OPEN FOR INSPECTION THE MUSICAL

“London. Paris. North Ryde.” Real estate agents will do anything for a sale, even us lowlife renters know that. But then there’s the sociopathic agents who bring new meaning to the term ‘making a killing’. Darlo Theatre have incorporated the clichés of real estate jargon with song and dance, to bring us gems like Forget the Mould and Dummy Bidder On My Heart. The stage is framed by a golden Harbour Bridge which shadows the red stage floor, a sign of the blood that washes beneath the surface of the cut-throat world. Set designer Barry French was possibly channelling Mark Twain who said, “God made the harbour and that’s all right; but Satan made Sydney.”  The male agents are charming in their expensive suits but it’s the females who get my bid. Sarah Brown plays Joan, the silver-haired Botox queen of a boutique agency, Sophie Webb as Debbie, the ambitious billboard-hungry blonde and Catherine McGraffin as Mon, who steals every scene she’s in as the, ‘renovator’s delight’ receptionist who would do anything for love. Like all good musicals this is essentially a love story: the love between an agent and buyer. Murders aside, I say it ‘radiates warmth’.

Until Feb 13, Darlinghurst Theatre, Potts Point, $30-37, 83569987, darlinghursttheatre.com