Todd McKenney Song & Dance Spectacular

Todd McKenney Song & Dance Spectacular

In the early evening of Saturday 23rd April, Malcolm and I set out in Vino on the M1 via Burbank, destination Twin Towns. We were driving down to Twin Towns to see the second and final performance of the "Todd McKenney Song and Dance Spectacular". For those of you who are fans of the seven network's "Dancing with the Stars", you will be familiar with Todd as the fair-haired judge on the end who makes controversial remarks on the stars' performances, especially about Pauline Hanson. Well, the lure of this song and dance spectacular for Malcolm and I was twofold; seeing the infamous Todd McKenney perform live on stage with his special guest Pauline Hanson. Yes, that's right, I said Pauline Hanson (ex-fish 'n' chip-shop owner, ex-One Nation leader, and finalist in series one of "Dancing with the Stars".

With the show being called a spectacular, I had a vision that many scantily clad dancers in glittering costumes would be strutting their stuff all over the stage. But when we entered the Showroom, which is where the spectacular was being performed, I was dumbfounded by how small the stage was. In fact, the stage seemed to have very little room for dancers because it was littered with places set for musical instruments and vocalists. This left me wondering where the hell were the dancers going to carry out their routines.

Come 8:30pm the band started up and Todd McKenney made his entrance in a dark grey 3-piece suit. He gave an interesting introduction to the spectacular whereby he sung a welcome refrain to the audience, and then introduced the vocalists, pianist, and brass section. It wasn't long into the spectacular when I realised what the dancing comprised of. Apart from Todd doing some good routines (solo and accompanied), the Latin dances were performed by one couple and the tap dancing was performed by Todd’s Mum and her cronies. So it wasn't the spectacular that I had envisioned. Instead, it was a cabaret-style show and it was a bloody good cabaret at that.

Listening to Todd sing for the first time I thought, well now, he can certainly belt out a song in good voice. But the one thing that really struck me was when he grabbed his white towelling sweat rag to erase the build-up of sweat on his face during his first song and dance number. I remember thinking well there you go so I'm not the only person who needs to use a sweat rag during physical exertion. However, my sweat rag is a lovely fuschia-coloured towel that gets used when I'm on my wind trainer.

In my view, what really added to the enjoyment of the show was Todd's interaction with the audience, amusing narratives, jokes, and banter. And I especially loved it when he left the stage during one number to come amongst the audience. It was here that he stood no more than a meter away from me, his blue eyes looking at me but not seeing me…ughhhh what a moment!