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Shrek: The Musical ‘Inclusical’ by STaM

31/08/2025 Debra Campbell🥇🔥🦉🎭🎶

Shrek: The Musical Rating

★★★★★

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Set in a mythical “once upon a time” sort of land, this is the story of a hulking green ogre who, after being mocked and feared his entire life by anything that crosses his path, retreats to an ugly green swamp to exist in happy isolation. Suddenly, a gang of homeless fairy-tale characters (Pinocchio, Cinderella, the Three Pigs, you name it) raid his sanctuary, saying they’ve been evicted by the vertically challenged Lord Farquaad. So Shrek strikes a deal: I’ll get your homes back, if you give me my home back! But when Shrek and Farquaad meet, the Lord strikes a deal of his own: He’ll give the fairy-tale characters their homes back, if Shrek rescues Princess Fiona. Shrek obliges, yet finds something appealing–something strange and different–about this pretty princess. He likes her a lot, but why does she always run off when the sun sets?

We arrive in the Alexander Theatre foyer to see a swamp hut setting the feel of Shrek’s humble abode, a queue in the merch line entices us to buy some support cookies in theme and a spotlighted ‘green’ carpet for pics with our program.

This show is no ordinary version; an ‘inclusical’ by the one and only Stars and The Moon theatre company for all abilities known as “STaM” in Melbourne – with care they pair up kind ‘castmates’ and those having a special need to give them more confidence to perform; though you envisage it might, it does not detract from the show’s appeal or amazingness having two people play the one character. In fact, it definitely adds to the fun!! The sets, costuming and lighting are also nothing short of professional and the packed audience agrees with constant cheering. If you’ve read enough, you actually only have a slim chance to currently secure tickets as most shows are sold out!

We sit down in our ‘green’ tonight to hear firstly a comical introduction over the mic saying no gingerbread men have been harmed in making the show haha and that everyone can get up and dance and wiggle in their seats. Then ‘The Magic Mirror’ above us featuring Paralympic gold medalist Dylan Alcott entertains us with his one-liners and opens the show in Clayton where we are about to see a journey of embracing who you are.

We know this is going to be a good night as ‘Big Bright Beautiful World’ hits us very big and very bright! I’m already a bit emotional at watching the castmates carefully coax some of the performers onto the stage and within seconds they are all quite at home, many excited doing their second or third show with STaM.

Shrek played by Cameron Miller and Zac Parkes is larger than life as always and they have him down true to the Shrek we all know from the movie, even his speaking voice is almost identical.

Princess Fiona played by Chelsea Dawson and Lottie Coombes is just gorgeous, they both smash every song with their vocal ability and certainly a duet to long remember.

Two of my faves were Asher Stanton and Jordan French playing ‘Pinocchio’ and Eitan Meyerowitz and Zac Chester playing Big Bad Wolf, but really, ALL of the fairytale characters are FANTASTIC to watch and they do lots of funny quirky things on the side.

My eldest daughter, an avid musical theatre lover and regular performer in shows herself, came with me to this show and she was saying all the way through ‘he’s good’ ‘she’s good’ ‘they’re good’ in every scene. She was super impressed by the ‘Dragon’ singers but particularly loves to watch the ensemble, so never think you aren’t noticed if that’s you, because you surely are. e.g. the dancing mice feet behind the curtain (how cuuute), the girls with the ‘Awww’ ‘Gasp’ ‘Laugh’ signs (instructions for us viewers), everyone under that enormous red creature (you made us love watching her every move), and the Humpties who picked up the bricks to carry them all off without dropping them – well done!!!

Shout out to Gabe Harari and Evan Lever for their kneeling, knee walking ‘Lord Farquaad’ – both were absolutely hilarious!! Equally hilarious were Guillaume Gentil & Daniel Geng as ‘Donkey’ – I don’t think I have laughed so much from one character in any show I’ve ever enjoyed.

Dance timing in straight lines you might not expect to be exact in a show with limited abilities for some of the performers, but they were fabulous and every smile at each other and movement showed how much they loved being up there together. So many beautiful costumes too brought the whole live energetic picture together. We were so close to the stage as well we could feel the excited enthusiasm and nothing could beat the flag waving by all – even all of us in the audience got that green flag stuck on our seat and flipped it around like crazy!

All in all, a swamp load of serious talent in this show – you all deserved that full standing ovation and I’m sure there were plenty of proud tears from family and friends too, CONGRATULATIONS EVERYONE!

Lauren McKenna – Director
Michaela Raitman – Producer
Campbell Borello – Production Manager
SHREK – Cameron Miller & Zac Parkes
PRINCESS FIONA – Chelsea Dawson & Lottie Coomes (Covers – Jessica Mond, Lizzie Locke)
DONKEY – Guillaume Gentil & Daniel Geng
LORD FARQUAAD – Gabe Harari & Evan Lever
DRAGON – Dylan Don Paul (Dilonce) & Thanh-Tuok Autran

FAIRYTALE ENSEMBLE – Asher Stanton & Jordan French (Pinocchio), Ruth Ben-Danan & Alanna Baschera (Sugarplum Fairy/Gingy), Eitan Meyerowitz & Zac Chester (Big Bad Wolf), Teige Cordiner, Aidyn Patrzalek & Devin Goralsky (three Pigs), Mark J Rintoull, Zoe Better, Mia Decleva (The Bears), Ebony May & Katie McMillan (Fairy Godmother), Georgia Ellen & Danni Miller (Wicked Witch), Sarahbell Turvey & Tahli McLean (Duckling/Teen Fiona), Sayer Delves & Caomhe McCooey (White Rabbit/Baby Fiona), Alexander Gilbert & Jack Taylor (Peter Pan/Pied Piper), Jaimie Chapman & Tamara Stanton (Goldilocks), Jackson Harris & Mark Polonsky (Mad Hatter), Natasha Freiberg & Ellie Goldenberg (Humpty), Dani Filip & Shira Etzion (Hansel & Gretel), Jessica Mond & Jemima Scerri (Little Red)

DULOC ENSEMBLE – Tahlia Mandile, Charli Cantoni-Bud, Amy Tapp, Noah Prendergast, Adrian Salvatore, Lexi Kelsall, Ruby Alford, Alice Johnston, Carly Gauci, Lexie Goldenberg, Michaela Sacho, Kahli Anquetil-Kneale, Nineveh Dewhurst, Noa Godsell, Joshua Yip

GUARDS & DRAGON ENSEMBLE – Benji Kalkopf, Harry Stott, Brendan Saffer, Gilbert Esse, Tarus Fiu, Chris Patrzalek, Daniel Kraus, Sue Lesnjak, Lilly Lawrence, Lyndall Peachman, Jakob Demirel, Dan Don, Sienna Boorer, Savannah Mandile, Hayley Walsh, Raechelle Sibbing.

To find out more how you or someone you know with special needs and perhaps limited abilities can be involved with this very special theatre group see https://www.starsandthemoon.org/

Duration: Approx. 2 hours and 30 minutes including a 20 minute intermission. The show is easy access for all including assisted hearing, seeing-eye-dog friendly and wheelchairs of all sizes welcome. Wheelchairs on stage too with the performers loving every minute acting it up in this inclusical!

Venue: Alexander Theatre, Monash University Clayton Campus, 48 Exhibition Walk, Clayton. Free parking is available on site (more info). Please allow adequate time when planning your visit to find parking and the venue. Sometimes it is a 10minute walk from the car into the theatre.

To book tickets to Shrek: The Musical, please visit https://www.starsandthemoon.org/shrek.

Photographer: Matthew Chen

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Here You Come Again

25/08/2025 Peri Watson🌱

Here You Come Again Rating

★★★★★

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“Are you a Dolly fan?” The man beside us asks before the show starts, but I’m not sure how to respond. Admittedly, I only know her three big songs (I’ll let you guess which), but never have classified myself as a fan. However, after this evening, I think I may have changed my tune.

‘Here You Come Again’ is an uplifting story about love, music, joy, and hope, set in a time many of us would like to forget. Yes, the ‘unprecedented times’ of early COVID lockdowns. Dash Kruck plays Kevin, an aspiring (and struggling) comedian, forced to social distance in his parents’ attic. Without work, a partner, or any hope for the future, he turns to his record collection and asks, “What Would Dolly Do?” As if by magic, Dolly herself, played by the show’s co-creator Tricia Paoluccio, manifests from a life-sized poster, breaking out into the titular number Here You Come Again, and guiding him along a journey of self-love and realisation.

Kruck’s portrayal of Kevin’s self-worth issues was extremely resonant, particularly as a creative. The struggle of not feeling worthwhile as a person seeping into your creative output is something I, and many others, could understand. Kruck brought a vulnerability and earnestness to the role that was deeply sympathetic, while also playing off Paoluccio’s comedic energy and shining in his musical performances.

Paoluccio’s performance was more than an impression of Dolly – it was an embodiment. Her vocals stunned, not only in quality and style, but also in likeness. Her cheeky comedic timing and infectious positivity was well-received, as she played into the less-serious components of the Parton persona (“It costs a lot of money to look this cheap!”).

Despite the story not being centred on Dolly, Paoluccio sprinkled the occasional tidbit throughout her chats with Kevin, such as her losing a Dolly Parton look-a-like contest. The mention of her marriage to Carl Dean was touched with a layer of sadness, given his recent passing in March 2025, yet the 60-year-long relationship was honoured with grace and love.

The ensemble was fantastic, not only contributing as minor characters throughout, but also singing, dancing, and playing alongside the live band. Kellie Rode was lovely as Kevin’s germophobic but well-meaning mother and was a great contrast to the gruff (but also well-meaning) Andrew Worboys as Kevin’s dad, who additionally led the band as the musical director and keys player. Rode was joined by fellow WAAPA graduate Bailey Dunnage, who played Kevin’s ex-boyfriend Jeremy. Dunnage also demonstrated some Magic-Mike level dancing (choreographed by James Maxfield) during the number Why’d You Come in Here Lookin’ Like That, in which we are also treated to a performance from Kevin’s drag persona, Polly Darton. Rounding off the ensemble was Laura Joy Bunting, who played the abrupt and bitter Tish, Kevin’s boss, as well as accompanying the band with acoustic guitar and lovely backing vocals.

Despite the singular location, the detail of the set kept you interested, with posters, stickers, toys and junk spread across the stage, making for an authentically lived-in environment. The Australian Adaption team (Fiona Harris & Mike McLeish) did a wonderful job in collaboration with designer Paul Willis in adding Australian iconography throughout, such as Humphrey B. Bear, a Milo tin vase, and kookaburra song over the eucalyptus backdrop. The lighting, by Jason Bovaird, was also fantastic, particularly during musical numbers and special effects moments.

The only detractor from the evening was during the finale, in which an overly enthusiastic audience member hopped on stage for an impromptu dance. While certainly indicative of the energy and vivacity in the room, it was a moment that should’ve been for the musicians to receive their flowers, and was disrespectful to the band, stage crew, and theatre staff. Congratulations to Tina Harris, Luke Herbert and Ash Murdica for handling the situation with such professionalism, while making the rest of us dance in our seats.

Whether you’re a huge Dolly fan, barely know her, or are somewhere in between, ‘Here You Come Again’ is an inspiringly joyous show that is sure to leave you smiling, and your toes tapping. I, for one, am certainly inspired to spend more time with Dolly myself.

Recommended: Dress in true Dolly fashion – however you like! (Though rhinestones, cowboy hats, and denim are strongly encouraged!).

To book tickets to Here You Come Again, please visit https://hereyoucomeagain.com.au/.

Photographer: Cameron Grant

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Girl of the Frozen North

16/08/202516/08/2025 Rob McKinnon🌟🎭

Girl of the Frozen North Rating

★★★★★

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The Tea Tree Players, under director Barry Hill, transports the audience to the freezing Yukon for this very amusing sing-a-long melodrama full of merriment and entertainment well worth attending as Adelaide’s own wintery conditions draw to a close.

The fun begins as the MC (Tim Cousins) introduces the play and the cast as they burst into song. The story proper begins during a day in June 1890 in the lobby of a dingy hotel in the Yukon Territory owned by the story’s villain, J Harrington Cesspool (Brian Godfrey). Cesspool is ordering around his employee Nanook (Georgia Gustard) as a fur trader Klaxon (Joel Strauss) enters with a bag of furs and haggles with Cesspool about their purchase price. After Trader Klaxon leaves, Cesspool tries to grab Nanook but she screams and the story’s hero, Corporal Dashiell H Goforth (Clinton Nitschke) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, enters the lobby to save her. Goforth then leaves but soon returns with Nettie Neetfoot (Charlie Klose), as she tries to evade the clutches of Cesspool, she explains that she is looking for her mother who has become lost in a blizzard as they searched for her kidnapped little brother. Nettie leaves the hotel to continue her quest.

As the story progresses, hotel guests Cleopatra Pannitt (Cathie Oldfield) the self-proclaimed “America’s gift to the Shakespearean stage” and her daughter Hyacinth Klutz (Selena Britz) both stuck at the hotel because the “touring troupe went broke at the local opera house”, are introduced. Goforth re-enters with the missing Mrs Neetfoot (Elizabeth Ferguson) and later Professor Fredrik Pjoole (John Hudson) from Washington DC arrives to study the local First Nations people’s “time-reversing experiments”. Goforth is accused of theft and tries to clear his name as the search for the missing continues.

Along the way, the MC emboldens the audience to “aaw”, “ooh”, “boo” and “cheer” but often the engaged audience is ahead of his prompting. Between scenes the audience is encouraged to sing along with the classics, “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean”, “Roll Out the Barrell”, “Knees Up Mother Brown” and “I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside”.

Additionally, between a scene change in Act 1, the audience is entertained by the dancing Harry the Hippy Horse (Ashlee Brown as the head and Lachlan Blackwell as the other end). In a scene change in Act 2, ballerinas Tatiana Orlovski (Lachlan Blackwood) and Olga Ripsacorsetoff (Ashlee Brown) perform “The World Famous Balloon Dance”, which is one of the hilarious highlights of the whole performance.

The production team including Beth Venning for props and set dressing, Barry Hill for set design, Damon Hill for scenic artwork, Merci Thompson for costumes and Robert Andrews and Mike Phillips for lighting and sound design and operation, are to be congratulated for producing an excellent set, costumes and a near faultless technical performance.

The cast all perform superbly, Tim Cousins is warm and enthusiastic as the MC binding the performance and the audience participation skilfully together. Brian Godfrey, with his Riff Raff like appearance, makes a first-rate villain and is outstandingly juxtaposed by the brilliantly often over-the-top performance of Clinton Nitschke. Selena Britz is also commended for her performance and her song and dance routine. The rest of the talented cast also deliver outstanding performances.

The Tea Tree Players’ Girl of the Frozen North is great fun and is full of melodrama and audience participation. Barry Hill, the cast and crew are to be congratulated for this exuberant and splendid production.

Girl from the Frozen North runs from Wednesday 13 August 2025 – Saturday 23 August 2025

Venue: Tea Tree Players Theatre

Cnr Yatala Vale Road and Hancock Road, Surrey Downs SA 5126

To book tickets to Girl of the Frozen North, please visit https://teatreeplayers.com/production/girl-of-the-frozen-north/.

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Come From Away

10/08/202509/08/2025 Barry Hill OAM⭐🦉

Come From Away Rating

★★★★★

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Therry Theatre have ‘hit the jackpot’ with their latest production of Come From Away!

It is not so much a musical as an experience in compassion, simply but powerfully done.

Come From Away takes place during the days following 11th September 2001, when 38 planes carrying 7,000 air passengers were diverted to the town of Gander in Newfoundland. This small town, with a population of just 11,000, opened its doors to passengers from all over the world, providing shelter, food, and most importantly, kindness.

It is an amalgamation of hundreds of real-life stories from the people of Gander and those stranded there during the events of 9/11.

The creators, Irene Sankoff and David Hein, visited Newfoundland on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 to meet the locals and passengers who experienced this first-hand. These interviews and stories became the foundation of the musical, turning it into a genuine celebration of the kindness that emerged in those challenging days.

Therry Theatre and respected director David Sinclair have risen to the task of such a complex show and had the audience ‘on their feet’ at the conclusion of opening night. While the musical is based in a unit set with trees (Mark Rogers), some tables, chairs, and the orchestra lurking in the sides of the stage, it is the multiple characters and the ensemble (or ‘family’) nature of the piece that makes it challenging.

Sinclair knows the Arts Theatre stage (with its notorious sight lines) and has used every centimetre available to its best advantage. His characters are ‘real’ and we identify with their stories. His vision had many of the audience in tears at the conclusion of the piece.

He is ably assisted by Associate Director and Choreographer Linda Williams whose choreography is clever, and drives the piece along, particularly the opening and closing numbers.

Musical Director Peter Johns’ band hits all the right notes and includes the little heard bodhran (an Irish frame drum). Johns also plays the piano accordion and keyboards, no mean feat!

Lighting plays an important role in any musical and Mark Oakley’s lighting matches the emotions of each scene. There were a few late cues but these will disappear as the production continues. Allpro Audios’ sound adds clarity to the balance of singers and band.

In an ensemble (or family) production each cast member is of vital importance and it would be remiss of me not to name everyone –

Trevor Anderson – (Kevin J and a brilliant portrayal of Ali) gives the performance of a lifetime alternating a gay boyfriend with a Muslim Master Chef.

Kate Anolak – (Beulah and others) give her character depth with her compassionate performance. Her scenes with Hannah are heart breaking.

Michael Denholm – (Nick and others) adds a touch of comedy and romance as a frustrated Englishman who befriends and eventually marries Michelle Nightingale – (Diane and others). Watching their romance develop is a highlight.

Dee Farnell – (Beverley and others) shines as the pilot of the plane and its passengers that are the focus of the musical. She nails every scene, every note and is a standout. Her ‘Me and the Sky’ is a joy!

David Gauci – (Claude and others) as the Mayor of Gander is a lesson in acting, especially when he changes characters, literally at the ‘drop of a hat’.

Josh Kerr – (Oz and others) is an audience favourite, particularly his Italian character complete with long flowing hair!

Brady Lloyd – (Kevin T and others) adds a tender touch as one of the two ‘Kevins’ whose relationship breaks up over the Gander tradition of ‘kissing the fish’, or perhaps it was destined to breakup anyway?

Claire McEvoy – (Bonnie and others) gives a touching portrayal of the ‘keeper’ of the animals on the flight. Her last scene is tear-jerking.

Eloise Quinn-Valentine – (Janice and others) adds depth to the villagers and the passengers on the plane.

Lisa Simonetti – (Hannah and others) gives us a portrayal that any mother can identify with. Her ‘I am Here” is beautifully and emotionally sung.

Stephen Tongun – (Bob and others) – gives us an important viewpoint of the way people of colour are sometimes till treated in our society.

The cast also includes Shelley Crooks, Daniel Hamilton, Dominic Hodges, Michelle Tan, Katie Packer and who are not only swings but villagers as well.

Come From Away is an emotional roller coaster that is moving from start to finish, and adds vital dimension to 9/11 and the lives it affected. Bravo Therry Theatre for a superb evening!

To book tickets to Come From Away, please visit https://therry.org.au/.

Photographer: Andrew Trimmings

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