“Cabaret,” based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by
Christopher Isherwood,directed by Raymond Hawthorne,Auckland Theatre
Company, at Sky City Theatre.
This has to be the musical for people who normally don’t like
musicals.Great script,great characters, great songs,great theatricality
in a setting that makes those with a penchant for the willing suspension
of disbelief feel entirely comfortable.It’s set in a cabaret, so of
course people are going to sing.
It also is a challenge for any production team.The track records of
previous productions for stage and film are littered with Tony and
Oscar awards, and deservedly so.Hard acts to follow.Pleased to report
Auckland Theatre Company came up trumps.
But first, for those not familiar,a Cabaret back grounder.The primary
material for the script comes from writer Christopher Isherwood’s
extended sojourn in 1930s Berlin up until and about the time when
Hitler first came to power. This was a period of huge political and
artistic ferment.It included the Bauhaus group of artists and teachers,
whose movement came head to head with the rise of the Nazis and suffered
withdrawal of funding and the infamous burning of books.
Isherwood was very much the detached observer and this is reflected in
the title of his play “I Am A Camera” based on his book “Goodbye to
Berlin” and other writings,which includes the novella “Sally Bowles,”
the basis for the main character,an extroverted English woman singer
and performer.
The refusal to accept the frightening idea that people can be controlled
and brainwashed into endorsing racial purity, and intolerance of any
sexual or moral deviations,sits underneath the happenings in Cabaret.The
cabarets of Berlin were often in building basements and allowed liberal
thought and behaviour that was antithetical to the Nazi regime.Some of
the performers and writers eventually paid with their lives for their
attacks on anti-semitism and right-wing politics.
The opening lines of the show have a certain relevant ring for 90s New
Zealand with rising student fees and debt,long hospital waiting
lists,high unemployment and crime and one electioneering political
party working the racial issue and promising to cut virtually all
funding for the arts.“Leave all your troubles outside,” urges the
Master of Ceremonies.The MC, an integral link both inside and outside
the action, was superbly realised by Ross Girven, and at the very least
matched Joel Grey’s Oscar winning performance.
Girven’s wicked and witty delivery sets the tone for the first of of
some excellent choreography(Vicky Haughton) in the dance sequences that
bring out all the sensuous and bawdy elements in a stunning and
original way. Not to mention the costuming(Elizabeth Whiting).Lots of
lovely leather and lace.And at last those midway jockey underpants come
into their own! So to speak. Oh gutsy glorious overt stuff.Hedonism has
its say and its day.
Fine work too from the five musicians suspended above the stage,at the
right volume and with some humour of their own. (The Hawaiian guitar
sound snuck in)
Another clever sound effect was the simple rustling of a brown paper
bag to accompany the soft shoe shuffle routine of the two oldest
characters in the show,Herr Schultz (George Henare at his best) and Frau
Schneider (Helen Medlyn in wonderful voice ).There were a lot of these
little touches that showed the experienced hand of director Raymond
Hawthorne.
Isherwood’s style of uninvolved recording and the German middleclass
silence neatly encaptured with the MC standing against the edge of the
stage,silent and watching, during the whole exchange between Jewish Herr
Schultz and his fiancee, landlady Frau Schneider.Very powerful. Not to
mention the cleverness of using a gorilla with some magic satirical
interaction in the song”If you could see her through my eyes.”
Not too sure about the large noses on the dancers in the song “Money “
though.Or the spotlight reflecting back into audiences eyes(well,where I
was sitting anyway) from the lowered large gilded mirrors in some
scenes. But these mere quibbles. Overall, the staging was dramatic and
fresh,making full use of the large Sky Theatre space available.Raymond
Hawthorne must feel well pleased with the final result at the sheer
energy and inspired performances from his cast that never descended into
one-dimensional parody,something that happens too often in musicals.
And the singing.Overheard at interval some discontent about Sophia
Hawthorne. Hey,if I want Covent Garden delivery,that’s where I’ll go.
For my money,the delivery was just right: strong and raucous, totally in
character with Sally Bowles who was no Kiri Te Kanawa. If she had been,
she would not have been performing in a seedy German nightclub night
after night.And I liked Hawthorne’s option for Sally.
Forceful,self-centred survivor, intuitively aware that “Life is a
Cabaret.”
This was a fine,funny,fast and engrossing production that certainly
banished the troubles for two hours. A fitting end to a very successful
ATC year.
Barry Southam
Caberet Review by Barry Southam