Come Hear the Music Play

Cabaret – Cowardly Scarecrow Theatre Company

Cabaret is a snapshot in time. In the early 30s in Berlin, an English girl, Sally Bowles, dreams of stardom and wealth while performing in a seedy nightclub. Cliff, an American writer, is lazily making his way through Europe, hoping it will inspire his novel. Watching over all of it is an enigmatic master of ceremonies at the club, who seems to be the only one aware of the coming storm. Willkommen.

This production is based on the 1998 revival that blends Kander and Ebb’s original 1966 version with the new songs written for the 1972 movie version. Aside from changes to the score, this version makes explicit things the world in 1966 only allowed to be implied. The end result was a smash hit that ran for more than 2100 performances.

It’s somewhat depressing to have to admit that a plot about a hedonistic society blind to the rising threat of fascism still feels relevant, but here we are. Fortunately, the show manages a light hand with its message. Weimar Germany is not 21st Century America, but there are similarities too difficult to ignore. In particular, how easy it is to go along to get along and how easily you can find yourself one day “ignoring politics because we’re friends” and the next allowing monsters to seize power. The show never goes too far in drawing the parallel, letting the audience find it for themselves.

The cast up and down the line is excellent. The obvious highlights are Kevin Webb as the Emcee and Caitlin Jackson as Sally Bowles. Webb’s Emcee glares at the audience. It feels half like a come on and half like a condemnation. He, apparently alone, knows how the show and the decade end, and in his songs, he doesn’t let you look away from what’s happening, but also seems to be inviting you to dance anyway. It’s a tall order for an actor, and I don’t envy anyone who has to follow Alan Cumming’s Tony Award winning performance in the 1998 revival, but Webb holds his own.

Chicago audiences may recognize Jackson from her recurring turn as Bette Midler in Hell in a Handbag’s Bette: Live at the Continental Baths. I loved her in that, and I love her in this. She still has the same brassy voice and commanding presence on stage at the Kit Kat Club as she did when she was at the Continental Baths, but she balanced that energy perfectly with Sally’s quiet, vulnerable moments. In the final, heartbreaking scene with Cliff, Sally admits her faults and the ways she’s not capable of being in a relationship with him, and Jackson perfectly executes the mix of being breezily resigned to and crushingly sad about her inability to change.

The staging in an actual attic bar presents benefits and challenges to the show. First, it is kind of neat to see Cabaret performed essentially in an actual cabaret space. It’s fun and certainly helps with immersion. On the other hand, it does constrain how the cast can get on and off the stage, largely limited to one door and one hidden staging area, and once people are in their seats, the aisles are a little tight. There were no major traffic accidents, but I caught a few near misses. I’ve decided to come down on the side of it helping the authenticity of the atmosphere. This is a show that should have a few rough edges.

The music is, of course, fantastic. The benefit of merging the original show and the movie is that just about every song is familiar to even the non-theatergoer, and in the hands of such a talented cast, a treat to see performed. “Maybe This Time” and “Don’t Tell Mama” are personal favorites, and of course the show stopping “Cabaret” is a classic for a reason. Both the cast and chorus are incredibly talented and do these songs justice.

More than anything, the highest hurdle for a show like this is finding a way to make it its own. Between Broadway, the West End, and regional theater, there have been about a billion revivals of Cabaret, and even a talented cast can easily slip into mimicry. This production manages to clear that hurdle. The talent on stage alone would make this worth the trip, and happily that talent is being deployed in service of a great show.

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Kevin Curran

Presented October 5 – October 25 by Cowardly Scarecrow Theatre Company at Chief O’Neill’s Pub at 3471 N. Elston, Chicago.

Tickets are available at www.cowardlyscarecrow.com.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.