Carlotta AM was announced as the recipient of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2025 Icon Award at The 2025 Variety Gala, in front of a full house at Her Majesty’s Theatre tonight.
Carlotta, one of Australia’s most iconic cabaret performers, performed at the very first Adelaide Cabaret Festival in 2001. She began her career in 1963 as a founding member ofLes Girls in Sydney’s Kings Cross, where she rose to fame as the show’s star attraction. The groundbreaking revue toured nationally and later inspired the popular Australian film Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
Carlotta:
I was shocked when I found out I was the Adelaide Cabaret Festival Icon Award recipient for 2025 because I’ve been around since the pyramids, darling. I danced at Cleopatra’s funeral! I’m very honoured, it’s just wonderful. This festival has been around a long time, and I hope it goes for many more years.
Adelaide Cabaret Festival Artistic Director Virginia Gay:
There are icons and then … there are icons. She hosted Les Girls and held Kings Cross in the palm of her manicured hand. She was the inspiration for the movie Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. She is 82 and just as fabulous as ever. Please, put your hands together for our 2025 icon … Carlotta.
At 82, Carlotta returns to this year’s festival with The Party’s Over on Sunday 8 June at 4pm – a special evening of songs by Peter Allen, Kander & Ebb, Stephen Sondheim, and Barry Manilow, accompanied by a three-piece band led by Helpmann Award winnerMichael Griffiths.
Adelaide Cabaret Festival’s Cabaret Icon Award celebrates and acknowledges pioneers and prominent figures that have had a significant impact on the Australian cabaret industry. The first Cabaret Icon Award was presented in 2013 when the festival was under the artistic direction of Kate Ceberano. The Award is now an annual tradition the festival is proud to present to the country’s finest cabaret creators.
Previous recipients of the award include the inaugural recipient Reg Livermore AO (2013), Rhonda Burchmore OAM (2014), Frank Ford AM (2015), Robyn Archer AO (2016), Debra Byrne (2017), David Bates (2018), Meow Meow (2019), David Campbell OAM (2020), Paul Capsis (2021), Libby O’Donovan OAM (2022), Matt Gilbertson, Hans (2023) and Reuben Kaye (2024).
Produced and presented by Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide Cabaret Festival has been a platform for shows and performers who have achieved critical acclaim and featured world-renowned artists including Ms Lisa Fischer, Kristin Chenoweth, Idina Menzel, Dita Von Teese, Eddie Perfect and Tim Minchin to name a few.
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Photo Credit: Claudio Raschella
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