These are the reviews this year – across live performance, visual arts and books – that most interested ArtsHub‘s readers. Not all of them received glowing five-star reviews either: sometimes it’s simply the high wattage of the performers, writers or artists that captured the most attention.
Performing arts
Musicals
Musicals are an evergreen favourite art form for many ArtsHub readers. Perhaps it’s the triple-threat effect: the fact that these performers are so talented they can sing, act and dance, so watching them go through their paces on stage can be a thrilling experience. Most – not all – musicals also rely on the feel-good factor, so for theatregoers slammed with the constant media cacophony of war and disaster, seeing a musical is a chance for pure escapist entertainment, where you can park your brain outside for a few hours and indulge in a make-believe world.
Sunset Boulevard, Princess Theatre Melbourne
It may only have received a 2.5-star rating from our reviewer Reuben Liversidge, but there’s no doubting how the prospect of seeing the legendary Sarah Brightman make her way back on stage attracted plenty of attention, even if, as Liversidge pointed out, she derailed rather than added much value to the musical. “The success of any production of Sunset Boulevard relies heavily on the central performance of its leading lady, so when that element is as disastrously miscalculated as it is here, the rest of the show unravels and suffers as a consequence.”
Grease: The Musical, Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne
Coming in at second place, but only with an extra half star, Grease too was not an entirely successful production. It may be fun and frothy with killer songs that everyone knows thanks to the outrageous popularity of the original movie, but Liversidge called out its outdated sexual politics. “Let’s be real, I’m not expecting any new iteration of Grease to radically reinvent the wheel, but bringing something fresh and interesting to the material would certainly be welcomed. With this production, it’s strictly a case of rinse and repeat.”
Other popular musical review favourites this year include: Dear Evan Hansen, Beauty and The Beast and Hamilton.
Theatre
A Streetcar Named Desire, Arts Centre Melbourne
Any Tennessee Williams’ play will garner interest, so it was not a surprise that one of his best-known efforts, A Streetcar Named Desire, would be high up there in the curiosity stakes, particularly as Nikki Shiels was tasked to play the fragile faded dame Blanche Dubois. ArtsHub‘s Managing Editor Madeleine Swain suggested that, overall, it was a strong production, “but it doesn’t quite hit the heights it could have and leave the audience as devastated as they should be.”
The President, Roslyn Packer Theatre
This production only received 1.5 stars from our reviewer Matthew Collins, who was bewildered by the experience. He was not impressed with the narrative pull of playwright Thomas Bernhard and noted, “There’s no plot, character development or dramatic tension to take us on a journey. The President plays the one note and it holds that one note for the entire time. Not only is it a waste of a good premise, but it is a waste of such an immensely talented cast.”
Other theatrical productions that were popular with ArtsHub readers this year include: Gaslight, Frankenstein and The Odd Couple.
Concerts
By far the largest number of eyes on any of the concerts reviewed on ArtsHub this year was Coldplay’s Music of the Sphere’s Tour. Sure the lyrics aren’t exactly poetry, but as Swain says of Chris Martin – he has heart, “Those lyrics may be prosaic, but he sings them with genuine emotion, no matter how many times he’s sung them before. And more than that, Martin possesses the enviable skill of performing in front of 60,000 people and still managing to give the crowd an intimate experience.”
Visual Arts
Titantic: The Artefact Exhibition, Melbourne Museum
It was (once again) a blockbuster year for exhibitions across the country and one of the biggest of them all was Titanic. It seems as though we can’t get enough of seeing and hearing about this mighty ship that sailed its first and last voyage in 1912. The exhibition drew crowds to see some of its large-scale reconstructions, including a life-size replica of its plush stairwell. As Jenna Schroder pointed out, “This isn’t the place to go for new revelations about the ship or in-depth discussions as to how each puzzle piece came together to ensure disaster, but for Titanic fans (the ship itself, the movie and whatever else is out there) this is a short and sweet immersive adventure.”
Pharaoh, NGV International
Something else we can’t get enough of is all-things Egyptian. Gina Fairley, ArtsHub‘s Visual Arts Editor, was won over by this latest iteration, not just by the individual items on show – of which there were plenty – but also by the sophisticated layout of the viewing spaces. “It is a masterpiece of exhibition design, of institutional collaboration, and for rethinking how we engage with history in our time with its demand for immersive experiences – without selling out to tech or clichés,” she wrote.
Other popular 2024 exhibitions include: Chilhuly in the Botanic Gardens, Ten Thousand Suns, 24th Biennale of Sydney and Leonardo Da Vinci – 500 years of genius.
Books
Most of the books commissioned and reviewed are by Australian authors, but every now and then I throw an international writer into the mix. Judging by how well their works are received by ArtsHub bookworms, there will be a few more overseas authors added to the commissioning pile next year.
Intermezzo, by Sally Rooney
The famous Irish author Sally Rooney’s latest novel about two brothers and their divergent paths is an unmitigated success, according to Mia Ferreira, who wrote, “Rooney has a way of drawing us deeply into the lives of her characters, weaving internal and external dialogue in such a way that we have no choice but to embark on a journey of intimate discovery – thought by thought, conversation by conversation and layer by layer”.
The Book of Elsewhere, by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville
‘Yes, but can he write?’ would be the topmost thought in most people’s minds when they contemplate the Hollywood superstar Keanu Reeves and his bookish collaboration with an actual author – China Miéville. But seeing as this was a joint project, we’ll never know for sure who did what in The Book of Elsewhere. Nonetheless, Ash Brom found it a surprisingly good read, adding, “For anyone else wanting a violent, well-written, hyper-charged dose of sci-fi/fantasy action, this is certainly worth picking up.”
Other well-read book reviews of 2024 include: Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty, Juice by Tim Winton and the multi award-winning Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko.
