BWW Reviews: Village's CABARET Slow and Safe but Thoughtful

I have to say that when it comes to Kander and Ebb's "Cabaret" I prefer my Kit Kat Club dirty, my Sally Bowles damaged and my Berlin dangerous. And while the current production at Village Theatre has all of those elements, they're all very safe versions of those elements. And while director Brian Yorkey attempted a very thoughtful telling of the story, often times the pacing was so deliberately slow as to lose any urgency of the moment.

Based on the stories by Christopher Isherwood, we start off with American writer Cliff (Brian David Earp) recollecting his time in Berlin at the Kit Kat Club where he met the vivacious performer Sally Bowles (Billie Wildrick). The two fall in love but not all is sweetness and light like a romantic comedy here as this is 1930's Berlin and the Nazi party is growing stronger. And so while the music and the champagne flows, there's also a growing sense of danger in the air.

Yorkey's take on the piece definitely shows a love for the story, a story that is all too often neglected in other productions for the sake of the rousing musical numbers of the show. And some of his story elements are the clearest I've seen especially the relationship between Cliff's landlady Fraulein Schneider (Anne Allgood) and the local produce seller Herr Schultz (Peter Crook). Plus his staging of the show on the gorgeously appointed set by Matthew Smucker was absolutely superb especially the highly inventive staging for "Two Ladies". But that pace while telling the story just felt so plodding and deliberate that nothing really flowed together especially the individual scenes as that gorgeous set took too long to switch from one locale to the next. And then there was the tone of the show. I've seen happy musical Berlin, I've seen edgy, sexy Berlin and I've seen glamorous and glitzy Berlin. And now I've seen them all in one show. The tone never really figured out where it wanted to go so as to dilute all elements. It never quite reached the truly dangerous or sultry and without that the show loses its stakes.

Without those stakes the cast does much of the heavy lifting in the show to keep it all going and they all do a fine job. Earp has kind of the most thankless role in the piece as he's the observer for all this chaos but he manages to tell the struggling sexuality of Cliff quite well. Wildrick completely nails every single musical number of the show and her voice has never sounded better but I missed more of a journey (and a hard journey at that) for Sally. Allgood and Crook practically steal the show with their relationship which could not be sweeter. And Allgood manages to take each song and really dive into its meaning making her final song one of the best things I've seen her do. Quinn Armstrong as the duplicitous Ernst and Nicole Beerman as the scheming Fritzie Kost make for good obstacles for our heroes, especially Armstrong who managed to make Ernst not so much of a "bad guy" but a man with convictions that are not ours. And I have to mention the gloriousness of Jason Collins as the club's Emcee. From the moment he sets foot on stage he owns it and his skulking in and out of scenes and numbers gave him an almost otherworldly feel.

The show has elements of goodness but nothing tying them together and it never reaches a consistent tone. It's dangerous in Berlin but only because we know who the Nazis are. It's sexy in the club but only the level of sexy that you'd be comfortable showing to your Grandmother. And the characters have struggles but nothing we feel they can't work out. And because of that lack of urgency of it all I give Village's Cabaret a MEH+ with my three letter rating system. A solid production with decent elements that fails to thrill.

"Cabaret" performs at Village Theatre's Issaquah location through July 3rd and then moves on to their Everett location July 10th through August 2nd. For tickets or information contact the Issaquah box office at 425-392-2202 or their Everett box office at 425-257-8600 or visit them online at www.villagetheatre.org.

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