The 4th annual Melbourne Cabaret Festival will burst forth across the city in 16 venues with over 150 performers in over 60 cabaret shows from Wednesday 26 June until Sunday 7 July.
Featuring eight overseas shows never before seen in Melbourne, the 2013 Melbourne Cabaret Festival has grown again to present Melbourne’sbiggest ever program of cabaret – with double the venues, 50 more performers and twice as many performances.
The Festival will kick off with the Opening Gala on Wednesday 26 June with Motown royalty and founding member of The Supremes, Mary Wilson. Shewill headline a star-studded line-up of six international acts presenting excerpts from their shows, including New York cabaret icon Joey Arias; USA’s Tony Award-winning composer and lyricist Adam Guettel; and David Pomeranz (USA) who has had over 40 million album sales worldwide.
Highlights of the 2013 Melbourne Cabaret Festival program includes:
- The London sensation Spanky returns with a new show sure to shock, called Dead Bitches, and will host a night celebrating the 35th anniversary of the iconic Fleetwood Mac album Rumours – presenting the album in its entirety with a little help from his/her artistic cabaret family.
- As part of their American Songbook Series, Melbourne Recital Centre will present Stormy Weather: The Lena Horne Project, starring Mary Wilson; winner of the coveted Time Out London and Soho Theatre Award, Lady Rizo; and Mary Carewe in Over the Piano.
- Award winning jazz vocalist and leading lady, Fem Belling, brings to life the independent spirit and wistful romanticism of Blossom Dearie, the ‘childlike’ vocalist with caviar taste in songs and musicians.
- Jazz harp goddess, Tara Minton, comes to the Festival direct from the UK.
- Music theatre stars Melissa Langton, Libby O’Donovan and Mark Jones present Everybody’s Got Something To Hide (Except for Me and MyMonkey): The Lennon & McCartney Songbook.
- Prepare for an uproarious ‘Orphan’s Christmas’ with the adults-only panto LittleOrphan TrAshley featuring Trevor Ashley, Rhonda Burchmore, Gary Sweet and Rhys Bobridge.
- Australia’s favourite man-band, Suade, present VocalTronics: a sublime mix of comedy, music and theatrical shenanigans.
- Sally Bourne and Mark Jones will premiere Sitting With the Fat Man – the Songs of Randy Newman.
- Melbourne’s very own diva extraordinaire and cabaret provocateur Yana Alana returns to the stage in Between The Cracks, a bent cabaret of blues, burlesque and blame.
- Marika Aubrey celebrates Sophie Tucker’s brilliant life and career in TheLast of the Red Hot Mamas, a personal salute to the original red hot mama.
- Cabaret stalwart Jon Jackson brings all his acclaimed characters to the stage in the one show for the very first time in Brinkering On The Teet.
- Naomi Price shines in Rumour Has It: Sixty Minutes Inside Adele, a wicked new cabaret for anyone who’s ever cried along to ‘Someone Like You’.
- Michaela Burger presents an intimate, original presentation of vintage French pop songs made famous by Edith Piaf.
- The next generation of Melbourne’s musical theatre talent are brought centre stage to give voice to Matthew Robinson’s songbook in New Voices.
- Mic Conway from the original Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band presents his trademark surreal brand of vaudeville.
“Following the Festival’s huge success last year with ticket sales up 83% to 8,000 audience members – the Melbourne Cabaret Festival is looking to smash box office records again, predicting a festival audience of more than 10,000 patrons. Adding two extra nights, almost doubling the number of participating venues and increasing the number of performances from 80 in 2012 to a 150 this year, the Festival is firmly establishing its place as a rising star on the Melbourne arts calendar,” says David Read, Artistic Director, Melbourne Cabaret Festival.
The Closing Gala will present a star-studded sampling of acts from across the Festival and beyond at Ormond Hall on Sunday 7 July as Melbourne’s cabaret community comes out in support of equal marriage rights.
The Festival hub venues are Chapel Off Chapel, the Kew Court House and Ormond Hall (part of the new Village Melbourne complex). The Butterfly Club will host the Festival’s ‘Best Of The Fest’, Bohemia Cabaret Club will host the Festival’s late night piano bar, and new venue The 86 will host the Festival’s open mic night, called ‘Cabaretoke’.
Other participating venues are 45 Downstairs, Comedy Theatre, Dracula’s, Globe Cafe, Melbourne Recital Centre, Old Treasury Building, Paris Cat Jazz Club, St Kilda Memo, Palais Theatre and Thornbury Theatre.
The Festival includes a professional development program for emerging and mid-career cabaret performers, offering master classes and workshops including Adam Guettel’s only public master class in Melbourne.
The Melbourne Cabaret Festival is made possible through the generous support of the City of Port Phillip, City of Boroondara, the Ron and Margaret Dobell Foundation, Palais Theatre, Yarra Trams, Yamaha Music Australia, Pom Pom Grafix, the JMC Academy, eFirst, Joy 94.9, RRR, Quest and TressCox Lawyers.
The 2013 Melbourne Cabaret Festival Opening Gala on Wednesday 26 June, 8pm, Palais Theatre, Lower Esplanade, St Kilda. Tickets: $79.50, $59.50, $49.50 Melbourne Cabaret Festival Members. Bookings: www.ticketmaster.com.au
The 2013 Melbourne Cabaret Festival runs from Wednesday 26 June to Sunday 7 July at venues across Melbourne. Tickets from $15. Bookings: http://melbournecabaret.com.
