Cabaret Festival. Dunstan Theatre. 18 Jun 2021
Eddie is oh so perfect for what he does. Pictured in the Adelaide Cabaret Festival program cuddling with his two sleepy daughters on what looks like a city train, Eddie is your ‘everybody’. He writes and sings about his immediate surroundings. No topic is too small; we are treated to songs about taking out the bins and fledgling birds struggling heroically against dogs and wheels and running shoes. And no topic is too big, like Broadway’s King Kong The Musical. After writing the King Kong and Beetlejuice musicals for Broadway more or less simultaneously, escaping the virus in New York and fleeing Melbourne between lockdowns, Eddie sees the CabFest as the Perfect moment to reflect on the crazy last three years.
This is a cozy and intimate affair, a chat with an old friend who has been through a lot and grew wiser for the experience. Accompanied by cello and violin played with great syncopation to Eddie’s piano – all three looking retro in jumpsuits – Perfect generously sets up each song with a tangle of memory, humour, wisdom, and wistfulness that the fact that only about seven songs are performed is totally forgivable. The night is more about friendship than showmanship. Even his attention-seeking quivering quiff is forgivable.
The journey begins with his dream of writing a Broadway musical. After numerous sojourns to The Big Apple, he offered to write two songs for Beetlejuice as a test of his talents, and he got the gig without even a meeting! Eddie plays the song for Lydia that won him the job and the opening number that was cut by the Warner Brother bosses. These songs, made for a giant stage with huge cast, are wonderfully arranged for a musical trio. The musical garnered eight Tony Award nominations, including Best Score which is specifically directed at Eddie. He composed a thematic four-minute musical pitch for the ceremonies - The Whole Being Dead Thing - that was so compelling it has had over 1,000,000 playbacks on YouTube. Beetlejuice, ironically, a show about dealing with death, was still going strong when it was closed mid-stride due to COVID.
Eddie gives near equal time to the King Kong experience which he relates as a personal failure. Yet, he was brought in at the last minute to resuscitate the production after Broadway luminaries like Jason Robert Brown fell to the wayside. It grossed $1 million in its first week and played 324 performances.
On the way between theatre and home, his observations on bins and birds are turned into lyrical dramatisations which at first seem overblown for the topics but are so musically accomplished one imagines they must be made of less suburban stuff. But that is the magic of Eddie – he is one of us with one hell of a mirror. He is the boy from St Bede’s of Mentone who applied his prodigious talents to writing and performing in musical theatre, co-directed the Adelaide Cabaret Festival (2016-17), then dreamed of Broadway and made it.
Bravo!
P.S. His relationship to critics is complicated. While claiming that you have to live with it, he performs Death To Critics in a suitably accented voice. It’s a hilarious rant from a frustrated creative, which apparently will one day fit into a new revenge musical. Can’t wait!
David Grybowski
When: 18 to 19 Jun
Where: Dunstan Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au
Adelaide Cabaret Festival. The Famous Spiegeltent. 18 Jun 2021
It’s close up and personal, masked, marvellous and just a bit surreal. Who would ever have imagined Adelaide Tonight in a mirrored circus tent perched on the Torrens slopes? That old TV variety show of yore was ever within the bounds of a fairly clinical studio set. Now, a lifetime later, it crowds onto a super-busy little cabaret stage in a dazzle of bling and riotous good spirit.
How could it be otherwise in the hands of two of the country’s most beloved and evergreen entertainers! Willsy’s a proud 77 and Bob Downe a toyboy at 62. Peerlessly as good old showbiz buddies, they can belt out a song or two, hit the harmonies, crack a joke, slip in some innuendo, and bathe in a glory of nostalgia.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the show. Willsy dazzles in a series of seriously sequinned mini dresses and Bob shimmers in his golden polyester crimplene/boucle jumpsuit and defies the tiny, wee girth of the stage’s performance space, to show that he is just a gorgeous mover.
Of course, since Adelaide Tonight was always a variety show, they have a few guest stars.
And they’re big names. Cabaret cream.
First up, Jeff Duff sparkles out in the tiniest spaceman hot-pants jumpsuit ever devised. With his skinny long legs, white Minnie Mouse shoes and pancake makeup, he looks like a marionette. This man has made quite a footprint on the Aussie pop landscape over quite a few decades and, when he opens his mouth to sing David Bowie, one knows why. He is a powerhouse, with a wonderful voice proving a strong emotional engagement with his lyrics and yet… it really is a very odd costume and one’s mind bends at the oddity of it all.
The next guest act is John O’Hara whose CabFest show, #Val - A Campfire Kiki with Mother, suffered the interstate travel sorrows of cancellation. He’s whizzed over from Perth to do some snatches of the show on Adelaide Tonight. In utter contrast to Duffo, O’Hara’s costume reflects himself as a sleek modern style icon. Self-proclaimed as an “Australian National Treasure”, he is young, lean, oozing self-confidence, and he sings with panache.
Star of the guest stars is Liza Minnelli, well, the Liza one has when one can’t have Liza, and a very big and funny Liza she is, albeit her real name is Trevor Ashley. She is hot, wild, and a bundle of taut energy. Her stiletto heel stamps on the floor as she throws the mic from hand to hand and belts out show tunes in a throaty, vocal storm. She’s a vivid and arresting pastiche, and perhaps another national treasure.
Just as in the old days, Adelaide Tonight is an hour-long show. It is fast and fun. The Sam Leske band does everyone proud. It’s a very nice Adelaide outfit shining brightly in the CabFest spotlight. The TV monitors at either side of the stage show classic old-school TV ads: tasty tuna, and oh look, there’s Ernie Sigley with a lawnmower.
And, just for good measure and since there’s no room for a big wheel, there is a “barrel girl” prize at the end of the night.
The lovely night. Something old. Something new. Plenty blue.
They’re on for another week with a fresh set of guest stars every night. Take Aunty Flo and go.
Samela Harris
When: 18 to 26 Jun
Where: The Famous Spiegeltent
Bookings: bass.net.au
Adelaide Repertory Theatre. Arts Theatre. 17 Jun 2021
What a pleasant confection of a play.
Jill Hyem, who died in 2015, was a prolific writer of plays and TV series which tapped nicely into the general zeitgeist of English life and times; in this case, the yen of English women of retirement age to start life anew in Paris. Hence, this play is about Nancy the retired headmistress who invites her recently-widowed friend Anna to come and stay with her in an apartment in Paris. It becomes a liberating experience for them both as they deal with both a charming out-of-work actor/handyman and a venomous French landlady.
The characters are all a bit on the cookie-cutter side but agreeably so, albeit there are a few harsh words on both sides about the English versus the French. Also, much of the script is in French, an extra stretch for the cast but delivered with chutzpah by all. An added expatriate Englishwoman, Rachel aka Raquel, adds chemistry to the social soup, and lots of humour. Sue Wylie in a moveable feast of shoes and hair pieces, frocks and attitudes, carries her off to a delicious tee. Deb Walsh delivers good, solid Nancy while Lindy LeCornu is both mannered and amusing as mousy Anna. Versatile Peter Davis embodies the agreeable Frenchman, Charlot, with accomplished physical eloquence and some lovely bi-lingual parrying. Vicki Horwood stalks into character as the villain of the piece, the venal and judgemental landlady, and makes her easy to hate.
Director Norm Caddick has given the play an easy, relaxed pace and designer Brittany Daw has picked up on a very French colour scheme for the rather under-decorated Paris rental. Sound designer Ray Trowbridge, having chosen some lovely inter-scenes French music, was doubtless having kittens when the rainstorms broke over The Arts Theatre on opening night drowning out actors’ voices. Of course, the show went on and a jolly good time was had by all.
Samela Harris
When: 17 tp 26 Jun
Where: Arts Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com
Adelaide Cabaret Festival. The Space. 13 Jun 2021
Was ever the Space Theatre a more sumptuously luscious venue?
Never!
As conceived by Craig Ilott and Stuart Couzens, the Space has been transformed into a romantically lamp-lit realm of intimate tables occupied by an audience out in their finery. It’s a black tie do. After seeing people in Ts and sneakers turning up for major theatre openings in the past, it is something of a pleasure in itself to be among a crowd of the elegantly attired. So, there is a sense of occasion.
And, what an occasion.
It is a case of “expect the unexpected”. And expect it to be of five star production standards on every level.
French-speaking waiters attend one’s table, pouring French champagne and serving a platter of decadent French cheeses between performances of arresting Pina Bausch-esque dance routines. Our lithe and handsome young waiter is Olivier Nilsson. Like the others, he is a genuine actor but, unlike most of the cast, he is perhaps not so much an acrobat as just a figure of attentive charm.
For the first thirty minutes or so, the audience settles in drinking champers and enjoying cheese, listening to French music, watching the wait staff’s periodic routines, observing the gradual arrival of L’Hotel’s guests who, after being greeted by the concierge onstage, drift off to assigned rooms. The balcony becomes the L’Hotel’s upstairs corridor along which bellboys run errands and housekeepers push their cleaning wagons and dust and polish the railings, pausing to join the dance routines.
Prompt side downstairs is a stage for singers. OP is a bathtub being steadily filled with water. Begowned women come to and fro attending to it. Meanwhile, in the heart of The Space is a platform groaning with buckets of champagne and arrays of flowers and cheeses in a display of opulent decadence.
A French chanteuse arrives and the official performance begins: Caroline Nin singing in French and introducing another table treat. Eclairs. Oh, they are delicious, as is she. Table lamps are removed and a total blackout presages show time.
Thereafter it is one awe-inspiring routine after another, all rather on the sensual side. Bri Emrich and Lexi Strumolo take off their dressing gowns and share the bathroom in a glory of athletic femme sensuality. A luggage trolley takes centre stage to become suspended as a shining cage in which, clad in a prettiness of lingerie, Russian acrobat Masha Terentieva spins and bends and hangs and contorts with breathtaking skill and grace.
The luggage trolley is replaced by a stripper’s pole as the Concierge leaps onto his reception desk and with sublime nonchalance begins to peel off his uniform, revealing an erotica of burlesque lingerie and, all-of-a-sudden stiletto shoes so vertiginous that even Cher might quake. His physique is imposing and muscular but he is light and limber on the pole.
The sense of wonderment drifts into sorrow when Leah Shelton as an awkward masked and begowned character totters to the stage, gradually removing layers of latex ending, at last, with the pouted red cavern of her fake mouth. She is the symbol of loneliness, of sexual secrecy in impersonal hotel rooms, the sad, used sex doll. Her performance is utterly gripping and deeply heart-wrenching.
Throughout the show, Brendan Maclean has been darting around as a deliciously devilish bellhop with a finger in every pie. Now he comes to the piano and in his powerfully beautiful voice, sings People I’ve Been Sad while exquisitely androgynous Beau Sargent sparkles aloft in the sweetest of aerial acts adding a dash of naughty dance just for fun.
And it is a room full of swoon.
The audience is in no hurry to leave. It is sated and happy.
With travel off the menu, this exotic and mysterious French hotel has come to us; room service par excellence.
This immersive show will shine forth as the jewel in the crown of the 2021 Cabaret Festival program.
Samela Harris
When: 13 to 20 Jun
Where: Space Theatre
Bookings: bass.net.au
Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Amber Martin. The Famous Spiegeltent. 11 Jun 2021
Welcome to the bathhouse! Through a steamy haze, three men wrapped in bath towels appear, and we’re off and running. The crowd whoops, the boys take their positions at piano (Henry Koperski), bass (Tim Wilsdon) and drums (Paul Butler) and the larger than life Amber Martin is onstage, ready to take us on a wild ride. And what a ride it is.
Martin is here to pay homage to Bette Midler, the Divine Miss M and those performances at the Continental Bathhouse in New York in those early days of the ‘seventies. The bathhouse regularly featured what was to become a veritable who’s who of the era - Gloria Gaynor, Manhattan Transfer, Glady Knight, The Pointer Sisters – and of course, accompanying Bette on the piano, Barry Manilow.
Opening with a robust rendition of Friends, Martin warns us that the show is going to get raunchy, and it’s no idle threat.
Martin tells us of her admiration for big, gutsy female singers; hardly surprising the way she belts it out herself (she performed Janis Jopling songs in Janis: Undead in ACF 2019). This all goes along with a Bette history, then she moves smoothly into one of Midler’s more passionate songs, Superstar.
Martin shows that she’s just as capable of the vocal dynamics that Midler is famous for, as she moves on to Hustler, which introduces us to the inevitable Mario and Lance, two hip swivelling young male dancers in short shorts and, oh yes, Docs.
Much of the material comes from Midler’s debut and sophomore albums, The Divine Miss M and the eponymous Bette Midler respectively. She unapologetically slips a couple more into the mix including a beautiful rendition of Tom Waits’ Martha (sung by Midler on SNL), beautifully accompanied by Henry Koperski (also Alan Cumming’s Musical Director).
And as for the raunchy warning, she isn’t kidding. Noting that Midler admired female artists from the twenties and thirties, like the great, bawdy Sophie Tucker, Martin is not backward in reeling off some of the bluer jokes in the repertoire. The fact that Martin is now quite naked, having just blasted us with Sweet Marijuana, only adds to the telling. And in extra homage to bawdy women, we are treated to Lucille Bogan’s Shave ‘em Dry – just wouldn’t get past the censor these days!
Amber Martin just doesn’t let up; she’s a powerhouse of energy and song, but the pleasure isn’t all ours. She pauses a moment to reflect on the year that has been; like many live artists, she hasn’t performed since March 2020, and it’s been hard. She misses the energy that she gets from an audience, and she thanks us for being there, and giving so freely. You’re welcome Amber.
The show closes with Dylan’s powerful I Shall Be Released; ‘awesome!’ says the women in front of me. Yes, just ‘divine’.
Arna Eyers-White
When: 11 to 13 Jun
Where: The Famous Spiegeltent
Bookings: bass.net.au