Into Oblivion

Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Artspace. 21 June 2014

Ambre Hammond could not help wondering what she and  Marcello Maio were doing at a Cabaret Festival.
She's a classical pianist and he an accordionist, both distinguished concert musicians. This was their first cabaret - invited to perform works of the Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla in an homage to tango.
Incongruity aside, they were charmed to be in Adelaide and a part of the city's delicious winter celebration.

Hammond speaks for the two of them. Partners in music only, she asserts. But there's an interesting chemistry which hints at more and also less.  An interesting history, perhaps. Hammond explains that Marcello has a World Cup affliction and uses him as the brunt of gentle anecdotal jokes in her various patters between songs. She is well-spoken an decidedly engaging. Marcello leaves her to it and does the silent male thing.

But, when they play, they are a the definition of 'complementary'. Both exude high emotion as they throw themselves into the passion of Piazzola. Maio's face contorts and he wraps his body around his instrument, moving at one with its breath. His hand crawls crablike across his keyboard.   For all her femininity, Hammond,  is a muscular player with huge hands. She rolls and stretches her body across the piano stool, sometimes almost prone. She weighs in over the keyboard, almost kissing it, turning her head to the audience, flicking her beautiful chestnut mane over her shoulder. Both are highly theatrical musicians.

And thus, they work through the Piazzolas of their Oblivion CD, throw in an exquisite piece of Debussy plus a couple of solos. And one realises that their choices have been so melancholic. The theme seems to have been love and loss. Hammond suggests images that can accompany the music - a Portugese fishing port, a dying lover... Not soccer, she reprimands Maio. No, it's steamy, sultry, sad, romantic. When they play Jealousy,  the fire of tango sparkles brightly. Ironically, it's a non-Latin composition.

From time to time as they are performing, the  strains of Archie Roach reach into their balcony performance space.  Hammond pauses and says "We can do this". And they power on. And nothing else matters.

They are an intense and potent pair, an interesting pair. Their musical choices have attracted full houses of Piazzola aficionados and left their audiences fulfilled.

They may not be conventional cabaret fare, but they're a cabaret hit.

Samela Harris

When: Closed
Where: Artspace
Bookings: Closed

August: Osage County

Adelaide Repertory Theatre. The Arts Theatre. 20 June 2014

The one thing Tracy Letts did wrong with this play was to entitle it 'August: Osage County'. What a sideways, puzzling name.  But it has not stood in the way of this extraordinary play. It  turns out to be one of the best new plays of the century. It has been drenched in plaudits, including a Pulitzer Prize. It has been produced and increasingly celebrated all around the world because it calls upon one of the lost properties of the theatre in these days of multitasking and downsizing. It is an ensemble play. A big one.

Adelaide is incredibly lucky in that it has a reservoir of extremely high-calibre actors and a thriving non-professional theatre world in which professionals are proud to work rather than rest in off-season times. The result is affordable good theatre of extremely high standard. The prize right here and now is 'August: Osage County'.

This production is a stunner.

You'd be hard-pressed to find better anywhere.

The play is about a family. David Sinclair seems to have spun his large cast of all ages right into the intimate oddity of family. One believes they are a family. Especially as the story line evolves and the family is gathered chaotically around a real meal at the table, it is easy to forget one is in a theatre and that these people are actors. It is gloriously real. This is the delicious fruit of good ensemble acting.

The play is about the aftermath of the suicide of the patriarch, a poet called Beverly. The family gathers with the best of traditional funeral intentions but there are abrasions, resentments, power plays and secrets. There are new characters being integrated into the family with surprising outcomes. And there is humour devolved from the folly and vanities of humankind.

Tracy Letts observes the nuances of these characters superbly. They are his people, from Oklahoma. The Rep actors play them with rather southern accents but Oklahoma mid-west is a toughie. The southern drawl actually lifts the dialogue and allows the actors ease of excess - which helps a lot with the funny bits. Oh, my. Sue Wylie and the casserole will never be forgotten. I'm still laughing.

Sue Wylie plays Mattie-Fay. She's the mad old auntie, sister to the matriarch, the suddenly widowed Violet who is suffering mouth cancer and is addled with drugs. Nikki Fort takes this major role and for most every minute she is on the stage, she owns it. It's a stellar performance as a wilful, tough, spoiled, manipulating, vicious, vulnerable and sick old lady. At times she is the dishevelled invalid almost incoherent with drugs. At others, wigged up, well dressed and chain-smoking, she rules the roost. There's a lot of love hate and it spears through from the challenges of the oldest daughter, Barbara. The award-winning Helen Geoffreys gives another expert performance in this part.

It is a long play and there are lots of cross-currents and sub-plots happening, many of which give the other players their moment in the limelight. Bronwen James, another notable Adelaide theatre name, intelligently evokes the complexity of the middle child who has never quite fulfilled expectations. Lisa Lacey bubbles in as the ditsy Karen, the one who got away and has come back with a rather sleazy salesman fiancee, hilariously performed by Rodney Hutton. Then there's hapless Bill, the unfaithful and semi-estranged husband of Barbara, embodied sympathetically by a greyed up Adam Tuominen. There's their pot-smoking teen daughter, Jean, most credibly played by Amanda Adamuszek. There's good performance from Tom Carney as dear old Uncle Charlie, a touching performance from Alan Fitzpatrick as Little Charles, a sturdy and moving performance from Melissa Esposito as Johnna the young native American housekeeper and, dammit, a glorious characterisation of the ex-boyfriend local sheriff by Nic Bishop. Interestingly, Bishop bookends the show insofar as he also plays the alcoholic poet father who presents a form of preamble setting the scene at the very beginning of the play.

The costumes are apt, as one expects of Bev George. Dave Sinclair's set is just right in the functional sense, although the weird autumnal tree and the yellow abstract painting could go. The music's lovely western Americana twang is wonderful. Lighting's good. Yep. It's all there.

Don't miss it.

Samela Harris

When: 19 to 28 June
Where: The Arts Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com

Under the Influence

Brian D’arcy James. Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Dunstan Playhouse. 20 June 2014

Nicely coinciding with the aftermath of this year’s Tony Awards, Brian D’arcy James entered the stage of the Dunstan Playhouse to a small but appreciative mid-week audience.

Appearing on and off Broadway since the early 90s, his resume swells with impressive accolades including two Tony Award nominations, lead roles in Shrek The Musical and Next To Normal, and roles alongside the likes of Idina Menzel, Kristen Chenoweth and John Lithgow.

Given all this, one might be tempted to imagine him sweeping in to up-end his gunny-sack of Broadway classics.  In contrast, ‘Under the Influence’ is an understated show brimming with enthusiasm for his roots and pop favourites.  Featuring the likes of Billy Joel, Phil Collins and Sting, it’s a mixed bag of lesser known tracks that will either educate or impress.  

James’s medley of ‘It Had to Be You’, ‘All of Me’ and ‘Isn't She Lovely’ played homage to song-writers from his hometown of Saginaw, Michigan, whilst his version of the classic 80s hit ‘Tempted’ was a fantastic reinvention.

It’s always a pleasure to see such a consummate performer paying tribute to their own musical influences, and James places himself on our level in exploring his heroes and first musical loves.  It’s a fun and enjoyable show.

As you might expect, he saves the best for last and receives rapturous applause for his mix-up of ‘Who I’d Be’ from Shrek.   This beautiful number really showcased his vocal talent and strength, but perhaps also highlighted what was missing from the show as a whole.  

Whilst the songs are carefully chosen and clearly have strong personal meaning, it’s a low-key affair that doesn’t stretch his musical prowess enough.  He purposefully adapts his style to mimic the artists he covers, and with great success, but we were all there to hear the artist himself.  A bit more variation and complexity in the selections, and more of James in the music, would have taken the show to another level.

Nicole Russo

When: Closed
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: Closed

Lift Up Your Skirt

Kathy Najimy. Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Festival Theatre. 19 June 2014

In case we don't know who Kathy Najimy is, her mainstage Cabaret Festival show opens with video clips of her past triumphs. She has been in a lot of stuff. There are movies like Hocus Pocus and Sister Act and then there are stage shows and soapies and, well, a great big career of a steadily working Hollywood character actress. The clips go on and on. Even Najimy notes that the show is more or less over by the time she steps onstage.

But it's all in good spirit. She has been working on just how to put a personal cabaret show together and a lot of thought has gone into it. She rattles off the ideas of potential themes at machine gun speed - rags to riches, overcoming adversity, love or hate your mother...  It's funny shtick. She works hard. She wins her audience.

Najimy is from San Diego but she is of Lebanese background. "Full blood", she used to brag as a child. Of course, like everyone, her family is dysfunctional. But it is not the theme of her show. In fact, there really isn't a theme as such.  There are assorted issues, instead.

Weight is one. Najimy wears a particularly unflattering black outfit and reveals that, while her first experience of Diabetes Type II was caused by being overweight, its later onset as Type I was not. Now, here she is, an overweight actress with "skinny diabetes". Mary Tyler Moore has it, too, you know. And look how skinny she is. Najimy relishes the irony and it goes down.

Najimy also has spent a lot of her life as a cheerleader for gay issues. She may be happily, heterosexually married, but she brags a world of gay friends and deepest devotion to the causes of their rights. In character as her wonderful old auntie, she goes to town on the inequities of gay and transgender marriage. It's a bit too didactic and she may cut some of the repetition before she takes in on to New York. Then again, foyer talk reflected some of the punters liking the auntie character best of her act.

This critic best liked her Bette Midler stories. Heaven forfend, Kathy Najimy was not just a Midler fan, she was a stalker. She even dressed up as a bunny and delivered a faux bunnygram to get close enough to tell the star that she loved her. Years later, cast as Bette Midler's sister in Hocus Pocus, she did her best not to let her pinup know of this shameful past. Very funny.

Najimy does not sing, but she belted out a few rough bars of this and that which justified the marvellous Brian Nash onstage as musical director.

And, she does lift her skirt. It's a very quaint grand finale. But it is done as a gesture of absolute humility in the context of sweet kindness. And, for the audience, the night has been a big "Like".

Samela Harris

When: Closed
Where: Festival Theatre
Bookings: Closed