After almost 40 years since he formed Crowded House with bassist Nick Seymour and drummer Paul Hester, Neil Finn’s voice sounds almost unchanged. What has changed, however, is that his two sons Liam (guitar) and Elroy (drums) play alongside him – and it’s obvious that this means a lot to him.

It may just be because this was the first of 16 concerts in Australasia, but the band was clearly excited to play to their home crowd again. Neil and Nick are the sole constant members, but Mitchell Froom (keyboards) actually produced the first three Crowded House albums – the first in 1986! This is a band with longevity.

They came on to the stage in the dark with lanterns, leading into the raging When You Come, a surprise starter. The follow-up World Where You Live had the audience rocking. Teenage Summer was the first song from the new album Gravity Stairs – the new songs mixing seamlessly with the classics. For Oh Hi, Neil got the audience to sing on the chorus and though the verse was almost too high for him, he had strong backing-vocal support from Liam, Nick, and Elroy. To the Island, featuring lead guitar by Liam and Mitchell’s ethereal keyboards, received special applause.

Four Seasons in One Day had the phone-waving crowd singing along, followed by It’s Only Natural, which got some up dancing. The light show was stunning – especially when highlighting the stage props, which looked like giant pipe cleaners!

Neil then switched to piano for a selection of songs, including the languid Night Song – which segued cleverly into Message to My Girl. Private Universe, driven by percussionist Paul Taylor, rose to a crescendo. Elroy then switched to acoustic guitar, with Taylor on drums, for Thirsty.

This was one of the most interactive concerts I have seen. The audience needed no coaxing to join in singing the choruses on the classics: Four Seasons in One Day, the first encore Weather With You, and the finale Better Be Home Soon. This iconic New Zealand band, playing vital new music and much-loved classics, showed their adoring audience the meaning of being entertained. Legends.

Marc Taddei’s choice of George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess to illustrate the part jazz has in the history of music was inspired. The music combines classical, jazz, gospel, spiritual, and blues idioms and is full of energy, colour, and sheer beauty. This performance was a 1956 arrangement of the opera by Russell Garcia for full orchestra, a choir, and three solo vocalists, including one who narrates offstage action.

The orchestra was on fire throughout, the large brass section having a particularly good time with the jazz idioms. Soprano Deborah Wai Kapohe, playing all the female characters including Bess, was outstanding, her voice flexible, with an excellent range, and both sweet and strong. Bass Eddie Muliaumaseali’i, as both Porgy and Crown, his villainous rival for Bess, was equally impressive. He had an imposing presence and his wonderfully integrated voice was rich, smooth, and dramatic. Tenor Siliga Sani Muliaumaseali’i (Eddie’s brother in real life) provided the narration and sang the role of drug-dealer Sportin’ Life with convincing menace. The audience was treated to characterful performances of arias such as Summertime, I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’, It Ain’t Necessarily So, and Bess, You Is My Woman Now. The choir complements the soloists in creating the drama and pathos of the opera. An outstanding group of Pasifika singers from the award-winning, Wellington-based Signature Choir provided this component of the performance very sympathetically. Jacqueline Coats’ staging of the opera was minimal, clever, and amusing.

Porgy and Bess was preceded by the annual appearance of Arohanui Strings, a group of Wellington and Hutt Valley youngsters grasping the opportunity to learn and make music. This always heartwarming event featured A Kalahari Eclogue, an attractive composition by Keith Moss, supplemented by simpler pieces that even smaller children participated in. “Adorable”, said Taddei, and they were.

In sum, with Taddei’s imaginative programming and natural ebullience, Orchestra Wellington triumphed again.

Entering through a tempest to get to Circa Theatre, I was unaware of the storm of laughter that The Tempestuous would bring. Inspired by the Bard himself, William Shakespeare, this musical solo show sees Princess Rosa navigating a cyclone of menopausal witches, full-of-themselves courtiers, and much ado about baking tarts.

Penny Ashton multi-roles this captivating story like no other. She commands the audience with great vigour and humour, making us burst into fits of laughter frequently. Each character that Ashton embodies is incredibly distinct – no mean feat considering she plays at least 10 roles as one incredibly talented actor with impressive vocals to boot (musical direction and compositions by Robbie Ellis). Let’s not forget that unparalleled one-person swordfight.

The Tempestuous is a satire, often critiquing the role of men, which I must say is rather deserved. Not just a laugh fest, the show also draws from current affairs and is very politically relevant.

Ashton’s multi-rolling extends not only onstage but also behind the scenes, as she is also the show’s writer, sound designer, producer, publicist, and more. The Tempestuous is well written using ‘ye olde English’ and features many a rhyming couplet. The stage is filled with many surprises, often causing the audience to chuckle when props are revealed (our prop artist is none other than… you guessed it, Ashton).

Ashton wears a stunning corset dress (costume design by Elizabeth Whiting and corset design by Katie McGettigan) that is so detailed, it almost stops the show in its elegant tracks.

Ashton’s gift for audience interaction is a highlight – especially the improvised moments, such as addressing a latecomer and the one who left their glasses. My only criticism is that I wish there had been more audience interaction overall.

The Tempestuous made me cackle like the coven of witches within it. If you want to laugh until your corset splits, then gallivant to Circa Theatre at thy earliest convenience – or be damned!

Welcome to 1990s Illyria! It’s a party resort on a Greek island in the sun, glowing in whitewash and shocking-pink bougainvillea (set designer Amy Whiterod). In his vibrant nightclub, Orsino (Ren Mahuika) bemoans his lovesickness for a grieving Olivia (Lydia Verschaffelt), while Viola (Ivana Palezevic) and her twin brother Sebastian (Blake Boston) separately wash up after a shipwreck. Elsewhere, an unholy alliance of Sir Toby Belch (Allan Burne), Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Sean Farrell), Maria (Catherine McMechan), and Fabia (Margot Allais) set a trap for uptight steward Malvolio (Mike McJorrow). It’s Shakespeare’s greatest comedy, it’s twins, it’s the 90s… you need naught else for the best night of entertainment in Wellington right now.

The vision of directors Joy Hellyer and Paul Kay is steeped throughout this delicious production. Emma Bell and Mike Slater’s lush and colourful lighting design enhances Whiterod’s Mediterranean set beautifully. The wardrobe (Katie Knight and Meredith Dooley, assisted by Amy Vines) is perfectly period with a transformed Malvolio’s bright-yellow Ali G outfit, complete with bling, a stunning and laugh-out-loud highlight.

Kay’s sound design is a continuous playlist of 90s bangers, cunningly woven into the narrative and even replacing the odd line of dialogue. If you feel so inclined, you can boogie with the cast during the interval and join in the final Macarena. Warning: you will find yourself on your feet at the end as it’s impossible not to be swept up in the infectious joy of this version of a Shakespeare classic.

The cast is superb all round, working slickly and harmoniously together to tell a somewhat ridiculous but always entertaining story. It’s hard to pick standouts from such a good lineup but Burne’s Sir Toby and McJorrow’s Malvolio are favourites, both embracing the comedy and tragedy in their characters. Charlie Potter as Feste must also be commended for her wonderful singing and unfettered demand for cash.

The Bard himself would be bopping like the Backstreet Boys in this stunningly sunny Stagecraft production.

I’m a big fan of 7 Days, New Zealand’s longest-running comedy game show on TV Three. Having just marked its 16^th season, the programme originally aired at the decidedly un-family-friendly time slot of 10pm before being brought forward to 9:30pm and then earlier still. In 7 Days Live, the comedians get to cut loose like the good ol’ days. No filters, no censors: just Kiwi comedy at its rudest and finest.

The format is simple. The dynamic, fast-paced first half sees host Jeremy Corbett, team captains Paul Ego and Dai Henwood, and comedians Hayley Sproull, Josh Thomson, Justine Smith, and Ben Hurley each perform a 10-minute solo stand-up set before sitting down for a live version of 7 Days in act two.

After Corbett gets the ball rolling by recounting the hypothetical arguments he has with his wife about how they’d spend the Lotto money they’ll never win (relatable), Ego comes on to tell us about a kindly nurse possibly born out of the procreation of a walnut and a prune. At this point, a random yells “That’s Kelly’s mum!” and Ego handles it like a champ, starting a running joke about the illicit substances in the heckler’s system that the rest of the comedians riff on throughout the night. Henwood earns one or two ovations but many more laughs with a heartfelt set that straddles everything from slow roasting a pizza to thinking he’s been mistaken for a six-foot-something rugby player.

Other highlights of act one include Thomson’s jarring encounter with the Eye of Sauron in a lift, Hurley’s jibe to an audience member that “no one cares about the rebrand” of Countdown, Smith’s assertion that she “too, was surprised” about being punched by airport security, and Sproull’s impression of a chuffed Mr. Bean with a set of knockers.

The sound mixing in the second half is not as great and I lose a lot of lines when the chatter overlaps, but overall, I have a wicked time living out my dreams of catching an episode of my favourite Kiwi panel show live. While the cast love to rip each other to shreds, their camaraderie here is obvious, the chemistry between them sizzling harder and hotter than a saussie straight off the Bunnings grill.

The Outrun is a difficult watch, but that’s not to say it shouldn’t be seen. Painful, searing, infuriating, and at times nauseating, this story of addiction and mental illness is hopeful and beautiful all the same.

Based on Amy Liptrot’s 2017 memoir and directed by Nora Fingscheidt, The Outrun stars Saoirse Ronan as Rona, a girl who finds herself in the wake of destruction as she shakily treads the path towards sobriety. After hitting rock bottom in London, Rona finds herself back home on the Orkney Islands, a landscape as desolate, stark, and tumultuous as her own soul. Here, she comes face to face with her demons and contends with her religious mother Annie (Saskia Reeves) and her bipolar father (Stephen Dillane), so deeper she retreats to the more remote island of Papay.

The fragmented story is stitched together by brilliant editing work from Stephan Bechinger, who uses crashing cuts to break from recovery to relapse as shots of nature bleed into EDM-fuelled rampages. Cleverly, Fingscheidt uses hair dye to delineate time as well. Ronan’s performance is nuanced and at odds with itself, both deliberate and shaky, fierce and afraid, delicate and a force of nature.

Despite the quick editing and Yunus Roy Imer’s striking cinematography, the lack of driving narrative makes the story slow and tedious in the middle. Only Ronan’s acting and natural screen presence carries us through. We fear the worst as events merely happen, often flatly, the truth laid bare. Nothing is sacred or damned, it just is.  

Juxtaposing scientific explanations for natural phenomena with folklore, Rona draws a parallel to memory. In this story, both memory and folklore act as impressions of reality. During her journey, natural chaos replaces her inner turmoil, trauma, and need to create chaos of her own. As she seeks control, she is ever fighting the impulse to destroy. She finds comfort in nature – the ebb and flow of the tide, the harshness of its elements – as she wades in the glacial north Atlantic and raging through winter storms. In this poetic tale, Rona becomes a conductor for the natural world around her, learning to make sense of her memories, her reality.

Verdi’s Overture to La forza del destino was a very accessible entry to this concert. Its familiar themes, moments of drama, and ‘proper’ ending – i.e. one that went on for a few bars and was obvious about when it was finished – were perfect for ‘almost, but not quite the end of the week’ at 7:30pm on a Thursday.

Soprano Eliza Boom, tenor Paul O’Neill, and conductor José Luis Gómez led us through some of the best of Italian pop music of the late 19^th and early 20^th century. The programme covered four composers and 10 operas. Those with an interest in opera would have recognised the composers: Verdi, Puccini, Mascagni, and Leoncavallo. Those less familiar with the opera, but with an ear for melody, would have easily recognised enough of the programme from soundtracks and advertisements to feel quite at home.

With so many separate items on the programme, Gómez provided a valuable and light-hearted narrative throughout. Context about the time when the composers were working, and scene setting so we knew what the aria was stating, gave the audience an understanding and additional pleasure that should not be underestimated.

Two soloists alone on stage is a far cry from a performance with their fellow cast members, chorus, costumes, lighting, and scenery. Despite missing all these usual extras, Boom and O’Neill did well to convey the full opera experience. They were most comfortable when on stage together and a nice touch was O’Neill (Rodolfo) escorting Boom (Mimi), arm in arm, into the wings, as if they were on stage in a full performance.

As ever, the orchestra was in very fine form, working with and responding well to Gómez. Together they directed and played with energy, emotion, and an obvious respect for the music despite their undoubted familiarity with much of what they had in front of them.

Oscar Kightley’s seminal 1997 play has been given a contemporary refresh in the wake of the New Zealand Government’s 2021 Apology to the Pacific Peoples who came to Aotearoa in the 1970s wanting to make a better life and remained as overstayers. They faced discrimination, persecution, and unjust brutality from police, government, and media, culminating in the infamous dawn raids of the play’s title. Unceremoniously deported back to their island homes, many people’s lives were upended and families were torn apart.

A staple of school drama assessments for the past two decades, it’s a pleasure to see Dawn Raids on a big stage. Despite the grandiosity of The Opera House, this Pacific Underground and Auckland Theatre Company production maintains a cosy feel through straightforward theatrical devices – innovative lighting (Jo Kilgour), flying gauze screens (set design by Marc McEntyre, G.O.M Arts Collective), a spot-on wardrobe (Tony De Goldi, G.O.M Arts Collective), and an ever-present live band (musical director Posenai Mavaega, Lijah Mavaega, Josephine Mavaega, co-director Tanya Muagututi’a, Andrew Sione, Seto Faulo, and Isitolo Alesana) – to tell one family’s story.

The cast is uniformly excellent with Michael Falesiu’s astounding singing voice bridging many of the scenes. He plays Sione, a nightclub crooner with the Noble Hawaiian Sabretooth Tigers who is too afraid to admit to his Samoan heritage in public. It’s his fiancée Fuarosa (Sina Esera) his family are hiding, never able to go out for fear of being grabbed from the streets.

Lauie Tofa gives a performance highlight as Mose, Sione’s father. While the plot focuses on the dawn raids, a running undercurrent is toxic masculinity in Samoan culture and Tofa embodies that hilariously, then frighteningly as he switches from daft dad to domestic dominance and, finally, betrayal.

Of course, coming from the pen of Oscar Kightley, Dawn Raids is very funny and it’s this humour, contrasted with the seriousness of the historical context, that is the play’s great success. It strikes a perfect balance; the dread inherent in the sweeping police torches and baying German shepherds is all the more terrifying in the wake of laughter.

This is a rare opportunity to enjoy a top-notch production of a New Zealand classic. Catch it while you can.

Esperanza Spalding’s music has been described as “weaving jazz, soul, funk, rock and improvisation – defying categorisation”. For the final night of the Wellington Jazz Festival, we were privileged to have this five-time GRAMMY®-winning vocalist, bassist, and pianist performing here. Joining her were GRAMMY-winning guitarist, bassist, and producer Matthew Stevens, with drummer and producer Eric Doob rounding off this multi-talented trio.

The addition of two incredible dancers from New York City’s Antonio Brown Dance company, Tashae Udo and Kaylim Horrigan, provided another dimension and gave depth to the work. Backing vocals by Udo, Horrigan, Stevens, and Doob enhanced the songs further by adding layers of rich harmonies – complementing Spalding’s at times ethereal vocals.

The complex rhythmic changes of the first track I Want It Now, with Spalding on piano, showcased her extreme vocal dexterity and range. We were in awe of an artist seemingly at the height of her creativity but, as she mentioned, she only turned 40 two days earlier! So, hopefully she still has a long musical and spiritual journey ahead for us to look forward to.

Five songs from Spalding’s complex and multifaceted 2018 album 12 Little Spells followed. The title track 12 Little Spells expounded the virtues of the thoracic spine! Dancing The Animal was a deep-themed, meandering work about the mind. On the very catchy Thang, about hips, Spalding joined the dancers to showcase hers – cue ecstatic applause! 

Starting with a virtuoso four-minute drum solo, I Know You Know was an electric-bass-driven song about ‘a suitor playing coy’. With Others, about ears, was followed by Black Gold, featuring beautiful a capella singing and scatting. The lighting and sound crews deserve a shoutout here for creating a special ambience for the occasion.

For the first encore, the band and dancers (sitting on mats) moved to the very front of the stage for the gorgeous ballad Formwela 4, featuring all five voices and Stevens’ hypnotic acoustic guitar. To finish the concert, and with the audience humming along, was the final song Satisfied.… and from our standing ovation, it was clear that we were!