2016 Canberra

Robyn Archer : The (Other) American Songbook

From a Stephen Foster song written during the American Civil War to Pink’s Dear Mr President, The (Other) American Songbook celebrates great songs that portray a different side of that great country. Themes of drought and the Great Depression sit alongside a well-documented taste for booze, gambling and other sins.

Fri 19 FEB & Sat 20 Feb – 6.30pm (75mins)
Tickets $50*

Naughty Rhythms

One of Canberra’s most enduring bands, The Naughties are best described as reggae on steroids. With a style that is heavily influenced by the English 80’s ‘ska’ movement, they deliver an unswerving set of catchy originals, peppered with classics from bands like The Specials and Dexys Midnight Runners.

Fri 19 Feb & Sun 13 Mar – 10.30pm
Tickets $23*

Rufino & the Coconuts

Rufino, the Catalan Casanova from acclaimed kabaret ensemble Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen, has set sail on a solo voyage into the dark heart of the tropics and found a new band of castaways, troubled geniuses and misfits in the rhythm-rich jungles. This is tropical holiday-sleaze with a primal stomp!

Sat 20 FeB – 10.30pm
Tickets $23*

Pete Wild and the Only Ones

Combining theatrics with idiosyncratic honesty, Pete’s performances are deeply compelling as he moves from quirky showman absurdities to unexpectedly poignant and passionate expression. Expect fresh, contemporary small-town Australian indi-folk-pop with polka, bluegrass and heart-wrenching epic-dirty-melancholic-folk ballads.

Sun 21 Feb – 4pm
Tickets $23*

Shortis & Simpson : Cabaret Politico

It’s Canberra’s election year and Shortis and Simpson have been methodically, purposefully and judiciously setting this political climate to song, with stories so up-to-date that the ink will still be drying on the page, plus the highlights and lowlights of the budget fumbles and poll tumbles of the Abbott years. You can but laugh.

Sun 21 Feb – 6.30pm (75mins).
Tickets $35*

Nicola Hayes & Hélène Brunet / Doctor Stovepipe

A brilliant double bill! French duo Hayes & Brunet play a blend of Irish jigs and reels, Cajun two-steps and Old-Timey breakdowns. Canberra band Doctor Stovepipe’s personally selected Purveyors of Medicinal Euphony – Dr Jim Sharrock, Dr Gill Cosgrove & Dr Ed Radclyffe – will employ the latest hygienic methods in guitar, fiddle & double bass.

Tue 23 Feb – 6.00pm (90mins)
Tickets $30*

NO HAUSFRAU

Alice Cottee is No Hausfrau. Her velvet-coated voice just wants to hold you and tell you a story. If you must have a mental comparison, we suggest My Brightest Diamond & Susanne Vega meet Johnny Cash while eating sushi off Tia Carrere. An absolute must-see!

Wed 24 Feb - 6.30pm (75 mins)
Tickets $23*

Noir Revue

Step back into the age of 50s jazz and Film Noir for a night of heartbreak, loneliness, anger and sadness. From tragic beauties and sinister fellows to dames you wouldn’t want to mess with, this dark, bluesy kabaret features a blues crooner, live band, aerials, cabaret burlesque and film!

Wed 24 Feb – 10.30pm
Tickets $45*

Bugle Boys : A Salute to the Andrews Sisters

Bugle Boys frock up for this comedy cabaret homage to dance their shapely legs off and sing some of Patty, Maxene and LaVerne’s most beloved songs including Rum And Coca Cola, Pistol Packin’ Mama & Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. But they also bitch and squabble while delivering a hilarious tale of the lives of the Andrews Sisters.

Thu 25 Feb – 6.30pm (75mins)
Tickets $45*

Fred Smith

Deliciously entrancing folk music for the 21st Century, Canberra icon Fred Smith will make a one-off appearance on the Famous Spiegeltent stage on a hot summer night in February. With Liz Frencham and band, he’ll be playing whatever feels right from his bulging back catalogue, and maybe some new ones too.

Fri 26 Feb - 6.30pm (75mins)
Tickets $40 *

Truckstop Honeymoon

Hollering with all their American hearts over a five-string banjo and a doghouse bass, Katie and Mike West live the life they sing about. With four kids and a truckload of songs, they tell stories about the strangeness of everyday life, combining bluegrass, music hall jazz and straight-up rock’n’roll with Vaudevillian wit and showmanship.

Fri 26 Feb – 10.30pm
Tickets $35*

Mikelangelo & the Black Sea Gentlemen

Canberra’s own Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen have been touring and recording together for 15 years, including hundreds of shows in Spiegeltents from Montreal to Edinburgh, from Sydney to Budapest. Be ready to be drawn into the deep, dark heart of the impeccably coiffed master crooner...

Sat 27 FEB & Sun 28 Feb - 6.30pm (75mins)
Tickets $40*

Cell Block 69

Ladies and Gentlemen: Start your engines! Unleash the crimping wands. Tease the fringes. Cut your t-shirts above the navel...

And get ready for the symphony of rock that is the Cell Block 69 at Stadium Spiegel 2016, in the very heart of their beloved ‘Canberry’!

Sat 27 Feb - 10.30pm
Tickets $30*

George Washingmachine : Feel The Manouche

Unwind with the dreamy, multi-instrumentalists in Feel The Manouche. Raised in Canberra, George Washingmachine is a world-renowned exponent of Gypsy Jazz. The band’s versions of popular standards and new compositions are all sweetly crafted and well-honed through performance at jazz festivals throughout the world. Direct from Havana International Jazz Festival.

Tue 1 & Wed 2 Mar – 6.30pm (75mins)
Tickets $35*

Steve Poltz

The shows of Canadian storyteller musician Steve Poltz are the stuff of legend, and no two shows are alike. He will take you from laughter to tears and back again in the space of a single song. He is a master of improvisational songwriting and works without a set list to be free to react instantly to the mood of a room. “Doesn’t just love life, but rides it naked at full gallop.”

Thu 3 Mar - 6.30pm (75mins)
Tickets $45*

Dolly Diamond : Alive & Intimate

Gorgeous, talented and wickedly funny, with sell-out performances at Melbourne Cabaret & Midsumma Festivals, Sydney Mardi Gras, Adelaide’s Feast Festival and Tasmania’s Pride Festival, Dolly will take you on a magical journey over the rainbow and leave you way up high. Originally from the UK, she now calls Australia home, while circling the globe with her exquisite live shows.

Thu 3 Mar - 10.30pm (75mins)
Tickets $35*

Yana Alana : Between the Cracks

Life is a one-woman show for risqué rabble-rouser Yana Alana, who lets it all hang out. After time in rehab, Yana unapologetically returns to bare all through song, poetry and her own style of dance. Her laugh out loud performance is incisive, hilarious, confronting and, most of all, musically divine. Imagine Liza Minnelli as a Smurf with an addiction problem. Winner ‘Best Cabaret’, Adelaide Fringe 2015

Fri 4 & Sat 5 Mar – 10.30pm (60mins)
Tickets $50* Contains nudity

Baby et Lulu

The heady combination of feminine couture (from elegant to va va voom), romantic chansons sung exquisitely in French, seductive and witty banter, and the extraordinary musicianship of the band enraptures audience and artists alike, in a veritable celebration of la vie française by ‘Baby’ Abby Dobson and ‘Lulu’ Lara Goodridge.

Sat 5 Mar – 6.30pm (75mins)
Tickets $45*

The Marvellous Miz Demeanours : Feathers will fly

Embrace the misdemeanour within! Picture the ‘Rat Pack’ in boas and sequins, serving up a bold cocktail of songs laced with wicked harmonies – jazz, blues, quirky pop and feisty originals. The show stretches from Bette Midler to Sinatra to Donna Summer and beyond. Bring your red feather boa!

Sun 6 Mar - 3.00pm (80 mins)
Tickets $30*

Last of the Broken Hearts

Prolific songwriter and spellbinding vocalist, Melanie Horsnell, joins her talents with sublime cellist Gemma Clare and the inimitable Philip Moriarty, clarinet player, singer/songwriter with The Gadflys and Mikelangelo & The Black Sea Gentlemen, to form The Last Of The Broken Hearts.

Sun 6 Mar - 6.30pm (75 mins)
Tickets $23*

Max Gillies : Once Were Leaders

A stalwart of political satire, funnyman Max Gillies’ Once Were Leaders sees Max share his memories of a life spent on the fringes of power, mining the archive for his favourite game-changing speeches. Characters include: Bob Hawke, Bill McMahon, Graham Richardson, Kevin Rudd, John Howard, Malcolm Fraser, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Queen Elizabeth and Robert Menzies.

Mon 7 Mar - 6.30pm (70 mins)
Tickets $50*

Bijou

Picture yourself in a café-bar in Paris 1933. A glass of wine, a chat; the music plays … you become aware of a new face in the crowd. A ravaged figure, in faded finery and fake pearls, enters. The evening takes an unexpected turn as ‘Madame Bijou’, former Queen of the Demi-Monde, unleashes a string of intimate, colourful memories.

Tue 8 Mar - 6.30pm (75mins)
Tickets $35*

Vince Jones Quartet

Vince Jones is the undisputed leading Australian jazz vocalist, a remarkable interpreter and composer of songs in a contemporary jazz style, appealing equally to listeners and his musical peers. Vince also plays trumpet and over the years his style has developed a distinctive reserve and subtlety – he plays a little less and draws a good deal more from it than he did in earlier days.

Wed 9 Mar - 6.30pm (75mins)
Tickets $50*

My Leonard Cohen

Sydney musician Stewart D’Arrietta (of Lennon Through A Glass Onion fame) with his six-piece band imbues the spirit of Leonard Cohen songs with the stories of his motivations and a sparkling of his own laconic wit – a compelling theatre experience. “Like Cohen, D’Arietta is a man for whom music is the way through life.“ Sydney Morning Herald

FRI 11 Mar - 6.30pm (75mins)
Tickets $40*

Glitoris

Conceived as a one-gig-only protest band (performing naked, covered in glitter), the courageous women from Glitoris are ”a powerhouse of feminist magnificence”, roaring through their potent blend of loud protest and fresh punk-pop. Think Peaches, Rage Against the Machine and Bikini Kill, mixed with screams of “GLITORIS!” and “UTERUS!”

FRI 11 Mar - 10.30pm
Tickets $35*

Burlesque Idol

Part burlesque, part Australian Idol and 100% comedy, this high-energy and deliciously entertaining show is jam-packed with talent, humour and audience participation. Every show features a dazzling array of rising burlesque stars, a comedian host and three judges. Currently on its longest Australian tour yet, after two great, sold-out years!

Sat 12 Mar - 10.30pm
Tickets $45*

Paul Zenon : Turning Tricks

The UK’s favourite trickster, lounge wizard and snake-oil seller has appeared everywhere from the London Palladium to an aircraft carrier in the Adriatic, the Mirage Casino Las Vegas to the jungles of Belize, and the Ice Hotel in the Arctic Circle to the back of a truck in a Bosnian war zone. In addition to being a pioneer of the TV ‘Street Magic’ genre, the ground-breaking Zenon is a Gold Star status Member of The Inner Magic Circle.

Sat 12 Mar – 6.30 (60mins)
Tickets $35*

The Girls : Wild Voices

Through their quirky and wildly varied repertoire choices, The Girls explore – with more than a twist of irony and substantial eye-twinkling – what it is to be a 21st Century Australian woman. From classical to rock, from music theatre to world music, not forgetting The Girls’ original works, they reveal their secrets, inviting the audience to be their BFFs for an afternoon.

Sun 13 Mar – 3.00pm (75 mins)
Tickets $35* Not suitable for children

Beautifully Mad

Tony King and Nina Vox are two of Australia’s finest singer/songwriters. Expect goose-bumps from the hauntingly beautiful to the wild Hendrix-spiked guitar and dirty New Orleans exhilaration of a band possessed. A breathtaking ride that recalls the beauty of James Taylor and the lyrical spice of Cohen, washed down with some Waits-like humour.

Sun 13 Mar - 6.30pm (75mins)
Tickets $23*

family shows for all ages

Stumpy the Talking Tree

Stumpy The Talking Tree knows all sorts of stories! Stories about animals and birds; how to build your own backyard sustainable garden to put fresh food on your table; worms, bacteria and all sorts of germs, nematodes and erky-perkies; wind, weather pollen and pollution; and, most of all, about how to cure soil that has been poisoned.

SAT 20 Feb - 10.30am & 1pm (45mins)
Tickets $23*/ Family
Tickets $18* (4 or more)

Mic Conway : Rubbish

Mic Conway is Australian entertainment royalty – and the voice behind Wags the Dog – with many film and TV appearances: Saturday Disney, Here’s Humphrey, ABC for Kids, The Wiggles, Wiggles Movie... Exploring junk musical instruments, magical trash & juggling, as well as how to “Reduce Reuse Recycle” and more, with loads of audience participation.

Sun 21 Feb - 10.30am & 1pm (45mins)
Tickets $23*/ Family
Tickets $18 *(4 or more)

The Great Big Story Book

A children’s feature at festivals throughout Australia, this colourful comedy is based on the famous Aboriginal legend of Tiddalik the Frog. A 3D pop-up storybook is used to tell the much-loved Dreamtime story of a frog who drinks all the water in the world...

Sat 27 Feb - 10.30am & 1pm (45mins)
Tickets $23*/ Family
Tickets $18* (4 or more)