By Chuck Graham, TucsonStage.com
photo by Tim Fuller
The Emcee (Sean Patrick Doyle) and Sally Bowles (Madison Micucci) tantalize all tastes in ATC's "Cabaret"
Anger is the new laughter in “Cabaret,” given a bristling political interpretation by director Sara Bruner and forcefully presented by the Arizona Theatre Company.
Like no other version of the famed Broadway classic that has played Tucson in the last 40 years, this “Cabaret” is not about the fun. Bruner never wants you to forget the burgeoning Nazi threat tugging on the sleeve of everyone we meet – from the heartbreaking November romance of Fraulein Schneider (Lori Wilner) and Herr Shultz (David Kelly) to the show business obsessed Sally Bowles (Madison Micucci) to, of course, the sexually voracious and versatile Emcee (Sean Patrick Doyle).
All have deeply different reasons for ignoring the reality of a looming war propelled by the growing popularity of the Nazi party in a sinking German economy in 1931.
If you are among the millions who love the traditional Broadway “Cabaret” with its peppy Sally Bowles as defined by Liza Minnelli in the 1972 film, please know this ATC version is nothing like that.
The story is still the same, the songs are still the same, all the singers have excellent voices, but the new emphasis is on reminding every audience how an equally ominous political threat right now could be rising outside ATC's very own theater.
Not that there's anything wrong with that. Just be ready.
The stage setting, designed by Kris Stone, is full of pipes, walkways and dangling wires, suggesting the backstage bones of an imminent scene change. Splashes of real walls, furniture, etc, are moved on and off stage as the story progresses.
Be sure to take your seat before the play begins, because that legendary “Willkommen! Bienvenu! Welcome!” introduction to the Kit Kat Klub, filled with more different kinds of sexual innuendo than is listed in Webster's dictionary, is the best part.
Doyle's singing and prancing is complemented by a hearty lineup of chorus girls flaunting every manner of undress, eager to sing along and help you out. The Emcee makes perfectly clear he is capable of enjoying all the dishes on this long menu of salacious appetites.
The energy he projects creates a rushed feeling that time is running out for all the perverts thronging to Berlin.
Unfortunately, this unabashed enthusiasm for decadence doesn't re-appear in subsequent dance numbers set in the Kit Kat Klub. Everybody is moving around quickly enough and everything, but...well, the Nazis are coming and, um....you know.
Sally's heartbeat hopeful Clifford Bradshaw (Brandon Espinoza), the young American just arrived in Berlin seeking inspiration to finish writing his novel, plays out his role as the canary in the coal mine, shouting for Sally to wake up and forget about her Kit Kat Klub career.
Maybe it's just the way Bruner as director shifts around the emotional emphasis of different scenes, but in this “Cabaret” the most touching love song of longing belongs – not to Sally with “Maybe This Time” – but to matronly Fraulein Schneider sacrificing her happiness for safety in such vulnerable times, singing “What Would You Do?”
That song title is a question that does linger, long after the show is over.
"Cabaret" continues through Dec. 29 at the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave., with performances at various times Tuesdays through Sundays. Tickets are $50-$80. For details and reservations, 520-622-2823, or visit arizonatheatre.org
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