|
 |
Australia's Leading Ladies Festival Theatre Sat 11 June Following on from successes in the Eastern states, the Cabaret Festival proves to be the ideal setting for this concert which brings together the cream of Australia's musical divas - Rhonda Burchmore, Judi Connelli, Sharon Millerchip, Marina Prior, Geraldine Turner and Anne Wood, compared by Toni Lamond and featuring the truly excellent Adelaide Arts Orchestra under the baton of Sean O'Boyle. However the show, whilst there were many excellent performances to enjoy, could still benefit from some judicious pruning. Toni Lamond's compering is superfluous, in fact down right unnecessary, for much of this material is already well known to its audiences. Surely the listing of material within a programme would have sufficed, leaving space for these often-excellent performances. Much of the material presented is already firmly associated with these particular singers and as such, the appreciative audience offered solid applause to takes on Adelaide's Lament from 'Guys And Dolls' (proving that Marina Prior is an excellent singing actor), Turner in Sondheim (I'm Still Here from 'Follies') and even Anne Wood in the Brel-like The Winner Takes It All from 'Mamma Mia'. In fact, the first half of the show proved to be the stronger. Things flagged with more recent material - an excerpt from 'Miss Saigon' and a rather tawdry medley from Lord Andrew "one hit per show' Lloyd Webber. In fact the parallels between Sondheim's 'Follies' (about fading divas) and this type of show was not completely lost on me.  |
|
The latest issue available now!     |
All content copyright dB Magazine