Master List of Reviews

Mar 5, 2007 - Truckee Meadows Community College's exciting and chilling "Cabaret"

By By Jack Neal

"Willkommen! Where are your troubles now?"

"Cabaret," a musical enormously influenced by the undercurrents of the Weill-Brecht collaboration on "The Three Penny Opera" and "The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny," mimicks those shows without falling into parody.

The sleazy 1930s Berlin of Sally Bowles, singer at the decadent and sexually casual Kit Kat Klub, and the fresh young world of American writer Cliff Bradshaw, in Germany to get material for a novel, plays out against the sickening tapestry of a dangerous world on the verge self destruction. Hitler is on the rise. Civilization is about to fall. "Cabaret," the superb musical with book by Joe Masteroff, lyrics by Fred Ebb and music by John Kander, spins the sordid story of lives being torn apart by circumstances no one seems able to control.

In a very solid presentation by the Truckee Meadows Community College Department of Music, Dance and Theatre, the sordidness and superb theatricality of "Cabaret" once again splashes across the stage.

With a host of excellent performances, shrewd and sensitive direction by Paul Aberasturi, first-rate musical supervision by Ted Owens (the six-piece band is professional all the way, the singing is wonderfully managed), exciting choreography by Catherine Eardley, a fabulously realized Kit Kat Klub set attributed to set construction manager Ty Hagar (and presumably a team of craftsmen and craftswomen), and smartly evocative costumes by Carolyn Wray and Cathy Averett, TMCC's "Cabaret" rises above student production values into classic, hit-on-all-cylinders theater.

The show's primary nod to student production values is the army of Kit Kat Klub girls and boys the show sports (31), and the wide-ranging body types crammed into all those evocative costumes. But the setting is jazzy decadence and no one really cares about traditional notions of who should wear garter belts and mesh hose. The look of the show works; and using lots of students while maintaining the musical's integrity is a savvy way to go.

As "Cabaret" opens a spotlight reveals a heavily made-up Master of Ceremonies – white face, rouged cheeks, heavy lashes, and cupid bow lips – singing "Willkommen" in three languages to Kit Kat Klub patrons who can't get enough sex, booze and snorts of cocaine. Owen Bryant is the Emcee and he is superb in every way and a real find. Without a stellar Emcee, and Bryant is stellar, the glue that holds "Cabaret" together crumbles.

Echo Olsen shines as Sally Bowles. She's tough, rough-edged and brassy and sings very well, indeed (a sensational "Cabaret" and "Maybe This Time"). One might wish for more vulnerability, but when an actor delivers as brilliantly as Olsen does, who cares about a mere measure of vulnerability? Bob Barsanti plays Cliff Bradshaw and he does so with proper amounts male-lead assurance and young-man sexual confusion. But, then, sexual confusion in the environment of the Kit Kat Klub only heightens the lascivious intrigue of it all.

Jane Addington as Fraulein Schneider, a role originally played by the legendary Lotte Lenya (and Kurt Weill's wife), is thoroughly convincing – a forlorn and sad woman who knows how to survive. Cecil Averett is Herr Schultz, Fraulein Schneider's Jewish, doomed love interest. A sweet and, under the circumstances, poignant "Married" is their special moment together and they bring it off in touching fashion.

As Fraulein Kost, Giana DeGeiso is an easy mark for sailors looking for close company. Sounding the clarion call, "Tomorrow Belongs to Me," she's also an easy mark for what the Nazis have to offer. DeGeiso scores, so to speak, on all counts. Impressive, too, is Mike Rapisora, who sings "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" in the bar scene. Ryan Kelly is Ernst Ludwig, the Nazi, and he's a menacing presence.

"Cabaret" is hardly a musical comedy. It's as menacing a presence as Ernst Ludwig. It leaves American audiences trapped into wanting to applaud stunning moments, "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" for instance, without indorsing the frightening politics of what that "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" meant to a world soon to be plunged into a dark age and to today's world teetering on the edge of new threats of fascism. Under the circumstances, that TMCC's "Cabaret" manages to both entertain and chill is a triumph for all concerned.

"Cabaret" can be seen at the Redfield Performing Arts Center, 505 Keystone Avenue, Reno, NV, March 2-3, 8-9 at 7:30 p.m. and March 4 and 10 at 2 p.m. For tickets and information call 775-789-5671.