HANS Disco
Spektakular.
Canberra
Theatre Centre Playhouse.
Performance
on August 30th reviewed by BILL
STEPHENS.
Definitely
spektakular, potty-mouthed and very likeable, Hans is perhaps Adelaide’s most awarded local performing artist, having
recently been crowned with that city’s most prestigious performing arts
accolade, the 2023 Adelaide Cabaret Festival Icon Award.
The
alter-ego of Sunday Mail gossip columnist Matt Gilbertson, Hans is now sharing
himself with the rest of Australia with this extensive tour.
Hans is used
to Awards having been a grand finalist in America’s Got Talent: The Champions
2020; his trophy cabinet is crammed with Best Cabaret awards, among them, from
the Edinburgh Festival and numerous Adelaide Fringe Festivals.
If you
overlook his star turn at a Parliament House Midwinter Ball, where he claims he
earned the ire of Bob Katter, his appearance at the Playhouse last night was
his first Canberra performance for which he attracted an enthusiastic audience
consisting, surprisingly, not of the expected glitter brigade, but
overwhelmingly, of middle-aged women, some of whom, who he quickly dubbed as
his Pussy Posse, claimed to have travelled from as far afield as Goulburn and
Yass.
Though not
quite as spectacular as the pre-publicity had intimated, “Hans Disco
Spektakular” never-the-less boasted an impressive setting involving flashing
disco lights and constantly- changing colourful geometric projections,
dominated, centre-stage, by a shiny electronic baby-grand piano, which Hans
would later use to display his impressive pianistic skills with a disco version
of Mozart’s “Rondo Alla Turca”.
A montage of
video footage of his many triumphs, including his appearances on “America’s Got
Talent”, and his highly publicised accident a year ago, when he fell from the
stage during a performance on a cruise ship, heralded his entrance.
No evidence
of the serious injuries suffered in that fall was noticeable in his performance,
for which, apart from a short interval, for the next two hours he never left
the stage, except for lightning costume changes, each costume more glittery and
garish than the last.
In between performing
a succession of high-energy disco songs, like “Enough is Enough”, “Boogie Woogie Man” and “You Got the Motion”,
with which he demonstrated his terpsichorean skills, flanked by two
hard-working, energetic singer/dancers, Maddie McArthur and Rachel Vidoni, he also displayed , apart from his
piano-playing, a variety of accomplishments, included bell-ringing with “Ring
My Bell”, hand tap-dancing (you have to see that for yourself), and his
piano-according prowess with a terrific medley of Australian songs played as
German drinking songs.
It was a
pity therefore that he also spent an inordinate amount of time engaging with
audience members. Sometimes this was entertaining, as when he inveigled two
males in the audience to dress in disco
costumes, but elsewhere this chit-chat, heavily laced with the ‘F’ word, soon became
repetitive and tedious, giving the distinct impression that what could have
been a tight 90 minute show was being unnecessarily padded out. Whereas, even
though he declared his disdain for a script early in the show perhaps some well selected
jokes might have served his reputation for wittiness better.
Following an
uproarious finale, for which audiences members were invited onto the stage to
join in the dancing, while huge balloons were floated around the auditorium,
and some generous encores, Hans still had enough energy to pose for selfies
with enthusiastic fans in the foyer as the rest of the audience filed out.
This review first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 31st August 2023.
