My Year in Theatre (2012)

Throughout this year I've been working like a bitch on a number of shows. I've worked in community theatre, student productions, and professional and independent theatre. I've volunteed hundreds of hours for projects I've loved and been paid a little for others, and I've also given my time to ushering, facilitating, and teaching for many different organisations. I've also blogged for two professional theatre festivals and enjoyed blogging, either by invitation or just to share my thoughts on theatre, and supported a number of shows and collectives financially through Pozible and another fund raising schemes (buying lots of fund-raising chocolates . . !). So here is a comprehensive list and explanation of what I've been in - bring on 2013!

Sweeney Todd.

The first of show of the year had actually started rehearsals at the end of November of 2011. I was involved in my first musical, Ignatians Musical Society's Sweeney Todd where I was a chorus member among a cast of over 30. Although I was going to skip my audition, I ended up being offered a place in the ensemble and as a result spent over 400 hours in rehearsal, with included rigorous vocal rehearsals and exhausting all day rehearsals every weekend up until the show day. The show opened on March 21st and ran 18 performances until April 13th, and was my first time I had sung in front of a paying audience. I got to be creep around, wear a delightfully/dreafully tacky looking beard, get my throat slit, sing my favourite lines and run around the stage like a lunatic. Simply awesome, and if Ignatians stages any other Sondheim pieces, I'll be there (or if Passion comes up, watching the show and weeping gently every evening).

Of Little Matter.

Simultaneous with Sweeney, I was also involved in two other projects. One of which was helping Sarah Winter realise her incredible concept for a floating feast through her PhD studies. We had a week in February of trial and error, brainstorming, and realising things that were out of an enchanting dream. The project went on to become a dinner with gravity, which had a two week run at La Boite Indie across the 28th of June til the 8th of July later in the year. The other project was the first Vena Cava Production's show of the year, Of Little Matter, which had rehearsals through February and March and performed from March 26th - 31st. Under the direction of David Morton the show is one of the first of it's kind, a show with an ensemble of actors who helped bring a story to life by animating characters exclusively with their hands. Despite not being able to dedicate myself fully to the project, I was the composer and sound designer on the show, a couple of pieces being some of my favourite things I've written this year. Although I'm no longer involved with the project, it went on to do a creative development at Brisbane Powerhouse in November this year, and with it's potential it's not going to stop there. I also spent a lot of time during late February as a featured blogger in Brisbane Powerhouse's World Theatre Festival, where I saw A Spectacular of Sorts, the prelude to a very special show I would be later working on in October.

a dinner with gravity.

The next saga I got involved in was Copstitutes! Professional Lovers, Amateur Detectives! Concieved, written, directed and also partly acted by Nicholas K Watson, this piece had its read through in April before entering a very vague rehearsal process in May, where in performed May 25th for one performance, with an oversold audience that flowed out of The Studio. We reunited for another special showing after we were selected as a wildcard contestant in August for Short + Sweet. We had a good performance on the 18th, but were unsuccessful going any further (not really a surprise to us, though). During the entire Copstitutes process I was also writing reviews for productions in Anywhere Theatre Festival, a cute little emerging festival which aims to solve the issue of having independent theatre presented in a theatre by having them present anywhere - cafés, parks, roads etc.  Earlier in May we were also working on our Production 2 show, Performing, Seriously! which was facilitated by Benjamin Schostakowski and had one performance on the 30th (we got a very high mark for it!).

June and July rolled by with a dinner with gravity (which had a sell out season) and I also joined onto Vena Cava's third production of the year, Iphigenia 2.0, which was directed by Dave Sleswick. I was sound designer, composer and operator for the show, which was an adaptation of the original text Iphigenia in Tauris by Euripides by Charles Mee. The new text is a vicious attack on consumerism and the evils of war, and the season ran from July 30th until August 3rd. After having fun with Copstitutes again, I hopped straight into doing sound design for David Stewart's honours piece, Cotton Pony. Following the unfortunate life of Ebony Zedler, the piece examined how far theatre could be taken before the audience renders it unacceptable. Despite its darker nature, the piece was very funny, and it was so much fun to be able to pick and choose any music I wanted without having to worry about copyright.

A Tribute of Sorts.

September (and later December) was the only month where I wasn't involved directly with a production, so I enjoyed seeing a lot of works at the Brisbane Festival. I did also volunteer the entire duration of the Festival of Australian Student Theatre (FAST) from the 7th-9th, which is a fantastic annual event which invites students from all over Australian to travel to Brisbane and present their work  at La Boite's Roundhouse Theatre. In October I started work on two shows, one of which was my best friend's writing/directing debut for a piece in 2high Festival called Propagation. I was sound designer/operator, although I'm ashamed to say that it was never priority and I wish I could have worked on it more - it was a big success though, and a lot of people were very impressed by its one showing on the 10th of November. In October I also started to work as an assistant stage hand (read: moving things around behind the seasons as quietly and quickly as humanly possible like a bitch) on my favourite show of the year. A Spectacular of Sorts changed into A Tribute of Sorts, which was written and directed by Benjamin Schostakowski with Emily Curtin and Dash Kruck. The narrative revolves around cousins Ivan and Juniper Plank, who take it upon themselves to coordinate a grim but hilariously inappropriate homage to children who find death "a little too quickly". The show's season, which ran from October 25th until November 10th, was an absolute sell out and the best fun I've ever had on a show - as Lucas Stibbard said, I'm very "heart sore" to see it go, but hopefully it will have another life somewhere, someday . . . :0).

And then the theatre world stopped. :)

Attending the tale of Sweeney Todd

I enjoy the irony that after dedicating almost 400 hours to Sweeney Todd, I was originally going to skip my audition. Tonight is our closing night and the last of 16 performances which have been seen by (what I guess) a few thousand people. I thought I probably should record some thoughts since this is my first musical in a community and I don't think I've ever been so emotionally invested and attached to the content and the people involved.

Me and John!

In terms of musical genius in the realms of Broadway, Sondheim's Sweeney Todd is simply unrivaled. Its lavish score is replete with superb arias littered with complex rhythmic passages and exquisite lyrical content that explores the gamut of human emotions while simultaneously captivating its audience through progression of the storyline. Amongst the luscious and generous orchestration, Sondheim utilises a cinematic approach with motifs and themes that correspond to and enhance the plot and the characters, ensuring that each song adds extra facets and dimensions to the plot and that none of the pieces are superfluous.

The sheer grandeur of the score can be identified in practically every song in the show - a few highlights include the mesmerising and hypnotic beauty of 'Johanna', the vivacious and delightful rendezvous of 'A Little Priest', and the melancholic disenfranchisement of 'Green Finch and Linnet Bird'. My two favourite pieces are the quartet arrangement of 'Kiss Me!', a fleeting and inherently romantic piece which holds Sondheim's best of harmony and counterpoint galore with beautifully sweeping instrumentation, and 'City on Fire!'. 'City on Fire' literally takes off and explodes, boasting cascading phrases of violent imagery with obscene hyperboles and metaphors to conjure an intense, visceral nightmare. After all this time I've not grown tired of the score, it's still something that enjoy and am fascinated with.

Members of Ignatians Musical Society have been rehearsing for Sweeney Todd since the 1st of December last year. Since Sweeney Todd is my favourite musical I promised myself if it was ever staged I would try my best to be involved, so I booked an audition a few weeks before at the suggestion of a friend. On the day I actually considered not going (I was reluctant since I was worried about the commitment), but at the last minute I caught the train and turned up to the audition, where I still hadn't picked my two audition songs. On the way into the room I finally decided on 'This is Not Over Yet' (from Parade) and 'Quidam' (from Quidam). We also had to learn a movement number at the audition and it was pretty scary since I'm not very coordinated and the prospect that we had to move like ballet dancers was daunting and made me want to drop out. In the end I got a callback to audition for the role of Tobias, and at the callback I was eventually (I think just because I happened to be there) offered a role in the ensemble which I accepted straight away since the main reason I auditioned was so I could sing 'City on Fire!'.

Sam and Sam!

'City on Fire!' is my favourite song to perform (I also get to sing my favourite line "The engine roared, the motor hissed"), but I'm also extremely lucky to be one of the only 5 people in the show who get to be killed on Sweeney's chair. I manage to die spectacularly each night thanks to a bunch of maple syrup dyed red and some fancy tricks which usually gets a reaction from the audience (thanks to the Makeup Wizards!). I really respect our director John Peek, because it feels he managed to get everyone some moments in the show where they shine.

The cast and crew involve some of the best quality people I've ever met in my life. They're a really fun, talented bunch and I feel cheated that I didn't know some of them sooner. What I'm really thankful for is that there are so many supremely talented people who don't need to be featured in a leading role and are happy to be featured in an ensemble. That said, we have a bunch of phenomenal leads that I'm really thrilled with the performance of. The cast execute their performance in a manner that is on par with professional productions and it was a fantastic opportunity to play which enjoying the practical experience of performing. Lots of good times happened in the theatre and out. One of my favourite memories in the whole process was when Sam was driving a few of us to the station and when we stopped at some lights we noticed Miranda was in the car next to us, so Sam signaled to Miranda to wind down the window, and we started shouting the lyrics from 'City on Fire!' at her. It was just awesome. I could probably go on for a while, but for the sake of maintaining reader interest (dubious already) so I'll just leave it there.

That seems a little over the place but the show is nearing the end now and I will be very sad to see it go - it's been a huge part of my life so far this year (and a great excuse to avoid seeing people) and I am going to miss some people so much it will probably ache. I'm going to stand offstage and watch from the wings for as much as I can tonight to see the show one last time. But I will cherish the memories, and the score of Sweeney Todd has become even more special.

Earth Hour in Sweeneyland!

An Unremarkable Adaptation of Sweeney Todd

There is nothing I recommend about this album (Source: Amazon.com).

Clearly the 2012 London adaptation of Sweeney Todd needs to be lived to appreciate the genius, because the acclaim and rave reviews it's received definitely hasn't transferred on to this cast recording. I am fairly confident that without the presence of Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton this production would have never received a recording.

While I adore Sweeney Todd (it is by far my favourite musical), I don't care for this recording at all. It's utterly bizarre since it has exactly the same material as the Original Broadway Cast recording highlights – the difference between the two being that the Original Broadway Cast has a better cast, better orchestrations and better mixing. I don't know why this version even exists.

There are no cast members that are particularly noteworthy in their roles. The majority of the principals are vocally dull, boasting a serious flaw or undesirable trait on every character - there's a demasculinised Anthony by Luke Brady, an insufferably whiny Johanna from Lucy May-Barker and innocuous portrayal of Tobias from James McConville. There's no trace of Robert Burt's Pirelli and the portrayals of the main antagonists Judge Turpin and Beadle Bamford, played by John Bowe and Peter Polycarpou respectively, lack the authority and menace that the roles demand. Gillian Kirkpatrick is almost tolerable until she croaks out some egregiously guttural cries on her upper register.

In comparison to previous actors who have filled their roles, both of the leads are lacking in their portrayals. Imelda Staunton is an incredibly versatile actor and I have no doubt her portrayal of Mrs. Lovett on stage in stunning, but despite her colourful delivery of the libretto there is no escaping that this is a music recording and her voice leaves a lot to be desired. As for Michael Ball as Sweeney, it's fine, but nothing special and certainly nowhere near the best. There is a sense of distance in his portrayal since his timbre doesn't seem to be suitable in the role, and he also has this inconsistency of switching between accents mid-sentence. His vibrato is in its ridiculous full-throttle here ('Final Scene' is an utter debacle, with him throwing vibrato on every line: “Youuhhhh knewhhhh myhhhh Lucyyhhhhh livedhhhhhhhhh”). Ultimately every principal pales in comparison to every other recorded performer that preceded them in their respective roles, and I don't particularly care to hear any of them again.

This recording offers nothing in terms of being a remarkable, unique take on Sweeney apart from transforming the vivacious score into something unremarkable. The original Broadway cast recording maintains its pedestal for the best performance of Sweeney with the best cast and most complete score, the 2000 live cast was a celebration and collaboration of Broadway stars and a symphonic orchestra, the 2005 revival recording is a fascinating adaptation of a small ensemble performing both instrumentally and vocally, and the 2007 movie soundtrack acts as the necessary companion to the film with luscious orchestrations. This is just a scaled down version of the original and doesn't offer anything new. The mixing is lifeless but the orchestration is okay, with the exception of this new trend of having woodwinds simultaneously playing the melody. I just want to tear my hair out that this 2012 cast recording exists when the incredible 2011 Théâtre du Châtelet Cast, superior in every aspect (which until very recently, was free to download from the Radio France Musique website), will fade into oblivion.

This whole endeavor was pointless - the only immediate use of this recording could serve as would be a tool to listen to so that when you return to any other Sweeney Todd recording the experience is glorified in comparison. If you were planning on buying this recording, don't. Only approach if you're a fan of Micheal Ball or Imelda Staunton, and possibly if you're an avid Sondheim collector. But I wouldn't even recommend this to devoted fans of Sweeney Todd. As far as I'm concerned, any recording of Sweeney Todd that doesn't contain 'City on Fire' isn't real.