Alex First
Cost of Living (MTC), at Southbank Theatre, The Sumner - 1 hour 50 minutes, without interval
Outstanding performances distinguish an extraordinarily insightful, Pulitzer Prize-winning (2018) script about the human condition in...
top of page
Search
Alex First
Sep 153 min read
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Victorian Opera and New Zealand Opera), at Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne - 2 hours 50 minutes, including interval
The cutthroat razor is sharpened and ready for the kill in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Forty-five years on, the...
Alex First
Sep 143 min read
Oscar (The Australian Ballet), at Regent Theatre - 2 hours and 8 minutes, including a 25-minute interval
How very exciting for The Australian Ballet to be presenting the world premiere of a new full-length ballet … and it is spectacular. ...
Alex First
Sep 113 min read
You're The Man (Monstrous Theatre), at La Mama - 75 minutes
You’re The Man, a 75-minute play about the ugly face of domestic violence, is dramatic, potent and upsetting, just as it should be. ...
Alex First
Sep 92 min read
Iphigenia in Splott, at Red Stitch Actors' Theatre - 90 minutes, with no interval
I saw Red Stitch’s Iphigenia in Splott three years ago and thought it was one of the finest productions I had seen. This return season...
Alex First
Sep 92 min read
A Chorus Line (theatrical), at National Theatre - 2 hours, plus a 20-minute interval
The vicissitudes of show business are brought into sharp focus in theatrical’s production of A Chorus Line. Under the keen eye of...
Alex First
Sep 72 min read
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (M) - 105 minutes
It is so much riotous fun – a zany hoot. The 36-year wait for the sequel to the beloved Beetlejuice has well and truly been worth it. ...
Alex First
Sep 63 min read
Mother, at Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne - 70 minutes
Noni Hazlehurst delivers an inspired performance in the slice of life piece Mother. Homeless and shoeless, she plays the character...
Alex First
Sep 12 min read
Volition, at Theatre Works' Explosives Factory - 2 x 50 minutes, with a 15-minute interval
Competition can be invigorating, but also dramatic and soul destroying. That is the theme of the two parter created under the auspices...
Alex First
Sep 12 min read
The Children's Bach (Lyric Opera), at Theatre Works - 85 minutes, without interval
Life in all its messiness is played out in Lyric Opera’s chamber opera The Children’s Bach. With music by Andrew Schultz and libretto...
Alex First
Aug 283 min read
Topdog/Underdog (MTC), Southbank Theatre, The Lawler - 2 hours, plus a 20-minute interval
Acclaimed actor Bert LaBonté makes his directorial debut with the jive talking, Pulitzer Prize winning comedic drama Topdog/Underdog. It...
Alex First
Aug 263 min read
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (Shake & Stir Theatre Co), at Princess Theatre - 110 minutes, plus interval
There is one way to compromise a dramatic tale of obsession gone horribly askew that features impressive staging. Get the sound mix...
Alex First
Aug 242 min read
An Organised Odyssey (Wielding Theatre), at Testing Grounds - 75 minutes
An esoteric work for selective tastes, as far as I could make out An Organised Odyssey is about finding one’s true voice. According to...
Alex First
Aug 203 min read
Thinner Than Water (The LAB Theatre), at Alex Theatre - 140 minutes, plus a 20-minute interval
Families – you can’t live with them, you can’t live without them. That idiom may well apply to the characters in the sharp comedic...
Alex First
Aug 183 min read
Milk and Blood, at fortyfivedownstairs - 2 x 70 minutes, with a 20-minute interval
Writer Benjamin Nichol continues his incendiary anthology series of plays with the double bill Milk and Blood. Each 70 minutes in...
Alex First
Aug 173 min read
Murder for Two (Hayes Theatre Co.), at Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne - 100 minutes, with no interval
One of the cleverest and funniest pieces of musical theatre I have had the good fortune to see, Murder for Two is a triumph of writing,...
Alex First
Aug 163 min read
JENNIE! (Melbourne Writers' Theatre), at Gasworks - 75 minutes
If I reference the word “suffragette”, the first name that will pop into many people’s heads will be Emmeline Pankurst (1858 – 1928). ...
Alex First
Aug 162 min read
Piper (Frenzy Theatre Co), at Theatre Works - 90 minutes, with no interval
The legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, which dates back to the Middle Ages, has been upended in glorious fashion in the stunning new...
Alex First
Aug 113 min read
Apologia, at Malthouse Theatre - 90 minutes, without interval
Creative – yes. Original – my word. Captivating – not so much. I struggled with Apologia, which is a reflection on language,...
Alex First
Aug 92 min read
La Rondine (Victorian Opera), at Palais Theatre - 2 hours 20 minutes, including two intervals
Can one truly escape one’s past? Can true love win out? These are questions posed in Giacomo Puccini’s La Rondine (The Swallow). The...
bottom of page