The New Score Closes 2014 Adelaide Cabaret Festival

"And now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain.....NOT!” said the 2014 Adelaide Cabaret Festival’s Artistic Director, Kate Ceberano just days before the Festival closed. “I have had the most wonderful three years of my creative life.”

Kate Ceberano themed her unique 2014 Adelaide Cabaret Festival with the tag ‘Not Your Usual Suspects’ and audiences experienced the theme ring true in many delightful and surprising ways. Davi Sings Sinatra: On the Road to Romance was a typical example. His beautiful, classically trained voice was a revelation for audiences who previously knew him only as a tough guy in movies such as Diehard.

Ceberano chose the RAah Project’s world premiere of The New Score to close the Festival and in doing so she kept the trump card of her Festival theme for last, because these were most unusual performers indeed.

Internationally recognised as the RAah Project certainly is, the two artists at its core claim they were still surprised that Ceberano agreed to their proposal of producing a major orchestra-backed concert on the biggest stage in the Festival, the Adelaide Festival Theatre.

The RAah Project’s duo are Ryan Ritchie and Tamil Rogeon. Together they write and produce new music across a broad range of genres: jazz, hip hop, jungle, soul, classical and electronica, with plenty of improvisation thrown in for good measure. As a result, in a one-off concert for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, the highly entertaining blend of music and fun that is The New Score delighted the audience on the final night of the Festival’s season.

The ‘unusual’ in this show extended to its backing vocalists - Kate Ceberano herself, Kylie Auldist (lead singer of The Bamboos) and the mesmerising male performer, iOTA.

Backed by the honey voice of Ceberano, the smokiness of Auldist’s delivery and the versatility of iOTA, Ritchie and Rogeon worked their way through an impressive array of material. The audience was treated to many of the RAah Project’s original works, such as Trick of the Light, Will You Be There, All of Your Things, Tearing Me Apart, Covered Up in Stars and more.

Ryan Ritchie’s repartee was polished, as was his singing voice. His amusing capacity for improvisation almost stole the show, especially when he involved the audience in what he called ‘freestyle rap’. Tamil Rogeon is a composer but he is also an exquisite violinist, which was demonstrated flawlessly. Both Ritchie and Rogeon spent periods conducting the impeccable Adelaide Art Orchestra.

Solo performances by all three highly accomplished ‘backing artists’ were wonderful, including Kate Ceberano’s soaring rendition of the classic Wild Is the Wind.

Hit of the night was the brief appearance by legendary artist Darlene Love, whose performance history stretches back through several decades. Now probably in the twilight of her career, there’s hardly a legendary singer with whom she hasn’t performed. To top it off, she recently starred in a documentary about backing artists, 20 Feet from Stardom, which achieved an Academy Award this year.

On this final night of the Festival, though, Love had her own backing artists and almost lifted the roof off the Festival Theatre with numbers such as Lean on Me and River Deep, Mountain High.

Ceberano can clearly pick a uniquely different act when she sees one, because The New Score was a fresh, laid back and effective way to finish her three year incumbency as Cabaret Festival Artistic Director.

In the week before the show Ceberano said, “I can't wait to finish up my time here performing on the final night in The New Score. There's going to be a lot of love in the room." And there was, especially for Kate, who has found a special place in the hearts of Adelaide Festival goers. The response she received from the audience following her brief closing words during the performance made that very evident.

Incoming Cabaret Festival Director Barry Humphries said this week that the ‘F’ word won’t be welcome in the next festival, so I’m getting in with a few of mine while the going’s good-

Thank you Kate Ceberano for a Fantastic 2014 Adelaide Cabaret Festival. It’s been Fabulous.

Lesley Reed

Images: RAah Project, Kate Ceberano and Darlene Love.