Review: ADELAIDE CABARET FESTIVAL 2017: RETROSPECTIVE at Artspace

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Thursday 22nd June 2017.

Each year, a number of Adelaide schools are represented by their senior students in the Class of Cabaret performances, this year being the eighth that this has been running. Each year, a group of graduates from the previous year have the opportunity to present a production in the Festival.

Graduates from 2016, Alex De Porteous, Claire Morphett, Eva Rundle, and Jerome Javier, are the performers this year with their show, Retrospective, a look at their significant musical influences from the past. They have been fortunate in being mentored by cabaret divas, Libby O'Donovan and Michaela Burger, and jazz pianist, Mark Ferguson, who was also their accompanist for this performance.

With Javier providing a rhythmic bass line, the three others joined in to open the show, a capella, with Revolution, Ferguson adding piano as each took solos to introduce themselves as well as demonstrate their skills in harmonising.

For the next hour or so we were treated to a varied collection of songs, each performer taking turns and, occasionally, the four presenting ensemble numbers. Sitting on the Dock of the Bay, with ukulele accompaniment and whistling break, Jacques Brel's Ne Ma Quitte Pas (Don't Leave Me), both in the original French and the English version, If You Leave Me Now, Eva Rundle's Amanda Palmer influenced version of the Marina and the Diamonds number, Primadonna Girl, David Bowie's Life on Mars and Space Oddity, a particularly poignant rendition of You'll Never Walk Alone, from Javier, whose father passed away while he was still a child, the songs each had personal connections for the performers, which they shared with us.

An ensemble on Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, with Javier singing falsetto solo, segued into Christine Aguilera's Beautiful, exhibiting some very fine harmonies, with more harmony work soon after on the closing number, I'll Be There, again showed off their collaborative skills. These four talented young people showed the value of the Class of Cabaret to Adelaide's aspiring cabaret performers.

It is very pleasing to note that these performers are now actually out there, doing it, in the real world, performing around Adelaide and even having their own websites. They have taken full advantage of the Class of Cabaret experience from last year and built on it to begin their careers I the performing arts and, assuredly, would have gained so much more from this year's more intensive mentoring. Be sure to catch the Class of Cabaret performances and see if you can predict who might be back in the Graduates performance next year. Keep an eye out for these four performing around Adelaide, and support their efforts; any of them could be back headlining here in the future.

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