FRINGE WRAP: MON FEB 20

The Garden Of Unearthly Delights officially opening last Thursday night to a huge reception and now the Fringe festivities are already well underway. It's going to be a behemoth of a month, so read the first slog of reviews here!

Music To Watch Boys By

La Bohème, Thu Feb 16

There’s nothing to be frightened of in this special delivery of fanatical affection; a lusty and comic exploration of a slightly love crazed-character describing her determined days of stalking. Through wide and encouraging eyes of a slightly-crazed persona, solo piano accordion player Carol Young peppers her one hour performance with anecdotes of those she’s lost, stalked and adored between tracks played brilliantly on her piano accordion from KISS’ I Was Made For Loving You to Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance.

My fears of a startlingly-dull piano accordion sing-along reminiscent of dusty country music halls were thankfully ill-founded. Instead Young takes this once-loved instrument and modernises it. The endearing warmth emanating from our entertainer ma de the occasional off-note seem just a laughable and loveable part of her act.  Feel the love and watch her win you over.

Final Word: Unfaltering

Jenny Smith

Music To Watch Boys By continues at La Bohème until Thu Feb 28. 

Passenger

The Garden Of Unearthly Delights’ Idolize Spiegeltent, Fri Feb 17

After a week of busking in Rundle Mall Mike Rosenberg, performing as Passenger, seemed surprised to be playing to a capacity crowd. With an ease learned from years of busking he immediately engaged the audience with humour and charm.

Except for a single vocal duet with Stu Larson, Passenger performed in great solo style not unlike his friends Josh Pike and Lior. Beginning with a classic singer songwriter hard luck story called David, Passenger sang a range of well-crafted songs including an amusing ditty about the weather and a sing-along list of pet hates. Asking people to stand to sing along to the last song Holes guaranteed a standing ovation at the end of his set. An inspired encore of Simon & Garfunkel’s Sound Of Silence followed, in which he cheekily included a reference to Rundle Mall. An excellent start to the Fringe; be on the lookout, Passenger is about to arrive!

Final word: Splendid!

Adrian Miller

Martin Dockery: Bursting Into Flames

The Garden Of Unearthly Delights’ Cupola, Fri Feb 17

An American stand-up who can sustain a story and provide a little irony along the way! With plenty of one-liners, little asides and detours, Martin provides an insight into Heaven and Hell. Is Heaven actually a tad boring? Is Hell very similar but with a lot more pain? Is it just that his girlfriend’s jokes don’t seem to work? Are there regrets, stories, friends and love in Heaven or Hell?

From lakes of fire to being bored almost to death with niceness, Martin managed to make the show work even with the small and intimate audience on the night. With a full house, this comedian would quite sparkle. In particular a very quick tongue and amazing and expressive body language kept the audience in touch with where he was going. The show featured a great twist at the end - or was that at the beginning?

Final Word: Staccato

Clayton Werner

Martin Dockery continues at The Cupola until Sun Mar 18.

The Crooked Fiddle Band

Idolize Spiegeltent, Fri Feb 17

Take a mostly instrumental group, start with some Gypsy grooves and time signatures, then blend and mix other genres to the mash. Instrumentally, the four-piece works well; the rhythm section – drums and bass – keep the beats going and the shoes tapping. Guitar and occasionally the Celtic bouzouki is layered and the violin is something of a virtuoso; often dancing melodies over the top of a solid sound base. Some interesting and highly danceable tunes started the set; rock and reggae flavours kept a good portion of the crowd shaking their booties. Rather than keeping to the formula of playing to the dancing crowd, the genres kept blending, even to more cerebral instrumental sound scapes – perhaps almost too much variation for some audiences? The best track was kept for last in a delightfully gentle Celtic tune that had us all swaying gently into the night.

Final Word: Bouncing

Clayton Werner

Cantina

The Garden Of Unearthly Delights’ Vagabond, Fri Feb 17

A return season of a show that continues to pack them in, it’s not hard to see why. A fast-paced production full of cabaret, music and many ‘how is that even possible?’ circus moments. The action moves from tightrope to centre stage to piano bar to rooftop, and every seat is ringside.

Song and dance, an amazing tightrope scene, an incredible contortionist, spectacular acrobatics (including a jaw-dropping ‘toss-the-girl’ routine) and a death-defying rope dance are just some of the feats on display. The skill of each performer is without question.

It’s not the carnal feast suggested by the poster – the only nude moment is light comic relief from the otherwise unrelenting tension and physicality. Cantina does explore the darker side, and it feels wrong to applaud some of the simulated violence, which goes on too long. What storyline there is gets a little lost, but the many highlights make this a show well worth seeing.

Final Word: Enthralling

Adrian Miller

Cantina continues at The Vagabond until Mon Feb 27.

La Chevre Noir

La Bohéme, Fri Feb 17

The charming cast of La Chevre Noir delivered a delightful introduction to all things Parisian with a rowdy and raucous tribute to French love, food and song. Jamie Jewell was most appealing, alighting the stage as cleaner/cabaret ‘star’ Jacques singing Alouette; apparently oblivious to the presence of his amused audience. Catherine Campbell was marvellous as Gigi; beautifully tart and unrestrained, at her funniest when schmoozing among obliging male audience members. Sidonie Henbest as Gigi’s somewhat cynical sister Celeste easily had the best vocals however the audience had the most fun when all three characters shared the stage, particularly during recognisable classics like Chanson D’Amour. ‘Chef Giovanni’ provided a comic interlude that went a little over time but was well received by the audience anyway. The piece de resistance was the closing number, a rousing Non Je Regrette Rien, joined in by all, thanks to the phonetically (if not politically) correct handouts.

Final Word: Oui

Rosie van Heerde

Elixir

The Garden Of Unearthly Delights’ Idolize Spiegeltent, Sun Feb 19

A hushed and spellbound audience, three virtuoso musicians, a host of uplifting songs and a beautiful summer night in Adelaide at the Spiegeltent – can life get any better than this? Emerging from the darkness, Katie Noonan was a little disoriented by the light and the full room, but her stage smarts and banter soon had her relaxed and her audience in the palm of her hand. The set featured songs from Elixir’s number one jazz chart album of 2011 First Seed Ripening. Accompanied by superb guitarist Stephen Magnusson and Zach Hurren’s haunting soprano sax, Katie’s voice flowed from sublime to mellow in clear, pure tones and a range that reaches almost as far as the ear can hear, such is the well accomplished performer that she is. I think one of her lines ‘Even the Earth knows the music is in there’ sums up the audience’s reaction to this wonderful gig.

Final Word: Hemispheric

Clayton Werner

Kids Comedy Gala

The Garden Of Unearthly Delights’ Vagabond, Sun Feb 19.

Host Asher Treleaven sets the mood with a little applause practice and some pretty mean Diablo tricks; creating a few sexy moves for the ladies and some macho tricks for the men.

Circus Trick Tease gets things started with the strong man throwing the flexible girl around the stage. Grimaces at a smelly butt and a foot in the mouth get the kids laughing hysterically. The feat of lifting four audience members is also a hit. Ventriloquist Lindi-Jane and her chicken pox-infested crocodile, Snap, sing a polite song about manners that the kids seem to enjoy as well. Circus Trick Tease’s Malia returns with some amazing hula hoop tricks – starting with one and working her way up to 20! Quite impressive!

The Fringe Festival has a plethora of children’s entertainment on offer and the Kids Comedy Gala is a great way of getting a taste of the kid’s comedy menu.

Final Word: Fun!

Catherine Blanch

Kids Comedy Gala continues at The Vagabond until Sat Mar 18.

Kapow!

The Garden Of Unearthly Delights’ Umbrella Revolution, Sat Feb 18

Scout is a superhero in her own backyard. With her friends Terry (who can’t be seen by adults) and Natalie (the superhero dog), Scout undertakes superhero training when her favourite teddy bear, Rosie, is accidentally thrown over the back fence. Scout knows that “when things go over, they never come back” and it’s up to the super-trio to rescue Rosie. But when Operation Cricket Wings doesn’t work, the friends are torn between bravery and giving up. Just in time, Terry finds the superhero that was hiding inside his jelly-legged exterior and Natalie’s never-give-up-the-bone attitude prevails: Scout must get Rosie back for “freedom, justice, democracy and everything that’s gone over the fence before!”. Packed with laughs and awesome acrobatics, Kapow! charms its audience with the kind of backyard-inspired imagination that leaves you wishing you were a kid again.

Final Word: Super!

Lynette Washington

Kapow! performs at Umbrella Revolution until Sun Mar 18.

Gady Lala – Songs For The Sophisticated Fag Hag

La Bohéme, Sat Feb 18

Attention fag hags of Adelaide! Make sure you don’t miss the brilliant Catherine Campbell, Libby O’Donovan and Sidonie Henbest as they pay homage to the gay men in their lives and attempt to sing every queer anthem ever written in under 60 minutes. Everything from Lady Gaga to Madonna and The Village People is arranged and often cleverly re-worded with support from the talented Matthew Carey on keys.

Catherine, Libby and Sidonie all encompass their distinct characters wonderfully. Catherine longed for the fun she had with her gay friends before she became married with kids, Sidonie sung about her current gay friends and all her NSA fun and Libby managed to provide the audience with every lesbian sex connotation possible. Not only is this cabaret hilarious throughout, but these three ladies possess powerful voices with great control to also harmonise stunningly. Very honest, very dirty and extremely fun!

Final Word: Fabulous!

Bobby Goudie

Gady Lala continues at The Garden Of Unearthly Delights’ Hunting Lodge on Sat Feb 25 and Queen’s Theatre on Tue Mar 13.

Swamp Juice

The Garden of Unearthly Delights’ Umbrella Revolution, Sun Feb 19

In a swamp like you’ve never seen, Canadian Jeff Achtem brings the strangest looking contraptions to life to create some really interesting shadow puppetry – even if it is slightly scary at times. We are treated to a bird’s-eye view of a man – slightly sadistic in his nature – then a sudden change to a close-up of the creatures he’s trying to capture. Karma comes in one big gulp from a very strange looking swamp creature.

Crafty use of lights and torches creates depth of view from the small vision to the big picture. It’s interesting to see the predator become the captive and how he is freed by his own victim. This really is on the darker side of children’s puppetry; a little too scary for children under four, but the older kids really enjoyed it. Everyone was delighted by the 3D vision of the mean old man and the swamp creatures.

Final Word: Clever

Catherine Blanch

Swamp Juice performs at Umbrella Revolution until Sun Mar 18.

En Route To Modesty Lane – Annie Siegmann

La Bohéme, Sat Feb 18

Pretty in blue, Annie woos the audience from the moment she flounces her tutu onto the stage. There is no forbidden territory, nothing in the pain of youth and love that is off limits, from broken hearts, to friends, food and a delightful song illuminating the many reasons as to how and why women are cleverer than men. Her stalker song is simply hilarious. Annie can sing, tell a story and hit you in the crotch with a punch-line. The venue encourages closeness and that is what you get. The performance featuring piano, bass guitar and drums seems to be almost ad hoc; it is pulled off without a hitch, obviously well rehearsed. If it’s modesty you are after, well, there is nothing modest about Annie, but for entertainment and fun it is a must-see and you should also include La Bohéme in your must-get-to venues.

Final Word: Delightful

Clayton Werner

En Route To Modesty Lane continues at La Bohéme until Sat Mar 3.

Barry Morgan’s World Of Organs

The Garden Of Unearthly Delights’ Umbrella Revolution, Sat Feb 18

Appearing from behind a curtain and racing onto the stage, Barry Morgan appears as though he has come straight from the 1970s. Resplendent in his safari suit, big hair and accompanying moustache, Morgan needs do little more than flash his trademark open-mouthed grin and he has the crowd onside. The pantomime style show consists of some fancy organ playing, solid doses of audience interaction and plenty of Morgan’s smile. The problem with the show is that it runs for 30 minutes longer than it should. As demonstrated on the ABC’s Spicks And Specks, Morgan makes for a terrific guest appearance but ultimately there isn’t enough depth in the idea for a one-hour show.

Final Word: Smile!

Liam Flanagan

Barry Morgan’s World Of Organs continues at Umbrella Revolution until Sun Mar 18

The Doors Show

The Garden Of Unearthly Delights’ Idolize Spiegeltent, Sat Feb 18

The show starts 30 minutes later than scheduled, but the band still manages to play for the designated hour, delivering a crowd-pleasing dozen or so of The Doors’ best-known songs. Light My Fire, Riders On The Storm, People Are Strange,Roadhouse Blues, you get the picture...

With one or two exceptions, the vocals and arrangements are pretty good; faithful to the original versions that the majority of the audience enjoyed the first time around. Because the appeal of The Doors endures to this day, plenty of punters born in the decades that have passed since Jim Morrison’s untimely death also groove away happily.

There is some dalliance with Morrison’s more poetic side, namely Celebration Of The Lizard and Graveyard Poem, as well as a little pole climbing and Lizard King writhing. It is the hit songs, however, that are the strong point of this act for most in attendance.

Final Word: Almost

David Robinson

Flipside Circus – That Way!

Umbrella Revolution, Sat Feb 18

“I can’t believe they can do that!” are the words of my amazed six-year-old son within the first five minutes of That Way! He echoed my thoughts precisely. Brisbane’s Flipside Circus bring to the Garden 13 energetic youths who work together seemingly with ease to bring us a spell-binding performance that results in the audience giggling, laughing, gasping, clapping and cheering for more. Triple trapeze, flying flips, human skipping ropes, juggling and so much more... The performers are professional beyond their years and daringly tell their story with fun and cheeky choreography. Dramatic soundtrack, earthy costumes and amazing talent draw the audience in. Among the quickest 45 minutes of my life, time flew by – just as Flipside’s young acrobats fly across the stage – up, down, back and forth this way and That Way!

Final Word: Bravo!

Sheree Hyde

Flipside Circus performs at Umbrella Revolution until Sun Mar 4.

Comic Strip (pictured)

The Garden Of Unearthly Delights’ Deluxe, Sat Feb 18

Here’s a show which tickles your ribs and your fancy – ooh, err missus. With a different line-up of artists each night, Comic Strip mixes burlesque and straight stand-up and it’s a winning combination if you’re seeking something a little different.

Tom Gleeson headlined on this occasion, and he was typically topical, relaxed and satirical. The deadpan Ian D Montfort’s ‘spirit medium to the famous’ shtick was almost too eerily convincing for some, while Abandoman’s high-energy rap seamlessly linked audience objects like tampons, foot balm, bottle openers and condoms at amusing, astonishing speed.

The comedic Agent Lynch and elegant Gypsy Wood, in their eye-catching glittering attire, added an extra dimension through their fun and confident burlesque, enticing both men and women to the edge of their seats. We were left wanting more.

Final word: Laughalicious!

Jenny Roesler

Comic Strip continues at The Deluxe until Sun Mar 18.

The Magnets – Gobsmacked!

The Garden Of Unearthly Delights’ Vagabond, Sun Feb 19

From the moment each member of six-piece UK a cappella group The Magnets stepped on stage, the audience was impressed. You could be forgiven for thinking these talented guys are singing to a backing track but that’s not the case; everything comes straight from The Magnets’ mouths. Fraser’s deep smooth bass tones and Andy’s vocal percussion set the rhythm for an array of popular song mash-ups and some pretty fabulous versions at that!

The combined vocals of Steve, Michael, Nick and Callum harmonised Blur’s Boys And Girls mixed with Gorillaz’s Clint Eastwood, a country to reggae version of Blondie’s Call Me, A bossa nova-styled Livin’ On A Prayer (Bon Jovi) and a beautiful version of Sting’s Fragile. A definite hit was Adele’s Rolling In The Deep.

Cool choreography, absolute vocal talent and a great audience rapport; The Magnets have raised the a cappella bar to almost unobtainable heights! A must-experience musical phenomenon!

Final Word: Brilliant!

Catherine Blanch

The Magnets continues at The Vagabond until Wed Feb 29.

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