By Katherine Beeson’
“Cabaret” is a multi-faceted, wonderful musical. Lake Country Players (LCP) opened their production Sept. 22 and used their tiny performance space to its full advantage. The staging was clever and minimalistic – and worked very well.
American Journalist Clifford Bradshaw comes to Berlin in the ominous times before World War II in order to write his novel. He meets British nightclub singer Sally Bowles and both their lives are shaken to the core by politics, professional and personal goals -- and a world about to change forever.
Sally works at the Kit Kat Club, where we encounter The Emcee. This role is one of the best characters ever to take the stage. People either remember Joel Grey as the tuxedoed host with sinister leanings or the more recent Broadway version with Alan Cumming as the raunchy Emcee with a tragic ending. Director
Kimberly Laberge went in a very different direction than either of these two representations.
LCP’s production stars Viktoria Feely as the host of the Kit Kat Club. When I read that this role was being played by a woman, I was intrigued to see what they were going to do.
Feely takes the stage as a very dominant, but definitely female presence. She wears heavy make-up, glittering earrings and a bustier with exposed cleavage; waist down, she sports metal chains, fishnet stockings and masculine boots. So while I’m really not sure of the reasons behind the dual sexuality, it does fit the mysterious aura that is The Emcee – and maybe that was the point after all. Feely, however, also brings a real anger to the role from the very beginning that belies her vocal invitation to “leave your troubles outside” and her description that here “life is beautiful.” The audience never has a chance to really enjoy the Kit Kat Club’s opening number “Willkommen” because Feely’s Nazi-like demeanor won’t let them do so. It seems like we were dominated by this ominous foreshadowing from the very beginning.
Laker Thrasher plays Sally Bowles in Lake Country Playhouse’s production of “Cabaret.”
The costumes of the club dancers also destroy the veneer and illusion that the Kit Kat Club is the place to enjoy a decadent, slightly-forbidden slice of life. They are tawdry, mismatched and often covered with odd see-through nightgowns or slips.
The role of Sally Bowles is played by Laker Thrasher, who, when compared to the Kit Kat Girls, appears more like a young Iowa farm girl than a sophisticated woman of the world. Her hair is simple with bangs falling in her eyes and she wears very little make-up. She never appears dressed as a true cabaret stage
star.
Both Feely and Thrasher have beautiful voices, but there was another staging choice here that marred their performances just a bit. Both singers dropped their volume so low at times that it became almost necessary to read their lips – and then just as quickly belted out their next line. The emotion or words did not justify this pattern and it really struck me as odd.
Maggie Wirth and Kyle Kramer play Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz in Lake Country Playhouse’s production of “Cabaret.”
A few of the Kit Kat Boys were played by women – also with female make-up, hair styles, fishnet stockings and cleavage. I understand very well that women play “pants” on stage when necessary, but I would rather see an attempt to portray them as the boys they are to be. It just didn’t fit.
The subplot in “Cabaret” is the shy love story between rooming house owner Fraulein Schneider (Maggie Wirth) and one of her tenants, grocer Herr Schultz (Kyle Kramer.) Wirth and Kramer shine in every scene they are in. Their songs are so sweet and touching and these actors have the audience in the palms of their hands. Kudos also to Anita Peña for her beautiful German rendition of “Married” during the proposal scene!
This show calls for the orchestra to be on stage for the entire time – and dressed to mirror the nightclub performers. Musical director (and conductor and pianist) Ashley Sprangers lined her costumed musicians against the back wall to conserve stage space yet delivered a full, rich musical production.
“Cabaret” productions have a number of options for ending the show and LCP presents a shorter, but rather powerful close to its story that affects the audience deeply.
Life will continue to be a “Cabaret” for the Lake Country Players through Oct. 9.