Reviews

Megan Hilty is pure magic. Magic of the incandescent, amazing, feel-good kind.

Backed by a brilliant 40 piece orchestra led by MD supremo Michael Tyack, Ms Hilty gave a concert that, for the mostly music theatre fans in the audience, dazzled with the "Wow" factor.

A woman and a man sit on the stage, their arms and legs entwined, their faces just inches apart. They talk quietly, lovingly – tenderly. A hand brushes away hair from a face; they almost kiss.

This is the scene we face as we walk into the well-lit auditorium, soft music providing a cushion to our inevitable murmurs of conversation when we take our seats. Then the house lights fade; the stories begin.

On paper this sounded like a good fit for the Hayes Theatre – a two woman musical about the notorious 20th century female criminals Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh, who ran rival gangs in the streets of East Sydney, near where the performance is taking place.

Between them they committed a long shopping list of crimes including slashing a man in a barber shop, selling sly grog, running brothels and selling cocaine.

Kaye Tuckerman’s Broadway Bound (But Not Gagged) was one of the best shows I have seen, not only at this year’s Adelaide Cabaret Festival but one of the very best so far for this entire year. I have written a rather lengthy review for this show, partly because, for many, the extremely talented and gracious Kaye Tuckerman is not as well known as others. Furthermore, her one-woman show has more to say and is more insightful about the reality of being a contemporary professional working actress in New York than anything I have recently seen.