It’s been ten years since award-winning cabaret performer Jens Radda made his Fringe World Perth debut. Now he’s back as his alter-ego Skank Sinatra, with a brand-new show paying tribute to some of Broadway’s biggest hits – 'Skank Sinatra: The Name On Everybody’s Lips'.
“Perth Fringe was the first Fringe I ever did, so this year will be my ten-year anniversary.” Radda says while on the phone. “I did a Sinatra show [back then]. It was me presenting in masc form and I had a suit and tie on and slicked-back hair and I was in a very sensible flat shoe, and ten years on now I’m in a very un-sensible nine-inch heel moment and with hair so high it’ll knock out the chandelier.”
Radda, who is a graduate from WAAPA says it was fitting to premiere his second Sinatra show at Fringe World. “I have a very special connection to Perth as I did my very first Fringe show there when I was in my second year at WAAPA, and now coming back ten years later I feel like it’s been a ten-year glow up and Perth is my origin story, it’s where I discovered cabaret and I discovered Fringe festivals and I’ve done so many all around Australia and Europe so it really is a story of evolution for me and, in a way, my first dabbling with Sinatra. I haven’t abandoned Sinatra, I just have finally found Sinatra in my own way and it feels good to start my year in Perth where it all began for me.”
In 'Skank Sinatra: The Name On Everybody’s Lips', Radda joins forces with musical maestro Joe Louis Robinson, in a glittering cabaret spectacular that pays tribute to some of Broadway’s biggest hits which are reimagined with sparkle, wit and style.
Among the many musicals that will get the razzle-dazzle treatment in the show are broadway classics 'Chicago', 'Cabaret', 'The Sound Of Music', 'Little Shop Of Horrors', 'Evita' and mega-blockbuster, 'Hamilton'. Each musical number features Radda’s own signature touch. “'The Sound Of Music' in my version becomes 'The Sound Of Moaning'.”
Image © Jacinta Oaten
When it came to choosing which hits made it into the show, Radda looked for songs that inspired and related to him in a particular way. “Each song spoke to me and inspired me in a way that I can see the story that the character is telling and I related to an aspect of that. For example 'Somewhere That’s Green' from 'Little Shop Of Horrors', I related to the South African immigrant in Australia in me which became a parody of 'Somewhere That’s Clean', that’s the parody angle about being a South African immigrant myself and poking fun at South African immigrants, which I think Perth audiences will get around quite well.”
But besides the glitz and glamour, the two-time Adelaide Fringe Best Cabaret winner says what will make his show the one on everybody’s lips this Fringe is its cross-generational appeal.
“Aside from the fact that it’s in a beautiful spiegeltent in the Pleasure Garden, it is a show that anyone can come to – Grandma, yourself and your 18-year-old child. Everyone will love it for different reasons. There’s clever, witty class for the older generations and then there’s sizzle, sass and fast-paced energy and comedy for the younger generations and all-round good music and taste and comedy that three generations will love – which is unique for a Fringe night out – and this show hits that spot.”
'Skank Sinatra: The Name On Everybody’s Lips' plays Lotterywest De Parel Spiegeltent at The Pleasure Garden (Fringe World) 21-25 January.
