★★★★½ Pulitzer Prize winning satire comes up smart and savvy.

Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
September 26, 2015

The Gershwins’ Of Thee I Sing was the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize way back in 1932 (the others, for factoid nerds were South Pacific (1950), Fiorello! (1960), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1962), A Chorus Line (1976), Sunday in the Park with George (1985), Rent (1996) and 2010’s Next to Normal). Not only that, so successful was the sharply satirical, depression era political farce, it even spawned a sequel (the rather less original Let ‘Em Eat Cake). A mere 84 years on, Aussies finally got their chance to see what all the fuss was about, and thanks to Squabbalogic’s sharply observed, minimalist staging it wasn’t hard to see why Broadway in 1931 was abuzz.

Blake Erickson, Jay James-Moody, Rob Johnson, Nathan Farrow

By the time Of Thee I Sing opened, George and Ira Gershwin already had a string of hit shows under their belts and were widely considered the hottest song-writing team in the business. George had penned Rhapsody in Blue and An...