GYPSY

Music by Jule Styne – Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim – Book by Arthur Laurents

Directed by Richard Carroll – Musical Direction by Joe Accaria

Choreographed by Cameron Mitchell – Designed by Alicia Clements

Lighting Design by Trent Suidgeest – Sound designed by Camden Young.

Cast: Blazey Best – Laura Bunting – Anthony Harkin – Mark Hill – Rob Johnson – Matthew Predny – Jessica Vickers – Jane Watt – Sophie Wright

Presented by Luckiest Productions and One Eyed Man Productions.

The Hayes Theatre, Sydney, until 30^th June 2018.

Performance 22^nd May 2018 reviewed by Bill Stephens

Blazey Best as Rose in "Gypsy"
 

The role of Rose, the mother of all stage mothers, in the musical “Gypsy”, is acknowledged as the Everest of musical theatre roles. On Broadway such theatre legends as Ethel Merman, Patti Lupone, Angela Lansbury and Bernadette Peters have been acclaimed for their interpretations of this role. In Australia few who saw Gloria Dawn, Toni Lamond or most recently, Caroline O’Connor, will forget their memorable performances in the show which many claim is “the greatest of all musicals”.

For his production, director Richard Carroll has thrown away the template of previous productions to re-imagine this show as a chamber musical in the Hayes Theatre house style.  With the help of a resourceful set and costume design by Alicia Clements, and a truck-load of props, Carroll has devised a gritty production in which just nine actors conjure up the milieu of the hard-slog, shabby show-biz world of vaudeville and burlesque. A world in which Rose battles to eke out an existence for herself and her two untalented daughters, who, she’s convinced, will become “stars”.

Of Rose, Sondheim has said, “the fact that she’s monstrous to her daughters and the world is secondary…she’s a very American character, a gallant figure and a life force”. 

Blazey Best, who gave such a remarkable performance in the previous Hayes Theatre production of “Miracle City”, takes on the role of Rose in a startlingly uncompromising tour-de-force performance which will certainly sear itself into the minds of all who see it.

Her Rose snarls at everyone in a curious clenched-teeth, slurring delivery which sometimes compromises the clarity of Sondheim’s lyrics. She shouts her songs rather than sings them, and it is not until the second act, when she is challenged by her daughter, Louise, that any rays of humanity are allowed to emerge.

Best plays the entire show on full throttle, leaving little petrol in the tank for the climatic “Roses Turn”, which although delivered at almost frightening intensity, fails to move as it should. It’s a technically brilliant performance which will ripen when Best locates some heart and soul for Rose.

Laura Bunting (Louise) and Jessica Vickers (Baby June) in "Gypsy"
 

As Louise, Roses’ eldest daughter, Laura Bunting gives a compelling performance as the shy, adolescent slowly growing aware of her mother’s motives when Rose begins molding her into their next meal ticket as a budding burlesque queen, when her sister, Baby June (Jessica Vickers) flies the coop.

Her singing of the charmingly staged “Little Lamb” and the duet with Vickers “If Momma Were Married” provides two of the vocal highlights of the production, and her strip routines, performed towards the end of the show, are the closest yet witnessed in any production of “Gypsy” to those of the real life Gypsy Rose Lee.  

An audition scene in "Gypsy"
 

Ingenious staging by Carroll and spot-on choreography by Cameron Mitchell keep the hard-working cast, including Joe Accaria’s versatile four-piece band, busy playing multiple roles. The results are sometimes surprising, occasionally confusing with very little time for anyone to make a real impression. Standout performances however include Mark Hill as Tulsa, brilliantly tap-dancing through “All I Need is the Girl”, Jane Watt, first as the sassy put-upon director’s audition assistant, then, hilariously, as the shop-worn stripper, Tessie Tura, and Anthony Harkin as the Rose’s long-suffering, but smitten, agent Herbie.

But in the end, and despite its title, “Gypsy” is all about Rose, and while this production is never less than interesting, its success will rest on how audiences respond to Blazey Best’s brave and idiosyncratic performance in this role.

Mark Hill as Tulsa in "Gypsy" 

 

This review first published in Australian Arts Review. www.artsreview.com.au

The Merry Widow

The Australian Ballet

Canberra Theatre Centre
Until May 30

Reviewed by Samara Purnell

What does one do when your small country of Pontevedro is bankrupt? Why, drink of course! And hold a Ball to entice wealthy widow Hanna Glawari to marry your last hope of saving the country's finances - Count Danilo. Whilst drinking. Did we mention there will be champagne?

Lana Jones and artists of the Australian Ballet, photograph by Daniel Boud

Opening night of this beautifully resplendent ballet, "The Merry Widow", saw former Canberra dancer Lana Jones in the lead role of Hanna and Adam Bull, a suitably wonderful lead, as the dashing and perennially pickled Count Danilo. Ako Kondo danced Valencienne with a lovely balance of joy and solemnity. Kondo was partnered by Chengwu Guo as Camille, her dashing lover - but she is torn by her loyalty to her husband, Baron Zeta. Colin Peasley gave a touching performance as the Baron, who eventually realises and accepts with grace and dignity that his younger bride's heart lies elsewhere. Peasley's sidekick Njegus provided many of the comedic moments with a delightful performance from Franco Leo. 

Theatre-goers on subsequent nights will also enjoy seeing former Australian Ballet stars Steven Heathcote and David McAllister perform these roles, as well as Dimity Azouri, also a former Canberran, in the role of Hanna. 

Two love stories unfold to an exquisitely beautiful, romantic and accessible score, arranged by former musical director of the Australian Ballet, John Lanchbery, from Franz Lehar's original operetta. 

This production had everything in spades. The lush, beautiful costumes, from the ball gowns in Act 1, the rich reds in the second act and the Belle Epoque dresses, replete with amazing hats in the final act were stunning and the set with its fairylight chandeliers, textured layers, muted bronze, rich reds and faux garden fountain impressed.

                                                            Artists of the Australian Ballet in The Merry Widow, photograph by Daniel Boud

Kondo and Guo gave a nuanced and believable performance as the lovers, but their lifts were not effortless. The regular attempts from Camille to clutch Valencienne's breasts, however, were!

Jones and Bull's chemistry developed toward the end of the show. Their nostalgic pas de deux as younger lovers was poignant and beautifully staged. When Danilo cradles Hanna's head as they waltz to the recognisable refrain, we melted. Several seasoned theatre-goers, familiar with many productions of both the ballet and opera of "The Merry Widow" admitted what a moving performance this had been and did not deny shedding a tear. 

The male corps, notably the two, striking court attendants, in Act 1 gave an entertaining balance of dashing charm and caddish drunkenness, as there were drinks, you see. Marcus Morelli's dancing in Act 2 was striking and assured as the lead dancer of the Pontevedrians, with their Cossack inspired choreography and costumes. His leaps and spins were executed with a lightness and impressive agility.

"The Merry Widow" is performed with most of the corps de ballet on stage. And champagne. The scenes are rich and bustling but space was noticeably tight during several ensemble pieces, with more than 25 dancers on stage, seeming to mildly restrict the freedom of some movements, at least giving an awareness of the space and how any errant arm or foot a centimetre off line could cause a collision.

The choreography may be less demanding than some classical ballets, but undertaken with freedom and joie de vivre, that made this such an appealing and moving show.

Simon Thew conducted Orchestra Victoria exquisitely as the musicians perfectly accompanied the dancers, never distracting or overpowering them. 

"The Merry Widow" was originally directed by Sir Robert Helpmann, commissioned for the Australian Ballet in 1975. Everything about this 2018 production produced a smile. 

The Australian Ballet's production of "The Merry Widow" had the audience in raptures right from the opening bars of music and the sound of pointe-shoed feet taking their place on stage. The audience clapped when the local gal appeared, clapped when the leading man made his first appearance, laughed at all the stock jokes, applauded and gasped with wonder at the set changes and whistled and cheered at the curtain call. It goes to show Canberra audiences were absolutely primed for a visit from the Australian Ballet, performing a classical piece, and miss having them as a regular fixture on the calendar. 

It is shows and theatre experiences such as this, that makes little girls fall in love with ballet and all the colour and theatre of it and dream of growing up to be a ballerina, as Jones, now starring as "The Merry Widow" did.

TULLY

Review by © Jane Freebury

Somehow or other, the South African-American actress Charlize Theron is able to switch between the most intimate of stories, like this one, Tully, and action adventure and make it work. As the one-armed road warrior in Mad Max: Fury Road, she nailed Imperator Furiosa with a steely performance while here she seems just like a woman feels after a new baby and a string of sleepless nights.

In a daring career move in her twenties, Theron took up the role of a serial killer in the film Monster (2003). It was a memorable performance as she negotiated the character, a former prostitute convicted of killing six men and executed for her crimes. She didn't look good either, even though you might think it impossible of Theron.

This actress is clearly someone who loves a challenge and is able to live in the skin of her character—quite an asset. In Jason Reitman’s new film she is Marlo, a mother in her early forties who has just had her third child. To get into character she had put on weight again, as she did in Monster.

 New baby Mia is adorable but demanding. Marlo is also coping with a son with behavioural problems and an unintentionally inattentive husband, Drew (Ron Livingstone). She is on leave from work in human resources—where she says, ruefully, her English literature degree got her—and there’s not much to go back to work for either.

Her wealthy brother, Craig (Mark Duplass) and his wife seem to be on top of it all. So well organised are they, they have no difficulty in combining stylish dinner parties with family life. As a baby shower gift, he offers to pay for a night nanny, and it isn’t long before Marlo caves in and makes the call.

Night-time nanny Tully (Mackenzie Davis) also seems supremely in control of her life. She is everything Marlo is not. Single, slim, carefree, responsible only to herself.

Annoyingly upbeat, as played by Davis. Then again she underlines how new mothers, left wondering what happened to their bodies and when they will ever again sleep through the night, can perceive  themselves in a constant round of menial tasks.

This is another film from a director who has specialised in stories that dissect contemporary life choices and responsibilities, and it is very welcome.

Memorable characters Reitman has offered us are corporate downsizer (George Clooney) who comes face-to-face with his solitary existence in Up in the Air and pregnant teenager (Ellen Page) in Juno, who will go to term but won’t keep the baby. While Clooney’s character finds himself marooned as the result of life choices, young Juno manages to get through it all, and move on.

Although Tully explores the dilemma that many women have to confront as mothers, the narrative in the film falls short. It is frustrating, because the exposition is so authentic and promising, and is the work of screenwriter Diablo Cody, Reitman's frequent collaborator.
The sequence where the two women go out together to experience Marlo’s old haunts in Bushwick when she was single, opens up a new dimension, but the narrative stalls. Both Juno and Up in the Air have a similarly modest running time, but they offer more complexity with more satisfying results.

The film's imaginative fugue ends up being rather internalist. This is also its charm, but Tully would have benefited from more heft and with one or two other characters who were more layered too.

Rated M, 96 minutes
3.5 Stars

Also published at Jane's blog

BOSOM BUDDIES

With Nancye Hayes and Todd McKenney. Devised by Peter J Adams. Directed by Jason Langley. The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre. May 21-22. 

A bit of a whirlwind visit, this, but those lucky enough to catch Nancye Hayes and Todd McKenney in full anecdotal flight were clearly delighted by these two rare performers.  

Quite a few years ago they teamed up for a lovely two hander called Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, about a rich older woman who takes dance lessons from a younger instructor. Now, off the leash of a scripted play (but in a piece with its own disciplines), they spend a deeply rich couple of hours mining their own careers and memories, even stopping to field some audience questions.

McKenney is long legged and funny and still a dancing whirlwind when he wants to be.  The Boy From Oz, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and, most chillingly, the MC from Cabaret are all revisited as is his long stint as a ruthless judge on channel 7’s Dancing with the Stars.

Hayes, with a far longer resume, ranges from her first starring show, Sweet Charity along an award winning time line that includes My Fair Lady, Annie, Guys and Dolls, Sweeney Todd…and having the Hayes Theatre named after her. A short snatch of Sally Bowles is a revelatory reminder that the both Sally and the Elsie whose life and death she sings about are English. The language and the characters of the two women are immediately vivid and poignant.

A screen upstage enables snippets from the past and a generous selection of seats allows the occasional sit down segment. But mostly there’s no rest for these wicked performers and the audience loves that.

As do I, growing up with a father who was steering a follow spot in Sydney for J. C Williamson (and the Tivoli and the Royal) at the time Hayes was in her first professional shows. Appropriate, too, that the smooth lighting is by designer Trudy Dalgleish who was one of our first students out of Drama at Canberra’s Phillip College in the 1970s. Bosom Buddies is part of the passing on of a theatrical inheritance.

Hayes and McKenney put on a splendid show, steeped in the love and language of dance and song and musicals.  More, please!

Alanna Maclean

BOSOM BUDDIES - NANCYE HAYES and TODD MCKENNEY

Bosom Buddies with Nancye Hayes and Todd McKenney.

Devised by Peter J. Adams. Directed by Jason Langley. Musical director. Michael Tyack. A Christine Dunstan Production. The Playhouse. Canberra Theatre Centre. May 21 and 22 2018. Bookings: www.canberatheatrecentre.com.au or 62752700.

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

“Thirty years” says Todd McKenney. “How about you?” “55” replies Nancye Hayes.  Together, these legends of the Australian musical theatre stage have sung, danced, tapped and acted their way into the hearts of a nation. Together these shining stars of the stage have notched up ninety years of dazzling performances, thrilling the crowds, and bringing that incandescent touch of Broadway into our lives. And through it all they have remained bosom buddies.

For two hours they hold their audience enthralled, wrapped in a heart-warming aura of sheer nostalgia as Hayes and McKenney comment on clips from their hit musical, reminisce over cute childhood images, recount their experiences on This is Your Life and Dancing With The Stars and through it all offer unforgettable snatches of song and dance. They are your consummate hoofers and old hoofers never die. They just keep on tapping and singing their way into the history of the Australian musical stage.

And for any naysayers who might dare to suggest “they’re past it” or “over the hill” Bosom Buddies is proof positive that these two glorious entertainers can still hit the notes or trip the light fantastique. In an evening of armchair theatre, combined with snippets of two brilliant careers, Hayes and McKenney trace their lives and careers from Hayes’ spectacular success in Sweet Charity and McKenney’s starring role in 42^nd Street. The inspiration came much earlier, when Hayes was taken to “Annie Get Your Gun” and McKenney danced for his dancing teacher Mum. Their paths were set and along the way stories of laughter, tears and show after show became the recipe for a wonderful evening of anecdote, reminiscence and showbiz pizzazz. Hayes still commands that centre stage with Charity arms held high. McKenney can still do the terpsichorean twirl and touch the heart with his favourite Tenterfield Saddler. Above on the screen Peter Allen in concert shows why the Boy From Oz reached out to change Todd McKenney’s life.

For all those in the audience who can still remember, this show is a joyous trip down memory lane.  The Allen Brothers on Brian Henderson’s Bandstand, Pauline Hanson’s dubious dancing the cha cha contrasted with Sonia Kruger’s exquisite partnership with the elegant McKenny. This is their lives, but it is also the lives of many of the audience who were there and may still recall Hayses’s Fastrada in Pippin or Sally Bowles in Cabaret or McKenney’s decadently mischievous MC.  Bosom Buddies is the gift of two very dear friends to the audiences they love.

During the interval, the audience is asked to write questions on one hundred dollar bills which are then collected by the Kit Kat Club’s MC. As the makeup is removed, Hayes reads out the tit bits of private information that the questions elicit. Stories of costume mishaps, favourite moments, a husband’s ashes that came to McKenney’s show, a heart attack victim resuscitated by a Priscilla cast member in an Emu drag outfit. The stories of a career full to the brim of success and delight tumble forth from the hundred dollar bills as we revel in a night with these two remarkable and generous performers.

And why do they do it? Let Hayes have the last word. “We love it” And your audiences love you too. Bosom Buddies will be performed in an abridged version at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival next month. Don’t miss it. And Todd and Nancye, thanks for the memories.

Adelaide Cabaret Festival Season
Sunday June 10 at 3 p.m. and 6.30 p.m.
Monday June 11 at 5 p.m.
Bookings: BASS 131246

BOSOM BUDDIES

Devised by Peter J Adams

Directed by Jason Langley

Musical Director: Michael Tyack

A Christine Dunstan Production

The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre to 22 May

Reviewed by Len Power 21 May 2018

The show, ‘Bosom Buddies’, is subtitled ‘Two theatrical legends, one remarkable story’.  This show itself is destined to become legendary.

The recipient of three Lifetime Achievement Awards, three Helpmann Awards and many others, Nancye Hayes is an actor, dancer, singer, choreographer and director who began her career in My Fair Lady in 1961 and established her name in the title role in Sweet Charity in 1967.  Since then she has appeared in countless shows and even has a theatre named after her – the Hayes Theatre in Sydney.

Critically acclaimed and award-winning singer, dancer, actor and all-round entertainer Todd McKenney stopped the show ‘42nd Street’ in 1989 with his singing and dancing of ‘We’re In the Money’.  He was the controversial judge on the Channel 7 hit series ‘Dancing with the Stars’ for many years and was a superb Peter Allen in the original Australian production of ‘The Boy From Oz’ for nearly 1000 performances over two years.  He has been centre stage in Australia for more than 35 years.

‘Bosom Buddies’ isn’t a collection of star reminiscences that we’ve all heard before.  The two stars delve deep into their past and give us the lows as well as the highs.  Even if you’ve followed their careers closely over the years, most of what you’ll hear in this show is new.

Their video presentation of photos from their past, as well as archival film from some of the shows they’re starred in, is quite enlightening and their comments about themselves and each other is at times very funny.  Both performers have the skill of making it all sound casual and off-the-cuff – something that is not easy to do successfully.

The highlights of the show are moments from past iconic performances.  Nancye Hayes gives us a stirring ‘Broadway Baby’ and ‘Cabaret’ and Todd McKenney is very moving in his performance of ‘Tenterfield Saddler’ from ‘The Boy From Oz’.  Watching these two friends and colleagues dancing so skilfully together is a delight.

The attractive and well-thought out production has been nicely directed by Jason Langley and there is fine musical direction by Michael Tyack and excellent lighting by Trudy Dalgleish.

This is a night in the theatre as memorable as any of the shows that these two Australian icons have appeared in over the years.

Len Power’s reviews are also broadcast on his ‘On Stage’ performing arts radio program on Mondays and Wednesdays from 3.30pm on Artsound FM 92.7.