James O'Brien

We had a brilliant night at Hats Off, the annual “Smörgåsbord” of Australian musical theatre at the Seymour Centre.

Amongst the highlights for us both were:

* Two English Gents – two blokes in bowler hats and suits (who later stripped off to Union Jack boxer shorts, and to reveal quite remarkable bodies) who performed some amazing acrobatic acts. See the video below.

* Jack Chambers – the young boy from Australian Idol (or whatever) who performed a tribute to Whitney Houston.

* Separately this time, Lucy Durack and Matthew Robinson, who we’ve both seen several times before. Lucy performed a duet of “Rainbow Connection/Somewhere Over The Rainbow” with one of her co-stars from Wicked. Matthew performed a piano duet of one of his own, lovely, impassioned love songs. Both were brilliant, as always.

* Also in the category of “always brilliant”, I’d have to include Paul Capsis who performed a gospel number with a big choir; Queenie van de Zandtwho who reprised her show-stopping tune as The Bearded Lady from Smoke and Mirrors, and Mitchell Butel as the entertaining, (and naughty), second-half host.

* There was also a performer, whose name I can’t recall, who did an EXCELLENT impersonation of Julia Gillard which culminated in a paradoy dance routine based around Beyonce’s “Single Ladies”.

* The surprise for me, as I hadn’t known her work previously, was Silvie Paladino who sang a HUGE ballad with passion and emotion.

So yeah, overall a really good night. Very entertaining. My first “Mardi Gras” event this year. And terrific that it was a fund-raiser ($40,000 apparently) for the AIDS Council of NSW and The Bobby Goldsmith Foundation.