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Australia Really Does Have Talent!

Homo Grown

Homo Grown Rating

★★★★★

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Apologies in advance, I tried to catch as many names of these talented performers as possible but I have definitely missed some and will jumble them up. Homo Grown was an absolute treat! For this queer musical lover, it was like a slice of Heaven.

Host and co-founder of “Home Grown Aus”, Nick Ledger, opened us with Princess by Matthew Lee Robinson. Home Grown Aus, co-founded by Nick and husband Ben Nicholson, is the grassroots movement championing and producing original new works in Australian musical theatre. I actually attended a reading of “Mackenzie” by one my favourite musical theatre writers, Yve Blake, earlier in the week. That was produced by Home Grown and Hayes Theatre.

Our next act was a stunning cameo by Australia’s first female Prime Minister, performed by Mandy Isher. It brought the house down and the energy up to stay.

McBeanie and Hurley then performed a duet based on their musical chronicling the life and times of (very) obscure playwright, Robert Wiseman. This was a cute little back and forth called “The First Time I Met You” and left us with heart eyes for this real life couple.

Powerhouse Carla then took to the stage with “We’ve Got Chemistry” by Jordy Thomas. Those pipes!! Carla has power and presence and a sexy, sultry voice. With this melting “Ooh” that was like liquid chocolate! And I even I understood most of the chemistry puns, despite flunking science! Carla lights up the room and is an artful performer.

Yasheith performed “One Day In September” by Maverick and Cohen, about a closeted football star. Yakeith’s performance was earnest and nuanced, with unique use of dramatic timing. Such a beautiful voice too.

 

Homo Grown
Homo Grown

Nick Hedger returned to the stage with a love song for the gamers, nerds and misfits. It was a rock opera style ballad that hit the feels.

Robbie Alexander gave us a taste of the opening of their upcoming musical, warning it would be long and referred to it as their “Bohemian Rhapsody”. It was such a wonderful song that leaves me wanting to watch the whole musical. Charlie is the main character, who just can’t make main character status, so “Other Charlie” steals their limelight. The two Charlies and an ensemble of three delivered this number, with Charlie’s therapist’s voice being absolutely extraordinary!

Nick returned for an homage to Peter Allen which was poignant and touching.

The next was from a musical about netball. The names here got quite muddled for me. I think Sophie Davies and Harry Collins may be the composers. Lauren introduced the mother/daughter duo performance of “Married To Netball” which was absolutely hilarious and both Addie Robinson and Sinead Christado nailed the song.

We then finished with an entirely can’t-possibly-be-human performance by Carla once more. As a singer myself, I was left completely at a loss as to how one voice can do so many things and yet make it look like it’s the simplest thing in the world! I told my Plus One that Carla has to be AI!

It was such a wonderful and joyful hour of celebrating queer musical theatre creatives. I am already a big fan of Home Grown and the work they are doing, and I am so excited to see these upcoming new works and more of these incredible performers. Australia really does have talent!

To book tickets to Homo Grown, please visit https://events.humanitix.com/homogrown/tickets.

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Goofy, Gay and Gorgeous! A Fun-Filled Hour!

Purple Is The Gayest Colour

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The Substation is HARD to find initially! It’s a little bunker in the ground, opposite Qtopia and next to The Oxford Hotel. Rainbows surround the road and path. You’re here, and it’s delightfully queer.

We headed down into the intimate space, where Alayne welcomed everyone in a pastel purple beret, cute purple cardigan with daisies, purple shorts and purple socks. Everyone in this tiny space was put at ease when she greeted us with “Don’t worry, I don’t do crowd work!”. Nevertheless, my plus one made for the last row.

It’s a cool venue with concrete walls covered in artful graffiti. It was also literally very cool due to the vents, so be aware of that! Give yourself time to run over to the Oxford for a toilet stop prior too!

Purple Is The Gayest Colour is a one-woman stand-up act performed by Alayne Dick, yes it’s her real surname, yes she uses it to her advantage! Alayne had already set a comfortable tone with the initial welcome, then commenced with a flamboyant stadium star entry. It was fun, quirky and cutesy, which sums up Alayne quite well.

 

Purple Is The Gayest Colour
Purple Is The Gayest Colour

 

Stand-up takes an epic amount of guts. I love to consume it, I would be terrified to do it myself. Alayne leans into the awkwardness of it. This was mostly funny and endearing, but occasionally it felt like she would make up for not being sure if the joke would land, by quickly getting to the next one and that didn’t work every time.

I do watch a lot of stand-up and I am a neuro-divergent queer person, as is Alayne, so most of her work was relatable on that level. Some of it was a bit too silly, even for me, but I was laughing most of the time. She has developed comedic physical characterisation, stage presence and movement very well and she executed great use of the “call-back”, those got big laughs every time. The audience was definitely engaged and along for the ride.

I loved her authenticity, vulnerability and heart, and I found it to be a really great set, with only a few issues of confidence. Another one of these being ending with a “…and that’s the show!” which felt a little bit too sedate and broke the magic too quickly. A classic “You’ve been a great crowd!” or similar would have worked better.

As I said, I love stand up comedy, and I am aware it takes courage and vulnerability, and it can be incredibly hard to meet that challenge, especially repeatedly. I admire her work and I believe that as her confidence grows and she continues to back herself, the sky’s the limit. I look forward to seeing her again.

To book tickets to Purple Is The Gayest Colour, please visit https://events.humanitix.com/purple-is-the-gayest-colour-kfd8u4jl.

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A Darkly Hilarious Piece About A Pervasive Reality

What Of It

What Of It Rating

★★★★★

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2

The bass is pumping on “Bitch Better Have My Money” as we enter The Old Fitz Theatre. Courtney Cavallaro, Emma Wright and Rebecca Sgouros are lounging around dressed like “bruvs”, just doing their thing, as the audience gets seated. The set is a basic youth hangout with a dated fridge and a futon, a six-pack of beer atop the fridge and a poster about COVID and some sanitiser on the bench. These items suggest the era to be somewhere around 2020, backed up by the mention of the “end of the world in three days” that comes soon after the show commences.

Rebecca Sgouros opens with a powerful and poetic monologue, hitting beats with poignant pauses. At times, she seems to be staring directly at you as she presents a moralistic challenge or subversive view. It’s unsettling and awe-inspiring at once. When she finishes, the lights and sound perfectly match her integration with the rest of her crew, as they start their wolf-pack bonding ritual before breaking into a dance that is aptly performed to a song with repeated lyric “Bonkers”.

I hate spoilers, so I wasn’t aware in advance that this was a gender-flip piece, but it became clear very quickly. Rebecca’s character, Cory, is the leader of the “pack”. The self-referred “dogs” are always on the hunt, always looking to get their “clit wet”. They engage in “locker room talk” while pushing and shoving and one-upping each other. They launch into discussing the news that the world is possibly ending in three days and discover that seventeen-year-old “Luck” is still a virgin. Of course, this won’t do.

 

What Of It
What Of It

 

Cory is the ringleader, getting the new blood to do her dirty work. Daks (Emma Wright) is the beating heart of the crew, who is torn between being a “real woman” and her clear conflict in the face of these societal norms, as well as a protective urge towards the newcomer, Luck. After more of their barking, growling dirty talk they get their “Big Clit Energy” on and venture out to cause a ruckus cos girls be girls, right?

The dog-pack motif paired with the gender-flip highlights the preposterous nature of the patriarchy and the norms we accept and allow as a society. The banter between them echoes that we’ve heard too many times when it comes to males, and underscores the impact on young boys as they develop a sense of self and what it means to be a man. Rebecca’s narrative, told through the shifting power dynamics of the triad and the exceptional transitions between scenes, is punctuated by the lights, sound and ensemble work between the players. It’s pure genius that leaves no stone unturned.

Every line has a beat, with clever use of prose and layering. These three execute this seamlessly, which can only be attributed to a strong connection, workshopping and partnership in the background. Each of these incredible actors has their own individual moments of wrenching our hearts, among all the nuance of their keeping up appearances and delivering comedic lines to a full house of raucous laughter… all without breaking character.

It’s a darkly hilarious piece about a pervasive reality, and it tells a tragic tale in a truly remarkable way.

It’s powerful and entertaining, and not to be missed.

To book tickets to What Of It, please visit https://www.oldfitztheatre.com.au/what-of-it.

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I Wanna See ‘I Wanna Be Mark Wahlberg’ Again

I Wanna Be Mark Wahlberg

I Wanna Be Mark Wahlberg Rating

★★★★★

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Melody Rachel is a magnetic performer, and ‘I Wanna Be Mark Wahlberg’ gives her an opportunity to flex her muscles both literally and figuratively. There’s space within this show for movement, words, hair-flips and perfectly timed smirks to explore masculinity with a light touch and perfectly placed pair of Calvin Klein briefs.

By her own admission, this show changes every time Melody performs it, and this particular iteration for Qtopia’s Pride Fest 2025 is striking and fun. Between feats of endurance and the interplay of body and shadow, there’s stark observations and crushing moments of vulnerability.

Some of the most moving moments come from the exploration of physical expressions of gender; femininity as performance particularly has real pain, especially in contrast to the moments of comedy drawn out in the pre-show and intro investigating how men move. There’s real subtlety in this show; small movements tell us a lot, and provide both their own arc and the bedrock for the retelling of people’s reactions and assumptions (both in queer spaces and outside of them).

I Wanna Be Mark Wahlberg
I Wanna Be Mark Wahlberg
I Wanna Be Mark Wahlberg

 

The intimacy of the Substation theatre space helps the energy of this show to hit straight to the heart. There’s a vulnerability for both performer and audience to be in such close proximity, and this show does crackle with energy because of this. Qtopia has fitted their spaces with precision; it’s one of the most exciting spaces to see theatre in the inner Sydney buffet. The rest of Pride Fest this June offers a collection of opportunities to see new works here. The raw walls and high ceilings allow for Melody’s use of shadow and light to feel cinematic and huge, despite the intimacy of the place.

To march so directly into the breach of navigating maleness and masculinity, femaleness, femininity and everything in between is only possible in the hands of a performer willing to put their neck on the line, which Melody does. There’s real stakes here, real laughs, real tension and a whole lot of interesting questions.

Unfortunately, this show has closed after a limited number of performances at Pride Fest this year, but should the opportunity to step into Melody Rachel’s world arise in another context, this reviewer would recommend that you do so.

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