CABARET: A Cautionary Tale

July 6, 2019 

Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre 

July 5 to July 21, 2019

Book, Joe Masteroff

Based on the play by John Van Druten & Stories by Christopher Isherwood.

Music by John Kander. Lyrics by Fred Ebb.

Director, Scott LaFeber. Creative Consultant, Peter Flynn
Music Director, Ken Clifton. Choreographer, Christopher d’Amboise. 

Cabaret is a highly political musical. The hard part for a director is to bring political aspects of the script to the fore without interrupting the entertainment. Two problems we often see with productions of Cabaret are: One, that the elements are divided from one another so we get a series of sexy skits leavened with (didactic) political lectures;
Two, that the humor and sensuality of the script overwhelms the production while the political elements are not well represented.
 Director, Scott LaFeber, manages this difficult task with showmanship and sensitivity.
Flynn’s production of Cabaret is both entertainment and a cautionary tale.
 The Führer’s bunker has many mansions.

Sally Bowles asks us, “What good is sitting alone in your room?”
But Isherwood asks us, how long we can ignore the closing vise of autocratic rule. How long can we hide in the world of transgressive vice called the Weimer cabaret scene.
It is impossible to hide. Hitler’s fascist state enters every underground club, private dwelling and public space.

 In producing a play that takes place at several times, in several locations, this production team keeps the flow of the program going while the different locations are being set up. This Cabaret never breaks the rhythms of the show. There are many different cadences but the forward thrust of the production is never interrupted. Scene changes are smooth and fast. They are accompanied by music and dance that keep us in the story-world of the production.

 

Forrest McClendon & The Kit Kat Girls

Forrest McClendon creates an Emcee that is always in touch with the audience.
Dee Hoty and Jonathan Brody act well together. They respond not only to the words but the feelings of the person they are speaking with.
Jonathan Brody delivers his character and his lines with piercing understatement.
Dee Hoty speaks, listens, sees, and is seen, without ever distracting us from the spine of the scene she is in. 

The reprise of “Tomorrow Belongs to Me,” at the end of act one, is a smooth transition on stage but an abrupt and horrifying one for the characters, and the audience. We are now clearly confronted with the unmistakable fact that things are not going to go well for the bohemian underground at the Kit Kat Club.

 The song Cabaret is the most difficult piece in the show.  Not because the composition is difficult to sing, but because it is freighted with audience expectations that come from repeated hearing of the piece as background music in bars, clubs, elevators, and radio. The song is associated with its iconic performance on film and many theatrical productions. Laura Michelle Kelley nails her rendition of it near the end of act two.  A production team must be tempted to help the singer with dances, lights and other special effects. But this brave artist takes the stage alone Kelly, confronts the music and the audience, and mesmerizes us with her ability to handle the most important tune of the evening. Laura Michelle Kelley makes us live in the moment of her song; now. 

When Terence Mann returns next year I wonder what it would be like to see a production of Brecht’s Three Penny Opera, or better yet, of John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera.Would the Eastern Connecticut Community be interested in such work?
This writer thinks it would. The people who attend CRT, and live near UConn are educated, politically active, and ready for an intellectual challenge.  

The polymorphous perverse Emcee discovers that being a collaborator does not keep you safe.
The Emcee, (Forrest McClendon) is the one who throws the brick through the window of the Jewish storekeeper, Herr Schultz, and is the first to strike out at the American writer when he is beaten up by the Nazis.

The final moment of the show is powerful and frightening. Nazi banners unfurl as they fall from the heavens. As Emcee turns to see the swastikas he is revealed to be wearing striped pajamas of the concentration camps. This image is an objective correlative of Clifford Bradshaw’s line that, “If you’re not against it you’re for it.” 

This final scene creates a kind of Brechtian Alienation Effect, that interrupts the entertainment and makes us consider the stark reality of totalitarian government.
       But don’t worry; it can’t happen here.