Tucked away behind the elaborate door of 41 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, is an intimate venue called Slide Lounge, host to cabaret, great food and exotic theatre. Slide is where ‘Broadway meets Burlesque’ and ‘Vaudeville and Vamp spectacularly collide’. You can book a full dinner or settle for very tasty $8 snacks – stuffed zucchini, mini spring rolls, pear and rocket salad. Great to see such a vibrant venue thriving.
They are currently hosting the Annual Slide Cabaret Festival with a different local/international act each night. I was fortunate to see Michael Griffiths on July 1st in his compassionate and humorous one man show SWEET DREAMS : SONGS BY ANNIE LENNOX. Griffiths has collaborated with writer/director Dean Bryant on their previous show IN VOGUE: SONGS OF MADONNA and now SWEET DREAMS. The upcoming third show of their trilogy on legendary female singer/songwriters will be worth catching.
Griffiths takes the audience into his confidence from the moment he glides onto his piano stool and breaks into the powerful Lennox song “Missionary Man”. He uses eye contact with both lounge and mezzanine and has us laughing at his wicked innuendos.
With a fabulous song list and extracts from Lennox’s rich tales of love lived and lost, we are taken on an emotional rollercoaster. With the uplifting songs, ’Love Is A Stranger’, ‘Sweet Dreams’ ‘There Must Be An Angel’ and ‘The Miracle of Love’ beautifully and individually arranged by Griffiths, spreading suitable joy, we are taken with equal intensity into Lennox’s darker writings, such as ‘Walking On Broken Glass’, ‘Here Comes The Rain Again’ and a beautiful heart-wrenching version of ‘Diva’.
Having just finished a season of THE JERSEY BOYS, Michael Griffiths is a talent to watch out for. His professionalism is evident and his presentation of SWEET DREAMS, with his great voice and storytelling skills, cements his place in the cabaret and musical theatre world.
The final show in Slide’s current Cabaret Festival takes place tomorrow night- Thursday 4th July, when Bernadette Robinson, star of the highly acclaimed SONGS FOR NOBODIES, presents her brand new show, AN EVENING WITH BERNADETTE ROBINSON.