Sydney cabaret singer Robert Green leaves no doubt where he’s coming from when at one time during his cabaret show at the El Rocco bar in Darlinghurst he sings, ‘Give me a song to sing and I’ll stay younger than Spring’.
Green showed off his fine singing voice and a witty approach to his material in his show that ran a little over an hour.
Wit was to the fore in bis approach to some classic pop tunes. The lyrics toc Cole Porter’s ‘Ain’t it a Swell Party’ and Billy Joel’s ‘Always A Woman to Me’ received quite radical and comical reworkings. Thn there were some classic, tender pop tunes such as ‘Try to Remember’ (from ‘The Fantastiks’) and ‘I’ve grown accustomed to his Face’ that were given traditional, full-hearted treatments.
Green joked with the audience about his day job. He is an inner-city lawyer. ‘Seeing how little the tickef price admission is, I guess you can call me an expensive lawyer (we do charge in six minute units)and a cheap bar singer!’.
Through the show there were smatterings of some home-spun philisophy. My favourite was when how he described that he wasn’t impressed with the current Gen X’s and Gen Y’s. ‘Human beings haven’t really changed much in 5,000 years. We’re just basically cavemen with IPAD’s!’.
There was a beautiful song entitled ‘All because you’re here’ that he sang for his mother who wasn’t in the audience but whom he had visited earlier in the day and played for her to much appreciation. Clearly he had much regard for his mother with lyrics that included, ‘she’s a beautiful soul/who makes everyone whole’.
During the show Green had a go singing one of his own compositions, after having recently attending songwriting classes. It was a warm song, arranged well by Partridge.
Love, the power of love, was his over-arching theme of the night. One of Green’s last songs of the night defined the evening. ‘A lot can happen in a moment/You can fall off a log/and break an arm/ or you can fall/and fall into someone’s arms!
Green was given superb backing by his superb piano player and arranger Lindsay Partridge. If you want to catch his show there is one more week to go at the ElRocco bar in Brougham street, Darlinghurst.
David Kary
Monday 15th August, 2011