Making his debut as Festival Director, Reuben Kaye is taking no prisoners in his quest to cement the reputation and longevity of Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

Programming the Gala on the same night as an Adelaide Crows match at the adjoining Adelaide Oval was bold, an arts shirtfront to the sporting gods. Judging by the full house in the stalls, it worked.

Kaye’s commitment to Cabfest is unquestionable. He is a proud Adelaide boy. He might make jokes about the City of Churches also being the City of Serial Killers and putting the “meth into Methodists”, but he gets Adelaide. Kaye got his start at the 2015 Cabfest and his debt of gratitude is the reason he unashamedly touts this program as something he has created for the people of Adelaide.

Reuben Kaye, Ursula Yovich, Em Rusciano, Tara Tiba, Mahalia Barnes, Dylan Adler and Vidya Makan. Photo © Claudio Raschella

The primary purpose of the gala is to showcase as many acts as possible and sell tickets. However, the risk for the gala is that it can become a catwalk for an MC rather than a show in and of itself. No chance of that happening when Reuben Kaye is emcee. If I had to describe Kaye’s through-line for the Gala, I would say “youth” and “flesh”.

The flesh comes quickly in the form of Betty Bombshell (An Evening of Burlesque), who efficiently dispenses with her layers to reveal a shapely, buxom form that has confused husbands crossing their legs and not knowing where to look.

Betty is followed by Dylan Adler, a San Francisco-based gay comedian in a Trumpian world. If you can say one positive thing about Donald Trump, it is that he provides a rich vein of material for comedians. Adler’s In the Heartland chronicles his adventure into the southern states of America, where he expected confrontation but discovered that LGBTQIA+ people come in all shapes, sizes and political persuasions. He even encountered some gay coal miners.

Betty Bombshell. Photo © Claudio Raschella

Iranian songstress Tara Tiba is an intriguing blend of jazz and world music and replaced scat with chant. After a further burst of song and burlesque from the blousy Tabitha Booth, the first half closes with Mahalia Barnes, whose exquisite voice lends itself to a medley of Bette Midler’s The Rose and Stay With Me. While Barnes cannot quite build the latter song to the emphatic climax achieved by Midler and Kiki Dee, her performance is nevertheless worthy of the standing ovation it receives.

One of the marquee shows in the festival is an evening with the cast of the most recent Australian production of Jesus Christ Superstar, and Jayvon King’s dynamic version of Heaven on Their Minds after the interval makes that ticket even hotter.

King is followed by the raunchy Em Rusciano. Newly divorced after a 25-year marriage, Rusciano makes it clear that she is on the market for new adventures. Belting out Robert Palmer’s Addicted to Love, Rusciano adds new verses dealing with middle-aged weirdos on Hinge and the more fruitful pursuit of hot sex with twentysomething men with large appendages.

Cabfest continues to foster new talent, and Vidya Mukan, performing a song from her show Light, shows that the investment is paying dividends. Newly crowned cabaret icon Ursula Yovich, who is presenting a tribute to Nina Simone, is mesmerising with her rendition of Simone’s classic Four Women.

Ursula Yovich. Photo © Claudio Raschella

Back to frivolity, and Gillian Cosgriff’s show There Is Nothing Like a Game looks like a hoot if arranging rugby studs in order of the women’s names in Mambo No. 5 is anything to go by. Cosgriff is a fine comic writer and singer, and hopefully those talents are fully utilised in the show. The final act is Baylie Carson with a song from their show Handsomeish – another exciting find by Kaye, although the melismata are a tad overdone.

Of course, Kaye himself looms large over proceedings. Not only does he dazzle in the opening with I’m So Fancy, but he reappears, interrupts and disrupts at will. There are many costume changes and a fake fall from the rafters, but his penultimate appearance in his birthday suit steals the show, his left hand strategically covering the crown jewels.

As for the sport, the Adelaide Crows won by a point, so alongside a smash-hit Gala, it was a win-win for Adelaide overall.

Adelaide Cabaret Festival continues until 21 June.