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 Touring Cabaret Reviews (2013.), all the latest reviews from the touring of Cabaret |
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 24th September 2013, 08:58 PM
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#21
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 Right in front of my salad?!
Pronouns: he/him
Joined: 7 March 2006 Posts: 82,478 User: 12 
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QUOTE(truly talented @ Sep 24 2013, 08:57 AM)  Thanks Matt. Did you enjoy the show? Very much so - ended up seeing it twice (Wednesday and Friday). Will was amazing - his voice was so haunting at the end of the show (such a poignant and disturbing ending) yet he managed the right balance of disturbed/funny as well. |
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25th September 2013, 11:41 AM
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#22
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 Meeeeeeeeeeeeeow
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It's great you got to see the show Jester, not only once but twice.
 I haven't been able to see it, and from all the great reviews the show has had (and I haven't read one bad one) I've obviously missed out on something terrific. Never mind, I'm just so glad that it's worked out so well for Will.
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25th September 2013, 01:04 PM
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#23
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BuzzJack Legend
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Glad you were impressed Matt.
Though Will's own music will always come first for me, I must concur with many of the reviews that he was born to play this part. |
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2nd October 2013, 10:17 AM
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#24
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BuzzJack Legend
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QUOTE Eastbourne. http://15minutesonline.com/NewTSNWP/review...tre-eastbourne/Over the years I have seen many productions of Cabaret, including a rare opportunity to see Joel Grey in a production in Boston, Massachusetts in the 1980′s, and I admit that, even before witnessing this version, I was quite a fan of this show. Having now witnessed Will Young and a stellar cast in Bill Kenwright’s most recent incarnation of the piece, I am even more of a fan than ever. The musical is set in 1930′s Berlin, just before the Second World War and it gives an insight into the rather decadent German cabaret scene of the time and its downturn once the Nazi Party came to power. We learn of the everyday problems of some of the minority groups living in Nazi Germany, in particular the Jewish and the Gay communities, and the vast contrast between “normal life” during the day and the “dream world” of Cabaret Clubs like the Kit Kat Club at night. This production went on a short UK tour prior to its West End run and as a result the set is quite simple, and clearly designed for a touring production, but that doesn’t take anything away from the show itself. The set changes are quick and slick and, as Cabaret has a strong theme and a good storyline, it doesn’t need huge sets to work. Will Young takes on the, quite difficult part, of the Emcee, a role that is, for the most part, hilariously over the top and an extreme contrast to the serious undertones of the show. I have to admit that my expectation was that Will Young would be outstanding and, to be totally honest, I wasn’t entirely convinced by his portrayal in parts of Act One however, in Act Two he seemed to be a lot more comfortable and he managed to amaze me with the range of emotion his Emcee displayed. He has a fantastic voice, probably one of the very best around right now, which suits the songs perfectly. He is particularly strong in his solo numbers, “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” and the, originally cut but now re-instated, “I Don’t Care Much”. Matt Rawle is a convincing Cliff Bradshaw. His highly charged and emotional performance as the struggling writer is marred only by the fact that we only get to hear him sing twice, and both of those numbers are in the first half, but at least that gives him plenty of time to be one of the central characters as the storyline moves on in Act Two. With the unenviable task of stepping into a role made so famous by Liza Minnelli, Siobhan Dillon plays Sally Bowles, the female lead of the show. Her third place position in the Andrew Lloyd Webbers’s TV search, “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria” was the perfect springboard to a West End career, but it is her huge talent that keeps her at the very top of her profession as she belts out such standards as “Mein Herr”, “Maybe This Time” and, of course, “Cabaret” Valerie Cutko gives a superb performance as Fraulein Kost, a “working girl” with a penchant for young sailors. With her incredibly tall and slinky figure she easily envelopes the semi naked young men with whom she is acting, like a Preying Mantis going in for the kill and, particularly in Act Two, delivers some of the show’s most understated comedic lines. I was amazed to see the familiar name of Lyn Paul as Fraulein Schneider. Being old enough to remember her tremendous success with the New Seekers, and still remembering ALL the words to that fizzy drink advert that turned into a massive hit – selling well over 20 million copies, it was a delight to hear that her voice is still as strong and melodic as ever. Her tenderly affectionate scenes with Linal Haft, as Jewish grocer Herr Shultz, are simply magical and her sadness as her life falls apart when the Nazi Party take over is palpable. The cabaret boys and girls work extremely hard throughout the show and, despite their heavy workload, they still manage to exude bucket loads of sexuality and sensuality as they cavort around the stage, in the minimum of clothing, giving a real sense of the sexual freedom and decadent lifestyle of the era. This production, quite literally, hits all the right notes and, as the standing ovation at the curtain calls proves, is a tremendous hit with the entire audience, but do be prepared for the heavy sexual overtones and the nudity in the piece. 5***** QUOTE Anyone thinking that Cabaret is a glitzy musical, all sequins and hoofers, should bowl down to Eastbourne for this breathtaking show. Not a new production but a new company and an energy that takes it to an extraordinary level. Writers Kander and Ebb are at their very best in Cabaret, brilliant songs and simply beautiful lyrics that make the whole all the more poignant. In less able hands of course it does become a string of flashy numbers (a bit like the very disappointing film) but with a company as strong as this it cannot fail to move you. Star billing goes to a very deserving Will Young who makes the role of emcee his very own, sinister and camp, and all sung with confidence and clarity, a real star performance. The principle roles are all first class but top marks to Lyn Paul who again shows that she is a first lady of the musical stage. The Congress Theatre, Eastbourne, 1 October 2013 Rating: 5***** Andrew Kay http://thelatest.co.uk/brighton/2013/10/02/cabaret/ This post has been edited by truly talented: 2nd October 2013, 10:22 AM |
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2nd October 2013, 12:47 PM
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#25
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 9 March 2006
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Bradford
Have we had this one from Bradford? QUOTE Glitzy and gritty, life is a Cabaret at the Alhambra Will Young stars in Cabaret at the Alhambra, Bradford. Published on the 01 October 2013 14:00 Print this Never has a call to ‘come to the Cabaret’ been so inviting – and simultaneously so dark. The recent reprisal of the much-loved Kander and Ebb musical stormed the Alhambra stage on Monday for the first of its six-night run. Will Young (Emcee) received loud cheers as soon as he appeared on stage – peering through the ‘O’ in the giant ‘WILLKOMMEN’ letters on stage. And the musical-theatre-student-turned-pop-star did not disappoint. Anchoring the wild, thrilling performances that graced the Kit Kat Club stage, Will seemed perfectly at home on the stage and oversaw proceedings with ease. Proving he has the dance skills to match his smooth vocals, he played the line between class act and class clown perfectly. If he was on stage, your eyes were drawn to him. Emily Bull’s Sally Bowles was also fantastic – capturing the skittish, hyperactive character with ease but showing real heart when it mattered. Her rendition of Maybe This Time was fragile and soul-searching – and her final, blow-out performance of the title number, Cabaret, made you want to jump up and perform beside her. http://www.dewsburyreporter.co.uk/what-s-o...ambra-1-6088687 |
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4th October 2013, 12:21 PM
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#26
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BuzzJack Legend
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QUOTE Cabaret, Congress Theatre, Eastbourne, until October 5 http://www.theargus.co.uk/leisure/critic/1...ntil_October_5/5:11pm Wednesday 2nd October 2013 in The Critic By Barrie Jerram Rufus Norris’s production of Cabaret refuses to lie down. After two West End runs it is now embarking on another national tour. And why not? The powerful production can still shock as well as entertain. Set in Berlin with Nazism starting to rise, it tells of a writer, Clifford, and the people he encounters – particularly Sally Bowles, a mediocre nightclub singer. As Emcee, Will Young proves to be more than a Pop Idol, giving a truly comic yet demonic performance – inane grin and charm masking menace. He carries off all the big numbers and delivers the gentle I Don’t Care Much beautifully. Siobhan Dillon, as Sally, may occasionally speak too softly but is powerful in her singing. Maybe Next Time is beautifully measured, dripping with emotion, but in Cabaret she shows courage by lowering the quality of her singing to demonstrate Sally’s limited talent. Lyn Paul and Linal Haft are both comic and touching as they find and lose love in old-age, while Matt Rawle is in fine voice for Clifford’s Why Should I Wake Up? The sensual gymnastic choreography reflects the decadence of the times and the ensemble are worked hard. However, excessive background business proves distracting in some key scenes. Another good one - http://www.eastbourneherald.co.uk/what- ... -1-5558042 QUOTE Will’s the icing on the Cabaret cake
Without wanting to be booed and hissed from here to eternity, I have to say I‘ve never been one of Will Young’s greatest fans. But his likeability factor has shot up in my estimation since Monday’s opening night performance of Cabaret, when the former Pop Idol winner not only held a Congress audience completely captivated for two hours and 20 minutes, but together with his fellow cast members received a standing ovation. And rightly so too, for this was a perfectly polished, although a little raunchier than some might have expected, production of Cabaret, which tells the stories of the performers at the Kit Kat Club in pre-war Berlin. While there can be little doubt, the vast majority of the audience was there to see Will Young, who steals the show as Emcee, the rest of the cast are popular well known household names and faces who deserve a mention in their own right for their outstanding portrayals: former Seekers singer Lyn Paul as Fraulein Schneider, fine actor Linal Haft who plays Herr Schultz, and the fantastic Siobhan Dillan, who entered Andrew Lloyd Webber’s How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria and finished third, as hapless Sally Bowles, who was an absolute joy to watch and listen to. The dancing is faultless, the singing pure perfection and while there are plenty of comedy moments, it is the final scenes that are the most emotionally charged as Hitler takes power, the Kit Kat Club becomes one of the first victims of Nazi terror and its performers are arrested and taken to concentration camps. Monday night was a full house at the Congress and is expected to be for the rest of the week. If you can get a ticket, do. Will Young fan or not, you won’t be disappointed. This post has been edited by truly talented: 4th October 2013, 12:26 PM |
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4th October 2013, 05:19 PM
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#27
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BuzzJack Platinum Member
Joined: 8 March 2006
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Thanks Jester and TT.
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11th October 2013, 06:14 PM
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#28
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 9 March 2006
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Sussex Express
QUOTE Seediness and sorrow in truly excellent version of Cabaret Published on the 11 October 2013 11:29 Print this Cabaret, Congress Theatre, Eastbourne When Eastbourne Theatres bring a good show to the Congress Theatre it is packed out as it was on the first night of Bill Kenwright’s touring production of Cabaret starring Will Young as the Emcee. You may have seen the show before but you have never seen a production like this. It brings home the seediness of the nightclubs in Berlin in the early 1930s, but more it brings home the horrors of the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany. There is a scene at the end of Act One, which starts with Will Young singing Tomorrow Belongs to Me, that will send shivers down your spine as the puppets he is manipulating from a wooden Nazi symbol suddenly come into their own to take over the world. The ending is also something you will never forget and the silence in the packed theatre was quite amazing. Will Young is an excellent Emcee and makes the part his own. You forget who you have seen before (in one version I saw Wayne Sleep) and Siobhan Dillon, who came third in the TV search for Maria, has become a star in her own right with her great performance as Sally Bowles. Matt Rawle is her love interest but two other cast members made a great impression. That is former New Seekers singer Lyn Paul and Linal Haft as Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz. All they want to do is get married and live out what days they have left together. But he is a jew and she cannot afford to upset the Nazis as she needs a licence to run her boarding house. Their scenes together are so moving you want to cry. Brilliant is not a good enough word for this production and it’s a shame it is only in Eastbourne for a week but Eastbourne is lucky to have had it. http://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/what-s-on/e...baret-1-5577122 This post has been edited by truly talented: 11th October 2013, 06:17 PM |
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24th October 2013, 01:04 PM
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#29
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 9 March 2006
Posts: 20,230 User: 140
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Edinburgh
QUOTE by JOYCE MCMILLAN Published on the 22 October 2013 01:19 Internet Magazine @Scotland4me 50m News: Edinburgh.. | Theatre review: Cabaret, Edinburgh: ... | Theatre review: Cabaret, Edinburgh. Will Young a... http://bit.ly/18EmnQk WITH a muffled roll of drums, and a dark flash of glamour, Rufus Norris’s acclaimed 2006 production of Cabaret rolls into town, just six days after he was appointed the next director of the National Theatre in London. Cabaret - King’s Theatre, Edinburgh * * * * And if this terrific production is any guide, the National is in for an exciting time. It’s not that the production does anything revolutionary with Kander and Ebb’s great 1966 musical, for most of its length. With Will Young as a genial, naughty Emcee, presiding over the human flotsam and jetsam of the KitKat Club in 1931 Berlin, story and songs roll out in familiar style on Katrina Lindsay’s superb set of screens and ladders, with Siobhan Dillon as a gorgeously intelligent and glamorous Sally Bowles. There’s steel, though, in the prominence given to the doomed love story of elderly landlady Fraulein Schneider and her Jewish admirer Herr Schultz, beautifully played by Lyn Paul and Linal Haft; and from there on – after Lyn Paul’s superb performance of Schneider’s great What Would You Do? – the production darkens, to as bleak and unrelenting an ending as this pre-Holocaust story will bear. There are small misjudgments, and a slight lack of vocal volume and dynamism. Yet there’s also a profound, chilling insight into how the style-victims who hang around the KitKat Club can develop a taste for Nazi chic overnight, when that becomes the only game in town; in a show that finally has the audience on its feet, applauding a story that leads us straight to the heart of the great crisis of the 20th century, and leaves us there, pondering just what we would have done, in Berlin 80 years ago. QUOTE IT’S 1931 and springtime for Hitler, the Nazis are on the cusp of power and Mein Kampf is doing well in the book charts. The skies are darkening for the misfits of downtown Berlin’s Kit Kat Club but they’re determined to keep the party going at all costs, particularly good-time girl Sally Bowles. http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/what...baret-1-3149987* * * The King’s Theatre That is until Clifford Bradshaw walks into her life and tries to inject a little reality into the gilded whirl of parties, drugs and fluid sexual mores she indulges in. Starring Will Young as Emcee and How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria runner-up Siobhan Dillon as Sally, the production focuses heavily on the impending rise of the Third Reich and the effect it will have on the small band of people around Cliff and Sally. The first act builds slowly, director Rufus Norris giving the actors acres of room to really explore their characters and convey the meaning of their songs. It works well in some places, in others, the tempo falters significantly. Dillon’s Sally is at first most reminiscent of Kate Bekinsale’s Flora Poste in Cold Comfort Farm, it’s easy to envisage her gadding about country houses and dashing down to London for japes but hard to really get to access her vulnerability, the English Rose-style of her presentation getting in the way of the bawdy nature of the story. As the finale looms, however, her performance of Cabaret and goodbye to Cliff carry a unexpectedly weighty pathos. Matt Rawle’s Cliff is an interesting counterpart, while well suited to playing opposite each other, there doesn’t seem to be the confrontational spark that really makes an on stage relationship fly. Will Young captures perfectly the seedy, smarmy nature of the Emcee and imbues the character with a tantalising creepiness. Credit must go Lyn Paul’s poignant portrayal of Fraulein Schneider and Linal Haft’s philosophical love interest Herr Schultz, who paint a wonderfully understated picture of older love. What stands out about the production is a sense of unsentimental dignity, which brought the audience to their feet in applause as the final curtain fell. • Run ends October 26 QUOTE * * * * * Chilling and louche A magnificently sordid energy runs through Rufus Norris’ production of Cabaret, staring Will Young as the Emcee, which plays at the King’s theatre all week. Set in 1931 Berlin, Cabaret follows the fortunes of young American writer Clifford Bradshaw who arrives seeking the inspiration to write his novel, but finds a city at sleep under the rise of the Nazi party. He falls in with petty smuggler Ernst Ludwig who recommends a rooming house – and that he find pleasures at the notorious Kit Kat Club cabaret, where English Rose Sally Bowles provides the headline act. Here are the dark crannies of pre-World War Two Berlin. A place where the creatures of the night prowl, disport and display. Here is decadence, in a high-kick delivered with both the technically ability of the honed performer and the casual disregard of the beautiful and bored. Here, too, is the normality of life in Berlin in 1931. The boarding house of sensible widow Fraulein Schneider (Lyn Paul) whose late-in-life affair with boarder Herr Schultz (Linal Haft) is cause for gossip. But who turns a blind eye to the nocturnal visitors of Fraulein Kist (Valerie Cutko). Director Norris finds an unusually chilling edge to the production. The original musical version is darker than the 1972 film adaptation which gave Liza Minnelli fame. And this production diverts away from the version usually used for amateur and schools revivals to get yet darker still. The uniform of the cabaret, the black underwear, the basques and stockings are pealed away. And just as it reveals the casually exposed flesh of the night-club performer underneath, it reveals the casual extremism of the fascist movement as it peels back the masks of normality in the surrounding characters. Resounds with detail and flourish Siobhan Dillon as Sally Bowles Will Young is superb as the Emcee. His arrogant Wilkommen winks knowingly and beckons you into the den of iniquity that is the Kit Kat Club. There is an arrogance about him on stage, which is perfect for numbers such as Two Ladies and If You Could See Her. Yet there is room to be thoughtful and effected by surrounding events in I Don’t Care Much. Siobhan Dillon is also excellent as the doomed Sally Bowles. Sadly, and the production’s one great loss, she doesn’t get to create the storytelling of Don’t Tell Mama, but she brings bundles of character to the role. Here is both frailty and the arrogance of youth that everything will be all right. What Norris adds is a much greater concentration on Cliff ‘s sexuality. His reason for being in Berlin in the first place is that he is running away from a pretty boy he met in London. Who just happens to be performing at the Kit Kat club. And it is their kiss that is foregrounded as the action lingers backstage at the club. Matt Rawle as Cliff provides just the right level of engagement and sleepwalking as he allows events to happen to him, without forcing the pace. And when he does try to make things happen, events fall apart. Against this background, Norris pulls the formality of the affair between Schneider – who has survived war and inflation – and German-born Jew, Schultz, into the open. It is pure musical theatre, with Lyn Paul delightfully clear voiced as Fraulein Schneider against Linal Haft’s charming and naive Herr Schultz. It is not just in the on-stage performances that this is a triumph. In technical terms it pulls out all the stops. Sound quality is used to alter place and mood on a set which is hardly more than a couple of scrims with the occasional bed and a staircase. A production which revisits an old favourite and presents it with a fresh and even more chilling face than it ever wore before. Its set pieces resound with detail and flourish – to the point where Tomorrow Belongs To Me does not rise out of the ensemble but has Young sing it as a demented puppet master complete with swastika armband and moustache. The musical arrangements add even more depth with the live band high up on the stage’s back wall. And its technical detail – from Javier de Frutos’ choreography to Mark Howett’s lighting design and Ben Harrison’s sound design – are imacculately used to tell the story. The production might have been around for a while, but it shows that Norris – who is to take over the National Theatre next year – has a very keen eye. Go see. Run ends Saturday http://thomdibdin.co.uk/review-cabaret-2/#more-7488 QUOTE Caberet Marianne Gunn Friday 25 October 2013 This touring production of Kander and Ebb's 1966 Broadway musical does not shy away from the darker elements of the plot: a chilling Tomorrow Belongs To Me changes the whole tone as a fleetingly ultra-menacing Will Young, playing the Emcee, meets a Nazi puppet master as the re-imagined Berlin of 1931 teeters on the edge of seismic change. For those who remember Cabaret mainly for Liza Minnelli and her various stage props (black bowler and bentwood chair chiefly) this show's hauntingly bleak ending was far removed from that iconic picture. The permissiveness of the cosmopolitan capital is exposed in a heady first half with a storming Mein Herr showcasing the talents of The Kit Kat Club's troupe and "the toast of Mayfair" Sally Bowles (played by Siobhan Dillon, yet another one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's discarded Marias). Dillon's interpretation was less kooky than Minnelli's and her delivery in a regional English accent became less jarring as the show went on. Her rendition of Cabaret was a fatalistic and microscopic view of a woman on the verge of some dangerous self-harming - eerily so - whereas her initially muted Maybe This Time built into the wonderfully showstopping belt that it yearns - and needs - to be. The older generation romantic subplot features far more prominently in the stage musical and veteran Lyn Paul excels as Fraulein Schneider, who ultimately opts for societal self-preservation. Headline act Will Young is arguably too cuddly to be the Emcee (he lacks the sleazy slipperiness of Alan Cumming or the hungry leer of the film's Joel Grey) but in both Two Ladies and The Money Song Young's burgeoning comedic talent is amiably showcased. http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts-ents ... t.22515165 QUOTE Edinburgh Guide 4* In the early 1960s, it was an inspired idea to adapt the stage play, “I am a Camera” based on Goodbye to Berlin, the travel memoirs of Christopher Isherwood, into a musical. After Kander and Ebb created their smash hit on Broadway, (8 Tony awards), it then became a major Oscar winning movie starring Liza Minnelli. Timely then to revive the stage musical with a fresh interpretation of Isherwood's intimate observation of people, culture and politics during the rise of Nazi Germany. With sparkling energy and slick choreography, we join in the carefree nightlife at the Kabarett. The effervescently camp Emcee is captured by Will Young with a white powdered and rouged face, corset and leiderhosen. As a clown, a conjurer of tricks, he is the sly smiling showman at the decadent Kit Kat Club. Joining him centre stage is the star singer, the bob haired, mad cap girl, Sally Bowles. The character of Sally was based on Jean Ross, an English cabaret singer whom Isherwood met at Fritz Wendell’s flat in Berlin in October 1930. Fascinated by her clothes, green finger nails and eccentric manner, he then goes to see her perform at a cabaret club, The Lady Windermere. “She had a surprisingly deep, husky voice. She sang badly, without any expression, her hands hanging down at her sides – yet her performance was, in its own way, effective because of her startling appearance and her air of not caring a curse of what people thought of her.” Leave any memory of Minnelli behind. Siobhan Dillon (from BBC series, How do you solve a Problem like Maria), oozes her own style with cool and calculating confidence – but perhaps a little too brash at the start? From the original story, Sally is insecure and desperate for love, jumping from one affair to the other, her “restless and nervy” nature hidden by her addiction to gin, cocaine and wild behaviour. We don’t quite get under Sally’s skin here to spot any vulnerability, but that’s just a small quibble. Dillon takes on the role with a feisty spirit and sings the romantic ballads (such as Maybe this Time), from the heart. She is well partnered by Matt Rawle as the quiet American, Cliff Bradshaw (i.e. Isherwood), who is completely seduced by the impulsive and reckless Sally. He just cannot say no to her, while he tries to work, writing his novel and teaching English. Meanwhile she is oblivious to the changing anti-semitic society around her. In contrast Fraulein Schneider is well aware of how the life of Herr Schultz will soon be changed for ever. Lyn Paul portrays the landlady with gentle grace as she decides her fate. The orchestra sits on a platform backstage, while sliding walls and beds move between quick changing scenes from nightclub to apartments. All the well known songs, (Money, Cabaret, Mein Herr, Tomorrow Belongs to Me) are performed by the cast with appropriate satirical humour or powerful emotion. Will Young leads the company with wicked, witty charm from the rousing Willkomen through the dark mood of the narrative to the dramatic finale. This is a brave, shocking vignette to end the show with an emotional punch. http://www.edinburghguide.com/reviews/musi...trereview-14017 QUOTE Kander & Ebb: Cabaret:Comical Yet Biting October 25, 2013 United KingdomUnited Kingdom Kander & Ebb: Cabaret: King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, 23.10.2013 (SRT) Cast: Emcee: Will Young Sally Bowles: Siobhan Dillon Cliff: Matt Rawle Fräulein Schneider: Lyn Paul Herr Schultz: Linal Haft Fräulein Kost: Valerie Cutko Ernst Ludwig: Nicholas Tizzard Production: Director: Rufus Norris Designer: Katrina Lindsay Chroeographer: Javier de Frutos Musical Director: James McCullagh Many classic musicals succeed because they combine cracking tunes with a very specific historical setting. Cabaret does so in a more political manner than most because the carefree mood of WeimarBerlin has to give way to the darker authoritarianism of the Nazis in the course of the show. This touring production manages that balance effectively, but it still feels like a lurch going from one half to the other. Katrina Lindsay’s designs serve the piece broadly well and do a lot with slim resources of staging. The overwhelming darkness of the designs underlines both the seediness of the club (helped by the shiny, almost sticky looking floor) and the grim nature of the political situation in 1930s Berlin. The sets slide in and out in a manner that can seem fairly sinister and sometimes they highlight the dramatic effect, such as in Why should I wake up? where the interchangeable furniture seems to mirror Cliff’s sexual experiments. Importantly, the audience is always clear about when they are in the Kit Kat Club and when they are in another environment, thanks to the gaudy lights and sign, and the lovely touch of revealing the orchestra only when they are playing to accompany the club songs. Despite this, Rufus Norris’s production stamps a profoundly different feel onto each half. The first act is full of the decadence and sexual adventure of the club (even if the sheer quantity of bump ‘n’ grind in the opening scene got a bit samey), and of the sheer excitement of being in Berlin in 1931. The rise of National Socialism hits the scene with a bump, though, and even though the staging is broadly similar, a much more ominous tone hangs over the second half. The turning point comes with a masterful realisation of Tomorrow belongs to me, the first appearance of the Nazi subtext, as a puppet show controlled by the Emcee; but from that point onwards the mood darkens significantly, and the violence of the brownshirts seems to be mirrored in the sour turn taken by Sally and Cliff’s relationship. Sally delivers the song Cabaret as a sarcastic howl, for example, and the club is closed down in a mood of morose dejection in the final scene. I didn’t buy the rather crass link with the Holocaust that brings down the curtain, though – a rather lazy “bridge too far” which the production had done nothing to earn. The cast was dominated by the masterful performance of Will Young as the Emcee. He manages to embody every aspect of the character’s chameleonic nature, maintaining his distance from the proceedings in the first half and acting as an effective Chorus to comment on the action. Impressively, he also did a good job of humanising the character in the later scenes, while still remaining aloof to a great degree, and he has a good degree of vocal punch to deliver the killer songs. Siobhan Dillon embodied the capricious, irrepressible nature of Sally very effectively, slipping convincingly into vulnerability and rejection in the second act. Matt Rawle’s Cliff, while effectively sung, was a little anodyne, though that may be the character’s fault rather than his. I really warmed to the much gentler love story of Fräulein Schneider and Herr Schultz, embodied touchingly by Lyn Paul and Linal Haft, and Valerie Cutko was both comical and biting as the acidic Fräulein Kost. The supporting cast were all great at both singing and dancing, even if the choreography became a little repetitious after a while, and the orchestral musicians were superb. They caught the mix of ‘20s jazz and Bavarian oom-pah just right, and I really admired the way they could adapt their rhythm and tone effortlessly to the action unfolding around them. Cabaret continues on tour. For full details click here. http://www.seenandheard-international.com/...cal-yet-biting/ QUOTE Review from the 7 Nights magazine in the Scottish Sunday Mail. Cabaret King's Theatre, Edinburgh 22.10.13 Rated **** This touring version of the John Kander and Fred Ebb musical was given an extra edge this week with the news its director Rufus Norris is to become the next director of the National Theatre in London. Yet, for most of the audience, only one man mattered - pop star Will Young in the role of Emcee, which made Alan Cumming such a hit on Broadway. Young gets things spot- on with fantastic vocals and a real sense of comic skill and timing, especially through the opening Wilkommen and the hilariously rude Two Ladies. The classic songs of Mein Herr, Tomorrow Belongs To Me and Money are all note-perfect and filled with passion and energy. Yet it's in the simple personal dramas that this evocative show comes to life, including the doomed romance of bisexual American writer Cliff ( Matt Rawle ) and tragic English good- time girl Sally Bowles ( a brilliant Siobhan Dillon ). David Pollock This post has been edited by truly talented: 30th October 2013, 02:21 PM |
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8th November 2013, 02:56 PM
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#30
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 9 March 2006
Posts: 20,230 User: 140
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Dublin
QUOTE http://gcn.ie/Will_Young_Bares_All! http://eile.ie/2013/10/31/review-cabaret/Will Young Bares All! Will Young’s Olivier Award-nominated performance is backbone of a nakedly gay version of Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret at The Gaiety in Dublin this week, says David Mullane. Cabaret, the dark, twisted sister of The Sound of Music comes to Dublin this week in a fine touring production of this Weimar Berlin, Nazis-‘n’-naked-showgirls musical. Will Young is the proclaimed star of the show and he does a more than serviceable job, throwing himself into the role of the Emcee/Master of Ceremonies with abandon. His interpretation of the character isn’t as menacing and weighty as previous versions, particularly Joel Grey’s, but what he lacks in mature murkiness, he makes up for with an impish, pervading presence. At last night’s show, his vocals were colourful, if rather quiet, but this may just be an opening night teething issue. His performance earned him a nomination for the 2013 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical, and it’s well-deserved. Siobhan Dillon, who is half Irish (her father is from Dun Laoghaire) and finished in third place in the BBC talent show How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?, does her best in the role of Sally Bowles. She’s no Liza Minnelli (but then, who is?), still Dillon gives us a charming, pretty Bowles, even if her delivery is a little lightweight. Any disappointments in her acting are balanced, however, by her stand-out vocals which are tremendous in songs like ‘Maybe This Time’ and ‘Cabaret’. The musical score of Cabaret is fabulous and adult and the only times it ever drags or slumps is in the hands of Lyn Paul’s Fraulein Schneider. Legendary Austrian performer Lotte Lenya originated the Schneider role and her husky voice, which has been famously described as ‘an octave below laryngitis’, inspired Kander and Ebb during the writing of the musical. With that in mind you can forgive Paul for failing a little with these songs because she seems to simply not have the vocal capacity to deliver them successfully. Paul, best known as a member of the 70s band, The New Seekers, has found recent success on the West End stage and has been celebrated for many of her performances, particularly as Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers, but she’s uninspiring and enervating in Cabaret, dragging down the show with her acting as well as her singing. Cabaret is a grown-up musical and this production is definitely a show for grown-ups – be prepared for nudity! Another pleasant surprise to behold is the amount of same-sex canoodling in the production. Popular entertainment doesn’t come much gayer than musical theatre but even still, it’s thrilling to see two men kissing passionately live onstage. Coupled with the show’s nudity and proud sexuality is its intelligent and dramatic representation of Nazism and the Holocaust. One could argue that a musical is not an appropriate form in which to address the horrors of World War II but, appropriate or not, Cabaret packs a punch. It’s only in town until Saturday, so catch Cabaret quick for its enthusiastic cast, its determined choreography, the live onstage band, Kander and Ebb’s wonderful book and score and Will Young’s bare buttocks. QUOTE Frances Winston found Cabaret to be an original, dark and gritty musical Pop Idol winner Will Young’s face is emblazoned all over the posters for this show, and indeed, he has been award-nominated for his performance as the Emcee – the slightly malevolent host of the Kit Kat Club, who knits all the threads of this show together. However, to think of this as the Will Young Show does something of a disservice to the production, which features a hugely talented cast and an original take on this classic musical. Indeed, he’s not the only well-known face taking to the stage, as the show also features Lyn Paul from 60s pop group The New Seekers and Siobhan Dillon who was a contestant on BBC1’s How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? Despite this, on the night I attended, Young’s entrance was met by cheers with obvious fans screaming for him before he had uttered a word. It seemed to take a while for the audience to settle down and focus on the rest of the story, which was a shame. Set in the decadent pre-WWII Berlin of 1931 just as the Nazi’s come to power, it is actually the story of Cliff Bradshaw – a young American writer who comes to Berlin to write his great novel, and finds himself entangled with the alluring singer Sally Bowles. As the political landscape changes under the new regime, the party slowly comes to an end as many, including Jews and homosexuals, find they are no longer welcome in the city. Overseeing all this change is the Emcee, whose performance evolves to reflect the political landscape. Thanks to the film version, there are a lot of preconceptions about this musical. Indeed Joel Grey won an Oscar for the role inhabited by Young here, and Liza Minelli cemented her star status as the doe-eyed Sally Bowles. Forget all about that though, as the movie was only loosely based on the stage show. This remains truer to its source material – John Van Druten’s play I Am a Camera, which was in turn based on Goodbye To Berlin, by acclaimed gay author Christopher Isherwood, about his experiences in the Berlin of this era. As anyone who has ever read a history book will know, it was not a good time to be “different” in Germany, and this doesn’t shy away in the least from the horrors of the Nazi’s rise to power. This touring production does seem to be pitching itself very much at a gay audience. There are plenty of buff young male dancers, full-frontal male nudity, and of course Young – who risked his career when he publicly came out in 2002. However, whether or not it was the intention, this only serves to reinforce what was actually going on in the city during Isherwood’s tenure there. This is not a happy clappy musical, but instead is incredibly dark and, at times, quite disturbing (the closing few moments will leave a lump in your throat). The well-known show stopping tunes – including “Money”, “”Maybe This Time” and “Cabaret” – take on a whole new meaning as they contrast with the murky subject matter. Directed by multi award-winning director Rufus Norris, this features some slick choreography and fantastic performances. The Kit Kat Club is as seedy as you would expect, and Young truly brings a sense of malice to the Emcee. All of the actors resist the urge to imitate the movie performances, which makes for an original and gritty production. What use is sitting alone in your room? Get thee to the Gaiety to check this out instead. http://www.independent.ie/entertainment ... 16879.html QUOTE Gaiety Theatre .Rufus Norris' production is extremely light on its feet – and wheels. Beds bearing the scantily clad dancers of Berlin's Kit-Kat Club spin around the bare black set, a ladder slides back and forth, similarly loaded. For one of the show's most well-known numbers, 'Mein Herr,' a whole metal stairway clustered with cavorting dancers gyrates, while Kit-Kat star Sally Bowles persuades us what a wildly unreliable girl she is. It's a fabulous number and Siobhan Dillon is a superb Sally, her cut-glass Englishness making her more sharply bohemian. The production's physical fluidity tends to disconnect the narrative however. Javier de Frutos' choreography is never less than slick and stylish, but we miss the significance of Sally's lover Cliff wondering 'Why should I Wake up' on his drifting bed. 'Two Ladies', with the Emcee in bed with an ever increasing number of men and women, and a giraffe, is funny, but puzzling. Sex seems more important than a solid narrative, and we're hardly allowed to forget how naughty the cabaret dancers are, though at least most of the nudity is so stylishly done that it doesn't feel entirely gratuitous. Norris' production coheres around the dark elements of Joe Masteroff's story, and makes the point powerfully that all the sleazy fun and games are being played on the thin skin of Nazism, which is about to erupt. Cliff, who, in ignorance, has been helping fund the local brownshirt leader Ernst, receives a beating from his jackbooted thugs, culminating in a kicking which is both whimsically choreographed, and horrifying. So when Sally sings the signature song about life being a 'Cabaret' it's black and blue with savage irony. Dillon's sardonic performance drives home the point that there's nothing glamorously hedonistic about burying your head in the dark of a night club while fascism takes over, indeed it's immoral. Norris perhaps overstates the case in the final scene, leaving nothing to our imagination, but the transformation of the Kit-Kat Club into a gas chamber is seamless and stylishly one, and consistent with the chilliness that runs through the whole production. A chilliness embodied in Will Young's nastily childish, baby-voiced and condescending Emcee, a pawn whose amorality smoothes the Nazi takeover of the club. Though there is tenderness too, particularly when Sally and Matt Rawle's Cliff duet in 'Perfectly Marvellous' Oxford QUOTE Enjoyed Chicago? Add sex, Nazis and a devastating emotional wallop and you have Cabaret. John Kander and Fred Ebb wrote the music for both, and the wittily-worded tunes have a way of worming themselves into the top ten on your mental radio for a few weeks - or years - after you hear them. Inspired by Christopher Isherwood's salty, semi-autobiographical vignettes of decadent 1920s Berlin (Mr Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye to Berlin - both intriguing records in their own right of a crazy nexus of history), Cabaret is the story of a disintegrating nation, told through the subplots of two romances. The first is between an outsider (Isherwood, thinly disguised as a young American from the home state of the writer of Cabaret's book) and the dappy good-time girl Sally Bowles; the second is between Isherwood's landlady and an elderly tenant. The spiky, malevolent presence of the Master of Ceremonies (Will Young) broods over all, but it is not until the end of the first act that we realise even he is subordinate to the terrible power of the rising Nazis. It's an excellently crafted show, produced with such perfect professionalism that it's hard to notice. For me, there was not one jarring note to interfere with the suspension of disbelief. Music is on key; choreography is slick; sets are atmospheric; dance is acrobatic; acting is fine and direction pacy and minimalist; I held my breath for nobody. Lyn Paul and Linal Haft were frankly gorgeous as the elderly couple. Paul's strong, sweet, haunting voice makes her songs some of the highlights of the evening, and Haft underplays the dangerously sentimental part of the gentle grocer into adorability. Matt Rawle manages to bring a really charming, unassuming sincerity to the part of the naive young American, and Siobhan Dillon is a mad, ridiculous, hyper Sally Bowles - as she should be - with a hypnotic charisma in Sally's serious moments, which is harder and more admirable and essential for the part. And she is a stunning vocalist, whether being funny, sad or raunchy-the songs go straight to your spine. Another stunning vocalist is Will Young, the Emcee, who as celebrity poster child for the show I was expecting to be overrated, but who surprised me with his power and versatility and particularly with the lovely timbre in his 'I Don't Care - Much'. It is Cabaret's quick cutting between comedy and horror that opens you up; it is its humanity that takes you down. Characteristically, the Nazi signature tune is the beautiful 'Tomorrow Belongs To Me', a lovely, pure, folky, alpine tune that enables you to begin to see dimly how an inhuman ideology captured a generation. Fräulein Schneider's weakness wouldn't be seen in Hollywood: it is too hideously human. It's all powerful material and it is masterfully performed, and I suspect I wasn't the only person in tears when the audience rose in an ovation at the end. If you're emotionally fit and can get tickets, go go go - it's a beautiful, shattering, fabulous show. If I could stand it I'd see it again. http://www.dailyinfo.co.uk/reviews/feature/8783/Cabaret QUOTE The musical opened to a full house at Oxford’s New Theatre last night and earned a standing ovation despite the shocking storyline that literally strips bare the rise of Nazism in pre-war Berlin. Young, his face roughly daubed with white panstick and dressed in leather lederhosen, bids the audience willkommen from the “O” in the word before drawing back the curtains on the decadent and debauched underworld of 1930’s Berlin and its seedy nightclub scene. He’s the Emcee at The Kit Kat Klub, where the scantily clad dancers offer titillation and sordid fantasy, and a gin-sodden, coke-addicted party girl called Sally Bowles lives life to the full as the venue’s songbird. Into her life walks a handsome, though bisexual, American writer Cliff Bradshaw who had come to the city to find inspiration. Circumstances throw the two together for a tortuous affair played out in a shabby boarding house or backstage at the club while the world outside is threatened by a terrifying new order. Throughout the all-seeing, all-knowing nightclub host narrates with a satirist’s eye and a series of now iconic songs written by John Kander and Fred Ebb. The irrepressible Sally (wonderfully captured by the equally astounding Siobhan Dillon) wows with Mein Herr, and the show-stopping power ballad Maybe This Time, but most of the numbers are skilfully delivered by Will Young’s increasingly louche and unpleasant Emcee. Willkommen is frequently reprised; the scandalous Two Ladies sees him share a bed with a menagerie of weird and outlandish creatures; and Money exposes the greed of an era that was permissive and out of control. The party had to end sometime but no-one envisaged just how. By far the two songs guaranteed to shock are the Act One finale Tomorrow Belongs To Me, in which the star portrays Hitler pulling strings to manipulate his rise to power, and the horrendous If You Could See Her whose lyrics have the power to completely silence a theatre. It is a tour de force for Will Young and it is unlikely that he will ever find a better role suited to him. He delivers a confident performance backed with powerful vocals. While Cliff and Sally’s world is all about sex and hedonism, the play’s emotional heart comes from a wonderfully underplayed, but hugely compelling love story between an elderly, widowed, Jewish fruitier, Herr Schultz, and Cliff’s rather attractive landlady, Fraulein Schneider. The performances throughout are beautifully delivered by all. Matt Rawle’s Cliff could do with being better fleshed out but he’s handsome, can carry a tune and does what is asked of him. The ever dependable Linal Haft is reprising his West End role as Schultz while he is joined for a late-life dalliance by former New Seekers’ singer Lynn Paul who is inspirational. The company of dancers spend pretty much the entire performance in not very much, leering, posturing and entwining their long limbs either around an industrial set of ladders and steps or around each other. It’s very touchy feely. Director Rufus Norris, now the recently announced incumbent artistic director for The National Theatre, has produced a dazzling revival that has grown in stature since its debut last year in London. It’s less playful and more hard-nosed than the film version but that’s no criticism. Berlin was a city of contrasts where its clubs indulged in excess and its streets became temples of morality and social cleansing. QUOTE Cabaret is arguably one of the definitive 20th century musicals so it is wonderful to see it being revived in a major new production touring the country. Cabaret takes place in and around the fictional Kit Kat Club in early 1930s Berlin. It is here that a young aspiring American novelist Cliff Bradshaw (Matt Rawle) meets an English cabaret singer Sally Bowles (Siobhan Dillon). The club is overseen by the more than a little sinister Emcee (Will Young) who, with the help of the ensemble, performs provocative numbers which comment on the story and the world they live in. All of this takes place against the backdrop of the Nazis’ rise to power. Will Young as the Emcee is nothing short of phenomenal. His eerie presence sends chills up the spines of the audience and he manages to display elegant moments of pathos through the party atmosphere of the club. In particular his haunting performance of his final number “I Don’t Care Much” cannot be praised highly enough. Siobhan Dillon’s lower middle class Sally seems at odds with her rather posh dialogue and it is only when she gets to her big number “Cabaret” in the second act that she really comes alive but boy! does she! Her interpretation of the song as a slow realisation that this is her world and she’s going to enjoy it come what may is fascinating and proves that there is always another way to look at well-known work. The production also boasts Lyn Paul as the downtrodden landlady Fraulein Schneider. Her voice is superb however she could do with working on her German accent. Unfortunately her performance is the one weak link in this otherwise tremendous production. Matt Rawle and Linal Haft (as Herr Shulz, Fraulein Schneider’s love interest) both bring a lot of energy to their roles which in the wrong hands can fade into the darkness behind the razzle dazzle of the more obviously noticeable characters. The members of the ensemble are probably the most attractive chorus line on tour right now and they are all also wonderful as the dancers at the club. They deserve credit for their enormous input into the show. Rufus Norris’ production with Javier de Frutos’ choreography accentuates the sexuality of the inhabitants of Berlin which is deliciously and heartbreakingly destroyed during the darker scenes of the second act. The sad, quiet ending is beautifully tragic which leaves the audience stunned into silence. This is a terrific production of an innovative and wonderfully crafted show. It simply has to be seen. http://www.thepublicreviews.com/cabaret ... re-oxford/ QUOTE FIVE STARS With his pink-lipped rictus grin, wide staring eyes and slicked-down black shiny hair, he looks like a ghastly ventriloquist’s dummy — the sort that might just turn on his master with a well-aimed bite at the jugular. This is the nightclub host Emcee, from the musical Cabaret, as presented in a tour-de-force performance by Will Young which proves (in case we had doubted it) that the one-time Pop Idol winner can sing, dance and act with consummate skill. Is, in fact, a star. WILL/KOM/MEN: huge letters stacked in three tiers fill the screen that confronts audiences taking their seats for this tremendous show. Here is a neat double pun — the first line supplying an obvious one, the last referring to members of the male sex (Will included) soon to be parading before us in tight black leather shorts and, at times, not even those. Female costumes — I must say at once — are scarcely less sexy. Through the centre of the middle line’s ‘O’ Emcee makes his first, spot-lit appearance, with his famous song of welcome to the decadent world of 1930s Berlin. This is not the least of the felicitous touches offered by the director Rufus Norris, who was last week named successor to Sir Nicholas Hytner as head of the National Theatre. Another comes in the sensational close to Act I with Tomorrow Belongs to Me, here shifted from a waiter to Emcee in order, one supposes, to ‘beef up’ the star role. Beginning in a high falsetto delivered with pinpoint accuracy by Young, the yearning melody becomes a chilling Nazi rallying call during which Emcee transforms into a demented puppet-master, with Hitler tash, controlling marionette dancers on strings. John Kander and Fred Ebb’s musical (with book by Joe Masteroff) concentrates, of course, on the story of cabaret performer Sally Bowles, as revealed in the true-life tales of novelist Christopher Isherwood. This loose-living, scatty but oddly endearing character comes over vividly in a compelling performance by Siobhan Dillon. Not for the first time, though, having seen her sensational work with the Boys and Girls in Mein Herr, I marvelled at the stupidity of the Kit Kat Club’s management in letting her go. Still, without her sacking and subsequent rescue by the bisexual American tyro novelist Cliff Bradshaw (Matt Rawle) — the Isherwood character in disguise — there would be no story and no show. The other major narrative thread, concerning their elderly landlady Fräulein Schneider (Lyn Paul) and her romance with the Jewish fruiterer Herr Schultz (Linal Haft), is also explored with touching sensitivity. This is a top-class production in every respect, with fabulous design (Katrina Lindsay) and superb lighting from Mark Howett — not least during the harrowing closing scene, which transports us heartbreakingly to the death camps. Tugging at the heartstrings and swinging, as necessary, the on-stage band (musical director James McCullagh) is note perfect throughout. http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/theat...heatre/?ref=rss |
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8th November 2013, 02:56 PM
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BuzzJack Legend
Joined: 9 March 2006
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Dublin
QUOTE http://gcn.ie/Will_Young_Bares_All! http://eile.ie/2013/10/31/review-cabaret/Will Young Bares All! Will Young’s Olivier Award-nominated performance is backbone of a nakedly gay version of Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret at The Gaiety in Dublin this week, says David Mullane. Cabaret, the dark, twisted sister of The Sound of Music comes to Dublin this week in a fine touring production of this Weimar Berlin, Nazis-‘n’-naked-showgirls musical. Will Young is the proclaimed star of the show and he does a more than serviceable job, throwing himself into the role of the Emcee/Master of Ceremonies with abandon. His interpretation of the character isn’t as menacing and weighty as previous versions, particularly Joel Grey’s, but what he lacks in mature murkiness, he makes up for with an impish, pervading presence. At last night’s show, his vocals were colourful, if rather quiet, but this may just be an opening night teething issue. His performance earned him a nomination for the 2013 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical, and it’s well-deserved. Siobhan Dillon, who is half Irish (her father is from Dun Laoghaire) and finished in third place in the BBC talent show How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?, does her best in the role of Sally Bowles. She’s no Liza Minnelli (but then, who is?), still Dillon gives us a charming, pretty Bowles, even if her delivery is a little lightweight. Any disappointments in her acting are balanced, however, by her stand-out vocals which are tremendous in songs like ‘Maybe This Time’ and ‘Cabaret’. The musical score of Cabaret is fabulous and adult and the only times it ever drags or slumps is in the hands of Lyn Paul’s Fraulein Schneider. Legendary Austrian performer Lotte Lenya originated the Schneider role and her husky voice, which has been famously described as ‘an octave below laryngitis’, inspired Kander and Ebb during the writing of the musical. With that in mind you can forgive Paul for failing a little with these songs because she seems to simply not have the vocal capacity to deliver them successfully. Paul, best known as a member of the 70s band, The New Seekers, has found recent success on the West End stage and has been celebrated for many of her performances, particularly as Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers, but she’s uninspiring and enervating in Cabaret, dragging down the show with her acting as well as her singing. Cabaret is a grown-up musical and this production is definitely a show for grown-ups – be prepared for nudity! Another pleasant surprise to behold is the amount of same-sex canoodling in the production. Popular entertainment doesn’t come much gayer than musical theatre but even still, it’s thrilling to see two men kissing passionately live onstage. Coupled with the show’s nudity and proud sexuality is its intelligent and dramatic representation of Nazism and the Holocaust. One could argue that a musical is not an appropriate form in which to address the horrors of World War II but, appropriate or not, Cabaret packs a punch. It’s only in town until Saturday, so catch Cabaret quick for its enthusiastic cast, its determined choreography, the live onstage band, Kander and Ebb’s wonderful book and score and Will Young’s bare buttocks. QUOTE Frances Winston found Cabaret to be an original, dark and gritty musical Pop Idol winner Will Young’s face is emblazoned all over the posters for this show, and indeed, he has been award-nominated for his performance as the Emcee – the slightly malevolent host of the Kit Kat Club, who knits all the threads of this show together. However, to think of this as the Will Young Show does something of a disservice to the production, which features a hugely talented cast and an original take on this classic musical. Indeed, he’s not the only well-known face taking to the stage, as the show also features Lyn Paul from 60s pop group The New Seekers and Siobhan Dillon who was a contestant on BBC1’s How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? Despite this, on the night I attended, Young’s entrance was met by cheers with obvious fans screaming for him before he had uttered a word. It seemed to take a while for the audience to settle down and focus on the rest of the story, which was a shame. Set in the decadent pre-WWII Berlin of 1931 just as the Nazi’s come to power, it is actually the story of Cliff Bradshaw – a young American writer who comes to Berlin to write his great novel, and finds himself entangled with the alluring singer Sally Bowles. As the political landscape changes under the new regime, the party slowly comes to an end as many, including Jews and homosexuals, find they are no longer welcome in the city. Overseeing all this change is the Emcee, whose performance evolves to reflect the political landscape. Thanks to the film version, there are a lot of preconceptions about this musical. Indeed Joel Grey won an Oscar for the role inhabited by Young here, and Liza Minelli cemented her star status as the doe-eyed Sally Bowles. Forget all about that though, as the movie was only loosely based on the stage show. This remains truer to its source material – John Van Druten’s play I Am a Camera, which was in turn based on Goodbye To Berlin, by acclaimed gay author Christopher Isherwood, about his experiences in the Berlin of this era. As anyone who has ever read a history book will know, it was not a good time to be “different” in Germany, and this doesn’t shy away in the least from the horrors of the Nazi’s rise to power. This touring production does seem to be pitching itself very much at a gay audience. There are plenty of buff young male dancers, full-frontal male nudity, and of course Young – who risked his career when he publicly came out in 2002. However, whether or not it was the intention, this only serves to reinforce what was actually going on in the city during Isherwood’s tenure there. This is not a happy clappy musical, but instead is incredibly dark and, at times, quite disturbing (the closing few moments will leave a lump in your throat). The well-known show stopping tunes – including “Money”, “”Maybe This Time” and “Cabaret” – take on a whole new meaning as they contrast with the murky subject matter. Directed by multi award-winning director Rufus Norris, this features some slick choreography and fantastic performances. The Kit Kat Club is as seedy as you would expect, and Young truly brings a sense of malice to the Emcee. All of the actors resist the urge to imitate the movie performances, which makes for an original and gritty production. What use is sitting alone in your room? Get thee to the Gaiety to check this out instead. QUOTE Gaiety Theatre .Rufus Norris' production is extremely light on its feet – and wheels. Beds bearing the scantily clad dancers of Berlin's Kit-Kat Club spin around the bare black set, a ladder slides back and forth, similarly loaded. For one of the show's most well-known numbers, 'Mein Herr,' a whole metal stairway clustered with cavorting dancers gyrates, while Kit-Kat star Sally Bowles persuades us what a wildly unreliable girl she is. It's a fabulous number and Siobhan Dillon is a superb Sally, her cut-glass Englishness making her more sharply bohemian. The production's physical fluidity tends to disconnect the narrative however. Javier de Frutos' choreography is never less than slick and stylish, but we miss the significance of Sally's lover Cliff wondering 'Why should I Wake up' on his drifting bed. 'Two Ladies', with the Emcee in bed with an ever increasing number of men and women, and a giraffe, is funny, but puzzling. Sex seems more important than a solid narrative, and we're hardly allowed to forget how naughty the cabaret dancers are, though at least most of the nudity is so stylishly done that it doesn't feel entirely gratuitous. Norris' production coheres around the dark elements of Joe Masteroff's story, and makes the point powerfully that all the sleazy fun and games are being played on the thin skin of Nazism, which is about to erupt. Cliff, who, in ignorance, has been helping fund the local brownshirt leader Ernst, receives a beating from his jackbooted thugs, culminating in a kicking which is both whimsically choreographed, and horrifying. So when Sally sings the signature song about life being a 'Cabaret' it's black and blue with savage irony. Dillon's sardonic performance drives home the point that there's nothing glamorously hedonistic about burying your head in the dark of a night club while fascism takes over, indeed it's immoral. Norris perhaps overstates the case in the final scene, leaving nothing to our imagination, but the transformation of the Kit-Kat Club into a gas chamber is seamless and stylishly one, and consistent with the chilliness that runs through the whole production. A chilliness embodied in Will Young's nastily childish, baby-voiced and condescending Emcee, a pawn whose amorality smoothes the Nazi takeover of the club. Though there is tenderness too, particularly when Sally and Matt Rawle's Cliff duet in 'Perfectly Marvellous' Oxford QUOTE Enjoyed Chicago? Add sex, Nazis and a devastating emotional wallop and you have Cabaret. John Kander and Fred Ebb wrote the music for both, and the wittily-worded tunes have a way of worming themselves into the top ten on your mental radio for a few weeks - or years - after you hear them. Inspired by Christopher Isherwood's salty, semi-autobiographical vignettes of decadent 1920s Berlin (Mr Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye to Berlin - both intriguing records in their own right of a crazy nexus of history), Cabaret is the story of a disintegrating nation, told through the subplots of two romances. The first is between an outsider (Isherwood, thinly disguised as a young American from the home state of the writer of Cabaret's book) and the dappy good-time girl Sally Bowles; the second is between Isherwood's landlady and an elderly tenant. The spiky, malevolent presence of the Master of Ceremonies (Will Young) broods over all, but it is not until the end of the first act that we realise even he is subordinate to the terrible power of the rising Nazis. It's an excellently crafted show, produced with such perfect professionalism that it's hard to notice. For me, there was not one jarring note to interfere with the suspension of disbelief. Music is on key; choreography is slick; sets are atmospheric; dance is acrobatic; acting is fine and direction pacy and minimalist; I held my breath for nobody. Lyn Paul and Linal Haft were frankly gorgeous as the elderly couple. Paul's strong, sweet, haunting voice makes her songs some of the highlights of the evening, and Haft underplays the dangerously sentimental part of the gentle grocer into adorability. Matt Rawle manages to bring a really charming, unassuming sincerity to the part of the naive young American, and Siobhan Dillon is a mad, ridiculous, hyper Sally Bowles - as she should be - with a hypnotic charisma in Sally's serious moments, which is harder and more admirable and essential for the part. And she is a stunning vocalist, whether being funny, sad or raunchy-the songs go straight to your spine. Another stunning vocalist is Will Young, the Emcee, who as celebrity poster child for the show I was expecting to be overrated, but who surprised me with his power and versatility and particularly with the lovely timbre in his 'I Don't Care - Much'. It is Cabaret's quick cutting between comedy and horror that opens you up; it is its humanity that takes you down. Characteristically, the Nazi signature tune is the beautiful 'Tomorrow Belongs To Me', a lovely, pure, folky, alpine tune that enables you to begin to see dimly how an inhuman ideology captured a generation. Fräulein Schneider's weakness wouldn't be seen in Hollywood: it is too hideously human. It's all powerful material and it is masterfully performed, and I suspect I wasn't the only person in tears when the audience rose in an ovation at the end. If you're emotionally fit and can get tickets, go go go - it's a beautiful, shattering, fabulous show. If I could stand it I'd see it again. QUOTE The musical opened to a full house at Oxford’s New Theatre last night and earned a standing ovation despite the shocking storyline that literally strips bare the rise of Nazism in pre-war Berlin. Young, his face roughly daubed with white panstick and dressed in leather lederhosen, bids the audience willkommen from the “O” in the word before drawing back the curtains on the decadent and debauched underworld of 1930’s Berlin and its seedy nightclub scene. He’s the Emcee at The Kit Kat Klub, where the scantily clad dancers offer titillation and sordid fantasy, and a gin-sodden, coke-addicted party girl called Sally Bowles lives life to the full as the venue’s songbird. Into her life walks a handsome, though bisexual, American writer Cliff Bradshaw who had come to the city to find inspiration. Circumstances throw the two together for a tortuous affair played out in a shabby boarding house or backstage at the club while the world outside is threatened by a terrifying new order. Throughout the all-seeing, all-knowing nightclub host narrates with a satirist’s eye and a series of now iconic songs written by John Kander and Fred Ebb. The irrepressible Sally (wonderfully captured by the equally astounding Siobhan Dillon) wows with Mein Herr, and the show-stopping power ballad Maybe This Time, but most of the numbers are skilfully delivered by Will Young’s increasingly louche and unpleasant Emcee. Willkommen is frequently reprised; the scandalous Two Ladies sees him share a bed with a menagerie of weird and outlandish creatures; and Money exposes the greed of an era that was permissive and out of control. The party had to end sometime but no-one envisaged just how. By far the two songs guaranteed to shock are the Act One finale Tomorrow Belongs To Me, in which the star portrays Hitler pulling strings to manipulate his rise to power, and the horrendous If You Could See Her whose lyrics have the power to completely silence a theatre. It is a tour de force for Will Young and it is unlikely that he will ever find a better role suited to him. He delivers a confident performance backed with powerful vocals. While Cliff and Sally’s world is all about sex and hedonism, the play’s emotional heart comes from a wonderfully underplayed, but hugely compelling love story between an elderly, widowed, Jewish fruitier, Herr Schultz, and Cliff’s rather attractive landlady, Fraulein Schneider. The performances throughout are beautifully delivered by all. Matt Rawle’s Cliff could do with being better fleshed out but he’s handsome, can carry a tune and does what is asked of him. The ever dependable Linal Haft is reprising his West End role as Schultz while he is joined for a late-life dalliance by former New Seekers’ singer Lynn Paul who is inspirational. The company of dancers spend pretty much the entire performance in not very much, leering, posturing and entwining their long limbs either around an industrial set of ladders and steps or around each other. It’s very touchy feely. Director Rufus Norris, now the recently announced incumbent artistic director for The National Theatre, has produced a dazzling revival that has grown in stature since its debut last year in London. It’s less playful and more hard-nosed than the film version but that’s no criticism. Berlin was a city of contrasts where its clubs indulged in excess and its streets became temples of morality and social cleansing. QUOTE Cabaret is arguably one of the definitive 20th century musicals so it is wonderful to see it being revived in a major new production touring the country. http://www.thepublicreviews.com/cabaret ... re-oxford/Cabaret takes place in and around the fictional Kit Kat Club in early 1930s Berlin. It is here that a young aspiring American novelist Cliff Bradshaw (Matt Rawle) meets an English cabaret singer Sally Bowles (Siobhan Dillon). The club is overseen by the more than a little sinister Emcee (Will Young) who, with the help of the ensemble, performs provocative numbers which comment on the story and the world they live in. All of this takes place against the backdrop of the Nazis’ rise to power. Will Young as the Emcee is nothing short of phenomenal. His eerie presence sends chills up the spines of the audience and he manages to display elegant moments of pathos through the party atmosphere of the club. In particular his haunting performance of his final number “I Don’t Care Much” cannot be praised highly enough. Siobhan Dillon’s lower middle class Sally seems at odds with her rather posh dialogue and it is only when she gets to her big number “Cabaret” in the second act that she really comes alive but boy! does she! Her interpretation of the song as a slow realisation that this is her world and she’s going to enjoy it come what may is fascinating and proves that there is always another way to look at well-known work. The production also boasts Lyn Paul as the downtrodden landlady Fraulein Schneider. Her voice is superb however she could do with working on her German accent. Unfortunately her performance is the one weak link in this otherwise tremendous production. Matt Rawle and Linal Haft (as Herr Shulz, Fraulein Schneider’s love interest) both bring a lot of energy to their roles which in the wrong hands can fade into the darkness behind the razzle dazzle of the more obviously noticeable characters. The members of the ensemble are probably the most attractive chorus line on tour right now and they are all also wonderful as the dancers at the club. They deserve credit for their enormous input into the show. Rufus Norris’ production with Javier de Frutos’ choreography accentuates the sexuality of the inhabitants of Berlin which is deliciously and heartbreakingly destroyed during the darker scenes of the second act. The sad, quiet ending is beautifully tragic which leaves the audience stunned into silence. This is a terrific production of an innovative and wonderfully crafted show. It simply has to be seen. QUOTE FIVE STARS With his pink-lipped rictus grin, wide staring eyes and slicked-down black shiny hair, he looks like a ghastly ventriloquist’s dummy — the sort that might just turn on his master with a well-aimed bite at the jugular. This is the nightclub host Emcee, from the musical Cabaret, as presented in a tour-de-force performance by Will Young which proves (in case we had doubted it) that the one-time Pop Idol winner can sing, dance and act with consummate skill. Is, in fact, a star. WILL/KOM/MEN: huge letters stacked in three tiers fill the screen that confronts audiences taking their seats for this tremendous show. Here is a neat double pun — the first line supplying an obvious one, the last referring to members of the male sex (Will included) soon to be parading before us in tight black leather shorts and, at times, not even those. Female costumes — I must say at once — are scarcely less sexy. Through the centre of the middle line’s ‘O’ Emcee makes his first, spot-lit appearance, with his famous song of welcome to the decadent world of 1930s Berlin. This is not the least of the felicitous touches offered by the director Rufus Norris, who was last week named successor to Sir Nicholas Hytner as head of the National Theatre. Another comes in the sensational close to Act I with Tomorrow Belongs to Me, here shifted from a waiter to Emcee in order, one supposes, to ‘beef up’ the star role. Beginning in a high falsetto delivered with pinpoint accuracy by Young, the yearning melody becomes a chilling Nazi rallying call during which Emcee transforms into a demented puppet-master, with Hitler tash, controlling marionette dancers on strings. John Kander and Fred Ebb’s musical (with book by Joe Masteroff) concentrates, of course, on the story of cabaret performer Sally Bowles, as revealed in the true-life tales of novelist Christopher Isherwood. This loose-living, scatty but oddly endearing character comes over vividly in a compelling performance by Siobhan Dillon. Not for the first time, though, having seen her sensational work with the Boys and Girls in Mein Herr, I marvelled at the stupidity of the Kit Kat Club’s management in letting her go. Still, without her sacking and subsequent rescue by the bisexual American tyro novelist Cliff Bradshaw (Matt Rawle) — the Isherwood character in disguise — there would be no story and no show. The other major narrative thread, concerning their elderly landlady Fräulein Schneider (Lyn Paul) and her romance with the Jewish fruiterer Herr Schultz (Linal Haft), is also explored with touching sensitivity. This is a top-class production in every respect, with fabulous design (Katrina Lindsay) and superb lighting from Mark Howett — not least during the harrowing closing scene, which transports us heartbreakingly to the death camps. Tugging at the heartstrings and swinging, as necessary, the on-stage band (musical director James McCullagh) is note perfect throughout. http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/theat...heatre/?ref=rss Hull QUOTE Welcome to early 1930s Germany, the Kit Kat Club, Berlin’s premier nightclub. And tonight the club is absolutely packed. They’ve all come to see the star attraction – popstar Will Young. I can’t imagine many venues virtually selling out on a Monday night, but tonight Hull New Theatre is full to the rafters. Will has proved quite a draw. The audience is a mixture of seasoned theatre-goes and fans of his. And neither is disappointed. The show opens with the Pop Idol winner peering through the O of a giant Wilkommen sign, welcoming everyone to the Cabaret. The musical tells the story of American writer Cliff Bradshaw, who arrives in swinging Berlin hoping to soak up the culture and make it as a novellist. He encounters the lively locals at his boarding house and at the Kit Kat Club. Singer Sally Bowles is the drama queen who turns Cliff’s life upside down, and the couple become best friends and roommates. To illustrate the freethinking attitudes of the time, there are racy costumes and routines. Some brief flashes of nudity draw gasps and giggles from the audience. But the joy of the first half turns much darker in the second as the rise of the Nazi party affects everyone’s lives. This version of the classic musical – complete with live band – brought West End production values to Hull for a quality show. There are some stand out performances, especially from Matt Rawle as Cliff and Siobhan Dillon as Sally Bowles. Her belting rendition of Maybe This Time had the whole audience talking in the interval. But the show belongs to Will Young as the manic, comic, silly Emcee, who holds the whole show together. The stage completely lights up whenever he walks on stage, that famous voice in full effect on Tomorrow Belongs To Me. Cabaret is a daring, thrilling musical with added Will power. Worth the standing ovation. Cabaret is at Hull New Theatre until Saturday 23 November. http://www.beverleyguardian.co.uk/what-s-o...eatre-1-6256193 This post has been edited by truly talented: 20th November 2013, 07:54 PM |
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3rd December 2013, 11:39 PM
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BuzzJack Platinum Member
Joined: 8 March 2006
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Wolverhampton
QUOTE Theatre Review : ‘Cabaret’ at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre PeterboroughChris Eldon Lee reviews “Cabaret”, which is at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre until Saturday 30 November 2013. Cabaret just gets better and better. The latest production, directed by the remarkable Rufus Norris – heir to the National Theatre throne – is the darkest and most inventive I’ve seen. The highs seem higher and the lows seem lower and the contrasts are starker than ever. Seeing the debauched 8-in-bed high jinks of the Berlin nightclub scene juxtaposed with the tentative, tender love of an elderly Jew for his unattainable lady is a soul searching experience. Norris puts his faultless team through absolute extremes of raunch and mince. They are brazen and cheeky (in both senses of the word). They arrive suddenly on rolling library ladders or through a huge chain mail curtain. They squat in steel cages and squirm up scaffolding stairs. The body language is brilliant and choreography is amazing – a heady fusion of Olympic medal-winning gymnastics and industrial modern ballet. The moves are awkward and acutely angular, with the performers physically personifying Hitler’s advancing war machine. The famous Act One closer has the ensemble dressed as highly strung puppet Nazi Youths as they belt out ‘Tomorrow Belongs To Me’; a sardonic, chilling moment topped by a glimpse of the Fuhrer himself. The part of the washed up nightclub starlet Sally Bowles is beautifully cast. Siobhan Dillon shatters Minnelli’s mould and brings a sharply defined upper class edge to the role. There’s something of the public school prefect about her. Imagine a young, raven-haired Joanna Lumley speaking the Queen’s English and you’re halfway there. She’s scatty, impetuous and gasping, with a yoyo temperament that oscillates between glitzy hype and deep vulnerability. The way Dillon handles the showstoppers is exemplary. There’s dejection-yet-hope in ‘Maybe this Time’ and raddled, cocaine-induced dementia in the last hurrah of the title song. If you’ll excuse the predictable pun, I was bowled over. And she only came third in TV’s ‘How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria’! I’d also like to heap praise on Lyn Paul (who was a lead singer with The New Seekers in the 70s). She and Linal Haft bring painful depth to the delicate love affair of two old traditional Germans caught up in the gathering disaster. Their coy proposal scene is smiling-yet-tear jerking and, with the fate of the Jews becoming apparent, Paul shows us the inner struggle between longed-for sentimentality and the steeliness required to survive. Watching re-runs of Top Of The Pops will never be the same. Will Young was indisposed on press night – but we barely missed him. Simon Jaymes moved up the batting order with ease to give us an Emcee of highly dubious sexual persuasion – all black leather shorts and rugby scrum legs. Like a shape shifter, he is grotesquely obese in ‘The Money Song’ and tiny as a mouse in his hauntingly sad solo. He might want to work on his ‘twinkle’ with the audience, but he put his whole heart and soul into it and was puffing his cheeks at the curtain call. But here I am dissecting a show that defies division. The overall effect is infinitely greater than the sum of the parts and 50 years after Masteroff, Kander and Ebb first sharpened their pencils, ‘Cabaret’ is as sizzling and sensuous as ever and simply has to be seen to be believed. http://www.virtual-shropshire.co.uk/events...-grand-theatre/ QUOTE REVIEW: CABARET @THE BROADWAY December 03, 2013 Featured **** Twenty-four hours ago I’d have described Will Young simply as, “That guy who won Pop Idol in 2002.” If I were asked to describe him now, I’d tell you that he is an incredible and versatile performer. After making his West End debut in Cabaret last year, the chart-topping singer was nominated for an Olivier Award for best actor in a musical. Having just seen him perform in that very show at the Broadway Theatre, I can see why. Set in Germany in 1931, the show mainly focuses around the 19-year-old cabaret performer, Sally Bowles, and her romance with an American writer named Clive Bradshaw. But the joy of the first half turns much darker in the second as the rise of the Nazis affects the lives of these lovers and the people around them. Will Young plays Emcee, the master of ceremonies at the Kit Kat Club in Berlin, who slips in and out of the scenes – narrating and building the story. And wow, what a story! I was blown away by the plot, choreography, dazzling costumes and songs such as Maybe This Time and Cabaret being performed by a live orchestra. Moments to look out for include a well-performed six-in-a-bed musical scene — including a Giraffe — and a striking final tableau when the cast huddle together in the nude… Will Young included. I entered Tthe Broadway this evening as a fan of theatre and my wife entered as a fan of Will Young. Neither of us left disappointed. I’ve literally been less impressed by shows I’ve paid much more to see at the West End. Cabaret is being performed at The Broadway in Peterborough until December 7. Tickets start from £25 to £45. You might just be lucky enough to get a ticket by calling the Box Office on 01733 822225. Mikey Clarke http://www.espmag.co.uk/review-cabaret-broadway/ QUOTE Cabaret review: Willkommen back at any time
by Brad Barnes brad.barnes@peterboroughtoday.co.uk Of all the shows lined up for the Bill Kenwright winter season at Peterborough’s Broadway theatre, Cabaret was undoubtedly the most eagerly awaited and anticipated of the lot. And on Monday night a near-1,200 full house got to see what all the fuss was about. If the ovation, much of it standing, is anything to go by, it was worth the wait. Will Young, of Pop Idol fame, was magnificent was Emcee - all moody and maniacal - almost Joker-esque at times with white painted face and black leather shorts... and occasionally not much else; It is clear to see why he won a coveted Olivier nomination for the role in the West End. Emcee, in his own bizarre way, knits the story together – a story of troubled romances set against a backdrop of decadent, anything goes Berlin in the early 1930s and the rise of the Nazi party. Siobhan Dillion is a wonderful Sally Bowles, great acting as the motor-mouth songstress and a wonderful voice, best shown off with the hopeful Maybe This Time and the tragic Cabaret towards the end of Act Two. She works well with Matt Rawle, convincing as would-be author Cliff Bradshaw in Germany looking for inspiration for his next book, and there is plenty of it with the wild goings on at the bawdy Kit Kat Club. Lyn Paul (Fraulein Schneider) and Linal Haft (Herr Schultz), the other couple whose blossoming romance is doomed, albeit for much different, political, reasons, share some great moments, particularly the charming It Couldn’t please Me More. Paul, a Seventies star with the New Seekers, still possesses a delightful voice. Nicholas Tizzard, as the creepy, nasty-but-nice Nazi Ernst Ludwig, and Valerie Cutko, as the scary, sailor-eating Fraulein Kost are a delight. The ensemble are sensational at the heart of the power-packed, stunning dance routines - the choreography is incredible - which drive the show forwards. And the orchestra - on stage as the Kit Klub Club band - are note perfect. Young’s mesmerising performance gets most of the plaudits but the strong cast make sure there are no lulls between his eye-catching spells on stage. It is very dark at times, the Nazi uprising and persecution of the Jews makes sure of that, but there are certainly plenty of uplifting moments and no shortage of wit and humour http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/what-s-...-time-1-5724266 |
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