Created especially for the Adelaide Festival Centre’s 35th Birthday and the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Everybody Loves Rhonda is full of glitz, glamour and those infamous legs!From the opening number of The Lullaby of Broadway and resplendent in a dress designed by Melbourne couturier Craig Braybrook, beaded with purple Swarovski crystals, Rhonda Burchmore treats the audience to a cavalcade of spectacular frocks and wonderful song, all backed by the Adelaide Art Orchestra under the musical direction of Ray Alldridge.
Musical highlights including Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend, a Madonna inspired Material Girl, an earthy Birth of the Blues. Each number is a chance to show off her range from the emotionally charged In My Daughter’s Eyes, through to the finale of Abba’s Dancing Queen.
Dana Jolly’s choreography adds a certain style in the bigger numbers by including four male dancers, Trevor Holland, Nick Jones, Paul Malek and Troy Savic, all appropriately dressed in formal attire.
For each costume change, special guest Kane Alexander delighted the audience with his smooth interpretations of Oasis's Wonderwall, and the swing standard Ain't That a Kick in the Head, only to join Burchmore for Frank Loesser’s Baby It's Cold Outside.
In a fitting start to the 2008 Cabaret Festival, Rhonda Burchmore once again proves why she is Australia’s leading lady of the musical stage.
Everybody Loves Rhonda
Festival Theatre, Adelaide Cabaret Festival
Saturday 7 June 2008 – 1.30pm. Review by Rohan Shearn
Season Closed
