A few years ago, I had the pleasure of seeing Ian McKellen on stage in London. In speaking of his love of theatre, he reminded us of the first line of Richard III. “Now is the winter of our discontent.” The winter of discontent might very well refer to the last few years we’ve had, but it was the ‘now’ that McKellen wanted to emphasise. It represents the immediacy of the performance every time actors step into the proscenium, and the uniqueness of each show.
Where the arts scene took a hit in 2020, it seemed to come back with a vengeance in 2021. The theatre scene returned with some huge shows across Australia, but the real joy was in getting back into a theatre full of like-minded individuals and casts who hadn’t stepped in front of audiences for almost a year.
That’s not to say it didn’t have its setbacks. Lockdowns in Melbourne from as early as May and then in Sydney (and around the country) in June through October meant theatre was dark for almost half the year. Major productions were cancelled or postponed, and every refund made the future of some of those shows wobblier.
Yet still theatre persisted. At one point Australia was the only active production of Hamilton anywhere in the world. Two of the three Best Musical nominees at the 2021 Tony Awards — Moulin Rouge and Jagged Little Pill — came down under. The latter certainly had one of the best performances of the year, as Maggie McKenna (fresh from playing Alison Bechdel in Fun Home and Zoe Murphy in the US tour of Dear Evan Hansen) belted our Alanis Morissette’s most iconic tune to regular standing ovations.
This is a fairly Sydney-centric list given the travel restrictions this year — with a handful of exceptions, of course — but that only makes us all the more excited for 2022.
Hamilton
I’m not going to lie. By the time 2021 was done, I’d seen the show three times in Sydney and fourth ticket was booked for 2022. HamFans know what I’m talking about. Yet as the only version of Hamilton running anywhere in the world for much of this year, the Australian cast were the torchbearers for a fanbase past patiently waiting. Jason Arrow stepped confidently into the titular lead, passionately smashing expectations in the room where it happens (in this case, Star City’s Lyric Theatre). We even got our own little bit of New York with Broadway Hamilton Jimmie ‘JJ’ Jeter stepping in as an alternate for some performances. Having also seen the West End show, I can happily say that this incredibly inclusive cast is one of the best in the world.
Merrily We Roll Along
If there was a production history that kept pace with our times, it was Hayes Theatre’s multiple attempts to stage Stephen Sondheim’s 1981 musical. First slated for 2020, the pandemic put it on hold until the 2021 season. Just as it was about to launch, Sydney went into a second lockdown. As the season got extended to accomodate new dates, several November weekends were plagued by cast illness. In the midst of all that, Sondheim died. So, the eventual debut of this play in Sydney was bittersweet, but mostly joyful. Director Dean Bryant (who brought us Assassins a few years back) used every inch of the Hayes space to skip us backwards through time. Georgina Hopson (and later American Psycho‘s Erin Clare when Hopson left for Jagged Little Pill) own the stage as Gussie, but the whole cast were wonderful. It’s a hit! And now you know.
Fangirls
Yves Blake’s 2019 musical smash returned for an encore season at Belvoir before embarking on a tour to Adelaide, Wollongong, Canberra and Melbourne. With an unquestionably Australian sensibility, there’s a universality to its themes that is clearly connecting to multiple generations of theatre goers. Karis Oka had the unenviable task of taking over the lead from Blake, but makes it her own but bringing levels of youthful authenticity to the part. With a cast recording now available, the legend of Fangirls only grows. Read full review.
Berlin
Slipping in a season just prior to Melbourne’s May/June lockdown, Joanna Murray-Smith’s new play arrived as part of the MTC Next Stage program (that gave us Benjamin Law’s excellent Torch the Place last year, another play cut short by 2020 lockdown). It’s a two-hander about Tom (Michael Wahr), an Australian abroad in Germany, and bar owner Charlotte (Grace Cummings). Taking place over an intense night, it navigates seduction and the notion of the weight of responsibility for the past in a single 80-minute act. Both leads are terrific, but Cummings leaves nothing backstage in a performance that is raw and emotional.
Fun Home
After a cancellation in 2020, Sydney Theatre Company’s co-production (with MTC) of this musical went straight into Act 1 of their 2021 line-up and packed the Roslyn Packer Theatre for its run. A powerful adaptation of Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel uses music and the clever staging as a way of telling a non-linear journey through memory. Marina Prior is a standout as the family’s matriarch, but the entire cast is amazing, especially the aforementioned Maggie McKenna.
We Are Here
The People of Cabaret — made up of artists who are Indigenous and/or Bla(c)k and/or people of colour (IBPOC) who work in cabaret — were meant to bring their show from their home base in the Kulin Nation to Gadigal land in January 2021 for the Sydney Festival. Sadly, this was another cancellation due to Covid. Thankfully, the Darlinghurst Theatre Company hosted a short season featuring this truly unique selection of acts. Not everything hit home, which is always the cast with a variety act, but the stuff that did hit with a gut-punch. Emceed by co-directors Victoria Falconer and Miss Cairo, highlights over the course of the freewheeling three hours or so were the incomparable Kween Kong (of the legendary Haus of Kong), the amazing guest burlesque performer Jazida and the inexplicable urban cowboy Dale Woodbridge-Brown. Really: words cannot describe. Make a point of seeing them all.
Young Frankenstein
It was a day off in mid-March that led me to see Hayes Theatre’s adaptation of the classic Mel Brooks film. Or more specifically, the 2007 Broadway musical revised for London’s West End in 2017. Here’s a play that makes use of every millimetre of the Hayes Theatre, frequently breaking the fourth wall to spill out off the stage and into the audience. A riotous collision of film and theatre elements, songs chaotically interplay with vaudeville humour, drag and cheeky one-liners. It’s what the stage was made for. The cast was phenomenal too. From Matthew Backer’s almost vaudevillian Frankenstein (“Its pronounced Fronkensteen!”) to Shannon Dooley’s over-the-top and raunchy Elizabeth, only Ben Gerard (see also: American Psycho) in drag can out-camp them all. Joyous.
American Psycho
Transplanted from Hayes to the Sydney Opera House for a short season, this had the distinction of being the last play I saw before lockdown just over a week later. This wholly immersive audio experience may jar if you are too close to the stage — with the intense lights, rotating mirrors and strobing being a lot at times — but it wouldn’t be Brett Easton Ellis if there weren’t a few excesses. The dark side of the 80s is filled with impeccable costuming and a super revealing performance from lead Ben Gerard (as Patrick Bateman), accompanied by Angelique Cassimatis, Erin Clare, and the legendary Shannon Dooley.
Beautiful Thing
The intimate New Theatre in Newtown has an annual production to coincide with the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, and this year Jonathan Harvey’s 1993 play (and adapted for TV in 1996) was chosen. Directed by Mark Nagle (who brought us Angry Fags the year before), this was another quality production from New Theatre, and a pleasing positive LGBTQI+ narrative to counteract the often negative or heteronormative TV shows and films. David Marshall-Martin’s set design was also quite ingenious, using a simple three door structure and a retractable bed to encompass the goings on of a London estate.
Nice Work If You Can Get It
Another of Hayes Theatre’s collabs with Neglected Musicals, Cameron Mitchell directed and choreographed this lightning fast production. With books still in hand, this George and Ira Gershwin jukebox is a rapid-fire throwback to 1920s farces — perfect for someone who has been stuck in pre-Code cinema like me for the last year. Rob Johnson as Cookie and Georgina Hopson as Billie are star turns, making for a delightful lead trio with Rob Mallett as Jimmy. It’s swell, see?
