Dedications

What a marvellous gift to Cabaret is John O’Hara! When we see musical theatre people on stage – often in smaller roles – we have no conception of the breadth and depth of their talent….it takes Cabaret for them to really expose their gifts (in the nicest possible way). John’s gifts are broader than the sky and deeper than the ocean. In Dedications – inspired by the somewhat Kitsch late night radio show of love songs – O’Hara plays the DJ…. The Love God (inspired by Richard Mercer) and six of the regular callers to the show….the desperate, the lonely, the hopeless, the vindictive, and the good old Nutter! He plays each with utter conviction and remarkably switches age and gender in seconds without us even noticing, even his singing voice.

There’s Frank…the old pensioner who only loved one woman in his life…and she married his brother – lonely and with only his shared memories, he is everyone facing death alone.

There’s Josie, seemingly a nice lady making a dedication, but actually a psychopathic stalker.

Travis is a bogan who has lost his wife Shauntelle because he can’t stop rooting her sister. He says “I’m sorry” so many times he should have it tattooed on his forehead…but he keeps begging forgiveness and sending her love songs …in between “Jaryd, put that Guinea Pig back in its pen…don’t make me come after you.”

Liz the Fat Lesbo is deeply in love with Helen, but she has no self esteem and doesn’t believe she is worthy of being loved in return; and we don’t realise until the end the connection between her and the teenage Skank….complete with every gesture and form of text-speak that we’ve grown to loathe over the past couple of years especially.

Then there’s the writer; enigmatic; able to pour out beautiful prose on the page, but unable to verbalise why “she” left him.

Most of us know John’s great voice, but few of us realised this truth. John O’Hara is a comic force to be reckoned with. And, like rare comics such as Robin Williams, he is able to bring a lump to our throats and evoke heartache, even as he makes us laugh.

That he sings well is a given…it’s everything else that he brings and generously shares with us that makes him special. Poignant, insightful, vicious, witty, hopeless, and just plain hilarious – he is a complete performer.

The writing is simply superb throughout and never puts a foot wrong. The laughs come thick and fast, but always based on truth of character. O’Hara wrote the script with director Harkin, and whoever wrote the pages of the writer’s book has done a superb job. The Direction is tight and timed to perfection. Luke Hunter’s Musical Direction is superb throughout and kudos to the cello player…she was marvellous.

Melanie Hawkins has done a fine job with the choreography and one of the most hilarious sequences is seeing the pensioner Frank put his Salsa lessons into practise.

This is one of those cabarets that could (and should) take the international scene by storm….. The NY Cabaret Festival, Edinburgh Fringe – you name it, they all deserve to see O’Hara in full flight. Yes, he IS that good!

Coral Drouyn