BWW Reviews: ADELAIDE CABARET FESTIVAL 2015: VARIETY GALA PERFORMANCE Started A Fortnight Of The Best In Cabaret

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Friday 5th June 2015

Pop the Champagne corks, it is time for the Adelaide Festival Centre's Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2015, and it all starts with the Variety Gala Performance in the Adelaide Festival Theatre. The Gala this year was in the hands of our hostess, the fabulous Meow Meow who describes her performance style as Kamikaze Cabaret. She is always a welcome visitor to Adelaide and the audience was clearly more than happy to have her as the compere this year. Directed by Andy Packer, with Musical Direction by Vanessa Scammell, assisted by Matthew Carey, and with orchestral music provided by the Adelaide Art Orchestra, everything was in very good hands.

Backing the Gala performers was the Adelaide Art Orchestra, under the baton of Vanessa Scammell, who visits every year to act as their musical director. This very versatile group of musicians backs numerous productions every year and performs all year round in many genres, from Phillip Glass operas, to capping off the year with the Christmas Proms. As always, they were in fine form and added to their reputation for great playing.

The Gala is a cavalcade of brief excerpts from many of the performances on offer during the Festival, more accurately, those appearing in the next few days, as those performing later in the fortnight have not yet arrived. The performances were diverse, from the dancing, singing, and comedy sensation The Tap Pack, to the gypsy jazz of Paris Combo, to the Burlesque of The Clover Club, to the darkness of opera singers turned Weimar era influenced Kabarett artists Strange Bedfellows. Michael Griffiths delves into the life and music of Cole Porter, and Nigel Ubrihein's production My Vagabond boat, with Mitchell Butel and Gillian Cosgriff brings together some seasoned cabaret performers in another Kabarett inspired production.

All of these acts impressed the audience but, as I will be reviewing all of them individually in their full productions, I will limit my comments to the fact that I am pleased that I have all of them, as well as Meow Meow, on my list. Watch out for my reviews over the next two weeks for these artists and many more.

Stan-up comedienne, Marney McQueen teased out plenty of laughs, describing her services as bikini waxer to the famous, a piece snipped from her show, Hair to the Throne, and comedian Adam Hills, whose show is Clown Heart, joked and then, by way of a change from his usual fare, proved that he can also sing well.

A little Latin jazz from the Karyn Allison Quartet, the big voice of David Gauci from his show It Was Worth the Weight, and Christa Hughes was Oz Rockin' the Ladies Lounge showed the variety of musical styles on offer. Daniel Koek will present highlights from his career in musical theatre in London in Bringing Him Home With His West End Story and John O'Hara's production Dedications generated plenty of interest.

Peter and Jack is a work that looks at the careers of bass-baritone, Peter Dawson and songwriter Jack O'Hagen, and it features the magnificent voices of Teddy Tahu Rhodes and Adelaide's own Greta Bradman, with the Idea of North vocal group. An excerpt featured the young artists who will be appearing in the Class of Cabaret performances, always a 'must see' during the festival.

The host for the first weekend in the Backstage Club is Rueben Kaye, who literally exploded onto the stage and took the audience by storm, an instant big hit with everybody. We can only hope that he becomes a regular visitor.

I doubt whether anybody was really all that surprised when Barry Humphries made his entrance as Dame Edna, tossing gladioli into the audience. We all expected him to appear at some stage as he has shows as both Dame Edna and as Sir Les Patterson during his Festival.

Over two hours of continuous entertainment also acted as a great chance for audience members to realise that there are more shows that they want to add to their lists. For those, like me, with a jam packed schedule of shows already, one can only wish that we could be in two places at once.

This was another in a long series of marvellous opening night galas, and the packed audience showed their appreciation with continuous bursts of applause and laughter.

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