Awkwardstra Delights and Delivers

Awkwardstra Geelong’s End Of Year Concert,  Vines Rd Community Centre, November 29, 2025
Awkwardstra Geelong has a sound as unique and distinctive as its name.
This is entirely due to the group’s philosophy of inviting members of the community to join them, without an audition and regardless of skill level. Musicians aged 17 and over are simply welcomed to bring along their instruments and play.
This gave it that Awkwardstra name, for its a large group of players that doesn’t always conform to standard orchestral form or formats. Sometimes it may find itself with a wealth of wind instruments while other times the strings dominate.
But it is definitely the only current Geelong orchestra to include 11 violins, 8 cellos, six flutes, five clarinets, three saxophones, a harp, bass guitar and a tuba in its 53-member line-up.
And that gives the group its unique sound, because they all play.
With Geelong’s Awkwardstra, it’s rare to see a section sitting out a musical passage because they are not needed. Just about every musician plays every note, giving the Awkwardstra its unique, big, fat, full-on sound. 
All this makes a daunting task for conductor Joel Carnegie who not only has to control such a large, diverse group – he also scores the music for them. Luckily, Joel appears to have the energy, enthusiasm and passion to do this, with enough left over to lead the group’s break-out happy dancing. Because this Awkwardstra danced, too – with their instruments while entering the venue.
And if all this wasn’t enough, this concert had another unique element in that the Awkwardstra had secured  a council grant enabling it to commission a new work from local pianist and composer Kym Dillon, a musician as dynamic as Joel, and one who possesses rare musical understanding.
Typically, the group didn’t build to introduce her new work, it opened the concert with it.  And, also typically, Kym didn’t sit quietly in the audience while her piece was played, she stood to lead the Awkwardstra, dancing behind her keyboard alongside Joel’s rostrum. The pair made a rare sight, back to back and packed with vitality.
They also sounded great, because the new work, titled Awkwardstra! of course, was insightful, inclusive and illustrative of that Awkwardstra sound; it began with a big-band base, added elements of pop and stage musicals and built to the happiest of orchestral crescendoes earning rapturous applause and a standing ovation.
And the odd thing was that the concert didn’t really retreat from that high starting note, it just shifted momentum into different directions.
Because next came a high-energy version of Dua Lipa’s Dance The Night, followed and contrasted by Itaal Shur & Rob Thomas’ Smooth then an accurate and almost standard version of the 1930s basketball classic Sweet Georgia Brown which led to two theme tunes, to The Simpsons and then The Incredibles, both delivered with that Awkward virtuosity.
Then, after the concert’s 20-minute interval came another surprise – two tunes played by a duet of cellos in the hands of Alex Popovic and Laura Moore. These were Billy Eilish’s Bad Guy and the Catalan Carol Fum Fum Fum.  As the cello duo left, they were replaced by the group’s flute ensemble, who stood to play Gavotte and Andante, then the string section took their place, conducted by orchestra leader Michelle Sykes to play Walking In The Air  from The Snowman Suite.
Then the full Awkwardstra returned  with conductor Joel to play an accurate version of George Gershwin’s Jazz innovation Rhapsody in Blue, then another unusual work in the Newley/Bricusse piece Pure Imagination.
The final two tunes captured the group’s philosophy as well as its sense of musical fun. They were Richard Roger’s My Favourite Things – reflecting the musical joy each player had; then Otis Redding’s self-self-explanetory Respect. These were delivered with enough Awkwardstral verve to earn a second standing ovation and the encore piece I’m Still Standing.
Surprisingly, Awkwardstra Geelong founder Scott Popovic, who, as well as playing flugelhorn and trumpet, shared the MC duties with vice president (and vibrant dancing cellist) Lauren Carnegie, recalled that the group had begun only three years ago with just ten members.
It was an enormous effort to move from that small beginning to this concert of  varied delights  – and two standing ovations weren’t nearly enough! 
I, like many in the house-full audience,  can’t wait to see what Geelong’s Awkward musos will come up with next year.
– Colin Mockett

Dame Nellie’s works in good hands

Marvellous Melba presented by  Geelong City Opera,  All Saints Church. Noble St, Newtown. Sunday November 16, 2025

First, the obvious. This wasn’t an opera, despite its company’s name. Nor was it  strictly a concert. The programme described it as ‘a celebration of the life and music of Dame Nellie Melba’ – which captured the content. 
Another title might have been ‘a short biography of an iconic Australian world opera star’ though my favourite alternative would have summed the afternoon  up as  ‘A biography of Australia’s Supreme Prima Donna illustrated by her music’… And included much more about the personal battles she waged and won.
But whatever title you gave it, this was a pleasant and informative musical occasion enhanced by the the brilliant acoustics of All Saints Newtown Church.
The occasion was presented by clear-voiced narrator in actor Julie Fryman, whose dialogue was paused on some 20 occasions to include a pertinent musical extract, performed live, to illustrate the story as it unfolded.
These musical breaks were presented by six performers three of whom were sopranos. These were Lisa Breen, Zinaida Campion and Dame Nellie herself – who appeared in two scratchy recorded extracts.
This, of course, invited comparisons: La Melba’s voice was, during her lifetime,  frequently described as silvery, pure and wide-ranging, for she could almost span three octaves. 
Some elements of the pure and silvery were evident from the short Melba extracts played; while of the living sopranos, Lisa’s bright, cut-crystal voice quality was contrasted and complimented  by Zinaida’s warmer, rounder tones.
The concert used two male voices with their musical  differenced much more clearly defined.
They were David Eckstein’ big, lusty baritone  – the voice of an operatic Pirate King – while tall, slender, handsome and immaculately dressed Tim Hetherington’s untrained tenor brought back the elegance of a 1930s Bertie Wooster soiree.
Flautist Suzanne Moodie added her own musical excellence and all of the above were accompanied with adroit accuracy by the understated skills of pianist Stefanie Gumienik.
The works presented ranged from parlour classics ‘O, For The Wings Of A Dove and Comin’ Through The Rye, both presented by tenor Tim,  to a trio from Bizet’s Carmen, Habanera sung by Lisa, The Toreador Song by David and Seguidilla by Zinaida.
There were two Ave Marias; Guonod’s was sung by Lisa and Verdi’s by Zinaida.
David sang Di Provenza il mar, il suol from Verdi’s La Traviata and he duetted with Lisa on Pura siccome un’angelo … Dite alla Giovine  from the same work.
Lisa sang Si, mi chiamano Mimi from La Boheme and duetted with Tim for O Soave Fanciulla.
Zinaida sang Puccini’s O Mio  Babbino Caro; Verdi’s Volta la terrea from his Masked Ball  and Donizetti’s Quel Guardo il Cavaliere from Don Pasquale.
Lisa performed a glittering version of  The Jewel song from Faust  and Tim gave us a mannered, gentle version of  La donna e’il mobile.
Lisa sang Lo, Hear The Gentle Lark accompanied by Susanne’s flute – and Stefanie’s piano – and the concert ended with Zinaida singing Paulo Tosti’s  Goodbye before an all-on-stage rendition of  the homespun Melba favourite There’s No Place Like Home. 
This brought warm, sustained applause from a full-church audience – extra chairs having been provided for last minute arrivals – and the general audience consensus was of thorough enjoyment for such a comprehensive, informative concert.
– Colin Mockett

The Bard’s Tear-Stained Ruffle!

Shakespeare in Love directed by Derek Ingles for Geelong Repertory Theatre Company, Woodbin Theatre, Preview performance November 13 2025. 

 It should probably be stated first that I saw the show’s final dress rehearsal/preview on the evening before opening night. I was among an invited audience of some 30 company and performer friends, and there was room for final improvements and tweaking before the official opening.
But, trust me, not much was needed because on the night we were witness to a series of delightful surprises that amounted to an exceptional piece of theatre.
At first, we were amazed that such a big performance could be so skilfully shoehorned onto Rep’s compact stage.
Because this production used some 25 actors, not including the dog, and at times they were all on stage together, forming a series of Hogarthian tableaux that frequently served as moving – or static – background scenery.
Their astonishingly fast entrances and exits were achieved by a combination of highly disciplined choreography- unusual in a straight-play performance – and a clever set design that included a number of concealed openings.
Then there was the exceptional quality of costuming and background music that contributed to the play’s authentic Elizabethan appearance.
At the Woodbin, the audience can be within touching distance of the players, and such closeness reveals every costuming shortcut.
But this Shakespeare in Love’s costumes heartily shouted authenticity.
Then this play boasted a real depth and quality of casting, which revealed the scope of director Derek Ingles and his right-hand adjutant, Jules Hart’s,  awareness of every aspect of Geelong’s theatre scene.
(Apologies for the adjutant word, but I’ll wager that you, too, will find yourself using such terms after experiencing this glorious show.) 
You’ll also find yourself remembering scenes and laughing. And chuckling. And smiling at some of the brilliantly awkward, ridiculous Elizabethan complications you witnessed.
Anyways, it’s probably enough to say that this Shakespeare In Love’s cast included fine actors from many of our region’s companies; and its production team drew excellent performances from every one of them.
They were led by a winning lead quartet of talent in Lachie Errey, who was exemplary as Will Shakespeare; matched by Jo Lusty as his stage-and-love-struck muse Viola de Lesseps; so, too, Calvin Langley as his collaborator/luckless victim Kit Marlowe and Glen Barton as his fearless and dauntless wrangling theatre producer Philip Henslowe.
Assisting in their farcical manoeuvres – while contributing to them at every turn – was another quintet of outstanding thespian ability in Gerry McKeague’s Hugh Fennyman,  Amanda Scott’s Queen Elizabeth, Matt McNamara’s Lord Wessex and Josh Ball’s beautifully-portrayed stage-lead-actor Ned Alleyn.
But wait – there was more…
All of the above were bolstered, supported and occasionally upstaged by Connor Aspland as Richard Burbage; Barry Eeles as Edmund Tilney; Annie Bieniek as Viola’s loyal nurse and Doug Mann as her ambitious father.
These, along with the neat stage skills of Harper Anderson as John Webster;  Norm Lowe in a number of eye-catching roles; Brodie Appleby’s gender-hopping actor and Jake Witcombe’s perceptive boatman, with Gabriel Wenyika, Lexi Bahlaw, Liam Ball, Ned White, Melissa  Musselwhite all contributed along with Kirby Dewar and Obi-Wan his important and well-cast dog.
Director Derek Ingles along with Don Bennett and stage-manager Ben Cazaly may have snuck in as guards or well-dressed scenery in places, it was sometimes difficult to keep track of such a crowded, busy but evenly fast-paced, rollicking – and very funny – Shakespearian send-up/romp/farce.
Because all of the stage talent listed above was particularly well drilled by director Derek and adjutant’s Jules’s disciplined choreography, enhanced by Kirby Dewar’s spot-on technical  wizardry with Tabatha Collins’ wardrobe and Norm Smith’s neat props skills.
Credit, too, to Sarah Friend’s jokey sword fighting co-ordination, Adam Fioentino’s intimacy insights; adjutant’s Jules’s set creation with Steve Howell and Calvin Langley’s construction skills and then finally, Sue Rawkins’ ability to bring it all together…
Because every member listed above combined to make this Shakespeare In Love an outstanding production.
I’d certainly count it as one of Rep’s best, if not the very best the company has produced in my time as a reviewer.
So please go see it. You will laugh until tears stain your ruffle – then wonder at the amazing abilities of Geelong’s stage and backstage talent.

– Colin Mockett

Medimime Ices New- Style Panto

The Snow Queen directed by Millana Anello for Medimime, The Story House at Geelong Arts Centre, November 7, 2025
Pantomime’s origins trace back to 18th-century Britain, and before that to the   Italian “commedia dell’arte“. It evolved during the Victorian era to become a Christmas-season family event based on fairy tales with a number of always-included elements such as a female playing the lead ‘principal boy’; a male as a ‘comedy dame’, a clearly pretend horse and  lots of sight gags and audience participation. In the 20th Century, Panto evolved in Britain to become a Christmas comedy vehicle for retired comedians with lashings of political jabs, double entendres and bawdy humour.
And every one of these versions finished with a happy ending; good defeating evil and the lead couple marrying.
So pantomime, as an art form, is clearly not set in stone. It’s constantly evolving and can accept – or drop – elements as it changes.
Geelong has a different set of pantomime traditions that has evolved over the past 50 years.
 Back in 1974, Cinderella was staged pre-Christmas in Geelong by members of our region’s medical sector, with a cast of doctors, nurses, medics, pharmacists – all of them having fun.
They donated all the show’s profits to the Geelong Hospital and the event was such a success it was repeated the following year with Jack and the Beanstalk. Next came Aladdin and by then pantomime in Geelong had evolved to become Medimime.
Then, over the next half century, Medimime productions improved by recruiting friends among the region’s theatrical and performing arts sectors, and using better venues and staging techniques. But its constant elements remained stable, with the medical base and fundraising for what is now the health sector. Over its time, Medimime has donated more than half a million dollars to what was previously Geelong Hospital and is now Barwon Health.

I felt it necessary to begin with that introduction to explain how this production of The Snow Queen was quite different to those that had gone before.
Sure, it retained elements like the cross-dressing principal boy, comedy dame and audience involvement.
But there was no pantomime horse or bawdy humour, no dated elaborate sets, corny staged sight-gags or questionable humour. It was all good, clean, fun.
Because what remained was a happy, fast-moving slick and funny show packed with up-tempo hit songs aimed squarely at the current pre-teen generation – laced with plenty of 21st Century topical references for their parents.
This Snow Queen had a  young team in charge, with first-time director Millana Anello assisted by Medimime’s (newly elected) president Daniel Grocott, along with another first-timer in choreographer Grace Lawrence.
This trio drew on  the experience of vocal director Deanne Elliott, stage manager Shani Clarke and a well-connected wardrobe, wig and make-up team led by Mandee Oakes and Mandi Berry – then brought together an onstage team that fairly crackled and sparked with energy.

Led by Jenna Irvin in the title role, Emily Skinner as her sidekick Jack Frost  and central couple Gerda and Kia, played by Madilyn Dyer and Isabelle McKenzie, this Snow Queen’s whole company sang and danced with precision.
They had the energy and verve of  Wiggles concerts – only they were performing hits like Lauv’s I Like Me Better,  Calum Scott’s Dancing On My Own and Dua Lipa’s Training Season.
This was very muchto the delight of an audience packed with kids on their feet dancing and singing along.
The show’s comedy was headlined by Scott Bradley’s Dame Nelly and his hapless son, Olaf, played with frantic energy by Trent Inturrisi.
They were assisted by Ged Sweeney’s pompous mayor – and target of the dame’s advances – Boris Burgermeister, while laughs came too, from a pair of itinerant penguins, Chilly and Willy, played by Paige van der Chys and Tess Chatham. The penguins flight from Antarctica (pun intended) gave them ample opportunities to complain to Mother Nature (Erica McKinnon) about the paradox of being flightless birds – and also brought in the threats of global warming. There was another couple of birds involved, too, crows played by Amelia Hay and Samantha Parker. 
Also Santa, played by Thomas R Shears who sang REM’s Everybody Hurts in a surprisingly beautiful light tenor voice.
Our heroes met him at the North Pole, where they were attempting to stop the icy baddies Jenna and Emily from stealing the seasonal crowns of Spring Ella Hase; Summer (Estelle Hahne) and Autumn (Leticia Bayliss). All of the above sang and harmonised beautifully with Erica’s Mother Nature.
Add in couple of delightfully lithe dances from Shiloh Waddell’s Rudolph and Emily’s Jack Frost plus Joanna MacCarthy’s Pythonesque bridge-guarding Troll and comedy Yeti. 

Behind all this the show’s support ensemble provided eye-catching sharply choreographed nicely-costumed dancers along with on-stage back-up singers to keep the fun and action flowing evenly.
So take a bow, Jane Belikow, Hector Gleeson, Erin Glen, Karen Long, Iona Miller, Willow Pugh, Ella Templeton, Jacqui Thebes, Lisa Zarb, Lulu Christou, Maddison Cornell, Indiana Hovancek, Ruby Miller, Ellena Siketa and Ella & Maya Tiddy.  A special mention, too, to Ben Anderson, whose sound crew provided clarity of sound as well as cueing each backing track.
I’m not a fan of pre-recorded backing tracks but can excuse it on this occasion, because it so clearly worked – resulting in a delighted audience of youngsters who gave the whole show a standing ovation.
This wasn’t difficult, because so many were already on their feet dancing.

And it all went to show that this latest version of innovative pre-teen-friendly pantomime was a happy, joy-filled rousing success.
Medimime’s Snow Queen continues in the Geelong Arts Centre’s Story House until November 16. Book through geelongartscentre.org.au
– Colin Mockett

GSO’s Standing Ovation a Gift!

Beethoven and the Enchanted Flute presented by Geelong Symphony Orchestra, conductor Richard Davis, Costa Hall  5.00pm Saturday October 25, 2025

Geelong’s Symphony Orchestra celebrated its 10th anniversary with this brilliant blockbuster of a concert, which contained two symphonies, two concertos – one a world-exclusive premier – and a  rare mid-concert standing ovation.
The symphonies were both by Beethoven and they continued toward the GSO’s goal of presenting all nine of the composer’s masterpieces. There are now just two to go.
The concertos featured flute solos, one  was by Vivaldi and the other by contemporary Australian composer Alex Turley.
They both featured a star guest soloist in world-renowned flautist Sally Walker, and it was Sally and the orchestra’s performance of Alex’s new work that drew the standing ovation.
And as if all of the above wasn’t enough to satisfy its Costa Hall audience, this concert also highlighted the love affair between Geelong and conductor Richard Davis.
Richard, who is chief conductor at the Melbourne Conservatorium and regularly conducts around the world including for the BBC Philharmonic at the Albert Hall Proms, loves Geelong and this orchestra. He’s the GSO’s most regular guest conductor and the depth of understanding and respect that has grown between conductor and musicians means he always draws exceptional performances from them. As this concert showed.
As usual, Richard took his place at the podium without fuss – just a smile to the audience acknowledging their welcoming applause, a nod to concertmaster Markiyan Melinychenko, a  quick, wide all-encompassing smile cross his musicians and then his baton was raised for the opening piece –  Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C major Op.21.
This, though not as frequently performed as the master composer’s more popular works, is notable as his first symphony and the one that placed him in the front rank of classical composers. It’s a bright, happy work in four pieces that alternate between staid and thoughtful to jaunty  and exciting with the composer’s signature dramatic flow always evident.   In the hands of Richard and the GSO, the work’s beauty was prominent, along with its precision.
It made for a fitting introduction to the excellence that was to come.
This was  Alex Turley’s Flute Concerto, which, it was explained, was commissioned  by Andrew Johnston to celebrate his mother’s 93rd birthday.
The composer was present, introduced, and he explained that Mr Johnston had asked flautist Sally to name a composer for the commissioned work and she had recommended him. The two collaborated for almost a year to complete the work, before musician George Deutsch brought all the parties together – including Richard and the GSO – to stage the work. George was in the room, too, but not in the audience with Andrew, his mother and family – he was in the orchestra, playing his viola.
Then Sally took the stage, fronting a GSO augmented by harp and piano and the work was performed.
And… It was stunning, mesmeric and beautiful. The concerto comprised five parts, each different but interlaced with connecting themes. They flowed together without breaks, beginning with Incantation which introduced the flute’s solo voice delicately joined by harp, piano then all the orchestra’s sections and progressing to the gentle rhythms of Cosmic  Dance, before the third part  A Shift In Gravity  emerged, bringing  reflective, echoing elements which built to the energetic excitement of Worldbuilding and then the final dramatic conclusion titled Equilibrium, 
The work drew warm and growing applause which led to that standing ovation – the first that this reviewer can recall the GSO earning in the middle of its concert rather than the end.
The concert’s second half had soloist Sally returning with the orchestra’s string sections playing Vivaldi’s s Flute Concerto No. 3 in D Major R V 428. This is Il Gardellino – The Goldfinch – with the flute delightfully mimicking birdsong in three movements depicting flight, calm soaring then it’s bright chirping display. This light and cheerful work led to the concert’s final piece, Beethoven’s Symphony No 8 in F Major Opus 93. 
This was, conductor Davis explained, the composer’s penultimate symphony, also his shortest, happiest and favourite, calling it ‘My little symphony in F’.
Conductor Davis then led the GSO in a  brisk musical explanation of those statements, with each of the work’s four movements shining with bright energy intensity and vitality.
Unusual for Beethoven, this symphony didn’t really have a slow movement, rather a form of musical joke, with the composer playing around with the work’s rhythms in order to belittle the newly-invented metronome – which he reportedly hated.
Taken together, this all made for yet another Geelong Symphony Orchestra triumph – and highlighting what a huge asset it is to our city.
Because this concert of delights, surprises, and glorious  music also displayed the packed  Geelong audience’s appreciation of their orchestra’s excellence.
The concert’s free programme included details of the GSO’s 3-Concert 2026 series, of French Flair, (Bolero, Carmen, Chopin & Richard Davis) Seasons & Beyond (Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with works by Greig and JS Bach)  and Beethoven Revealed (Richard Davis & Trio Anima Mundi).
A season ticket to these three would make a memorable gift to an appreciative family member – and it’s arguably much cheaper and easier than commissioning one of the world’s leading young composers to write a concerto!
– Colin Mockett

Zina’s Vanya Sonia Masha & Spike – a laughter-packed theatre delight

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike directed by Zina Carman for Torquay Theatre Troupe.The Shoestring Playhouse, October 23, 2025.

After a lengthy period of council building upgrades, Torquay’s theatre company’s return was marked by a new theatre name, swank new facilities- and a sparkling comedy courtesy of president Zina Carman.
The play, Christopher Durang’s 2012 American comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike was directed by Zina, who also designed its set.
The play contains a number of multi-layered plot lines, targeting every modern niggle from generational scorn to celebrity envy to boomer-era nostalgia, all interwoven with multiple themes found in the 19th Century Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s masterworks.
It’s a play that is not just clever, it’s packed with every shade of humour and Zina has assembled a cast that does it full justice. – and then a bit more.
So the volume of laughter – along with the understanding and sympathy for each different character – built throughout.  This Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike literally grew from the occasional giggle through to laugh-a-minute to twice, three four times a minute then eventually reaching every comedy director’s dream of ongoing unstoppable laughter leading to a climax of long-lasting warm, appreciative applause.
Much of this was due to the perfect casting of all six on-stage performers.
This was led by Michael Baker and Lisa Berry as brother and sister Vanya and Sonia, who had been named by their intellectual parents after Chekhov characters.
Michael and Lisa are now part of the TTT establishment; they were involved with TTT long before the company got its permanent home, and their understanding and trust in each others performance was evident from their first interaction.
This was the play’s opening scene, when both Vanya and Sonia’s flaws and instabilities became evident as they argued over coffee in their dated family mansion. 
It was a very Chekhovian scene; a pointless dispute between two characters bored by long-term idle isolation – which Michael and Lisa nailed perfectly.
But things changed when their successful actress sister Masha arrived with a much younger escort, Spike, bringing with them all the bluster and insecurity of modern-day celebrity-status lifestyle.
These were played with shrewd insight by Tracey McKeague and Ben Batterbury. She  with self-centred assertiveness covering her insecurities, he with bland youthful confidence in his own good looks. 
This quartet of talent bounced off each other flawlessly among playwright Durang’s complex hidden-humour dialogue. 
Then to that mix came the addition of two more characters in housekeeper Cassandra and neighbour Nina.  
Again, this was excellent casting, with Katie Hall’s wacky seer Cassandra incorporating everything from Trojan and Shakespearian prophesy to Haitian voodoo; nicely balanced and contrasted by Eloise Wingrave’s innocent naïvety as Nina.
Both added to the play’s depth of insights – and wealth of laugh-lines.
This  six-strong unit created a laughter-built momentum that led  to a highly satisfying – and very Chekhovian ending. But that was not before Michael had had a magnificent meltdown outlining all the changes that he – and most baby-boomers hated; Lisa had taken her first wary steps to independence; Tracey had a mental act of rationalisation and change of heart, Ben revealed hidden plans, Eloise resolved her future career and Katie had taken heart from a job well done.
The same could be said for the play’s Producer, Gay Bell, and it’s entire backroom crew.  Because, in the hands of a revitalised TTT, this Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike was an absolute delight.
It was a well directed, well presented and very well acted modern comedy built on deep theatrical roots.
And that had to make a perfect opening for Torquay’s flourishing theatre troupe’s new theatre and future direction.
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike  continues in the town’s Shoestring Playhouse until November 1.
Go see it – you will love every laughter-filled moment.
And then become, like me, a frequent TTT tripper.
– Colin Mockett

Mamma Mia! What a Show!

During this century’s teen years,entertainmentgeelong.comintroduced the Geelong Theatre Awards, which asked reviewers to mark excellence by nominating those performances they thought worthy to be assessed for a ‘Year’s Best’ award in December.
If that system was working today, this Mamma Mia! review would have ended with a string of nominations almost as long as its cast list.
It would be headed by the nomination for ‘best choreography’ from Damien Caruso & Conique Pirrottina, for their outstanding contribution to what was a delightfully funny, happy musical. Because the choreography in this show was exceptional. It was its cornerstone. Without doubt the the most unusual, clever, sharp, surprising and visually appealing – and wittiest – that I have seen.
It perfectly complimented James Lee  and his assistant Andrew Smith’s smooth unfussy direction and Brad Treloar and his assistant Alysha Jane’s unseen four-keyboard driven 9-piece band that delivered a faultless score. These completed the ideal structure to present the show’s raft of talented performers. I’ll get to them later. 

Mamma Mia! The Musical is built around 23 songs from the Swedish pop group Abba, most of them well-known because they were chart-toppers from the mid 1970s til the early 80s. These are cleverly – if sometimes awkwardly –  stitched together to create a storyline that’s set at a Greek island taverna run by Donna, an English single mother, her 20-year-old daughter Sophie and a bunch of lithe and amorously athletic Greek staff.
Donna is retired from an 80s singing career and her vocal skills are clearly genetic, for in the hands of Ruth McGurk and Katie Loxton, this mother-daughter duo was not just perfectly cast; their singing together was exquisite.
Anyways…that storyline had daughter Sophie in love and planning to marry her fiancé – played by Thomas Member in hunk mode – at the taverna.
 Amid the preparations, she had discovered her mother’s diary and read about her amorous exploits from 21 years ago.
Thinking it a good idea to invite her unknown father to her wedding, she had senti nvites in her mother’s name to the three most likely suiters – and therefore father candidates.
The unsuspecting trio were Duncan Esler as architect Sam, David Senftleben as ex-rock-musician-now-banker Harry and Shane Lee’s Bill, who’s a rambling Aussie writer. Their arrival coincided with that of mother Donna’s former backing singers Tanya and Rosie; the former, rich, much married and played by Cara Oliver with cynical delight, the latter by Shayne Lowe with homely charm.
Sophie’s young besties arrived too; the lively Lisa, played by effervescent  Caitlyn Lear and Ali, by warm, funny Ella Walsh.
With Dom Rousetty and Nathan Fox as enthusiastic Greek taverna staff, that’s the show’s principal cast. 

But what makes this Mamma Mia! so effective is the involvement of all those Abba hits. Most of them are bright poppy numbers, but more significantly, each of them runs for only around 2 minutes 30 seconds. That’s much shorter than any traditional musical’s production numbers.
Coupled with Director Lee’s clever set and scene changes, they gave the show its snappy, energy-filled happy, bouncy feel.
This Lyric Geelong Mamma Mia! never got bogged down in its dialogue or drama – it couldn’t, there was too much to fit in. So it came across as a fast-moving musical Abba feast with dollops of comedy,  fun – and those memorably witty choreographed production numbers.
Outstanding among these were Cara and Dom’s Does Your Mother Know? Shayne and David’s Take A Chance On Me – and every scene that involved Ruth, Katie and/or Duncan. They were each, in their own way, outstanding.
Lyric’s  Mamma Mia! plays in The Story House until October 19 – and it  will sell out.  It’s recommended to book now for what must surely become the hottest ticket in town.
It’s a show that should be enjoyed, valued – and awarded!  

– Colin Mockett

La Cage – Wonderful Musical Gaiety

La Cage Aux Folles  directed by Elise Dahl for Geelong’s Theatre of the Damned. Belmont High School PAC, September 12, 2025

When it comes to theatre, we’re a distinctly conservative community in Geelong. This is illustrated by the fact that this production of La Cage Aux Folles is the first time it has appeared on a Geelong stage. Ever.
That’s despite the fact that  the show has become a worldwide comedy hit since its initial opening in New York in 1983. It was twice revived for successful Broadway runs, was a spectacular long-season success in London’s Menier Chocolate Factory, it gained five Tonys and a Laurence Olivier awards and has had several flourishing touring productions worldwide.
But Geelong – nothing.
And even this production has suffered slow ticket sales despite producer Tony Dahl’s pulling every  publicity lever he can reach. 
We can only surmise that Geelong’s audience hesitancy surround’s the show’s reputation as a gay musical and this somehow translates as a box-office turn-off. 
From a personal perspective,, I find it perplexing that theatregoers will queue up to buy overpriced tickets to see plays featuring murder, blackmail, destruction, abduction and  fairy-tale fantasy yet shy away from a play that depicts loving gay people.
So I am here to tell you that this Theatre of the Damned production of  La Cage Aux Folles is simply wonderful theatre, presenting gaiety in both its past and present senses.
The show is a big, brash, colourful, happy and tuneful musical with memorable songs you’ll find yourself humming on the way home.
It’s also a laugh-out-loud always-funny comedy with moments that are moving in their honest sincerity.
But above all, this show is a joyful, happy, exuberant slice of life that leaves its audience smiling and feeling all the better for the experience.
Behind the show’s success is clever writing from scriptwriter Harvey Fierstein and lyricist Jerry Herman. This pair adapted Jean Poiret’s French play about a couple running a St Tropez nightclub whose son wants them to meet his fiancés ultra-conservative parents, into a musical journey of delights and surprises.
Much stems from the fact that the nightclub is in questionable district and the couple are gay; their hetro son being a product of a drunken fling some 22 years prior, and the potential father-in-law is standing for politics on the ultra-right.
In the hands TotD director Elise Dahl, this journey becomes a package crammed with delights.
It’s highly musical with Nathan Firmin’s nine-piece orchestra producing big, reliable backing from their tiny side-stage pen.
It also looks spectacular, thanks to tightly choreographed dance moves from an all-gender ensemble in a dazzling array of over-the-top showgirl costumes.
This vibrant colour and movement was very much down to director Elise and her song and dance teams led by Casey Reid, Vanessa Paech, Michael Hawthorne and Ryan Baker.
So that’s the show’s fast-moving and gorgeous musical base. But on top of that, there’s a rich layer of fun that begins with the show’s whip-smart one-liners and is enhanced by some farcial sight-gags with everything delivered with wry, knowing humour by an experienced cast drawn from Geelong’s wider theatre community.
The lead couple are the urbane and worldly club-owner, played with elegant style by Andrew Lorenzo and his romantic partner and star diva, played by the brash but brittle Andrew Perry. Their singing, like that of the entire cast, was first class.
They were supported by a talented and extremely well-cast bunch of players led by Jake Birley as their straight son and Lily Petterwood  as his winsome fiancé.
Eliot Cudmore was a scene-stealing ambitious butler while Glen Barton and Emma Jones made first, a pair of Foll-ety Towers restauranteurs, then turned into that buttoned-down political right wing couple – and all these were delivered with verve. 
Geelong Mayoress Paula Kontelj provided the club’s – and family’s – unlikely saviour with her Gallic wiliness while a chorus comprising the visually striking Shaughn  Pegoraro; slender Ryan Milich; lithe Isaac Jamal; energetic Duncan Macrae;, spiky Shane Pritchard; ebullient Maggie Duncan; sunny Jenna Barton and spirited Aileen Hamafin brought their colourful showgirls to vibrant life along with support townspeople Sarah Topouzakis and Monique Power.
But over and above all of this, the overwhelming vibe from this La Cage Aux Folles was its sheer sense of fun. It’s a show that took nothing seriously, least of all its own storyline.
Every comment, joke and song sent up elements of society, from show business to business; politics to ambition to gender-bias.
Especially politics and gender bias – which makes this show especially apt in light of today’s sporting and protest social climates.  
So I highly recommend this show to you. That is, to everyone.
You will, I’m sure, be like our first-night audience, laughing and cheering throughout and at the end, applauding long and loud.
The show’s run only continues until September 20, so it’s best to book online and fast.
And afterwards I believe that you will, like me, thank Tony and Elise Dahl for enabling Geelong audiences the opportunity to enjoy such a wonderful show- business phenomenon.
– Colin Mockett

Choral issues run deep

The Heartbreak Choir  directed by Sue Rawkins for Geelong Repertory Company. Woodbin Theatre, Geelong West September 4, 2025.

This is a light review and not a serious appraisal, as it was from seeing the production’s preview show, which sat between the final dress rehearsal and opening night. 
So director Sue Rawkins has had room to tighten her actors’ performances  before calming their first-night nerves.
This preview performance did have a fair audience, though, mostly comprising friends and relatives of the cast and the play’s backstage team.
And that’s an extensive group, because The Heartbreak Choir, written by Melbourne’s Aidan Fennessy and premiering  at MTC in 2022, is set around tensions in a community choir at an unnamed  small Victorian country town.
This meant the actors needed to sing as well as portray current society attitudes, so director Sue’s backstage team includes music consultant Amy Young and choral director Sally-Anne Cowdell while the programme credits Brad Treloar with providing instrument backing tracks.
They brought out some surprisingly good harmonies in the play’s songs, leading to the conclusion that this Heartbreak Choir’s actors were selected to balance both singing and acting abilities.
On-stage, much depended on the skills of Mandy Calderwood, who portrayed the leader of her small choir splinter-group following a falling-out with the town’s original substantive choir. Her group comprised Simone Clarke’s assertive motormouth mother and her daughter, played by Karina Whytecross, who, though she is the group’s best singer, only communicates in whispers.
Meanwhile Kim Edwards plays a driven and secretly rich eccentric property owner and Ekpenyong Kassandra is a heavily pregnant migrant from Africa with strong beliefs and excellent singing voice. Russell Perry is the local policeman who turns out to be central to the plot and Kirby Dewar his moody teenaged child.
Snippets of overheard conversations between these characters reveal not just the causes for the original choir’s rift, but the much deeper underlying social failings that brought it on.
Story alert: this was a red-hot issue when the play was written, but one that has been sidelined by subsequent events.
There’s only one unchanging set, so we audience only overhear the stage exchanges in the newly named Heartbreak Choir’s meeting hall over a couple of months at the end of winter and onset of spring.
And those conversations are laced with humour as each character’s quirks and frailties are exposed, along with some vital and compelling events that occur elsewhere in the township.
And that pre-spring timing is essential to the plot line, because this Heartbreak Choir ends with a feel-good performance at the community’s annual festival that brings the reunited choir together to sing a song of healing.
And that neat finale allows Rep and director Sue to spring a musical celebrity surprise on its audiences.
Rep’s The Heartbreak Choir opens officially tonight (September 5) in the company’s Woodbin Theatre and continues weekends at 7.30pm nightly (2.00pm Sunday matinees) until September 20. Book through the Geelong Arts centre https://tickets.geelongartscentre.org.au/
– Colin Mockett

Les Mis in Spectacular Splendour

Les Misérables – School Edition,  directed by Andrea Broadbear for Saint Ignatius College, Geelong.  Drysdale Campus, 28 August 2025

During more than 30 years writing about Geelong’s theatre scene, I have reviewed eleven productions of Les Misérables. This school edition ranks among the best that I’ve encountered.
There were a number of very good reasons for this judgement.
First up, the producers had the foresight, the ability – and the resources – to create their own performance space for their show.
They essential built a 600-seat theatre inside the campus’s cavernous sports hall with all the facilities to stage their spectacular arena-style musical.
True, it didn’t have a curtain, but it did include sound and lighting rigs to accommodate state-of-the-art lighting and sound effects while allowing backstage entry and access for a very big cast. 
Because this show had a 73-member ensemble that gave the whole production its vibrant youthful energy as well as an exceptional verve and vitality.
So before I get around to the lead performers, I’d like to acknowledge the show’s featured ensemble in  Addison Fowler, Ashlyn Pitts, Ava Burke, Ella Dowling, Tom Morfitt- White, Heath Worrall, Jake Kuhne, Mariella Valente, Max Thompson, Oscar Creak, Stella Nicol, Stephanie Reynolds and  Tess Cirillo;  and that massive ensemble: Abigail Sheather, Addison Muller, Adele Micallef, Amelia Atkinson, Amelie Walter, April Dowling, Audrey Reid, Bella Tardio,  Charlotte Mehegan, Chloe Van Den Bosch, Dylan Parnell, Eliza Wood, Emily Neicho, Emma Bennett, Eva Fernandes, Frankie Wilkens, Gabriela Fernandes, Georgia Van Hamond, Grace Vapp, Hamish Burr, Hannah Dreise, Harrison Fuller,  Hayley Sordello, Heath Tatlock,  Imogen Payne, Isabella Box, Isabella Martyn, Isabelle Hachem, Ivy Rose Do,  Jack Taylor, Jasmine Smith, Jessica Reynolds,  Jordan Wiltshire,  Kalliopi Kyrou, Kirrily Fletcher, Lachlan Reynolds, Layla Maddock, Lilliana O’Meara, Lola Paraska, Lucas Dixon Bara, Lucy Keen, Maeve Condon, Matilda Brown, Nate Welfare, Nikita Smith, Noah Papp, Quinn Davidson, Ruby Ritchie, Ryan McCalman, Saisha Tagore, Samantha Farnsworth, Stanley Novak, Tayla Jones, Tayla Symes, Tully Strode, Vera Cummings, Wynne Jackson, Zayne Garner and Zoe Nyga. 
Somehow director Andrea Broadbear and her team of Madeline Magher and Felicity Weir, along with choreographer Dean Robinson and vocal director Tania Grant managed to control and guide this big, enthusiastic crowd to become, in turn, convicts, factory workers, beggars, revellers, women of the night, students, townspeople, thieves and  revolutionaries – all of them swift in their entries and exits, disciplined in their movements, colourful in their costumes and precise in their vocal choruses.
This group, along with musical director Michael Wilding’s 15-strong tight and able  pit orchestra drove this Les Misérables forward, giving it a flowing, seamless quality around that core of youthful energy.
And that was just the chorus. The programme proudly stated  that the show was performed entirely by students. That meant there were no theatrical ring-ins to bolster of fill vital adult positions. This brought only a couple of minor size/age-related inconsistencies which were overwhelmed and swept away by the talent involved.
In the lead role of  Jean Valjean, Oliver Watson was immaculate in his vocal and stagecraft. He dominated every scene, while displaying an enviable vocal range.
 As his stiff and relentless pursuer Javert,  Zach Jackson presented a fearsome opponent – also with excellent singing skills.
And these two were not alone in their vocal expertise. All of the lead players were skilled and practiced in what was essentially an opera. For this Les Misérables had no spoken dialogue. Every interaction was sung.
In this context, Sienna Davidson managed to gain sympathy and admiration in equal measure as the tragic Fantine while Harriet Stepto excelled as her delightful daughter Cosette.  Heidi Bush won hearts and minds with her moving and understanding Eponine  while Luke McTaggart was believable as the idealistic Marius. 
Declan Parisi and Jaya Newton brought over-the-top comedy then advanced villainy to their roles as the Thenardiers; Luke McKinnon made a stirring Enjolras; Hayden Browne an obnoxious Bamatabois and Owen McCoughtry a dignified Bishop of Digne.
Emerson Stenner brought skill to his street-wise rebel Gavroche  while Hannah McKelvie  made a perfect Young Cosette as did Matilda Ward to her part as Young Eponine.
This Les Misérables was brilliantly and spectacularly lit ,thanks to Jason Boviard’s expertise, while Ben Anderson presided over its flawless sound quality.
The show’s costumes, wigs and make-up were of professional standards and the overall effect was, put  simply, spectacular.
There are just four performances of this exceptional production.
If you can get a ticket for one – do so. You won’t regret it.
Like me – and the entire opening night audience –  you will be blown away by the production values and stagecraft skills displayed in what I still find difficult to believe was a schools version of the world’s most popular musical. 
We gave it a standing ovation. You will, too.
– Colin Mockett

Chorale Captures Australia’s Voice

Song of Australia  presented by The Geelong Chorale conducted by Allister Cox, All Saints’ Church, Noble St, Newtown, August 24, 2025.

Central to it’s 75th anniversary celebrations, The Geelong Chorale brought together this  Song of Australia concert, promoting it as ‘a musical journey through 200 years of Australian choral music, showcasing the unique sounds and stories of our homeland’.
I’ll invite you, dear reader, to pause here for a moment and think about which songs you might include in such a programme. Could it include kookaburras in gum trees? Waltzing with swags at waterholes? Relishing our sunburned landscape?
I would hazard a guess that few people would have selected even one of the songs that did make the final cut to inclusion in this event.
But I’m here to report that this Song Of Australia,  comprising  thirteen rarely-heard songs – all written in Australia by newcomers in the time since colonisation – made for a sparkling, joyful, highly suitable concert built around fine singing and spiced with unexpected surprise elements.
The concert began with the Chorale, unseen behind its audience, singing a specially-written acknowledgement of country, unaccompanied, in the Wadawarrung language which was beautifully lyrical and flowing.
A translation in the programme showed that it included the lines ‘let us walk and talk together in friendship; to love, dream, believe and embrace to grow…’
After this opening, the Chorale then moved to its more usual position and began the concert proper by singing Carl Linger’s anthem The Song Of Australia which, conductor Allister informed us,  was placed second  behind Advance Australia Fair in the 1974 poll to select an anthem to replace God Save The Queen. Following the Chorale’s harmonious rendition, it’s a fair bet that the majority of the audience present would have switched that order if given the choice again.
The second song was a solemn, dignified setting of The Lord’s Prayer, written by Isaac Nathan in Sydney in 1845 and given due reverence by the Chorale – then immediately contrasted  by Paolo Giorza’s gloriously operatic Regina Caeli, which had been written in Melbourne in 1873.
Then followed another surprise in Percy Grainger’s Australian Up-Country Tune, composed in 1928 which was, essentially, an unaccompanied song without words delivered with la-la ra-ra relish by the full chorale.
The following work, Anzac Day, written in 1932 by Alfred Hill, was surprisingly pretty when sung by the Chorale’s predominantly male tenor and bass voices, while the next piece, Fritz Hart’s 1931 composition In Memoriam Dame Nellie Melba  was another contrast, being a quiet, reflective piece delivered by the Chorale’s all-female sopranos and altos.
Next came a relatively modern piece in Matthew Orlovich’s 1996 work The Listening Land which invited Chorale and conductor to weave intricate vocal patterning – a challenge they achieved with ease – and much grace.
Then came John Ingram’s The Coming Of Good Luck – composed in Geelong in 1992 – which the Chorale delivered in smiling carolling mood – before returning to seriousness delivering a fine interpretation Clare MacLean’s complex and challenging 1990 piece Hope There Is.
The next song, Christopher Willcock’s 2008 Peace at the Last had the chorale in full flow with its glorious soprano voices soaring into the church rafters before returning to more serious reality and delivering Michael Hannan’s 2025 spiritual lament Poor Boy.
It should be noted here that Michael was in his regular place singing bass with the Chorale, and his work sat comfortably and proudly in what was, by then, an illustrious compilation of high-quality songs.
The concert’s final two songs were completely fitting in that they contrasted, complimented – and yet were totally unexpected.
They were Stephen Leek’s flowing, lyrical 1994 piece Morning Tide from his Three Island Songs, then Iain Grandage’s 1990s work Birds from his Three Australian Bush Songs. 
This, another song without words, had the Chorale mimicking Australian birds in their laughing, chattering, cawing, whistling joyful sounds, with the singers clearly relishing every cackle, squark and caw. 
This made a delightful ending to what was a remarkable concert of all-Australian contrasts; one that was skilfully performed by Geelong’s premier choir, ably and unobtrusively accompanied by Kristine Mellens and highlighted by Allister’s Cox’s knowledgeable introductions and explanations.
It may not have included any of our nation’s predictable musical mores or cliches – but, truth was, it was all the better for it.
It was a well-thought-out and neatly structured concert that made a perfect 75th Anniversary Chorale celebration.
But… It’s surely set an exceptionally high standard for the Chorale’s Centenary!
– Colin Mockett

Take A Gander At Circus Pippin

Pippin directed by Michele Marcu & David Greenwood for CentreStage Geelong.  CentreStage Theatre, August 15 2025.

It’s an odd musical, is Pippin. It emerged in the 1970s and very much in the style of contemporaries Jesus Christ Superstar, Hair and Godspell; though it never attained their popularity. That could be because its subject matter, the succession and holy wars of French king Charlemange in the 10th Century isn’t the most compelling or enticing subject.
The show’s plot-line focusses on Pippin, one of Charlemange’s sons, who, after completing his education, is wracked with doubts about his future.  
So, starting with the basic conundrum ‘what’s the purpose of life?’ then delves into a number of different lifestyle choices.
In Australia, Pippin has usually been presented as a star vehicle for the singer in its title role; a tradition that began when John Farnham opened the original Melbourne production.
In the US, the original director, Bob Fosse, reshaped the central role of the Leading Player from a wise sage into a young, athletic charismatic ringmaster – and that set an ongoing pattern.
And finally, a 2013 Broadway revival moved the whole thing from a Middle-Ages period piece into a medieval travelling circus setting with the ensemble – which traditionally enacted the story – adding juggling, acrobatic and arial tricks as a background to the young prince’s dilemmas.
All of these elements were taken on board by this CentreStage production’s co-directors Michele Marcu and David Greenwood, who added some illusionary features but also left a significant omission.
So Geelong’s Pippin was finely portrayed by the excellent Oliver Turner as a troubled young man unable to settle in any position for his future.
He tried going to war in the army, entered the church, tried debauchery, revolution and even regicide which led to an ill-fated  benign rule.
Luckily, he was able to reverse the last two by calling upon the Leading Player’s God-like authority. 
The Leading Player – in the hands of very well cast Storm Randall – was magnetic in his Fosse-like persona. Tall and slim, with spindly legs and a mop of curly hair, he directed and oversaw the proceedings with total authority.
This wasn’t as easy as it sounded, because Dan Eastwood presented his Charlemagne with a powerful degree of command while his wily, conniving wife Fastrada was played with eye-catching cunning by Jessie Walsdorf. 
Her son – and Pippin’s rival – Lewis  gave Martin Nguyen the opportunity to display his fine acting chops as well as impressive athleticism.
In a cameo role, Nicole Hickman played Charlemagne’s mother Berthe as a frustrated older woman longing to recapture her youth and presented a burlesque routine when given the opportunity.
Both she Jessie’s Fastrada  did this – throwing off their dresses to bump and grind in Hey Big Spender-style numbers with considerable effect.
As Pippin’s love interest, and eventual saviour, Catherine, Jasmin Wilson added a lovely singing voice to a nicely balanced portrayal of widow and mother to Isaac Long’s duck-loving son Theo. (Jude Waldorf  is alternative in this part.)  
All this while the show’s dancing, singing, tumbling, flick-flacking somersaulting troupe of Travelling Players defined the storyline with energetic skills and a degree of sensual seduction (when required). 
So thank you, Cassiana Marcu, Kasey Naylon, Eliot Cudmore, Ella Edwards, Jack McPhail, Rosie Tuck, Mia Fine, Siobhan Lugton and Sarah Droscher. Your efforts were crucial to linking the storyline as you integrated those circus antics with choreographer Chloe Quinney’s complex dance moves. 
But then there was that omission. What this Pippin lacked was an orchestra.
Its use of pre-recorded sound tracks gave several sound-level and vocal issues as well as an inflexibility that sat uncomfortably with the show’s free-flowing circus theme.
But having said that, this Pippin did display a number of excellent Geelong performers in its colourful, vibrant – and unusual hybrid – period showcase.
In my book, that makes it well worth a gander.
– Colin Mockett

Orchestra Geelong – That’s All Folk

Folk Lore, from Orchestra Geelong conducted by Hayden Dinse with guest choirs  Cantore and Voices of Geelong. R W Gibson Centre, Waurn Ponds August 10, 2025. 

I have to confess that this is the first time I have caught up with Orchestra Geelong since pre-Covid.
Much has changed for Geelong’s community orchestra which still invites amateurs and students to join with semi and professional musicians to create fine music.
It now has a new(ish) conductor  in the energetic, knowledgeable Hayden Dinse and performs in  a comfortable, plush new private-school venue.
So it was good to see a number of familiar faces in the 40+ ensemble, and plenty more in the packed-to-overflowing audience. The event had a slightly delayed start while extra chairs were brought in to accommodate latecomers.
The concert’s theme,  Folk Lore was promoted as ‘a celebration of folk music from nations and traditions around the world’.
In truth, that gave an excuse to showcase the orchestra’s prowess with music from a diversity of sources, from Stravinsky and Brahms to Christopher Tin and Riverdance. Add in songs from the two guest Geelong choirs and it all combined for a satisfying Sunday afternoon of fine music.
The concert began with Vaughn Williams 100-year-old English Folk Song Suite, which set the folkie theme while displaying the orchestra’s versatility and fluidity. The suite comprises three quite different movements, all based on British folk genres. So it shifted from jaunty to pastural to rousing, all accomplished with ease and flair.
The second piece was the Riverdance theme by Ronan Hardiman, which swept the world in the 1990s with a spectacular show that is, I’m sure, still touring now. Though it sounded familiar and was Irish traditional-dance related, it needed an elastic imagination to be counted as folk tune. It was well performed by the orchestra, which, if it had any qualms about the validity of the tune’s folk credentials, they didn’t show. But it was clear from the smiles that the players had enjoyed every note. So too the audience.
Then followed Brahms Hungarian Dances 1 and 5, both based on Bohemian folk tunes and bringing touches of Hungarian fire and intensity to the occasion, along with giving the orchestra’s strings and percussion sections a stimulating workout.
Then the orchestra left the stage to be replaced by the Geelong Youth Choir’s Cantore – it’s singers aged 8 to 18 – conducted by Phillipa McQuinn and accompanied on the venue’s grand piano by Stefanie Gumienik.
They sang Sam Pottle’s Jabberwocky, a nonsense piece based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice Through The Looking Glass. It’s a work filled with quirks, odd rhythms and mismatched harmonies – all accomplished with flair by the young singers and finishing with a joyful, extravagant shouting gesture.
Then followed the Choir’s adult singers Voices of Geelong, whose conductor/accompanist Kym Dillon was unavailable, so Ms Gumienik ably substituted.
The choir brought another modern piece, Seal’s Kiss From A Rose, from the soundtrack of Batman Forever.
Surprisingly, this came across as sounding nicely folk-rocky and neatly completed the concert’s first half.

After the break, the orchestra opened with another familiar-sounding work in Alven’s Midsommarvaka Op.19, – better known at the Swedish Rhapsody and a true folk song celebrating the long Scandinavian midsummer solstice.  It gave the orchestra’s flutes and woodwind a chance to shine, which they took.
Then came Percy Grainger’s Mock Morris,  lively Australian take on England’s much-maligned folk dance tradition which put the entire wind section in the spotlight, which they clearly  relished. 
I should add here that this concert showed that Orchestra Geelong’s strength is its excellent string section, led by Seth Latham, which led and carried every musical journey.
Anyways, following Percy Grainger came another Australian piece in Miriam Hyde’s Fantasia On Waltzing Matilda which is an obscure – and quite odd – work which had the orchestra wandering through the musical outback before arrival at the song’s one-line signature stanza.  
The concert’s penultimate piece, Stravinsky’s Berceuse and Finale from The Firebird added a serving of musical drama, and passion. And though it’s from a ballet, that was based on folklore. 
For the final work, both choirs returned to join the orchestra to complete an all-on-stage combined version of Christopher Tin’s Baba Yetu, which, conductor Hayden informed, is a Swahili setting for the Lord’s Prayer, commissioned as a theme for a video game.
Yes, a video game. It might not have been folk, but this blazing piece brought an enjoyable musical afternoon to an eclictic, electric – and highly satisfying finish.
– Colin Mockett

A La Boheme To Remember

La Boheme directed by  Dean Bryant for Opera Australia, The Play House at Geelong Arts Centre, July 11 2025.

Fourteen young Geelong singers took the stage in this Opera Australia production. The Geelong Youth Choir – that’s Jacob Bradley, Ashleigh Connolly, Josie-Beau Gilberthorpe, Hazel Kwong, Daniel Lim, Emma Liu, Lachlan McClellan, Jemima Nelson, Aleahya Newman, Rose O’Keefe, Joshua Peters, Kindie Porter, Ruby Thwaites and Shunti Wisbey sang under the direction of OA’s children’s chorus master Stephanie Arnold alongside the company’s established stars to present Puccini’s classic Bohemian story of love and tragedy.
In truth, the choir didn’t do much, just appearing in colourful costumes during act two, where they clustered around a toy vendor in the town square to sing snatches of scenario-setting arias prior to the opera’s pivotal tavern revelry scene.
But they were singing on-stage to a sold-out season in Geelong Arts Centre’s premier Play House alongside a raft of our nation’s top opera performers, many of whom enjoying international reputations.
Their appearance is part of Opera Australia’s Regional Children’s Chorus programme which encourages singers aged between nine and 14 to rehearse and perform in the chorus of touring productions.
This Geelong La Boheme kicked off the company’s 2025 14-venue 8-week national tour which moves to Canberra next week, then on to NSW, Queensland the Northern Territory and Western Australia before finishing at Wangaratta on September 6. They will be joined by eight different junior choirs on the way. It’s a winning concept that is now in its eleventh year, allowing young singers to experience the glamour, discipline, hard work – and exhilaration – of presenting first-class classical opera to large Australian audiences alongside top opera stars led by established stage administrators.
So the GYC were under the control of director Dean Bryant and accompanied by a 14-piece orchestra conducted by Simon Bruckard.
Isabel Hudson designed the unusual mid-20th Century set and costumes.
Such is the tight schedule of this La Boheme’s tour that each of the lead roles are mirrored/understudied; with each bracketed with a replacement performer of equal status. Both are credited equally in the programme, with those not in the lead positions becoming the production’s chorus, along with that guest children’s choir.  The above makes for a difficult review, as several of the bracketed performers shared  similar features. So apart from the GYC, this Geelong La Boheme’s on-stage stars were led by either Danita Weatherstone or Maia Andrews in the tragic lead role of Mimi. The chosen singerhad a glorious, delicate soprano voice, consumptive cough and tiny frozen hand, while either John Longmuir or Nick Kirkup’s warm tenor was able to convey her partner Rodolfo’s emotional move from delighted suitor to troubled lover with impressive masculine flair.
His garret roommate/friends, Marcello, played by  Andrew Williams or Benjamin Del Borrello; Schaunard, (Michael Lampard or Alexander Sefton) and Colline, Kiran Rajasingam (over Eddie Muliaumaselali’i) gave splendid revelling, roistering support while Eugene Raggio sang his dual roles of frustrated landlord Benoit and ousted admirer Alcindoro with smoothly delivered resigned acceptance.
But then, Cathy-Di Zhang (whose mirror was Sarah Prestwodge) added a wonderfully exhilarating, sashaying  Musetta to add both glamour and warm-hearted feminine sense to Puccini’s story of powerfully intense emotions portrayed in beautifully soaring, floating  musical  themes and melodies. 
At the end of this gorgeous night of operatic delights, all took their bows – along with those 14 local singers who, I am quite certain, will remember this experience for the remainder of their lives.
– Colin Mockett

GYC’s Rhapsody of Delights

The Sound of Us presented by Geelong Youth Choir for its End Of Semester One Concert at the Harold Mitchell Performance Hall, Deakin University Waurn Ponds Campus June 25, 2025.

Just for a moment, imagine that you’re running the region’s principal youth choir, and you land a prestige booking singing along with Opera Australia for a local performance of Puccini’s La Bohème. So which song would you add to your final public outing before the event that would aid your group’s transition from choral singing to classic opera? 
For the Geelong Youth Choir’s vivacious conductor Phillipa McQuinn and accompanist Stefanie Gumienik, the choice was obvious. It was Freddy Mercury’s complex opera-flavoured pop masterwork Bohemian Rhapsody which their choir performed with almost palpable relish, making the work an outstanding centrepiece to its five-song opening set.
The 14 voiced Cantore choir of 10-to-18 year-olds also included Astor Pizzolla’s lively Libertango, Sam Pottle’s rattling nonsense-song Jabberwocky, James Madsen’s moving The Silent Blue and finished with their swinging spiritual I’m Goin’ Up Yonder. But it was the Mercury/Queen number that set the room buzzing – and will certainly send Cantore to meet Australia’s opera stars on a positive musical note.
But back to this concert. Cantore  was followed by GYC’s smallest, cutest and most beguiling group, the Prelude Choir, of eight six-to-ten year olds with their calm conductor Tamlyn Mejia and accompanist Callum Watson. This group of soft-voiced tinies presented just two numbers, first an the almost compulsory Disney song, I See The Light from Frozen, but then something almost too charming for words –  Don Gato, a delightful Mexican folk song about a wayward cat which the diminutive chorus presented with hissing clawing gestures much to their own – and the audience’s absolute delight.
Then it was the turn of  the GYC’s adults, whose choir Voices Of Geelong was originally recruited from parents waiting take home their singing students, then augmented by staff and singers brought in by the choir’s vibrant conductor and accompanist Kym Dillon. This group’s set  began with Dolores O’Riordan’s ethereal Dreams, which was followed – or perhaps awakened – by a delicate Kiss From A Rose  by Seal Samuel.
But then the mood changed with an unannounced but clear tribute to recently departed Beach Boy, Brian Wilson, with a spirited version of his Fun Fun Fun.  This was followed by another pop classic, the Proclaimers’ Scottish tribute Sunshine On Leith  before ending with a further Caledonian masterwork, Auld Lang Syne with a new, original arrangement by Stefanie Gumienik.
Yes, the same Stephanie whose piano accompanied the opening Cantore choir also sings with Kym’s Voices  and her arrangement was included at the recent Robert Burns Festival in Camperdown.
Following this Scottish burst – which, it should be noted – was also accurately representative of  the weather outside – came the concert’s all-on-stage finale with all three choirs combining to joyfully present Elton John & Lebo’s M’s Circle Of Life from The Lion King. This brought a suitable end to another well-structured and delightful Geelong Youth Choir concert.
Next up for GYC is that Opera Australia La Bohème  in the Geelong Arts centre on July 11 and 12. If you want to know more – or to join any of the umbrella group’s choirs – simply contact  www.gyo.org.au or www.geelongyoutchoir.com  You can be sure of a harmonious reply.

– Colin Mockett

Joy-filled Monster Experience

Young Frankenstein  directed by Ben McNaughton & Hannah Senftleben
for Theatre of the Damned. Belmont High PAC,  June 20, 2025
This production’s opening night had an unexplained delayed start and sound problems just before its interval. There were several first-night fumbles from nervous cast members including a broken prop candle, a large power switch which confused Igor when he was ordered to throw it for the big reveal – because it was already turned on. Added to this, the monster disturbed his head-mic when throwing off his shackles.  But none of this mattered one little bit because it all just added to the mayhem in a laughter-packed night of Mel Brooks-driven theatrical delight.
For this production of Young Frankenstein – adapted from his film by Brooks himself – was a sharply interpreted, lovingly created sequel to the Frankenstein myth that ended up, for this reviewer, far better than its original film.
Among its many advantages were near-perfect casting and 18 clever, funny songs performed as production numbers using an energetic, well-drilled chorus and neatly unobtrusive off-stage band. There was disciplined, sympathetic direction and choreography and a set designed to smooth the pace of story-telling.
But most of all there was the sheer joy that was transmitted throughout from cast to audience.
Quite clearly, once they were over that slow beginning,  everyone on stage was having a ball making this show; and this was very much understood by their audience. So we laughed and applauded when the cast cleared up their broken props, Igor turned his switch off and on again, the monster reset his sound equipment and we rollicked along enjoying every joke, innuendo and twist to the show’s happy-ever-after fun-filled finale.
The real key to the show’s success was in its casting. David Van Etten  was perfect as Frederick Frankenstein, and Morgan Dooley-Axup outstanding as his beautiful assistant Inga. They’re the parts filled by Gene Wilder and Madeleine Kahn in the film – only the Geelong casting was younger, more energetic and more suitable. In short, they were better, and far funnier.
Josh McInnes’s frantic madcap Igor carried more dimensions than the film’s Marty Feldman and, as Frau Blucher, Paula Kontelj had so many advantages over Cloris Leachman that she deserved to be ranked as co-lead. We all knew that she could act and sing, but who would have thought that Geelong’s Mayoress possessed pinpoint comic timing? 
Completing to show’s seven-strong lead group was Alicia Miller’s Elizabeth Benning, who took her stand-offish New York socialite turned Monster groupie way over the top; David Mackay displayed his plethora of comedy skills as the villager rabble-rouser Inspector Kemp then plaintiff lonely blind Hermit, while Elijah Garlick-McQueen brought compassion, comedy and plentiful acting skills to the role of the Monster. 
All of these magnificent seven sang and danced perfectly – then added rich comedy chops and that over-all sense of joyful fun.
And they were backed by a support cast of villagers who, though recruited for their singing and dancing – which was fine and disciplined – were fully able to add to the mayhem and laughter when opportunities arose.
So take a bow, please, dance captain Bex Osborne and her team:  Abbey Geddes, Ruby Esler, Isaac Jamal, Alana Mauff, Laura McKenzie, Tracey McKeague, Shona Mercaldi, Ryan Baker and Ryan  Milich, Rebecca Wik, Eloise Wingrave, Connor Aspland, Leah Bensted and Eliot Cudmore.
Much credit to co-directors McNaughton Senftleben, choreographer Andrew Coomber, MD Courtney Davey and their backstage teams.
I would expect this Young Frankenstein to enjoy a season of full houses following such a strong, laughter-filled opening night experience.
If you are fast, and there are still tickets available, I can’t recommend this evening of rollicking fun any higher. It’s a wonderful antidote to the 2025 blues. So go, see, laugh, enjoy – and love every minute of Damned Happy Geelong theatre.
– Colin Mockett

World Cruise – By Mandolin

Around The World in 80 minutes, presented by the Melbourne Mandolin Orchestra conducted by Juliette Maxwell, Wesley Uniting Church, June 15 2025.
This pleasant Sunday afternoon concert was something of an eye-opener for those of us who saw the mandolin as merely a vibrato-voiced stringed instrument featured in folk or world-music groups.
Because when played in unison, and matched with compatible instruments, the result is a remarkably attractive and very different, distinctive sound.
This concert was clear testament to that.
It’s Around the World in 😯 Minutes theme allowed the Orchestra’s 12 mandolins, 5 mandolas and two occasional mandocellos to meld with six guitars, a subtle double bass and a gently quiet percussionist to play a rich selection of world music that was clearly chosen to highlight the instrument’s versatility.
The concert opened with a chirpy Australian piece introduced by concertmaster Michelle Wright who set the scene with recorded Daintree forest birdsong which led naturally on to Richard Charlton’s atmospheric Mangrove Dawn. This was then contrasted with a smoothly flowing musical description of An Old English Garden  as written by Eileen Pakenham.
Then came a surprise, with the introduction of guest clarinettist Anna Yamazaki, who  lead the orchestra through Ralph Paulsen Bahnsen’s Yugoslavia. Written in 1975 before the Balkan conflict, this work’s four distinct movements ranged from Slavic intensity to middle-eastern Klezmer – representing the nations that emerged – each beautifully portrayed by the unusual instrumental union.
Staying in the geographic region, next came Timotheos Arvanitakis’ Sunrise View Of Zakynthos with massed mandolins mimicking Hellenic zithers mirroring the Greek melodies that came from their companion mandolas and guitars.
From there it was but a short hop to Italy with the particularly suitable rolling Italian sound La Vita e Bella  – both lively and beautiful – before the first half ended with the musically complex Song Of The Japanese Autumn, which had intricate, delicate parts ranged from anthemic to serene.
Following a short break, play – and the journey – resumed  with Willi Althoff’s German dance tribute, Tanz Suite, which ranged from 1930s ragtime to glorious waltzes and even a little oom-pa sound all given that distinctive mandolin treatment.
Then followed Stephen Lalor’s Winter Collection, the first part inspired by a Melbourne street performer, the second illustrating the flight of a lost hat caught in gusts of wind.
After, came John Goodwin’s Shakertown, depicting the simple echoing music of Maine’s quirky religious community with jaunty, complex  repeating patterns. 
For the next piece, Libertango, conductor Juliette Maxwell’s tiny, blue-haired energetic figure left the stage to return largely hidden behind her full-sized piano- accordion which lead the mandolins through a particularly effective smouldering Argentinian tango. 
The concert’s final piece kept its Latin flavour going with Dieter Kreidler’s infectious s Rumba rhythms.
But then the afternoon was completed when soloist Anna returned to lead the plucked string orchestra in a delightfully spirited, elegant and perfectly suited New-Orleans blues encore number. 
It made a fitting end to such a diverse – and wonderfully different – musical journey.
Bravo MMO. Be assured that you’re welcome to make the trip to Geelong any time.
– Colin Mockett

GSO’s Tchaikovsky brings new fans

Tchaikovsky Fantasy presented by Geelong Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Mario Dobernig. Costa Hall May 31,  2025.

 As a general rule I try to keep the different segments of my life apart, but sometimes they collide and allow some quite insightful comparisons.
Such was the case this day. I had been booked to conduct a coach party of tourists around  historic points of Geelong between 9am and 2.30pm.
In my commentary I mentioned the need to return on time because I had to get to this 3pm concert – and three of the party asked to come as well.
This happened, we walked from their hotel to the Costa together and met in the foyer post-concert.
And to say they were impressed would be a considerable understatement.
All three were enthusiastic in their praise for Geelong, its symphony orchestra and this concert in particular, calling it ‘the undoubted highlight of their entire trip.’
To me, this was quite understandable because the choice of an all-Tchaikovsky programme was, well, inspired.
After all, which classical music enthusiast could possibly resist an event that included selections from the Nutcracker Suite, Swan Lake then finished with a rousing interpretation of the 1812 Overture?
This concert contained all these and much more.
For a start, the orchestra itself was in fine fettle under Mario Dobernig’s baton.
Its always-impressive string section was in rare form led by the quiet expertise of concertmaster Emily Frazer; while the horn section, outstanding throughout, was especially so in the lead-up to the 1812’s thundering climax.
But prior to this, we had appreciated the brilliance of star Cello soloist Svetlana Bogosavljevic.
Such was the respect shown that stage-hands  brought in her own raised stage aside the conductor’ rostrum.
This elevation was completely justified because her mastery of Tchaikovsky’s Rococo variations Op.33 deserved to be seen as well as heard.
Her expertise, understanding of the masterwork and sheer concentration held the audience spellbound. We sat in awed silence through her entire 20-minute complicated segment – all performed from memory – before bursting into rapturous applause at its end.
Then there was the delightfully young and modest violin soloist Emily Su, eye-catching in a sparkling blue dress and musically accomplished well beyond her years.
She dazzled in both senses with her performance of two pieces from the Swan Lake ballet suite.
This piece, too, displayed the GSO’s strings sections at their soaring sensory best.
Earlier we had experienced conductor Mario Dobernig having a little fun with his audience during  the seven very different sections of the Nutcracker suite.
Each section is distinct, ranging from delicately intricate opening rhythms and patterns to a sterling march, Russian, Arabian and Chinese dances leading to a sweet floral  finale. All were performed perfectly and faultlessly. To the extent that during the seconds-long pause between each piece, several audience members broke with protocol to tentatively applauded.
This earned no rebukes, but some some cheerful smiles and gestured acknowledgements from Maestro Mario, which in turn drew larger inter-responses and exceptionally warm applause at the end.
As a GSO guest conductor, Mario Dobernig was eye-catching throughout.
His distinctively demonstrative style clearly gave him absolute control of his musicians. At times he was stiff and correct, at others almost tiger-crouching and pleading while during the climactic 1812 build-ups his enthusiasm was such he appeared in danger of leaping from the rostrum to land among the viola section.
It was all memorable, and certainly worthwhile,  judging from the prolonged applause, curtain-calls and appreciative after-concert comments
as we audience filed out.
And this appreciation was not just from Geelong members, I can assure you.
For the GSO’s quality is now spreading throughout Victoria. 
Certainly from at least three enchanted, enraptured coach passengers.
– Colin Mockett

Classy Heavy Lloyd Webber Rock

School Of Rock directed by Davina Smith for Geelong Lyric Theatre Society. Playhouse at Geelong Arts Centre May 29, 2025.

 The surprise is that this high-energy, joke-filled feel-good musical has been around for fewer than ten years. Because this was already the third version I’ve seen. It’s clear that the wacky storyline of an addled temporary teacher revolutionising a staid private school by passing on his rock & roll passions resonates with the education sector; for both the other versions I’d seen were school productions.
So it was good to see what a senior company did with the musical that   Andrew Lloyd Webber, Glenn Slater and Julian Fellowes created in 2015 from the original 2003 film.
And the answer really very close to the schools versions.
Because this Lyric audience left the Geelong Arts Centre smiling, with a generic mix of grunge/punk/metal rock resonating in their heads and a huge admiration for the talents of a bunch of pre-teen rockers they’d seen playing their instruments live on stage.
These were led by Flynn Willis’s authentic Brian-May-inspired lead guitar; Tiny Freddie Humphrey’s exceptional drumming skills, Leo Gardiner’s glittering Elton John-ish keyboard mastery and the scene-stealing Novalie Morris’s so-accurate portrayal of a grunge-band bassist.
These were part of a larger group of precociously-talented kids led by Lola Duffie’s wise-before-time manager (who was not averse to performing an odd somersault or two) and Madeleine Swan’s reclusive pupil-to-lead-singer transformation.
These were supported by two teams of seven junior chorus and understudies, all drilled to perform the production’s high-energy choreographic moves devised by Will Johnston and Jules Hart to MD Brad Treloar’s rocking seven-piece band in the orchestra pit. This unseen band cleverly augmented and melded with the on-stage instrument players.
As for the adult cast, Brayden O’Hanlon took the lead role of Dewey Finn with a deal of skill and high-voltage energy. The chemistry with his young pupils was apparent and balanced by an utter distain for the other adults.
These were personified by Felicity McCowan’s uptight headmistress with hidden sympathies and neatly underplayed theatrical skills. Her opera chorus rendition ensured that a good proportion of the audience left singing Mozart alongside those with heavy rock infusion.
Michael Hardiman was admirable as Mr Schneebly, Finn’s timid, malleable friend whose teacher identity he had stolen. In turn, Schneebly’s self-important girlfriend, played by Emily Skinner, made the night’s biggest transition from overbearing tyrant to cheerfully raging  punk rocker appear effortless. 
The show’s adult chorus, most of whom are seasoned Geelong performers, alternated between parents, fellow teachers, security guards, police and other rockers with style. They kept the action flowing seamlessly across a versatile clever set. So take a bow, Terri Powell, Matt Eastwood, Rimon Abohaidar, Zoe Rossbotham, Alysha Jane, Richard Senftleben, Grant Whiteside, Julianne Wilde, Allanah Matchett, Alyce Ryan, Matthew Langmaid, Jasmin Wilson, Tyler McNicol, Joshua Halasc, Anastacia Harvey, Michaela Kohl, Madilyn Dyer, Connor McKinnon, and Ethan Vohmann.
 A team of young dancers played Finn’s imaginary muses who appeared at his times of stress and when the production needed one of its larger scene-changes. These were Molly Martin, Savannah White, Audrey Hanneysee, Tess McKeague and  Lily Glover-Smith.
You’ll understand that with such a large cast and task (Andrew Lloyd Webber had added 14 new numbers to the original film) director Davina Smith and her assistant, vocal director Tania Grant would have had their hands more than full – for I haven’t even mentioned the junior alternative cast teams and kids ensemble.
But I will say that the above cast and production team are significantly different to those released when Lyric first announced this show. It’s a credit to all involved that they finished with such a commendably well-staged, well-lit tuneful and colourfully staged spectacular result .
That and a full, happy audience literally singing their praises after the  performance. To the unusual tune of Lloyd-Webber and Mozart heavy rock, of course.
– Colin Mockett. 

75 Years Of Brilliant Celebration

Timeless Voices presented by Geelong Chorale conducted by Allister Cox, All Saints Church, Noble St Newtown May 18, 2025.
Apparently our much-loved Geelong Chorale began life as the Geelong Madrigal Society in 1949. Technically, that makes the group 76 years old, but somehow its historians lost a year, possibly in its name changes, because, for a long stint it was also known as The GAMA Singers. The Chorale still sits inside the Geelong Association of Music and Art (GAMA) umbrella organisation.
That calendar discrepancy could also be the motivation to name this 75th Anniversary concert Timeless Voices. The Chorale membership historically includes a wedge of very good-humoured singers. 
It certainly was why the concert began with a couple of traditional madrigals in the historic but topical Now Is The Month Of May-ing and the historic sauciness of Fair Phyllis I Saw – the saga of a shepherdess who wasn’t averse to a session a-kissing. 
Both were delivered with lusty vigour by the Chorale as an opening to a concert that, taking its lead from Fair Phyllis, appeared to be grouped in happy pairs. Because following the opening couplet were songs drawn from the group’s programmes over the past 75 years, mostly selected in pairs. There was, for example, two brilliant opera choruses in Nabucco- Chorus Of The Hebrew Slaves and Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana Easter hymn with guest soloist soprano Lisa Breen. Both were delivered with the Chorale’s polished-perfect vocal and musical finesse.
They sat comfortably alongside the concert’s two Afro-American slave spirituals My Lord What A Mornin’ and Soon Ah Will Be Done – the former a gentle appreciation of God’s work and the latter a chirpy acknowledgement of forthcoming death.
This also neatly displayed the Chorales’s adaptability and versatility.
It was shown, too, by their treatment of two classical pieces with identical themes to the spirituals. Edward Elgar’s As Torrents In Summer, in the hands of conductor Allister Cox and his assembled voices became a delicate ode to the appreciation of nature as written in a Longfellow poem. While the achingly beautiful and familiar Lacrymosa, part of Mozart’s Requiem, was suitably sung in Latin.
But not all of this concert was classic or sacred. There was  the fun of Ernst Toch’s 1920s spoken-word gem Geographical Fugue  and later the 30s jazz joy of Gershwin’s I Got Rhythm delivered with swinging panache with a little help from guest soloist Lisa Breen, whose voice soared over the Chorale’s sopranos in joyful descant.
Another of the concert’s many highlights was the Chorale’s vocal rendition of J S Bach’s Air on a G String, accompanied by Ilana Idrus’s plucked double bass and regular accompanist Kristine Mellens delicate jazz-flavoured piano work.
Ilana also played cello for the singers’ quiet, reflective Benedictus of Mozart’s Requiem as well as joining violinist Patrycja Radzi-Stewart for the concert’s big finale. A trio of sacred pieces led to this, with Bruckner’s Locus Iste, sung in Latin, Faure’s Cantinique de Jen Racine sung in French, and Finzi’s My Spirit Sang All Day sung in English and perfectly summing up the whole concert.
There was an unexpected bonus, too, because following the concert’s triumphal Zadok The Priest finale, Allister introduced  as an encore the end of the last movement (Better Is Peace) from Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man Mass for Peace.
It made a beautiful, fitting – and, regrettably, highly topical ending to what was a delightfully eclectic celebration of the Chorale’s 75 years. Or 76.
– Colin Mockett
The Chorale’s next concert, Song of Australia is a musical romp through 200 years of Australian choral music. It’s in the same venue 2.30pm Sunday August 24. 

Concert of Joyful Highlights

Mythic Journeys – a musical journey through legends and stories presented by Geelong Youth Choir, Voices Of Geelong and Geelong Youth Orchestra. Friday May 9 in the Vines Rd Community Centre, Hamlyn Heights.

There comes a point in every concert when the stars align, pleasure peaks and you think.. Yes! That was the highlight! 
Well this concert had a stream of them – and not all were musical.
At first this appeared to be a simple, if rare, community event. A joint concert between two of Geelong’s youth musical groups in a modern utility hall.
The groups were separate entities – Geelong  Youth Choir and Geelong Youth Orchestra. But the Choir actually has five choirs for different age groups, from pre-schoolers to adult, three of which sang at this Mythic Journeys concert.  The Cantore Choir  had singers ages 10-18, while the second  group, Voices of Geelong, is an adult choir which was originally started by mums and dads waiting for their children in the other choirs. The third, Prelude Choir has choristers under the age of 10.
They appeared in that order, singing mystical material for the concert’s first half. Then, after a short interval the Geelong Youth orchestra (aged 13 – 25) played seven supernatural pieces before the concert finished with two songs presented by an all-on stage combination of voices and musicians.
Given the overall theme of Mythic Journeys, you can appreciate the potential for highlight moments. Trust me, there were many.
The opening Cantore Choir (aged 10 to 18), with its vivacious conductor Phillipa McQuinn was accompanied by Stefanie Gumienik on keyboard.
They opened with the unworldly sounds of  Vuelie from Disney’s Frozen, which led a demonstration of the singers’ clear diction in  May It Be from Lord of the Rings. Then came the stark lyrics ‘Why did we have to come home to war?’ from Paul Jarman’s historical saga of Shackleton.  This led to –  and was balanced by –  a jaunty serve of outback spirit – and the first three consecutive highlights as Dan Walker’s Out There was followed by the clever nonsense of Sam Pottle’s Jabberwocky then the swinging spiritual I’m Goin’ Up Yonder which closed the set.
The adult Voices of Geelong was accompanied and conducted by Kym Dillon, whose musical talent is matched only by her limitless energy.
She conducted the choir’s first number, the Celtic-flavoured Dreams whilst playing with both hands on her keyboard and a foot on its pedal. This meant she controlled her singers lyrics, tempo timing and volume using only facial expressions and the swaying of her head and shoulders. It was highly effective and another highlight. It was also evident here that Voices of Geelong included some notable Geelong musical talents including Stefanie who had accompanied the previous choir.
The Voices continued with excellent treatments of a couple of well-known songs in Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill and another beautifully-presented spiritual, The Wailin’ Jennys’ Glory Bound. Then came a complete surprise – and another highlight – when the choir switched modes to present the lively 60s show tune Don’t Rain On My Parade from Funny Girl. The set ended with another Lord Of The Rings song, Annie Lennox’s Into The West.
The Voices were followed by probably the most engaging and charming highlight of the evening when the Prelude Choir took centre stage with their conductor Tamlyn Mejia and accompanist Callum Watson. This handful of tiny but ultra serious under 8s (one was proudly 5) wowed with just two numbers – the moving Castle On A Cloud from Les Miserables and then John Russell Cromie’s Gaelic Folk Song. Both were accomplished with discipline and no mean vocal skill, bringing the first half to a smiling, satisfying and so charming end.
The 27-member Geelong Youth Orchestra began the second half conducted by Olivia Sagor with another moving anti-war piece, Soldier’s Battlefield by Hayden Dinse before moving to Dvorak’s classical Movement 4 from his American Suite.  Then followed a happy piece of G & S operetta nostalgia with the Overture from Iolanthe. This led to Bacchanale by Saint-Saens and a slice of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows  with a change of conductor mid-way, with Michael O’Donnell putting down his southpaw violin to take the baton while Olivia picked up her bow to join the cello section. The orchestra’s segment finished with two more spiritual highlights, Danse Macabre by Saint-Saens and How To Train Your Dragon by John Powell.
But then came that all-on-stage finale, with Olivia conducting, Kym joining her choir, The Cantores having fun and and those tiny star Preludes charming every audience member as the full concert presented two memorable numbers, the nautical Let Go The Long White Sails then Ancient City, both by Paul-Jarman. 
This brought a satisfactory ending to a concert filled with joy, energy, charm – and a rich selection of mystical music.
If you’re interesting in enrolling your children – or yourself – in either organisation, you can contact www.geelongyoutchoir.com or www.gyo.org.au  Or, perhaps you might prefer to wait for another uplifting evening of happy musical highlights. Either way, you’ll definitely leave smiling.
– Colin Mockett

The Art Of Sexual Entrapments

The Shape Of Things, directed by Jules Hart for Geelong Repertory Theatre Company, Woodbin Theatre, May 3, 2025.

Neil LaBute wrote this play in the early 2000s and thought so highly of it that he turned it into film using the same cast.
So its plotline is quite well-known, and I’m not giving away any secrets by revealing that it’s set in an obscure American college and concerns a romantic encounter between a female arts student and a nerdy young man. 
Over the course of their months together, she encourages changes to his diet, fitness regime, choice of clothes and social behaviours until he appears  a quite different, much improved person. 
But the kicker comes when she reveals that it was all part of her arts project which was to re-shape a person’s life.
As such, the play raises questions in many social, personal freedom and artistic areas – from what is art and where are its borders – to how and where are the lines of social freedoms drawn and crossed.
Geelong Rep director Jules Hart neatly frames these conundrums by presenting the play without distractions on a stark white background using internally-lit plastic cubes as furniture. These were silently, slowly moved around by two stern black-clad stagehands accompanied by electro-pop music. 
And on this arty set, director Jules brought together a young, talented team of four actors to enact LaBut’s social dilemmas inside a drip-feed maze of puzzles.  The principal couple were Isla Fogg as the beautiful, headstrong and highly manipulative arts student Evelyn, and her chosen partner/victim Adam (of course) played by Tom Vlamis.
In a magnetic performance, Isla portrayed Evelyn as cool, calculating connivance wrapped in a sexually-charged package;  while Tom’s Adam, at first unbelieving of his luck moved willingly into her entrapments.
These began with hairstyle, workouts and ending nail biting- all neatly illustrated by costume changes and remarks from his friends Phillip (Eliot Cudmore) and Jenny (Maggie Evans).
These were no role-playing support actors, they were also fine portrayals of characters who found themselves inevitably wound into Evelyn’s web of controls.
I’ll not go further into revealing the outcome of this absorbing play, enough to say that it left its audience applauding the fine, disciplined acting and staging – then moving into the theatre’s foyer pondering while discussing the number of modern social dilemmas that author LaBute had posed.
But for this reviewer, who had watched the socially controlled but light-hearted 18th-Century marriage manoeuvrings depicted by Jane Austen Experience on the previous evening, it was also an illustration that our much-loosened social freedoms can work against our society’s individual liberties, too. 
It’s all good thought-provoking stuff – and excellent theatre. 

– Colin Mockett

All-Round Memorable Experience

 The Jane Austin Experience, directed by Elaine Mitchell for Theatre Of The Winged Unicorn, Ceres Temperance Hall, May 2, 2025.

 It is a truth universally  acknowledged that period drama in Geelong is best served in Ceres.
There are three principal reasons for this and the first is historic.
The township’s local company, Theatre Of The Winged Unicorn is highly experienced, having staged period dramas at their venue since 1993 – always elegantly and precisely presented.
The second reason is the venue itself, the1860s era sandstone former Temperance Hall puts its audience in the correct frame of mind well before the lights go up and first line delivered.
But it’s the third reason that’s the clincher.
It’s the involvement of the company’s co-founder, and this production’s producer, director and co-writer, Elaine Mitchell.
Elaine is a visual and textile artist as well as theatrical and her productions are always unique – and always memorable in their glorious vision and  visionary costumes. 
So this presentation, brought together to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth in 1775, was staged on a striking all-white set of draped lace and simple, stark white furniture.
On this multi-faceted set, a 10-member ensemble seamlessly staged classic scenes from five of Austen’s beloved novels: Emma, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion.
Each segment – some read, some enacted – was introduced and explained by costumed narrators who occasionally dropped their impartiality to take a part and ease the continuity of scenes.
This all contributed to give a delightfully familiar air to the proceedings, almost removing the theatrical ‘fourth wall’. 
The cast of seven women and three men – Julie Fryman, Jocelyn Mackay, Melissa and Rose Musselwhite,  Camille and Joshua Alexander-Robertson, Miriam Wood, Bodil and Tony Wright and Mitchell O’Neill were each versatile and clever in their portrayals of Jane Austen’s very different characters. Their understated delivery of the author’s clipped speech patterns, along with their use of muted body language and facial expressions defined each individual character;  bringing them to life – and endearing them to their enthralled audience. The overall effect was simply enchanting.
So I’m recommending that you go to see this Jane Austin Experience. Not because of the 250th anniversary excuse, nor because the plots and dialogues are timeless.
I recommend that you go to go see it because it demonstrates the sheer  magic that can be conjured when a bunch of highly talented and loving theatricals get to grips with the works of a master wordsmith.
And that master of words – and the real star of the show – was the indomitable Mistress Austen.
– Colin Mockett
The Jane Austen Experience is in Ceres Community Hall only until May 18.
Book through trybooking.com/CYJTM

Beautiful Musical Melancholy

A Bright New Day, Vox Angelica Choir conducted by Tom Healey. All Saints Anglican Church, Newtown, March 28, 2025.

At the beginning of this concert, conductor and Vox Angelica founder/director Tom Healey introduced the concert programme as having ‘a loose theme of melancholy’ adding that personally he was ‘never happier than when listening to melancholic music. He believed, he said, that given the cumulative effect of well-chosen selections, such an evening had an eventual uplifting effect on its listeners. And circumstances had provided such an evening, given the forthcoming combination of Lent, Easter and Anzac Day, with the ongoing Ukraine conflict and general world turmoil..
He then led his choir in a concert of a dozen musical pieces that he had carefully chosen, all delivered with skilled, elegant competence.
Except for an unexpected glitch that removed what was potentially a concert highlight – yet somehow its loss worked as a positive for the evening.
And do you know what? The result was uplifting. So much so, that a majority of audience members chose not to leave at the end, instead, standing in groups and discussing the beauty of the whole experience.
The evening began with the choir performing Alonso Lobo’s  Versa Est in Luctum – a measured, intricate piece that was presented in masterful style.
It was followed by Felix Mendelssohn’s Denn Er Hat Seinen Engeln Befohlen (for he shall give his angels charge over thee) with Tom’s Angelic voices delivering all of the composer’s 8 part harmonies with calm assurance.
This was followed by Faure’s Apres un Reve dreamily performed by soprano Phillippa McQuinn’s soaring voice accompanied by Regina Thomae’s piano. After which both resumed their places in the choir.
Then came Here My Prayer, a suitably melancholic  piece by Canadian Stephanie Martin – followed by an Australian counterpart, with Joseph Twist’s contemporary setting How Shall We Sing in a Strange Land? of words by Oodgeroo Noonuccal (formerly Kath Walker). This had Emily Swanson’s strong, plaintive soprano and clarity of diction highlighting the work’s sorrowful messages.
And it was immediately contrasted by baritone Manfred Pohlenz’s rendition of Samual Barber’s I Hear An Army – also accompanied by Regina’s piano, a combination that was accurately introduced by conductor Tom as ‘a knockout!’
This was followed another soulful contemporary Australian work, Waves of Gallipoli by Melissa Dunphy, surprisingly written for American choirs; then the male Vox Angelicas delivered Ubi Caritis, from Ola Gjeilo, a chant-like communion hymn for Maundy Thursday. 
After which it was the female chorister’s turn, with altos and sopranos delivering another unusual piece that tested their vocal range – Fear Thou Not by Marten Jansson.
And then came the concert glitch when James Tibbles was introduced to play an organ solo titled Piece Heroique, by Cesar Franck. This, he said, was a great piece that  contained ‘lots of chromatics, lots of fun and lots of loud music!’ Only for the All Saints’ majestic church organ to spoil his introduction by refusing to cooperate. After three aborted attempts to get a tuneful sound, and some expert attention including turning it off and on again, the segment was abandoned.
And yet somehow this fitted comfortably with the concert’s melancholic theme.
For its anticlimactic element led to the concert’s closure with a double dose of high melancholy. The ultra-moving Prayer for Ukraine by Valentin Silvestrov was followed by the hope-filled African-American anthem We Shall Walk Through the Valley in Peace, – Biblical tracts arranged by Moses Hogan.
Then, after long applause and many bows from conductor and choir, came that period of discussion and appreciation among audience members before we slowly, quietly, smilingly made our way home, sated from such an unusual musical evening of melancholic excellence.
– Colin Mockett

The Ultimate All-Star Ensemble 

Come From Away directed by Matthew Henderson for CentreStage Geelong. The Play House, Geelong Arts Centre March 7, 2025.
This, the first non-professional production of the multi-awarded musical in our region was halted after 35 minutes due to a complete sound-system shut down.
But after a 15-minute faux-interval it returned at exactly the point where the stoppage had occurred, then seamlessly completed a brilliant, slick and polished 100-minute performance that would grace any professional stage.
 And that splicing of the musical exactly at an unscheduled point was no easy feat. It called for every cast member to restart their choreographed moves at the same precise moment, co-ordinated with their on-stage musician’s score.
 Such precision was testament to the performers’ discipline as a unit – which remained central for the rest of what was exemplary show.
For Come From Away is the ultimate ensemble musical.
It’s clever structure and superb writing calls for a twelve actors to play dozens of parts each – in a smooth, continuous flow.
All this while telling a truly moving story, much of which is sung, backed by a folky Celtic-flavoured musical ensemble who are integrated on stage with them.
Small wonder that the professional versions of Come From Away have collected swags of awards including four Oliviers and a Tony. 
The show’s storyline is true. It’s the real-life telling of when 7,000 air passengers from all over the world were  diverted to a remote Newfoundland  airport during the panic that followed the 9/11 2001 attacks on New York. 
That was when America closed its airspace to all flights, and suddenly that remote Gander outpost found its population doubled at a time when everyone, passengers and locals alike, were scared and confused.
Yet the Gander community put aside all its grievances and fears and welcomed the ‘Come From Aways’ – their name for international visitors – into their lives with open hearts.
The musical now stands as a celebration of how good humanity can be when the chips are down – and that’s a much-needed reminder in today’s uncertain political climate.
Come From Away masterfully captures the resilience of the human spirit in the face of tragedy, and it does this by telling multiple stories at once.
That’s where the clever writing comes in. For all the characters are played by a dozen chamelian-like actors who rarely leave the stage but whose accents, clothes, body language and facial appearance changes to suit each evolving circumstance.
This was achieved flawlessly – and that’s why I’m not going to single out any one performance among what was a truly exceptional acting team.
They were, in no particular order, Duncan Esler, Bronte Wright, Sally-Anne Cowdell, Mat Dwyer, Nelfio DiMarco, Mark Muo, Chloe Davison, Andrew Lorenzo, Nicola Wetselaar, Amy Whitfield, Brad Beales and Felicity Cartwright.
Much kudos goes to the show’s director Matthew Henderson and choreographer  Natalya Munro for installing these excellent actors with such disciplined movement, dance and scene-shifting skills to keep the show’s non-stop movement seamlessly flowing. 
This too, goes to musical director Tom Fernee and his on-stage band of players; Phil Kearney, Gabriel Taburet, Georgie MacLucas, Eugenie Lyons, Martin De Marte, Britteny Ling, Ben Baker, John Kingma, Darcy Mulcahy, Sophie Barker and the Patricks Consedine and Hunter. 
Together they created a heartwarming, poignant musical that was at times uplifting and always deeply moving.
This Come From Away had the rare ability to balance joy and sorrow whilst showcasing the extraordinary stage talent at present available in Geelong.
So it was no surprise that it drew a standing ovation from its opening night audience – but which was curbed by organisers introducing a Newfoundland-born resident to carry out a mock ‘honoury Newfoundland citizen’ ceremony to Geelong’s mayor and some of the players.
To this reviewer, that intervention robbed the performers from the reception they had so richly earned.
Because this wonderful show deserved every clap, every bow and every ovation.
For this Geelong Come From Away was a must-see performance. 
So, please, go, enjoy – (you’ll love it) – and take the chance to deliver the final applause such skilled theatricals and super production deserves.
– Colin Mockett  

Triumph Of A Hot Exotic Night

Scheherazade featuring Geelong Symphony Orchestra conducted by  Richard Davis. Costa Hall, Saturday February 22, 2025

 On a hot, sultry Pako Festa Saturday, Geelong’s Symphony Orchestra provided a seriously exotic set of alternative scenarios.
For this opening concert of the GSO’s 2025 season provided a well-chosen trio of classics, beginning with the glorious Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia from Khachaturian’s ballet Spartacus, then Saint-Saëns’ complex and exotic Piano concerto No.5, and finishing with  one of the greats in Rimski-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. 
To present these pieces, our orchestra had recruited a trio of world-class guests. The first was our always-welcomed, much loved and first-choice guest conductor, Richard Davis, fresh off the plane from England. He, in turn, welcomed the superb pianist Konstantin Shamray and 19-year-old rising-star violinist Ian Chiao.
The evening’s opening work, Khachaturian’s Adagio from Spartacus and Phrygia, is a flowing masterpiece originally written for his 1954 ballet about the Roman gladiator-slave rebel leader. 
But to most in this Costa Hall audience, it brought back memories of  billowing sails of tall ships from the 1970s British TV series ‘The Onedin Line’. Either way, the audience was captivated and transported by the work’s graceful, haunting themes. These showed the GSO’s strong string section at its best, with themes ebbing and flowing between violins and cellos with leads from woodwind and triumphant brass passages all directed by maestro Davis’s pleading, rewarding eloquent body language.
The evening had clearly opened with a winning start.
But then came a memorable version of Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 5  – The Egyptian – featuring guest pianist Konstantin Shamray. The tall, elegant pianist at first appeared slightly confused – he had difficulty working out the stage’s entrance door – but once seated at the Costa Steinway, he dazzled and captured his audience by faultlessly playing the complex three-part piece brilliantly – and entirely from memory.
The work, written in Luxor, Egypt – hence its name – reflects the composer’s ability to conjure exotic middle-eastern images in the listener’s imagination.
The opening movement was lively and melodic, and, in the hands of this soloist, conductor and orchestra, it was also an exercise of precision as piano and orchestra engaged in a delightfully spirited dialogue.
The second movement was a dreamy, atmospheric piece with the piano’s delicate, shimmering passages complemented by lush orchestration, creating an overall dramatic effect; while the finale was a whirlwind of triumphant energy and technical brilliance.
Konstantin Shamray’s performance drew long, loud applause, several curtain calls and a short, pretty encore. It also finished the concert’s first half.
The second act was given over entirely to Rimsky-Korsakov’s  Scheherazade, which is symphonic interpretation of the classic Arabic tale of One Thousand and One Nights. The story follows Scheherazade, the doomed new wife of a sultan who had the habit of murdering his wives after their first night. But clever Scheherazade had the knack of telling stories with tantalising endings, making her stay 1001 nights – then permanent.
The soloist for this piece was no stranger, because he had spent the concert’s first half playing his violin beside the GSO’s smilingly modest concertmaster Elizabeth Scarlett.
Ian Chiao remained seated in that first violin position while he led the GSO through what was essentially a masterclass of musical storytelling.
This time the work was in four parts, with the opening movement another nautical one, about Sinbad. Ian’s violin, representing the voice of Scheherazad, was outstanding in its clarity.
He made her pleas delicate yet commanding- and suitably compelling.
For the second piece, the GSO woodwinds excelled, showing their agility and expressiveness. Their interplay captured this tale’s whimsical and adventurous elements. And that demonstrated conductor Davis at his most agile and body-language eloquent as he drew excellence from all parts – most especially Harrison Steele – Holmes’ trombone version of an angry murderous sultan! 
The third movement – and for this reviewer the evening’s highlight – unfolding  a love story. The strings shimmered, a harp and cymbals added touches of magic, and it all created a dreamlike atmosphere.
And then finally,  the storied story’s thrilling conclusion, which was expressed in a series of complex rhythms and dramatic mood shifts. This time the percussion section featured in a shipwreck scene, but the final moments were left to Ian’s hauntingly beautiful solo violin which faded to silence.
It  left the Costa audience awed, then bursting into warm applause.
In all, this Scheherazade was a triumph for the GSO, demonstrating its ability to draw world-class guests – and then with them, deliver world-class performances.
Bravo! But wait – there’s more!
The Geelong Symphony Orchestra’s next performance, Tchaikovsky Fantasy – including Nutcracker, Swan Lake and 1812 – is 3pm Saturday May 31.
I’d certainly recommend booking today. 

– Colin Mockett

Pride & Achievement In Concert

Geelong Summer Music Camp’s annual end-of-camp concert 2025. Costa Hall January 10, 2025.
This concert had its participants wearing uniform pink and it had a theme of Music Of Stage And Screen. Both of which are mightily overused these days. The McGrath foundation has made pink-clad crowds commonplace, while stage and screen music is the go-to for organisers of everything from school bands to junior musical companies to symphony orchestras.
Given this set-up, this concert was in danger of swerving into ho-hum been-there-seen-it audience territory. But it didn’t.
Instead, this was another heartwarming and uplifting concert in a series that began 43 years ago.
But first, a declaration of interest.  During that time, I have been a GSMC committee member, concert MC – and long-time review critic who has sat through more than 30 of what has become Geelong’s traditional first concert of each new year.
And I’m here to tell you that amazingly, they’re still getting better and better.
The core premise of each concert is that some 220 young musicians from Geelong, interstate and a couple from overseas all come together for an intense five days of musical masterclasses, sessions and tutorials from some of the best and most experienced tutors available.  Their ‘camp’ usually occurs in the New Year holidays at one of the region’s music-oriented private schools.
For the past few years, that’s been Christian College’s RW Gibson music centre in Waurn Ponds.
So this end-of-camp concert allows those students the rare opportunity to immediately put what they have learned into real-life practice in Geelong’s best and most prestigious venue. What’s more, the large and enthusiastic audience is always heavily in their favour, as the 1,400 capacity Costa Hall is mostly filled with proud parents, grandparents and siblings.
For the uncommitted concertgoers – and this reviewer – it’s quite impossible to miss the emotions of the occasion.
There’s always two sets of pride – one from the on-stage musicians who can’t wait to display the prowess they’ve learned, which mingles with waves of familial pride glowing from the audience.
And it all comes together in a wonderful all-on-stage finale number, specially arranged for 250 musicians.
But before this, the young players had performed in seven musical units – two bands, two orchestras, two symphonies and a choir – to expertly deliver numbers on that stage/screen theme – all chosen by their expert conductors to challenge and improve their expertise.
As always, this started with the elite players of the  Balyang Stage Band, conducted by Shannon Ebeling, which set an imposing standard with a faultless, swinging note-perfect version of Henry Mancini’s  Pink Panther Theme before delivering a crisp, rhythmic version of Tank!
This was followed by the younger players of the Bellarine Concert Band and their chameleon conductor Ari Farrer with three different tunes starting with Primal before an obligatory Disney Compilation delivered with plenty of style and finishing with Legend of the Water Dragon.
The young players who had chosen stringed instruments were formed into the Otway String Orchestra conducted by Laura Moore. They delighted with Richard Meyer’s Ninja, then the flowing Toucan Tango before a second compilation, this time of Harry Potter Themes conducted by Ms Moore with a Potter-y wand. This set finished with The Batman Theme delivered with delightful, youthful relish and no mean skill.
This prompted the concert’s comedy MC Steve Horman to don a Superman outfit to introduce The Surf Coast Wind Symphony conducted by Jemima Bunn which deliver four different, challenging pieces which, though they had questionable screen-theme credentials, beautifully showcased their players newly acquired expertise. These were Festal Intrada, …into the blue stretch of light.., The Seal Lullaby and Famishius Fantasticus, a musical extravaganza based on the Loony Tunes character Wile E. Coyote.
Then came the Djilang Singers, the always popular camp choir under the direction of ebullient Kate Notini who always conducts with infectious cheer. Together, they delivered four very different songs, beginning with the Vuelie theme from Disney’s Frozen, then the prologue to Little Shop Of Horrors, National Lampoon’s Holiday Road and finishing with the haunting Stand Up from Harriet with a truly beautiful alto solo voice from Jaya Newton.
Next on stage came the Swan Bay String Orchestra – senior students conducted by Trish Timmins – which perfectly delivered a rousing America from West Side Story, then a delicate version of Morricone’s Cinema Paradiso and finished with the orchestral version of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. This was, of course, thrilling and it led to the GSMC Symphony Orchestra conducted by the Camp’s MD Fiona Gardner, with a medley of four James Bond movies cleverly intertwined with Bond Themes,  before everyone involved in the camp – students, tutors, mentors et al took the stage for the evening’s grand finale, Abba’s Mamma Mia  arranged for multiple instruments and vocals by Geelong musician (and GSMC accompanist) Kym Dillon.
This brought a neat climactic finish to an excellent concert that left its audience delighted and its participants with wide-but-modest smiles of achievement. 
It enhanced the reputation of what is now cemented as our City’s iconic annual opening musical concert, while showing the astonishing amount of knowledge that can be learned by young people in a scant five days.
Next year’s concert will be a week later – January 16. I’d recommend you to mark your diary now. Believe me, this Geelong event is not to be missed.
– Colin Mockett