Perhaps I’ve been spoilt. Club Swizzle, the latest circus–cabaret show from those behind La Soirée and La Clique, has opened at Sydney Opera House. Like its predecessors, it’s a sparkly variety-show blend of acrobatics and clowning. And yet, it doesn’t have quite the same fizz.
The concept is a good one. Swizzle channels the boozy underground vibe of a so-hot-right-now speakeasy, albeit one that’s highly sanctioned. With clever design and a quick wipedown, the central cocktail bar transforms into a stage, and the cocktail-twirling bartenders turn out to be acrobatic troupe The Swizzle Boys. And the in-house band Mikey and the Nightcaps has the crowd foot-tapping with their jazzy saxy tunes.
All good speakeasies needs a host and MC Murray Hill, billed as “the hardest working middle-aged man in show business” is top notch. With his sarky banter, he has the audience enthralled, particularly when he baits one unfortunate patron again and again with lines like: “Right now you’re wondering ‘Is it a man or is it a woman?, aren’t you? The answer, sir, is no.”
The acrobatic cocktail waiters are good, but not exceptional. The sinewy sexy Russian acrobat Valerie Murzak is sinewy and sexy, particularly when balancing on a giant disco ball, but she’s interchangeable with the pole-dancing trapeze artist Anna de Carvalho. And “kamikaze cabaret” artist Meow Meow with her sad-clown Berlin cabaret act is a little lukewarm.
La Soirée had sword-swallowing, rubberclad Miss Behave and the double-jointed tennis racquet contortionist Captain Frodo, while La Clique had the steamy Bath Boy and the deliciously obscene, handkerchief-bothering Ursula Martinez. Club Swizzle has the out-of-place soft-shoe shufflin’ tap dancer Movin Melvin Brown.
The evening’s best segment is the audience participation section, where Hill plucks a willowy blonde and a mop-topped “Jesus” out of the audience and pits them against each other in a pole-dancing contest. The blonde wiggles and wriggles but Jesus wins the vote with his awkward enthusiasm, much to the audience’s delight.
While it’s unquestionably a fun night out, best enjoyed with pals and plenty of cocktails, compared to its predecessors, Club Swizzle just doesn’t have the sizzle.
• Club Swizzle is at Sydney Opera House until 15 March
