Cabaret Festival. Her Majesty’s Theatre. 13 Jun 2025
I have a marble sculpture of an egret. So, I can’t say, “non, je ne egret, rien.” (No, I regret nothing). Neither can Edith Piaf. She had regrets. But not in the show Divas. Piaf without regrets is unusual but so is this show. It’s a long show and by the end it was still difficult to know what the show is.
Piaf is one of ten great divas featured in Bernadette Robinson’s odd show in this odd Cabaret Festival. The show is certainly not cabaret but neither is most of the Cabaret Festival. Neither is Divas a concert. It’s a peculiar show in which Robinson doesn’t impersonate but sort of suggests the great voices of ten sublime entertainers and links this with narrative of their own words. We’re used to parody and camp but there is none here. Nor is the show funny. Robinson is attempting to avoid portraying the oft-recalled suffering of these women in favour of a positive interpretation of their joy and power in performance. What a shame.
There’s a backdrop of ten bad faux Warholesque portraits of the divas which is confusing. There’s a forest of microphone stands on stage and when Robinson sings her intonation is faultless but when speaking she struggles to be heard. Robinson is gamine, has raddled hair and is very oddly dressed with a feature panty line. After an awful opening number in which I thought she was singing Cher but it was really Kate Bush she eventually settled down. Her Shirley Bassey and Piaf lack the requisite killer aggression. Piaf was born in the gutter and you need to hear that in her voice. Karen Carpenter is herein underwhelming, Dolly Parton is interesting and Miley Cyrus was dreadful. Amy Winehouse was closer to to the mark. Robinson’s Barbra Streisand underwhelms although her version of I’m The Greatest Star was cute. Judy Garland was a complete miss but the evening is saved by a bravura, exquisitely sung and inexplicably cheery Maria Callas.
It’s a strange night with a very laid-back performer. She is only occasionally worthy of her great material. The show needs an orchestra and although the four piece band tried its best it would’ve better suited backing singers at a cabaret at the Finsbury Hotel in the 60s.
The mainly elderly audience (bless ‘em) eventually seemed to enjoy the show but I have regrets.
Peter Goers
When: 13 Jun
Where: Her Majesty’s Theatre
Bookings: Closed
Cabaret Festival. The Space. 13 June 2025
Writers don’t always deliver in the live performance stakes, but Demi Adejuyigbe manages to do so in what is at once rambling and seemingly chaotic while being so tightly scripted that little of its topicality was available for change.
A staff writer for The Good Place, and myriad internet comedy skits and parody theme songs, Adejuyigbe developed this show for the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe with the assistance of directors BriTANick (Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher), writers for Saturday Night Live and also internet comedy skits.
He begins by telling us what is behind the backflip; he has a crush and she gets excited about backflips so, one backflip coming up. When she finally arrives that is, as she’s currently at a celebrity party that he wasn’t invited to. There then ensues a running commentary on said party, accentuated by staged phone calls, repartee with his producer and finally a most amusing mondegreen on the party song de jour, Islands In The Stream.
Adejuyigbe has developed a list of ways to ensure your crush will be impressed, and while he waits for his to turn up, he shares these foolproof methods with us. Through the use of various technologies, he explains his techniques through song, a bit of dance, and visuals.
He’s a very good writer, and he utilises assonance and oblique rhyming with some skill, evidenced in his opener. Being topical is right up in the ‘impressing crushes’ stakes, so he rewrites Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire with contemporary references. He does manage to get in a local (Australian) reference here with the mention of ‘mushrooms’, but then again, that case is almost as much an internet sensation as he is.
That attempt at familiarity doesn’t really continue, and it’s to his detriment in a number of places as scripted references fly over the audience’s heads and are rewarded with only polite chuckles.
The production is interrupted by a series of scripted phone calls, apparently from the afore mentioned celebrity party, where again unfamiliar names and places detract from the humour of the piece. While he does acknowledge this in the most charming way, one still wonders why it was too much trouble to remove some of the more obscure American references.
The mini rock opera The Ikea Monkey is a case in point. An incident apparently famous in North America (it occurred in Canada, which is not the 51st state) was politely received and it was fortunate that much of his patter was entertaining enough to get through this quite long section of the show. Adejuyigbe’s casual delivery is in opposition to some of the rigid content, but suicidal robots, racism and the reveal of his girlfriend’s identity all add to the entertainment.
The show almost twist on its head as it comes to the conclusion. Like a character in search of an author, Adejuyigbe delivers a monologue that reveals a tragic sad clown figure, a man looking for acceptance through humour. It’s quite jarring and even though we know we have the physical backflip yet to come, this emotional backflip is quite dampening, and even though it exits on a funny line, we never quite regain the mood. And perhaps that’s how it’s meant to be.
And the physical backflip? Does he get the girl? Adejuyigbe rips off his overalls, revealing his gym shorts and then…
…but that would be telling.
Arna Eyers-White
When: 13 to 14 Jun
Where: The Space
Bookings: Closed
Cabaret Festival. The Banquet Room. 13 Jun 2025
Gillian Cosgriff is almost a veteran of the Cabaret Festival, bringing entertaining and often interactive comedy to the program for some years now. For this year’s offering, she has brought a game show, which turns out be a kind of cross between Spicks and Specks and Rockwiz with a dash of Never Mind The Buzzcocks.
Cosgriff opens with the inevitable yet unmemorable cabaret style song; having got that out of the way, it’s game on! The style if not the content of these games are familiar to many, so it didn’t take long to get into it. First up, two audience members were given seven cards and told to put the names of the Von Trapp in order of their ages on a board. This, like all the other games, involves a lot audience participation (read screaming) as people tested their memories; was Liesl the eldest or was it Kurt? As they say, hilarity ensued.
Next up, with the same players, the cards were girls names and unsurprisingly, the goal was to list the order of the names in the chorus of Lou Bega’s Mambo No 5 (A little bit of Monica). Funny listening to everyone around you mumbling “A little bit of Rita's all I need
A little bit of Tina's what I see…”
Special guests were invited onto the stage, with the first being Bobby Fox, who has a show in the Festival called Mr Entertainment. I’d seen him perform a guest spot earlier at the Cabaret Club; he’s the guy with the blonde streaked hair and moustache, wearing a dinner suit, singing cabaret and stage musical standards in that vaguely Las Vegas accent. No doubt a talented performer, I couldn’t get the image of Bob Downe out of my mind…
The games continued, including a round of Laser Minelli featuring Artistic Director Virginia Gay, who is always up for a bit of fun.
This is a late night show, so it’s a bit ribald in places (hence the ‘Buzzcock’s reference) and it’s a good closer for the evening, especially if you’ve seen a show previously, as many of the audience appeared to have done. Cosgriff is quick on her feet and proves herself a brilliant host for this format, aided by a great little band and some feature guests, who will probably change each show. And at the end, remember FFS, everyone’s a winner.
Arna Eyers-White
When: 13 to 14 Jun
Where: The Banquet Room
Bookings: Closed
Cabaret Festival. Millicent Sarre and Joseph Simons. Banquet Room. 12 Jun 2025
Could a music theatre work in progress about TV game shows go off? Yep!
Basic outline: It’s the 40th anniversary of hit game show ‘Race Against The Clock’. To celebrate, a special episode uniting all former game show prize girls, along with the current beauty Stacey, is planned. There’s a scandal hidden in the history, What’s going to happen?
This ‘reading’ of a work in progress got a standing ovation. That never happens. In this case however it was for a wonderfully engaging, exciting good reason.
Primetime has been developing for longer than the year we’re told. This so called ‘reading’ was actually a blast of tightly structured writing. A brilliant mix of vocal/character casting with score for piano played live by Josh Van Konkeleberg, getting its hooks into the audience, only releasing them at the end.
Primetime is biting-as-all-hell pretty, and savage satire. Pleasing to the ear, it gains laughs while clawing at the mind. Ripping sexist commercial conventions of TV out of the TV screen and plonking them right in front of a live audience. That’s a tad uncomfortable. It should be. With the right amount of cheesy glam, sleaze and nostalgia balanced against wake up and smell the coffee moments. Seriously, did Australia think dinner time game show telly was all nice and wonderful? It’s a Brecht alienation kind of thing the creatives are pulling off here, that is also very Kabaret.
A highlight song, which totally nails what Sarre’s music/lyrics and Simons’ book/lyrics are getting at, is Sarre’s rendition of Dum de Dum, performed as Michelle, the latest prize model dumped at age 30. Sarre delivers a delightful, dark, blow by blow history of Michelle’s show life, in a strumming candy-cute voice as show host, Frank (Rod Schulz) delivers his show lines.
It’s a harmony of submission to control, gorgeous in delivery, powerful in illustration.
The cast is overflowing with diverse skills from music theatre, cabaret, and opera. It all gets used, making the show even richer in appeal. Sarre and Simon’s casting ensures this work not only holds its power, but rises above standard approaches that effectively engage an audience. Rosie Hocking, Jelena Nicdao, Michaela Burger, Dee Farrrell and Rod Schuz are a stand out mix of the out and over players in a game where Frank, as host, seems the only winner. Or is he?
Not here to offer spoilers, The one night audience knows where the two acts are going. Yet it was clear to all that Primetime is a winner. A new Australian musical that’s topical and totally relevant in addressing a myriad of issues in the most entertaining way possible. It must move to full production.
David O’Brien
When: June 12
Where: Banquet Room
Bookings: Closed
Cabaret Festival. Dunstan Playhouse. 12 Jun 2025
They came on stage to Sly & The Family Stone’s Everyday People, an homage to the recently departed Sly Stone.
From stage left it was the not-so-dirty three: Cameron Bruce on the Steinway grand, Vika at stage centre, then Linda.
I name them the not-so-dirty three because part way through the performance I was reminded of a night many years ago when I saw that astounding trio perform in the Big Star Basement – way back when there was a Big Star Records on Rundle Street. The way these three played with melody, worked their way around an old tune to give it a makeover and generally showed their incredible familiarity with each other’s style as they worked on the tonality of the music was just a wonder to watch.
Pianist Cameron Bruce was having fun tonight. He has worked with Vika and Linda long enough to know their voices and mannerisms. Beginning with a gospel tribute (I’m On My Way To Canaan) by Mahalia Jackson from Linda, Bruce coaxed out the call and refrain, the keys playing a fairground step and repeat with the melody. This they followed with the playful My Man’s Got a Cold. It became apparent that for a Cabaret Festival performance the three were not going to give the audience their standard set, and indeed, there was no House Of Love, When Will You Fall For Me or We’ve Started A Fire.
Things became clearer still with Tell The Angels, the title track from their 2004 album. They were taking it in turns showing off their voices to the audience, eschewing the compact harmonies which have characterised their music. Only occasionally did they step up together to their microphones; we were seeing a whole new dynamic to the pairing, and this one appeared to be led by Linda, the younger of the sisters. She worked her spell over Nina Simone’s Sinnerman, telling the audience how they had been instructed never to sing Aretha Franklin or Nina Simone songs for fear of coming off second best; they need not have worried. For my money the highpoint of the show, Raise Your Hand, a song written for them by Kasey Chambers. Stellar, a glorious tribute to a song given to them, and speaking lyrically, one of the loveliest songs I’ve heard.
It is a testament to the esteem in which these sisters are held that so many artists have happily written songs for them, handing them over with absolute trust. Names rolled casually off the tongue as they introduced various songs with stories of their involvement: Joe Camilleri, Paul Kelly, Kasey Chambers, Mark Seymour, Michael Barker, and that’s without mentioning the myriad artists they have performed with. There were more songs: If I Start Today Again, Waiting On The Kid and Grandpa’s Song but as the show neared an implausibly swift end we were treated to a reworking of Never Let Me Go; it had been a signature song for them as members of the Black Sorrows. And after that to conclude with another tribute to Nina Simone, Feeling Good seemed very much like icing on the cake.
This was not the performance I had thought I was coming to see and hear, far from it. This was a different Vika & Linda, a duo who wished to show how different they could be. Peas in a pod they never were, but they were able to work around their differences and display so much individual flair because of the superb accompaniment provided by Cameron Bruce. The piano made the song structure solid, and as a result we were privy to a night to remember.
The three, Cameron, Vika, and Linda left the stage to the strains of God Only Knows, an homage to the recently passed Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson; a beautifully respectful bookending of two great artists.
Alex Wheaton
When: 12 to 13 Jun
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: Closed