Posted on: Friday, March 11, 2005
STAGE REVIEW
Exuberant 'Cabaret' bows to past, with modern tone
By Joseph T. Rozmiarek
Advertiser Drama Critic
The musical "Cabaret" has evolved a bit in the nearly 40 years since it jolted Broadway audiences with its dark theme and presentational style that juxtaposed night club acts as commentary against traditional plot structure.
Brad Goda The movie version gave it new songs and a new star, with Liza Minelli as Sally Bowles drawing focus from Joel Grey as the master of ceremonies.
Minelli's version of the title song became an up-tempo anthem for good times and lost its original flavor as a brash last gasp at gaiety before Berlin fell to Nazi rule.
It's Erin Wong's rendition of that title song that clinches the tone of the current revival at Manoa Valley Theatre. Sally is about to have an abortion and refuses to escape to America with her boyfriend. Instead, she returns to the sordid nightclub where she earns a little money and star billing.
Wong takes the stage in a stunning, backless red gown and lurches into the lyric like someone possessed. With white-faced Andrew Sakaguchi as the Master of Ceremonies haunting the background and almost literally pulling invisible marionette strings, Wong's body moves involuntarily as if something inside her is struggling to be free.
• 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 4 p.m. Sundays, through March 27 (also, extended run March 30-April 3) • Manoa Valley Theatre • $30 general, $25 seniors and military, $15 those 25 and younger ($5 more in each category for the extended run; not available online) • 988-6131, Web site Director John Rampage has a firm grip on this production, dropping the charming "Meeskite" from the original show and adding in "I Don't Care Much," a smoky torch song that the MC delivers wearing a beaded flapper gown.
Sakaguchi gives the Master of Ceremonies a soft, almost wistfully romantic and teasing tone, in sharp contrast to the leering and taunting style that Joel Grey brought to Broadway and the movie. And the odd love affair between Sally and the naive American Cliff Bradshaw (Elitei Tatafu, Jr.) takes an even odder twist, with Cliff openly declaring that he's gay before they climb into bed together.
The changes tweak the show and make us pay closer attention to something that seems familiar, but is somehow different.
But there are traditional interpretations as well, proving that what worked, still works.
Fraulein Schneider (Louise South) and Herr Schultz (Larry Bialock) are touching as a pair of star-crossed, golden age lovers — kept apart by growing Nazi sentiment against him as a Jew. The MC does a charming soft-shoe dance with a gorilla in a tutu, "If You Could See Her (Through My Eyes)," and has a spirited romp in bed with "Two Ladies."
A boy's tenor brings lovely sentiment to the male chorus on "Tomorrow Belongs to Me," reprised as a Nazi anthem with Daniel Kunkel leading a belligerent populace. Lisa Konove does a nice turn as Fraulein Kost, making a small income by entertaining passionate sailors.
Athena Espania's costumes are provocative, and musical director Corin Overland leads the band while the wait staff and chorus dance down the aisles into the cabaret seating.
It was Brechtian, people said, and reached back to "The Threepenny Opera" with its sleazy setting, unsavory story line, and social commentary. "Cabaret" was never pretty, but it had flash and style.
Andrew Sakaguchi as the MC soft-shoe shuffles with the Gorilla, played by Elizabeth Harrison, in "Cabaret," Manoa Valley Theatre's spirited production of the 1960s musical set in prewar Berlin.
It is a moment of deep desperation that belies its celebratory lyrics. As the story breathes its last poisonous breath, we see the MC in an overcoat bearing the pink triangle of a homosexual carrying a suitcase into offstage oblivion.
'CABARET'
