Most Recent Review by Broadway Correspondent Brad Hathaway (Sept 2001)

Broadway Reviews

Most recent review by Broadway Correspondent Brad Hathaway (Sept 2001)

Cabaret has always been a highly theatrical play within a play proving that anti-anti-Semitism is not an exclusively Semitic virtue. Both Joe Materoff's multi-layered book and John Kander & Fred Ebb's incredibly effective score reach for universal messages beyond the socio-political. It has drawn out the best in environmental theater. I particularly remember having to walk through a corridor that progressively deteriorated into a visage of 1938 Berlin as the entrance to the theater where a marvelous production of Cabaret earned numerous awards.

Of course, I've not seen all or most or even lots of the productions of Cabaret that have pleased or displeased audiences in the third of a century since the show first opened. But I find it difficult to believe any one of them could have held a candle to the success this one has on all three levels -- pure theater, socio-political commentary and intensely personal drama.

Director Sam Mendes shook up London in 1993 when he re-conceived Cabaret for his Donmar Warehouse venue. The Roundabout Theatre Company struck gold when they arranged not just a transfer but a re-re-conceived production. The collapse in the summer of 1998 of a construction scaffold just off Times Square closed the cabaret Roundabout had created out of the old Henry Miller Theater. So Cabaret moved again, this time to the famous (or infamous) Club 54 which has now been converted to its own version of the Kit Kat Club … the 1938 Berlin Cabaret featuring an androgynously erotic master of ceremonies and headlining a hedonistic English vocalist named Sally Bowles.

The Club 54 version, like its predecessors, has tables with (very uncomfortable) chairs, counter space with (fairly comfortable) stools as well as theater seats. From the theatre seats you get a great view of the show, but from the tables down front you are in the world of the show and that is an experience without parallel in any other Broadway theater at the moment.

Normally, I'm not much of a stickler for seat location. I'm thrilled to just be in a theater. But, in this instance, be aware that the experience at those high priced tables is very different from the experience in the rest of the house. Pay more if you have to. Plan ahead if you can. But, if you can get them and you can afford them, this is the way to see this show.

Those tables have lamps which dim and re-light as the action of the play alternates between the Kit Kat Club and the other locales such as a train car or Frau Schneider's rooming house. When the lights are out we seen an American would-be-novelist on that train arriving in Berlin. His involvement with the people at the Kit Kat Club and those at a boarding house is the bridge between the two worlds in this two sided play.

The master of ceremonies (Emcee) at the club in this production is a very different take on the part than Joel Gray's Original. Alan Cumming won a Tony for his creation and Michael Hall replaced him and then was, himself, replaced by Matt McGrath. Bizarre, decadent and a tad demonic the Emcee progresses from Wilkomen through sketches and skits. When he's not in the spotlight, he's a hovering presence watching events from every nook and cranny of the set.

The part of Cabaret Songstress Sally Bowles has a long tradition of wildly different interpretations. Jill Haworth originated the part 35 years ago with a Sally who's aspirations exceeded her talents. As a result Haworth was singled out in opening night reviews with either the cruel "she is a damaging presence worth no more to the show than her weight in mascara" (Kerr) or the merely negative "ungainliness on stage" (Nadel) which indicated a failure on the part of the reviewers to understand the character's role in the show. Later, in the movie version, Liza Minelli brought a perkiness and vocal polish that seemed to justify her hopes for stardom.

This production returns to the concept of a Sally of limited vocal talent whose supply of perkiness is all but exhausted. Natasha Richardson originated the role and later Jennifer Jason Leigh, Mary McCormack and Susan Egan gave us a Sally who was blissfully (and willfully) ignorant of her own vocal limitations. Even Egan, a once-upon-a-time Belle from Beauty and the Beast, who's work in Triumph of Love set a new standard for perkiness, sublimated her charms in an effort to let the audience see Sally as a burnt out coke addict who has more talent for self-deception than night club performing. Now we have Brooke Shields in the role and she does a capable job of it.

Mendes sets up the song "Cabaret" as both the climactic moment of the show and the reason for its being. He makes it literally the end of the world and that end is a tragic one. This song, so up-tempo in construction, has always been the perfect commentary on the human tendency to deny dangers that are too ugly to contemplate. In this production it is absolutely heart rending. It is a moment of pure theatrical magic. It makes the audience face exactly what the character is refusing to face.

As revolutionary as the show feels at times, it has a very traditional structure. It is really just a love story of boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy looses girl with a subplot of a subsidiary love story. That subplot -- Fraulein Schneider, proprietress of the rooming house, and Her Schultz, one of her borders -- features a rock-solid performance by Carole Shelley. She is particularly affecting in "What Would You Do?" as one of the many other times the audience is forced to think beyond simple homilies and confront real human dilemmas. Larry Keith has the role of her suiter, Herr Schultz and he is merely acceptable. But then, he is filling the shoes of Ron Rifkin who made so much more of the role.

Music Director Patrick Vaccareiello has an absolutely rocking orchestra that lays down exceptionally affecting support for both the Kit Kat Club routines and the "real world" musical numbers. The orchestrations by Michael Gibson give each element of that orchestra a chance to shine, which is particularly effective given that the orchestra is really one of the characters in the show. The "Entr'Acte" is one swinging piece of music.

As you can see from the reviews below, this is a show that generates very different reactions from many of our contributors. That is one of the fascinating things about live theatre or any art form.

There is never a single answer to the question "what is the best show playing on Broadway?" After all, different tastes would produce different answers. There are shows I like better. But I'd be hard pressed to form a defensible argument against someone else's claim that this is the best thing going at the moment.

by Brad Hathaway, Online Broadway Correspondent