Opening night sets brisk and bold tone for cabaret festival
\nThe House is Live
\nThebarton Theatre, Adelaide.
\nJune 6.
\nCabaret Festival bookings BASS 131 246 or
\nadelaidecabaretfestival.com.au
\nFestival runs until June 22.<\/p>\n
The house is not just live, it is buzzing. Now in its 19th<\/sup> iteration, the opening night gala is always a spritzy start to the Adelaide Cabaret Festival and, this year, newly-appointed artistic director, and event MC, Julia Zemiro makes sure her first event sets the pace for the next two weeks.<\/p>\n After the welcome to Country (and Kaurna man, Karl Telfer reminding us that \u201cLife is a cabaret\u201d) Zemiro and State Theatre newbie AD, Mitchell Butel team up for a witty duet of Cole Porter\u2019s Did<\/em> You Evah (Swell Party)<\/em> with lyrics tweaked for local content. Zemiro is a match for Butel\u2019s droll delivery and the audience enjoys welcoming the new face of the festival.<\/p>\n The running list is brisk and bold. The zany Reuben Kaye sets a high bar for extravagance in a scarlet sequined tux with lapels encrusted with what look like boiled lollies. Singing Look at Me<\/em> he makes sure we do. With eyelashes like huntsman spiders and three metres of tangerine boa, he motors through a Brecht\/Weill medley that sounds like this morning\u2019s news.<\/p>\n Alma Zygier continues the pace with charmingly retro versions of A Tisket, A Tasket<\/em> associated chiefly with Ella Fitzgerald, and the Judy Garland signature, The Trolley Song.<\/em> Triple J presenter, Nkechi Anele weaves among the dancers singing I Get Lonely<\/em> and then an energised version of A Change is<\/em> Gonna Come<\/em>. Zemiro reminds us that current pop and hip-hop idioms are welcome in her House of Cabaret with Anele and spoken word artist, Omar Musa, rapping Assimilate<\/em>.<\/p>\n For something completely different, UK performance troupe, The Swell Mob invade the stalls like a swarm of Fagin\u2019s pick-pockets and morph into a steampunk zombie apocalypse before disappearing backstage.<\/p>\n The excellent Queenie van de Zandt delivers a wistful Candyland<\/em> and, for those who wonder whether the definition of cabaret has completely jumped the leash, includes Being Alive<\/em> from Sondheim\u2019s Company<\/em>.<\/p>\n Other highlights include Paul Capsis\u2019s peak Weimar channeling of Billie Holiday\u2019s I<\/em> Cover the Waterfront<\/em>, and Maude Davey\u2019s engagingly satiric feathered showgirl belting out Am I ever Gonna See Your<\/em> Face Again<\/em> ? – complete with vernacular audience call and response.<\/p>\n Top of the bill is the 2019 Cabaret Festival Icon winner, the brilliantly sharp Meow Meow, who puts down her statuette and sings Spoliansky\u2019s Ich Bin Ein Vamp<\/em> (assisted by six uneasy conscripts from the audience) Hotel Amour,<\/em> and, joined by Capsis, the medley Get Happy\/Happy Days<\/em>. The eight piece house band is first rate, guided by Daniel Edmonds on piano, with overall direction by Craig Ilott.<\/p>\n The evening closes on a pensive note with a vigil beacon lit in memory of longtime Cabaret Festival godfather, Frank Ford. Meow Meow sings Patti Griffin\u2019s Be Careful<\/em> as the house lights dim.<\/p>\n \u201cOpening night sets brisk and bold tone for cabaret festival\u201d<\/p>\n The Australian<\/em>, June 10, 2019, p.13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Opening night sets brisk and bold tone for cabaret festival The House is Live Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide. June 6. Cabaret Festival bookings BASS 131 246 or adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au Festival runs until June 22. The house is not just live, it is buzzing. Now in its 19th iteration, the opening night gala is always a spritzy start to the Adelaide Cabaret Festival and, this year, newly-appointed artistic director, and event MC, Julia Zemiro makes sure her first event sets the pace for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,5,9,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-39","category-archive","category-cabaret","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3053"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3054,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3053\/revisions\/3054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}