REVIEW – SLIDE CABARET FESTIVAL
Sydney’s Slide Cabaret Festival is showcasing a top-tier level of talent across a wide variety of acts within the cabaret genre. The venue itself, is opulent. The elegant decor contrasts with the disco-style stage lighting to fuse a combination of fine dining with Broadway spectacle in an intimate environment.
The highlight of the festival so far is Britney Spears: The Cabaret.
Christie Whelan Browne plays Britney as if she was a born and bread Southern Belle herself. She is perky, funny, sexy, and able to sing, dance, act, seduce the audience and deliver a punch-line like a pro, all at once.
This production is an all round success that is hard to fault. The script is engaging and hilarious. Whelan Browne’s performance is spot on. Her voice is strong and full of character and emotion. So much can be said with the slightest facial gesture and Whelan Browne was able to make her character’s gradual descent into honesty evident, even to the observer right at the back of the room.
The true triumph of this production however, is the way the stripped-back nature of cabaret, reveals a song for what it truly is. Who knew there was real substance to Britney Spears all along. (LC)
Slide Cabaret Festival, Until Jul 4, Slide, 41 Oxford St, Surry Hills, $28-112, (02) 8915 1899, slide.com.au
BY LUKE COX
