Guardian Australia critics pick out the best live stage experiences of the year
It’s not often that a jukebox musical would make an end-of-year best theatre list, but Big Name, No Blankets – which tells the story of the iconic– is no ordinary jukebox musical. Part traditional musical, part rock gig, and all-electrifying, it’s powered by hits like Blackfella/Whitefella and guides us through the music that broke records, blazed trails and lifted hearts.
Even refreshed, the plot is a wheezy one: newlywed Bella hears strange noises and frequently misplaces things, while hubby Jack seems jolly keen to convince her she’s losing her mind. But terrific performances, suspenseful moments and surprises made for a transporting night. Geraldine Hakewill was electrifying as the fragile Bella, Toby Schmitz a delightful cad as Jack.
Directed by Eamon Flack, Pamela Rabe flared brilliantly as the play’s poisonous matriarch, Violet. Tamsin Carroll, Anna Samson and Amy Mathews were marvellous as her daughters. Helen Thomson shone as Violet’s sister, and according to everyone I’ve asked, Greg Stone got a round of delighted applause every night for his character’s attempt to freestyle a pre-dinner prayer. A partially recast version of the show is opening at the Perth festival in February. If you can get to it, don’t miss it.
Seventy-five years after its debut, Miller’s tragic study of a retrenched travelling salesman still resonates, and this superbly cast staging cuts deeply into the nuanced traumas of its characters. Anthony LaPaglia was devastating as a downtrodden Willy Loman, while Alison Whyte was equal parts fragile and resolute as his loyal wife Linda. Equally impressive was the staging, which took its cues from Miller’s original minimalist designand notion that the play unfolded inside Willy’s head.
While opera purists may rue this contemporary mashup, there’s no denying its entertainment value. Acrobats catapult across the stage, and each other – at times piled three or four high – as if in competition with the piercing soprano of the divine Prudence Sanders . Beautifully soundtracked by the West Australian Symphony Orchestra , Orpheus & Eurydice is an adrenaline-pumping trip to hell and back, one that I’d willingly take many times over.
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