Despite its flaws, this Pretty Woman shines

MUSICAL THEATRE
PRETTY WOMAN: THE MUSICAL
Theatre Royal, December 4
Until March 1
Reviewed by JOHN SHAND
★★★

I racked my remaining brains on the way home, wondering what other musical made the songs its dull parts. Usually, they’re the main event. Not in Pretty Woman: The Musical. Here, the show’s humming along rather enjoyably, and then when they start to sing, it feels like you’ve just driven into one of those expensive carparks Sydney entertainingly calls a motorway, and everything grinds to a halt.

The plan was that the songs, by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance, would provide insights into the characters the 1990 film (starring Julia Roberts as Vivian and Richard Gere as Edward) somehow didn’t. But the sentiments are too bald and the characters too knowing, even when they’re supposed to be confused about their feelings.

The songs, themselves, are either stodgy, plodding rockers of the trademark Adams variety, or they’re big ballads that are so overwrought the characters should be embarrassed to sing them. Vivian and Edward are smarter than this.

Samantha Jade plays Vivian, the sex worker picked up by billionaire Edward (Ben Hall), firstly for an hour, then a night, then a week, and then a lifetime. Jade does it well. She gets that mix of being sassy and kittenish; ignorant and quick to learn. Hall is not quite the perfect foil in the way Gere was for Roberts, but he’s close enough for the chemistry to be credible, and they can both sing. It’s just a shame what they sing.

Tim Omaji is superb as Mr Thompson, the suave, wise manager of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, where much of the story is set. He also doubles as a new character, Happy Man: an ersatz guide for anyone who gets lost in the one-way plot. Those people should get more sleep, or see a brain surgeon.

Michelle Brasier is also good as Vivian’s friend, the amusing Kit, and her R&B-style voice works well on the songs where she features, notably Rodeo Drive. Kit also shares easily the show’s best song with Happy Man: Never Give up on a Dream. What musical gives the best song to secondary characters?

Jordan Tomljenovic shines with his dancing and facial reactions as Giulio, the bellhop, and Rebecca Gulinello is luminous with her vocal starburst as Violetta, when Edward takes Vivian to see La traviata. Yes, all the beloved scenes are here, from Vivian’s revenge on the snobbish fashion shop to Mr Thompson offering his sage advice to both lovers.

The book is by Garry Marshall (who directed the film) and JF Lawton (who wrote the screenplay), and the show is directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, with a rather charmingly old-fashioned set design by David Rockwell.

Most of the audience was more enthusiastic than I, but then they might love Bryan Adams’ music. Unfathomably, millions apparently do. Or perhaps they just love slightly tweaked Cinderella stories.

THEATRE
DIAL M FOR MURDER
Ensemble Theatre, December 3
Until January 11
Reviewed by JOHN SHAND
★★★½

Without the sharp editing available to a film-maker, on-stage thrillers tend to gurgle down the drain of melodrama. The wonder of this production of Dial M for Murder is that avoids that grisly end. Just.

Alfred Hitchcock took Frederick Knott’s original play, and turned it into one of his greatest films, starring Grace Kelly as Margot, the rich heiress whose demise is sought by her husband, Tony, partly because she’s taken a lover, but primarily so he can cash in her will.

Then, in 2020, Jeffrey Hatcher created this new adaption, largely to give more agency to Margot, who spent much screen-time resting her head against men’s chests, passively waiting to be saved. Hatcher also spiced up the story by having Margot’s lover be Maxine rather than Max. Given the setting remains 1950s London, this makes Margot’s trial for murder that much more salacious.

In Mark Kilmurry’s admirably detailed production, Nick Fry’s set is a prim and proper depiction of a Mayfair apartment, and Anna Samson initially plays Margot with the joie de vivre of one who thinks she can have her cake and eat it. She expresses fond love for her husband (Garth Holcombe), while exuding wary desire for Maxine (Madeline Jones), who has suddenly returned to London from New York for the launch of her new book, Your Death Is Necessary.

The early scenes are too arch, but even when the acting levels out a little, the story-telling doesn’t quite shrug aside that quality, despite Samson’s best efforts to be appealing, Holcombe’s to be urbane and Jones’ to be playful. David Soncin is also well-cast as Lesgate, the hired killer, and the murder scene, expertly choreographed by Scott Witt, is genuinely gripping.

For all the good work, however, the smell of melodrama still hangs as thickly in the air as cigarette smoke once would once have done, perhaps magnified by Kilmurry’s decision to have composer Madeleine Picard underscore so much of the action.

Then, in act two, like a knight slaying a dragon, in rides Kenneth Moraleda as Inspector Hubbard, the copper who’s a nudge smarter than he lets on, and who punctures any lingering melodrama through the simple expedient of comedy. It’s there in Hatcher’s lines and in Kilmurry’s direction, but Moraleda deserves much of the credit for making the character so thoroughly entertaining. A thriller with comedy attached works so much better on stage than one without.

Moraleda’s presence suddenly raises the overall performance level, too, as if the actors now know more clearly what sort of (less po-faced) drama they’re in, and therefore how to play it. Samson’s Margot becomes compelling with her back to the wall, Jones makes Maxine more interesting and convincing, and Holcombe’s slightly fussy characterisation continues to work. Hatcher, meanwhile, has a couple of plot twists that shall be left for you to discover.

THEATRE
If I Needed Someone
The Living Room, Hustle Studios
December 3
Reviewed by CASSIE TONGUE
★★½
Jules (Kai Paynter) and Jim (Joshua Long) barrel into Jules’ bedroom after hitting it off at a party. They’ve had a few drinks and they’re flirty, but they’re also wary: there are always risks involved when you’re going home with someone.

Of course, they feel that risk to varying degrees. Jim is worried about rejection or humiliation; Jules is on the lookout for signs she might be assaulted. Neither can quite relax.

This is If I Needed Someone, Neil LaBute’s unpublished play currently making its Australian debut, thanks to BearTiger Productions’ theatre company The Americas. The company has worked closely with LaBute, which means there’s a straightforward quality to it: it tackles the script with down-the-line clarity, a little curiosity, and a rigidity that might give the play more reverence than it deserves.

The tiny production, which has audiences seated so close to the actors it’s like we’re in the bedroom with them, thrives on ambiguity – even when it stretches credulity – because ambiguity is what drives LaBute’s script.

Would this potential couple almost call it a night so many times after harsh words, crossed lines, unwanted touches and quick insults before someone changes their mind and calls them back at the last minute? Do these both-sides arguments about consent, abuse, and power really hold equally as much water as the script insists? Are these generation-shifting conversations about safety and agency so tiresome in actuality.

LaBute says so. But then, there’s always a chance a peek at the contemporary dating scene feels off when it’s written into a play by someone decades older than those in it – and someone with clear mistrust of “the rules” for dating safely.

Paynter directs the show as well as starring in it, and her keen eye for the humanity of a moment helps ground some of the more repetitive scenes in solid character work. The tiny space – part of a venue-for-hire building in Surry Hills – places restrictions on the flow of the work, but independent shows require an element of scrappiness; companies must become increasingly inventive to survive during cost of living and arts funding crises.

The simplistic blocking and staging is easily forgivable; music nerds Jules and Jim walking without hesitation on a floor strewn with vinyl (and standing, dancing, and sitting on the sleeves) much less so. This decision, while appealing to look at, takes you out of the truth of the play.

And this play needs truthfulness to survive: we have to invest in the characters to make it plausible. Anything that detracts from their believability is a ding to the production overall. The matched energy of the two performers goes a long way – the intimate opening night audience was dotted with physical cringing and uncomfortable laughter – but all that circular logic and all those “almost” moments of connection are exhausting; you can’t help but wish one or both of these characters would decide to cut their losses and get an earlier night’s sleep.

MUSIC
Good Things Festival
Sydney Showground, December 6
Reviewed by SHAMIM RAZAVI
★★★★

Among all the noise about the challenges facing Australia’s festival scene, our noisiest festival goes from strength to strength. True to their hard-as-nails image, the metalhead audience wasn’t going to be put off by Olympic Park’s uncomfortable setting or 40-degree heat.

Organisers had worked hard – sprinkler systems, a house band in a shady spot, barbecue food stands aplenty – to lend proceedings a homely aesthetic and a sense of camaraderie that belied the brutal heat.

Those sprinklers were gamely assisted by Gwar’s theatrical jets of blood in a hilariously OTT shock-rock set that painted the pit crimson. Refused likewise injected a boost into the opening stretches of the day, mic-swinging frontman Dennis Lyxzen ensuring the incendiary Swedish punk-rockers went out on a high at their final Sydney show. With Goldfinger’s fizzy ska fun – including a wild punk take on 99 Red Balloons – and All Time Low’s ironically irresistibly upbeat set, the stage was nicely primed for the evening’s heavyweights to seal the Good Things deal.

It was a shame, then, that Garbage fell short. Despite starting strong with bangers I Think I’m Paranoid and #1 Crush, there was a distance in the band’s stage presence, fumbling even the heavenly gift of a downpour during Only Happy When it Rains. “Half-hearted” would be harsh but certainly not all four chambers were beating.

Weezer made up for some of the lost momentum, with Rivers Cuomo’s breezy alt-rock vocals providing a warm-hug counterpoint to the harder noise-growl of earlier big name acts Machine Head and Alpha Wolf from that same stage. There’s a humility to Cuomo’s awkward charm but commanding renditions of Undone, Say It Ain’t So and, of course, Buddy Holly, show he has little reason to be humble.

Yet it is a mark of how transcendent Tool were that their show cast those earlier acts in the darkest of shadows. Zero banter, no band close-ups and 12-minute meandering compositions should spell festival fail, yet the audience was held in reverential rapture. A self-effacing performance – the band almost invisible, silhouettes against a trippy, swirling backdrop – allowed the music to expand, fill and ultimately complete the night: challenging, hypnotic, magnificent.

MUSIC
Lewis Capaldi
Qudos Bank Arena, December 6
Reviewed by MILLIE MUROI
★★★★

There’s little overly showy about Lewis Capaldi or this production – but there doesn’t need to be.

The Scot’s voice carries enough power and soul to capture a stadium while making it feel cosy and intimate.

What begins as a comfortable but poignant set of songs including Wish You the Best morphs into more intense numbers such as Bruises, Capaldi’s debut single initially released independently back in 2017, shortly after a relationship break-up.

A slowed down, stirring rendition of Pointless from his second album is a highlight. Emphatic, punctuated with runs, and executed with a build-up of instruments and energy, it is a testament to Capaldi’s timing and ability to hit home emotionally.

Capaldi, who learned guitar at nine and snuck into pubs with his older brother’s help, has worked his way up – he played for the first time in Sydney at the Oxford Arts Factory in 2018.

His banter is easygoing with a gruff, dark humour that serves as an amusing contrast to the impassioned tone of his songs.

Heavy metal and rock influences (Capaldi listened to the likes of Slipknot and Oasis growing up) are evident and, while he is clearly a soul singer, the vigour and angst of those genres are evident.

Capaldi’s vocal range is demonstrated in songs such as Something in the Heavens, where delicate high notes, while somewhat airy, are immediately followed by a drop into a rich bass.

The singer is unafraid to talk about his struggles with mental health with songs such as The Day That I Die drawing on these experiences.

Before You Go, a heartfelt ballad from an extended version of Capaldi’s debut album in 2019, becomes a poignant but dazzling song, driven by drums, strong bass and formidable vocals.

While Capaldi does not do flash choreography, and could offer more insight into his songwriting process when chatting to the audience, his vocal energy never wavers and commands the attention of the room.

Songs such as Someone You Loved – his first No.1 single released in 2019 – are easy crowd pleasers. Fans eager to experience high-energy, emphatic interpretations of Capaldi’s songs will love seeing him live.

MUSIC
Kelsea Ballerini
TikTok Entertainment Centre – Sydney ICC, December 6
Reviewed by NADIA RUSSELL
★★★★

If Taylor Swift had stayed country, her shows would surely look like Kelsea Ballerini’s triumphant return to Australia. Before the US country singer comes out on stage, the tone is immediately set by the final pre-show song, Shania Twain’s Man! I Feel Like a Woman!, then, as smoke fills the stage and the band plays the opening chords, Ballerini’s voice rings out crystal clear.

The first song, Patterns, has the flavour of a pop performance, with Ballerini commanding the stage in a glittering ensemble, lights flashing around her. But for the second song of the night, Baggage, she picks up an electric guitar to get the audience going and really leans into the country vibes while her backup singers line dance across the stage like it’s a hoedown.

Ballerini’s golden, full-fringe dress and silver boots evoke the “Fearless” set of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, during which Swift donned a similar look to perform her country music. At the start of We Broke Up, Ballerini uses silhouette lighting and a chair for a brief dance number, reminiscent of Swift’s performance of Vigilante Shit during The Eras Tour. The references feel a little on the nose, but Ballerini moves away from this for the second half of the show, settling into her own identity.

The slower, heartfelt moments are adeptly interwoven with the faster paced songs. After playing the more upbeat Emerald City, she keeps the crowd in that world with a stunning, stripped back cover of I’m Not That Girl, one of Elphaba’s songs from Wicked, a hush falling across the crowd as she sings.

Ballerini also chooses to play I Sit in Parks as an intimate number at the front of stage, sitting on a stool with an acoustic guitar, the audience lighting up their phones for the emotional song. The show never slows down for too long, though, and there is always an upbeat moment to follow.

Ballerini’s stage presence shines through as she encourages the audience to sing along, completely owning the stage during sassier numbers with cutting lyrics, Blindsided (Yeah, Sure, Okay) and Miss Me More.

Ballerini has tweaked her setlist to add in her newer music, but it’s her older, true country songs that have people in the stands getting up to dance. With a mix of emotional songs and fun hits, Ballerini leaves the crowd connected – not just with her, but with each other.

MUSIC
Franz Ferdinand
Opera House Forecourt, December 3
Reviewed by GEORGE PALATHINGAL
★★★★

It’s the Sydney gig that any artist would find impossible to resist: a chance to play to an adoring crowd with the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge providing the dazzling backdrop.

Depending on the act – in this instance, Glasgow’s premier rock party-starters, Franz Ferdinand – it’s not always necessarily quite as spectacular for the crowd, what with the reduced volume and 10pm curfew in deference to local residents.

But that’s not Franz’s fault. And, led by irrepressible frontman Alex Kapranos with his slicked-back hair, shiny shirt and twinkle in the eye, the (now) five-piece outfit fires into this show with typical gusto.

It’s a set front-loaded with so many exuberant hits there’s a fear they might run out – half an hour in and we’ve already gone berserk to the suave yet sizzling likes of The Dark of the Matinee, No You Girls and Do You Want To – but as the set progresses, you remember Franz Ferdinand have loads of them and they’re not the kind of band to hold back. Still to join the party, and with delicious impact, are beloved old friends Jacqueline, Michael and Ulysses.

Franz have also got a good, if not great, new album (their sixth in a 20-plus-year career, The Human Fear, arrived with little fuss in January) but they wring the best from that, too, sneaking the better songs among the beloved bangers.

Kapranos not only gets everyone to wave their hands to Audacious and its anthemic chorus, and clap along to the jaunty Build It Up, he introduces Black Eyelashes, a newie marinated in traditional Greek music, with a cheeky Take Me Out fake (me) out. (How anyone might have fallen for his introduction when he was wielding a bouzouki, of all instruments, remains a mystery.)

Of course, when the steely opening twang of Take Me Out actually does arrive – after a tender tribute to Brisbane’s mighty Go-Betweens – it builds to pretty much everyone, on stage and off, jumping up and down with unfettered delight to its iconic riff and forgetting it’s barely 9.30 on a school night.

Despite all the restrictions, what a fun night it turns out to be.

DANCE
New Breed
Carriageworks, December 3
Until December 13
Reviewed by KATIE LAWRENCE
★★★★

Since 2012, Sydney Dance Company’s New Breed has been a launchpad for Australia’s most daring new choreographers. This year, after creating 49 new works across the past 12 years, the program takes its final bow, with the company shifting focus to an artist-in-residence program. It’s a pivot – but New Breed, true to form, goes out with risk, personality, and four works that land with impact.

The evening opens with Ryan Pearson’s Save Point. Inspired by the video games and outdoor adventures of childhood, the piece delivers exactly what it promises: a whimsical, playground atmosphere. Dancers in knee-high socks and athletic wear follow a Pied Piper figure through a world that feels both nostalgic and surreal.

Ngaere Jenkins’ From the Horizon Thereafter follows, deepening the tone and ushering in a post-apocalyptic vibe that saturates the remainder of the program. Jenkins, from Aoteroa/New Zealand, reflects on her homeland, and a “culture asked to disappear quietly”. With five men and one woman, the work leans prisoner-of-war in its aesthetic. Deep drums, weighted floorwork, and haunting vocals make for an evocative, transformative and quietly devastating performance.

Third is Emma Fishwick’s marathon-o-marathon, a musing on climate collapse and global conflict that likens our current era to sprinting a marathon. With quirk that is deliberate and deft, it features a medieval knight’s helmet, unicorn cut-out, puffy sleeves, random bag of oranges (some thrown across the stage in sync with lighting shifts) and a dancer reading marathon finishing times into a microphone like a doomsday metronome. Mirroring the audience’s own exhaustion on the modern treadmill, it’s funny until it isn’t – and that switch is the point.

The night closes with Harrison Ritchie-Jones’ Pigeon Humungous. While less pigeon-laden than its title teases, the work delivers Ritchie-Jones’ signature blend of athleticism, wit, and fearless partnering. The dancers are dressed in a mix of fluoro green, orange feathers, long tartan skirts, and industrial grey. They strut, preen, cartwheel, flutter, breakdance, posture, twitch like broken dolls and occasionally erupt into kung fu – all against a score of screeching metal and exquisite liturgical hymns. It’s a beautiful disaster, meticulously orchestrated.

For more than a decade, New Breed has championed choreographers willing to be bold, strange, tender and unruly. Its departure marks the end of an era – and its absence will be felt long after the final curtain.