430 stories by "Anne-Marie Peard"
Melbourne's had the opportunity to see two adaptions of Frank Wedekind’s 1891 play Spring Awakening this month. StageArt's production of the 2006 musical " which won eight Tonys, inclu…
“Words, words, words! I’m so sick of words I get words all day through.” This was always my favourite song from Lerner and Lowe’s My Fair Lady. Even with misguided-te…
David M Hawkins’s production of Cabaret may be as pretty as Sally Bowles’s green nail polish, but the only person who loved the green was Sally* and we know her manicure was chea…
Being in the depths of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, I was calling Richard 3, by Bell Shakespeare, Chick Dick 3 because Kate Mulvany plays Richard. But no more throw away joke…
I was splashed by a wet condom and had a shite covered naked arse within touching distance. Choose life. Choose theatre. Choose Trainspotting Live. In 1993, Harry Gibson wrote the stage a…
Faith Healer, directed by Judy Davis, at Sydney's Belvoir last year was so successful that the MTC put it into the Sumner Theatre. While twice as many can see it each night, most can't exper…
The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society present The Murder at Haversham Manor. It goes wrong. Very wrong. So wrong that it’s totally right. The Play That Goes Wrong by Mischief …
In a hotel room in a third-world country, an unnamed person recounts a story of the fever he suffers from " and he's not talking about the illness that has him sweaty and vomiting. Written b…
American playwright Annie Baker won a 2014 Pulitzer Prize for The Flick (seen at Red Stitch) when she was 33. Her writing’s won Off-Broadway Obie awards and rightly declares a ne…
Can't afford your own time machine? A ticket to the National Ballet of China's Red Detachment of Women is the next best thing. This ballet, first performed in 1964, is one of the 'Eight Mode…
Little Emperors was commissioned and developed by Malthouse Theatre for the Asia TOPA festival. Australian writer Lachlan Philpott (The Trouble With Harry) was flown to Beijing to work with …
The 2015 Victorian Opera production of Die Sieben Todsunden with Meow Meow took me as close to seeing how Brecht and Weil must have imagined their work. It was a highlight of that year…
Oh, I believe! The expectations for the Australian production of The Book of Mormon were higher than a stoner watching South Park " the Broadway run hasn't had an empty seat since it opened,…
It really is astonishing to realise how much has changed in technology Â" phones, computers, the way we listen to music, the way we watch TV and  " in the past 50 years. This is the su…
I remember reading Oscar Wilde's fairytale The Happy Prince when I was young, and I remember its beauty and sadness breaking my heart. I loved this story about the gilded, bejewelled statue …
Doug Wright's play I Am My Own Wife, at fortyfivedownstairs for Midsumma, is a most remarkable piece. Its story twists and turns and keeps the audience guessing, it has a superbly unreliable…
I'm not going to beat around the bush. Dolly Di*mond’s Bl*nkety Bl*nks is a hot mess " but it's the funniest and most delightful hot mess you'll ever see. And speaking of bush, Rhonda …
Jimmy Harper and Mary Lane are in high school and in love and in danger of falling under the thrall of a deadly green menace called Reefer Madness. Writers Kevin Murphy and Dan Studney have …
The Gathering is a new musical co-written by Will Hannagan and Belinda Jenkin, directed by Chris Parker and musically directed by Daniel Puckey. Opening at fortyfivedownstairs this week, and…
"Is she pregnant? No just fat." Boom-boom. It's such a good week to remind us that women are best kept pretty or pregnant. The Odd Couple is the MTC's end-of-year already-close-enough-to-sol…
Kinky Boots had me at "The most beautiful thing in the world": a song about shoes. AÂ song about shoes written by 1980’s pop icon Cyndi Lauper. The show's won awards, including the 2…
I'm still thinking about Back to Back Theatre's Lady Meets Apple. I want to talk about it, but want to hold it safe and close so that its meaning stays between the performers and me. …
At this year's Tony Awards, the Broadway revival of the Oprah Winfrey produced The Color Purple musical received the Best Revival of a Musical and Best Actress. StageArt are currently presen…
It was impossible to get a ticket for Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour at the 2015 Edinburgh Fringe, but it's running for all of the Melbourne Festival so as many people as possible can sing …
Matilda's last Melbourne performance is November 11. If you haven't seen it, well that's not right. And as Matilda says, “If that’s not right.  You have to put it right!…
