(l-r) Kenny Mellman and Justin Bond. Photo - Dennis Galonka. Cover Photo - Ruven AfanadorThe Year of Magical Drinking Tour is a love story, of sorts, in which a tale of two special people who meet in a home for special people is told. They bond over shared adversity and the birth of Jesus; they also become immortal and tour the world as stunning cabaret performers. It is the darkly beautiful story of a straight woman and a gay man, Kiki & Herb (Justin Bond and Kenny Mellman), united through song and monologue. It is also the story of what can happen if you drink too much on stage, which is evidently far from all bad.
The Year of Magical Drinking Tour is a deliciously sloshed and extravagantly tawdry show. Kiki, of decrepit indeterminant age, presents herself as a performer whose commitment to her art has been made regardless of her capacity. She is washed-up in a wonderfully entertaining way. At times she slurs and needs a good sit down, while at other times she manically performs long-ago learnt choreography in a bizarre representation of dance. Herb, also of decrepit indeterminant age, is her faithful accompanist. Equally full of magic, he manages to hold the show together with an odd mixture of vacuity and determination.
The Year of Magical Drinking Tour, presented at Becks Bar @ Meat Market for the Melbourne International Arts Festival, is a premiere performance. Although I think there is a lack of cohesion in the mood and direction of the show on the whole, the performances of Bond and Mellman do however manage to pull the night together. They are obviously seasoned and talented performers who easily take control of the audience. The lighting and costumes are sumptuously evocative, even deliriously good. Each very effectively serves to aid the portrayal of performers who are sinking drunkenly and rapidly into a kind of cabaret induced lunacy.
Bond and Mellman obviously love portraying Kiki & Herb as a gutter dwelling stage act, alternating between aspiring to a better life and waiting to die. It is at times funny, touching, bewildering and just a little sick. Overwhelmingly though, it is a showcase for two exceptional and risky performers.
Melbourne International Arts Festival presents
Kiki & Herb: The Year of Magical Drinking Tour
Venue: Arts House, Meat Market
Dates: Mon 22 – Wed 24 Oct at 9pm
Duration: 2hr no interval
Prices: Full $32 / Groups (8+) $28.80 / Conc $24 / Student $22 Supported by
Reserved Tables Full $35 / Groups (8+) $31.50
Conc $26.25 / Student $22
Bookings: Ticketmaster 1300 136 166
www.melbournefestival.com.au