By far the most iconic performance of “Cabaret,” is Liza Minelli’s in the 1972 film. In it, director and choreographer Bob Fosse lingers on Minelli’s impossibly long lashes and “divinely decadent” green fingernails. She stole the spotlight, and later that year, won the Academy Award for “Best Actress.”
But in the smoky heat of the Egyptian Theatre Company’s production of Cabaret, the actors do not upstage the scenery, the voices do not upstage the band. From the delicately tattered insides of Fraulein Schneider’s home, to the Kit Kat Girl’s nuanced pantomimes between song and dance numbers, together, the various elements hum as a dynamic ensemble.
At the heart of “Cabaret” are two love stories set in the eleventh hour of the Wiemar Republic as the Nazi regime begins to sink Berlin’s free-spirits. The first to enter the world of “Cabaret” is a modern romance between flighty English ex-patriot Sally Bowles and the American tourist Clifford Bradshaw. Ginger Bess (last seen in the Egyptian’s “Sweeney Todd” ) who plays Sally, is at her best holding her own in the seedy Kit Kat Club, against Clifford’s wishes. Jon Brady Copier ( “The Full Monty”), who plays Clifford, affects the perfect doe-eyed, but grounded suitor to Sally’s extravagant ways,
Where Sally and Clifford’s fling has a more serious tone, the second love story, between Fraulein Schneider, played by Jayne Luke, and Herr Schultz, played by Fredric Cook, is sweet. Luke plays Schneider as a witty Golden Girl, elderly but not senile, innocent of the world outside her boarding house, but savvy when it comes to following the mischief of her tenants’ social lives. Luke shines brightest when she sings solo in “So What?” preaching the value of compromise. “What difference does it make?” she asks. “When there’s an offer, you take!”
Donning a Santa Claus beard, Cook’s jolly Schultz, the passionate fruit vendor, woos Luke’s Schneider shyly with a bashful grin, a twinkle in his eye and exotic produce. His gift of a pineapple makes Schneider blush, but he insists: “I would fill your room with pineapples,” he tells her, and light on his toes, exits the stage.
The maestro of the boisterous Kit Kat Club, the Emcee, played by Christopher Glade, who last graced the Egyptian as a pirate in “Peter Pan” is equally dazzling. As the Emcee, he is also the chief bearer of bad news, marking the infiltration of Nazi culture with vulgar new acts aimed at denigrating the German Jewish population, and the comedy gets darker, Glade maintains his keen prankster sensibilities as professional provocateur who allows his cynicism to shine through while still entertaining his seedy following with a devilish grin.
Decorated in tattoos, sometimes wearing little more than boxers and a hat, Glade delights in his sideshows of bawdy numbers like “Two Ladies” and “I Don’t Care Much,” bringing the stage to life. Laughing as he performs, Glade delivers his racy performance as though he had done it a hundred times, occasionally sticks his tongue out at the audience to punctuate his salacious anecdotes, making the role his own.
The curtain is never drawn in “Cabaret.” Instead, gluing the scenes together from smoky night club to the Berlin streets and Fraulein Schneider’s are smooth transitions that are exposed at all times. Set Designer Shawn Fisher’s inspired mobile sets from the late-20s-styled European train car that gets Clifford Bradshaw to Berlin to the Frucht Market of Herr Schultz are large and intricate. Yet, the cast manages to gracefully usher them off stage, just as cleanly executed as the lines and dance numbers. Just as one scene draws to a close in the foreground, the stage is ready for the next.
Behind the big picture of “Cabaret” is director Terence Goodman, who is also the Egyptian Theatre’s artistic director. Before this production premiered at the end of February, he expressed concern that his cast and crew, if anything be over-rehearsed and that the performance be above all else entertaining, but also thought-provoking.
Goodman picked the 1983 version of the musical for the debut of his first hand-picked season as artistic director, but he changed the ending to suite his vision.
At the end of “Cabaret,” the loose ends are left for the audience to imagine. The ensemble cast is divided, some stand still like cement pillars looking coolly out, while the rest huddle behind, creating a kind of jailed effect. Each tells their character’s tale, one by one under the spotlight, recapping their stories, giving the audience a chance to decide for themselves what they think of a defining era in history, when Hitler’s Third Reich at last claimed the majority of German citizens.
As Good explains in the program notes for his production of “Cabaret,” the theatrical process makes for great entertainment, but the hours spent on polishing rehearsal and perfecting the details were an effort to touch people beyond the surface, and beyond the spectacle of a good show.
“Cabaret” “shows how easily good people can be so self-absorbed in their own world, some to protect their way of life,” he reflects. “These choices are not so glibly black and white It makes one question, What would I really do?’ Cabaret was chosen because it shows that important values can slip by all of us without much thought. Perhaps they already have.”
“Cabaret” will run at Main Street’s Egyptian Theatre through April 5. Show times are Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. Cabaret tables as well as regular seating are available. For more information and to make reservations, call (435) 649-9371 or visit egyptiantheatrecompany.org .