European Cabaret

Probably the most authentic cabaret Florida Studio Theater has offered in seasons emphasizes Berlin as a European center of the art. France follows, but at the same time, stars.

A flamboyant four may be in black (peek-a-boo outfits for the women), but their moods are blue and renditions often purple. Exceptions include "guest" songs from Americans like Lerner and Loewe ("Thank Heaven for Little Girls") and Porter ("It's Delovely"), the latter because cabarets often used his songs.

Tara Bruno (who looks a lot like a blond Carol Burnett) also amuses with "Saga of Jenny" from Moss Hart's American musical, Lady in the Dark. It's justified here because the song came from Kurt Weill.

Since Germany abolished censorship in 1918, naughty numbers rule in episodes from Germany in that era. Bruno and Forrest Richards do a lesbian "When the Special Girlfriend" and act out "The Kleptomaniac" complete with big tote bags. "I Am a Vamp" is Stephen Hope and Alan Gillespie's cross-dressing surprise.

The foursome move so smoothly and naturally that they don't seem choreographed, easily using kicks, shifting positions on stools, donning costume accessories for changes of character, place, mood.

War woes come to the front with Weill and Brecht's "Army Song," for the guys mainly. Richards renders a "Song of a German Mother" that anti-war Brecht and Eisler would surely endorse. Among love songs, she brings down the house with Edith Piaf's signature, "La Vie en Rose," in perfect French, then English, and before the finale, joined by her three cohorts. Each performer showcases an individual personality but blends chameleon-like into duets or the full group. Dialogue is handled integrally so that it never stops the action or competes with the songs. Jim Prosser accompanying at the onstage piano is as impressive as ever.

All in all, the show shines like its tinselly silver backdrop.