Posted by MiriamK in Cabaret
Floozy June (Charlotte Mudge), love-cynic Jean (Bronwyn Gell) and desperate-housewife Joan (Rachael Kirkham) Geiger, are three sisters who, ably supported by their ever-enthusiastic (and possibly intoxicated) cousin Gertie (Carol Young), present an evening radio show in the years following WWII. As the studio audience, we get to see what goes on, both on and off air, the night the radio station is sold and the girl’s careers are on the line.
The key element to the radio show is music and, accompanied by Gertie, the sisters sing about life, love and their world. All four performers have strong voices and while combining on several songs to create attractive harmonies, accurately reminiscent of the time, they are also given the opportunity to shine individually with feature numbers. In addition, the physical action, which could easily be left by the wayside in a radio based piece, provides much amusement and showcases the performers’ talents.
The overarching structure of the show works well; enabling both a continuing plotline to run throughout while also providing opportunities for amusing individual sketches. The Life and Times of Fanny Mac is one such piece; a radio play, complete with coconut horse hooves and some truly hilarious one-liners. Other highlights include the various advertisements smattered throughout, particularly those for the major sponsor, Dr Cardwell’s All Purpose Elixir, and that beloved Aussie icon, the Hills Hoist.
This is a well constructed and polished piece of entertainment, with comedy and musicality in equal measures, and fine performances all round.
Kryztoff Rating 4K
Posted by Peter in RAW: Film
Reviewer – Lucy Campbell
It isn’t very often that Chinese cinema reaches our shores. The 1990s decline in the Hong Kong industry has never seen it truly recover, and it’s unlikely that Pang Ho-Cheung’s ‘Love in a Puff’ will do much to resurrect it.
The premise itself is an interesting one, if a little thin: workers ostracised due to smoking laws huddle in designated smoking zones, swapping jokes, stories and little bits of their lives. Two of these smokers, Cherie (Miriam Cheung) and Jimmy (Shawn Yue) strike up a relationship. That really is the entire storyline; the rest of the film is a compilation of long conversations and stories and snippets of the first seven days of their relationship. The truthfulness of the unwritten modern dating rules is key: the muddled texting, Facebook editing, swapping phone plans and the awkward and uneasy conversations. But somehow, Love in a Puff seems lost in translation and the nuances of their conversations are forgotten in the cultural wash.
However gentle and charming ‘Love in a Puff’ may be, it still is pretty uninteresting when all is said and done. Points are laboured and the characters are sketches. It seems like a Chinese attempt at French-style cinema, but lacking the intricacies of the latter it loses interest mid-way. ‘Love in a Puff’ is awkward, a mish-mash of borrowings from other films and although there is an element of modern Chinese culture that is revelatory, as a film rather than a cultural essay ‘Love in a Puff’ proves to be a work in progress.
Kryztof rating 3K
Posted by Peter in Cabaret
To think it is but three months since Anya McNicol-Windram produced that 5K extravaganza at the Fringe and here today we have a whole new show. Amazing output and determination! This time, Bird’s Wizdom’s Tiny Conpsiracy, features a much smaller entourage – a mere seven people participating – and in the much smaller La Boheme venue. Whereas previous shows seemed to have been anchored around a dispassionate Melanie Prior on cello, this time Anya is very much front and centre and as usual her talent, make-up and charisma carried the day.
Around 12 new songs are in the show, many with the familiar and engaging rhythm and beat we have heard on the Bird Wizdom album and with those lyrics of abandonment and envy that can inspire reactions from hilarity to emotional outpouring. ‘Tea Tea Tea’ and ‘Georgie Porgie’ stood out in this collection as Anya utilised many of her usual helpers including Lilly Sim belly dancing, Annie Siegmann on Bass and Josh Luke Rice as Dr Bones.
As usual there were as many questions posed (like, what is this all about?) as answered but nothing can deny Anya’s brilliance in conceiving and executing such a show and the raw difference it poses for audiences.
Kryztoff Rating 4K
Posted by Peter in Cabaret
This show is great fun. Felicity Fitz-Frisky, in school mistress black, and Hansel Mannish, in a somewhat camp outfit that featured some leather trousers that begged the question as to how they get put on or removed, provide the most polished of performances.
While the notion of making fun of singers and their lyrics is not new, this English pair, through their School of Pop approach, give a more contemporary spin on it drawing on such things as how English literature classics inspired and smoking cannabis affected song writing. From Kate Bush to Lady Gaga, no one targeted much survived the expose. Quite whether all this crowd got all the jokes is unclear – the standard Adelaide cabaret crowd seems rather older as a rule than the fringe humour audiences this pair would have been used to.
Nonetheless, with some patter about Adelaide’s sad rivalry with Melbourne, superb comic timing and never let up intensity, Friksy and Mannish make for a great hour of entertainment whether or not one would describe it as true cabaret.
Kryztoff Rating 4K
Posted by Peter in Cabaret
The reality of the ‘world premiere’ of High School Cabaret, featuring creative arts students from Seaview and Norwood Morialta High Schools perhaps did not live up to the hype of the billing. However, after an uneasy start, some real potential stars started to emerge – four in particular stood out.
Year 10 student, Sam Trenwith took to the stage and the microphone with the competence, composure and charisma to suggest we have another highly talented individual in the wings to fully emerge on the local theatrical scene. Beautiful Mel Pal drew attention in her attractive black dress and with increased strength and confidence in her voice has the potential to be a real star in the making. Amongst the many dancers, Tyson Nunn’s crump gyrations, complete with grasped groin, suggested an athlete capable of mixing it in any of the myriad forms of modern dance available. Finally, Sheridan Deslandes dominated proceedings with her various acts but particularly her rendition of Chain of Fools. Her confidence and desire to command her audience was impressive for one just in Year 12 – another Queenie Van de Zandt or even Natalie Cole in the making.
High School Cabaret was an ambitious project. There are so many performers nowadays who can dazzle at the youngest ages and hence one’s expectations of the ‘world premiere’ were set high. However, this town has developed such a reputation for young artists of all kinds – the music industry in particular – that ensuring projects like this get going and offer up opportunities for both the students as well as for audiences to see stars in the making is important, so well done to all involved, especially the two schools and the Cab festival organisers for committing to such a night.
Kryztoff Rating 3K
Posted by Peter in RAW: Film
When their high school basketball coach dies, his old and only successful team reunites after 30 years to mourn and celebrate the July 4th weekend. Lenny (Adam Sandler) is now a successful Hollywood agent and his wife, Roxanne (Salma Hayek) is big in fashion. Rob (Rob Schneider) is into natural medicines and therapies while Marcus (David Spade) is still a rampaging single. Together they join with teammates Eric (Kevin James) and Kurt (Chris Rock), their wives and children in a lakeside cabin, the boys’ old hunting ground. From there some predictable mayhem ensues.
Directed by Dennis Dugan and co-written by Sandler this is no classic but ideal school holiday fare. The humour is a combination of sight gags and potty jokes but they keep on coming and the film never lets up the fun even in its more sombre moments. As such parents will enjoy as much as the children and the poignancy of how the generations of children have moved on as wealth and status needs have escalated are well handled and will resonate with the older generation. All the icons of holiday season in the US are there – the lakeside retreat, water fun parks, July 4 fireworks and the total mix of characters ensures chaos reigns supreme.
A light, fun and agreeable school holiday flick with Sandler, Spade and Schneider in great form.
Kryztoff Rating 3.5K
Posted by Peter in RAW: Film
When an industrial baron leaves the Recchi business to both his son, Tancredi (Pippo Delbono) and grandson, Edoardo (Flavio Parenti) tensions appear in this Milanese family. Edoardo is young, highly principled but somewhat naive and when he introduces his former athletic competitor, Antonio, into the house as chef, his mother, Emma (Tilda Swinton) seeks solace with him in place of Tancredi, her cold but devoted husband.
Written and directed by Luca Guadagnino, I Am Love is superbly shot with lavish sets and scenes that invoke all the wonders of enormous wealth and northern Italy. Swinton dominates the film and does a supreme job, in Italian. Her role is sure to win many prizes. Parenti is also excellent and his expose of the wealthy son wishing the best in the world and for his family is convincing. The clash between what is meant to happen in such a family and the reality is magnificently conveyed. The musical score also adds mightily, making nuanced emotions turning points and bringing together the enormity of the film’s conclusion.
The trouble is Swinton overly dominates the picture and at times the pace drags almost to a halt when more time spent on the motivations and experiences of the very many bit characters may have been more useful (or don’t have them at all.) Her husband, a key player, is hardly known at all by the end.
A visual and emotional treat, especially for Swinton fans.
Kryztoff Rating 3.5K
Ben Todd’s album launch at The Wheatsheaf last week underscored what a talented musician this young man is. On a whirlwind trip home from his residency in Japan, touring with Circus de Soleil, Ben’s nine track album, 20TEN, achieves what many drummers don’t; compositions of depth and interest highlighting drum virtuosity without dominating the sound and boring everyone.
Put down in Adelaide’s Chapel Lane studios, Ben utilised the same recording crew, the Ben Todd Band, for his launch night and the playing was remarkably tight and professional. The undeniable talent shone through with Adam Page dominating on saxophone and flute, Dave Innocente working earnestly on guitar with Damien Steele Scott, Steve Todd in the darkness on percussion, Shane Ellery on keyboards and mixer and co-producer Paul White holding things together on the Hammond.
The music itself is groove jazz, the tunes eminently listenable with Ben’s drums always and superbly driving away in the background. The titles of many of pieces, as well as some of the music itself, reflect the influence and benefit of his time away in Japan and the collaboration involved in putting this together across national borders testament to the internet and modern day communications.
That Ben works with superior and older musicians and garners their support augurs well for his band’s future recordings as well as the development of Ben’s own career in the years ahead.
Kryztoff Rating 4K
Posted by MiriamK in Cabaret
Amongst the lush surrounds of La Boheme, the audience settled in as Chris Martin, on upright piano, played a delightfully jazzy introduction and Antje Guenther took to the stage. Guenther will be familiar to Adelaide audiences, having appeared in recent plays with State Theatre Company, but this is her inaugural solo appearance on the Adelaide Cabaret scene.
The audience was taken on a light-hearted expedition through a dozen or so songs fitting under the banner of “Sex & Crime”. These were frequently amusing, with laughs abounding during To Keep My Love Alive, I Got It From Agnes and I Hold Your Hand in Mine, while at other points they explored both the more risqué and serious sides of the theme. Adding to the variety, several of the pieces (as well as a rather amusing story explaining the birds and the bees to young children) were presented in Guenther’s native German.
The quality of the singing varied across songs. Those in the higher register, such as Die Lotusblume and Barbara Song, were more successfully produced while the lower, throatier songs tended to be a little flat. Nerves also appeared to contribute to these issues at some points. Happily, the banter between songs was pleasing and genial – an exhibition of Guenther’s acting talent – and this helped to offset the abovementioned problems. Despite its flaws, this was an agreeable, cheeky and amusing afternoon of entertainment.
Kryztoff Rating 3K
Posted by Peter in Cabaret
Jamie Jewell is extraordinary in this one-man cabaret show exploring loneliness through abandonment, unrequited love and not fitting in. The Format Space is the ideal venue for this intimate production and together this one man’s isolated yearnings, despairs and hopes draw out his audience’s empathy before its shocking conclusion.
Jewell is a highly skilled and experienced performer with a professional dance and theatre career spanning more than 20 years with credits in productions such as CATS, Moulin Rouge and Le Grand Macabre. This record shows as he most skilfully works his modest props to full effect – dice, scattered playing cards, plants in tins, stuffed toys and the like. Jamie’s singing is strong and his songs span all genres with a particular emphasis on classics – hymns of hope, then of reflected joy and finally anthems of total dismay. The performance is much enhanced by excellent use of light.
This is very different cabaret, more theatre than a jolly sing-a-long or another burlesque excess. At close quarters it makes for a memorable experience. Further shows on June 22, 24 and 26.
Kryztoff Rating 4K