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Past Reviews Regional Reviews: Seattle Cabaret is Located on the Middle Road Also see David's review of Legally Blonde
Masteroff's book, revised often in the 49 years since Broadway and based on Christopher Isherwood's "Berlin Stories," is set in 1931 Germany as the Nazi Party is beginning its deplorable and fatal rise. A young American author Cliff Bradshaw keeps a diary of his years there, living in the semi-respectable boarding house run by Fraulein Schneider, teaching English while writing his book, falling into the mesmerizing arms of British chanteuse Sally Bowles who headlines at a cabaret hosted by a rather menacingly skeletal Emcee. As Berlin decays so does the Cliff/Sally romance, as well as a doomed pairing between Fraulein Schneider and her Jewish grocer suitor Herr Schultz. But don't worry, says our ghoulish host, "Inside life is beautiful, the girls are beautiful, even the orchestra is beautiful." As we walk into the theatre, Matthew Smucker's brilliant set is in disarray. Brian Earp as Cliff walks in and, as the Kurt Weill-like strains of "Willkommen" start to vamp under him, we see that he is an older, wiser Cliff, returned to the vestiges of his youthful playground. Suddenly, the broken "Cabaret" sign starts to rise, and is realigned, and before you know it, we are back in 1930s Germany, though Smucker (within Yorkey's framework) has already aced his task, with that disheveled opening tableau being as masterful as the opening tableau Boris Aaronson designed, in a likewise deserted theatre, for the original Broadway version of Follies. Cliff is the passive viewer of the tale, and Brian Earp gets more out of the role than most. Though stripped of either of the two Cliff solos heard in other productions, he conveys warmth, belief in his principles, and a deep sexual confusion, jumping from a loving affair with Sally to one-night quickies with the boys from the Klub. Billie Wildrick, known for her fabulous voice, manages somehow to make it sound just good, appropriately as a Sally Bowles who sees what is happening around her but chooses denial and insistence that the good times keep rolling. From her sensual and teasing "Don't Tell Mama" to "Maybe This Time" and the well-known title tune, Wildrick wows, and manages to make her "Cabaret" just a bit under-played and hinting at desperation, as it should be. Jason Collins, as the Emcee, the ubiquitous sneering embodiment of the dark times falling upon the land, has the period song and dance styles down pat. His frankly heterosexual take on the role is the first such interpretation I've seen, and is valid for this production. His final solo "I Don't Care Much," a haunting song written for the original production but not used till the revivals, is the one moment we get a little bit inside the character, and Collins aces it. Anne Allgood as Fraulein Schneider is the gold standard of the production. Bickering yet playful as she negotiates rent with Cliff, her "So What?" is a master class in delivery of a story-ballad. She and the understated Peter Crook as Schultz share their two duets "Pineapple Song" and "Married" with pitch perfect humor and warmth, as necessary. But her TKO is her near closing delivery of one of the score's trickiest, most Brecht/Weill influenced numbers, "What Would You Do?" which she starts bursting with anger and builds to a finish of shattering regret. It is the single finest musical theatre performance I have seen in Seattle in years, from someone who never disappoints. Nicole Beerman is funny and randily coquettish as the tough as nails, play for pay boarding house denizen Fraulein Kost, and Quinn Armstrong is a faux-charming Nazi sympathizer as Cliff's erstwhile student/employer Ernst. I daresay the next Cabaret I visit will have its own approach and attack on the material. That it can withstand so many approaches is a testament to Isherwood, Masteroff, Kander, and Ebb. Cabaret runs through July 3, 2015, at Village Theatre in Issaquah, and then moves to the Everett Performing Arts Center July 10 - August 2, 2015. For information and tickets visit www.villagetheatre.org.
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