one4review | On 27, Aug 2026

Usually, when you get to a cabaret piano bar, you are treated to someone murdering Billy Joel. Tonight, though, Alice Cooper has entered the building.
Welcome To My Cabaret Nightmare strips down his songs to their bare bones in a piano-bar homage, and it’s an absolute delight. Our host, Dr H, over from Adelaide, knows what he’s doing, with the right amount of cabaret showmanship to carry it off. He opens with the show’s title number, setting the right tone and giving the song a jazzy makeover. We then start tearing through Cooper’s 30-album back catalogue at pace, with a frightening number of songs covered in an hour. Highlights include I’m Eighteen retaining its teenage angst, Elected becoming a slice of vaudeville, while Only Women Bleed gets the full torch-song treatment.
Black Widow, Cold Ethel, and Feed My Frankenstein are great too. There are deep cuts abound, and it’s nice to hear Clones (we’re all) getting an airing, and Poison proves that underneath all the snakes and guillotines, Cooper’s has some outstanding songs to translate to this environment. Schools Out, of course, rounds the evening off.
Dr H has done the right preparation, knowing the material well and having excellent Cooper trivia and anecdotes.
Alice Cooper has never sounded quite like this before, and at the same time, as good.

****
Reviewed by Steve H
Fingers Piano Bar at PBH’s Free Fringe @ Fingers Piano Bar
1 – 26 Aug 21:00