Singing sensation and ladies' lounge lizard, Christa Hughes, is returning to the Adelaide Cabaret Festival in 2015.
The bawdy and ballsy broad will belt out Australian rock hits in 'Oz Rockin' The Ladies Lounge', with classics across the Oz rock spectrum including; Cold Chisel, AC/DC, The Divinyls, Rose Tattoo, The Angels, Midnight Oil and other surprising but much loved iconic Aussie artists. “It's essentially a collection of songs, mainly some Oz rock classics, but also a few songs that I think should be Oz rock classics, including one or two of my own and a couple of surprises... There's a twist to these songs; they're not going to be performed the way they were recorded,” she explains.
Christa first started performing as a teenager her jazz pianist father, Dick Hughes. Singing their favourite songs from the 1920s and 1930s on a beer-soaked, upright piano. In the '90s Christa spent a lot of time singing and performing in New York, Philadelphia, London, Edinburgh and Hong Kong. She returned to Australia in 2000 where she joined the band Machine Gun Felattio as KK Juggy and released three albums. During this time, Christa was also writing and performing her own cabaret shows including 'Beer Drinking Woman', 'Sleepless Beauty' and 'Go-Go Burlesco'.
After this, she joined Circus Oz to be Ring Master for two years. In 2011 Christa channeled a sex therapist in the Victorian Opera's adaptation of the Kathe Lette book, 'How To Kill Your Husband And Other Handy Household Hints'. More recently, in 2012, Christa returned to the Sydney Opera House with her new band, The Honky Tonk Shonks. Nominated for several ARIA awards – both with her band Machine Gun Fellatio and with her father, Dick Hughes – Christa's other career highlights include her role as brothel madam Myrtle in Julian Temple's film of the opera ‘The Eternity Man’, and performances for the ABC's ‘Q&A’, ‘Sideshow’, ‘The Glass House’, ‘Love Is A Four Letter Word’, ‘The Dump With Roy And HG’, ‘Eurovision Quiz Show’ and ‘Beauty And The Beast’. With innate irreverent theatricality and sheer vocal power, Christa Hughes is one of Australia's most versatile and dynamic singers.
Although Christa is no stranger to rock & roll from her days as KK Juggy, this show is still a little different to what she's done before. “I wouldn't say it's something that I normally do. I wouldn’t say I normally do anything. I think I do have a knack though... While I was working with a rock band I was bringing a lot of cabaret, burlesque and vaudeville attributes to the show and inevitably, now, whenever I do a show I bring a bit of my rock aesthetic and attitude to the show.” While on stage, Christa doesn’t draw upon any specific persona to fulfill the rock-chick role. “I would say I'm pretty much just myself for the bulk of the shows I do. I am a cabaret lady at the end of the day, so nothing a wig, a good outfit, some incredibly long lashes and fishnet stockings don't do to the ego itself to make you feel a bit better than the person you are.”
One number in Christa's show that she is very proud of is her mash up of Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue. “One other thing I'm doing that I thought I should mention is a very interesting mash up of Nick Cave's 'Red Right Hand' and some Kylie Minogue lyrics... So I'm getting the lyrics of a Kylie Minogue song and putting it to 'Red Right Hand' and I think you'll notice it to be a far better improvement. It will be interesting. What's really weird is the style of her lyrics, as ridiculous as they are, you know they're pop songs designed for kids so they're not really deep but strangely enough her lyrics sit really well with his music so it's an interesting process that one. It's quite a contrast.”
For Christa, one of the most exciting things for her as a performer is interpreting a song. “I think that's what a lot of cabaret is about; what you're singing about, what the lyrics are about and it makes it that much easier if you just sort of forget the music and then look at the lyrics, it's very easy then to try and find a way to not necessarily reinterpret the lyrics because I'm singing the same song Chrissy Amphlett was singing, but singing it in a way that people get the meaning even more. Because as much as I love that rocking version of the ‘Boys In Town’, it's so fast and furious that I think you kind of miss the sadness and desperation of the song, and by slowing it down a little bit you can actually hear how sad and desperate this person actually is. Yeah, I think you just get down to the lyrics and you break it down a bit and then the magic happens.”
Christa has been working very closely with her musical director and pianist Leonie Cohen. “I first started working with [Leonie] over ten years ago so we've done a lot of shows and a lot of touring together and have a very good working relationship and she's a lovely lass as well so it's great working with [her].” At the moment, the two of them are working on putting together all parts of the show. “We’re pretty much lining it all up together in Sydney, however ... we don't get to rehearse as one until the day before our premiere show. So that's kind of slightly nerve racking. But apart from that, things are going smoothly and it's actually not that hard.“Like all of my shows, there will be moments of drama and beauty but there's definitely going to be moments of irreverence and hilarity. There are some songs that I'm going to take on very very seriously but I've always had a larrikin streak so that will definitely be present.”
Christa Hughes performs ‘Oz Rockin’ The Ladies Lounge’ at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, 5-7 June. The Adelaide Cabaret Festival runs 5-20 June.
