By Charlotte K. Jarmy
Theater review
No matter how many times the satirical musical “Cabaret” returns to the stage, the buildup to the dreaded Nazi era has the same chilling effect.
Certainly, Bus Barn Stage Company’s excellent production, currently playing in Los Altos, continues the foreboding message of danger. Because the U.S. is involved in a war against terrorism, the message resonates with particular power.
Most of the action takes place in the Kit Kat Klub, a raunchy Berlin cabaret with a wonderfully realized central character, the Emcee, (Tomas Theriot), who sings and moves with erotic grace as the content of his songs, like “Wilkommen” makes the audience aware of his controlling comic abilities. The buxom “ladies” of the chorus, arrayed in revealing costumes, complete with ripped fishnet stockings, emphasize the seedy nature of this establishment. Presented as the headline act, Sally Bowles (Keite Davis) adds to the blatantly sexual atmosphere as she sings and flirts outrageously with the American writer Clifford Bradshaw (Jeffrey Draper). Davis’ dramatic good looks with bright red hair and aggressive maneuvering pulls the naive Cliff into her net. Despite the rather sudden flowering of love, Draper and Davis build to a convincing affair with marriage as its goal.
The subplot contains a very different romance, one between Cliff’s landlady, Fraulein Schneider (Linda Piccone) and Herr Schultz (Joe Higgins) who woos her sweetly with fresh fruit from his shop and happily teaches the words to a Yiddish song,”Meeskite.” The scenes with this excellent veteran actor (Higgins) foreshadow the danger to come with the newly empowered Nazi party.
Handsome and charming Ernest Ludwig (Erik Holland) personifies the coming danger as he skillfully shifts from a friendly, persuasive smuggler to a dangerous party member with a swastika armband. The music, much of it entertaining and melodic, also becomes part of the foreshadowing for the underlying warning of “Tomorrow Belongs To Me.” Goose bumps are very much in order.
Like the rest of the world in those early days of the Nazi takeover, romance is destroyed, though Draper moves into his best acting as the newly aware American. Davis, too, must change her playful ways and take a chance with money as the Emcee sings”The Money Song.” Director Barbara Cannon emphasizes the shift from satire to dark drama as the chorus girls become bedraggled and the Emcee loses his confidence and slick looks.
Acting honors go to Theriot who gives Joel Gray’s performance in both stage and film a run for the money. The chorus as a group dances and sings very effectively under the direction of choreographer, Molly Bell. Higgins combines humor and then pathos as his plaintive words, “I am German” hang heavily over the theater. The full orchestra on the stage adds to the delight as well as the poignancy of the message of “Cabaret,” through the songs of Kandor and Ebb.
“Cabaret” runs through June 22 at the Bus Barn Theatre. For reservations, call 941-0551.
