First Look: Cabaret in Seattle

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 3/25/08 at 8:56pm

http://broadway2seattle.blogspot.com/

Here's a sneek peak at Seattle's new production of Cabaret starring Tari Kelly (Little Shop Tour) as Sally.
Cabaret Video

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 3/25/08 at 9:27pm

The opening looks really cool. I'm surprised they're not just copying the revival as most productions seem to do these days.

[greybaby231]

Posted: 3/25/08 at 9:47pm

Too excited over this. Cabaret is my all time favorite musical. Thank you for making my night. Now, excuse me while I go take a Xanax to calm down.

[choitoy]

Posted: 3/25/08 at 11:12pm

I don't know, there's something about this production that I just don't like (well at least from what I've seen of it from the videos and commercials on TV). I think it's OK for the "cabaret stage" costumes to be all red/white/black, but to have everyone else in red/white/black seems odd.

I got tickets to see it in early April, but I'll probably still have memories of the touring cast with Joley Fischer, and the 1993 Village Theatre production (weak Sally Bowles and all) in my head while watching this version.

[TiffanyB]

Posted: 3/26/08 at 12:01am

Louis Hobson as Cliff

so excited-one of my favorite local performers

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 3/26/08 at 12:30am

I think this will be a wonderful production and am glad they have chose to put their own stamp on the material. I'm seeing it on Thursday. Garrison, a local performer, will be a superb Emcee and Tari Kelly is still one of the best performers out there.

Hobson, who I've never been impressed with, has his work cut out for him as Cliff. Not the vanity role he seems to gravitate to.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 3/26/08 at 12:38am

It just doesn't seem like it fits the "period" of the show. I guess they're going ultra-stylized instead of "period" oriented, which I guess works, but it'd be interesting to see how the show plays out, since that was only the opening. If the set got more and more disgusting as the show went on, or something, that would be brillant.

[DMsquared2]

Posted: 3/26/08 at 8:23am

Loved the S&M styled "Mein Herr"!!!!

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 3/26/08 at 12:44pm

Rentboy, describe to me this period you keep mentioning. What year is Cabaret set and please elaborate on the fact that most productions choose to keep the Cabaret scenes in a fantasy vortex that defies period.

[tourboi]

Posted: 3/26/08 at 1:32pm

I saw this production a few weeks ago in San Jose (It's a shared production). The look doesn't fit the period at all, and I just couldn't get into it. It was very glitzy and shiney... not what a decadent little cabaret in pre WW2 Berlin would have been. It looked more "Vegas" than anything. Great cast though. The Emcee was kinda... meh, but the Cliff, Sally, and Schneider are all great. Beware the boring Schulz.

I missed "I Don't Care Much".

Here's what I don't get... they didn't do a version of the show that's liscenceable. They didn't use the revival script, because "I don't care much" was gone, but they didn't do the older version, because it included Mein Herr, and they cut the "Telephone Song". It's as though they spliced several versions together to create their own, which last I knew wasn't legal. I'm guessing they got special permission.

Oh, and the bisexuality of Cliff is just an afterthought in conversation now. I thought that was kind of weak.

[sing_dance_love]

Posted: 3/26/08 at 2:34pm

I also saw this production in San Jose and agree mostly with tourboi. I thought the biggest problem was the whole nightclub was WAY too "Vegas" and shiny and respectable, instead of dirty and desperate and a little vulgar (though not TOO vulgar like other recent productions have dipped into). I thought based on the talents of the performers, the story shifted majorly to the Herr Shultz/Fraulein Schneider storyline. Both performers were captivating, especially Shultz in my opinion, which is where I differ from tourboi.

I also thought that Ms. Kelly who's playing Sally was either misdirected or wasn't directed at all, or just didn't seem to get the character, IMO. She didn't seem desperate or wounded at all. And while in FANTASTIC voice, she sounded amazing, I was kind of under the impression that Sally wasn't supposed to be all that talented, so it kind of took me out of the moment. And I really didn't buy her VERY important scene with Cliff at the end (I'm trying not to spoil it ) but I do think she gave it her all, but it didn't quite work for me.

I did, however think that the Emcee was absolutely fantastic considering he had a tough job working with the mostly ancient crowd of subscribers at the performance I went to. He was hilarious, sounded great, and I really thought made the part his own. I also think the actor who played Cliff was nice too in a more or less thankless role and agree with tourboi that the bisexuality thing was just tossed off, basically so diehard fans wouldn't miss it, but so that it wouldn't actually affect the story or anything. it was really odd.

My last comment is that I'm not sure how big the theater it'll be playing in in Seattle is, but I think it will have much more of an impact in a smaller theater and intimate setting than in the cavernous San Jose Center for the Performing Arts where I saw it. that theater is HUGE.

Overall, I really think this production is worth seeing and forming you own conclusions about, I definitely thought it had its problems, but also had considerable stregnths and was a really enjoyable evening. Go see it and report back!

Updated On: 3/26/08 at 02:34 PM

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 3/26/08 at 2:48pm

Bobby, Cabaret is set in pre-WWII Germany - so think 1930s. The Cabaret is suppose to be this dive-bar-esque type place, not this Vegas attraction. Which, the Vegas attraction idea could work because ultimately Cliff is drawn into this world, which we find out is actually the Nazi uprising. I'm just saying if they keep the glitz throughout the whole show, then I think the message is lost.

[East Village]

Posted: 3/26/08 at 3:10pm

The entire cast in those costumes look like people I avoid during gay pride week

[choitoy]

Posted: 3/26/08 at 5:33pm

I was worried about the "Vegasy" aspects to the "cabaret" production numbers. I went to the "Spotlight Night" at the 5th Ave. and the director stated that in his research, he found that the majority of the cabarets back then did try to produce big spectacles and showy productions, and he tried to incorporate this into this production. (As a side note, he also stated that he was not really sure what role the Emcee was supposed to play, and at the very beginning, he thought the Emcee was Hitler. Thank goodness he woke up from that daydream rather quickly).

While I don't mind that aspect, I think a lot of his other choices seemed gimmiky (choosing the whole color pallet to be red, white, and black with some gold). It's also a little disheartening to see that he neither chose to stay with either the first book or the recent one (this sounds more akin to the London revival with Wayne Sleep (or is that the first Broadway Revival with Joel Grey?), where they first offhandedly mentioned Cliff's bisexuality, and cut the telephone song). I'm still interested in seeing it, as I do like it when local companies do a fresher spin on things instead of merely copying what's been done before.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 3/26/08 at 8:41pm

Eh, I'm still looking forward to is, if just for the cast.

When I wrote the PR person she said they were doing th e '87 version. BUT Mein Herr is not in that version and The Telephone Song is there. I hate that version as I did it in college and it has the horrible "Dont Go, Sally" for Cliff and a weird mixture of the original and film "Money Song".

[scaryclowns223]

Posted: 3/26/08 at 9:22pm

I don't know.

For me, no one can ever match Alan Cumming as the emcee.
No one is nearly as creepy.

[tourboi]

Posted: 3/27/08 at 12:18am

"Don't Go Sally" is not there, but "Why Should I Wake Up" is.

I also have to add: the act one ending is FAR too in your face than it has to be. The banners look like the first act closer of EVITA. Too much. We get it, already! And the ending of the show wasn't shocking ENOUGH. Weird direction.

[choitoy]

Posted: 3/27/08 at 1:36am

The director (Bill Berry) seemed really young to me. What else did he direct? Did he do West Side Story there last season?

[Unknown User]

Posted: 3/27/08 at 1:05pm

Bill Berry DID direct the "west Side" in Seattle last year.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 3/27/08 at 1:17pm

Any pictures of the Cliff and Sally in the show?