HAYDEN TEE – GENERATION WHY? Dunstan Playhouse Until 10 Jun 2009 Review by Jamie Wright A frosty Wednesday evening wasn’t perhaps the best night for a one-show-only cabaret performance.But once he got the initially sluggish audience warmed up, Hayden Tee was in his element. Blending together pop songs (from Cyndi Lauper through Michael Jackson; even the yacht rock ofChristopher Cross gets the Tee treatment), show tunes, snaps from the family album (projected on thebig screen), stories from his past, his identification with his Maori heritage and his bonding with hisfamily in small-town New Zealand, and reflections on the state of the world today, Tee takes theaudience on a very personal journey, loosely based around the core concept of how Generation Y seethings. Tee’s soaring, well-trained voice and enunciated lyrics worked better on some songs than others –despite a spooky spoken-word intro, he just couldn’t pull off the darkness and angst required to giveRadiohead’s slacker-anthem ‘Creep’ the weight it requires, mostly because the boy seems too damn nice- even with his shirt untucked. But this was only a minor blip on the Tee radar, with the majority of the show highlighting his talents asa performer. Adding weight to the show was the cleverness of the arrangements (by Nigel Ubrihien, whoalso played piano and added vocals) – including giving Sir Mix-a-Lot’s classic anthem to the femalebuttocks ‘Baby Got Back’ the Gilbert and Sullivan treatment, and a subtle blend of the lyrics of SpandauBallet with snippets from ‘Les Miserables’. An hour (and a bit) of quality entertainment at the bright, happy end of the cabaret spectrum, courtesyof a talented rising star.