Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Friday 9th June 2017.
The opening night
Variety Gala Performance is the big start to the annual Adelaide Cabaret Festival and sells out very quickly, with patrons enjoying a ninety minutes long selection of snippets from performances to come over the next few weeks. It invariably results in a rush to the box office as people discover more shows that they want to add to their list. With Matilda The Musical playing in the Adelaide Festival Theatre the Gala is being held in Her Majesty's Theatre this year and, being a smaller venue, it will be repeated on Saturday evening to cope with the demand.
Naturally, it was a full house, with the production under the direction of Richard Carroll and musical direction of
Michael Tyack, with some of Adelaide's top musicians in the band, and with the Festival's artistic directors, Ali McGregor and
Eddie Perfect, introducing the acts and adding performances of their own. The very popular American entertainer,
Murray Hill, was on hand to assist them and add his own special brand of fun to the evening.
The cast of Briefs: Close Encounters, a boylesque group resplendent in feathers galore, opened the evening, entering down the aisles to reach the stage to perform one of the dance routines from their show, McGregor entering behind them, almost completely hidden by their costumes.
Perfect is currently writing a Broadway musical, Beetlegeuse, and performed a potential opening number from the show,
Welcome to a Show About Death. Keep an eye out for this one when it makes it to Australia. He was backed by the young artists from this year's Class of Cabaret, always an amazingly talented group and not to be missed.
Comedians,
Colin Lane, Amy G, and
David Collins are the Three Mikados who will be condensing the Gilbert and Sullivan favourite, and mixing it with lots of comedy. With lots of banter, they presented a number from the show, exhibiting their skills in close harmony, to much applause.
Christie Whelan-Brown was next up with a song from her show Vigil, a newly written musical work. Her selection was a very poignant number about a girl visiting her mother. It was such a touching piece, and beautifully performed.
Getting solidly into traditional cabaret mode, McGregor returned to the stage to present a wonderful rendition of Jacque Brel's
Carousel, which was very well received by the audience. A touch of Brel is always appreciated.
Michael Roulston and
Sarah-Louise Young have a show titled Songs for Lovers (and Other Idiots), garnering plenty of laughs as they explained why they can only ever be musical partners and not life partners, due to irreconcilable differences.
Dillie Keane stopped the show, belting out a swinging, raunchy number from her production Hello Dillie which, thankfully, is the next event on my list. Having long loved the work of her trio, Fascinating Aida, I wouldn't miss the chance to see her solo show. She explained, in an hilarious song, that sex is not only for the young. Read into that, what you will.
Perfect was back to give a fine interpretation of
Quiet, from Matilda the Musical, which proved a winner with the audience of whom, I suspect, many had already seen that marvellous production.
Carlotta, the iconic star of the heyday of female impersonators, now 74 years old, came out of retirement for this Festival and, appropriately, sang a slightly reworded version of
Stephen Sondheim's
I'm Still Here, from his musical, Follies.
Gillian Cosgriff added one of her comical songs from her show, To the Moon and Back, to the evening. She is a very witty and socially aware commentator on the modern world and
Naomi Price's show is Lady Beatle, a tribute to The Beatles, and her contribution to the Gala was a superb version of
Eleanor Rigby. She has a phenomenal voice and deserved the huge applause.
Carole King's 1962 hit,
The Locomotion, saw
Michael Griffiths burst onto the stage, with a selection from his show, Lucky: Songs by Kylie, which is sure to be a double winner, attracting both his own legion of fans and fans of
Kylie Minogue. There was no doubt that the audience loved it.
All good things must come to an end, and the Gala was no exception. The Class of Cabaret returned to add backing vocals to the closing number, led by McGregor and Perfect, and it was all over bar the applause and cheers, of which there was plenty. The 2017 Adelaide Cabaret Festival is officially under way.
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