THE 2010 ADELAIDE CABARET FESTIVAL
FINAL WEEK REPORT
Reported by Frank Ford
The final week of 10th Adelaide Cabaret Festival ended triumphantly with box office up 25%, 50 performances sold out and attendance up 67% to 80,000 through the addition of a variety of free events.Artistic Director David Campbell said "The feedback from audiences and artists about this year's Festival, the biggest Cabaret Festival in the world, has been outstanding, everyone is having a great time and press reviews have been marvellous."
What a bobby-dazzler final week program! It started with composer Steven Schwartz backed by a line up of musical theatre stars hosted by David Campbell. Schwartz's latest musical "Wicked" is a huge success in Australia so the excitement of his presence was palpable. Liz Callaway stunned us with Defying Gravity from Wicked. Equally did the duet from Pippin, Corner of the Sky, by Mitchell Butel and David Harris. Other songs from his canon illustrated the great variety of work of this phenomenally successful composer/lyricist. For Disney he wrote the music for animated feature films like Pocahontas and the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Schwartz filled in the creative background to his musical journey of almost a half century. It culminated in his long held desire to compose an opera, so we were treated to Ali McGregor singing two arias from Seance on a Wet Afternoon which will come to Australia in 2012. What an incredible experience to be in the presence of a musical genius and hearing a stellar presentation of his creations!
In stark contrast Trevor Ashley gave us a whirl wind, larger than life portrait of Liza Minnelli in Liza (on an E). In a glittering blaze of sequins this high energy dynamo gave us a show that many said was better than the recent original. His portrait of Liza is frighteningly super real. It's filled with lots of love and laughter and through his artistry we experience the tragic melodrama of her life. We empathise with Liza as she staggers about the stage, flinging her hands in frenetic dance gestures while he delivers her songs with a forceful punch that goes right to the heart.
The next show I saw was a real live Broadway legend in the flesh, Liz Callaway. Her sister Anne Hampton Callaway had delighted audiences at the Cabaret Festival a few years back. The two sisters do a double act which would be a real treat for a future Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Liz opened with You There In The Back Row and through her beautiful rendition she did embrace the audience right up to the back row. Her modesty, warmth and stage charm shone brilliantly out into the theatre. Next followed You Don't Own Me which had a nice edge to it. Liz displayed incredible range with a cavalcade of wildly diverse songs from her stage career, animated movies and beautiful songs from little known musicals which were a delightful surprise. When on Broadway she sang Memories from Cats, a staggering 1500 times. We joined in a sing along to the 1960's hit Downtown. After her splendidly singing of Sondheim's, Meadowlark and Not a Day Goes By, Liz parodied Another Hundred People from Company. With new words she sings Another Hundred Lyrics - just flew out of my mind! A wonderful send up of Sondheim's penchant for wordy, hard to sing lyrics and his complex musical arrangements. It was a rare delight of an evening. The audience responded with two standing ovations.
David Campbell, as mentioned before, has invited established performers to create new shows for the Festival. He suggested to Alex Rathgeber to do a solo show exploring a contemporary interpretation of the music of Cole Porter. In the light of our swinging times of Anything Goes, the lyrics of Cole Porter suddenly take on a whole new meaning. In the lyrics of his hidden world - But, if baby, I'm the bottom, You're the top - becomes Too Darn Hot! Suddenly with the brilliant contemporary arrangements of James Simpson on piano assisted by Mick Moreno on drums and Alana Dawes on strings, a whole new dazzling expose of the deeper meaning imbedded in the songs blow our minds. A marriage of convenience can't disguise Porter's fascination and delight in a gay life. The greatest song writer of the 20th century is a master of subversion. His canon of clever, witty, elegant, romantic songs has deeper meanings.
To explore this theme, in his show Experiment, Rathgeber uses as a vehicle his own recent experiences in London, playing in Phantom of the Opera. We re-live his romantic experiences made passionate and amplified by Cole Porter's songs. By attaching songs to his real life experiences the subversion in the songs spring to life in a whole new light. Rathgeber has a splendid voice and through his subtle interpretation was able to make visible, the invisible in the songs. The audience was fascinated and moved by this incredibly beautiful expose.
Another surprise and delight of the Festival was to be exposed to the music of composer Justin Paul and lyricist Benj Pasek. These rising young stars of musical theatre entertained us with their back stories and splendid singing of their songs while introducing us to their exciting creations. It's all great fun as they banter with each other, even talking over one another in what seemed a very spontaneous show, yet one suspects these two clever showmen were well rehearsed. From the brief exposure to their material they are very cluey and on the beat. These New Yorkers exude the dynamism of the Big Apple and the influence of Sondheim dominates their work, unfortunately sometimes to the detriment with Sondheim's penchant for over wordy, complicated lyrics. They performed songs from Edges which Adelaide saw last year at the Opera Studio; their musical adaptation of Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach and the more serious Dogfight. Two Broadway divas, Shoshana Bean and Liz Callaway surprised with guest appearances adding much cachet and excitement to the event. What a coupe for the Festival!
How appropriate Adelaide's Caroline O'Connor who starred in the opening show of the first Adelaide Cabaret Festival returned to celebrate its first decade. It was also the decade of Caroline's rise to international stardom as she recalls highlights in her show, A Musical Life, from West End musicals and films Moulin Rouge and De-Lovely. This diminutive figure is a giant on stage, wowing us with her powerful voice, versatility and engaging vivacious charm. Her personality crosses the footlights creating the informal ambience and relationship with audience, that is the essence of cabaret. It was remarkable how she could achieve this in a traditonal theatre setting. She shares her musical life with songs sung in Chicago, West Side Story, Mack and Mabel and other musicals, illustrating the many transitions in her career. Caroline paid homage to Piaf and Garland, both whom she had portrayed in shows about their lives. In her glimmering, body hugging dress her skilled dance movements delighted the eye. It was a stunning show. This human dynamo exploded on stage like a starburst of artistic exuberance.
And now for something very different, Smoke and Mirrors is a brilliant collection of bizarre acts in the style of a certain European cabaret. A provocateur, in the form of a clownish creature played by the incomparable iOTA, entices us into a drug like infused trip down a side show alley of human emotions. Like the emcee in the film, Cabaret, iOTA leads us into the darker side of life and escapism. Have you ever dreamed of running away to the circus? He asks. Magician Timothy Woon shocks and delights us with his tricks and illusions reinforcing the theme of Smoke and Mirrors. Comic, old fashioned, moustached muscle men construct their spectacular acrobatic manoeuvres like a slow motion cartoon. A bearded lady sings spectacularly. An aerialist beguiles us with her gymnastics on a trapeze. The super four piece rock and roll band lead by Tina Harris accentuates the action and mood on the stage. iOTA guides us from spectacle to spectacle wooing us or challenging us with his own intriguing songs. The atmosphere is hot and feverish, dangerous and sexy, riveting our attention to the constantly changing milieu. The finale is a knock out, when a white faced Todd McKenney does a fabulous tap dance and song number, The Dumber They Come the Better I Like Them, ending in a strip tease. What more could one ask for?
Well perhaps Hugh Sheridan, possibly the new Hugh Jackman, in his return showing of Newly Discovered. Last year's smash hit show about the life and music of Anthony Newley.
For something different, Frisky and Mannish's School of Pop was a fun lesson in reworking the songs of every pop icon from the past 30 years. The talented duo received many laughs from their clever rewriting of the lyrics and both have good singing voices. They whizzed through their history lesson on pop music at breath taking speed. It was fun and always drew howls of laughter from those in the know. There was not enough time to see all of the Festival shows, mostly sold out, on offer in the last week.
It was a spectacular final week of the 10th Adelaide Cabaret Festival with Artistic Director David Campbell conjuring up a kaleidoscope of cabaret acts. The quality and variety of shows attracted the biggest attendance ever. There was definitely something for everyone. The Festival continues to expand and redefine the art of cabaret. There were masterclasses for performers from Queenie Van De Zandt and for cabaret song writers from Pasek and Paul. Campbell went into the specialist music high schools to tutor the art of cabaret which culminated in performances by students at the Festival. Campbell sees his role of mentor, as a way of keeping cabaret alive and kicking for future generations.
The spirit of the Festival could best be gauged by the huge, jubilant crowd at the last night of Mark Nadler's Hootenanny in which performer after performer, including David Campbell, joined Mark in his antics and songs to the delight of everyone. David Campbell gave us a fantastic Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2010 to celebrate its first decade and I am sure he will have more delights and surprises next year. Plan ahead to attend the best and biggest cabaret festival in the world, Adelaide 10 - 25 June 2011.
Frank Ford
Full details of the program on http://www.adelaidecabaretfestival.com/Frank Ford
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