WORD is out that the team at the Wharf Revue, due to open their show tonight at the Playhouse, have gone into lockdown to rework the show after last night’s political upheaval.
They had planned a bumper year of retrospective skits from their back catalogue, mixed with up-to-date works, but the ascension to high office of Malcolm Turnbull will require some hasty revamping.
But this kind of development is meat and drink to the Wharfies and surely they’re up to it. Recently the team had to abandon a portrayal of former Speaker Bronwyn Bishop as the Queen of Hearts when she stepped down.
Among the favourite reruns is Phil Scott’s performance as Kevin Rudd in his Phantom-like “Rudd never dies” role with Amanda Bishop as Julia Gillard. Will it be too pointed for the team now?
At least some of the main players are still around, with the Senator George Brandis and Christopher Pyne skits likely to remain.
Theatregoers in Canberra may be looking back to an earlier time when, on election night, comedian Guy Rundle was re-writing the Max Gilles show “Your Dreaming: The Prime Minister’s Cultural Convention” even as Gillies was playing the role of John Howard on stage at the Canberra Playhouse – the audience wept while Howard won – and the show went on.
The Wharf Revue, at The Playhouse, September 15-26, bookings to canberratheatrecentre.com.au or 6275 2700.
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