Shout
Samela Harris
The Adelaide Advertiser
31 October 2005Daniel Scott. His is the name singing out from everyone's lips after this show. Forget Johnny O'Keefe. A new star is born. Well, Nicole Kidman already knows about him and so does Sir Cameron Macintosh, both of whom have sponsored his studies in musical theatre.
Now the MS Society brings him to us to make the rafters ring with rock'n'roll at Her Maj. Not only does this performer have a brilliant vocal range, but he can dance and act and he has a face to make Jude Law look plain.
Scott is too tall and too lean for the part of Johnny O'Keefe, but this detail is eclipsed within minutes as he seizes the Wild One's character and throws himself inexhaustibly through O'Keefe's repertoire of songs. It's a standing ovation he receives and none has been better earned.Not that he does the show alone. Oh, no. This has to be the classiest of all the MS productions, superbly choreographed and directed by that master Ross Coleman. The supporting cast absolutely jives with talent. There's the cabaret and musicals legend Toni Lamond, for starters. She plays a strong cameo role as Johnny O'Keefe's devoted mum and she gives the role a delicious double-edge. Then there is Kirsty-Anne Roberts as O'Keefe's wife. Her German accent may not be perfect, but her singing voice is a rare and beautiful thing.
David Hawkins is another seasoned professional with a dazzling song and dance presence. He has all the fun of embodying the debauched American entrepreneur Lee Gordon. Lindsay Dunn creates a sympathetic presence as the O'Keefe dad, while Jonathan Webb, Andrew Crispe, Benjamin Finn and Nigel Uphill make marvellous harmonies as the Delltones. Brenton Shaw shines a the boy soprano and, among the mass of well-drilled singers and dancers, Melissa Bergland, Rachel Durski, Nicole Hall, Jess Chiapolino are just a few of the notables.
Ian Boath's orchestra and Laraine Wheeler's lighting are right up there with the star turns, all of which make this Aussie heritage musical nothing less than a dazzlingly feelgood night out.
Shout
Russell Starke
The News Review-Messenger
2 November 2005DANIEL Scott is a knockout as rock star Johnny O'Keefe as we follow his shooting star from rebellious teenager to early death.
Rakishly handsome with a larrikin flair, he absolutely takes over the stage, pounding out those old hits, bouncing through the energetic dance routines, establishing a very powerful image of "The Wild One''.
Comparisons are always odious but I must say his performance outshines David Campbell in the earlier original production.
Director and choreographer Ross Coleman, who was responsible for that production as well as the touring version with Peter Murphy in the role, can be justifiably delighted with this pro/am creation, produced by Shane Davidson as another blockbuster for the MS Society.
Davidson's shows to benefit MS have become a high quality tradition including West Side Story, Les Miserables and now this very slick piece.
As well as Scott in the title role, the show benefits from the expertise of other professionals, Toni Lamond as his mother and David Hawkins as the outrageous Lee Gordon, promoter extraordinaire.
Rosie Ferguson's costume designs capture perfectly the petticoat flounce and lame glitz of the time, and Ian Boath's tight orchestra really thrums into the many well remembered numbers.
A big cast of amateur performers has enormous fun creating lots of "business'', all of it logical, relevant and entertaining as they establish characters in lots of mini-scenes through out the show.
All too young to have first-hand knowledge their take on social behaviour and attitudes is painfully accurate and amusing.
The whole company can sing and dance up a storm but notable among many good performers are Melissa Bergland, Johnathan Webb, Benjamin Finn and Kirsti-Ann Roberts.
If you can remember The DellTones, Rock Around the Clock and Johnny Ray singing Cry, then this is a rock'n roll rip down memory lane you shouldn't miss.
Shout
Fran Edwards
TheatreGuide.com.auFor everyone who is a Johnny O'Keefe fan, "Shout" is a must see, and the performance of the leading man (Daniel Scott) gives the MS Society something to shout about. An enthusiastic cast gave it everything they had on opening night and the audience appreciated their efforts.
The production was well staged and included some very fine performances, a few of which were marred by inept sound. Overall the sound was very patchy and unbalanced, with the band at times drowning out the singers and at other times so quiet they lacked the necessary oomph. Most disappointing moment was the first song by the 'Delltones' "Get a Job". I know that Jonathon Webb has a great voice and it would have been good to hear him and the others. Later Delltone numbers were better, but the impact was lost.
Toni Lammond was wonderful as the mother, a small but significant part, and the audience enjoyed her playful performance. She worked well with Lindsay Dunn (the father) to extract all the comedy from their roles. David Hawkins was every inch the Promoter, ruthless and hardnosed, bleeding his star dry. There was a good performance from Kirsty-Anne Roberts as The Girl, even though her accent wavered a little at times. In the chorus Melissa Bergland shone in several cameo roles and Rachel Durski was bright a The New Girl.
The set was colourful and appropriate and the lighting was up to Lorraine Wheeler's usually high standard. Unfortunately the direction was a little stilted in places with perhaps too much emphasis on the dancers and the choreography to provide a balanced stage. However this was only a minor annoyance and the high energy level of the dancers and chorus carried the production forward at a fast pace.
Despite a few first night glitches it was a good production with some fine performances. The most notable of these were Benjamin Finn a Col Joy, who was a delight, and Daniel Scott who seemed to have been invaded by the spirit of the Wild One himself. Worth a visit to support a worthy cause.
Spotlight on David Hawkins
June 12 2003, Melbourne StarWhat's Nom de Plume all about?
I'm really not into performing full narrative cabaret, or telling my life story, maybe when I am 60. I believe the show is true kabarett being political and social satire through words and music. It really is a kaleidoscope of songs from many different styles with two wicked monologues written by myself and Wednesday Kennedy.
Cabaret is usually a toss up between Broadway show tunes and European avante guard. Which do you do?
I definitely touch heavily on both; I love show tunes but truly love the European heritage of cabaret, (kabarett). In Germany the word cabaret refers to strip tease and burlesque, yet kabarett was the more sophisticated form with parody and poitical/social satire through words and music. I find that period of the 20s and 30s in Berlin amazing and so inspiring.
What's happening in the cabaret scene in Sydney?
Sydney isn't like Melbourne at all, we lack tradition in Sydney and as a town it has a very short memory. Venues open and close like nothing else and not just cabaret, most of our live theatres have been pulled down.
Some see cabaret as the poor cousin of mucial theatre
Easy to do because it is really supported and fed by the music theatre industry. Cabaret should be about telling stories using music and words so that is the same as music theatre. Good cabaret is certainly not a poor man's music theatre at all, some of my best experiences here, in Sydney and New York have been in cabaret.
Tell us about your role of Lee Gordon in Shout?
I love it, he is a great character and is such an interesting Sydney personality. He basically introduced Australia to the major music entertainers of the 50s and early 60s. His major contribution was in creating Australian household names which is not an easy task still to this day, but in the 50s it would have been hell.
Amie McKenna and David Hawkins
By John Shand
September 10 2002, Sydney Morning HeraldJohn Lennon once called it the "tee hee, it's not me" factor, and there's nothing like the misfortune of others to put a smile on one's face, is there? Well, not quite. Neil Armfield has observed how the theatre teaches us to empathise. Whatever the case, an audience can take home a grim vision of the world and nurture it as a good night out.
In devising this show, director Jim Sharman settled upon the songs of Lou Reed, Kurt Weill/Bertolt Brecht and Randy Newman. All enjoy a bleak outlook, tempered by irony and wry - or, sometimes with Newman, gut-busting - humour.
It was like lifting the skirts of cabaret and peeking at what lies beneath the cuteness, feyness and whimsicality of a Broadway best-of. At Sharman's disposal were singers Amie McKenna and David Hawkins, with musical direction and accompaniment from Alan "Eighth Wonder" John.
Reed's Berlin (Hawkins) topped and tailed the show, setting the mood for the ensuing barrage of lust, disappointment, tragedy and thumbing of one's nose at a world gone mad, engaging both head and heart.
Hawkins's reading of Walk on the Wild Side shrugged aside coyness in favour of a smouldering intensity. McKenna delivered an eerie Candy Says with staring, Raphaelesque eyes, to which Hawkins responded with the gritty Street Hassle. One of Reed's masterpieces, Perfect Day, was brought to life by McKenna with a disquieting blend of detachment and passion, for which John's piano was an orchestra of drama and possibilities.
In Brecht and Weill's Alabama Song, McKenna conveyed a numbing sense of desperation, while Mack the Knife was reborn - or rather delivered by caesarean section - in such a tortured drama of black humour by Hawkins as to unsettle elements of the audience. McKenna gripped Surabaya Johnny and bled the dichotomy between the verses and the refrain for all it was worth - each refrain beginning in a contralto as soothing as a swing in a hammock. There was of course the inevitable rendition of Newman's Short People and then McKenna squeezed the marrow from In Germany Before the War, while John alternated between thunder and fine mist.
The craziness took hold with Rednecks (Hawkins) and Political Science (McKenna), the latter, with such lines as "Let's drop the big one and see what happens", having a certain topicality.
Walk on the Wild Side of Cabaret
By Vanessa McCausland
September 7 2002, Sydney Morning HeraldThere's more than a bit of cabaret going on in Sydney at the moment. The Kit Kat Klub is simmering away at the State Theatre, while in Bondi, above a pizza parlour at Kabarett Junction, the real thing is spilling its guts and belting out pseudo-political and social statements to the tune of Lou Reed, Brecht-Weill and Randy Newman.
The performance is orchestrated by Jim Sharman, director of the original Rocky Horror Picture Show, Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar. Sharman's projects have often started out in small, cosy venues, only to grow from there. He has hand-picked NIDA graduate Amie McKenna, who appeared in his staging of Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill.
Kabarett Junction founder David Hawkins will take a break from the musical production Shout! to strut his stuff in Sharman's gig.
Hawkins is pleased that his recently opened venue, one of only a handful of cabaret bars in Sydney, has attracted such a powerful backing.
Mirroring the strange spelling of Kabarett, Sharman's musical line-up is an attempt to get back to the Germanic origins of cabaret as a socio-political medium during the Weimer regime, says Hawkins. He admits the tumultuous state of the world today is responsible for the waning of the days of the Nancye Hayes style of wonderfully joyful, light cabaret.
Instead, he sees the future of the form in "the other side of cabaret that really wants to say something and get a message across''.
"To pay $30 and be told the world's all good and fabulous and rose coloured glasses, you'd just come out thinking what a load of shit. People want words, they want substance.''
Whom better to turn to than the 1970s ballad masters, with their epic anthems like Walk on the Wildside, songs from Lou Reed's Warhol years, the Brecht-Weill Weimar period, Short People and Mack the Knife.
Parody and satire are the mainstay of the cabaret genre and the tools of social reflection, says Hawkins.
Boundaries can be pushed because people are chilling out, eating and drinking rather than having the heavy layed on them in a serious theatre.With the director of Rocky Horror at the helm, we can certainly expect something out of the ordinary.
The Outsiders
By Jonathon Pearlman
September 6 2002, Sydney Morning HeraldA small stage above a suburban pizza parlour might seem an unusual platform to sing the songs of the misfits and outcasts of 20th-century Berlin, New York and Los Angeles. But Jim Sharman, who set Don Giovanni on a chessboard and The Tempest in Bali, has never regarded himself as a custodian of theatrical traditions.
"I'm not interested in conventional cabaret," he says. "I'm not interested in conventional anything." Sharman, whose credits include Hair and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, had long toyed with the idea of bringing together the songs of Kurt Weill, Lou Reed and Randy Newman.
But it wasn't until a visit to Bondi Junction's Kabarett Junction that Sharman believed he had found a suitably unconventional home for his unconventional show (which doesn't have a precise name).
"It's a little, mysterious venue in an unlikely part of town," says Sharman. "It's an anonymous place that fitted the show's material."
A director who has filled the Sydney Opera House and theatres on London's West End might be expected to scoff at devising a show for a 70-person hall above a restaurant in a pedestrian mall. But Sharman says
the venue and the music are ideal partners."This is where all that kind of material was made. Brecht and Weill's music came out of cabarets in Berlin, Lou Reed came out of Max's in New York City and Randy Newman came from small clubs in Los Angeles." Sharman says he was drawn to the three songwriters selected by their common quest to give a voice to society's misfits.
"There's a level of poetry in what Weill, Reed and Newman do," he says. "They didn't write songs about themselves. They all wrote for other people whose experiences were not their own."
Sharman seems to have an instinctive sympathy for lending a hand to the dispossessed. He even professes to having been attracted to Kabarett Junction by the character of its manager and founder, David Hawkins.
"When I first met David, he reminded me of the harassed theatre manager in Shakespeare in Love," Sharman says.
The cabaret hall, which hosted its first show 12 months ago, was discovered by Hawkins when he went searching upstairs for a toilet while waiting for dinner at Arthur's Pizza.
Hawkins, who has sung with St Andrews' Cathedral Choir and Opera Australia, performs alongside NIDA graduate Amie McKenna, who worked with Sharman in Berlin to Broadway.
Hawkins warns that the 22-song, 70-minute show may disappoint those expecting a saucy, high-kicking spectacular (the songs are roughly equally divided between Hawkins and McKenna).
"It definitely isn't a normal cabaret act," says Hawkins. "It doesn't have people jumping around singing and shouting. It's simple and direct and lyrically driven."
The Weill songs are taken from the three operas written with Bertolt Brecht during the 1920s and are filled with images of gangsters and outlaws, reviving the ghosts of "criminal misfits who don't have a voice
of their own"."Jim is nuts about Kurt Weill," says Hawkins. "The translations he has found for this show are amazing."
The Lou Reed songs, including I'll Be Your Mirror, Walk on the Wild Side, Perfect Day and Street Hassle, feature the drag queens and characters from the Andy Warhol factory era.
"Lou was the voice, the commentator, while Andy was the one doing the images," Hawkins says.
The Randy Newman tunes, such as Short People and God's Song, are ironic, bittersweet anthems which both celebrate and deride American rednecks and small towners.
"Randy has a go at the small people of society while speaking on their behalf," Hawkins says. "It's heavy stuff, but it's lightened by the beautiful music."
Hawkins claims that the content suited his "glamorously suburban" venue, which is supposed to fuse political and social satire in the tradition of the original German kabarett.
For Sharman, the unlikely venue is no barrier to achieving his lofty theatrical aims. "All I can ask from putting on a theatrical experience like this is that the viewer goes out different to the way they came in," he says. "It
doesn't matter whether you work in palaces or pizza parlours."
Nom de Plume, Kabarett Junction
Reviewed by John Shand
June 19 2002, Sydney Morning HeraldThe term cabaret has represented, and continues to represent, a wealth of diversity. There was the racy German prewar variety, a more jazz-based American style, the widespread recycling of songs from the shows of Broadway and the West End, and a trend towards tunes near or from the pop world of the past 40 years.
Among all those strands is a dark one that stretches from the songs of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht to those of Jacques Brel and on to some of the output of Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and David Bowie.
It is to this highly theatrical, decidedly camp and somewhat sinister linage that David Hawkins - "The Hawk" - tends to align himself in Nom de Plume. (Bowie's Space Oddity is a cleverly integrated recurring motif, while his All The Young Dudes also gets a work-out.)
A sense of Nom de Plume as a coherent show rather than a diverse assemblage of songs emerged more strongly in the second act than the first.
Here the way the material fitted together was fastidiously sculpted by Hawkins and his writing collaborator, Wednesday Kennedy. It also allowed the range of Hawkins's skills as a performer to explode to the fore. There had been an edginess about his delivery as he worked almost too hard in the first act. Now the softer moments became at least as compelling as the exuberant ones.
Kander and Ebb's I Don't Care Much was a pinnacle that proved just what Hawkins is capable of with his big, lustrous voice and brooding intensity. The drama here was all the more effective for following a fragile reading of Seeger and Hickerson's Where Have All the Flowers Gone.
If more of the vulnerability that one suspects lies behind Hawkins's edginess was allowed to surface, the performance could be more compelling still. He zealously maintained eye contact with individual members of the audience, yet that connection could have greater potency if we were allowed inside more and were confronted less.
One of the joys of cabaret is its intimacy, yet this performance often seemed geared for a larger stage.
Hawkins was ably and enthusiastically accompanied by Andrew Warboys at the piano, often adding vibrant harmonies to Hawkins's vocal power.
Catch a Cabaret
By Troy Lennon
8 June 2002, Daily Telegraph
Nom de Plume, Kabarett JunctionThere's cabaret and then there's kabarett. The difference is not just in the spelling, according to "kabarett" artist David Hawkins, also know as "The Hawk".
"In Germany, cabaret is burlesque and strip shows. Kabarett with a 'k' and a double 't' at the end is political and social satire," says Hawkins.
His show, which has played to packed houses at other cabaret/kabarett venues such as Annandale's Side On Cafe, has an emphasis on satire and fits roughly into the kabarett category.
New material is constantly added to the show. The script, co-written with Wednesday Kennedy - "she's great for cabaret, she's got that cut in her writing, she's quite vicious" - is kept fresh to reflect current events.
Hawkins says it is not so much "just getting up and doing a bunch of ratty old show tunes".
"I've tried to bring in quite a bit of modern influence - David Bowie, Lou Reed - to get that commentary on the human predicament," he says.
Although Bowie doesn't sound like the conventional cabaret (or even kabarett) fare, Hawkins says it works very well. "They're like ballads. I do Space Oddity and All the Young Dudes," he says. "Bowie is obviously right into piano because he really writes amazing piano parts. So they adapt quite well."
Apart from glam rock, he also incorporates elements of jazz and "music from the [German] Weimar Republic", in particular the songs of Brecht and Weill.
"It's incredible when you do those old songs from the Weimar days and people get them like they were written yesterday. I find that amazing," Hawkins says. "And they're just as shocking. You go 'Ooh, I shouldn't be saying that', and they're from the '20s."
Hawkins does throw in some show tunes, but from the likes of Kander and Ebb's darkly comic Chicago. "It's definitely showy, but I suppose the Bowie stuff's got more of a show edge, and the show stuff's got more of a Bowie edge," he says.
His style certainly deviates from many definitions of cabaret. But Hawkins resists any attempts to categorise cabaret - or kabarett, for that matter. "People always say that cabaret is on the wane, but it's just that it's a fringe artform," he says.
"People get really confused. I think that cabaret should just be anything performed in front of people sitting at tables drinking and eating, whether it be a play, comedy or singing. That's where cabaret has fallen into a lot of traps, where people try to box it into music theatre divas singing show tunes."
Hawkins says one major challenge is making cabaret groovy enough to capture a young audience. "Shows that talk about current issues, that are funny or offbeat, are the ones that are getting the younger audiences," he says.
David Hawkins in Nom de Plume
Reviewed by David M Schwartz
December 14, 2001, New York Cabaret Online
After being away from Australian cabaret from September to early December of last year, it has taken me quite a long time to get back into the cabaret scene here.
Perhaps this was due to my experience of the changed energy in the USA or maybe it was simply post-vacation malaise. Whatever the reason, I have been taking time out from reviewing to have a dispassionate look at the cabaret scene here in Sydney.
I was a bit disillusioned when I left for my holiday. Two of the five venues that regularly featured cabaret had altered their booking policy for the worse; one was now featuring stand-up comedy and rock bands while the other had decided to curtail cabaret to one weekend a month. By the time I returned to Australia, I learned that cabaret had a new lease on life: two new performance spaces had opened up.
Kabarett Junction, one of the new venues, was my first port of call soon after my return. Before talking about the show, let me tell you about David Hawkins, the guiding hand who set up the room and starred in the first show there. Hawkins is a singer/actor who has been working in cabaret since 1996.
Prior to that he worked in various productions with the Australian Opera. In addition to his singing career, David Hawkins
managed The Kirk, a unique performance space in Sydney where young cabaret artists were given the chance to gain essential experience.
"Nom de Plume" was the solo show that David Hawkins chose to inaugurate Kabarett Junction. I first saw this act in an abbreviated version at Side On Café in February, 2001. The show was clearly inspired by the German kabarett of the Weimar Republic. The "nom de plume" of the title refers to the performer's nickname, "the Hawk." As David stated in his opening patter, "the Hawk will take you on a flight like no other, and he has some juicy prey: everyone from solicitors and prostitutes to addicts and celebrities."
What followed was a procession of vignettes, each characterized in monologue and song. Hawkins had clearly structured the show as social commentary. This was a lament for the loss of what was unique and genuine qualities in society and a critique of the synthetic values that have taken their place. By counterposing the present day charlatans (the lawyers and celebrities) with the outsiders of yesteryear (the prostitutes and addicts), Hawkins very skilfully dramatized his theme.
However, this was no intellectual exercize in the style of German theater that might have been written by Brecht; this was musical entertainment of the highest order.
David Hawkins selected material from a variety of sources (rock, pop, show tunes) to carry his narrative theme. From the opening medley of "The Whole Shebang" (Buffalo), "Space Oddity" (Bowie) and "Spinning Wheel" (Thomas) it was clear that there was a finely tuned musical sensibility at work. The twenty-three songs that followed maintained this high level of selection. In addition to his choice of music, Hawkins used a series of cleverly constructed medleys to forward his theme and cross-reference what had gone before.
As a performer, David Hawkins has a strong baritone with a very good high range. He is an high energy performer who is not afraid to exploit the emotional content of a song's lyric, but it was his handling of the dramatic elements of each song that made the show so special.
It would be difficult to single out highlights in "Nom de Plume," but I will mention some of my favorite moments in Hawkins' portrayal of this diverse gallery of characters: The young person yearning for true love ("All I Want" by Mitchell) or any love ("Any Guy" by Safka); the pomposity of the lawyer as characterized by "Style" (Schwartz); the hymn of the fan longing for the greatness of old movie stars in "Celluloid Heroes" (Davies/Raymond); the prostitute singing of hard life on the streets in "The Circle" (Piaf/Ebb) and the haunting song of gay man in "Lavender Nights" (Spoliansky); and the lament of the addict who is torn between sobriety, addiction and loss in a stunning medley of "I Don't Care Much" (Kander/Ebb) and "Where Have All The Flowers Gone" (Seeger/Colpet).
What was striking was the skill with which Hawkins managed to marry such diverse source material into a coherent whole.
A word of appreciation must be given to Andrew Worboys, Hawkins' musical collaborator. This was my first opportunity to hear his work; it was impressive. He performed in a variety of styles, ranging from barrel-house to rock to gentle ballads. In each case, Worboys was able to gauge his sound to perfectly fit the songs that Hawkins had chosen without allowing us to hear a change of gears.
Because this was the final cabaret performance at Kabarett Junction for the year, David Hawkins invited three young artists (Blazey Best, Rodger Corser and Christine Anu) to join him in a series of numbers that provided the audience with an added holiday bonus.
True to form, Hawkins used his own show to promote other local performers. On the basis of this show, Kabarett Junction will be a space to return to.
David Hawkins in "Nom de Plume"
Reviewed by Emma Jones
SydneyIs.com
Tina Arena isn't the only one getting into cabaret this year. A new club in Bondi shows Sydney why kitsch is always cool.
No, he isn't styling himself as an action hero, but "The Hawk" does have a rescue operation in mind. And in this case the damsel in distress isn't Kirsten Dunst. It's the Sydney cabaret scene and, with a new show, a new persona and a new venue, David Hawkins is proving that cabaret's still got that swing.
Like old-style cocktails, cabaret is fast moving from the domain of old ladies back to the realm of retro cool. And David Hawkins, aka "The Hawk" is helming the new movement with the recent opening of a new performance space in Bondi.
Kabarett Junction, where 1930s Germany meets the beach, is located in the heart of Bondi Mall, above Arthur's Pizza. It regularly features groovy young talent (one of the recent performers was Christine Anu) and is now hosting Nom de Plume, a show in which Hawkins shares his views on
life, the universe and everything. This musical bird of prey is honing in on everyone from lawyers, drug addicts, celebrities and hippies (and a few combinations of the above). And aside from keeping you amused by bagging everyone in sight, the show will get you mellow with over twenty new and retro hits to help your martini go down smooth.
Shows generally cost $25, with a 7pm dinner for an 8pm performance.
So, social satire, good music, food and drink, and genuine comfort, along with the comfort of knowing you're enjoying the newest old thing around. Which all goes to show that, like the smurfs, cabaret is only as camp as you want it to be.