Last Night When We Were Young: Tim Rogers

Tim Rogers sings songs of love and loss. Photograph supplied.

A curtain rises to silhouettes draped in a cabaret haze of smoke and diffuse purple glow. Perched on a tall stool our lanky suburban hero’s frame is unmistakable. Tim Rogers begins with the night’s title tune ‘Last Night When We Were Young’. Nostalgic and reminiscent the crooner classically sets the tone for the evening to come. In saying that, the audience is somewhat unaware of what actually is to come and consequently the theatre is so quiet a woman’s muted coughing inadvertently becomes the fourth member of the band. She’s a poor addition to any rhythm section. But the show must go on!

Rogers isn’t normally equated with nerves but he wavers a tad through the first two numbers. Is Tim’s love of heart-breaking-velvet-toned-cabaret-tunes a little out of his rock ‘n’ roll depth? No, he’s just warming up and in true blue larrikin style he quips before his next number, ‘The French Inhaler’ by Warren Zevon, that unlike all these singers who are perhaps not the best people, he has a clean slate.

Rogers then proceeds to ramp, camp and romp it up, swinging and swaying his way through ‘Don’t Smoke in Bed’ (more fun than Nina’s version) during which a loud sneeze from the audience has Rogers casually reply, “bless you”. A duet with Clio Renner of ‘I Don’t Think Your Wife Likes Me’ has the crowd cracking up then ‘Something I Dreamed Last Night’ complete with a Marlene Dietrich’s iconic dreamy slur has the theatre transported to the Golden Era when stars could hold you with just a look. 

Rogers’ next song ‘I Don’t Care’ by Mary Margret O’Hara (his favourite singer – according to the song notes handed out at the end of the show) has enough pathos to shatter any love-struck-softy’s heart to pieces. It’s a showstopper.  

After a cocktail Rogers – the “inappropriate uncle” – introduces Renner whose spine-tingling solo version of ‘For No-One’ by the Beatles is surely among one of the best. ‘Riding Between My Place and Ours’ is tragic and again he inserts his own cheek and wit, which gets the laughs. He then invites Sophie Ross to sing his own ‘I Left My Heart All Over the Place’ stating it’s a pleasure to have a talented artist do better versions of his own work. It’s a gorgeous rendition with Kolac’s charming violin.  

An old-timey intermission and Roger’s encourages the punters to hit the bar.

Straight back in with ‘How I Got to Memphis’ and ‘Boots of Spanish Leather’, Rogers sings his original ‘Forgiveness’ from his cabaret Saligia. Next Jake Thackeray’s dirty ditty ‘The Lodger’ and a few in the crowd may well remember when these were televised. The punch line still works decades later.

Xani Kolac sings ‘All I Can Do Is Cry’ like she just got stood up on prom night and the hits keep coming. Rogers is clearly an emotional man and we thank him for it. He sings Randy Newman’s ‘I Think It’s Gonna Rain Today’ and shares a touching story of when he sang the solemn tune to his ill father in hospital at which point his Dad said – thanks for the song son but could you try something a little more upbeat next?

Twenty tunes deep the song that “bought him a sandwich once” and crowd favourite ‘Heavy Heart’ has the audience shift from their dreamlike reminiscence to applause. The arrangement by Kolac and Renner begins with what sounds like the opening to ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ and blends sweetly into the familiar chords of the Rogers’ hit. In true showman form Rogers ends with the Leiber and Stoller classic ‘Is That All There Is?’ and hilariously inserts his own verses about St Kilda, meth in WA, Powderfinger as well as Dorothy Parker’s poem ‘Resumé’. You may as well live is the last line of the poem and only someone who has lived through love and loss, as Rogers clearly has, could deliver such a stirring and heartfelt performance.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5