“Discovered in a bedsit over a gin-joint in London…”

While Victor Victoria hugs his/her piano accordian lovingly and begins to play another darkly funny pop song-cum-polka, the luscious Bernadette Byrne flutters her outrageous eyelashes at us, concedes to put down the gin, and unleashes her wonderful voice in chanteuse parody.  

EastEnd Cabaret is what two Aussie artists have brought back from a performing sejourn in London, and while the opening night show was a little haphazard and uneven in places, the two characters demonstrated impressive musicanship and delicious comic potential.

Jennifer Bryne‘s immersion into her alter-ego as bawdy Russian femme fatale is beguiling: her repartee with the audience and improvised witticisms are excellent, and her voice has a lovely mix of rich warmth and brash character sound to keep her blackly comedic songs in real cabaret style.   As her androgenous multi-intrumentalist, Vicky Falconer-Prichard‘s Victor Victoria is a talented musician and a funny man-lady in her own right, though her delivery is often too low and apologetic for all the audience to appreciate the cutsy comic one-liners.

While there is some taut, clever writing in places, the real strength of the show lies in the reworked songs: Madonna, Right Said Fred and Devo make for sensational neo-cabaret fodder, and the satirical rewrites and arrangements were hilarious.   The opening night audience adored recognising the introductory riffs, but the suggestive proved more popular than the blatant when they were more reserved about the original songs where the broad ribald humour tended to only get nervous laughs.

A few elements were not entirely successful: the ‘divide and conquer’ approach to audience interaction where the characters regularly began separate conversations or spoke over each other’s songs served to distract and pull focus rather than complement the other’s comedy and performance, while a more deadpan style of humour from Victor would perhaps be a better foil to Bernie’s energy and animation.   The pseudo-communist interludes felt clumsy: some context or preamble in introducing them and flagging their connection to the characters and relevance to the show would also have been worthwhile.

Nonetheless, EastEnd Cabaret will clearly continue to flourish and evolve,  the mis-matched characters are adapt at exploring the shadowy regions of creepy, comic and cute, and hopefully these two very talented artists will become regulars in the Melbourne cabaret scene where their edgy eccentric style is in the process of becoming just what our audiences love.

Venue: The Butterfly Club
Dates: 10th – 13th February, 2011
Tickets: $27/ $24 (con)
Times: Thurs – Sat: 9pm, Sun: 8pm
Bookings: www.thebutterflyclub.com