Central Lakes Trust Crystal Palace
Sunday, April 9
Hudson and Halls Live
Lake Wanaka Centre
Sunday, April 9
Lady Rizo: Indigo Child
Central Lakes Trust Crystal Palace
Monday, April 10
REVIEWED BY NIGEL ZEGA
Not many performers promise potential audiences a really miserable night out, but welcome Wanaka Festival of Colour regulars Julia Deans and Sean James Donnelly offered Sadness Songs and that's what they delivered - exquisitely.
Most shows have light and dark. Not this one. Few artists could pull it off, but Deans' expressive, pure voice and Donnelly's uncanny ability to create sympathetic soundscapes with just a few notes somehow combined to give beauty to songs full of yearning, regret and missed opportunities.
With no upsides in sight, some of the songs were so numbing that in pauses it was so quiet you could have heard a tear drop.
Saddest song of the set? The performers' own material was simply too good to reach the depths of Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye from the late Leonard Cohen, possibly the most consistently discontented and miserable songwriter - ever.
In total contrast, Hudson and Halls served up a jolly romp through their first Christmas special performed live on television with us as the studio audience.
This fun show is almost entirely predictable, and all the better for it - a carry-on well worthy of the worst excesses of Carry On films from Pinewood Studios, stuffed full of innuendo, fixed smiles, sideways glances, double-takes and exaggerated business.
Todd Emerson's Hudson manages to be charmingly straight-faced as he slices into a French stick: "Oooh, I've got a stiff one here,'' while Chris Parker's Halls is petulant and teasing and camper than a certified self-contained motorhome.
Anya Tate-Manning's long-suffering floor manager ensures the off-camera antics are just as mad as what's happening on set. A tasty delight.
Lady Rizo provided glitz and glamour in star-spangled style with the second of two cracking nights of classy cabaret honed in New York.
Whether working a song or working a crowd, she's the full package - comedy, curves, charisma and chutzpah; sparkle, shimmer, smarts and schtick.
And then, of course, there's that powerhouse voice, which, when combined with her inclusive political principles, might just be capable of knocking down walls, even between Mexico and the tragedy becoming known as Trumpistan.
If life really is a cabaret, old chum, we could use a lot more Lady Rizos.
A feisty finale for a fine festival.
