New Rep's 'Cabaret' an Eye-Opening, Glitzy Production
As printed in The East Boston Times Free Press on January 21, 2009. Click here for original pdf.
by Sheila Barth
Before leaving for San Jose, Calif. to take the helm of a repertory theater there, award-winning New Repertory Theatre Director Rick Lombardo is ending his long-running career as artistic director there with the most powerful, glitzy version of "Cabaret" I've ever seen – and it shouldn't be missed.
Lombardo has masterfully gathered an amazingly talented cast and crew here who dare to portray the story of Joe Masteroff's book, blatantly showing the ugly, decadent pre-World War II, Nazi-infested Berlin Germany, with unforgettable characters. He strikingly slams home the message of Hitler's frightening rise to power as the builder of the new Germany, while German citizens and fun-loving expatriates blissfully and ignorantly turned their other cheek to his infiltration and rising tide of hatred, racial and societal intolerance and mass murder.
I've never been as moved, stunned as I was last Thursday with this version of "Cabaret". Lombardo and cast, from the opening number, with multitalented star John Kuntz as Kit-Kat Club master of ceremonies singing "Willkommen, Bienvenue," sneers at us with prophetic horror. He is shocking and powerful throughout, and Lombardo skillfully uses Kuntz's versatility to horrify and amuse us.
Besides placing the talented nine-piece orchestra with members cross-dressed as women on a platform above the stage in plain view and behind brass poles the actors slide down, Lombardo uses simple pull-away props, a wall of mirrors that converts into doors, and Peter Colao's other slick sets to keep the stage uncluttered for choreographer
Kelli Edwards' sexy ensemble numbers.
Most powerful is Colao's use of film footage beamed on the stage floor, showing Adolph Hitler’s fiery speeches and Nazis marching, while the master of ceremonies and waiters sing what sounds like a nostalgic national song, but is the chilling Nazi rallying anthem – "Tomorrow Belongs to Me".
Frances Nelson McSherry's costumes are reminiscent of the 1930s (the play opens on New Year's Eve, 1930) from hairdos to shoes, derby hats and fedoras, flimsy black lingerie with garters and silk stockings and fur-trimmed flapper coats, and Franklin Meissner Jr.'s uncanny use of lighting during flamboyant cabaret scenes or softer scenes depicting the sweet, tender courtship and romance between spinster landlord Fraulein Schneider and her loveable, optimistic, Jewish tenant-fruit store owner, Herr Schultz. Veteran talented actors Paul D. Farwell as Schultz, who was recently seen in New Rep's "A Christmas Carol" as flinty main character Ebenezer Scrooze, and equally skillful Marblehead resident Cheryl McMahon, who for years delighted North Shore Music Theatre audiences with her portrayal of Scrooge's housekeeper, Mrs. Dilbur, are enchanting together, especially during their "Pineapple" song, "It Couldn't Please Me More". Instead of Schneider being a frustrated, crusty character, Lombardo paints her as a spinster who has finally found love after a hard life of loss, and McMahon shines here. In her solo welcoming American Cliff Bradshaw to her rooming house, she belts out her tale of lost wealth, "Who cares," with likeable realism.
We also get a more clear picture of Cliff Bradshaw, a beginning writer from Harrisburg, Pa., who wants to write the great American novel in Berlin. David Krinitt is touching in his sensitive portrayal of Cliff, a closet gay who falls in love with British expatriate bad girl Sally Bowles. "You're my only hope," he cries, tinged with double-entendre.
And let's not forget lovely, lively Aimee Doherty as Sally. Doherty has all the playfulness, coquettishness, and devil-may-care bon vivance needed, yet she also is vulnerable, searching desperately for love, winning Cliff's heart and ours.
At the end of the play, Doherty delivers a powerful rendition of "Cabaret" that brings the house down.
This production is flawless. The ending is even more stunning, as the main characters and ensemble line up, branded with their Nazi designations and symbols – Nazi loyalist armbands, pink triangles for gays, yellow stars for Jews. Some, beaten and bruised, stand under a Nazi flag, singing "Cabaret". If this doesn't inspire chills down one's spine and make us all grateful that despite current tough times and imminent terrorist threats, we've escaped the hideousness of 1930s Europe, nothing is. While the audience enthusiastically applauded, everyone walked out quietly, perhaps with a sober understanding that life, indeed, isn't a cabaret after all.
Two-act, multi-award winning musical, directed by Rick Lombardo, starring John Kuntz and Aimee Doherty, music directed by Todd C. Gordon; lyrics by Fred Ebb, music by John Kander, based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood; playing at the New Repertory Theatre, Charles Mosesian Theater, Arsenal Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal St., Watertown, through February 1:Wednesdays, Thursdays, at 7:30 p.m., Jan. 22 also at 2 p.m.; Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 3:30, 8 p.m.; Sunday, Jan. 25, 2 p.m. with talkback, and at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, Feb. 1 at 2 p.m. with talkback. Tickets, $40-$60, senior discount, $7 off; student rush, $13). Call the Box Office at 617-923-8487 or visit newrep.org.