Chansons de Jacques Brel
John Waters performs the dramatic, definitively French songs of Belgian ‘chansonnier’ Jacques Brel. Famous worldwide for the heartbreaking ‘Ne Me Quitte Pas’, Brel wrote songs of love, death, human folly and the rightful place of the dispossessed. John, with Stewart D’Arrietta on piano, Michael Kluger on accordion, and legendary bass player Tony Mitchell (of #1 hit band ‘Sherbert' fame) gently guides his audience through each song’s lyrical journey before singing them in their original French. They first performed Brel in 1998, to high critical acclaim. The French language newspaper reported that
★★★★★ “Monsieur Waters nous a rendu notre bien-aimé Jacques”. (Mr Waters has given us back our beloved Jacques) Le Courrier Australien
The lure of this material has not gone away and the show has been invited to perform in Avignon in mid 2022.
Presented by: LTGO Pty Ltd and The Garage International
John Waters is one of Australia's best loved film & stage actors. He is well known as leading man in TV series 'Rush', & 'All the Rivers Run’. In musical theatre he dominated classic leads including Henry Higgins, Captain Von Trapp & Fagin.
He starred in the hugely successful ‘Offspring' and ‘Doctor Doctor’ & was seen as psychopathic criminal in the hit series, “Rake”.
In 1992 John & Stewart D’Arrietta devised & first performed 'Lennon Through a Glass Onion'. The show is a theatrical interpretation of John Lennon's life & music, & has evolved to become the current ‘John Lennon Songbook In Concert’.
Stewart D'Arrietta, who co-created the show, is the 'piano guy'. He is a Fringe favourite with multiple musical shows, including 'My Leonard Cohen’, ‘My Joe Cocker’ & ‘Tom Waits For No Man'.
Reviews & Fringefeed Reacts
JOHN Waters oozes Gallic charm as he delivers songs from Jacques Brel's repertoire - The Advertiser
Passion and sex, life and death …Jacques Brel rocks - Bernard Zuel, Sydney Morning Herald
John Waters gets right to the core of each song and immerses himself in it...a masterly performance’ - Barry Lenny, Glamadelaide
‘Vivid emotions punch their way from the songs’ - John Shand, SMH
John Waters singing Jacques Brel ... keeps a candle burning for those writers of honest songs, to whom our hearts owe a great debt. - Steve Davis, The Adelaide Show