Adelaide Festival Centre’s 40th birthday and 2013 Cabaret Festival celebrate showbiz style with a glittering gala of sequins and song.

Adelaide Festival Theatre, June 6

There’s nothing quite like a big birthday party, and when it’s the 40th of an iconic building, it’s unlikely to be a small affair. The roof was ablaze with colour, the red carpet was out, champagne was flowing and cross dressing was given the ok; Adelaide was ready to party, in true cabaret style, with a Variety Gala performance.

As the audience watched ABC’s old black and white footage of the Festival Centre’s official opening ceremony in 1973, nostalgia and pride filled the auditorium. Back then, the audience had been treated to an orchestral concert, grand speeches applauding the significance of the venue in local, national and international terms, and a visit from the Queen, who gracefully and ceremonially shook hands with dignitaries and cut an official ribbon.

Forty years on, the celebrations hit a rather different tempo. The Gala Performance was a medley of worldwide talent, an extraordinary range of sublime voices, and there were lots of “queens”, in full majestic glory, everywhere. It’s unlikely that the Festival Centre planners would ever have envisaged the...