Melbourne Cabaret Festival 2011

100 performers – 78 performances – six nights

Melbourne’s second annual Cabaret Festival next week promises - 100 performers – 78 performances– six nights - all within South Melbourne’s historic Emerald Hill arts and cultural precinct,.

From Tuesday 19 to Sunday 24 July, a feast of local, interstate and international cabaret artists will appear across seven venues, with new cabaret shows starting every 15 minutes from 6.15pm till late.

Performances will include 11 world premieres and five Melbourne premieres.

Over 100 performers in 36 cabaret shows from comedy cabaret, musical theatre stars,  New York styled acts, vaudeville, edgy cabaret and queer shows, the festival offers something for everyone.

Hosted by Sammy J, the Opening Night Gala at Grand Hall, South Melbourne Town Hall on July 19 will feature Le Gateau Chocolat (UK), Suade, Tina Del Twist, Emma Dean, Gillian Cosgriff and World War Wonderful. Best of the Fest, hosted by Sammy J will play in the Grand Hall each night from July 20

Headline acts include A Night With Faulty Towers, who will debut a new cabaret version of their hit show.

The Festival is presenting Le Gateau Chocolat from the UK. A feature act worldwide in La Clique, Le Gateau Chocolat is a larger-than-life Opera-singing diva with a penchant for body-hugging lycra. This delicious confection is a killer baritone who delivers moving renditions of pop, jazz and musical theatre.

The music of Paul Kelly will be featured in the world premiere of The Last Train – An Urban Tale Featuring The Songs Of Paul Kelly. Set in a stylised Red Rattler, the work explores the fractured emotional path of a group of outsiders who board The Last Train of the day ... only to discover that, for some, the end of the line is where the route to contentment begins.

Jon Jackson returns to the Melbourne Cabaret Festival with his new show What The World Needs Now. Jon applies his enormous vocal range to works of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Handel, Wagner, Paul Simon, Noel Coward, Judy Garland, Petula Clarke & the Eurythmics.

Multi-award-winning artists Mark Jones and Geraldine Quinn interpret the deep pool of stories, songs and scenes in the world premiere, Songs From Under The Bed.  From rural towns to inner city suburbia, from rock to folk to pop to country –dives into the feeling of home with songs by Paul Kelly, Don Walker, Sia, Ross Wilson, Tim Rogers, David Bridie and Casey Bennetto.

Other shows during the Cabaret Festival include:

• Emma Clair Ford in Lila Gray

• Short+Sweet Cabaret

• Anne Edmonds – Ever Since the Dawn of Anne

• Hello You – A Kamikaze Cabaret

• Speakeasy Vagabonds and Wartime Songbirds

• Blokelahoma!

• Gillian Cosgriff in Waitressing, and Other Things I Do Well

• Karin Muiznieks Presents: Filthy Secrets           

• Stripped – Emma Dean

• The Jane Austen Argument present: The Spaces Between

• Der Gelbe Stern (The Yellow Star)

• Dave Graney & The Lurid Yellow Mist

• Luke Escombe – Chronic

• Suade: For Adults Only

• Pirate Rhapsody, Mermaid Requiem

• The Best (and Worst) of Queenie van de Zandt

• Luke Gallagher in The Gospel According to Luke

• Dolly Diamond in Down To Eartha

• The Beautiful Losers

• Avigail Herman in: Hey World, Here I Am – The Streisand Story

• The Petticoat Soiree

• Karin Muiznieks presents: World War Wonderful!

The Big Gay Sunday Cabaret will be a colourful tribute to Melbourne’s iconic drag queens who sing live, responding to the theme of equal marriage rights. Supported by Equal Love in the lead-up to the ALP National conference on the issue, who says today’s cabaret can’t have political bite, and be fabulous?

Late Night Piano Bar with Trevor Jones will be a riotous piano bar New York style. Sing along with the crowd to Broadway favourites, jazz standards and pop/rock anthems by request. 

The Moritz Light and Sound Show is a free family friendly outdoor light and sound show using the South Melbourne Town Hall as the canvas for this spectacular show, nightly from sundown till late at 20 minutes past the hour.

Bookings: www.melbournecabaret.com

Images: From Top: Dave Graney & The Lurid Yellow Mist; Gillian Cosgriff;  Jon Jackson (photo by Luzio Grossi); Emma Clair Ford; Anne Edmonds.

To keep up with the latest news and reviews, visit Stage Whispers on Facebook and click like, or follow us on Twitter.