REVIEW: Mary Poppins (The Civic)

October 22, 2012

A liberal dose of Sugar helps the spectacle go down [by James Wenley] Mary Poppins got the Disneyified film to stage treatment in 2004, joining such properties as Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. It’s a big, big business – 6.5 million people have seen Poppins on  stage, and it’s made over $470 million. Four productions play around […]

REVIEW: The Likes of a Loveless Dogwasher (The Basement)

October 18, 2012

Give this Dogwasher some love [by James Wenley] In the same week that the Mary Poppins juggernaught opens at The Civic, there’s another Musical up the road playing at The Basement. The work of Toi Whakaari acting graduates Adrian Hooke and Hayley Brown, The Likes of a Loveless Dogwasher is a charmingly lo-fi and accessible Musical comedy. What they lack […]

REVIEW: Third Person,Tense! (The Basement)

October 17, 2012

First person pro [by Matt Baker] It’s been eight years since Stephen Papps wrote and starred in his own solo show, and I can honestly say is it’s a pity that it’s taken this long for him to do so again. In saying that, Third Person, Tense! is not technically a solo show. It’s billed as ‘a solo show with […]

REVIEW: Death of a Salesman (Peach Theatre Company)

October 15, 2012

I’m sold [by Matt Baker] In his opening night speech, director Jesse Peach obscurely alluded to the possibility of Death of a Salesman being his last production*. While I actively concede that this may have been a misinterpretation of inarticulate speech, I would like to think that going out on a high note is the correct course of action in […]

REVIEW: A Frigate Bird Sings (Southside Arts Festival)

October 13, 2012

Fa’afafine = fabulous and fine [by Sharu Delilkan] I have to admit that when A Frigate Bird Sings premiered at the 1996 New Zealand International Arts Festival I didn’t get the chance to see it, for the simple reason that it was before I migrated to Aotearoa. So I was keen to see what all the fuss was about with […]

REVIEW: Big Mouths [AKA, Come to our show or we’ll punch you]

October 10, 2012

Big Ups [by Matt Baker] Developing third year solo pieces is becoming an increasingly viable option for recent drama school graduates. Such is the case with Toi Whakaari grads Phoebe Hurst and Emma Fenton’s double bill show Big Mouths, but where others have stretched their content into an hour-long full-length production or a feature film script, Hurst and Fenton have kept […]

REVIEW: The Sex Show (Outfit Theatre Company)

October 8, 2012

Pink, Wet, Complicated [by Rosabel Tan] When I tell a guy at work I’m going to The Sex Show, he laughs. “You’re not,” he says. He pauses. “You are.” “I am.” He looks disappointed and mildly confused. “Do you want to come?” “Not really,” he screws up his nose. “Maybe.” It’s an interesting reaction and there are plenty more to come, […]

PREVIEW: Death of a Salesman (Peach Theatre Company)

October 7, 2012

Miller’s Memorable Masterpiece [by Sharu Delilkan] The minute Richard Knowles heard that Peach Theatre Company was staging Death of a Salesman he lost no time contacting producer/director Jesse Peach. “I studied Death of a Salesman at school and I even used one of the monologues for my audition at Toi Whakaari. So I wanted to be involved in any way […]

REVIEW: Terror Island

October 6, 2012

Terribly amusing [by Matt Baker] Devised from an eclectic range of hit pop songs from across the decades, I was pleasantly surprised with how well a narrative the collaborative team of Fingerprints & Teeth Productions and Dynamotion were able to create for the dance/theatre show Terror Island. Starring Lara Fischel-Chisholm as Lara, Jennie Robertson as Jennie, and Tom Sainsbury as Tom […]

PREVIEW: Mary Poppins (Disney and Cameron Mackintosh)

October 4, 2012

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious [by Sharu Delilkan] When I met Matt Lee for the first time I couldn’t believe that he was over 30. The star of stage and TV (Australia’s So You Think You Can Dance, Matt has appeared in The Voice on TV2) had the complexion and physique of a young man in his early 20s. When I gasped in dismay […]

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