The bizarre meets the macabre and the maudlin in The Broken Mill. Through original song, storytelling and mime, six performers and four band members tell the tale of the manipulative and murderous Mama (Sarah Wall). She has taken in the destitute and disenfranchised and pulled together a cabaret involving misfits and mould breakers. Some are convinced she…
Va-va-voom! What a talent Chris Burgess is. The young man studying honours in musical theatre at the Victorian College of the Arts is a star in the making if Lennox: Legend in my Living Room is anything to go by. He is an entertainer extraordinaire with a strong and powerful voice and a confident persona, combining Annie Lennox (of…
Bigger & Blacker begins with Steven Oliver’s iconic line from ABC’s Black Comedy. It is appropriate, given that the Cloncurry-born writer and actor is probably best-known for his sketch performances in the fast-paced, provocative and bold foray into race relations. However, as his autobiographical comedy cabaret shows, there is much more to this self-proclaimed faboriginal…
Surviving the hardships inflicted by the Nazis on Jewish ghettos during the Holocaust was a perilous proposition at best. Some played music and staged plays while interned to maintain a level of normality. The Ghetto Cabaret pays tribute to the fighting spirit of the Jews in those turbulent times. Galit Klas (who is also one…
When The Little Red Theatre Company first bought Lady Beatle to La Boite, the show soon became one of my favourites of 2017. And from the moment Naomi Price bursts forth with “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” it’s clear the tradition will continue with its return to Brisbane. Her appropriate dress of military-style jacket,…
Take 21 of Tom Lehrer’s most irreverent songs and put them into a one-hour revue and you have the makings of a delightful evening with Tomfoolery at Gasworks in Albert Park, part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival. An American singer-songwriter and satirist, Lehrer’s turn of phrase is spectacular; his satire twisted. Cameron Mackintosh and Robin…
Worst Little Warehouse is a funny, risqué and frenzied ode to housemates. Based on a true story, the cabaret’s inspiration was what happened to real-life couple – writer/performers Lala Barlow and Robbie Smith – while living in a converted warehouse in North London. Struggling with exorbitant rents and the city’s ongoing housing crisis, the pair…
Twenty new shows feature in the 9th annual Melbourne Cabaret Festival. Under the artistic direction of Dolly Diamond (for the second consecutive year), the festival is on right now at Chapel off Chapel, and runs until 1 July. Note that each show has only a small number of performances. The festival includes musical acts straddling…
On stage in her cabaret show 39 Forever, Amity Dry is funny and empowered. It’s hard to believe that back in 2003 this versatile performer shot to prominence in the first season of The Block. Now on a fun girls’ night out (with a few new age sensitive guys in tow), Amity charms us with…
A super clown act and an extraordinarily nimble pole dancer are among the highlights of the burlesque-style Cabaret de Paris. It showcases bejewelled dancers in skimpy and elegant attire, headlined by a former star of Paris’s Moulin Rouge, Marissa Burgess. Best known as the spiritual birthplace of the modern can-can, Moulin Rouge has been a drawcard…
