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<!--StartFragment-->
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:
Palatino;color:windowtext">No standing ovation for CABARET at Great Lakes
Theatre<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:
Palatino;color:windowtext"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:
Palatino;color:windowtext">Roy Berko<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:
Palatino;color:windowtext">(Member, American Theatre Critics Association)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:
Palatino;color:windowtext"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Palatino;
color:windowtext">--Times Newspapers—</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:
12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Palatino;color:windowtext"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Palatino;
color:windowtext">Lorain County Times, Westlaker Times, Lakewood News Times,
Olmsted-Fairview Times<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Palatino;
color:windowtext">-coolCleveland.com—</span><i><span style="font-size:9.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-family:Palatino;color:windowtext"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:windowtext">--<a href="http://ArtsAmerica.org/"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">ArtsAmerica.org</span></a>—</span><i><span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Palatino;color:windowtext"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Palatino;
color:windowtext"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:
Palatino;color:windowtext">CABARET.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>It’s 1931 in Germany, a country of unrest.<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>We find ourselves at the Kit Kat Klub, a seedy <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabaret"><span style="color:windowtext;
text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">cabaret</span></a>, a place of
decadence and emotional abandonment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Hanging over the entire scene is the growth of the Nazi party and the
impending reign of terror.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Palatino;
color:windowtext"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:
Palatino;color:windowtext">CABARET.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>A musical loosely based on John Van Druten’s play I AM A CAMERA, which
was adapted from Christopher Isherwood’s GOODBYE TO BERLIN, with music by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kander"><span style="color:windowtext;
text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">John Kander</span></a> and lyrics by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Ebb"><span style="color:windowtext;
text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">Fred Ebb</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;color:windowtext"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:
Helvetica;color:windowtext">CABARET.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>A musical loosely based on John Van Druten’s play I AM A CAMERA, which
was adapted from Christopher Isherwood’s GOODBYE TO BERLIN, with music by </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kander"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:
13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:windowtext;text-decoration:none;
text-underline:none">John Kander</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:
13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:windowtext"> and lyrics by </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Ebb"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:
13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:windowtext;text-decoration:none;
text-underline:none">Fred Ebb</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:windowtext">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:
Helvetica;color:windowtext">CABARET.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>A glimpse at Sally Bowles, a young English cabaret singer, her seedy
life as a performer, her doomed relationship with American writer Cliff
Bradshaw, and a strong subtext of another doomed relationship between German
boarding house owner Fraulein Schneider and her suitor Herr Schultz, a Jewish
fruit vendor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Not to be overlooked
is the Master of Ceremonies at the Kit Kat Klub, who oversees the entire affair,
not aware that he is also on a doomed path. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:
Helvetica;color:windowtext">CABARET.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>A version of which is now on stage at Great Lake Theatre.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:
Helvetica;color:windowtext;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;mso-bidi-font-style:italic">The
musical opened on Broadway in </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:windowtext">1966.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Immediately upon entering the theatre,
the audience was struck by the difference between this and other shows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The curtain was up, a large convex
mirror reflected each person out of proportion as s/he walked down the aisle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Lights and the theatre’s brick walls
were all exposed. Ironically, the staging was reflective of exiled German Jewish
playwright Bertolt Brecht’s theory of theatre:<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>alienation (awareness that you are watching a theatrical
production), epic (that which was presented is bigger than life), and
historification (a message from the past, which the viewer was to bring into
the present, and learn from the experience). <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
bold;mso-bidi-font-style:italic"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:
Helvetica;color:windowtext">The original cast included award winning
Clevelander </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Grey"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:windowtext;
text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">Joel Grey</span></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:windowtext">
as the Emcee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Grey went on to also
star in the 1972 movie version which featured Liza Minnelli as Sally.<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;mso-bidi-font-style:italic"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:
Helvetica;color:windowtext">In the London revival of 1993, under the direction
of Sam Mendes, the show took on a new persona.<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>The emcee morphed from an asexual, malevolent character to a
highly sexualized homosexual (brilliantly portrayed by Allen Cummings) who, at
the ending of play, along with all the other “decadents”—Jews, Communists, the
physically disabled—are taken off to the concentration camps. Other changes added
references to Cliff's bisexuality, including a scene where he kisses one of the
Cabaret boys. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext">A 1998 Broadway revival,
which also starred Cummings, further refined the script, added wandering
musicians to bring out the alienation and identifying each character with a
musical sound.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:
Helvetica;color:windowtext;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;mso-bidi-font-style:italic"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext">The
Great Lakes Theatre production, under the direction of Victoria Bussert, works
on some levels, stumbles on others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Basically using the Mendes rewrite, the general staging is acceptable,
creating many of the right highlighting to illustrate the impending
horror.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>On the other hand, some
questionable casting, pedestrian choreography and a costume glitch, produce
problems.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:
Helvetica;color:windowtext;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;mso-bidi-font-style:italic"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext">Neil
Brookshire develops a believable character as American writer Cliff
Bradshaw.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Laura Perrotta, is
properly both hard and tender as Fraulein Schneider, whose purpose in life is
to survive at all costs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>John
Woodson is wonderful as Herr Schultz, the Jew who thinks he is a German and naively
assumes that the forces that are coming will assume the same.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext">Perrotta
and Woodson’s versions of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">It Couldn’t
Please Me More</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Married</i>, Perrotta’s
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">So What</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal">What Would You Do?</i>, and the wrenching <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal">Tomorrow Belongs to Me</i> were the production’s vocal highlights.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:windowtext;
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;mso-bidi-font-style:italic"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext">Danny
Henning (Bobby), with a snarl and a sneer, makes for a fine Kit Kat male dancer
and one of Cliff’s former lovers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Jim
Lichtscheidl (Ernst) is properly despicable as a scheming Nazi.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Sara Bruner is spot on as Fraulein Kost,
Fraulein Schneider’s roomer, who offers sexual favors to numerous sailors.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:windowtext;
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;mso-bidi-font-style:italic"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext">On
the other hand, Eduardo Placer feigns at being the Master of Ceremonies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The performance is all on the surface, filled
with vocal and physical gimmicks, never giving a clue that he understood the
power of his character.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The same can
be said for Jodi Dominick’s Sally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Besides having difficulty singing the marvelous songs that the role is
given, she never gives a clear reading of her basis for desperateness, the
vulnerability that is covered by bravado.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>The flailing hands, high pitched vocal adventures into trying to
dispilay desperateness, didn’t help create a believable character.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Don’t expect to hear an emotionally
moving version of the theme song <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Cabaret.</i></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:windowtext;
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;mso-bidi-font-style:italic"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext">Gregory
Daniels’ choreography was efficient, but never developed the underlying
sensuality of the Kit Kat girls, nor the power needed to create the impending
issues, nor was there any clear distinctive style displayed.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:windowtext;
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;mso-bidi-font-style:italic"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext">Charlotte
Yerman’s costumes were era correct and worked well, but her yellow stars for
the Jews and pink triangles for the homosexuals, were so small that unless a
viewer knew what was going on, there was no way to catch the meaning in the
quick last scene.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In fact, while
exiting the theatre, a woman was overheard saying, “I didn’t know the MC was
Jewish,”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>which obliterated part of
Mendes’ rewrite highlighting that more than Jews were taken to their deaths.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:windowtext;
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;mso-bidi-font-style:italic"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext">Capsule judgement: CABARET
gets a serviceable, yet flawed production at Great Lakes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The very fact that the production I saw
received light applause, not a Cleveland automatic standing ovation, gives a
clear message that director Victoria Bussert did not get the most out of the
script.</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:
Helvetica;color:windowtext;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;mso-bidi-font-style:italic"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext">CABARET
continues until October 30 in repertoire with THE TAMING OF THE SHREW through
is on state until October 29.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For
tickets go on line to www.greatlakeshteater.org or call 216-241-6000.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:windowtext;
mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;mso-bidi-font-style:italic"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:
none;text-autospace:none"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Bookman Old Style";
color:#C0504D">Roy Berko's blog, which contains theatre and dance reviews from
2001 through 2011, as well as his consulting and publications information, can
be found at <span style="mso-field-code:"HYPERLINK \0022http\:\/\/royberko\.info\0022 \\t \0022_blank\0022""><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt">http://royberko.info</span></span>. His
reviews and commentary can also be found on <span style="mso-field-code:"HYPERLINK \0022http\:\/\/www\.coolcleveland\.com\0022 \\t \0022_blank\0022""><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt">www.coolcleveland.com</span></span> and
www.NeOHIOpal and ArtsAmerica.org.</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:
13.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:windowtext;mso-bidi-font-weight:
bold;mso-bidi-font-style:italic"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></span></div><div><br></div></div></body></html>