In a time of uncertainty, world-wide conflicting ideas of what is true or conspiracy, this production feels very ‘Twilight Zone’ and opening on the same day as a major social media blackout too – what really happened?  ‘do, do, do, do …’ (You know the tune)  

Set in a small town in 1950s Southern Louisiana, Little Town Liars follows three kids as they sneak away from the annual Halloween fair on the eve of one of the friend’s 18^th birthday to experiment with some herbal pills as a birthday treat.

They emerge from the woods three days later! The cover story of “we were abducted by aliens” starts an absolute roller-coaster of hilarity and chaos within the town as this excuse is used as the scapegoat for everyone’s heathenistic and shocking behaviours.  

It’s hard to tell you any more specifics without spoilers as everyone needs it to just unravel in the moment, literally. 

But I can tell you what a superbly written piece of theatre this is from Joshua Hopton-Stewart. The arc of the script and the music is cleverly woven together with perfect character stereotypes to augment with parody. The array of music/songs accompanied superbly by pianist Johnathan Powell, illustrates the eclectic joys of musical theatre with priceless and unashamed glorious nods to Sondheim’s Into the Woods, all played out on Amy Whiterod’s simple static set: a 50s country house lounge and its southern style porch with the infamous woods behind; all era-amplified with Helen Mackenzie’s costume coordination and Darryn Wood’s lighting design palette. 

Little Town Liars premiered at BATS Out-of-Site in 2013 as part of the NZ Fringe Festival, and I’m not surprised to learn of its winning awards for Best Ensemble and Pick of the Fringe at that time. This current season is a sell-out and it has also had sell-out seasons with Auckland Musical Theatre in 2018 and Yellow-Shaped in Stockholm, Sweden.

This season’s cast is absolutely stellar, all going to the nth degree of possible larger than life characterisation – a skill I admire and aspire to – to bring this town to life. No-one is overshadowed or over-played when everyone is committed to the story and style of the piece.

I believe the process to bring this fantastic script to the stage has been one of collaboration, with each actor able to bring their own take to the uniqueness of their character and all offers are on the table to bring the gags and one-liners to life. The extra layer to this is the audience, and the in-the-moment live theatre experience also adds to this comic colour and timing, especially with an opening night audience of friends and family – and, I later discover, several actors from the original 2013 production.  This cast have this timing in spades and I’m amazed that there isn’t any noticeable corpse-ing – I bet you there was back stage!

From Toi Whakaari student Tara Canton’s down to earth colloquial Narrator, Aimée Sullivan’s gorgeously quirky Shirley, and theatre veteran Rob Ormsby’s henpecked twitchy elder statesman Mayor Austin to Lydia Harris’s eccentric (and psychopathic) librarian Marge Nickies,every role and actor deserves a mention both individually and as an ensemble as they are all just wonderful, so I’m going to!

Narrator – Tara Canton
Belinda Austin – Alexandra Taylor
Jake Austin – Fynn Bodley-Davies
Shirley Harris – Aimée Sullivan
Ruth Sanders – Charlie Potter
Billy Peterson – Kevin Orlando
Marge Nickies – Lydia Harris
Dr. Nickies – Martin Tidy
Mrs. Austin – Kirsty Justice
Mayor Austin – Rob Ormsby
Sheriff Sanders – Andrew Goddard
Donna Gregson – Jayne Grace

I adore this style of theatre, where the ensemble storytelling offers as much as the individual – Come from Away style.

For a musical which Joshua Hopton-Stewart (a New Zealand School of Music graduate) says “was written in down time while working at Kirk’s,” imagine what would happen if he devoted full time energies to this medium!

I found a quote from him online when asked in an interview,“What would you expect to see at a Fringe festival?” The answer at that time was,  “Creative works that you wouldn’t see on a ‘commercial’ stage or gallery, works that push the boundaries and surprise us with their out-of-the-box approach, works that inspire other artists to think broader when developing their creative language.”

Little Town Liars is all of this and more. On one hand its frivolous theatrical fun, on another it showcases a large and talented ensemble while also giving the necessary food for thought of how we as humans negotiate our way through times of guilt, fear and conditioning.

You’ll have to beg for tickets, or wait for the next season – it will take on a whole new life with whoever it is cast in it. How wonderful is that!

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