Hans always knows how to make a grand entrance and nothing can be grander when you’re carried out to the stage on the shoulders of a handsome young man with the theme song of Hawaii Five-O belted out from the Lucky Seven Swing Band.
Fitting music considering we boarded Adelaide’s most flamboyant cruise “ship” in the Banquet Room of the Festival Theatre packed with passengers from, as Hans quite brutally described as the lavender bus. The walking stick brigade were out in force and Hans was loving every minute of it.
Shouting “Are you ready to come sailing tonight darlings” then breaking out to the theme of The Love Boat. From then on it was sequined and glittered go go go with songs of the sea and dance moves to match. All the ship inspired songs made an appearance like My Boy Lollipop, Rock the Boat and the Harry Belafonte classic, Jump in the Line (Shake Senora).
Speaking of shake there was enough hip shaking to whip the mature aged audience into a blue rinse frenzy especially witnessing the awkward yet hilarious eyebrow raising lap dance on Premier Steven Marshall.
What’s a Hans show without audience interaction or more importantly an accordion? Well he whipped out his accordion to play such favourites of Madonna’s Like a Prayer, Abba’s Dancing Queen and the popular (definitely with the lavender bus crew) The Sound of Music’s Edelweiss.
Taking any opportunity to work the crowd and sharp shoot his hilariously deadly one liners there was even an unexpected kiss from the 80 plus year old Keith! Onya Keith! Now that’s something to tell the Great Grandkids.
The Lucky Seven Band was brilliant keeping the audience swinging, with no less than three costume changes by Hans during the hour long show (surely that’s more than at a Beyoncé concert). Each costume more sparkly and glittery than the previous prompting Hans to state “You didn’t think it could get any gayer did you?”.
Ending with the ultimate boat song a jazzy version of Celine Dion’s My Heart Goes On and then the energised Creedence Clearwater Revival’s song, Proud Mary, where the hip shaking and foot stomping was taken to pulsating levels.
On this night there were plenty of local Adelaide celebrities such as the glamourous Anne Wills, Peter Goers, Premier Steven Marshall and Natasha Stott-Despoja but none come close (ok yes Willsy does but let’s just go with this for the sake of the star of the show and this review) to being the biggest star, Hans.
To quote him “It’s been 5 years since I’ve done the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Clearly they didn’t want shows that sold out”. Ahh Hans and that’s why we love you!
Hans and Lucky Seven’s Loveboat!
Banquet Room – Adelaide Festival Centre. King William Road, Adelaide
Performance: Sunday 17 June 2018
Information: www.adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au
Image: Hans – photo by Claudio Raschella
Review: Anastasia Lambis – courtesy of All About Entertainment