Cabaret Tour — Page 3

I looked around the internet for info about the Today Tix lottery seating at the Pantages and came up empty, so I decided to take a chance and check it out for myself. I entered the lottery about five times for Beautiful (the most recent show at the Pantages) and didn't win, but won on my second try for Cabaret. The email saying that I won instructed me to pay $25 per ticket via the app (the same price for Beautiful) and to pick up the tickets from the concierge outside the the theater.

We picked up the tickets from an easy-to-spot woman in a Today Tix red tee outside the Pantages about a half-hour before the show started. Our seats were in the LC Mezzanine section, in Row B. The face value of these seats was $36 + a $3 facility fee, and I am sure there would have been more fees tacked on had we bought through TM. Though I've gotten considerably better seats from lotteries, these seats were not bad.

Fair warning, though - I didn't realize how far away the mezz is from the stage at the Pantages, since I have only seen shows there from the orchestra. When we saw this production in NYC at Studio 54 (with Emma Stone), we were front row mezz, and we were probably twice as close to the stage as we were at the Pantages due to the sheer size of the place. I think it makes a difference in the enjoyment of this particular show, as I missed being able to see facial features.

Overall, we enjoyed the production, though I prefer the NYC edition over the touring one. Andrea Goss sounded fantastic, and Randy Harrison was almost surprisingly good as the Emcee, but the secondary characters were nearly all better on Broadway.

Strangely, my post from yesterday afternoon did not show up in this post until LesWickedly posted a minute ago, but I saw it in LA & enjoyed it!

Saw this last night at the Pantages, after having seen the Mendes production originally on Broadway with Cumming & Richardson (stunning), and then again a few years ago with Cumming & Williams (meh). Unfortunately, this touring production falls towards the lower end of the scale....

I actually quite liked Andrea Goss as Sally. She was far better than Michelle Williams. (At least her accent remained in place throughout). And most of the supporting cast was fine. Even Lee Aaron Rosen as Cliff (who has to be one of the blandest protagonists in the history of musical theater).

The problem -- for me -- was with Randy Harrison. Now, I never watched the U.S. version of QAF, so had no pre-conceived notion of him as an actor/person/persona. But he just came off as lightweight, superficial, and far too young & pretty. There was no edge to him at all. Sure, he snarled & leered & groped & prowled -- but he just came off like a little boy playing dress-up for Halloween. (There was, however, a huge ovation for him at the curtain, so make of that what you will...)

I don't know. Maybe I'm just over the Mendes CABARET. There are hints that Celebration Theatre will be doing their own version next year here in L.A. If it's half as good as their current THE BOY FROM OZ, it should be worth seeing. One of the best CABARETs I've seen was done recently by the Crown City Theatre Company in Studio City. With an excellent 11-person cast, the director found a new approach to the material which was different & imaginative -- until he blew it by having "Maybe This Time" sung by both Sally and Fraulein Schneider (which I could handle) and placing it at the end after "Cabaret" (which I couldn't). Still, up until then, it was perfectly marvelous. If interested, you can check out this short clip reel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svhIQjeDIW8

I thought Randy and Andrea were great in their roles. The husband and I agreed we preferred his interpretation to Alan's Emcee.

Goss' contract is up in February and a Broadway vet who has never played the role before will be replacing her

Side note: PepperedShepherd, I would argue that Cliff is not bland but is often played very bland. I played the role in a regional production a few years ago and think there are so many layers to explore, especially if you read Isherwood's writings. I get why Sally and the Emcee are the "stars" of the show, but by being so they sort of push Cliff off to the side :)

Saw the tour in Ft. Lauderdale yesterday. The show is in great shape. I believe Harrison is leaving in 4 weeks. His singing is quite a nice surprise and different than Cummings. He seemed to be enjoying the role. Goss is a strong singer. The stunning ending really took the audience by surprise.

She had the best voice by far of any of the Cabaret stars on Broadway.

It always amuses me when people rate the singing voices of the actresses playing Sally. She's supposed to be a third-rate performer working in a seedy Berlin club. She's NOT supposed to have a great singing voice. This criteria is why non-singing actresses successfully appeared during the original run of the Sam Mendes/Rob Marshall Broadway revival in the late 1990s to 2001. They weren't required to have incredible singing voices as that isn't a requirement for playing Sally Bowles.

While it might not be a necessity for the role, I would much rather hear someone belt the heck out of Maybe This Time and Cabaret than just whisper-sing/speak-sing their way through it. For example, I found Barrett Wilbert Weed to be an absolutely stellar Sally in the Signature Theatre production. Not a fan of the non-singing Sally's. However that is a matter of personal taste.

Leigh Ann Larkin is taking over for Goss for the remainder of the tour starting next week. Incredible choice!

barcelona20 said: "Leigh Ann Larkin is taking over for Goss for the remainder of the tour starting next week. Incredible choice!"

Oh. My. God. She is such a good choice.

I saw it really recently and thought it was absolutely fantastic. Keep in mind that I've never seen any other production of it, though.