She’s never been averse to adding strings to her bow, so to discover that national treasure and much-loved songbird, Kate Ceberano is the curator of this year’s Adelaide Cabaret Festival should come as no great surprise.
What does surprise, however, having just spent a weekend up to my eyeballs in cabaret in the city of churches, is the calibre of artists she has assembled — and the enthusiasm with which Adelaid-eans receive them.
“I would take a bullet for any one of these artists,” Kate tells The Weekly before the Good Lady Wife (GLW) and I sit down for our first show. “We’ve become like family, and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Much has been made of the headline acts bookending this festival: the pint-sized powerhouse that is Kristen Chenoweth (from Broadway’s Wicked and TV’s Glee) and the human octave that is Idina Menzel (from Broadway’s Wicked and TV’s Glee … is there a motif here?). But it’s really the acts that buttress these two performers and fill out the comprehensive two-week program who are deserving of special mention. Or, as this year’s festival tagline puts it: “what lies beneath”.
Scratch beneath the surface of this year’s festival and you discover a songbook’s worth of torch songs, a vaguely naughty streak and a wealth of both international and home-grown talent. In essence, a little bit of something for everyone.
Easily the highlight of my festival weekend was the magnificent Ms Catherine Alcorn. She’s a Sydney lass and relative newcomer to the world of cabaret, but her bravura performance in Go Your Own Way — a nifty piece of musical theatre about the life of Christine McVie (songwriter, keyboardist and lesser known female member of Fleetwood Mac) — had the audience on its feet and screaming for more.
Kate Ceberano
The tunes are catchy, the book is witty and Alcorn, with one deft swing of the cabaret stick, used her festival performance to announce herself as a young talent whose star is very much on the ascent.
All the way from New York, the wilfully wicked Joey Arias delighted festival goers with his own, unique take on the cabaret genre. Described by Time Out New York as a “demi-god of the demi-monde”, Joey has a sublime voice and a vaguely sinister on-stage presence. Supported by jazz piano virtuoso Charly Zastrau — whose arrangements on songs as diverse as Summertime and Madonna’s Holiday have to be heard to be believed — Arias terrified and delighted in equal measure as he strutted about the stage in stripper heels.
On the subject of vertiginous heels, Aussie cabaret siren, Meow Meow continues her international tour de force with a fiery show at this year’s festival.
It’s camp, it’s slapstick, it’s vaudevillean — all of which make it thoroughly entertaining to watch. But you still leave wondering if her soaring vocals have somehow gotten lost in the theatre of it all.
Notable too was the performance by the greater population of Adelaide — who appear to turn out in force for the festival — ready to sample anything. They clearly love a festival down Adelaide way, which creates for a great, festive atmosphere right throughout the city.
Determined to counter-balance the cabaret with a hearty meal, the GLW and I scooted up into the Adelaide Hills for a flying visit and a lazy, fireside lunch in historic Hahndorf (which may or may not have been rounded off with a cheeky bag of Fruchocs — a South Australian chocolate delicacy, or so I am told). Wending through the vineyards and back down Norton Summit towards the city in the late afternoon sunshine was just beautiful.
Perhaps the most striking impression we left with after a weekend at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival was just how many extremely accomplished musicians we have in this country.
If the various stages of the festival were commanded by the larger-than-life performers who strutted upon them, the real heroes were the pianists, guitar players, drummers and bass players — nimble, melodic and deeply talented to a person.
Did I mention the Fruchocs?
The Adelaide Cabaret Festival runs until June 23. For info see: www.adelaidecabaret.com
