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KEITH GOW, WRITER

I am currently working on three new pieces under the working titles: The House I Grew Up in was a Spaceship, The Last of the Loveable Larrikins and The S&M Play.

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Popular Posts

REVIEW: Jesus Christ Superstar – Princess Theatre, Melbourne

Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s somewhat-controversial musical about Jesus and his fame in the lead-up to the crucifixion, is full of powerful, memorable songs. It is best known in Australia because of the concert production starring John Farnham, Jon Stevens and Kate Cebrano that toured the country in the early 1990s. I’ve listened to that cast recording countless times and I still wish I’d seen that production, because their takes on the songs are full of passion and rock-and-roll. The original concept album was an early example of the musical sub-genre “rock opera” that rebelled against more traditional West End and Broadway fare. Given the subject matter, it was always going to stand out, even as the mainstream was starting to see musicals evolve in the form of Hair , in 1968, and The Who’s Tommy , released in 1969, the year before Jesus Christ Superstar first appeared as a concept album. Because the show is sung-through, what the musical needs is a cast of strong rock-genre s...

REVIEW: Lou Wall, Breaking the Fifth Wall – Melbourne Comedy Festival

“We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realise the truth.” – Marilyn Monroe * Lou Wall tells a story about the time they tried to sell a bed frame on Facebook Marketplace to a woman who couldn’t seem to follow instructions – kept asking for a discount on a freebie, and wouldn’t arrive when she said she would. Actually, Lou doesn’t just tell the story, they sing it. It’s a mini musical and every time I hear it, it’s laugh-out loud funny. Lou’s shows often feel like manically scrolling through social media, or googling things you can’t quite remember, leaving dozens of tabs open in your wake. The first time I heard the story about the bedframe, it was in the context of weird internet rabbit holes and people you can’t quite trust online. The conversation is frantic and the miscommunication is hilarious. It feels real, because even if we’ve never sold something online, you can imagine the kind of people who are looking for a bargain might be a little unhinged. When ...

REVIEW: A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams – Melbourne Theatre Company

“I don’t want realism… I’ll tell you what I want. Magic!” In Tennessee Williams’ Southern Gothic melodrama, Blanche DuBois is a storyteller. She has to be. As an unmarried woman in the 1940s, dealing with the loss of her parents and the family home, she must keep up the pretence that everything is okay. But when she moves in with her sister, Stella, and Stella’s husband, Stanley, the holes in her carefully told tales start to unravel and the way forward becomes less and less clear. The inspiration for Blanche is Williams’ sister, Rose, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and later lobotomised. The success of A Streetcar Named Desire enabled the playwright to pay for Rose’s ongoing care. But a clear diagnosis for Blanche’s flights of fancy and delusions are unclear – left purposely vague in the text, and difficult to align with how we currently discuss mental illness. For Melbourne Theatre Company’s new production, helmed by Artistic Director Anne-Louise Sarks, Blanche’s tendency to e...

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