MALTBY AND SHIRE HEADLINE 2004 ADELAIDE CABARET FESTIVAL

Broadway creative duo Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire will make their first Australian appearances at the 2004 Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

The Adelaide Cabaret Festival will be held in the Adelaide Festival Centre from 11th to 26th June, 2004, and is by far the biggest cabaret event of its kind in the world. At the recent Festival launch, Adelaide Cabaret Festival Director, Julia Holt, announced that this year no fewer than 380 performers from New York, London, Paris, Belgium, Cuba and across Australia will feature in 175 performances.

In a coup for the festival, Richard Maltby, Jr. (Tony Award winning lyricist and director) and David Shire (Oscar winning composer) will present a world premiere, staged concert version of TAKE FLIGHT, their latest musical, which is slated for Broadway production in 2005. They will also present a concert version of CLOSER THAN EVER. Both these shows will be presented with all-star casts selected from Australia's top music theatre and cabaret artists and full orchestras. Maltby and Shire will also feature in An Afternoon with Maltby and Shire, in which the duo will share stories, anecdotes and music theatre gems.

Also jetting into Adelaide from New York will be the "Crown Prince of New York Cabaret" Steve Ross.

The inclusion of Maltby and Shire and Steve Ross continues the New York Series which was initiated at last years' festival by Jason Robert Brown, K.T. Sullivan and Mark Nadler, and focuses on the work of contemporary US composers and interpreters of the Great American Song Book.

Other international acts announced for the Festival include Belgian acoustic quartet, Mich en Scene, with their charismatic lead singer Micheline Van Hautem, who will present The Songs of Jacques Brel, and the world premiere of Madame. The French chanson will be represented by the French quintet Paris Combo who will come to the festival direct from studio recording sessions in Paris with their sensational chanteuse Belle du Berry.

Original members of the Buena Vista Social Club, the Afro-Cuban All Stars and Vieja Trova Santiagera will come from Cuba, while English musical satirists Kit and the Widow will be making their first Australian appearances.

Among the top Australian acts to be featured are Marcia Hines, Robyn Archer, Avigail Herman, and Janet Seidel. Dennis Olsen and Amanda Muggleton will celebrate the words and music of Noel Coward, while indigenous singer/songwriters Ruby Hunter and Archie Roach will perform their own songs to the accompaniment of The Australian Art Orchestra led by Paul Grabowsky.

One of the first Australian cabaret acts to crack the New York scene, Combo Fiasco, will give their last two performances at this years' festival prior to disbanding. In the ten years they have been together Combo Fiasco have become one of Australia's best known and most respected cabaret acts.

Among the emerging young cabaret performers being spotlighted this year are Eddie Perfect, Kaye Tuckerman, David Hawkins, Katie Noonan, Melissa McCaig and Catherine Campbell.

An important and popular feature of the previous Adelaide Cabaret Festivals has been the Masterclasses, and this year Masterclasses will be given by Maltby and Shire as well as Nancye Hayes.

But perhaps the most intriguing offering of the festival will be Robyn Archers' world premiere show Whispering in which the cabaret diva promises a most intimate cabaret experience. A one-on- one performance, lasting just ten minutes, where for the price of your ticket she will perform the song you have chosen just for you to you.

Full details for the 2004 Adelaide Cabaret Festival are available on their website http://www.adelaidecabaret.com/.

 

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