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The Musical That The Australian Musical Theatre Industry Desperately Needed

12/10/2026 Potanoski Papa🥉⚡🎪

Dangerous When Wet: The Musical Rating

★★★★★

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Dangerous When Wet is a fabulous new musical comedy celebrating the friendship and rivalry of local swimmers Fanny Durack and Mina Wylie – Australia’s first female Olympic representatives and winners of Gold and Silver in the 100m freestyle at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics.

Narrated by Australia’s first Hollywood Superstar, Annette Kellerman, this vaudeville-styled, hilarious and touching show will have you laughing, crying, singing along and rejoicing in Australia’s swimming history.

It was such a joyous experience to be at opening night of this wonderful new musical. Based on a true story, with an all female cast and nearly all female creative team. It was truly an amazing way to celebrate many fabulous female Australian icons. We need more of this!

This has a beautiful score by Joanna Weinberg and had me humming many of the tunes as I left the theatre. It is so refreshing to hear such glorious legit musical theatre singing by all cast members. The melodies and counter melodies with gorgeous harmonies shone through. The music in act two is where this particularly shines and has one showstopper number after the next. Just when you think you’ve heard the best song in the show, the next song comes in to knock your socks off. Hopefully they consider doing an original cast album.

The cast of 8 not only play their respective principal roles but many other smaller parts as well. There was much great strength in stamina by all.

Megan Walshe as Annette Kellerman is an absolute star. The creative team must have thanked all the gods when she auditioned. Excellent comic timing, velvet toned speaking voice and bell like singing voice and oh can she dance. The Olympic song in act two was a highlight of the show. By the way, she also choreographed the show.

Cypriana Singh as Fanny Durack and Grace Trainor as Mina Wylie were perfectly cast in their leading roles. They sounded exquisite when singing individually and together. Their acting was so genuine and heartfelt. I think we will be hearing from both of them a lot in the future.

Jacinta Gregory as Cecil Healy was hilarious from start to finish and it’s exciting to hear a rich female tenor voice. Annerose de Jong as Mrs Mack and Eliane Morel as Rose Scott/Alick Wickham we fantastic comedy duo sparring team in the main and supporting roles. Addy Robertson and Vida Cullen were great support to the rest of the cast.

Darryl Wallis (Musical Director, Arranger and Accompanist) was the one man band for the show, he played beautifully and it fitted the vaudevillian style of the show.

Lyndal Loves costumes for Megan Walshe’s Annette Kellerman were particularly stunning.

I do hope that they get more opportunities to do this again. If the show gets licenced, it would be perfect for many universities and community musical theatre groups to perform.

I look forward to finding out what happens next to Dangerous When Wet the Musical.

To book tickets to Dangerous When Wet: The Musical, please visit https://dangerouswhenwet.com.au/.

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The 80s Are Definitely Back!

26/09/202626/09/2026 Potanoski Papa🥉⚡🎪

Momentum Rating

★★★★★

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Momentum
Produced by JT Performing Arts Company and Sydney Fringe Festival
at Chippin Street Theatre

This is a dance focused piece by a new theatre company and a group of young dancers. It shows a series of vignettes of various themes with some dance solos mixed in between. It has overwhelmingly heavy 1980s influences, in dance style, music and look. Even if some of the songs were written later, they all have 80s call backs. There are four core dancers and three soloists. The four core dancers do work their butts off, as these sections are quite long and relentless.

Before the show started, I was looking through the digital program. It always alarms me when there is so much explanation of a work in the program, this is either a sign of no clear point of view or over intellectualising. I think in this case it was a bit of both.

Chippin Street Theatre needs to replace their speakers. They are both blown out. I would recommend wearing ear loops or eye plugs as the music is at a deafening level the entire time. This is very distracting throughout the show.

The three soloists Jasmine Bowtell, Ashley Miller and Alyssa May really stood out. Yes, they had less to do but they all had clear focus of their intention with what they wanted to say in their solos. Ashley and Alyssa should consider focusing on cabaret dancing as they definitely have the height, extension and look for it. These jobs could help them travel the world with their careers. Jasmine Bowtell would have to be the best dancer of the night with beautiful technique and a natural grasp on raw emotion, that you could tell she was feeling with every fibre of her being. Her first solo was a particular stand out.

Out of the four core dancers there was definitely a difference in ability, which became most apparent in the unison dancing. Sometimes the steps were right, but style was not consistent and clean between the four. I wonder if this was opening night nerves and perhaps this will improve in the run. It is quite a marathon for them. Perhaps shortening the sequences and adding more solos would have helped the pace and stamina.

Out of the four core dancers Mia Ryan really stood out. Her precision with every step made it very clear who dominated the “company” collaboration choreography. My eye was always drawn to her every time she was on stage. I would have liked to have seen more solos by her.

JT Performing Arts Company is a brand new theatre company and this is their first outing. I know a lot of hard work and energy went into producing the show and that is an accomplishment in itself.

Momentum runs until Saturday 26th.

To book tickets to Momentum, please visit https://sydneyfringe.com/events/momentum/.

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This Still Deserves To Win Best Play And Best Actor Of The Sydney Fringe!!

25/09/202625/09/2026 Potanoski Papa🥉⚡🎪

The Man Rating

★★★★★

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The Man by James Graham
Old Fitz Hotel Theatre
Second run for Sydney Fringe Festival

It was an utter joy to a return viewing of this glorious play and masterful performance by Mike Howlett.

This is a much better space than better space than Lane Cove – Pottery Lane Performance Space, even with the remanence of set from the other play that’s showing in the same space, at the moment.

I would urge people from Griffin Theatre Company, Belvoir Street Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company to come and see this joyous work and make talks for it to be produced by them. This would also tour extremely well, so Arts on Tour should see this as well or any other funding/touring body out there.

Ben is an earnest, not so confident, neurodivergent, warm, funny and often lonely character who takes us on a journey through the challenges of doing his first ever tax return as a sole trader. The UK tax system is quite different to ours and follows many annoying British bureaucratic systems that don’t make sense, even when you’ve done it many times. Imagine how Ben feels. Through each receipt, that is given out to the audience on the way in, he tells the story of what they were from, what happened at the purchase and why they are important. We get reflection of a year in the life of Ben and what a year he had. No performance is the same as the order of collecting can to which audience member can never be planned. Which is why returning to the show was a joyful experience and felt like seeing a fresh show.

This performance was a lot more emotional than the last one that I saw in the first run in Lane Cove. Perhaps it was the order of the receipts or the weight of a sold out opening night in a more central venue. Mike Howlett is a master at naturalistic acting and storytelling and I still believe he deserves to win every single theatre award for his performance.

Claudia Leon is utterly charming as the voice of Lisa, who is Ben’s tax hotline operator.

I take my hat off to the creative team for uplifting this work and getting another run in. I hope it’s the start of many more to come. A little more light on the stage, particularly downstage right would be beneficial to not lose moments of Mike’s masterful performance.

I hope for the cast and creative team that this is a completely sold out run. I definitely plan on returning to see it again.

Run, don’t walk, to the Old Fitz Theatre to see The Man before the run ends on October 2nd!

To book tickets to The Man, please visit https://www.oldfitztheatre.com.au/the-man.

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Every Single Sydney Theatre Award Should Go To…

28/09/202625/09/2026 Potanoski Papa🥉⚡🎪

The Elevator Rating

★★★★★

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The Elevator by Eloise Snape
At the Ensemble Theatre

“Margot’s back from mat leave — and she’s not messing around. Before nappies and sleepless nights, Eco Engines was spiralling through a PR meltdown, tanking faster than you can say “carbon footprint.” Now she’s back in the CEO chair, ready to rally her team of corporate eco-warriors and clean up the mess. But her comeback hits a snag when she gets stuck in the office lift. As tensions rise, Margot’s cool starts melting faster than the polar ice caps. THE ELEVATOR is a sharp, funny and fearless dark comedy that’s anything but clean. Green washing, corporate spin and tangled lies — playwright Eloise Snape delivers a whirlwind of laughs and truth bombs in this new Australian play.”

The Elevator by Eloise Snape is one of the best new plays I have seen in a long time. If you want to be in the arts you have to have something to say, and Eloise Snape has it in spades. This is a play that every emerging playwright should see and study. It is a perfect balance of situational circumstances, comedy, drama and emotional gravitas.

I don’t often say this, but this is a perfectly cast show.

Shirong Wu as Alison is a master of comic timing. At first, I thought her breathy, broken voice would be annoying throughout the play but quickly realised it was a planned out character choice that was masterful. She eats the scenery and makes the most of every amazing one liner that Eloise Snape has craftily given her. I would see her in anything she is in.

Di Adams as Ollie is so grounded and delivers the amazing twist at the end with so much passion and skill, you don’t see it coming. I have enjoyed everything I have seen that she has been in, so I knew I was in safe hands when she was in the cast.

Leeanna Walsman as Margot probably has the most challenging role in the show but pulls it off brilliantly. Playing a CEO of a company that she is trying to save from disaster, while being one day postpartum of her first born daughter and stuck in a lift with two people she clearly can’t stand. I think if this had been given to anyone else they might have fumbled but Leeanna delivers one of the best performances of career to date in this role.

You can tell this must have been a joyous play to create in the rehearsal room. You can tell that director, Anthea Williams, let the cast have a huge sense of play. Certain accepts would have had to have been set but it is joyous to watch actors being let to do what they do best.

The set, lighting and costumes were stunning. Both Kelsey Lee and Keerthi Subramanyam, deserved a standing ovation alone.

It is also joyous to see an almost entirely cast and creative team of women working at the highest standard. There should be more of this, and I hope this team creates more impactful work like this together in the future.

I felt honoured to be able to experience this shows opening night and world premiere. Any time that a project of Eloise Snape’s is on I will be there.

Bolt as fast as you can to this glorious production and experience its magic.

The Elevator runs at the Ensemble Theatre until October 18th.

To book tickets to The Elevator, please visit https://www.ensemble.com.au/shows/the-elevator/.

Photographer: Prudence Upton

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