430 stories by "Anne-Marie Peard"
Dave Thornton's Spit & Polish doesn't need any elbow grease, despite what the name might suggest; it's already a lively and entertaining little gem of a show with plenty of appeal. As on…
The comedy double act is one where every laugh relies on the other person to make it work, so it’s no wonder the best are ones were one name can’t be said without the other. T…
As the lights dim (or rather as overhead fluorescents are gracelessly shut off), an atmosphere of abrasive Australiana is aptly set for the Doug Anthony All Stars to invade the main function…
Humans are going extinct. Or, at least, in the face of global warming, ongoing social and political tensions, and a rampant abundance of internet memes, the threat certainly seems very real.…
Gilbert and Sullivan: words that evoke love, fear or a confusing mix of both. Late nineteenth century operetta may be fun to perform (I went with two friends who were also in our school prod…
Tom Ballard is warm and charming and a wonderfully witty narrator who takes us on a thoughtful and funny journey in Taxis & Rainbows & Hatred. The former Triple J host centres his sh…
There’s much more to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival than stand-up, but there are seemingly endless stand-ups. This form of solo storytelling can be extraordina…
With school stand-ups are dribbling out the same jokes we’ve heard for ever, there’s a generation of performers who are embracing everything about clowning and turning it into…
Local comedy queen and self-proclaimed "Fraggle Rock dominatrix" Lisa-Skye hosts an adults-only soiree to make the Mad Hatter blush, in Lisa-Skye's Lovely Tea Party, at The Tuxedo Cat as par…
Avenue QÂ is Trifle Theatre Company’s first show. It’s already sold out, so it sucks to be you if you didn’t book a ticket. There’s not much left to say when there …
Imagine having a fabulous great-aunt who has led a fascinating, slightly wicked life, is a brilliant storyteller and happens to have a wonderful collection of books at her house. This is wha…
There’s a double page in the program for the MTC’s Endgame titled “explantion”. It’s about modernism, Absurdism and finding meaning in Samuel Beckett̵…
The late William May told me that the idea for Walking With Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular came to him when he stopped his car to watch cranes working at Docklands at night. He saw d…
Don Reid's Young & Jackson is a tribute play of sorts. It's a testimonial to Melbourne during World War II, to the pub it's named after, and to the play that follows (Codgers, also by Re…
Sexercise could be a ripper of a show if it toned up and got rid of the flab. Sexercise is a new Australian musical. Yay. It’s opening in a great new theatre venue, the Alex Thea…
“There’s gotta be something better than this.” I don’t think so. This time last year, new independent company Hayes Theatre took over an old 110-seat theatre in Potts…
What Rhymes with Cars & Girls was Tim (You Am I) Rodgers’s first solo album in 1999. Aidan Fennessy loved it so much that he wrote narrative to sit between the tracks and …
In 1996, Disney Theatrical announced it was making a musical of their popular animated hit The Lion King (1994). Eyes rolled with memories of Disney on Ice productions and the fear of …
In The Heights won the Best Musical Tony in 2008. Melbourne independent company StageArt presents the Australian premiere and it’s an absolute winner. It nails the tone of a show th…
Psychopomp & Seething begins by taking the audience on a ride in the La Mama Courthouse. It’s not a hold on and scream ride, but you do move and it ends in pure darkness. And it…
Opera at the magnificent sea-side Palais Theatre with the audience wearing 3D glasses! Victorian Opera are sure giving us a new look at Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman. Close to his ho…
The 2014 Victorian Green Room Award nominations have been released. The awards will be announced on Monday 20 April at the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne. This is the 32nd annual cerem…
It’s worth seeing Blak Cabaret to hang outside in the Malthouse forecourt, and it’s impossible not to love Kahmahi Djordon King in a frock. Conceived by Jason Yamiru, Bl…
Daniel Tobias is almost unrecognisable as Otto Rot of the endlessly wonderful comedy duo band Die Roten Punkte. There’s no keytar and makeup in The Orchid & the Crow bu…
Dennis Kelly's cautionary morality fable of corporate greed, corruption and an insatiable hunger for power at any cost, The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas, is superbly executed in the f…
