A clever, talent-filled romp, full of the shining lights to end Humphries’ magnificent tenure.

Audience members lucky enough to have seats in the front rows of the Adelaide Festival Theatre find standard issue Coopers’ plastic ponchos waiting for them. Love Songs for Sir Les is to be a wet weather affair, and when we finally meet the raconteur and cultural attaché, he wastes no time in delivering the forecasted heavy spittle with downpours of raucous impropriety. This is romance; Sir Les Patterson style.

Ali McGregor opens proceedings with The Man I Love immediately conveying the fine cabaret tone for the rest of the evening. She intersperses her immense talents throughout the proceedings, later singing INXS’s 80’s rock anthem Never Tear Us Apart with a stunning final note sostenuto, and a fabulous version of Feeling Good.

When Barry Humphries’ revered character Sir Les Patterson appears, it is with an entourage of three scantily clad sparkling escorts. He is the antithesis of charming; from his ill-fitting baby blue suit providing a visible outline of his considerable appendage, to his garish tie, platform shoes, bedraggled hair, and protruding teeth barely contained in his slobbering mouth. He is, quite simply, magnetic. Regarding the tone for the evening, he irreverently announces that, “I’ll be leaving town in the morning, who gives a fuck!” Despite his suggested lack of concern, he weaves tales, changes costume and sings, Help Me Make It Through the Night and Release Me with flawless showmanship.

Andy Packer tightly directs this final show of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival and Vanessa Scammell helms the Adelaide Art Orchestra. They deliver a sleek, precise and passionate program with quality musical adhesion that underpins and paces the concert in which the only thing to expect, is the unexpected.

Amelia Ryan sparkles in frock and voice, as she incorporates audience member ‘Rowly the tradesman’ nicely into Taylor Swift’s Blank Space, and after an expertly executed on-stage split-second costume change, Trevor Ashley as Dame Bassey belts out Foreigner’s I Wanna Know What Love Is, with a chorus so huge it barely fits in the vast theatre.

The Songbirds sing a gorgeous version of Crazy People with exact articulation, luscious harmonies and huggable stage presence. Lady Rizo offers hair advice on her way in, owning her piece of the show before she’s even on stage. An amusing and impassioned version of If I Were Your Woman leads ahead of her fabulous take on a torch song for 2015, I Google You, in which the humour marries entertainingly with her incredible voice.

A character from a bygone era, Sir Les is the master of political incorrectness, and the subjects of his tales of rorts and jokes are widespread; no one is safe from ridicule. The penultimate Patterson treasure, Poofters in the Arts stuns some who have not heard it before. Sir Les has no inhibitions; buttock groping, drooling, spitting, and lasciviousness are standard, but I am reliably informed that his behaviour during this show is “mild” compared to previous Sir Les appearances. The mind boggles.

Advertised at 70 minutes, the house lights go up as the show runs ten minutes over, but time, like other restrictions, will not be imposed on Sir Les and his band of merrymakers; there’s still another number to perform and they seem in no hurry to wrap. As ensemble piece Harry Chapin’s, There’s a Lot of Lonely People Tonight concludes, it leaves many exhausted from an evening of laughter and delight, while others leave affronted. It is suspected that those who came looking for love and found themselves so offended that they were unable to clap at the show’s end, must have accidentally bought tickets to the wrong concert. Outrageous it was; unexpected it was not.

Love Songs for Sir Les was a clever, talent-filled romp, full of the shining lights of the cabaret festival and a hugely entertaining note on which to end Barry Humphries’ magnificent tenure as Artistic Director.