The Frogs: in Hell, They Sing Show Tunes

New Theatre, August-September 2025

The review

This time of the year, when I can just leave quick notes for memory about shows I’ve seen but never managed to say much about.

This one was a gem. @fingerlesstheatre - know for a while, if this name is on - it is going to be good!

Main image: © Kurit afshen/Shutterstock

Production images: © Bob Seary

Photos are taken from the @newtheatresydney webpage.

“The Frogs: in Hell, They Sing Show Tunes”

Adapted (after Aristophanes) and directed by Alex Kendall Robson @alexkendallrobson, a master of comedy, a director who has a wonderful team of actors who, as it seems, feel, understand, connect on the stage as I have not seen in any other ensemble.

It is a scatter of gigs; it is a script that can be just split into jokes. It is brave to push theatrical -  a joke repeated several times usually doesn’t work, but not in here! The rant about rubber chicken just kept getting more and more hilarious.

It is a theatre for the sake of theatre, but with a thick core if one is willing to look a bit deeper, but only after catching a breath after a belly-hurting laugh. It is made visibly simple, not a drop of pretentiousness, and that is the strength.

It is extremely flirty, it is queer, it is erotic just enough to keep it good-tasting. The sensuality of this piece electrifies the air.

This show I wanted to split into scenes to see each one again and again, just pieces taken from a treasure box, and then stitch them back together, see it all, and do it on repeat.

The stage set-up is transformable, an ordered mess, where wooden scaffold-like structures move around, where a piano is placed on a wheeled platform, which can move like a Charon’s boat or be like a small stage in a small cafe. Simple costumes imitating Ancient Greek gowns are mixed with frog-themed outfits, including little umbrellas and top hats. It is a slam, but witty and well thought-through. A total joy.

The plot is about Dionysus, the god of theatre (and wine, and orgies - that is highlighted quite often), with his trusty friend/shaperon/helper Xanthias, who travels down to Hell to make a deal with Hades to free up famous playwrights (Euripides and Aeschylus) to come back to the world of living and save it from a gloomy miserable state, since nobody else is capable to do it. They also have Heracles (Axel Berecry @axeltheo_1994) as a muscle-overloaded, hot, far from being smart, but quite ok to be determined, helper. A type of extremely handsome gym-guy, who is amazing to look at until … he starts talking.

Dionysus is a bit too gentle, a touch mincing, self-centered, absolutely not practical, soft but capable of getting it all together, to a big surprise by others (Pat Mandziy @mandziypat). Xanthias (Eddy O’Leary @quiet_eddy) does not talk much but is good with quite sarcastic comments, modest (the gesture he arranges the bottom of his tunic!), smart, and hilarious with small gestures which are so fun to read. That chicky touch of his lips when, once, he returns from somewhere backstage after performing some task for his master. 

The duel for the title of being the best poet, between Euripides (a top-class master of musical theatre in my eyes Zachary Aleksander @thezacharygallery) and Aeschylus (Sebastyen Filipinski @filipinski_official) is something I want to have the recording of. Dancing cancan and singing with all patience and ego, dying to win, these two are the centerpiece of this show. This song can be performed in a cabaret, and it shall be a success. 

A lyrical Meg Bennetts @meg.k.bennetts as Sappho. In an interview with the director, there is a note that the scene between Sappho and the Maid has been added just to dilute too much men-talk. No matter that - it was a gentle, grounding, comforting ending when love appeared and softly spread out as a magic mist.

Creative team

Director Alex Kendall Robson

Set Designer Tom Bannerman

Lighting Designer Holly Nesbitt

Costume Designer Josh Carter

Sound Designer David Wilson

Music Director Zachary Aleksander

Choreographer Dani Bainbridge

Assistant Director Eddy O’Leary

Stage Manager Christopher Starnawski

ASMs Heidi Nesbitt, Ruby Hawken

Cast

Zachary Aleksander, Dani Bainbridge, Meg Bennetts, Axel Berecry, Max Fernandez, Sebastyen Filipinski, Pat Mandziy, Eddy O’Leary, James Robin, Nic Starte, Larissa Turton