This production had dual casts in the principal roles. In the interest of fairness to all, we reviewed both casts. Jacqui Wall reviewed the Kiss cast and Brian Godfrey reviewed the Zeppelin cast.
Kiss Cast
Many of you may have seen the movie adaptation starring the irrepressible Jack Black. Given the calibre of his comedic talents, you just know this stage version is going to be just as hilarious.
Thomas Sheldon in his directorial debut, along with the amazing support of AYT, has gathered a stellar cast who all have a part to play and do they ever. From shy quiet wallflowers to bold, brash and bossy organisers, the cast of students, parents, friends and rockers all perform their roles with the utmost belief. Thomas has really helped the cast to become one with their emotions (and their rock gods).
Jessica Manning as Musical Director has a plethora of experience both here and overseas and conducts a band of exceptional skill which was always ready to step in whenever required, although this did not appear to be all too often. By that I mean that the cast of band performers on stage, actually do play their own instruments and became progressively more confident throughout the performance.
Choreographer Montana Vincent again has much experience both in Australia and overseas. Her routines worked in small groups, but also ensured the mass movement items were exciting, creative and on-point.
The cast on Anzac Day, was led masterfully by Ethan Joy as Dewey Finn with outstanding support from Emily Graham as Miss Rosalie Mullins, Ryan Tilman as Ned Schneebly and Emma Palumbo as Patty. Ethan’s movement around the stage left no board untrod. He commanded the space to a level that would be the envy of many a seasoned performer.
Milla Ilic as Summer Hathaway was incredibly obnoxious as the student rule-follower. Reese Holt played the role of the shy, self-conscious Tomika well and truly blossomed with the most amazing voice when she sang Star Spangled Banner in Act 2. Mia Khairul as Zack Mooneyham and Jasper Darwen as Katie on guitar and bass respectively both did well and I can confirm both played their guitars live. Elliott Purdie as Lawrence on keyboard was masterful but standout for me (sorry all this is just personal opinion because I am a drum lover from way back) was Noah Magourilos as Freddie Hamilton. His playing was incredible for someone of his youth and had me tapping my feet every time.
As with all AYT productions, there is a very large cast and there is no way I could name everyone here. Suffice to say that each and every one of them were excellent and performed their roles exceptionally well so that there did not appear to be any weak links in this production.
Two of the standout songs for me were “You’re in the Band” and both renditions of “Stick it to the Man”. The finale version in particular had the audience singing, clapping and stomping along if they weren’t already standing.
Visually the show was spectacular. LED lights and smoke effects were reminiscent of a real concert. Sets were minimal which made for ease of movement, positioning and provided a surface for the excellent use of projection throughout. The only shortfall this early in the season was sound. The mix was slightly off with music overpowering a lot of the early dialogue and the vocals were a little late or echoey in such a large open space. This made it sound a little flat at times. This did improve dramatically over the performance.
Congratulations to AYT for yet again giving the amazing youth in South Australia an opportunity and a vehicle in which to learn and grow both on stage and as leaders.
Zeppelin Cast
Adelaide Youth Theatre made a somewhat bold move when casting the Zeppelin Cast: they cast a female, Ayeisha Everett in the iconic Jack Black male lead role, Dewey Finn. Did it work? This reviewer, unfortunately, didn’t think so. Don’t get me wrong: I’m all for gender changing when it works (ironically AYT did it quite successfully twice in their Dingglehopper cast of The Little Mermaid Jr – King Triton was played by a girl and villainess Ursula by a boy). The problem here though was that in order to be the character of Dewey Finn as Black played him in the film, which Ayeisha captured the essence of quite well, she used a deep, harsh, raspy voice throughout the show. This was no doubt to show the character’s masculinity but had the effect of making Dewey fairly unlikable throughout and quite hard to understand – especially when it came to the Rock numbers.
Anika Van Der Walt had just the right amounts of sternness and compassion when required and her vocals in “Where Did the Rock Go?” were sublime. Riley Mobbs did a good job as the harangued best friend, Ned Schneebly, but did tend to overact occasionally. Hannah Peel was perfect as the girlfriend from Hell, Patty.
The ensemble of parents and teachers fulfilled their parts well but there were just too many of them to mention individually.
The true stars and delights of this show were the pupils of the fictional Horace Green Academy, again far too many to mention but each and everyone a gem. Special mention must be given to Isabella Currie (snooty swot Summer), Alyssa Faranda (Tomika) whose singing voice was one of the most beautiful sounds to come from one so young, and especially to Kyle Mobbs, Aidan Salmon, Khushi Choudhari and Jonathan Siow all who played their own instruments (a couple of them had never played before and learnt in eight weeks) – well done, kids!!
