Review: EDDIE PERFECT: INTROSPECTIVE – ADELAIDE CABARET FESTIVAL 2021 at Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Friday 18th June 2021.

Eddie Perfect: Introspective is a look back at his recent work, mostly covering the two years that he spent in America writing the scores for Beetlejuice: The Musical, The Musical, The Musical, and King Kong: Alive on Broadway. For all but the final number, he was superbly accompanied by two higly skilled musicians, Anitta Quayle, on 'cello, and Xani Kolac, on violin.

He opened the performance with Putting Out the Bin, a song from his musical, Vivid White, explaining his feeling of success after surreptitiously putting his excess rubbish in a neighbour's garbage bin. If anyone had ever been in doubt, this confirmed that there would be plenty of comedy along with the music and stories.

COVID-19 and quarantine, here and in New York, of course, came into his storytelling, which also covered the failures and successes that are found in the life of any creative artist. He paints a broad canvas.

Lydia's song, Dead Mom, from the musical, Beetlejuice, has proved popular with a multitude of YouTube performers, and will register with anybody who has lost somebody close. Death's Not Great, written as an opening for the musical, didn't make it to the stage, which seems a shame, but we had a chance to hear what audiences missed.

He returned to his musical, Vivid White and, following a New York anecdote, sang Rescue Dog, humorously warning that there can be drawbacks to adopting one. He then spoke of his early realisation that King Kong was going to be a flop, before returning to Beetlejuice. Written for Charles Deetz, Lydia's father, A Little More of Your Time was another song that didn't make it. This, too, was a shame but, I suppose, one can only fit so many songs into a show. The Beetlejuice opening night reviews were not outstanding. That's hard to believe, now.

He decided to write a musical about a Shakespearean actor who finally snaps and decides to kill all critics, singing Death to the Critic. He asked if there were any critics in the audience, but I kept silent. Better safe than sorry. I detected an intriguing sense of Klezmer in Xani Kolac's violin line during this number.

Another anecdote followed, about the myriad fledging starlings that perish every year. The song leading from that began with only 'cello and violin, and I couldn't help imagining the second violin and viola parts that would have turned it into a fine string quartet.

With the rather mediocre reviews for Beetlejuice, people were not expecting anything, so everybody involved was thrilled to receive eight Tony nominations, including one for Best Score. Their three-minute performance slot at the awards was uploaded to YouTube and, as they say, went viral, resulting in sold out performances, right up until COVID-19 closed Broadway on 12th March 2020. There was also massive distribution of the cast album. So much for the opening night reviews.

While in Australia, he was asked to write a promotional song to encourage disgruntled Britons, weary of the disaster known as Brexit, to visit Australia. He was then asked to make many changes to the song that he submitted. Extolling all of the virtues of the country, it was sung by Kylie Minogue. It's all about timing. When it went to air, in December 1919, it was panned because, at that time, much of Australia was on fire, the Prime Minister had abandoned the country and gone to Hawaii for a holiday, and his government is still refusing to acknowledge the existence and effects of climate change.

Called, simply, Australia, Eddie Perfect sang it, with the original humorous lyrics, as his closing song for the evening. This was the one number that didn't have the 'cello and violin accompaniment.

Once again, Eddie Perfect has given us a well-conceived performance, filled with interesting stories, insights, and observations, many laughs, and some great songs. There is one more performance on Saturday 19th June. If it is not already sold out, be quick to book a ticket.