THE 2009 ADELAIDE CABARET FESTIVAL FIRST REPORT
Reported by Frank Ford
NOTE: This same report - with photos added - appears on the CABARET HOTLINE ONLINE website as well.
David Campbell, international Australian musical theatre and cabaret entertainer, is the new artistic director of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival.
In its 9th year the Festival features International and Australian artists.
Over 250 artists in 57 shows will give 133 performances across the 16 days of the Festival, 5 - 20 June. Over 40 performances sold out before the Festival opened and it is set to outsell previous Festivals' 46,000 plus audience members.
The Adelaide Festival Centre and its higly skilled staff utilise the three existing theatres (2000, 600 and 400 seats) and convert the banquet room and various areas in the complex into attractive intimate cabaret venues with two or three performances in each venue every night of the Festival.
Already, after the Opening weekend of the Festival, David Campbell has put his own distinctive stamp on the event. In developing the artistic direction of this year's Festival David said he was "eager to focus on three things; (1) showcasing the established (2) promoting the up and coming and (3) urging well known performers to embrace the medium of cabaret. The performances may be varied but the one common denominator is quality."
The sensational Opening Night Gala Variety Performance showcased just that. The sold out 2000 seat Festival Theatre buzzed with excitement and the audience was fed a feast of brilliant performances. A mind boggling 17 acts delighted the audience which responded with thunderous applause as they experienced a glimpse of some of the great shows on offer at the Festival.
Campbell, resplendent in gold lame jacket and his glamorous co-producer wife Lisa welcomed arriving guests as they walked the red carpet, setting the scene for a night to remember.
The show got off to an equally glamorous start with Steven Brinberg's brilliant, seductive portrayal of Barbra Streisand. He stunned the audience by inviting a local football legend and sports columnist to join Barbra in a duet of Neil Diamond's You Don't Bring me Flowers. They both scored a hit with the audience.
The evening presented a rich smorgasbord of cabaret royalty and rising new talent, emphasising Campbell's aim of presenting a stimulating quality program. The 84 year old Queen of Cabaret, Julie Wilson won the hearts of the audience with a spunky rendition of The Lady is a Tramp. Equally the surprise appearance of the Cabaret Festival's star attraction, Bernadette Peters was a knock out! The audience was spell bound by her super-star presence and her deeply moving No-one is Alone from Into The Woods.
John Bucchino, Broadway composer, whetted our appetite for his two shows in the Festival by having Hayden Tee give us an ever so sweet performance of Bucchino's beautiful ballad Sweet Dreams.
Host, comedienne Julie Morris, skilfully linked the acts with her sharp repartee. International cabaret acts like the gorgeous Barbara Luna was a Latin hotspot and the sparkling French comedy and music duo Duel were jewels which indicated the exotic touches of the coming events in the Festival.
Australian stars like opera/jazz singer comedienne Ali McGregor dazzled; Glam drag couple Trevor Ashley and Virginia Gay, in clever song and dance routines convinced us Gentlemen Prefer Blokes; Nick Christo shimmied the legend of Francis Faye; the hilarious Bob Downe as World War Bob led the audience in a patriotic sing-along; Mr Percival by recording loops created his own orchestra; Trace Canini converted us with her gospel ensemble and Phil Scott resurrected Liberace with a dazzling display of his virtuosity on the piano. Rising talent like Sheridan Harbridge and Hugh Sheridan convince you news stars are in the making.
The Gala Variety Performance was a cornucopia of enticing tastes that wetted the appetite for wanting more. The Gala was a great success and is sure to feature in future Adelaide Cabaret Festivals.
The first weekend June 5 - 7 offered so many different shows it was impossible for me to see them all. Here are the ones I managed to see and some critics' comments on some of the ones I was unable to catch.
The jewel in the crown of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2009 is surely "An Evening of Bernadette Peters" in the 2000 seat Festival Theatre. Adoring fans jumped to their feet applauding her loudly on her entrance, which she topped by launching into a full on frontal attack of Let Me Entertain You. Her dynamic stage presence and focussed energy was breath taking. This "Broadway Baby" really has it all. A bravura display of her talents gushed forth. With a twinkle in her eye she sizzled through Fever reclining atop the grand piano. She topped and tailed her songs with comic quips. And as a great interpreter of Stephen Sondheim she enchanted us with memorably performances of his songs such as the beautiful No One Is Alone from Into the Woods which he wrote for her and Johanna backed up by the grand Festival Theatre pipe organ.
Her musical theatre talents came to the fore when she burst into Mama Rose from Gypsy. She then delivered a knock out There Is Nothing Like A Dame as part of her Rodgers and Hammerstein tribute along with the delightful When I Marry Mr Snow and Some Enchanted Evening. But I thought that I had died and gone to Heaven when she sang sublimely, almost a capella Shenandoah while an occasional phrase from a harmonica drifted in and out.
As an encore and as a tribute to her friend Peter Allen she sang so tenderly I Honestly Love You. I honestly love you Bernadette Peters and so did the audience witnessed by their standing ovations and cheering.
A genuine surprise of the Festival was DUEL, a vaudeville act by two brilliant musicians as they engaged in combat and comedy. French cellist Laurent Cirade and Romanian pianist Paul Staicu battled it out upside-down or entwined with string bow and keyboard and other odd objects, while often playing several shared instruments. The visual comedy was enriched with their wide range of musical references from the classics to The Beatles, expertly played in the most excruciating positions. The audience was doubled-up too, with their hilarious antics.
With the smallest of gestures, New Yorker Steven Brinberg convinced us that we were in the presence of super star Barbra Streisand as he captured her magic in his show Simply Barbra. With loving care he delivered her repertoire entertaining us with his strong grip on the material, his vocal range and his take on the Barbra personality. His understated exposure of Barbra's ego and attitudes were delicious moments of satirical comedy. His renditions of her ballads were the most enjoyable and brilliantly accompanied by Christopher Denny on piano.
Each year the Adelaide Cabaret Festival presents a living composer and this year in the show John Bucchino & Friends many people were introduced to this Award -Winning New Yorker and his work. With Bucchino on piano and his line up of eight extremely talented friends we were treated to a survey of his meaningful words and music. Buchinno in a very relaxed manner, modestly and with gentle humour introduced his songs and their back stories. Last year he had his first Broadway show A Catered Affair and won the Drama League Award for Best Musical.
Buchinno's Friends excelled themselves in delivering stunning presentations of his songs. Ursula Yovich sang a moving It Feels Like Home. Ali McGregor certainly gave us Sweet Dreams. Darren Percival surprised and wowed us with What You Need and Hayden Tee told us of the other side of domestic bliss in Painting My Kitchen. Artistic Director of the Festival, David Campbell and John Bucchino are old friends and had worked together before, so it was no surprise when Campbell sang Better Than I and the finale Grateful we experienced an insightful and thrilling performance.
So moved by Grateful I said to my partner I want that played at my funeral.
In the intimate JB Room which seats only 60, Campbell is "introducing the next generation of cabaret singers" such as the charming young chanteuse Elenoa Rokobara. Elenoa told us that she grew up listening to her father's records of jazz, gospel, blues and soul from the likes of great Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald which were sources of inspiration and influence for her. This is reflected in the resonances and richness of her vocal range. What amazed was her ability to make her chosen songs her own as when she gave a stunningly fresh interpretation of George Gershwin's Summertime and Billie Holiday's God Bless The Child. Elenoa Rokobara is a fresh and original talent, someone to keep an eye out for.
As it is impossible to see all the shows on offer, here are two shows I missed and the critics loved. Dianna Carroll in the Independent Weekly said of Ali McGregor's Jazz Cigarette "From the opening notes of The Man I Love to the closing bars of Peel Me A Grape, McGregor was pitch perfect and oh so sexy. She is the embodiment of: "naughty but nice", super sexy in a playful pussycat way: she's no wanton alley cat. I don't think there was a woman in the audience who didn't want to be her, nor a man who didn't want her." And as a successful opera singer "in this show, she leaves opera behind to delve in the "darker side" of cabaret."
Stephen Whittington in The Advertiser wrote "Barbara Luna is a dynamo on stage. But in quieter moments she can summon up intense emotion, as she did a smouldering rendition of Una Noche Mas and, surprisingly, in the Jimmy Hendrix classic Little Wing...her songs traverse familiar emotional territory - the joy or pain of love - eternal themes that Latin music continues to thrive on."
The Piano Bar 'the festival club', offers free admission with a show ticket, no wonder it was packed out each night as shows finished. On Opening night artists gave impromptu performances and on other nights bands provide a party atmosphere to dance or as background music for patrons to excitedly chatter about the shows they had seen.
The First Weekend was a huge success and there is still a lot more to come in the next two weeks.
reported by Frank Ford
