Willkommen meine Damen und Herren – Das Leben ist ein Kabarett!
This was a wonderfully intelligent and extremely professional production which worked on many levels, but raised many question marks on other levels.
The first thing you noticed was that upon entering the auditorium you were also entering the Kit Kat Club (which was originally spelled Klub – but was changed for obvious reasons!), and were greeted by the boys and girls of the club as you took your seats. This was a lovely touch and really helped to create the atmosphere. This atmosphere was further enhanced by a very seedy and tacky looking set, all in black and looking just like the stage performance area of any sex club even now. The lighting was just right – not too soft and not too bright – and the costumes were extremely good. Negligees for the girls and BDSM wear for the boys.
There were four (?) tables at the front of the rising auditorium seats where some audience were seated making it look more like a club, however the tables were never actually used as part of the staging sadly…. meaning that the Telephone Song was cut from the score, and losing quite a lot of telling the audience what the club actually is. Why couldn’t the tables have been moved further on stage and used as part of the performance? This would also have speeded up some very messy and uncoordinated scene changes too. the one thing to really spoilt this production was the bumping into furniture on its way in or out!
Considering these youths’ tender ages and lack of worldly experience then this was a very brave show to produce. It is a show which demands a certain maturity in the lead roles which obviously they didn’t have but conversely there was more energy and raw talent on display than in the somehow rather tired versions I have seen staged professionally. Emcee, Joe Foster, had found the anger and nastiness in his character, which he played superbly. He hadn’t found the supercilious snide side though, and so despite it being a great performance it was just a little too mono-dimensional for me. He is the survivor, the controller, the overseer, but above all, the manipulator. He needed therefore to be more obsequious at times, and find more light and shades in the character. A menacing character doesn’t need to shout all the time! Further, and this is a directorial mistake, he would not have been the one to throw the brick – absolutely not – but he wouldn’t stop the brick from being thrown though. Neither would he be the one to end up in a concentration camp.
I am jumping right to the very end of the show now. I have never seen an end like this in all the productions of Cabaret I have acted in, directed and watched – which have been more than several! Not only was the camp uniform too much too soon, it was too great a leap to make. We had thus far seen only one armband and nothing else at all other than reported suggestion, and as such, the camp uniform was wrong. Even if there had been a gradual increase of nazi presence and insignia – as indeed there should have been, not only for this, but also to make it more credible that Cliff sees the need to leave Germany immediately – then the uniform MIGHT have worked , if on a different character, not Emcee.
However, the most obvious problem for me in the casting was Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz. [ Natalie Blair and Deane Dixon-Foster ]. Again this was not the actors’ fault but that of the directing. Fraulein Schneider is an Arian German, and yet her acting and voice was much more like that of a Jew, whereas Herr Schultz was standing erect and tall, to all intents and purposes an Arian German when in fact he should have been Jewish!! It might have helped if the song Meeskite had been kept in, but sadly that had been omitted too.
The Kit Kat Club is an allegory for the political situation and those involved within it at that time (1930s), and with this in mind, we can clearly see important political figures parodied in the main characters. Subtle and very clever, but once you know it is there, then your understanding and enjoyment of the Musical and the characters’ eventual fates becomes much clearer and effective.
Sally Bowles, a talentless prostitute who has lost her way, and ended up in one of the worst clubs in one of the worst cities in Europe at that time, is really down on her luck, world-weary despite her being only in her early 20s; so seizes with both hands the chance given to her by Cliff, and yet, in the end, still stays in Berlin to meet her fate rather than take the train to Paris and go to America with him. In this production Sally was played quite excellently by Molly Glynn-Whitehead, as she undoubtedly was a proficient singer and dancer, but managed to make both her singing and dancing here very average; exactly as it should have been. Well done.
Playing opposite her was Dillon Burgess as a rather exasperated Clifford Bradshaw. What little he did sing, was actually rather good, so why was his song shortened?
However, the undoubted star performance in this cast was Amelia Atherton as Frau Kost. Pitching her voice just right and managing to play that balance between Carry-On style comedy and realism as if she was born for it. And a HUGE plus to sing the song that is usually cut from this show, and sing it in German too, and so beautifully and meaningfully; ‘Married / Heirat’.
As you can probably tell if you have managed to have stayed with me so far; this was for me a rather mixed-bag production. There were some extremely brilliant directorial choices made by Kelly Cullen ( including the singing of songs which are often cut from the show ), but also some extremely odd ones too. The choreography ( Hannah Birch ) was good but really nothing special or outstanding, and the Musical Direction ( Paul Williams and Kevin Matthews) was solid and secure.
Of all the productions of this show I have seen, it was only the third time I have seen boys used in this way – and surprisingly it was the boys who seemed far more at home with their ‘sexuality’ than the girls. Although a special mention must be made here of one chorus girl who understood the Musical and what was required of her. On her every entrance and exit she would wink and wave at the audience and be very sensual in her demeanour, and I believe her name was Olivia Lees.
However, I need to bear in mind once again that this was a student production and the cast were mostly 16 and 17 years old; and so for them to have created such a truthful and earnest piece of theatre and to make it work so well is indeed highly praiseworthy. I seriously doubt that I would have been able to have pulled something like that off when I was only 16; so a huge bravissimi to you all!!
It was a very solid and highly entertaining show with some lovely talent on display, and my criticisms are there simply because I happen to know and love this show so well.
I look forward to being able to see your next production whenever and whatever that may be.
Reviewer – Alastair MacDougall
on – 17/May/16
