Presented by the Adelaide Cabaret Festival
Reviewed Saturday 15th June 2013
Oh my goodness! If you missed this performance, you missed a cabaret tour de force.
Melissa Madden Gray aka Meow Meow is an Australian born artiste of international reputation. She is at home on the stages of London’s West End, Edinburgh, Paris, Berlin, and New York. Down Under she has won coveted Green Room Awards, Helpmann Awards and a Sydney Theatre Critics Award. She is a phenomenon.
It’s difficult to describe her ‘act’, but it’s closer to the roots of cabaret than most other performers in the Cabaret Festival. Apart from a powerful singing voice that is at home with the gentlest of songs from the likes of Brel, as it is with Shirley Bassey-esque belters, she is also a raconteur, a comedienne, and … a circus performer (of sorts!) that borders on the ribald! Curiously, Meow Meow carefully and selectively uses her grab-bag of diverse talents to weave a coherent and touching story that draws you in and has you engrossed from start to finish.
“What, no flowers?” she quipped when she first arrived on stage in the packed Dunstan Playhouse.
What’s a girl to do other than walk off into the wings, get her own flowers – dozens and dozens of them! – and then distribute them to the audience with the instruction to adoringly cast them at her feet when she returns to the stage for take-two of her grand entrance. A reverse Dame Edna trick? The audience loved it and settled back for her opening bracket of international songs.
And just as the show seemed to be well underway, a Stage Manager walked on stage and had a quiet conversation with Meow Meow. The gag was that her costume was being reclaimed by hire-company, because the costume budget did not stretch beyond the first five minutes of the show. So, again, what’s a girl to do other than throw modesty to the four winds and change on stage from one very revealing costume into another! There were other antics throughout the show including another costume that was lowered down from above, and audience members press-ganged onto the stage to become her ‘play things’.
Meow Meow’s diction is superb and her command of Spanish, French and German songs is enviable. She is true to pitch regardless of how loud or soft she sings and has an almost imperceptible vibrato even at the big finishes. Meow Meow oozes sex appeal and knows how to deliver Weimar inspired songs with all the requisite vim, verve and grunt. On stage an outstanding two man musical ensemble accompanies her on piano and drum kit – best in the Festival! (I don’t know your names, guys. There was no printed programme and I couldn’t hear Meow Meow clearly enough when she introduced you by name. Sorry!)
A highlight was her version of Jacques Brel’s 1959 classic “Ne me quitte pas”. It was a centrepiece for the entire show that was a richly embroidered story about the fragility of the beauty of youth and the transience of many of the relationships that are inspired by it.
When you though the show couldn’t get any bigger or better, Meow Meow mischievously and provocatively announced that it was time for a “big f*ck of a finish” and with that she …wait for it … crowd surfed off the stage into the audience, up the stairs and into the foyer for a CD signing!
Wow!
Reviewed by Kym Clayton
- Adelaide Cabaret Festival website
- Meow Meow official website
- Twitter: @MeowTopia
- Meow-Meow Facebook Page
Venue: Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre
Season: 15-16 June 2013
Duration: 70 minutes
Photo credit: Karl Giant
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