CABARET.
London.
CABARET
by Joe Masteroff Music by John Kander lyrics by Fred Ebb.
Lyric Theatre.
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Wed & Sat 3pm.
Runs 2hr 20min One interval.
TICKETS: 0870 890 1107.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 11 October.
It all hangs out but doesn’t hang together.
Why, amid all the skill, energy and thematic thoughtfulness, did Rufus Norris’s revival seem somewhat unsatisfactory? A pineapple gave the answer, which led back to the opening camera-shutter.
Katrina Lindsay’s set greets us with a giant “Wilkommen” spread over 3 levels on the front-curtain. A shutter opens to reveal James Dreyfus’ luridly grinning Emcee welcoming us to the show. A good idea, as the musical’s based on Christopher Isherwood’s Goodbye to Berlin stories with their “I am a camera” narrative stance.
But the staging means Emcee is crammed into a tiny aperture for the opening. Then the full stage is bustling, a cabaret being prepared rather than performed (as, later, the Nazis are preparing their act). It’s a dark staging, tall, angular slices of walls towering expressionistically over glimpses of more realistic buildings.
The pineapple’s a love-token from fruiterer Schultz to his landlady Fraulein Schneider. These old people’s love, fractured by politics, is an emotional anchor within American visitor Clifford Bradshaw’s hectic snapshots of Berlin. Fraulein Schneider wants to keep the pineapple, but the only place to display it is the floor.
For the production has little interest in mundane reality, or these characters as people. Amid the unvariedly frenetic dance-world of leather, bare buttocks and dangly appendages – decadence driven home – there’s little room for humanity. Sheila Hancock and Geoffrey Hutchings make the senior lovers sympathetic because they’re fine actors. The production doesn’t care much about such individuals, so even Hancock can’t achieve the heartbreaking renunciation Karen Mann found in John Doyle’s Watermill staging.
And I’d give up three-quarters of the relentlessly slapped-on kitsch for the subtlety of Dundee’s revival, where an ensemble company allowed the luxury-casting of Sandy Neilson, louring with cigar at the sides as the cabaret-owner and Sally Bowles’ lover.
There are fine moments, like the grotesque reprise of ‘Tomorrow Belongs to Me’ revealing the Nazis’ true colours. Harriet Thorpe gives Fraulein Kost a smilingly dangerous edge. Anna Maxwell Martin sings beautifully, while her gushing streams of inconsequence show Sally’s bland irresponsibility. But for all its cinematic fluidity, the production’s big picture approach is ultimately too monochrome.
Sally Bowles: Anna Maxwell Martin.
Fraulein Schneider: Sheila Hancock.
Clifford Bradshaw: Michael Hayden.
Emcee: James Dreyfus.
Herr Schultz: Geoffrey Hutchings.
Fraulein Kost: Harriet Thorpe.
Ernst Ludwig: Andrew Maud.
Victor: Christopher Akrill.
Fritzie: Rebecca Bainbridge.
Wolf: Alastair Brookshaw.
Hamburg Helmut: Michael Camp.
Rosie: Josephine Darvill-Mills.
Lulu: Kaisa Hammarlund.
Helga: Alexandra Jones.
Hans: Jack Jefferson.
Rudy: Benny Maslov.
Bobby: Jason Rowe.
Frenchie: Rebecca Sutherland.
Texas: Clemmie Sveaas.
Director: Rufus Norris.
Designer: Katrina Lindsay.
Lighting: Jean Kalman.
Sound: Ben Harrison.
Musical Director: David Steadman.
Choreographer: Javier De Frutos.
2006-10-13 10:13:08