Kelly Young - Oh! My Shattered Illusions

Kelly has been away from the stage for quite sometime, 15 years in fact, but has now resumed her cabaret career with Oh! My Shattered Illusions. She recently played at the Riverside Theatres in Parramatta.

Kelly has been on a bit of a life journey, like us all. But shares some of the stories of motherhood, marriage and divorce with us. Many of the songs tell the funny side of life, even though they can be serious at the time. Most were full of humour and had the audience screaming with laughter.  Kelly sang with great passion, though she didn't have the strongest of voices for some of the songs, it was more about the story so this didn't matter. She was accompanied by Rachel Collis on piano. Rachel you may have seen earlier this year, is another talented musician.
I think the Riverside Theatre was probably not the best venue for this type of performance. Kelly would be better performing in a cabaret style set up. It was a good show though and certainly entertaining and if you see she is performing elsewhere in Sydney, I would go.

Rachel Collis and Band - Review

Friday night in Parramatta.  It has been a while since I have travelled to Parramatta and every time I go I think, I should go there more often.  We strolled along looking for a place to eat that wasn't going to cost us too much and came upon Mars Hill Cafe. It was a great little place, good cheap food, live entertainment and a small exhibitions of paintings on the walls. I could have spent the night there really, but I knew Rachel was waiting in the wings for her audience to arrive.
Rachel Collis is a singer songwriter and has just released her debut album Ever After. She is classically trained on Piano and vocals, both of which were outstanding.   She has a strong, gutsy voice and a wide vocal range. She performed with a band consisting of Keyboard/ Percussion, Drums, Bass (double bass and guitar) and Trumpet. All the musicians were excellent.
Rachel's repertoire varied from amusing to melancholy. All the songs were well written and there was plenty of variety to adequately show Rachel's vocal and keyboard talents, along with the bands!  The evening started well with a few light hearted uplifting songs to warm up the audience.  One of the first songs is called Column B which is about people who all love something but what they love isn't always appreciated by the rest of society.  I did think, because of the themes in some of the songs, like Pour Me a Glass of Wine and This Old House that Rachel had been unlucky in love and marriage. However, at the end of the evening after singing Song for Steve, which she wrote for her husband, he appears and plays guitar in one of the songs.
Everybody enjoy the evening, however, you could noticeably feel the mood drop towards the end as Rachel sang several sad songs in a row and instead of bringing the band back to pick up the pace and the audience's mood, she ended with a solo.  I would go and see her again because on the whole I did enjoy her music and I would like to see what she does next.
You can find her album on the itune store under Rachel Collis.

Amelia Ryan is a Storm in a D Cup

The title fits Amelia perfectly. Amelia has a powerful voice and a very colourful life and so fills the evening fall of songs and anecdotes from her life her own personal storm.
You will laugh and you might even cry has you hear how she missing her flight to New York. She holds nothing back as she unravels her colourful upbringing and comes to terms with her gay father. She has more mishaps with car than probably most people, but when the cars numberplate is WAM what do you expect? Many actors and artists will be able to relate to her struggle to balance the bank account and will do almost anything to get on stage and make the big time.
You will recognise many of the tunes that Amelia sings but not the words as she adapts them to tell her on tales. The songs are well chosen and keep the evening bubbling along.
There is a serious message to all this, as she says at the end. We all have our own storms in life and sometimes they come with no warning. But we have to just get on with it and brave the storm knowing that one day it will end.
The only word of warning I would give it that if you don't like swearing, you might not like this. I think in one of her songs about WAM she uses every single swear word possible, though it is very funny!
Amelia is playing at the Supper Club at the Oxford Hotel which is a great venue for her. They do quite good food too. Her next shows are 27th, 29th September 9pm 30th September 8pm.  You can book through the Sydney Fringe Festival website.

Not Quite Cabaret

Not Quite Cabaret - a belly full of laughs.
Not Quite Cabaret has one more night on 5 April before it has a break to return for a second season on 21 June. If you missed this run you must go to the next one, we are already planning when, with family and friends.
So what is Not Quite Cabaret? It is a series of short plays at the Exchange Hotel in Balmain which is amazing in itself. The room is set up cabaret style so you can eat and drink while watching the show.  There are seven plays and two intervals (so plenty of time to talk and top up your glasses!). The same cast perform throughout the evening, which is great for them as they get to show off how multifaceted they are; and they were. It could easily go wrong you only have to have one actor not pulling their weight, or for some reason if the audience didn't take to one of the actors for the whole show to fall apart. Deborah Bradshaw the producer of the show picked well! The plays too were well chosen as she said at the beginning if you don't like one you will like the next. Mind you, I don't think anybody would really dislike any of them. I did have a favourite RAF, which I will need to see again as I was laughing so hard I missed most of it! All the plays were funny so it made for great Thursday night entertainment.
Ghost Writer - So you think it is all about me! I can't say anymore than that without spoiling it!
Sushi Wushi Woo - picking men is like picking Sushi, if you are not quick all the good ones are gone!
Role Play - How to pick up a date!
RAF - whato! Who's Hilter? warning extremely funny, well I thought so!
Sally's Choice - a short farce, regarding we women are just not satisfied in bed!
Young Amazon - When we were young? What did they do?
Pride and Prejudice - the whole story in ten minutes!
I really couldn't fault it, the staging and direction was kept simple which it needed, to keep it fast paced and flowing. The costumes were again good, the sound, well music reflected each of the plays. Bruce Glen wowed the audience with a few magic tricks during the interval at the tables. He has his own showing coming up next month.
Well done Deborah and all the actors you should be very proud of what you have achieved.

Catherine Alcorn and the Slide Cabaret Festival

Catherine Alcorn is an amazing women of many talents. The is Sydney's first cabaret festival for many years. Find out who will be performing and book your tickets now.

This is a great interview with Catherine recorded on The Hubbub, Triple H 100.1 fm. 

The opening night party on Monday 6 February was amazing. Many of the performers for the festival were there and keen to talk about their shows. You saw first hand short cabaret snippets to wet your appetite. Talking of food we got to sample many dishes which was just as well as the champagne was flowing!

Find out more

Interview with Michael Griffiths

Michael Griffiths who is one of the headlining acts in the Slide Cabaret Festival with his show In vogue: Songs by Madonna
Find out more about the Slide Cabaret Festival here 

Hear about Michael's amazing show when he was interviewed on Triple H 100.1 fm on The Hubbub 

(please note the link will become inactive in about 3 months time, call 02 99403649 if you would like to listen)

Mum's In Stories from Razorhurst

Mum's In is written and performed by Vashti Hughes.
It tells the stories of Kate Leigh, Tilly Devine, Frank Green, Nellie Cameron and Guido Caletti. Blood is spilled right from the start with the death of Guido Caletti followed by the preparation for the funeral and wake. The fighting between Tilly and Kate continues!
If you have been watching Underbelly Razor you will already know the characters and the stories very well.
Vashti gives the show a powerful performance and encourages the audience to join in. Vashti plays all the characters which does prove she is a talented performer and writer; though song writing I would say is not her strongest skill.  From the audience point of view I would have preferred maybe one other actor and a few more props and costume, the odd hat (there was one in the second half) and feather boa would have done. Perhaps I missed the point, but the venue and all the staff looked superb. After the show the bar was raided which was an excellent end.
Many of the audience were in costume and for something fun to do with a few friends it would be a great night out.