BRONYA'S VARIETY HOUR ADELAIDE CABARET FESTIVAL 2019

Bronya’s Variety Hour with Julia Zemiro.

 

World Premiere. Adelaide exclusive. The 11 o’clock Number The Famous Spiegeltent.Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Adelaide Festival Centre June 13-15 2019.

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

Bronja, Chauntese Rose and Yana Alana in Bronja's Variety Hour

 

It’s a  triple treat at the Famous Spiegeltent, when Bronya, the Siren of Sarajevo,joins with the Sophie Tucker of Cabaret, Yana Alana and Chanteuse Rose, the singer who can shatter crystal with a single note’ to bring late night revelers an  alcohol infused variety hour.of spontaneity and fun.

This is the cabaret of a broken world, battered and bruised by Brexit, broken relationships( If I should stay I would only be in your way) and  bad, bad weather (Thunder only happens when it’s raining). It’s anarchic. It’s rough and rude  (Musical director Mark Scott gets risqué and downright crude with the Dildo song). It’s angry with Yana Alana’s  The day I met you is the day I bought a knife!” In true cabaret tradition, sex and politics swing along under the Spiegeltent chandelier. Bronya (Julia Zemiro) plays the svelte  host – casual and East European cool in contrast to the volcanic Yana Alana (Sarah Ward).Here is a  performer ready to take the cabaret world by storm. What  the slight Chanteuse Rose (Mikaela Burger) may lack in size she sure makes up in stature with a voice to swamp the space with her song.

Bronya is the hostess with the mostest- a pillar of Slavonic poise. Zemiro warms to the role although I felt that a busy festival schedule may have impinged on rehearsal for a performer who had not revived her alter ego for a while. Playing cabaret role and host can be difficult and tomorrow night should see the balance right.

Kaye Tuckerman

This is a variety night, and Bronya is ready to spring some surprises. Force to be reckoned with Kaye Tuckerman arrives with her accompanist and musical director John Thorn to bring her brand of New York defiance to the Spiegeltent as a taster for her full length cabaret performance Broadway Bound (but not gagged). Nothing could tie this lady down. Steely Tuckerman lets everyone know that You’ve got to get up every morning with a smile on your face. It’s what Tuckerman does best- takes Carol King;’s Beautiful and turns it inside out like a subway train coming in to the station. She and Alana prove that they know how to get angry, kick balls and kick arse.

Gunhild Carling knows how to kick arse a la swing. In a flapper outfit with tassles swaying, Carling and her musicians let loose on the Spiegeltent stage. She puts her lips to the trombone and lets blast with a jazz sound while swinging her body into a frenzied tap. With the energy of a young Ginger Rogers and the abandon of a possessed Josephine Baker, Carning is sheer octane. Sweden’s Queen of Swing and her five piece band is an act to have you swinging along to the sound of the Thirties

Gunhild Carling

In a chorus of unity, Bronya, Yana Alana with Frack Off emblazoned across her front and Chanteuse Rose join together with I Will Always Love You , inviting the crowd to “be a joiner” in their cry for power to the people. And all power to Bronya’s Variety Hour. There’s more to life than Brexit and Bronya’s back to bring power back to the people - and fabulous guests to her quirky cabaret