This accomplished set may be mostly Marlene Dietrich \u2013 with mashings of Kylie and Madonna – but it is all Kim David Smith at his mercurial best.<\/p>\n
Written by Murray Bramwell<\/p>\n
Kim David Smith has been performing at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival for more than ten years. Back when he was still Kim Smith, he brought shows such as Misfit<\/em> and Morphium Kabarett<\/em> featuring his shape-shifting gremlin mix of nova pop, reptilian camp and – when he switched into persona as \u201cPirate Jenny\u201d and \u201cSurabaya Johnny\u201d – a very creditable version of Weimar revival.<\/p>\n Back this time with Mostly Marlene<\/em>, a tribute to screen legend and post war cabaret performer, Marlene Dietrich, Smith has softened some of the witty sneer and smarm of his punk antics to more vulnerable readings of Dietrich\u2019s mixed bag of torch songs and satire.<\/p>\n Dressed in top hat, white tie and leather tails he proceeds through the audience in the Space Theatre to the strains of \u201cFalling in Love Again\u201d. He wryly notes that this show, which first played in March 2, 2020 at Club Cumming ( the Cabaret Festival\u2019s AD, Alan Cumming\u2019s nightspot in New York) had barely opened when the city was shut down in the first wave of COVID. Everything stopped, he recalls, for eighteen months. Until now \u2013 and he marvels at the sight of a live audience, not a virtual one, sharing a performance in real time. And this time around Kim David Smith is more reflective, more openly candid, and looking to delve the rueful world-weary experience of Dietrich\u2019s songs.<\/p>\n Not that there is any shortage of spark to the brisk realism of Friedrich Hollaender\u2019s \u201cBlack Market\u201d \u2013 \u2018Powdered milk for bikes\/Souls for Lucky Strikes\/ Got some brokendown ideals ? Like wedding rings ?\u201d. Or Dietrich\u2019s \u201cJonny, wenn du Geburtstaghast ?\u201d a raunchy ballad of carpe diem which segues into the urgent refrain from Madonna\u2019s \u201cErotic\u201d \u2013 \u201cPut your hands all over my body\u201d.<\/p>\n Hollaender features again with \u201cLook Me Over Closely\u201d \u2013 \u201cTell me what you find\/ But don\u2019t be over-anxious\/I\u2019m not the marrying kind.\u201d Dietrich, whose life spanned the 20th<\/sup> century, proves to be a free-spirited gender-fluid model for this one. Smith calls her a Bisexual Queen. He has fun with Spoliansky\u2019s \u201cIch bin ein Vamp\u201d and the 80\u2019s hit from Toto Coelo- \u201cDracula\u2019s Tango\u201d \u2013 \u201cDracula la la \u2013 I\u2019m a Sucker for Your Love\u201d with fabulously thundering chords from Amanda Hodder \u2013 Smith\u2019s longtime accompanist, who is again exemplary in her phrasing and precision, and central to the success of the performance.<\/p>\n The selections highlight Dietrich\u2019s range of material. Such as \u201cThe Boys in the Back Room\u201d the boisterous theme from Destry Rides<\/em> Again<\/em>– the movie western in which she not only starred but also made a hit for Loesser and Hollaender. And we can\u2019t forget \u201cLilli Marleen\u201d, the haunting wartime favourite for both Allied and German troops, sung here as unadorned lament.<\/p>\n Smith concludes strongly with \u201ca song about nice things we can\u2019t have \u201c \u2013 Hollaender\u2019s \u201cIllusions \u201c interwoven with Kylie\u2019s \u201cI Should Be So Lucky\u201d in German (along with delicious piano trills from Hodder) From there Smith and Holler power into more vintage Minogue with a knock-out \u201cFire. Fire. Fire.\u201d version of \u201cAll The Lovers \u201c.<\/p>\n A reprise of the Dietrich signature \u201cFalling in Love Again\u201d follows, also in German, and the finale is \u201cThe Singer\u201d, the Liza with a Z favourite, with just enough Minnelli histrionics to finish on a high note. In this performance Smith demonstrates he can mix it with the very best. Mostly Marlene<\/em> has been a Cabaret Festival highlight.<\/p>\n InDaily<\/em> June 26, 2021.<\/p>\n https:\/\/indaily.com.au\/inreview\/cabaret-festival\/2021\/06\/25\/cabaret-festival-review-mostly-marlene\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This accomplished set may be mostly Marlene Dietrich \u2013 with mashings of Kylie and Madonna – but it is all Kim David Smith at his mercurial best. Written by Murray Bramwell Kim David Smith has been performing at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival for more than ten years. Back when he was still Kim Smith, he brought shows such as Misfit and Morphium Kabarett featuring his shape-shifting gremlin mix of nova pop, reptilian camp and – when he switched into persona […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,5,9,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-41","category-archive","category-cabaret","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3317","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=3317"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3320,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3317\/revisions\/3320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}