Type: Cabaret
If You Like: Broadway Musicals
As soon as Philippa Lynas‘ Eleven O’Clock on the Dot launches into 42nd Street, with a ravishing ‘I Could Have Danced All Night’ and a barnstorming ‘Don’t Rain on My Parade’, followed by a quick ‘Luck Be A Lady’, it becomes clear this is not merely a musical theatre concert. She gives the audience a masterclass in the cabaret form, an extraordinary little show in the tiny Loading Dock space at Utopia Darlinghurst.
Barossa-born, Lynas brings a decade of New York stages and experiences to us. She makes the room feel both grand and personal, with gorgeous banter and soaring vocal ability. Her voice is a formidable instrument: warm and conversational in the moments when she’s teasing the audience, especially those brave ones coming in late, and then suddenly enormous, filling the space with a gutsy sound. She can do anything from ‘Another Op’nin’, Another Show’, to announce the evening’s terms, namely that we are here to celebrate what musical theatre does best, to ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.
At her most electrifying, Lynas has the confidence and the chops to make every song her own. The songs ‘What About Me’ from Gypsy, ‘Maybe This Time’ from Cabaret, and ‘Losing My Mind’ from Follies close the loop on a performer clearly in love with her craft, and speaks volumes for how Lynas and the audience love those musicals.
Lynas brings a great sense of fun and engagement to her performance, and the audience loved it. The result is sixty minutes that feel effortless but we can see every second of Philippa Lynas’s work happening on stage, a reminder of how marvellous live musical theatre can be when the right person is on stage.
See our other reviews from the Pride Fest in the link below
Tickets and Practical Info for Eleven O’Clock On The Dot at Pride Fest 🎟️
Created and performed by Philippa Lynas
Musical Direction by Jack Strempel
The Loading Dock, Utopia, Darlinghurst, Sydney
