Arts
Is there room on your broom?
SUMMER is here and that means a plethora of children’s theatre offerings around Melbourne. Room on the Broom is just one of several family friendly events on at the Arts Centre this month.
Review: Circus 1903
Step right up folks to the greatest show on earth … such is the feel of the lush and grandiose Circus 1903. Harking back to the travelling circus days of yore, the show oozes nostalgia while featuring top international acts of the now.
Rocking the book charts
Rock great Jimmy Barnes has become a publishing sensation, joining JK Rowling and Andy Griffiths as one of the best-selling authors in Australia
$20 for a sneak peek at hit musical
DID someone say The Book of Mormon tickets for only $20? Yes, this offer may interest Melbourne fans of the hit musical. But you’d want to queue up early.
A naughty night out
Last seen in Melbourne a year ago, Briefs is back in town and the show is just as rude, hilarious and laugh-out-loud surprising as before.
City set to sparkle after dark
MARATHON dance parties, neon streets and Shrek-inspired fairytale installations. Welcome to White Night 2017.
Let the festive season resonate
FROM its modest 1742 premiere, Handel’s great oratorio and one of classical music’s best known works, Messiah has cast itself in Western music culture and, as the festive season barrels towards Christmas, it spikes to make its annual appearance.
Dior Down Under
A sumptuous display of more than 140 garments from Christian Dior Couture will be on display at Melbourne in August as part of The House of Dior exhibition at the NGV.M
The sound of Wagner continues
FOR last week’s Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert, the welcome return of guest conductor Simone Young came with an equally thrilling evening of Bruckner with Symphony No.9 in D minor and excerpts from Act 2 of Wagner’s last opera, Parsifal .
Comedy show up for literary award
THE biggest hit of this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival has been short-listed for a major literary award.
New Aussie musical
WE need and want to see and support new Australian musicals and The Gathering, by Will Hannagan and Belinda Jenkin, has some commendable musical composition, writes reviewer Kate Herbert.
The Ring’s epic finale
The fourth and final instalment of Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle is a four-and-a-half-star masterpiece, writes reviewer Paul Selar.
Rollicking reefer fun
Reefer Madness is a bit of rollicking fun with some ridiculous parody and singable songs but it cannot compare to the bizarre, unintentional comedy of that original, propaganda movie that was supposed to scare American parents, writes reviewer Kate Herbert.
Duo’s study in despair
American writer Jason Robert Brown based The Last Five Years on his own crumbling marriage and if you are feeling vulnerable about love lost, then this intimate musical may send you into a spiral of sadness or regret, writes reviewer Kate Herbert.
Wagner’s third act
REACHING part three, Siegfried lies at the nexus of Richard Wagner’s vast four-part journey through Der Ring des Nibelungen, writes reviewer Paul Selar.
Five-star brilliance
Almost four hours of Richard Wagner’s absorbing music and libretto became realised in near perfection in the second instalment of his Ring Cycle, writes reviewer Paul Selar.
An opera for the kids
OPERA Australia and Arts Centre Melbourne’s new family opera El Kid, takes an issue familiar to us all, particularly pertinent in schools, and gives its audience a good reality check with it, writes reviewer Paul Selar.
An opera epic
Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle is an epic 16-hours of opera spread over four performance cycles. Opera Australia performed the first opera — Das Rheingold — in Melbourne this week, and it was magnificent writes reviewer Paul Selar.
A wordless, soundless, violent world.
Animal is an accomplished and fearless piece that employs primal physicality and distressing imagery to raise issues about violence against women, writes reviewer Kate Herbert.
A modern take on 19th century Russia
NADIA Tass’s production of Uncle Vanya begins with whimsy and farce tinged with cynicism but, as these late 19th century Russian characters confront the futility of their lives, the mood collapses into despair and grim pessimism, writes reviewer Kate Herbert.
Three men in a violent world
THREE men confront violence and adversity in the short play Rust and Bone, adapted by Caleb Lewis from three short stories by Canadian writer, Craig Davidson, writes reviewer Kate Herbert.
Aardman characters head Down Under
Wallace and Gromit and friends: The magic of Aardman will open at ACMI next year as part of the Victorian Government’s Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series.
An elder reflects
Jack Charles V the Crown is not perfect theatre but it has heart and, despite his obvious flaws, Uncle Jack Charles may win over even the hardest critic, writes reviewer Kate Herbert.
The art of writing
If you love words, reading fiction or have ever been a student of creative writing, the wit and rhythm of Seminar: A Comedy will tickle your fancy, writes Kate Herbert.
Our last waltz with Matilda
Brisbane set to welcome the most awarded musical in Australian history as Matilda bows out of Melbourne
Wishin’ and hopin’.
Pop idol Dusty Springfield’s unique, sensual and soulful singing is the core of Dusty The Musical, a show that follows her career from shy, Irish Catholic schoolgirl until her death in 1999, writes reviewer Kate Herbert.
Classic comedy still gets laughs
Though this production of The Odd Couple doesn’t hit all the necessary high points, Francis Greenslade and Shaun Micallef trade on their natural, comic instincts to make it an entertaining night in the theatre, writes Kate Herbert.
The burden of past and present
Blessed is a play filled with the pain, despair and isolation of two disenfranchised people unable to escape the dire circumstances of their past or their present, writes reviewer Kate Herbert.
