Civic Theatre goes to the 'Cabaret'
Group takes on challenge of darker musical
Thursday, June 9, 2005
BY JENN MCKEE
Set in 1930s Berlin - a time when the freedoms of the Weimar Republic clashed with the rise of Nazism - the show tells the story of nightclub singer Sally Bowles, who becomes involved with American novelist Cliff Bradshaw; and her landlady, Fraulein Schneider, who's in love with a German Jew named Herr Schultz.
"The show always intrigued me," said director Chris O'Brien. "I've always liked what it had to say ... the richness of the characters, the depth of the characters. It's easy to focus on the music, and not as much on the book, but I feel a great responsibility toward the show and the issues we're dealing with."
Political apathy is one such issue, and although O'Brien hoped to stage the show last fall, at the time of the presidential election, he said, "I think it's just as timely after the election."
Those familiar with the show, of course, know that it's darker than much of the American musical theater that preceded it in the 1960s, and some of the characters are deeply flawed. This presented actress January Provenzola with a real challenge.
"I saw the Broadway revival, and I walked away just thinking, 'Oh, my God, (Sally)'s awful,'" said Provenzola, who plays Sally in A2CT's production. "So Chris and I had a lot of conversations about how we could make her not horrible - make her someone you feel sorry for in the end. So you can see that she's made these bad choices, but you don't necessarily hate her as a person."
Provenzola had been so turned off by the character that when she auditioned, she didn't list Sally as a desired role. Nonetheless, O'Brien cast her as the lead. "She opened her mouth, and what came out was beautiful," said O'Brien. "And she's an incredible - I don't want to use the word 'dancer,' but she has incredible physicality that just stands out."
O'Brien also thought Provenzola's deep-seated resistance to the character might actually turn out to be an advantage. "(Sally) has the song 'Maybe This Time,' which is accentuating all these choices," said O'Brien. "Maybe she'll make the right one - she never does, never seems to, but she's trying. ... I thought that (Provenzola) could do that, given her concerns about the character."
Karl Kasischke, who plays Cliff, has faced a very different sort of challenge. "With Cliff, it's hard because he's just ... in the background, watching everything," said Kasischke. "As an actor playing the character, it's hard to compete with Sally and the M.C., because they're out there doing all the singing, all the dancing, and so the way I'm playing Cliff ... is trying to make him a little more intelligent than just the guy in the corner watching everything and going along with whatever. And bring some more of my natural humor to it."
Kasischke had no previous knowledge of the show before auditioning, so after he was cast, he rented the 1972 Bob Fosse-directed film version, starring Liza Minelli and Michael York. But what he saw was significantly different from the stage version.
In addition to reversing Sally and Cliff's nationalities - in the play, Sally's English and Cliff is American - the film takes a number of other liberties. "A lot of the songs that are used strongly for exposition in the (play's) script are played on a phonograph in the film, without even the lyrics included," said O'Brien. "So, I think - obviously, it's an amazing film, but I do think there are incredible differences in the stage version and the film version. And I think it's worth seeing both, especially if you like one or the other, just to discover those differences."
The romance between Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz, for example, is not a part of the film. Yet from O'Brien's point of view, that love story is the heart of the musical's book. "I think the end result resonates much more strongly when you sort of follow their path as well (as Cliff and Sally's)," said O'Brien. "I think when you're talking about characters like Cliff and Sally, it's a little more of that party life - a semi-hedonistic existence. But these are two people (Schultz and Schneider) who are representing real people to a lot of us."
So although audience members will likely have more familiarity with Fosse's movie than the stage play, O'Brien aspires to capture them nonetheless. "My hope is that even after the first couple of scenes, that they'll realize that it's just a different path," said O'Brien.
And regarding the show's adult themes and numbers, he said, "I wouldn't say we've tamed it down. What I would say is we're just being very, very true to what we're doing. We're not doing anything just for the sake of titillation."
Perhaps not, but the Kit Kat Klub is inevitably where unbridled sexuality and politics meet, so the story's myriad layers and complexities run deep. "There is so much in this script," said O'Brien. "There is just so much there that I'm amazed that people tackle this."
Jenn McKee can be reached at
(734) 994-6841 or jmckee@annarbornews.com.