writings, it is also a compelling showcase for the depth of Australian creative talent currently vying for attention on the world’s stages.

While Shake & Stir Theatre Co and John Frost for Crossroads Live are to be commended for bringing this outstanding production to Sydney, hopefully some way will be found to allow it to be enjoyed by audiences beyond this short Sydney season.  

Natalie Abbott (Helena) - Jason Arrow (Demetrius) in "The Lovers"



Special note for Canberra readers: - If some of these names sound familiar - Laura Murphy and Loren Hunter played Glinda and Elphaba respectively in Free Rain Theatre's 2016 production of "Wicked", and Laura Murphy played Princess Fiona in Free Rain Theatre's 2018 production of "Shrek" 




Photos by Joel Devereaux



This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW.    www.artsreview.com.au