Cabaret

Synopsis

Based on the play by John van Druten and the original stories by Christopher Isherwood. Set in late thirties Berlin. Cabaret first came to the stage in New York in 1966 and became a hit film with Liza Minnelli and Michael York in 1972. The story tells of American cabaret singer Sally Bowles, impoverished writer Cliff Bradshaw and their friends Frauline Schneider and Herr Schultz along with a host of divinely decadent characters whose lives are described by the Emcee. Their dreams for the future are finally shattered as their lives are inexorably drawn towards the horrors of World War II.

Our Review:

30 April 2007

Don’t tell momma, but six months after opening in Shaftesbury Avenue, Cabaret has suddenly become dark, daring and dangerous to know. Whether it’s because director Rufus Norris and choreographer Javier de Frutos (who won an Olivier for his work here) have tightened-up their original staging, or because of the sight of fresh and feisty Kim Medcalf as the new Sally Bowles wearing the frilly pants and snorting nose-loads of illegal substances, the show still avoids the familiar Bob Fosse/Liza Minnelli comfort zone and has taken on a new, startling edginess that blows the mind and tugs the heartstrings.

In a production that was always in danger of allowing the overall concept to run away with the familiar Kander and Ebb tunes, ex-EastEnder Medcalf holds the show together, giving unexpected West End vocal clout to her routines at Berlin’s Kit Kat Klub, where Nazis and naked bums make happy bedfellows. Compared to Anna Maxwell Martin, whose Sally w...

Read more of the review

Latest User Review

Jennifer L Bostock - 19 June 2008:

Chilling - saw this production yesterday having seen Cabaret many times i thought i'd seen it all. I was wrong. This innovative and imaginative staging of this classic musical sheds new light, or perhaps new darkness, on what i thought the narrative was about. Yes it'a about the glitz, glamour and seediness of the 1930's pre war Berlin cabaret scene, yes it's about great show stopping songs and raunchy racey dancing, and yes it's about the rise and fear of fascism. But what i realised, for the first time, that it is really about is the Denial - the kit kat club's smokey insular atomosphere combined with the singluar selfishness and sadness of Sally Bowles, is the perfect metaphor for the denial of the horror of nazism that many 'ordinary' Berliners faced in the run up to the war. The staging, spine chilling songs and the menacing Emcee have radicalised both the show and indeed the Cabaret. I can't believe it's closing - what has one to do to keep a show on in the West end today?...

Read more and add your own review