Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Saturday 23rd June 2018.
In her final public appearance as the artistic director of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Ali McGregor hosted the
Winter Soulstice Closing Gala, a cavalcade of artists who have presented shows over the three weeks and are still in town. Why it was so titled is a good question, as it was not a concert of soul music, and it was two days after the winter solstice. What it turned out to be, though, was the Ali McGregor show, as she included herself in many of the guest's performances, and remained prominently onstage during the others.
Appearing in a voluminous dress and singing
Come on-a My House , written by the almost forgotten team of
Ross Bagdasarian and his cousin, Pulitzer Prize winner,
William Saroyan, and made famous by
Rosemary Clooney, she moved into a small set of a lounge room, with a chaise longue and a fireplace. Here, Eddie O'Bannon generated a few laughs as her alcoholic butler, later returning with a large group of local Irish dancers, which went down equally as well as a pint of Guinness.
The guest list was impressive.
Johanna Allen is always welcome, and always superb, and this was no exception, singing
Addicted to You. Trumpeter, Eric Santucci, stepped out from the orchestra to sing
That Old Black Magic, duetting with McGregor. He was one of those mentored in the Space to Create project for new artists. Andriano Cappeletta then turned to
Stevie Wonder's repertoire, for
If It's Magic.
Louise Fitzhardinge was also part of the Space to Create endeavour and drew laughs with a remarkable display, singing
It's a Wonderful World in several languages, including signing, switching between them randomly at the whim of selected audience members. A change in dynamics and Michaela Burger sang
Tall Poppy, a song from her show, A Migrant's Son, that remembers and honours her father's migration from Greece to Australia and establishing himself in a new land. Jason Kravitz then called on bassist, Alana Dawes, to set up a beat as he improvised lyrics based on an SMS message extracted from the phone of an audience member, chosen at random.
The comedy continued with Reba McIntyre singing
Does He Love You, or, at least
Amber Martin did, with her tongue jammed solidly into her cheek as she sends up both singer and song, joined by Michelle Brasier.
The Mission Songs Project brings together a wonderful quartet, consisting of Jessie Lloyd, Candice Lloyd, Jessica Hitchcock, and Deline Briscoe. They added another facet to the event. One more fascinating excursion was a short and stirring speech from the South Australian suffragette, Muriel Matters, brought to life by Joanne Hartstone from her play, That Daring Australian Girl.
Nosferatutu, the creation of Tommy Bradson, is a vampire who always wanted to be a ballet dancer, and Yana Alana has her show, Queen Kong (In Outer Space).He appeared first and she followed hot on his heels, marking a distinct change of direction back to the wild side of cabaret.
John Cameron Mitchell is behind the musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and he sang that old favourite,
Happy Days are Here Again, while McGregor juxtaposed it against her singing on
Get Happy.
Having used that tired old ploy of pretending the final guest had not turned up, in an effort to create excitement and anticipation, which fooled nobody, Sven Ratzke finally appeared, to be asked to sit on the chaise, giving rise to laughs as he engaged in some funny business, playing on the tightness of his trousers. The members of the Mission Songs quartet then returned to sing Yothu Yindi's song,
Treaty, with Ratzke, a duo of didgeridoos, Jamie Goldsmith and Harley Hall, and, of course, Ali McGregor, moving on to
Let's Dance, with the entire cast appearing for the final bows. The Cabaret Festival was, for all intents and purposes, over for another year.
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