Review: Actor's Express Puts on a Dark, Seductive CABARET

Actor’s Express Theatre Company at the King Plow Arts Center is already a smaller venue, an in-the-round style stage with just 175 seats.  Add in 20 actors, a five-piece band, and eight lamplit tables surrounding the main floor of the stage, and it becomes downright intimate - perfect for the bawdy, raucous, and emotional performance happening there now of Kander and Ebb’s masterpiece Cabaret.

Set in late 1920s Berlin, Cabaret follows American would-be writer Cliff Bradshaw, determined to write his next novel and using his location as inspiration. This isn’t too hard to come by, from the small building where he rents a room from the old Fraulein Schneider to the seedy Kit Kat Club, the titular cabaret run by a mysterious Emcee and headlined by the enigmatic Sally Bowles.  All this is played against the looming backdrop of Hitler’s rise to power, and each character deals with the associated fallout in a myriad of ways.  It’s a striking show that continues to be performed to this day with productions still currently running in the West End and on Broadway.

Perhaps that is why director Freddie Ashley chose the varied cast he did; the queer-coded Emcee is played by Hayden Rowe, alias drag queen Siberia, the “cabaret girls” are all different sizes, shapes, colors, and genders, and Cliff (in reality based upon Anglo-American novelist Christopher Isherwood) is portrayed by black actor Terrance Smith.  Smith draws the audience to him so convincingly that there is little question what a queer black man might be doing in near-Nazi-era Germany, and the audience falls deep into the cabaret’s spell alongside him.  Callie Johnson’s star shines bright as Sally Bowles, whom she plays with complexity, a vapid flapper who occasionally lets the mask slip, allowing the audience to spot the vulnerability and hunger within.

Act One is a wild romp of sexuality, fun, and emotional moments.  Rowe’s Emcee is hilarious and captivating from the first moment he enters, partly thanks to costume designer Nicole Clockel’s choice of halo crown and glittery boots.  Not only does he lead the cabaret and band, he actually joins them, playing a violin throughout the show.  The ensemble of dancers was top notch and every movement was stellar - and their comedic chops were tested and proved in multiple numbers.  The audience, easily engaged by the cozy nature of the venue, was even more drawn in by the sweet later-in-life romance between Mary Lynn Owen’s Fraulein Schneider and Steve Hudson’s Herr Schultz, both actors of impeccable talent, able to draw laughs and tears.

It’s halfway through the act that things start to change, and any history buff would know it’s not for the better.  Ernst (Truman Griffin) and Fraulein Kost (Megan K. Hill) reveal where their allegiances lie, surprising both the characters within the play and the audience viewing (leading to many literal gasps during Sunday’s matinee).  Even the comedic heart of the show, the Emcee, takes a turn, eerily singing the far-right anthem “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” in demonic red lighting.  Act two follows suit - relationships go from sweet to bitter, the dancing gives way to goosestep, and Cliff’s heart wrenching disillusionment is mirrored in the audience’s discomfort. The Emcee, at first welcoming and flirtatious, becomes a mad sort of puppeteer, pulling the strings of the violin, the cabaret performers, and the audience itself.  It is, of course, all capped off by Sally’s title song, sung brilliantly by Johnson in a way that leaves the audience spent and breathless by the end just as she is.

Cabaret is a dazzling, dark whirlwind of a performance that audiences will be exploring long after they leave the theater.  New York may have Eddie Redmayne and company, but the cast at Actor’s Express more than hold their own - they excel.  Performances last until September 1st and tickets can be purchased at https://actors-express.com/tickets/

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