John Shand Posts

January 15, 2025 / Theatre Reviews

Sydney Town Hall, January 9 7.5/10 Dark Noon unravels the American Dream thread by thread, until all that’s left is a grinning nightmare. Winning the West is stripped down to a tawdry tale of guns, gold, whores, booze, genocide, railroads and God. Intermingled with a tale of whites behaving badly…

January 14, 2025 / Album Reviews

The SMH ran a list of the most significant albums of the first quarter of the new century. This was my contribution: Original Broadway Cast Recording (Warners) 9.5/10 Having launched his hip hop revolution of musical theatre with In the Heights, Lin-Manuel Miranda dared to dream higher still. What better…

January 12, 2025 / Theatre Reviews

Darlinghurst Courthouse, January 7 7/10 Shirley Beiger escaped to obscurity of Melbourne while the going was good; before Sydney suddenly wondered if it and its judicial system been dazzled by her blond curls; dazzled into a “not guilty” verdict in her trial for murdering her lover, Arthur Griffith. Beiger, you…