Curtains, The Production Company, The State Theatre, Friday August 26th 2016
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"Curtains" is the last musical written by John Kander and Fred Ebb and has a book by Rupert Holmes.
The Production Company have presented "Curtains" with minimalist sets and simple staging. "Curtains" is about 15 minutes too long and would do well with pruning some songs.
The best aspect of this production is the superb performances of Simon Gleeson as Lieutenant Frank Cioffi. Simon Gleeson channelled Maxwell Smart from "Get Smart" with his dialogue delivery. He is also a terrific singer and projects so much emotion into his characterisation.
Alinta Chidzey as Niki Harris was also superb with her clean dancing and beautiful singing voice,
Melissa Langton as Carmen Bernstein provided the stage mother antics and belted her numbers in her usual powerful voice.
Zoe Coppinger played Bambi Bernet with impeccable comedic timing. She had the audience roaring with laughter at her physical and vocal antics.
Simon Maiden gave a solid performance as Johnny Harmon while some others seemed to coast in their roles without much to differentiate their characters from each other.
Colin Lane as Christopher Belling had a weird accent and wavered between English, Australian and American . He had too many continents to be trans-Atlantic!
The sets, costumes and staging was very basic. The costumes in particular looked like something out of a school concert.
The notable exception was the choreography by Dana Jolly that was easily the outstanding production feature of "Curtains". Dana Jolly has paid homage to many backstage musicals including "Gypsy" and movie musicals with the simple but highly effective staircase sequence. Dana Jolly had Simon Gleeson and Alinta Chidzey paying homage to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. These two fine performers really captured the romantic essence of the movie musical film genre.
Version three of "Wide Open Spaces" was terrific. The three versions of this sequence grew into a fun joke.'
Musical direction by John Foreman provided the delicious singing harmonies. The band played well and it was fun to have them on stage as in the old movie musicals. Some individual singers strained their voices to sing their songs or duets.
It was fun to hear a few bars from "Cabaret" or "That's amore" in the orchestrations.
The complimentary programmes are a welcome addition and remind me of the free Broadway Playbills. The programme is one of the best available with quality photographs and detailed information.
"Curtains" reminds me of "Murder For Two" and "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" which also has a book by Rupert Holmes. Both of these musicals are superior to "Curtains" and I am glad to have been able to finally see it on stage.
Overall "Curtains" received a 7/10.
The Production Company have presented "Curtains" with minimalist sets and simple staging. "Curtains" is about 15 minutes too long and would do well with pruning some songs.
The best aspect of this production is the superb performances of Simon Gleeson as Lieutenant Frank Cioffi. Simon Gleeson channelled Maxwell Smart from "Get Smart" with his dialogue delivery. He is also a terrific singer and projects so much emotion into his characterisation.
Alinta Chidzey as Niki Harris was also superb with her clean dancing and beautiful singing voice,
Melissa Langton as Carmen Bernstein provided the stage mother antics and belted her numbers in her usual powerful voice.
Zoe Coppinger played Bambi Bernet with impeccable comedic timing. She had the audience roaring with laughter at her physical and vocal antics.
Simon Maiden gave a solid performance as Johnny Harmon while some others seemed to coast in their roles without much to differentiate their characters from each other.
Colin Lane as Christopher Belling had a weird accent and wavered between English, Australian and American . He had too many continents to be trans-Atlantic!
The sets, costumes and staging was very basic. The costumes in particular looked like something out of a school concert.
The notable exception was the choreography by Dana Jolly that was easily the outstanding production feature of "Curtains". Dana Jolly has paid homage to many backstage musicals including "Gypsy" and movie musicals with the simple but highly effective staircase sequence. Dana Jolly had Simon Gleeson and Alinta Chidzey paying homage to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. These two fine performers really captured the romantic essence of the movie musical film genre.
Version three of "Wide Open Spaces" was terrific. The three versions of this sequence grew into a fun joke.'
Musical direction by John Foreman provided the delicious singing harmonies. The band played well and it was fun to have them on stage as in the old movie musicals. Some individual singers strained their voices to sing their songs or duets.
It was fun to hear a few bars from "Cabaret" or "That's amore" in the orchestrations.
The complimentary programmes are a welcome addition and remind me of the free Broadway Playbills. The programme is one of the best available with quality photographs and detailed information.
"Curtains" reminds me of "Murder For Two" and "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" which also has a book by Rupert Holmes. Both of these musicals are superior to "Curtains" and I am glad to have been able to finally see it on stage.
Overall "Curtains" received a 7/10.
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