Rhonda Burchmore – Tall Tales

June 13, 2024 | Posted by Peter Jakobsen | MUSIC, THEATRE, THUMBNAIL REVIEWS | 1 Comment |

Adelaide Festival Theatre, 12 June 2024

The most famous pair of legs since Betty Grable, Rhonda Burchmore took to the Cabaret Festival stage in a show that gave a full house souvenirs, stories, selfies and songs from her 42 year career (details linked in Wikipedia below), in an amusing reverie touching upon gigs and hotels from hell, celebrities with peccadillos, almost-but-not-quite meeting Michael Jackson, the idiosyncratic Betty Buckley and her vicious Macaw, and more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhonda_Burchmore

Covering a wide range of songs from ONJ, Melissa Manchester, Eartha Kitt, Bette Midler, Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse, etc., (song list below), Rhonda’s voice can still belt them out; her stories (ranging from vibrant to, frankly, wan) were engaging enough, a slice of tap-dancing and some by-play with her excellent 3-piece band, made for a charming evening. Rhonda strives to please and be liked, and she succeeds.

Song list:

Back to Black

Come in from the Rain

Love You Inside Out

My Discarded Men

Out of My Life

Pretty Legs and Great Big Knockers

Screw Loose

Slow Boat to China

They Just Keep Moving the Line

The World Still Turns

Xanadu

1 Comment

  1. Reply

    Marion Windsor

    June 13, 2024

    It was a nice night’s entertainment as another famous Australian used to say. Indeed, if you closed your eyes youda thought you were listening to Dame Edna when Rhonda speaks. (Her singing is better than the dame’s, but isn’t really the point of her show - the point being more than a sum of its parts, somehow). The divine Ms B looks sensational but she hasn’t polished the rough edges off her true blue voice or rough and ready personality, which is part of her charm. There were references to ‘holes’ and ‘flaps’ with which she amused herself no end. After her 42 years on stage the Jimmy Choo stilettos were obviously hurting quite a bit but she trooped on, grinning at us all. She threw herself about energetically in something she referred to as ‘tap dancing’ and the sheer gleefulness of it was good enough for the audience. Loved the sparkly blazer and boyfriend-leg knickers look.

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