Bienvenu and Au Revoir at New Rep's 'Cabaret'

"Cabaret"

Book by Joe Masteroff; based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood; music by John Kander; lyrics by Fred Ebb; direction and musical staging by Rick Lombardo; musical direction by Todd C. Gordon; choreography by Kelli Edwards; scenic design by Peter Colao; costume design by Frances Nelson McSherry; lighting design by Franklin Meissner, Jr.; sound design by Rick Lombardo

Cast in alphabetical order:

Sally Bowles, Aimee Doherty; Schultz, Paul D. Farwell; Ernst, Paul Giragos; Kost, Shannon Lee Jones; Cliff, David Krinitt; Emcee, John Kuntz; Schneider, Cheryl McMahon

Performances: Through February 8, New Repertory Theatre, Arsenal Center for the Arts, Charles Mosesian Theater, 321 Arsenal Street, Watertown, Mass.
Box Office: 617-923-8487 or www.newrep.org

Welcome to the Cabaret, where life is beautiful, the girls are beautiful, even the orchestra is beautiful. And therein lies a bit of the problem with this somewhat sanitized - and slightly modified - version of the gritty 1998 Tony Award-winning revival of the brilliant Kander and Ebb musical classic. The pretty sets, costumes, chorus girls and chorus boys - elegant, trim, neat and clean in this sparkling New Rep production - just don't jive with the decadence and growing menace of Hitler's Berlin in 1929-30.

Director Rick Lombardo, in his last assignment with New Rep before assuming his post as artistic director of the San Jose Rep in California, has assembled an excellent cast for this entertaining if somewhat meandering production. Led by the lovely and heartbreaking Aimee Doherty as English expatriate and cabaret star Sally Bowles, the company is uniformly strong vocally and dramatically. As the "divinely decadent" party girl, Doherty is cavalier on the outside yet vulnerable underneath. She layers the show's signature ballad with a mixture of false bravado and a shivering understanding that darkness has indeed begun to cloud the illusion that all's well inside the cabaret. The song and her performance are chilling metaphors for the evil that is soon to take hold as a result of the world's hedonism and blind indifference.

As the Emcee, the embodiment of that lurking evil whose job it is to distract, entice and entertain, the usually outstanding John Kuntz seems a bit uneasy in his marionette's makeup and shoes. Not a natural born song and dance man, Kuntz prances rather than slithers, trying to force his demonic charms instead of letting them ooze from his pores effortlessly. His singing is fine, but his strained movements don't fully let us see him devolve from a man who once pulled the malevolent strings to one who is now being pulled by them. His version of "I Don't Care Much," interpolated into the revival from the movie version, lacks the Marlene Dietrich malaise necessary to capture the mood of the times.

In this mounting, Lombardo has chosen to eliminate and replace several numbers in order to give the character of Cliff, the American novelist through whose eyes we begin to see the Nazi threat emerging, more importance and depth. Here Cliff's homosexuality is clearly pronounced, making his relationship with Sally an unambiguous, albeit vain, attempt at creating stability in an uncertain world. David Krinitt delivers this more melancholy Cliff with a quiet desperation tinged with hope, making his writer less an observer and more a participant/victim of circumstance. His added song, "Don't Go," is an excellent expression of his need for Sally to live up to the fantasy he has created for them. It's pairing with Doherty's optimistic "Maybe This Time" lends an air of schoolyard innocence to their misfit coupling.

The unexpected focus of this New Rep Cabaret, though, is the terrible impact that Hitler's rise to power had on the lives of the German people themselves. As depicted by Cheryl McMahon and Paul D. Farwell - with grace, charm, and self-effacing sincerity - the amiable aging couple of Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz are suddenly prevented from living their twilight years together because in the eyes of the Reich they are no longer simple countrymen but now a German and a Jew. Their touching duets, "It Couldn't Please Me More" and "Married," are highlights of the show.

Peter Colao's two-tiered set is art deco wood veneer, plaster and chrome accented by marquee lights, a parquet floor, shiny dance poles, smoke-stained wainscoting, and two giant carved black cats whose bright red eyes seem to burn with the fires of hell. Four prominent upstage panels rotate to alternate between multi-colored boarding house doors and ominous funhouse-style mirrors that reflect and distort the action inside the cabaret.

The orchestra, led by conductor and pianist Todd C. Gordon (in drag!), is perched above the action on the second tier. The Brechtian arrangements and evocative playing make the band an essential character in the show. Kelli Edwards' choreography, however, seems perfunctory. Eschewing the traditional Fosse style, Edwards has opted for a more generic mix of uninspired jazz moves that grow weary with repetition. "The Money Song," in particular, suffers from the addition of bulbous pig noses and an absence of clear purpose.

After the performance, the company paid tribute to the departing Lombardo, whose moving van was already on its way to the West Coast. A palpable sadness filled the theater, with Lombardo and many cast members shedding tears. In May at its annual Gala the New Rep celebrates its 25^th season - and the arrival of a new, as yet unnamed, artistic director. In these tough times, we all hope that the transition is a smooth and successful one. Regional theaters like the New Rep are the breeding grounds for new works and new audiences. They must survive to ensure the future of the art form.

PHOTOS: Cheryl McMahon as Schneider and Paul D. Farwell as Schultz; Aimee Doherty as Sally Bowles and David Krinitt as Cliff; John Kuntz as the Emcee with the ensemble

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