Cabaret
Cabaret Book by Joe Masteroff
Music by John Kander
Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Directed by Kenny Howard
Choreography by Blue Star
Musical Direction by John DeHaas
Starring Blue Starr, Griffeth Whitehurst, and Rob Stack
Artful Events presents Gen Y Productions
The Abbey, Orlando, FL</strong>
I suspect Berlin wasn’t THAT much more decadent than any other Eurocapital in 1936, but this wildly successful play and the related film have burned Berlin in our minds as THE epitome of decadence. Sally Bowles (Blue) dances in the dive Kit Kat Klub, she’s billed as the “Toast of Mayfair” but is more likely a working class girl out to escape a drunken daddy. She sleeps with the club owner and dances under the direction of The Emcee (Whitehurst) but latches on the American writer Cliff Bradshaw (Stack). While unpublished and broke, it’s the promise of success that attracts her and unlike dear old Max he doesn’t beat her. As the Nazis rise to power, their landlady Fraulein Schneider (Rebecca Fisher) cuts here rent and houses and increasingly entrepreneurial tenants. Fr. Schneider dates fruit merchant Herr Schultz until Cliff’s buddy Ernst Ludwig (Alexander Mrazek) flashes his armband and recommends she break it off. After a war and a revolution, she’s the ultimate pragmatist and ditches the hop of love for the hope of keeping her boarding house license.
With Blue Star as the choreographer the dance was the thing here. Incidental motion for “Welcome to Berlin” and “Kick Line” captivated, and more rigorous numbers like “Two Ladies” and “I Don’t Care Much” jumped. Blue has a very impressive voice and drilled “Don’t Tell Mama” and “Maybe This Time.” Mr. Stack didn’t sing much, but was well cast as a writer in search of a topic. Meanwhile Mr. Whitehurst’s Emcee felt more like he was cruising than running a show, and his odd use of suspenders was…odd. The Schneider / Schultz romance felt true, Mr. Ba’aser even pulled off a foxtrot. Sedate as it was it was a major extension from his more typical over the top comedy. Natalie Doliner played Frau Kost, the working girl who was related to a large sector of the Kriegsmarine. She must have been VERY good; most of the Germany navy was based up in Hamburg 300 kilometers away. A live band backed all this goodness with a barrelhouse sound, the drummer was particularity adept at little flourished of emphasis.
This show is a popular property; I’ve even seen it done at the Jewish Community Center. It remains a big seller because it has so much to offer: the world may be collapsing, but love and sex and disappointment persist, people make hard choices and live with the results, or sometimes they don’t. With Blue’s dance troupe backing the show, it’s a visual treat packed with timeless songs. You’ll have to pick your favorite to hum on the way out, and you won’t even have to worry about air raids. Not yet, anyway.
For more information on Artful Events, please visit http://www.artfulevents.com/
For more information on The Abbey’s eclectic programming, you should click on abbeyorlando.com</em>
