Barry Humphries, Aurora Orchestra, Meow Meow

Barry Humphries is the masterfully seasoned emcee and cabaret diva Meow Meow the chanteuse in this risqué, sophisticated and seductive tribute to the jazz-infused music of the Weimar Republic.

Some describe it as cabaret’s golden age: the remarkable period in 1920s and 30s’ Berlin when hedonistic partying and social revolution turned nightclubs into hotbeds of decadent entertainment. Reawakening that spirit in this revelatory concert, our hosts acquaint us with the oft-forgotten composers of the time, many Jewish, whose art would soon be condemned as ‘degenerate’ by the Nazis, dancing as it did on the edge of a precipice.

Best known as Dame Edna Everage, Humphries sets aside his alter ego to share his personal passion for a period that has long fascinated him, his witty anecdotes and irreverent asides providing interludes to a treasure trove of songs and instrumentals. With Meow Meow giving us Kurt Weill standards alongside rarities from Friedrich Hollaender, Ernst Krenek and Erwin Schulhoff, both world-renowned Australian artists are accompanied live onstage by London’s trailblazing Aurora Orchestra.