Reviews

Reddy reckoning from Bennett! Nicky Bennett has an ever ready hit show on her hands. Her Helen Reddy tribute show is a powerhouse performance that reveals the lifelong struggle Reddy endured to become one of the world's mightiest performers in an era when Australian acts struggled onto the world stage and women had to fight for basic dignity in society. [...]

Groucho Marx used to host a famously edgy TV game show called You Bet Your Life. That’s the challenge facing two very different ladies in State Theatre’s delightfully dark comedy Ripcord. Writer David Lindsay-Abaire has set the competition in an exclusive retirement home on a superb, adaptable set design by Alisa Paterson. We meet the incumbent, immoveable Abby (Nancye Hayes) [...]

This 70-minute show was so good I would have happily sat through it all again if there had been an interval, and a restart. Showgirl Libby O’Donovan and Cowgirl Beccy Cole are great singers, they know how to fill a stage and bring the audience to them. They are incredible solo performers who are generous enough to share the spotlight [...]

In a tragic year for live performance the planets have finally aligned for the State Theatre Company. It’s lavish production of Patrick Hamilton’s gothic drama Gaslight is the ideal fit and feel for the upgraded theatre, that is just as big an attraction as the show. The combination captures the time and the crime as the insidious Jack Manningham [...]