A selection of reviews from Theatreview from the last week including: Postal, Whistle Solo, Camino Real, and Stockcars: The Musical.

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

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A selection of reviews from Theatreview from the last week including: Postal, Whistle Solo, Camino Real, and Stockcars: The Musical.

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

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The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - WHISTLE SOLO: Material excess in a desperate world

- reviewed by Nik Smythe

Whistle Solo is very much a ‘you-had-to-be-there’ [in the '80s] experience, so if you were you’ll get your money’s worth. If you weren’t and/or are not versed in the history and mores of the time, a fair amount of the plethora of amusing references to the period we love to hate may be lost on you.

Still, perhaps you’ll learn a thing or two; either way you’ll nevertheless surely be entertained by the spirited performances and impressively dynamic teamwork ...

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The Basement, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - CAMINO REAL: A visceral performance charged with desire, longing and loss
- reviewed by Heidi North-Bailey

It’s a wonderful ensemble piece for this year’s graduates of The Actor’s Programme to sink their teeth into. The cast relish their dance with desire, and pull off their parade of degraded humanity. It’s beautifully styled, wrapping the audience up in the haunting world of the play ...

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Centrepoint, Palmerston North - STOCKCARS: THE MUSICAL: A bit rough, rude, crude and raw but with plenty of roar
- reviewed by Richard Mays

Pre-Christmas pantomime returns to Centrepoint in an adult blue-collar Cinderella-esque kind of way.

Those who fondly recall the Alison Quigan /Ross Gumbley days when Centrepoint’s end of year home-grown galas were eagerly anticipated, will be in for a treat.

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The Forge at The Court Theatre, Christchurch - POSTAL: Frustrating yet effective entertainment

- reviewed by Erin Harrington

Fanti, the upbeat Sri Lankan manager of a local post office, has been asked to feature in a human resources video. She grins manically for the camera while trying her best to play the part of the ‘good’ immigrant, but she has difficulty hiding her disdain for her colleagues and her anger at the indignities of her new life.

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Centrepoint, Palmerston North - STOCKCARS: THE MUSICAL: Corruption in sport and local body politics
- reviewed by John Ross

Promoted as "The funniest musical about stockcars you will ever see," this is always entertaining, only sometimes funny – yet one doesn’t expect to encounter much competition. Two balladeers with guitars (Jon Pheloung and Adrian Hooke), who act as comperes intermittently throughout, assure us that somehow all will turn out well, meaning the nice guys will win and the bastards lose. As someone more-or-less said, that’s what fiction is.

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Q Theatre, Rangatira, Auckland - CHICAGO: Give ’em the old tit-ill-ation

- reviewed by James Wenley

If you think you know Chicago, leave your expectations at the theatre door. The stockings haven’t just been rolled down, they've been ripped completely off in this down and dirty, hyper-sexualised re-imagining of the Kander and Ebb musical from the warped mind of virtuoso Michael Hurst.

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Q Theatre, Rangatira, Auckland - CHICAGO: An intoxicating, heady cocktail
- reviewed by Janet McAllister

With this fabulous, fast-tempoed spectacle of sizzle and sass, Michael Hurst once again proves himself an exceptional director of musical theatre, an auteur of clever, sexy noir with strong conceptual vision and stylistic flourish.

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Mangere Arts Centre, Auckland - PACIFIC DANCE CHOREOLAB 2013: Distinctive voices, sources, movement and styling
- reviewed by Raewyn Whyte

By contrast, Nikki Upolo’s Vaine Toa is a rapidly moving, brightly lit, upbeat blend of Cook Islands cultural forms and contemporary dance structuring set to a recorded musical collage. Dancers Nikki Upoko, Hereiti Makiteiaa, Tavai Puni and Tautape Samson move confidently through its paces whether performing as an ensemble of in cameo solos which show the choreographer’s care and attention to every little detail. The traditional forms range widely, with the essentials given due respect, yet there is a subtle blending in of street and contemporary dance movements, and some refreshingly bold fragmentation of the traditional phrasing, frontality and spatial patterning. The end result is a new dance that is most definitely of this current time and place, and one which certainly reveals the stated themes -- the inner strength of women, and women as the backbone of their people.

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BATS - Out Of Site - Cnr Cuba & Dixon, Wellington - PANDEMIC: Immersive time travel through spaces
- reviewed by James McKinnon

Pandemic is one of the two BATS STAB commissions for 2013, and it certainly fulfils the STAB mandate of producing innovative, New Zealand performance work. The ‘New Zealand’ part is supplied by the content: Pandemic dramatizes Wellington’s experience of the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed up to 100 million people worldwide. The innovative part is the play’s form, which blends realism, participatory scenes, and environmental theatre.

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Q Theatre, Rangatira, Auckland - CHICAGO: Sexual Dexterity in Chicago: ATC smashes open a classic musical for a new era

- reviewed by Vanessa Byrnes

Michael Hurst’s inspiring take on this classic musical is daring, fresh, dynamic, and bristling with sexual energy. His fearless direction and John Gibson’s genius musical direction make the show look and sound as if it was written this morning. This is a totally new take on a classic musical. It’s a wild night out.

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an inner city sanctum off Manchester Street, Christchurch - SPOOKY TIMES AT THE MANCHESTER RANCH: Quality comedy and improv in an amiable intimate environment

- reviewed by Erin Harrington

Spooky Times at the Manchester Ranch is an intimate blend of cabaret showcase and house party. We’re invited into a home – a pretty central city villa – for drinks, comedy and storytelling.

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Baycourt Theatre, Tauranga - LIVE AT SIX: Heights of hilarity from dubious depths
- reviewed by Tony Wall

Journalists’ egos are at the centre of this hilarious interactive play, which is so on the money it makes for some squirmingly awkward moments for the reporters in the audience.

No better example of that comes before the show starts. I am standing in the foyer with another newspaper journalist ...

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Regent Theatre, Greymouth - THE JUDGMENT OF BEN ALDER: Intelligent and punchy
- reviewed by Karen Grant

With the Spring Creek Mine closure threatening, the mine workers rally to form a co-operative to keep the mine operating. Clever use of lighting and shadows aids the impression that there’s a large group of miners here with us.

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Vector Arena, Parnell, Auckland - CIRQUE DU SOLEIL: MICHAEL JACKSON THE IMMORTAL WORLD TOUR: Fresh, alive and fun
- reviewed by Kate Ward-Smythe

As you'd expect with any Cirque Du Soleil show, there are world-class dancers, musicians, guest artists, acrobats and special effects, the length of the stage and beyond...

However, almost every time the roar of the crowd goes up, it is for the music, mastery and magic, that is (sorry, was) Michael Jackson. And that’s Immortal’s most appealing trait: it is the closest we will ever get to MJ’s own extravaganza, This Is It.

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Baycourt Theatre, Tauranga - LIVE AT SIX: Provokes much thought about theatre, technology, the world

- reviewed by Gin Mabey

The show leaves me deep in thought about my own expectations, definitions and assumptions about ‘what theatre is’ – and I will be pondering this grand question for a long time: a great way to leave a show, even if my feelings about the show are mixed and my enjoyment varied.

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The Basement Studio, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - ANOTHER DEAD FAG: Suicide isn’t painless
- reviewed by Sharu Delilkan

Another Dead Fag epitomises the essence of The Basement’s ethos.

In this case it was not only about appreciating young playwright Sam Brooks’ uncanny ability to write insightful modern day dialogue, but it was about seeing some of the actors who also work at The Basement performing superbly on stage.

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

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