The Emerald Room brings sizzling cabaret this September

This Sydney Fringe cabaret lovers can enjoy a program of cutting edge performances across the month in the comfort of one of Sydney’s most sumptuous spaces in the heart of Darlinghurst.

Since opening earlier this year, The Emerald Room has become the heart of Sydney’s cutting edge cabaret revival, featuring many of legacy and newer performers in traditional cabaret, jazz, burlesque and acrobatics. Now, the venue brings all of the above together in a single month of talent packed shows.

Icons such as Verushka Darling, Cath Alcorn, Brendan de la Hay, iOTA  Christine Ibrahim and Monica Trapaga will all be adding their talents and glamour to the shows that promise to be among the Fringe highlights for 2024.

Cath Alcorn, Verushka Darling and iOTA will be featuring in the show Bangers and Mash that will showcase some of Sydney’s best vocal entertainers.

“I host Bangers and Mash where I sing with a four-piece band and also do some comedy,” Cath Alcorn said.

“We put together a show that features all of our strengths as performers such as iOTA, who is an icon in musicals and theatre, performs throughout the set as various characters and does a variety of songs.

Also in Bangers and Mash is Verushka Darling, a veteran of Sydney’s classic drag shows and cabaret.

“I will be introducing some great profundity on the night, and I will be singing a little and entertaining the crowd and solving a lot of problems,” Verushka Darling said.

“If I don’t solve people’s problems, I at least give then more exotic problems to worry about.”

Working with Cath Alcorn across the program is musical performer, cabaret artist and stage designer Brendan de la Hay, who said: “What is exciting about this program is that we have been able to hand pick some of the shows in Sydney that have been successful and we could also bring together performers who maybe have done a Fringe in the past and have gone on to doing amazing things at other Fringes around the world.”

Christine Ibrahim is an award winning classically trained singer who since winning a major scholarship has moved into cabaret and acrobatics who performed Wonderful, Terrible Things with a cast of 12 to audiences limited to 50 during the Covid lockdown.

“Christine does a circus-based show of singing and aerial work and has been successful at Fringes in Edinburgh and Adelaide,” de la Hay said.

Every Wednesday during the month singers King Creole, Kate Wadey, Pia Anderson and Monica Trapaga will perform jazz, jump, jive and blues at the Body Shop Swing.

The Emerald Room is also one of the few venues in Sydney where late-night dining is still a possibility.

“You can get dinner service until 11pm so it is a true late night supper joint that Sydney is not known for anymore,” Alcorn said.

List of shows
18 September: Body Shop Swing with Monica Trapaga

19-21 September: Bangers and Mash with Catherine Alcorn, Verushka Darling and iOTA

25 September: Body Shop Swing with Pia Anderson

26-28 Sep: Wonderful, Terrible Things with Christine Ibrahim

The Emerald Room for Sydney Fringe Festival
Level 1/235 Victoria St, Darlinghurst
https://www.theemeraldroom.sydney/sydney-fringe