Category: Arts & Culture

May 01
The Rain Dancer

Top South African Musical performer Grant Almirall plays the lead role of Don Lockwood in the massive internationally touring production of Singing In The Rain, which has wowed audiences in Wellington and debuts on Auckland’s Civic Stage tomorrow. Oliver Hall caught up with the star.   How does playing Don Lockwood compare to playing Frankie […]

Apr 29
Film Review – Cobain: Montage of Heck

Sam Te Kani takes a look at the new Kurt Cobain documentary everyone is talking about. I missed Nirvana. I was a nineties child, literally, void of hormone-induced angst which saw the band’s meteoric rise as a fairly content, if painfully naive kindergartener. My own self-defined period of rebellion would be piggybacked by other bands […]

Apr 27
Competing With History’s Greatest Tenors

Puccini’s exotic masterpiece Turandot is this year’s Opera in Concert for the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. Express spoke with Italian-Brazilian tenor Thiago Arancam about taking on the demanding tenor role of Calaf, who sings the world’s most famous aria; ‘Nessun Dorma’.  Why is Turandot an important opera, and what does it mean to you to be […]

Apr 23
Live Review: Sam Smith at Vector Arena

Sam Smith rewards his audiences’ enthusiasm at his first NZ show. Over the years I’ve seen a lot of artists considered to be great singers perform live. Whitney Houston, Cher, Elton John, Mariah Carey, Lady Gaga, John Legend, Dionne Warwick, Rihanna, Damien Rice, Alicia Keys, Norah Jones, Meatloaf, Elaine Page, KD Lang, – but none […]

Apr 21
Live Review: Ricky Martin’s Still Got It

Ricky Martin was in Auckland on Friday night to premiere his One World tour. Levi Joule went along and filed this review.  The 10,000 who packed Vector Arena may have been half of the crowd that last saw the pop prince play at Mt Smart in 2000, but those who did show up on Friday […]

Apr 16
Stroppy Old Women Excerpt: Imagine a world…

Jenny Rankine hails from Adelaide in Australia but has lived in Aotearoa for more than half her life, and identifies as Pakeha. She has worked as a public servant, a print journalist, in Auckland Rape Crisis, and as an editor of Broadsheet, New Zealand’s long-running feminist magazine.  She and her partner have 12 nieces and […]

Apr 13
Review: POETRY Not For The Faint of Heart

Tiny Theatre at lesbian hub Garnet Station licensed café comes up trumps again with some of the most outstanding performance poetry our reviewer Sandi Hall has seen in more than twenty years. Imagine going for a country walk on a sunny day and coming across a house with wide open windows and doors allowing you […]

Apr 12
Review: Stroppy Old Women

Stroppy Old Women, a new book by Paul Little and Wendyl Nissen, launched Friday night at Grey Lynn Library Hall, Sandi Hall was there and gives us her take on the book.  In our Rainbow community, it’s obvious that anxiety about body image is highest among men. The aging body is of particular concern, with […]