SHORT AND SWEET CABARET 2016 WEEK 3 @ NEW THEATRE

00 Brandy Alexander-1 01 Olivia Farag-1 02 Alexandra Chambers-1 03 Anton Johannssen-1 04 Dallas Saliba -1 05 Melody Beck-1 06 Anna Canillas-1 07 Christian Cavallo-1

Short and Sweet Cabaret week three had a superb assortment of talent on stage, including emcee, Miss Brandy Alexander.

This week had a huge range of cabaret style songs, including female burlesque, cabaret pole-dancing, farce, comic puppetry, and cover songs with brand new lyrics.

In under 110 minutes, seven superb ten minute performances were presented from Wednesday night, and with all this impressive talent, every performer could have been a winner.

 1.  I Just Want to be a Woman 

This starred Ebony performing cabaret styled pole dancing. Very flexible and high energy too. Her spectacular choreographed routines were a crowd pleaser.

 2.  Fangirl

Alexandra Chambers is fan-girl Stephanie Sparkle and sings her unique story via comic lyrics. We take a deep and meaningful look inside Fangirls Anonymous (FA) where she is in the process of recovering from her Doctor Who stalking obsession. The performance featured the songs Girl Crush and They Can’t Take That Away From Me. FANGIRL was a hit with the audience with its clever storyline and lyrics. Guitarist: David Macaulay.

3. The Queen’s Speech

This piece presented great comic parody and starred Anton’s Angels performed by the actor and his puppet, Queen Liz (Mrs. Windsor). We discover important events as Queen Liz sings (lip-synced), including seeing the person who caused Diane’s car crash. Queen Liz releases her hidden desire to be a burlesque queen, and does the full monty, with the denouement gaining lengthy applause.

 4. Too Darn Hot 

Circus-infused cabaret tunes with sultry jazz singer Lenna-Maree Moxey along with sassy burlesque dance artist Dallas Saliba. Think beautiful costumes, sequins, feathers, hula-hoops and a bit of striptease. Popular with the audience.

5. Unsung: The Voices of Rita Hayworth

Rita Hayworth from the Bronx to Hollywood, lived a full and passionate life. Hear the range of voices of each of the many ghost singers who sang for the screen goddess with undeniable sex appeal, Rita Hayworth, that everyone always remembers as Gilda. Singer Melody Beck, accompanied on the piano by Benjamin Burton, performed many of Rita Hayworth’s well remembered songs.

 6. Dear Diary – Anna Canillas

At the age of thirty, Anna Canillas re-discovers her deliberately long forgotten high school diary. Using imaginative song lyrics, she evokes the contents of diary which is about friendship, being in and out of love, and many, many other things, some painful, others embarrassing. Accompanist: Dave Collins.

 7. Boy Wizard

BOY WIZARD delivered a clever Harry Potter comedy piece, as the boy who lived for one year in Hogsmeade Village. An owl delivered a letter from Dumbledore, explaining why he failed to be accepted into Hogwarts. We learn all about his experiences with wands that choose wizards. A very enjoyable story and performance that drew plenty of laughter from the audience.

As well as the seven cabaret pieces, Joanna Weinberg appeared as a guest of the Festival and performed some songs from her new and ninth cabaret show Pandora’s Bag  which she will perform at the Camelot Lounge in February.

The final performance of Week 3 in the Short and Sweet Cabaret Festival is tonight at 7.30pm at the New Theatre, 542 King Street, Newtown.

Production  photography by Sylvi Soe.

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