Banner act for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Olivia Newton John, produced everything Festival organisers and her fans desired – a packed Festival Theatre audience that was unafraid to give her rousing standing ovations.
Covering an enormous amount of musical ground, mainly through the use of medleys, Newton John opened with some of her mainstream mid 70s numbers, Sam the feature before doing a string of her country and western numbers, the ones that got her career going, before finishing with music from the films that cemented her fame, Xanadu and, of course, Grease. A duet with Festival supremo, David Campbell, for You’re The One That I Want was perhaps the highlight of the evening.
ONJ has certainly kept well over the years, notwithstanding breast cancer and a husband who mysteriously went missing, her shimmering black dress a constant feature. Her audience seemed in such a thirst for their girl just about anything would have done but the large backing band with the able assistance of the Adelaide Art Orchestra meant the night was one to remember and something that will for a long time define not only this Cabaret Festival but Cambell’s tenure as its director.
Kryztoff Rating 4K
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