Congratulations Bill for making it so much harder for amateur theatre to find anyone new, willing to start directing shows in Canberra – Not only does harsh criticism hurt the directors and the performers who work tirelessly (almost entirely unpaid) to put on these shows but it puts people off going to see these shows! There are not many young people who are willing to step up to direct shows so without new people learning to direct, we will end up with the same 4 or 5 people directing all the shows in Canberra or companies will start bringing people from interstate to direct shows! This is not an ideal scenario for the community!
Please keep in mind that this is AMATEUR theatre, none of the performers are being paid and they do it for the love to performing. I think that less harsh criticism would be appreciated.

I’m not a big fan of musicals in general but I loved this. I think you’ve completely missed the point: this is a fun, lively show with delightfully hyperbolic humour, and stays true to the general feel of the movie.

I think musicals like this actually have the potential to *gasp* attract a young, fun audience under 40 who would understand that the “shocking scene” is meant to symbolise all of the things we wish we could say to people, but don’t.

The quality of the singing, in particular Max Gambale, Will Huang, and Josie and Amy Dunham, is utterly exceptional for an amateur show. I had so much fun that I am hoping to get back with friends this week to see it again.

As a visitor from Scotland I don,t really know much about the review guy must he must be from another planet.The show was very,very good.Set clever,music fantastic and all the characters energetic,lively and obviously enjoying themselves and that went for the audience as well.Hope Canberrans don,t take his reviews seriously.Go and see it,you will love it.

I also completely disagree with this review. I won’t say anything bad about the reviewer because free speech etc, but I will say that l throughly enjoyed this show.

The scene described as “abuse” is being completely taken out of context here. It is a very obviously comedic scene where we see possible variations on imagined confrontation in different styles of music, and then watch the character’s final choice of reaction completely contrast with these.
if anyone was clutching their pearls at this, then they werent the target audience and should perhaps have researched their theatre choice better. That scene was my favourite of the entire musical- one that I told friends & family about and that convinced them they wanted to see it.

As for the harsh criticism of Jordan Kelly’s choreography, I think it did a good job of complimenting but not overwhelming the performance.

I hope this review didn’t stop people watching the performance, because like many commenters here I feel it’s an inaccurate representation of the show.