Album Review: How many Revivals of CABARET Do We Need? One More, Apparently …

Heigh Ho, dear lovely rainbow readers, welcome back to Bobby's CD sandbox where we offer our broken-down breakdowns of new music releases. So, strap in and get ready, as Bobby goes on the record ABOUT the record.

This week's album entry in the BobbyFiles comes from Jolly Old Blighty. Last week's cast album release of the 2021 British revival of Kander & Ebb's masterpiece, CABARET, starring everyone's fave ginger, Eddie Redmayne, dove into the streamings and landed on Bobby's metaphysical desk. Now, those who follow The Broadway know that there have been 4 productions of Cabaret since it first opened in 1966 - 2 of them 20(ish) years apart, both starring Joel Grey, and 2 of them 16(ish) years apart starring Alan Cumming. So why, after just a scant 7 years, has a 5th English-speaking production come about in the UK, and what is there to explore in this piece besides The Broadway's and The West End's obsession with John & Fred's Weimaresque pageant? Well, aside from the apparent profit reasons for putting up a show that is an almost guaranteed sell, revivals happen to give new artists a crack at a classic, tried and true, piece of theatre, and who better to crack it than the red-maned Redmayne? Further, it is almost a given, though not certain at this writing, that this revival will make its way to the Great White Way before Eddie Loses his red mane (last one, we promise!) and with the release of this cast album, we feel certain that momentum is most likely building to a Broadway direction.

BUT! Bobby's rainbow review is about what we heard on this new cast album, and, so, let's talk about a few cuts here, and then I'll tell you why you should or should not put this one in your queue... WILLKOMMEN - it is worth a mention that our first very small observation is a significant tell - that opening drum roll that introduces this show every time is really longer than usual here. This musical extension foretells the expansions in mood and acting/creative choices that are to come. Eddie's strong voice with lots of over-the-top character is another tell, regarding the performances. He's right on pitch but everything is filled with that OTT energy, including his thick, albeit totally intelligible, German accent. He has real power in the voice, along with musicality, and is more vocally extended and legato, rather than the clipped staccato of MCs of CABARET past. The album includes audience sounds, and feels like it was recorded live and, upon some research, we found proof that it was INDEED recorded in performance! This is a RADICAL departure from almost all cast albums and lent such an air of excitement and immediacy to the listening of it that we found ourselves leaning forward toward the speakers in anticipation. Eddie's vocals feel like he's playing a vaudeville routine - with stand-up comedy and improv undertones - he's having fun and making it fun, playing with the audience present on the night. MEIN HERR - now, this is Liza's song from the film, incorporated in the stage revival scripts years down the road. Jessie Buckley's Sally is telling her truth, truthfully, as she takes her time letting her vocals go from strong to sweet and back again. Her ending phrase is thrilling... and a bit scary, with a power note right at the end - fully open with no vibrato until the last 2 beats. IT COULDN'T PLEASE ME MORE (PINEAPPLE SONG) - Elliot Levey and Liza Sadovy, as the ultimately doomed Herr Schultz and his shiksa sweetheart Fraulein Schneider, give this beloved novelty number all the cute it needs to make this a hit song in the show. Sweet and funny, with both making their heavy German accents understandable, all while giving their live audience a real treat. I DON'T CARE MUCH - Written for the original 1966 production but cut, this haunting little song was reinstated for Mr. Grey to sing in 1987. Taken from the prevailing, cynical German cultural ideology at the time before the war, this one represents the blindness of that "I Don't Care Much" notion that allowed the republic to be overtaken by totalitarian thugs. It's a cautionary moment, with Redmayne using a very constipated vocal sound, very German, very Sieg Heil feeling that becomes something even uglier by the end of the song, as Eddie employs different vocal productions, throughout, that are disturbing. MAYBE THIS TIME - Another of Liza's songs from the film, this composition is always a winner because of its built-in build-up from a low-slow start to a rousing finish. Buckley performs this established build-up throughout the song but then takes it down, in the last lines, to show a real struggle within her character, in a tiny voice that makes this version really quite remarkable. Then, finally, there is the song that tells the tale, the titular CABARET, the song upon which this show and all its revivals stand. If you don't got this song in the bag, my angels, you don't got nothin'... The title song happens late in the show when everything has fallen apart. Redmayne starts this cut with his introduction of Fraulein Sally, and is audibly shaken, weakened even. Buckley flattens her sound to start with, making it disturbingly detached, almost dissociative, until the second verse, where the performance grows and she adjusts to selling the song to the audience. She builds this one brilliantly until her life depends on putting the number over for everyone.

Now, that is Bobby's little lookie-loo at some of the old songs on this new recording of this nearly six-decade-old musical. CABARET has been done, done, and re-done, and while clever directors may come along and try to re-invent Joe (Masteroff), Fred & John's wheel, the score remains a classic that only total bunglers could screw up, and we are happy to report that this cast performs admirably, making it their own without totally alienating long-time listeners. Is it perfect? No, it isn't. Through a lot of the record, the choices feel too heavy, too weighted down by the darkness that the characters succumb to at the end. There are melodramatic phrases and line deliveries, including Eddie's sledgehammer delivery of IF YOU COULD SEE HER THROUGH MY EYES' final words, "She wouldn't look Jewish at all" that defaults to a kind of "We're making a point, then underlining it in red, waving a Swastika over it, while splattering you with blood," as opposed to an even more disturbing "This is where we are now and ain't that funny?" feel. Also, though we have praised the actors here for making their dialogue clear, even through heavy dialects, one is left to wonder why, if this show takes place in Germany, with German characters that are presumably speaking German (except, perhaps, to the English and American Sally & Cliff) why are the accents SO thick, or even there at all? It is the long-standing CABRET conundrum, to Sprechen sie or not to Sprechen sie, that is the die frage which is pointed up, here, by the praiseworthy authenticity of work that feels forced, throughout. On the other hand, the greatest thing about this album is the cast's engagement with the audience. Recording this show live, in performance, really is the way it should have been done down through history and, as one listens, the album gives us the feeling that we, too, are sitting in the Kit Kat Klub, taking this journey with these fine performers... and that is EVERYTHING, darlings. Finally, though we found ourselves wondering if this work will ever again find its way out from under the heavy anvil of message belaboring and into more fine needlepoint that makes a disturbing picture, the cast and the music makers make this one more than worth the listen, they make it a pleasure.

In all, this album belongs in the collection of any dedicated Broadway-file because it is, finally, CABARET with performances that put you in the show's moments, both delightful and harrowing, and that is more than enough to get Bobby's...

4 out of 5 rainbows

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