Mark Nadler - The Old Razzle Dazzle

Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Banquet Room 15 Jun 2023

 

Mark Nadler is back in town.

Thank dog and all powers that be,

He is one of THE great showmen. For a while he was a regular at the Adelaide Cab Fests and we took him for granted.

Then there was a decade-long hiatus. Woe.

 

Being back in a Nadler audience was the most invigorating and soul-restoring experience. This was for one-night-only  The Old Razzle Dazzle performance in the Banquet Room. He’s following on with two of his famous Hootenanny shows.

 

But, oh, the pleasure of a one-man concert, beautifully and carefully contrived with a theme of liars and lies and conmen.

There will be one truth in this show. See if you can pick it, he jokes 

 

From Pinocchio to Trump went he, commanding and eliciting magic from that mellow old grand piano. His musicianship is such that he can kill on the keys while all the time eyeballing the audience and, for heaven’s sake, doing a spot of percussionistic seated tapdancing at the same time. 

 

And that barely touches the surface of his skills as an entertainer. Consummate and then some.

One swoons in ardent fandom as he pairs politics with fairy stories, love and loss with victory and fury, belting out big, big songs connected by the solid thread of a maddened morality. 

 

Why do we lie to our children? Tooth fairy, Father Christmas. And wasn’t Jiminy Cricket worse than Pinocchio as a liar? 

When You Wish Upon a Star. Pretty song, but, ironic perhaps? Blizzards of lies pour forth and he whams the piano and sings in a lather of passionate commonsense.

 

 He’s satire and musicianship, he’s cabaret at its essence. 

 

He delivers a rollingstock of relevance and wit with an interlude of mellow reflection before rolling forth yet again with The Great Pretender and a wickedly funny Little Tin Box song of corruption and deception. From George Washington’s cherry tree to Goebbels, to the value of illusion and the oftentimes need just not to know. We laughed and laughed. We went misty and reflective. And then, of course, a great showman has to have a grand finale…. It was what everyone had awaited. Glorious, daring, twinkle toe, razzle dazzle - original, fearless, funny, brilliant.

 

And, just because he is such an impeccable pro, he not only praised, and so rightly, the contemporary CabFest transformation of the Banquet Room, but also he gave a list of credits mentioning all the techs and backstage crew by name, oh, except for that one Irish surname, She’d challenged him before the show that he wouldn’t remember it. And if you’ve ever seen a star kicking himself.

Good man and true.

 

Welcome back, Mr Nadler. We’ve missed you. Please don’t leave us again. You’re a bloody cabaret pinup.

 

Samela Harris

 

When: 15 Jun

Where: Banquet Room

Bookings: Closed

 

Mark Nadler - Hootenanny

When: 16 to 17 Jun

Where: Banquet Room

Bookings: cabaret.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au

Edge of Reality – Songs of Elvis Presley

Adelaide Festival Centre. Dunstan Playhouse. 14 June 2023

 

Elvis didn’t write any songs himself and only a few did he co-write, so the “songbook” refers to his famous audial oeuvre. Music meister, famed composer, musical director and educator Paul Grabowsky (no relation) gives Elvis the jazz treatment with mixed success. For some songs, it just seems inappropriate, while for others it adds class. And tribute shows are always a balance between giving the fans the familiar and something new. There is no denying the sheer creativity of Grabowsky’s arrangements and the virtuosity of his musicians. It is great fun to guess what the heck the song is, given the jazzed-up introduction, and then to smile at some recognisable notes.

 

Grabowsky grabbed a couple of household names to sing his songs. Joe Camilleri has been blowing the blues, rock, and R&B with his sax since the 60s and made quite a few bands famous, ie: Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons (he’s Jo) and The Black Sorrows. Debora Conway was in grade school when Joe was playing with The King Bees. She won Best Female Artist in the 1992 ARIA Music Awards for her debut album Spring of Pearls and garnered numerous subsequent nominations for the following nine albums of her career.

 

Debra Conway started the Elvis tribute with a torturous version of Burning Love that I don’t think even she wanted to sing. But she had something on her mind. Right after the song, Debra delivered this incredible rant against the tabloid press for reporting she was strung out in some hotel room when she had the flu. Then she focused on the source of the story, an anonymous chambermaid or something, and said she’d like to “break the neck of the son-of-a-bitch,” and closed with “pull [his/her] God damn tongue out by the roots.” Well, you can imagine, oxygen left the theatre in the collective gasp from the audience and the musicians. Not the right thing to do.

 

Things went better after that, but slowly. It took a while for the audience to click with the new arrangements, especially when they made the song unfamiliar or thematically at odds with memory, and Debra’s extraordinary rant. Joe was next and they took turns with only a few chorus duets. Joe never stopped chomping on something in his mouth and it was amazing he could play or sing and chew at the same time. I don’t think they even teach that at WAAPA; Joe is definitely his own man. His tender saxophone and emotive crooning can be magic.

 

Joe and Debra took a lesson from the band and thought – if they don’t know the music by heart, why should I? Both relied heavily on song sheets mounted on distracting music stands, and songs seemed pinched when they were unsure. Joe had his head buried so deep in the music stand in the encore you couldn’t see his face.

 

Joe gave an evocative In The Ghetto in his inimitable style. Debra hit her straps with a moving and deeply emotional plea in I Need Your Love. This was the highlight of the night and was given an especially appreciative round of applause. Bravo! She followed this with an equally fetching Suspicious Minds with Joe pitching in for the latter choruses. Now the show was cooking but it was three-quarters over.  

 

In this tag-team songfest, the skinny programme notes leaves blame unknown for having the singers retreat from their solos to their separate corners stage left and stage right, sitting without even a flower or a candle on their own little cabaret table looking forlornly like they were waiting for a lover who wasn’t coming.

 

The show definitely lifted as time went by and the night ended with raucous applause. My guess is that the sturdy appreciation was for Grabowsky’s arrangements, the band’s musicianship, and the role that Debra and Joe have played in the audience’s music-listening lives, and lesser for this particular show.

 

David Grybowski

 

When: 14 to 15 Jun

Where: Dunstan Playhouse

Bookings: Closed

The Blank Page with Eddie Perfect

Adelaide Cabaret Festival. The Banquet Room. 11 Jun 2023

 

Eddie Perfect is fascinated with the creative process. A few years ago, at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival after-hours venue, Perfect did a gig where he revealed the process of creating a musical. In another show, he shared his experiences writing the music and lyrics for Beetlejuice (Broadway musical) - for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Original Score - and how he stepped in to help out with King Kong, the 2013 musical, also on Broadway. It’s a good night out to hear his sonorous voice still amused and amazed with his musical career, and to hear a few songs.

 

In The Blank Page…, Eddie does it again with a catholic panel of fellow highly awarded and recognised writers. Eddie probes the panel with lots of questions summarised by, “How did you do it?”

 

The highly accomplished Virginia Gay was the penultimate personality to perform. She had a go at a song whilst wiping away her considerably golden curly locks from her self-described chiseled Greek goddess visage. She is full of beans – a “pure joy-love” engine - and says she wrote her way out of Covid lockdown. Julia remembers from a clowning workshop, “Failure is vital! Do not take the honour away from failure. Sit in it. Be publicly vulnerable. The audience will love it!”

 

Gillian Cosgriff was first up at the piano after a discussion about how useful comedy training is to creating musical comedy for the theatre. Tickling the 88s and with great emotional import, she played her composition, The Door, about finishing off a relationship – “I wish this door would become a wall.” The best song of the session and Bravo!

 

Michelle Brasier of Wagga Wagga couldn’t agree more about the comedy training. She is an accomplished stand-up who won the Directors Choice Award at the Sydney Comedy Festival in 2021. Perfect describes her work as “vulnerable truth-telling” - a big wrap. Her song parodying the generational IDs of Millennials, etc, sounded as serious as Julia’s but was counterposed with hilarious lyrics.

 

Americans Lee and Brad Spencer are married to each other and to teaming up in musical comedy. Brad’s laconic humour and deadpan contrasted to Lee’s overt enthusiasm. What is obvious is that their marriage is all beer and skittles. Their comments on LA vs NY were insightful.

 

Musical director Dean Bryant and lyricist and director Matthew Frank are also a life and musical theatre partnership. Eddie Perfect credits them with inspiring him with their musical theatre creation, Prodigal, which the duo workshopped while going to WAAPA (Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts). They sampled for us a song under construction that Bryant introduced with an apology that it only has four chords and super-simple arrangements. That turned out to be true and the lyrics and singing by Frank were, well, let’s hope this isn’t their best work.

 

Eddie Perfect finished off with his All The Way that was strong in melody and a perfect ending. His earlier song about taking out the street-side garbage bins – inspired by a conversation with Baz Luhrman during Strictly Ballroom – reeked. But that was a long time ago.

 

The afternoon session was the best motivational seminar for which one would pay $1000 to attend. In the process of inquiring how songs and musical theatre springs from creative inspiration, we learned about the role of failure and how to handle it, how to keep trying and to keep your dignity and/or humility, how and when to collaborate and how to move on. Another theme was that most underwent tertiary acting training but eventually found their creative voices best expressed by writing their own material. It was a pleasure to sit in the company of these creative, open and honest artists discussing the craft to which they have dedicated their lives.

 

David Grybowski

 

When: 11 Jun

Where: The Banquet Room

Bookings: Closed

Singing Straight

Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Banquet Room. 11 Jun 2023

 

Mark Trevorrow trying to sing ‘straight’?  I’d like to see that!  Well I did, and so did hundreds of other punters in the packed Banquet Room at the Adelaide Festival Centre.  (What a fabulous venue for cabaret!). Trevorrow is of course better known as his fabulously outrageous polyester-clad alter-ego Bob Downe.  

 

The conceit of “Singing Straight” is Trevorrow singing the type of songs that Bob wouldn’t, but early in his performance Trevorrow hints that being ‘straight’ just isn’t in his DNA.  The audience audibly sighs relief at hearing this, and with impish glee some squeal in anticipation!  And true to his word, and to the delight of all, ‘Bob’ edges in and out of the proceedings.

 

Just before Trevorrow’s entrance, the 1965 classic California Dreamin’ by the Mamas and the Papas can be heard over the PA.  It sets the tone for what we are about to hear, and then it all kicks off.  Dressed modestly in a sparkly jacket, printed T-shirt (I couldn’t read the motif but I hope it was risqué) and chinos, Trevorrow bounds on stage and introduces his backing musicians:  Musical Director Bev Kennedy on piano, and Nick Sinclair on double bass (“Are you ready to pluck?” Downe…er…Trevorrow quips with an evil glint in his eye!). Kennedy and Sinclair are superb throughout - consummate musicians.  Trevorrow opens with the Bert Bacharach classic Alfie, and perhaps the bridge lyric “When you walk let your heart lead the way…” could well be a metaphor for Bob?

 

Trevorrow traverses a broad songbook.  Alfie is followed by the 1932 Harry Warren and Al Dubin hit You’re Getting to Be a Habit with Me, which later featured in the classic film 42nd Street.  Then comes the 1931 song Dream a Little Dream of Me with music by Fabian Andre and Wilbur Schwandgt, and lyrics by Gus Kahn.  The song become most famous in 1968 when it was recorded by the Mamas & The Papas.  Part of Trevorrow’s skill is his ability to seamlessly intrude his own lyrics into songs and to personalise the performance to the moment (including some Bob Downe iconic tremolos and other vocal gymnastics) and he couldn’t resist sneaking “Dream a little dream of Bev…” into his rendition!  Kennedy smiled and the audience laughed. 

 

And then the name-dropping starts, including Anthony Newley, Noël Coward, Cilla Black, and k.d. Lang - all people Trevorrow has either met, worked with, or knows someone who did, and the oh-so-funny anecdotes (no spoilers!) were quintessentially Bob! The anecdotes serve as introductions to more songs:  Newley’s A Wonderful Day Like Today (from the 1964 Tony Award nominated musical The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd), Coward’s World Weary (from his 1928 musical This Year of Grace).  And the connection to Cilla Black?  Well, Paul McCartney is one of Trevorrow’s favourite composers, and McCartney wrote songs for other singers, including Cilla Black, such as the iconic Step Inside Love, which he sings with gay abandon (insert winking face emoji), and It’s For You. Trevorrow also includes the McCartney songs Another Day (McCartney’s debut single as a solo artist in 1971 following the breakup of The Beatles the year before), and A World Without Love (Peter & Gordon).  And the connection to k.d. Lang?  Well, you need to see the show.

 

Occasionally Trevorrow would wander from his script and ever reliable Kennedy would corral him back onto the straight and narrow.  “Cabaret is meant to be loose, but not this f**g loose!”, he irreverently remarked, later followed by “Think of this as a very expensive dress rehearsal!”. (Bob is trying to cut loose, but Trevorrow keeps him in check…mostly.)

 

And then it’s to Sondheim.  From the musical Company, he belts out the patter song Another Hundred People with razor sharp diction and enunciation and follows this with Marry Me a Little.  Then a surprise!  He invites Rupert Noffs on stage, who is a performer of note who has previously  collaborated with Trevorrow and Kennedy in an all-Sondheim cabaret, and they perform enthusiastic renditions of Old Friends (from Sondheim’s 1981musical Merrily We Roll Along), and  You Could Drive a Person Crazy (also from Company), in which to the delight of the audience they replace the last line with “Sondheim his my hobby and I’m givin’ it up!”

 

The Sondheim homage continues with Together (Wherever We Go) from the 1959 musical Gypsy (music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Sondheim) replete with Bob Downe vocal histrionics, which Noffs was able to perfectly harmonise with!  Noffs exits the stage leaving Trevorrow to finish the show with yet more Sondheim, including I Remember and Take Me to the World from Evening Primrose. Trevorrow makes fine work of both these songs, putting to the sword any suggestion that Sondheim can’t write good melodies.  He finishes with Not a Day Goes By, also from Merrily We Roll Along, which is a bit of a shame because the long-sustained notes at the end of phrases were very nasal.  Perhaps Bob was trying to unleash himself, but on the final note Mark was triumphant and the audience rose to its feet and gave him thunderous applause.

 

Kym Clayton

 

When: 11 Jun

Where: The Banquet Room

Bookings: Closed