On the second stop of their national tour following Canberra, the combined might of songstress Ali McGregor and the Berlin-based Signum Saxophone Quartet captivated Melbourne audiences with a playlist that spans the first half of the 20th century – particularly the 1920s to 40s era – and pays homage to wanderers and dreamers escaping persecution and seeking new homelands.
The setting is deliberately minimalist – all the better to avoid distraction from the artists. In the background are silver umbrellas that are lit up intermittently to flash like technicoloured jewels, and the singer and musicians perform in a circle of fairy lights. There is no video or any other extraneous detail.
At a little over an hour (with interval), Hollywood Songbook has been carefully curated to not just showcase the rich and mellifluous voice of McGregor, whose opera training is evident in her jazzy, hepcat cabaret numbers, but also offer the Quartet their own platform. The night is arranged with alternate formations: with McGregor taking centre stage every so often and singing to their backup beats and the troupe performing on their own as she waltzes out sporadically leaving them in the limelight.
With several costume changes (think glamorous evening gowns and furs), McGregor looks every inch the diva that she is, while the Signums remain in black suits throughout, their brassy instruments burnished bright against their uniformed outfits. Who knew the saxophone – here seen in four iterations: soprano, alto, tenor and baritone – could be so varied in the sounds it delivers, sometimes as high pitched as a flute, other times bassoon baritone. The Quartet play a tight, synchronised set, following invisible cues from each other that could only be possible as a result of endless practice.
Tonally, the evening shapeshifts, moving from languorous to energetic, mournful to upbeat, lovelorn to hopeful as selections from artists including Kurt Weill, Leonard Bernstein, Irving Berlin, Hanns Eisler and Cole Porter are presented, sometimes stripped back, other times amplified. It’s an eclectic, ranging mix of Broadway musical show tunes, Weimar nightclub vibes (McGregor even sings in German at one point), folk songs, Shakespearean melodramatics and Wild West rodeo.
The better-known songs, like Sergei Prokofiev’s ‘Dance of the Knights’ (from Romeo and Juliet), Harold Arlen’s ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ (from The Wizard Of Oz) resonated the most with the audience, as well as the encore, the silky-smooth crowd pleaser, George Gershwin’s ‘The Man I Love’.
Read: So you want my arts job: Cabaret Artist
Benefiting also from the superior acoustics of the Melbourne Recital Centre, Hollywood Songbook is a sonic journey that dips and rises in tune to a wide emotional register and performed by award-winning artists. Catch them if you can, as McGregor and the Signum Saxophone Quartet trade musical notes across the country.
Hollywood Songbook
Presented by Musica Viva Australia
Featuring: Ali McGregor
Signum Saxophone Quartet: Blaž Kemperle, Jacopo Taddei, Alan Lužar and Aram PoghosyanÂ
Hollywood Songbook was performed at the Melbourne Recital Centre for one night only on 6 May 2025 before touring to Concert Hall, QPAC, Brisbane on 8 May, Adelaide Town Hall on 10 May, City Recital Hall in Sydney on 12 May, Newcastle City Hall on 14 May and back to City Recital Hall on 15 May.
