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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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If These Walls Could Speak

23/09/2026 Chantal Harrison Writer🥈🔥🎭😂

Dixon And Daughters Rating

★★★★★

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I will never cease to be amazed at what can be done with the right amount of creative genius, even in a small space, and I was particularly blown away as we entered the theatre at Old Fitz. Mia MacCormick’s Dixon & Daughter’s set was immediately impressive with a two-storey set up with two upstairs bedrooms, one open to us with the double bed clearly belonging to someone who has lived there for many years and the familiar bedspread that told the same story. There’s a kitchen in the background, an old style living room (again, with the iconic upholstery of the era on the sofa). We see all the childhood remnants such as rocking horse in storage underneath. It’s a typical house that has seen generations. A house we might all remember but the shell of it is peeled away in parts, symbolic of the here and now and fuzzy, messy, reminiscing that we are about to be pulled into.

Topaz Marlay-Cole’s lighting and Nicky Pardesi’s sound design engage throughout. Darkness pools around the moments that need it most, and characters are isolated by a single source when they are at their most exposed and vulnerable. The transitional soundscapes hold us in the uncomfortable space between scenes, refusing to let us settle, while the pauses punctuated by light shifts carry their own quiet weight. Clever and intentional.

Mary, played by Vanessa Downing, has just returned home. Her granddaughter Ella and daughter Julie are ready to surprise her, while youngest daughter, Bernie quietly prepares them for the reality that Mary is “in a mood.” In these early scenes, Deborah Bruce’s script establishes the architecture of the family with deceptive lightness: Julie as the scapegoat fleeing a bad relationship and fighting an alcohol dependency; Ella as the playful peacemaker trying to offset the formidable dark cloud her grandmother carries into the room. Mary is no-nonsense, wanting nothing more than to get home and back to life. We soon discover she has served six months in prison for something connected to her deceased husband, and from that moment, the unravelling begins.

Downing’s Mary is formidable. There is no softening of the character’s abrasiveness, no easy bid for sympathy, just a woman carrying decades of damage and struggling to articulate the remorse beneath the bluntness.

Linda Nicholls-Gidley as Bernie embodies the daughter who must hold it together at all costs, and we see that fight written into every moment. Sarah Jane Starr arrives as the estranged stepdaughter Tina/Briana, larger than life and glamorous, having stepped into her power and intent on helping Julie do the same. Starr plays the light and shade with real skill, making Briana’s complicated journey entirely her own. Romney Hamilton’s Julie is the loveable screw-up, all flightiness and docility in the early scenes, and then, when the drama reaches its peak, Hamilton delivers a performance that takes your breath away. You genuinely do not see it coming.

Danette Potgieter’s Ella makes her own quiet pivot, moving from the warmth and playfulness of the opening to something altogether more grounded and affecting when the moment demands it. Leigh is a character that Mary introduces into the mix, at first I wondered about this writing choice, I wasn’t sure we needed this character from the school of hard knocks who was providing a lot of comic relief (played joyfully by Rylea Ellis), but I realised that Mary had to bring this outsider in to disrupt the roles and stories running and Rylea plays this very well.

Director Kim Hardwick’s work is full of specificity. Every exchange feels immediate, every relationship fully inhabited. But what struck me most was the blocking. Each character had their physical place within the history of this intergenerational story, allocated to a particular space unless the action required something different. They were connected but always isolated, until they weren’t. It was a brilliant choreography of power and position, making visible what the dialogue could only gesture at.

An all-femme cast is its own kind of power, and this one is clearly working together and holding one another with real care. The dark themes are handled with tenderness and unflinching honesty in equal measure.

Dixon and Daughters is not an easy watch, but it is an important one. It will speak to anyone who has lived as a woman, and to anyone who has loved, nurtured or been shaped by one. This is a story that needs to be told, and the Tiny Dog Productions team has told it with exactly the courage and care it deserves.

To book tickets to Dixon And Daughters, please visit https://purchase.oldfitztheatre.com.au/EventAvailability?EventId=1201.

Photographer: Campbell Parsons

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Final Tickets For Sydney Season Of A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical Released

22/09/2026 Breaking News

Feature-A BEAUTIFUL NOISE: THE NEIL DIAMOND MUSICAL

Producers Paul Dainty AO and TEG Dainty, Ken Davenport and Bob Gaudio are thrilled to announce the final release of tickets for the smash-hit Broadway musical A BEAUTIFUL NOISE: THE NEIL DIAMOND MUSICAL. Due to overwhelming demand, the season has been extended by five weeks through to Sunday 14 February 2027, with ticket presales commencing today and tickets to the general public going on sale Friday 25 September from ticketmaster.com.au.

The musical is currently playing at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre and has received extraordinary praise from critics and audiences alike.

“Full of spectacle and humour, emotion and nostalgia, and of course, the music.” – The Age
“An abundance of rich, memorable songs, and energy to burn.” – The Guardian
“A Brilliant Show” – The Today Show (Richard Wilkins)
“This is a dazzling blockbuster of a show that honours the singer-songwriter’s career and legacy.” – Time Out
“A thrilling, nostalgic and deeply moving celebration of the man behind the music.” – Stage Whispers

The Australian cast of A BEAUTIFUL NOISE is led by Broadway star Will Swenson in the titular role Neil Diamond – Then, bringing his acclaimed, award-winning performance to Australia for the very first time. Joining Swenson is an exceptional company of Australian talent, featuring principal cast members Terence Crawford (Neil Diamond – Now), Ashleigh Rubenach (Marcia Murphey), Monica Sayers (Doctor), Alana Tranter (Jaye Posner), Tim Wright (Fred Weintraub / Tommy O’Rourke), Paul Hanlon (Bert Berns / Kieve Diamond), Hannah Fredericksen (Ellie Greenwich / Rose Diamond), with Rob Mallett (Standby Neil Diamond – Then), and Mark Owen Taylor (Standby Neil Diamond – Now, Fred Weintraub / Tommy O’Rourke, Bert Berns / Kieve Diamond).

Rounding out the company as “The Beautiful Noise” ensemble are Katrina Bickerton, Cameron Davey, Paul Leandre Escorrido, Matt Hourigan, Alana Iannace, Jerome Javier (Swing), Joshua Kobeck, Etuate Lutui (Shilo soloist), Anna Mallows (Swing), Jordan Malone, James Maxfield (Swing), Isabella Roberts, Sophie Tzioumis, Emma Wilby (Swing), and Erica Wild (Swing).

Created in collaboration with Neil Diamond himself, A BEAUTIFUL NOISE is the uplifting true story of how a kid from Brooklyn became a chartbusting, show-stopping American rock icon. With 140 million albums sold, a catalogue of classics like “Cracklin’ Rosie”, “Forever in Blue Jeans,” and “Sweet Caroline,” an induction into the Songwriters and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and sold-out concerts around the world that made him bigger than Elvis, Neil Diamond’s story was made to shine on Broadway – and the world.

Like Jersey Boys and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical before it, A BEAUTIFUL NOISE: THE NEIL DIAMOND MUSICAL — from the Australian producers of TINA – The Tina Turner Musical — is an inspiring, exhilarating, energy-filled musical memoir, that tells the untold true story of how America’s greatest hitmaker became a star, set to the songs that defined his career.

Neil Diamond’s connection with Australia spans nearly half a century of music and memories. He has toured here seven times with promoter Paul Dainty AO, from the landmark Thank You Australia tour in 1976 through to 2015, with his music resonating deeply with audiences. His iconic 1972 live album Hot August Night spent 29 weeks at number one and 65 weeks on the chart, making it the third-longest-charting album of its era in Australian music history.

A BEAUTIFUL NOISE: THE NEIL DIAMOND MUSICAL is directed by Tony Award winner Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening, Hedwig and the Angry Inch), choreographed by Olivier Award winner Steven Hoggett (Once, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), and written by four-time Academy Award nominee Anthony McCarten (Bohemian Rhapsody, The Two Popes). The design team for A BEAUTIFUL NOISE features Tony Award winner David Rockwell (Scenic Design), Tony Award nominee Emilio Sosa (Costume Design), four-time Tony Award winner Kevin Adams (Lighting Design), Tony Award winner Jessica Paz (Sound Design), and Luc Verschueren (Hair, Wig and Make Up Design). The production has Music Supervision and Arrangements by Sonny Paladino, Incidental Music and Dance Music Arrangements by Brian Usifer, Vocal Design by AnnMarie Milazzo, and Orchestrations by Bob Gaudio, Sonny Paladino, and Brian Usifer.

Final tickets for the Sydney season of A BEAUTIFUL NOISE: THE NEIL DIAMOND MUSICAL, through to Sunday 14 February at the Sydney Lyric, go on sale this week.

SEASON DETAILS SYDNEY
Venue: Sydney Lyric, Pyrmont
Season: Previews commence on Saturday 14 November
Performance Times: Wed-Sat 7.30pm, Wed/Thu/Sun 1pm, Sat 2pm, Sun 6.30pm
Prices: From $69 (Transaction fees apply)
Bookings: Visit ticketmaster.com.au or phone 02 9509 3600
Groups 10+: Visit ticketmaster.com.au or phone 1300 558 878 Mon-Fri 9am-5pm
Groups 10+: Email groups@ticketmaster.com..au

SEASON DETAILS MELBOURNE
Venue: Princess Theatre
Season: Playing now through to Saturday 7 November
Performance Times: Wed-Sat 7.30pm, Wed/Thu/Sun 1pm, Sat 2pm, Sun 6.30pm
Prices: From $69 (Transaction fees apply)
Bookings: Visit ticketek.com.au or phone 1300 665 915
Groups 10+: Visit ticketek.com.au or phone 03 9299 9873 Mon-Fri 9am-4pm
Groups 10+: Email groups@marrinergroup.com.au

SEASON DETAILS BRISBANE
Venue: Lyric Theatre, QPAC
Season: Previews commence on Saturday 20 March, 7:30pm
Performance Times: Wed-Sat 7.30pm, Wed/Thu/Sun 1pm, Sat 2pm, Sun 6.30pm
Prices: From $69 (Transaction fees apply)
Tickets: Visit qpac.com.au or phone 136 246
Groups 10+: Contact QPAC Groups Department qpac.com.au or phone 07 3840 7466
Groups 10+: Email groups@qtix.com.au

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