Willkommen to Theatre Harrisburg’s 99th season opener: ze 12-time Tony-award winning musical “Cabaret.”
This cult classic, which dances brazenly on the steamier side of the tracks of mainstream society during pre-World War II Germany, reflects both the fatherland’s Nazi encroachment and the loosening societal mores in 1966, when the show first premiered.
Should you attend a cabaret (lowercase “c”), I hope you enjoy it for the fun variety show that it is. But this play, “Cabaret,” directed by Eris S. Mansilla, and based on memoirs of Christopher Isherwood, offers you something more—a rich noir about people thrown together during a politically turbulent time and place, economic uncertainties, complicated decisions and forbidden fruit.
Relish the irony of the inside of the Krevsky Center transforming itself into Berlin’s seedy Kit Kat Klub, its stage framed by a giant makeup mirror. Through the haze and pink light springs came forth the Master of Ceremonies (Keifer Kemmerly), a formally attired mime clown, ushering us through an evening of burlesque women bouncing their flesh under lingerie popular a century ago. Although the setting is barebones, the zeitgeist becomes a character in this story.
One of the headline acts is the hedonistic Sally Bowles (Maggie Elizabeth), a free spirit who surrounds herself with nothing she keeps around for very long. She decides to move in with someone she met at the club, Cliff Bradshaw (Tony Barber), an American author who tutors locals in speaking English. At first, he is a voyeur into this forbidden fringe. Then he finds himself embroiled inside it.
Cliff’s landlady, Fräulein Schneider (Tara Beitzel), is less than thrilled with his living arrangement. And she frowns on the horizontal dancer and campy comic relief, Fräulein Kost (Aubrey Kyler), who might as well employ a ticket taker outside her bedroom door for the sailors she services. But Fräulein Schneider is too preoccupied with her own suitor, Herr Schultz (José Solis Corps), to fixate on what her tenants are doing.
The dramatic (and a few humorous) scenes are punctuated with bawdy song-and-dance numbers, many recognizable today. Elizabeth owns her role, ba-boomping and va-vooming the audience through the sexy “Don’t Tell Mama,” the angry, crescendo-ing “Mein Herr,” the wistful “Maybe This Time,” and the signature song, “Cabaret.”
As the emcee, Kemmerly drives the mood with two catchy openers, “Willkomen,” and “Welcome to Berlin,” and the even catchier “Money,” which I am still humming. Insert lewd joke here. The funniest performance of the evening goes to Kemmerly with “If You Could See Her.” Another vulgar crack here. Then he brings the action to a downer of a denouement with the sobering “I Don’t Care Much,” followed by the “End of Show.”
Some of the most charming songs took place during the subplots. Beitzel delivers a strong and sensible mezzo-soprano with songs “So What” and “What Would You Do?” Corps joins her in a wunderbar accompaniment in “It Couldn’t Please Me More,” and his vulnerable, waltz-y proposal “Married,” along with other interlopers into their romantic arrangement.
The orchestra is beautiful. Music Director Mitchell C. Sensenig-Wilshire treats us to a score that feels like the bizzarro world’s “Lawrence Welk Show”: part oompa band, part polka, part big band, part vaudeville, part campy strip club, with all the feel of riding a carousel at a creepy carnival. The body positive dancing (Elizabeth Angelozzi, choreographer) is dirty, but also beautiful.
Although “Cabaret” is a cult classic, you don’t have to be part of the underground niche to enjoy its forbidden fruit. If you decide to cross the threshold of Krevsky’s Kit Kat Klub, you might want to leave your kinder at your haus due to discordant, complicated content. After all, you wouldn’t bring them to a jazz club, would you? And if you did, I would be giving you the side-eye and judging you throughout the entire show.
“Cabaret” runs through Sept. 22 at the Krevsky Center, 513 Hurlock St., Harrisburg. For more information on show times and tickets, visit https://theatreharrisburg.com/shows/cabaret/.
