Cabaret is back on
Broadway in its third revival, now in previews inside Studio 54 tricked out as the Kit
Kat Club. Given the expense of tickets these days (which has well outpaced general
inflation), there are few shows that I will see twice, either in an initial
run or in a revival. There are a handful of exceptions, and this is one of
them. I didn’t see the original production in 1966, but I’ve seen the others
including, as of this past Tuesday, the current one.
Most people are familiar with Cabaret from the 1972 movie with Joel Grey and Liza Minelli, and
this is not a bad way to know it. (Personally, I’m not big on movie musicals – the
screen strikes me as the wrong medium for what is properly a live performance –
but this one directed by Bob Fosse is about as good as they come.) It is worth
catching on stage even so. Not only is it the right setting, but the play
benefits from a tighter, more compact book than the movie. The revival at Studio 54 has a fine cast in a solid
production. Set in a Berlin cabaret in the waning days of the Weimar Republic,
it subtly makes the point (along with broader unsubtle ones) that the rise of
Nazism, with all of its S&M aspects, was less a reaction to the decadence
of the period than an expression of it.
I did notice one difference between this production and
earlier ones: the difference was in the audience. I saw the play in the company
of a Millennial, who was polite enough to keep the smart phone inside her purse
where the light was invisible to anyone but herself. Nonetheless her fingers
continued to do the walking inside the purse. She was far from alone. Others
used coats in laps as phone shields. The couple in front of us used only cupped
hands as they read and sent texts. I have no idea how telephonic multitasking affects
one’s perception of performances like this – my companion for the evening
professed to love it. Well, the Kit Kat
Club had a phone on each table which allowed a patron to call interesting
people at other tables. The whole world is now a Kit Kat Club. Whether or not that is a sign of decadence I'll let the
reader judge.
Trailer for the 1972
film
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