Although Amy is carer, cook and handyman, all rolled into one, she becomes the object of scorn when her sister Lecy (Belinda Wollaston) descends on the old home. Now living the glamorous media life in the city Lecy fails to understand why her sister is holding on to the hard and gainless farm life. One sister unable to change her ways and one changed so much she is completely unrecognisable – that is the scope of character development in this piece and its textured exploration of the women’s desires and worries is a welcomed change on a theatrical stage. Stewart’s Amy with her self-denying earnestness provides a great contrast to Wollaston’s initially vapid Lecy who gets all the good laughs and outrageous lines. And then there are the men. Brother Shaun (Iestyn Arwell) struggles with his past and seems unable to take his future into his own hand. When the ruggedly handsome Burke (Shaun Rennie) visits the farm long needed change in the family’s life kicks into motion. Rennie gives a grounded performance linking the other characters desires and anxieties without becoming a cypher.

Mathew Frank’s songs swing between very conventional modern musical theatre style and a slightly-off Sondheim experiment. They tell the story efficiently and among them are some really beautiful pieces. The energetic ‘What The Hell’ is a lot of fun and the ballads ‘As Far As The Eye Can See’ or ‘Patch Of Dust’ are genuinely touching. A good book by Dean Bryant although some of his lyrics are quite a mouthful for the performers and sometimes the sincerity of the story takes over and the drama can feel a bit excessive. Effective lighting by Seth Rook Williams and an impressive set by Christopher Hone that changes from patio to roof top within a matter of seconds conjure up the Australian outback on the King’s Head’s small stage.

After playing in Australia and America it took a good five years to bring this show to a UK stage and with its specific focus on family farming it’s easy to see why it would be a hard sell for European audiences. However, the well-drawn characters will manage to reel you into this foreign world and if you didn’t think a quip about a water pump can be suitable end gag for a musical wait until you see Amy’s redeeming moment. She douses herself with the sparse water – is change after hardship possible after all?

This is a very solid production allowing a glimpse into life in the Australian outback that’s neither cliché nor trite. Not all the humour and topics translate smoothly to British audiences but there is enough meat around the family story with its strong female characters to make this a watchable show. Add some good tunes and you have a rather enjoyable evening.

Thankfully it’s not controversial just for the sake of it. As a creative endeavour Betty Nansen Teatret, Cederholm & Hellemann Bros’ Mozart Undone is a tremendous achievement. A balance between theatrical performance, modern dance piece and music concert, the event reimagines and illustrates some 28 pieces from all corners of the Köchel catalogue. Well-known melodies are constantly broken down and visual expectations are reversed and played with. The piece tumbles across the genres of modern music history stealing movements from country music to electronic, from pop ballad to soft rock. The characters, too, are like feathers blowing from one situation to the next.

It starts with a harmless flirtation on a piano. In a decrepit theatre space, a group of eleven performers and musicians innocently fool around with water dripping from the ceiling as a version of Piano Concerto No.23 in A, 2. Adagio is being played live on stage. Usually instruments are hidden away, but to have them as part of the action is a nice treat, and not just when the electric guitar is played like a fiddle might be played by a possessed violinist. Over time the performance works itself into a wild frenzy of disturbing images spliced with slapstick humour and plenty of glitter.

Lotte Andersen from the Danish crime drama The Bridge and her fellow cast member are once in highly inventive makeshift rococo costumes (Anja Vang Kragh) and in the next minute locked in hour-glasses, submerged in bath tubs or transformed into nightmarish plaster orcs. The scope of just what the performers do with their voices and how they melt into one organic Gesamtkunstwerk is extraordinary. Claus Hempler is channeling David Bowie on more than one occasion and his powdery, dramatic voice adds a surreal cabaret dimension. When the vocally stunning Louise Hart and the rocker of the ensemble, Bjørn Fjæstad, perform ‘Under The Heartwood Tree’ we get hints of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. The breadth of musical trickery paired with visually exciting transformations is full of flourishes and never fails to amuse and surprise.

If you are a Mozart purist then you might not appreciate the unabashed way the ensemble reworks the classic melodies to an audio-visual spectacle. The rejigging of songs not only adds an additional layer of a different musical genre, but it also causes a significant change in the visual contexts the classic Mozart songs are associated with. Viewers might take exception to loading Mozart’s tunes with claustrophobic or sexual imagery because any original artistic intention might be subverted or overpowered.

Audiences tend to either love or hate what they don’t fully understand because it feels as if those pieces reach into a different realm. Although contrasting motifs of pure water and sullied flesh and bellicose humans, Nikolaj Cederholm’s direction steers clear of tying anything up too neatly. Inventing new forms of musical expression is what the wunderkind Mozart has become known for, so what better way to pay homage than to use his music to explore new theatrical formats? Mozart Undone is definitely whimsical and may have picked up some influences from iconic director Robert Wilson, but the conviction of the concept of a theatre-concert upholds nonetheless. There are few shows truly as spellbinding as this one. Unsurprisingly there were instant standing ovations at the final bow.

Jersey Boys tells the remarkable story of the rise to fame of the vocal pop band Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. From their humble beginnings in a blue-collar neighbourhood in Newark, New Jersey, to their acceptance into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the band has contributed countless influential songs to the popular musical canon: “Sherry”, “Walk Like A Man” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”, to name only a few. Here, each of the four members Tommy DeVito, Bob Gaudio, Nick Massi and Frankie Valli share their different perspectives on the history of the band.

While some jukebox musicals only excel in awkwardly pressing previously released songs into thinly spun narratives, Jersey Boys, with its biographical story, handles the transition of chart hits onto the stage much more smoothly. In the same vein as Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story, personal anecdotes and tragic moments are interspersed with renditions of some of The Four Seasons’ most successful hits. For those who aren’t hardcore fans of the band, which was originally formed in 1960, there are several aha moments. For example, when the first bars of “Big Girls Don’t Cry” start to play, the audience suddenly becomes aware who actually penned the famous opening song from Dirty Dancing.

The cage-like set proves to be very versatile and can convincingly be turned into a prison, mobster hideout, a recording studio or even a church with only a few stylised alterations.
Atmospheric background projections inspired by pictures of American photographer George Tice or colourful Pop Art illustrations reminiscent of Roy Lichtenstein’s art help the fast-paced action, especially in the first part of the first act which seems a bit rushed and fragmented in places. Because of the distinct focus on telling the story and introducing a lot of characters, the music steps into the background. It is a bold decision for a musical, but one that pays off because it lends more gravitas to scenes of a more emotional nature later on. Half an hour in, the show settles into a more comfortable but still snappy pace and allows more space for story and songs to interlink.

Behind Frankie Valli’s “angelic” voice there are surprising things to discover about the Four Seasons. As many modern day pop stars can vouch for, coming of age in the limelight is not easy, and performer Dan Burton does a convincing job in portraying the impressionable 17-year old Francis Castellucio who grows into the worldly-wise entertainer Frankie Valli.

There’s a lot more going on under the hood of this musical than one would imagine from the outset and the glossy surface. The characters find themselves confronted with various figurations of family and delicate questions of friendship and loyalty. Themes of manhood and creative power struggles are explored and more than one relationship falls victim to success. Several poignant moments let us witness how show business is not always about glitter jackets and perfectly coiffed quiffs (and here the production and costume design deserves an honourable mention), but about broken hearts and broken promises too. There are also hints about the involvement of the mafia in the success of the group, and we even meet now famous actor Joe Pesci as a kid meddling with other people’s affairs (Ben Jennings in an eerily accurate impersonation), adding a splash of Italian-American attitude that television audiences have come to love in The Sopranos. In a way, Jersey Boys is as much a success story of a music group as it is a surprisingly unaffected retelling of the American Dream.

Matthew Wycliffe gives a beautifully understated and convincing performance as Bobby Gaudino, the band’s song writer. And there is a monologue in which he claims that they might not have caused a musical revolution like The Beatles, but in their time they were nothing less than the musical heroes of America’s working class.

However, even with all of the praise, it has to be mentioned that the show I went to see had a lot of understudies performing instead of the main cast, and there were some obvious technical difficulties with the sound mixing. For a show that has been running for over four years, this is simply inexcusable. Also, if vocal pop from the 60s isn’t your kind of music and jukebox musicals leave you cold, you’d better give this one a pass.

But, generally, it’s not hard to see why this musical has been showered with awards all over the world and this London production is no exception. It is funny, sometimes touching, has a great look and definitely a unique sound that’ll stay with you long after the last curtain call. “Oh What A Night” indeed!