John Shand Posts

April 30, 2024 / Theatre Reviews - Archive

Theatre Royal, April 3 7/10 Those of us who saw Reg Livermore play Frank N Furter in the 1974 Oz production of Rocky Horror Show will never forget the sudden jolt of the new; the thrill of witnessing a show like no other. Fifty years on, it’s still that. Where…

April 29, 2024 / Theatre Reviews - Archive

Capitol Theatre, April 2 7/10 Given that it’s hard to take any of the characters in Grease too seriously, director Luke Joslin has a new solution: don’t try to disguise their cartoonishness; play it up! Make the whole show like a Roy Lichenstein painting that’s sprung to life, and, as…

March 30, 2024 / Theatre Reviews - Archive

Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, March 22 8.5/104 The sheer jolt of most artistic revolutions fades with time, until, retrospectively, they come to seem more like evolutions. Not West Side Story. Leonard Bernstein packed his score with such shocks and risks – such complex rhythmic syncopations and sudden dissonances –…