The subject of masculinity and what it means to be a man in today’s Australia are skillfully explored in Darlinghurst Theatre Company’s production of Savages, written by Patricia Cornelius. Opening with a blast of light and sound, we meet four thirty-something Aussie men, about to embark on the ‘trip of a lifetime’ aboard a cruise…
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Australian comedy legend Barry Humphries this week announced the nominees for the 19th annual Barry Award – an award named in his honour – as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. The Barry Award is one of the world’s most prestigious comedy awards. Launched in 1998 as the ‘Stella Award’ it was renamed in…
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Melbourne will be playing host to a celebrity wedding on Friday night. But this isn’t quite the stuff that celebrity gossip mags are made on. This wedding is a protest wedding! Comedian’s Zoe Coombs Marr and Rhys Nicholson will get married on Friday at the Festival Club in a wedding ceremony designed to highlight the…
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The worldwide smash hit musical We Will Rock You has returned to Australia. The Australian tour begins at Sydney’s Lyric Theatre on 28 April 2016, then travels to the Lyric Theatre, QPAC, Brisbane from 10 July; then on to Melbourne’s Regent Theatre from 30 August. Perth’s Crown Theatre follows from November, then the Festival Theatre,…
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Recently opened at the UQ Art Museum, ephemeral traces: Brisbane’s artist-run scene in the 1980s is a sister exhibition to their 2012 offering Return to sender, exploring the work of a select group of Brisbane artists during the mid 1980s. Where Michele Helmrich’s Return to sender focused on the artists driven out of Queensland by the conservative John Bjelke-Petersen government, ephemeral…
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After receiving a huge amount of support for its premier season in Sydney in 2015, Gail Louw’s one woman play Blonde Poison is heading to Melbourne for a strictly limited time in June. Starring previous Best Actress Nominee at the 2015 Sydney Theatre Awards, Belinda Giblin transforms into a character of strength and vast dimensions,…
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Cabaret performer Shirley Gnome brings her show from Vancouver, Canada to debut in Melbourne this month. After making waves at the fringes in Perth and Adelaide, the production has been accepted as a late-addition to the festival with three shows scheduled. The performance is a an exciting blend of bawdy music, clever lyrics and profoundly smart insights…
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In her play Savages, currently showing at the Eternity Playhouse in Darlinghurst, Patricia Cornelius brings us face to face with a segment of society that is all too familiar these days – the violent man. Inspired by the death of Diane Brimble aboard a cruise ship in 2002, Cornelius takes a look at what drives…
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Just when you thought you were so sure that you knew the story of Grease, Squabbalogic is here to revive THE ORIGINAL GREASE for all of our grimy reeducations. The original is dark and dingy, full of the sex and swearing of the rock ‘n’ roll era that our bubblegum Pink Ladies and swarve T-Birds know…
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As the curtain opens you would be forgiven for thinking you had stumbled into the wrong theatre. On stage we see Sherlock Holmes concluding a murder investigation and catching his killer – but how can that be when we are only three minutes in? Here, at the start of the Pavilion Theatre’s The Game’s Afoot;…
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After appearing in last year’s season of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, Joel Creasey has fast become one of Australia’s favourite celebrities. Creasey’s show at this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival is appropriately titled The Crown Prince because, well, why not? This latest work from Creasey details all the highlights from his…
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Winter solstice festival Dark Mofo will return to Hobart this June to greet the colder months with fire, art, music, food, film, and more, and we’ve finally got our first look at how this year’s event will be shaped. The midwinter festival brings visitors from all over Australia and abroad to be a part of…
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The exclusive one-night-only event at the Art Centre Melbourne’s Hamer Hall will showcase Megan Hilty with her four-piece band including musical director and pianist Matt Cusson and husband Brian Gallagher on guitar. Those lucky enough to score a ticket can except to sing along to hit songs, They Just Keep Moving the Line (SMASH!), Almost…
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David Campbell (Les Misérables, Guys and Dolls) is set to return to the musical stage for the lead role in the world premier production of Dream Lover – The Bobby Darin Musical this September. NSW Minister for Trade, Tourism and Major Events Stuart Ayres joined director Simon Phillips (Priscilla, Queen of the Desert – The…
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The first weekend of April saw the inaugural Rock And Roll Writers Festival take over Brisbane music venue The Brightside for two days of discussion and debate, devoted to the strong relationship between music and literature. A coup for the Brisbane arts scene, festival organisers Leanne de Souza and Joe Woolley brought together a killer line-up of…
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Melbourne’s Arts Centre was buzzing on Saturday night with excited adults and children alike awaiting the start of the highly anticipated Cirque Adrenaline. As the name suggests, the show aims to wow audiences with edge of your seat displays, and showcase circus artists performing death defying stunts. As the sound hushed and the curtain rose…
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The award winning production, Tribes, written by Nina Raine and Directed by Susanna Dowling is coming to the Ensemble Theatre in Sydney. The play that prized the 2012 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play at the 2012 New York Drama Critic’s Circle Award and scored the 2012 Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Play is inviting…
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The Goethe Insitut presents the Australian debut of Berlin’s analogue photographer, Sven Marquardt. His two exhibition of works, Fotografien, showcasing at Melbourne’s The Substation from 28 April – 31 May, and Future’s Past at Sydney’s Ambush Gallery or the Head On Festival from 5 -22 May, tell a story of the present, past and future…
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In his first Australian solo show, one of the UK’s most energetic and charming performers Joel Dommett is bringing us Conquer as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. He was kind enough to answer five quick questions, like we have done for many other acts during MICF. What do you personally find enlightening about comedy today?…
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A Public Memorial Service for Jon English has been announced for fans to come and celebrate the life and work of the loved Australian singer, songwriter, musician and actor. After playing Judas Iscariot in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney in 1972, Jon won the hearts of the Australian public. From then…
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The quite pleasurable Jan van de Stool (the character from the mind of theatre performer Queenie van de Sandt) is a woman who really enjoys he singing, dancing and therapy. It sure was a therapy mesh, but an awesome one. Jan questioning why her ‘workshop’ was supposed to be included in a comedy fest. But…
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The Adelaide Cabaret Festival this year has been programmed with the concept of what Cabaret could be and under the watchful creative eye of first time Artistic Directors Ali McGregor and Eddie Perfect, a stellar festival line up has been announced! Taking over from outgoing A.D Barry Humphries, McGregor and Perfect have taken to their new role at the…
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When the Sex Pistols‘ TV interview with the journalist Bill Grundy broke up in a barrage of four-letter words in November 1976, the incident and its aftermath filled the front pages of Britain’s tabloid press for an entire week. From this moment Punk entered the British consciousness and quickly spread around the world. It is…
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Kinky Boots, the musical from Harvey Fierstein and Jerry Mitchell, added to its awards tally of 6 Tony Awards last night picking up 3 awards at the 40th Olivier Awards. The musical which debuts in Melbourne in October won Best New Musical, Best Costume Design for costume designer Gregg Barnes and Best Actor in a…
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Furies Theatre are presenting their third production, swapping genders and bringing women to the front of Tom Stoppard‘s Rozencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The Kings Cross theatre will be particularly looking at the role of women in the sidelines of the theatre industry, and exploring the characters they are often cast as. The play tells the…
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Hannah Gadsby current comedy show Dogmatic won’t leave the audience feeling warm and fuzzy inside. While a far step away from her manic-depressive character she has become synonymous for playing in break-out success Please Like Me, Gadsby is organically inclined to draw distinction to the somber over the sunny. A self-aware comedian, reflecting on shows…
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So the Melbourne International Comedy Festival is continuing on with the lols and we had some very good shows getting some awesome attention. At this half-way point, so many acts are looking to change styles, evoking a kind of journey with their careers each and every year. Aunty Donna likes to change things up to…
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Western Australian based collective Pony Express will be heading to Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens this May to present Ecosexual Bathhouse, an instalment that will explore the social and psychological boundaries between ecology, evolution and sexuality. The event will turn the gardens into an immersive and interactive performance area, intertwining elements of human sexuality and the…
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Boy, was it nice to put a 3D human being to the voice that is Matt Okine. Over the years we have become so fond of his vocal prowess and Instagram snaps, but seeing the boy wonder himself in the flesh, staring us right in the face, was an absolute delight. Having spoken to Okine…
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Since the Melbourne International Comedy Festival is in full swing, we here at the AU Review have decided to give a whole bunch of performers who have travelled far and wide to the most funniest month in Melbourne’s year five quick questions ahead of their performances. The first of these is with Alex Edelman who…
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