Cabaret

Massey Theatre until April 29, 2018
Tickets from $29 at ticketsnw.ca or 604-521-5050

Posted April 16, 2018

It’s Sunday, 2 PM and, wonder of wonders, it’s sunny: a rare day in this rainy, rainy April.  Yet New Westminster’s Massey Theatre is packed. What’s that about? How do you get a full house in Vancouver on a sunny Sunday afternoon?

Royal City Musical Theatre, under the artistic direction of Valerie Easton, has a reputation for top-notch musical productions and over the years the company has obviously built up a fan base that’s the envy of a lot of other higher profile companies. Cabaret marks RCMT’s 29^th Broadway musical and, with only one production each year, you shouldn’t sit around waiting to buy a ticket.

I’m not a huge fan of musicals – especially romantic musicals. Anything Sondheim will get me out because the music is interesting, the lyrics are smart and Sondheim’s plots are generally dark.

But then there’s Cabaret. Written in 1966, with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb and book by Joe Masteroff, it’s based on the short novel, Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood. The original Broadway production was nominated for eleven Tony Awards and won eight including Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical and Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical. Judy Dench sang the lead – Sally Bowles – in the original London production; and Liza Minnelli’s career took off after singing Sally in the 1972 film version.

Set in 1931 in Berlin, Cabaret reflects pre-war Germany: booze flowed, sex was cheap and the music played. But that anything-goes-attitude was soon to be crushed under the boots of the Nazis. In the story, American writer Cliff Bradshaw arrives in Berlin, broke and trying to finish his novel. On the train, he meets Herr Ludwig who refers him to the Kit Kat Klub, a seedy but hopping cabaret where “the girls call you; you don’t call them.” Headliner English songstress Sally Bowles hits on Cliff and very quickly he’s sharing his one room in the boarding house of Fraülein Schneider with her.

But National Socialism is on the march, the Jews are beginning to be anxious and Clifford finds himself entangled in something on the wrong side of the political tracks.

In addition to being the RCMT artistic director, Easton directs this show and she has pulled in some terrific talent. Lauren Bowler is Sally: a beautiful, foxy, slightly ditzy entertainer who has been around the block once or twice. Bowler really rocks the Massey Theatre with “Don’t Tell Mama” and then takes it down a notch with the melancholy “Maybe This Time” as Sally considers her relationship with Cliff.

Long and lanky Tim Howe plays Clifford and, amidst all the other colourful characters, Clifford is sort of naïve – until he wakes up. It’s not a huge singing role, but Howe and Bowler sing “Perfectly Marvelous” perfectly marvellously.

The parallel love story is Fraülein Schneider and Herr Schultz’s – a couple of old-timers who decide to take a chance and get married. As Schneider, Cheryl Mullen has a strong, note-perfect voice that blends beautifully with Herr Schultz (Damon Calderwood) in “It Couldn’t Please Me More”.

Also outstanding is Olesia Shewchuck as Fraülein Kost who repeatedly arrives at her digs in Fraülein Schneider’s very proper boarding house with various sailors, all of whom she says are her “nephew”. Costume designer Christopher David Gauthier puts Shewchuck in some simple but beautiful 30s-style dresses that can best be described as ‘frocks’: pretty and body hugging. And with lots of showgirls and showguys to dress, Gauthier has fun with ripped stockings, bustiers, shortshorts and leather.

Apart from Sally and Clifford, the major role – and the one that perhaps more than any other determines the success or failure of Cabaret – is The Emcee. He’s a ghoulish, nasty piece of work masquerading as a jovial host. Andrew Cownden, in white face and bright rosebud mouth, strikes that note perfectly. He opens the evening with one of the show’s best-known songs, “Willkommen” while stepping out on a catwalk that curves out and around from the stage and encircling the twelve-piece orchestra (under the direction of James Bryson). Set designer Omanie Elias brings Cownden right into our laps while lighting designer Robert Sondergaard keeps a tight follow-spot on him. It’s a brilliant effect.

It’s a big show with just under twenty songs and a cast of two dozen. Easton’s choreography is sharp and her young ensemble executes it like pros.

Cabaret goes dark at the end and chills run up your spine as “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” rings out. Frequently mistaken as a Nazi anthem, it has been used so often in an anti-Semitic context that it signals what hell was just about to erupt in Europe. All that song, all that dance and feverish gaiety was coming to an end. “What good is sitting alone in your room/Come hear the music play.” It’s playing now at the Massey Theatre in New Westminster.