Rumour Has It

Rumour Has It

The Little Red Company

Brisbane Powerhouse Theatre

January 13 – 14 2017

Reviewed by Xanthe Coward

If you were around a few years ago, you might recall a random little cabaret space above a Swedish restaurant in Albion named Stockholm Syndrome. Sadly, the venue disappeared, but The Little Red Company’s Rumour Has It: Sixty Minutes Inside Adele has continued to evolve since its short stint there, in front of sixty people per night during Queensland Cabaret Festival, leaping from stage to stage, and reaching a loyal band of followers as well as bringing brand new audiences to Cabaret, and to the world of sassy superstar singer-songwriter, Adele.

Created by Adam Brunes and Naomi Price on a patio one night over a bottle of gin, as all the best works are, the multi-award winning Rumour Has It was immediately a brilliant and poignant, hilarious and highly entertaining show. Each reincarnation has proved hugely satisfying and in its current form, the most impressive yet, Rumour Has It is more sophisticated and more memorable than ever. It’s ready to tour the world…but first, a national tour, beginning with the highly anticipated three-shows-only season at THE HOUSE OF POWER.

For the first time, by popular demand, Little Red offered an all-ages version of Rumour Has It. Based on the success of their recent sell-out season in Kuala Lumpur – no (swearing) and thank you please, Madam – giving the youth a chance to see for themselves what all the fuss is about, however; it wasn’t the show Poppy and I wanted to see. My ten-going-on-thirty-year-old had patiently waited for her father to give up his +1 status and accepted there’d be a fuckload of swearing on Friday night, which was “in the context of the show”.

In role as Adele, frocked up again in Leigh Buchanan’s sensational original designs (and delightedly, barefoot before the final number), Price shares delicious home truths about growing up in Tottenham, surviving/thriving after break-ups and gives us her cheeky, self-satisfied account of her meteoric rise to fame. The story segments, political references and razor sharp responses to audience input are fast, fresh and funny. Price is more adept in front of a live audience than most, the old patter landing as squarely as when we first heard it in 2012 and the new material testament to the bold wit of this writing duo, who have wisely updated the set list too, to include Adele’s latest hits. Hello is a stirring finish before the final encore, and the Adele Megamix 3000 created especially to give credit to the amazing musicians and vocalists with whom Price shares the stage.

For the first time, the Camerata, Brisbane’s chamber orchestra, are featured throughout, adding depth to a Spice Girls medley (who would’ve thought!?), and rich layers to Adele’s catalogue of songs. The original string arrangements by Andrew Johnson are most notable after Interval (Sound by Jamie Taylor), taking Skyfall into the stratosphere while silver confetti rains down onto the stage. At the other end of the spectrum, during the acoustic Daydreamer, we’re not so much surrounded by bubbles (visually spectacular in a previous season), as witness to a gentle reminder that this is a show so good it insists on returning to us time and time again despite the challenges faced by Australian artists generally, i.e. coming up with dollars for special effects and spaces…

The band, comprising Michael Manikus (keys), Jason McGregor (guitar), Scotty French (bass) and Mik Easterman (drums) is the slickest, and if you’ve supported the artists by taking home a CD of the show, recorded live at the Judith Wright Centre, you’ll also hear Brett Fowler on keys and Andrew Johnson on bass as well as Tom Oliver singing vocals (he’s currently touring in Velvet). On vocals this time, the incomparable Luke Kennedy returns to join sensational husband and wife team, Lai Utovou and Rachel Everett-Jones. Until you’ve seen this trio perform, you ain’t seen or heard backing vocals. They’re dynamic and disciplined, and they each shine, Price rightly giving them a moment in the spotlight before the night is over. (Previously, we’ve seen them in brighter light from the start and I’d love to see more of them again next time, rather than straining to see them against the black tabs. The same can be said of Manikus, disappearing at times into the shadows on the opposite side of the stage). I’ve always adored Jason Glenwright’s design featuring vintage lampshades and in THE HOUSE OF POWER the warm, glowing effect is not lost. Even in this spacious venue, we feel warmth and intimacy (and splintering pain during Someone Like You), and the genuine affection Price feels for her Brisbane audience, even those from Woodridge…

The sound is heavenly (largely due to Price bravely investing as much of her personal story in the songs as her reading of Adele’s; it’s there in the intimacy and connection she creates with her audience with a superb voice, stronger than ever, and a great big open heart). Not to be discounted or taken for granted, it’s incredibly rare to get the same level of energy and commitment at the same time from such a large number of performers on stage (it’s what’s often missing from so many sold-out smash-hit mega musicals and why we come away from them satisfied but without minds blown), but this company radiates joy; it’s impossible to leave the show feeling anything less than rapture. Really. (Let’s add to the Little Red Must Write List, a Blondie show).

Rumour Has It has come of age; it’s the best it’s ever been. With all the pieces in place, this Rumour Has It is ready for Royal Albert Hall. Naomi Price is as good as Adele – better, because she’s ours – and this production is surely the country’s most accomplished showcase of the sort of humble, sensational Australian talent that’s consistently wowing overseas presenters and punters. And all this from a little Queensland company that could.

This is not the end. Rumour Has It is coming to a venue near you

 

Smooth Criminals: The Songs of Michael Jackson

Smooth Criminals: The Songs of Michael Jackson

Brisbane Powerhouse & Christopher Wayne

Brisbane Powerhouse Theatre

December 4 2016

Reviewed by Xanthe Coward

It’s the music of Michael Jackson but not as we know it.

The odd couple of the entertainment industry, Joel Turner (world champion beat boxer and platinum selling hip hop artist) and Luke Kennedy (The Voice & The Ten Tenors), make a perfect pair on stage in a celebration of the music and the memory of the King of Pop. Who would have thought this unlikely combination would bring any sort of success? Producer, Chris Wayne, that’s who, and together with Turner and Kennedy, his gamble paid off with a single sold-out show at Brisbane Powerhouse during Wonderland, and subsequent talks to take this universally appealing show on the road.

The magic of Smooth Criminals – n.b. there’s no nakedness or actual magic tricks – is a unique take on Michael Jackson’s discography, taking us on a journey through his unenviable life, from boy to man to immortal. It’s not a succession of greatest hits but rather, a poignant and personal account, seen mainly through Kennedy’s eyes, as he shares his encounters with the man’s music, reimagined and thrillingly remixed in collaboration with Turner and talented musos, Michael Manikus and Scotty French.

Smooth Criminals offers to a new generation a truly original take on MJ’s classic pop sound, but it caters to the die-hard fans first.

 

Kennedy, front and centre, demands our full attention. He’s as relaxed as we’ve ever seen him, gracious and respectful to the living memory of Michael Jackson, and confident, cute and actually flirtatious, inviting one guest to join him on the edge of the stage as he serenades her. This is a perfectly orchestrated crowd pleasing moment – we might think it’s a gimmick (she’s surely a plant!) – but Kennedy retains an ease that’s impossible to fake. We believe. He has us in the palm of his hand. AND he has this gorgeous Heath Ledger thing going on, as if he’s ready to bound through the tiered seating, singing……

 

You’re singing it now, aren’t you?

 

Kennedy emits the same sort of abandon, irresistible. Despite his protestations, he retains a crooner core, but Kennedy boasts a much broader vocal range and emotional spectrum than most, and he has the technical precision to sing just about anything. If you were privy to his Gethsemane several years ago (or anything since, really, let’s face it, even his National Anthem is nothing less than spectacular), you can imagine the power and control rendered behind even the simplest pop song. Yet, he remains humble and grateful.

Ben is a bittersweet treat, and Kennedy brings to it a sense of such simplicity and purity that we might imagine it’s the first time we’ve ever heard it, and for the very youngest audience members, it might be so. How lucky are they?! The Girl is Mine bounces beautifully between the artists, demonstrating an easy camaraderie and a great sense of cheeky comedy.

Smooth Criminal and Dirty Diana delve a little deeper and darker, although not once is there anything that goes into shadowy controversy, nor does there need to be. The crowd is on side from the outset (Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’, Remember the Time) and we need no reminders of anything other than the genius and the music of the man. The genius of these new arrangements is in Turner’s work, providing depth and soul beneath Kennedy’s vocal line, and on the odd occasion, the perfect harmony as well. The guy can sing. 

The collective energy is palpable during an earth medley, linking Heal the World, We Are the World and Man in the Mirror. (When was the last time you heard these numbers straight up, unparodied, with feeling?). It’s almost an anti-climax to hear the sensitive Gone Too Soon. A bigger, bolder finish would leave this show at Man in the Mirror, and make an encore of Billie Jean, bringing Turner out front too, with both amazing artists wearing one white glove. It seems remiss to keep Turner behind his mixing table, sans iconic symbol. Perhaps that’s as he wished. Let’s hope he wishes for more of the spotlight next time.

With Kennedy’s talent and a natural flair for performance, and Turner’s uncanny vocal and technical ability making each number an exciting and unique immersive musical experience for all ages, these two are not as unlikely a pair as they first appear to be.

Smooth Criminals is a sure hit, a thrilling tribute to Michael Jackson – the man and his music – and if you missed it in 2016 I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before you’ll see it at a venue near you.

Remember The Time from Chris Wayne on Vimeo.

Wonderland – 10 Top Picks

Wonderland!

 

 

Wonderland opens tonight! Get ready for three weeks of high energy entertainment in the intoxicating heat of Brisbane’s Summer nights.

Wonderland is Brisbane’s end-of-year carnival of surprise and delight.

With 31 shows over 14 days, you’re invited to flirt with the unexpected and step into a euphoric world of body bending antics and late night temptations…

 

1. Phelan Groovy

Don’t miss the star of Dirty Dancing in Phelan Groovy, part auto biographical, part celebrity dish and ALL entertainment. For if there’s one thing Kurt Phelan has learned through life, it’s to only say 10% of what he thinks. Now you get the other 90% but only from tonight until Saturday at 8:45pm.

 

 

 

2. Wild Heart

Grand Finalist of The Voice and one of Australia’s most gifted singer/songwriters, Ellen Reed, won the hearts of a nation with her soaring voice and unshakable spirit as the Team Jessie J favourite. In Wild Heart, a one night only concert on Wednesday November 30 with her band, we can experience her national television defining performances live in the Powerhouse Theatre, with soulful renditions of Sia’s Chandelier, Demi Lovato’s Stone Cold, and Pink’s Perfect. Ellen Reed will also debut her new single Wild Heart and perform her upcoming album of original tracks including Ask Me to Stay, Blur and Not Tonight. A special Wonderland treat, not to be missed!

 

3. Smooth Criminal

Not only is Christopher Wayne one half of the global success story, The Naked Magicians, but he’s also producing some of the hottest shows we’ll see over the next couple of summers. Smooth Criminals brings together the odd couple of Australia’s entertainment industry, Luke Kennedy and Joel Turner. For one show only, on Sunday at 4pm, audiences will get the chance to experience Michael Jackson’s back catalogue as they’ve never heard before, when Kennedy (The Voice, Season 2 runner up, The Ten Tenors) and Turner (world champion beat boxer and platinum selling hip hop artist) join forces to share in their love for the greatest entertainer to ever live, in a musical experience like no other. This is the must-see Smooth Criminals.

 

Remember The Time from Chris Wayne on Vimeo

 

4. More Than A Boy

Starring Tom Oliver, More Than A Boy is a playful rite-of-passage about family and adventure, do-or-die situations and seemingly random events that build character and shape destiny. Featuring an eclectic mix of original songs written by Tom, Andrew McNaughton and Wes Carr (Australian Idol winner), theatre tunes and reworked contemporary hits, More Than A Boy magically weaves together the stories of a Croatian refugee forging a new life and a grandson who follows his dreams. Backed by a live band, get the adrenalin pumping and experience Tom Oliver shoot for the stars in this lively quest journey.

 

5. The Lady of the House of Love

If you’ve never seen this show – or this artist – you’re in for a real treat. Performed by award-winning artist Sandro Colarelli, The Lady of the House of Love is a darkly eerie and exotic one-man show exploring the themes of desire and destiny. With original music composed by award winning singer-songwriter Jake Diefenbach, this combination of evocative narrative and stunning songs harks back to the darkest roots of cabaret.

 

6. Other Women

This is the season’s sexiest circus-cabaret! Starring Lizzie Moore, Eliza Dolly, Rosie Peaches, Freyja Edney with a Chloe-Rose Taylor. Other Women: Temptress or tempting? Fast woman or free-spirited? If a man is a stud, what is a woman? Enter the world of Other Women: a provocative and witty circus-cabaret celebrating female sexuality and exploring sexual double standards. A thrilling live band, circus soloists and burlesque cheek electrify the stage in this World Premiere performance. Featuring an eclectic mix of songs by artists such as Nina Simone, Goldfrapp and Prince; Other Women explores promiscuity, and our contradictory views towards women and their sexual behaviour.

7. Emma Dean in Concert

Heralded for her captivating vocals by the New York Post, Brisbane’s own Emma Dean is a consummate performer and has released over ten independent original albums/EPs.She has toured the world, performing alongside Jesca Hoop and Kate Miller-Heidke, and in support of Macy Gray, Jinkx Monsoon, Katie Noonan, Amanda Palmer and The Dresden Dolls. Emma will be joined by her brother, Tony Dean to perform an eclectic catalogue of songs exploring love, loss and light. One show only on Saturday December 3 at 4pm.

 

8. The Chaser’s Australia

Discover The Chaser’s Australia with Charles Firth and James Schloeffel. A very special multi-media presentation of The Chaser’s Australia. Covering politics, culture, religion, sport and jokes about Karl Stefanovic, it includes a special segment on Australian cooking, and why chicken salt is the only ingredient you’ll ever need. It also includes an extra special presentation on the environment entitled “There’s Absolutely Nothing to Worry About”, sponsored by the Minerals Council of Australia. If you only attend one event this year, you should probably go out a bit more often. The Chaser’s Australia; it’s everything you wanted to know about Australia, but were too apathetic to ask. One show only tonight at 7:15pm.

 

9. Mills and Boom!

Join the Fanciful Fiction Auxiliary, a fictitious amateur writers’ group of oddball characters with fake hair, fake lashes, and real passion, for its personally acclaimed stage show. Mills and Boom! is a simply stupendous salon of bosom-heaving, lip-quivering ecstasy during which we regale you with our smouldering romance stories. Featuring Pascalle Burton, Carody Culver, Adam Hadley, Michelle Law, Ian Powne, Tessa Rose, Jackie Ryan, Leah Shelton, Lucas Stibbard, and Neridah Waters. One show only on Sunday December 5 at 5pm.

 

10. House of Mirrors

The House of Mirrors is a grotesquely fascinating walk-through installation composed of a labyrinth of seemingly endless mirrors. Since the 19^th Century, mirror mazes have been trapping and reflecting participants, challenging those that venture into them, both physically and psychologically, resulting in delight, amazement and sometimes, fear. The House of Mirrors includes Kaleidoscopic like chambers, voids, doorways and darkened breaks, the purist and most traditional form of a mirrored maze. No added gimmicks, no special effects, no special lighting, no sound track or soundscape.  The primary ingredients of carefully arranged mirrors, geometry and pure optical illusion.

Please be aware that during busy period, long wait times are possible. We recommend if you pre-book a ticket and plan on experiencing House of Mirrors before another show, to give yourself ample time in case of lines. Your House of Mirrors experience could take anywhere between 5 minutes and 20 minutes, depending on how fast you solve the maze.

 

Rumour Has It: Sixty Minutes Inside Adele

Rumour Has It: Sixty Minutes Inside Adele

Judith Wright Centre

Judith Wright Centre & The Little Red Company 

24^th – 28^th April 2013

 

 

Reviewed by Xanthe Coward

 

 

Rumour has it The Little Red Company is planning to take Sixty Minutes Inside Adele overseas.

 

 

I first saw this show in Stockholm (Brisbane’s short-lived cabaret space upstairs at Stockholm Syndrome Cafe and Bar in Albion) after it had premiered at the Gold Coast Arts Centre last year. Since then the work has evolved considerably, and the latest version is superior, combining spellbinding vocals and slick, witty patter – less of it – with a hot band (Jason McGregor, Andrew Johnson, Mik Easterman & Brett Fowler) and three polished performers on backing vocals (Rachel Everett-Jones, Luke Kennedy & Laisiasa Utovou).

 

The Judy has never felt so welcoming, with a free exhibition in the Shopfront by Photographer Dylan Evans (The Dylan Evans Experience features Adele Uncovered, a collection of “candid” shots of Naomi Price as Adele), and a brand new configuration inside the theatre, at Price’s request, to avoid distancing herself from her audience. Price is a performer who knows instinctively what an audience wants. And she delivers on every level.

 

The Up Late show at 10pm on Friday night followed hot on the high black heels of an earlier performance so in the foyer as we collected our tickets and exchanged hugs and kisses (MWAH!) with a crowd that included Chris Beckey, Lauren Jackson, Thomas Larkin, Guy Frawley and Samantha Turk (on her stopover between London and Tanzania. More on that in another post!), there was already a wonderful crossover taking place, as people spilled out and collided into those who were waiting to take their seats inside. There was amazing energy in the air, and a level of excitement usually reserved for opening nights.

 

Naomi Price, possessing greater talent than I suspect even she realises, has reached an exciting place with this version of the show. Co-created with Adam Brunes over gin on the back deck, and refined over five recent seasons across the country, Rumour Has It: Sixty Minutes Inside Adele is a very different show. It’s suddenly a great deal more sophisticated, thrusting Price back into a spotlight she’d stepped away from for a year, if you recall, of touring schools and teaching singers. Price seems to have realised (or remembered) where it is she belongs and that is in the spotlight, in front of a captivated crowd.

 

The ambience is helped by big perfect sound, by Jason Glenwright’s swish lighting design (this guy is EVERYWHERE!), featuring a fantastic collection of vintage lamp shades, hanging at various lengths in various places about the space, and the rather ramshackle relaxed and cosy “cabaret” style seating arrangement. It’s easy to envisage this show going on in any of the world’s top cabaret venues. It’s as if this extra show has been added to let us know it’s now ready for the international circuit. (I can’t wait to see it again soon, Supper Club style, in the intimate space of berardo’s during the internationally renowned Noosa Long Weekend Festival!)

 

Every number is stronger and sassier than before. There’s a new intensity, and something between sympathy and integrity replaces much of the parody. We see more of Adele and fewer of her superfluous layers, which have been stripped away by a couple of pairs of discerning eyes during the redevelopment process. The subtle changes make for a slicker, more honest performance.

 

A master of mood change, Price takes us effortlessly from one number to the next, for the first time stepping into the audience with her Musical Director Jason McGregor to sing Daydreamer amidst a cloud of bubbles. She quips about the low (“emerging Queensland artists”) production budget and that sadly, bubbles were the best they could do. It’s funny because it’s true. (How lucky are our artists, to have venues and presenters like The Judy supporting them? More on THAT in another post!). In the same breath, the song takes over in an extended, spellbinding moment that could just as easily, in somebody else’s hands, have come across as a cheap way into a gorgeous song, and not in the least bit funny or entertaining. There are several moments like this throughout the show, when Price so expertly manipulates content and form to achieve the desired response from her audience that we find we’re swept along with her – by her – before we know it.

 

 

 

 

This is pure and simple magic; the command of the craft and the compelling connection between artist and audience only ever created by the most accomplished and confident performers.

 

And in case we are in any doubt at all about the artist’s phenomenal talent or broad appeal, before the night is over, Price doles out some wicked send-ups of notable singers, including the Spice Girls, Celine Dion, Taylor Swift and Amy Winehouse. In another new addition, her soaring rendition of Skyfall is sublime. We see, once again, that in any guise Price first serves the lyric, and lives out every moment of her heartfelt story through song.

 

There’s no doubt that Rumour Has It: Sixty Minutes Inside Adele is ready for a global audience. There’s even a twelve-month window while Adele is in “lock-down mode” and The Little Red Company would do well to fill the gap.

 

Nathanael Cooper said it too: this show is a star vehicle and Naomi Price is about to skyrocket.

 

“I think the show as it stands now is a combination of the ridiculous, outlandish humour and moments of absolute poignant truth.”

Naomi Price, in an interview with Paul Andrew

How to Make Snow

 

How to Make Snow

the little red company & St Lawrence’s College

ERPAC St Lawrence’s College

20th – 22nd December 2012

 

Reviewed by Rebecca Matthews

 

How to Make Snow is a wonderfully entertaining production, which follows a young boy’s quest to learn how to make snow for his Grandad.  The journey he goes on brings him into contact with all kinds of colourful characters who reminisce about the time they last saw snow, and give him their advice on how to go about this epic quest… in the 40-degree heat of Australia.

 

It’s a brand new show, created especially for the Christmas season, by Daniel Evans (Writer & Director) and Naomi Price (Producer and Director of the little red company). How to Make Snow enjoyed a very short, sweet season over just one weekend so if you missed it, I’m afraid that a little piece of magic has passed you by this year. But don’t worry, this creative team will be back again next year.

 

Such talent attracts talent, and this production was enhanced by the honest performances of Marco Ghikas, Bryan Probets, Mirusia Louwerse and Luke Kennedy, of The Ten Tenors fame. With musical direction from Kennedy & Michael Manikus, lighting by Jason Glenwright and design by Josh McIntosh, this production couldn’t fail!

 

I absolutely loved the visual overload that made this production so entertaining for all ages. There was no shortage of clues and visual delights for those who did not get the subtleties of love lost and love remembered in this storyline.

 

The company, which included a sizeable youth ensemble, was great. The choir’s numbers and some of the solos particularly were breathtaking. We may have turned up at a school to see this show but it was, in so many ways, much more than a school production. It was, in fact, exactly what you would expect from a school given the opportunity to work collaboratively with a professional production company. I was sitting there imagining all the hours these kids had given up to perfect their performances and it definitely paid off. I found it inspiring for my own children to see such a wide variety of ages and roles utilised in this play and hoped it might spark something in them; that they might want to be part of fabulous performances such as this in the future.

 

The play gave plenty of time for the audience to reminisce about their own experiences and to remember the good times. Our own white Christmas memories came suddenly and vividly to life, and my boys and I have since talked for days about many a Christmas past, and our family and friends in other places.

 

With the danger of a spoiler alert, let’s just say it was a happy ending and I was the fool in the front row, sobbing; crying my eyes out at the beautiful spectacle of a white Christmas in the searing heat of Australia.

 

When this beautiful little production returns – and it will – go and see it for yourself, take the kids and the grandparents and I promise you’ll be reaching for the sled, and the tissues.