A selection of reviews from Theatreview from the last week including  Yeti Is Dead/I Am Tom,  Tom Furniss and The Free Ice Cream Show,  Cal Wilson Is All Ears, and Ian Mckellen On Stage – With Shakespeare, Tolkien and You!

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

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BATS, Wellington - YETI IS DEAD/I AM TOM: A romp for the initiated
- reviewed by John Smythe

The fans who filled Bats for the show's Wellington debut certainly expressed delight but this time I can't help but wonder what someone uninitiated in the idiosyncratic humour of Medlock and Musgrove and/or Sainsbury would make of this. Very little transcends the display of consciously corny comic performance.

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Cavern Club, 22 Allen St, Wellington - TOM FURNISS AND THE FREE ICE CREAM SHOW: Making the mundane insane with great originality and sincerity
- reviewed by Karin Melchior

Having seen Tom Furniss in the 2011 V48 Hours Grand Prize-winning film, The Child Jumpers – a hilarious little mockumentary about a group of guys who jump over small children for fun – I am already endeared to this disarming, if slightly geeky, young comedian.

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BATS, Wellington - GREG ELLIS IS VANCE FONTAINE IN COMMAND PERFORMANCE: I'd have bought the CD if it had been on sale
- reviewed by John Smythe

Together they create a full set of never-before-heard and never-to-be-heard-again old favourites from the wide-ranging, genre-rich career of liquorice-larynxed lounge-singer Vance Fontaine.

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Brooklyn Bar - 57 Lorne St, Auckland - BRENDON GREEN IN EVERYTHING IS MEANINGLESS AND NOTHING MATTERS, LOL: Insights into the average warped mind
- reviewed by Joanna Page

Last night Brendon Green performed his first solo show. Ever. And you know what? I’m glad I was there to be part of it.

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Basement Theatre, Lower Greys Ave, Auckland - CAL WILSON IS ALL EARS: Fresh, natural, funny
- reviewed by Kate Ward-Smythe

She’s all grown up now, with child, husband and a flash career in Melbourne, yet Cal Wilson is still the energizer bunny of the comedy circuit. Oozing boundless enthusiasm, she’s one of the brightest, most vivacious and uplifting women I know. She makes delivering a story-filled show, complete with unscheduled technical failure, look natural, easy and even pleasurable.

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Maidment, Auckland - A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM: Fancy a Puck?
- reviewed by James Wenley

At the end of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, hobgoblin Puck famously excuses all that has gone before as a “weak and idle theme, no more yielding but a dream”. If so, it was a fantastic and crazy dream that the audience collectively dreamed in the theatre.

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Various venues - on tour, - IAN MCKELLEN ON STAGE – WITH SHAKESPEARE, TOLKIEN AND YOU!: A rare opportunity, not to be missed
- reviewed by John Smythe

Sir Ian reminds us that "All the world's a stage" in opening IAN MCKELLEN ON STAGE – with Shakespeare, Tolkien and you! then goes on to connect his world to ours so closely that his two-hour show feels like a cosy chat, albeit peppered with some delectable renderings of classical texts. He even roves in the foyer during the interval, getting to know us 'up close and personal'.

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Q, Rangatira, Auckland - DAVID O’DOHERTY IS LOOKING UP: A welcome mix of sung and spoken stories
- reviewed by Kate Ward-Smythe

I find him the most likable, chatty and irreverent of comedians, full of enthusiasm for life’s infinitesimal details, finding comedy in the most unlikely of places, as he ambles through the comings and goings of his existence.

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Maidment, Auckland - A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM: Playful, heart-warming, riddled with excellence
- reviewed by Lexie Matheson

The opening night of Auckland Theatre Company’s fine production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream coincided with the largest full moon in a long time and an absolutely cloudless, star-filled sky. Somehow the two went magically together.

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Tararua Tramping Club, Mt Victoria, Wellington - ROSE MATAFEO IN SCOUTS HONOUR: Nothing in her performance is wasted
- reviewed by Maraea Rakuraku

The show relies on a thinking audience familiar with popular culture, but not overly so. I'd even go so far as to say this is a generational and – due to the minimal swearing – family friendly gig. She says out loud those things that at some time have gone through your mind. Well, they have through mine.

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Tararua Tramping Club, Mt Victoria, Wellington - GUY WILLIAMS IN ON THE VERGE OF NOTHING: He has moments
- reviewed by Maraea Rakuraku

I’m way outside the Guy Williams demographic. Well that’s what I think as I look around at the predominantly 20-something, pakeha male, bursting at the seams Tararua Tramping Club that probably hasn’t seen this much action since Girl Guide meetings circa 1987.

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Q Loft, 305 Queen St, Auckland - MR BOON'S FAIRY TALES: Ageless storytelling
- reviewed by Nik Smythe

Old Mr. Boon’s aged a lot since last year’s Big Time Last Chance Quiz Show 2011. Clutching his walking stick in his dressing gown and cheesecutter, he snoozes away in his chair as we take our seats.

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BATS, Wellington - IRENE PINK AND JUSTINE SMITH IN THE PITCH: Can’t wait for the TV series!
- reviewed by Karin Melchior

The show begins with Irene Pink and Justine Smith standing spot lit, centre stage muttering indistinctly to each other and occasionally readjusting necklines for what seems like several minutes, before the voice of the TV executive announces he's ready to see their pitch. The fact that the audience is already laughing before they even say a word, I take as a sign of good things to come, and I'm not disappointed.

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Cavern Club, 22 Allen St, Wellington - FASITUA AMOSA IS THE INFO-CRACK WHORE!: A crafted, confident performer
- reviewed by Maraea Rakuraku

The only other expectation I’m sure I share with those present is: you’re brown, that equals funny. And it does. Amosa knows how to covey a punchline and tell a yarn and he really delivers when he combines performing with the telling of story.

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SKYCITY Theatre, Auckland - 7 DAYS – LIVE 2012: A wild social experience plus comedy gold
- reviewed by Kate Ward-Smythe

Judging from the crowd’s reaction last night, fans of TV3’s popular 7Days will relish the opportunity to see their comedy heroes entertain for a full uninterrupted 90 minutes, at a far more relaxed pace than the quick-cut half-hour on-screen version.

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Opera House, Wellington - RHYS DARBY: THIS WAY TO SPACESHIP: Yuk precedes Kiwi brilliance
- reviewed by Caoilinn Hughes

If Rhys Darby hadn’t been so charismatic and charming, so loveably self-deprecating and self-effacing, and just such a funny good guy, I might have poked someone’s eyes out after the warm-up act, Adam Ethan Crow.

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Tararua Tramping Club, Mt Victoria, Wellington - JOSEPH HARPER IN MARCHING TOWARD DEATH WITH WOBBLY LEGS LIKE A VELOCIRAPTOR: A generous giving of self
- reviewed by John Smythe

Few performers would contemplate developing a 45-minute comedy festival show around their mother's multiple sclerosis (MS) but Joseph Harper has always come at writing and performing from an unusual angle. As always, Marching Toward Death with Wobbly Legs Like a Velociraptor is extremely personal.

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BATS, Wellington - CONSTANTINOPLE: An heroic rarity that puts the bizarre into Byzantine
- reviewed by John Smythe

Theatre Beating's Constantinople is truly a 'you absolutely have to be there' experience.

If you read the script on paper – all action descriptions and dialogue included – you'd think it was silly, banal, meandering, contrived, absurd, and peppered with appalling puns. And it is.

But in the hands, or rather the entire bodies, of Barnie Duncan and Trygve Wakenshaw ...

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Brooklyn Bar - 57 Lorne St, Auckland - JAMES ROQUE, ELI MATTHEWSON AND EDITH POOR IN MINORITY REPORT: Young, fresh, easy energy
- reviewed by Nik Smythe

Eli, Edith and James hit the stage with fresh young friendliness, here to raise awareness of their respective minority-type inflictions: James is Asian, Eli’s gay, and Edith’s a woman.

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Fringe Bar, Cnr Cuba & Vivian, Wellington - TJ MCDONALD IN MY LIFE HAS BEEN A SERIES OF POORLY MADE DECISIONS: Relaxed, casual, self-effacing yet quietly confident
- reviewed by John Smythe

The Fringe Bar's stage is already dressed with three flip-pads as we wait for the show to start. The central one announces 'These Are The Things For Which I Shall Not Apologise' (denoting an impeccable education in English grammar, at least).

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Downstage Theatre, Wellington - DAVID O’DOHERTY IS LOOKING UP: Quirky Irish comedian makes triumphant return to New Zealand stage
- reviewed by Simon Howard

While Ireland forms the basis of much of his ramblings about the perils of modern society, an underlying sense of nostalgia permeates through, and it’s this longing for the past which keeps his feet rooted firmly to the ground amongst the prancing, lying down and keyboard playing O’Doherty regularly breaks into. His digressions and meanderings are a key feature of his show.

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

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