Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett is aggressively, unapologetically, the wildest show you may have ever seen. We went in for kabarett. We came out feral. And we would do it again the next day without hesitation.
This was my first time attending this kind of show, and it was as unforgettable as my first kiss. I said so about forty times on the walk back to the car, eyes still wide, voice still slightly up an octave. A guest I met later at the after-party, Kaori, a seasoned cabaret-goer who has genuinely seen it all, could not stop expressing her amazement: “This one is special.” And honestly, that landed harder than any five-star review I have ever read.
Melbourne’s hottest night out right now is at North Melbourne’s historic Meat Market, where Bernie Dieter and her band of legendary misfits have thrown the doors open for an encore season that is already threatening to sell out. If you have been waiting for a sign, hi, hello, this is your sign, it is on fire, and there is a woman breathing that fire right at you.
Who Is Bernie Dieter? (A Brief Intro Before Things Get Ungovernable)
If you need a single sentence: Bernie Dieter is what happens when Marlene Dietrich and a punk rock riot have a brilliant, chaotic, sequin-covered child who refuses to be quiet, ever, at all.
She is the self-described queen of Weimar kabarett, a genre rooted in the pre-war Berlin of the 1920s, where cabarets were wild, inclusive, politically ferocious spaces that celebrated difference at a time when conformity was enforced everywhere else. Art as resistance, joy as defiance, glamour as a very specific kind of armour.
Dieter has spent over a decade updating that tradition for the present day, and the result is Club Kabarett, a show that critics have variously described as “exuberant, juicy, guns-blazing” (Arts Hub) and “the grand Weimar dame of debauchery, the ringmaster of risqué” (Limelight Magazine). She has been stunning, arousing and, to quote the press material, terrifying audiences worldwide for a decade-plus. The terrifying part is accurate. So is the stunning. So is, frankly, the arousing.
She is not a Melbourne act, but Melbourne has claimed her hard. The 2025 Meat Market season sold out completely. The Green Room Awards took notice, nominating Club Kabarett three times: Outstanding Production Design, Outstanding Production, and Outstanding Ensemble. They won Outstanding Ensemble. Then they went to Adelaide and sold that out too. Then London’s West End called. Then Budapest’s Sziget Festival. Then Auckland. And then, because Melbourne apparently has that effect, she came back.
“I was overwhelmed by the response to our show last year,” Dieter has said. “Melbourne is one of my favourite cities in the world. I cannot wait.” Girl, same. We could not wait either.
The Meat Market: Industrial Bones, Maximum Chaos Energy
There is something cosmically correct about Club Kabarett living at the Meat Market. A 19th-century bluestone building in North Melbourne, built for livestock and repurposed for art, it has exactly the architectural energy this show deserves: rough-edged, atmospheric, enormous in ceiling height, and quietly theatrical without having to try.
We arrived early, early enough for the red carpet, which yes, there was a red carpet, and yes, we absolutely took photos on it, because you do not walk past a red carpet at a place called the Meat Market without stopping.
Inside, the lighting had already done its full transformation. The Meat Market’s industrial skeleton disappeared into something moody and immersive, sexy in a way that made you immediately recalibrate whatever you had planned for the rest of your evening. The music from the haus band set the temperature before the show had technically begun. People were dressed up, leaning in, and already a little loud. The room was ready and it knew exactly what it was there for.
The Cast: A Menagerie of Human Impossibilities
Before we get into what happened on stage, here is your dramatis personae, because you deserve to know who is about to ruin you.
Bernie Dieter is the MC, vocalist, queen and professional chaos theorist. Her voice alone could run the show and everything else is a bonus.
Soliana Erse is a world-class contortionist whose work makes you sincerely question whether she has the same skeletal structure as you. She does not. She cannot. It is not possible.
Jacqueline Furey is a fire-breathing, sword-swallowing, certified human heatwave. The “beautiful and bizarre” description in the press release does not adequately prepare you.
Joining them are two international newcomers for the Melbourne encore season. Caleb Cameron is a tap dancer fresh from the legendary Crazy Horse in Paris, and what he does with his feet is genuinely offensive to everyone else’s feet. Melissa Lee is a hair suspension performer, viral TikTok sensation and West End veteran. Yes, hair suspension. Yes, exactly what it sounds like. No, we are not okay.
What Actually Happened: A First-Hand Account from Two Humans Who Were There
The room filled fast and loud. There is a particular energy that builds when an audience collectively knows it is about to be surprised, a low hum of anticipation you can feel in your sternum. Club Kabarett’s audience had that energy before the show started and it only escalated from there.
What followed was approximately 110 minutes of breathtaking, disorienting, deeply funny, occasionally shocking and aesthetically extraordinary kabarett, the kind that has no real comparison point in Melbourne’s current landscape. The lighting was immersive in a way that stopped feeling like lighting and started feeling like weather. The music was not background; it was a participant. The transitions between acts were so fluid the whole thing felt like one long, delicious fever dream with impeccable pacing.
The audience was engaged in the truest sense, not politely attentive but actively alive in the room. Laughter, gasping, yelling, and the occasional collective “WHAT” that only happens when a room full of strangers reaches simultaneous disbelief. It was the loudest I have been in a theatre in years and I did not even notice until it was over.
Sunny Nguyen came in with zero prior kabarett context and left with approximately forty strong feelings about it. Her standout moment was Soliana Erse. Watching Soliana move is like watching someone gently repeal the laws of physics in real time. Sunny’s summary: “That actually challenged my imagination of what a human body can do.” That is a very composed way of describing something that made both of us grip our armrests.
My standout moment, the one that made me yell the loudest and genuinely forget I had a phone, was Iva Rosebud. The avant-garde drag artiste delivered a number that ended with her taking off her clothes piece by piece until there was nothing left to take off. I had one hand filming and one hand covering my awe. My eyes were open at their absolute maximum and my brain was somewhere between “I am watching art” and “I am watching something I did not have a category for until this exact moment.”
There is a specific kind of silence a room makes right before it erupts. Club Kabarett generates that silence about six times in a single evening.
Bernie herself was, and I mean this in the most technical sense, the queen of the room. She walked out and the room was already hers, not because of reputation but because of presence, the thing you cannot manufacture, teach or fake. Her voice is extraordinary in a way that reorients the room each time she opens her mouth, and she closes the show with a kind of glamorous, joyous certainty that sends you out into the night feeling like things might actually be okay.
The Vibe Check: What Kind of Night Is This, Really?
To be extremely direct about the energy in that room: hot, wild, moody, funny, and yes, extremely sexy in an entirely non-embarrassing way. The kind of sexy that comes from people being free and talented and completely unafraid, which is actually the most compelling kind.
Everyone was there on purpose, dressed for the occasion, and in a collective state best described as enthusiastically present. The ambiance is not passive and you are not watching from a distance. Club Kabarett pulls you into its orbit and keeps you there.
Kaori, who has attended more cabaret shows than most people have had hot dinners, said it clearly and simply: “This one is special.” She is right. It is special in the way that only shows built on genuine craft, real risk and actual joy can be, the kind that sells out seasons in four different countries.
What the Critics Said (Because We Are Not the Only Ones)
“Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett is an intoxicating whirlwind riot that pushes the boundaries of
cabaret as you know it. It truly is not to be missed!” — THE SCOOP
‘Dieter is a force of nature, seemingly having her own internal radiance that powers a voice and
presence like no other… Club Kabarett is something to experience as an artistic and emotional
journey. A show you will genuinely never forget’ — Glam Adelaide
‘A riotous night of circus, cabaret and defiant glamour… Dieter sends us to the barricades and,
even if it’s just for a couple of hours, makes us believe that change is possible.’ — The List
‘A riot of talent and joy! A full-trottle punk-rock, gin-soaked fever dream that grabs you by the
collar and doesn’t let go’ — Edinburgh Festivals Magazine
Three Green Room Award nominations and one win for Outstanding Ensemble, alongside sold-out seasons in Melbourne, Adelaide, London, Auckland and Budapest. This is not a local act doing well. This is an international phenomenon that Melbourne gets to call its own, at least until the end of May.
Should You Go? (LOL Yes. Obviously. We Cannot Believe You Are Even Asking.)
Yes, without reservation, without qualification and without the need for any further persuasion from us.
Go with your most adventurous friend. Go with your partner. Go with the colleague you have been trying to convince that Melbourne’s arts scene is worth a Thursday evening. Go alone and sit next to a stranger and watch what happens when a room full of people collectively decides to let go of whatever they came in carrying.
The season runs until 24 May 2026 and it will sell out because it always does. Don’t be, in Bernie’s own words, left crying into your feather boas. IYKYK. And now you know. Book now. And if Club Kabarett has lit something in you, explore more of the best cabaret shows in Australia.
Venue and Ticket Details
Venue: Meat Market, 3 Blackwood Street, North Melbourne VIC 3051
Season: 17 April to 24 May 2026, Tuesday to Sunday
Duration: 1 hour 50 minutes including one interval
Tickets: From $46, full range $30 to $120, book via clubkabarett.flicket.io
Accessibility: All Meat Market spaces are DDA compliant. Note that some areas have cobblestone flooring, so wear your fabulous and practical shoes.
Glamorazzi representatives Cherry Vuong and Sunny Nguyen attended Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett on 24 April at Meat Market. All opinions are original and our own.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Bernie Dieter's Club Kabarett?
An award-winning, sold-out global kabarett sensation inspired by the wild, gender-bending cabarets of 1920s Weimar Berlin. Live original music, breathtaking circus, fire-breathing, aerial performance, sword-swallowing, contortion and avant-garde drag — all anchored by Bernie Dieter’s extraordinary voice and her gloriously gin-soaked live haus band.
Where is it playing in Melbourne?
Meat Market, 3 Blackwood Street, North Melbourne. Tuesday to Sunday, 17 April to 24 May 2026.
How long is the show?
1 hour 50 minutes with one interval. Long enough to fully transport you. Short enough to leave you wanting more.
