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Godspell
Presented by: Catchment Players of Darebin
Venue: Banyule Theatre, Viewbank College, Heidelberg
Reviewer: Anne Dewar
Date Reviewed: Sunday 24th October 2009
Godspell is a musical based on the Gospel of St.Matthew. This show
speaks to human emotions but you don’t have to be religious to
appreciate the message of humanity in this show! It’s a show that
brings joy out of doubt.Written by Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael
Tebelak in the ‘70s it is essentially a Rock Opera.
Directors Brad Fischer and Nathan Firmin have come up with a fresh
approach to make Catchment’s Godspell a must see show. They have
stripped away the dated quintessential ‘70s musical image of flower
children in clown makeup associated with this show and given us an
alternative that is interesting and one that is easier to relate to
in this era.
Walking into the theatre I was greeted with a scaffold based set
which in fact was quite cleverly designed. The cast dressed in black
were already positioned on stage for the opening prologue. The set
was simple but effective with clever lighting to give even more
special visual effects. It contained steps, ladders and every little
prop required for the show including a colourful rainbow curtain
that is dropped so the performers can change onstage into their
colourful, different style costumes to portray each of their
individual characters. Not the usual funky look, the costumes were
well co-ordinated and visually balanced.
Expecting to see a very young cast I was surprised at first by the
mixture of ages in the performers, but as the show went on it
actually enhanced the message of the show that this world is made up
of all sorts of people and we should love and respect and look out
for each other no matter what.
The ten performers in the show were all very talented in different
ways……….
Nicholas Kyriacou playing the role of Jesus is an upcoming young
performer to keep an eye on. He gave a charismatic performance, has
a lovely voice and he had the right look for the role. He came
across as good, youthful and exuberant.
Jesus is usually dressed to look very clown like with braces etc but
I embraced the all white almost Pierrot type costume. It was
different and worked well with Nicholas’s portrayal. I did lose a
few lines of dialogue from Nicholas at times as it got a little fast
but he is an intriguing performer to watch.
Guilian De Vincentis as Judas was dressed in Royal blue tails and
top hat…almost looking like a Circus Ring Master. It was an
interesting concept and it made him seem very in control and a
scheming carnival type character. He gave a good performance and I
enjoyed the number he did with Jesus ‘All For The Best’. It was
tight, slick and the timing of all the performers at the end was
incredible…..the audience loved it.
Nathan chose to present this a bit differently…not a Straw hat or
cane in sight and it worked.
Freida Lai singing ‘Day by Day’ was another highlight for me. She
gave a strong, soulful rendition of this song with her beautiful
voice and was again a wonderful performer to watch. I found it hard
to take my eyes off her throughout the show.
Ang Guy, Stuart Dodge, Petra Elliot, Carla Gianinotti, Nicholas
Barca, Timothy Maloney and Amanda Warner are all strong Actors and
Singers in their own right and did great performances with their
individual songs and dialogue.
They don’t play any named characters as such but each of them have
distinctive personalities and quirks and got their message of love
across to the audience bouncing and miming their way all over the
interesting set.
Nathan’s choreography was tight and exciting and the performers all
moved confidently. The band was also very tight and MD Christine
Munro did a nice job with the harmonies in the show, sensational.
The end scene where Jesus dies was again clever, very strong and
most effective and I had a tear in my eye but I am not going to give
too much away.
I know I have used the words effective, clever, tight and strong a
lot in this review but that’s what you get when you see a Nathan
Firmin and Brad Fischer production and they didn’t disappoint.
Congratulations to Brad, Nathan, Christine, the cast and Catchment
on a terrific production of ‘Godspell.’
Regardless of your faith or your preconceptions do yourselves a
favour and go see this song and dance version of the Gospel!’
There are only three performances of ‘Godspell’ left
on
Monday 26th Oct 8pm, Fri 30th October 8pm, Sat
31st October 5pm
Tickets:
$32.00 (Adults), $28.00 (Concession & Groups of 12+), $28.00(Monday
26th Oct )
Bookings:0437
228 246
Anne Dewar is well known in Musical Theatre circles and has over 30
years experience in professional and non – professional Theatre,
Pantomime and Television appearing in commercials and mini- series
and on Rove Live in Comedy Sketches. Anne has played many roles in
Musical Theatre.
Her favourites include Dolly Levi in ‘Hello Dolly’ and Miss Adelaide
in ‘Guys and Doll’ receiving a Music Theatre Guild nomination for
best actress and also received a Lyrebird Nomination for her role of
Vicki Nichols in ‘The Full Monty’.
Anne has worked with many theatre groups including Nova, Whitehorse,
CLOC, Dandenong, Festival Theatre, Phoenix and Eastern Musical
Theatre. She has also designed sets for many shows and directed and
choreographed productions, the latest was Directing SPAMALOT for
SLAMS and the Australasian Premiere of the comedy play ‘M*A*S*H’
last year for Phoenix. She is currently enjoying playing Bloody Mary
in Nova’s Oct/Nov production of ‘South Pacific.’
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