★★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. The Arch, Holden Street Theatres. 26 Feb 2023
It is no wonder Sandi McMenamin is one of the most beloved musos in town.
She has the goods. She gives the goods. She’s been doing it for yonks. She IS the goods.
Holden Street's Arch theatre, thus called because it once was a wee church, is perfect in size and character for Sandi - so much so that she opens her show by singing a song to it and to Holden Street. She was born, more or less, just near here. Hence, performing here is "full circle" for her. Hence the name of her show.
Sandi has songs in honour of all sorts of things. She has the gift. Since the old Ron Tremaine days when she was the resident entertainer at Ayers House, she has been able to pen a clever ditty and set it to catchy music. Patrons vied to become her subject matter.
She’s pretty good on the piano, too. Nimble digits thrive on famously testing virtuoso pieces - and there among them, dizzyingly, is Dizzy Fingers, just as her dad used to play it.
Sandi takes a bow, her gorgeous patterned diamanté jacket throwing rainbow stars from the stage.
Sandi Mac has performed all over the world but this is her first Fringe show. Not the last, she promises. Her repertoire is too immense for just one show.
She has spent a life around theatre shows and theatre people She has stories to tell and she peppers her performance with snippets of biography and the odd anecdote. She sings her wonderful song to the leafy sea dragons of Second Valley, she does a quirky take on Peter Allen with I Go to FReo in which she cunningly rhymes ‘Dockers’ with ‘quokkas’. She pays tribute to South Australian towns, especially Carrieton, and to the weather with a parody of Peter Goers on the ABC in a lovely song called Hello, How Are You, Robe?
Sandi Mac can do anything, including share the stage with a young rising star. It is her granddaughter Hannah Pollard who sings My Funny Valentine with an exquisite voice of impressive range. She stays on to do harmony with Sandi in her Somebody’s Hero song, based on the kindness she admires of the Queen of Tarts cafe which keeps a tip jar to pay for coffees for the destitute.
That’s our Sandi. Not just a fabulous pianist and cabaret entertainer but also one of this world’s good spirits.
Samela Harris
When: 25 Feb to 5 Mar
Where: The Arch, Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
