THE AUSTRALIAN, THURSDAY, MAY 5, 2011 www.theaustralian.com.au ARTS 17

More to composers And danced happily ever after than meets the ear melodies are trite? Next to MUSICAL Normal is beyond conservative. The career of Next to Normal It’s reactionary, cliched, ill- choreographer By Tom Kitt and Brian informed and utterly untaxing. Yorkey. Bafflingly, Yorkey seems not to Jayne Smeulders Theatre Company. know the difference between has been more Playhouse, the Arts depression and common or Centre, Melbourne. May 3. garden variety grief. And Kitt’s hard work than music makes Andrew Lloyd Webber’s look like the outbursts fairytale of a degenerate anarchist. THERE’S more to Next to The show opens well enough, VALERIE Normal, a musical about a with a Pete Townshend-like ‘‘bipolar depressive with power chord and Diana (Kate LAWSON delusional episodes’’, than meets Kendall) telling us her son ‘‘is a the eye. And, regrettably, there’s little shit’’, her husband is boring DANCE teachers are renowned more to its creators than meets and her daughter is ‘‘a freak’’. It for their bossiness and determin- the ear. quickly becomes clear that their ation. But this was an exception- Composer Tom Kitt and problems all centre on her. ally determined moment. writer Brian Yorkey are great Kendall almost manages to An 18-month-old girl was visit- collaborators. No question. Kitt is turn this dramatic dross into a ing the studio of Jody Marshall, a capable songwriter and Yorkey passionate tragicomedy. There is and the dance teacher told a skilled storyteller. a remarkable torque and her mother that this little one Apart from a penchant for authenticity in her acting that must join in the class. Without de- ‘‘plug me in, turn me on’’ lyrics, drives the production. Her voice lay, Marshall took her out of her Yorkey has the gift of finally matches that authenticity stroller and set her down on the understatement. We’re told, for in her last big number, So dance floor with her older sister. example, that modern shock Anyway. Bert LaBonte (as Diana’s So began the three-decade life therapy uses no more electricity various medicos) and Matt in dance of Jayne Smeulders, now than a 100-watt light globe. Hetherington (as the husband) a with the West Meanwhile, the would-be provide excellent support. Australian . patient’s husband has been Hetherington’s voice is so Tomorrow she will be in the singing about leaving a single expressive he could out-act audienceatHisMajesty’sTheatre, bulb on at home for her return. Geoffrey Rush in the dark. And Perth, to watch the premiere of Kitt, likewise, doesn’t LaBonte is probably Melbourne’s Cinderella, her first full-length bal- telegraph his musical punches. form actor right now. There’s not let as a choreographer. When son Gabriel (Gareth a lot he couldn’t do. It seemed appropriate that we Keegan) sings ‘‘Catch me I’m At Tuesday’s premiere, the talked about her fairytale ballet on falling’’ to his mother in a first act was hurried through and the day Prince William married vulnerably high tenor, she sings had insufficient dynamic or Catherine Middleton. But any alto harmonies beneath him, dramatic range. The pacing analogies of a fairytale journey for cradling his voice securely. It’s a improved markedly, as did the Smeulders would be off the mark. simple, unobtrusive technique impact of the action, after As all dancers know, a life in and brilliantly effective. interval. If only Stephen ballet is one of luck, a lot of heart- What a shame, then, that Sondheim and Alan Ayckbourn ache and a glimmer of hope, with Yorkey and Kitt — with all that had written it. the occasional soaring moment to ability — have nothing much to CHRIS BOYD keep them on track. And while MARIE NIRME say musically or dramatically. Smeulders was lucky with her Jayne Smeulders, whose West Australian Ballet production of Cinderella premieres in Perth tomorrow Who cares if your Until May 28. Tickets: $65-$109. family, teachers and mentors, she arrangements are first rate if your Bookings: (03) 8688 0800. faced bitter rejections as she be- as they are in the Grimm brothers’ who subsequently was accepted technical strengths. ‘‘Moving and their early years of training. ‘‘You As for Smeulders’s future, she gan her professional career in tale. But unlike the bloody Grimm into the School. jumping is my thing,’’ she says. She need to breed happy, confident, makes no firm plans. At 35, and . Living by the motto interpretation, the sisters are ‘‘It was hard, I did get homesick. was accepted into the company self-assuring students who are with an 18-month-old boy, she is ‘‘Never give up’’, Smeulders spared from the torture of having I’m very close to my family. But I immediatelyandthereshedanced happy with the way they are. All not considering retirement. knocked down closed doors and their toes chopped off and eyes loved the Hamburg school. There for six years. those habits start when you start ‘‘I think I have a few years of went on to a successful career in pecked out by pigeons were brilliant teachers. I had other Homesickness brought her criticising yourself in the wrong dancing left in me,’’ she says. The Hague in The Netherlands. Birds do play a role, however, in Australians around me and an back to Perth in 1999. She found a way. When you fall into those bad ‘‘Choreographing is not some- Melbourne Back home in Perth for more the shape of a birdcage given to Australian in the Hamburg Ballet job with the West Australian Bal- ways of thinking of yourself, that’s thing I said I would do after dance. Theatre than a decade, the principal artist Cinderella by her mother. It later company who looked after me. I let, where she has danced many when you start acting that way,’’ I just do it.’’ Company’s at the WA Ballet is developing a becomes a hiding place for the one made my own little family.’’ leading roles and choreographed she says, referring to excessive Next to successful career as one of the few shoe Cinderella saves in her flight The circle of comfort ended on five pieces for the company. dieting. Cinderella is at His Majesty’s Normal female choreogra- from the ballroom as the clock graduation when she faced the Smeulders is unsure why there ‘‘My teachers were so encour- Theatre, Perth, from tomorrow phers in . strikes 12. ‘‘So there’s a lot of sym- harsh reality of finding a job with- are so few female choreographers aging and gave me everything I until May 21. A Canberra season On the eve of her premiere, she bolism about Cinderella being a out having the body shape some in ballet worldwide. needed without pampering me.’’ will take place in November. is fully aware of the challenge of caged bird and then set free,’’ artistic directors demand. ‘‘I feel very confident to give making a new Cinderella to the Smeulders says. ‘‘I don’t have the perfect baller- my view on things and express well-known Prokofiev score when Not too much symbolism, per- ina body,’’ she says. ‘‘I didn’t have myself through dance and am so many choreographers have haps, as this production, set in the great, long, hyper-extended legs sure thereare a lot ofother female preceded her. The rags-to-riches 1930s, is designed as a family- with arched feet. I’m happy with dancers who would like to do story has been interpreted on the friendly show with box-office what I’ve got but I don’t have the that,’’ she says. ballet stage for 200 years and in appeal, not one that delves into typical long, straight body.’’ ‘‘But when you ask the dancers more than 30 productions since the psychology of girls dreaming A teacher at the Hamburg in the company ‘Would you like virtuoso dancer Louis Duport of a prince who will save them. school suggested she audition for to choreograph?’, it’s only the choreographed the first Cinderella Narrative tend to re- Netherlands Dance Theatre II, men who have put up their hands. in Vienna in 1813. inforce this dream but Smeulders establishedinTheHaguebyinspi- Maybe women are more afraid of In 1948, cast suggests ballets such as these offer rational choreographer Jiri what people think.’’ himself and Robert Helpmann as comfort. ‘‘People want to come to Kylian for younger dancers. Perhaps the resistance goes panto dames who completely up- fairytales as there so many things But in a nasty reminder of the back to their early days of train- staged Cinderella with their comic in our lives that we have to face,’’ she was elimin- ing, when girls play a more pass- antics as the stepsisters, while she says. ‘‘They want to see those ated at her audition after the first ive role than their male counter- Matthew Bourne set his Cinderella heart-warming, ballet-tingling exercise at the . She waited parts, learn their skills in a in the London Blitz and Maguy moments, the romance on stage.’’ untiltheaudition wasfinishedand conservative environmentor per- Marin dressed her dancers as Smeulders had a sheltered and asked to see the artistic director of haps because there are so few role masked dolls. secure childhood, supported by a the company, Gerald Tibbs, tell- models as choreographers, at a Smeulders absorbed as many mother and three teachers, first ing him she was willing to con- student or professional level. productions as she could, includ- Marshall, then Barbara Thomas tinue schooling in The Hague but Most ballet companies, in turn, ing those by Ashton, Rudolf and Terri Charlesworth, who ac- would he watch her dancing a are directed by men, some of Nureyev, Ben Stevenson and the companied her with other stu- solo, one that was choreographed whom habitually cast the thin- Kirov Ballet and made one initial dents in 1993 on a tour of Europe for her by fellow Australian Kim nest girls in the most roles. decision: there would no men in that included auditions and com- McCarthy for the Prix? ‘‘I wanted That means, Smeulders says, drag. Her stepsisters are women peting in the annual Prix de Lau- some feedback,’’ she says. ‘‘I want- other dancers believe they, too, who are ‘‘very beautiful on the sanne ballet competition. ed to know what I could do to get must be skinny to be given their outside but very vile and black at ‘‘At the Prix I got kicked out in into that company.’’ The solo, cal- chance. She traces the issue of a heart on the inside’’, she says, just the first class,’’ says Smeulders, ledIAmDetermined,displayedher dancer’s self-perception back to Nearly 50 years on, flexibility to spare

ation got a strong workout. DANCE Amber Scott and Robert Cur- British Liaisons ran were transfixing in the slow , movement. Their is Sydney Opera House, based on barre work but becomes May 3. a paean to what grows from that. Scott was simultaneously lyrical and sensuous, and it was a delight to see her promoted onstage, AS the Australian Ballet con- along with Stojmenov, to the rank tinues its lead-up to next year’s of principal. (Andrew Killian was 50th anniversary, the company’s the third dancer to be promoted, British connections get their mo- after appearing in the first section ment in the spotlight. of Christopher Wheeldon’s After British Liaisons is a telling pro- the Rain.) gram, although not for what it As for Curran, the AB needs to says about the AB’s direction and clone him. He took the lead male style during the past half-century, JAMES CROUCHER role in Wheeldon’s neoclassical which is hardly anything. It AB dancers rehearse for British Liaisons chamber work, partnering Robyn graphically reveals, however, Hendricks in the heart-stopping much about the company’s pres- Checkmate, made in 1937 using ledged master of the darkly dra- pas de deux that forms the second ent strengths and weaknesses. chess as a metaphor for battle, is matic . MacMillan half of the ballet. Hendricks has Interestingly, AB artistic direc- tough to pull off. Much of the made Concerto for the Berlin flexibility to spare and made lu- tor David McAllister took to the choreography for the pawns is company he directed for a short scious shapes, but she is yet too in- stage twice at Tuesday’s opening twee and overextended, yet there time in the 1960s and it’s a de- experienced to mine the subtle, to name three new principal art- is real force in the power struggle manding technical showcase in intimate, shifting relationships ists, having promoted three other enacted, or at least potential for it. three movements for five soloists, implicit in the piece. She was clo- dancers as recently as November. Tzu-Chao Chou soared sixdemi-soloistsand alargecorps. ser to being an apparition than In other words, there’s a fair bit of through the unending technical In the fast outer movements flesh and blood, leaving Curran flux in the top ranks, and certainly demands of the First Red Knight’s the music is Shostakovich’s rav- essentially to carry the piece, on Tuesday not every role was fil- choreography and was resolute, if ishing Piano Concerto No 2 — which he did nobly. Meet the new king of talkback radio. led in the best possible way. unvarying, in demeanour. which, to be frank, doesn’t need to Unalloyed joy came from the Given the name and apparent The Black Queen is a glittering, be danced — there is a blur of aca- Australian Opera and Ballet intent of British Liaisons, Ninette heartless and treacherous seduc- demic showing off. Any lack of Orchestra’s playing under the de Valois’s Checkmate, to the stir- tress, but these qualities remained unity in the corps is brutally mag- baton of Nicolette Fraillon. The ring music of Arthur Bliss, was al- uncaptured by Miwako Kubota, nified, as are any hesitations from AB’s principal pianist Stuart ways going to be the test case. It’s who was neat and unthreatening. the soloists. Macklin and AOBO violinists This Saturday. the one work on the program with This gave veteran Colin Peas- The choreography asks that Aubrey Murphy and Catalin Un- genuinely strong company links ley’s Red King little to work off, dancers be witty as well as fleet of gureanu made superb contri- and an exemplar of British ballet’s but it was pleasing to see Amy foot, and strain showed at times butions in the Shostakovich and early penchant for theatrical, dra- Harris make something of the on Tuesday. When she relaxed the Arvo Part pieces used in After matic works with a narrative small role of the Red Queen. On Leanne Stojmenov was impress- the Rain. thread. (Kenneth MacMillan can the other side of the ledger the red ive with her integration of a flow- DEBORAH JONES be seen as heir to that style.) If it’s pawns need to get rid of those fix- ing upper body with lively, sharp not to look like a quaint piece of ed grins. Hideous. footwork. The demanding third Tickets: $30-$148. Bookings: history it needs performances of British Liaisons opens with movement solo didn’t faze Lana (02) 9250 7777. Until unusual maturity, with a strong MacMillan’s abstract Concerto,an Jones, whose formidable pre- May 21. Melbourne, August 25- sense of the individual. atypical work from the acknow- cision, attack and superb elev- September 3.