See what hides within at the 2013 Adelaide Cabaret Festival

Adelaide Cabaret Festival Artistic Director Kate Ceberano has upped the ante at this year’s Festival with not one, not two, not even three leading ladies making their Adelaide Cabaret Festival debut but four divas will reign supreme, including both the good and bad witches of Broadway smash hit Wicked, Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel as well as Cassandra Wilson and Molly Ringwald.

 

The 2013 program features 411 artists in 161 performances over 18 days and nights. 52 international artists from across the USA and the UK and the best from Australia with 369 Australian artists, 250 of those South Australian performers. Showcasing 17 world premieres, seven Australian premieres and 17 Adelaide premieres, the vibrant program also features 12 international shows.

 

Kate Ceberano says, “I am borderline hysterical over the program. Who could have believed the juggernaut this festival has become? What an honour it is to be presenting some of the most talented and diverse artists from all over the world!"

"Cabaret becomes a bigger and more recognised art form every year, taking it beyond its humble beginnings and yet maintaining its up close and personal branding."

 

This year’s Festival explores the theme of See What Hides Within and that’s exactly what the program does, going beyond the realm of performers on stage. It provides audiences with a unique look at the artist and the ever evolving art form.

From the satirical, nostalgic, contemporary, to the traditional, magical and vagabond, fresh-faced Cabaret artists and industry stalwarts all go to extreme lengths to share their inspiring journeys showcasing their incredible talent on very different platforms.Headlining the opening weekend is Tony and Emmy Award winning performer Kristin Chenoweth. A true cabaret artist who has won hearts on stage and screen, best known as the original Glinda in Wicked, she won a Tony Award for her role in You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown.  Kristin has appeared on television in Glee, Pushing Daisies, GCB & The West Wing.

 

Molly Ringwald star of 80s hit films, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink and The Breakfast Club makes her Australian stage debut in An Evening with Molly Ringwald - an opportunity to see this iconic performer as you’ve never seen her before.

 

Two-time Grammy Award winning jazz singer and composer Cassandra Wilson, renowned for her ability to cover everything from British pop to American country, will appear with her incredible sextet made up of some of the best musicians in the USA.

 

Headlining the closing weekend of the Festival is Tony Award Winning performer, Idina Menzel, star of Broadway’s Wicked and the original stage production of Rent, demonstrating why she is one of the great vocal performers of our time.The 2013 program continues to build on the Festival’s reputation for excellence, presenting a star studded line-up of international artists.  They include the UK’s Barb Jungr, the spellbinding songstress returns in Stockport to Memphis. New York Cabaret icon Joey Arias is pure cabaret gold, Arias on Holiday will showcase his channeling of legendary jazz and blues singer Billie Holiday.

It’s no secret Kate made plenty of friends during South Pacific, therefore it’s not surprising that some of those fellow performers are in this year’s program. Michael Lindner performs Mark Campbell’s off-Broadway hit musical for one actor Songs from an Unmade Bed.

Acclaimed tenor Daniel Koek returns home with his eight-piece band from London to present A Decade Down the Road. And in what is destined to be a Festival show-stopper, Kate herself will take to the stage with Teddy Tahu Rhodes in Meet Me in the Middle - a collaboration that merges opera, musical theatre and rock’n’roll.

 

Tributes are a-plenty in this year’s Festival: Tommy Bradson pays homage to Australian stage legend Reg Livermore in Reg as he performs a retrospective on his illustrious career; and soul sensation and star of last year’s hit TV series The Voice, Darren Percival, brings his phenomenal celebration of a musical legend A Tribute to Ray Charles.

Paul Capsis Australia’s charismatic Cabaret King is back presenting the Paul Capsis Revue, Cult musical UK duo Bourgeois and Maurice make their Australian premiere with their critically acclaimed Edinburgh Fringe hit Sugartits!, and Virginia Gay is a little bit naughty in  Songs to Self-Destruct To which explores the motto “Take your tragedy and make it marvellous!”. Purr-fect post-post-modern diva Meow Meow returns with her unique brand of kamikaze cabaret and performance art exotica.

 

Paul McDermott’s highly acclaimed 2013 Fringe exhibition The Dark Garden is now a stage show, TV’s favourite funny man has created a world premiere especially for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival.  Cabaret Survivor is pianist, singer, writer and satirist Phi Scott’s personal, idiosyncratic and at times hilarious take on his mid-life cabaret career.

Those who missed the sold-out critically acclaimed Australian tour of Songs for Nobodies will be able to see Bernadette Robinson as she returns to the Adelaide Cabaret Festival with a concert of songs by her favourite performers and songwriters.

Compositions: A Musical Close Up is a theatrical and visual masterpiece concert that brings together the celebrated musical theatre talents of Tyran Parke, with the astounding images by his brother, one of Australia’s most acclaimed photographers, Trent Parke.

No stranger to the Cabaret Festival is Australia’s stunning soprano siren Ali McGregor in her new hit show Alchemy, Performance Partner Investec Specialist Bank. She transforms into a 1940s siren creating some unique mash-ups. Australian brother and sister duo Emma and Thomas Hamilton perform La Musique, an intoxicating blend of jazz-pop standards sung in both French and English.

 

It was only a matter of time before local media identity Matt Gilbertson’s alter ego Hans took to the Cabaret Festival Stage, along with his band The Ungrateful Bastards and dancers The Lucky Bitches. The boy wonder of Berlin is back for the world premiere performance of Like A German.  Matt can also be seen hosting the final night of the Backstage Club.

Cabaret traditionalists won’t be disappointed. A selection of Irving Berlin’s songs will be delivered with style by Lucy Maunder in Irving Berlin: Songs in the Key of Black.  She will also embrace Jacques Brel along with John O’May and Helen Morse in Love. War. Death. BREL.  Robyn Archer the Doyenne of Cabaret is back; Que Rest-T’il? explores the classic cabaret traditions of Paris and Vienna.

For more information and full programme details, visit: www.adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au

A Clockwork Orange

Following rave reviews in London, Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange is set for its Australian season in the 50th anniversary year of the book’s original release, a testosterone fuelled, electrifying theatrical adaptation of the best-selling novel, which was adapted into Stanley Kubrick’s cult film in 1971.

Both the original literary source and film adaptation of A Clockwork Orange have become seminal icons in popular culture and remain as relevant today as when they first entered the cultural psyche.

An unapologetic, visceral exploration of humanity in a “fictional” world full of violence, corruption and redemption, A Clockwork Orange mirrors society past-and-present and the human condition through the glorious glass-edged nastiness of Manchester’s underworld.

Written and narrated in Nadsat - an Anglo-Russian concoction of colloquialisms that are used by the “youth of tomorrow” in a near Shakespearean lexicon of funny phrase making and jazzy-riffs. Alex and his Droogs in their battle against the tedium of adolescence choose violence and sexual desire in a dangerous cocktail as the young men battle through the difficulties of youth.

The vicious plot of Burgess’s novel follows the disturbing life of Alex and his obsession with violence, eventually resulting in his imprisonment and participation in the distressing Ludovico experiment that claims to decriminalise convicts in two weeks through drastic psychological conditioning.

Alex is traumatised and is confronted by past friends and enemies who isolate him further from society. Driven to attempted suicide by a side-effect of the treatment that left him unable to bear classical music, Alex’s experience is used as a weapon against government conditioning until he regains his previous love of violence and music.

A Clockwork Orange was one of the most important works of fiction of the 20th Century with prophetic sentiments that are increasingly relevant in the world today. It is a warning of an encroaching state and the dangers of having our independence robbed. It is also an optimistic view on humanity and suggests that, if given the chance, we humans have the choice to divert to goodness and a path of redemption.

The ensemble lead by actor Martin McCreadie (as Alex) is breathtaking in its treatment of the ultraviolent and highly sexual text. As in Kubrick’s film version, which uses music from Beethoven to Singin’ in the Rain, this production also heightens the atmosphere of menace with a strong soundtrack.

A mesmerising clash of musical cultures with artists including David Bowie, Gossip, Scissor Sisters, Placebo, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Pink Floyd are counterpointed with Alex’s beloved Beethoven.

A Clockwork Orange opens this week at the Malthouse Theatre ahead of an Australian tour. For more information and performance dates, visit: www.clockworkorange.com.au for details.

Image: Simon Kane