A clever, talent-filled romp, full of the shining lights to end Humphries’ magnificent tenure.

Audience members lucky enough to have seats in the front rows of the Adelaide Festival Theatre find standard issue Coopers’ plastic ponchos waiting for them. Love Songs for Sir Les is to be a wet weather affair, and when we finally meet the raconteur and cultural attaché, he wastes no time in delivering the forecasted heavy spittle with downpours of raucous impropriety. This is romance; Sir Les Patterson style.

Ali McGregor opens proceedings with The Man I Love immediately conveying the fine cabaret tone for the rest of the evening. She intersperses her immense talents throughout the proceedings, later singing INXS’s 80’s rock anthem Never Tear Us Apart with a stunning final note sostenuto, and a fabulous version of Feeling Good.

When Barry Humphries’ revered character Sir Les Patterson appears, it is with an entourage of three scantily clad sparkling escorts. He is the antithesis of charming; from his ill-fitting baby blue suit providing a visible outline of his considerable appendage, to his garish tie, platform shoes, bedraggled hair, and protruding teeth barely contained in his slobbering mouth. He is, quite simply, magnetic. Regarding the tone for the...