It’s 1929 Berlin and the Nazi’s are on the move. But within the decadent Kit Kat Klub at Studio 54 everything is beautiful. At least that’s what Fred Ebb (lyrics) John Kander (music) and Joe Masteroff (book) intended in their landmark musical of 1966 based on the 1951 play by John Van Druten I AM A CAMERA adapted from a short novel “Goodbye to Berlin” – 1939 by Christopher Isherwood.
In 1998 Sam Mendes’ reimagined, revised and re-edited revival opened to great reviews and was moved into Studio 54 starring Alan Cumming and Natasha Richardson as Sally Bowles.
This present revival of Mr. Mendes’ revival has just reopened in the same space where all of the orchestra seats have been removed and replaced with small tables with a small lamp with a red shade and four small and uncomfortable chairs to sit on enabling the management to hawk snacks and drinks at exorbitant prices.
Alan Cumming returns as the Master of Ceremonies a role made famous by Joel Gray. They couldn’t be further apart in their interpretation. But both win.
The bare chested Mr. Cumming, with a lithe body, rouged nipples and suspenders that cradle his crotch is omnipresent with a haircut that brings to mind the style worn by Hitler. He is charmingly decadent, spanking and grabbing crotches and whispering welcoming phrases throughout culminating in a most unusual “Two Ladies” – one of whom is played by a man with a shadow play “ménage a trois” that leaves little to the imagination.
Mr. Mendes’ production is dark. Figuratively and literally. And sometimes dreary. There are two spiral stairways flanking the stage, an upper level housing the band and three doors and a few chairs that the actors move around. Simple. But in doing so he has managed to eliminate the excitement of CABARET.
Michelle Williams is the other big draw. Although she sings her numbers with determination she doesn’t quite mange to capture the young prostitute Sally Bowles who falls for the handsome American writer Clifford Bradshaw (Bill Heck) whose bisexuality is heightened here. There is little if no chemistry between them – which makes their book scenes seem endless.
On a brighter note. We have Linda Emond as Fraulein Schneider – a landlady who has to make ends meet and so she must compromise – putting up with Fraulein Kost (Gayle Rankin) and her endless supply of paying sailors and lowering the rent for the American writer to fill her rooming house where Herr Schultz (Danny Burstein) owner of a fruit market also resides.
Ms. Emond and Mr. Burstein are wonderful. Simply wonderful – making this CABARET a show to see again. They bring warmth and humor and color to their roles as they fall in love over a pineapple, decide not to be alone and to marry only to be thwarted when it is discovered by a Nazi sympathizer, Ernst Ludwig (Aaron Krohn) that Herr Schultz is Jewish.
The score by Kander and Ebb remains one of their best. And the musical staging by Rob Marshall who is co-director is thoroughly engaging but the show is somehow murky and not completely satisfying – having lost something in the revision/re-edit process.
The addition of an unnecessary audience participation after the rousing Act II “Entr’Acte” (a highlight) when Alan Cumming selects two audience members to join him onstage to dance and kibitz after observing that he smells fear is unrewarding.
A Roundabout Theatre Company production.
Photos: Joan Marcus
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