John Shand Posts

December 11, 2024 / Theatre Reviews

Ensemble Theatre, November 4 7/10 Barbara knows that one of the dumbest things governments have done is fail to champion music education. Making music improves our intellects, emotional acumen, general well-being and social cohesion. It’s also fun. That’s why Barbara formed a choir in rural Australia, and when that unravelled,…

December 4, 2024 / Theatre Reviews

Hayes Theatre, November 27 5.5/10 This is where the name for the hotels came from. All 1100 of them. Inspired by the 1942 movie starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, which was blessed with the music of Irving Berlin, the hotel chain arrived 10 years later. Six more decades would…

November 25, 2024 / Theatre Reviews

Wharf 1 Theatre, November 15 8/10 It is no coincidence that Lyn Nottage’s Sweat arrived in 2015, the year Donald Trump erupted on to the US political landscape. Nottage’s story – the demise of Rust Belt manufacturing, with its consequent social and economic upheaval – is precisely what underpinned Trump’s…