THE 2007 ADELAIDE CABARET FESTIVAL
THE FINAL WEEK


Reported by Bill Stephens

The final week of the 2007 Adelaide Cabaret Festival offered almost an embarrassment of riches, not the least of which were opportunities to hear Maude Maggart, in her first Australian performances, and to attend a master class with Michael Feinstein.

Naturally, I started off my week with Maude Maggart. Earlier in the week I had recorded an interview with Maude for my radio program, and was keen hear her perform.

What a revelation! Appearing out of a purple haze, astonishingly beautiful in a sophisticated little black cocktail dress, she commenced her program with an intensely focused reading of the Mitchell Parrish/Peter De Rose classic Deep Purple which she followed with I Can't Get Started (Ira Gershwin/ Vernon Duke) and Let's Begin (Oscar Hammerstein/Vernon Duke) .

Superbly accompanied by Lanny Meyers on the baby grand, her honey warm voice, careful attention to the lyric, and meticulous phrasing, held us captivated as she worked her way through a repertoire of classic cabaret songs, many rarely heard these days. You Go To My Head, Prelude To A Kiss, I Hadn't Anyone Till You, and even Joan Baez's Love Song To A Stranger seemed suddenly new and fresh again.

Between songs, Maggart shared stories of her parents and grandparents, (all entertainers), and of a childhood spent attending parties frequented by famous songwriters. She revealed a distinctly playful side with a song associated with Helen Kane I Want To Be Bad and another, which had originally been banned, How Could Red Riding Hood have been so Good and Still Keep the Wolf From the Door?".

Her respect and passion for the songs was clearly evident, and as I hurried on to my next program I couldn't help thinking that while ever there are young singers of the calibre of Maude Maggart and Tony DeSare continuing to emerge, the future of cabaret, as we know and love it, is in safe hands.

Ruth Rogers-Wright is a British singer currently living in Australia. Her program "Fabulous Diva" was a tribute to the music of Nina Simone. While Rogers-Wright was certainly equipped with the appearance, phrasing and tonal quality to call up memories of the original, her singing was much more internal and lacked connection with the audience, a necessary requirement for a good cabaret performer.

No such problem with Caroline Nin, a glamorous long-legged French chanteuse who had been such a hit at the 2005 Adelaide Cabaret Festival. This year Nin brought two programs to the festival. The first , "Hymne A Piaf", I had seen in 2005 so chose to forgo it in favour of her new program, "Marlene", which was being premiered at the 2007 ACF.

Accompanied by pianist Christopher Culpo and bassist Tim Bowen, Nin was totally successful in conveying, through her songs, the eroticism and sexual ambiguity of Marlene Dietrich during her time in Nazi-occupied Paris during World War 11. Costumed in white tuxedo and slacks, and incorporating film clips and minimal narration, Nin, used her own idiosyncratic arrangements of the familiar Dietrich repertoire, to present a surprisingly effective evocation of the mystic that was Marlene.

Once the possessor of an impressive tenor voice, Peter Brockelhurst was discovered mending shoes in suburban Melbourne at age 40. After enjoying considerable success on the back of a television documentary, Brockelhurst disappeared from the public eye.

His reappearance at the 2007 Adelaide Cabaret Festival created considerable interest and attracted full houses to both his scheduled performances. His show however turned out to be a harrowing staged reading by well-known actress, Kerry Armstrong, as his sister, detailing the circumstances which lead to Brockelhurst's withdrawal, during which Brockelhurst sang passages from familiar arias, displaying the voice which now clearly showed signs of damage. While possibly brave and cathartic for Brockelhurst, I found the relentlessly slow moving presentation a confronting and ultimately depressing experience.

No time to be depressed for long though, because my next show was the irrepressible and gorgeous Meow Meow, one of the hits of the 2006 festival, returning with a new show "Beyond Glamour".

Meow Meow enters the room late, and in no time has members of the audience carrying her bags, helping with her costume changes, and even manhandling her around the stage, all the time singing tantalising snippets of German, French and American cabaret songs. She sets an alarm clock to warn her when her contracted hour is up, even stopping in the middle of an impressive rendition of Surabaya Johnny, delivered on top of a table in the middle of the audience, to dash back to the stage to rewind the alarm, resuming the song without so much as a bat of her extravagant eye-lashes. Clever, funny and superbly performed, hers is an act which, at the same time, wittily deconstructs and re-invents notions of cabaret.

A British performer who also pushes the boundaries, and who appeared in the 2006 ACF with great success, is Christopher Green a talented character actor and comedy writer. As Tina C, a long-legged supermodel from Nashville, Green this year combined with indigenous country music artist, Auriel Andrew to present a new show Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word.

I wasn't able to catch this show, but did get to see another of his programs My Life as Someone Else, in which he moved away from his popular characters, Tina C and Ida Barr, to perform a range of material as himself. Performing in simple T-Shirt and slacks, Green performed familiar song standards as well as some rarities, linked by witty patter commenting on anything from wigs to weddings. The show offered a revealing, sometimes moving glimpse at the man behind the masks.

Also offering witty insights was pianist/comedian, Phil Scott, a pixie-of-a-man whose brilliance at the piano is almost overshadowed by his hilarious point songs and sharp topical patter. His flashy Condoleeza Rag was one of the highpoints of an act that is seriously brilliant.

With a career which spans four decades, a powerful voice and wicked sense of humour, Margret RoadKnight is un-arguably Australia's finest blues singer. To present her "Tribute to the Blues Mamas", RoadKnight teamed with fellow blues singer, Lil'Fi, five times voted "Best Female" at the Australian Blues Music Awards.

Backed by piano, keyboards and guitar they presented a thoroughly entertaining and informative program which traversed a variety of blues styles, and singers of the ilk of Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Big Mamma Thornton and Koko Taylor in a program presented with the stamp of authenticity and engaging in its informality. Among several shows specially commissioned for the cabaret festival was "Licence to Thrill: The Scores of James Bond" which celebrated the music of the James Bond movies. Amusingly hosted by New Zealander, Alan Brough, together with a powerhouse trio of glamorous singers, Kaye Tuckerman, Wendy Stapleton and Monique Montez, and a brassy 10 piece band, "Licence to Thrill" proved a crowd pleaser with its attractive musical arrangements of the James Bond themes and songs including Diamonds are Forever, From Russia With Love, Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and You Only Live Twice.

An ambitious attempt by Kim Spargo and her five piece backing band to conjure up memories of the late Eva Cassidy, with her act "Eva: The Music of Eva Cassidy" included much of the familiar Cassidy repertoire. Fields of Gold, I love You Like Never Before, Sea of Gold and the inevitable Over the Rainbow. All were all faithfully enough reproduced, but the act was very much a work in progress, in need of the services of an experienced director to allow it to reach its full potential.

"Eva: The Music of Eva Cassidy" was not the only act which suffered from this deficiency, however. After putting so much work into the musical arrangements it is a shame that many potentially good acts are marred by poor staging, inappropriate and poorly delivered connecting dialogue, and a lack of attention to detail. All things that any good director could so easily correct.

The final day of the festival arrived all too quickly, and for me it started with the Michael Feinstein masterclass. This final masterclass of the festival attracted a large audience who watched attentively as Mr. Feinstein took three experienced professional singers, Kaye Tuckerman, Monique Montez and Mark Duggett through their paces, commenting on performances and tactfully offering suggestions. At the end of the session he delighted the audience by singing Gershwin's "Isn't It a Pity".

Then it was on to the Dunstan Playhouse for second rehearsed reading of a new musical presented during the festival in the "Nearly Ready" series. Today it was the turn of "The Beauty Spot" by David Young, and the performance had drawn a capacity audience of nearly 500 interested onlookers.

With the composer, David W. Young, at the piano, and the backing of a snappy three piece orchestra, the strong cast of seven professional actors, who had been rehearsing for just a week, under the direction of Darren Yap, presented a polished performance of the 2 1/2 hour musical.

Set in a beauty salon, "The Beauty Spot" has a delightfully farcical plotline focusing on universal themes of friendship and honesty. The score is tuneful and contains several attractive tunes, and received clever, committed performances from the cast who included Johanna Allen, Melissa McCaig and Cherie Boogaart.

The final major event of the 2007 Adelaide Cabaret Festival was a concert by Michael Feinstein which drew a capacity crown to the 2000 seat Festival Theatre. Superbly backed by the Adelaide Art Orchestra, lead by his own musical director, Albie Berk, Michael Feinstein presented a generous and wide ranging concert which included Moondance, Old Friends, Losing my Mind, My Romance and of course I Love and Piano and Alexander's Ragtime Band all of which he introduced with witty, candid and informative comments, building up an easy rapport with his audience. The second half of his program was mainly devoted to the music of the Gershwins of which Mr. Feinstein is a superlative exponent.

By the end of the evening the audience was reluctant to let him leave the stage, however he managed to take his leave gracefully with a moving version of I'd Rather Leave While I'm in Love and a standing ovation.

Following the concert Mr. Feinstein was recalled to the stage, where Festival Director, Julia Holt, presented him with the inaugural Cabaret Creme Award in recognition of his services to cabaret.

Over its 16 days duration, the 2007 Adelaide Cabaret festival racked up 48,0000 attendances for some 180 performances, 67 of which were sold out. 17 of the shows presented at the festival were premieres. The festival included 4 well-attended masterclasses by Jeremy Sams, Philip Quast and Michael Feinstein, and workshopped and presented semi-staged performances of two new original musicals.

In the seven years since it was established, The Adelaide Cabaret Festival has made great strides in redefining the boundaries of cabaret and has become a mecca for cabaret artists and enthusiasts from around the world. I suggest you mark off the 6 - 21st June 2008 in your diary and make your way to Adelaide for the 2008 Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

Bill Stephens

Full Details of the 2007 Adelaide Cabaret Festival program can be found at http://www.adelaidecabaretfeastival.com/ .

Reported by Bill Stephens



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