Fringe Review: California Crooners Club by Julie Cavanagh
Posted on: Sat 3 Mar 2018
Hi, I’m Julie Cavanagh and I’ve been to see the California Crooners Club at the Adelaide Hilton.
As previous Fringe Award winners, I was expecting great things from this band, but the night got off to a bad start, with a 50 minute wait in the foyer before the capacity audience was allowed into the venue. The Grand Ballroom didn’t strike me as an ideal venue for a Fringe gig and that proved to be the case – it was overcrowded and the ambience just wasn’t there.
The four very personable singers were all endowed with excellent voices and their presentations were polished – but interaction with the audience was somewhat spoilt when they frequently leapt off the stage to move amongst them, but could not move freely because the tables were too close together! This traffic jam also led to some intimate confrontations with a few of the predominantly female audience – either by accident or design…
Hugh Sheridan, as host, treated the show as his own private party and the girls loved it – his smooth banter went down equally as well as the classic songs from all eras. The 6 piece band was outstanding – all graduates of Adelaide’s own Elder Conservatorium, they provided a solid backing to the tight harmonies, but also adding some nice instrumental breaks.
The group finished the show with a stunning rendition of the perennial ‘New York, New York’, but of course, there had to be an encore and that led to dancing, so it was a happy audience that left the venue.
California Crooners Club is at the Grand Ballroom of the Adelaide Hilton until March 4th – check your Fringe guide for details.
