Cabaret

Currently on at the Phoenix theatre at Deakin University is BuSTCo’s production of Cabaret!

Cabaret is a musical theatre classic by the renowned writers Kander and Ebb, which ran for 1,165 performances in its original Broadway production. Cabaret has had two revivals, one in 1988 starring the same Emcee “Joel Grey” as the 1960’s version, and most recently in 1998 directed by Sam Mendes.  Each of these revivals contains different songs and BuSTCo’s Cabaret, Co directed by Greta Georgiou and Michael Brasser, was mostly the same as the 1988 version.                                                                     

The story of Cabaret is centred on events at the Kit Kat Club in Berlin Germany, shortly before the rise of the Nazi party and World War 2. The two main roles, the Emcee and Sally Bowles famously played by Joel Grey and Liza Minnelli in the film version, are two of the most sought after roles in music theatre.

The lighting for this production was inventive and for the most part well executed, however there were times actors were found outside  of some really interesting lighting states but seeing as it was only their second night, I’m willing to be forgiving. 

The overall look of the costumes was quite effective being reminiscent of the recent Sam Mendes production, although I was quite disappointed with the finishings on most of Sally’s dresses.

The sets were minimal but not inappropriately so and when the stage crew speed up their set changes that will improve the flow of the show. I wouldn’t normally mention the props of a show, but wanted to say that on a whole the props were good, but when using such a small theatre it isn’t the best idea to try and fob off an Australian passport as that from another country, the big “AUSTRALIA” in gold writing on the front of it gave it away!

This cast is not without talent, Rose Cavanagh (Sally Bowles) was a delight to watch on stage, has a lovely voice, and acted her way well though the scenes. Not that it is within her control but this version of Cabaret does not have some of the audience favourites in it and was missing “Mein Heir” and “Maybe This Time” so the audience doesn’t really get attached to Sally, resulting in a real lack of pathos when Sally and Cliff’s relationship breaks up. Maybe this was testament to Rose but I wanted to see more of her!

The role of Cliff was taken by Matt Bond. Matt acted the part very well, but unfortunately his singing let him down a little. The Emcee was performed with commitment by Shane Savage. He didn't have the strongest voice and it was quite pitchy at times but he covered it well. He had that odd sex appeal Emcee’s should have and handled the scenes and songs well with the skills he had. 

Lucy Brown took on the sometimes forgotten role (because it’s not in the movie) of “Frauline Schnider” (as spelled in the program!). Lucy had a bit of a rocky start to the show, looking like she forgot some lines and fumbling her way into her first song “So What?” but after this initial stumble she became one of my favourites on stage. Besides being far too young for the role, she handled it very well.  Lucy has a strong voice, which was only fully realised in the best song of the night, “What Would You Do?” Her offsider Herr Schultz played by Steven Smith was well characterised and sung, the two were quite endearing together.

The ensemble did quite well, the Kit Kat girls had some quite complex dances to do, Catherine Spanti’s (Texas) flexibility amazed me and Kaela Brushet  (Lulu) was a standout.  Kaela performed some very grand moves well and was great to watch. This indicated that Felicity Bender the choreographer used the skills of her dancers well.

Cabaret is a very complex musical piece, and should not be entered into lightly by a director and unfortunately this is where this production was let down, scenes were slow, blocked poorly and lacked shape. In Cabaret the musical numbers either progress the story line (“So what?”, “Perfectly Marvellous”) or are making a comment on the previous scene’s issue ( “The Money Song”, ”If You Could See Her”). In this production most of the commenting numbers could have been from a random concert.“The Money Song” looked like it should have come from 42nd Street rather than Cabaret! 

The show was incredibly slow (1^st act lasted about two hours) and  this was highlighted musically in “Perfectly Marvellous”, the songs lack of pace and bubble took all the fun out of the number. The entire purpose of songs and scenes were lost, causing the audience not to connect with characters or their plights and without that what’s the purpose of the show? 

On the whole the musical director Samuel Boon did a good job. There were some pitch issues with the trumpet, he could have been braver with the tempi and “Tomorrow Belongs To Me” was more than a little bit of a train wreck with both the band and the male ensemble. 

As I stated earlier Felicity did a good job with the choreography using her dancers well, but for some felt the production over choreographed, especially at the engagement party.

I wish the best for the cast and crew for the rest of their season.

Bustco’s Cabaret runs until the 21^st August at the Phoenix Theatre, Deakin University, Burwood.

More details can be found on our ‘What’s On’ page.

Bryce started singing at age 9 with the Victorian Boys Choir, and started performing in theatre when he was 15, performing with companies such as CLOC and Whitehorse. Bryce has choreographed productions for Night Owl and musically directed a pantomime for Whitehorse.  He’s studied Musical theatre and theatre at multiple universities around Australia and performed professionally with The Production Company, Magnormos, Nickelodeon, Disney and Opera Australia.