Cabaret (Birmingham & tour)

I love a Cabaret. The gaudy, decadent razzmatazz of underground 1930s Berlin drawn into warped focus by the deathly external corrosion of Nazism. Not many people have made a song and dance out of world war and genocide, but the contrast between the internal, careless hedonism and external brutal regime has always made this a striking and deeply affecting story.

Birmingham Rep’s production does both sides of the coin well. There’s a real sense of show about it; this is a company that knows how to work its theatrical machinery. The set, lighting, costumes are glitzy and seedy all at once, and with an impeccable live orchestra and top-class dancers employed, the musical numbers are suitably show-stopping. I’d Do Anything’s Samantha Barks as Sally Bowles proves her theatrical worth by singing everybody off the stage; although clearly can’t dance to save her life. There is, however, enough razzle-dazzle from choreographer Javier de Frutos of both props and people to gloss over this matter in a swirl of spinning stairs and snapping suspenders.

As well as a singer that can’t dance they also seem to somehow manage to pull off a dancer who can’t sing; Wayne Sleep as Emcee offers some pretty dodgy notes with an equally dubious German accent; but then Emcee is supposed to be small and weird, and Sleep is, well, suitably small and weird. He also makes a number of well-directed self-deprecating jokes and gives us a few twirls, so all is forgiven.

The darker side comes across well also; with an excellent performance from Karl Moffatt as ‘friendly’ Nazi Ernst Ludwig, and an increasingly cruel Nazi presence throughout the more menacing second half until the stark destructive nightmare of the final scenes. One of the most affecting moments of the play comes at the very end; where as the curtain falls we see a group of people, naked and crouching together, a portent of what is to come for the Jews in the gas chambers of the concentration camps. It’s the same members of the cast that were Kit Kat Klub performers previously; their nudity once saucy and entertaining, here it’s shockingly vulnerable and horrific.

There’s another significant contrast in the story; the fragile private lives of two couples that make up the bulk of the plot existing in the swirl of global political events. The delirious relationship between English showgirl Sally Bowles and American writer Cliff Bradshaw disintegrates alongside the more poignant relationship of old widow Fraulein Schneider and German Jew Herr Schultz; the former under the weight of personality differences, the latter under the weight of more harrowing socio-political differences.

It is in the telling of the more personal story that this production falls short. There isn’t quite the depth of feeling displayed that there could be; possibly due to a relatively inexperienced cast in some cases. Sally Bowles, for example, is quite a character to take on for a stage debut – particularly when there’s always Minelli to be held up against. That said, Barks’ rendition of the title song is a tremendous highlight; a brilliant, messed-up mixture of determination and desperation from someone trying to forget that the glitzy world around her is slowly crumbling.

– Fiona Handscomb