COME TO THIS CABARET
Cabaret is a masterpiece of American musical theater that has been presented in a vast variety of musical and physical shapes and sizes since its premiere on Broadway in 1966. John Kander and Fred Ebb’s score has been cut, added to, and shifted around, and the mood and look have been countlessly revised. So audiences attending the current revival at the Lesher Theater in Walnut Creek by Center Repertory Company likely will enter the auditorium possessing familiarity with the show in at least one adaptation. But even veteran Cabaret watchers should be enthralled anew by the wondrous revival brilliantly guided by director Markus Potter.
Cliff (Jacob Henrie-Naffaa) seeks inspiration in Berlin
Rotimi Agbabiaka, Elizabeth Curtis, Elizabeth Cowperthwaite
Based on gay author Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Diaries, and the ensuing play I Am a Camera by John Van Druten, Cabaret is a cautionary tale about getting caught up in history and getting out just in time. Center REP’s production offers the more risqué 1998 Roundabout Broadway version by Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall, which retains bookwriter Joe Masteroff‘s superstructure of the original Cabaret.
Cliff (Jacob Henrie-Naffaa) is taken in by landlady Fräulein Schneider (Kelly Ground)
Cliff (Jacob Henrie-Naffaa) is enchanted by Sally (Monique Hafen Adams)
Set in the morally and politically turbulent city of Berlin in 1931, on the brink of the Nazi takeover of Germany the next year, most of the action is confined within the walls of a sleazy nightclub. Our guide throughout the musical remains the club’s smarmy entertainer, known only as the Master of Ceremonies, the role that made Joel Grey a star. An American writer, Clifford Bradshaw, has arrived in town and been invited by his new friend Ernst Ludwig to a somewhat rundown boarding house run by Fräulein Schneider. He is given a nice room at a low rate and makes money offering English lessons. One of the lodgers is the young and beautiful Fräulein Kost, who “entertains” many sailors in her room. Ernst invites his new friend for a night on the town at the infamous local nightclub The Kit Kat Club. “Here life is beautiful,” the flamboyant and somewhat sexually ambiguous Emcee greets all the guests.
Elizabeth Curtis, Rotimi Agbabiaka, and Landan Berlof
Center REP’s production draws us from the first scene. The opening number “Willkommen” introduces us to an amazing ensemble of young, nubile dancers and singers. With their svelte figures, makeup and androgynous looks, we realize that these are no ordinary performers, and that this is also no ordinary club — even for the Weimar era. The exuberant Rotimi Agbabiaka is striking in his appearance as the Emcee, scantily clad, and singing with a beautiful baritone voice. His presence is felt even when he’s lurking and observing in the background. Jessica Chen’s choreography for the club numbers is a joy to watch whether the dancers are slinking up and down the stairs of the club or performing in sync as a chorus line.
Cliff (Jacob Henrie-Naffaa) with Ernst (Charlie Levy) and Sally (Monique Hafen Adams)
as the Emcee (Rotimi Agbabiaka) watches in the background
A budding novelist looking for a tale, Cliff loves this whole new world, and is immediately smitten by the lead singer from England, Sally Bowles. Jacob Henrie-Naffaa’s Cliff Bradshaw is effectively wide-eyed and optimistic, taking in the whole experience of his surroundings. We can see his well-meaning intentions of believing the best in people, in particular wanting to rescue Sally from the servitude to her world before it all collapses around her. As Sally, Monique Hafen Adams’ performance makes this production worth the drive over The Golden Gate Bridge She captures Sally’s talent as a feckless chanteuse, offering vulnerability and hope in the classic number, “Maybe This Time,” and then becomes goosebumps-inducing and riveting in the show’s biggest hit “Cabaret.” Potter’s direction coupled with Adams’ intense commitment takes the familiar upbeat number and turns it on its head, transforming it into a twisted, nearly monstrous cry of Sally’s desperation; we realize that she is literally singing for her life.
Sally (Monique Hafen Adams)
Fräulein Schneider has the unenviable task of running a tight ship at the boarding house and trying to ignore her feelings for her Jewish suitor, Herr Schultz (Richard Farrell). Kelly Ground conveys a palpable pain whens she’s forced to choose survival over love in “What Would You Do?” Charlie Levy is convincing as the duplicitous Ernst Ludwig, and Michelle Drexler is great comic relief as prostitute Fräulein Kost trying to juggle all her sailors who come to call.
Herr Schultz (Richard Farrell)
Serving the production are David Goldstein’s minimal multi-level set with white lights strung all over the Kit Kat Club and the boarding house, and the Orchestra: Conductor Eryn Allen on Keys; Kenji Higashihama (keys), Larry De La Cruz and Audrey Jackson (reeds), Marvin McFadden and John Trombetta (trumpet), Jeanne Geiger and Matt Hall (trombone), Schuyler McFadden (guitar and banjo), Danny Min (bass) and John Doing (drums).
The Emcee (Rotimi Agbabiaka) with the Kit Kat Klub ensemble
Elizabeth Curtis, Landan Berlof, Dedrick Weathersby,
Monique Hafen Adams, Andrio Jordan Fong
Cabaret is a rollercoaster of laughs, romance, and two-by-fours to the head, as heavy themes come out time and again, amid people just trying to live their lives in terrible times. In today’s world with anti-semitism and transphobia on the rise, people are duped into believing that they aren’t safe, in turn fearing anyone perceived as different. As we listen in Cabaret to the undeserving masses boldly declaring in song “Tomorrow Belongs to Me,” it’s hard not to think of hundreds storming the Capitol, believing this outcry. It’s easy to hide in the Kit Kat Klubs of the world where the emcee tells us — or, rather, warns us — that “Life Is Beautiful,” but Center REP‘s gripping production of Cabaret reminds us that no matter how loud the band may play, there’s a stronger drum beat in the distance and we’d better be listening.
Fräulein Schneider (Kelly Ground) and Herr Schultz (Richard Farrell)
photos by Kevin Berne
Cabaret
Center Repertory Company
Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Dr, in Walnut Creek
Tues-Fri at 7:30; Sat at 2:30 & 7:30; Sun at 2:30 & 7
ends on June 23, 2024
for tickets ($45-$70), call 925.943.7469 Wed-Sun, 12-6pm, or visit Lesher Arts