Monday, May 16, 2011

Cabaret - the Quibble

The Dallas Theater Center's is a terrific version of Cabaret and it's a terrific show - deserving its reputation - (Please read previous post.)  But... purely personally...  

What's with decadence?  

Sure, I know pre-WWII Berlin was like this.  Decadence has proven and continuing appeal.  Just ask any rock star/drug lord/jet-setter/etc.  But if "life is a cabaret," can I sit in the kitchen?  Please?  There's useful stuff to DO in the kitchen, kitchen people have purpose.  Plus usually it's quieter and the lighting isn't so murky.    

This is my quibble with the supposed glamor of the Anne Rice style vampire too: after a few hundred years, wouldn't decadence get... boring?  How about after, like, ten human years?  Or after the years 21-27?  Six solid years of decadence (while young enough not to mind hangovers) seem like plenty to me.  Could I get a couple years off for extra bad behavior and only serve 3-4?  

Seriously.  Cabaret strikes me as Chuck E. Cheese for adults (not grown-ups): the same clashing chaos of lights, sounds, violent movement, heat, and crowds - all but the manic ding-ding-ding of games - that make that rat-palace an inner circle of a parental Hell.  All the Kit Kat Klub needs is one of those ball-pit playrooms... I shudder to think what they'd get up to in there.  

But Chuck's kitchen - making pizzas - that's nicer.  From what I've read of kitchens (cough-Chez-Panisse), there may still be enough goings-on to keep boredom at bay, but with actual bay leaves and French cooking.  Wonder what they cook at the Kit Kat Klub?

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