As the simple but dramatic lighting (Richard Vabre) dims, the sound transforms from dance beat to a tinkling tune while one performer revolves like a music-box ballerina. Meanwhile, in the near-dark, the ensemble slithers and slides piles of fabric across the floor, off-stage.

“Where were you born?” one asks the others in the final minutes. Then, the performer who introduced the show tells us it is almost the end, there will be a bow and some clapping – probably. But we don’t have to rush. So nobody does. We all sit and enjoy the warm glow after the applause. It is over but we feel happy to stay. Reviewed by Kate Herbert

MUSIC THEATRE
Come Rain or Come Shine ★★★
MTC Southbank Theatre, until July 23

New stage musicals are rare, and many recent offerings are based on existing source material or utilise a catalogue of well-known songs. A new, totally original and successful Australian musical is a unicorn. Come Rain or Come Shine is new and Australian, but a unicorn it is not; it is adapted from Kazuo Ishiguro’s short story and incorporates snatches of classic tunes – including Ray Charles’ poignant Come Rain or Come Shine – that eclipse the original songs.

This “boutique” musical, with book by Carolyn Burns, music by Tim Finn and lyrics by Finn and director, Simon Phillips, has a cast of only three, along with four musicians.

Ishiguro’s comic tale lends itself to scenes and songs expressing romance and pathos, outpourings of unrequited love and farcical comedy. The beginning of this musical has promise. Ray (Angus Grant), living a shabby life as an underpaid language teacher in Spain, pines for the golden days at university in England with Emily (Gillian Cosgriff) and Charlie (Chris Ryan), who remain his “best” friends. At uni, Emily and Ray share a passion for great, American classic songs by the likes of Ray Charles, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan and others. Literature graduate Ray is silently in love with economics student Emily, but she marries chaotic Charlie, and both become corporate high-fliers.

Twenty years later, Ray accepts Charlie’s invitation to visit Charlie and Emily in their sophisticated, but cold (possibly loveless) Bayswater home (designer, Dale Ferguson), only to discover that he is only there to make Charlie look good. Things unravel when Charlie leaves and Ray messes up – literally.

The versatile cast handles both comedy and pathos, but their talents are not shown to advantage in this show. Grant plays Ray as a Hugh Grant-type of floppy-haired, self-deprecating, socially incompetent Brit who never reached his potential. Ryan is suitably smarmy and duplicitous, while Cosgriff is cool and charming as ambitious Emily. Cosgriff and Ryan’s fine singing voices deserve to be showcased by more vocally challenging songs.

The beginning swerves into the hysteria and slapstick of an overly long middle-section. The title, and Ray and Emily’s early fascination with fine American songs, promise something the show fails to deliver – excellent tunes. Characters launch into song in musicals when emotions cannot be contained, but the Finn-Phillips songs, although they advance story and illuminate characters, are like sung dialogue or “recitative”, with repetitive melodies and unvarying style and tone that make them unmemorable, even pallid alongside the classics.

This production cries out for a repertoire of exceptional, 20th century tunes such as Come Rain or Come Shine. It is a courageous, but ultimately unsatisfying show that, with more development, could reach its potential.

- Reviewed by Kate Herbert

CLASSICAL MUSIC
Diana Doherty & Bernadette Harvey ★★★★
Melbourne Recital Centre, June 28

Like a latter-day pied piper, Diana Doherty radiated a winning sense of enthusiasm and enquiry throughout this all-too-rare oboe recital with pianist Bernadette Harvey.

Striding onto the stage, Doherty immediately cast a spell as hypnotic as any snake charmer with the angular yet rhapsodic opening lines of Antal Dorati’s Duo Concertante for Oboe and Piano. Suppleness of line and richness of timbre added to the exoticism of the initial slow movement, while perfect split-second timing between the two players ensured the quicksilver conclusion packed plenty of rhythmic punch.

Telemann’s unaccompanied Fantasia No. 3 in B minor, subtly articulated and elegantly phrased, segued into Berio’s modernist Sequenza VII. Doherty met the dizzying demands of this technical tour de force head on, making expressive sense out of its rapid-fire repeated notes and bleating multiphonics.

Inspired by Indian spirituality, In the Spirit House by Melburnian Tim Dargaville provided a welcome contrast. Energetic and meditative by turns, this colourful work gave further expression to the duo’s intense synergy.

My heart did sink at the prospect of listening to another transcription of Franck’s well worn Violin Sonata in A. Given oboe recitals seldom occur, there was much other literature written for the instrument, including works by Britten, Poulenc and Saint-Saens, that Doherty’s prodigious talent could have illuminated.

Even so, from the outset it was clear that Doherty was completely immersed in Franck’s high romantic fervour. Her phenomenal breath control allowed the long phrases conceived for the violin to soar, while still being infused with subtle gradations of tone colour. Harvey gave plenty of stamina and character to the titanic piano part, working with Doherty to bring convincing direction to the musical argument.

Doherty’s passionate advocacy, well received by an audience including a fair few young people, confirmed she is as charismatic as any legendary piper. Reviewed by Tony Way

CLASSICAL MUSIC
Death And Desire ★★★★½
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Hamer Hall, June 25

Superbly rendered expressions of love and loss were at the heart of this generous and deeply satisfying program. Under the spirited and charismatic direction of French-born maestro Fabien Gabel, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra first rose persuasively to the expressive and technical challenges of Richard Strauss’ early masterpieces, Don Juan and Death and Transfiguration.

Amidst the mercurial evocation of the Don’s irrepressibly rakish behaviour, bolstered by shimmering woodwind and sparkling brass, Gabel enticed arcs of amorous melody from the violins, whose tone warmed and strengthened as the music progressed. Beautifully moulded solo contributions from concertmaster Sophie Rowell and oboist Michael Pisani added to the elegance of the whole. The quiet sobriety of the Don’s demise was perfectly judged.

Beginning with a faltering heartbeat and swelling to a magnificently orchestrated climax, Death and Transfiguration provided additional proof that the orchestra was in excellent form. Further solos from Rowell, Pisani and flautist Prudence Davis impressed along with more fearless brass playing, particularly from the horns.

German cellist Daniel Muller-Schott brought profound empathy to Dvorak’s Cello Concerto, a work in which the composer tenderly memorialises his deceased sister-in-law, with whom he was once in love. Muller-Schott did not so much play the work, as encourage his cello to sing it with a voice as subtle and individually refined as that of any bel canto singer.

Always actively engaged with the orchestra, Muller-Schott reinforced the exultant mood of the first movement with dazzling technique and unerring intonation, while investing the rustic simplicity of the central adagio with disarming sincerity. His greatest pathos was reserved for the closing minutes of the finale where Dvorak pours out his intense longing for his lost love. Here Muller-Schott blended the poignant and rapturous to stunning effect, setting his lyrical seal on a truly memorable celebration of love and loss.

- Reviewed by Tony Way

LIVE MUSIC
The Jezabels ★★★★
The Forum, Melbourne, June 23

Have you ever heard Queen’s Brian May play guitar live? There’s so much more to his signature sound than can be squeezed into a recording: you just have to be there to hear the full-frequency three-dimensionality of it bouncing around a venue with all its overtones and reflections.

Hayley Mary, vocalist of the Jezabels, has that same aural otherworldliness, that ability to completely control not only the note itself but also the way it carries and bounces around the room. On the final night of the band’s latest tour, in celebration of their 2011 album Prisoner, the entire Forum became an extension of Mary’s voice as the Sydney indie rock quartet took us back in time to the summer when the album seemed happily inescapable.

The band’s other secret weapon is their skill for musical arrangement, which gives guitarist Sam Lockwood space to roam in a The Edge-meets-Robert-Smith kind of way, equally textural and rhythmic. Heather Shannon’s inventive keyboard playing often seemed to invert the theme of Lockwood’s guitar, building up layers of orchestration that fool you into thinking you’re hearing more instruments than you are (though the quartet is augmented with a bass player). Drummer Nik Kaloper tied it all together with his sturdy, in-the-pocket playing.

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The setlist was kept strictly to The Early Stuff: that is to say, the entirety of Prisoner, then material from the independent EPs of 2009 and 2010. This kind of anniversary show is always welcome, actual anniversary or not. Maybe we don’t need to wait until a nice satisfying number like a decade or a quarter of a century to celebrate a piece of art. Maybe it’s OK to just celebrate an album not because a milestone has passed but because it’s simply worthy of revisiting.

- Reviewed by Peter Hodgson

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