Cabaret

Cabaret
By John Kander, Fred Ebb and Joe Masteroff. Shire Music Theatre (NSW). May 13 – 22.

Indulge me if I write what I like best about this Cabaret first; I have seen stronger all-round productions, though this one has its genuine pleasures, particularly in the musical numbers.

Katie Headrick, very much her own Sally Bowles, owing more to Judy Holliday or Marilyn Monroe than Liza Minnelli, gives a performance defined by her heartfelt rendition of ‘Maybe This Time’ and perceptive, characterised interpretation of the title song ‘Cabaret.’ While Headrick is pushed vocally in places, she has the big plus of being an impressive dancer, who makes much of the steamier routines.

Ensemble work, particularly Simone Sallé’s raunchy choreography, is tackled with energy and commitment by the small ensemble of Kit Kat girls and boys, supplemented by Headrick and Emcee Brendan Hay.

Hay gives a tireless performance, if at times over the top, where injections of subtler nuance and double entendre would actually increase the character’s malevolence and sexual ambiguity.  Yet in the more subdued ‘I Don’t Care Much’ near the show’s end, the pathos of his performance is powerful.

Jennifer Barker finds an effective Brechtian style for the songs that fall to Fraulein Schneider, written in the Threepenny Opera style of Brecht and Weill.

Two versions of Tomorrow Belongs to Me, one in the Nazi Youth style of the film, the other delivered by Kerstyn Walsh in the show’s original context, both work.

The dialogue scenes and dramatic moments were my major disappointments.

Was it opening night nerves? Several members of a predominantly young cast rushed much of the dialogue, at the expense of interpretation and characterisation.

I hope they overcome this as the season progresses.

Actors sometimes inadvertently upstaged themselves, too, where a more experienced director and performers would have made the necessary, relatively minor adjustments. One problem was the cramped boarding-house room setting, restricted to little more than an over-crowded extension area, when the audience would readily have accepted a convention using more of the otherwise empty stage.

First-time director Lauren Kate Butler has good concepts, but her production lacks unity.

More could be done to establish the atmosphere of the piece.

For instance, the ambience of a sleazy cabaret club is never clearly established - no customers and generally no tables. If this is due to the small stage, surely a different approach could be taken, perhaps seating some of the audience at tables, like recent revivals, around the runway extending into the auditorium. At the club, too, the band is so integrated into this show that they get an introduction from the Emcee - “Even ze orchestra is beautiful” - yet those of the musos we can see through a shoulder high window in the set are a pretty conventionally dressed bunch of pit players.

Musically, though, Rebecca Gordon’s band handle the score very effectively.

In the end, the audience responded enthusiastically to the opening night performance, even if they did sit bemused after the curtain, when no bows were forthcoming.

Neil Litchfield

Photographs by Grant Leslie, Perfect Pictures

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