BWW Reviews: A Riveting CABARET at York Little Theatre

When John Kander and Fred Ebb set forth to make a musical of Christopher Isherwood's "Goodbye to Berlin," it's not clear that they realized the juggernaut they would unleash on the world. Whether in its original 1966 Broadway version that immortalized Joel Grey's portrayal of the Emcee, the 1987 version that brought Grey back and added Werner Klemperer, Alyson Reed, and opera star Regina Resnick to the star power of the cast, or the 1993 Donmar Warehouse revival in London that translated to the 1998 Broadway revival and created the competing, iconic Alan Cumming Emcee, CABARET has gripped audiences. Now, directed by Aaron Dalton, who's a CABARET veteran, at York Little Theatre, it continues that trend.

The 1987 version, which is quite sanitized, and the 1998 version, which put sex back into the late Weimar Republic, are both on stage these days. It's a surprise, and refreshing, that YLT obtained the rights to the 1998 version, and equally a surprise... and a relief... that York audiences are flocking to it without taking offense at the updated version. (If your only knowledge of CABARET is the appallingly revised and almost completely sanitized movie, the 1998 revival version of the play will be virtually unrecognizable to you, and considerably more sexually oriented. But such was Weimar Berlin, as a matter of course. If you are offended by LGBT characters and discussion, or by casual discussion of abortion, this is not your show - but you will be missing an important piece of historical accuracy. The Donmar/1998 revival version is a portrayal of a very sexually frank place and time.) Equally refreshing is that this production is well-cast, and well-staged, enough to be an unquestionable success for YLT. One hopes this is the caliber of everything we may now expect under Lyn Bergdoll's tenure as Executive Director, and with the assistance of Rene Staub as the new Director of Artistic Services.

When I heard that the show was being put on in the YLT black box rather than on the mainstage I was skeptical, but director Dalton envisioned the more intimate and more flexible black box as being suitable to convert into partial cabaret-stage seating for front-row patrons, in order to capture the illusion that the audience is in fact a cabaret audience. In fine, Dalton is right. The staging of the show works as being set on a cabaret show floor. This is one of those shows in which less set can indeed be more, and the sparseness works perfectly.

Casting and costuming are equally fine. The "Cabaret girls" introduced by the Emcee come out appropriately worn and hard-bitten, along with equally jaded male cabaret dancers, all performing to the front row as customers they suspect likely to pay to find out if each and every one of them is indeed a virgin. Sally Bowles, the questionable "toast of Mayfair", is played with aplomb by Emily Falvey, who brings Sally a decided air of assumed sophistication, making her a young English woman trying to achieve the decadent air she believes is required to be a success as a Weimar club entertainer. The more jaded she works at being, the more her naiveté is exposed, as she shows no ability to recognize the political changes happening around her that will ultimately crush the society she has chosen to live in.

And then there is the Emcee. The iconic and movie-perpetuated Joel Grey version of the Emcee (one of the few truly fine things in the film) is asexual and malevolent, a creature one somehow sees as possibly in league with the changes in Germany; the now equally iconic Alan Cumming character is highly sexualized, and, as such, is an ironic contrast to the about-to-be-enforced sexual morality of the Nazi era. (The ironic contrast is even clearer in the Donmar's changed ending of the show.) In a piece of casting for which I can only thank whatever powers are in the universe, Dalton has cast Chad-Alan Carr, locally known as the director of Gettysburg Community Theatre, as the Cumming-inspired Emcee. Carr, who's a national tour veteran, is quite possibly one of the best Emcees I have ever seen. (I exempt Joel Grey himself from any comment. Grey is the original Emcee, and in many ways will always be the exact avatar of that creature. Very few actors and characters are so completely identified and with such reason.) Carr as the Emcee is a perfectly louche being, moving like a cat on the prowl, a menacing Rum Tum Tugger of ambiguous sexuality and conspicuous danger. His presence is magnetic and, frankly, raises the caliber of the entire show.

As Cliff Bradshaw, young American writer (in this case, straight off the train from Harrisburg), Jeremy Slagle starts as a bland cipher that needs experience to develop character... and develops character, and a backbone, in the process of living in Berlin.

In a nice casting turn, real-life couple Chris and Michael Ausherman play Fraulein Schneider and Herr Shultz, the older couple whose romance, so plainly contrasted against Cliff's and Sally's, becomes the pivot of the show.

The main problem in CABARET is the contrast (or occasional lack thereof) between the performance of songs that advance plot and songs that occur on the stage of the Kit Kat Klub where Sally works. While it's true that the cabaret performances are intended as ironic comment on the "real life" outside the club within the show, at some points the transition can seem jarring and at other times the commentary function can be missed. There are a few moments in this production in which songs do not feel anchored to the rest of the show. Stosh Beeler, playing the Hitler Youth, sings a magnificent version of the always bone-chillingly lovely "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" - one hopes to hear him sing on stage again, many times - but the scene feels unrelated to anything until the engagement party that is broken up by the Nazis.

This is a production of which YLT and Dalton should justly be proud. It is also singularly the best thing I have seen on the YLT stage this season. Community theatre can accomplish great things, and this is a fine example. At York Little Theatre through the 21st. Visit www.ylt.org for information.

Photo Credit: Scott Miller

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