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| Meow Meow presents Souvenir. Photo by Claudio Raschella |
Meow Meow. Souvenir.
Created by Meow Meow in collaboration with composers Jherek Bischoff and August von Trapp. Musical Direction Jherek Bischoff. Original Design. Andrea Lauer. Adelaide design by Kath Spraul Her Majesty’s Theatre. Adelaide Cabaret Festival. June 18 and 19. 2017
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
Her Majesty’s Theatre in Grote Street
in Adelaide holds a very special place in the hearts of arts lovers,who, since
1913 have flocked to delight in the astounding array of entertainments in the city’s Grand Old Lady of the Arts.
Originally called the Tivoli, this Palace of Dreams, has played proud host for
over a century to amazing artists from near and far who graced the Tivoli,
Fuller and J.C. Williamson circuits. Over the years she fell into decline,
crumbled and sagged with neglect before renovations restored her former glory.
Now, on the eve of forthcoming major renovations, the Adelaide Cabaret Festival
has invited international diva, the incomparable Meow Meow to host a tribute to
the glorious years of Her Maj. Billed as a fantastical song cycle to the half
remembered, misreported history of Her Majesty’s Theatre, Souvenir recalls the magical moments that graced the very stage on
which the incandescent Meow Meow, supported by the Orchester der kleinen
Regiment under the baton of musical director, Jherek Bischoff now celebrates
the Grand Dame’s past. Sweet reminiscence floats upon the air, down through the
years to the Tivoli girls and the stars who toured Down Under for J.C.
Williamson and lit up the lives of the citizens who flocked to see the faded
ghosts of yesteryear’s glory.
In her billowing silver Edwardian
dress with a black embroidered jacket and banana in her hand, the irrepressible,
original and sensational songstress of surprises, Meow Meow, clambers through
the narrow aisles to the stage to the
sound of Bound for South Australia. She
clambers onto the stage before the painted fire curtain of the Temple to Trials
and Tribulations. The curtain rises to reveal a rowing boat with protruding
mannequin legs and a large anchor at its bow. Behind, the Orchester der kleinen
Regiment strikes up the music to Meow Meow’s Vergesse Mich Nicht (Do not forget me). She recounts the stories of
legendary Adelaide showgirl, Phyl Skinner and the King of Jugglers, Paul
Cinquevalli, who played the stage and died forgotten of a broken heart in
London. In a nostalgic evening of reminiscence, Meow Meow ‘s glorious voice,
operatic, pop and vaudevillian soars through Time, recalling showbiz romances,
visiting luminaries, brave endeavours by Antarctic explorers, Wilkins and
Mawson. As she sings with a Lilliputian chorus of little angels behind her, a
backdrop of white cloth rises slowly as a mournful salute to the lost sailors of
ill- fated Erebus during its search for the North West Passage, immortalized in
a musical that performed upon Her Majesty’s stage all those years ago.
Almost instantly, Meow Meow
shifts the mood to an hilarious burlesque number, hidden from view by the
children’s chorus. She emerges to honour vaudeville with her playful rendition
of You are my Honeysuckle with Bischoff .
At the edge of the world the white sails fly
high behind the Orchester der kleinen Regiment in honour of the grand old dame
on the cusp of her transformation. The Lilliputian Opera Chorus join Meow Meow
in a final sung tribute to Adelaide’s theatrical jewel. It is a song of
celebration calling back through the years to the glorious ghosts of the past.
The children sing their chorus and one young child stands awestruck in the
presence of a diva and before a full house. He stands bewildered, out of time
and distracted, but here, like the awestruck Snowdrop so many years before,
when Phyl Skinner needed to be dragged from the stage, this small child already
has the seeds of addiction within him, and perhaps he too will find his place
upon the refurbished Her Majesty’s stage.
And so the curtain falls and an
audience files out down the crowded aisle, bewitched, charmed and mesmerized by
the magical splendor of Meow Meow, lulled into a world of nostalgia by the
Orchester der kleinen Regiment under Jherek Bischoff and touched by the sweet
sound of the children, the future of the Grand Old Lady of Grote Street.
