Cabaret star Christina Bianco is a self-confessed ‘diva-holic’. An American actress and singer now living in London, she’s starred in musicals on stage and on television and is excited to be cast in a new Andrew Lloyd Webber show later this year.
Bianco came to fame as a vocal impressionist with her many YouTube videos of those divas she so admires. She is often called ‘the girl of a thousand voices’ and she doesn’t disappoint, with impressive renditions of everyone from Julie Andrews and Judy Garland to Shirley Bassey and Celine Dion.
On stage, Bianco had a lovely warmth and self-deprecating sense of humour. She clearly loves performing and that’s a very engaging quality. With each song, Bianco also captured the essential facial gestures and physical mannerisms of the singer – these touches really enliven the strong vocals. She liked to mix-and-match, such as channelling the impeccable Julie Andrews getting down to Donna Summer’s ‘Hot Stuff’.
Fresh from her appearance at the Perth International Cabaret Festival with Crowd Control, Bianco performed two shows at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival with her long-time accompanist and musical collaborator Joe Louis Robinson – ‘my greatest enabler’ – on piano. She described the Adelaide Cabaret Festival as ‘an embarrassment of riches’ and said the theme of her show is ‘to indulge in what we love’. This was the Australian premiere run of In Divine Company, a show that was a big hit for her in London last year.
It’s clear that Bianco really does love these songs and the divas she impersonates. As she says, she does it out of love and respect. And she has a great vocal range, with the ability to change styles and tempo quickly, even from line-to-line in one of her trademark diva mash-ups. Bianco also makes a few songs truly her own. Liza Minnelli’s famous ‘Liza with a Z’ is cleverly reworked to become ‘Christina with an A not an E’.Â
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In Divine Company ended with a lovely rendition of ‘Thank You For Being a Friend’. The enthusiastic audience showed their appreciation with a standing ovation and Bianco offered a moving tribute to Carol Burnett as an encore. The touching song ‘I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together’ that Burnett would perform at the end of her television show made a fitting finale.
It’s easy to see why Christina Bianco is so popular. She’s charming, witty, engaging, and has a fabulous voice. This is pure cabaret and the audience loved it!
Christina Bianco performed two shows only at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival in the Dunstan Playhouse on 21-22 June 2024.
