Arts News Reviews

The film He’s Just Not That Into You is based on a hugely successful book of the same name by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, who also wrote for Sex and the City.

For a while, Pride and Glory plays like the fiercest episode of Law & Order ever writ large and dashed luridly across the big screen. The beat-treading camerawork, the attention to dot-plotting police procedure, the bleak ambience of New York’s niveous, crime-sodden streets – all are impressively exploited by helmer Gavin O’Connor in this corrupt cop thriller’s tautly carved opening hour.

Woyzeck is a popularly staged play written by German playwright Georg Büchner in 1837. The original work was never finished, because Büchner died before he could complete it, and is said to have left behind four unfinished manuscripts.

The only reason that the sellout audience to the opening night of People Get Ready: Human Nature with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) stopped tapping their toes was when they jumped to their feet to dance!

Musicians and concert-goers are rejoicing to at last have a venue designed for the performance of chamber music, while the general public is still gasping at its daring facade.

'Another Gay Cliché' It was my second visit to a Pink Shorts season at The Midsumma Festival this year and I walked out, only mildly stirred in comparison to last year

This glittering, modern day cautionary tale is presented by Darlinghurst Theatre as part of the Mardi Gras festivities. Director James Beach has drawn forth fine performances by all concerned for this biting, witty play.

Fresh out of the inaugural Short, Sweet+Cabaret festival, Tom Dickins returns to The Butterfly Club with a new show, Where Was I, incorporating his acclaimed short piece, Cab of Rage

A young face in cabaret and an old hand in music butt up against one another this week, with two brand new shows opening at The Butterfly Club

21st Century Australian Composers Program 2008-09, Finalists Concert, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Iwaki Auditorium, 4 February 2009, Melbourne.

Australian Chamber Orchestra with Dawn Upshaw (soprano), Christopher Moore (viola) and Richard Tognetti (director and violin).

The talented and often outrageous queen of cabaret Mistress Josephine, who in the past has performed many a sexy romp about her twisted and bizarre world, has been replaced by the pretty in pink and more demure Mz Josephine. But before you wonder why one character has been replaced by another, let me explain.

Jerker had the audience more than just a little hot and bothered at Gasworks Arts Park on Saturday night (Jan 31). It was the end of a long, steamy heat wave and the theatre was crammed with queer men, hanging out for a hot, raunchy performance!

How to Direct from Inside was a rather abstract piece of theatre. Written about the myriad of psychological characters we all have contained inside of us and the roles that these characters consequently play in the world, it was a therapists dream or nightmare come true.

The opening night of the musical Zanna Don’t for Melbourne’s Midsumma Festival has brought a long overdue injection of originality, energy and freshness into the Melbourne music theater scene.

Poor Boy is an assured, striking work that marries theatre, drama and song, specifically around the music of a particular artist – in this case Tim Finn.

I was expecting more from I Was A Teenage Dirty Old Man by Eric Kuhlmann. The premise of the show sounded right up my alley – psychosis, homosexuality, sex in public places, social commentary on politics and the mental health system.

Here’s the thing: chances are you are never again going to see another film even remotely similar to You the Living.

American cinema revels in the comeback storys from the Rocky films through The Natural and more recently Cinderella Man, the celluloid history of Hollywood is struck through with a belief that anyone can make it big, fail, and be resurrected like a modern-day Lazarus.

Listening to these two, one a jazz pianist and composer, the other a classical pianist, is like listening in to an immensely enjoyable conversation.