Review: CABARET, Ramirez Made Sally Bowles Her Own!

This weekend I visited a little gem filled with history, tucked away within a short drive from Charlotte, the Meroney Theater in Salisbury, North Carolina. The original home to vaudeville and now home to The Piedmont Players. This group, recently celebrating its 55-year anniversary, put on a sublimely wonderful production of CABARET. Book by Joe Masteroff, based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood with music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb.

The metaphor of the Kit Kat Club, with its decadence and seediness as the backdrop, is the discordance of society and denial at a vulnerable time, allowing the rise of fascism. This play's theme was chosen timely today, amidst the echo of "them" versus "us" sentiment of authoritarianism in America, which is being clung to because of the middle finger repeatedly being presented to a hungry and frustrated working class.

The CABARET cast was lead by Emily Ramirez, who played the promiscuously innocent, Sally Bowles. I couldn't take my eyes off Ramirez. She captured the character of Bowles' sexual persona onstage with charged dancing and emotionally connected vocals. Praises go out to Director and Choreographer, Tod A. Kubo, for his choices in casting, direction and dance, along with Resident Director, Set and Lighting Designer, Reid Leonard.

Remembering back to first seeing Joel Grey, as Emcee, with his painted cheeks and red lips, made me think that he was the icon in portraying this character, but Aaron Coulson made this part of Emcee his own with a current, dark, edginess that was foreboding. He commanded the stage and showed a fun naughtiness with the song, Two Ladies. The use of shadows on a sheet inferred its giddy raunchiness.

Tim Campbell portrayed Clifford Bradshaw, the bisexual writer, who falls in love with Bowles. He portrayed this role with tenderness and care. Wendy Weant, who portrayed Fraulein Schneider, had the proper amount of reserve you would expect of a German woman of that time. She embodied believable pragmatic thought in the song, So What. Her older suitor, Herr Schultz, portrayed by Andy Abramson, stepped up like a "mensch." He was truly Schneider's Obst merchant. Compliments also go out to Paul Reeves Leopard, who portrayed Ernst Ludwig.

The Kit Kat Girls included Ashlyn Keller Sumner, Dana Ribelin, Leah Campion and Yessena Whitfield. Their sometimes less-than-ladylike poses were tongue-in-cheek. Their dancing was delightful and they personified the imagined characters in a nightclub of that era. This show ended its run too soon. It would be great if this entire cast can be rounded up to present it again! The orchestra, lead by Conductor/Music Director, Mike Wilkins, was wonderful and enhanced the circumstances on stage. If there is one critique I can offer, it is the scene when Bowles returns from terminating her pregnancy, she stands with energy in the room she shares with Bradshaw, instead of cocooning in the covers on the bed.

Kubo's choice of ending with the concentration camp's entrance projected on the back screen and the characters, that we have grown to love, imprisoned, brought the reality of that time in stark contrast to the Kit Kat nightlife, which camouflaged it. In conclusion, lest we never forget, when auditory, charismatic leaders, lead with the threat of violence, genocide can happen again.

Photo Credits: Bob Matthews

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