Cabaret Festival. Dunstan Playhouse. 10 Jun 2018
As if the 2018 Cabaret Festival could not glitter enough, here comes a huge sparkling diamond of a show.
Bosom Buddies is a delicious collaboration between two of Australia’s most adored showbiz stars: Nancye Hayes and Todd McKenney.
Between them, they brag, they have 90 years’ experience in musical theatre - 55 from Nancye and 35 from Todd.
They josh about the age difference. Ageless Nancye admits to being a “veteran”.
The old photographs, video clips and news clippings projected onto the screen of the Dunstan Playhouse tell their stories.
The two stars sit on in their named director’s chairs and watch with the audience. From family childhood snaps through to sizzling show numbers and awkward moments, their outstanding careers unfold.
Nancye soared to the bright lights when she was catapulted into the lead role of Sweet Charity in 1967. As she sees her young self on the screen, she comments on how she was awarded the role making sure that inspirational star Jill Perryman is accorded some credit. Nancye is not one to hog her own limelight. That’s the mark of a true star.
Todd's rise to stardom also was exceptional and many still believe that in his Boy From Oz performance he did Peter Allen better than Peter Allen. Ah, but when the show hit Broadway, his role was stolen by Hugh Jackman.
McKenney now can make fun of that loss which still has many of his fans hot under the collar.
But for him it is now a satiric song called It Had To Be Hugh.
These two luminous entertainers are mellow and giving. They tease and parry.
There are so many tales, so many songs, so many images.
The show is allowed only 80 minutes and they are arguably the tightest, most beautifully structured and honed, if not the busiest 80 minutes in showbiz history.
A lot of life and laughter is crammed in. There are show tunes. Nancye dances with the young Nancye on the screen behind her. She dances superbly. Todd also. He sings a duet with giant Peter Allen on the screen. He sings it with such depth of feeling that the whole audience turns misty.
With a creamy four-piece band beside them on a stage adorned only by the two director’s chairs and a side salon of armchair and coffee table with flowers, the twosome tell of the hard times, of tough breaks in childhood, of losing beloved family members. They tell of monster moments. They send themselves and each other up. Nancye corners the sweet man who was the nasty judge on Dancing with the Stars. Todd risks an ageist snipe at Nancye.
They sing and dance and sing and dance. They tap. They do a monster medley of show tunes, the “Medley from Hell”.
Todd demonstrates Auslan. He is patron to the Theatre of the Deaf. Nancye eggs him on to do some Auslan shtick as she sings the hardest of all songs to sign. He is beaten, but he gifts audience with a take-away signed word. The foyer later on is full of people practising and vowing ever forth to be using it.
But, in fact, the whole show is a gift.
It is a consummate piece of living-bio theatre, superbly devised by Peter J. Adams, directed by Jason Langley and performed impeccably by the two Australian superstars whose years at the top and in partnering roles have, indeed, made them Bosom Buddies.
It was an act of genius to create this show for it provides a precious slice of Australian stage history, live on stage.
The Cabaret Festival audiences were avidly aware of this and they grabbed the privilege of sharing the room and the histories with Nancye and Todd. They packed the Playhouse. They laughed. They cheered. They applauded, They stood in acclaim. And they left purring about the seamless professionalism of the show and the generosity of spirit of its stars.
Indeed.
Samela Harris
When: 10 & 11 Jun 2018
Where: Dunstan Playhouse
Bookings: Closed
Therry Dramatic Society. Arts Theatre. 9 Jun 2018
Blockbuster musicals rarely tour any more. They’re cost prohibitive. But the zeal and expertise of Adelaide’s non-professional theatre world has meant that audiences here are not denied their gorgeous glamour.
Right now, it’s Holiday Inn, a singing-and-dancing, musical-comedy love story by Irving Berlin with a cast of thousands and more costumes than Mardi Gras.
It’s quite the MGM epic.
Jude Hines has directed this classic Broadway musical fearlessly. She has corralled a keen troupe of performers and a fabulous orchestra directed by Mark DeLaine along with a vast tribe of costumiers and dressers. The result, with simple, snappy sets from Gary Anderson, is sheer stage spectacle.
One of the joys of such productions is the airing it gives to developing talent. Professional theatre is largely made up of performers who once have trodden the boards unpaid. And, amateur theatre also is the place where should-be professionals have chosen to enjoy the theatre as a sideline.
Not everyone in this cast is Broadway standard but some certainly are close to it.
It is wonderful to see two leading men who can sing and dance. Lindsay Prodea even taps. Both he and Brady Lloyd are strong, seasoned performers.
The show centres around nightclub entertainers looking to break into Hollywood. Lloyd plays Jim, who is tired of the touring life and wants to settle down on a Connecticut farm. His fiancée, Lila, played by Nikki Gaertner Easton, does not want to give up the bright lights and is lured away from him by Prodea’s character, Ted, a selfish, vain and ambitious hoofer. Jim is left to start life on the farm, sad and broke and, it turns out, with no aptitude for farming. Luckily the farm’s former owner, Linda, played by Lauren Scarfe, has a kind heart and a theatrical bent. Firstly she hands on the lifelong farm factotum, Louise, and later, her support in turning the farm into a live performance enterprise, the Holiday Inn. It all goes gangbusters until Ted turns up.
Brady Lloyd carries the show as the romantic lead. He has an exceptionally personable stage presence. The audience rightly adores him. Prodea doesn’t get to be adored. Ted is a louse. But Prodea gives him unrelenting chutzpa and both performers are classy.
The female principals are not quite as vocally strong but dance well and push out the old pizzazz with style. It is Kate Anolak as the trusty jack-of-all trades who steals the show.
She is a powerhouse both in characterisation and in song. She simply brings a stage to life.
Not that this stage is short on life. It is dressed by a fabulous ensemble and an ever-changing panoply of stunning costumes and hair-dos. The big dance numbers are well choreographed by Thomas Phillips. The sound is well balanced thanks to Tim Freedman and Marty Gilbert. The sets change smoothly. There could be a few more spotlights; a small oversight.
Andy Trimmings pops in and out of the plot as Danny, the hopeful Hollywood agent. He gives the role a strong comic edge but, for the sensitivities of this day and age, director Hines might redraw the character somewhat to make it less of a racial parody.
There’s also one important junior role in this show, that of young Charlie the local messenger boy. It is alternated by Luca Camozzato and Charlie Zorkovic. The latter shone nicely in the performance seen by this critic.
Indeed, the whole show sparkles.
Bravo, Therry.
Samela Harris
When: 7 to 16 Jun
Where: Arts Theatre
Bookings: trybooking.com
Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Festival Theatre. 8 Jun 2018. One night only
Oh, what a night.
Such is the draw of Adelaide’s winter festival that the massive Festival Theatre was packed to the rafters with excited cabaret fans. And, boy, did they get their money’s worth.
For her final Adelaide Cabaret Festival, artistic director Ali McGregor pulled out all the stops emceeing a glittering production to showcase the stars of her 15 day program. If their shows weren’t booked out before this shimmering sampler, they will be now.
“Welcome Home” she sang in a big opening number complete with Jack Buckskin’s "Welcome to Country" ritual and some eloquent indigenous bonding with the Modern Maori Quartet.
A fabulous orchestra of Michael Tyack’s Variety Gala Musicians flanked the stage to whirl flawlessly from one musical style to another throughout the ensuing performances while Wendy Todd’s amazing curtains of changing colour sparkled as a glamorous backdrop.
And they came and came in a show which ran like clockwork under Zac Tyler’s direction.
Perchance this was the slickest Gala production of them all.
The adored Todd McKenny did gospel, of all things, backed by the Class of Cabaret 2018, the mentored student artistes all straining to be noticed.
Todd is programmed in a "Bosom Buddies" show with the also adored living showbiz legend, Nancye Hayes, who was to make her Gala appearance singing I am My Own Best Friend, sleek and stylishly expert as ever and in an exquisitely tailored white jacket.
Antoinette Halloran, in a fluffy confection of pink tulle and glitter top, performed Verdi, er, well, a superbly executed Rigoletto aria with lyrics read from the book Fifty Shades of Grey. ’Twas an aria of innuendo, so incongruously naughty, audience members creased with laughter. "Taking it Up an Octave" is her CabFest show.
American Amber Martin came out in red thigh boots, Afro frizz and 60s mini kaftan to belt out a heart full of Janis Joplin before the magical Maori four returned with haka and war songs. If they were conservative in their grey suits, Adelaide’s own Hans brought the bedazzle back to the stage in a blinding bling of silver bodysuit. It was The Loveboat he belted out; a gorgeous cringe of corn. The audience loved him. As ever.
Yma Sumac, the mysterious 1950s Peruvian beauty, one of the headliners of the “Eyes Open” themed CabFest 2018, materialised backlit in a vivid rapture of theatricality. This exotic legend sang and trilled and thrilled with immense authority. Her voice ran up and down and around a seeming boundless vocal range. If there is a note higher than High C, she hit it. But, “Eyes Open” everyone; this exotic cabaret star was none other than Ali McGregor doing a snatch from her "Peruvian Songbird" show.
The Carnation Kid is long since grown up. Mark Holden brings a circus-themed "Greatest Show on Earth" happening to the festival. To that end, he appeared in a red ringmaster’s jacket and performed Nothing Lasts Forever. Ironic, really. The Aussie rock star turned barrister sings as well as ever if not better. He brought the house down.
Matthew Floyd Jones from the UK gave a sampler of his Edinburgh Fringe smash hit satirical show “Richard Carpenter is Close to You”. It was a peek into the Carpenter’s story with a very sharp edge about litigious stars and how to plagiarise for the sake of comedy. Very clever and very “Eyes Open” funny.
As if the show could get any better, Liza Minelli’s voice suddenly rang out from the floor of the auditorium. And there was the inimitable imitator, Christine Bianco. And there was another phenomenon of vocal range and deadly ear. She sang Life is a Cabaret in the voices of Liza, Barbra, Bernadette, Judy, Celine and, oh, wow, Julie Andrews. Vocal acrobatics. Breathtaking.
Ali McGregor’s next appearance was to introduce Em Rusciano, the hell-raising “Difficult Woman” here for a one-night show. She did stand-up on her childhood fixation with Johnny Farnham. More laughter. Wonderful singing.
McGregor topped her off with I am Woman and reminded the audience that the next 15 days and more than 50 shows of CabFest were an excuse to dress up. She presented an Icon Award to the Spiegeltent’s David Bates and then, after some rubber man whimsy from Captain Fredo, the stage erupted in a grand finale of epic proportions with an invasion of the neo-cabaret circus folk, the Glorious Misfits, flesh and feathers and glamorous weirdness.
CabFest 2018 is here.
Applause. Applause.
Samela Harris
When: 9 Jun
Where: Festival Theatre
Bookings: Closed
Full Program: adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au
Edit: In response to feedback from one of the performers mentioned herein, and at the request of the reviewer, the content of this review was altered on the 12th of June.
Cabaret Fringe Festival. Pat Wilson & Adrian Barnes. Studio 166, Goodwood Institute. 7 Jun 2018
Adelaide has been richer since the return of Pat Wilson and Adrian Barnes. Their theatre arts and musical skills have been missed. So it is joy to roll along to Studio 166 for a spot to recherche du temps perdu laced with a spot of the wickedly new.
Wilson, still in the trademark apple-framed glasses and clad in a swirling shift of riotous hue, makes wonderful music upon the big, black grand piano, beaming welcome to audience members coming through the door. Barnes, on the ticket desk, asks everyone to settle in and feel as if they are at home in the Wilson-Barnes living room. This show, he presages, is just like that, an evening at their home.
Barnes, battling a catastrophically timed loss of voice on opening night, warns that Wilson will carry the show to make up for it, and she is the better half anyway.
The evening swings and sings forth. Studio 166, the old front room of the Institute now lined with long black curtains, turns out to have good acoustics. The stars have no mikes. It’s old-fashioned salon entertainment in the tradition of Pat Wilson who once adorned the Festival Centre piano bar with very much this ilk of entertainment; hence some of her satiric songs. She’s our own Tom Lehrer.
She opens the show with a Lehrer song in duet with Barnes. All very quippy and witty, just like the ensuing content which comes from decades of Barnes&Wilson, Wilson&Barnes collaboration. There are snippets of Gilbert & Sullivan, old tunes re-used, nostalgia, self-parody, whimsy and some diabolically clever rhymes. “Embitter us” rhymes with “clitoris”. Genius. There’s more where that came from. Plenty. Even with Barnes's temporary vocal handicap, he still brought the room to tears with his glorious “The sperm wail” and “What does a Tranny Granny wear?” Wilson played with a huge range of high registers and Barnes with his mellifluous lows. Both slayed with the impish clevers. For an audience, it’s easy pleasure.
Wilson keeps a copy of the day’s paper on the piano and, after some bemoaning the standards of the Murdochian day, picks out a news item and does a current affairs satiric ditty. This is the stuff which made her famous. She ain’t lost her touch.
Yes, we’re all a lot older now than in the fun days of yore. And, every bit as disgraceful.
Catch ‘em if you can.
Samela Harris
When: 7 to 16 June
Where: Studio 166, Goodwood Institute
Bookings: trybooking.com
All New ExtremeShow. Wigley Reserve, Glenelg. 3 Jun 2018
Progress and animal rights have tried to close circuses. Rightly so in the case of wild animals.
And yet, despite the perils of tents and the exigencies of life on the road, the circus has found a way to stay alive in the cultural landscape. And so, after last year’s headline traumas of going into liquidation on the road, we find the Great Moscow Circus has reinvented itself and is now rather elegantly encamped on Wrigley Reserve at Glenelg.
The big top is a wonderful, fanciful structure but, inside, it is not as massive as the circuses of yore. The ring is much reduced in dimensions. You’d be pushing it to get an elephant in there, let alone a grand parade.
However, what Mark Edgley et al have done to create a modern incarnation of circus is to change the style, to update it while keeping the traditional circus character intact. It works.
There immediately is that sensation of being among “circus folk”, of an extended family doing everything from performance to roustabout. There are grannies and kids on the job. Everyone is welcoming and friendly. There’s popcorn and fairy floss and slushies to buy and vivid rainbow light wands. Guess what? The prices are not extortionate. Kids can ride the teacups for just $4 at interval and the every-player-wins-a-prize laughing clowns reward with decent little goodies.
Within the performance there is an artful something-for-everyone. "Ladies and Gentlemen, girls and boys”, calls the ringmaster, who is no longer in the ring but in a sound booth where he can conduct a panoply of music, effects and announcements.
In ringmaster garb, however, is a young pop singer who adds a new facet to circus performances, a touch of the Cirque de Soleil, with a spread of talent. She’s delightful.
The usual fare of fear and glamour is there for two solid hours of tightly-timed entertainment: motorbike tricks, high wires, rope artistes, an elegant gymnast, and more. Then there’s a big swing from which performers fling themselves through the air to land in a long, slippery sheet. Spectacular. There’s a fabulous hoop spinner. Then there’s the South American aerialist who walks the great spinning barrel. This is a perilous act. One hold’s one’s breath as he makes it more and more dangerous, all the time so brave and beamingly handsome and suave that there’s not a woman in the tent not falling in love with him.
No wild animals perform in circuses anymore; domesticated animals, yes. To that end, Moscow Circus has a team of tiny, tiny horses which trot around this way and that and look adorable. They are constantly rewarded with treats and look happy in their work under the instruction of a trainer with a funny flaccid whip. There also is a pony who, for lots of treats, does do tricks in a Pony-Saloon routine. It lies down on a bed and covers itself with a blanket.
The trampoline acrobats are a highlight of this circus. The trampoline is beside big wall with open doorways. The acrobats are dressed up like graffiti artists. The music is hip hop. They bounce and somersault higher and higher, in and out of the doors, up and down, faster and faster, clever, funny, inventive and utterly expert.
Ongoing acts are programmed seamlessly. The show moves swiftly, never dull.
The motorcycle Cage of Death is the climactic event. It is loud and fast, daredevil dangerous and as good as it gets.
And, the piece of final genius in this busy, classy circus is the clown who breaks with big-foot white-paint scary-clown tradition and is a swarthy Brazilian with a huge orange mohawk. He is called Walison Muh. He wears a head mike and functions with comic gibberish speak and myriad sound effects. He summons out audience members for lots of good-natured interactive shtick. It is very clever, very different and very funny.
At the end of the show, ears still ringing from spinning motorbike mayhem, the crowds emerge smiling and satisfied.
They had their money’s worth. No doubt.
Samela Harris
Performing at: Glenelg, Port Adelaide, Elizabeth, Port Lincoln
Schedule and bookings: thegreatmoscowcircus.com.au