By Peter Kemp
Burrinja Theatre
Kate Miller-Heidke Catching Diamonds Tour 2024.
Kate Miller-Heidke is an award -winning singer-songwriter who traverses the worlds of folk pop, opera and musical theatre.
She has performed on stages as varied as the Grannd Ole Opry in Nashville, Coachella, the New York Metropolitan Opera, the Eurovision Song Contest, the Sydney Opera house and the Roebuck Bay Hotel Broome.
And now after long months locked away writing sings, she’s hitting the road to play in dozens of beautiful theatres around Australia.
Kate will be playing her greatest hits and most beloved pop songs as well as performing tracks from her original musicals Muriel’s Wedding the Musical and the new Bananaland, some unexpected covers, taking requests, and telling stories from across her varied career.
Excitingly she’ll be debuting new material from her forthcoming 6th studio album, which will dive deep into the genre of folk.
Season: Saturday 21 September. At 7.30pm.
1812 Theatre
The Laramie Project.
Matthew Shepard, an openly gay college student was tied to a fence post and brutally murdered in a prairie outside Laramie, Wyoming in 1998 because if his sexually identity.
Shepard’s murder is one of the most well-known hate crimes in recent American history.
For The Laramie Project the Tectonic Theatre Project travelled to Laramie just four weeks after Shepard’s death, with the intent of creating a theatrical portrait of a town coming to grips with hate-fuelled violence. Over the course of a year and a half, the group interviewed over 299 people, collecting a wide array of different perspective on the crime.
The dialogue and monologue that comprise The Laramie Project are taken from these interviews, along with news reports, courtroom transcripts, and journal entries.
Season: 3 – 26 October. Bookings: 9758 3964.
Nova Music Theatre
Brigadoon
The story is one of fantasy, hoe faith, love and destiny.
Teo Americans on a hunting trip to Scotland find themselves lost in the forest.
They hear singing from a nearby village which is not shown on their map.
They find the village of Brigadoon only after a while to find why it is not on the map. It only appears for one day every century.
They attend the fair and are amazed to see the dancing, singing and all that goes on in a Scottish fair.
The dancing and singing certainly stirred up the audience and your reviewer suspects that there were many Scotsmen and or of Scottish descent in the audience.
Tommy, the American, was played by Joshua Houston.
An excellent performer not only a good actor but an accomplished singer.
His scenes with Fiona were a delight. Fiona, the girl who fell in love with Tommy was played by Rafaela Cleeve Gerkens.
A wonderful performance in acting plus the joy of a delightful voice on singing.
A wedding was planned for the evening and the bridegroom , Charlie Dalrymple was played by Matt Jakowenko who gave a stirling performance both as an actor and singer.
The Bride for Charlie was Jean MacLaren, a lovely actor and a great singer.
Tommy’s friend Jeff was portrayed by Toby Thornton.
A good balance to Joshua and a positive performance.
A very large cast which included Scottish Highland Dancers, Isla MacDonald, Aysha Ordenes, Lily Rakete, and Tristan Wainwright.
As professional highland dancers they certainly added to the production.
A wonderful evening of theatre and Nova Music theatre are to be congratulated for bringing such a high standard of theatre to the local stge.
Victorian Opera
Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
A story of a barber who was sent to Botany Bay by a judge who wanted his young wife.
He escaped and returned to England to get his revenge.
It was certainly a change to see a musical sung by opera singers.
Sweeney Todd was portrayed by Ben Mingay, an excellent performance both in acting with the qualities of a bass-baritone adding to the feel of such a character.
Mrs Lovatt, his partner in crime, was played by Antoinette Halloran.
Halloran was a great partner to Mingay and gave a great performance in the role.
Also, her wonderful voice added to the production.
Anthony Hope, Sweeney’s young friend who saved him from the sea, was played by Lachlan Lawton.
A great performance not only in acting but also a good voice. His future wife and daughter if Sweeney Todd, Joahnna, was played by Pntabona whose combined voices had no trouble in singing the most difficult piece.
The evil judge Turpin was given an outstanding performance by Adrian Tamburinin.
Very good acting , with a voice filled with menace.
The beadle played by Kanen Breen came across as the evil sidekick to Judge Turpin.
The Beggar woman was portrayed by Margaret Trubiano.
Another wonderful performer adding to the high standard of the evening.
The orchestra suited the evening and did not drown out the singers.
A show not to be missed but only suitable for adults as it covers gruesome murders, ana asylum with e inmates, violence, and cannibalism.
