Saturday, September 20, 2014

Love Bites



Wooden Horse Productions Proudly Presents LOVE BITES. Music by Peter Rutherford. Lyrics by James Millar. At the Hayes Theatre, Potts Point. September 10 - October 6.

LOVE BITES, is an Australian musical that was first presented at the Seymour Centre in 2009. Music by Peter Rutherford with Lyrics by James Millar. It is, generally, a light weight song cycle with the double entendre title being justified in the course of the show: Love can bite both ways.

The four performers: Kirby Burgess, Tyran Parke, Adele Parkinson and Shaun Rennie, create and sing an array of characters in the first half of the show, experiencing the first bite of love, and subsequently, in the second half, detailing the consequences. Some of the consequences are amusing, some sad, some hilarious, some just totally outrageous. The serial nature of the song cycle construction from act one into act two, works out in a very rewarding way, and each of you will have your favourite couple and narrative. The singers all get their spot piece to reveal their gifts, and all blend, seamlessly, into an ensemble with the appearance of simple joy - their rapport with one another, infectious in their desire to give us the gift of a good time.

The Music score by Mr Rutherford covers the field of musical sounds from a homage to Stephen Sondheim to the catchy pop tune and everything in between, and is enhanced with the often, very witty words of Mr Millar. Altogether, impressive. The Direction by Troy Alexander is fairly fluid, aided by two tiny twin revolves on a black gloss rectangled, raised stage. Settings by Lauren Peters and costumes by Becky-Dee Trevenen are expertly managed in what is a very busy show for all - the backstage crew can be seen flitting hurriedly behind the revolves, too. Choreography, by Ellen Simpson is sometimes fussy and a little too literal. The biggest problem, for me, on my night, was the over projection of the sound volume, by John McCutcheon, Sound Designer, which sometimes 'hurt', and made the orchestra led by Musical Director, Steven Kreamer, not our favourite part of the experience.

This show is of a cabaret style and one for the musical theatre lover, especially. There are enough of you out there who will enjoy yourselves very much.

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