John Shand Posts

August 29, 2015 / Album Reviews - Archive

The Voyage of Mary and William (PathsAndStreams) Like Paul Grabowsky, Matt McMahon waited decades before recording his first album of solo piano. You can hear that distillation of ideas: a certain clarity of intent, without compromising the spontaneity that lies at the heart of McMahon’s art, for the 12 pieces…

August 28, 2015 / Theatre Reviews - Archive

Playhouse, August 21 John Bell leaves the company he founded on a high. Here was a Tempest in which he restored the play’s often-lost lightness, and rediscovered the comedy that exists outside of the marauding drunkenness of Stephano and Trinculo. Refreshingly for one of Shakespeare’s most imposed-upon works Bell has…

August 27, 2015 / Theatre Reviews - Archive

Sydney Lyric, August 20 We all know the best children’s books engage parents as well, and Roald Dahl was the master of this. The miracle of Matilda the Musical is not that it offers burp jokes and mock horror to transfix the young and shrewder entertainment for adults, but that…