CYRENS: THE SWINGING SONGBOOK OF CY COLEMAN Adelaide Cabaret Festival The Space Until 22 Jun 2017 Review by Fran Edwards Cy Coleman wrote the music for some great musicals: “Sweet Charity”, “City of Angels” and “Barnum” to mention a few, as well as some great jazz songs. To do justice to this great songbook they brought together three amazing singers – each of these ladies can hold an audience captive and together they are dynamite. Amanda Harrison, was Australia’s original Elphaba in “Wicked”, as well as many other leading roles. Melissa Langton has played many leading roles in musicals too numerous to mention and has made her mark on the cabaret scene both here and overseas, as well as being part of the Fabulous Singlettes. And Chelsea Renton-Gibb who played Roxie Hart in the acclaimed Broadway (and Australian) production of “Chicago”; as with Amanda and Melissa she has many lead roles in great musicals to her name. Quite a line up and the harmonies were incredible! They opened with a version of “Big Spender” arranged for them by Mark Jones, their musical director and pianist. Mark has eleven Green Room Awards and it is easy to see why – his arrangement enhanced a great show. The songstresses were backed by a group of excellent musicians (sorry, I missed their names). Some solo songs were dotted in the mix “Nobody Does It Like Me”, “You Can Always Count On Me” and “With Every Breath I Take”, all from “City of Angels”. They joined together for “If They Could See Me Now” and “There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This” from “Sweet Charity”. The showstopper of the night was not from one of Cy’s big shows – it was a beautifully arranged version of “Witchcraft”, so good! If you have a ticket to their second show, count yourself lucky; this is one of Cabfest’s rare gems.