Review: IT'S A SIN: SONGS OF LOVE AND SHAME – ADELAIDE CABARET FESTIVAL 2023 at Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Saturday 10th June 2023.

Helpmann Award winner, Michael Griffiths, is a regular and always welcome visitor to his hometown, Adelaide, and he is back again with a new show, premiering here, It’s a Sin: Songs of Love and Shame. Directed by another Helpmann Award winner, Dean Bryant, he is joined by violinist, Julian Ferraretto, and double bassist, Dylan Paul.

With their help, he revisits the pop songs of The Pet Shop Boys, from the 1980s and 90s, when he was growing into adulthood, and coming out as gay or, as he prefers, queer. He opened the performance, of course, with It’s a Sin, written by Neil Tennant, as were all of the songs in the show. He takes us right back to his early childhood, when he was aware of not being quite like the other boys, but not yet aware of why. Griffiths is a wonderful storyteller, injecting humour into every line.

The musical arrangements are superb, with Dylan Paul providing some very melodic bass lines, and Julian Ferraretto creating ethereal and atmospheric sounds, with great use of harmonics. They coax such rich music from their instruments that Griffiths is able to leave the piano and sing to just the two of them. He, of course, is an excellent pianist, and the three together provide some remarkable music.

Having been popular at primary school, he recalls, turning twelve, being sent to a high school that put an emphasis on contact sports, and trying to become invisible to avoid bullying. At the same time, AIDS was on the rise, which added to the fear of gay men. A brief attempt at heterosexuality clarified his attraction to other boys. Neil Tennant’s songs punctuated the narrative at salient points. His time living on the streets will have you in fits of laughter.

Things improved when he began to study music at the Flinders Street School of Music, the place where I began my own formal musical studies. There, he met a young piano student named Daryl. I met a violist named Joy. There was something about that place.

Next, he was off to WAAPA, the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts, to study for a degree in musical theatre. Daryl soon followed him. Then, it was Sydney, seeking work as an actor. Daryl went, too. Perhaps now best known for his cabaret performances, he still occasionally works as an actor, giving a wonderful performance not long ago in the State Theatre Company of South Australia’s production of The Normal Heart.

His story continued, bringing us up to today, but what I have told here is a mere skeleton. For the full details, and the rest of the tale, you’ll have to hope he returns with this show, and buy a ticket. It was, unfortunately, here for one night only.

Photography, Claudio Raschella.