Anything Goes

Saturday, 12 June 2010

WAAPA’s 30th anniversary musical treat is a cheeky Cole Porter farce from the scandalous 1930s, a show where gangsters are celebrities; sexy, sassy dames are ballsy enough to chase the men and cocaine makes it as part of one of the most well-known songs in musical theatre!

While not quite topping last year’s stupendous 42nd Street (I’m still blown away just remembering the massive tap routine that opened up that show when the curtain revealed the stage); Anything Goes is a bright and breezy showcase for the many talented performers and artists both on and off the stage and a fantastic chance to enjoy a Great White Way classic right in the comfort of your home town.

Amazonian Stephanie Grigg had the vocal chops of a Broadway belter and her over the top expressions as cabaret star Reno in a role made famous by the indomintable Ethel Merman were tempered by deft comic timing and an aggressive/ assertive likeability. What a voice!

Jamie Bell was almost unnoticed as first as soft spoken effete Lord Evelyn Oakleigh, but throughout the course of the show emerged as an audience favourite, delighting with his accent-idental mispronunciations of American idioms, and gradually revealing himself to be a hilarious and fun character – more than a match for an unlikely tryst with Reno.

Billy (James Bryers) and Hope (Danae Stewart) were a sweet and earnest couple, the conventional hero and heroine around which other more interesting and outrageous personalities circled.

Moonface (Benjamin Hoetjes) a 13th rate gangster on the lam was a hoot, grabbing with gusto (and relish) any scene he could steal and almost outdone by just-wanna-have-fun bad girl Erma (Gillian Cosgriff), a big eyed dollface keen to advertise her availability to the admiring at-ten-hun! of all red-blooded sailors on board ship.

The orchestrations were delightful, delicious, de-lovely; musical director David King working seamlessly with director Crispin Taylor and choreographer Jenny Lynnd to give us a flawless musical theatre experience.

The sets and costumes were evocative of both the era and its nautical inspiration with the fantastic lower set inside the boat transforming into a multitude of bedrooms, brigs or sing it! stages, very clever indeed.

With mistaken identities and deceptions, wackiness and ultimate happy endings all round, Anything Goes is a joyous kick (no cocaine required!)

Tales of King Arthur

Friday, 13 March 2009

I've been seeing shows on and off at WAAPA for the better part of a year now - ever since I discovered their Performance Program - but tonight was the first time I got a chance to be part of the audience at their Amphitheatre, an outdoor location close to the main studios and Building 1.

The saliva-inducing scent of a fundraising sausage sizzle drew the medium sized crowd to the location and the seating was most definitely on the casual side, blankets and throws to soften the functional sitting areas and tickets unreserved.

Cane hoops sturdily bound together served as a backdrop for the stage and they were scored here and there with fairy lights, cloth and pulleys. An open floor was the stage and found objects like modified garbage bins were turned over and reused to transform between the stone which held Arthur's sword to thrones and lookout points.

The legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table have fascinated scholars and the public alike for generations with their tales of gallantry and romance; trials, sacrifice and reward and at the centre of it all the doomed love triangle between Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot.

This production however, did not hold to the Middle Ages conceit of castles and courtly refinement, the actors were in a much coarser garb, almost Stone Age - with wild hair and bare chests for the boys and neutral dresses and heavy eye shadow for the girls.

Various roles were co-opted throughout the show; Merlin was played by no less than four different actors, his cape passed on and signifying his new incarnation Doctor Who-like; and various Knights of the Round Table also became opposing evil knights, kings or demons.

A character that I have not seen extensively in many representations of King Arthur was that of Kay, Arthur's often bossy older brother, a preening fop of a man played by Reece Budin who provided a lot of the comedy for the production.

Jamie Ward as Arthur was scrappy and keen - the King as a hormonally charged teenager; Luana Farina was pretty as the dutiful but secretly torn Guinevere, and Benjamin Hoetjes impressed the crowd not just with his fire-breathing skills (take that dragon!) but with his rough hewn romance and sensitivity in the role guilt-ridden Lancelot.

One of the funniest aspects of the show was the random use of regional accents. There was even a note in the program to allay the confusion with the caveat that "some accents are used to indicate a character's traits rather than region". I guess that explains the thick Russian burr that Morgana Le Fey sported and then lost!

A fun show, exuberant and well-told.