Review: CABARET at Theatre Three

In a time when “Tomorrow Belongs to Me,” could play in the background of so many different leaders’ speeches, “Cabaret,” is a musical that teaches a lesson with the glorious dreams of liberty, acceptance, and joy marched into death.

Director Jeffrey Sanzel’s “Cabaret” presents us with 1929 Berlin as a place of artistic and erotic welcomings with bright and sly smiles in the Kit Kat Klub and rosy-cheeked (both cheeks) workers. The zeal in the characters before the fall of Nazism is so palpable and uplifting even amidst the grainy smoke of the Kit Kat Club that it’s almost enough to make it seem like the characters will survive.

Scenic Designer Randall Parsons had a bold and dramatic approach with every inch of the stage (and the audience too) dripping decadence and picture-framing throughout the construction of the set that captured the different scenes like a movie would.  

Musical Director, Jeffrey Hoffman’s oompah band sounds were chirpy, upbeat, and misleadingly positive. With all the iterations of “Tomorrow Belongs to Me,” the festering fascism crept into the story as the music slowly crescendo’d.

Lighting Director, Steve Barile, Jr. and Sound Designer, Tim Haggerty’s club atmosphere was achieved with the brilliant melding of smoke and spotlights and sharp elocution crisp-ily heard from the cast.

Choreographer Josie McSwane encapsulated the sexiness and taboo of the Weiner Republic with elements of acrobatics in group dances. Angie Barrientos as Gorilla was performed like a lucid daydream with softly landing feet and with just the right amount of anthropomorphism.

Costume Design by Jason Allyn and Wig and Make Up Designer, Ally Humanitzki had the most alluring and distinct Kit Kat Girls and Boys with pale skin and flush faces amidst a silk and lace or leather-clad body.

Sari Feldman portrayal as Sally Bowles, was a seasoned career girl nearing the end of her time as a trophy as we see her poignant internal breakdown after being told to make way on the stage for someone younger. Feldman had a delightful playfulness in her Sally that (rightfully) becomes limp compliance in the end, true to its light-seeking nature. Voice-wise, Feldman’s “Don’t’ Tell Mama,” embodied the hopeful light-heartedness of the first act.

Jason Furnari as Clifford Bradshaw was moving as he transformed from insulated writer to actively opposing the reich’s vow. We see his tepid gazes at Sally (and Bobby) and her life that are open in envious desire. Furnari’s Hoosier (or whatever Midwest state Cliff is from) sensibilities are carefully broken down especially in the scene where he receives his first phone call from Sally and his boyish interest is bursting from his facial expressions and growing attention.

William Stokes as Emcee was triumphant. I don’t really know what else to say other than no one could take their eyes off him when he was onstage or not think about when he’d be back when he was off-stage. His mastery as a dramatic actor is what Jack Nicholas went insane for in “The Shining” and his mastery as a musical theater actor should afford him any leading part he ever wanted to play.

You were already in love with the Kit Kat Girls (Haley Saunders, Erin Plitt, Maria Cutaia, Michelle Su, Angie Barrientos, and Melina Piervencenti) and Kit Kat Boys (Kiernan Urso, Edward Martinez, Ruben Fernandez, and Zac Thomson) before the show even started as they trotted on and stalked the aisles for audience members to play their games. I have a commemorative fake dollar from one of those games.

Moving as a military unit for the big ensemble dance sequences, the Kit Kats seemed to be connected by some force that made their performances seamless, yet punctuated by their individual characters.

Steven Uihlein as Ernst Ludwig played the kindly gentleman so well and charmingly that those qualities remained even after his Swastika armband is revealed.  

Phyllis March as Fraulein Schneider and Doug Quattrock as Herr Schulz stole the show as the ill-fated couple with both leaning into the crucifying ideals they hold: a return to normal. Quattrock’s most distressing moment was when he was dancing around his future persecutors like a pardoned man breathing in fresh air for the first time in years. The hilarity and wholesome love between the two was excellent chemistry that bounced off each other.

Rachel Geiser as Fraulein Kost’s haughty visage, even in her apartment as a small-time prostitute, is the coveted, sculptured face of the new leaders. The physicality of Kost while singing “Tomorrow Belongs to Me”-- keeping an unnaturally straight back and calculated hand moves—would make her a goddess if not for what she was posing for.

“Cabaret” plays through Sunday, Oct. 25.

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