Barrett Wilbert Weed and Wes Taylor in Cabaret in DC — Page 2

I love this casting! After seeing some older actors do it in NY, I'm glad to see the youngins having their chance again!

Nope definitely wasn't excessive. Was pretty brilliant.

Just stumbled upon this cool Behind the Scenes look at the show

http://brightestyoungthings.com/articles/behind-the-scenes-cabaret-the-signature-theatre.htm

I think part of it has to do with the era. When the show premiered, the audience members, for the most part, would have remembered WWII and the atrocities of Germany. So the original finale spoke to them- the "you knew, but you didn't do anything" mentality. Later revivals were presented for audiences that didn't have that sort of symbolic complicity in the Holocaust, and have become somewhat more brutal and visceral in the final moments to come close, if possible, to the way a relatively contemporary audience would have felt being confronted with their own guilt by association.

The first review of Cabaret at Signature Theatre in DC. 4.5 Stars

"Cabaret is a warhorse of musical theater now going on for five decades. Signature Theatre’s production is vital and forbidding in its political aspects. The musical numbers are sung with affection, care and strength when about the messiness of love and relationships. The musical numbers are sung with an acidic flavor when appropriate. As for the production numbers at the end of each Act, they each bring the House down. There are certainly plenty of new terrors out in the world since Cabaret first appeared; yet its bite remains sharp, deadly, and fresh in the current Signature Theatre production."

DCMetroTheatreArts Review of Cabaret

I am seeing the production this week, after having only seen the movie and a production at Keegan Theatre in DC.

Updated On: 5/18/15 at 12:09 PM

Kad and Younger Brother, my thoughts exactly.

IMHO if you have to beat the hell out of someone and also she is naked, you've kinda lost all the subtlety that makes "Cabaret" brilliant.

Can't imagine a better production than Mendes/Marshall although I'm sure there are those looking for something even more provocative. Perhaps that should be applauded, but in real time, it makes me cringe.

Not everything needs to be on the nose. In fact, we do better as audience members when thought and inference is required.

"Are they using the stage version of the original finale, as indicated by GetUp&LiveIt ('the principals repeated their lines referencing their blindness to the outside world") or the version used on the original cast recording, as indicated by Alix ("the main characters each reprising a bit of their songs")?"

Oh, it was probably lines of dialogue, like GetUp&LiveIt said. I can't say I recall exactly; I was a bit distracted by the Nazi raid going on below. The only one I know for certain is that Sally sang a couple lines of "Cabaret." I didn't realize the original cast recording was different than the actual onstage ending in the original production, though. Interesting. Broadway Stud, do you recall, since you saw it most recently?

Thinking about this production more over the past week and a half, I think my main issue with it was that it was a tad too "on the nose," as elphaba.scares.me put it. Two examples (aside from the ending/"If You Could See Her") come to mind: When Herr Schultz and Cliff first meet and Schultz wishes Cliff "mazel," and Cliff doesn't know what this means, Schultz usually replies "Yiddish--it means luck." In this production (at least in the first preview, when I saw it), the line was "Jewish--it means luck." Then, during the first "Tomorrow Belongs to Me," the Emcee grabbed Cliff's copy of Mein Kampf, which had already been acknowledged and discussed at that point, before starting to silently read/look through it. When he first grabbed the book, he held it up and moved it around to make sure every part of the audience could see what it was, like a teacher reading aloud to a group of kids and making sure everyone can see the illustrations. Minor things, but both moments took me out of the show a bit. It just seemed a little too obvious that the director was making sure everyone was getting the message, which then makes the message less powerful, in my opinion.

As for the ending, I think I liked it overall. I have mixed feelings about it, but I appreciate that it was a different take, at least, and actually quite liked that the focus at the end was on a Kit Kat Girl with no lines rather than one of the main characters. The "If You Could See Her" mask reveal felt at the moment like the ultimate way-too-on-the-nose choice, but it was necessary to set up the ending.

My other issue with the production was "Cabaret," which was too cheery for me. It didn't seem to match the tone of the rest of the second act. It sort of felt to me like the director was going for a more Liza-esque version of the song just for the sake of not copying the more tragic take that's usually performed today. I personally don't think it works as well onstage. Barrett sang the crap out of it, though.

Having said all that, I really did enjoy this production and would encourage anyone who can get there to go. But I absolutely worship the Mendes/Marshall version, and I don't think anything could top it for me.

Thanks, Alix and BroadwayStud. What you describe, BroadwayStud, is the original version. Lines of dialogue from earlier in the show are repeated by Fr. Schneider, Herr Schultz and Sally, we hear Kost laughing, and Sally singing a brief reprise of the title song, and the Emcee closing it off with "Auf wiedersehen . . . A bientot."

Alix, the published script of the 1966 version has Schultz saying "Jewish" there. And it's what Werner Klemperer said in the 1987 revival. But, yeah, at least in the last Broadway production, Danny Burstein said "Yiddish," and I guess that's what it's probably always been in that Mendes-Marshall production (and perhaps in the published script for it).

Btw, the original London cast recording (the one with Judi Dench as Sally, Lila Kedrova as Fr. Schneider, Barry Dennen as the Master of Ceremonies, and Peter Sallis as Herr Schultz) has the original stage version of the finale. I think that for the OBCR, Goddard Lieberson must have felt that those lines would be meaningless to people who hadn't seen the show. Supposedly, Lieberson didn't like to have much dialogue on cast recordings. Fortunately, that 1968 London recording, which I love, is now available again, though still not remastered or with the tracks in show order.

Cabaret OLCR, Masterworks Broadway

Thanks for the link, nobodyhome! And for clarifying about the "Jewish" line. For some reason it stood out to me as strange last week, but I've seen several productions over the years and I guess most of them must have used the "Jewish," too, since that was the original/licensed line. I was curious, so I just checked my copy of the '98 script and it is "Yiddish" there. But in Mendes's '93 London production, it was "Jewish."

While I admit that the ending as described seems almost too extreme to me, I'm glad that they don't make the Emcee ultimately a Nazi victim as the Mendes (and countless other ones,) do. While the ending of the Mendes/Marshall was certainly theatrically effective the first time I saw it, it ultimately doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

While I like the Mendes ending, I think the thing that ultimately makes this work better than the Mendes ending is that it stays within the time frame of the early 1930's and doesn't take us into the concentration camps which were several years later. The final moments of this production depict a raid of the Kit Kat Klub. These raids were constantly happening in clubs like this throughout Berlin as the Nazi's rose to power (see below image of the El Dorado Club after the raid). There is a very powerful moment in the Fosse film where the Jewish owner of the Kit Kat Klub is beat up. Why was that not too much? The abuse of artists is also depicted effectively in the BBC film Christopher and His Kind. In this production the club is a very glamourous and seductive environment. This is slowly pealed away throughout Act II. In the final moments of this production the club lights are turned on full and one of the performers of the club (the Jewish actress who plays the gorilla) is dragged out into the center of the room, told to remove the gorilla costume, does so, tries to run away and gets beaten over the course of maybe 10 seconds, if that. This is something that would have happened during the time frame of the musical Cabaret. Likely in the Kit Kat Klub. Unlike Mendes, it doesn't send us several years into the future into the concentration camps, it doesn't make something of the Emcee or try to create an ending to the stories of Sally, Herr Schultz, or the Emcee as other directors have very poorly attempted to do. It very effectively shows a moment that very likely happened in several of these clubs and for me it was ultimately very effective as Sally Bowles sang the final strains of Cabaret, fading into the walls of the set (suggesting her wish to remain blind to the reality of the situation) and finally the Emcee said "Goodbye" and closed the door to the club as the young jewish girl lay there naked in agony. I can see where it seems overblown but it was shocking in the context of the show and I'd suggest unless you've seen it to save your opinion until you have. The play is about apathy and how our blindness to injustices around us, however small they seem at first, can ultimately be very dangerous. Why in the world would you want anything less than a bold ending?

Updated On: 5/23/15 at 10:27 PM

To be clear the actress wasn't naked that long. The slip was ripped up the back she grabbed it and clung to it in the fetal position. At best you see her backside. It's effective but not gratuitous