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First on Entertainment

Who doesn’t like hearing bangers with the volume turned up?   In what has become an annual, most enjoyable musical cavalcade, Legends in Concert returns for its eighth iteration at The Palms at Crown. While the line-up of big-name tribute artists varies from year to year, the good times keep on rolling.   This season, after a brief Taylor Swift opener, it is Pat Benatar, Michael Bublé , Dolly Parton and Cher before the break.   Thereafter, Swift returns for a longer set, foll

What does it take to push a disenchanted young man over to the dark side?   That question is answered in all its destructive ugliness in the incendiary play Blackpill: Redux.   It is a reworked expansion of a production that captured the imagination at Theatre Works’ more experimental venue, The Explosives Factory, last April. Photos by Sarah Clarke Eli (Oliver Tapp) has just been fired from his sales job after a series of vitriolic online posts in his private life with a wom

Strong, melodic voices and good-humoured banter characterise an ideal, fun-filled family musical.   Showcase Entertainment Group brings our favourite green ogre and his irritating best friend, Donkey, to life on a Victorian and NSW tour.   The musical is based on the 2001 Dreamworks Animation film and the 1990 book by William Steig. With book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire and music by Jeanine Tesori, it follows the familiar plot, but it is a slightly streamlined version

So joyful. So creative. So colourful. Simply astounding. I felt like a little kid, full of awe and wonder.   Yes, these are my words. This is unquestionably one of the must-see exhibitions of your life, for there is nothing else like it. Forget balloons stretched, twisted and folded into a sausage dog. That is so passé.   Think instead of the Einstein of ballooning (who, by the way, is captured in balloon form in this extraordinary showcase).  Half a million coloured balloons

A beautiful, sensitive portrait of love and loss in the early 20 th century, The History of Sound features bravura showings from its two leads.   Lionel (played as an adult by Paul Mascal) has what his father says is a gift from God, namely he can see music – the shape, colour and taste of it.   It never occurred to Lionel that music was only about the sound.   Growing up on a small farm in Kentucky, he won a scholarship to the New England Conservatory in Boston.   That is w

Set in the magnificent Royal Botanic Gardens, The Australian Shakespeare Company’s The Wind in the Willows is a delightful family production, which never ages.   I am pleased to be able to say that three decades on, it continues to resonate – strongly.   That is due to a combination of colourful characters, mischief making, engaging songs and interactivity. The fun begins by the lake when the Head Chief Rabbit takes centre stage.   Dressed in white tails, suspenders and bow t

Humour plays a significant part in PLOS’s production of The Wizard of Oz.   Led melodically by the beautiful voice of Lana Hutchinson as Dorothy Gale (boy, can she hold a note), the comedic elements come from the scarecrow, tinman and lion.  Photo by Dylan Norrington The ageless story is that of young Dorothy, who lives on a Kansas farm with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry.   They have a mean neighbour, Miss Gulch, who wants Dorothy’s beloved dog Toto impounded and put down.   Wh

Set against the dreadful pall of The Great Wa r* , the Choral Society, in the fictional town of Ramsden, in Yorkshire, presses on.   The Society is funded by its chairman and local mill owner Alderman Bernard Duxbury (Roger Allam), who employs a large swathe of the town’s population.   It is 1916 and time to audition for the next production. The Society is keen to recruit local young males to help swell their ranks.   Given the times, this is a community all too familiar wit

This gritty British drama, which marks a strong feature debut for writer and director Harris Dickinson, follows a young, homeless addict whose life continues to spiral.   Mike (Frank Dillane) lives a hard, meaningless existence on the streets of London.   He wanders about aimlessly in search of money and can’t get his act together, sleeping wherever he can.  That could be crumpled on a busy street corner or on cardboard boxes atop a building.   He is betrayed by another homel