Adelaide Cabaret Festival.
Artistic Director Virginia Gay. Executive Producer Alex Sinclair. Adelaide
Festival Centre. June 7-22 2024. Bookings: adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au
Previewed by Peter Wilkins
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| Adelaide Cabaret Festival Artistic Director Virginia Gay |
It’s a question asked of every
Cabaret Festival director. What is cabaret? “Cabaret is beguiling in its
simplicity.” says 2024 Adelaide Cabaret Festival Artistic Director, Virginia
Gay. “It’s stories into song. Right?” The questions she asks begin to form the
kind of unique cabaret festival that Gay promises performers and audiences
alike. “We are not throwing out our legacy, those absolute icons – the Titans
of cabaret. But what does the next generation of cabaret look like? What is Gen
Z doing with cabaret? What is cabaret to your incredible musical comedians. Cabaret
is such a broad church. How much diversity can we get in the people who are
performing? Cabaret is for everybody. I just wanted to reflect the
extraordinary variety across the board.”
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| Patti LuPone Photo: Raha Segev |
Listening to Gay talking about the 2024 Adelaide Cabaret Festival it is easy to feel excited about the programme she and her team have put together. Her enthusiasm rockets down the phone line. Gay is no stranger to the Adelaide Cabaret Festival and this is her first time at the helm of the world’s leading cabaret festival. She is a stellar Australian actor, writer, cabaret performer, music theatre icon and personality. So it comes as no surprise that she is well equipped to present a festival like no other. Of the 79 performances over twelve nights, including 17 world premieres and 23 Adelaide premieres there is something for everyone. This year’s audiences will have an unrivalled opportunity to attend performances from the USA ( Broadway legend Patti LuPone, Christina Bianco and Lisa Simone), the UK (the legendary Fascinating Aida and deadpan duo Flo and Joan) and New Zealand ( A Slightly Isolated Dog). They will be joined by Australia’s best contemporary cabaret acts. There will be a tribute to the late legendary Olivia Newton-John with David Campbell, Jess Hitchcock and Christie Whelan-Browne singing Newton-John classics with the backing of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Missy Higgins will debut at the festival to celebrate the 20th anniversary of her Aria award winning album The Sound of White.
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| Sam Andrew and Mel O'Brien The Best Of |
Multi award winning comedy duo Mel and Sam will present The Best Of, described as raucous, bratty and proudly queer. There’s plenty of food for thought in shows like Christie Whelan-Browe’s brand new bubblegum pop cabaret Life in Plastic, a sparkly celenbration of sisterhood and investigation into whether a perfect life is shiny or suffocating. ACF favourites the irrepressible New York cabaret star Mark Nadler, Victoria Falconer and the outrageously inimitable Reuben Kaye will host their own revelry at the Festival of Late Nights each weekend. Cabaret luminaries bring their own incandescence to a festival of eclectic highlights. Kate Miller-Heike will be there. So will Rhonda Burchmore. Darby James Little Squirt will set sail into the uncharted waters of sperm donation. Lisa Simone will sing the songs that made her mother Nina Simone a household name. But it is First Nations singers Jess Hitchcock with A Fine Romance – Songs That Made Me and Emma Donovan performing Til My Song Is Done who will set this cabaret festival ablaze with their extraordinary voices. Gillian Cosgriff returns with a new show Actually Good that invites the audience to tell her ten good things and then weaves a story around them culminating in a new song at the end of every performance. It is the festival of new forms, daring to surprise, stretching the genre, creating the cabaret of the future, and attracting new audiences. These are the shows where you can say “OMG! I saw them first at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival.” For Gay, her debut Adelaide Cabaret Festival will be a festival for everyone. “You may think that these shows are just for your parents.” she says. “They’re not. They’re for you. Come on in. Whatever the anti-gating thing is - that’s what I’m interested in.”
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| Christie Whelan Browne in Life in Plastic |
There’s one show that appears to epitomise Gay’s kind of festival. I have seen Christie Whelan Browne perform and she is remarkable, but I am intrigued by her brand new bubblegum pop cabaret Life in Plastic. “It’s one of my favourite shows” Gay says. She appeared with Whelan Brown in Dancing With the Stars and was amazed by her dance in which she brought a plastic doll to life. “I wonder if there’s a whole show in that” Gay thought. She pitched it to Whelan Brown and teamed her up with comedian and writer Lou Wall and asked Sheridan Harbridge to direct. “It’s a celebration of sisterhood, a celebration of community. It’s joyful. It’s pop. But it’s also more. Christie has always had the perfect body, whatever that means.” Gay says. “but she has endured a long battle with infertility. What if it can’t do the one thing you require it to do? What is perfection? What is value when we value women’s appearances more than anything else? That’s the central heart of the show. I have a feeling about this show. It will be so glorious.”
It appears to me that that is
also the central heart of Gay’s festival. To celebrate. To create a sense of
community. To provoke and to question. To create new work that speaks to our
audiences in our time and in the case of this commissioned work and world premiere
the audiences of the future.
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| Reuben Kaye in The End Songs of Finality |
Gay is quick to admit that she has no favourites, but she can’t avoid confessing that the late night wind up shows are her favourite part of the festival. They conjure memories of sitting next to Cate Ceberano at around midnight while Ceberano drummed to the rhythm of her brother’s guitar. And there was the time that Gay led a conga line around the Festival theatre foyer or sang Javier’s suicide song in the original key. “You don’t see that anywhere else. One night only and if you missed it you missed it.” Gay paints a picture of a night you’ll never forget. You can roll out of a headliner, relax with a champagne and enjoy free entertainment with piano man Trevor Jones and Icon Trophy winner Libby O’Donovan in the piano bar and then for an affordable capped price of $39 rock on to one of the weekend late nighters with Mark Nadler, Victoria Falconer or Reuben Kaye. “Reuben, I don’t know where you’re going to take me,” Gay enthuses, “but I will follow you to The End.” Kaye sings Songs of Finality, the songs that you wish you could sing at your funeral or at a breakup of an affair.
It is this diversity, this
amazing interaction between performers and audiences in the theatres, in the
foyers and at the bar, and the unrivalled experience of an Adelaide Cabaret
Festival that characterizes the effusive Gay’s artistic direction. “This is
what makes people take their armour off” Gay says.”You can’t just lecture people
about what is wrong in the world. They put their armour on and stop listening.
What you can do is tickle them, make them laugh and make them feel connected.
They are having an incredible time so they take their armour off. Then you can
take them over into new ideas,. That is how I believe art functions in the
world. Through joy we make change.”
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| Annabel Crabb and Leigh Sales in Chat 10 Looks 3 |
There is so much joy in Gay’s festival and so much more to enjoy. Mahalia Barnes and The Soulmates will rock your socks with their funky Soul frenzy. South Australia’s own Annabel Crabb with her co-host Leigh Sales will present a live recording of their podcast Chat 10 Looks 3 on the Festival Theatre stage with Gay presenting a number for the one and only time! “That is super exciting!” Swing on This will have you swinging in the aisles when the kings of swing put you in the mood. And you won’t want to miss the cabaret stars of tomorrow when Class of Cabaret strut their stuff. Frank Ford’s commissioning bequest this year goes to Michelle Pearson for her show Skinny, a biting comedy about embracing our bodies. With so much talent to choose from it will be impossible to guess who might be this year’s Icon Trophy winner at the closing concert.
“We have just tried to offer as
much variety as possible.” Is there any particular weekend you would recommend
I ask. “I would say come to every weekend.” Gay says “Of course I would say
that. Seriously! It’s my festival.” Gay
pauses for a moment, but only a moment. “Follow your heart. Follow what brings
you joy. Absolutely see somebody you know from television, but also take the
chance on someone else you’ve never heard of. I can guarantee that every person
here is extraordinary. You will not be disappointed.”
Photos be Claudio Raschella
For the full program and booking details go to:
www.adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au
