Lyric Theatre, The Lowry, Manchester until 11th November 2017. Reviewed by Julie Noller
5*****
I’m sad today because I’ve never seen Cabaret, how can this be so? I knew the music, could sing along, I even knew the names of the characters. So when I took my seat in the auditorium, I took in the fact it was packed not a seat left. There was an electric buzz of excitement. I never expected Cabaret to be educational, to bring alive the human suffering from 1930’s Germany. As Europe teetered on the brink of war.
Emcee who was played to perfection by Will Young, opened the show. With his painted face looking almost like a younger brother of Marcel Marceau. Did he represent the consciousness of Berlin, there is fun and laughter to be had at the Kitkat Club. Everybody who is anybody at the time of the Weimar Republic crumbling into the realms of Nazi controlled power, is celebrating New Years Eve 1930 at the KitKat Club, where both Boys and Girls are free to love and play.
Cabaret is deep, decadent, there’s nudity, there’s laughter and giggles as you slip into the comfortable life that’s free and easy, naked people run quite accepted across the stage. It slowly rolls into uneasiness, as the Nazis become braver and start to assert themselves in all aspects of society. It may just leave you shocked with tears of sadness over lost lives and wasted hatred. As Emcee says ‘hatred is exhausting’ , it’s much harder to wear the cloak and pretending to be something than to be young, free and happy. The witch hunt of anything not the ideal is beginning.
The performance is simply delicious, I saw plenty of people purchasing the CD during the interval. Louise Redknapp makes her theatrical debut as Sally Bowles and uses her voice to the max to raise the roof especially during the title track Cabaret, if you weren’t tapping your feet, you weren’t in the room, watching the same show as me. I’m sure it won’t be her last piece of musical theatre.
Although not all musical numbers are pitch perfect songs, they perfectly showcase each characters personality. From Fraulein Schneider (Susan Penhaligon) owner of the boarding house, worried about keeping her reputation and business yet not scared of the struggles of life because as she says ‘I have survived inflation’ . She welcomes Clifford Bradshaw (Charles Haggerty) a young American writer quite possibly based upon the many artists who flocked to Berlin. Kander and Ebb commissioned Joe Masteroff to write Cabaret taking inspiration from American-British writer Christopher Isherwood, series of stories from Berlin. I liked Fraulein Schneider she understood how a room rented for half the asking fee was better than an empty room, she lived alone but not a lonely life, seeing the good in people especially the friendly and generous Herr Schultz his only crime was generosity which stemmed from a deep love of Fraulein Schneider. Hatred came easily to those who were jealous, destroying this elderly couples future happiness. How very sad to see Herr Schultz living his life in hope ‘politicians come and go’ you want to shout out, he needs to save himself, board the train to Paris, get out while he can. But he has that blind faith all humans have of trust, that things will get better.
Fraulein Kost (Basienka Blake) with her life of vice, her brightly coloured hair, perfect make-up. Love of sailors. Is the sign of a society on the brink. I found her rendition of Tomorrow Belongs To Me extremely moving, it fits perfectly in a place where not just Berlin but European society was altering from the time where World War 1 had ended and people were breaking free, to facing the prospect of fear and the dark clouds of hatred amid the climb to 1940’s and World War 2. Herr Ludwig (Nicholas Tizzard) is the one character who crosses the divide, his presence cuts across the decadence and brings the Cabaret train ride into real life territory. He at first comes across as a smuggler, helping a young american and welcoming a stranger, as he becomes braver, showing his affiliation to the Social Nationalists (Nazi) much to the shock of the other characters. You see how much of an impact this has on each of our loved cast, a cancelled engagement, moving accommodation to save the impact on a loved one, selling of all items to return home, a blind eye through the love of fame. Homosexuality is no longer tolerated and attacks are carried out. Where are those missing people?
As Cabaret draws to an end we see Herr Ludwig closing down the KitKat Club, it’s presence will not be tolerated. Our beloved Emcee is alone, no longer the talk of the town, no longer the clown. He is striped bare, the audience no longer shocked at nakedness accepts it. This is different to the Kitkat club where life and clothes are free and easy, boys love boys and girls love girls. We see the cold damp darkness of oppression, I initially giggled and then realisation dawned, this was the basis of concentration camps, this was quite possibly a gas chamber, my hand was clasped to my mouth, my gasp audible as I noticed the audience around me. There is no happy ending, for happy endings are for fairy tales. Cabaret is no fairy tale, it’s a reminder of a time now long gone. Its hard to think of Berlin so free and easy but it genuinely existed and I loved witnessing it’s rise and fall within European society. It’s a solid, genuinely heart warming performance by all the cast. A totally humbling experience for me in the lead up to Remembrance Day, Lest any of us forget the events that befell Europe.
