The Adelaide Cabaret Festival Variety Gala 2026 opened the 2026 Adelaide Cabaret Festival in a sea of sequins and textures, and that was just the audience! Reuben Kaye, in his first (hopefully of many) year as Artistic Director, curated an exciting and enticing program for Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2026, and as always the Variety Gala offered us a taste, and left us wanting more.
Never one for shyness, Reuben Kaye embraced the opportunity for a big entrance, entering the Adelaide Festival Theatre on the shoulders of rugby players, the Adelaide uni rugby sharks. Talking of Adelaide, Reuben noted it is a “city of contradictions: churches and serial killers” and that we put “The meth in Methodist” but jokes aside throughout the 2 hour show, he shared his fondness for the festival, and the city which gave him these opportunities.
Reuben opens with his version of an Australian song. Always one to surprise, it was Australian rapper, Izzy Azalea’s Fancy. Who knew Reuben could rap? But also huge kudos to the ASL interpreter who not only kept up but turned it into a dance.
After proclaiming that “this is art, you’re not supposed to enjoy it”, Reuben Kaye gives us some flirtation and skin with Bettie Bombshell. She flirts and strips to what sounds like the score an old film race scene.
Next up is Dylan Adler, who has escaped USA. He plays the piano while singing about performing queer shows in the America’s South (likened to Qld) and finding out that sometimes you can’t judge a book by a bullet and a gun and that sometimes your assumptions are correct.
Then quite a different change in tone is Iranian born Tara Tiba, who is now based in Perth, is not allowed to sing in her birth country, simply because of her gender. She sings in Persian Farsi, and while the language may be foreign to our ears, the song she is singing was not. Her rendition of Fly Me to the Moon (Ba Man Bia Be Assemoon) made famous by Frank Sinatra in 1964 felt jazzy and quite European with the 9 piece gala band. Reuben describes her as incandescent and hypnotic, and it is the perfect description.
Then Tabitha Booth, a character of Frankie McNair’s, bursts onto the stage, interrupting Reuben telling the audience she is sponsored by Cabernet and claiming to have invented martini glass burlesque act. Reuben tells her he’s told her there will be no giant martini glass. Let’s just say that her burlesque act is gloves on gloves on gloves and has a very creative way of getting Martini glass in. This kind of kookiness gives us a taste of what we may expect in Frankie McNair and Isaac Haigh’s late night show The Booth Variety Spectacular & Formal Apology Hour.
Mahalia Barnes performs a powerful rendition of Medley of The Rose and Stay With Me Baby, and even though we’re not very familiar with Bette Midler’s work, Barnes’ performance is enough to convince us to buy tickets.
Intermission comes and it’s time for us to fill our glasses and await what comes next. Jesus Christ Superstar music welcomes the audience back into the Festival Theatre, before Javon King takes to the stage to sing Heaven on their minds. His voice seemed a little faint at first, which we now see is part of the song’s design, but before long he was wowing us with his long soaring notes. He displayed excellent vocal weight with his ability to go from conversational tone to sustained high notes.
Em Rusciano, got the audience involved in her dirty version of 80s Robert Palmer hit Addicted to love, which also happens to be the title of her show. Even her costume, a red latex and tulle number with huge 3D hearts said it all.
One of three artists presenting works in progress at this year’s Adelaide Cabaret Festival is Vidya Makan who performs a song from Light, her work in progress musical that is “a joyful celebration of the South Asian diaspora experience told through the Pandya sisters”. It’s a song about uber driver, telling themselves that each delivery is one step closer to home. She has a beautiful voice, and the song is definitely like something from a musical. It will be interesting to see where the project leads.
Ursula Yovich wowed audiences with her version of Nina Simone’s Four Women. She has a soaring, powerful voice despite her petite frame. She is then named the Adelaide Cabaret Icon for 2026 and very humbly accepts saying that it is not just her, but for everyone who goes into making a show happen. We cannot wait for Ursula Yovich sings Nina Simone tomorrow night. We know we’re going to be in for a treat.
Another complete tone shift and it’s time for Gillian Cosgriff with a fun game show, which she openly admits is a rip off of The Price is Right. The audience volunteer’s job? To place the nouns, women’s names, in order as they appeared in Mambo no. 5.
Reuben Kaye has lots of fun with costumes loaned for the free Rags to Riches exhibition including a dress from Rhonda Burchmore and Ursula Martinez’ Red hanky from La Soiree, La Clique, among others.
Baylie Carson, this year’s Frank Ford Commission artist, performs an empowering song from the show Baylie Carson is Handsome(ish) that is debuting at Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2026. A song about belonging and becoming.
Reuben Kaye then gets us teary when he shares that his last performance his Dad saw was at Adelaide Cabaret Festival in 2015 when he hosted the late night show for a weekend. Then he starts singing:
“All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for the daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere“.
It is of course Tears for Fears’ “Mad World“. But he’s not going to leave us on a low is he? He’s not going to send us back out into the world with that? No of course, he isn’t! Everyone comes back on stage for a group version of Talking Heads’ “Burning down the house” which feels perfectly apt for a festival with the tagline Delicious revolution.
The Adelaide Cabaret Festival Variety Gala 2026 was as delicious as ever, giving us a degustation of acts to appear over the next few weeks. The Variety Gala certainly lived up to its name with plenty of variety whether it be burlesque, song, or even a game all in the mix. It’s always a surprise who will grace the stage during the gala and we were wowed by all of the performances. Sadly though, first weekend acts PO PO MO CO, Lou Blackwell & The French Set, Lyndon Watts, Natalie Gamsu, and Alfie Boe were missing. We understand it’s not possible to put everyone in a two hour show but it didn’t mean we weren’t hungry for more. But then again, that’s exactly the purpose of the variety gala to make us hungry to explore more. The Adelaide Cabaret Festival Variety Gala is always a delight and this year was no different. It sells out each year so grab yourself tickets next year as soon as you can.
5 CROISSANTS
Matilda Marseillaise was a guest of Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2026
