★★★1/2
Adelaide Fringe. Stefanie Rummel. The Garage International @ Adelaide Town Hall. 17 Feb 2023
It’s good to break the drought and get into the vibe of the Fringe, and Chanson was the show to start things off! A 6.00pm show in the heart of the city on the opening evening. Perfect!
Chanson was a loosely scripted wander through the musical musing of German born singer Stefanie Rummel, whereby she introduces the songs she likes to sing with a little bit of a story of her life used to link the passages. It could be engaging, and generally is, yet in places seems a little forced and vague. She is much given to asking her audience if they know of a place, or understand what she is talking about: “Strasbourg, do you know of it?” I found this odd as previously she had asked the 60 or so people in the audience whether they had ever been to France and received a near 100% response.
In any event, Rummel is an engaging performer; she plays the part with verve and enthusiasm, and with a wardrobe of very sparkly clothes and accessories. She shimmers from the stage in this most beautiful of venues down to her audience and then back again, always on the move.
And the music: as you might expect, and influenced by her time living in France, is a collection of torch songs and cabaret greats from last century. Edith Piaf’s Milord of course makes an appearance, and after a little more banter is joined by the nursery rhyme known to all, Frere Jacques. Some of the choices seem odd, yet may well be oddly appropriate to a whimsical study for this is Stefanie Rummel’s soundtrack played out on stage.
Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend is joined by Marlene Dietrich’s version of the anti-war song Where Have All The Flowers Gone? She was something of a late starter in singing the song, a traditional piece adapted and arranged by Pete Seeger. More commonly for a European cabaret chanteuse, Jacques Brel’s Amsterdam makes an appearance, sung emphatically and with barely controlled power, as it should be. It was, all in all, a fitting tribute.
Alex Wheaton
When: 17 Feb to 1 Mar
Where: The Garage International
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. The Domain Theatre, Marion Cultural Centre. 19 Feb 2023
In Love on the Left Bank, fêted Adelaide chanteuse Louise Blackwell tells the extraordinary story of French singer and film actress Juliette Gréco who rose to international prominence and enjoyed a stellar career over 60 years up until 2015. Blackwell dresses like Gréco, and wears her hair like Gréco. Indeed, she channels Gréco.
In a show that lasts a generous 70 minutes, Blackwell gives an account of Greco’s life, loves and tribulations. Blackwell gives us heartfelt and impassioned accounts of Gréco’s relationships with famous literary figures such as Albert Camus, John Paul Sartre, Sacha Distel, and Miles Davis, and her desperate flight from the Nazis during WWII. The stories are underlined and exemplified with ardent and gutsy renditions of many of Gréco’s hit songs including Jolie Môm’, La Javanaise, Ça va le diable, and Je hais les Dimanches.
Blackwell is accompanied by a fabulous six-piece musical ensemble, comprising keys, bass, drums, saxophone, trumpet and violin. A piano accordion and a trombone make an entrance as well. The musical director – the fabulous Mark Ferguson, who also happens to be Head of Jazz at the Elder Conservatorium – leads from the keyboard effortlessly and authoritatively. The members of the ensemble take on various narration roles as the story unfolds, and Blackwell moves effortlessly around the stage conjuring up images of the night clubs of Saint Germain des Prés, the left bank bohemian district of Paris.
Blackwell is a recipient of a 2023 Fringe Artist Fund Grant, which has allowed her to research and create Love on the Left Bank. All the songs are sung in French, with the occasional verse translated into English to allow non-Francophones to connect the dots a little more easily, but it wasn’t really necessary. Blackwell is so good at telling a story through body language and facial expression that language barriers just float away. After all, music is a universal language, isn’t it?
This is a class act.
Kym Clayton
When: 28 Feb to 15 Mar
Where: The Domain Theatre, Marion Cultural Centre
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★
Adelaide Fringe. The Jade. 19 Feb 2023
If you’ve heard of Tom Lehrer, go and see this show. If you’ve ever listened to one of Tom Lehrer’s songs, go and see this show. If you’re curious about why someone’s songs would be banned from public performance in Adelaide, go and see this show. Get the message? Just go and see this show – it’s a gem!
An Unwasted Evening - The Genius of Tom Lehrer is piano bar cabaret at its best. The Jade is a comfortable venue replete with quality snacks and beverages, and performer. Nothing dingy here!
Tom Lehrer is an American singer-songwriter who (in the 1950s and 60s) specialised in caustically satirical songs steeped in blackened humour that took aim at almost every sacred cow and brutally slaughtered them! The establishment hated him, and his songs were frequently banned from public performance, even in Australia and especially in Queensland, and in Adelaide during the steel-fisted reign of Thomas Playford, while a young Don Dunstan was on the opposition backbenches! But Lehrer also wrote ditties that were entirely harmless, great fun, and educational to boot, such as the famous song The Elements in which he sets the names of all the chemical elements known at the time (in 1959) to the iconic tune of the Major-General's Song from the G&S operetta Pirates of Penzance. In 1959 there were 102 known elements. Today there are 118, and in today’s show, chanteur Antony Hubmayer adds and extra verse or three to include the additional 16! Great fun!
An Unwasted Evening takes its name from Lehrer’s 1959 album almost of the same name – An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer, but this show is anything but a waste of time. It has everything – humour, music making, singing, witty banter, interesting historical perspectives, and … drinking games! Ranging in age from babes-in-arms to grandparents, the capacity audience laps up every minute and doesn’t want it to end. Some audience members clearly know every word to every song that Hubmayer performs and silently sing along, not missing a beat. If the thought of audience participation fills you with dread–especially singing–do not fear. This is so much fun, and … tunefulness, according to Hubmayer, is optional!
Hubmayer is a music educator and musical performer by profession, and his passion for the songs of Tom Lehrer is palpable, and infectious. If he had CDs and other merch for sale, he would have made a killing! Hubmayer has no fear in embellishing Lehrer’s lyrics and sprinkled local and topical references throughout. Poisoning Pigeons in the Park all of a sudden included references to our local Elder and Bonython Parks, and She’s My Girl suddenly is the one you come home for dinner but get ‘…vegemite on toast’ instead of ‘…peanut butter stew’! (The humour gets lost in the telling, because the gag is as much a visual thing as anything else.) The Vatican Rag is a fabulously irreverent song, and Hubmayer gives it an extra sting by making less than oblique references to Cardinal Pell!
Hubmayer is mildly self-deprecating, but he doesn’t need to be. His vocals are perfect for the idiosyncratic material, and his pianistic skills are very fine indeed. Any minor slipups are well and truly downplayed by impressive glissandi and a beaming smile and increased enthusiasm if that were indeed possible!
This show is a total delight. You’ll leave with a smile on your face that will take some time to fade.
Kym Clayton
When: 28 Feb to 8 Mar
Where: The Jade
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★
Adelaide Fringe. A Mulled Wine. The Chapel – Migration Museum. 18 Feb 2023
James Hilary Penwarden sports a They/Them badge on their suspenders. The they/them pronouns work for them because as they say, “everything about me is plural.” A self-described “attention whore,” they cover their natural assets in an androgynous deconstructed tuxedo-look that describes them well enough. When they are not titillating and teasing the audience, they have much to say about acceptance, and to come out has its considerable costs in the cruel world of the conventional - socially and financially. Absolutely enduring is their total honesty and vulnerability. James does stand-up, purring out their abstract and humourous observations on their non-binary transgender bisexual life. Wow, the sex sounds terribly attractive! And as James says, “if you wish you were gay, you’re probably gay.” That made me think.
The God-shaped hole in your heart to be filled by God as taught in their Catholic catechism took on new meaning as James discovered the eroticism of their other “God-shaped holes.” Helped by James’s magnetic personality, there was more style than schtick. Stories of polyamorous mix-ups with mooncups and pass the chlamydia were pretty funny though - once you got over the self-recognised adolescence. The strong point is their three songs. Wonderfully playful lyrics and catchy tunes, but the guitar certainly lacked gusto. For someone who craves acceptance and non-judgment, their raunchy imagery of Jesus, and Mary’s magical hymen, is a wee hypocritical.
If you are just a plain old ‘S for Straight’ or ‘Stop: I only do the same old thing in bed’, you will learn a lot of the world of the more amorously adventurous. If you are one in the alphabet acronym, LGBTQIA+, you will get this perfectly.
David Grybowski
When: 17 to 26 Feb
Where: The Chapel – Migration Museum
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
★★★★★
Hew Parham. The Chapel – Migration Museum. 18 Feb 2023
If you missed Hew Parham’s hit show in January at the Festival Centre, Symphonie de la Bicyclette, because you didn’t have the right padded shorts and lurid lycra top to wear, this is your chance to see a champion. Locally grown and Canadian-trained Parham has been involved in a peloton of shows and his comic and clowning experience shines in this autobiographical tour de force.
Parham plays with your mind in his pursuit of purpose. Egged on or barred by alter egos which are distinguishable by excellent characterisations in body, voice and soul, Parham pursues his dream of acting, from Edmonton and Manitoulin Island to New York and California. The real becomes surreal and vice versa. Symbolism and the comic technique of shelving abound. His hallucination of sage advice from a Mark Rothko painting in the MONA of New York is very much worth listening to for its guidance toward sanity in a world of uncertainty, longing and setbacks. You cannot but be astonished at his honesty and openness, and you want to thank him for sharing. Along the way, he does his bright party tricks of McEnroe and Hendrix, and finds everlasting friendship in Native American spiritualism. It is touching and intimate. “You learn to express yourself because you’ve been through the agony of expressing yourself.”
If you are obsessed with Sequoias, Italy and pistachio gelato, this is a must-see show of the Fringe. Touching, warm and funny. Bravo!
David Grybowski
When: 18 Feb to 19 Mar
Where: The Chapel – Migration Museum
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au