Limelight’s review of Amplified at the start of its Melbourne season in mid-2025 suggested that this Chrissy Amphlett tribute cabaret looked under-rehearsed. 

The good news is that it still looks that way. The show is run-in and confident, but Amplified wears its rough edges with pride. Sheridan Harbridge, wily performer that she is, knows how to blend the chaotic with the considered. 

Sheridan Harbridge: Amplified. Photo © Brett Boardman

Co-created with director Sarah Goodes, Amplified is an unabashedly celebratory account of a life lived hard, beginning with Amphlett’s tough childhood in Geelong (her father a returned POW) and skimming her wild-child years. We follow her to Kings Cross, where she worked as a backing vocalist in the 1970s. It’s in Sydney she meets guitarist Mark McEntee, an encounter that sparks the turbulent creative – and romantic – partnership that was Divinyls. 

Structurally, Amplified is more collage than chronology, made up from autobiographical details, Harbridge’s reflections on Amphlett’s life in different kinds of spotlight (she slides between speaking as herself and as her subject) and songs performed with a tight four-piece band led by guitarist Glenn Moorhouse. 

Sometimes the...