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2024 Show round-up

Year in review: 2024
Cities covered: Sydney, London, Oslo, Budapest, Prague, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Singapore 

This year saw a bump in our live show attendances, thanks to our 6-week European holiday in May-June during which we indulged in 16 shows while visiting a few cities. It was great to finally revisit Europe for a concentrated overdose of culture after a 5-year hiatus over the COVID pandemic and to see some shows and programs in interesting bucket-list venues which were a key part of the experience. 

In terms of the local programs attended in Sydney—despite having given up our annual subscriptions for Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir Theatre, Pinchgut Opera and Sydney Symphony—we still managed to see quite a few shows, thanks to same-day rush tickets (via Today Tix) and taking advantage of early bird discounts, newsletter giveaways and various complimentary ticket offers. The Today Tix app also came in handy to fill all our nights during our week in London, where we got to see some very good productions at discounted/rush prices.

Overall, we attended around 70 live performances, a decent haul despite the conscious tightening of our belt due to inflationary and economic considerations.

OPERA

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

The absolute highlight of the 18 operas we saw over the year must be the 5-hour-long, partially staged production of Messiaen’s St Francois d’Assise at the impressive Elbphilharmonie Hamburg concert hall. The experience was greatly enhanced by the exquisitely designed venue itself which was a major element in how this rarely performed work was presented. Having given Hamburg a miss during our earlier trip to Germany in 2017—when the celebrated concert hall designed by the architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron had just opened, and it was impossible to secure a ticket to any show that whole year—we were determined to visit this time round.

The principal soloists were positioned on a temporary light catwalk erected above the orchestra, complemented by videography screened on a giant screen suspended above the concert platform, some unusual choreography by the chorus, actors moving amongst the audience and the angel character singing while suspended from the ceiling. Despite being a musically challenging work to take in, we were thrilled that we got to witness it in the flesh, especially when it was conducted by Kent Nagano who was there assisting Seiji Ozawa at the work’s world premiere back in 1983. 

Opera Australia productions

This year also saw our return to watching Opera Australia (OA) productions at the Sydney Opera House since the pandemic. We had the unusual opportunity of seeing two alternative productions of the same one-act opera by Puccini, Il Tabarro, both directed by the same director Constantine Costi albeit one staged outdoors and on a real boat moored in the harbour as part of the Sydney Festival. 

Of the other OA productions we saw this year, other than a new production of Puccini’s Il Trittico, was Mozart’s Idomeneo. Lindy Hume’s production, which relied heavily on video projections, was visually engaging and our first opportunity to see this opera on stage. 

Gluck’s Orpheus & Eurydice (presented by OA in collaboration with Opera Queensland in association with Circa) was good, even if the extremely engaging visual and acrobatic elements provided by aerial performers from Circa had little to do with enhancing the narrative.  

Brett Dean’s Hamlet, was a stunning production directed by Neil Armfield in collaboration with Glyndebourne which had its earlier Australian premiere at the Adelaide Festival back in 2018. Despite excellent performances and great staging, we may not necessarily want to revisit the work for its challenging musical content.

Sadly, because we were away travelling at the time, we missed OA’s presentation of Joe Twist’s poignant Watershed: The Death of Dr Duncan. This was a staged version of a cantata about the tragic murder by drowning of an academic in South Australia half a century ago. Originally commissioned and presented at the Adelaide Festival in 2022, it recalls an event that triggered an alleged police-cover, a city-wide scandal, national outrage, a Scotland Yard investigation and a glaring absence of criminal convictions. More importantly, it led to the South Australian state decriminalising homosexuality, ahead of the rest of the country. I could only be content with listening to an audio recording of the premiere staging in Adelaide of this very moving work.

European opera houses

Many of the operas we saw across Europe were mediocre but nevertheless proved to be special experiences in terms of appreciating the venue interiors which were the main draw.

Rossini’s La Cenerentola by Norwegian Opera & Ballet, at the contemporary waterfront gem of an Oslo Opera House (designed by architectural firm Snohetta) was mediocre, but the experience of being in the venue made up for it. We had the pleasure of a lovely pre-show dinner at a restaurant located in the building and also had the opportunity of scaling the exterior of the building which resembles a white ski slope from which one could survey the city’s harbour.

Donizetti’s La Fille du Regiment at the obscenely decorative Magyar Allami Operahaz, presented by the ultra-homophobic Hungarian State Opera in Budapest wasn’t outstanding but nevertheless proved to be memorable because the tenor was unwell. He ended up walking, speaking and acting the part with a surgical face mask on, while the standby sang the part on the side on stage, reading the score from a music stand.

Sadly, the Hungarian State Opera’s production of Monteverdi’s L’Incoronzione di Poppea at the Eiffel Art Studio was cancelled after we’d booked our tickets. This performing venue was housed in a refurbished historic railway yard, not unlike Sydney’s Carriageworks.

Bizet’s Carmen at the richly ornate National Theatre in Prague didn’t offer particularly great singing or great sets. Sadly, the most memorable part of the experience was the audience members beside us shushing the over-enthusiastic French tourist who insisted on singing along to the familiar arias. It was perhaps the biggest disappointment that we could not have attended a Czech opera (such as Janacek’s Rusalka) and the dates and timings for Smetana’s opera The Secret being presented at this venue didn’t align with our visit. And we missed the opportunity to attend something at the other famous opera venue The Estates Theatre (where Mozart’s Don Giovanni premiered) when there was nothing available for us to attend.

Massanet’s Manon at the austere modernist venue of the Hamburg State Opera offered some exquisite singing and production values. As it were, our viewing experience was also marred by and overenthusiastic patron in a loud gold dress insisting on whipping out her phone with flash on to snap some shots of some scenes.

We happened to be in Amsterdam and were present for the opening night of Beethoven’s Fidelio at the modernist venue of the Dutch National Opera & Ballet. It was a strange production with additional video and dialogue content delivered in English. We wondered what all the fuss was when Ukrainian director walked on stage for the curtain call draped in a Ukrainian flag and was roundly booed. It later transpired that the booing and disdain for the man was aimed at his unsavoury bullying behaviour, which a later news report and subsequent post-production review by the company explained was the issue, for which the company has vowed never to work with him again.

Other Sydney opera productions

Sydney Chamber Opera’s premier of Jack Symond’s magnum opus Gilgamesh was spectacularly staged and beautifully delivered. Presented in collaboration with Opera Australia, Ensemble Offspring, Australian String Quartet and Carriageworks, it upheld this boutique opera company’s continuing reputation for championing contemporary chamber works that are always stunningly staged at their resident venue.

We continued our commitment of supporting the Sydney Music Conservatorium (SCM)’s annual student opera productions, having in recent years attended Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea and Mozart’s The Magic Flute. This year’s continued collaboration with NIDA’s students (handling the non-musical dramatic and stage production aspects) was Mother, which comprised four original one-act operas all sharing the common theme and concept of mothers and motherhood. The operas were directed by Lindy Hume. As part of the Words, Text, Voices Music program at SCM, music composition students developed the quartet of operas for their dissertation portfolios, alongside NIDA students undertaking a Master of Fine Arts in Dramatic Writing.

Oliver Cameron’s M.TH.R, Aija Draguns’ In Cosmic Utero, Jessica O’Donoghue’s Menarche and Hao Zhen’s The Lullaby were all innovatively-staged and entertaining. The singers were cast from the SCM Opera Masters course while orchestra was the SCM Contemporary Music Ensemble positioned on stage and conducted by Stephen Mould, Simon Lobelson and Aija Draguns. Production values were high, and the four operas were as varied in style and presentation as they could be, which is encouraging for local opera, given such promising work and talent from students.

Pinchgut Opera’s production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare was expectedly brilliant. Featuring excellent principals (including countertenor Tim Mead and soprano Samantha Clarke), with a simple but effective pyramidal set and some exceptional singing, the three hours were lapped up by an appreciative audience who were deeply engaged and enthralled despite many da capo arias with endless repeated texts.

CONCERTS

Concertgebouw

The big treat for the year was attending a performance at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw featuring the very popular young maestro Klaus Mäkelä conducting as well as acting as cello soloist in an all-Brahms program with his Oslo Philharmonic. It was easy to see why this young man continues to be in such great demand (holding multiple concurrent appointments as chief conductor to orchestras in Paris, Chicago, Amsterdam and Oslo) and appeals to audiences. With his youthful good looks, magnetic on-stage presence and over-the-top exuberant conducting style, he arguably serves up what classical music needs to fill concert halls in these economically and politically challenging times. 

Prague Spring Music Festival

As part of the annual Prague Spring Music Festival, we saw and organ recital by Latvian Iveta Apkalna at the beautiful Smetana Hall of the Obecni Dum (Municipal House) in Prague. The dramatic pipe organ music was a very appropriate way to experience the theatrical Art Nouveau interiors of the concert hall-cum-ballroom featuring frescoes of Czech life by artists such as Alphonse Mucha, Jan Preisler and Max Svabinsky. The Q&A session conducted in English that followed the recital was informative, providing us with valuable insights to the tedious preparation an organist must undertake in terms of deciding on the registers for each piece to suit a specific venue and instrument. Coincidentally, she happened to be the principal organist of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, which we were about to visit the following week.

The organ recital at the Smetana Hall was appropriately complemented by a most delightful pre-show dinner at the adjacent Restaurace Obecni Dum, with its exquisite and well-preserved Art Nouveau interiors designed by F Kaufmann, J Wenig and Ant. Baumgartl & Son dating back o 1912. It was such a treat to experience the old-world extravagance and impeccable service, complete with food served and then ceremoniously unveiled in polished silver cloches, along with a crepes suzette for dessert, made and flambeed with Grand Marnier liqueur right in front of you by the tuxedoed waiter.

The other program we attended in Prague as part of the same spring music festival was a choir performance by the Polish Radio Choir titled Totus Tuus (Totally Yours). The impressive and varied a cappella program of sacred works and madrigals by Polish and Czech composers was conducted by Maria Bogalecka-Piotrowska. The venue was an adaptive re-use of an old, deconsecrated Gothic church known as St Anne’s Prague Crossroads. The acoustics, which allowed us to hear much detail even from the back of the hall where we sat, and a wonderfully blended combined choral sound underpinned by a very strong alto section, ensured it was a beautiful and exceptional concert to remember.

Hungarian music

Another choral concert we enjoyed in Budapest was Mozart’s Requiem, presented by Haydneum, Hungarian Centre for Early Music. With Gyorgy Vashegyi conducting the Purcell Choir and Orfeo Orchestra on period instruments, we were not only impressed with the performers but also the venue; the Bela Bartok National Concert Hall at the MUPA (Music Palace or Muvestzetek Palotaja in Hungarian), which was a contemporary concert hall with great acoustics completed in 2005. Apart from the familiar and incomplete work by Mozart (completed by Sussmayer), the program also included several shorter pieces by Johan Georg Albrechtsberger, who was known as Beethoven’s teacher.

It was interesting to witness this Hungarian cultural concert protocol from an outsider’s perspective. The conductor came onstage and effectively delivered a 10-minute pre-concert talk before commencing each half of the show. There were electronic surtitles provided in Hungarian for the Latin text of the pieces, including a listing of credits for soloists which was helpful. And the audience clapping in slow unison, speeding up to a rapturous applause was a little disconcerting for those of us unfamiliar with this social practice.

Sydney Philharmonia

In terms of my own participation as a choral singer, the highlights included the mighty Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder with the Sydney Symphony conducted by Simone Young. This work of epic scale featured 400 musicians on stage with an expanded orchestra along with choristers pulled together from the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs (SPC), Tasmanian Symphony Chorus and Melbourne Symphony Chorus and superb soloists. The final Seht die Sonne (See the sun) movement was nothing less than euphonic (even orgasmic), and one of those indelible moments you keep with you for the rest of your life!

And in smaller chamber choir mode, I thoroughly enjoyed the challenging yet deeply satisfying program to sing and prepare for, titled Voice of the Italian Baroque which we got to do three times, at St James’ Church in Sydney, the Snow Concert Hall in Canberra and a private performance to a little community at Mount Wilson in the Blue Mountains. It was, for me, a treat to return to a program of sacred motets (by Italian Baroque composers such as Monterverdi, Scarlatti, Carissimi, Gabrieli, Scarlatti and Caldar), which is at the heart of what I started out singing as a teenager with the Singapore Youth Choir.

Faure’s Requiem, presented at Sydney Town Hall by Sydney Philharmonia’s Vox and Chamber Singers as the year’s SPC Easter offering was another enjoyable experience to be a part of, very much appreciated by the audience. The concert was conducted by Elizabeth Scott and Faure’s well-known favourite was paired with John Petersen’s Shadows and Light, an exciting rhythmic piece commissioned by SPC in 2004, which I had the pleasure of premiering in the year I joined the choir.

It was uncanny how a piece written in response to the tragic and alarming terrorising events of September 11, was still so relevant twenty years later, as we continue to live in a world of dark shadows balanced off by glorious light. While preparing for this program, we had the pleasure of presenting the Faure Requiem at two commercial gigs on Cunard cruise liners, serving as the local after-dinner entertainment offering for passengers on board while the ship was docked in Sydney.     

Showstoppers: Rogers & Hammerstein, featured lush orchestrations and superb musical theatre soloist and was great fun to sing. It was presented n and by Sydney Philharmonia Choirs at Sydney Town Hall and conducted by Brett Weymark, with the show dedicated to his mother who had just passed away recently. From the cheeky  Make it Gay to the crowd-pleasing Do-Re-Mi and the rousing You’ll Never Walk Alone to the moving Climb Every Mountain, this program was extremely well-received by the audiences of both performances. 

A special experience this year was the recording of four choral works by composer Maria Lopes, also a fellow chorister with the Sydney Philharmonia Chamber Singers. This was for a recording project in which a suite of works by Maria Lopes would be featured in a 100% Australian Made program to be broadcast by 2MBS FM early in 2025.

Other Sydney concerts

It was great to finally see British vocal octet Voces 8 perform live, even if the cavernous Sydney Opera House Concert Hall was less than an ideal venue for this ensemble. Singing unamplified and unaccompanied meant much of the reputed clarity of their delivery couldn’t be fully appreciated, even with improved acoustics, depending on where you sat in the hall. We were sitting in a box, not too far from the stage and it was evident that we couldn’t hear much of the higher voices standing in a semicircle who faced away from us in the overall mix of sound.    

The Australian Chamber Orchestra’s (ACO) Tognetti.Mendelssohn.Bach was enjoyable, assembling a varied set of works by JS Bach and Mendelssohn, juxtaposing them with newer works by Rautavaara, Jankowski and Thorvaldsdottir. They worked well together as a combination, connecting Mendelssohn with his admiration and rediscovery of JS Bach (which we should be thankful for) and then extending that inspiration to more contemporary works to continue the arc of music-making in ensemble mode.

Our third time lucky with the ballot to attend another short performance at the gorgeous Phoenix Central Park venue was to see Beckah Amani, a Burundian Australian young singer with her three-piece band. We loved her distinct chilled sound and the opportunity to see her live, coincidentally after noticing her as a subject-matter of one of the finalists in the annual Archibald Prize portrait competition we’d just seen at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Our only observation and feedback to the artist was that she could connect more with the audience, especially when they were sitting up close in this intimate venue. Perhaps a matter of inexperience or shyness, but she introduced most of her original songs either looking to the back of the stage or staring at the floor, as if it were a radio broadcast with an audience somewhere out there, whom she couldn’t see. We hope she will grow in confidence and performance style in time, to truly become a compelling voice to be heard.

We attended Sydney Chamber Choir’s Fireside show presented at the ACO’s home venue, The Neilson at Pier 2/3. It was our first time at this lovely intimate venue and a nice environment to enjoy this program of light and entertaining repertoire curated by Naomi Crellin (of The Idea of North) whom we are big fans of. The choir was accompanied by the Kevin Hunt Trio, led by jazz pianist extraordinaire who was kind enough to play a few jazz standards while his wife Maria sang at our wedding in 2018.

Uniquely Singapore

In Singapore, I tagged along with my dear friend Jeremiah to see the local The Straits Ensemble present work from their latest project and album release Garden: Beauty Found Within at the Esplanade Recital Studio. This last show for the year managed to strike a favourable chord with me. I was pleasantly surprised at how the ensemble of an unexpected combination of instruments comprising a piano, pipa, violin, oud, double bass, rebana, table & percussion could work together, with some virtuosic solo and ensemble playing, to produce a distinctive sound that could only be found and forged in a uniquely Singaporean multicultural context. The show featured three vocalists from different cultural background who sang there own compositions. It’s good to know we’ve moved considerably along in this admirable attempt at finding more than a perfunctory, superficial blend of multicultural flavours in our music-making.

MUSICALS

Local Sydney shows

Our bumper year for musicals opened with a charming and energetic show titled Bananaland in the Sydney Festival. It featured songs written by husband-and-wife duo Kate Miller-Heidke and Keir Nutall and a talented cast led by Max McKenna, who left a mark in Muriel’s Wedding – the Musical as well as Jagged Little Pill, the juke box musical using songs of Alanis Morisette. It was good fun and very much adult entertainment, even if the content seemingly appeared to be aimed at teenagers, dealing with the lucrative world of children’s music groups.

We also saw an amateur production of the musical version of the movie Cruel Intentions (which was based on the French novel and play Les Liaisons Dangereuses). It was an amusing show that provided us with an excuse to travel out to the newly refurbished Pavilion Performing Arts Centre (formerly Sutherland Entertainment Centre). If nothing else, it convinced us that a work, if well written, can withstand the setbacks of some ordinary acting and modest staging.  

The umpteenth revival of Rocky Horror Show we saw at Theatre Royal was fun, despite Jason Donovan looking and sounding competent albeit jaded as a most tired and unsexy FranknFurter, the sweet transvestite. The experience and entertainment value were much enhanced by the spontaneous audience members’ interjections with the script, thankfully minus the throwing of confetti and water being shot at the audience with ‘super-soaker’ guns during the rain scenes!  

We reluctantly ventured into a jukebox musical & Juliet at Sydney’s Lyric Theatre, a rather cleverly written musical piece based on Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet updating it with contemporary themes. What we hadn’t realised until we saw the show and researched it was the brilliance in which the extensive musical catalogue of Swedish songwriter Max Martin was tweaked and adapted to tell the story, with supercharged high energy. Although we got several understudies in the two teenage leads for the matinee we attended, the rest of the cast (including Keala Settle, Hayden Tee, Amy Lehmpamer and Rob Mills) were on fire!

Well-Behaved Women, Belvoir’s musical offering was an entertaining song cycle with music and lyrics by Carmel Dean. Performed by a strong cast of four women accompanied by a four-piece band, the show featured the stories of strong women in history who fought to be heard over the sexism and misogyny they had to overcome. Starting with Eve (blamed for original sin and of Adam and his missing rib fame) and then the hilarious country song rendition by Mary Magdalene (the only girl at Jesus’ Last Supper table) having to endure endless mansplaining. There were a few Australian women too, such as Grace Tame (criticised for not smiling), Olympian Cathy Freemen and pioneering swimmers Fanny Durack and Mina Wylie and of course Prime Minister Julia Gillard (delivering her “I will not be lectured by this man” speech to the troglodyte Tony Abbott.

The Sydney revival of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Sunset Boulevard at the Joan Sutherland Theatre at the Sydney Opera House was alright, and only because we avoided the highly miscast Sarah Brightman as Norma Desmond in favour of seeing the much more competent alternate Silvie Paladino. It was frustrating that the producers of this revival would dump on Sydney’s perhaps less-than-discerning audiences a has-been performer coming out of a 30-year performing hiatus (who by all accounts wasn’t quite up to the role) while a more daring and successful, albeit controversial, version was making industry news and headlines over in the West End and Broadway.

Paper Stars by Luke Byrne was a small production we attended at the Rebel Theatre, new home of the Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) presented by second year Musical Theatre students of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. It was a delightful piece about the life of PL Travers, author of Mary Poppins which was enthusiastically and effectively staged with minimal sets by the students, accompanied by Luke Byrne on keyboard.

We finally got to see Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Dear Evan Hansen on stage, although our enthusiasm for this musical had long since waned by the time it arrived, 8 years after its successful Broadway run and following a disastrous movie adaptation which bombed in 2021. Written by wonder duo Benj Pasek & Justin Paul (who gave us other musical output such as Dogfight, The Greatest Showman and La La Land) it was nice to finally hear the songs in context of the story. To add to our disappointment, the young actor cast in the titular and award-winning role created by Ben Platt was off sick shortly after opening night and although the understudy and production were more than competent, it seemed like the moment had passed. Add to that dramatic content was a tad controversial, this was just one for us to applaud briefly, and then quietly tick off our must-see list.

London musicals

The other memorable ones we saw included Cole Porter’s Kiss Me Kate, Bartlett Sher’s elaborate revival at the Barbican (featuring Stephanie J Block, Adrian Dunbar and the irrepressible Charlie Stemp). Well executed and full of exuberant energy, there was also some attempt at addressing the misogynistic elements in reviving this work which premiered in 1948.

Nicholas Hytner’s immersive revival of Guys & Dolls, now in its second year and with refreshed new cast, was a revelation for our return to The Bridge Theatre in London. We were initially reluctant to see yet another production of the musical, and in the same format we’d previously appreciated while standing in the pit for Hytner’s earlier production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. But this one proved to work extremely well, in such a way that the audience’s immersion and interaction with the action in the pit added positively to the storytelling. The inspired colour-blind casting also helped make this a very palatable and memorable update of this classic musical that suited the potential of this venue.

Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York at the Criterion Theatre featured the gifted young talents of Sam Tutty and Dujonna Gift in a two-hander. The two leads were an absolute pleasure to watch. It was good to finally see Sam Tutty on stage and in his element, following his award-winning West End debut playing Evan Hansen. The spontaneous standing ovation at the end of the show was well deserved for the two young actors playing flawed but likeable characters, both trying to cope with their challenging circumstances. As strangers who meet and connect ahead of a wedding, only to realise they need to not rely on the validation of others to find their way in the world.  

Less enjoyable was Standing at the Sky’s Edge an ensemble piece presented by UK’s National Theatre at the Gillian Lynne Theatre (formerly the New London Theatre, where we’d previously seen Cats and War Horse). It revolved around characters set over three timeframes in the life of a particular flat in Sheffield. Songs were by Richard Hawley. Despite an impressive set and good individual performances from a large cast, the show somehow didn’t connect as much as we’d hoped. At times the amplification was jarringly unpleasant, reinforcing the idea that simply dialling up the volume doesn’t ensure it hits you emotionally too. 

Prague and Singapore adaptation

Three hours of yet another musical version of Les Miserables (or Bidnici, translated as Wretched in Czech) was an amusing indulgence. This time it was sung in Czech and staged at the Goja Music Hall in Prague, my seventh live stage experience of the universal classic based on Victor Hugo’s classic tome. We thoroughly enjoyed listening to and understood every word and gesture, despite it being presented in an unfamiliar language without surtitles or translations. 

Back in Singapore, we managed to catch Wild Rice’s annual pantomime The Wizard of Oz. With book & lyrics by Alfian Sa’at and music by Elaine Chan, this was a thoroughly enjoyable and so effectively staged localised musical adaptation of L Frank Baum’s 1900 novel. It was for us also a timely coda after watching the much-anticipated Part 1 movie version of the musical Wicked, which was based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, and intended to be a prequel to Baum’s original story.

Well-written, directed and performed by a brilliant cast which included an exuberant and versatile chorus of children who danced and sang as munchkins, winged monkeys, oppressed industrial workers and residents of Yishun, all dressed in elaborate costumes which they changed many times throughout the show. The audience were enthralled by the show’s universal message of home and belonging, friendship, self-discovery and good vs. evil, against a very relatable backdrop of local colloquialisms and hilarious political references.

PLAYS

London hits and misses

A highlight of the year was seeing the delightful Ian McKellan as Falstaff in Player Kings (Robert Icke’s contemporary reimagining and combining of Shakespeare’s Henry IV Parts 1 & 2) at the Noel Coward theatre in London’s West End. It was incredulous watching the 85-year-old actor hold court on stage for most of the 3.5-hour show, dressed in a fat suit. He should deserve an Olivier Award for this role. It was with horror that we read in the news a few days later that Sir McKellan had fallen off the stage and had to immediately terminate his run in the show to allow him to recover from his injuries. Apart from McKellan, the ensemble cast also included the impressive Toheeb Jimoh (Ted Lasso) and Richard Coyle. 

Bluets, written by Margaret Perry, based on the book by Maggie Nelson and directed by Katie Mitchell turned out to be a total dud, despite featuring the excellent and well-known actors Emma D’Arcy, Kayla Meikle and Ben Whishaw. In this production at London’s Royal Court Theatre, the three actors were sadly denied the opportunity to capitalise on their well-known acting chops in a misdirected effort, we thought, which focussed on technology and form in it’s deliberate departure from conventional stagecraft. It somehow didn’t allow a connection with the audience in the way the drama was conveyed, unlike some other opinions, such as the video review by Paul Seven attached in the column on the right.

Epics plays - The Lehman Inheritance

Locally, Matthew Lopez’ The Inheritance, seen in two 3-hour-long parts at the Seymour Centre, was another highlight of the year. This landmark play, seemingly on a similar epic scale and intent as Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, had won awards following its premiere at London’s Young Vic in 2018 and then it’s transfer to Broadway in 2019. The play cleverly re-imagines EM Forster’s Howard’s End, employing the writer as a theatrical device to provide a contemporary portrait of life in New York’s gay community. The tumultuous relationship between two central characters within a group of friends takes on an interesting turn when two strangers, an older man and younger one enters their lives. Chance meetings and surprising choices taken by the central characters end up linking three generations, whose lives collide with explosive results. It’s a story of survival, love and legacy, when the characters forge an uncharted future for themselves in a turbulent and changing America.

This was truly a commendable effort by a small theatre company, leading us to lament the fact that it hadn’t been staged by one of the more established and better resourced local companies. From available media and accounts of friends who had seen the original production, we know it had to be scaled down in this staging. Nevertheless, we were grateful for the opportunity to witness one of the more landmark pieces in the pantheon of theatre capturing gay culture, history and its ongoing evolution.

The National Theatre’s touring production of The Lehman Trilogy that came to Sydney was phenomenal, even though we’d seen the NT Live filmed version of this much acclaimed play written by Stefano Massini and skilfully directed by Sam Mendes, in the cinema. It was a completely different experience watching it in the flesh at Sydney’s Theatre Royal, being able to take in the fabulous performances and brilliant script without the dictates of a camera’s eye. Staged cleverly in rotating glass box as the action unfolds, taking the three main lead actors through an extensive historical timeline, each playing multiple characters and moving seamlessly from scene to scene while accompanied by a piano soundtrack played live by a pianist stationed at one corner of the stage. 

Belvoir's mixed bag

Vaishnavi Suryaprakash was impressive in the one-woman show Nayika a Dancing Girl at Belvoir. We had become fans after seeing her in Belvoir’s earlier epic production of Counting and Cracking, followed by her convincing role as a ruthless business boss in Anchuli Felicia King’s White Pearl in Sydney Theatre Company’s original production of this work back in 2019.

This show was paired with Lose to Win, another one-man show written and performed by Madela Mathias, employing the same sets and alternating its run with the other play over a limited period. It was a heartwarming story told in first person by a man who had gone through a hard life as a child, who persevered and eventually made good in a promised land. It was an account of hope, courage, determination, sorrow, grief and gratitude.

Tiny Beautiful Things, also at Belvoir was a play adaptation by Nia Vardalos of a book by Cheryl Strayed. Featuring a small intimate cast of four (including the delightful Mandy McElhinney), the stories and “wisdoms’ presented as snippets were admirable. Yet there was something contrived and unsatisfactory about the way the content was conveyed as a stage play. It might as well have been a radio play or reading rather than a dramatized play.

Pickled, one of this year’s Belvoir 24A offerings at its smaller and intimate Downstairs theatre was an interesting exploration of death and a mother’s unusual bequest (comprising a jar of pickles). In trying to understand the motivation between their mother’s strange bequest, two siblings’ relationship are put to the test, against their unique cultural backdrop as immigrants in a land where societal norms may not necessarily align with those of their ethnic community.

Our third time seeing Tommy Murphy’s Holding the Man, the stage adaptation of Timothy Conigrave’s seminal autobiography at Belvoir was less satisfying. Perhaps it was director Eamon Flack’s eagerness for a new innovative staging, with elements that somehow distracted and failed to move us in comparison to the less fussy original version we had previously seen. While the inclusion of some audience participation in some of the comic flashback scenes were clever, the clunky use of trapeze elements, for example, at the pivotal anguishing moment of Tim’s death, while perhaps thought to be a good idea on paper, was not particularly well executed. With audience members so close to the action in the small theatre, the inescapable technical machinations of hooking up a dying man so he could seemingly fly free and weightless at the moment of death just didn’t work at all. Having wept shamelessly at both previous times we saw the play in two different settings, it was telling when this version failed to move us as much.

In yet another review of a play we’d already seen before, Belvoir’s production of Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County proved to be a bit of a disappointment. Featuring a stellar cast of heavyweight Australian actors in the cast, such as Pamela Rabe, John Howard, Tamsin Caroll, Bert LaBonte and Helen Thompson. We were keen to see how a play with stage directions asking for a three-level house set offering alternative locations for the action to take place in—either the living & dining area, an upstairs bedroom or the attic (where hired indigenous housekeeper-cum-carer would be the unseen witness to the family drama) or the outside of the house—would work.

While the performances by the ensemble cast met and even exceeded our expectations, in comparison with the Broadway cast we’d seen in 2009, there were elements of the staging and set design that we found unsatisfactory. For example, was Barbara and her estranged husband Bill really sleeping in the living room sofa or was that meant to suggest they were in a bedroom, given that we didn’t quite see a bedroom anywhere on stage?  And was matriarch Violet jumping out of a hole in the wall from a mezzanine level in the set really the case or was that an abstract improvisation because the set designer refused to give them a real staircase to work with?

Additionally, the overt hamming up of the comedy in the script, playing it for laughs with too much physical affectation from the actors seemed a bit over-the-top, something a subsequent rewatching of the 2015 movie convinced us wasn’t necessary to ensure audience engagement

Other Sydney productions

Regarding over-the-top course acting and playing it for laughs, we attended a NIDA student production of Spring Awakening, Frank Wedekind’s seminal 1891 German play about adolescent angst. Having seen two versions of Duncan Shiek’s 2006 musical adaptation, which we enjoyed, we were keen to see what the source play would have been like in comparison. Unfortunately, the directorial choice of playing it for laughs, not helped by having a young actor next to us guffawing uncontrollably throughout the show at every funny line, diminished our experience and we came away feeling like the work would have been served by a delivery with a lot more restraint for our liking. 

We returned to the community venue Flightpath Theatre in Marrickville for another play. This was Ghost Writer by Ross Mueller. For a small production in a low-key venue (where dialogue sometimes gets drowned out whenever a plane flies overhead) the acting by the cast of four was good. The production even included an impressive and effectively staged rain scene with water falling in the simple set.

Wife by Samuel Davidson at New Theatre was thought-provoking as an exploration of the evolution of what it means to be married and be a wife, although the quality of acting was uneven amongst the cast of six.

Also at the New Theatre, we saw Homos, or Everyone in America, a light-hearted piece written by Jordan Seavey. It was enjoyable, well directed with good performances from the two central characters. Set in Brooklyn, NYC, the play was cerebral and verbose, as it attempted to provide a comprehensive coverage of gay history and emancipation in the US, also reminding us how self-referential and self-absorbed the Americans can be. We just wished there was a bit more heart to accompany the drama.

DANCE

We enjoyed GotesborgsOperans Danskompani, a contemporary dance show which was presented as part of Sydney Festival 2024. Featuring two short contemporary dance works, the internationally diverse dancers in this Swedish company kept us mesmerised as they moved and interacted on a a steep inclined plane in Damien Jalet’s Skid and then gyrated their way through a funky soundtrack in Sharon Eyal’s Saaba.

Cut the Sky, which we saw at Carriageworks, seemed promising. We went along, having read that it was presented by Marrugeku and touted as “seventy minutes of mind-blowing intercultural and interdisciplinary performance. The work was formatted into five acts; representing five songs of the future. Impetus and conceptualisation of the narrative for this work had come from the exploration of a proposed massive offshore gas hub on Jabirr Jabirr country, located 60km from Marrugeku’s cultural home of Rubibi in Broome, Western Australia.

Sadly, despite the potent political and cultural themes, we came away rather disappointed with the overall cohesion and quality of execution of the different elements of the performance. It was frustrating, for example, to have an actor reciting poetry in a most monotonous, inarticulate and uninspired manner so you couldn’t understand what he was saying, a solo singer struggling to pitch notes in the higher register, a random array of costumes that could have been stylised more, a recorded soundtrack which switched abruptly from one song to the next without transition and dancers who seemed mismatched when they had to come together in unison sequences.

Although we don’t usually like traditional ballet, we nevertheless opted to see Coppelia presented by the National Theatre Ballet of Prague. It was an excuse to witness a performance in the highly ornate State Opera House in Prague. The very traditional production was based on Marius Petipa’s version of the original ballet, created by Arthur Saint-Leon and set to Leo Delibes’ sublime music. Ronald Hynd’s 1985 choreography was everything you’d expect to see with elaborate costumes and painted wobbly set pieces, complete with hilarious bulging crotches in the male dancers’ tights. The audience clapped enthusiastically at every successful pirouette and pas des deux. And the lead female dancer only fell once while skipping across the stage! 

CABARET

Christina Bianco’s In Divine Company at Hayes Theatre, her one-woman cabaret show was thoroughly enjoyable. Known for her YouTube clips of impersonations of well-known performers, she entertained the audience with her many, varied and unexpected singing caricatures of personalities.

Club Briefs: The Works, presented in the Famous Spiegeltent at Carriageworks, was a hilariously outrageous and irreverent romp. Having previously seen this group from Brisbane as part of the Sydney Festival, we were reminded of how funny they can be. To add to the experience, we bought raffle tickets for which winning the raffle meant going on stage for a moment in the spotlight as the cheeky performers danced and teased you for laughs.

Discount tix

TodayTix – how to get rush tickets via the app

Production trailers

OPERA

Staatsoper Hamburg – Messiaen’s Saint Francis of Assisi – English trailer 

Messiaen: St Francois d’Assise (Staatsoper Hamburg, Philharmonisches Staatsoper Hamburg), Elbphilharmonie Hamburg – Concert Documentation (German)

Puccini: Il Tabarro (Sydney Festival), Australian National Maritime Museum

Puccini: Il Trittico (Opera Australia), Sydney Opera House

Mozart: Idomeneo (Opera Australia), Sydney Opera House

Gluck: Orpheus & Eurydice (Opera Queensland / Circa / Opera Australia), Sydney Opera House

Dean: Hamlet (Opera Australia), Sydney Opera House

Dean: Hamlet (Glyndebourne) = Creating a World Premiere

Dean: Hamlet (Glyndebourne)

Twist: Watershed – The Death of Dr Duncan, Opera Australia

Rossini: La Cenerentola, Norwegian Opera, Oslo Opera House

Donizetti: La Fille du Regiment, Hungarian State Opera

Monteverdi: L’Incoronzione di Poppea, Hungarian State Opera at Eiffel Art Studio (which we didn’t see)

Bizet: Carmen, National Theatre of Prague, Czechia

Massanet: Manon, Staatsoper Hamburg

Beethoven: Fidelio, Dutch National Opera

Beethoven: Fidelio, Dutch National Opera – Soprano Jacqueline Wagner

Symonds: Gilgamesh, Sydney Chamber Opera/Opera Australia/Carriageworks

Symonds: Gilgamesh – Interview with director Kip Williams

Handel: Julius Caesar, Pinchgut Opera

Handel: Julius Caesar – Director Neil Armfield’s insights into the opera

Opera reviews

CONCERTS

Brahms: Double Concerto (Kaus Makela + Daniel Lozakovic) with Oslo Philharmonic (video from Vienna)

Brahms: Symphony No.1 (Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Klaus Makela)

Behind the Scenes: Klaus Makela on conducting (Oslo Philharmonic Orch)

Iveta Apkalna – Organ recital (Prague Spring Festival), Smetana Hall @ Municipal House Prague

Iveta Apkalna – Thierry Escaich: Evocation II @ Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg

Totus Tuus – Polish Radio Choir  (Prague Spring Festival), St Anne’s Crossroads Prague

Thank You! – Prague Spring Music Festival Round-Up

Purcell Choir & Orfeo Orchestra  (different program), Bela Bartok National Concert Hall, MUPA Budapest

Organ of Bela Bartok National Concert Hall, MUPA, Budapest – Introduction by Jonathan Scott

Schoenbert: Gurrelieder by Sydney Symphony, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, TSO Chorus, MSO Chorus, Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

Simone Young on Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder

Scarlatti: Stabat Mater – from Voices of Italian Baroque program, sung by Ensembles Gli Angeli Genève and Quatuor Sine Nomine, at Utrecht Early Music Festival 2019

Monteverdi: Mass for Four Voices – from Voices of Italian Baroque program, sung by Tallis Scholars

Caldara: Crucifixus for 16 Voices – from Voices of Italian Baroque program, sung by The Sixteen

Lotti: Crucifixus for 8 Voices – from Voices of Italian Baroque program, sung by Tenebrae

Faure: Requiem by Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Vox + Chamber Singers, Sydney Town Hall

Showstoppers: Rogers & Hammerstein (Sydney Philharmonia Choirs), Sydney Town Hall

Voces 8 – Ben Folds: The Luckiest, arr. Jim Clements

Voces 8 – Come Fly with Me (to the Moon), arr. L’Estrange

Mendelssohn: Octet (Australian Chamber Orchestra)

Beckah Amani – Sober

Beckah Amani – Waiting On You

The Straits Ensemble – Azrin Abdullah: Of Passion & Expression

Pasat Merdu (The Straits Ensemble with Singapore Symphony Orchestra)

Concert reviews

MUSICALS

Bananaland Musical, Sydney Festival 2024

Bananaland Musical opens (StageWhispers)

Fallback from Bananaland Musical – sung by Chris Ryan

Cruel Intentions – The Musical, London Cast (not the one we saw at Pavilion Arts Centre, Sutherland)

Rocky Horror Show, Theatre Royal

Rocky Horror Show, Theatre Royal – Jason Donovan final show encore

& Juliet, Lyric Theatre, The Star

Well-Behaved Women, Belvoir

Well-Behaved Women – Interview with Carmel Dean

Sunset Boulevard, (OA, GWB Entertainment), Sydney Opera House

Sunset Boulevard from Sunset Boulevard – Australian Cast, sung by Tim Draxl

Sunset Boulevard in Australia – What’s going on here? Mickey Jo’s opinion

Dear Evan Hansen, (STC, Michael Cassel Group), Roslyn Packer Theatre

Kiss Me Kate, Barbican Centre

Guys & Dolls, Bridge Theatre London

Two Strangers Carry A Cake Across New York, Criterion Theatre

New York – from Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York, sung by Sam Tutty & Dujonna Gift

Be Happy – from Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York, sung by Dujonna Gift

Standing at the Sky’s Edge (National Theatre UK), Gillian Lynne Theatre

Open Up Your Door – from Standing at the Sky’s Edge, sung by Lauryn Redding

Les Miserables – Bidnici, Goya Music Hall Prague

Wizard of Oz (Wild Rice), Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre, Singapore

Wizard of Oz (Wild Rice) – Bringing Toto to life through puppetry

Musical reviews

PLAYS

Player Kings (Shakespeare’s Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, Noel Coward Theatre

Bluets at Royal Court feat. Emma D’Arcy, Kayla Meikle & Ben Wishaw – a review by 

The Inheritance (Parts 1 & 2) – an excerpt of Part 1 finale from the Broadway production 

The Inheritance (Parts 1&2) – excerpts from Tony Awards

The Inheritance – Metro Focus feature on Broadway production

The Lehman Trilogy (National Theatre UK on Tour), Theatre Royal Sydney

The Lehman Trilogy (National Theatre)

Nayika: A Dancing Girl, Belvoir Theatre

Nayika: A Dancing Girl, Belvoir Theatre – Interview with producer Zainab Syed

Lose to Win, Belvoir Theatre

Lose to Win, Belvoir Theatre – Interview with writer Mandela Mathias

Tiny Beautiful Things, Belvoir Theatre

Holding the Man, Belvoir Theatre

Holding the Man, Belvoir Theatre – Interview with playwright Tommy Murphy

August: Osage County, Belvoir Theatre

August: Osage County, Belvoir Theatre – Interview with Pamela Rabe

August: Osage County, Belvoir Theatre – Interview with director Eamon Flack

Spring Awakening: A Deep Dive – Not the play but the background to the musical which was based on the play

Wife by Samuel Adamson (trailer from premiere at Kiln Theatre, London)

Homos, Or Everyone in America – LondonTheatre trailer (not for the New Theatre production we saw)

Play reviews

DANCE

Skid – GotesborgsOperans Danskompani (Sydney Festival), Rose Packer Theatre

Cut the Sky (Murrugeku), Carriageworks

Coppelia (National Theatre Ballet), State Opera Prague

Dance reviews

CABARET

Christina Bianco – Let It Go impersonations

Club Briefs: The Works, Carriageworks

Cabaret reviews