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!

Gordon always gives a good review for every production.

Or a sign of theatrical ignorance. This 'musical' was one of the worse things i've ever seen. I was actually embarrassed sitting in the audience. Shocking set, shocking acting, shocking singing (hmm... a musical where people can't sing!), shocking choreography, shocking characters (haven't men evolved since prehistory?). The script was ok, if not extremely cliched and the songs were pretty average (when i could understand what the hell they were saying) and were way too low for everyone. I disagree Labrug - the West's review was spot on, and was actually kind. You may know the performers and they may be good in other things, but not this.

Gordon puts his name to his reviews. Are you prepared to? Is that all there is? Well if that's all there is my friend, then let's keep dancing. www.tonymoore.id.au

Aren't people allowed to disagree anymore? Lets play nice everyone!

Of course you're allowed to disagree. And I'm also sick of the argument that anonymity discredits your point of view. (As I've argued before, the anonymous viewpoint can often be more truthful). The only thing that ought to be argued is how well have you justified your comments, and whether they hold up to scrutiny. You're certainly entitled to your opinion, and you're no doubt not alone in your view....but if the show really was one of the "worse" you've ever seen, I wonder if you've seen enough theatre? However, I don't deny there were things that could be improved. >>the songs were pretty average... No less than 3 songs from the show have qualified as finalists in this year's upcoming WAM Awards. A lot of the soundtrack has had radio play, including nationally on Triple J. In my opinion Andrew is a rather gifted songwriter. Lyrically the songs are very strong, and are fairly varied musically. Confessing to being quite naive in writing for theatre, he's since realised there were too many slow songs in the middle of the first act which made it drag a bit, and within songs they could be re-arranged to avoid repetitive choruses and instrumentals where nothing is progressing onstage. Opportunities were missed for harmonies, which could be improved next time. >>...(when i could understand what the hell they were saying) and were way too low for everyone. This was definitely unfortunate. The soundtrack was recorded a long time in advance, using popular local bands which were undeniably a drawcard in getting radio coverage and audiences. Andrew wrote them in the key he sings them in his solo show, up close to a mic (ie not projecting). But when it was cast, it was going to be too expensive to transpose and rerecord the songs into higher keys, so the cast had to cope. It's hard enough to project when the song is slightly too low for you, and in the Rechabites the low frequencies just get even muddier. In the songs with 5 guys singing rapidfire lyrics, clarity and vocal precision was lost. Long phrases in ballads were hard to sustain. Andrew underestimated the need for a musical director, at the audition stage, the arranging and recording stage, and the rehearsal stage. That the cast, myself included, could have delivered better is a valid observation. Big kudos to the sound designer Alan Thompson & operator Dave Keys, for doing what I think was an almost impossible task in that theatre...the sound SHOULD have been a hell of a lot worse, but wasn't, thanks to them. >>shocking choreography >>Charisse Parnell and Ellen McCarthy’s choreography for the show is witty, with loads of tongue-in-cheek humour. 70% of the choreography was done by Andrew, actually. The choreographers were brought in for 4 songs and the rest was done by cast members. >>shocking characters (haven't men evolved since prehistory?) Did you not walk out of the theatre and pass any of the pubs in Northbridge?? Some of the strongest feedback we got was how much people recognised the characters, particularly the men. Yes, they were stereotypical, and deliberately one-dimensional ("Drug abuse, violence, low self esteem, and promiscuity...doesn't sound like anyone I know"). The shock factor, in this instance, was deliberate. >>It is nice to see a positive review of this show after the poorly written and negative one in The West recently. >>I disagree Labrug - the West's review was spot on, and was actually kind. You may know the performers and they may be good in other things, but not this. You're entitled to your opinion about the performances. And Pier Leach from The West was entitled to give a negative review. But that doesn't alter the fact that it WAS poorly written. I think she was confused at the start by assuming it was going to be a comic farce, and then complained that not everything was funny. Andrew was actually attempting a pretty even balance of drama, comedy and pathos. She then gives just ONE sentence of her review to describe the actual performance she saw (fair enough, she hated it, but honestly I'd expect more REVIEWING), and the rest is a literary critique of Andrew's writing. She draws attention to a conclusion that she THINKS Andrew makes, ("...his suggestion that it can all be fixed with a night out camping...") without realising that that is exactly what he is NOT saying. ...And she says I was delivering my song with relish, when I prefer mustard. In fact, my usual criticism of her reviews is that she simply regurgitates the plot and the press release...perhaps she was floundering this time because she didn't follow the plot enough to be able to restate it. (Now this in itself would be a valid criticism of the show - if she couldn't follow the plot. But that is not what she expresses in the review...rather she gives me the impression that she lost the plot.) The thing that surprised me about the West's review was that it gave no account of audience reaction, which on that particular night was extremely vocal and appreciative (the one night we had some of the audience standing to applaud!). Similarly Walter, you, and no doubt others, may have hated it, but you surely can't deny the audience in the main were laughing and enjoying themselves for a good part of the show. I heard them. As a footnote, Stephen Bevis, arts editor of The West, came to see the show a few days later and made it known to us that he didn't agree with Pier Leach's review. >>Gordon always gives a good review for every production If you think that means his reviews are less valid, then you're welcome to dispute them as you did, with opinions of your own, and I'm interested to hear all feedback, good or bad. I don't condone overly-positive reviews any more than overly-negative ones...a review is good if it is honest and well-observed, and then well-expressed. >>Sadly I'll miss the show Grant, the show sold out before we started, which is why I didn't even bother listing it in the What's On page here. There were no tickets to sell, apart from the few Andrew personally held in reserve. The Blue Room closed the waiting list because it was too long. All 12 shows played to full capacity. Regardless of whether you like his writing, directing, storytelling, composing, lyrics, comedy, choreography, or casting, you have to admire Andrew's ability to promote and sell out a brand new show. Cheers, Craig P.S. And no, I don't breathe through my ears, but through the blowhole I had installed in 1989. ~<8>-/====\---------

Sorry, but this show was bad. i'm glad i went along to support theatre in Perth but the show was not good at all. I dont know any of the cast or production team, im not trying to be nasty, i think it was a good attempt at something new, its great they tried but it just did not work. i think a major flaw was the use of backing tracks. some of the songs were nice but they did not fit as musical theatre songs. i would have liked it as a caberet style show sung out front. i get annoyed when people get nasty on here, there is no need, but lets be honest. It was not a good show. you can rebut all you like but the fact remains that i did not enjoy the show, no one can argue with that. Sorry

Yeah. I was in it and thought it was fucking shocking :) Oh well !!! Not to worry :)