Smoky Jazz and Sexy Dames
Wed, 10 Sept 2003, 02:50 pmWalter Plinge1 post in thread
Smoky Jazz and Sexy Dames
Wed, 10 Sept 2003, 02:50 pmWHAT: Razzle Dazzl'em
WHEN: Sunday matinee, August 17
WHERE: Kalamunda PAC (WA)
Sorry for the LONG delay in finishing this review. The lovely Dr M and I popped up to the hills to see Razzle Dazzl'em, a concert put together by the duo, Ain't Misbehavin' (Kylie and Katy).
The show opened with a medley of songs from Chicago (or so I'm told - I still haven't seen the movie, or any of the recent productions - gimme a break, I only saw Moulin Rouge a couple of months ago).
After the flashy, sequin-loaded opening montage, it was time for the special guests. The poster didn't disappoint when it advertised guest appearance from one of Perth's finest up-and-coming sopranos (singers not gangsters), Catherine Lowenhoff. You could have heard a pin drop during her lovely solos.
One of the highlights of the performance was the hot jazz section. Accompanied by saxophonist Jimmy Smits (who seems lost a bit of hair from his NYPD Blue days, but still has plenty of sax appeal), Kylie & Katy, gorgeous in their velvet LBDs, delivered some sultry jazz classics.
Next we had the MPCK Show (dunno what it stands for - Musical Parody Comedy Kwartet perhaps?), sort of a barbershop quartet except they had two singers and two musicians (more or less). They had the audience in hysterics with their very clever Gilbert-and-Sullivan-esque renditions of famous tunes. For instance, their version of Bette Midler's, The Rose, was all about Rose Porteous.
Katy & Kylie were back as Agnetha and Annifrid, encouraging the audience to sing along to some vaguely familiar songs, none of which I knew any of the words to whatsoever of course. The diaphanous baby-doll-type outfits and knee-high white leather boots managed to capture my attention, though....
Another guest, Katrina Merritt, treated us to a STUNNING display of flamenco dancing, engendering quite possibly the biggest round of applause of the day.
Another solo from Catherine, followed by a selection of 1960s' hits (Lipstick On Your Collar, etc) from Kylie and Katy preceded interval.
And what an interval! When the poster said, "Complimentary Cake," I was half expecting agglomerated clumps of something that might once have resembled fruitcake. How wrong could I be! Individual servings of strawberry cheesecake, chocolate Bavarian, gourmet carrot cake and others awaited the salivating hordes.
Act 2 continued with some combination pieces. Katrina returned with ballet interpretations during solos from Katy and Kylie. Catherine pushed the envelope with the crowd-pleasing "Music of the Night". And, with one of my personal favourites, Jimmy saxed it up with the Peter Gunn theme.
More fun as Marilyn Monroe (Katy) seductively reminded us that "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend", then Shirley Bassey (Kylie) belted out "Big Spender".
More beautiful solos from Catherine, more astounding choreography from Katrina, more hilarity from MPCK, then the Blues Brothers made an appearance. Well, in some ways they resembled the Blues Brothers, but Kylie and Katy had MUCH better legs than John & Dan.
And now the constructive criticism: It's hard to dislike any aspect of the afternoon which was nothing less than pure entertainment, but the start of the show suffered from (in my opinion) some dodgy sound quality. Now we all know I'm no expert, but the first few numbers seemed drowned somewhat by tinny, overloud backing tracks. I started to get worried, then all of a sudden everything rectified itself. Either the first few tracks were simply substandard recordings, or it took a few songs to get the levels right, or, more likely, years of accumulated earwax had finally melted under the onslaught, allowing me to properly hear the rest of the performance.
Apart from those opening few tracks, the music - and indeed all technical aspects of the show - were flawless. The rest of the show was well served by the venue's acoustics, and Aaron Stirk was obviously having a ball with the lighting and sound boards. To rave much more about the stunning, sexy costumes would only serve to reinforce the popular view that I only go to these shows for the beautiful women....
All in all, three and half hours of stunning entertainment and free cake for only $15! No wonder the auditorium was packed! Ain't Misbehavin' is apparently available for weddings, cabarets, functions, etc. They were that good, they almost make me want to hold a party just so I can hire them as entertainment. A quick search found a nice webpage advertisement:
JB
WHEN: Sunday matinee, August 17
WHERE: Kalamunda PAC (WA)
Sorry for the LONG delay in finishing this review. The lovely Dr M and I popped up to the hills to see Razzle Dazzl'em, a concert put together by the duo, Ain't Misbehavin' (Kylie and Katy).
The show opened with a medley of songs from Chicago (or so I'm told - I still haven't seen the movie, or any of the recent productions - gimme a break, I only saw Moulin Rouge a couple of months ago).
After the flashy, sequin-loaded opening montage, it was time for the special guests. The poster didn't disappoint when it advertised guest appearance from one of Perth's finest up-and-coming sopranos (singers not gangsters), Catherine Lowenhoff. You could have heard a pin drop during her lovely solos.
One of the highlights of the performance was the hot jazz section. Accompanied by saxophonist Jimmy Smits (who seems lost a bit of hair from his NYPD Blue days, but still has plenty of sax appeal), Kylie & Katy, gorgeous in their velvet LBDs, delivered some sultry jazz classics.
Next we had the MPCK Show (dunno what it stands for - Musical Parody Comedy Kwartet perhaps?), sort of a barbershop quartet except they had two singers and two musicians (more or less). They had the audience in hysterics with their very clever Gilbert-and-Sullivan-esque renditions of famous tunes. For instance, their version of Bette Midler's, The Rose, was all about Rose Porteous.
Katy & Kylie were back as Agnetha and Annifrid, encouraging the audience to sing along to some vaguely familiar songs, none of which I knew any of the words to whatsoever of course. The diaphanous baby-doll-type outfits and knee-high white leather boots managed to capture my attention, though....
Another guest, Katrina Merritt, treated us to a STUNNING display of flamenco dancing, engendering quite possibly the biggest round of applause of the day.
Another solo from Catherine, followed by a selection of 1960s' hits (Lipstick On Your Collar, etc) from Kylie and Katy preceded interval.
And what an interval! When the poster said, "Complimentary Cake," I was half expecting agglomerated clumps of something that might once have resembled fruitcake. How wrong could I be! Individual servings of strawberry cheesecake, chocolate Bavarian, gourmet carrot cake and others awaited the salivating hordes.
Act 2 continued with some combination pieces. Katrina returned with ballet interpretations during solos from Katy and Kylie. Catherine pushed the envelope with the crowd-pleasing "Music of the Night". And, with one of my personal favourites, Jimmy saxed it up with the Peter Gunn theme.
More fun as Marilyn Monroe (Katy) seductively reminded us that "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend", then Shirley Bassey (Kylie) belted out "Big Spender".
More beautiful solos from Catherine, more astounding choreography from Katrina, more hilarity from MPCK, then the Blues Brothers made an appearance. Well, in some ways they resembled the Blues Brothers, but Kylie and Katy had MUCH better legs than John & Dan.
And now the constructive criticism: It's hard to dislike any aspect of the afternoon which was nothing less than pure entertainment, but the start of the show suffered from (in my opinion) some dodgy sound quality. Now we all know I'm no expert, but the first few numbers seemed drowned somewhat by tinny, overloud backing tracks. I started to get worried, then all of a sudden everything rectified itself. Either the first few tracks were simply substandard recordings, or it took a few songs to get the levels right, or, more likely, years of accumulated earwax had finally melted under the onslaught, allowing me to properly hear the rest of the performance.
Apart from those opening few tracks, the music - and indeed all technical aspects of the show - were flawless. The rest of the show was well served by the venue's acoustics, and Aaron Stirk was obviously having a ball with the lighting and sound boards. To rave much more about the stunning, sexy costumes would only serve to reinforce the popular view that I only go to these shows for the beautiful women....
All in all, three and half hours of stunning entertainment and free cake for only $15! No wonder the auditorium was packed! Ain't Misbehavin' is apparently available for weddings, cabarets, functions, etc. They were that good, they almost make me want to hold a party just so I can hire them as entertainment. A quick search found a nice webpage advertisement:
JB