Lynn Belvedere

SHORT AND SWEET CABARET 2016 WEEK 2 @ NEW THEATRE

Inset pic- Angela Lumicisi sings the songs of Karen Carpenter in WE'VE ONLY JUST BEGUN. Featured pic- Ben Palumbo sings a collection of French songs accompanied by his accordion. Pics by Slyvi Soe.
Inset pic- Angela Lumicisi sings the songs of Karen Carpenter in WE’VE ONLY JUST BEGUN. Featured pic- Ben Palumbo sings a collection of French songs accompanied by his accordion. Pics by Slyvi Soe.

Sydney’s Biggest Little Cabaret Festival is back, with a brand new round of performers every week, for four weeks during January, and ending with a Gala Final on 7th February.

Short and Sweet Cabaret Week Two had a superb assortment of talent on stage, with a huge range of cabaret style songs, including female burlesque, farce and comedy, dance and musical theatre. In under 100 minutes, seven superb ten minute performances were presented and with all the impressive talent, it was almost impossible to pick the winner.

(1) DRAG IN THE FOLK- starring Daniele Gianotti and the Dusha Balkana Dance Ensemble. Well costumed extravaganza as a bearded drag queen lip-synced an amazing octave range of songs, with comedic support by the one person dance ensemble.

(2) CHRONICLES OF THE COMMON MAN- had Madison Hegarty delivering heartfelt comic lyrics to tell the story of her romancing whilst searching to find “the one”. Despite her best efforts, so very many different kinds of young men arrived and then departed. Her lyrics revealed the depth of her emotions, and all her songs tugged at your heartstrings, and at the end she received long applause from an appreciative audience.

(3) BAD GIRLS – Carmen Lysiak is the charismatic high priestess who channels three long dead bad women of song, each with a different vocal range. These amazingly versatile bad girls are Queen Gwenevere, an Aussie female serial murderer and then a still shoe-crazy Imelda Marcos, complete with fast costume changes. A crowd pleasing performance.

(4) BOYS BOYS BOYS- Emma Nicolazo is the woman who always obtains a trophy from each lover, as she walks out the door. All the trials and tribulations of a young woman, constantly looking for a good time with lots of young men. Wonderful entertaining dialogue and lyrics, all about her multitude of failed relationships. Accompanied on the piano by Matthew Jonathan Ogle. If you were thinking “serial murderess”, she just collects insane quantities of t-shirts.

(5) WE’VE ONLY JUST BEGUN – starred Angela Lumicisi, who sang a delicious selection of Karen Carpenter’s timeless love songs. Angela sounded as good as or better than Karen Carpenter, and with the audience singing along, was an audience favourite too. Musical Director – David Young.

(6) A MAN AND HIS ORGAN- Organ player Ben Palumbo sang an excellent mash-up of well-remembered french language songs accompanied by his accordion. A nubile young woman was grabbed from the audience, and there was unexpected male burlesque, as she helped Ben remove layer upon layer of his clothing, as he talked and sang.

(7) MRS RIVETTE’S WILD NIGHT IN – delivered a fantasy laden comedy burlesque starring Rosanna Nadine Cramer. The programme suggests you should expect to see a whip fetish using “The cat o’ nine tails”. Instead a total of nine fluffy tails have been sewn onto a child’s cute fluffy toy cat. Everything is not quite correct, and this cute and clever take on female burlesque drew gasps from an appreciative audience, with the denouement gaining lengthy applause.

SHORT AND SWEET CABARET WEEK played the New Theatre between Wednesday 13th January 2016 until Saturday 16th January 2016

The Short and Sweet Cabaret Festival continues at the New Theatre this coming Wednesday.

http://www.shortandsweet.org/festivals/shortsweet-cabaret-sydney-2016.

Published by Lynn Belvedere

Once we were old enough, my parents took the whole family to the Sydney CBD cinemas every week. Thus began a lifetime interest, in going to the cinema every week, and became a passionate cinephile by watching all those very heavily edited ''Australian Film Censorship Board'' true cinéaste versions of brand new release ''Cinematograph Films''. Greater Union always gave my father (who worked in Cinema Distribution Exhibition) guest double movie passes, to every first-night ''red carpet Opening Night'' at The State Theatre Cinema at 49 Market Street. Up until his death, my dad always received ''two house seats'' for every Opening Night performance events at the Theatre Royal SYDNEY and at Her Majesty's Theatre SYDNEY. As a child, when mum choose not to go, I often went with him, to those live performance events. As a young child, I remember being taken for each new show, at both The New Theatre at 60 Sussex Street, and the Phillip Street Theatre when located at 150 Elizabeth Street, and for classical music concerts at Sydney Town Hall. = = = ★★★★★ = = = Being happy is a choice, and I have always viewed my life, as material ready be made into a series of amazing tentpole movies. My New Years Resolution is kept every year: ''Get to see/review five new live theatre shows each week, and get to see/review six new cinema movies each week'', plus is one of the Australian Cinema Pioneers, and apparently have seen far too much already, but always wanting to experience more and more each year. I am also able to do almost everything that I enjoy doing. Yes, I do have a great daytime job in I.T. as ''Software Design Project Manager'', PLUS each evening until quite late - - - Australian Cinematograph Films historical censorship consultant - product-placement consultant - mystery-shopper consultant - playwright, writer, author, director, producer, photographer, cinematographer, color-grader, subtitles proofreader - arts/ drama/ music/ film critic and judge, journalist, member FIPRESCI & FCCA & AFCA, member AACTA accredited film reviewer-critic-writer, accredited IMDB.COM critic-reviewer-author, projectionist, plus an innovative iconoclast - - - ★★★★★ LYNN BELVEDERE ★★★★★ - - - [usr 5] - - -