The Adelaide Advertiser
2003 Cabaret Festival
Me and Mr Jones

09jun03
Catacombs
Friday and Saturday

A CLEVER conversion of a rehearsal studio buried away in the Playhouse building to a small tables and chairs cabaret venue is just the ticket for Melissa Langton and Mark Jones. As the lady sings, "don't mess with a belter and with a microphone".

Melissa, the Me of the happily married Joneses, is filling the room without a doubt. With Mark playing faultless piano, cracking jokes and occasionally adding vocals, Melissa can sing up an old-fashioned storm.

She re-visits a few pop hits, showtunes, and songs begging to be finished off by a large, buxom, big-haired bombshell.

There are bad dates, some big-girl songs – like Steamroller – and the very latest in French cabaret, translated with errant aplomb by Mark.

But Melissa's show-stopper is about how she learned to belt it out in an apartment block, sandwiched between the Wagnerian diva below, and the scat-jazzer above. This takes a Herculean piece of vocal gymnastics that is alternatively hilarious and brilliant.

Elsewhere, Melissa sticks to a light girlie voice but does things with bent notes that most girlies will only ever dream about.

– Tim Lloyd