Warring the sexes

How incorrect can you get? It's massively out of era, but I loved it. It was Guys and Dolls, the musical from 1950, performed by the Queanbeyan Players. Amateurs, perhaps, but with some seriously good singing, some decent dancing, a capable band, huge commitment and lots and lots of performers. It's not something you'll see with the profs these days because they can't pay for it and keep the ticket prices reasonable, but the amateurs can have 40 performers on stage, plus a band of 25 musicians, also on stage, and everyone's loving it. This was the final performance of the season, so the preparation was evident and the enjoyment was rife. And the music and book, all great. I'd listened to the sound track before and it didn't particularly click, but with the story and characters presented live, it all worked. G&D was released in 1950 and would have won the 1951 Pulitzer prize for drama but for writer Abe Burrows having troubles with the House Un-American Activities Committee and Columbia University vetoing the selection. In the end, there was no Pulitzer for Drama for that year. G&D is the story of Nathan Detroit, local Craps promoter, and his lover of 14-years, always soon-to-be-married, Miss Adelaide, bar singer. And in parallel, Sarah Brown, Broadway Salvation Army sergeant and her to-be beau, Sky Masterton, superior gambler. It's a story of its time with dark shades to feminism, but it's got essential truths amongst the period romanticism. The music is great; the characters and the story work. Perhaps except that it ends so suddenly and strangely unsatisfactorily, when Sky, in a totally unlikely, sudden and unexplained twist, joins the church. But there's a certain humanity here and that's important. I loved it. The players performed with gusto and plenty of serious capability. And it's not a lightweight outing: including interval, it lasted 3 hours. A fabulous outing that I'll remember. Just another example of the very capable and productive local non-professional theatre around here in Canberra.

Guys and Dolls was presented by the Queanbeyan Players at TheQ. Key performers were Kitty McGarry (Sarah Brown), Tina Robinson (Miss Adelaide), Steve Galenic (Sky Masterton) and Anthony Swadling (Nathan Detroit). The Production team included Jude Colquhoun (director) and Jenna Hinton (musical director).

The main pic is my photo of a publicity pic on show in the foyer. I guess that's kosher for copyright purposes.

Gentle truth telling

It's of a time but it tells truths. It's just a musical but an important one, one of the early ones that dealt with social issues, that had some complexity, not too B+W. It's nothing like our daily diet of political anger as it talks of race and mixed marriage and love and death and humour in the face of war. Not that there was so much war, at least then and there, in the South Pacific, in real life in Vanuatu looking out on Tanna, called here Bali Ha'I. The Americans are in the tropics; the central character nurse Nellie Forbush falls through love with local French plantation owner Emile de Beque; the local worldly-wise mother Bloody Mary pairs her daughter with Lieutenant Cable; Seaman Luther Billis is ever witty and on the take, the Navy's response to Bloody Mary. Mostly it's a quiet military life, waiting for action, entertaining each other, mingling, but the war intervenes. One of the lovers is lost, one finally commits to love, Japan's navy leaves the neighbouring island. If you're of a certain age, you've at least seen the film, remember the shower scene, can sing a few tunes. The tunes are great and memorable - this is Rodgers and Hammerstein, so from a great era of American music: Some enchanted evening, Bali Ha'I, Younger than springtime, I'm in love with a wonderful guy, even jingles like Dites moi or set numbers like Nothing like a dame. Simple but memorable melodies, innocent words. On the outside, all innocence; on the inside, dealing with real issues with the deceptive innocence verging on wisdom with a dose of sentiment. Characters may wrong others, or misunderstand them, or find they are at cultural odds, but it's done in good faith through honest weaknesses and they discover themselves in the process. It's a big call for a Broadway musical, but the great era of American musicals and film and music was a great era for a reason. South Pacific was performed here at TheQ by the Queanbeyan Players, with generous amateur cast and orchestra. One friend raved of the quality of the music, the memorable tunes; he was comparing to modern musicals of recurring leitmotifs and few numbers: I agree. Another friend saw misogyny in Nothing like a dame and more and it is out of our time and conversation, but I saw difference and attraction rather than demeaning. I was taken by Cockeyed optimist, a lesser known number, that spoke of being hopeful in the midst of WW2 which resonated, for me, with Obama's hope in a time of climate, environment, terrorism and the rest. And by the wry irony of one song (can't remember which) that argued that kids need to be educated early to see difference and know their tribes. I richly enjoyed the medleys that are overtures in these musicals; I was blown out by one particularly twisted instrumental reprise; I was amused by a walking clarinet (?) feature against one song. Suffice to say, South Pacific was great, we enjoyed it immensely, the Queanbeyan Players did it justice with good singing and believable acting and some decent dance numbers. Very worth doing and very well done.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific was performed by the Queanbeyan Players at TheQ. The actors included Ellen Scott (Nellie Forbush), Michael Moore (Emile de Becque), Anthony Simeonovic (Lt Cable), Tina Robinson (Bloody May) and Andrew McMillan (Luther Billis). The production team included Janet Tweedie (director), Jenna Hinton (musical director), Jenny Tabur (vocal director) and Belinda Hassall (choreographer).

Aware of the little known

We all know Mack the Knife, and many know it's from Threepenny Opera. Canberra Rep is presenting TO now and we got along. I was apprehensive when I realised it was 3 hours long with two short intervals. And based on opera, although this is more musical theatre. A musical friends had seen it and said it was strange or weird. Certainly, it was unusual not Broadway, but neither is it non-Western. It's political, from the Weimar Republic era in Germany, after WW1, subject to reparations, preceding Depression then Hitler. And it's a strange mix of eras. The program notes "interesting challenge, with today's Australian actors; representing 1928 Berlin beggars; impersonating 1837 Victorian English exploiters and the exploited; based on the 1728 original Ballad Opera" but observes that there's a similarity in the eras including "to our time of an ever growing between the rich and the poor, and literally millions of displaced people searching for succour". The story is of a battle between Peachum, leader of the London street beggars, and Macheath (Mack the Knife), leader of the thieves and cad, but it's also recounts the centrality of women. It's all unlikely but entertaining and fairly easy to follow. The musical interludes are consistently satisfying, wily, politically-rich. There were some decent singers here, classically or theatre-trained and I could mostly follow the lyrics. The stage is open and unadorned, the fully-acoustic band (nonet?) appears on a raiser behind, sheets are run in for a screen at various times, a street singer introduces the work with talk and the famed theme, Mack the Knife, and consistently loiters. Almost as consistent is the capability of the women and the occasional capability of the men. Macheath himself is terribly well played and sung, if an unadmirable cad in the plot. Peachum is fabulously played and very cluey. His wife, Mrs, has a liking for gin, but is hugely capable when dry and a capable soprano. Their daughter, Polly, has the hots for Macheath (not the only women in his retinue) and their marriage is the source of the Peachums' revenge plot, but she comes onside with the family as Mack reveals his ways. Mack has an old Brit-Army-in-India mate, Tiger Brown, now Chief Inspector as Scotland Yard, who has been protecting the thief. Eventually Mack is revealed, gaoled, escapes, gaoled again and almost hung, then unexpectedly reprieved. No claim is made for probability and characters talk openly of this and the background politics of it all. This is Berthold Brecht lyrics and Kurt Weill music, so the total is clever, non-conformist and relevant. Some quotes: “What is robbing a bank compared to founding one?”, "Though the rich of this earth find no difficulty in creating misery, they can't bear to see it", "The law was made for one thing alone, for the exploitation of those who don't understand it" and this essential one "Grub first, then ethics". This was a witty piece of musical theatre from some great writers with a political conscience and done very capably by our longlife local company, Canberra Rep. Congrats and very much enjoyed.

Canberra Rep presented Threepenny Opera by Bertholt Brecht with music by Kurt Weill. Key performers were Tim Sekuless (Macheath), Peter Dark (Mr Peachum), Sarahlouise Owens (Mrs Peachum), Tina Robinson (Polly Peachum) and Jim Adamik (Tiger Brown). The band was the Threepenny Pits comprising Kristen Nilsson and Caleb Ball (reeds), Fatzana Choudhury, Keydan Bruse and Elaine Johnson (trumpets), Jack Adolph )trombone), Peter McDonald (tuba), Gabe Trew (drums), John Yoon (piano) and Ewan (harmonium).