Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
January 22, 2018

Meow Meow, the cabaret superstar, chanteuse and all-round good time girl, made her grand entrance not from the wings but by popping up in a box to clamber over delighted viewers in the stalls. Barking out orders in hard-to-refuse German, several audience members (all very game gentlemen) were enlisted to stroke her legs as she crooned, form a chair for her to perch on, and divest her of her garments, before being told to do the splits. “Do I have to do everything myself?” she demanded.

Meow Meow Meow. Photograph © Prudence Upton

Joined by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under conductor Iain Grandage for her new show Pandemonium, Meow Meow brought just that as she pranced about the stage looking for a glass of wine, some ‘atmosphere’ (which she produced in the form of a handheld fog machine), and her lost dancing boys, who turned up in the end in a fabulous feather and sequins dance number. She played the role of stroppy, needy, pill-popping diva to the hilt, sashaying on and off stage in flapper dress and stockings.

But there was no hint of strain or...