Like many American musical greats, cabaret It’s one show that can suffer from style creep. There, unwritten but generally agreed upon aesthetic traditions grow into self-parody. Romantic drama set in John Kander and Fred Ebb’s legendary pre-WWII Berlin (based on the 1951 play) i am a camera John Van Druten and the 1939 Novel goodbye berlin by Christopher Isherwood), it usually translates into a taut haunted house-like KitKat Club rather than a cheeky saucy fair where everyone actually wants to rain the Deutsche Mark. it’s not nightclub, A sparkling, glamorous, frenetic pansexual party (led by host Josh Walker) with a heartfelt focus on “willkommen.”
cabaret
Until March 5: Thursday at 7:30 PM, Friday at 8:00 PM, Saturday at 3:30 PM and 8:00 PM, Sunday at 2:00 PM. Also Thursday 2/2 at 1:30 PM. Open Captions Sat 1/28 and 2/4 3:30 PM. Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn, 773-777-9884, porchlightmusictheatre.org, $45-$77
Establishing that contrast is essential for Act Two’s gut punch to land, and for that matter, director Michael Weber, assistant director/choreographer Brenda Didier, and music director Linda Madonia long before the first emotional blow, I found my eyes welling up with thunderous tears. I suspect this has to do with how expertly these elements of musical theater are put together, from transparent vocals to bombastic ensemble whole numbers to intimate dialogue. between.
Bringing an underlying softness to the Isherwood-inspired character, Gilbert Domalley becomes a melting partner to Sally (Erika Stefan, who performs through the ages). Even the set and lighting design, inspired by Angela Weber Miller and Patrick Chan’s Anhalter Bahnhof, has a sense of gravity and impermanence, as if “the bricks, studded steel, and massive wooden buttresses of a cathedral are looming.” Can’t you withstand the coming inhumane tsunami?” , What are the chances?
