Willkommen To Cabaret

By Victoria Looseleaf

Talk about a long shelf life: Cabaret originally began its theatrical run as a play, I Am a Camera, by John Van Druten. Penned in 1951, this work, in turn, had been based on several short stories by Christopher Isherwood. (See Isherwood’s portrait below, as rendered by his lover, Don Bachardy.) As such, it was set in 1930 Berlin, when the Nazis were ascending to power. It’s centered around Sally Bowles, a cabaret performer in the seedy Kit Kat Club, Cliff Bradshaw – Isherwood’s doppelgänger and the young American writer Sally becomes involved with – and characters of the edgy, threatening world they inhabit. Yeah, it’s all decadence and debauchery before the party crashes to a shrieking halt with the doom and gloom of Hitler, the Holocaust and World War II.

The play became a musical in 1966, with Joe Masteroff writing the book and John Kander doing the compositional honors, punctuated by Fred Ebb’s deliciously punchy, provocative lyrics. Directed by Broadway powerhouse Harold Prince, the play ran for 1,165 performances, winning eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical, with Joel Grey playing the Master of Ceremonies in a performance that effectively launched his career.

While none of us here at The Report were, well, privy to seeing the original staging, it was Bob Fosse’s film version of Cabaret that is, perhaps, seared into our collective consciousness. Released in 1972, the flick reaped a bounty of awards  – snagging eight Oscars – with statuettes going to Fosse for Best Director, Grey for Best Supporting Actor and Liza Minnelli for Best Actress in her indelible portrayal of Ms. Bowles.

Bob Fosse, after being presented his Best Directing Oscar by Julie Andrews and George Stevens, 1973

So, puhleeze: There’s absolutely no use sitting alone in your room, not when you can come to the Cabaret. The 1998 revival featured the late Natasha Richardson and Alan Cumming (see photo below), while regional productions dot the landscape like so many Seurat paintings. Now we’ve got Reprise Theatre Company’s staging at the Freud Playhouse in Los Angeles. The only bad thing about the production, splendidly directed and choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge, is that the limited run ends too soon, on September 25.

Wiping out any memories of Grey and Cumming – and making the role completely his own –  Bryce Ryness as a lanky, lithe emcee, slinks, preens, prances, prowls and lights up the stage like a firecracker. His face is über-expressive, accentuated by a patrician Roman nose. Then there’s his way with a song (he appeared on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning revival of Hair), with this performance a dazzling star turn.

Lisa O’Hare’s Sally Bowles is reminiscent of a young Julie Andrews, one who can assuredly knock her knees together in Dodge’s flapper-era choreography. This lass seems to be having quite the career recently – one that could be dubbed a bit bi-polar: In her last few roles, Ms. O’Hare played Mary Poppins in a London West End production, and, earlier this year, she assayed the titular role in Gigi in another Reprise staging.

Lisa O’Hare as Sally Bowles. Photo by Ed Krieger

With Cabaret so much about The Kit Kat Club, including an eight-piece onstage all-girl band led by Christy Crowl, we, of course, expect plenty of sex, booze and barbs, which are here delivered in spades. So, too, does John Iacovelli’s scenic design – glittery blood-red curtains, a requisite disco ball – hit the mark; while a number of other actors also comport themselves with conviction: Mary Gordon Murray as Fraulein Schneider and Robert Picardo as the German Jewish fruit seller, Herr Schultz, give us a touching portrait of a December-December romance, one destined for disaster, however, by the era’s encroaching insidiousness.

Oy: Trouble is just around the corner. We know it. Jeff McLean’s Cliff knows it. Isherwood knew it. And history proved it.

But part of that long reach of history has, at least, given us this canny, cool musical. Cabaret was – and still is – a potent brew. It’s also ripe for staging in 2011, says director Dodge, whom we at The Report had the pleasure of interviewing for KUSC (click here to listen). Our own political climate is volatile, we’re in a double-dip recession and hate crimes are still being perpetrated all too often. We go to the theater, then, to escape our ordinary lives, to be entertained, sure. But to be taken to a higher level – to have a peak emotional experience while sitting in the dark with others – that’s even better. Cabaret takes us to that place.

“Start by admitting, from cradle to tomb, isn’t that long a stay. Life is a Cabaret, old chum, only a Cabaret, old chum, and I love a Cabaret!” (A 21st century perk: Kander and Ebb’s fabulous ditty is now available as a ringtone. Who knew?)