Catherine Alcorn: Nothing But A Song – Adelaide Cabaret Festival Review

Space Theatre, Fri Jun 13 Catherine Alcorn comes to the Adelaide Cabaret Festival with a fine pedigree, including a recent award for cabaret performer of the year. Nothing But A Song could stand alone as a fine rock concert, but elements of cabaret added interest and give the paying public more value for money. The show begins with the first of three characters she portrays, the lovably rude Dame Catherine Acorn, singing from the floor among the tables. She then proceeds to boss her audience around in good natured fashion. Referring to us collectively as ‘Adelaide’ she targets a few ‘lucky’ punters with some saucy humour, before launching into an emotional song about having her heart broken. The first change of costume reveals the cute Dulcie the Ice Cream Addict. She breaks our heart with a poignant ballad that asks whether we’ll still love her when she’s no longer young and beautiful. Dulcie exits the stage and we were treated to a brief rock cameo by the sexy Jane Cho on violin and Mary Hailey on guitar. The ‘real’ Catherine Alcorn then returns and belts out some powerhouse vocals, and also provides a quiet moment of poetry from her grandmother. Musically the show is excellent. Great arrangements and fine back-up vocals from the Voice Of Transition Choir (though for my liking they were way too far down in the mix to be heard much of the time) were the perfect springboard for Alcorn’s vocal prowess. As good as she is at the power end of the vocal scale; I especially enjoyed the quieter numbers. By the end of the show she had the audience in the palm of her hand. Bette Midler’s Stay With Me was a suitable climactic finish. Footnote: it is not often that one feels the need to comment on the lighting as an integral part of a production, but in this case the lighting effects added a touch of class and visual drama that were quite stunning. by Michael Coghlan