Richard Cotter

2 months ago | australianstage.com.au | Richard Carroll |Richard Cotter

Richard Carroll’s production of The Pirates of Penzance is the very model of a post-modern major musical. In gleeful theatricality, it is a fantastic act of piracy, gleefully plundering the Gilbert and Sullivan classic and rendering it a treasure chest anew. With matters mathematical, the understood equations, both the simple and quadratical, means cast doubling with multiple dividends and no subtractions.

Jan 15, 2025 | sydneyartsguide.com.au | Richard Cotter

Most good movies deal with the problem of coming to terms with life. WE LIVE IN TIME is a very good movie in that it deals with the problem of coming to terms with life and death. What elevates WE LIVE IN TIME from some weepy, soapy, saccharine tearjerker is the quality of the writing, the acumen of the director and the chemistry between the two leading actors. These characters are heroes, truly heroes, embracing life, facing life; in the midst of a devastating diagnosis, they choose life.

Jan 13, 2025 | sydneyartsguide.com.au | Richard Cotter

Arguably Audiard’s best film since The Prophet, EMILIA PEREZ is La La Land meets Narc by way of The Crying Game. EMILIA PEREZ is, if nothing else, brash, brazen, bruising and audacious. Jacques Audiard utilises every tool in his cinematic arsenal to illustrate this tale of one human being’s amazing journey of self-discovery.

Jan 11, 2025 | sydneyartsguide.com.au | Richard Cotter

Don’t be afraid of the dark, it’s part of the maker’s mark. GHOST QUARTET is an exquisite song cycle, tunes, lyrics and text by Dave Malloy that weaves a certain magic through music: keyboard, strings and percussion and the human voice, an intoxicating alchemy of sight and sound and style. On entering the space, you are met with a cosy cave of a set with Persian rugs and knick-knacks including a groovy sleek skull in sunglasses, an old camera and other assorted ephemera and curiosities.

Jan 7, 2025 | sydneyartsguide.com.au | Richard Cotter

A clever coffin of dead conventions, CONCLAVE is Julius Caesar in cardinal robes rather than togas, centring on the political power play to become pontiff, a necessity, it seems, that is the mother of convention. A thrilling film nevertheless, CONCLAVE brings a star studded cast to this variant of venal Vatican vocational straining. Vying for the shoes of the fisherman are Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Sergio Castellitto, and a reluctant Ralph Fiennes as conclave convener, Thomas Lawrence.