Strut & Fret Production House. The Garden of Unearthly Delights - Deluxe. 22 Feb 2015
Out she comes, dressed in nothing but bright blue paint, with boofed up blue hair, Yana Alana's curvaceous contours smack the senses. After further celebrating blue in song and with blue flowers and curtains, she blows her own horn, figuratively and literally, in this risky and unpredictable show.
In her quotes from her fictitious book, 'Go Fuck Yourself,' marvelously witty ditties sung in her sparkling voice, and a major running blue with her dour keyboard accompanist over her inappropriate phone use during the show, we get Yana Alana as the blue bitch in her One Woman Show, which is very nearly a two-woman show.
In between scenes concerning medication, mediation and meditation, Yana belts out her original songs with a vigorous gusto. Having fired the accompanist, Yana attempts to carry on with the help of an audience member at the keyboard, and of course this doesn't work out and the show pretends to grind to a halt. But she reinvigorates with a hilarious song about not being able to say sorry - a topic close to all Australians on a political and personal level.
Introducing herself, she invited the audience to be as honest and revealing as she would be. In a self-disclosing show such as this, I am often distracted by thinking about what's behind the material. What's under the blue paint? Yana Alana the comedian, singer and award-winning cabaret performer in her vivisection of performance art and artists.
David Grybowski
When: 13 Feb to 1 Mar
Where: The Garden of Unearthly Delights - Deluxe
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Strut & Fret Production House. The Garden of Unearthly Delights - Deluxe. 22 Feb 2015
Nigerian-born, London-raised, French-named Le Gateau Chocolat has returned to Adelaide with his brand new show, 'Icons.' Flamboyant and outrageous with gay abandon, and resembling his nom de theatre, dressed in dark cocoa colours and topped with impossibly long lashes, he quickly extends his credentials, including a cavernous baritone voice that shakes your bones.
The programme promises a show that investigates fame, in part through Le Gateau's own experience as a performer. However, I got the impression that Le Gateau recently had a purple patch and was encouraged to make this rather cathartic show. It comprised many heartfelt and honest revelations by the performer, led by a song he wrote and sang for the funeral of a friend and colleague.
Many other songs, chosen from a typically wide-ranging catalogue from opera to pop, looked into dark spaces. The set backdrop of a collage of photographs spoke to the past and remembrance. One thing Le Gateau does readily is change over the hair, and a number with a glowing golden lion's mane-like affair was transfixing. It seemed like the show he needed to do given the space he was in, and performers need to perform, don't they?
David Grybowski
When: 13 Feb to 15 Mar
Where: The Garden of Unearthly Delights - Deluxe
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
The Garden of Unearthly Delights - The Vagabond. 21 Feb 2015
I'm highly attracted to The Magnets! After a few minutes into the opening number of six-part harmonies, I'm like, "OK, open the curtain and let's see the band...the bass guitar...the drum kit." No such thing. These six Brits do everything flapping their gums. A six-man mouth band. It's quite unbelievable. The audience was fresh-faced with delight at their virtuosity. There was an air of wonder and enchantment. These guys have a big resume of appearances on television and back-up work for the likes of Blonde, Tom Jones and Bryan Adams. There was a bit of testosterone on stage - the program of songs by Pharrell Williams, Mumford & Sons, Bruno Mars and such was punched out with extreme prejudice.
The Magnets are an eclectic bunch and their format leaves room for each member to shine. CG Fraser wowed the females with his supple gyrations and wooed all with his deep baritone simulations of bass guitar. Made the others look pretty straight. The show's sensation, though, was Andy Frost. Backing up the singers with simulated percussion was astounding enough - you could close your eyes and see the hardware. But his extended beat box solo left the audience breathless. Double bravo!
The Magnets take a cappella to an entirely new level. Others sound like a church choir or have a few clever vocal features. But these guys are consummate vocal musicians. Not to be missed.
David Grybowski
When: 13 Feb to 15 Mar
Where: The Garden of Unearthly Delights - The Vagabond
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Amos Gill. The Rhino Room. 20 Feb 2015
‘Amos Gill is Gillty’, and he certainly is! Guilty of hilariousness, guilty of inappropriateness, and guilty of awkwardness!
Standing, alone, on a 1 square metre stage jammed into an opening on one side of the Rhino Room’s ‘Howling Owl’, Gill quipped at how sexual the mood was. Sex was definitely on the agenda – and it wasn’t going to end there.
When not discussing his own sexual exploits (or lack thereof until his foray into breakfast radio) he was recalling a fateful evening as a 10 year old in a motel room shadowed by the ‘Big Orange’ when he got stuck listening to his mother “get it on” with a gentleman caller.
Gill is very funny, and he plays well off the audience in the room. Quickly latching onto a gentleman sitting half-way back we soon learned his nickname, Pie-Cart, and how his seat had been the location chosen by an earlier audience member who had given the show extra “length” (for want of a better word)! You may just have to see the show for that reference to make sense.
The inappropriateness and awkwardness is occasionally an issue however, and more than once one felt sorrier for Gill than amused as he told gut wrenching stories from his past, which were self-deprecating and just a little sad.
That said, for the most part, the laughter abounds. He’s a funny guy, and apparently also hosts a bit of breakfast radio – either way, “get on it”.
Paul Rodda
When: 20 Feb to 7 Mar
Where: The Rhino Room – Howling Owl
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
Miss Kitty's Karavan in Matters of Life and Debt. Big Hair Productions. Goodwood Institute. 20 Feb 2015
Chanteuse and ex-spy Miss Kitty makes her entrance from below the boards of the Goodwood Institute stage and now you are sure you are in for something different than your usual concert.
Wearing a seriously polka-dotted something that Dame Edna would feel comfortable in doing the weekly grocery shop at Moonee Ponds, Miss Kitty spins an apocryphal tale of her adventures with MI5 and other dodgy activities. Her story seems less strange in comparison to the antics and outbursts of the musicians in her Karavan, which is certainly not under her control. The tension in this inventive act weaves together her Karavan's oeuvre of rearranged popular songs and lesser known ditties - many of which have a flavour of Marrakesh or something known as gypsy jazz.
The Karavan musicians, while pretending to be a disparate and whacky bunch, are very accomplished and added further to the intrigue and conceit. Songs the baby boomers are familiar with are re-imagined. 'My Favourite Things' becomes a list of sadomasochistic implements. Nick Cave's 'Into My Arms' ends up as a ventriloquist act performed to perfection by Miss Kitty. 'Stairway to Heaven' shakes hands with 'My Funny Valentine' in the same beat. 'Ring of Fire' sits comfortably with a couple of other songs in the same number with Miss Kitty delivering the goods as if possessed.
Miss Kitty opened the second half in a black number somewhere between a frock and a raincoat that later was shed to reveal a truly shimmering and glamorous silver dress. The audience gladly participated in David Bowie's 'Heroes' but several men, including yours truly, declined an offer to appear on stage in a tango number, clearly sensing the danger amongst this unpredictable lot. The show weighed in at a hefty two and a half hours and time flew by.
Miss Kitty is none other than she who channeled Patsy Cline in her 'Patsy Decline' show you might have enjoyed a few years ago - additional testimony of Kerry Reid's impeccable ability to create a persona and smack your cochlear with a vibrant note. Bravo!
Hurry, hurry, hurry! Only two shows left! Only this weekend!
David Grybowski
When: 20 Feb to 22 Feb
Where: Goodwood Institute
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au