Review: BOBBY FOX – MR. ENTERTAINMENT – ADELAIDE CABARET FESTIVAL 2025 at Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Saturday 14th June 2025.

Bobby Fox opened in darkness with Oscar Brown Jnr.’s Mr. Kicks, as an overture, then entering, and going straight into I Got Rhythm, singing and tapping, backed by eight superb musicians, leading into an extended, unaccompanied tap routine making full use of the entire stage, and segueing into Fascinatin’ Rhythm. With barely a moment to breathe, he was into I Could Have Danced All Night, with a Latin rhythm, trading his taps with improvisations on the piano by his musical director, Jack Earle.

He takes the title for this show from the wonderful Sammy Davis Jnr. album from 1961, Mr. Entertainment, in which Sammy presents songs from a range of genres, all in his inimitable style. Fox does the same in this performance, taking on the opening track on that album, Song and Dance Man, an obvious choice for somebody who definitely is a song and dance man, steeped in that great tradition.

Sammy was reluctant to sing Mr. Bojangles, superstitiously worried that it could be a premonition, and that he could end up like the character in the song. When he finally added it to his repertoire, it became one of his biggest hits. Fox had no such worries, combining a soft shoe routine with his vocals. A change of pace was next for the hit of The Four Seasons, My Eyes Adore You, and then the Irish tune, The Londonderry Air, to which words were added to become the ballad, Danny Boy, with a few bars of tin whistle added by the reed player.

His Irish origins were well on display, noted in subtle movements in his tapping, drawn from Irish hard shoe dancing, and overtly in his playing of the bodhran, the Irish frame drum which, like me, he plays in the more modern ‘top-end’ style, rather than the older Kerry style. Slainte!

There was no letup, as songs and dance routines followed closely on the heels of each other, with only the occasional pause for a bit of humorous chat. Having left Ireland to live here, Peter Allen’s I Still Call Australia Home was a fitting addition to the show, with the audience encouraged to turn on the torches of their mobile phones and wave them to and fro,

Mack the Knife, the English version of Moritat von Mecky Messer, from the Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht favourite, The Threepenny Opera (Dreigroschenoper), was a big hit with the audience, and then a sing-along on I Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You closed the show, until he was brought back for an encore by endless applause. Another extended, unaccompanied tap routine that made me wish that my tap shoes still fitted, and then Puttin’ on the Ritz, finally closed the show, to cheering, applause, and a standing ovation.

Mr. Entertainment was a fitting title for this performance, and there is one more on Sunday, so grab those tickets if there are any left.

Australia - Adelaide Awards - Live Stats

Best Musical - Top 3

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24.2% of votes

2. COME FROM AWAY (The Arts Theatre)

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3. BILLY ELLIOT (Northern Light Theatre Company)

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