2015 in lists (art, books, entertainment, shows)

Concerts & Shows

  • West Side Story, live symphony playing to the movie, at the Grand Rex, Paris. Pretty fun.
  • Blood Brothers, Hayes Theatre, Sydney: A great cast, acting and singing for their lives, but gosh, I didn’t love this show, as a show. It seems very old-fashioned in its structure and music, and formulaic. Perhaps it was original when it came out in the early 80s.
  • Marlon Williams, Newtown Social Club. An interesting young Kiwi who may just be famous some day.
  • Sufjan Stevens, Sydney Opera House, Carrie and Lowell tour. See the review up on this site. 
  • Dogfight, Hayes Theatre. As usual, a strong cast, and I thought that the music was interesting. But what a dog of a story. 
  • Brian Kennedy, Vanguard. Playing songs from his ‘Love Letter to Joni’ (Mitchell) album, Kennedy’s voice is as sweet and incredible as when I first saw him in 1990 when he opened for Suzanne Vega in Vancouver. 
  • Phil Scott’s Reviewing the Situation (the Lionel Bart story). Good one, Phil!
  • B-Girl (IOTA). I think Iota is amazingly talented so was confused about this show. A woman in an abusive relationship has a glam-rock god in her head who tells her story, or ultimately inspires her to leave. I think. But the songs felt trite and repetitive. Rocky Horror meets glam David Bowie, and a poor imitation of IOTA’s bravado performance in Hedwig and the Angry Itch.
  • Mitchell Butel’s Killing Time, Hayes Theatre. Part of the Cabaret Festival. I think I saw Mitchell sing a song or two at the Speigeltent one year, and happened to by this same CD. Great to see him perform the whole show live. I think he originated the show five years ago or so. It had a number of moments of what I think of as cabaret magic: an unknown song, or an interesting interpretation of a song, that pulls me to full attention, immediate admiration and a great pleasure of discovery matched with feeling happy to witness such talent: I’d say that came in his performance of ‘Leaving Again/In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning’ by Kurt Elling though I also loved his ‘The Way You Look Tonight’ and some very funny comedy numbers.
  • Bobby Fox & Michael Falzon’s Painted from Memory: Singing the full album of the Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach collaboration: wonderful musicians, great singing and amazing (though sad) songs. A fun night and show.
  • Queenie Van Zandt and Friends, Hayes Theatre, Cabaret Season.
  • Avenue Q, Enmore Theatre: How I love this show.
  • Smash, Vanguard: A bunch of musical theatre kids singing songs from the TV show. Lots of talent and a fun night.
  • Love and Information, Sydney Theatre Company: Caryl Churchill, I was so looking forward to this. But I didn’t find the dozens of snippets engaging, intriguing or poignant enough. Good moments but not to make up a whole show (that had rave reviews elsewhere, and in Sydney)
  • Heathers, Hayes Theatre: Amazing performances, great music. This was rather a lot of fun, and I felt Trevor Ashley really had done an amazing job of direction: it felt like all of the performers were really given a chance to shine and encouraged to give their all. High energy, dark, and funny.
  • Master Class, Hayes Theatre: I was always interesting in seeing this play by Terence McNally about Maria Callas. Callas is so frightening a personality I shuddered to imagine the Broadway performances by Patty Lupone, or in the first Australian production, by Robin Nevin. Maria Mercedes in this role was amazing and also sufficiently scary and the three younger cast members and the pianist were all very impressive too.
  • Ceasefire on Drugs, Johann Hari (introduced by Naomi Klein), Festival of Dangerous Ideas, Sydney Opera House: Hari was such an amazing speaker, so lucid and engaging, I thought I’d include this talk in this list. I’m putting both Hari and Klein’s books on my reading list now.
  • The Present, Sydney Theatre Company: Andrew Upton’s adaptation of Chekhov with Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh. Amazing acting but I couldn’t find much to grab onto in terms of the play itself (or the way it was adapted). Also, saw it on a Wednesday matinee with the blue-rinse set who don’t know how to turn off their mobile phones. Sigh. 
  • Anything Goes, Sydney Opera, Opera House: So, it’s clear that Caroline O’Connor has star power. She carries the show, and is a fun and charismatic performer. And I knew that the show would be old-fashioned. But god, what a dog of a story (no offense, dogs). I know they did a Broadway revival of this a few years ago: how did they make it work? Silly childish jokes, two opium-smoking Chinamen running around shrieking, and cliché on top of cliché. Yipes.
  • High Society, Hayes Theatre, Sydney: Another Cole Porter musical. But this one had a cohesive book. It was a little old-fashioned and by god, those seats are uncomfortable (particularly in the front row, at the sides, we’ve had them before) but the actors were uniformly wonderful, the band great. A good, fun show.
  • Of Thee I Sing, Sydney. A concert version of an ancient Gershwin musical, accompanied by a full choir and orchestra, and organised by 7 performers from Squabalogic, this was an odd beast. I liked some of it, but following two other old-fashioned musicals, I’m in the mood for something more modern now…
  • François Chaignaud’s Dumy Moyi, Carriageworks, Sydney. Review here.
  • Rent, Hayes Theatre, Sydney: Young, energetic, talented cast that I think captured some of the original, raw and gritty feel to the musical (as opposed to the blockbuster cultural phenomenon it became). Warning: gratuitious sign language use.
  • Velvet, Sydney Opera House, Studio. A disco circus concert. Aussie’s seem to specialise in creating this sort of circus-cabaret these last years. This was a great version. I got to see Brendan Mclean sing live, Marcia Hines was masterful, and that acrobat, Stephen Williams, was a particular favourite of our party.
  • Goodbye Girl, Neglected Musicals, Hayes Theatre. These pros put together this show in a day or two, an amazing display of talent. As for the musical itself, produced in 1993, based on a movie from the 70s, they didn’t seem to be able to update the 70s sensibility and it felt clichéd and old-fashioned.
  • Audra McDonald, with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Old-fashioned Broadway songs (for the most part). Amazing voice.
  • Grey Gardens, Squabbologic, Sydney: Amazing performances, consistent cast members and an interesting show. I might have been lost without having seen the movies beforehand, but very, very interesting and well done.
  • Sound of Music, Capitol Theatre, Sydney. Very well done.
  • Violet, Hayes Theatre. Great production.
  • The Daisy Theatre (Ronnie Burkett), The Cultch, Vancouver. We start the 2015 theatre-going season in Paris, and end in Vancouver. A Canadian world-famous puppeteer presented new and old material, infusing marionettes with emotion and pathos, in a bawdy, ribald and bravura show. Great to see.

Exhibitions

  • Brancusi Workshop at the Pompidou Centre
  • James Turrell at the National Art Gallery
  • Project 30 – Marina Abramovic, Sydney
  • Sydney Contemporary – the best in contemporary art from galleries from all over Australia, the region and the world. Why haven’t I been to this before? It was amazing (also saw the satellite Artist’s show at Sydney Central Park, and the rather chic satellite at the Establishment Hotel)

Books

  • The Selected Short Fiction of Lisa Moore
  • Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
  • Be Near Me by Andrew O’Hagan
  • Not My Father’s Son by Alan Cumming
  • Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart (unfinished)
  • The Fictional Woman by Tara Moss
  • Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale
  • The Twyborn Affair by Patrick White
  • Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (reread, since I was curious about the musical adaptation)
  • Something Fierce by Carmen Aguirre
  • Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham
  • The Golden Age by Joan London
  • A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale
  • Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
  • Purity by Jonathan Franzen

Movies

  • The Theory of Everything: He deserved that Oscar.
  • Boyhood: I found this such a charming film. My better half was bored though.
  • Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Into the Woods
  • The Hundred-Foot Journey
  • To Be Takei: Not as fun or snappy a film as I’d hoped, but hey, George is a hero. Great to know more about him.
  • The Imitation Game
  • Date Night
  • The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: Of course, I’d watch these actors, but it would have been nice to have a stronger and more coherent story. And the idea that a reserved, older Indian woman from a conservative society would hop into bed with a man after the first date, whether or not he’s Richard Gere, seemed so culturally wrong.
  • Life Itself: Documentary on the late film critic, Robert Ebert. I thought this was really beautiful, and really interesting getting to know more about him.
  • Strangerland
  • Wild Tales (Spanish: Relatos salvajes)
  • Pitch Perfect 2: Although I kind of liked the Central American hardship gags, the rest was such a mish-mash that I forgot why I liked the first one so much.
  • Magic Mike XXL: OK. My excuse for watching this, aside from the man-flesh, is that the reviews were uniformly good, particularly the one in the NYT. WTF? I was so uninterested, the characters so unappealing to watch and listen to, I’m not sure how they made such an unsexy, flat film.
  • Holding the Man: My better half really liked it. I liked it. Don’t think it will really translate for an international audience, but I hope it does well here: a truly Australian story.
  • Boulevard (review here on the site) and a delightful short film, Alone with People, opening night of Queer Screen Film Festival 2015.
  • Grandma: Loved it. Having seen a handful of films which were a bit disappointing, I forgot how much fun it was to see a really solidly enjoyable crowd-pleasing film. It felt emotionally truthful, and Lily Tomlin is so great to watch.
  • Freeheld: Interesting that we’ve come so far. It felt, in some ways, that the story was constructed by Hollywood (though it was based on a true story) in that every piece was put together perfectly to elicit exactly the sadness or laughter that the filmmakers required. And yet, for the first time that I remember, the perfect cute couple were lesbians. The love that was celebrated was between women. The major plot point which divided the rest of the characters into good people and bad people was homophobia. How amazing. I hope this movie is a smash hit. 
  • Tammy: From the sublime to the ridiculous, we watched us to distract ourselves from a failed attempt at making gnocchi (way too much flour). I like Melissa McCarthy and I do find it enjoyable watching her (and so many stars in this film) though the script and storyline were dogs, no offense to dogs.
  • Me, Earl and the Dying Girl: Smart, quirky and honest.
  • Grey Gardens (documentary)
  • Grey Gardens (movie): In advance of watching the musical ‘Grey Gardens’, we watched these two films in advance. Finally, I understand the phenomenon of Big Edie and Little Edie. What staunch characters!
  • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2.
  • Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Gosh, that was good. Captured the magic I remember of not only the first ones from when I was just a kid, but the magic of movies in general.
  • Minions. I found this laugh out loud funny for the first third or so and then for some reason became a bit bored with it. But it was really very funny for a while.

Television

The reason why the books list has gotten so short these years is that I spend my spare time watching TV. Ahem. So, a list is appropriate, I think, though possibly a sad reflection of a trade-off of literature for the easier thrills of TV, no matter how well made it is these days.

  • Downton Abbey, Series 5
  • The Good Wife, Series 6
  • Fresh off the Boat, Season 1
  • Ru Paul’s Drag Race, Series 7
  • Survivor, Series 30 (Thirty, can you believe it?)
  • House of Cards, Season 3
  • The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Season 1
  • Sense8, Season 1
  • Emperor of All Maladies
  • Being Human, Season 1
  • Orphan Black, Seasons 1, 2 & 3
  • Episodes, Season 4
  • Project Runway, Season 17
  • Stephen Sondheim’s Follies in Concert
  • Limitless, Season 1
  • Survivor, Season 31 (This was a surprisingly good season, that got better and better and kept its momentum right til the end)
  • Fresh off the Boat, Season 2
  • Downton Abbey, Season 6 (And the Christmas special… Farewell Downton. Sometimes silly, sometimes slow, but fun and addictive TV)
  • The Good Wife, Series 7
  • America’s Next Top Model, Cycle 22 (Ahem)

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