Whoops! The Wharf Revue 2013

Overview

This year has been ripe for Whoops! The Wharf Revue 2013 to satire. We have bid adieu to Julia Gillard and KRudd, welcomed Tony Abbott as our PM, endured Gina Rinehart’s ‘poetry’ and somehow elected Clive Palmer to a position of power. Therefore, the last thing that should characterise this year’s show is laboursome. Unfortunately it manages to sneak in there.

First though, credit where credit is due. The Wharf Revue again present an enjoyable show and musical director Andrew Worboys particularly deserves credit, with each of his numbers proving incredibly impressive. The Abbott Family opening is more entertaining than The Addams Family musical proved to be, the Julian Assange number punctuated by various whistle blowing instruments is very clever, and the Clive Palmer and Gina Rinehart duet of 'My Heart Will Go On' aboard the Titanic is particularly hilarious.

The show-stealing moment, though, is Amanda Bishop’s skilled reprisal of Julia Gillard, in what will surely be Julia's swan song. She makes a glorious exit in the guise of Carmen and gets the last word, deserving of the ovation it receives. Fellow cast members Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe, Simon Burke and Andrew Worboys have also mastered their impersonations and their performances cannot be faulted.

The issue with this year’s show is that the writers have played it too carefully. Too many sketches don’t hit home, nor lampoon to the levels expected. Some end without a punchline and then, frustratingly, the show exacerbates this by stating its absence in the hope of garnering a laugh — it does but they thin rapidly. It is a frustrating staple of The Wharf Revue and appears a little too often this time around when its performers and audience deserve more.

Also, given the wealth of material the show has to poke fun at, their angle of attack on the ALP tires towards the end and it occasionally becomes draining to laugh at. Luckily the musical numbers recharge the show's energy, but overall the revue appears to struggle to cope with the burden of its own expectations.

Ultimately Whoops! knows its audience and safely panders to it rather than pushing the envelope a little further. Despite that, though, it is still worth watching, if only for the performances of the three Bs — Burke, Biggins and Bishop — who have perfected what they present and thus watching them is a real joy.