Cabaret

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

Welcome to the Kit Kat Club, where the girls are beautiful, the orchestra is beautiful, and the people are beautiful.

Joanie Brosseau-Beyette as Rosie, Scott Beyette as Frenchie, Shelly Cox-Robie as Fritzi, Brian Mallgrave as The Emcee, Cindy Lawrence ans Helga, Lea Champman as Texas, and Steven Cogswell as Lulu in Cabaret at Boulder’s Dinner Theatre.

Close, but beautiful isn’t exactly the word. It’s an illusion. At the time, however, an illusion greatly needed.

Boulder’s Dinner Theatre’s current production of Cabaret is awesome, mind boggling, thrilling, poignant, shattering, tender, and heartbreaking. All at once; moment by moment.

It’s pre-WWII Germany, The Weimar Republic crumbles, and the Nazis skillfully plot against the Communists. Jobs are difficult to come by. People are hungry, mostly unaware of the corruption eating at their souls.

The Kit Kat Girls are there because they are deadened to any other possibilities. The Kit Kat Boys are there for some action. And that’s all that matters.

Lurking behind the gaudy, brash makeup and the revealing costume, the Emcee, through his eyes knows something he dare not tell. Brian Malgrave erupts in this sizzling character with shattering life. His animated words speak one truth, while his eyes belie the verbal message.

Into this world comes a writer from the states, living on a shoestring, looking for inspiration. Clifford Bradshaw is his name, with actor John Scott Clough providing credibility. On the train, Ernest Ludwig, a salesman of sorts, befriends him. A salesman, indeed. A.K. Klimpke oils his way with frightening slickness to prey on the naive.

Stirring Clifford to a cheap boarding house, he meets proprietor Fraulein Schneider, warmly and cunningly played by Barb Reeves Kuepper. As Herr Schultz, owner of small grocery store, Wayne Kennedy melts the heart. Warm, tender, shy and very much in love with Schneider, he brings her hard to come by fruit. Kuepper and Kennedy expose heartfelt moments in the alarming scenario growing beneath their feet.

It’s a joyous occasion when Schneider agrees to marry Schultz. It’s heart wrenching as she realizes the impossible in the midst of the improbable. He’s Jewish. No matter who commands, her boarding house comes first. He doesn’t understand. He’s first and foremost German. What does being Jewish have to do with anything?

The Emcee’s impetuous song “If You Could See Her” drives home the point while dancing with a gorilla. Brian Jackson hides in the gorilla suit. Hilarious? Yes. Disconcerting? It should be. A major theme threaded throughout: why can’t people live and let live?

Alicia Dunfee allows the carefree, wild spirited Sally Bowles spring to life. Survival is the name of her game. Survival and having fun. Dunfee who also choreographed the show gives awesome punch to the devil-may-care Kit Kat headliner. With charming wiles, Sally wraps Clifford around her little finger.

The Kit Kat girls played by Joanie Brosseau Beyette, Steven Cogswell, Scott Beyette, Lea Chapman, Shelly Cox-Robie, and Cindy Lawrence furnish knock out performances. Of course, they’re sleazy. Of course, they’re sexy. That’s their life.

The Kit Kat Boys: Bobby, Victor, Hans, and Herman scrumptiously articulate another hiding place to let it all hang out. Dangling the life force in desperation are Brian Norber, Scott Severtson, Brian Jackson, and DP Perkins.

Bren Eyestone Burron deliciously plays Fraulein Kost, a prostitute in Schneider’s boarding house. She likes the service boys, working overtime in her attempt to convince Schneider they are visiting cousins. Burron has remarkable talent with her eyes. She plays the role with humor without running away with comedic overtones, granting Kost juicy believability.

Whereas some productions of Cabaret water down the story line to make it palatable for conservative patrons, Director Michael Duran resolved to go for broke, to show what life was like, to dig behind the rhyme and reason for the sleaze. Cabaret remains as powerful today as when written in the 60s. With eye popping costumes designed by Linda Morkin, unnerving scenarios, tender love stories going nowhere, human nature does what human nature has to do: survive.

With a dazzling set designed by Melissa Schrank, and remarkable orchestra conducted by Neal Dunfee in full sight, this production needs to be on the must experience list. The actors are breathtaking. The story reveals what happened, and could happen again given the right circumstances. For the conservative bent, stretch your wings, close your eyes if you have to, but listen to the stories until they’re heard.