Sarah-Louise Young will be donning the iconic red dress as she returns with her award-winning ode to the life and music of Kate Bush.
Sarah-Louise Young returns with An Evening without Kate Bush, her wonderfully whacky tribute to the Queen of the Moors, at Arts Centre Melbourne this October.
Created by Sarah-Louise Young and Russell Lucas, An Evening without Kate Bush invites you to release your inner Bush to celebrate and relive five decades worth of musical moments.
Young’s “cult-cabaret” takes stories from the fans and their relationships to Kate and weaves the foundation of each performance, grounding it in the real (and parasocial) relationship we all have to the howling hound of love herself.
An Evening without Kate Bush
- When: 13 – 18 October
- Arts Centre Melbourne
- Tickets here
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
View this post on Instagram
An Olivier-award winning actor, writer, director, improviser, and cabaret performer, Young has just completed another successful Edinburgh Fringe season premiering her new work, The Bob Ross Effect.
She’s performed on stages across the world for over 20 years and is no stranger to Aussie soil, having won Best Cabaret Award at Adelaide Fringe in 2025.
“It’s a totally joyful celebration of Kate’s music,” says Young. “But don’t mistake the show for a traditional tribute act. I don’t impersonate her.”
“The show is made in the spirit of Kate. We talk about the essence of Kate rather than an impersonation of Kate. It’s funny, its quirky. People often come out crying, but in a good way.”
Despite the fact that Young’s voice is similar to Kate’s and all the songs are sung in the original key, there is no attempt to accurately recreate Kate on Fringe stages around the world.
“I’m personally not interested in imitation. There are some incredible tributes out there, like Cloudbusting here in the U.K. Their lead singer, Mandy, is as close as you can get to hearing Kate Bush live.”
“What I’m interested in is what happens to us when we listen to music, when we connect to the artwork. Because each of us is this sort of vessel that the music gets put through.”
The inspiration for a tribute to Kate Bush came from the performer’s 30-year absence from the stage.
“I was interested in what happens in the space that an artist leaves behind them,” Young said. “She’s not here, but how do we continue to celebrate her?”
“I collect the audience’s stories each night too, and I’ll weave them through so that every show feels like it has a slightly different character depending on what stories people bring into the room with them,” Young said.
“I’m very aware that I will have a different relationship with some of the songs from the audience, and that’s what I’m trying to harness during the show.”
The power of this piece lies in the connection to the music beyond the star herself. Kate Bush’s music moves can be divisive, which Young harnesses throughout her performance.
“I think people take a shortcut to understanding her. If you’ve only heard Wuthering Heights, you go ‘oh she’s the screechy lady’. There’s more to Kate Bush than Wuthering Heights.”
“She can be a bit Marmite. Some people really don’t like her, but she was so ahead of her time. The music video for Deeper Understanding explored a relationship between a man and his computer before the internet even existed. How was she dreaming into that landscape?”
“You know, she wrote about nuclear war and the environment, much more than boy meets girl love songs. We could have done a 10-hour Ring Cycle.”
“Kate Bush isn’t there, and yet her impact is. That to me is what the spirit of the show is, this absence of the star but this incredibly profound sense that she is with us.”
“And that’s not me, that’s what music does to people. I’m a very grateful and happy creative facilitator of that experience,” Young said.
“I know that sounds evangelical, but I genuinely have done over 400 performances, and I have loved every single one of them because it’s like getting to hang out with a bunch of people who love her music.”
An Evening without Kate Bush will play in the Fairfax Studio at Arts Centre Melbourne from October 13 to 18.
“We have the most amazing Melbourne Wutherers. I’m expecting a few people in red with flowers in their hair to turn up,” Young said.
Fling yourself into the moors of Kate Bush’s music and buy yourself a ticket here.
This article was made in partnership with Arts Centre Melbourne.
