Reviewer Kym Vaitiekus Shares His Thoughts on SKANK SINATRA

Saturday 16th September 2023, 9pm, Sydney Cabaret Club, Castlereagh Boutique Hotel.

Jens Radda presents his one woman exuberant cabaret performance SKANK SINATRA that explores his life as a gay soul who leaves Brisbane for the bigger cities to share his talented gifts.  

Jumping from keyboards to repartee to audience's laps to glorious vocals, Radda selects a range of hit songs and masterfully changes the lyrics that creates guffaws and audience delight. 

Radda shares his story of growing up in South Africa speaking Afrikaans and Danish, with a father who experienced the Iraq war, his time at a private school with it’s trials, to his work as a bartender where he spontaneously created his first cabaret performance as Elvis.

His Adventures are told with twisted lyrics to the likes of ‘I Still Call Australia Home’, ‘New York New York’, ‘Strangers in the Night’, ‘I Only Want To Be With You’, and ‘That’s Life’.

With the exuberance of song, Radda describes his adventures to a Melbourne sauna. This number is cleverly bawdy without the crime of degrading smut.  Maybe Radda likes to call it smut or skank but the inventiveness and insightful humour create the perfect balance of lewdness and hilarity. There's a cheeky charm to this rendition of risqué lyrics. The perfect cabaret number.

Kudos to the fringe for selecting the Castlereagh Boutique Hotel with its "charming vintage vibe". The decor is delightfully appropriate. To would be more enticing if they created a dark and moody environment by taking out some light bulbs so the stage lighting is the focus of the performances. They are aware of this as there was cloth hanging on some lights to diminish their light level.

A part of the cabaret genre is to be in a darken, salacious venue with a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd that creates a intimate experience. Even though the audience is spaced out due to the large dining tables we sat at, Radda’s expert skills worked the room with aplomb. He ensured the entire audience were engaged and part of the experience.

It's interesting to see that the crowd was largely woman in their early twenties. Similar to other gay venues around town, drag shows are popular with this generation.

Radda goes beyond the stereotypical drag performer, as they are the accomplished cabaret star with the chops and smarts to entertain and tantalise us all.

The production images included in this article are in the cabaret vein with expressive and exaggerated faces, but they don’t do justice to the glamorous look and beautiful lines that is the face of Skank Sinatra live.

A thoroughly entertaining night of clever, comic, crude and cheeky cabaret. Check it out.