Music / Songs the World Will Never Hear, Tim Minchin. At Canberra Theatre until November 17. Reviewed by BILL STEPHENS. 

Watching Tim Minchin perform in the Canberra Theatre reminded me of my first encounter with him.

Early in 2000, I read that Todd McKenney was preparing a cabaret for a presentation when his two-year stint with the hit musical The Boy From Oz finished its run in Perth. I contacted Todd to invite him to premiere his show at our School of Arts Café in Queanbeyan. 

When Todd arrived from Perth that September, he had with him, as his accompanist, a young Perth pianist, Tim Minchin. 

Although those two weeks performing with Todd McKenney at The School of Arts Café in Queanbeyan represented Tim Minchin’s cabaret debut on this side of the nation, nobody who saw those shows could have suspected that that young musician was destined to become a world superstar. 

It was the presentation of his break-out cabaret show, Dark Side, at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, then later at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2005, that set Minchin on the path to international fame as the extraordinary composer/performing artist/ provocateur par excellence that he has become. 

His show, Songs the World Will Never Hear, celebrates the 20 years since Dark Side, along with the fact that he has just turned 50.

His show is a remarkably personal reminiscence presented on the scale of a Cecil B DeMille movie with a red-hot band, pyrotechnics and a stunning light show.

It lasts almost three hours, during which (excepting the interval) Minchin never leaves the stage. He performs around 20 songs, some referencing career highlights, such as Revolting Children from his musical, Matilda and I Know Everything, from Groundhog Day. 

Others are very personal, such as his unlikely love songs to his wife, You Grew on Me, and I’ll Take Lonely Tonight. There’s a moving song for his parents, Apart Together, and an advice song to a rebellious teenager, Ruby. 

But Minchin is also a potty-mouth entertainer who delights in shocking, even if those shocks are hilarious. He’s a master communicator who revels in disarming his audience with laughter while delivering observations on the serious business of life, love and human existence. Most of his repertoire indulges that gift. 

The technical aspects of his show are also impressive. Superb sound ensures that every lyric is crystal clear. A large video screen captures Minchin’s performance in real time from various angles. It also displays superbly edited archival footage and special effects, and the contributions of his band of multi-instrumentalists, Jak Housden, Evan Mannell, Sarah Belkner, James Hazelwood and Audrey Powne, who embellish his songs with playful harmonies and lush musical arrangements. 

But behind all the technical wizardry it is the humanity of an exceptional mind that shines through this remarkably entertaining presentation that makes Songs the World Will Never Hear such an unmissable event.