Adelaide Cabaret Festival presents its 23rd program, featuring 342 artists and musicians across 91 performances, including 13 world premieres and 20 Adelaide premieres by a large contingent of Australian artists and performers from the USA, United Kingdom, and France.

Curated by an all-star line-up of nine Artistic Directors, The Cabaret Collective – Julia Holt,David Campbell, Lisa Campbell, Kate Ceberano, Eddie Perfect, Ali McGregor, Julia Zemiro, Alan Cumming and Tina Arena –each has brought their own flair to the program, bringing back some cabaret classics and presenting new and emerging artists. Many will perform at the already sold-out opening night The 2023 Variety Gala, and some have their very own shows as part of the stellar line-up.

Among this year’s highlights:

Julia Zemiro and Brian Nankervis bring back RocKwiz – this time the wiz salutes Adelaide and celebrates incredible South Australian musicians, from Cold Chisel and Paul Kelly to Sia and Hilltop Hoods, on the second weekend of the festival, June 17 at Festival Theatre.


Julia Zemiro and Brian Nankervis in RocKwiz

Returning to Adelaide Cabaret Festival for the first time in a decade, direct from the US, internationally acclaimed cabaret great Mark Nadler will perform two shows. The charismatic New Yorker will take to the stage with Hootenanny and The Old Razzle Dazzle, both on the second weekend of the festival.

Other international acts include Grammy Award winning chanteuse Rizo, whose show Prizmatism makes its Australian premiere in the final weekend and stage legend and social media sensation, Broadway Barbara – who boasts almost half a million followers – makes her Australian debut on the festival’s first weekend. Following sold-out UK tours, Sarah-Louise Young brings her show, An Evening Without Kate Bush, to Australia for the first time and pays homage to the music, majesty, and mythology of one of the most influential voices in British music.

In an Australian premiere, Ali McGregor, who shares her golden 50th year with Adelaide Festival Centre, brings her brand-new show to the cabaret stage, Fool’s Gold. Performing new arrangements of her old favourites with her six-piece band on June 10 at Dunstan Playhouse.

One of Australia’s most prolific writers and composers, Eddie Perfect (Shane Warne: The Musical, Beetlejuice) brings a new program to the stage – The Blank Page with Eddie Perfect. Perfect will be joined by incredible composers and lyricists from the cabaret and musical theatre worlds, giving audiences an exclusive glimpse of the entire creative process from page to stage.


The Blank Page with Eddie Perfect

Singer, writer and performer, Ursula Yovich is not to be missed in her show, An Evening with Ursula Yovich, where she explores culture and connection through story and song in a moving love letter to language and taking inspiration from her Arnhem Land roots and tri-lingual childhood household.

Cabaret fans can delight in the return of favourites Paul Capsis in Dry My Tears – his first ever acoustic show, while diva Mama Alto will perform a stunning hour of vaudeville delights in Follies Girl. And audiences can meet the man behind Bob Downe as Mark Trevorrow steps on stage as himself in Singing Straight.


Mama Alto in Follies Girl

South Australian cabaret stars featured this year include the legendary Robyn Archer presenting An Australian Songbook, spanning 150 years of Australian voices from rock, folk, country, and musical theatre.

Adelaide Cabaret Festival Icon Award 2022 winner Libby O’Donovan joins renowned jazz vocalist Michelle Nicolle and The Yankalilla Miracles to belt out hit songs from the 60s to the 90s in More Than A Melody.

Helpmann Award winner and cabaret favourite, Michael Griffiths gets personal in the world premiere of It’s A Sin - Songs of Love and Shame in Space Theatre.

This year’s Frank Ford Commission is Brag Drunch – an immersive dining and performance experience looking at the intersection of queer history and food featuring a spread of South Australian drag artists. The award by Adelaide Cabaret Festival’s late founding father, provides $20,000 a year towards the creation of new works by South Australian artists.


Brag Drunch

Jazz lovers are in for a treat with a new festival exclusive show hand-picked by Kate Ceberano, where ARIA Award Winner Vince Jones performs the much-loved songs from the ABC television series Come In Spinner soundtrack, which became the highest-selling Australian jazz album of all time, accompanied by a 17-piece big band and special guest Nina Ferro.

Making her Adelaide Cabaret Festival debut, Nancy Denis will present M’ap Boulè, exploring her Haitian heritage and stories of her ancestors revolting against their colonisers in a riveting and raw show combining storytelling, theatre, poetry, and song.

And direct from Paris, in an Australian exclusive, world-famous French cabaret act, Paris Combo will perform their show A Celebration of Songs of Belle Du Berry in tribute to their late charismatic chanteuse and songwriter.

With more free events than ever before, audiences can hear from some of our Cabaret Collective in Artistic Directors in Conversation with Julia Holt in The Quartet Bar on Saturday, June 10 and those who love a singalong can join Carol’s Cabaret Choir where audiences will belt out tearjerking torch songs led by Adelaide’s favourite community choir conductor and renowned musical director, Carol Young.


Carol’s Cabaret Choir

Festival favourite Dr Trevor Jones – The Piano Man is back at the Festival Theatre foyer Quartet Bar nightly, plus will host a brand-new Show Tunes Trivia night on Thursday, June 15. And the Corryton Burge Bar and Cabaret Lounge return as the perfect places for patrons to settle into a quiet corner or keep the party going between shows.

The popular LGBTIQ+ Elders Dance Club by All The Queens Men, the fabulous afternoon tea dance party for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, gender diverse and intersex elders and all allies, will be held at The Quartet Bar on June 17.


LGBTIQ+ Elders Dance Club

Partygoers can revel in the atmosphere of this year’s late-night line-up, which will be hosted by a different artist each week and feature guest performers and impromptu performances. Who knows who might appear on stage each night?

The inspiring Class of Cabaret program, introduced to the festival by David and Lisa Campbell, returns to shine a light on the cabaret stars of tomorrow, proudly supported by Adelaide Festival Centre Foundation through the Nathaniel O’Brien Scholarship, which supports one student from regional South Australia to participate in the program.

Produced and presented by Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide Cabaret Festival has grown from modest beginnings in 2001 to become Australia’s major winter festival and the largest cabaret festival in the world.

The festival has been a platform for shows and performers who have achieved critical acclaim and featured world-renowned artists including Ms Lisa Fischer, Kristin Chenoweth, Idina Menzel, Dita Von Teese and Patti LuPone to name a few.

Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2023 opens on June 9 and runs until June 24.

More information from the 2023 Adelaide Cabaret Festival edition of WeekendPlus: