Reviewed January 2024 for Theatre Matters.

Anyone who is from the UK or has visited will tell you that the local pub can often be the heartbeat of a town (or village). For me, it was Bartons Mill in Basingstoke, a charming place by a stream which I walked to through a country field. For the nine men that make up the “Choir of Man”, it is The Jungle.

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Reviewed October 2023 for Theatre Matters.

Mamma Mia…here we go again! Making its third decade appearance, Mamma Mia! The Musical is back after its 2001-2005, 2009-2010 and 2017-2018 productions.

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Reviewed June 2023 for Theatre Matters.

What better way to follow-up from the musical theatre Christmas (aka the Tony Awards) than to celebrate the songs we know, some we may not know, but definitely love with a Broadway Diva, otherwise known as Olivia Ruggiero.

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Reviewed February 2023 for Theatre Matters.

Whilst the magical English nanny Mary Poppins is known and loved globally, she could be considered a true blue Aussie. Not only was her creator P. L. Travers born in Maryborough, Queensland (as was I and a few generations of my family) but her stage producer, Sir Cameron Mackintosh (Cats, Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera), wrote the first draft of the stage version in Australia.

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Reviewed December 2022 for Theatre Matters.

“The One With the Review”

🎶 So no one told you life was gonna be this way…clap clap clap clap.

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Originally reviewed April 2022 for Theatre People.

Have you ever really really looked forward to a show that was really really entertaining on TV but in real life was really really disappointing?

That is how I felt about the 2022 edition of RocKwiz’s Really Really Good Friday.

Originally reviewed March 2022 for Theatre People.

The city…New York, New York.

The year…unknown.

The mystery….The Case of the Spiky Turtle.

Welcome to Improvised Noir, presented as part of the The Big HOO-HAA! Melbourne’s Saturday Experiment, and to a world of glamour, crime, passion – all improvised!

Originally reviewed January 2022 for Theatre People.

When Alanis Morissette’s album Jagged Little Pill came out in 1995, it’s fairly safe to say it was a different world then. Even during the time between the first production of the musical of the same name in 2018, and Broadway debut in 2019, the world has changed dramatically.

It’s with that lens that I viewed the Melbourne opening night of the production and, despite some absolutely star-making and star-affirming performances, I’m not sure the book and premise resonates with – let’s be really honest – a covid weary world.

Originally reviewed July 2021 for Theatre People.

After a successful debut season in Sydney, and a covid-delayed opening, Melbourne’s East End theatre district finally welcomes Elsa, Anna, Olaf, Hans, Kristoff, Weselton and of course Sven, plus all the citizens of Arendelle in Disney’s Frozen.