ADELAIDE CABARET FESTIVAL: INDULGE IN REUBEN KAYE’S DELICIOUS REVOLUTION
Lead Image: Reuben Kaye – Photo by Claudio Raschella
The world’s largest cabaret festival, Adelaide Cabaret Festival, has unveiled its 2026 program, featuring a starstudded lineup of comedy, theatre and music with tickets on sale from 12pm today.
Unveiling his debut program as Artistic Director, multi-award-winning Australian comedian, singer, and writer Reuben Kaye presents the 2026 Adelaide Cabaret Festival showcasing 79 performances over 12 nights, featuring local, national and international artists from United Kingdom, USA and Cuba.
The festival will officially kick off with the decadent 2026 Variety Gala on Thursday 4 June at Festival Theatre, hosted by charismatic and daring Artistic Director Reuben Kaye. The extravagant red-carpet event promises an unforgettable night with a surprise line-up of local and international talent.
Headline acts performing at Festival Theatre include:
Australian pop-rock group Lime Cordiale will give their ARIA chart-topping tunes a symphonic facelift in a special collaboration with Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in their Adelaide premiere show.
Experience the talent behind the global phenomenon Jesus Christ Superstar in this exclusive, onenightonly event, as Australian stars from the Olivier Awardwinning production perform iconic songs and share behindthescenes stories in What’s The Buzz. Featuring Reuben Kaye, Mahalia Barnes, John O’Hara, Elliot Baker, Graeme Isaako, Javon King, Peter Murphy and Michael Paynter.
Adelaide audiences are treated to a onenightonly performance from Casey Donovan in This Is Me, as she brings Amy Winehouse’s iconic anthems to life with raw soul and unmistakable power.
Celebrated opera and Broadway star Alfie Boe makes his Adelaide Cabaret Festival debut alongside soprano Amy Manford, performing greatest hits and songs from Facing Myself. The festival closes with Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox – The Future is Vintage, transforming modern hits into a highenergy, vintagestyle party.
Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2026 Artistic Director Reuben Kaye: “This year’s festival is every inch the Reuben Kaye definition of cabaret. It has edge, sex, comedy, fantastic music and hilarious, nail-biting comedy. A festival that pushes your sensibilities to the limits. From Aussie icons and international acts of immense fame and scale that you know and love to basement dwelling unknowns from distant shores who will change your life. This is a festival of risks, of leaps of faith, huge laughs and bigger heart. There is no other festival that could pull this off. No other festival would give me free rein!”
Audiences can indulge late into the night with Festival Late Nights, featuring a different show each week hosted by a rotating lineup of artists including Gillian Cosgriff, Frankie McNair & Isaac Haigh, Tina Del Twist and Reuben Kaye. Kaye will also take to the stage with his awardwinning show The Kaye Hole on the penultimate night of the festival.
Festival highlights include:
- In an Adelaide premiere, Em Rusciano presents Addicted to Love, an unfiltered take on romance, validation and the myths we’re sold.
- Australian TV royalty Jay Laga’aia shares songs and stories in Unscripted, an intimate, nostalgic evening reflecting on his journey from Play School to Water Rats.
- National treasure Vince Jones returns to Adelaide Cabaret Festival with A Maverick’s Tale, celebrating five decades of Australian jazz through a selection of his most beloved classics.
- Festival favourite Mahalia Barnes performs Bette Midler’s award‑winning The Rose, delivering a raw, late‑’60s tale of fame, addiction and heartbreak, punctuated by hits from women of the era.
- Local legends Libby O’Donovan OAM and Michaela Burger bring Short, a high‑energy celebration of mega hits, tall tales and the power of small packages.
- Adelaide Cabaret Festival Icon Award winner Paul Capsis joins Adam Noviello in HOUSE OF ROT: Grey Gardens, a haunting world‑premiere reimagining of the 1975 documentary exploring legacy, survival and collapse.
- Australian rock icon Sarah McLeod gets up close and personal, sharing songs and wild stories from thirty years on stage.
The inspiring Class of Cabaret program, introduced to the festival in 2009 by David and Lisa Campbell, will celebrate its 17th year, shining a light on the cabaret stars of tomorrow and proudly supported by Department for Education and Adelaide Festival Centre Foundation through the Nathaniel O’Brien Scholarship, which supports one student from regional South Australia to participate in the program.
This year’s Frank Ford Commission is awarded to South Australian performer Baylie Carson, presenting the world premiere of Baylie Carson Is Handsome(ish). Following major success in SIX the Musical, Mean Girls and Bring It On, Carson returns home with a darkly humorous, deeply personal queer journey of selfdiscovery. The award by Adelaide Cabaret Festival’s late founding father provides $25,000 a year towards the creation of new works by South Australian artists.
Free Festival experiences include:
- Cabaret icon Dr Trevor Jones will again delight at the Quartet Bar by Corryton Burge with Piano Man and his always popular Show Tunes Trevia.
- Much loved and always fabulous LGBTIQ+ Elders Dance Club returns to Space Theatre.
- Festival Theatre Foyer exhibition, Rags to Riches, celebrates cabaret’s glamour and grit, featuring iconic costumes from Rhonda Burchmore, Reg Livermore, and Kitty Bang Bang.
- Pull up a chair for Festival Talks, a series of candid, intimate conversations hosted by Reuben Kaye with special guests, unpacking the art, history, and style of cabaret.
Adelaide Festival Centre CEO Kate Gould: “Join us at the upgraded Adelaide Festival Centre to see cabaret icons and rising stars alike for Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Enjoy the comfort of our refurbished theatres, pre or post show dining at our new Angry Penguin restaurant, and the ease of QR code ordering for quick interval drinks and snacks.”
Adelaide Cabaret Festival Executive Producer Isobel Marmion: “This year’s program is a smorgasbord of perfectly balanced chaos and craft. We’re thrilled to be bringing yet another year of superb performances to Adelaide and look forward to welcoming you all back to Adelaide Cabaret Festival this winter.”
Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2026 is from 4 – 21 June at Adelaide Festival Centre.
Tickets on sale Wednesday 1 April from 12pm Adelaide time at www.adelaidecabaretfestival.com.au
