Get ready to be dazzled by the biggest and brightest program to date, as the Adelaide Cabaret Festival goes all out to celebrate Adelaide Festival Centre’s 50th Anniversary in June. Adelaide’s favourite winter festival is set to sizzle with a lineup of performances that promise to be unforgettable.
This year’s program has been meticulously curated by a star-studded line-up of nine previous Artistic Directors, collectively known as The Cabaret Collective. Featuring renowned names like Julia Holt, David Campbell, Lisa Campbell, Kate Ceberano, Eddie Perfect, Ali McGregor, Julia Zemiro, Alan Cumming, and Tina Arena, each has brought their own unique flair to the program. Expect a captivating blend of cabaret classics and fresh performances by emerging artists, showcasing the rich diversity of the genre.
Among this year’s highlights is an Australian premiere of Ali McGregor, who shares her golden 50th year with Adelaide Festival Centre, bringing her brand-new show to the cabaret stage, Fool’s Gold.
“Australians do cabaret well. Theatre has branches that take you to both familiar and unimaginable places and Adelaide Cabaret Festival is The Magic Faraway Tree of festivals,” says Ali McGregor.
Another program highlight is one of Australia’s most prolific writers and composers, Eddie Perfect (Shane Warne: The Musical, Beetlejuice) who brings a new program to the stage – The Blank Page with Eddie Perfect.
“My cabaret heart has always been obsessed with the creation and development of new works and new songs for the stage and my picks in this year’s program largely focus on that. Adelaide Cabaret Festival has been instrumental in my development as a composer and lyricist, so I’m excited to provide those opportunities to the next generation of original Australian writers,” says Eddie Perfect.
South Australian cabaret stars featured this year include the legendary Robyn Archer presenting An Australian Songbook, spanning 150 years of Australian voices from rock, folk, country, and musical theatre. Adelaide Cabaret Festival Icon Award 2022 winner Libby O’Donovan joins renowned jazz vocalist Michelle Nicolle and The Yankalilla Miracles to belt out hit songs from the 60s to the 90s in More Than A Melody. Helpmann Award winner Michael Griffiths gets personal in the world premiere of It’s A Sin – Songs of Love and Shame, and fresh from Ru Paul’s Drag Race Down Under, Kween Kong takes to the stage in a variety extravaganza celebrating the best of drag, burlesque, circus, and cabaret.
Jazz lovers are in for a treat with a new festival exclusive show hand-picked by Kate Ceberano, where ARIA Award Winner Vince Jones performs the much-loved songs from the ABC television series Come In Spinner soundtrack, which became the highest-selling Australian jazz album of all time.
“Cabaret is incredibly inventive and almost beyond description. The audience experience can be as big or as small as the artist intends it to be – on their terms, in their words, in their safe place offering their heart and soul,” says Kate Ceberano.
With more free events than ever before, audiences can hear from some of our Cabaret Collective in Artistic Directors in Conversation with Julia Holt in The Quartet Bar and those who love a singalong can join Carol’s Cabaret Choir where audiences will belt out tear jerking torch songs led by Adelaide’s favourite community choir conductor and renowned musical director, Carol Young.
Festival favourite Dr Trevor Jones – The Piano Man is back at the Festival Theatre foyer Quartet Bar nightly, plus will host a brand-new Show Tunes Trivia night. And the Corryton Burge Bar and Cabaret Lounge return as the perfect places for patrons to settle into a quiet corner or keep the party going between shows.
The popular LGBTIQ+ Elders Dance Club by All The Queens Men, the fabulous afternoon tea dance party for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, gender diverse and intersex elders and all allies, will be held at The Quartet Bar.
Partygoers can revel in the atmosphere of this year’s late-night line-up, which will be hosted by a different artist each week and feature guest performers and impromptu performances. Who knows who might appear on stage each night?
Produced and presented by Adelaide Festival Centre, this doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of this year’s spectacular Adelaide Cabaret Festival. The Festival has grown from modest beginnings in 2001 to become Australia’s major winter festival and the largest cabaret festival in the world.
Adelaide Cabaret Festival
9 – 24 June 2023
adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au
@adelaidecabaret
