Wu-Tang Clan Australia; Wu-Tang Clan at Rod Laver Arena; Evil Dead the Musical at Chapel Off Chapel; Wu-Tang Clan at Rod Laver Arena; Lighting the Dark at MPAC

MUSIC
Wu-Tang Clan | Wu-Tang Forever: The Last Room ★★★
Rod Laver Arena, March 27

How can Wu-Tang, a band that rewrote the DNA of hip-hop and what it means to be cool, be nostalgic for their heyday?

They started by turning Rod Laver Arena into a giant recreation of my bedroom, circa 1997, with Wu-Tang in heavy rotation. I haven’t been in a room this choked with weed smoke since my VCE.

And like me doing my VCE, there was a distinct feeling that I wasn’t ready to present to the class.

The elephant in the room: Half the group wasn’t there. Although Wu-Tang Forever: The Last Room Tour While it was advertised as “all living members together for the last time”, Method Man, Raekwon, Cappadonna and Young Dirty Bastard were absent without explanation. The rappers who depend on the sound of many of Wu-Tang’s greatest tracks.

Thus began the complex and rapid run of one of the greatest discographies in history. The remaining members sang other members’ lines in some songs and left others half-way. Radio hit in high-energy dance towards the end of the show gravel pit I ran toward a handful of bars until it became impossible to salvage Method Man’s cool delivery via karaoke and I just…stopped.

Wu-Tang famously “formed like Voltron”; together is greater than the sum of its parts. Remove these pieces and watch Voltron’s wheels fall off in real time.

On several occasions, the Klan all went offstage together to air recorded videos and skits. A mid-set to a Barbra Streisand song in tribute to fallen rappers? Touching but surprising. Also: Trailer for RZA’s new movie? A QR code for Wu-Tang’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? Some kind of giveaway? Why not at this point?

GZAs Vocal delivery is tight and powerful as always. RZA remains one of the coolest guys on the planet and does some incredible heavy lifting for the stripped-down clan. Unfortunately, the sheer brilliance of its beats – the sparse, iconic production that defined an era – was recreated by a live band, lost in a mix of sound that was both muddy and shrill.

But when you can hear them, when they’re hitting their bars, when the whole crowd is jumping on their aging knees to immortal rhythms, it’s undeniable – it’s Wu-Tang forever.

Scattered, chaotic, flashes of brilliance; It was a show that had bad sound but great energy, and took 35 years and five minutes to make.

Reviewed by Liam Pieper

MUSICAL THEATER
Evil Dead Musical ★★★★
Chapel Closed Chapel until April 12

Jump scare. Meet jazz hands. Oh, make that jazz hand and chainsaw attachment. Yes dear reader, Evil Dead Musical came.

The horror franchise that launched director Sam Raimi’s career has spawned numerous adaptations, reboots and sequels since the 1981 cult classic. Now musical theater gets its shot with a show that tickles all the tropes in an all-singing, all-dancing orgy of demon beheadings and general mayhem.

Among parody musicals, this is the only one with a “splash zone”. Theatergoers in the first three rows are given ponchos at intervals, and I can vouch that they should avoid getting covered in fake blood. Things start to ramp up when ancient evil is unleashed on the world, and this show has it all covered.

I won’t vouch for the quality of the songs. The music by Frank Cipolla and three others has a comically wide range of influences, from a two-person opera duet. What was this? This reminds us of Bizet’s words Carmen One Grease-inspiring shoo-wop lament called All the Men in My Life Keep Getting Killed by Kandarian Demons.

While they’re performed with delightfully silly gusto, and the cast’s musical theater chops can’t be denied, the musical numbers sometimes act less like highlights and more like the glue that holds together moments that are guaranteed to push buttons for fans of the series – hilarious scare effects, super lowbrow comedy, and famous catchphrases from the film.

The plot is inspired by the original film trilogy. Five college students break into an abandoned cabin in the woods. Ash (Harley Dasey), his nerdy sister Cheryl (Emma Wilby), his girlfriend and co-worker Linda (Elaina Bianchi) and his obnoxious, sex-crazed best friend Scott (Jake Ameduri), and Scott’s latest girlfriend Shelly (Grace Alston).

Their weekend trip goes horribly wrong when they inadvertently use the Necronomicon to summon a vile being, subjecting each of them to a demonic possession of a terrifying kind.

Mild-mannered Ash becomes a chainsaw-wielding demon hunter, his friends become ruthless Deadites, and even his own hand turns evil. Meanwhile, occult investigator Annie (Alston), her laconic partner Ed (Oliver Clisdell), and their redneck guide Jake (Harrison Riley) head to the cabin, clutching the missing pages of the Necronomicon.

Dasey plays tortured faux-hero Ash with aplomb (and channels shades of Bruce Campbell’s iconic performance), others lean into caricatures of teen movie stereotypes and seem to revel in their demonic transformations, culminating in group choreography as the Deadites prove they can dance.

The visual effects and set design allow us to bathe in comedic horror, and the show is often at its best when it’s at its bloodiest. You can expect anything from a chainsaw decapitation to a demonically possessed, singing deer head.

Evil Dead Musical it may shorten the musical part of musical theatre, but fans of this ridiculously entertaining and franchise will love the gorefest – all the heavy prosthetics, stop-motion effects and gore jokes in the then-revolutionary film pay due respect through stage magic.
Reviewed by Cameron Woodhead

DANCE
Lighting the Darkness ★★★
Monash University Performing Arts Centre, 27 March

Lighting the Darkness An exaggeratedly cheerful dance fantasy by South Australian choreographer Chris Dyke. Performed by a seven-piece troupe from Dancenorth, this is a chatty and laid-back performance, but brimming with production sparkle.

Dyke is also the star of the show. A dancer living with Down syndrome moves with a distinctive hustle: Slower, smooth movements in the upper body and arms, but with plenty of power in the legs and core.

The show begins with a superhero melee, and the ensemble has an absolute ball: there are non-stop money stops, isolations and smooth slides. A playfully unpretentious cartoon flick, led by the remarkably competent Felix Sampson.

A later episode was attributed to David Bowie. Reputation and features stencil images brought to life in Banksy’s comic sketches. It culminates in the haunting vision of Tiana Lung and Aleeya McFadyen-Rew locking lips as kissing cops.

There are serious moments where Dyke embraces the community. However, it also allows for plenty of clowning around. Sometimes, especially on a play-like movie outing, it resembles a private concert or green room wheeze.

It’s all part of the dream. Lighting the Darkness This is said to be the first full-length work commissioned by Australia’s mainstream contemporary dance community for a performer with an intellectual disability – does this imply a different kind of heroism? Dyke approaches this possibility with a kind of ironic good humor. He climbs into his tower of milk crates, strips down to the waist, and spreads his arms like Bowie’s. heroes swells behind. This production knows what kind of tender desire it is staging.

That’s why the phrase “just for one day” lands so powerfully. Fantasy has warmth because it is limited. It is a work full of light, but it never makes you forget that the darkness continues even after the theater is empty.
Reviewed by Andrew Fuhrmann

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