“It’s Saturday Janet – lets go to Melbourne!”
Once again, what a long week and honestly what a schlepp! But that’s what weekends are for – to catch up and re-calibrate your perspective. This week, well it offers a lot of perspective! So lets get to it – news, Diva style, from Sydney Domestic Terminal, Departure Lounge 56 at entirely too early in the morning. Any major grammatical errors you can blame on the entirely too weak, entirely over-priced Arababica coffee I just bought from the airport cafe. There may be more than one – but they’re all the same! If I have to stop midway to board the plane… you’ll know!
First off, The Voice season three this week wrapped amidst suspicions of votes tampering to assist this years victor Anja Nissen – who frankly looks like Rachael McAdams’ character in Mean Girls – towards her newly found fifteen minutes of fame. The 18 year old singer was considerably behind in iTunes sales and YouTube hits than her competitors in the final weeks of the show. News.com.au has suggested in a bold article that Nissen could not have had the online cult following to win the show over the charted single performances of her rivals.
“I totes won you guys!”
The Voice being a set up is, frankly, old news. Rumour had it in 2012 that inaugural Voice winner Karise Eden had been picked by producers weeks before the finale, with her winners single written before the semi-finals even. The main reason this article becomes news is because it suggests that the mainstream media are becoming less afraid of uber-producers at Shine Productions Australia, who have allegedly destroyed careers in the past two years in their vengeance against anyone who spoke out against the talent show. And this while the Abbott government is in power? The Military Road crowd must be Lol-ing so hard right now!
The Tap Pack, Britney Spears: the cabaret, a Neglected Musical? – and then Miracle City!
In music theatre news, lets start with some Diva Knows Best reports – namely, the Hayes Theatre and it’s Helpmann nominations. So far, viewed by several thousands, the discussion of the presence of a semi-professional musical theatre production at Australia’s professional theatre awards has remained decidedly low key. Chinese whispers anybody? The fact remains now that Sweet Charity is the front-runner for the Best Musical award on August 18, while Best Actress is now a battle between Verity Hunt-Ballard’s performance as Charity Hope Valentine and Caroline O’Connor as “Momma” Rose Hovik in Gypsy. Meanwhile, at this stage, the Hayes remains peculiarly dark between the final performance of Christie Whelan-Browne’s Britney Spears: the cabaret and the first preview of Miracle City. The official website of Michelle Guthrie’s Neglected Musicals currently has a production date for a show “to be announced” that will open on October 6. Given that it’s been over a year since Variations was staged at the Darlinghurst (as it then was), it’s about bloody time! I’m voting for Flora the Red Menace… Why is it that just seems to suit Michelle Guthrie?
Sharon Millerchip and Matthew Robinson in Kookaburra’s poorly received 2007 production of Pippin
As for musicals to be announced, a recent article on BroadwayWorld.com about the return of Andrea Martin to Pippin on Broadway came with an interesting postscript…
“Pippin will launch a US national tour in September 2014, at the Buell Theatre in Denver, CO. Productions are also planned for London, Australia and Amsterdam in 2015.”
If this is indeed correct, my first response would be WHY?!? Didn’t we learn anything from the Kookaburra production of Pippin? You can pack the show with stars and weight it down with more gimmicks than a Jessica Mauboy album and honestly it just will not work here. As Diana Simmonds once so accurately put it: “If an Australian company is going to trawl for material in the Broadway musical pond, citing – as was asserted in recent weeks – the dearth of musicals with strong stories and music – it seems perverse to pick one from the shallow end.”
The last production of Pippin in Australia was staged at the now seldom used Sidetrack Theatre in Sydney by indie company Crinkle Cut Productions in 2011. The Broadway revival of Pippin won a Tony Award for Best Revival of a musical in 2012 to the absolute horror of the categories presenter Patti LuPone – she announced the winner and then stormed off the stage, it was fierce! The new staging involves a very Barnum-esque circus theme to tell the story of the crippled heir to the throne of Charlemagne’s France. Sexy, a wee bit dark and ultimately frivolous spectacle, the show is still running in New York and clearly is raking in the pesos fast enough to make the producers think now is the time to go global. Artistic objections aside, one practical limitation remains to a 2015 production of Pippin… which theatre are they going to put it in? No doubt the junta that runs the Capitol and the Lyric are already haggling.
“Ruthless!”
The coolest news of the week comes from the Theatre Division. The Independent producers of Ruthless the Musical – the recent smash hit at the Reginald Theatre in Sydney – have stated on their Facebook page that they will be announcing their next production on Monday. No really!!! Monday – just like that! The Theatre Division’s production of Ruthless, though independently funded, was a professional affair, with all artists being paid at or above the LPA Award 2010 minimum wage. Noted equity firebrand and living legend Geraldine Turner would almost certainly have not joined the production has this not been the case. Rumours will no doubt run rife this weekend as pundits run through lists of musicals currently available for production in Australia. Here’s hoping this is the start of bigger things for the bourgeoning young company – a 2015 season for instance?
(At this point I boarded a flight for Melbourne.)
You can officially forget the balcony, Strictly Ballrooms sales have collapsed.
In other news, Diva Knows Best attended Strictly Ballroom – again! – on Thursday night. There we discovered a show barely changed from opening night except for one major feature… the audience. During previews Strictly Ballroom was packing the crowds in, and the producers of the show have marketed this image well, reeling further crowds in thanks to ads in The Daily Telegraph. However, three months after opening night, the Lyric audience filled perhaps 80% of the stalls while both the dress and grand circles of the barn like Lyric Theatre were completely closed. Sources inside the Lyric informed us that the grand circle has been completely closed now for months while the dress circle only opens for weekend and Friday night performances, while it’s been months since the show has had anything approaching a full house.
It is almost unfathomable to think just exactly how much money is being lost on this production by Global Creatures right now, while the musical has just extended its run at the Lyric into October! Are they being held to a contract or are they attempting to land in Melbourne with stories of an extensive Sydney season to buoy them along? Well, Potemkin villages can’t help but fall eventually. Strictly Ballroom is currently in crisis. It’s creative team allegedly have their sights fixed on a Melbourne reboot with the potential for extensive changes to greet Victorian audiences, while rumblings within indicate that multiple members of the cast are very eager to depart the show as soon as their contracts allow. Oh yeah, and a cast recording is coming out soon.
“I am ready for my pancake batter!”
Oh and Macbeth has opened at the Sydney Theatre Company – and prepare for the mixed and mystified reviews to follow of a production where Hugo Weaving gets covered in baked goods and Melita Jurisic (who is playing Cate Blanchett playing Lady Macbeth – soz guys, she won an Oscar!) apparently goes bat shit insane from the get go and ends the play babbling incomprehensibly. It’s brilliant and messy and I’m going to hazard a guess and say really rather awful – in that special way by which Blade Runner (a work of art!) was awful. Too bad its sold out. You’ll have to miss this particular piece of arty mayhem. I wouldn’t worry too much about it.
And that dear Diva reader is a wrap! Being perched comfortably in a Degraves Street cafe in Melbourne typing this, I am going to pay my bill and go see a new Australian musical called A Little Touch of Chaos. Expect a review in short order. Into the Woods, Les Mis, Wicked and even a performance evening featuring Amanda Harrison and Hilary Cole will follow. Man I love Melbourne!
Diva Knows Best
Xoxox
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