To have a perfect weekend in the city, you must plan carefully.Credit: Paul Rovere
So many shows, so little time. Kay O'Sullivan views the best in a carefully planned weekend.
Day one
You'd be as mad as a hatter to miss Tim Burton: the Exhibition at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image at Federation Square. You don't need to be a Burton fan - and you still might not be when you leave - but you will know you've glimpsed genius.
It's big, with 700 exhibits in four spaces in the centre's nether regions. You won't be able to miss the bat car from the 1992 movie, Batman Returns. And you shouldn't miss Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman costume from the same movie. It is impossibly tiny, the waist barely a normal person's hand span.
While on the subject of costumes, there are three worn by Mia Wasikowska in Burton's latest movie, Alice in Wonderland, which weren't in the original exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art. MoMA's director, Glenn Lowry, who was in town for the Melbourne opening, recommends a viewing of Lost Burton, as he calls the 35-minute movie Burton made when he was working as a concept artist at Disney in 1983. "Tim did not know it was still in existence," he says. "This is the only place you can see it."
Allow at least two hours to see the show. Arrive at 10am; the crowds build from 11am.
Clean sweep ... Mary Poppins at Her Majesty's Theatre.
The afternoon should be devoted to the interactive ABBAWORLD, also in Federation Square. For maximum enjoyment don't go on your own, and leave your inhibitions at the door. You get to dance to Dancing Queen, mix songs and, best of all, perform with the group, or at least a 3D holographic illusion. If you think you are able to resist dancing and playing air guitar with Benny, Bjorn, Agnetha and Anni-Frid, well, you've got better self control than me and just about everyone who's visited, including Paul Dainty who brought Abba to Melbourne in the 1970s.
Of the thousands of items of memorabilia on display, Dainty's favourite is the model of the lakeside cabin where Bjorn and Benny wrote. "It's amazing to look at and to think they wrote so many of those great songs there," he says.
Don't miss Lasse Hallstrom's early music videos of the supergroup. He went on to win an Oscar for My Life as a Dog.
Before leaving Federation Square, duck into the NGV's Ian Potter Centre and up to the second level to see Australian Made: 100 Years of Fashion. There's only one room so it won't take long. My favourite piece is an adorable 1950s frock from South Yarra couturier Pat Rodgers, of La Petite.
There'll be time to grab an early evening snack before frocking up for Mary Poppins, at Her Majesty's Theatre, Exhibition Street. Producer Cameron McIntosh says this version is better than all the others he has produced around the world. At more than two hours, it's a big show but it will fly by.
Don't despair if your seat is up high at Her Majesty's; that's where you will get the best view of Mary soaring across the chimneys of London and the Melbourne audience. According to the show's technical director, Richard Martin, it took 12 months to work out a system that gets Mary poppin' into the air but it draws gasps and thunderous applause every night. Good tickets are available a week out; until January 23.
Day two
Titanic: the Artefact Exhibition, at the Melbourne Museum, Carlton Gardens, has been touring the world for 19 years. See it and you'll understand why. There are nine galleries crammed with artefacts and mementoes but it's the stories of the people who perished, or survived, that remain.
Cheryl Mure, the vice-president of RMS Titanic, the company that owns the salvage rights to the ship, is most moved by the D-Deck door, which was the front door for first-class passengers. "I can see John Jacob and Madeleine Astor, Benjamin Guggenheim, and Molly Brown all entering Titanic for the first time through the very door."
Take the time to book. Queues are up to two hours on weekends. Crowds are sparser on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when you will be through the doors in 15 minutes, but that will change as the October 17 finishing date nears.
From here we take a quick detour around the galleries that house works by Melbourne's up-and-coming artists. There's a slew of them in the block bordered by LaTrobe, Queen, Bourke and Swanston streets.
A hip commercial space in Guildford Lane, Utopian Slumps is a good place to start. The Guildford Lane Gallery is steps away and then head towards Brood Box gallery and cafe for more art and coffee served from an illustrated 1950s caravan in the middle of the gallery.
Now we're ready for our blockbuster. There are 100 masterpieces in European Masters: Stadel Museum, 19th-20th Century: National Gallery of Victoria. Even if, like me, you know nothing about German expressionism, you will know that you have witnessed greatness.
The NGV's senior curator, Ted Gott, loves Franz Marc's Dog Lying in the Snow. "There's something about the serenity and the harmony that stays with you for such a long time after seeing it," he says.
Use a headset. The stories are as fascinating as the art. Tuesday is the quietest day to visit. There's an Art After Dark program on Wednesdays from 5pm to 9pm.
From October 2, the evening's entertainment will be Hairspray: the Musical at Princess Theatre, Spring Street. The adaptation of John Waters's 1988 cult film will be the sixth musical to open in Melbourne this year (and the national premiere). The stage version ran for more than six years in New York. Emmy-winner David Atkins will direct this production, with So You Think You Can Dance judge Jason Coleman as choreographer. Atkins is promising a new show with tricks such as interactive graphics and enormous LED screens.
Feeling peckish
Maria Paoli, of Evolving Success coffee tours, never goes past the legendary Pellegrini's at 66 Bourke Street without popping in for a quick espresso. "It's been part of our history for 45 years and the combination of coffee and atmosphere is hard to beat," she says.
For something different in the mid-town area, Paoli recommends Sensory Lab at the back of David Jones in Little Collins Street. Don't let the department store location put you off, it's owned by St Ali's in South Melbourne. You'll come away with a new appreciation of what a coffee bean can do for you.
To get to uber-cool Captains of Industry Gentlemen's Outfitters and Cafe (to give it its full title) at 2 Somerset Place, you have to go down a laneway and up some rickety stairs, which is so, so Melbourne. The space is vast and atmospheric and strewn with objects including pinking shears and shoe moulds. The menu is compact, with sandwiches, focaccias, pastries, juices and coffee sourced from an independent roaster. And there's the added attraction of the owners, tailor Thom Grogan and shoemaker James Roberts. One minute this sharply-dressed duo are measuring the milk for the latte and the next they are measuring up customers for a suit or a pair of shoes.
If your energy is flagging by mid-afternoon, make your way to the Sofitel lobby lounge, 25 Collins Street, where a special Mary Poppins afternoon tea is being served on selected Saturdays during the show's run. All goodies on the tea tray are made from recipes in the recipe book Mary Poppins in the Kitchen by P.L. Travers, the Australian author who created the world's most famous nanny. Afternoon tea costs $65 a person, including a glass of sparkling wine, $30 for children. Sittings at noon and 3.30pm. Bookings are essential on (03) 9653 7744.
The Japanese restaurant in the basement of 114 Russell Street, Izakaya Den, is owned by Simon Denton, whose father is the Denton in Denton Corker Marshall, the architectural firm responsible for much that is modern and distinctive about the city. Good for lunch, dinner, early evening or snacks, it was named The Age Good Food Guide's new restaurant of the year 2010. And Denton won The Good Food Guide's award for service excellence, if you're in a hurry you'll be well-fed in a flash. There's bookings only at lunch or for groups in the evening.
When Mary Poppins, the movie, opened in 1964, most of Melbourne was asleep by 11pm. Now, the hard part is deciding which bar, restaurant or club will get your business. Curtain House, 252 Swanston Street, has several terrific bars on seven floors. Burton, the world's most famous goth, liked The Toff in Town, the second-floor bar and live music venue, so much he went twice when he was in town to open his exhibition. Now, that's a recommendation.
FAST FACTS
What to see
Tim Burton: The Exhibition; Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation Square, acmi.net.au, until October 10.
ABBAWORLD; Federation Square, until October 31, see ticketek.com.au.
European Masters: Stadel Museum, 19th-20th Century; National Gallery of Victoria International, until October 10, see ngv.vic.gov.au.
Australian Made: 100 Years of Fashion; Ian Potter Centre, NGV Australia, Federation Square, until January 23, 2011, see ngv.vic.gov.au.
What to eat
Captains of Industry; Level 1, 2 Somerset Place, see captainsofindustry.com.au.
Sensory Lab; 297 Little Collins Street, see sensorylab.com.au.
The Toff in Town; 252 Swanston Street, see thetoffintown.com.
Izakaya Den; 114 Russell Street, see izakayaden.com.au.
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