See more recent reviews at theatreview.org, the NZ Performing Arts Review & Directory

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HUNGOVER – A MUSICAL COMEDY: Fun, light with some emotional depth
Basement Theatre, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland
By Naomi Cohen 
Directed by Hamish McGregor 
Produced by Kit Haines
- reviewed by Heidi North-Bailey

Hungover proves you can make a cabaret-style musical about anything. Even drinking too much. But Hungover is less about drinking too much alcohol than why we drink: to escape our lives, be a bit daring and ultimately – much as we pretend otherwise – to do the things we secretly want to do.

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YOU CAN ALWAYS HAND THEM BACK: Satire on ageing a bundle of joy
SKY CITY Theatre, Auckland
By Roger Hall 
Composer: Peter Skellern 
Directed by Janice Finn 
Musical Director: Jason Te Mete 
Auckland Theatre Company
- reviewed by Paul Simei-Barton

Roger Hall's collaboration with British singer songwriter Peter Skellern throws up an entertaining confection celebrating the joys and hazards of grandparenting.

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JOYFUL AND TRIUMPHANT: Comedy from stresses and strains
Circa One, Wellington
an incidental epic 
Written by Robert Lord
Directed by Susan Wilson 
Proudly supported by Peter Biggs CNZM and Mary Biggs
- reviewed by Laurie Atkinson

Robert Lord's best, funniest and most moving play is subtitled "An Incidental Epic". It explores the stresses and strains of family relationships as time passes quickly by and events far away in other parts of the country and the world change the way things have always been in cosy rural middle-class Pakeha New Zealand.

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THE WHOLEHEARTED: Wholehearted look at love
Q Theatre Loft, 305 Queen St, Auckland
Directed by Sam Scott and Scotty Cotter
Presented by Massive Theatre Company
- reviewed by Corazon Miller

It's a risky ambition to tackle the meaning of love – how we find it, how it changes us and how it feels to have loved and to have lost.

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THE WHOLEHEARTED: Big-Hearted
Q Theatre Loft, 305 Queen St, Auckland
Directed by Sam Scott and Scotty Cotter
Presented by Massive Theatre Company
- reviewed by Sharu Delilkan and Tim Booth

The hugely talented ensemble cast displayed absolute heart and soul through their committed revelation of numerous stories that were immediate, relevant and easily accessible to the enthusiastic audience.

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JOYFUL AND TRIUMPHANT: Rich in insight, humour and pathos
Circa One, Wellington
an incidental epic 
Written by Robert Lord
Directed by Susan Wilson 
Proudly supported by Peter Biggs CNZM and Mary Biggs
- reviewed by John Smythe

By interval I’m thinking how extraordinary it is that such ordinary lives can be so engaging. By the end I am astonished that so much of New Zealand’s social history has, incidentally, seeped into this journey through 40 years of one family’s domestic history, distilled into eight phases of Christmas Day ...

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YOU CAN ALWAYS HAND THEM BACK: Never misses a beat
SKY CITY Theatre, Auckland
By Roger Hall 
Composer: Peter Skellern 
Directed by Janice Finn 
Musical Director: Jason Te Mete 
Auckland Theatre Company
- reviewed by Lexie Matheson

I hear a wee murmur from behind me at one point, concerned that this is a very white, heteronormative, middle class lens on life. My response – unspoken – is “and why not?” We all have the right to see ourselves and our lives presented on the stage and middle class, white heterosexuals are no different.

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STAG WEEKEND: A good solid production
Centrepoint, Palmerston North
by Dan Bain & Brendon Bennetts 
Directed by Jeff Kingsford-Brown
- reviewed by John Ross

Apart from blokes inevitably getting pissed out of their tiny little minds, what might go on, during a stag night, or, beyond this, a whole stag weekend? Just about anything, it seems.

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THE WHOLEHEARTED: Powerful and sweet without being saccharine
Q Theatre Loft, 305 Queen St, Auckland
Directed by Sam Scott and Scotty Cotter
Presented by Massive Theatre Company
- reviewed by Dione Joseph

The mandate of The Massive Theatre Company is clear: to create bold, authentic and heartfelt theatre. It’s not always easy and it certainly isn’t always possible, but last night’s Auckland City preview of The Wholehearted gave its audience exactly that.

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SOMEONE SAY I DO: Noisy and fun and warm with wit and verve
The Lodge Hall at Ferrymead Heritage Park, Christchurch
Andrew Shepherd and Fleur de Thier with choreographic contributions from Sarah Franks, Sean James, Tracy Scott and Karen Lewis.
Film by Sean James
- reviewed by Erin Harrington

We in the audience play the part of wedding guests, and we participate in the hectic pre-wedding transportation and the calamitous service before being entertained, fed and sat down for the wedding dance and the drunken outcome of the disastrous evening.

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MISS JEAN BATTEN: Prime of Miss Jean Batten
Basement Theatre Studio, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland
Written and co-produced by Phil Ormsby 
Directed by Amanda Rees 
Presented by Flaxworks
- reviewed by Janet McAllister

The "Garbo of the Skies" legend of Jean Batten is both fascinating and powerful: cool, glamorous and supposedly manipulative, the great aviator cannibalised her admirers' planes to patch up her own.

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LITTLE CHILD OF MIRACLE: A thing made-with-joy
Basement Theatre, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland
Devised and presented by Christopher Stratton & Natalie Maria Clark
- reviewed by Jess Holly Bates

There are certain creatures in our theatre scene that operate under long periods of dormancy. You know the types – they tiptoe in and out of other people’s processes, keeping themselves on a low simmer. You know they are there – designing shows, writing the odd monologue, sometimes co-directing, part of the indelible infrastructure of our sprawling performance network, but often as not, they scuttle away from the light.

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MAMMA MIA!: Unbridled appeal
Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch
By Catherine Johnson 
Based on the songs of ABBA, composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus 
Director/ Choreographer: Stephen Robertson
Musical Director: Richard Marrett 
Produced by Showbiz Christchurch
- reviewed by Naomi van den Broek

Showbiz delivers a top-notch production of this super musical, with all of the lavish production values that are the hallmark of their shows: a large and impressive set, rock concert lighting, stylish costumes, and an ensemble so taught, trim and tanned it looks they are genetically engineered especially for this season!

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THE BLUE-BEARDED LADY: Utterly charming in a ghoulish kind of way.
BATS Theatre, The Dome, 1 Kent Tce, Wellington
Overhead Risk Circus Theatre/ Pipi-Ayesha Evans
- reviewed by Deirdre Tarrant

The story of Bluebeard and his wives is the hinge for the narrative but Evans cleverly uses a variety of storytelling genres and digs deeper into her personal responses and compulsions to generate her own script. Providing the foil to this picture- book damsel who is the latest 'desired' wife of Bluebeard is an adorable and very expressive teddy bear who is clearly much loved (we all have one of these Teddy's in the background) and he is forced to hide his eyes when things turn nasty.

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MISS JEAN BATTEN: Solo Flight
Basement Theatre Studio, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland
Written and co-produced by Phil Ormsby 
Directed by Amanda Rees 
Presented by Flaxworks
- reviewed by Courtney Bassett

“Flying is the easy part,” Jean Batten tells us with a smirk and a quirk of a brow. She struggles with the judgement and disapproval of men, who fear a woman will do what they never have: cross the Tasman from England to New Zealand, in her tiny plane, and break the world record.

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See more recent reviews at theatreview.org.nz, the NZ Performing Arts Review & Directory

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