The Blurb Magazine

Powerhouse performances and an electrifying vibe. That is the essence of a cavalcade of hits from Broadway musicals brought to the Melbourne stage by Sam Steven Productions. Vocalists Hannah Underwood, Sylvia Kokkinas, Andrew Vassett and Craig Lough join a talented four-piece band to figuratively lift the roof off The MC Showroom.

Innovative and highly creative, east meets west in playwright Shane Woon’s love story about Chinese gods and AFL football. The Rabbit in the title is the Rabbit God Tu’er Shen (played by Sean Yuen Halley), the patron saint of queer people. Watson (Anton Pan-Cassin) is a budding AFL player, at age 22 on his last chance to make it in the Big League.

The appetite for Jane Austen adaptations seems to be relentless. Of course, Pride and Prejudice is one of the evergreen favourites for many Austen fans, with several film, TV and stage adaptations having been produced over the years. Queensland Theatre had a sell-out season of their joyous, Matilda Award-winning production last year (the 250th anniversary of Austen’s birth), but Cyclone Alfred forced it to shut a week early. It’s back for a short stint and is again enjoying packed houses.

There is so much joy in Pretty Woman: The Musical. I adore what the collaborators have done with the beloved story of the Hollywood sex worker and the wealthy businessman. It is based on the 1990 feel good romance, written by J. F. Lawton and directed by Garry Marshall, starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. The book of the musical is by Marshall and Lawton, with an original score in a rich variety of genres. Gone is the soundtrack from the movie, replaced by pop, rock and, even, opera.

Breaking up is hard to do. So it goes, as Karin McCracken and Simon Leary put on a most entertaining sketch comedy show, peppered with science and some musical numbers. In so doing, they unpack the angst associated with broken relationships. In character, she struggles big time to put the past in the past. It is about staying mired in the why, trawling over what could have and should have been.

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is an epic retelling of one of the oldest surviving works of ancient Greek literature. Homer composed the poem Odyssey in the 8th or 7th centuries BC. It concerns the exploits of the king of Ithaca, Odysseus (Matt Damon), as he attempts to make his way home many years after the Trojan War.

Lively, colourful and energetic, Bring It On!, The Musical focuses on the competitive world of cheerleading. Debuting in the US in 2011, the Tony award nominated musical was inspired by the 2000 film of the same name, written by Jessica Bendinger and starring Kirsten Dunst. The music is by Tom Kitt and Lin-Manuel Miranda, lyrics by Amanda Green and Miranda and book by Jeff Whitty.

Beautifully shot in Sápmi, the traditional homeland of the Sámi, the indigenous people of the Arctic, Árru is a slow burn, intense drama about deeply buried trauma. It concerns a family of reindeer herders whose ancestral land and livelihood is being threatened by a copper mining project. Single mother Maia (Sara Marielle Gaup Beaska) and her taciturn, chain-smoking brother Dánel (Simon Issát Marainen) are losing the battle.

This is one for stalwarts of the horror gore genre because it doesn’t hold back – in short, it is tense and traumatising. Demonic carnage in unleashed to terrorise a French woman who has married into an American family. Alice (Souheila Yacoub) is with her husband, restaurateur William (George Pullar), to celebrate Will’s younger brother, Joseph’s (Hunter Doohan) birthday. Also with them is Joseph’s girlfriend, Thya (Luciane Buchanan) when an argument between Will and Alice escalates.

From Hungarian child prodigy to feted Australian musical genius, Tommy Tycho led a stimulating and adventurous life, overcoming a series of setbacks. He is front and centre in a fascinating, illuminating and stimulating documentary, titled TYCHO! Beyond the Baton, written and directed by Stephan Wellink. Tommy was born into an upper middle-class family in Budapest on 11th April, 1928.