Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Banquet Room. 11 Jun 2023
Mark Trevorrow trying to sing ‘straight’? I’d like to see that! Well I did, and so did hundreds of other punters in the packed Banquet Room at the Adelaide Festival Centre. (What a fabulous venue for cabaret!). Trevorrow is of course better known as his fabulously outrageous polyester-clad alter-ego Bob Downe.
The conceit of “Singing Straight” is Trevorrow singing the type of songs that Bob wouldn’t, but early in his performance Trevorrow hints that being ‘straight’ just isn’t in his DNA. The audience audibly sighs relief at hearing this, and with impish glee some squeal in anticipation! And true to his word, and to the delight of all, ‘Bob’ edges in and out of the proceedings.
Just before Trevorrow’s entrance, the 1965 classic California Dreamin’ by the Mamas and the Papas can be heard over the PA. It sets the tone for what we are about to hear, and then it all kicks off. Dressed modestly in a sparkly jacket, printed T-shirt (I couldn’t read the motif but I hope it was risqué) and chinos, Trevorrow bounds on stage and introduces his backing musicians: Musical Director Bev Kennedy on piano, and Nick Sinclair on double bass (“Are you ready to pluck?” Downe…er…Trevorrow quips with an evil glint in his eye!). Kennedy and Sinclair are superb throughout - consummate musicians. Trevorrow opens with the Bert Bacharach classic Alfie, and perhaps the bridge lyric “When you walk let your heart lead the way…” could well be a metaphor for Bob?
Trevorrow traverses a broad songbook. Alfie is followed by the 1932 Harry Warren and Al Dubin hit You’re Getting to Be a Habit with Me, which later featured in the classic film 42nd Street. Then comes the 1931 song Dream a Little Dream of Me with music by Fabian Andre and Wilbur Schwandgt, and lyrics by Gus Kahn. The song become most famous in 1968 when it was recorded by the Mamas & The Papas. Part of Trevorrow’s skill is his ability to seamlessly intrude his own lyrics into songs and to personalise the performance to the moment (including some Bob Downe iconic tremolos and other vocal gymnastics) and he couldn’t resist sneaking “Dream a little dream of Bev…” into his rendition! Kennedy smiled and the audience laughed.
And then the name-dropping starts, including Anthony Newley, Noël Coward, Cilla Black, and k.d. Lang - all people Trevorrow has either met, worked with, or knows someone who did, and the oh-so-funny anecdotes (no spoilers!) were quintessentially Bob! The anecdotes serve as introductions to more songs: Newley’s A Wonderful Day Like Today (from the 1964 Tony Award nominated musical The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd), Coward’s World Weary (from his 1928 musical This Year of Grace). And the connection to Cilla Black? Well, Paul McCartney is one of Trevorrow’s favourite composers, and McCartney wrote songs for other singers, including Cilla Black, such as the iconic Step Inside Love, which he sings with gay abandon (insert winking face emoji), and It’s For You. Trevorrow also includes the McCartney songs Another Day (McCartney’s debut single as a solo artist in 1971 following the breakup of The Beatles the year before), and A World Without Love (Peter & Gordon). And the connection to k.d. Lang? Well, you need to see the show.
Occasionally Trevorrow would wander from his script and ever reliable Kennedy would corral him back onto the straight and narrow. “Cabaret is meant to be loose, but not this f**g loose!”, he irreverently remarked, later followed by “Think of this as a very expensive dress rehearsal!”. (Bob is trying to cut loose, but Trevorrow keeps him in check…mostly.)
And then it’s to Sondheim. From the musical Company, he belts out the patter song Another Hundred People with razor sharp diction and enunciation and follows this with Marry Me a Little. Then a surprise! He invites Rupert Noffs on stage, who is a performer of note who has previously collaborated with Trevorrow and Kennedy in an all-Sondheim cabaret, and they perform enthusiastic renditions of Old Friends (from Sondheim’s 1981musical Merrily We Roll Along), and You Could Drive a Person Crazy (also from Company), in which to the delight of the audience they replace the last line with “Sondheim his my hobby and I’m givin’ it up!”
The Sondheim homage continues with Together (Wherever We Go) from the 1959 musical Gypsy (music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Sondheim) replete with Bob Downe vocal histrionics, which Noffs was able to perfectly harmonise with! Noffs exits the stage leaving Trevorrow to finish the show with yet more Sondheim, including I Remember and Take Me to the World from Evening Primrose. Trevorrow makes fine work of both these songs, putting to the sword any suggestion that Sondheim can’t write good melodies. He finishes with Not a Day Goes By, also from Merrily We Roll Along, which is a bit of a shame because the long-sustained notes at the end of phrases were very nasal. Perhaps Bob was trying to unleash himself, but on the final note Mark was triumphant and the audience rose to its feet and gave him thunderous applause.
Kym Clayton
When: 11 Jun
Where: The Banquet Room
Bookings: Closed
Therry Theatre. The Arts Theatre. 10 Jun 2023, Matinee
Sondheim long has been favoured by a swathe of musical purists, each one seemingly more expert than the last.
He has been a landmark composer, delivering a style which has been springboard to assorted modern musicals writers.
Few would deny that he is hard to sing. There are “greats” whose greatness has soared with their exquisite mastery of his masterpieces.
None such, sadly, are evident in Therry’s latest offering - lest it be the orchestra. MD Rodney Hrvatin’s musicians there in the Arts’ pit are producing the most beautifully balanced, almost impeccable sound.
There are some pretty proficient renditions onstage, too, and the second act of the work significantly outshines the first.
But, there is only one really bring-the-house-down moment and it comes from the ever- classy Trish Hart as Joanne singing that wickedly wonderful The Ladies Who Lunch.
The musical, Company, tells of a group of rather anxious, highly-strung New Yorkers who are constantly evaluating the merits of being married or not married. The very engaging Jared Frost plays the principal character Bobby, who is not married but should be married and who wants to be married and goes through assorted girlfriends who would or should be married. The show kicks off as his friends gather around to surprise him on his 35th birthday and then it slopes away into vignettes about these friends as couples and characters. There are some quirky scenes, especially the competitive couple in a lather of one-upmanship with karate and dieting. It’s arguably the best performance cameo, delivered herein by Catherine Breugelmans and Sam Mannix, who is never to be forgotten for his performances in Sondheim’s Into The Woods.
George Furth wrote the book for Company and Sondheim the lyrics. When the show opened on Broadway in 1970, it scooped awards in all directions. It features songs which now are concert classics: Being Alive, You Could Drive a Person Crazy, Another Hundred People.
In the 2000s, directors have tried to take some of the gender cliche out of the show by changing Bobby to Bobbie. But the whole idea of this community of would-be match-making mates still has a seventies ring. The characters go on about being “squares”, for heaven’s sake. And they have a rather darling but ingenuous old-school dope smoking scene amusingly imparted here by Grace Frost and Ben Todd.
The high moments of this this production are product of the sense of enjoyment the performers impart in delivering their characters, and with some darned good American accents, too. Albeit there are moments of indecipherable lyrics, most importantly, there are some nice voices and harmonies, not to mention Frost himself in his final solos. Notable in a diligent and disciplined bunch are Sophie Stokes, Robin Schmelzkopf, Claire Birbeck, Cassidy Gaiter, and Emily Morris along with Ryan Ricci, Emily Fitzpatrick, and Daniel Fleming.
While one will always admire David Sinclair as a director, one feels the set he has designed for Company is just a bit cruel, with the cast endlessly clomping up and down and down and up three sets of New York brownstone stairs. The scenic panels, on the other hand, are terrific, as are the projections.
Only recent visitors to New York could justify some of the strange lighting frequently shedding shadows on the players from the knees down. It might be to hint at that scaffolding now swamping the sidewalks of dear old New York city and diminishing the reach of natural light.
One’s wish with Company would be to salvage the wonderful lead songs and make the plot less binary and, oh please, remove the endless blowing on the birthday cake. That ritual went out the window when Covid came in. It just makes one shudder now.
All this said, there is a lot to recommend. A blast of Sondheim presented with love and good sound on a winter’s night.
Samela Harris
When: 10 to 17 Jun
Where: The Arts Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com
Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Festival Theatre. 9 Jun 2023
Stomping, stand-up acclaim.
What a sensational night kicked off the 2023 Adelaide Cabaret Festival - an historic night which set a five-star benchmark.
State Theatre Company Director Mitchel Butel directed a pack of ex CabFest directors expertly threading together a razzle dazzle night of triumphant excellence.
And, in its 50th year, the Festival Theatre bloomed and blossomed in a showcase of technical brilliance. Talk about production values. Impeccable. And, rightly, a wild cheer went up when sound supremo Jane Rosetto’s name was called. From the word go, that creamy quality of sound was noted. And the stage lighting, with the MD Mark Ferguson’s band up there cleverly illuminated with the great symbolic chandelier aloft and, thanks to design legend Kathryn Sproul, a celebratory hanging gallery of CabFest posters.
Then there were the star turns.
The stars, those accomplished performers who have been CabFest directors, each had their own nostalgic and/or showcase performance segments.
Ali McGregor! Oh, did she take us to the high spots. Vivid in a frock gathered with a sparkling diamente brooch, she showed that she can belt out a big, blindingly brilliant song. She was a wow moment.
But not the only one.
It was wow all over the place.
That darling Kate Ceberano, singularly beloved as a CabFest director and all round bloody good spirit, took the audience to another great height of breathless admiration. David Campbell was a medley of effusive “wow” songs. The man can “give" and audience hearts were bursting in response.
And, as if they had not burst enough, there was the inimitable Meow Meow with an exquisite tribute to former CabFest director, the late lamented and oh, so revered Barry Humphries. In his honour, wearing red stilettos Barry had given her, she celebrated one of his lifelong fascinations, the Weimar era, by delivering, with absolute finesse, a magnificent Frederick Hollander work. The audience swooned.
Voices from the ether. Vocal acrobatics. What a sterling range of art.
How does Sarah-Louise Young sing Kate Bush better than Kate Bush? Hilariously, that is how. In a wild-wings costume with a pastiche of stereotypical moves.
For, this gala night also was a tasting plate of the 2023 CabFest program and it had one lusting to see it all.
Eddie Perfect, composer, actor, satirist, generous spirited and modest superstar also a former CabFest director, swanned around with charm and then let loose his diabolically bloodthirsty Kill the Critics song. Nastee! Five-star nastee. You will burn in hell, beautiful boy.
There were classic moments; Vice Jones and Nina Ferro proffered a taste of classy jazz. Mark Trevorrow and our adored mistress of bling, Anne Wills, sampled their evergreen Adelaide Tonight fare. Julia Holt paid right and proper tribute to father of the CabFest, Frank Ford and Julia Zemiro did, well, Julia Zemiro.
And, throughout the night, Virginia Gay earned the audience’s love, not only with her beautifully modulated speaking and lyrical pipes but also her warmly affectionate inclusiveness as MC.
Is anyone omitted?
Only Hans.
Our German megastar has earned an almost unprecedentedly massive rollicking and effusive fan base in this city. And around the country. Even in the USA. Back in the shimmering spangled outfits his mum makes for him and after his fearsome brush with death on a cruise ship, he turned up the heat with his Lucky Bitches dancers, everything so well-rehearsed - except for the big surprise of the night.
Who? Me? Yes. You. You good thing, you!
It was his crowning as an Icon. Icon of CabFest 2023 - and into the history books he goes.
Talking of which, it will be a very long time before an Adelaide audience leaves the theatre on a high like this one!
What a night, What a night!
Samela Harris
When: 9 Jun
Where: Festival Theatre
Bookings: Closed
Gilbert and Sullivan Society of SA. Arts Theatre. 27 May 2023
It only costs about $3000 for a cheap return flight to New York. A half decent hotel costs just $300 for the night and a ticket to A Chorus Line on Broadway would set you back about $300. But, hold your horses, the show is long closed after 6137 performances.
Luckily for us, our own Gilbert & Sullivan Society has found the resources to stage a production of this famous show which could easily hold its own in that elite mecca of musicals they call Broadway.
That is saying a lot.
But there it is, in The Arts Theatre, with a massive cast of singers and dancers, creating a classic chorus line in which not a single toe is out of line. Choreographer Sarah Williams clearly has imposed the classic discipline and motivation to this huge ensemble.
Director Gordon Combes seems to have lured a lineup of quietly elite performers from the city’s music and dance teaching circles along with some outstanding young talent. One sees the name Pelican Productions in a number of CVs.
Musical director, Mark DeLaine, similarly, has rounded up a superb orchestra with a sensational brass section while costume co-ordinator Anne Humphries has the entire ensemble dressed to audition character until the high-kicking grand finale in which a lightning quick change brings them out glittering in wow-factor golden top hats and tails.
There are two directors in this show. One, Gordon Combes, directs in real life while the other, for the most part, is a voice in the dark from Zach, the director of the Broadway show which needs a chorus line. David MacGillivray is that voice, interviewing the hopeful talent and trying to elicit a sense of who they are. McGillivray gives this role not only authority but also heart and soul, compassion and emotional depth. Not bad.
Just as the audience responds to these qualities, so does it warm to people it gets to know through Zach's interviews. Since, to a person, they are impeccably performed, the audience gets the rare and satisfying experience of genuinely caring about all those characters singled out on stage.
There’s Mike, who came to dancing watching his older sister’s classes. Liam Phillips gives him life with the famous I Can Do That tap routine. As for Val, who was not noticed until she had enhancement surgery, Laura Williams might have been born to sing Dance: Ten Looks: Three. Then there’s Allycia Angeles, dynamic belting out Nothing as Morales, and lithe Mimi Yoshii lamenting short stature as Connie. There are just so many shining lights: Alana Shepherdson as Cassie and Maya Miller, Chloe Fusco, Jemma Allen, Maggie Cooper, Jenny Allard, Junxiang Huang, Benjamin Johnson, Teagan Garvey, Ris Mosel, and Anton Schrama, as well as a further line-up of fine dancers.
Then there’s Lachlan Stieger delivering Paul’s confessions about trying to conceal his drag work from his parents and bringing a tear to the eye.
There is a thread of plot and myriad salient messages in this show, originally conceived by Michael Bennett, who was inspired by real people in the real showbiz world. It is that veracity which has kept on striking a chord with audiences around the world. So, A Chorus Line has had “legs” for decades.
Its set requires nothing more than plenty of bare stage, and a wall of mirrors for the dancers to rehearse to. Behind that, in this production, the orchestra is hidden until a final reveal.
Sound balance and lighting are the other major factors which make the difference between a good and bad production. They’re both impeccable in this one.
It is a ripper of a first class show.
Grab a ticket if you can.
Thank me later.
Samela Harris
When: 26 May to 3 Jun
Where: The Arts Theatre
Bookings: gandssa.com.au
Red Phoenix Theatre. The Studio - Holden Street Theatres. 26 May 2023
Never let it be said that Red Phoenix is not brave.
In its way, it is just as brave as Russian playwright Nikolai Erdman whose farce, The Suicide, it has chosen to produce in its tradition of presenting Adelaide premieres. This play was to cause Erdman to be exiled to Siberia by a very unamused Stalin.
Fortunately, its Adelaide audience is amused. And, there are no major repercussions for the company, apart perhaps from a spot of exhaustion. The play has undergone many rewrites and translations since it was created in 1928 and it has been presented all over the world in various languages and to very amused audiences. This is the Peter Tegel translation.
Directed by Brant Eustice, Red Phoenix presents it as a highly stylised, over-the-top, almost Commedia piece. This is not an accident. Erdman was defying naturalism and his characters were all archetypical, most of them fatuous and manipulative.
Actors shout and ham. And how. Grinning and grimacing, thumping and stomping, shrieking and weeping, and throughout, getting their tongues around an endless repetition of multi-syllable Russian names.
There are some hilarious characterisations, cartoon-like all of them, for it is a work of robust satire.
No wonder Stalin reacted.
But all the frenetic debates about communism and individual freedom have a new resonance for a 2023 audience, very much in the thrall of the Putin era and the war on Ukraine. The program notes which explain the play’s context in Soviet history are recommended reading.
It is to be recognised that Erdman stands tall in theatrical history, noted as one of the world’s great playwrights. There are some who judge The Suicide to be the perfect play.
The play’s plot is a little bit inscrutable, however. It revolves around an unemployed citizen desperately seeking some way to feed his family. When he fails at his latest plan to become a tuba player, he mentions suicide. And suddenly it is on for young and old, not to prevent him, but to capitalise on it. An array of supercilious exploiters descend to claim his death to be for their cause - from businessmen, poets, and priests to jealous women.
Therein, while one feels the familiar anguish of the wife and mother-in-law versus the faux fancifications of the would-be mistresses, the niceish Ruby Faith and the utterly audaciously hilarious Nicole Rutty. There’s a cameo one won’t forget in a hurry. Then again, if there is a fall-over-funny characterisation, it is that of Sharon Malujlo as the hapless mother-in-law charged with the task of distracting the interloper.
There is a vast cast in this play and lots of opportunities for actors to flex their skills. Ron Hoenig has not been seen on the Adelaide stage in aeons but there he is as the local butcher and when it comes to his turn to claim the prize, he’s a comic gem. The matchless Geoff Revell, of course, is sheer magic to watch onstage both as an hysterical, frenetic comic foreground character and also as a quietly reactive actor when the attention is directed elsewhere. It is clear Revell is at home in this genre.
It is Joshua Coldwell as Semyon who carries the narrative, clear of eye and diction, playing the Candide of the suicide world. And thus the rowdy predators descend.
Guffaws break out in the audience as Michael Eustice enters in the role of Aristarch, artfully strutting and blustering it out with his hair in a bizarre pompadour. And soon, the audience is informed that it has been cast into the play as The Intelligentsia. Battle lines are drawn in old Soviet tropes as the stage becomes more and more crowded with the advocates and claimants. They come and go through the quaint minimal scaffolding set which suggests doors and walls.
Indeed, the whole Studio theatre is used to accommodate the action. Bobbie Viney, showing that nose rings were in vogue in the 1920s, gives heart and well-wrought desperation to Semyon’s hapless wife. She fears for his life. Kate Anolak is a picture of competence and reliability in her role as Margarita. Sometimes she seems like the only sane one on the stage.
It is hard to focus on everyone with such a fine and large cast working with such diligent madness in this vast political pantomime, but they include: Tom Tassone, Samuel Creighton, Russell Slater, Callum Logan, Jess Corrie, Malcolm Walton, and David Lockwood.
Director Brant Eustice, with a huge and skilful Red Phoenix production team behind the scenes, has evolved this old landmark theatre piece into a spectacle of machinegun agit prop with a latter-day Brechtian edge.
It makes for a big, loud, and wild riot of a night.
Samela Harris
When: 26 May to 2 Jun
Where: The Studio – Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: holdenstreettheatres.com