Tina Arena Announces 2022 Adelaide Cabaret Festival Program.

Image: Tina Arena. Photographer: Callum Sims.

Singer-songwriter, record producer, actress, performer, ARIA Hall of Fame inductee and Adelaide Cabaret Festival Artistic Director Tina Arena AM has announced the program for the 2022 festival, to be held over 12 days and nights in June.

Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2022 returns to Adelaide Festival Centre and Her Majesty’s Theatre, featuring 377 artists and musicians across 97 performances including 14 world premieres and 15 Adelaide premieres by a large contingent of Australian artists and performers from the USA, Germany, Rwanda, and New Zealand.

Adelaide Cabaret Festival Artistic Director Tina Arena wants her program to bring hope and happiness to audiences: “Cabaret is a magnificent fusion of stories, song, dance, and all things theatrical. Cabaret is escapism of the most fabulous kind and boy, couldn’t we all use a little bit of escapism after the year that’s been?

“I am excited to be able to share this program of diverse voices and cultures, representing the best of cabaret and incredible talent. I hope this year’s festival takes you on a journey of much-needed connection and healing, from the personal stories of Songs My Mother Taught Me to the decadence of The Piña Colada Room – leave your worries behind and let the music save you, just as it continues to save me.”

Image: Marcia Hines: Photographer: Daniel Boud.

In shows exploring themes of nostalgia and cultural heritage:

Headliner show The Gospel According to Marcia will see Marcia Hines celebrate memories from her childhood in Boston and her early experiences with Gospel music in a one night only concert at Her Majesty’s Theatre on June 17. Accompanied by Charmaine Jones & The Gospo Collective, Marcia will perform hit gospel songs including ‘Oh Happy Day’, ‘I Don’t Know How to Love Him’, and ‘Lean On Me’.

Bringing her Italian heritage to the program, audiences will get a rare chance to connect with Tina Arena on a personal level, as she headlines and hosts the world premiere show, Songs My Mother Taught Me. Featuring Tina, and special guests Lior, Thando, Jess Hitchcock, Wendy Matthews and Sophie Koh, the show celebrates culture, legacy and love and is inspired by storytelling and family. Two shows only at Her Majesty’s Theatre on June 24 and 25.

Continuing the exploration of personal history, comedian and performer Oliver Twist will reflect on his time as a refugee from Rwanda, in a one-person show - three shows from June 23-25 at Space Theatre. 

Image: Katie Aspel - Care of Nowa the Label

In a special Adelaide Premiere, First Nations regional musicians and performers Kuko, Katie Aspel and Rob Edwards will bring a mix of blues, jazz soul and folk in a night of sound and story telling in T.R.A.I.L on June 19. 

International acts include swing band Davina & The Vagabonds in an Australian premiere where they draw from the past 100 years of American music, from Fats Domino to Aretha Franklin and Tom Waits in The Famous Spiegeltent over the first weekend. The same weekend, New Zealand company, A Slightly Isolated Dog bring Don Juan to the Space Theatre, bringing together physical comedy and twisted pop songs in a h show directed by Leo Gene Peters. 

Audiences will travel back in time with vocal powerhouse Catherine Alcorn and Phil Scott in 30 Something, an immersive show set in Sydney’s Bohemia Kings Cross on New Year’s Eve 1939. And South Australian cabaret favourites Amelia Ryan, Michaela Burger and Michael Griffiths will celebrate the golden age of rock ‘n’ roll, sexual revolution and the leaps and bounds of women’s liberation in Simply Brill – The Women Who Defined Rock ‘n’ Roll. 

Other South Australians with their own shows this year include Libby O’Donovan in Sister Elizabeth which explores the divine nuns of film, TV & Pop culture and features the Yankalilla Miracles. In its first ever cabaret festival appearance, State Opera South Australia will bring drama to the stage with their new show How to Kill Your Husband (and other handy household hints) at Dunstan Playhouse. And Adelaide’s own Victoria Falconer makes her festival debut in And Then You Go – The Vali Myers Project, harnessing the flame haired-bohemian figure and visionary artist. The show is this year’s Frank Ford Commissioning Award recipient - the award by Adelaide Cabaret Festival’s late founding father, provides $20,000 a year towards the creation of new works by South Australian artists.

Image: Meow Meow. Photographer: Prudence Upton.

Meow Meow will bring her show Pandemonium to Her Majesty’s Theatre stage accompanied by Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Reuben Kaye brings his new show Live & Intimate to this year’s festival while Australia’s Queen of Burlesque, Imogen Kelly, performs her acts from The Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas in La Grande Folie at Dunstan Playhouse on June 17. 

Bringing variety to the festival, audiences will experience mind-bending contortion, aerial artistry, incredible dancers and death-defying acrobatic feats in Cirque Bon Bon during the second week of the festival. And host Paul McDermott will bring a nightly variety show to the last two weekends of the festival with The Funhouse – a dark carnival of minstrels and misfits, comedy and music and featuring Claire Hooper and Dilruk Jayasinha plus an array of special guests each weekend.

For Musical Theatre fans there’s Moments in the Woods – Songs & Stories of Sondheim paying tribute to the genius and legacy of musical theatre’s most ground-breaking composer, Stephen Sondheim, featuring Philip Quast, Geraldine Turner, Queenie van de Zandt, Josie Lane and Mitchell Butel for one night only at Her Majesty’s Theatre. While Hayden Tee will peel back the layers to some of musical theatre’s most loathsome characters (some of which he’s played) from Miss Trunchbull (Matilda) to Javert (Les Misérables).

Image: Philip Quast. Photographer: Richard Roberts.

In his cabaret debut, multi-platinum Australian R&B artist Gary Pinto (member of former hit Australian band CDB) will bring his soulful voice to Dunstan Playhouse in Sam Cooke: The Music. Celebrating the legacy of “The Godfather of Soul” Sam Cooke, Gary will belt out classics including ‘A Change is Going to Come’ and ‘You Send Me’ in an evening of storytelling and musical melodies to warm the soul.

Adelaide Festival Centre CEO & Artistic Director Douglas Gautier AM: “This will be a new and exciting experience for audiences with the opening-up of the Riverbank Precinct and Festival Plaza and we are delighted to have Tina Arena at the helm. Last year’s festival took home the silver medal at the South Australian Tourism Awards, so we know how important it is for our community. As a winter festival, Adelaide Cabaret Festival is a seat at the fireside, warming our collective spirits.”

Adelaide Cabaret Festival Executive Producer Alex Sinclair: “We look forward to bringing some much welcome glamour and sparkle back to Adelaide, with an outstanding line-up of some of the finest cabaret artists from around the country under the artistic vision of the incomparable Tina Arena. We can’t wait to welcome back our much loved and enthusiastic cabaret audiences from tonight and share a dance under the mirror ball this June!”

This year’s new late-night hub – will see The Famous Spiegeltent pay homage to the icons of disco at The Piña Colada Room. On til late between June 10-25. 

The Class of Cabaret program returns to shine a light on the cabaret stars of tomorrow, proudly supported by Adelaide Festival Centre Foundation through the Nathaniel O’Brien Scholarship which allows one student from regional South Australia to participate in the program. 

Free events include the popular LGBTIQ+ Elders Dance Club by All The Queens Men, the afternoon tea dance party for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, gender diverse and intersex elders and all allies will be held at The Famous Spiegeltent on Sunday, June 19.

Trevor Jones – The Piano Man is back at the Festival Theatre foyer Quartet Bar nightly and the Corryton Burge Bar and Cabaret Lounge return as the perfect places for patrons to settle into a quiet corner or keep the party going between shows.

Produced and presented by Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide Cabaret Festival has grown from modest beginnings in 2001 to become Australia’s major winter festival and the largest cabaret festival in the world. Previous Artistic Directors of the festival include Julia Holt, David Campbell, Kate Ceberano, Barry Humphries, Eddie Perfect, Ali McGregor, Julia Zemiro and most recently, Alan Cumming. 

The festival has been a platform for shows and performers who have achieved critical acclaim and featured world-renowned artists including Ms Lisa Fischer, Kristen Chenoworth, Idina Menzel, Dita Von Teese and Patti Lupone to name a few. 

Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2022 opens on June 10 and runs until June 25.

Tickets on sale March 25 from 11am at adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au 

View full Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2021 program here.

The celebrations kick off tonight (Mar 25), with The 2022 Variety Gala red-carpet event will bring glamour to the Festival Theatre and showcase some of the artists from this year’s program, including headliner Marcia Hines. Hosted by comedian Paul McDermott and Tina Arena, the popular event is directed by Mitchell Butel with musical direction by Mark Ferguson – limited tickets available.