BWW Reviews: Adelaide Cabaret Fringe SONGS ONLY A MOTHER COULD LOVE Rocked the Cradle

Reviewed 12th June 2013

Adelaide cabaret stalwart, Libby O'Donovan, takes a very different tack for her latest production, Songs Only a Mother Could Love, a collection of songs that she, and others, learned from their mothers as children. O'Donovan is one of the most highly skilled and much loved of Adelaide's cabaret community and so every seat was filled and a good many more were happy to stand, just to be able to attend her performance.

Libby O'Donovan opened the evening with some Classical music by walking on stage humming Brahm's famous lullaby, Wiegenlied: Guten Abend, gute Nacht (Good evening, good night), Op. 49, No. 4, then followed this with Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, which uses a French melody from 1761, Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman, which Mozart used in a famous set of twelve variations on the theme. Not that this was a classical recital, of course, it just happens that those two works are probably the first two anybody thinks of when talking about music and songs for children. The second song was paired with the popular song, You Are My Sunshine.

O'Donovan spoke of the positive themes in songs that parents sing for children which led into What a Wonderful World, which included an impressive impersonation of a muted trumpet solo, a feat that was repeated in a later number.

The evening was tied together by O'Donovan's tales of her family, including the revelation that both of her parents are church Ministers, as well as her always witty and warm hearted banter.

O'Donovan was not alone for this performance, turning it into a joyful family affair, with her father joining her to sing Danny Boy (The Londonderry Air), and then calling on her sister, mother, and her grandmother and a friend, to sing songs of their childhoods, first individually, and then all at the same time, creating some great harmonies. Obviously, musical talent is strong in this family.

Also on hand was country music star, Beccy Cole, who was there with her own mother, Carole Sturtzel, also an important singer of country music. Together, they sang Cole's composition, Mother Knows Best, with Cole playing guitar. We cannot overlook the one other performer, as Mark Ferguson provided some very sensitive and interesting piano accompaniments to the evening, which ran over time by, well, a lot, but nobody was complaining about that.

A beautiful touch was O'Donovan's own song, From this Mother to My Mother, referring to her own four year old child and to her relationship with her own mother. This was a marvellous evening of cabaret with a difference and it is a pity that there were not a few more performances, with all those that were scheduled selling out very quickly.

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