Category: Cabaret

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REVIEW: Isabel Hertaeg’s DEATH BY SOPRANO

Daring diva with a killer voice

By Christine Moffat

Isabel Hertaeg has a dream to be an operatic soprano, but she’s noticed that they don’t always have the best of luck.  Her theory is, if she can work out what keeps killing them off, she has some hope of surviving a role!

Death By Soprano

Hertaeg has serious soprano-envy, and this is a very good thing.  As a result, we were treated to a fabulous array of soprano deaths, without all those annoying tenors getting in the way to spoil it.

The show began with Hertaeg coming onstage as the tragic Ophelia, whose gory death details I won’t spoil.  Suffice to say, this reviewer’s sick sense of humour was switched on in the first three minutes of this show.  Once poor Ophelia is no more, Hertaeg outlines her approach: she will explain the A-Z of soprano deaths.  Accompanied wonderfully by Amy Abler, Hertaeg then starts her alphabetical annihilation with ‘A is for Avalanche’.

If it had gone wrong, this show could have turned into one big highbrow in-joke, with opera aficionados tittering away whilst the common folk looked on confused.  Instead, it turned out to be an intelligent concept, wrapped in a delightfully dark show, and decorated with Hertaeg’s wonderful voice.

The cute little prop jokes kept the comedy bubbling along, and the many, many deaths took care of the pathos.  Watch out for Brunhilde (a highlight), who ticks both the prop comedy and pathos boxes at once!

Although the show is a tragic comedy, with little quips sprinkled throughout, Hertaeg did not skimp on the opera.  Her performance of Butterfly’s aria in particular was intensely moving.  On top of being funny and having an amazing voice, Hertaeg also managed to sing in Italian, French, Russian, English and German.  I’m beginning to feel a little soprano-envy myself…

Show information:

Death by Soprano

Wednesday 20th March 2013

The Butterfly Club

Carson Place (just off Little Collins Street in the Melbourne CBD)

www.thebutterflyclub.com

Cabaret

Review: FLAME TREES at Theatreworks

Glowing moments show much potential

By Myron My

Flame Trees deals with the return of a young woman, Tess Ashley, (played by co-producer Hannah Gott) six years after she was convicted of starting a bushfire which killed her best friend. Clearly not everyone is happy to see her and there are still a few secrets that have been kept after all this time.

Wayne Tunks’ script is beautifully written with some honest and real dialogue that has you feeling not like you are watching a play but as if eavesdropping on some private conversations.

Flame Trees

Yet with so much work put into creating the tension and suspense of the first half, it was quite disappointing that during the second this all dissolved when it should have been heightened. The problem was trying to resolve a lot of stories in a short amount of time and this resulted in characters having to change their earlier strongly-held convictions within a matter of minutes. Without giving too much away, I really struggled for example to see how Val (Sally McLean) could so easily and quickly come to change her mind – an issue with the script, not the performer.

However, there was still a very strong performance by James Mason as the local fire-fighter hero Matt Sutton. Mason works hard to clearly define relationships with all the other characters and the scenes with his brother (Matthew Candeland) have a sense of authenticity to them. Wayne Tunks’ portrayal of Nathan, Tess’ older autistic brother, is well-researched and articulate. It’s always admirable to see actors who portray people with additional needs as a person and not as a generalisation.

The stage was divided into three sections: a police station, a living room and a pub. They were simply designed and were used to support the scene rather than control it, thus allowing the actors to tell us the story. Lighting designer Siobhain Geaney has worked hard at creating the subtle changes to the mood, from having fluorescent light in the police station to give the scene more harshness and using a hanging lightbulb to create a warmer feel in the pub scenes.

The world premiere of Flame Trees is definitely a display of great Aussie theatre but with a little bit more fine tuning in the second half could have been much more special.

Venue: Theatreworks, 14 Acland St, St Kilda

Season: Until 16 March | 8:00pm, Sun 5:00pm

Tickets: $29 Full | $25 Conc

Bookings: 9534 3388 or http://www.theatreworks.org.au

Cabaret, Circus, Performances, Review, Theatre, Whats On

Review: CUT SNAKE at Theatreworks

Comic, crazy, commendable tale in a three-actor circus

By Christine Moffat

If you know the phrase ‘mad as a cut snake’, you have an inkling of what to expect from this award-winning show by the two years-young theatre company Arthur.  The show is mad, but thanks to playwrights Amelia Evans and Dan Giovannoni, there is fabulous method to the madness.

Although the show is acrobatic and surreal, with all emotions heightened, there is a base note of reality running underneath.  Evans and Giovannoni examine the central themes of friendship, love, death and the small moments in a life that change the world.

Cut Snake

The play revolves around four zany characters, Trix the snake, Kiki Coriander (Catherine Davies), Bob (Julia Billington) and Jumper (Kevin Kiernan-Molloy), any of which could justify their own circus act.  Despite this, the actors beautifully construct relationships that are accessible, relatable and touchingly domestic.

The direction of by devisor Paige Rattray is a great lesson in ‘less is more’.  The show takes place in a small circus tent on astroturf.  The ‘rough around the edges’ appearance is actually great stagecraft.  The show feels roughened, not rough: worn-in like a favourite pair of jeans.  This made the audience immediately comfortable in the high-energy, crazy, tiny theatre space.

Cut Snake is a strange, moving, funny, high-energy bundle of love and loss with a dash of experimental physics thrown in for good measure.  If you’ve ever had a best friend, ever thought about science or magic or asked yourself “What if?” then you will find yourself entertained and a little bit happier for having seen it.  As a bonus you will also find the answer to the million-dollar question: who would win in a fight between a horse and a hippo?  That alone is worth the ticket price.

Date: 25 Feb 2013 – 09 Mar 2013

Time: March 2- March 9 at 7:00pm, 11:30am matinees Wed and Fri

Price: Student groups $20, adults $30, conc/non-student groups $25 (plus booking fee)

Bookings: www.theatreworks.org.au

Location: Theatreworks, 14 Acland St, St Kilda

Please Note: This production is performed at an outdoor location near Theatre Works; meet in the foyer at least 15 minutes before performance commences.

Cabaret, Cabaret Review, Events, Performances

REVIEW: Naomi Price in RUMOUR HAS IT

Adele unplugged and – uncensored…?!

By Myron My

Rumour Has It is an intimate cabaret performance with Adele. Or in other words, cabaret artist Naomi Price has brought her critically-acclaimed show to Melbourne.She enters on stage with her trademark ginger-beehive hairstyle and for the next hour we are treated to an intimate encounter with this foul-mouthed, platinum-selling, Grammy and Golden Globe-winning songstress (and Price’s Adele makes sure we know all this!)

Naomi Price

It’s an evening of girl power with Beyonce, Spice Girls and Amy Winehouse cheekily introduced as people who inspired her or whom she respects, whereupon their songs are all mashed up with Adele’s own music. One of the highlights would therefore have to be seeing Price impersonating Adele impersonating Celine Dion and belting out ‘My Heart Will Go On’…

However, as with any worthy cabaret ‘tribute’ show, there are also a number of the artist’s great classics including ‘Set Fire To The Rain’, ‘Rumour Has It’ and ‘Rolling In The Deep’. However, the showstopper was ‘Someone Like You’ which we had to wait for, with the haunting tune on piano teasing us for quite some time. Once performed, the room was filled with silence as we took in the greatness of what we had just seen and heard. As Price/Adele stated, this is Adele’s song and she/she gives it everything she has.

The most frustrating thing as an audience member was having people coming in up to 25 minutes late into a 60-minute performance but Price did not let this affect her, having some hilarious haughty banter with the latecomers (“I thought you’d be on time to my show”) and making it all feel like it is a part of the performance.

Price’s Rumour Has It is an evening of sassy and witty fun, and if Melbourne gets to enjoy a return season, you really don’t want to get there late. Not only will you miss out on some great cabaret but you may inadvertently end up with the spotlight on you, and that’s probably not something Adele wants…

Venue: Chapel Off Chapel, 12 Little Chapel St, Prahran

Season: 8-9 Feb, 2013

Cabaret, Cabaret Review, Events, Music, Performances, Review, Theatre, Whats On

REVIEW: Camille O’Sullivan in THE RAPE OF LUCRECE

Disturbing and superb

By Bradley Storer

“We’re going to tell you the story of the Rape of Lucrece, a tale full of both beauty… and violence. Be warned – there may be a bit of singing.” With this simple introduction, Irish cabaret star Camille O’Sullivan launched us headfast into an evening of hearty and full-blooded (in more ways than one) story-telling. O’Sullivan, along with her collaborator and accompanist Feargal Murray, has taken Shakespeare’s classic poem and transformed it into what feels like a chamber opera written for a single voice. The performance, produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company, combines Shakespeare’s text in both spoken form and as songs set to original music by O’Sullivan and Murray.

Photo by Keith Pattison

The set is simple, consisting of a backdrop of several windows and the stage floor littered with numerous piles of manuscript. The only other element is the touching presence of two pairs of shoes at opposite ends of the stage – a pair of delicate white slippers, and a large pair of dark leather military boots, representing cleverly the characters of Lucrece and her rapist Tarquin.

O’Sullivan as a storyteller and actress is magnificent, beginning simply telling the narrative but slowly transforming before our eyes into both the menacing and malevolent Tarquin, and the innocent, tragic Lucrece. Filling the stage with her gargantuan presence, O’Sullivan paints the picture of the story and each of its characters effortlessly. With just a sardonic flick of her hand, she can make Shakespeare’s poetry as achingly and horrifically relevant as anything written today. Her wondrous singing voice can soothe and terrify in equal measure, ranging from a low seductive murmur to a full-bodied shriek of agony.

This is not an evening for the faint-hearted – the performance does not shy away from displaying the full horror of events, O’Sullivan so committedly and perfectly embodying the pain of rape and its aftermath that at times it is almost too horrible to watch. Even in Tarquin’s part of the narrative, O’Sullivan shows us the deep ambivalence and disgust which co-exists with the man’s darker impulses. The amazing lighting design throughout contributes massively to the many worlds, interior and exterior, within which the story plays out.

Do not come to this show looking for a relaxing night at the theatre – however at the end of the harrowing tale, we are left with not only sadness but also the deep, primeval pleasure of an epic tale told with immaculate skill.

Directed by Elizabeth Freestone

Dates: January 31st – February 10th , 8pm

Venue: The Sumner, Southbank Theatre, 140 Southbank Boulevard

Tickets: $85 / Conc $77 / Youth $33

Bookings: www.mtc.com.au or 03 8688 080

Cabaret, Editorial, Opportunities, Whats On

Move It Or Lose It: The Fight to Save THE BUTTERFLY CLUB

The fate of an amazing Melbourne performance venue is in our hands…

By Myron My

I have been going to the Butterfly Club for a few years now and have had the opportunity to watch some amazing and varied shows there: ones that otherwise would not have seen the light of day had it not been for this curated venue. The Butterfly Club has given emerging and established performers the opportunity to create new works and have them watched by a welcoming and open-minded audience.

Since 1999, The Butterfly Club has presented more than 1300 new Australian works. It has given immensely to the theatre community in discovering and nurturing performers and now it needs our help. The Butterfly Club must relocate from South Melbourne to 256 Collins Street in the city centre in February 2013. Director Mr Simone Pulga said the move was due to the unbearable costs of operating in the current premises. “If we increased the cost of drinks to match the rise in rent, we’d have to charge $12.50 for a stubby. We must move The Butterfly Club to a better location.”

The Butterfly Club 1

“Paradoxically, inner-city Melbourne has provided us with an affordable, long-term opportunity to create a new theatre space in an exciting unused building. The show room will be larger with more comfortable seating but the venue will remain just as intimate and quirky with the much-loved decor and regular shows moving with the venue,” he said.

The Butterfly Club has a sustainable arts model which doesn’t rely on any government subsidies and even though this model will be replicated in the new location it first needs funds specifically for the relocation and – when housing Australia’s largest collection of kitsch art – this is not going to be easy!

A community fundraising campaign is currently underway using the popular crowd-funding website Pozible. The campaign is embracing the ‘Buy A Brick’ phenomena, aptly designated ‘Cash For Kitsch’. Supporters will be able to adopt a piece of The Butterfly Club history from among its wondrous collection of miscellany, and ensure it has a home at the new venue.

The artist community including Tim Minchin, Eddie Perfect, Marieke Hardy, Dan Ilik, Tripod and many more have rallied behind the campaign, donating exclusive rewards and experiences. $130,000 is needed for the relocation, and it is hoped at least $20,000 of this can be raised via the crowd-funding campaign, which closes on 16 January.

The Butterfly Club is a Melbourne icon in the theatre, comedy and cabaret world and something we all need to band together over to ensure that it can continue to showcase our home-grown talent. To donate and get some seriously good rewards – not including the tingly feeling of doing something awesome – click http://pozible.com/thebutterflyclub for more information.

Cabaret, Cabaret Review, Festivals, Performances, Whats On

REVIEW: Short+Sweet Cabaret 2012

Variety was never so sweet!

By Myron My

Short+Sweet is the biggest little arts festival in the world that celebrates ten-minute performances in theatre, cabaret and dance. Crammed into 19 days, there are roughly 100 original works performed. As with any variety show though, there are going to be some performances that are significantly stronger than others.

Short+Sweet Cabaret

My top choice of the Group A performances for the Short+Sweet Cabaret Festival would therefore be Good Grief performed by Sarah Gaul and Sophie Wright. There was obvious rapport between the two as they played thespian ‘frenemies‘ who are looking at building on their repertoire of tragedy to become better actors. Both women have great voices and songs that had the audience in stitches with laughter.

Another highlight was Amanda Buckley in Haley Burton: Ready to Role: her charming nature made the crowd warm to her immediately in this semi-improvised cabaret of a high-achieving understudy.

Quite possibly one of the last things I expected to ever see in cabaret would be a show about Oprah Winfrey but it happened at Short+Sweet with Oprahfication…the ULTIMATE interview. As Opraaaaaaaaah! Rachel Dunham’s resemblance was uncanny and her portrayal throughout of this talk show queen was spot on.

Each ten-minute cabaret also had some very talented musicians, be it pianists, drummers or guitarists. There were a few that stayed in my mind after the shows were completed so my mentions would have to go A Very Kitty Christmas’ Barnaby Reither, A Little bit of Little Pattie’s Cameron Thomas and Oprahfication…’s Shanon Whitelock.

The mind boggles in choosing what to see and that’s the great thing about Short+Sweet, having such a diverse range of ideas and concepts. There are many different stories to be told and all are created with passion and dedication.

Venue: Chapel Off Chapel, 12 Little Chapel Street  Prahran

Season: Until 8 December | various times

Tickets: From $25

Bookings: http://www.shortandsweet.org

Cabaret, Cabaret Review, Events, Performances, Whats On

REVIEW: Fancy Meeting You at THE BUTTERFLY CLUB

Well-crafted cabaret nostalgia for the great jazz era

By Myron My

Fancy Meeting You is a cabaret set in a New York 1930’s jazz bar where the three employees of the bar – the Maitre D, the showgirl and the musician – share their stories of love to the beautiful music of Harold Arlen.

There is strong chemistry between the three stars, Amalie O’Hara, Kathleen Douglas and Izaak Lim as Maitre d’, Showgirl and Musician respectively while each character struggles with their own concept of love, for Miss Lucille (the Maitre d’) is pregnant and single, Maggie May Adams (the Showgirl) has a fleeting encounter with a stranger and Abe (the Musician) is losing the man he is in love with.

O’Hara is particularly strong as the Maitre d’ and demands your attention when she is on stage. In contrast, you have the aloof pretty showgirl in Douglas who offers the lighter moments of the show. Lim, who also performs some of the music, finds the nuances of his character and makes you feel the pathos he is trying to bring to the surface.

All three have strong voices, give exceptional performances when singing alone and complement each other when singing together. The great strength of Fancy Meeting You as cabaret is that the songs selected help further the story and show the feelings, desires and vulnerability of the characters. The accompanying piano skills of Tim Cunniffe are flawless and delightful throughout the show.

It wouldn’t be a homage to Harold Arlen without performing what is his most famous song, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” – the song that even to this day gives me goose bumps when I hear it.

Despite its fame and frequent use in cabaret, the trio manage to evoke the same yearning here that Judy Garland did when she sang the song – an impressive achievement.

In its homage to the Great American Songbook, Fancy Meeting You has strong performances and tunes that leave you with a bittersweet feeling by the end of it. A rich cabaret experience.

Venue: The Butterfly Club, 204 Bank Street, South Melbourne

Season: Until 18 November | 7:00pm, Sun 6:00pm

Tickets: $23 Full | $20 Concession

Bookings: http://thebutterflyclub.com

Cabaret, Cabaret Review, Events, Performances, Whats On

Review: KROWS BAR KABARET Presents NEWS FLASHERS

A bold satirical effort leaves little breathing space

By Myron My

In the revitalised Weimar-style political kabaret News Flashers, the audience are treated to a whirlwind of varied Australian issues and the way the media reports these through the use of ‘televised’ news reports, song and with the aid of sock puppets.

A lot of thought has gone into the production of News Flashers, and it is certainly a delight on the eyes. Old newspapers form the basis of the costumes, including trousers, shirts, hats, bow ties and a few other surprises along the way.

The various ways in which the “televisions” are used throughout the show is quite creative and allows for radically different set-ups to take over on stage. The cast makes excellent use of the performance area and really takes ownership of every available space.

The performers (Caitlin Brown, Ezekiel Ox, Fletcher Dyson, Maurial Spearim and Sophie Kinston) worked very well together and there was some strong rapport and high energy levels but as the title suggests, the show was a bit frenetic. Unfortunately it was so fast that I found myself constantly trying to catch up with what was happening.

Many topical issues are covered throughout the show including boat people, Gina Rinehart and the stolen generation but the surface is only ever skimmed with any of them. I was left feeling confused with a few of the recurring references and felt they were some sort of in-joke I was not privy to.

The songs by creator Ella Filar were composed well and the instruments used were chosen carefully and specifically. The voices of the performers highlighted each individual’s vocal strengths and it was great to see them excel here. However, the songs may have been a little short, for just as I understood what they were singing about, they were finished and we immediately moved on.

News Flashers describes itself as ‘political, vulgar, artistic, grotesque, sexy and sublime’, and successfully achieves its claims, but perhaps if the content had been narrowed down and the performance not been so exceptionally fast-paced, it might have been a little more enjoyable.

Venue: The Butterfly Club, 204 Bank Street, South Melbourne

Season: Until 11 November | 8:00pm, Wed, Sun 9:00pm

Tickets: $23 Full | $20 Concession

Bookings: http://thebutterflyclub.com/shows

Cabaret, Cabaret Review, Events, Music, Performances

REVIEW: EP Launch with Spanky in CANDICE MCQUEEN – NASTY

His/her hit show is now on EP

By Jessica Cornish

On  Sunday November 4 in the iconic Spiegeltent nestled beside that giant ferris wheel, the outrageous artist Spanky morphed into Candice McQueen to launch her 5 track EP as produced by the Melbourne Cabaret Festival.

As always, the high-heeled Candice, draped in fluorescent pink and with blue eyelashes did not disappoint. But nor did WAAPA graduate support act, Gillian Cosgriff who kicked off the launch wonderfully, and quickly captivated the audience with her quirky songs about past relationships and bad experiences with shaving her legs and a lack of band aids in her life.

The feature show Nasty, fresh from its previous run a few months ago in the Melbourne Cabaret Festival, stars the bizarre Candice McQueen, ‘fluent in the language of fag,’ who tells epic tales of her life including a birth surrounded by a circle of gorillas, an hiatus in the Middle East where she was present for the crucifixion of Jesus, and a move to West Hollywood where she meet her lover, River Phoenix…

The  ‘Mr Sister’  has eternally strong stage presence, great comedic timing and an ability to draw you in to her bizarre world: however it was sometimes easy to get lost with some of her songs towards the end. But like the guy next to me said, ‘I have no idea what she’s talking about, but it’s funny’, so maybe it’s okay to be a little bemused sometimes.

Throughout the night Candice was accompanied by her extremely talented guitarist/pianist/back-up vocalist Robert Tripolino. Dressed in a pair of worn-out red converse shoes and sunnies, he was incredible, consistently nailing every harmony, including the tricky More Than Words classic, and demonstrating his skill on the guitar.

My only concern with the launch was that  I felt the production side was slightly lacking. Candice made great use of the difficult circular space in her initial stage appearance; however she was in darkness for most of the first number and throughout the performance there were other instances where I felt the show could have benefited from greater use of light.

However, that being said Nasty the EP launch was a great night. Once again Spanky delighted a crowded venue and the funds raised from this event will contribute to future international tours for the star and her sidekick.