The Wharf Revue 2015 is back to its sharp, biting satirical best, and for added entertainment they have included literary humour, opera, musicals, pop, jazz and the crude and the vulgar.
Jonathan Biggins, Amanda Bishop, Drew Forsythe and Phillip Scott all perform wonderfully as a diverse range of characters. The show seamlessly jumps between live and video segments keeping up a constant flow of entertainment. The music and musical performances round out a thoroughly enjoyable production.
In The Last Days of the Howard Bunker they are Liberal characters in the last days of The Third Reich singing about when the night looks darkest before the Tampa dawn and the thankless blue collar scum.
The complexities of the Greek financial crisis and fiscal dyslexia are explained in The Revue’s version of Grease, The Musical. This very funny and energetic segment warns that things are getting darker when you can’t afford moussaka!
The audience responded well as the thoughtful and intelligent skits continued to roll out and amuse.
Alan Joyce and Qantas are given a very clever and witty James Joyce’s Dubliners treatment in which we hear about flights and fights with the unions. The language is as complex as James Joyce’s prose and requires concentration to follow.
A similarly literary segment is a study of Canberra’s machinations in Under Milkwood. The Welsh choir is a nice touch.
Clive Palmer and Dio Wang have a series of absurdist phone calls about rumours of a leadership coup. Bob Hawke and Paul Keating are plotting and scheming in their nursing home. Their zeal for reform is undiminished and Keating’s putdowns are as eloquent as ever.
A really enjoyable segment was the performance of The Helen Clark 4 and their re-working of a jazz classic. The French Revolution may never be seen in quite the same light after The Revue’s clever take on it.
The evening closed with The Goon Show as a live radio play in search of the ABC Charter and combating the evil forces of News Limited embedded within the national broadcaster.
A Sydney Theatre Company production THE WHARF REVUE 2015 premiered its Sydney season at the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre Penrith at the beginning of September and is now on the ‘final leg’ of its journey, at Wharf 1, Sydney Theatre Company, where it will play until the 23rd December.
The show is a sell out. The Sydney Theatre Company has advised that it will be releasing a limited number of tickets over the coming weeks, but that these will only be made available via the phone. To enquire contact Box Office on 02 9250 1777.