Cabaret

To get a real understanding of “life is a cabaret,” you need to experience a German version of the venerable hit musical, Cabaret.The show, superbly directed by Werner Sobotka, has a grittiness and sleaze factor that was missing from most of the U.S. productions or at least were a pale shade of the German production with the possible exception of the 1998 revival when Natasha Richardson played Sally Bowles and Michael C. Hall played the Emcee.

The really interesting thing about the production here was the audience sitting through a musical that depicts the decadence that was Berlin and the arrival of the Nazis and anti-Semitism including a young actor dressed as a Hitler youth singing an anthem and making the Hitler salute at the end. Incidentally, doing the salute as a part of an artistic presentation is the only legal way to do it in Germany today.

Nadine Zeintl, who plays Sally, with a sarcastic yet hopeful characterization, sets the drama for the character’s slow disintegration both physically and mentally. Her closing performance is a snarling, edgy, over-the-top version of "Life is a Cabaret" which captures her state of mind at the end. It’s a good performance for the Munich audience but does not have the nuanced realization of hitting bottom that Natasha Richardson brought to the role. Both performances were leagues better than Liza Minnelli's on film, which was more of an anthem to a "good life, well lived" without paying attention to the events leading up to that moment and the deeper meaning for Sally of what her life had become in the end. Sally’s life becomes a metaphor for the end of the "free-life" for Germans. One of my few problems with Nadine’s performance is that she is made up to look like the Minnelli version of Sally but, thankfully, not with the bright-eyed, sugary performance.

Dustin Smailes as the Emcee sets the whole tone for the show that follows with his performance of “Wilkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome.” The introduction of the “girls” and “boys” of the Kit Kat Klub would have set a New York audience on their butts with the overt sexuality and posturing that leave little to the imagination.

Dominick Hees is strong as Cliff Bradshaw, the character representing Christopher Isherwood, on whose story the musical is based. He presents the vulnerability, confusion and sexual ambivalence that leads to his liaison with Sally and ultimately his retreat back to the United States.

Gisela Ehrensperger, as Fräulein Schneider, and Franz Wyzner, as Herr Schultz, are worthy of special mention for their touching portrayals. Both are veteran performers of German and European stage and film, and, as Lotte Lenya and Jack Gilbert did in the original production, give memorable performances.

The rest of the cast is very good, with strong voices and good acting and dancing. The staging, by Amra Bergman-Buchbinder, is interesting and uses moving mirrored walls and doors effectively to change scenes without interfering with the flow of the show. The small band, under the musical direction of Andreas Kowalewitz, does a superb job with the score and fill the hall with all the melodies that have become so well known. The rest of the team do a fine job with costume design by Elisabeth Gressel, lighting design by Michael Heidlinger, and choreography by Ramesh Nair.

I realize that not many of my readers will ever see this production, but, for the adventurous, if the opportunity ever presents itself to see a German production of Cabaret, it is very much worth the effort to go even if you do not understand German.