Theatre Review—

Egoless Talent And Smart Dedication In New Milford

By Julie Stern

NEW MILFORD — “There was a club, and there was an emcee, and there was a girl…” Christopher Isherwood wrote in his Berlin Diary. To many people, the show Cabaret is synonymous with the names Joel Grey and Liza Minelli. After all, they brought to life the hauntingly memorable characters of the mockingly androgynous master of ceremonies and Sally Bowles, the lost, charming, foolish, expatriate who spent her nights working at the Kit Kat club, dreaming of a career in movies.

TheatreWorks New Milford has mounted its own version of the John Kander-Fred Ebb musical which is, I think, the best I have ever seen. Not only do Jakob Hofmann and Jude Calligros bring their own original and valid interpretations to those two roles, but under the leadership of director Brad Blake, the other characters are also developed and the moral and political interconnections of this study in decadence are made frighteningly and tragically real.

Kevin Cooper plays Clifford Bradshaw, the young writer who has come to Berlin in search of material for his novel. Bradshaw is struggling in many ways: with no money (in this era of the Great Depression) he needs a place where he can both live and earn a little bit giving English lessons. In addition, he is confused about his sexual orientation and unsure of what he wants.

Ernst Ludwig, a friendly German whom he meets on the train, is quick to help. Ludwig steers Bradshaw to Fraulein Schneider’s rooming house and introduces him to the Kit Kat Cabaret, where people go to drink and be entertained by the dancing girls and boys. It is here he becomes acquainted with the “star” of the show, Sally, and when she quarrels with her current “protector,” she moves in with Bradshaw at the rooming house.

Here the show is enriched by the presence of three supremely talented players: Jane Farnol as the middle-aged spinster Fraulein Schneider; Mark Feltch as Herr Schultz, the gentle widower who courts her; and Suzy Pettibone as the hard-boiled Fraulein Kost, who entertains an unending stream of sailors in her room. Not only do they have wonderful singing voices – Pettibone is an absolute show-stopper – but it is their acting which make their characters come to life.

If the Klub, with its emphasis on the pleasures of casual sex and cocaine, represents the moral decadence of Weimar Berlin, then the rooming house contains the hopes and fears of ordinary people who have hopes for the future. When Herr Schultz proposes to Fraulein Schneider, even the bitter Fraulein Kost is caught up in their happiness, and Cliff entertains the idea of marrying Sally (who is pregnant with somebody else’s baby) and becoming a family.

At first the Klub is just naughty, high spirited fun. Hofmann, Sally and the dancers perform a dazzling array of musical numbers, all of which make it seem like a pretty nice place to spend time.

However, as the play moves toward the second act, there is a sinister undercurrent of racism and cruelty. This is Germany, and Fascism is slowly gathering power. Swastikas appear. Dancing boys turn into street hoodlums. Herr Schultz is Jewish, and his engagement celebration is marred by a brick smashing through a window. Friendly Ernst Ludwig turns out to be a Nazi believer.

The chilling song with the beautiful melody “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” is begun by one person and gradually more and more of the others join in… raising their voices in the unofficial Nazi anthem, the song binding them together as a group and excluding those who are not members.

The painted face of the emcee becomes more ghastly and distorted. The atmosphere of sexual permissiveness which pervades the club turns into an acceptance of cruelty and brutality that would culminate in the crimes and persecutions that are now part of German history. The plot then turns on whether Sally can be persuaded to face the reality of what is happening around her, or will she be doomed to submerge herself in the escapist pretense that life is simply a “cabaret.”

Director Blake achieves all of this by making the most of all his cast, including the outrageously slinky Kit Kat dancers: Aynsley Bubbico, Lisa Golden, Vicki Haag, Deanna Rodrigues, Cathy Rose, Missy Slaymaker-Hanlon, Steve Oliveri and Alan Swinamer, as well as a six-piece band.

In his remarks in the playbill, TheatreWorks New Milford artistic director Bill Hughes states, “label us as you will, community, local, regional, amateur, for yes, in truth, it is done for the love of it. But money passing hands has always been a poor measurement of professionalism.

“This ensemble – on, off and backstage – has demonstrated a standard of dedication, creativity, growth, and egoless talent that would make many a ‘professional’ production pale by comparison.”

You better believe it! It may be too late to get tickets to Cabaret. I heard talk of the show being sold out already. But if you can possibly get them, do so! (but don’t take small children).

(Performances run to August 19. Call TheatreWorks’ box office at 860/350-6863)