Dash Kruck: I Might Take My Shirt Off

This is the first night of a series of seven different shows featuring a variety of performers strutting their stuff in true cabaret style at the transformed Cremorne Theatre. With a selection of tables and chairs scattered around the front stalls and a live band, Dash Kruck, a familiar face around the Brisbane theatre traps, plays Lionel, a shy, somewhat confused first-nighter on a reluctant World Premiere of his debut cabaret show, incorporating a musical evening of sex, booze, boys and mythical beasts.

This is Kruck's own opus, with music composed by Chris Perren and is a return from its original season at the Powerhouse. The character he portrays is a loveable gay guy who has recently broken up with the love is his life and by using a selection of monologues, song and audience participation he is able to sublimate in-depth on the so-called ins-and-outs of the experience. Comical, sentimental and reflective while at times bold and brash, one felt the audience were more embarrassed than the character himself because some of this show is just plain outrageous, lovingly so and within the limits of decorum, certainly considering those elements of showbiz's current excursion into material designed to jolt your seat!

But this is an actor who can sing beautifully, enchantingly, write some clever lyrics and demonstrate his accolade of experience on the stage. What is also impressive is his ability to communicate to his audience what it is really like to be gay and to what capacity the GLBT community can go to feel true love.

This was a fun night out, bitter, sweet and generous in its selection of emotions.

Incidentally, he does, er, take his shirt off ......

Brian Adamson