McKELLEN: PLAYING THE PART

 Directed by Joe Stephenson

Streaming on ABC IView to 9 February

 

Reviewed by Len Power 11 January 2022

 

At the start of the documentary, ‘McKellen: Playing The Part’, actor Sir Ian McKellen advises the unseen interviewer that he is unsure how he should present himself.  With self-mocking humour, he suggests that, even appearing as himself, he is still giving a performance.  It’s just a matter of deciding which performance it should be.

This candour at the start of the documentary continues throughout.  He may feel he is giving a performance but his skill at talking directly and fearlessly to us through the camera is thoroughly engaging.  It’s like we’re having our own intimate chat with him.

Born in Lancashire, England in 1939, he spent his childhood in Wigan.  His experience of living through the war as a young child had a lasting impact on him.  Exposed to theatre from an early age, he became active in theatre himself while at Cambridge University.  It was at that time that he decided to become a professional actor.

After four years in regional repertory theatres, he made his first West End appearance and joined Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre Company at the Old Vic in 1965.  His reputation as a formidable classical actor steadily increased and he was constantly in demand.  Work in films came to him later in life and he found international fame for his portrayal of Gandalf in ‘The Lord Of The Rings’ films.

He has been honoured with most major awards including a Tony Award on Broadway, two Academy Award nominations as well as six British Olivier Awards.

He came out publicly as a gay man in 1988 and has been a tireless activist for gay rights since then.  He was a co-founder of Stonewall, an LGBT rights lobby group in the United Kingdom.  He is also known for his tireless charity work.

The documentary includes a considerable amount of archival footage of his acting performances from television as well as interviews in the media about his LGBT support.  His relaxed eloquence and emotional control during a particularly difficult gay rights discussion with a politician on television is one of the highlights of the archival footage shown.

Another aspect of the documentary adds an unexpected dimension.  Certain scenes have been dramatized and woven into the commentary.  It works extremely well.

This is a fine documentary about a remarkable actor and man.  He may be famous but his down to earth manner makes him engaging company.  He radiates honesty laced with a sense of humour throughout.  I didn’t want it to end.

‘McKellen: Playing the Part’ is available for streaming on ABC IView until the 9^th of February.

 

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs and published in his blog 'Just Power Writing' at https://justpowerwriting.blogspot.com/.

 

THE LITTLE PRINCE

 

Lionel Zalachas as The Little Prince.

Adapted from Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s novella. - Directed and choreographed by Anne Tournie.

 Adaption and Co-direction by Chris Mouron. -  Original music by Terry Truck.

Sydney Coliseum Theatre, Rooty Hill, until 23^rd January 2022.

Matinee performance on 8^th January reviewed by Bill Stephens

The Narrator (Chris Mouron)  - Lionel Zalachas (The Little Prince)

Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s novella about a young Prince who visits various planets including earth, in search of answers to questions about human nature with its themes of loneliness, friendship, love and loss has been a magnet for creatives since it was first published in 1943.

 It’s inspired plays, films, ballets, even puppet shows, but this latest lavish interpretation, currently enjoying a return Sydney season in the magnificent new Coliseum Theatre in Rooty Hill, is probably the first to combine circus arts, dance and cutting edge technology in an effort to visualise the abstract concepts inherent in the book.

Lionel Zalachas (The Little Prince) - Dylan Barone (The Fox)

All the characters are there. The Aviator, the Rose, the Vain Man, the Drunkard, the Businessman, the Lamplighter, the Snake, the Fox, all interpreted by skilled acrobats and immersed in surreal imagery . The Lamplighter swings precariously from a lamppost. Computer numerals constantly hurtle around the Businessman, and the Vain Man performs in a world awash with images of handsome males. Each character has its own environment, and thanks to the spectacular immersive digital designs which flood the huge backscreen and stage, each environment is quite wonderful, enhanced as  they are by Terry Trucks superbly atmospheric soundscapes.

Apart from the Narrator, none of the other characters speak. Instead the Narrator, played by the Associate Director and Librettist, Chris Mouron, wanders through the proceedings, sometimes singing, but usually speaking in charming French accented English, quoting abstractions from the original novel. For those unfamiliar with the novel, very few of these quotes offer any assistance towards understanding the purpose of the various characters.

The performers, all of whom appear to be skilled acrobats, are required to convey their feelings and emotions through a mix of dance, aerial acrobatics and movement.

Laurisse Sulty (The Rose) - Lionel Zalachas (The Little Prince)

This creates something of a barrier for the performers however, because while their various apparatus are useful for creating arresting visual effects, they are not particularly useful for expressing emotion, creating an impression that the performer’s physical virtuosity is compromised by the need to perform explanatory choreography. This was particularly noticeable in the performances of Antony Cesar’s Vain Man and Srilata Ray’s Snake, both of whom were obviously dynamic performers bursting for the opportunity to break out of the confinements of their roles.

                                                         Antony Cesar - The Vain Man

Tournie’s quirky choreography worked best in the ensemble numbers, particularly  the delightful “Draw me a Sheep”, “The Ballet of the Lights”, “The Ballet of the Roses”, but most especially in the charming sequence in which  The Fox (Dylan Barone) pleads with The Little Prince (Lionel Zalachas) to tame him.

The Ballet of the Roses.

It’s been noted that the fantasy of The Little Prince works because the logic of the story is based on the imagination of children rather than the stark realism of adults.

This being so then the children at this performance must have been in raptures, having their imaginations overstimulated by the continuous spectacle offered by this production which is scheduled to move on to Broadway following this short season at The Coliseum.   

                                                           Photos:  Prudence Upton.

This Review first published in the digital Edition of CITY NEWS on 10.01. 22.

 

 

 

      

GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY

Written and directed by Conor McPherson -  Music and Lyrics by Bob Dylan. 

Sets and Costumes design by Rae Smith - Lighting design by Mark Henderson

Sound design by Simon Baker –  Movement Director Lucy Hind.

Theatre Royal Sydney until February 27^th.

Reviewed by Bill Stephens

The Company of "Girl From The North Country.

This elegiac portrayal of the lives of a group of people thrown together in a run-down guest house in Minnesota during the depression of 1934 was inspired by the agreement by Bob Dylan to allow access to his entire catalogue of songs for the purpose of creating a musical.

 In his program notes for this production, playwright and director, Conor McPherson recounts how, tasked with this opportunity, this guesthouse vision kept recurring as he sifted through more than 40 albums of Dylan’s’ songs in search of inspiration.

Unlike other musicals crafted from existing catalogues of popular composers, McPherson has not shoe-horned Dylan’s songs into a storyline, but instead has used the songs to create mood and question responses to the various predicaments in which the characters find themselves.

Very much an ensemble show with a stellar cast, each of whom portray a particular character, but who also move scenery and props, play musical instruments and form choirs around microphones to sing vocal arrangements which sensitively enhance the singing of the various soloists, as their individual stories unfold.

The show is set up by an introductory precis delivered by Terence Crawford as Dr. Walker, who introduces characters, narrates the show and even explains what eventually happened to various characters when the show ends. Even so, some of the individual storylines are complicated, and demand concentration particularly when the actors drop character, but remain in costume, to participate as backing singers.

During the musical numbers the cast is often backlit to create atmospheric stage pictures, or remain in full view as scenery flies in and out, occasionally revealing beautiful panoramic sea-views behind them, creating the feeling of an on-going epic saga, rather than a musical.

Lisa McCune (Elizabeth Laine) - Peter Carroll (Mr. Perry) - Peter Kowitz ( Nick Laine)

As Elizabeth Laine, the wife of the owner of the guest house, Nick Laine, Lisa McCune offers a finely observed portrayal as a woman suffering an unspecified mental condition, despite looking more like his daughter than his wife. Her rendition of Forever Young is one of many highlights. Peter Kowitz is excellent as Nick Laine, himself on the brink of a breakdown brought on by his failure to manage the guest house profitably, his wife and son’s mental conditions, and the fact that no one has taken responsibility for the pregnancy of his adopted black daughter, Marianne, affectingly portrayed by Zahra Newman.

Lisa McCune (Elizabeth Laine) - Zahra Newman (Marianne Laine) - Peter Carroll (Mr. Perry)

Peter Carroll commands every scene in which he appears as Mr. Perry the elderly bachelor to whom Laine is trying marry off Marianne, while Callum Francis gives a strong performance as the itinerant boxer, fresh out of jail for a wrongful murder conviction, to whom Marianne is attracted.

Helen Dallimore, as the flirtatious Mrs Burke, Greg Stone as her long-suffering husband, Christina O’Neill as the mysterious Mrs Neilsen, and Grant Piro as the con-man, Reverend Marlowe, all shine among a cast of strong character actors.

Despite its leisurely pace, “Girl from the North Country” is a show guaranteed to leave its audience musing over its characters long after the curtain has fallen, and even for those who may not have previously counted themselves as devotees of Bob Dylan’s songs, the hauntingly beautiful orchestrations and musical arrangements by Simon Hale and Conor McPherson for the twenty two Bob Dylan songs which make up the score for this show, are so superbly interpreted and sensitively performed by the cast, as to be a revelation.

If you’re in a mood for a revelation perhaps “Girl from the North Country” should be on your “must see” list.

 

                                                           Photos by Daniel Boud.

         The review first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 10.01.22

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

ON BROADWAY

Directed by Oren Jacoby

Streaming on SBS On Demand

Reviewed by Len Power 10 January 2022

Although the Covid pandemic caused Broadway theatres to close down for nearly two years, until that happened Broadway had been enjoying a surge in popularity.  New shows like ‘Hamilton’, ‘Come From Away’ and ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ were playing to sold out audiences night after night.

‘On Broadway’, a new documentary directed by Oren Jacoby and currently streaming on SBS On Demand, celebrates that current popularity but also shows how New York almost lost the Broadway theatre district fifty years ago.

The story of Broadway’s current renaissance is a fascinating one.  Crime and a nearly bankrupt city caused people to stay away from the area in droves in the 1970s.  Times Square was run down and dangerous and many theatres were closed for long periods.  Real estate developers talked of razing the theatres and building high rise office blocks and apartments as a way of improving the area.  Broadway was in trouble.

Happily, theatre seems to survive against all odds.  Some theatres were lost but there was also an influx of highly successful, long-running British musicals from Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh.  The Disney organization noticed the huge amounts of money being made by these shows and decided to get in on the act.  The deteriorating New Amsterdam Theatre on 42nd Street was rescued and restored back to its spectacular Art Deco beginnings as a new home for Disney stage musicals.  The success of this venture was the start of a clean up of the whole Broadway area and the rise of the theatre to its new vibrancy today.

In the documentary, an all-star cast tells the inside story of the Broadway theatre, and how it came back from the brink thanks to innovative work, a new attention to inclusion and a sometimes uneasy balance between art and commerce. Legends of the stage and screen, including Helen Mirren, Christine Baranski, August Wilson, James Corden, Alec Baldwin, John Lithgow, Viola Davis, Hugh Jackman and Ian McKellen, take us behind the scenes of Broadway's most groundbreaking and beloved shows, from ‘A Chorus Line’ to ‘Cats’, ‘Phantom of the Opera’ and ‘Hamilton.’

This isn’t just a rosy picture of Broadway.  Some of those interviewed express concern at the prohibitive cost of mounting shows on Broadway.  The high risk of failure sees a lack of experiment and adventure in new shows.  Producers are mostly playing safe with juke box musicals and shows based on recognizable hit movies.  High ticket prices are making it impossible for many people to afford to see a show and tourists rather than locals account for most ticket sales these days.

This is an excellent documentary and a must see for anyone interested in theatre.  It’s currently streaming for free on SBS On Demand.

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs and published in his blog 'Just Power Writing' at https://justpowerwriting.blogspot.com/.

 

 

QL2 DANCE - ON COURSE ON FILM

 

Mentors: Ruth Osborne & Sara Black

Streaming online via QL2 Dance Website

www.ql2.org.au until 31 January 2022

Reviewed by Len Power 29 December 2021

 

QL2 Dance’s annual ‘On Course’ project has always been a great opportunity to observe young dance artists in development.  Alumni who are currently in full time study at universities around Australia and New Zealand usually come together in Canberra at this time to choreograph, collaborate and perform new short works.

However, again this year due to Covid, ‘On Course’ has been presented as ‘On Course On Film’, a festival of dance films made in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, NZ and Canberra by tertiary dance students.  They have created 7 short dance films this year.

Choreographers who submitted films were Caroline De Wan, Christopher Wade, Gabriel Sinclair, Patricia Hayes-Cavanagh, Phillipa Keogh, Otto Kosok and Ruby Ballantyne.

The standout performance this year was ‘Polarity (People Are Tricky)’.  It was directed and choreographed by Christopher Wade and danced by Wade, Rachelle Silsby and Liam Berg.  With well-chosen background scenes in Sydney, the concept was clearly realized through the choreography.  It was attractively and skilfully performed by all three dancers.  Dance was quite rightly the dominant feature here but it was also skilfully filmed and edited with a good eye to location and background.  The choice of music was also excellent.

Gabriel Sinclair’s ‘Self Portrait’ had a strong second half where the dance and emotion of the piece came through strongly.

There was little to inspire or enjoy in the other films.  Too much emphasis was given to filmic tricks at the expense of dance.  The stated concepts for the films were not evident in the finished product and, in many cases, there was no actual dance to enjoy.

I understand that making film is not usually the choreographer’s main focus and that current circumstances have made it the only option to showcase their work this year.  Hopefully, ‘On Course’ can get back to normal next year so that we can see and judge the choreographic works live.

‘On Course On Film’ is accessible free via live streaming until 31 January 2022.  Details and tickets are available through QL2’s website.

 

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs and published in his blog 'Just Power Writing' at https://justpowerwriting.blogspot.com/.

 

West Side Story - 2021 Film Review

 

West Side Story – the 2021 movie.
Release date: 26 December 2021 (Australia)
Directed by    Steven Spielberg
Screenplay by    Tony Kushner
Based on West Side Story by Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim,    Arthur Laurents

Starring   

    Ansel Elgort
    Ariana DeBose
    David Alvarez
    Mike Faist
    Rita Moreno
    Rachel Zegler

Cinematography: Janusz Kamiński
Edited by Michael Kahn, Sarah Broshar

Music by Leonard Bernstein

Reviewed by Frank McKone (December 27, 2021)

Photo: westsidestory.com

Photo: Nick Tavernise

Photo:westsidestory.com

This West Side Story is the real thing.  

It is not a romance, but an insightful tragedy.

Just as Shakespeare intended in his story of Romeo and Juliet set in the newly-wealthy upper-class merchant family society in which he grew up in the 1500s; and as Stephen Sondheim intended in his Maria (Rachel Zegler) and Tony (Ansel Elgort) story of social inequality in his America of massive economic ‘development’ in the 1950s; so the story presented by Steven Spielberg is the tragedy of unintended consequences, warning us in the 2020s that human greed ultimately ends in disaster.

It is bad enough that we as a total world-wide community cannot get our act together to properly and fairly manage the current pandemic – whose existence is essentially natural.

Far worse is our belief in our need for continuously growing wealth which not only causes the divisions between the haves and the have-nots, the in-groups and the out-groups, and the impossibility of acceptance – let alone love – across social boundaries which Shakespeare, Sondheim and Spielberg have all recognised; but also that human greed has now taken us beyond dancing against each other with menacing clicking fingers – way beyond Jets and Sharks upsetting social norms – to the point where human induced heating of the earth is likely to end ignominiously in the death of humankind, represented by the killings of the men at the end of West Side Story with no sense of a future for the women.

Spielberg has been careful to set his movie realistically in the New York of the 1950s, adapting the arts of music, photography and dance, and acting – as originally written by Sondheim and directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins – to show a picture of how and why the street gangs existed as an necessary element of that society.  Spielberg didn’t need to ‘update’, just as Shakespeare didn’t need to ‘update’ Verona.  For us, today, 1950s New York is as far distant as Verona was for Londoners in 1597.

Jerome Robbins’ work on stage transported audiences everywhere into the world of the drama, as all good theatre must.  He made the dance the conduit for our imaginations.  The 1961 movie failed because Ernest Lehman’s screenplay and the directing by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins could not make us believe in the reality of the situation.  The dance, the photography and the acting made the story a mere romance.

Spielberg’s film is of the gritty reality.  The dancing in the streets is integrated into the social life of the have-nots in the streets where their homes are being destroyed by big business ‘re-development’ – and that transports us into that reality.

The result, in my view, is that Spielberg’s West Side Story is a substantial work of art, just as Robbins himself achieved on stage.  Though the advertising describes the 2021 movie as Musical/Romance  2h 36m, I can promise you that after those 2 hours and 36 minutes of Tony’s attempt to believe in himself, after a year’s contemplation in jail for having nearly killed a man in a ‘rumble’ as the previous leader of The Jets, and watching Maria’s realisation that she is left with no option but to do her best for herself despite everything, you will leave the theatre seeing the world around you for what it really is.

You’ll not forget Rita Moreno.  She plays the widow of Doc, still running the drugstore he used to run in the original stage show.  She is the one character who understands the reality and the need for compassion and common sense in an uncertain world.

The Jets and The Sharks
Confrontation in the Dance Hall
Photo: westsidestory.com

Rita Moreno
as Mrs Doc
Photo: westsidestory.com

PS You don't need to know anything about the original stage show or the old movie.  This West Side Story stands alone.  Don't miss it.

THE TEN TENORS - 25TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR.

 

Canberra Theatre 21^st December 2021.

Evening performance reviewed by Bill Stephens

Unarguably one of Australia’s most successful vocal ensembles, The Ten Tenors, have been constantly touring Australia and overseas for over 25 years. However Covid travel restrictions ultimately brought an abrupt end to their touring just as the group arrived in San Paolo to embark on sold-out tour of Brazil in 2020.

Similarly an extensive Australian tour was interrupted with performances having to be re-scheduled when the group were again forced into lockdown in July 2021. After two Covid-enforced cancellations the group finally fulfilled its Canberra commitments with two performances on December 21^st, which were given enthusiastic receptions by large, loyal audiences.

Among the many reasons why The Ten Tenors have remained so popular over the years is the quality of the vocal arrangements. These distinctive arrangements, the work of Stephen Baker, cleverly capitalise on the different qualities of the voices within the ensemble, and while individual voices are highlighted within the arrangements, the superb vocal blending of the ensemble is often spectacular.  Despite the inevitability of personnel changes over the years, the obvious care taken in selecting replacement voices has allowed the integrity of the arrangement to be maintained.

As this was a celebratory program, it included a generous selection of the group’s most popular items among them several of Baker’s excellent medleys. In the current line-up Michael Dimovski, Michael Edwards, Boyd Owen and Cameron Barclay all possess fine operatic voices, superbly featured in the medley of operatic arias and choruses which open the show. Daniel Belle, Adrian Li Donni, JD Smith, Riley Sutton and Sam Ward display their impressive musical theatre experience in the crowd-pleasing “Queen” and “Diva” medleys, the latter of which interwove no fewer than 22 songs usually performed by women, but marvellously interpreted in this show by the entire ensemble.   

However it was Jared Newall, who spent some of his lock down in Canberra starring in a fine local production of “Jersey Boys” for whom the Canberra audience reserved its most enthusiastic applause, particularly during the “Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons” medley which predictably raised the roof.

Slick choreography, disciplined staging, polished microphone technique, attention to diction, excellent lighting and superb sound, all added gloss to an exceptional program superbly presented by an outstanding ensemble which knows what it takes to keep a loyal audience coming back for more.

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