What the Fandango?!

Performed to standing ovations on off-off Broadway New York City in 2019, What the Fandango?! is a series of vignettes in which award-winning cabaret star Robert Hofmann morphs into four powerful comic personas delivering songs ranging from Schubert to Sondheim. Hofmann opens as the wealthy dame, Dr Gaye Thyme, in a swirling dress and feathered hat, who later reappears torching it up in a red gown. We then meet the musical maestro, Helmut Wunderlicher, whose blue ensemble and fluorescent hair is a living cartoon. Faith-inspired and plainly dressed folk singer Susan “I know someone just like her” Higgins grabs an audience member for an uproarious duet. He inhabits the accent-laden, outspoken Sister Virgillious, whose musical mayhem and ribald humour put a real cap to this really enjoyable experience.

In this hour of musical comedy cabaret, Hofmann changes his costumes, takes water breaks, and even comments to the audience without ever leaving the stage so that costume changes are not apparent until the next character materialises. All this is underpinned by the sonorous playing of Cathie Travers on piano accordion giving an intimacy, verve and South American zest to the show.

Reviews

★★★★★ “There is so much talent and so much fun to be had at the Fringe… but if I must choose one outstanding presentation it would be, I think, Robert Hofmann’s What the Fandango?!” – ArtsHub

“Hofmann packs an immense arsenal of skills and talent. If we were just serenaded by him – that would have been enough; if we got a chance to see him in his uproarious characters alone – that would have been enough; if we got ample helpings of his music hall merriment – that would… well you get the idea. What we got was a stunning all-around entertainer bringing an act that we – here in the U.S.A. – have never seen. Next time, he’s in town, I’ll be first on line!” – Evan Meena, Words4Music (New York City)

“Mr Hofmann is a first-rate female impersonator in the classic sense” – Ewing Reviewing