Review: Come from Away, Melbourne

I first heard of this musical at a business lunch, of all things. As it’s set in Newfoundland, the marketing body Destination Canada invited the producer along to an event where reps from Canada’s different provinces sing their praises to journalists.

Newfoundland’s probably the least known province to Aussies, or close to it, as it’s so remote. But that remoteness lies at the heart of this musical, which tells the story of what happened in a small Newfie town after the events of 11 September 2001.

Gander once had a big and busy airport, used as a refuelling stop by aircraft in the early days of trans-Atlantic flight. But as commercial planes became powerful enough to leap that ocean in a single bound, its airport slipped into irrelevance.

Until September 11. When US airspace was shut down after the terrorist attacks on New York City, dozens of passenger planes in the air were ordered to land at Gander, whose runways were big enough to cope with most aircraft.

It soon became obvious that their passengers were going to be stuck in Gander for an indeterminate number of days. As the town instantly doubled in population with these thousands of newcomers, crisis loomed – until the people of Gander leapt into action, housing the stranded, making them meals, inviting them home, even taking care of the animals that had been overlooked in aircraft cargo holds.

It’s a heartwarming true story, set to a background of tragedy, and it was this example of human generosity that inspired Come from Away’s creators to set it to music. I would never have considered that genre for a drama like this, but it’s perfect – the music and choreography perfectly brings out both the pace of those days and the emotions of all involved.

To the production’s credit, it isn’t at all syrupy. There’s a lot of positivity in the dialogue and lyrics as the startled townsfolk and dazed passengers get to know and help each other, but there are also darker undertones that anchor the story to reality.

These include suspicions levelled at Muslims among the passengers, tensions within frayed relationships, worries about loved ones far away, and always the horror of what has happened in New York. This last factor is crystallised in the form of a woman whose son is a firefighter in NYC, she having no idea of whether he’s alive or dead.

The cast do a marvellous job of speaking, singing, dancing, interacting, at a nonstop pace which reflects what it must have felt like to be in Gander for those four fraught days. Actors play multiple roles, switching from passengers to townspeople to officials via simple but effective changes in clothing or headwear.

There’s some lovely overt humour, including that of the townswoman whose reports to the audience always involve her in an imaginary romantic entanglement with whatever sexy pilot or doctor or teacher she’s been dealing with. There are also laughs from the mild collision of small-town ways with those of the wider cosmopolitan world, re food and sexuality and language.

In the end, Come from Away is a homage to the better side of humanity, while never overlooking its worst impulses. In its portrayal of a crisis that left no one unchanged by the strange interlude they spent in the middle of nowhere in the aftermath of destruction, it’s a potent message of hope and a great mood enhancer.

Come from Away is now playing at the Comedy Theatre, 240 Exhibition Street, Melbourne, Australia. For details and bookings, visit the Australian production’s website.

Review: The Beaumont, London, UK

I stayed in London as a guest of The Beaumont.

Good ol’ Jimmy Beaumont. When Prohibition hit the USA, he moved to London and gave Mayfair the swellest, swankiest hotel that it had ever seen.

Or... did he?

When I arrived at The Beaumont last week for a two-night stay, I was impressed from the start. Everything in my room harmonised in a stylish, Art Deco way, which spoke of decades of devotion to a consistent interwar style:

The 20th century elegance extended throughout the hotel, including the marvellous Magritte Bar and Colony Grill Room, the latter lined by large paintings depicting 1920s New York City and other parts of the USA:

It was delightful. Except, of course, that Jimmy Beaumont was a myth. The Beaumont was not pushing a hundred years old either - it opened just five years ago, in 2014, within (get this) a former parking garage serving customers of the nearby Selfridges department store. 

The garage which opened in 1926 had, fortuitously, a beautiful facade which could be put to other uses - including the addition of Room, a sculpture which looks like a sleeping robot but is in fact the exterior of an unusual hotel room:

This bit of cheeky fun - inventing a colourful founder and then designing the hotel around his imagined tastes and personality - is an approach I thoroughly approve of. As a writer, the storytelling has great appeal; it makes The Beaumont a stimulating place to stay in, as you glance over its interiors with an eye to its fictitious founder.

And if Jimmy never existed, I doubt any of the people depicted in portraits on its corridor walls existed either. Sorry, random naval officer:

Just the Facts:

The Beaumont

Brown Hart Gardens, Mayfair, London, UK

Phone: +44 20 7499 1001

Web: www.thebeaumont.com
Rates: Rooms from A$780 per night.

Review: Adina Sydney Central

For this stay I was hosted by TFE Hotels.

For some reason, my go-to locality when staying in Sydney is Railway Square.

This slightly messy plaza to the west of Central Station is linked to the suburban rail platforms by a seemingly interminable pedestrian tunnel, with a scattering of fast food joints and hotels around its adjacent bus station.

Though it's busy in terms of both vehicles and foot traffic, it's very handy when I'm travelling as it's a short hop on the train line from the airport.

As it's Central Station, of course, it's on the train line (and two tram lines) to everywhere. In addition to suburban trains, I've caught the sleeper train to Melbourne from there twice, and the mighty Indian Pacific train to Perth three times.

I flit between two sets of accommodation at Railway Square: either the YHA Railway Square hostel, or the Adina Sydney Central. On my way to Seoul on my recent South Korea visit, I stayed overnight at the latter.

The Adina, an apartment hotel, sits within the magnificent Parcel Post Office which was constructed in 1912 to serve the railway station. It's a lovely building, with a sandstone and brick facade that appears both functional and attractive:

My room had a simple modern, uncluttered look. I liked the natural light allowed by the big old-fashioned windows, though sadly they didn't open to let in fresh air.

There was a touch of colour and comfort in my room, but mostly it was practical and businesslike, with the sort of big functional desk I really appreciate.

Downstairs there was a pleasant lobby, and out the back a decent-sized swimming pool with a view of the station's fine clock tower.

Off Henry Deane Plaza in the square there's a small supermarket for DIY catering, and a number of informal eateries including a good cafe, Coffee Trails, and an outlet of my favourite Sydney chain, the German bakery Luneburger.

If you're looking for a no-fuss, conveniently-located place to stay in Sydney, the Adina Sydney Central is an excellent choice.

Just the Facts:
Adina Apartment Hotel Sydney Central
2 Lee St, Sydney, Australia
Phone: +61 2 9356 5062
Web: www.adinahotels.com
Rates: Rooms from A$150 per night. 

Review: Ibis Ambassador Seoul Dongdaemun, South Korea

On this trip I was hosted by the Korea Tourism Organisation and Accor Hotels.

It's no secret that I'm a fan of the Ibis brand of hotels. Pitched at a budget level, their rooms are generally compact but utterly familiar. They're simple and perfectly functional for someone on a business trip, as I usually am when I travel.

On my recent Seoul trip I checked into the Ibis at Dongdaemun. It's a neighbourhood peppered with tourist hotels, and would be fairly nondescript if not for the marvellous Dongdaemun Design Plaza at its heart:

This spectacular complex, centred on a silver spaceship-like building designed by Zaha Hadid, is a hub of the design arts. It contains everything from large-scale exhibitions to the work of individual local designers, and is a worthy flagship of Seoul's identity as a UNESCO City of Design.

The Ibis is a short walk from the DDP, and also close to an underground station of the very useful Seoul Metro.

As for the hotel itself, it was much what I expected. My room on the 20th storey had the familiar Ibis beds and desk...

... as well as a functional open-plan bathroom nook and a shower. I'm always happy when I don't have to deal with a shower that's slung over a bathtub with a clammy billowing shower curtain, so this set-up suited me fine.

Even better, the windows could be opened! Unopenable windows are one of my pet peeves at hotels. As the weather in Seoul was pleasant by night, I enjoyed being able to get some fresh air rather than having to sleep in dry air-conditioned chill. Decent view, too.

There was a simple bar on the ground floor which was unappealing, but downstairs below street level was a pleasant restaurant. The breakfast buffet was simpler than the average hotel - boiled eggs instead of scrambled, for example - though filling enough and attractively laid out:

An Ibis hotel usually has a entertainment area with a distinctive character that belies its chain identity. A London Ibis I stayed in had a funky ground floor bar for example, while another Seoul Ibis had a cool cafe.

Where was it here? On the roof. I took the lift up to the 21st floor with the draft beer which was my complimentary welcome drink, and found a relaxed space with tables, chairs... and a kitchen herb garden:

On my last night in Seoul, I sipped my beer and enjoyed the view.

Just the Facts:
Ibis Ambassador Seoul Dongdaemun
359 Dongho ro, Jung gu, Seoul, South Korea
Phone: +82 2 2160 8888
Web: www.ibis.com
Rates: Rooms from A$79 per night.

Review: Madiba the Musical, Melbourne

It's not often that a stage production has a disappointing first act, then redeems itself in the second. But Madiba the Musical is that production.

The clue to its flaws lies in its misleading name. We expect it to be a biographical treatment of Nelson Mandela's life, and it starts in that vein, with a set featuring Mandela (played by Perci Moeketsi) ministering to clients mistreated by South Africa's apartheid regime in his early career as a lawyer.

It looks like we're going to get a cherry-picked tale of the great man's life, which is a little daunting; Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, the biopic starring Idris Elba, was faithful but laboured in telling that tale.

But Madiba immediately informs us that it's impossible to show us his whole life. This message is relayed by the Narrator (David Denis), a chorus-like character who raps his way through a great deal of exposition in jaunty style.

Given this admission, it's a pity the first act becomes a mish-mash of moments from Mandela's early years, a kind of 'greatest hits' of his fight against the regime and his eventual imprisonment.

The first law of storytelling is "Show, don't tell," but there's a lot of telling here.

Even crucial moments of violence such as the Sharpeville massacre are reduced to a single death, which mutes the emotional impact of such iconic incidents of state violence. And Winnie Mandela (Ruva Ngwenya) is so toned down that she's hardly recognisable as the forceful personality she was in real life.

Thankfully, the second act finally provides us an emotional entry point into this tumultuous era. A young black man named Will (Barry Conrad) has fallen in love with a young white woman, Helena (Madeline Perrone), whose policeman father Peter Van Leden (Blake Erickson) is a brutal enforcer of the status quo.

This star-crossed relationship provides the hook we need to feel the personal impact of apartheid, as the duo struggle to realise their love and are forced apart by the cruel reality of the regime's discriminatory laws.

When they finally reunite, in the post-apartheid era, we feel the surge of hope that must have accompanied the sweeping away of that unjust system.

Through their personal struggles, Mandela appears as an inspirational background character, whose own fate slowly evolves from prisoner to negotiator to free man... and then president.

Narrative flaws aside, the show's songs and dance are impressive throughout, with much co-opting of traditional African music and its rhythms.

For all the lively glory of the group numbers, the standout for me is Mandela's solo recitation of William Henley's poem Invictus, from which he's known to have drawn great strength.

In this year, the centenary of his birth, there are many celebrations of Nelson Mandela and his achievements. Despite a slow start, Madiba the Musical is a worthy addition to their number.

Madiba the Musical continues at the Comedy Theatre, Melbourne to 28 October 2018, then tours Australia and New Zealand. Make bookings at Ticketmaster.

Review: BNE-YVR in Air Canada Business Class

On this trip I travelled courtesy of Destination Canada, and was upgraded by Air Canada.

Last year I took the 13-hour flight from Brisbane to Vancouver aboard one of Air Canada's Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner planes, right up the front in seat 1D. This is what it was like.

The seat

As expected, there was plenty of space to move in Business Class. My seat was a pod in a central set of two, with the seat angled toward the centre of the plane.

The seat was heavily cushioned though still fairly firm, and could be reconfigured to personal taste by touchscreen controls - all the way down to a lie-flat bed.

Storage space was not as generous as some versions of Business I'd experienced on other airlines, and there were no bins directly above the central seats. However, there were sufficient slots and shelves into which to load my personal belongings.

A personal comfort pack contained toiletries, an eye mask and socks, with a choice of earbuds or quality headphones within a concealed compartment.

The screen

In front of me was a large entertainment screen. Its menus were highly responsive to touch, and contained details of food and drink, as well as shopping options.

Neither the movie nor TV show selections seemed very impressive, and it was difficult to find recent cinema releases. However there were some decent viewing choices among each: cutting edge television comedy such as Atlanta for example, and popular Hollywood movies such as Logan.

Something I hadn't seen before was a Pride category under movies, with critically-acclaimed films with gay themes including Milk and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. A clever innovation was a Personal Favourites menus you could build, then click on to watch.

The eats

Lunch was the first meal of the flight, for which I chose barramundi fillet with ginger-soy glaze and bok choy, which was attractively presented and tasty. It was preceded by an excellent smoked salmon appetiser and a green salad.

Other main courses on the menu were lamb cutlets, braised chicken breast, and a vegetarian pasta. Afterward there was cheese, fruit, blueberry cheesecake, or ice cream.

Snacks were available on request during our journey, including a chicken leek pie, smoked salmon, a tuna sandwich, and hummus. No mere packet of pretzels in Business Class!

Before we landed in the Vancouver morning, we were served brunch with the choice of an omelette, Belgian waffles, or a chicken pasta.

The judgement

Air Canada's Business Class service on the Dreamliner was a comfortable, relaxing experience, providing a good way to arrive in shape on the long trans-Pacific haul. A good choice... if you can afford it.

Review: Sage Hotel Melbourne, Ringwood

For this review I was hosted by the Sage Hotel Melbourne, Ringwood.

If you ask inner-city Melburnians what they think of the eastern suburb of Ringwood, be prepared for some wrinkling of noses. The district had a bad rep in years past, of being somewhere poor and dodgy.

So it was with some surprise that I stepped out of Ringwood train station yesterday, to find the area north of the railway had been transformed by the rebuilding of the Eastland shopping centre.

It's still very outer-suburban - a huge mall with plentiful chain stores - but the frontage has been transformed into an attractive public square lined by restaurants with outdoor seating.

Next to this is Realm, a new public building which includes the local library.

And on top of the shopping centre, though entered from the main road, is the new Sage Hotel.

It's an eye-opener. One doesn't expect much from suburban hotels, but the Sage is impressive by any standard.

My room is compact but attractive, with a sleek modern look. The big windows face the Dandenong Ranges, so there's a lot of natural light and a view beyond the nearby suburban streets.

The room has a practical set-up, with a useful desk and a straightforward bathroom area. The hanging zone for clothing is open and a bit constricted, but otherwise there's sufficient space to move.

Where the hotel really stands out is in its public areas. The area beyond reception is one big open space, artfully divided by long open-sided bookshelves stacked with works ranging from art volumes to thriller novels.

The largest area is a combination of lounge, bar and co-working space. Alongside the comfortable lounge chairs is a number of desks which guests can use, and which are also available for hire by business people wanting a temporary workspace.

Opposite the lounge area is the restaurant, Partake. This is another open space, with a range of tables from banquettes to high tables. There's some impressive art on the walls, and even more impressive food on the menu.

To give you an example, last night I had this for dessert: the raspberry and strawberry mess with meringue, crème légère and Persian fairy floss.

It was excellent, and a symbol perhaps of how much Ringwood has changed.

And with its proximity to the Dandenong Ranges and the Yarra Valley, the Sage Hotel has a lot to offer tourists, as well as business people and hungry locals.

The Sage Hotel is located at 211 Maroondah Hwy, Ringwood, Australia. For more info and bookings, visit its website.

Travel Gadget Review 3: Olympus TG-4 Camera

Four years ago, as an experiment on a short trip to Thailand, I decided to leave behind my digital camera and use my iPhone instead.

It was a success, and since then I've taken travel photos almost entirely with my phone (first an iPhone 4S, then a 6 Plus). Plenty of them have been published alongside my articles - about 100 images per year.

However, I've decided it's time to look at owning a camera again. Although it takes great photos, the iPhone has its weaknesses. It's not great in low light or other non-standard lighting, for a start, and you can't take a smartphone anywhere near water without a risk of ruining it.

So I borrowed an Olympus Stylus TG-4 Tough camera from Olympus for review purposes (and yes, I posted it back to the company's Sydney offices when I'd finished testing it out).

The primary attraction of the TG-4 to me, is its ability to take JPG photos at least 300dpi in resolution, as well as retaining the basic RAW file alongside it on the SD card. This uses up extra memory of course, but grants a deal of flexibility.

Another plus is the waterproof and shockproof nature of the camera. When I need a camera other than my iPhone, a watery environment is often the reason.

With my old Olympus I went kayaking in Borneo and became very wet as a result, with no damage to the camera. I also used it when looking for bears at the Great Bear Lodge in Canada, from where we set out on the water in small boats.

This is the Olympus TG-4:

And here are some photos I took with it one afternoon and evening, walking around the Melbourne CBD near my apartment.

A tram stop and a motorbike came out well on the camera's standard "P" setting in bright sunlight, with vivid colours:

For this shot of the London Stores building, one of my favourite local edifices, I adjusted the Aperture setting to let in more light:

The camera's 4x optical zoom allowed me to neatly frame this image of the Royal Arcade facade from across Bourke Street:

Another advantage of this camera over the iPhone is the presence of "Microscope mode", allowing photos to be taken as near as 1cm from the subject. As I walked along Bourke Street, I tried this out on a water fountain, a tree, and a vegie burger I ordered for lunch:

I was very impressed with the detail on all of these.

Finally, I stepped out at night to take some shots after dark, using the Night Scene mode under the camera's shooting mode settings. Exposure time on these was controlled by the camera, and varied from 0.5 to 1.3 seconds:

I was pleased with these results, from what is basically a point-and-click digital camera.

One other impressive aspect - and a great step up from the Olympus I used to own - is that the TG-4 has its own inbuilt wifi hotspot. Once activated, photos can be quickly selected and downloaded to a smartphone via a free Olympus app.

I'd expected this to be a clunky experience, but in fact it was very quick and efficient. While perched on the Public Purse sculpture on Bourke Street, I rapidly downloaded pics to my iPhone so I could share them on social media.

This is a brilliant facility, as it allows backup on the spot for any shots you particularly value. While travelling, it would allow me to easily back up those images from iPhone to Dropbox when I returned to my hotel's wifi.

Overall I was impressed with the Olympus TG-4 camera. I'm inclined to buy one of my own in the near future.

The Olympus Stylus TG-4 Tough camera retails in Australia for around $450. Find more details, including technical specifications and sample shots, at this link.