Cabaret Festival. Dunstan Playhouse. 19 Jun 2025
The album Trio, released in 1987, was the much-anticipated collaboration between three of country music’s greatest artists of the time: Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt. Various issues, such as recording contracts and commitments to other projects resulted in the album being recorded over almost a decade. The album is a beautifully curated mix of original and traditional songs, and some quite stunning covers.
In homage to these powerhouses and the platinum album, Fanny Lumsden, Jess Hitchcock and Alice Keath have come together to perform the songs from the album (and a little more). With a backline of local session musicians, the trio took on the challenge with great enthusiasm. Opening with the album’s first track The Pain of Loving You, the musicianship gathered on the stage quickly became evident as the multi-instrumentalist backline of mandolin, fiddle, acoustic and electric guitars, pedal steel and bowed upright bass promised early and delivered for the entire performance.
As with the original trio, these three are successful artists in their own right; they’ve worked together on these numbers, and for the first part of the show they are quite tight and on track. It gets a bit loose towards the end, but this is a one-off and they don’t have the luxury of take after take to get it right.
That said, there are some real stand-out moments. Phil Spector’s To Know Him Is To Love Him is tight and joyous, a real crowd pleaser, and Randy Newman’s Feels Like Home (which was released on Trio 11 in 1999) brings the house down. Led by Jess Hitchcock at the grand piano, it is poignant and powerful and, along with a beautiful rendition of High Sierra, we are reminded of what a tragedy it is that Linda Ronstadt has lost that magnificent voice.
Also from the sophomore album (which was released in 1999) is a rendition of Neil Young’s After the Goldrush. Since Prelude’s 1974 recording showed how a close-knit vocal harmony could elevate this song, whenever three or more voices gather, they tend to have a go at this. Trio are no exception and carry it well; a small niggle was that the sound mix pulled up the pedal steel and double bass (bowing) a little high, drowning out some if the quite delicate vocal harmonies.
There is a generosity of spirit amongst these three artists, as indeed is evident with the original artists, with each acknowledging the other’s skills, particularly as they pull out their instruments to accompany some of the songs; banjo, guitar, piano and zither all make an appearance.
There's a sense of almost-but-not-quite about this production. It lacks a narrative; while there is some patter between songs about the making of the albums, there could be so much more to this story, elevating it above the concert format. These three artists have led remarkable lives, and some of the things that were going on in their lives during the making of the first album would have added to understanding some of the song choices that made it onto this first pressing.
Lumsden reads from notes far too much, and when the performers aren’t holding their instruments they physically seem a little lost, staring at the backline during solos, unsure of what to do with their bodies.
As a one off, it is a most entertaining show albeit a little under cooked for what should be a premium cabaret performance. But the singing is what it’s about for many, and the trio don’t disappoint, with a closer of Waltz Across Texas Tonight. And kudos to the backline; a stellar performance.
Arna Eyers-White
When: 19 Jun
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: Closed
Cabaret Festival. Frankie McNair. Banquet Room. 15 Jun 2025
Epic trash(ed) exposition of fame that never was yet desperately clawed for with an insane lust for the important people’s love and admiration.
Thus is the tragedy of Tabitha Booth’s Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2025 cheap, self-adulating, sell out, golden era culture stealing fifth rate gig that would happily score a five cent piece off the pavement and call it a win.
Oh the tacky, tacky! The cheap red curtained ‘Booth’ lit sign with a crooked H. A promising black and white screened interview intro with the star herself, as she works towards a show celebrating her long, fearless, barrier breaking career.
Fearless destruction is her theme, sadly. Here is an artist who broke the rules against herself. Stuffed up a chance being a Bond girl, but gifted the franchise a song Duran Duran would have been exterminated by had they been exposed to it. She did worse. Cats. We are to be grateful her poor approximation of Sarah Brightman ensured she never got the role.
Tabitha cannot escape her psycho bent fixation with tap dancing Judy Garland identity or her questionable Garbo bigger, bigger cigarette fixation.
If it wasn’t for Harris, stage manager keeping her moderately in line, there would be no show!! No cheap arse sponsors either!
Ok. Gonzo review section complete. Frankie McNair (the performer playing the fictional ‘Tabitha Booth’) is a genius. Never has an artist been able to crush and compound a golden era of music theatre/cabaret and film history, in the manner she does. It is liberating, extraordinary, yet remarkably respectful in all its ribald comic glory. More power to her. There were enough people on their feet testifying to that at shows end.
David O’Brien
When: 15 June
Where: Banquet Room
Bookings: Closed
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