In 2020, Adelaide Cabaret Festival turns 20 and organisers couldn’t wait to tease us with a first look at next year’s star-studded program with 6 early release shows announced today.
“It’s been a delicious labour of Love looking back at all the artists who have been part of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival story,” says Adelaide Cabaret Festival Artistic Director Julia Zemiro. “The best of Australian and International Cabaret have cooed, wowed, jazzed and stomped the stages of the Adelaide Festival Centre and there are so many stories to tell.”
Reliving past festival highlights with cabaret favourites and fresh faces performing their best, Zemiro and previous Artistic Director David Campbell co-host a night of fast-paced cabaret vivaciousness as The 20th Anniversary Variety Gala! returns to the Festival Theatre on Friday 5 June 2020.
Next year’s festival will also be a celebration of all things French as Adelaide Cabaret Festival presents A French Soiree – a four-day sensory spectacle in the middle weekend (11 – 14 June) celebrating France as the home of cabaret.
Headlining that weekend in an Australian premiere, leading stars from Broadway, the West End and Australia will gather to celebrate the musical theatre songs of legendary writers Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg in Do You Hear The People Sing?
Featuring Tony award winner Alfie Boe (Les Misérables) and musical theatre royalty Lea Salonga (Miss Saigon, Les Misérables) alongside Joanna Ampil (the original Australian Kim in Miss Saigon), David Harris (Miss Saigon), Amanda Harrison (Wicked, Miss Saigon, Les Misérables) and Suzie Mathers (Wicked, Mamma Mia) – the concert will include hits from Les Misérables and Miss Saigon as well as Martin Guerre, The Pirate Queen and Frances’s first rock opera La Révolution Française.
Musical theatre super fans can also check out the Adelaide exclusive In Conversation with Claude-Michel Schonberg, Alfie Boe and Lea Salonga – hosted by incomparable MC Julia Zemiro.
Francophiles will be swept away by French cabaret chanteuse Caroline Nin who returns to the festival with her new show Barbara, la dame en noir. The femme fatale’s bilingual show pays tribute to French poet and melancholic singer Barbara with songs of love, drama and power.
RocKwiz returns in 2020, this time in a New York State of mind in RockWiz Salutes New York at Adelaide Festival Centre’s Festival Theatre. Julia and Brian Nankervis along with the RocKwiz Orkestra will be joined by fabulous cabaret and rock musicians and bring you tunes from some of New York and Broadway’s finest and of course the quiz!
In a world premiere and Adelaide exclusive, US musicians Davina and the Vagabonds will bring New Orleans charm, Memphis soul and sassy swing tunes to the Dunstan Playhouse. With a voice compared to a meld of Etta James, Amy Winehouse and Janis Joplin, Davina and her band are sure to raise the roof!
And the critically acclaimed West End hit SIX The Musical will smash open the doors at the new Her Majesty’s Theatre as part of Adelaide Cabaret Festival’s 20th program. A witty, pop-fueled musical drenched in satire and sass, SIX remixes the history of the six wives of Henry VIII – Britain’s notorious Tudor King – as they take the microphone to tell their stories.
“Next year’s Adelaide Cabaret Festival will be our most exciting program yet with a celebration of the last twenty years and a precursor for the next twenty,” said Adelaide Festival Centre CEO & Artistic Director Douglas Gautier. “Julia Zemiro’s creative vision will continue to delight our cabaret devotees and newcomers alike.”
The Adelaide Cabaret Festival takes place 5 – 20 June 2020. Full program launched in March 2020. For more information, visit: www.adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au for details.
Image: Julia Zemiro and David Campbell – photo by Philip Erbacher