Ben Apfelbaum

SIDE SHOW @ THE HAYES

The Hayes Theatre often finds unloved musicals and brings them back to life. It performs the function of an off Broadway music hall. Musicals have some  strange premises – a flesh eating plant in Little Shop Of Horrors, Mormons in The Book Of Mormon and a US Founding Father in Hamilton.

The Hayes has turned its attention to a musical based on the real life twin sisters Daisy and Violet Hilton, joined at the hip but otherwise possessing separate limbs and organs. They grew up touring America (and Australia) in a travelling freak show where they were cruelly exploited by their guardian, Meyer Meyers.

However when their great talent and charm was discovered by a vaudeville promoter, they were urged to seek freedom from their guardianship which in 1931 they succeeded to do. As a result they became a national sensation and amongst the highest paid stars of 1930s Broadway. The musical covers the period from an account of their mother’s rejection in a Brighton UK hospital in 1908 until their appearance in Tod Browning’s film Freaks in 1932.The Hayes Theatre’s’ intimate space somehow tricks you into believing you are watching a full sized mainstream production. This is facilitated by director Richard Carroll’s’ skilfull manipulation of twelve actors on a tiny stage, ably assisted by choreographer Amy Campbell. The lighting designer Hugh Hamilton cleverly keeps the lighting low whilst the sister’s’ lives are grim and then brightens the  lights up fully as the twins find success. The costume designer Angela White evokes the start of the 20th century fashions with flair.

Surprisingly there is a tennis match, an acrobatic act ‘Fred Astaire’ type dancing and a straightjacket escape act by Harry Houdini. The sisters different personalities are delineated very well by Laura Bunting as Daisy, the fame seeker, with Kerrie Anne Greenland as Violet, the homebody. They harmonise beautifully and Bunting and Greenland and the rest of the Ensemble give their all to a vocally demanding score. Standouts for me were Timothy Springs as Jake, Berynn Schwerdt as Sir, Daniel Bell as Terry, Elenoa Rokobaro as the Fortune Teller, and a special mention must go to Bree Langridge as the Tattoo Lady for her acrobatic skills. The band played subtly in the background under the musical direction of Conrad Hamill.

The Broadway production had two revivals and both failed. The valiant cast, despite their best efforts, were defeated by disappointing Books and Lyrics by Bill Russell, and Music by Henry Krieger. Every number was huge and over-blown, there were barely any quiet moments to lead you to a crescendo, and you could not feel for, nor identify with the sisters because they were buried beneath the bombast. I also felt that in this tiny space the miked performances were set at too high a volume. As Bunting and Greenland seemed to have such powerful voices they and the rest of the cast could have performed without any artificial amplification. If this had been tried and foun d insufficient at least the volume could have been turned down a little.

Despite these shortcoming, I enjoyed the show and was pleased to discover the Hilton sisters and their sad story which ended in 1969 when they both died together aged sixty after having worked in obscurity in a grocery store in Charlotte, North Carolina for the last seven years of their lives.

The Hayes Theatre is to be praised for continuing to excavate and bring to life unusual musical gems.

SIDESHOW is playing for a strictly limited season at the Hayes Theatre, Potts Point until October 16.

Production photos by Kurt Sneddon. Featured photo- Joshua-Mulheran, Laura-Bunting, Kerrie-Anne-Greenland-and-Gabriel-Brown-in-SIDE SHOW.

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborland. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, united states, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication.

One comment

  1. Indeed there could be a better arc to this theatrical work, especially the ending of the Musical where I felt should it have finished with the two girls awesome rendition of “I will never leave you.”
    “Come Look at the Freaks” unfortunately was reprised which broke the mood and arc of our real interest in the twins. I would have preferred the writers reversed this by placing “I will never leave you,” after the reprise of “Freaks.”

    Closing number of Act 1 “Who will love me for who I am ?” was incredible, and moved the audience to tears the night I saw the show.

    The show was penned in the late 1990’s and I think Musicals have progressed somewhat in the last two decades, as such even with the most recent rewrites Side Show reminded me of the format of NINE, CHICAGO, TITANIC which are all very much episodic song-book style shows. Well worth my $60 all the same!

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