Review: ADELAIDE CABARET FRINGE 2015: OPENING NIGHT GALA PERFORMANCE Was A Cabaret Fan's Dream Come True

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Friday 29th June 2015

Well over a decade ago Torsten Meyer and his, now, wife Jacq opened a venue that they named the Weimar Room, in order to present the Berlin Cabaret for the Adelaide Fringe. It proved so incredibly popular that they did not close down at the end of the Adelaide Fringe Season, but continued running weekly for a few years. It became a drop in centre for some of Adelaide's professional critics, after seeing performances, attracted a large number of regulars, and often boasted a full house.

The next step was to create the Adelaide Cabaret Fringe, to run alongside the annual Adelaide Cabaret Festival in June each year. This proved so successful that, when they decided to leave Adelaide and to return to Sydney, the Cabaret Fringe lived on, moving to its new home at La Bohème, a cocktail and wine bar that is the year round home of cabaret in Adelaide. The first year there Paul Boylan, his wife Catherine Campbell, and his brother Adam, who turned out to be a marvellous lighting and sound technician, held the Cabaret Fringe entirely at la Bohème. This is still the administrative base for the Cabaret Fringe, and home to a good many of the performances but, so large has the Fringe become, that for some years now there has been the need to have performances in numerous venues around the city, and it is still growing. The Cabaret Fringe has such a reputation that performers come from interstate to be a part of it.

One of the venues this year is the German Club, always a very friendly and welcoming place. The Opening Night Gala Performance, like the whole Cabaret Fringe, has found audiences continually increasing so that this venue, with its large hall upstairs, extensive bar and fully equipped kitchen is an ideal choice now that it has outgrown La Bohème. Even this much larger venue was sold out. The Gala is also a sensational way to see snippets of a lot of the performers, which generally sends people out afterwards to buy more tickets for things that were not on their list.

The German Club wins in another way, too, as the hosts for this Gala were the original performers from the Berlin Cabaret, who come together on rare occasions, under pressure from their many long-time fans. The performances at the old Weimar Room, following much research to create an authentic experience, was based in the darker, political, and sexually charged German Kabarett that flourished between the wars, during the era of the Weimar Republic. Where better than the German Club, where one can sit back and enjoy a half-litre stein, or several, of one of the many German beers on sale, and pretend to be back in 1930s Berlin in one of the subversive cabaret venues.

'Lux' (Fiona Talbot Leigh), 'Rudi' (Hew Parham), the dapperly dressed MC, Stephen Sheehan, Adelaide icon, 'Hans' (Matt Gilbertson), Catherine Campbell, and the rest are all dressed up, or perhaps that should be dressed down, in suitable attire including period or glittery underwear and fishnet stockings. One of the original core cast members, Lola (Dan Gawler), now lives in Melbourne and was unable to be there but 'Fifi', Kate Fuller, is a new recruit who filled the gap with ease. The Bruce Hancock Trio was an essential part of the original show, and he was there too, on piano, with John Aue on bass and Yuri Markov on drums.

The first third of the evening was given over entirely to the Berlin Cabaret, recreating many of the routines from 2002, all followed by massive bursts of applause from both long-time fans and new ones alike. There could not have been a better place to be in Adelaide than here on Friday evening. This was only the first hour, though, and there were two more to go. The second and third sections also featured members of the Berlin Cabaret, each taking turns to introduce a long line of artists who will be appearing over the next month. The variety on offer really does have something for everybody, from Burlesque, through drag acts, to sublime vocals.

There were so many sensational acts during the rest of the evening that people could be heard during the breaks discussing which other events they would be adding to their calendars, if there were still any tickets available. Candy Chambers (Jamie Jewell) is back with the hit show, 50 Forever, and she literally burst onto the stage, surprising those who had not seen her before by actually singing, not just miming to others' recordings like most female impersonators. Burlesque favourite, Luna Eclipse, whose show is Adult-ish, commandeered Frank Ford, who pioneered the Cabaret Festival and got that off the ground, establishing Adelaide as the Australian home of cabaret, to join her for a game of strip high card draw.

Acclaimed concert pianist, Marianna Grynchuk, accompanied the superb soprano, Daniela Kaleva, in one of the delightful pieces from their show, Gypsy Nights. Hannah Bennett, who is a first time cabaret artist, will be presenting Myriad at the Kevin Crease Studios at Channel 9, opening up bravely about her life through a wide range of songs. From their performance, Sounds like a Story, Sophia MacRae and John Bienvenue, sang one of the songs that he has written, accompanying himself on guitar while MacRae swung like crazy on clarinet. She has a second show, When You're Smiling, about her time living in Barcelona.

Powerhouse vocalist, Talia Ries, presented a song from To Diva to Not to Diva and Dolly Lee took us back to a simpler, more innocent time with a song from her show Dolly and Doris Day: A Sentimental Journey. Another change of style as Marduk Flamenco and dancers from Studio Flamenco, presented a fiery piece from their show, Pasos. A different type of dancing came from Jacqui Yeo and The Silhouettes Present: Cabaret, as the three showgirl dancers displayed their fine sense of timing and enormous flexibility. Hans, with his accordion, and outrageous costumes will be back at the German Club with his own show, Hans' House Party, which will no doubt sell out, like his past performances.

The acts appearing at this excellent Gala evening are only part of the Cabaret Fringe, and there are many more acts to catch you imagination. Don't dither though as anything in cabaret around Adelaide soon sells out. It seems to be Adelaide's favourite form of entertainment.

There were some sound problems, bursts of feedback, and missed cues with both microphones and recorded backing music, but this was a very minor drawback when weighed against the sensational performances. Don't forget that The New Cabal play jazz every Wednesday and Mike Bevan, Fabian Hevia and friends play Brazilian music on Thursday at La Bohème from 9pm, and entry is free. This continues on Friday nights with singer, songwriter, pianist, Michael Ross, providing the music and, again, entry is free. The entire programme can be found here.

To post a comment, you must register and login.