Joel, a Pākeha man, stands outside the beehive and smiles

Meet Joel MacManus, the journalist that Wellington actually deserves

It’s been a very weird week in Wel­ling­ton where we’re think­ing actu­ally Chris Bish­op has done good for once with the Dis­trict Plan? Very strange pos­i­tion to be in. Obvi­ously, city coun­cilors who want a city for the liv­ing and future have pushed for this for a very long time, but I don’t think it […]

a screenshot of the Wellingtonista from 2005

A lengthy mea culpa, 20 years of history and a reboot?

If you don’t like lengthy deep navel gaz­ing, take this tl:dr and be on your way until the next post: the Wel­ling­tonista web­site has been very neg­lected for a num­ber of years, and I intend to do bet­ter – per­haps you might like to con­trib­ute some­thing too.  I was 24 when James asked me to […]

Review: Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812

Review: Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812

By Talia Carl­isle Invite out your friends and put on your best faux fur, because Witch Music Theatre is back in town. Don’t let the cold weath­er stop you from exper­i­en­cing the best night out this side of Broad­way, with Wellington’s own revolu­tion of music­al geni­us onstage at Han­nah Play­house until Sat­urday. Fol­low­ing a mem­or­able […]

Review: Rent

Review: Rent

Reviewed by Talia Carl­isle Christ­mas has come early to Gryphon Theatre, with Kauri Theatre Company’s tin­selled up pro­duc­tion of Rent selling out before open­ing to those beg­ging for a chance to see cre­at­or Jonath­an Larson’s icon­ic Winter-set music­al. I am grate­ful dir­ect­or Lox Dix­on has tackled such a huge artist­ic pro­ject to bring Rent back […]

Review: Goody Goody Glam Pop

Review: Goody Goody Glam Pop

Reviewed by Talia Carl­isle Get ready to shake it, to the fab­ulous rhymes and sick beat of Goody Goody Glam Pop at Cir­cus Bar for one more night! Beth­any Miller’s trans­form­a­tion into pop super­star Brook­lyn Brook­lyn of Brook­lyn is Dis­ney magic to behold as she shares her most pop-ular songs – Back to Back, Breath­less, […]

Review: Hansel & Gretel

Review: Hansel & Gretel

The RNZB’s Hansel & Gretel is back for an end of year sweet treat. This was my first ever bal­let when I moved to Wel­ling­ton, and it was an utter delight to get a chance to check it out again for this year’s iter­a­tion. Chore­graphed and com­posed by my favour­ite RNZB duo, Lough­lan Pri­or and […]

Review: The Importance of Being Earnest

Review: The Importance of Being Earnest

Circa Theatre’s The Import­ance of Being Earn­est has marked itself down as a fant­ast­ic retell­ing of my favour­ite non-New Zea­l­and play, and an excel­lent night out besides. Staged in a thrust stage in Circa One, Jonath­an Price’s dir­ect­ori­al hand is evid­ent as a play that is often so caught in (delight­ful) intern­al con­ver­sa­tions is broadened […]

Review: Ruthless

Review: Ruthless

Reviewed by Talia Carl­isle “Where does tal­ent come from?” This is the key ques­tion asked by char­ac­ter Sylvia St. Croix (Bea Lee-Smith) in Kauri Theatre’s tal­ent-full pro­duc­tion of Ruth­less at Gryphon Theatre on until Sat­urday. The show, dir­ec­ted by Bon­ita Edwards is brim­ming with tal­ent from Bea Lee-Smith’s sequin covered entrance. There’s cheer­ful dance num­bers, […]

Review: A Bit Dramatic

Review: A Bit Dramatic

This show was incred­ibly pop­u­lar and got reviewed mul­tiple times dur­ing the Improv Fest! Check out a vari­ety of those reviews below. – Reviewed by Thalia Kehoe Rowden In an intense, mov­ing 60-minute show, the cast of four take inspir­a­tion from real-life journ­al entries – unseen until the per­form­ance – and invent and explore the […]

Review: NO SLEEP

Review: NO SLEEP

Reviewed by Rebecca Stub­bing. Fri­day the 13th was the per­fect occa­sion for NO SLEEP, a joy­fully chaot­ic improv show presen­ted at this year’s New Zea­l­and Improv Fest­iv­al. The show began at 9:30pm on the won­der­ful Stage at BATS Theatre, and the slightly sleepy audi­ence were imme­di­ately reas­sured by the per­formers not to worry, we were […]