Tag: The Butterfly Club

Cabaret, Cabaret Review, Events, Performances, Whats On June 18, 2011June 26, 2011

REVIEW: Tom Dickins says F**K PLAN B

An inspirational piece from a talented man

By Kate Boston-Smith

To: Tom Dickins
From: Amanda Palmer
Jettison the job.
Fuck Plan B
I’ll support you in anyway I can… Xx

There is no doubting Tom Dickins of The Jane Austen Argument has a beautiful velvet voice and in his latest solo show, F**k Plan B, he fluently moves through his impressive range.

This new cabaret show is bold and brave: Dickins takes us through his journey from high-school dreamer to educated and informed performer who steps out from the shackles of 9-to-5 work.

There were moments in the show that reminded me of my favourite scene in the musical confessions of A Chorus Line as Dickins retells his experience, his heartache and his unorthodox approach to decision-making in his Brunswick apartment.

He shares with us personal inspiration from his grandfather, a man who has clearly left his mark on his grandson: the love he has for him is undeniable.

His show has strong moments and his skilful song-writing is great, but I have to say I was rather frustrated by his dark eye makeup and hair, as I could not see his eyes. He gives us a very personal story filled with intimate details, but he was unfortunately hidden in the shadows of the makeup.

Dickens has clearly had a dream-like start to his creative career as a independent writer and performer. I would certainly love to hear more from the depths of this imagination and what other sorts of colourful musings he has on the world.

All in all this is an inspirational show for anyone wanting to bravely follow their dream, so go along tonight for the final show of F**k Plan B and support Tom in his.

Tom Dickens in F**k Plan B

Venue: The Butterfly Club, 204 Bank St. South Melbourne

Date: Final show Sunday (tonight) 6pm  

Tickets: $22 full, $19 concession, $18 group (8+)

Bookings: www.thebutterflyclub.com 

Cabaret, Cabaret Review, Events, Festivals, Performances, Whats On April 23, 2011April 23, 2011

REVIEW: Eleni Avraam in TOXIC WASTE

Sex-a-holic beats the Choco-holics this Easter!

By Deborah Langley

This year the Easter Weekend has a spring in its step down in South Melbourne. Last night, despite the deserted streets and empty roads, a lively crowd was gathering at The Butterfly Club for the second night of Eleni Avraam’s Toxic Waste – A Love Story.

Inside the intimate space the audience were treated to the ultimate warm-up to any cabaret as the pianist Rowland Brache vamped some classic tunes arranged and played with toe-tapping warmth and style.

Once the show begins, we meet Betty – a yellow-haired, deluded queen, and self-proclaimed slapper.

This sex-a-holic allows for some entertaining material full of sex toys, not-so-subtle innuendos and some questionable judgment when she decides she doesn’t mind being the other woman – just not the other, other woman.

Avraam creates in Betty an annoying yet loveable character who works the audience with nervous delight, but it’s not until she introduces us to Marie, the wife, and the other side of this love story that Avraam truly shines.

Although at times these characters begin to blend and the lines blur, Avraam finds moment of stillness and honesty which are really magical.

For me, the show’s best moments come through the interaction between Avraam and her amazingly talented pianist.

With perfect timing, Avraam relishes these moments of personal interaction and Brache provides a solid yet silent creative and emotional support for this no-holds-barred cabaret.

Toxic Waste – A Love Story dares to explore relationships as they disillusion, disappoint and dissolve.

Based on pure fiction (or so we’re told), Toxic Waste is brutally poignant, viciously honest, disturbingly raw and witty as hell.

So, if you want a have good chuckle this Easter Weekend (without your family!), head down to the home of the Melbourne cabaret scene, The Butterfly Club, 7pm tonight (Saturday) or 6pm tomorrow (Sunday) for the last two nights of this fun one-woman cabaret show – with 2 women.

Cabaret, Cabaret Review, Events, Performances, Whats On April 15, 2011April 16, 2011

REVIEW: Linda Beatty is THE UNENCHANTED PRINCESS

This comedy cabaret show is the perfect mixture of naughty and nice…!

By Lisa Nightingale

Whimsical, magical and hysterical – Linda Beatty as The UnEnchanted Princess had a cozy audience in stitches while she told us of the obvious yet never-realised truths and ironies about our beloved childhood fairytales.

With the help of her magic harp and imaginary dinosaur friend, Ralph, Beatty was able to take us to a ‘whole new world’ of Disney tales that made me giggle for an entire hour.

Starting with her very well-written Intro Song which got her ‘from the back of the room to the front of the room’, I knew I was in for a good evening.

The stage was set with a green-covered table, a stool and flowers hanging from the distinctive red Butterfly Club stage curtain – we were obviously in a meadow, and I was only waiting for little animated birdies to fly out of the ceiling.

Linda Beatty appeared instead. With her flowing red hair, white flighty gown, fishnets and boots, she had the perfect mix of naughty and nice.

Going into the stories of all of my favourite Disney princesses, Beatty blew me away with her incredible Celtic harp music, which she has played for twenty years… and she is a master at it! The songs throughout the show just exuded quirkiness and fun, and had me smiling so much my cheeks hurt.

My favourite part of the show is when she introduces us to her loveable imaginary Tyrannosaurus Rex friend who is so real that he even has his own solo!

Or it could be her adult’s only rendition of Aladdin’s A Whole New World which has now cleverly twisted the whole meaning of this song forever more.

Both in music and script, Beatty’s well-written comedy is playful, energetic and entertaining and everyone that sees this show will relate to the tales that she tells.

It embraces childhood memories, but also makes you glad that we now are adults to be able to enjoy a new layer to these stories that were once so silly and innocent.

Make sure you get down to The Butterfly Club during 14^th -17^th April for the Melbourne Comedy Festival so you don’t miss this comedy craze.

Tickets can be booked via www.thebutterflyclub.com, and check out Linda’s website too.

Have fun!

Cabaret, Cabaret Review, Events, Festivals, Performances, Whats On March 31, 2011March 31, 2011

REVIEW: Analisa Bell in GOLD-DIGGER

Digging for festival gold in Melbourne, cabaret-style…

By Deborah Langley

After two sell-out seasons in Perth, cabaret starlet Analisa Bell has brought her cabaret spoof Gold-Digger to Melbourne for the International Comedy Festival. The intimate and wonderfully quirky Butterfly Club is the perfect setting for this show as we are welcomed at the door to Rosie’s house. But Rosie who?

Rosie Port-e-lou (the infamous wife of mining magnate, Sam Bankock – you with us yet?) makes a grand entrance with a robust version of Hey Big Spender, asking audience members, “How about a few laps?” with a politically incorrect and hilarious accent which guarantees all the laughs instead.

The first half of the show is dedicated solely to the life and times of Rosie as she moves from the Philippines to marry a millionaire in Western Australia. This is material which I’m sure gained much more interest in Perth than it will in Melbourne but Bell’s magical voice and terrible accent moved things along, albeit slowly.

It isn’t until Rosie storms out halfway through that this show really begins to shine. Audiences are in for a treat when she jumps back onto stage to teach us all how to catch a man and keep him as this seemingly standard cabaret turns into a twisted revue, complete with dancing pooches, audience interaction and free lollypops (to practice the sucky sucky!).

With some wonderful musical arrangements and interesting lyrical changes the music is the standout of this production. The awkward, but obviously talented accompanist Tim Cunniffe proves a weird straight-man to this surprising show which will leave you shaking your head but smiling at the same time.

Gold-Digger: The Shags to Riches of Australia’s Iron ‘ore is being performed as part of the Comedy Festival from March 31-April 3 at The Butterfly Club in South Melbourne. 7pm (6pm Sun) and bookings can be made online: www.thebutterflyclub.com

Cabaret, Courses/Classes, Opportunities, Whats On December 30, 2010February 2, 2011

MELBOURNE CABARET COURSE: February/March 2011

Applications are closing soon for the next Melbourne Creating Solo Cabaret course in 2011

Treat yourself to cabaret! With graduates such as sell-out comedian Kitty Bang (Kate Boston Smith), the enigmatic Madame Natalia of the Burlesque Bar, and amazing Tom Dickins from The Jane Austen Argument, the Melbourne Creating Solo Cabaret course continues to gain in professional and industry reputation.

Run in Australia’s premiere cabaret venue The Butterfly Club by coordinator Dr. Kim Edwards, this intensive six-week course is open to all performance artists looking to explore the world of cabaret and create unique, marketable, and eclectic showcases for themselves and their work.

Graduates of the course are going on to full-length shows to packed houses, award-winning festival performances, touring gigs, and corporate and professional cabaret work.

Watch out for new Melbourne shows by recent alumni Christine Moffat and Eleni Avraam early in 2011, while the Box Hill TAFE students who completed the course as part of their music theatre degree will be making professional cabaret appearances later in the year.

: Tom Dickins

The next Melbourne Creating Solo Cabaret course begins on Tuesday February 15, with the final performance season at The Butterfly Club running from 24-27 March.

If you’ve always wanted to get into cabaret and never known where to start, click HERE for all the course details, including the curriculum outline, fee structure, and application details. As always, places are strictly limited due to the individual focus of the course, so apply now.

: Madame Natalia

Cabaret, Events, Festivals, Performances, Whats On May 31, 2010May 31, 2010

June News: GRADUATE GOSSIP

Cats, Canines and Cabaret: My Friend the Vet

A bassett-hound superstud, a poodle très chic, a stressed-out guinea pig, a psychopathic cat, and a menagerie of man’s best friends are lining up this month tell us what they’re really thinking – in song! Performer, writer and renowned singing teacher Sally Collyer has been promising us this show ever since graduating from the very first Creating Solo Cabaret course in 2007, so forget talking to the animals: these puppies sing!

Set in a vet’s surgery (er, I mean “a house of well-being…), My Friend the Vet promises laughter, tears and perhaps just a touch of cold-blooded terror as our pets show us the world through their eyes.

For everyone who loves animals – and who doesn’t?

Written and performed by Sally Collyer (The Price of Genius), and featuring Simon Bruckard on piano
Thursday-Saturday 10-12 June 2010, 7pm (running time 60 mins)
Sunday 13 June 2010, 6pm

The Butterfly Club
204 Bank Street, South Melbourne
(just near the South Melbourne Town Hall)

Tickets $22 full / $17 concession or groups of 8+
Bookings: www.thebutterflyclub.com Enquiries: 0412 546 580

Melbourne Cabaret Festival Heats Up

Tickets are on sale for next month’s Melbourne Cabaret Festival, and the line-up is looking exciting. No-one offends with the panache of The Beautiful Losers, while The Petticoat Soiree (written and directed by the stunning Alistair Smith) is bringing vaudeville back to town. Then there’s the irreverent wit of Yana Alana, the ever delicious Sammy J, the unexpected Eddie Perfect, and the irrepressible Toni Lamond for starters…

With forty performances in four days, it’s going to be non-stop cabaret at Emerald Hill in South Melbourne in July. Sell-out shows are guaranteed, so check out what’s on, and book quick!

Melbourne Cabaret Festival
July 22-25, 2010
www.melbournecabaret.com
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Cabaret, Events, Performances, Whats On November 9, 2009November 24, 2009

THE LITTLE RED DRESS: Waiting By The Wireless

In war time, love, laughter and loss are all the fashion…

A colourful new cabaret debuts at The Butterfly Club this month – and it all began with a little red dress.

Young dynamic Melbourne artist Jenny Patrone is still tapping her toes after winning the Popular Choice award for Short+Sweet Dance 2009 recently, but is now taking a walk in someone’s shoes with her own cabaret show of WWII-style songs, based on amazing real-life stories of women in wartimes.

When Jenny started the Creating Solo Cabaret course earlier this year, she began investigating a period of history and music that had always fascinated her. She soon uncovered real letters and private stories from the lives of British girls whose fun-loving, light-hearted teen years changed abruptly when their sweethearts, neighbours and brothers were called to enlist.

The Little Red Dress marks the moment when the world went back to war, and dance, song and laughter were needed to get daughters, sisters and lovers through long weeks of waiting by the wireless – hoping their boys come home soon, and fearing the worst every time a telegram arrived. Starring Jenny Partrone, accompanied by Adrian Portell, guest-starring Adam Nunn and directed by Kim Edwards, The Little Red Dress opens at The Butterfly Club on Thursday November 26 until November 29.

The Little Red Dress

Tickets www.thebutterflyclub.com $17/22

Thurs-Sat 7pm, Sun 6pm

The Butterfly Club, 204 Bank St, Sth Melbourne

Enquiries 9690 2000

Cabaret, Performances, Whats On August 31, 2009September 1, 2009

Back By Popular Demand: THE SECRET LIFE OF A SECRETARY

Wondering what on earth you and your friends should do after work this week?

Don’t stress! This Girl Friday has the perfect solution…

After full houses for its opening season last week, the quirky new cabaret The Secret Life of a Secretary is back by popular demand for two final performances this week.

Dynamic young artist Claire De Freitas, a graduate of the Creating Solo Cabaret course, is spilling the secrets of what goes on in those office cubicles and behind those corporate doors. Funny, feisty and full of all the gossip we’ve been dying to know, this Friday and Saturday night will be your last chance to see this highly popular show this year!

From audience sales last week, we know these tickets won’t be available for long…

So call your work friends, clear your schedule, kick off your high heels and hang up your suit jacket, and book fast!

After-work drinks and a great night out of music and laughs? Now, that’s something to smile about after a long day in the office…!