Moonbox's "Cabaret": One Feather at a Time

Phil Tayler & The Kit Kat Klub Kast
(photo: Moonbox Productions)

Relax; Life is still a Cabaret, old chum, but don't tell Mama. This latest iteration by Moonbox Productions reflects the recent Broadway revival of the Kander and Ebb musical. The original show tried out in Boston in October 1966, opening in New York the following month. John Kander wrote the Music, Fred Ebb wrote the Lyrics, and Joe Masteroff wrote the Book (what a score and what a book). Kander and Ebb had previously partnered on their first musical, which also tried out in Boston, Flora the Red Menace, which introduced Liza Minelli. While Flora didn't blossom long, the first run of Cabaret surely did, for three years, with several revivals since. At the start of its original tryout in Boston, the musical had three acts, but was soon trimmed to two acts before it left the Shubert Theater, a wise move since the show ended up being a taut, unforgettably effective recreation of its time and place. The revived version by Roundabout Theater, which ran for six years, is itself a revelation, now on view with a cast of local favorites, ample pulchritude and searing performances. It's hands down the best production ever from this company, and that's saying a lot.

Aimee Doherty in "Cabaret"
(photo: Moonbox Productions)

And so is this: you haven't seen a production of Cabaret at its most powerful until you've seen this one. Not only is the updated (visually, at least) finale incredibly forceful, but they'll have you from the first Willkommen; that is, the eminent Emcee (Phil Tayler) will mesmerize you with his fiercely fluid ferocity from his first appearance. If you thought Tayler's solo effort in Lyric Stage Company's Buyer and Cellar a while back was the epitome of his career, think again. His work here is the paragon of divine decadence. And while we're on acting career assessments, chalk up at least three more high water marks, as Aimee Doherty's Sally Bowles will bowl you over, as will Maryann Zschau's conflicted Fraulein Schneider and Jared Troilo's equally crucial Clifford Bradshaw. This Cabaret is full of “bests”, both on stage and behind, since the creative contributions are also so masterful.

 

Phil Tayler in "Cabaret"
(photo: Moonbox Productions)

 

The first act tells the story of Sally meeting Clifford at the Kit Kat Klub in 1931 Berlin as she sings “Don't Tell Mama”. It is Germany just as the Nazis are rising to power. Based on the novel Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood, in turn based on John Van Druten's play I Am a Camera, it takes place in the raunchy German night club with a bizarre Emcee. Bradshaw, an American writer, also meets Ernst Ludwig (Dan Prior) who offers him work and suggests he room in a boardinghouse run by Fraulein Schneider. Later Sally arrives on Cliff's doorstep, having been thrown out of her apartment. The first act ends with a song that becomes a march with some sinister overtones, “Tomorrow Belongs to Me”. In the second act, Sally and Cliff have fallen in love, and she confesses she's pregnant. Meanwhile, Fraulein Schneider catches her boarder Fraulein Kost (Joy Clark) with her turnstyle of admirers, but Kost reminds her that Schneider has had her own dalliance with her Jewish suitor Herr Schultz (Ray O'Hare). Cliff decides to leave Berlin, but Sally chooses to stay behind for what she sees as a life of freedom, unaware of the imminent descent of the Nazi stormtroopers. As he leaves on the train, Cliff begins to write of his experiences at “the end of the world”.

 

 

Maryann Zschau & Ray O'Hare in "Cabaret"
(photo: Moonbox Productions)


One of the delights of this stage version is the reinstatement of the romantic relationship between the landlady Fraulein Schneider and her lovely songs with Herr Schultz, “It Couldn't Please Me More (Pineapple)” and “Married”, both cut from the movie. Zschau and O'Hare are wonderful together, and her final number, “What Would You Do?”, has never seemed so moving. As she admits, “I regret...everything”. Another aspect that was, for all intents and purposes, lost in the film version is the ever-increasing menace of the rise of the Nazi party. With this subplot restored, on both emotional and political levels, it's a much more involving experience. This makes the ultimate fate of the relationships all the more telling and poignant. There is heart to be treasured, but fleeting and doomed in the path of the politics of the era. There is also another song from the Broadway revival, “I Don't Care Much”, which captures the attitude of those most oblivious to reality.

In this version, the company has a very believable Sally in Doherty who sings exceptionally well and has real chemistry. She's especially devastating in her rendering of the title song, at one and the same time angry and vulnerable. Several characters hint at how easy it was to go along to get along. But any production of this show rises or falls on the performance of its Emcee, and Tayler is a mesmerizing triple threat, his acting fierce, his movement sinuous, his singing stunning as he hovers almost non-stop over the proceedings, right up to the point where one is totally blown away by the visual ending (not to be revealed here) which is unexpectedly, yet logically, both overwhelmingly theatrical and shatteringly frightening. The success of this brilliant rethinking of the show is in large part due to the genius of the creative team headed by Director/Choreographer Rachel Bertone. The Set by Janie E. Howland is a wonder (most effective in the night club scenes), the Costume Design by Marian Bertone is pluperfect, and the Lighting Design by Sam Biondolillo and Sound Design by David Wilson are fabulous. Even the entr'acte has been re-imagined with a terrific turn by the onstage orchestra followed by an accompanying kick line by the Kit Kat Klub Kittens.

 

 

Phil Tayler in "Cabaret"
(photo: Moonbox Productions)

 

And lest you think this is merely a remembrance of things past, one might do well to recall that attention must be paid to the gradual nature of the consolidation of political power, in the words of Mussolini to Hitler: if you pluck a chicken one feather at a time, no one will notice. But, until the clouds of storm troopers gather, there's a great deal of escapism offered here. It's racy, raunchy, and raucous; it's also a whole lot of fun. Go, but, as those Kittens warn, “Don't Tell Mama”.
 

And don't be plucked into thinking it can't happen here.