‘An extremely serious musical comedy’ about Whitlam? Yes. The Dismissal is great fun, witty and sharply observed

• While it lasted less than two full terms between December 1972 and November 1975, it has had an outsized cultural presence ever since.
• Each year since, we have marked the anniversary with new stories, new angles, new details.
• The story has all the ingredients of high drama – indeed, the story was told in a rather ponderous television mini-series in 1983.
• So almost 50 years on, what to make of a comedic musical retelling of these tumultuous events?

Self-referential and extremely funny

• Playing Gough, Justin Smith both sounds and looks like him – no mean feat.
• The Dismissal is least effective when it is striving for sincerity: the early number Maintain your Rage left me concerned the show might be too earnest to be genuinely funny.
• It is self-referential and extremely funny and sets a high bar for the rest of the show.
• His Private School Boys is a bump-and-grind showstopper that recalls Alexander Downer’s Freaky from Casey Benetto’s 2005 musical Keating!

Sharp, funny and astute

• Margaret Whitlam (Brittanie Shipway) and Junie Morosi (Shannen Alyce Quan) are voices of reason and resolve.
• Stacey Thomsett has much more fun with the role of Lady Kerr, who she depicts as Lady Macbeth in a Carla Zampatti suit.
• But overall, The Dismissal is sharp, funny and astute.