Review: The Peter Allen Songbook at The Jade

Review by Michelle Fisher

Without question, one of my favourite cabaret venues in Adelaide, The Jade played home to a celebration of the music of a true Australian icon this week in Annaliesa Rose’s fringe production, The Peter Allen Song Book. Great music, a gorgeous venue and a very talented singer - a perfect mix for a very enjoyable way to spend a Friday afternoon.

Rose admits to being a die hard Peter Allen fan since childhood and you can tell, as she sings with great familiarity through some of Peter’s most loved but also some of his lesser known songs. I too am quite a die-hard Allen fan so knew all bar one of the songs in Rose’s repertoire, though others in the audience seemed to know fewer.

With a strong and well-honed Jazz voice, vocally she is truly flawless with the ability to switch between belting out a ballad, and doing her own, as she says, ‘manual fade out.’ Her musicality is impressive! Able to keep any beat, we were treated to a wonderful version of Peter’s iconic “ I still call Australia Home “ in which Rose uses maracas but not as Peter did in line with the beat but flawlessly keeping a beat completely different to the one she is singing. In another she clicks her fingers again to different rhythm to what her voice is singing and never misses a beat.

Daryl Wallis, her musical director accompanies her on the piano and the keyboard, occasionally joining in with some vocals and some humour. He plays well and is definitely the funnier of the two. The duo do a lovely job and provide exactly what they say they will – an hour of good entertainment.

Perhaps my only criticism here would be that the show would benefit from some more direct audience interaction – a bit more banter from Rose about herself / her musical loves, etc . Having said that perhaps another time slot would also do this show more justice as it was a very small audience and therefore I get that too much banter may have been a difficult. Maybe even getting the audience involved in a few bars would make for more atmosphere and a feel good take home for those that love the music. In general, for as talented as she is as a musician, she did lack some stage presence, which may be a confidence thing more than anything else.

Peter Allen’s music continues to age so well and as far as his songbook goes, is hard to compare many others. It was great to learn a few more facts about him through Rose’s in show banter.

Definitely deserving of more attention, if Rose brings this show to a venue near you I would definitely recommend going to have a look and a listen to some wonderful home grown music sung with a jazz bent from a young lady with great jazz chops.