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?

Not a Review: Cabaret

Hard to believe, but though I knew the songs and story, I had never seen a production of Cabaret.  Which may give me a unique perspective on the Dallas Theater Center's version.

Singing, dancing, choreography...  amazing!  The first glimpse of the show is the M.C.'s arrival - memorable - then his "girls" and "boys."  (These and the jokes were as tawdry as expected, the physical gags rather more so.)  Story lines were fascinating: Sally Bowles and her writer; the landlady and her fruit-vendor suitor; the prostitute who up-grades from sailors to a nice Nazi-supporter.  The acting was so good that my heart broke first for the fruitier, then for his sweetheart, until I left nearly as bruised as the writer.  I wanted to shake Sally till her teeth rattled.  Both the prostitute and the Nazi were, if not exactly sympathetic... real-life sized and believable.  You could feel - way up in my balcony - the retired-tart just reveling in her new fur coat.  The Nazi...?  Believable.  And the ending tableau (which I won't spoil) was strong.  A powerful, beautifully realized production of a show whose fame I now understand, by director Joel Ferrell.  Go!  Buy tickets!

Bob Lavalee's set supported this well.  Nice to see an asymmetrical thrust in this space - a spare, well detailed arrangement of that thrust stage with a wider stage behind it and, behind that, the band on risers rather like restaurant booths.  Furniture and a doorway rolled in and out to furnish "rooms" on the thrust.  Behind and beside the band, stairs wound round to a L shaped bridge that worked perfectly as the boarding house hallway (occasionally clogged with sailors) and other "off" locations.  Behind this bridge a tall semi-sheer curtain sequestered further-off-stage acts like the writer's beating; from my seat, actors behind it were not always visible, but their gigantic shadows added a lot.  At the end, bridge and curtain played a very effective part.

A few quibbles and a little Dallas boosting: I got a little tired of furniture moving (show writers - do you think about multi-settings?).  I've heard some sight-lines are terrible and believe it - folks seated under the bridge can't see much of those scenes, for instance.  But my seat was okay, so why should I care?  (A very Cabaret viewpoint, that.)  The boosting?  How good to see Dallas talent put to use!  Mixed with visitors were many local actors/singers/dancers plus a local set designer and director.  Finally the DTC is becoming the foundation it should be for our arts community.