In 2019, Circus 1903 was absorbed into the Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group. It fills a slightly different niche to Cirque du Soleil, with less narrative, but it has the same glossy production style. The lighting is high-powered and the soundtrack is very Hans Zimmer-esque.

The program for this Australian tour is not quite the same as the program for the recent season at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, but there’s no shortage of wow moments: many provided by strongmen Bulgarian Yani Stoyanov and Valeri Tsvetkov.

The old-timey big-top circuses and carnivals that followed the railway lines and toured the country back lots have all but disappeared, but the myth of sawdust and tinsel lives on in movies and musicals.

Circus 1903 doesn’t take this myth too seriously. You won’t learn anything about Barnum and his three-ringed spectaculars. But it doesn’t matter because this is a show of super-charged sensations, packed with remarkable stunts, artistic puppetry and much comic byplay.
Reviewed by Andrew Fuhrmann

MUSICAL
The Choir of Man ★★★★
Playhouse, until February 11

You’ll be kicking yourself if you buy a drink before settling into your seat at The Choir of Man.

The simplicity of the set belies the fact that the stage bar, backdropped by a mosaic of colourful tiles, is a working bar. Audience members are invited onstage before the show to have a pint with the cast, and drinks are handed out willy nilly throughout, as are branded coasters and packets of crisps.

This joie de vivre is central to the appeal of jukebox musical The Choir of Man. Audience interaction is a feature, but it takes on a gentler guise than most – audience members are either serenaded, led on simple dances, or subsumed into the narrative from afar.

The Poet (played affably by core cast member Alistair Higgins) is the focal point of the show, as he introduces each member of the nine-person choir and the band perched aloft the stage.

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It’s he who waxes lyrical about the function of a bar – a place for communing with your mates, enjoying the easy passage of time, escaping the travails of modern life – and it’s through him that we learn the specificities of each character, their backstories always anchored in where in the British Isles they call home.

The humour is hammy, while the musical renditions cover a breadth of popular classic and contemporary songs, showcasing the range of the choir’s individual voices – particularly Nathaniel Morrison and Rob Godfrey, whose falsettos rival the full-bodied lowness their voices can descend to.

A raucous cover of Guns N’ Roses Welcome to the Jungle – showcasing the bar, The Jungle, in all its glory – segues into a gentler rendering of Eagle Eye Cherry’s Save Tonight, before bounding across the likes of Paul Simon, Katy Perry, Adele, and, for the home crowd, John Farnham.

Highlights are the beautiful harmonising in Sia’s Chandelier; the highly spirited I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) which builds to a crescendo in a rendition that could’ve very well ended the show, and Escape (better known as The Piña Colada Song), which sees the choir cavorting, gyrating, grinding, sashaying and Single Ladies-style dancing.

The Handyman (Ethan Vijn) is a highlight as the tap dancer of the troupe, jumping from bar to table to floor in frenzied sequences of foot tapping. The choir aren’t confined to merely singing either, picking up the melodica, accordion, banjo and ukulele at different junctures.

Traditional pubs can be inherently masculine spaces and while The Jungle is no different, there’s a renewed focus on vulnerability, an awareness of the pitfalls of binge drinking, and an easy camaraderie among all nine men that underlines the beauty of close male friendships.

The Choir of Man will have you tapping your feet, singing along and bringing your hands together in rapturous applause – it’s an uplifting night of song, dance and community.
Reviewed by Sonia Nair

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