Hellcats features jazz at The Civic for AK05

27 JANUARY 2005

hellcats features jazz at The Civic for AK05

Cabaret divas Helen Medlyn and Penny Dodd team up again, sashaying their way through the jazz greats for a week-long season at The Civic in March.

THE EDGE® presents hellcats at AK05 Festival Club in the Winter Garden, The Civic from March 5 to 13.

Well-known as musicians in their own right, Helen and Penny regularly create their own cabaret shows which have delighted audiences for eight years.

Like their acclaimed shows, hell for leather, hellbent, hell on heels and to hell with love, hellcats draws on the rapport between these two women, developed over years of musical collaboration. However, unlike past shows, hellcats will focus on one style of music - jazz -and feature a set of songs with the devilish Miss D on piano, the divine Miss M on vocals plus the sublime sounds of the Festival Club Band.

“From the American Songbook we’ve chosen a heap of delicious jazz standards, so George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael and Harold Arlen will all be in there,” Helen says.

Both divas enjoy successful careers, independent of each other. Helen is much sought-after and regularly appears in operas, musical theatre productions and classical concerts, last year invited by Dame Kiri Te Kanawa to sing in “Dame Kiri and Friends”. Penny is in demand as an arranger, conductor and pianist and is well-known for her work on the Coca-Cola Christmas in the Park outdoor extravaganzas and her Symphonic Rock concerts.

Helen and Penny say that creating their own shows gives them the opportunity to play and perform the music they love.

“They are pure, unadulterated self-indulgence. We have the best fun putting these shows together and what’s great is that the people who come to them seem to have the best fun too!”

hellcats is presented as part of THE EDGE® STAMP programme, dedicated to nurturing new work and local talent.

hellcats is at the AK05 Festival Club in the Winter Garden, The Civic, THE EDGE® from Friday 5 March to Sunday 13 March at 7.30pm. No show Monday. Tickets are available from Ticketek, ph: (09) 307-5000 or online at www.ticketek.com

ENDS

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