★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. The Lark, Gluttony. 4 Mar 2026
Luke Bell is Adore Händel—self-proclaimed “everyone’s favourite pansexual, time-travelling songbird” and an “incorrigible 18th-century raconteur”—and from the moment he sweeps on stage, brocade shimmering, baubles glistening, and wit sharpened, you know you are in the hands of a master entertainer.
This is high-octane, high-gloss, high-intelligence camp. The stories tumble out one after the other: wickedly observant, faintly cautionary, and razor-sharp, about the eternal truths on the absurdities of love. The humour never stoops, and in an era where gratuitously bad language and gutter humour often substitute for substance, Bell proves you can be hysterically funny without resorting to bargain basement boorishness and vulgarity. The laughs come from witty patter, timing, stagecraft and insight.
The central lesson is disarmingly sincere: know your worth and only ever settle for the fabulous. And fabulous is precisely what Bell delivers. His magnificent costume looks borrowed from the court of Louis XIV, while his porcelain-doll makeup heightens every raised eyebrow and knowing aside. Clothes maketh the man, and they make Adore Händel. Bell inhabits the character!
For fifty minutes he commands the space, strutting and preening with effortless authority. Audience participation—normally a cue for strategic seat-shuffling and ducking of heads—becomes a highlight. Bell coaxes volunteers into his orbit, rapidly dissolving their anxiety and transforming them into co-conspirators. Indeed, one ‘volunteer’ was so enthusiastic it prompted Bell to utter “It’s not about you!”. One onstage “demonstration” in particular had the audience in helpless fits of laughter.
The time-traveller conceit is a playful device that stitches together tales from various centuries. Whether strictly necessary or not, it provides a whimsical frame, but the show’s real engine is Bell himself.
Above all, there is Bell’s voice, and what a voice it is. He moves with ease from baritone warmth to tenor brilliance, singing with centred tone that pleasingly remains in tune. The repertoire is as eclectic as it is clever: diva pop, jazz, musical theatre, even opera. He reshapes each number—bending rhythm, stretching metre, altering timbre—often giving familiar hits an operatic flourish that reveals both his substantial vocal technique and wicked sense of musical humour. You have not truly heard I Will Always Love You, I Want It That Way, Willkommen, or Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) until you have experienced Bell giving them the Adore Händel bravura treatment!
At times the musical accompaniment is a string quartet, delivered with contemporary edge and high-quality sound engineering. And there’s also technical polish: cues land with precision as Bell’s every gesture syncs flawlessly with the music. It is slick but never feels studied.
This is such a fun show: clever, sophisticated, risqué (without being crude), musical, funny, and bursting with originality.
Kym Clayton
When: 3 to 8 Mar
Where: The Lark, Gluttony
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
