From celebrating one of Sydney’s original cabaret icons and trans trailblazers, to honouring queer artists and songwriters, to revisions of sold-out shows by a killer impromptu LGBTQIA+ cast – the February cabaret season at the Hayes Theatre is promising to be a hit. It's perfect timing, with all the fabulousness unfolding across the city for the annual Sydney Mardi Gras Festival.
Amongst other productions at the humble Potts Point theatre, there are five main cabarets that are part of the program: Theys at the Hayes, Homage, Musical Bang Bang 2, Carlotta, and In Vogue. Don’t know where to start? Let us illuminate you.
We are warming up our pipes to sing along at Homage (Feb 22-25), an event all for queer community and by queer artists. A spin-off of the wildly popular Queerstories project, Homage is hosted by Maeve Marsden (director of Lizzie at the Hayes) and the Hayes' co-artistic director Victoria Falconer with a line-up featuring Brendan Maclean, Tom Sharah, Vidya Makan, Malaika Mfalme (Thursday and Saturday) and RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under runner-up Kween Kong (Sunday). Any hit song is game for performance, but the one condition is that it must have been made big by a queer artist.
Another show exploring a little bit of this and a little bit of that is Musical Bang Bang 2 (Feb 23), a follow up to its first impromptu show that sold out in under 24 hours in Melbourne earlier this year. Meanwhile, In Vogue (Mar 1-3) is a comprehensive exploration of the work of pop icon Madonna by Helpmann Award-winner Michael Giffiths.
For some real star power, opt for Theys at the Hayes (Feb 19), a show hosted by & Juliet lead Blake Appelqvist that celebrates trans and non-binary folks in the Australian entertainment industry. For a show that dives even deeper into Aussie theatre history catch Carlotta: The Party's Over (Feb 28-Mar 3), a grand finale to the career of Les Girls’ most famous alumna. An Order of Australia Medal recipient and TV personality, Carlotta is celebrating 80 years of splendour and pioneering.
The season runs from February 19 through to March 3. For more information on the full lineup, plus where to grab tickets, head to this link here.
