Cabaret treat
Club Cabaret, Centrepoint Theatre, Palmerston North, August 11 – September 8. Reviewed
If you love fun-and-games, no-holds-barred entertainment – go to see this jawdropping hoot of a show.
First though, the disclaimer: Picking on the reviewer to make any sort of contribution to onstage antics is fraught with risk – especially if the pay-off for said reviewer is only a mini bottle of bubbly.
Warning – males of robust build should not sit in accessible rows, or have a head that bears any resemblance to a bowling ball.
On the upside, a show that features the unrivalled multivoiced and shape-shifting character talents of Darlene Mohekey is going to be back on track in no time flat. And so it proved to be.
Whether she’s an opera diva, a Swiss yodeller, rapper, Marilyn Monroe or the hapless emcee’s stage-struck wife, Mohekey is a sublime entertainer who knows exactly how to work an audience to everyone’s benefit.
And she is not the only treat. How about passively aggressive acrobatic duo Dust Palace, fresh from performing at the recent Le Cirque Vole´ .
Whether swinging from the Centrepoint rafters or balancing on a stack of chairs, petite Eve Gordon and hunky six-pack-toting Mike Edward show astonishing feats of strength, balance, coordination and concentration during three physical pas de deux.
Perhaps the psychic abilities of Lizzie Tollemache as femme fatale mentalist Lady Luck will take your fancy, or maybe her balloon-swallowing act.
Then there’s conjuring and juggling David Ladderman, who really does know how to climb an unsupported ladder, along with some mesmerising baton twirling and subtle sleight of hand.
Kane Parsons tinkles the ivories and channels his inner Victor Borge, while Dan Pengelly’s Pierre has more success wrangling responses from the audience than he does keeping his guest-artiste supplanting, scene-stealing ‘‘wife’’ under control.
Having patrons seated at tables around the boutique apron stage is reminiscent of the days when Centrepoint was a theatre restaurant, and adds to the good ol’ new fashion fun.
Go on, treat yourself.