La Clique. Funny Sexy Dangerous. Perfectly describes the headline act of 2025 Auckland Live Cabaret Festival.
A fabulous festival season this year, perfect for winter where the temperature can get to scorching from the large cast of performers and their backing bands.We were treated to a taster of some of the highlighted shows with All That Glitters, down in the Wintergarden night club.
The Divine Miss Bette. The comedy stylings of Catherine Alcorn and channelling the pipes of Bette Midler. Hits Glitz and Tits.
The drag queen quartet of The Tiwhas. Presenting their Matariki Spectacular with classic Disco Pop and pumping up the dance heat.
Nikau Grace will join Georgia Lines for her closing show underneath the starry dome ceiling of the Civic. A powerful Soul diva at just 17 years old, she stunned with her belting version of Aretha Franklin’s (You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman. Written by Carole King, Gerry Goffin and Jerry Wexler of course.
The Velvet Rebels recreate the era of the Rat-Pack and belt out For Once in My Life.
Just four of the upcoming shows and it promises a spectacle. The most dazzling and eye-catching for sheer bravura must be La Clique. Set on the stage of the Civic theatre which looks huge like a cavern, decorated with posters of past stage productions.
La Clique had its origins at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2004 and has built a world-wide reputation for excellence and excitement. A rival for the renown Cirque du Soleil, especially in it’s brazen and risqué nature.
My first time to see this troupe and one of the best I have seen in recent times.
Tara Boom is an Australian clown and foot juggler. That hardly describes her adequately. Do the Popcorn! The one-hit wonder by Hot Butter plays (not James Brown 60’s Funk) as she lays out a clown routine with hot popping corn spraying out off an appliance strapped to her head. Smell of butter is divine. Foot juggling, lying on her back with up to four parasols at once looks impossible. Magnets, she jokes earlier in the day when giving us a preview.
Tuedon Ariri starts the evening by climbing into a claw foot classic bathtub. This is one of the historic routines dating back 21 years. She frolics in the bathtub and then performs on the aerial straps. It becomes clear why the stagehands laid out clear plastic around the front seats. Tub has water, quite cold as we get splashed from the long hair being whipped around. She moves as lithe as a panther.
Byron Hutton from Melbourne combines contemporary dance and artistic movement with his juggling rings and skittles.
Ursula Martinez was one of the founding members of La Cirque, and she performs her original burlesque routine with the disappearing red hankies until there are no more clothes to hide them in. But she still produces one to the audible gasps of the audience.
David Pereira is an artistic gymnast combining physicality with grace and some danger. There is a hilarious routine with shaving cream and a razor. The cream goes everywhere. Everyone is giving the O sign at the audacity and absurdity of it all. Reminds me of the classic silent movie routine of Harry Langdon shaving in a railway bathroom with parallel mirrors. Except Pereira is naked and shaving everywhere.
LJ Marles is from London’s East End and found his calling as an aerial artist and dancer as a teenager. With the fabric ropes fixed to the floor, he seems most at-risk free-falling from high.
Heather Holliday is the sexy, multi-tattooed sword swallower from New York City. She may be able to get 8 swords together down her throat, but it’s her fire swallowing act which stuns. Especially the incendiary finale when she can breathe like a dragon. A big Game of Thrones dragon.
La Cirque is a jaw-dropping spectacle and is performed for the entirety of the season.
Rev. Orange Peel
2025 Auckland Live Cabaret Festival plays up to 15 June 2025. Tickets available Auckland Live
