The American burlesque icon leads the inaugural selection by new Festival co-directors, Eddie Perfect and Ali McGregor.

The end of Barry Humphries tenure as artistic director of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival may have come sooner than many expected, but 2016’s offering is still a star-studded affair. New directors Ali McGregor and Eddie Perfect have kicked-off their reign with a major coup, securing the world’s most celebrated burlesque performer, Dita Von Teese, as the headline act.

The American cabaret icon will bring the high production values and titillating glamour of her variety show, Burlesque: Strip, Strip, Hooray to the South Australian capital for one show only, and competition for tickets, which have gone on sale this morning, is expected to be fierce. 

Burlesque has always been an element of the Festival, but this is the first time it has played such a pivotal role. As Eddie Perfect describes, this is all part of a plan to challenge preconceptions to the question: “What is cabaret?” “For me, it’s cabaret’s refusal to be defined that makes it such a rewarding art form,” he says. “We consider our first programme a tribute to what the form can (and must) be: original, smart, intimate and...