Live Review: Reuben Kaye @ QPAC, Brisbane

The crowd last night at Reuben Kaye’s enGORGEd show left QPAC Concert Hall with the buzz of a group of freshly corrupted co-conspirators.

In on the joke and blushing between laughter, Kaye had the audience hanging on every naughty word as he made his way through a series of songs and comedy portions, underpinned by Camerata, an 18-piece band made up of Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra as part of Melt Festival.

enGORGEd was originally commissioned by Adelaide Cabaret Festival in 2023, created with Kaye’s long-term Musical Director and co-writer, Shannon D. Whitelock (The Muse, Never Date A Songwriter, Oprahfication). The Queensland audience was treated to three new songs, each of them inspired by current events and a plethora of unbelievable life experiences that were only believable because they were attached to the equally unbelievable Kaye.

Costume changes, cheeky audience participation, and more than a few references to cocaine and Swedish interns in the green room—Kaye was an undeniable hit. He kindly joined the audience milling around in the stalls in intermission, taking photos and talking to the many people of mixed demographics, desperate to see and talk to him.

Followers of Reuben Kaye will know he’s left-leaning in his political views, and so it was not surprising to see these observations and frustrations seep into the show. If the audience didn’t have an appetite for political commentary, it was not obvious, as these jokes about presidents and billionaires were met with laughs, cheers and groans and all the right reactions. 

Kaye even told a story about how he received significant backlash earlier in his career over a joke he made on a TV show (“I love Jesus, I love any man who can get nailed for three days and come back for more”), which saw himself and his family requiring protection from police and special forces, and his stand-up shows needing to be swept through with bomb sniffing dogs before he started. If these events bothered him, he did not let on, and they were simply added to the layered tapestry of a remarkable life and became fodder for the songs that he played in the show, including You’re Not Going To Get Me.

After every storytelling session that led to a song, I was shocked, time and time again, at his musical chops. It’s so rare to see a genuine triple threat like Kaye, and it’s clear to see how he has booked out three of the four spaces at QPAC already with hits The Kaye Hole (Cremorne Theatre), Jesus Christ Superstar (Lyric Theatre), and now enGORGEd at the Concert Hall. Kaye could have easily had an exclusive career in opera, theatre or music… if only he wasn’t so funny and had so many sordid jokes and stories to tell.

Despite the seemingly non-stop laughs from the audience, it was the slower ballads that stole the show for me. Sorry was a song for the boys in his early childhood who beat him up on account of being his bright, unique self, and what it felt like to have these non-men apologise to him later in life. It was a spectacular craft to see Kaye move through hilarious and explicit stories, to stories that had us, the audience, holding our breath as we processed the heartache of these fragile moments.

Kaye didn’t hold back in his thoughts when it came to current events, to the surprise of absolutely no one. He had the audience in fits when he said Elon Musk looks like a shaved Hitler with the aspect ratio off. Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t safe either, with Kaye joking that he looks like an NFT who wants to be a real boy. 

Towards the end of the first act, Kaye performed I’m Rich, a song he wrote from the perspective of these billionaires. There were more than a few references to Trump and the many whims of the wealthy, speculating on the wild things they might request to buy and pay for. Some of these included paying Judi Dench to sit on a toilet to warm the seat for him, or inviting over the Dallas Cowboys and ordering his butlers to get the “good lube”.

At every punchline and juncture, the audience and Kaye were on the same page, and as the stories shifted in seriousness and fun, there was a clear through line that encouraged the audience to reflect on and challenge the status quo. Good art is supposed to evoke a spectrum of emotions, ideas, and share a connection, and Kaye is a skilled artist in this regard. 

His love for cabaret as an art form was clear to see last night, and he mentioned more than a few times that cabaret was the oldest form of theatre, and one that many genres draw from.

The act of breaking the fourth wall mid-performance to talk to the audience or share a story (relevant or not) feels like it was created for Kaye and shows like this. On more than one occasion, he would riff with an audience member or a member of the orchestra, or admit he had forgotten a lyric and wanted to take it from the top. His honesty and candour made him so irresistible to watch, and there was a true disappointment when the show was over and he left the stage.

Kaye received a standing ovation for his one-night-only show, which ran over time on account of Kaye wanting to share every detail of his present and past lives, with the audience greedily snapping up every hilarious anecdote. In the Concert Hall’s 43 years of existence, I dare say it has never seen a show even close to enGORGEd, with its delicious depravity having no brakes and all speed as Kaye prowled on stage.

Melbourne will receive the enGORGEd show next at the Melbourne Recital Centre on November 28 and 29, and then at the Sydney Festival on January 16 at the Sydney Opera House.