What a Man's Gotta Do *****

‘What a man’s gotta do’ is the new rip-roarin’ rootin’ tootin’ adult musical from Andrew Horabin. It is on at the Rechabites Hall in Northbridge each evening at 8 pm until 30^th September.

When a show is written, directed and produced by one person it can often be a self-indulgent production with little quality. Here, to prove me wrong, is a musical with 16 brilliant songs. They range in style from Kevin Bloody Wilson comedy, to one similar to Lee Marvin’s ‘Wanderin’ star’. All of the cast have their solos, with Paige Marshall and Alinta Carroll showing the tender side of the music, whilst Perth theatre legend, Craig Williams, brought the house down with a 4-minute tongue twisting song (did he breathe through his ears?).

The recorded music which ranged from blues to rap was superbly produced.

The words of the songs were clearly projected, thus giving the full impact of the clever writing. Some of the dialogue was a little lost in the vast auditorium, especially when the actors turned to the side of the stage.

The simple story is of typical group of Aussie blokes returning from a buck’s night when they meet the bride-to-be (Brodie Caporn). She threatens her fiancé (Jesse Phillips) to become areal man within the next 24 hours, or be history!

The ‘group of mates’ is made up of several VERY different, well defined characters from the intelligent wimp (Jimmy James Eaton), to Muzza (Ethan Tomas – recently seen in the very different ‘The ships pass quietly’) who is permanently on ‘a trip’ and has trouble with the link between his brain and his mouth. Joe (Dave Maguire) the heartthrob who has slept with a hundred women and the hard boy, Gazza (Shaun Martindale) who is always pushing the limits.

Charisse Parnell and Ellen McCarthy’s choreography for the show is witty, with loads of tongue-in-cheek humour. There are many others who added their faultless skills.

This show just glowed. The humour was not only sustained for the show, but for hours afterwards. Fantastic, but you will be lucky to get a seat!