Cabaret previews - Page 14

[mamaleh]

Posted: 3/26/14 at 12:33pm

"Maybe you didn't catch the '87 revival...."

No, I didn't. Before last evening, I'd seen only the original production.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/26/14 at 12:52pm

Which was '67 of course... Not that it matters...

Also, wait--I was always sure that it was two women in Two Ladies in the Fosse film. Looking at youtube, I still think it is, though I suppose it could be hard to tell? In the London Mendes production, before the Broadway revisions with Marshall, it *was* two ladies.

Fascinating stuff, I know.

[Kad]

Posted: 3/26/14 at 2:09pm

I actually wonder: is the televised version of the initial Mendes production intentionally cut and altered to make the show appropriate for broadcast, or is that how the show was staged? I know there was some truncation that happened.

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/26/14 at 3:57pm

Everyone is a little right and a little wrong about when "I Don't Care Much" premiered in the show. It was cut from the preshow in the original production. Only a fragment of the song appeared in the 1987 (and most commonly licensed) version. The Emcee sings the first verse, scene, tag of the final lines. It was not until the initial Mendes revival that the entire song appeared.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/26/14 at 5:16pm

He sings more than the first verse in the bootleg of the '87, though I don't think it is as long.

Kad, it was cut--I believe for time. I *think* so was the Mendes' Company broadcast from around the same time, but it's been a long time since I've watched that. I'd love to know why those two shows were randomly aired--with cuts (on CH4 or ITV I assume, since they have commercial breaks) and never released or re-aired.

[Joviedamian]

Posted: 3/26/14 at 8:05pm

not that I encourage it, but I am surprise that there is no audio or video yet of MW in the show. You would think all the social sites would have put up something...this is a hot topic, right?

[pinoyidol2006]

Posted: 3/26/14 at 8:12pm

Maybe they don't want to have people compare her voice to Minnelli until after they've bought their tickets?

[oasisjeff]

Posted: 3/26/14 at 9:27pm

If they are going in expecting Liza, they should be warned to stay home ASAP. I say that as both a fan of Liza, a fan of Liza's performance as Sally, AND someone who enjoyed Williams in the role, too. But they are very different things, so setting yourself up like that before a show would be a bad move.

[Sauja]

Posted: 3/27/14 at 3:37pm

I was at the show last night and found myself having a really hard time viewing it “fresh.” Having seen the show twice during its first run (with Richardson and Leigh), it ended up being an evening of compare and contrast. I very much enjoyed myself, but I admit how affected my perception was by having seen it before.

So let’s talk about Michelle Williams. She seemed to me an obvious choice since she can do quirky and funny and sexy as anyone who has seen her movies like Dick, Take This Waltz, and My Week With Marilyn knows. She seemed a natural heir to Natasha Richardson whose performance I still count as one of the greatest I’ve ever seen on stage. So I was surprised by the very real clarity she brings to Sally. This isn’t Richardson’s Sally who seemed to be dancing as fast as she could just to avoid looking at any hard truths. The Sally that Williams creates seems more calculating and more aware. She may be outwardly in denial, but she knows what she’s doing, who she’s deceiving, and how much she can get away with. Vocally, she’s all vibrato, and hers isn’t the most pleasing voice. But this production has always insisted its Sallys be stronger actors than singers. And when it’s time to deliver the title song, Williams eviscerates it, treating the song as declaration, autobiography, and surrender to her own fate. In the end, she doesn’t capture lightning in a bottle as Richardson did, to use a phrase already mentioned here. But she does succeed, thrillingly, in finding her own unique, distinctive stamp to this oft-interpreted character.

Interestingly, Bill Heck is doing such fine work as Cliff that it feels like I was finally noticing the character for the first time. It seems exceedingly clear why others gravitate towards him—his looks, yes, but also a confidence and machismo mixed with vulnerability and tenderness. I found myself really looking forward to the book scenes this time around. And then I’ll echo everyone who has said Linda Emond is a force to be reckoned with. (trying to delicately sidestep spoilers here) Her youth, relative to others who have preceded her, makes her decision re: Herr Schultz that much more understandable. She still has years and years to go, and she knows how she has gotten by and how she plans to continue to do so. Her performance turns “What Would You Do” into the perfect match for Williams’ “Cabaret.” Here are two women of different generations who are making choices that they may not be happy about but that they will approach with eyes wide open to the limitations of their options.

So…was I in raptures like I was the first time I saw this? Of course not. You can’t recapture that feeling. But I was given a lot to think about and watched a fascinating cast make some fascinating choices and commit to their roles with a tremendous depth of feeling and compassion. This production holds up, and to those who have seen it before, it’s like watching one of the best replacement casts ever. I can only hope that those seeing it for the first time can be thrilled (and devastated) anew.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 3/27/14 at 3:52pm

Having never seen the production (or any, actually), but as a huge fan of the cast album, the Fosse film, and the material in general, I was thrilled. I was only really aware of it being a rehash when Cumming winked at the situation in his banter with the crowd. (Helga is played by the same actress as in 1998, and he now says, "Helga and I go way, way, way back. We've been dancing in this club since the last century. That's actually true.") It didn't feel quite as dark and sinister as I imagined the production to be, but perhaps we're all a little jaundiced at this point. I think a lot of the ensuing stripped-down revivals of popular shows took their cue from this and went even further. But I was still surprised and chilled by moments of staging that I was not aware of, particularly a lot of the ways in which the Emcee was used in scenes he was not literally present in. Throwing the brick through the fruit shop window, etc.

Can anyone point me to a good description of the original Hal Prince staging? I know very little about it other than my awareness of the different song list from the cast album, and that the use of an enormous mirror was memorable for a lot of people/was spoofed with the dancing swastika in The Producers. Did that mirror ever provide a similar effect to the final shot of the Fosse film?

[macnyc]

Posted: 3/27/14 at 3:53pm

Thanks for your very well-reasoned piece, Sauja! You draw a nice parallel between Sally Bowles and Fraulein Schneider.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 3/27/14 at 3:57pm

P.S. I thought the cast was nearly uniformly excellent (though I might have preferred some less generic Broadway hunk Cabaret boys) but I have to give a shout out to Linda Emond, who quietly destroyed in a role that isn't exactly the show's meatiest. Her "What Would You Do" might have been the highlight for me.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/27/14 at 4:03pm

And, of course, one of the two ladies is also a man in the Fosse movie.

Which one?

http://youtu.be/k_zY0ZbE1Mw

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 3/27/14 at 4:20pm

"and that the use of an enormous mirror was memorable for a lot of people/was spoofed with the dancing swastika in The Producers."

I don't believe that Stroman using the mirror for the swastika in The Producers was a direct reference to the mirror in the Prince/Aronson production. It was used on stage to emulate the overhead crane shots that Busby Berkley was very fond of to show the elaborate formations he created in his movie musicals, and has been used in other dance heavy shows in that vein (such as 42nd Street). If I recall the scene correctly in the original film Mel Brooks didn't even use the mirror, just the overhead crane shot.

[Kad]

Posted: 3/27/14 at 4:33pm

Yeah, mirror in the number is specifically there to replicate the well-known shot in the film.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 3:19pm

The show is cancelled tonight. Resuming tomorrow.
Updated On: 3/28/14 at 03:19 PM

[Wynbish]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 3:28pm

Did you read the article about the cancellation? Or just the headline?

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 3:34pm

"-is this the only time there have been two major Broadway remounts of two different productions of the same show? If that makes any sense... "

Eric, just to be clear - and also because, if I understand you correctly, I'd like to know myself - are you asking if this is the first time a show has been revived in its original form (form A), then revived again in a very different form (form B), then revived yet again in form B?

[theeatah]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 7:05pm

"shout out to Linda Emond, who quietly destroyed in a role that isn't exactly the show's meatiest."

I wonder if that's a common opinion. I find Schneider's storyline the most compelling and her two numbers the most thought provoking in the show - and I have thought so in every production I've seen since my first (the Donmar production with the superlative Sara Kestelman as Schneider).

[mjohnson2]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 7:20pm

I just had a thought, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Cabaret is the only show that has had 2 people (Joel Grey and Alan Cumming) play a role in 4 productions (1966, 1987, 1998, 2014) of the show on Broadway.

[oasisjeff]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 7:31pm

You could be right. Carol Channing would only be one person playing a role in four productions of a show on Broadway, heh.

[ArtMan]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 8:07pm

I don't know if anyone else has noticed this. The last row of orchestra that I bought last Saturday for $82 (I mentioned the bar obstructed view) has jumped in price to $122. Hope others got their ticket before the price increase.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 8:24pm

I can't agree that Fraulein Schneider is not a meaty role.

[AndersonTours]

Posted: 3/28/14 at 9:50pm

Fraulein Schneider IS a meaty role. She and Sally have the most songs (beside the emcee, of course). Schneider has two solos and duets in Pineapple and the end of Married as well. The arc of her character and her relationship to Herr Schultz is what makes the show, for me. I saw the show last week, second preview, I believe, and thought Linda Emond and Danny Burstein were beautiful together. They broke my heart.
That role is definitely meaty.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 3/29/14 at 12:16am

In the Playbill, no standby or understudy is listed for Williams? Does she have one?