Ben Mingay

Posted on May 27, 2014 by jolitson

Slide Cabaret, May 23

Ben Mingay. Photo: supplied

Ben Mingay puts the bloke into cabaret in his new show, presented as part of the Slide Cabaret Festival. Making an unorthodox entry, he spends the night in work boots, boardies and ratty T-shirt, with a tinnie close to hand. (The supplied picture above is so not his look here!)

The show has an interval so I imagined that he would return in the second act in something more like the promo shot but, no, he merely traded one T-shirt for another.

The contrast between his downbeat look and the camp glamour of Slide is all part of the fun, of course, and Mingay – who did start out in construction – has such a laid-back, laddish charm that he pulls it off with aplomb. (Having got the joke in the first act, though, I reckon a costume change for the second could be good, adding another dimension). He tells his stories with a rough, throwaway charm and endearing honesty that feels absolutely authentic – and he knows how to spin a good yarn.

His rich, rumbling baritone works a treat across genres (rock, country, musical theatre and opera) as he traces his journey from construction worker for his Dad in Newcastle to a pub rock band to classical voice studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music to roles in musicals including Hair, South Pacific, Dirty Dancing in the US and Jersey Boys. (An Officer and a Gentleman doesn’t get a mention). There’s also a passing reference to his role in Channel Ten’s Wonderland.

Backed by a four-piece band led by Bev Kennedy on piano, Mingay opens the show with “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” from Oklahoma! From there his song list takes in everything from “Working Class Man” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water” to “Some Enchanted Evening” from South Pacific and Leporello’s catalogue song from Mozart’s Don Giovanni (complete with a make-shift prop on the back of a beer carton).

At the Slide gig, he invited David Harris on stage to sing “The Confrontation” from Les Misérables with him (both made it to the final auditions for the production about to open in Melbourne), while his partner, musical theatre performer Kirby Burgess, joined him for rousing versions of “House of the Rising Sun” and “Time of my Life” from Dirty Dancing.

All in all a thoroughly entertaining show from a rough diamond with a wonderful voice. Developing a warm rapport with the audience, Mingay shares enough of himself that by the end of the night you feel that you really do know a fair bit about him. And didn’t the sell-out crowd love him.

Avigail Herman: Good Girl/Bad Girl

Posted on May 26, 2014 by jolitson

Slide Cabaret, May 21

In her latest cabaret show, Good Girl/Bad Girl – which premiered last Wednesday at the Slide Cabaret Festival – Avigail Herman plays an author, who is writing a series of stories based around the seven deadly sins but who has encountered writer’s block and is struggling after finishing just three.

Inspired by Audra McDonald’s 2004 song cycle around the seven deadly sins, Herman uses the framework of a Writer’s Support Group – us – to whom she confesses her pride, laziness, relationship breakup and trips to therapy and rehab.

She sings some of McDonald’s material (“My Book” by Jeff Blumenkrantz, “I Eat” by Stephen Flaherty & Lynn Ahrens, “The Greedy Tadpole” by John Pizzarelli & Jessica Molaskey) but also includes her own, eclectic choice of songs by Stephen Sondheim, John Bucchino and Lance Horne among others.

There isn’t a great deal of patter so at times it feels more like a concert. And since the songs aren’t widely known (the person I went with didn’t know any of them), it took time for the Slide audience to warm up.

You could feel the instant response to the humour in “Making Love Alone” and during another number, which keeps breaking into well-known songs from musicals such as “Midnight” from Cats, a few in the audience yelled out “sing it all!” She didn’t oblige as the show is clearly tightly structured. But a couple of better-known numbers might help draw people in more quickly.

A little more chat and humour between songs might also help establish a closer rapport with the audience.

Nonetheless, I really enjoyed the show and the choice of songs. Herman is singing beautifully, still floating her soaring top notes with effortless ease and really connecting emotionally with the lyrics. “I Eat”, in which a lonely woman eats to fill the void, is particularly moving, as is Sondheim’s “We Do Not Belong Together”, but all the songs are well interpreted. And Herman’s bubbly personality does come through – it would just be good to give it a little more room to shine.

The Young Tycoons

Posted on May 26, 2014 by jolitson

Eternity Playhouse, May 20

Edmund Lembke-Hogan and Andrew Cutcliffe. Photo: Noni Carroll

A smash hit in 2005 and 2006, Darlinghurst Theatre Company is reviving CJ Johnson’s gleefully corrosive satire at its new venue.

Subtitled “a ruthless comedy”, The Young Tycoons is set in 2003 as two aging Australian media moguls start to hand over control of their empires to their sons.

The warring families are fictionalised, of course, but no prizes for guessing who they’re modeled on.

The fathers and their heirs are a study in contrasts. The bullying, potty-mouthed Ted Vogler (Laurence Coy), now focused primarily on television, is a high roller, loves cricket and has a dodgy heart, not helped when his “knucklehead” son Kim (Edmund Lembke-Hogan) loses a billion in a bad investment.

Liam Warburton (John Turnbull), who dominates the nation’s newspapers, is cool, pragmatic and US-based, while his suave son Trevor (Andrew Cutcliffe) is Ivy League educated.

Then there are the son’s girlfriends (Paige Gardiner and Gabrielle Scawthorn), a business journo from an opposition broadsheet (James Lugton) who has them in his sights, Liam’s long-serving, right-hand-man Donald (Terry Serio), and Kim’s personal assistant/press secretary (Briallen Clarke).

It’s a world where wives are picked as if part of a business deal – though the women in the play are no pushovers.

Johnson’s script unfolds over numerous short scenes not unlike a TV drama but director Michael Pigott keeps things moving snappily on Katja Handt’s excellent, sparse set with its curving plywood wall, helped by Murray Jackson’s jazzy music.

The writing is robust with plenty of laughs. Act I takes a little time to hit its stride but the play ramps up in Act II when there is more punchy drama between the characters.

Johnson decided not to update the play but has added a few new references (Grange, Barangaroo), while a punch-up was apparently included just days before the James Packer-David Gyngell street brawl.

Lembke-Hogan is outstanding as the pugnacious, not-so-smart Kim, revealing flickers of self-doubt as he tries to assert himself with blinkered, puppy-dog impulsiveness. Serio is also excellent as the veteran newspaperman who finds himself becoming collateral damage, while Turnbull and Coy contrast each other nicely as the two rival media barons. But all the cast are terrific and deserve praise.

Johnson doesn’t depart too far from reality so there are few real surprises, particularly since this era has been much picked over of late on TV. However, the play plugs into Australia’s continuing fascination with its business heavyweights offering an entertaining, fly-on-the-wall look at the lives of the filthy rich and very powerful.

The Young Tycoons runs until June 15. Bookings: 02 8356 9987 or www.darlinghursttheatre.com

A version of this review ran in the Sunday Telegraph on May 25

Cain and Abel

Posted on May 21, 2014 by jolitson

Belvoir Downstairs, May 17

Dana Miltins commits another murder as Cain. Photo: Brett Boardman

Watching Cain and Abel by acclaimed independent Melbourne theatre company The Rabble, the phrase “style over substance” (once leveled at Sydney Theatre Company many years ago) kept popping into my mind.

The performance piece purports to ask what would have happened if it was a daughter of Adam and Eve who murdered her sister in the biblical story rather than Cain murdering his brother Abel?

“What if the first murderer was female? What if the guilt and the grief belonged to women? How would this affect our existence?” writes director Emma Valente in her theatre program notes.

As far as I could discern, the production doesn’t answer any of these questions. And I doubt you’d realise that this was what the theatre-makers were exploring if you didn’t know the name of the piece.

Created by The Rabble’s co-artistic directors Kate Davis and Valente, the production is staged in and around a glass prism (a much-used device of late) resembling a claustrophobic, white hothouse filled with mist. It starts ponderously as two actors (regular Rabble collaborators Dana Miltins and Mary Helen Sassman) move at a snail’s pace, peer through the glass and breath on it. The few lines of dialogue are hard to hear at this point.

Cain (Miltins) then regurgitates red flowers (I think) into the water in a white esky-like box. Abel regurgitates white marbles (or something similar) into said box. Then staring heavenwards, Cain murders Abel in a ritual act of sacrifice.

From there, we witness several acts of violence through the ages: a duel between medieval knights (Valente’s lighting suggests The Crusades perhaps), a more contemporary scene about domestic violence in which Cain repeatedly questions Abel about a black eye, a cheerleaders segment and then, finally, possible salvation when Abel pulls back from committing a discussed murder.

What makes this any different from violence committed by men isn’t clear. None of the scenes are particularly compelling – the domestic violence scenario being the closest the piece comes to flaring into life.

The white setting and costumes, gradually stained red with blood (which runs freely under a sprinkler), inevitably recalls the opening section of post’s Oedipus Schmoedipus at Belvoir in January – only there the violence was much more powerfully and shockingly executed than it is here.

Though the press release promises a work that will be “distinctly feminist in its unpicking of gender and violence”, it’s hard to work out what The Rabble are saying with Cain and Abel.

Though it only runs around an hour, it feels much longer. Since I wasn’t engaged or affected by it, I found myself wondering if the chunk of meat they were hacking at was real, hoping Sassman had plenty of room to breathe when rolled up in a plastic sheet, wondering pedantically how you could ask how different the world would be if women committed the first act of violence without at some point acknowledging that they are the child-bearers (unless the hunk of meat is somehow supposed to represent the womb which I wondered briefly during the medieval duel. Though I think not).

It’s true that some of the visual imagery is striking but what it all means never becomes clear. Instead the production feels abstruse at times and plain silly at others.

In the end all I came back to was a piece where style triumphs over substance.

Cain and Abel runs until June 8. Bookings: www.belvoir.com.au or 02 9699 3444

Truth, Beauty and a Picture of You

Posted on May 19, 2014 by jolitson

Hayes Theatre Co, May 14

Left to right, Ian Stenlake, Toby Francis, Scott Irwin, Erica Lovell, Ross Chisari. Photo: Noni Carroll

You can see why Tim Freedman’s songs appealed to playwright Alex Broun as the inspiration for a musical. Not only do they have beautiful melodies and pithy lyrics that ring emotionally true but a strong sense of narrative and character, written as they were about real people, places and incidents.

Broun co-wrote his new musical Truth, Beauty and a Picture of You with Freedman (frontman of Sydney rock band The Whitlams) and uses 19 Whitlams classic including “No Aphrodisiac”, “Blow Up the Pokies”, “Keep the Light On”, “Beauty in Me” and the “Charlie” series.

Set in Newtown’s grungy pub scene, 20-year old Tom (Ross Chisari) arrives from Taree with a letter from his Mum, in search of Anton (Ian Stenlake) and Charlie (Scott Irwin), former members of a band in which his dead father Stewie (Toby Francis in flashback scenes) once played.

“Famous on three blocks” in Sydney’s inner west in their heyday, Anton and Charlie are now wrestling with demons and rapidly going to seed. Tom meets a girl called Beatrice (Erica Lovell) who is also searching for herself, having fled Mosman. The encounter between the four leads, predictably enough, to revelations from the past and the possibility of healing.

Produced and directed by Neil Gooding for Hayes Theatre Co, there’s much to enjoy about the production. It’s well staged and performed, the band led by musical director Andrew Worboys is terrific and the songs are great, but Broun’s script is not strong enough for the show to really take off.

Broun draws on Freedman’s themes of male friendship, lost love, disappointment and emotional damage but the characters and plot aren’t developed enough at this point for the climax to convince.

The writing is often perfunctory and never quite rises above the feeling that scenes are contrived to fit the musical numbers. The meeting between Tom and Beatrice, in particular, is clichéd and glib. In fact, the entire story of Tom and Beatrice is far less interesting than the story of the band yet it’s fore-grounded. The scenes about the band – which are the best written and performed – are the ones where we feel ourselves being suddenly drawn in and wanting to know more.

Staged as if in a grotty inner-city pub, Jackson Browne’s set design (lit by Richard Neville) provides just the right vibe. There’s a band set-up on a high stage, backed by all kinds of signs. The stage moves backwards to create room in front of it for various other scenes with simple props sliding out from underneath. It’s a clever solution in the tiny venue.

The actors work hard to bring the show to life. Stenlake as the shambolic, hard-drinking Anton, now letting it all hang out, and Irwin as the pokies-addicted Charlie are particularly impressive, both acting-wise and vocally, the scenes between them some of the most moving.

In the short time that it has been operating, the Hayes has already proved itself an invaluable addition to Sydney’s musical theatre scene and it’s great to see them providing a launch pad for new local musicals like this. Truth, Beauty and a Picture of You still needs work but it’s well worth a look. There’s already much to enjoy about it and there’s plenty of potential for it to be honed into something even better.

Truth, Beauty and a Picture of You plays at the Hayes Theatre Co until June 1. Bookings: hayestheatre.com.au

A version of this review appeared in the Sunday Telegraph on May 19

Eight Gigabytes of Hardcore Pornography

Posted on May 10, 2014 by jolitson

SBW Stables Theatre, May 7

Steve Rodgers and Andrea Gibbs. Photo: Brett Boardman

Eight Gigabytes of Hardcore Pornography is a provocative title so it should be said right up front that this new play by Melbourne writer Declan Greene is emotionally hardcore rather than pornographic.

There is some nudity, but it accompanies a fleeting glimpse of tenderness rather than anything raunchy, and some strong language. Essentially, however, the play is a dark, raw exposé of two desperately lonely people.

Greene has written a very ‘now’ play set in the Internet world where people around the world are connected like never before, while genuine human interaction seems more difficult than ever; a world where everything from groceries to porn are just a few clicks away.

It features two fairly unprepossessing, unfulfilled, middle-aged people. He (Steve Rodgers) works in IT and is unhappily married. She (Andrea Gibbs) is a nurse with two children and a crushing debt. Both are lonely and full of self-loathing. To fill the void he consumes Internet porn, she shops. They connect via an online dating site then meet at a bar.

Written with an incisive economy, most of the spiky dialogue is addressed directly to the audience as the characters confess their fears, dreams and dark secrets. Only now and again do they actually talk to each other. In a way this holds us a little at bay – which is partly the point – but gradually the actors draw us in.

Co-produced by Griffin and Perth Theatre Companies, Lee Lewis directs a stark production on a minimal set by Marg Horwell (pale mauve shagpile carpet on the floor and walls, and large white blinds), colourfully lit by Matthew Marshall, which captures the anonymity of cyberspace and the aridity of their lives, with a nod to the world of porn.

Lewis’s direction is as taut as the writing but she also leavens the bleakness with a surprising amount of humour.

Rodgers and Gibbs give unflinchingly brave performances as they mine their characters’ addictions, vulnerability and longing with devastating authenticity, bringing warmth where it might easily not exist.

Running a tight one hour, Eight Gigabytes is troubling, insightful and terribly sad.

Eight Gigabytes of Hardcore Pornography runs until June 4. Bookings: www.griffintheatre.com.au or 02 9361 3817. It then plays at The Street Theatre, Canberra, June 17 – 21, and Studio Underground, State Theatre Centre of WA, July 1 – 12.

His Mother’s Voice

Posted on May 6, 2014 by jolitson

ATYP Studio, May 4

Isaiah Powell as Little Liu. Photo: Tessa Tran

Justin Fleming’s new play His Mother’s Voice is a fascinating, absorbing play that combines sweeping politics with a powerful human drama.

Set mainly in Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution, it tells the story of a virtuoso pianist Qian Liu (Isaiah Powell as a child and Harry Tseng as an adult) whose mother Yang Jia (Renee Lim) teaches him to play the piano at a time when it was considered “the most dangerous of all Western instruments” and when Western music was banned.

Even when Liu’s father (John Gomez Goodway) is murdered and their piano is destroyed by Chinese apparatchiks, she finds a way to keep up her son’s lessons, despite the danger of severe punishment as a counter-revolutionary.

Eventually, Liu defects – with his mother’s blessing – while visiting Australia for an international piano competition, accompanied by his wife, an Australian woman working in Shanghai as a translator (Dannielle Jackson), and his father-in-law (Michael Gooley) who is a diplomat.

Fleming’s play resonates with passionate arguments about music and politics. Mao’s Communist Party will only sanction Chinese music; Yang Jia believes that Chinese and Western music complement each other and should be equally respected.

There are times when the play becomes a bit overtly didactic, particularly in the debates between Liu and his father-in-law, but overall it is beautifully written, capturing both the epic nature of the political background and the intimate personal relationships. The emotional stakes feel high and very real.

His exploration of the Chinese embrace of contradiction in a touching encounter when Yang Jia is interrogated in prison, and an amusing scene when Chinese officials negotiate Liu’s return is particularly well evoked.

Suzanne Millar directs the play for bAKEHOUSE Theatre Company with great clarity on a simple set, which she co-designed with John Harrison and uses very cleverly.

Performed with great commitment by a cast of 12 (10 of them from Asian backgrounds), Renee Lim shines as Yang Jia, quietly capturing her strength, courage, idealism, intelligence and deep love for her son in a radiant, moving performance.

His Mother’s Voice plays at the ATYP Studio until May 17. Bookings: 9270 2400

Cruise Control

Posted on May 5, 2014 by jolitson

Ensemble Theatre, April 30

Clockwise from back left, Helen Dallimore, Henri Szeps, Kate Fitzpatrick, Felix Williamson, Michelle Doake and Peter Phelps. Photo: Clare Hawley

Inspired by a transatlantic cruise that he and his wife took, David Williamson’s latest comedy Cruise Control features three incompatible couples, each hoping to resolve their relationship issues on a luxury cruise, who find themselves having to share a dinner table every night.

There’s Richard (Felix Williamson), a failed British novelist who is arrogant, abusive and a compulsive womaniser, and his long-suffering wife Fiona (Michelle Doake), a successful publisher.

Joining them are elderly New York Jewish periodontist Sol (Henri Szeps) and his bored wife Silky (Kate Fitzpatrick) who spends his money freely while constantly undermining him, along with Australians Darren (Peter Phelps), a Bra Boy who manufactures surf wear, and his gorgeous wife Imogen (Helen Dallimore) who was “cut and polished” at Ascham.

Looking after them is Filipino waiter Charlie (Kenneth Moraleda), who is just happy to be providing for his much-loved family.

The first act is an entertaining comedy of manners as Williamson establishes the characters and the spiky dynamics between them. But in the second act some of the steam goes out of the play with a few fairly unconvincing plot turns and a lack of any real tension as things begin to feel predictable.

The final tying up of the light-weight plot is somewhat contrived and spelling out what happens to Richard at the end feels unnecessarily tacked on.

Williamson directs the play himself and keeps the action moving fluidly on Marissa Dale-John’s cleverly compact set, which certainly captures the world of a cruise ship. In the naturalistic setting, it’s odd though (and distracting) to see the actors “pouring” pretend wine into cheap plastic glasses.

The play is well performed by the strong cast. Felix Williamson gives a darkly entertaining performance as the irredeemably unlikeable Richard, Phelps brings just the right swagger to the tough, tattooed Darren, Dallimore shines as the voluptuous Imogen who is frustrated by her husband’s lack of attention, Doake is also very good as the put-upon, kindly Fiona, Fitzpatrick nails many of the biggest laughs as the elegant, bored Silky, Szeps is touching as Sol (though he was a little hesitant with some of his lines on opening night), and Moraleda injects some welcome heart as Charlie.

Though Cruise Control isn’t as gripping as it clearly aims to be, and peters out towards the end, there are some very funny lines, some astute observations and some poignant moments.

Cruise Control runs at the Ensemble Theatre until June 14. All performances are sold out so three new performances have been added at The Concourse, Chatswood on June 24 & 25. Bookings: http://www.ensemble.com.au or 02 9929 0644 or http://www.ticketek.com.au or 1300 795 012

A version of this review ran in the Sunday Telegraph on May 4

David Harris, Time is a Traveller

Posted on April 28, 2014 by jolitson

Hayes Theatre Co, April 20

David Harris. Photo: supplied

Musical theatre leading man David Harris is about to jet off to try his luck in New York City. By way of a farewell, he is performing his cabaret show Time is a Traveller at the Hayes Theatre Co.

In the intimate venue – elegantly decked out for the occasion with candles, white flowers and dark drapes – Harris is an understated but warm presence as he reflects on his journey to the stage and the highs and lows of his career.

Head boy at school but by no means the popular, sporty type, he had his first musical experience as Superman in a high school production of Man of Steel, then hit the talent quests before learning his craft on the job during a two-year run of The Boy From Oz. From there he moved on to lead roles in musicals Miss Saigon, Wicked and Legally Blonde.

He traces this journey in a low-key, engaging fashion, lacing his stories with a wry humour and self-deprecating honesty.

Accompanied by wonderful musical director Bev Kennedy on piano, Harris brings his silken voice, with its thrilling top register, to an interesting mix of well-known and less familiar songs among them “The Way You Look Tonight”, “If I Only Had a Brain” from The Wizard of Oz and several songs by Peter Allen, an artist with whom he feels a special affinity.

Highlights include numbers from several musicals he’s been in such as Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Full Monty and Miss Saigon, to which he brings a great deal of emotional nuance, and a spine-tingling rendition of “Bring Him Home” from Les Misérables.

Harris also displays a sure sense of comedy with a hilarious version of “This Is The Moment” from Jekyll and Hyde as you might experience it in an RSL club and springs a very funny surprise with a story about his teacher’s discovery of his gorgeous falsetto.

He also duets with a guest: Marika Aubrey on opening night, Suzie Mathers this week. All in all, Time is a Traveller is a charming, classy show.

Time is a Traveller plays at the Hayes Theatre Co on May 2, 3 and 4. Bookings: www.hayestheatre.com.au

A version of this review ran in the Sunday Telegraph on April 27

Pinocchio; The Incredible Book Eating Boy

Posted on April 22, 2014 by jolitson

Sydney Opera House is presenting two children’s shows for the school holidays: Windmill Theatre’s Pinocchio and CDP Theatre Producers’ The Incredible Book Eating Boy. And with one end of the western foyer converted to a play area, it’s a lively place for families to be.

Pinocchio

Drama Theatre, April 13

Jonathon Oxlade, Nathan O’Keefe and Danielle Catanzariti. Photo: Brett Boardman

Acclaimed Adelaide company Windmill Theatre, which makes adventurous shows for children, is in Sydney with its 2012 musical production of Pinocchio, presented by the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Theatre Company.

Based on Carlo Collodi’s book about the wooden boy who longs to become real, director Rosemary Myers and writer Julianne O’Brien have created a version that combines a dark fairytale feel with a fun modern edge.

It begins unexpectedly with a blue-haired girl crashing her motorbike into the tree from which Pinocchio will be carved (an underdeveloped take on the blue fairy, who we don’t see again until the second act).

Then we’re into familiar territory with the tale of the naughty, easily led Pinocchio who is lured away from his maker/father the lonely toymaker Geppetto by the evil Stromboli. After a series of frightening adventures, Pinocchio returns home to Geppetto with love in his heart.

With one section set in the reality TV-like Stromboliland, Windmill’s production is more of a cautionary tale about greed and the lure of celebrity, while raising questions about what is real, rather than about simply telling the truth.

It’s cleverly staged around a large, flexible tree trunk on a revolving stage (designed by Jonathon Oxlade) onto which images are projected. The most charming effects, however, are the simpler theatrical ones – the way Geppeto carves Pinocchio, the way Pinocchio’s nose grows.

There are excellent performances across the board. Nathan O’Keefe uses his lanky frame brilliantly as a larky, willful Pinocchio, Alirio Zavarce is touching as the soft-hearted, clown-like Geppetto, Paul Capsis is a deliciously wicked Stromboli, Jude Henshall and Luke Joslin are very funny as roving wannabes Kitty Poo and Foxy, Danielle Catanzariti is suitably ethereal as Blue Girl and Oxlade is delightfully whimsical as the cricket (for which he uses a puppet).

Pinocchio runs around two hours including interval. For all its colourful treatment, it’s a fairly dark show (as is Collodi’s original story) and younger children could be frightened. It’s recommended for ages 7+.

Jethro Woodward’s songs have an energetic rock vibe but I’m not sure they are pitched at children and some of the humour didn’t land with youngsters around me. Others clearly loved it, however, and the show got a rousing response at the end.

Pinocchio runs until May 4. Bookings: sydneytheatre.com.au or 02 9250 1777

A version of this review ran in the Sunday Telegraph on April 20

The Incredible Book Eating Boy

Playhouse Theatre, April 13

Madeleine Jones, Gabriel Fancourt and Jo Turner. Photo: supplied

For the littlies (aged 3+) the Opera House is presenting CDP Theatre Producers’ stage adaptation of Oliver Jeffers’ best-selling picture book The Incredible Book Eating Boy.

Henry loves books – well, eating them anyway. The more he eats, the smarter he gets and so his appetite for the printed word grows and grows. But that many books are hard to digest. When he starts to feel ill and begins muddling up all the information he has consumed, he has to stop. Eventually, a sad Henry picks up one of his half-eaten books and begins to read it and falls in love with books afresh.

Writer Maryam Master fleshes out the story with an opening nightmare and more about Henry’s family and cat, most of which works well though the extended cat poo joke feels overdone and gratuitous – in fact, it made me feel a bit sick. By the time Henry began regurgitating books, I was feeling almost as queasy as him.

Directed by Frank Newman, the production is beautifully staged. Andrea Espinoza’s lovely set and costumes have the look of a picture book while cleverly incorporating books into every aspect of the stage design.

The cast of three – Gabriel Fancourt as Henry with Madeleine Jones and Jo Turner playing several roles – are all very good, creating characters the young audience can relate to.

The message that it’s better to read books than chow down on them is a quirky way to inspire children. The production would benefit from a little more dramatic magic at the end when Henry finally discovers the joy of reading to underline how exciting books can be. As it is, he just smiles, so it’s the images of eating and vomiting books that we remember.

The Incredible Book Eating Boy runs until April 27. Bookings: www.sydneyoperahouse.com or 02 9250 7777

Jo Litson: Scene and Heard

Articles and reviews about the performing arts in Sydney – and occasionally beyond.

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