Word: cabaret
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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ALTHOUGH FISH-NET STOCKINGED Kit Kat Klub Girls flirtatiously slink into the audience early on the Cabot House Production of Cabaret never completely ensnares us. The play offers views of both a presumably typical Berlin music-hall in the early 1930s and the particular strains on relationships at the time, but occasional unevenness and sluggishness in performances and direction too often dispel strong promises for both lasciviousness and poignancy. Unfortunately, even several strong performances and specific scenes cannot carry this tale of decadent. Nazi-ascendent Berlin...
...makes its entrance lovely attired in semi-elegant dresses of the era. As the Master of Ceremonies (Mark Meredith), with great mocking ostentation, proclaims in his welcome. "Everything is beautiful...the girls are beautiful even the orchestra is beautiful." Indeed, this sarcasm unveils one of the major themes of Cabaret--ugliness, the ugliness of Nazism. In the production, we are shown how those with a direct view of the movement could be blinded to for could wish a ignore) the growing stength, evil and danger of Hitler and his followers...
...TRULY COMMANDING presence here, though, is Belle Linda Halperb. As Sally, Halpern makes her numbers--"Don't Tell Mama" and "Cabaret" the two show-stoppers of the evening. Her powerful, rich voice, enravishing and assured stage presence, and uncommon beauty, stand out so much in this production that Cliff's denigration of Sally's talent seems quite odd. For all her escapism and childishness, he should acknowledge her powers of performance. And Halpern sensitively draws forth the unsettled and quite neurotic aspects of Sally all throughout the show. While we cannot be made to admire Sally or pass over...
There are few startling insights or discoveries in Cabaret. Rather, lines like "Governments come, governments go" and "It will pass, I'm sure" have a surely straightforward, but nevertheless affecting, ironic power. What could have set the production apart is a far more distinctive portrait of the music hall as contrast and backdrop to the (here, well-represented) complex ties...
...intended, the audience leaves the dining room quite assured that life is, indeed, not a cabaret. But the audience can also hope that life will not turn out to be like this production--holding some vivid performances and scenes but, in the end, lacking a general enthusiasm and drive...