Alchemy

Alchemy “I just love a good song,” says Ali McGregor, star of stages at Home and Away. “I think a good song is a good song, no matter which genre it is.” Thankfully, for a performer as genre-defying as McGregor, that leaves her with plenty of inspiration.  Though a seasoned opera veteran, Alchemy sees McGregor returning to her first loves – jazz and trashy pop songs, a term used, she assures me, “with love.” McGregor speaks with great enthusiasm about the music hit-makers of today. “Max Martin,” (the maven behind nearly every iconic pop-song of the last 15 years), “he’s like Irving Berlin, churning out these catchy pop songs that I think will stand the test of time” she enthuses. Alchemy, she tells me, is about celebrating what makes a song truly good. “If it can be interpreted and sung in many different ways by many different people”, while eschewing any musical snobbery that sees many musicians disregard pop music completely. On the contrary, Alchemy celebrates these contemporary earworms seeing McGregor cover everything from Madonna to Salt n Pepa and perhaps even a little Kiss for good measure – all in a show that underscores the “glorious nature of cabaret.”

Wednesday April 22nd – Sunday April 26^th, Hayes Theatre Co, 19 Greenknowe Avenue, Potts Point, Tickets $50, www.hayestheatre.com.au or (02) 8065 7337.