4th Annual Sydney Cabaret Convention
Fourth Night - Friday, June 30, 2000
Sydney Town Hall: Sydney, Australia

As has been the case every year, this is the night that tests the stamina of the cabaret lovers who have attended each night. After three nights of solid music-making, there is always the danger that energy will flag and that I will not give the artists the attention they deserve. Before I speak of this evening's performers, let me review some of the things I have learned (and re-learned) about presentations of acts in the Cabaret Convention showcase.

Over the past three nights, there have been some noteworthy performers, but they have often been let down by a combination of inappropriate material and performance difficulties. Tonight followed this trend of mixed blessings. Let me detail some of these difficulties in terms of the pitfalls I have discussed before.

The first pitfall, the recycling of material for Convention presentations that is/was currently or recently in other productions ("bleeding chunks") was in evidence again this evening on at least four occasions, with predictable results: "Shrinking Violence" (Emma-Jay Campbell and Michelle Lane), Pamela Shaw, "The 2K Special" (Keith Kempis and Krysia Mansfield) and "Are You Calling Me Fat" (Adam Champion and Lisa Adams). In the first three cases, the telling moment when performers "lost" their audience was in making the crucial transition between songs. In the fourth case, the performance piece was so eccentric and so at odds with cabaret that it was hard to understand its context or meaning.

The second pitfall, working with canned music, occurred only once during this year's Cabaret Convention with the act called "Are You Calling Me Fat." I previously suggested that pre-recorded music does not allow performers to "work the moment" and leaves the audience feeling as if they are watching a living video clip. This was what occurred with this team of dancer/performers. Though the sound track itself was highly imaginative, their performance was something we watched, but could not connect with. Given the provocative nature of the piece -- a modern version of the old Apache dance with a post-modern, "battle of the sexes" twist in which both partners take a beating ù it is difficult to know how it could have worked in terms of cabaret. That said, it was a highly creative effort. It is interesting to note that the same sort of debate about such "mixed formats" recently took place when CONTACT, a performance work with pre-recorded music, was classified as a musical.

Pitfall three deals with that species of singer often found in barroom sing-alongs: "belters." As everyone knows, these folks love to make a big noise. On occasion that sound can be exciting, even beautiful, but it does not often suit cabaret where story-telling is essential. When I find myself admiring the voice, I know I have missed the story of the song; I am disengaging. The adage that "more is often less" could have been written about the "belter." This evening, two of the performers (Jayne Montague and Annie Francis) allowed their powerful voices to overwhelm the lyric, detracting from the total effect. Montague, as part of her act, performed a medley of Harold Arlen tunes with scarcely a variation in the dynamic, reaching for every climax. I totally missed the point of what she was trying to say or do. Annie Francis, performed the Bobby Darrin hit "As Long As I'm Singin' My Song" and the Kander and Ebb ballad "Maybe This Time" (from CABARET). In both cases, she sang with lots of beautiful tone and little variation in output level. This is the sort of performance that is expected in clubs or cruise ships, but is not very effective in cabaret.

Following on from what I have written about the "belters" is the matter of nuance (light and shade) in an act and the skill it takes to create variation in a set of songs without making the shift of gears too obvious. This evening, several performers, in addition to Jayne Montague and Annie Francis (who did not even attempt to make a transition between her songs), had difficulty in making this move between numbers smoothly. Pamela Shaw opened with a well-gauged performance of Jason Robert Brown's "Stars And Moon" (SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD), but then, with virtually no transition moved into a very strident rendition of David Friedman's "A Simple Christmas Wish." Other than demonstrating her ability to do comedy, what was Ms. Shaw trying to accomplish?

I have not previously mentioned singers in this Cabaret Convention who performed with their eyes closed (pitfall five), choosing to follow the adage of "if you don't have anything good to say, then say nothing." Cabaret is about telling your story, not talking to yourself. When a singer closes their eyes, they seem to be denying us some opportunity to share in the emotion of the moment. Tonight, however, Jayne Montague must be singled out for falling into this trap. I suspect that the many singers who performed with closed eyes are emulating "sincerity." Unfortunately, the outcome is quite the opposite.

In previous reviews of this Convention, I have written about problems associated with "performing" or play-acting for part or all of a cabaret set. In Andrea Marcovicci's words, cabaret performance is about stripping down to bare-bones essentials: dealing as honestly as possible with real-life truths, being vulnerable and out on a limb as YOURSELF. To "perform" a role creates separateness, not communion. Connection with those of us in the darkness will not occur otherwise. During this convention, we have been treated to a wide-ranging array of play-acting: performers pretending to be drunk, men dressed as women, a woman dressed as a female impersonator, a girl at Mass being converted to a rock star before our very eyes, singers pretending to be country and western singers. Tonight, only one set of "actors" was in evidence: The 2K Special. This was a one-joke act about how the singer tries to eat organically-grown foods while being tempted with chocolate by her accompanist. The set-up was too long and complicated to be funny or engaging.

Among the evening's acts, two performers, Jackie Rees and Avigail Herman, acquitted themselves particularly well. Both women managed to create coherent acts with varying degrees of success in spite of the fact that their material was selected from existing acts. Ms. Herman opened her set with a sparkling rendition of George and Ira Gershwin's "Little Jazz Bird" (from LADY BE GOOD), demonstrating her jazz "chops" with some stunning high register work. She followed this with a very emotional performance of Flaherty and Ahrens' haunting ballad "Your Daddy's Son" (from RAGTIME). Though her singing was technically faultless, the rendition of the second song seemed too emotional and intense, given what preceded it. Additionally, though her "glue" between the songs was understandable it was difficult for me to "feel" the transition between the two songs. A bit better than the previous examples of a set with only one good song; in this case, Ms. Herman needed to better clarify the reason for "marrying" these two excellent pieces.

The singular crowd-pleaser of the evening was Jackie Rees. Taking as her theme the difficulties of falling in love unwisely, she presented the deliciously witty song "Much More Married" by Dillie Keane and Adele Anderson (of "Fascinating Aida" fame) and cleverly followed it up with Harburg and Arlen's ballad of a lover's disillusionment, "Down With Love." If any criticism were to be made it would concern Rees' decision to copy the well-known Streisand arrangement of the second number (as heard on the "Second Barbra Streisand Album") instead of creating her own version of it. Otherwise, the pairing of the two songs was great and met with loud approval from the audience.

While the judges huddled to decide who the five finalists were to be for the three Convention prizes, we were entertained with the last of the special guests: David Campbell. This "prodigal son" of Australian cabaret has just returned from the USA following performances throughout that country at all the major cabaret venues, including the prestigious Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel. In addition, he appeared in the USA premiere run of Stephen Sondheim's first musical, SATURDAY NIGHT, appeared in the Encore production of BABES IN ARMS and was recently awarded a MAC award for his collaboration with composer John Bucchino (in a show which both he and Bucchino performed in a sort of "out-of-town tryout" here in Sydney and Melbourne, prior to doing it in NYC). Looming high in Campbell's future plans is a performance here in Sydney with Barbara Cook for the Olympic Arts Festival in September 2000.

Campbell has recently spoken of a career shift with plans to focus his singing activities on popular music. Tonight this very gifted singer, in collaboration with Phil Scott, his superb musical director, performed a generous set of 10 songs, lasting nearly 45 minutes and gave us ample opportunity to hear how he is positioning himself for this change in performance emphasis. The songs, though mostly familiar staples of Campbell's repertoire, sounded more hard-edged, insistent and driving this evening as he pranced, stomped and, on occasion, danced around the small stage like a sort of genteel, tranquilized Mick Jagger.

The set began rather like a 60's club act, with Newley and Bricusse's "Once In My Lifetime," followed by a variety of popular standards, such as "Old Devil Moon" from FINIAN'S RAINBOW (Lane and Harburg), Frank Loesser's "Brotherhood of Man" from HOW TO SUCCEED, "Come Rain Or Come Shine" from ST LOUIS WOMAN (Arlen and Mercer), and the Elvis Presley hit "Jail House Rock" (Lieber and Stoller). Even his performance of Rodgers and Hart's great BABES IN ARMS ballad "Where Or When" seemed to take on a new urgency that robbed the song of its gentle romance. As if to truly cement his credentials as a big band singer firmly into place, Campbell performed "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" (George Cory and Douglas Cross) as a vocal impersonation of Tony Bennett. Amusing as this was, there was more than a hint of earnestness in the performance. It was certainly no coincidence that Campbell closed his performance with the Don Walker ballad "It Will Always Be You," an homage to his father, the Australian rock singer Jimmy Barnes, and the band Cold Chisel The audience loved the set, but there was more than a little irony in the fact that this elegant young performer seemed to be farewelling his career as a cabaret artist at this Cabaret Convention.

The real finale of the night came with the announcement of the names of the five finalists to be considered for the Convention prizes, all of whom would be performing again at the final night's Gala Cabaret Evening. The two groups (WIT and What's New Pussycat) were clearly in contention for the newly established Corporate Gold Award, given the fact that the first and second prizes were restricted to the traditional vocal performer. This left the other three finalists as contenders for the top prizes: Craig Schneider, Jackie Rees and Annie Francis. That last nomination caused some surprise among the crowd because of this young woman's relative lack of experience.

With the naming of these finalists, the last evening of the Showcase portion of the Sydney Cabaret Convention came to a close, leaving us with more questions than answers. What was the criteria for judging who made the final "cut"? Certainly, Annie Francis has a large and beautiful voice, but her lack of finesse and interpretive skills in performance made her an unlikely choice when compared to some of the others who performed, but were not named.

The even larger question is why there is a need for making this a contest or talent quest in the first place. Does this element of competition really make the Convention more interesting? Is the cause of cabaret in Australia being advanced with such prize-giving? Though the winners would be announced tomorrow night, it was entirely possible that the questions would not be laid to rest. Meanwhile I was looking forward to the learning experience of attending one of the really superb sessions of this Convention tomorrow afternoon: the Cabaret Masterclass conducted by Kerrie Biddell, one of the great Australian vocalist/teachers. Perhaps listening to more young artists would put into perspective a number of the questions I had been asking myself throughout this week.

David M Schwartz

Day Five of the 2000 Sydney Cabaret Convention

Daily Reports on the 2000 Sydney Cabaret Convention

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