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Time Out
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
If the leading lady of a daytime telenovela was to read too many pop-psychology books while downing a double Espresso Martini, you might get something close to Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. This musical comedy based on Pedro Almodóvar's 1988 cinema cult classic is given a neon-lit, red-curtained makeover at Sydney's Hayes Theatre. With precision taking a backseat to passion, director Alexander Berlage (Cry-Baby, American Psycho) delivers a stylish descent into screwball mania. The action takes place in Madrid, Spain, where Amy Hack 's (Yentl) heartbroken actress, Pepa, is having a terrible, very bad day, which we see play out from depressive start to high-flung resolution. Her lover Iván breaks up with her over answering machine, and thus, her Odyssey-styled mission to find and confront him begins. Along the journey, Pepa butts heads with Iván's scorned ex-wife Lucia (Tisha Keleman), his son and his own frustrated fiancée, as well as her wildly unravelling best friend, Candela (Grace Driscoll). With a book by Jeffrey Lane (known for his musical adaption of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) and music and lyrics by David Yazbek (Dead Outlaw), the original Broadway production of Women on the Verge had a relatively short lifespan – closing soon after it received poor reviews, and even poorer ticket sales. This is where Berlage's adept hand at re-inventing cult flops takes charge – finding a space for his avant-garde style through sharp angles, frenetic choreography, and psychosexual vignettes. His style is well matched by Phoebe Pilcher 's discordantly placed, evocative and frenzied lighting design, which effectively fills the space with the heat of the Spanish sun. Alexander Berlage (Cry-Baby, American Psycho) delivers a stylish descent into screwball mania Berlage has a reputation for breathing new life into former musical flops, and likewise, this production aims to move the material beyond a generic film-to-stage adaptation and lean into a clever, subversive vision. Women on the Verge skewers the most Shakespearean of plot points – love – and of course, the root cause of everyone's problems – men. (And underneath that is Greta Gerwig's favourite nemesis: the patriarchy.) The men in the piece may seem as vapid as those in the Barbie movie, but the bite of the women is more akin to Fleabag – dishevelled as they may appear, you don't want to cross them on a bad day. Hack demonstrates the utmost commitment to her characterisation of Pepa, with subtle nuances in her emotional state giving way to strident outbursts – she is quite literally the picture of a woman on the verge. Her accent is held firm through both dialogue and song, while her flinging and flailing of bags, sunglasses and telephones is a superb lesson in choreographed chaos. Driscoll's lust-lorn model, Candela, holds elastic characterisation and physicality, taking outlandish shapes and forms that are at times absurdly hilarious. Her patter song, 'Model Behaviour', reads like both an ode and challenge to the late great Stephen Sondheim himself. Meanwhile, Keleman's overlooked and vengeful wife Lucia is a woman who now seeks to get back the years lost to an untrustworthy man. As her son, Carlos, Tomas Kantor is our most grounded male character, still led by his base instincts, yes, but at least he has a good heart through which the blood is pumped. Playing opposite as his fiance, Nina Carcione 's doe-eyed stare cuts through the space, drawing attention to her excellent knack for non-verbal comedic timing. Chiara Assetta 's choreography is tasked with the olympic-sized hurdle of navigating around the congested set, and meets the challenge. The use of streamers instead of solid walls allows hands, faces, and limbs to appear and disappear with ease, while a large bed for one red-hot set piece blocks out a great portion of the space. It's swiftly executed choreography that has our characters dancing around, over and throughout the sharp angles of Hailley Hunt 's set design, which quite aptly reflects the slowly decaying psychosexual tensions of the show's characters. The production's take on Spanish characteristics is somewhat hit and miss. Sometimes, in the same vein as Lady Gaga in House of Gucci: thickly accented, but imbued with enough commitment to the bit that it works. But at the same time, also a little like Jared Leto in House of Gucci: absurd, over-the-top, and somewhat inconsistent. Aaron Robuck 's narrator/taxi driver seems an innocuous enough plot device in the grand scheme of the piece, and the character's disjointed nature isn't helped by Lane's underdeveloped book. Popping up throughout to (quite literally) transport Pepa between main set pieces, accordion in hand, the script takes what is meant to be the show's MC and replaces it with a big question mark on his purpose. On opening night, the sound levels seemed unbalanced – a weakness in a piece driven by dense lyrics and rapid tempo. Dylan Pollard 's musical direction, whilst being able to give the score a toe-tapping beat that's liable to make your hips shake, drowned out the enunciation from our fast-talking, thick-accented characters. Nonetheless, this stylish production makes a meal out of an undercooked script, and Hack's leading performance is especially worthwhile – her Pepa is as lived-in and layered as she is hysterical. The most poignant, powerful and purposeful moments of the show come when all five women are together in unison, particularly in the final moments, which offer the most quiet and peaceful state of the evening. This is what it looks like when women on the brink take back their power – in four-part harmony.
The Guardian
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown review – a gorgeous take on a flawed musical
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is one of those films you really should have on your bucket list. Pedro Almodóvar's 1988 Spanish farce (currently streaming on SBS on Demand) follows actress Pepa, whose lover Iván has broken up with her over answering machine, and her long day trying to get in touch with him. Along the way, she collides with Iván's ex-wife, a young couple who turn out to also be connected to him, and her best friend Candela. Men are ruining everyone's day. It's funny, clever and dark. The musical adaptation, written by Jeffrey Lane (best known for his musical adaptation of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) with music and lyrics by David Yazbek (also Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and more recently the freshly Tony-nominated Dead Outlaw) premiered on Broadway 15 years ago – to middling (at best) reviews. Both its New York and West End seasons were cut short due to poor sales. So why is this musical getting a fresh run in Australia? Three words: director Alexander Berlage. He's the perfect fit for a show that needs to be stylish down to its bones – and needs a new vision. Berlage started out on the experimental side of indie theatre before he found his way to musicals (often as a lighting designer as well as director), immediately committing to theatrical rigour, camp and playful subversion. His first outing at the Hayes, Cry-Baby the Musical (based on the John Waters film) restored an anarchic spirit to a show that had turned saccharine on Broadway; the follow-up, a deliciously complex and sleek staging of American Psycho, was another success in finding the right tone for a show that had flopped in New York. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Who better, then, to take on Almodóvar's camp farce and make it pop? And this production really does pop: Hailley Hunt's set – Pepa's apartment – is a dream to look at, and cleverly evokes all of Madrid through just a few set pieces. It's red curtain-ringed and deliciously decorated, and when Phoebe Pilcher's lighting drenches the space in reds and blues, it's gorgeous. Amy Hack (who most recently starred in Yentl in Melbourne and Sydney) is glorious as Pepa: it's a deeply lived-in, individuated performance that takes inspiration from, but does not copy, the film. This is a character in crisis, but also comic and genuinely complex – the key is in the title, this woman is on the verge of a breakdown – and Hack gives a gorgeously risky and boldly funny performance that will be one of the year's best. Together, Berlage and Hack are doing great, inventive work (there are delightful staging choices, especially small moments of character and tableau detail, that elevate scenes). It's genuinely a pleasure to watch. There are, however, two big problems. The first, which is fixable, is the sound design and engineering: on opening night, it was often difficult to make out the lyrics. Musicals reveal key plot and character information in songs, from facts and exposition all the way to moments of revelation, so if we can't hear it, we're lost. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion The second is that it's just not a very good musical. Yazbek's Spanish-styled score sounds bright but isn't varied enough to have us leaning in and listening closely, especially when it's already hard to hear. The show has a male narrator (Aaron Robuck, playing the taxi driver who Pepa encounters several times in the film) who feels extraneous to the narrative. More broadly, the book is a mess. When taking a farce from film to stage, you need to recalibrate your narrative. In a musical, everything is already heightened, so you need to establish an emotional reality in your farce for it to have a sense of stakes. Lane and Yazbeck's musical saves the bulk of stripped-back emotional realness for the second act, but it's too late by then to introduce them – we've been dialled up to 11 since the first scene. Berlage does his best to mitigate this – and the ending is strikingly, surprisingly, moving – but he can't change the book or the score, which do not rise to the greatness of Berlage, Hack or the original film. So, should you see it? If you love musicals and want to see a performer at the height of her powers, yes. Hack is well worth the trip, and you deserve a treat. Otherwise, give the film a try. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is at Hayes theatre, Darlinghurst, until 8 June.
