Word: cabaret
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...broadway and musical comedy were all but synonymous. Of late, though, the Great White Way has become a neon-lit recycling bin for tributes (Fosse), revivals (Annie Get Your Gun, Cabaret), retread movies (Footloose) and British imports that were creatively dead on arrival (any Andrew Lloyd Webber show). Yes, Stephen Sondheim still strikes sparks, while a few up-and-comers, especially Adam Guettel (Floyd Collins), show signs of vibrant life. But it's long past time for something really fresh. Contact, the exhilarating dance play by choreographer Susan Stroman and writer John Weidman that opened last week at Manhattan...
This is truly the product of the witty screenwriter Alan Ball, a graduate of sitcom gigs, and the director Sam Mendes, fresh from such theatrical triumphs as the Broadway revival of "Cabaret" and the acclaimed roundelay "The Blue Room." Mendes, working on film for the first time, is extraordinarily self-assured, inspired both with his actors and, more impressively, his camera eye. Fittingly, since the script praises the hidden beauties of the world, this is itself a deeply beautiful film. Its static compositions by Conrad Hall are overloaded with vibrant colors and symmetries that make you almost want...
...ascend for no other discernible reason than having shared the great one's bed is one Mrs. Peron of Argentina. Not Evita, who became a saint after her death but never actually ruled--no, the sorriest modern case of rule by consort is Peron's third wife, Isabel, a cabaret dancer he met during one of his exiles in Spain, who turned in one of the most disastrous presidencies in Argentine history...
...They also serve who must stand and wait for stardom. Mitchell was a Broadway journeyman before his galvanic performance as Coalhouse Walker in Ragtime. Yet even that role didn't win him quite the renown he deserved (he lost the Tony to Cabaret's Alan Cumming). Now he's starring in the first Broadway revival of Cole Porter's sparkling 1948 musical based on The Taming of the Shrew. He gets to reintroduce such Porter hits as So in Love, is teamed once again with his Ragtime co-star Marin Mazzie--and doesn't get killed in the end. Sounds...
There's record-setting heat in Washington. Fortunately, the Capitol shuts down this week for summer recess. Some pols have already taken off; a few will require hiking boots, others water shoes, and at least one might want to rewatch Cabaret in preparation. We hope all remember to leave the thong bathing suits at home...