Presented by the Adelaide Cabaret Festival
Reviewed Sun 20th June 2010
http://www.adelaidecabaretfestival.com
Venue: Banquet Room, Adelaide Festival Centre
Season: finished
Duration: 60mins
Bookings: for all Cabaret Festival shows: BASS 131 241 or http://www.bass.net.au
Eileen Darley (vocals and triangle), Stuart Day (vocals, piano, guitar, bass guitar, violin) and the duo, Tin Can Alley, Jacqy Phillips (vocals, ukulele and piano accordion) and Cliff Stoddart (vocals and guitar), combine forces to present a terrific show filled with songs about, or related to fairgrounds, carnivals and circuses.
They included some familiar songs, with chance for the audience to join in, such as I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside and Roll or Bowl a Ball (A Penny a Pitch). There were other familiar songs like, Cher’s Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves and Alan Price’s Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear. There were also some unexpected tunes, such as the Britney Spears song, Circus and La Complainte Du Phoque En Alaska, from the Canadian band, Moxy Früvous, sung in both French and English, along with several others.
Although it was almost non-stop music, there were a few short chats here and there, filled with plenty of good humour, and comedy turned up in the songs as well. Lydia the Tattooed Lady, who was sung about by Groucho Marx in the film At the Circus, makes an appearance, followed immediately by The Tattooed Lady, a Kingston Trio song.
Eartha Kitt’s The Day That the Circus Left Town reminded us that circuses are a fleeting pleasure and it wasn’t too long before the show was over, but not before we had a few more tunes and Nellie the Elephant had packed her trunk and said goodbye to the circus. One More Ride on the Merry Go Round, Jacques Brel’s Carousel, and a last chance for us all to join in and Roll or Bowl a Ball at the cocoanut shie once more, and we reluctantly left the fairground.
This was an hour of fun and fine music, presented by four very talented people, that would make anybody feel good, through invoking well-remembered times past.
Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Arts Editor Glam Adelaide.