Opera singers Jacqui Dark and Kanen Breen return to Adelaide following performances at this year’s Adelaide Festival in a concert version of Rufus Wainwright’s opera Prima Donna (Dark) and in Barrie Kosky’s Glyndebourne production of Handel’s Saul (Breen) to wallow in a schlock horror production wherein the lunatics have taken over the asylum.

^{Jacqui Dark and Kanen Breen. Photograph © Jeff Busby}

In their new cabaret show Strange Bedfellows – Bedlam, it would appear that the inmates have locked away the staff and helped themselves to copious amounts of self-medication, aided and abetted by the ‘lithium-based’ musical therapy offered by musical director, Daryl ‘Daggers’ Wallis on keys.

Bedlam is equal parts opera, Weimar period cabaret and pop shlock arrangements where Hanns Eisler sits easily alongside Twisted (Annie Ross, Joni Mitchell), Sting and even the Ramones in an eclectic programme of songs, creating a show where the performers appear to be having as much fun as the audience – and herein lies the key to the show’s success. Add this to the fact that these guys can and do sing anything. The setting...