Queensland Ballet, Playhouse Theatre, Brisbane, June 21 and 22 BRISBANE is turning into quite the ballet town. All performances of the Bolshoi Ballet’s Le Corsaire and The Bright Stream were sold out and one might have expected the visit from such a starry company to have diverted dollars from the Queensland Ballet. Far from it….
King Kong, Robot Vs Art
King Kong, Regent Theatre, Melbourne, June 19; Robot Vs Art, Bondi Pavilion, Sydney, June 20 WHAT’S wrong with this picture? It’s late in Act II of King Kong and Queenie van de Zandt, as Cassandra, is singing the show’s most stirring number, Rise. As she sings, a chorus swelling behind her – and van de…
Angels in America, The Maids, Phedre, Othello
Angels in America, Belvoir, June 5 and 6; The Maids, Sydney Theatre Company, June 8; Phedre, Bell Shakespeare, June 12; Othello, Sport for Jove, June 14. THEATRE, from companies big and small, has been particularly rich in the first half of the year in Sydney. There were exceptional new works, old ones given a jolt…
Bangarra Dance Theatre, Nederlands Dans Theater
Bangarra Dance Theatre, Sydney, June 13; Nederlands Dans Theater, Sydney, June 12. TO its eternal credit Bangarra Dance Theatre has never shied away from difficult material. Yes, it wants the riches of Aboriginal culture to be widely seen and appreciated, but it also tackles the seemingly intractable issues facing many indigenous Australians: the grog, violence,…
The Bolshoi in Brisbane
Le Corsaire, May 30; The Bright Stream, June 7. Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane. THERE is no more interesting, influential or thoughtful choreographer working in classical ballet than Alexei Ratmansky and Brisbane was fortunate to see two distinctly different examples of his art in its sell-out Bolshoi Ballet season. And what a pleasure it was…
Jesus Christ Superstar
Perth Arena, May 31 JESUS Christ Superstar was the first big musical I saw as an adult so it’s always had a special place in my heart and memory. It was 1972, Sydney’s Capitol Theatre had been smothered in what was then an extremely cool colour, Mission Brown, and Jon English was very, very hot….
La Sylphide, West Australian Ballet
His Majesty’s, June 1 IN her program note for West Australian Ballet’s La Sylphide, stager Dinna Bjorn wrote that while the steps of Bournonville’s 1836 ballet remain true to the original, “the way of executing the steps has changed through the the times with the development of the ballet technique and the body types of…
Noel and Gertie, The Removalists
Noel and Gertie, a CDP production, Glen St Theatre, Sydney, May 25. The Removalists, Tamarama Rock Surfers, Bondi Pavilion, Sydney, May 29 NOEL Coward and Gertrude Lawrence met as child actors and immediately and lastingly took to one another. Sheridan Morley’s evocation of their bond, Noel and Gertie, was created in 1981 to be performed…
Symmetries
Monument, The Four Temperaments, After the Rain pas de deux. The Australian Ballet, Canberra Theatre, May 23. MANY a distinguished artist has come a cropper when asked to create something to order for a special occasion, whether they be a poet laureate, a painter or, in this case, a choreographer. Being handed weighty, worthy subject…
DJ’s diary
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