Presented by Adelaide Cabaret Festival
Reviewed 20 June 2015
Ray Jessel’s show Naughty or Nice is just that, some naughty little ditties mixed with some very nice heartfelt ballads.
Jessel has been a musician all his life after studying music in Wales and working as a composer and lyricist for musical theatre and television for most of his career. This experience is evident in the playing of his beautiful ballads and his knack for very witty lyrics.
He has written for some of Broadway’s greatest and has been recorded by many well-known artists; including Michael Feinstein, Louis Armstrong and our own David Campbell.
This sweet looking old man has got a few surprises including a filthy mouth. He opens the show with a clean comic number Short Term Memory Loss Blues and follows it with I Think About Sex and other naughty ditties including What She’s Got – the Penis Song that he performed on Season 9 of Americas Got Talent and led to Jessel becoming a YouTube sensation over night with over 12 million views.
Jessel is 85 and looks remarkably like Einstein; so much so that he just had to include a song about him, I’m a Genius, while pulling off an amusing impersonation complete with accent.
He also likes to combine his favourite things to create something new, I have never before heard Shakespeare and Ragtime combined until the The Shakespearean Tragedy Rag, turning tragedies into comedy.
Jessel obviously writes what he enjoys and doesn’t worry too much about what anyone thinks. Naughty or Nice might not be for the easily offended but many chortled with delight through his one hour show and joined in on his curtain call, the Shirley Temple style song Life Sucks.
Reviewed by Ceri Horner
Twitter: @CeriHorner
Rating (out of 5): 3.5
Venue: The Space Theatre – Adelaide Festival Centre
Season: Ended
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