Whiskey Bars, A Kabarette with the Songs of Kurt Weill
Whiskey Bars, A Kabarette with the Songs of Kurt Weill
By Bremner Duthie
Big Empty Barn Productions
Yellow Venue
Orlando International Theater Fringe Festival, Orlando, FL</strong>
The whole point of cabaret is that seedy decline into nothingness. But just as a drowning man rises 3 times before the end, the true cabaret singer occasional returns to his former glory and produces one heroic heart-rending performance. Bremner Duthie’s “Performer” is on that journey, preparing for a self-financed comeback show that feels doomed from the start. We meet him back stage as an unseen theater critic attempts to fill a few column inches with a readable story, and the Performer makes an attempt to win a new and seducible friend for the evening.
Punctuating this bitter sweet story are the songs of Kurt Weill, sung to a recorded accompaniment from an impossibly large boom box. You know some of them – “Mack The Knife”, perhaps “Bilboa Song” or “You Gentlemen Who Think You Have A Mission.” I was happy to discover a few more obscure ones, including two with lyrics by Ogden Nash, the king of 1950’s doggerel verse. By the time he reaches “Speak Low”, The Performer has complete stolen your soul, and you wouldn’t dream of asking for it back.
Duthie dresses as we watch, building his persona on a base of white face, black tuxedo, and a Soviet-sized glass of cheap vodka. His nearly flat but vaguely European accent gives the songs depth, and a happy set of available lighting makes the show incredibly theatrical. All that’s missing is a haze of cigarette smoke and our own glassfuls of cheap liquor.
This show is presented as part of the 17th Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival. Information on times, tickets, and venue location my be found at http://orlandofringe.org/More information on Mr. Duthie make be found at http://www.bremnerduthie.com</a>
</em>
