Review: Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome! Come to the CABARET at the Carrollwood Players!

"When the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind." --C.S.Lewis, quoted in the program for CABARET

CABARET still seems so powerfully pertinent. Although set during the fall of Germany's Weimar Republic in the early 1930's, and first produced on Broadway in 1966, it always seems to mirror the times in which it is performed. I first saw it onstage twenty years ago at Studio 54, just a blink or two before 9/11. Fifteen years after that, I saw it again locally the week after the Pulse shootings, and as I exited the building I felt as if I left one nightmare and started walking into another. Last year I saw a very flawed production on March 6th, and it would be the last show I would see before the pandemic shut everything down one week later.

And here it is again, produced by the Carrollwood Players and directed by the visionary Gabe Flores. Mr. Flores is a smart and courageous artist, and even if I disagree with many of his choices, I more than appreciate that he is going out on a limb with his interpretation. I salute directors who take bold chances, who try to mix things up, and even when I question them or find myself raising an eyebrow or two at some of the decisions, I don't want him to change. We need ballsy directors like Mr. Flores, directors who have a vision and stick to it; it's so much better than an accomplished hack who plays it safe and whose main directing skill is turning off the lights when they leave the theater.

CABARET is a show rife for interpretation. freeFall Theatre mixed it up almost ten years ago, and though the Emcee (David Mann at the time) was one of the best I'd ever seen, the interpretation--the Emcee screaming "No!" and tearing down a giant swastika--turned an edgy play into a safe one and we left the theater feeling that all was well with the world. CABARET should have an opposite effect. We need to leave the theater in a daze, emotionally pummeled and scarred. It's a groundbreaking musical primarily because it wears its darkness on its sleeve and it provides no easy answers.

CABARET, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb with a script by Joe Masteroff, is based on Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories, where we follow a bisexual American writer, Cliff, and his torrid affair with nightclub singer, Sally Bowles. We also see the rise of Nazism, and how it affects an older German couple, one of them being Jewish. But the main attraction of CABARET is not the plot; it's the horrifyingly charismatic Emcee and the Cabaret Boys and Girls of the sleazy Kit Kat Club.

The Emcee, perhaps musical theatre's most iconic showstopper of a role, is heartily played by Dylan Fidler. Fidler sometimes comes a little too close to the cadence of Alan Cumming, but he does quite well, especially in the more robust songs like "Two Ladies" (a hoot) and "Money." But his "Willkommen," one of the great opening songs of all time, doesn't galvanize like it should. The Emcee must have a love affair with the audience, both the women and the men, and though Mr. Fidler is certainly solid in the role, he needs to bring it to the next level. He's showy, but he also needs to seduce us into hell.

I like how the Emcee's wardrobe changes throughout the show, starting with a full bow-tied attire, then losing the jacket, rolling up the sleeves, and ultimately being unkempt with his shirt untucked. The digression of his outfit should have continued to the final scene, but suddenly he's back in his original opening attire (obviously a memory), and the devolution of his look throughout the show makes no sense.

Kimberly Epstein makes for a vigorous, cunning, clueless, emotional Sally Bowles. She does quite well with her songs, like the saucy "Don't Tell Mama" and the raucous "Mein Herr." Ms. Epstein really brings out Sally's carnal qualities; you get the feeling she'll mount anything in her proximity. Don't expect a belting Sally here though, especially in the title song; she's more Jill Haworth than Liza Minnelli in that department.

Zach "Hippie" Griswold is fine in the thankless role of Cliff Bradshaw, but he seems to recede in the background for much of the show. That has more to do with the part than with Mr. Griswold. At one point, during the song "Perfectly Marvelous," the pre-recorded track skipped and it threw Mr. Griswold off (as it would anyone in his position).

As Ernst Ludwig, Cliff's German bestie, A. Genero Garcia is exceptionally strong, turning a supporting role into one of the more memorable parts. He towers above the rest of the cast, an intimidating Aryan with a friendly demeanor. Keira Osborne is also quite good as Fraulein Kost, the provocative prostitute living in the same building as Cliff.

The Kit Kat Girls are a gloriously motely group, of different shapes and sizes (thank goodness), all quite good dancers: Rowan Gould as Rosie, Kate Crooks as Frenchie, Delaney Neville as Texas, Keira Osborne doing double-duty as Fritzie, Jordan Young as Helga, and Alyssa Maria Cabrera (who also choreographs). The standout is Anne Elise Miller as Lulu. My main issue with the Kit Kat Girls is their costumes don't work at all. First of all, the wardrobe seems too clean, not like something in a sleazy Berlin nightclub. Take the fishnet stockings away, and they could resemble a high school dance team.

The Kit Kat Boys are wonderful. Zach Angel Zayas as Victor is a joy to watch. With his commanding stage presence and physical jois de vivre, especially in "Two Ladies," he is quite a force. And Grant Sparr shows a strong versatility playing Bobby as well as a plethora of side characters. (I don't know why they didn't have Mr. Sparr or at least the Emcee play the passport agent at the end; instead they relied on the disembodied voice of the 1998 Broadway recording, and that choice didn't work nearly as well.)

Thomas Pahl plays the gregarious Jewish fruit vendor, Herr Schultz. Mr. Pahl always tackles his parts with energy and gusto, and he has so much heart here. I've seen Mr. Pahl in a variety of shows over the years, but this may be my favorite Thomas Pahl performance. (I just wish the prop master would give him an actual pineapple for "It Couldn't Please Me More" instead of a mere prop, which turned out to be a letdown; I know the director is going for a presentational effect here, but nothing beats a real-and large-pineapple in this scene.)

There are plenty of reasons to see Carrollwood's CABARET, but the #1 must be Anita Kollinger's brilliant turn as Fraulein Schneider. She may be the best Schneider I've seen (including Polly Bergen in the Broadway show twenty years ago). Her first song, "So What?," could work as an anthem of surrender in today's climate: "For the sun will rise/And the moon will set/And learn how to settle/For what you get/It will all go on if we're here or not/So who cares? So what?"

Kollinger and Pahl work wonders together, and we root for their love affair, even though we know it probably won't survive the tide of Nazism to come. Kollinger's rendition of "What Would You Do" had me in tears. It's one of the most heartbreaking songs in the entire musical theatre canon, filled with so much sadness and regret; it's really a survivor's ode to her own guilt. Our hearts sink with hers, and when she leaves after the song, deflated and defeated but alive, we understand her plight. It makes us look at our own reflections, and we must ask ourselves: What would we do?

I can't wait to see more shows featuring Ms. Kollinger; she's fabulous.

I miss a live orchestra in a show like this, even if it's just a single piano, because we never get a sense of the life in a seedy club here. I'm not a fan of the pre-recorded tracks, and one of them--a child singing "Tomorrow Belongs to Me"--should have been performed live. The staging may have been interesting, with the cast holding candles in the dark, but it would have been more powerful with a live rendition.

Director Gabe Flores should be commended for his bravery, for going for broke with his vision. It works in various places, like the holding back with the revealing of a swastika. In this production, when a swastika eventually does rear its ugly head, I heard a nearby audience member groan in horror. This is the reaction Mr. Flores wants.

On the other hand, during the usually shocking "If You Could See Her"--the Emcee's duet with a gorilla--Mr. Flores does something completely unexpected. He makes it a group number, with various cast members donning a gorilla mask (and the rest of the Kit Kat Boys and Girls wearing a variety of masks). It's a fascinating concept, but I don't think it works. We miss the poignancy of a single gorilla, the recipient of a barbaric love song; the surprising antisemitic jolt of the Emcee's last line should shock us. But here, at that point in the song, he's alone in a song ironically titled "If You Could See Her." It's certainly a different context, but does it work?

And there's another twist that I must address, especially as someone who admires the show CABARET but also admires Mr. Flores' attempts at something completely different.

Please note that, if you haven't seen CABARET before or if you don't know its story, the following contains spoilers. CABARET'S title song, perhaps the most famous in musical theatre history, is not a sweet ditty about enjoying life in a nightclub. When I first heard the song as a child, long before Liza Minnelli's film version, an elderly woman sang it cheerily in a local TV commercial. But in the context of the show, it is not a happy-go-lucky tune. In CABARET, Sally Bowles announces to her boyfriend, Cliff, that she is pregnant, and it's in the song "Cabaret" where she decides that she wants to continue living in a world of decadence filled with "too much pills and liquor" like her old friend, a beautiful corpse named Elsie. She makes the decision to hock her fur coat and have an abortion. But in this version, as part of Mr. Flores' vision, a twist ensues. That twist means that Sally does not have the abortion, that she's been playing Cliff and lying about being pregnant the whole time. This may sound acceptable, but it renders the song "Cabaret" and its subtext meaningless. It changes the entire reason for the song because Sally no longer makes her decision during it. It certainly is a twist that will be talked about and debated--which is what Mr. Flores obviously wants--but was it necessary? Abortion right now, after the controversial Texas abortion bill, is a hot-button issue; CABARET unblinkingly confronts this with the original script. But in this version, it's as if the show blinks. Having CABARET without Sally's abortion is like having Hamlet survive his stab wounds, or George and Martha actually having a real child in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, or producing Assassins without assassinations. It changes the show's intentions and defangs the already potent storyline.

As for the interesting ending, without giving too much away, it left many in the audience scratching their heads, and I know more than one of them thought: I wish I had a German-English language dictionary. But it is harrowing if you know its meaning, and seeing those lovely people walking into their death encampment doom is enough to give you the willies. Mr. Flores' ending is certainly cerebral--and, again, it will be discussed and debated, which is a good thing--but I don't know if it provides the gut-punch that he wants. It left many in the audience, perhaps those who have no deep knowledge of the Holocaust, exiting the theater in bafflement.

Yes, we're still in a pandemic, so the cast wears masks throughout the entire performance; this only gets in the way when the actors have projection or enunciation issues. But after awhile, we don't even notice them. The power of CABARET takes over, and it's a production that will be heatedly discussed and debated, a production that you certainly won't forget.

CABARET at the Carrollwood Players runs through October 2nd.

Photo Credit: Beth Behner