Now, let’s get into the specifics. Cabaret was Kander and Ebb’s second musical, and featured a book by Joe Masteroff based on John Van Druten’s play, “I Am A Camera”, which itself was adapted from the novel “Goodbye to Berlin” by Christopher Isherwood. The musical tells two intertwined stories taking place in 1931, just as the Nazis are rising in power: the first is a revue centered on the decadence of the seedy Kit Kat Club, the second is a story set in the real world in which the club existed. The basic plot concerns American writer Clifford Bradshaw and his visit to Berlin. After making a few friends and finding housing, Clifford visits the sleazy Kit Kat Club and meets an English singer, Sally Bowles. The writer and singer soon fall in love. Meanwhile, Clifford’s elderly landlord, Fraulein Schneider, gets engaged to a Jewish greengrocer, Herr Schultz – not an easy decision given the increasing influence of the Nazis. Soon, Clifford discovers that he has been inadvertently helping the Nazis by delivering packages to Paris for a German friend of his, Ernst Ludwig. Clifford ends up deciding to return to the United States but Sally, after aborting their baby, decides to remain in Berlin.
As noted before, this story is told by intertwining scenes taking place in the Caberet that often echo what is happening in the real world, but in a more decadent or exaggerated sense. Thus, the “The Money Song” song echoes Cliff and Sally’s need for money; the title song “Cabaret” echoes how Sally views life. No where is this better seen than in the controversial song “If You Could See Here Through My Eyes” in the second act, where the MC dances with a gorilla that he purports to love, ending with the “If you could see her through my eyes/she wouldn’t look Jewish at all.”. In the original 1966 version, that was too strong for the audience, so a song was added for the Jewish grocer to sing in the first act (“Meeskite”), and the lyric was changed to “she isn’t a meeskite at all”. The Aerospace Players wisely chose to go with the stronger version.
So, how did The Aerospace Players do on this production? It was good community theatre. There were some outstanding performances (you can see some pictures of the cast here and here). I was very impressed by the excellent Meredith M. Sweeney (Sally Bowles). She’s an upcoming professional with a BFA in acting and good experience — she sang well, she moved well, she acted well. I was also impressed with the Emcee, Drew Fitzsimmons, who has also done a lot of community theatre. Again, strong singing and dancing. As for the other major leads: I thought that Dave Fulton (Clifford Bradshaw) was OK with his acting, but his main singing number (“Don’t Go”*) was weak. Jeri Snoke (Fraulein Schneider) was also OK in the acting department, but needed some more projection, especially when singing (this was really apparent in “So What” and “What Would You Do”)… although according to a co-worker who saw the production Friday night, she was much better, so this could have been an off performance.** Michael-Anthony Nozzi (Herr Schultz) was channeling Jack Gilford for a bit (which is a good thing), but there were times where it was overplayed… and again, his singing (“Married”) could be better.
*: I originally had this as “Why Should I Wake Up?”, but the director noted to me that “Why Should I Wake Up:” was from the original 1966 score, but they removed that and added “Don’t Go” in the 1987 revival, which was the primary source that they used for this production (although they took some pieces from both the 66 original and the 97 revival as well…). They didn’t use “Why Should I Wake Up” at all.
**: It was confirmed by the director that she was having vocal problems that performance.
As for the rest of the ensemble (you can find a full cast list here): The Kit-Kat Girls (Jen James, Kerry Riccio, Mandy Juarez, Laura Hecht, Christina Rossi, Lauren Swanson) and boys (Steven Flowers, Roy Okida) could have been doing an excellent job portraying weak dancers in a seedy cabaret… but what came across to me (at least for the Kit Kat Club girls) is that they were focusing more on getting the moves right than enjoying the dance and being in the role. No gaffes, but no enthusiasm either. This was especially apparent in the “Two Ladies” number with James and Riccio: what should have come off as erotic (and could have easily, as those ladies had curves you don’t oft see these days) came off more mechanical. The secondary roles of Fraulein Kost (Jeannine Barba) and Ernst Ludwig (Bob Borich) were acted well; these roles don’t have significant songs of their own and did OK with “Tomorrow Belongs To Me”. The remainder of the small ensemble roles didn’t particularly stand out in either a strongly good nor strongly bad way.
The production was directed by Bob Minnichelli, assisted by Flora Morin. It was produced by J.C. Kern (a boardgamer) assisted by Susan Tabak. The sets designed by Bob Minnichelli were adequate to the task. The lighting design by Edgar Calderon seemed to be from the Cabrillo school of lighting: if one follow spot is good; two must be better. The follow spots were actually fine for the Kit-Kat scenes, but they should have gone with a more natural lighting approach for the real-life scenes in order to distinguish the two better. Sound engineering was by Tim Edmondson and mostly worked well, although there were some disconcerting times where the microphones cut out. The costumes by Jennifer James, Kerry Riccio, Mary Ellen Vojtek, Jeannine Barba were OK, although I felt the Kit-Kat costumes could have been seedier and/or more revealing, but then again, they were already scared (evidence by “Mature Audience” warnings) that this show was too risque for their audience (which, when we saw the show, was about 90% people from the Red Hat Society–and as ellipticcurve noted, they didn’t look like Linux lovers). Hair and makeup by Carol Hitchcock, Karen Hill, Flora Morin was fine. You can find a full crew list here.
Musically, the production was both good and weak. You can find the orchestra list at the bottom of this page. Someone seemed out of tune, or something seemed off, because there were just occasional flat notes. Again, that would be fine for the Kit-Kat band (which is supposed to be unprofessional), but where it was off in the realistic songs. The pit orchestra was enhanced by an on-stage quartet of Sandy Nitchman, Hugo Vazquez, Andy Meyer, Dave Champagne, who actually seemed to be pretty good (and whose male members seemed to enjoy dressing up as women).
Cabaret continues at the James Armstrong Theatre through February 7th. Half-price tickets ($9) are available through Goldstar Events.
As for us? As for us, next Sunday takes us back to the Ahmanson Theatre to see “Minsky’s” at 1:00pm. Valentine’s weekendtakes us to Burbank and “Candida” at the Colony Theatre on 2/15 @ 2pm. The following weekend is Pasadena , where on 2/21 @ 8pm we have “Stormy Weather” at the Pasadena Playhouse. March will also bring “Little Shop of Horrors” at Van Nuys HS (it is running March 12, 13, 14 and 19, 20, 21 — let me or nsshere know if you want tickets). That’s all I have booked so far (other than season tickets, such as “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” at Rep East 3/13 through 4/11), but there a number of “shows of interest” I plan to ticket, including “big” at West Coast Ensemble (5/9-6/28); “The Green Room at Hermosa Beach Playhouse (5/19-5/31); “Is He Dead? at ICT Long Beach; and “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at Theatre League Thousand Oaks (4/28-5/3).
