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Oct. 26th, 2016 03:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
disneydream06Sunday I went up to Minneapolis to see the musical Cabaret.
The production starred Randy Harrison. He played Justin in the American version of Queer as Folk.
I got to the theater and yes, I hit the souvenir stand. I picked up a tshirt, program, and a book that is about the making of the show Cabaret. I think it's the making of the show from the very beginning and not just this production.
I found my seat. I was in row E seat 18. I was three seats from the stage right side of the theater. My ticket was at least half the price of just a few seats over because it had "blocked views". It was actually very little blocked views. I am pretty sure I missed nothing in the story. I think there was more of a blocked view from how the actors were occasionally blocked in the show then from the view of the stage. lol...
Randy Harrison played the Emcee of the show and he was really quite good. He's still quite the cutie even in his stage makeup. lol...
I should say, before I get too far, I have a CD copy of the cast album of the revival starring Alan Cummings and Natasha Richardson, and I truly love that version of the show. So to see a new revival of the show with different actors, I may be a little tainted in my review.
Anyway, Randy was really quite good. Not Alan Cummings, but really good. He was a little hard to understand in song "Money". Not sure if the music was just too loud or what the problem was. Occasionally he was lost in applause as one scene was finishing and the next one was starting. Not sure if he was jumping the gun or he was directed to start that quickly.
Andrea Goss played Sally Bowles. She was good, but she's no Natasha Richardson, who is sadly no longer with us. I am guessing that Ms. Goss is not British as her accent wasn't the most consistent.
Mary Gordon Murray who played Fraulein Schneider was okay, but I really much preferred the lady from the cast album. I don't know if she didn't have the strongest singing voice or if she was directed this way, but a fair portion of her songs seemed to be more spoken then song.
Maybe I should back up just a wee bit for those of you who might not be so theater inclined, the story of Cabaret takes place, I believe in the 1920s Germany, just as the Nazis are coming to power. It tells the story of an American writer who goes to Berlin to write a book. He goes to the Kit Kat Club and meets Sally Bowles, and English girl who is working at the club as a singer. She ends up moving in with him, and they fall for each other. The Nazis begin their power grab and everything falls apart. That's the short view.
I saw a production of Cabaret many years go in a small theater out in Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I remember it being really good. Then I got the cast album and loved that. So I was thrilled to get the chance to see it again, and also to be able to see Randy Harrison on stage.
Back to the new production, I think it's been Gayed up a bit. Cliff, the American writer, at first appears to be gay. He apparently had a fling with one of the Cabaret boys while they were both in London. But he starts to room with Sally, and they proceed to fall for each other.
The end of the show makes a very powerful statement in my opinion.
The Nazis have taken over. Life in Germany is no long gay, with a small "G".
The Emcee comes out in his trademark leather jacket and asks Where are your trouble now? Life is beautiful, and he is slowly unbuttoning his jacket. The girls are beautiful, another button. The orchestra is beautiful. You can hear them playing, but when their curtain is lifted, all their chairs are empty. The emcee removes his jacket and he is wearing striped "pajamas" with a yellow star and a pink triangle. The cast is lined up across the stage behind him. The back wall of the stage is lit up with white lights. The emcee lifts his arms and begins shaking and the back wall lights begin flashing. It's as though he is being electrocuted or something. Then the stage goes dark.
A VERY intense ending to the show.
To get all political on you and bring things to modern times, PLEASE know who you are voting for.
Sorry if that got a little long winded. :)
The production starred Randy Harrison. He played Justin in the American version of Queer as Folk.
I got to the theater and yes, I hit the souvenir stand. I picked up a tshirt, program, and a book that is about the making of the show Cabaret. I think it's the making of the show from the very beginning and not just this production.
I found my seat. I was in row E seat 18. I was three seats from the stage right side of the theater. My ticket was at least half the price of just a few seats over because it had "blocked views". It was actually very little blocked views. I am pretty sure I missed nothing in the story. I think there was more of a blocked view from how the actors were occasionally blocked in the show then from the view of the stage. lol...
Randy Harrison played the Emcee of the show and he was really quite good. He's still quite the cutie even in his stage makeup. lol...
I should say, before I get too far, I have a CD copy of the cast album of the revival starring Alan Cummings and Natasha Richardson, and I truly love that version of the show. So to see a new revival of the show with different actors, I may be a little tainted in my review.
Anyway, Randy was really quite good. Not Alan Cummings, but really good. He was a little hard to understand in song "Money". Not sure if the music was just too loud or what the problem was. Occasionally he was lost in applause as one scene was finishing and the next one was starting. Not sure if he was jumping the gun or he was directed to start that quickly.
Andrea Goss played Sally Bowles. She was good, but she's no Natasha Richardson, who is sadly no longer with us. I am guessing that Ms. Goss is not British as her accent wasn't the most consistent.
Mary Gordon Murray who played Fraulein Schneider was okay, but I really much preferred the lady from the cast album. I don't know if she didn't have the strongest singing voice or if she was directed this way, but a fair portion of her songs seemed to be more spoken then song.
Maybe I should back up just a wee bit for those of you who might not be so theater inclined, the story of Cabaret takes place, I believe in the 1920s Germany, just as the Nazis are coming to power. It tells the story of an American writer who goes to Berlin to write a book. He goes to the Kit Kat Club and meets Sally Bowles, and English girl who is working at the club as a singer. She ends up moving in with him, and they fall for each other. The Nazis begin their power grab and everything falls apart. That's the short view.
I saw a production of Cabaret many years go in a small theater out in Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I remember it being really good. Then I got the cast album and loved that. So I was thrilled to get the chance to see it again, and also to be able to see Randy Harrison on stage.
Back to the new production, I think it's been Gayed up a bit. Cliff, the American writer, at first appears to be gay. He apparently had a fling with one of the Cabaret boys while they were both in London. But he starts to room with Sally, and they proceed to fall for each other.
The end of the show makes a very powerful statement in my opinion.
The Nazis have taken over. Life in Germany is no long gay, with a small "G".
The Emcee comes out in his trademark leather jacket and asks Where are your trouble now? Life is beautiful, and he is slowly unbuttoning his jacket. The girls are beautiful, another button. The orchestra is beautiful. You can hear them playing, but when their curtain is lifted, all their chairs are empty. The emcee removes his jacket and he is wearing striped "pajamas" with a yellow star and a pink triangle. The cast is lined up across the stage behind him. The back wall of the stage is lit up with white lights. The emcee lifts his arms and begins shaking and the back wall lights begin flashing. It's as though he is being electrocuted or something. Then the stage goes dark.
A VERY intense ending to the show.
To get all political on you and bring things to modern times, PLEASE know who you are voting for.
Sorry if that got a little long winded. :)
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Date: 2016-10-26 11:52 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2016-10-26 07:00 pm (UTC)HUGS
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Date: 2016-10-29 04:15 pm (UTC)After all, he is gay. :p
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Date: 2016-10-29 10:16 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2016-10-27 05:50 am (UTC)so nice that the blocked view wasn't all that blocked and you had a great time
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Date: 2016-10-27 02:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-10-27 04:05 pm (UTC)this was t-shirt nr 433 I'm sure
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Date: 2016-10-30 08:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-10-27 06:41 am (UTC)As you said, this revival of a revival of a revival by Round About Theater Company is definitely not the same version as the 1972 movie. I read where Bob Fosse didn't think dark and depressive themes had any business in a Broadway play, and he made the movie much more upbeat than the original source material is. Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall went back to Joe Masteroff's book and did their version from it. The Nazi takeover of Berlin and the Holocaust are the main themes of this version. You got the exact right impression from the last second of the production - instead of succumbing to being herded into the gas chamber, the Kit Kat Klub's emcee (who is revealed to be a Jew and gay by the yellow star and pink triangle on his prison camp uniform) stays true to his rebellious nature to the very end and throws himself on the electric fence surrounding the camp. Most of the time, the audience sits in stunned silence for 5 to 10 seconds in the final blackout, not sure what they've just witnessed at first and then crushed by the reality of what happened to these people at the hand of Hitler. Randy has said more than once that he loves it when the house is silent for a long time at the end because he likes to set the audience up all during the performance to think his role is all fun and games and then abruptly turn the tables on them and shock the hell out of them.
Alan Cumming was totally great in the role on Broadway for all those years and won a lot of Tonys for it, but I'm curious to know what you thought of Randy's voice. I do know what you mean during 'Money.' The lyrics are so fast, and the orchestra does pretty much drown him out. It's really difficult to hear what he's singing for both verses. Every theater I saw it in had the same audio problems during that number. But tell me what you thought of 'I Don't Care Much.' That whole scene with Randy in drag is my fave. ♥
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Date: 2016-10-27 02:34 pm (UTC)I am trying to remember, I don't think I had any issues during I Don't Care Much.
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Date: 2016-10-27 08:42 pm (UTC)*hugs*
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Date: 2016-10-30 02:52 pm (UTC):-o
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Date: 2016-10-30 03:17 pm (UTC)LOL..........
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Date: 2016-10-30 04:02 pm (UTC)