I Really Don't Care - Melbourne Cabaret Festival review

Melania Trump. The First Lady of the United States of America. The wife of Donald Trump. A model. What else do we know about her though? Presented as part of the Melbourne Cabaret Festival, Ron Elisha’s I Really Don't Care is a confessional cabaret in which Melania shares her inner most thoughts, desires and dreams, without concern for any repercussions.

Performer Kate Yaxley puts in a strong effort in her portrayal, but you can’t help but notice how terribly miscast she is for this role. While I don’t know Yaxley’s age, she is far too young to be playing a woman nearing 50 years of age and her appearance – particularly her hair colour and style – does not match that of Melania’s. Yaxley’s Melania is animated and lively, something we don’t see from her in public and while it’s fine to do this, some explanation as to why she is like that needs to be clearer. If you’re going to create a piece of theatre on a living person, (unless it's explicitly stated why) there needs to be some resemblance to that person, and in this case both appearance and personality do not match what we have seen and come to know about the First Lady.

Any Moment - Melbourne Cabaret Festival review

It’s always exciting to witness new Australian musical theatre being staged, and it’s even more of an experience seeing a production build towards its debut. Presented as part of the Melbourne Cabaret Festival, Bradley McCaw’s concept performance of Any Moment was an opportunity for the creative team and cast to try out some of the songs from the musical and have a play with the musical arrangements. 

Any Moment is set to take place over 24 hours beginning at midnight on New Year’s Eve as we follow the stories of several individuals from a single town. As this is a concept performance focusing on the music, we don’t really meet any of the characters or explore any narrative thread, but the songs chosen do give a good insight into the lives that they lead.

There’s plenty of Aussie humour in the songs, with a nod to The Castle in the opening number "Twenty More Till", and a later one where a character expresses how much he loves a woman in “Top Shelf”. “The Door” duet is a touching moment and can see this being a winning number once we get to know the characters. While it’s not confirmed which songs will be in the production, it will be sorely disappointing if this is not included. With musical direction by Shanon Whitelock, there’s a variety to the style and genre of songs McCaw has penned, including “Coming in From The Suburbs” which allows for the different types of people that reside in this town to be shown.

Creatures of the Deep - Melbourne Cabaret Festival review

Our oceans are dying and no one seems to care, but Picked Last For Sport is here to change that. With an aim to create environmentally sustainable and educational theatre, the company brought their award-winning documentary style cabaret Creatures of the Deep back for a short run during the Melbourne Cabaret Festival. Through some delightfully charming original songs and marvellously designed props, our Jacques Cousteau-esque narrator and his four unpaid interns dive deep into the ocean to introduce us to the various sea life that exist down below.

The performers - Jake Edgar, Cat Sanzaro, Ryan Smith, Sean Sully and Sarah Wall - have strong voices and ensure the songs they take the lead on are ones that will bring maximum use of their vocal range. Wall is particularly impressive with her sultry pink meanie jellyfish number, as is Sully's acoustic rendition on what it's like being a pregnant male seahorse.