Mayflower theatre Southampton

 

Sponsored byREVIEW: Cabaret, Mayflower Theatre, Southampton, until September 8.

 

 

Published on Wednesday 5 September 2012 08:43

 

Wisely the production gets the sight of Will Young in his little lederhosen out the way early.

 

After that, it’s straight into the serious business: a seriously-impressive of revival of Kander and Ebb’s landmark musical, with a devastating conclusion which chills to the core.

 

Previous revivals seem to have dragged the film along, albatross-like, behind them, never quite able to shake it off or let it go,–but not this one. Rufus Norris’’ double Olivier-award winning production is a bold re-imagining, and it works mesmerisingly well.

 

The production creates the decadence and it recreates the looming spectre of Nazism which eventually overwhelms it; by the end, you understand why Cliff must go and yet Sally must stay. Life is a cabaret, Sally sings, and Michelle Ryan superbly brings out the emptiness of the charade Sally knows she’s condemned to continue playing.

 

Ryan’s is a superlative performance, sexy, sassy and tragic; the show will go on, but at huge personal cost. The beautiful Maybe This time has never seemed more poignant.

 

Will Young never eclipses her as the Emcee in a hugely-skilled performance which makes you realise that the character doesn’t have to have the sinisterness he usually exudes. Young’s take on it all underlines that the Emcee is a victim too as the final knockings of 20s decadence are engulfed by the rising tide of fascist brutality. The balletic thuggery, to which Cliff (the excellent Matt Rawle) falls victim, is a compelling image.

 

Tomorrow Belongs To Me doesn’t quite have the impact here that it has in the film (If You Could See Her certainly doesn’t); but different mediums offer different challenges; and there’s no doubting the cleverness of the invention in this production - particularly in the most chilling of final scenes which underlines in the most graphic way imaginable just what is at stake.

 

Just as importantly, the closing moments leave you reflecting just how much such dangers still exist – a tribute to a piece which is played beautifully by the ensemble.

 

It’s certainly not the Will Young show. The doomed love of Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz is movingly played out, by Sian Phillips and Linal Haft respectively. Phillips makes you understand Schneider’s pragmatism (What Would You Do); Haft is touching in his naïve hope.

 

Put it all together, and Cabaret is undoubtedly the highlight so far in a year already full of treasures at the Mayflower. Visually it is stunning; Javier De Frutos’ choreography is slick but vibrant; and the performances all round leave you convinced that an important musical, with the most important of messages, has been done rich and glowing justice.

 

Phil Hewitt

http://www.chichester.co.uk/lifestyle/cine...ber-8-1-4222908

 

Southampton News

 

September 5, 2012

It’s divine decadence darling!

 

Set in Berlin, the capital city of Germany in the late 1800s, ‘Cabaret’ charts the tale of a group of people who feel they are under no obligation to conform to discipline, order or frugality. Instead, they choose a life of remarkable extravagance and independence. With a ‘devil may care’ attitude and cocaine very much in fashion, the prostitutes and topless dancers found themselves swiftly flourishing in the highly popular cabarets and bars.

 

Currently showing at The Mayflower Theatre in Southampton (for one week only!) prior to the West End, Will Young and Michelle Ryan make their musical theatre debuts in ‘Cabaret.’ This is a seriously impressive rendition of Kander and Ebb’s landmark musical!

 

Will Young stars as Emcee, the puppeteer of the theatre that is Berlin and its inhabitants. Pulling the strings and orchestrating the cabaret, Emcee reveals the different levels operating in the musical. He showcases the political undercurrents and the poignancy of love interests within the story.

 

No doubt much of the audience were enticed to the theatre last night by the mention of Will Young and they would not have been disappointed! Both his theatrical performance and his musician-ship were faultless. His velvet voice resonated around The Mayflower to rapturous applause. With the exception of one highly inappropriate wolf-whistle when Will removed his trousers, his musical theatre debut went down a storm; it was very easy to suspend any ‘Pop Idol’ connections and believe whole-heartedly in the devilish and flamboyant character he was playing.

 

Michelle Ryan of Eastenders fame, met Will’s vocal abilities and combined Liza Minnelli-esque ‘va va voom’ with unique charm and vulnerability. Despite her tough exterior, Sally Bowles is a lady desperate to hold onto any man willing to love her, but eventually she gives it all up for a life of (supposed) glamour, cocaine and partying. It is the love story between Sally and Cliff which propels the narrative forward and twists and turns through the political undercurrents of the Berlin setting.

 

Make sure you get your tickets! ‘Cabaret’ will be showing at The Mayflower until Saturday 08 September before moving to a handful of other UK venues and then finally moving to London’s Savoy Theatre in October.

 

Simply go to www.mayflower.org.uk or call 02380 711811 to book.

 

Posted on: September 5, 2012

By: Alice Rook

 

Southern Daily Echo

 

Cabaret opens at The Mayflower in Southampton

 

9:17am Wednesday 5th September 2012 in Stage News Photograph of the Author By Lorelei Reddin, Entertainments Editor

Michelle Ryan and Will Young in Cabaret Michelle Ryan and Will Young in Cabaret

 

IT’S Willkommen, Bienvenue, welcome to Southampton for Will Young.

 

The celebrated singer/songwriter turned successful actor made his musical theatre debut last night on The Mayflower stage ahead of a West End run in Cabaret.

 

Perfectly cast as the enigmatic Emcee, he cuts a camp yet menacing figure as he oversees the transformation of early 1930s Berlin into a sexually charged haven of decadence each night as the master of ceremonies at the infamous Kit Kat Klub.

 

Former EastEnders star Michelle Ryan also makes her first foray into musical theatre, recovering from a disappointing stint in Hollywood as the Bionic Woman to put in a stunning performance as leading lady Sally Bowles.

 

A sultry, dark and somewhat disturbing reimagining of the double award winning production, Cabaret runs until Saturday.

 

A week-long Southampton stint is the first in a limited four-week run at a handful of UK venues before the show transfers to London’s Savoy Theatre in October.

The Edge

Cabaret at The Mayflower, Southampton (04/09/2012)

 

Josh CoxNo Comments

5 September 2012 01:30 pm

 

 

I went to the theatre slightly apprehensive as I wasn’t quite sure what to make of a musical with a cast consisting of an ex Eastenders actress and the winner of a pop star reality show. Most shows that go down the route of having famous faces as their headline stars tend to go down badly, but it is safe to say that Cabaret has done the complete opposite, offering an excellent rendition of the Kander and Ebb classic, Cabaret!

 

Cabaret takes place in Berlin, Germany, during 1930 and 1931 depicting the uprising of the Nazi’s and the unfortunate demise of cabaret with many directors and performers of cabaret actually being taken to concentration camps. This does not mean, however, that Cabaret is a morbid and depressing story - it is a show of great comedy, flamboyance and love.

 

Will Young does a fantastic job in catching the audiences’ attention and making them focus solely on him while cast and crew work in the background creating a phenomenal set. It was the job of an MC in cabaret to show wit and be masters of improvisation and Young’s depiction of Emcee, the MC at The Kit Kat Club draws you in to a false feeling of truly being at the cabaret. Young also adds an excellent comedic value to the performance and I sit waiting for his next arrival.

 

Young plays an excellent transition between scenes, and this brings me on the point of how amazing the scenery and lighting was for the performance. Space was used excellently and, although simple, the set depicted mood and setting brilliantly. The use of cast members to move pieces of set, limiting members of crew on stage, truly creates the ambiance of this being a trip to the cabaret as opposed to a trip to see a musical at The Mayflower. The transitions are slick and I only noticed a few problems in the symmetry of set and the movement during one number but apart from this you could not fault the work of the design and technical team. The lighting compliments the set with bright bulbs used where appropriate.

 

To add to the feel of being at the cabaret the band were situated behind a movable screen and were only uncovered when scenes took place in The Kit Kat Club. This takes away the fourth wall and draws the audience in to the performance. In the words of Emcee ‘even the orchestra are beautiful’. At times there were a few sound issues with Young’s voice being drowned out at the beginning but this was soon rectified and was fine throughout the rest of the performance.

 

Michelle Ryan was the only person who disappointed me slightly. There is no doubt that her acting skills are excellent but I believe her lack in vocal talents were shown in places. I expected a lot more from her rendition of Maybe This Time but she redeemed herself when she sang Cabaret as she belts out many a note. I cannot fault her ability to portray the character of Sally Bowles I just wish her vocals were slightly stronger and in places it did look like she was lip syncing although this cannot be confirmed. I don’t know if the reason for being so critical of her performance is due to the familiarity of her Eastenders character but I do believe this detracts from simply analysing her performance on the night. She did please the crowd and received a tremendous cheer in the finale.

 

I can safely say that this was a well structured performance with little fault. I wanted more from the accents but you can understand the difficulty in singing with the German accent. It was actually Will Young who had the best accent from the whole cast. A mention must go to Sian Phillips for playing the instantly loveable Fraulein Schneider and I admire her portrayal of a lonely widow who just so happens to fall in love with someone society does not accept. Cabaret touches on some sensitive areas but this is done well and is depicted well as to not cause offence to any member of the audience.

 

Cabaret has a limited run at The Mayflower Southampton with performances carrying on until 8th September 2012. It then moves directly to the Savoy Theatre for a limited run on the West End stage. Knowing this, my expectations were high when I entered the theatre and I did not leave disappointed. Cast and crew worked effortlessly to produce a marvellous piece of musical theatre and I urge everyone to see it before it’s too late.

 

8/10

 

Tickets can be purchased from The Mayflower Box Office or on their website and Cabaret’s run ends on 8th September 2012. 

 

http://www.theedgesusu.co.uk/culture/2012/...mpton-04092012/

 

The News (Portsmouth)

 

Sponsored byCabaret at the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton

 

Will Young and Michelle Ryan star in Cabaret

By Rachel Jones

Published on Thursday 6 September 2012 08:02

 

You have to hand it to Will Young. Not only is he playing one of the most responsible roles in musical theatre, he’s doing it in tight leather shorts.

 

The singer is donning the saucy apparel and hitting the high notes as Cabaret’s Emcee.

 

The show relies on a fabulously flamboyant master of ceremonies and Young puts in a great performance as the outrageous host of Berlin’s seedy Kit Kat Club.

 

He’s matched by Michelle Ryan as Sally Bowles – the flighty singer who is right at home in this city of sexual freedom.

 

And a host of other characters, including writer Clifford Bradshaw, landlady Fraulein Schneider (Sian Phillips), and night worker Fraulein Kost are excellently delivered.

 

In this production the regime’s rise creeps up on the audience as the swastika and other chilling reminders gain momentum in satirical cabaret numbers and ‘real life’ scenes.

 

The clever blend of flamboyance and foreboding leaves you cold but with those great songs still ringing in your ears. Simply wunderbar!

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/lifestyle/the-...mpton-1-4226039

 

The Salisbury Journal

 

Powerful production at the Mayflower

 

2:39pm Thursday 6th September 2012 in Entertainments

CABARET needs two particularly strong performances to carry it off.

 

The roles of Sally Bowles and the Emcee are not for the fainthearted, not least because there is no escape from the comparison to Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey.

 

Rufus Norris’ revival of his multi award-winning 2006 production opened at the Mayflower this week at the start of a four-week tour before heading to the West End.

 

In the role of Sally Bowles is former EastEnders actress Michelle Ryan, while pop star Will Young plays Emcee.

 

 

Ryan has a strong singing voice and puts in a good performance, but doesn’t quite have the presence to make it brilliant. Will Young is a revelation, taking ownership of the stage from the moment the opening spotlight falls on him. You could almost hear the audience smile each time he appeared.

 

Stage stalwarts Sian Phillips and Linal Haft and Harriet Thorpe provide excellent support.

 

And Matt Rawle as Cliff Bradshaw deftly portrays the bright-eyed, eager American’s growing realisation of the horrors hiding just behind the scenery of Berlin’s 1931 Kit Kat Kabaret.

 

Along with Bradshaw, the audience is pulled into the desperate decadence of a city already on its knees and a people clinging to the hope that it could not get worse.

 

 

A powerful production.

 

Morwenna Blake

 

http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/leisure/..._the_Mayflower/

Edited September 6, 201212 yr by truly talented

im smiling reading these

Review: Cabaret, Theatre Royal, by Patrick Astill

Tuesday, September 11, 2012NottmPostEGFollow

ANYONE turning up expecting to see Cabaret done Will Young-style will be in for a short sharp shock.

 

It's clear from this show that the lad doesn't just sing love songs for a living but is a consummate all-rounder, acting - indeed hamming it up - as the Emcee of the seedy Kit Kat Club.

 

He's loving it so much you could even believe Will Young was born to this role. He even seems completely at ease with his nude scene. And that's great news for a show that's touring four regional venues before embarking on its big West End run.

 

It's a mature performance from the man everyone wants to see, ten years on from his Pop Idol win.He's perfectly cast, white-faced and manic, resembling one of Hogarth's grotesques as his role brings a chilling reminder of the changes affecting Berlin and Germany in 1931.Will's clearly enjoying himself and deserves his share of the standing ovation at the final curtain.

 

His co-star Michelle Ryan has a silky strong singing voice but doesn't quite bring the gusto we'd hope for as Sally Bowles.She works neatly with Clifford Bradshaw (played by Henry Luxembourg) as we follow their developing relationship through the inter-war years as Nazism slowly rises in Berlin.

 

We're treated to a string of top-notch well-known numbers as both jump aboard the helter-skelter anything-goes lifestyle of the party set. Will's The Money Song, Michelle with Cabaret and some touching melodies as we begin to see how Sian Phillips' Fraulein Schneider might have a future with Jewish Herr Schultz (played by Linal Haft, who although he has a string of stage, TV and big screen credits, will be forever Maureen Lipman's son in the BT ads).

 

As we lose ourselves in the plot and mayhem of the debauched Kit Kat Club, it comes as something of a shock when Ernst Ludwig (Nicholas Tizzard) takes off his overcoat to reveal a swastika armband. And that's where the lives of both couples begin to unravel.

 

http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/Review-C...tail/story.html

 

Charlotte Tobitt

Review: Cabaret

 

September 11th, 2012

A musical juxtaposing Naziism with love in and around a cabaret in 1931 Berlin is not for the faint-hearted, with flashes of both male and female nudity, a brutal beating up scene and Hitler all breaking up some tremendously catchy musical numbers. Put this mixture of the hilarious and poignant together with Will Young as the runaway star of the show, the emcee, and the whole audience was enraptured in a whirlwind of emotions.

 

 

©Bill Kenwright Ltd

Will Young was seemingly born to play the emcee, with his high, slick voice, animated facial expressions and stage presence; he pulled off everything that was needed from him in his first musical theatre role and more. It took little more than for him to make a sceptical or surprised face on stage for the audience to titter- even when it was supposed to be a serious moment (a criticism of the audience, not the show!) If I were to list my highlights of the night (and that of the majority of the audience, judging by the general reaction), it would be an inventory of the emcee’s songs: 'Two Ladies', 'The Money Song', 'If You Could See Her' and, of course, 'Wilkommen', the bookending song that is likely to be the tune everyone is humming at the end. Of course, another highlight is the surprise appearance of Young’s bottom at the very end of the show- though hard to be too excited about this at the time due to the heartrending scene on stage, everyone was rather gleeful about it as soon as the curtain came down!

 

However, Young wasn’t the only star on stage; Michelle Ryan, most famous for her role as Zoe Slater in Eastenders, also made her musical theatre debut as the female star of the show, Sally Bowles. Despite some cynicism over her worth on stage and as a singer in particular, she was definitely better than was generally expected, strongly holding her own during the title song 'Cabaret', belting it out without fear. Although the emphasised British accent and earnest gestures were sometimes slightly grating, she has made this a smooth and perhaps long lasting transition into the world of the stage. Her performance was especially impressive in light of the fact that the actor playing her leading man, Cliff Bradshaw, with whom she shares the vast majority of her scenes, was not the normal actor or even his understudy, but an outsider whose biography was inserted into each programme: Henry Luxemburg. Although displaying the only noticeable slip-ups of the night, he was still largely very smooth and cool, displaying empathy and a likeability factor, despite the fact he barely sings a line, unusual for a leading man in a musical.

 

It would be impossible to review this show without mentioning the flawless band, whose display to the audience at opportune nightclub moments was an ingenious design idea, and the lighting which constantly added mood and character to the scenes in a subtle but knowing way. The simple set of beds, doors and ladders is brought to life by the excellent ensemble and their mesmerising approach to the choreography. It is obvious that a lot of hard work has gone into this show to make it its best, and it has definitely been worthwhile for all involved.

 

This production is currently partway through a four week national tour that still has to stop at Nottingham, Norwich and Salford before a West End residency at the Savoy for several months. If you can tear yourself away from our beloved York, this is a must-see!

 

Click here for Cabaret tour dates

http://www.theyorker.co.uk/arts/performingarts/12349

 

Oh my - they are coming thick and fast - thanks sunday :wub: :yahoo:

Thanks for the latest reviews, :cheer: my face is aching with smiling so much reading them. :yahoo:

 

 

Pop Idol Will Young impresses in Cabaret

 

Michelle Ryan and Will Young in Cabaret

By By Jackie Derbyshire

Published on Saturday 15 September 2012 07:00

 

WILL Young steals the show in this production of Cabaret that stopped off in Nottingham as part of a whistle stop nation-wide tour before it takes up residence in London’s West End.

 

While the former talent show winner of Pop Idol has proved his worth, in the decade since he won the show, with his singing and songwriting prowess, this will be his West End debut.

 

With numerous number one albums, sell-out tours and a couple of film and stage credits already under his belt, it seems there is no stopping this 33 year-old who can now boast a commanding stage presence.

 

Critics might claim that his crude beginnings in TV and the Will-Gates contest was not the best of foundations in which to build a career beyond the initial hype and publicity, but he continues to prove his critics wrong.

 

Young plays Emcee in this stage show that first hit Broadway in 1966 before being transformed into an Oscar-winning film in 1972, starring the legendary Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles.

 

Even if you have never seen the film or experienced the show before and are unaware of the Cabaret beginnings, its songs have become iconic through the decades.

 

This latest production will appeal to a new generation as alongside Young is former Eastenders actress Michelle Ryan. It’s a far cry from her Zoe Slater days as she takes on the role of an English cabaret singer attracted to the American writer Cliff Bradshaw.

 

The show is based in the Kit Kat Klub of Berlin in the 1930s in the lead up to the Second World War just as the Nazis begin their rise to power.

 

The story switches between the relationship of the young couple and its sexual complications to the much deeper problems faced by the later-in-life love of Fraulein Kost (Harriet Thorpe) and Jewish fruit vendor Herr Schultz (Linal Haft). Sentimental scenes of courtship and seduction between the two couples are played out against a simple backdrop. This acts to heighten the crude contrast to the club scenes where the dancers present a sexy,sensual,stimulating and provocative performance wearing sequinned hot pants, lederhosen and little else.

 

The high kicks, impressive leaps and carefully choreographed routine is highlighted by the sultry lighting and dark shadows creating an atmosphere of titillation.

 

Cabaret delivers on many levels. It has the humour, the romance, the sex and the anticipation of the inevitable as history is retold.

 

Michelle Ryan, although an impressive CV and vocal talent not seen before, I felt there was something missing from her performance. In her raunchy scenes, especially in the beginning, she looked a little uncomfortable.

 

But this didn’t matter as inevitably, Will Young was as masterful an MC as Billy Smart at the circus. He kept the audience transfixed throughout his scenes with his punchy delivery, over the top expressions and showed total confidence in his character.

 

It was a real treat being exposed to all the delights of the Cabaret so close to home. But even if you missed it, it would be well worth the trip to the bright lights of the big city when it struts into the West End in October.

 

http://www.chad.co.uk/lifestyle/stage/pop-...baret-1-4927617

Edited September 15, 201212 yr by truly talented

Thanks TT for the latest review, Will keeps on racking up the plaudits for his role as Emcee, brilliant. :cheer:

Critics might claim that his crude beginnings in TV and the Will-Gates contest was not the best of foundations in which to build a career beyond the initial hype and publicity, but he continues to prove his critics wrong.

 

Yep.

 

This... :wub:

 

Thanks TT. I too felt there was something lacking in her role - not quite as dynamic as I believe the role calls for. Will IS Emcee - the part suits him down to the ground.

Edited September 15, 201212 yr by munchkin

Norwich

 

Review: Cabaret by Kander and Ebb, Norwich Theatre Royal

Andrew Clarke

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

11:52 AM

 

 

 

Review: Cabaret by Kander and Ebb, Norwich Theatre Royal, until September 22

 

Cabaret is one of the great musicals. Not only does it have spectacular musical numbers but it is also a show of real substance offering audiences something to think about as it gives us a conducted tour of a decadent Berlin during the early 1930s.

 

In many ways it offers us three shows in one. On the surface we have the recreation of the KitKat club presided over by the grotesque Emcee, the second is the tragic story of English cabaret performer Sally Bowles and finally there’s Cliff Bradshaw’s outsider’s view of the rise of Nazi Germany.

 

The three elements combine with a stonking score to provide us with a show of real substance – a show which can withstand real scrutiny, repeated viewings and any number of varied interpretations.

 

The latest reworking, currently wowing capacity audiences at the Theatre Royal Norwich, stars Will Young and Michelle Ryan and will be heading into the West End on October 3. The show has been startlingly imagined by director Rufus Norris as beds, cages and ladders sweep across the stage, virtually doing a dance, as the characters perform in a twilight world telling us how Germany is changing.

 

Cabaret works because it is a show about people rather than spectacle. It’s a dark show but also a hugely engaging one. We care about what happens to the characters we meet.

 

Will Young has tremendous stage presence as the white-faced Emcee. At the start of the show, he provides us with a visual reminder of the show’s origins – Christopher Isherwood’s novel I Am A Camera – as he emerges from the letter ‘O’ in the word Wilkommen. The ‘O’ has been set up to resemble a camera lens.

 

 

Although the Emcee functions as a guide through the story, Will invests the character ,not only with lashings of eccentricity, but with some welcome flashes of vulnerability.

 

Michelle Ryan successfully steps out of Liza Minnelli’s vast shadow to create a flighty, needy Sally Bowles who appears to be on the run from a stifling home counties life. She yearns for freedom but what is it that she really wants? Michelle skilfully brings out Sally’s real tragedy – her inability to emotionally commit to anything or anyone.

 

Sian Phillips makes a touching Fraulein Schneider, who has is forced to choose between her room-renting business and her love for Jewish greengrocer Herr Schultz, played with tender understatement by Linal Haft.

 

It’s a terrific re-imagining of a stunning show which will undoubtedly grow more nuanced as it settles into its London run. The highlight for me was the chilling Tomorrow Belongs To Me with the Emcee as a grotesque puppeteer.

 

The only slight niggles I had were that Michelle Ryan needs to have more confidence in her vocals and Cliff’s bi-sexuality is given more prominence than in previous productions and I’m not sure that helps the Cliff/Sally elements of the story. But these are only minor quibbles. Cabaret remains a stunning, moving piece of musical theatre.

 

Andrew Clarke

http://www.eadt.co.uk/entertainment/review...royal_1_1520324

 

Don't Miss Cabaret, Say Critics18 September 12

 

Only returns are available for the hit show, which is at Norwich Theatre Royal until September 22. Check out the critic's views.

 

 

From the glitzy, gaudy, sleazy opening you wouldn't guess what unfolds in Cabaret. But this is a story - and a production - that runs the full gamut from cheeky humour to unspeakable horror with the only constant delight the superb performances of a top notch cast.

Many in the sold-out auditorium will have been attracted by Will Young's starring role as Emcee, and he strikes a strong and distinctive note as an archly-camp ringmaster turned unspeakable cipher as the dying spasms of the Weimar Republic give way to the rise of Weimar Germany.

But the real surprise of the night was Michelle Ryan in her first musical lead. Her voice and presence in her first number alone will silence any critics, embodying with charm and panache - and the sweetest undertone of frailty - showgirl Sally Bowles.

Henry Luxemburg, drafted in late to take on the part of Clifford Bradshaw, dropped into the role with ease and Sian Phillips as Fraulein Schneider and Linal Haft as Herr Schultz provided a grounded foil to the main story. The musical accompaniment, led by Tom De Keyser, was exemplary, matching the action as well as designer Katrina Lindsay's creative and stunning set.

Rufus Norris's direction deftly handles the two very contrasting strands of the piece, the extravagance and decadance of the first half serving only to intensify the inhumanity of the latter strands of the tale. A remarkable achievement.

 

JAMES GOFFIN (EASTERN DAILY PRESS/NORWICH EVENING NEWS)

 

http://www.eadt.co.uk/entertainment/review...royal_1_1520324

Edited September 18, 201212 yr by truly talented

Thanks TT. All brilliant reviews. :dance: I do hope the London critics will be as discerning.

 

I think James Goffin of the Eastern Daily Press means the rise of Nazi Germany not the rise of Weimar Germany. That's what Hitler was out to destroy.

Come to the cabaret

 

 

Published on Saturday 22 September 2012 08:30

 

CABARET – NORWICH THEATRE ROYAL

 

THE Theatre Royal oozed with all the atmospheric glitz and glamour of a 1930s Berlin nightclub this week.

 

This superb production of Cabaret, on a four-week tour prior to moving to the West End, revealed a highly emotional history lesson, running from the outrageously titillating and debauched partying of the Weimar Republic through to a final chilling scene where the hedonistic lifestyle came crashing to an ugly end as the Nazis goose-stepped into power.

 

Will Young, who will be making his West End debut as Emcee, master of ceremonies at the seamy Kit Kat Club, completely commanded a role that could have been tailor-made for him.

 

Aside from his beautiful vocals, he was every inch the camp nightclub host, using clever insinuation and whippet fast acerbic wit, as well as a very funny and physical performance, to give a searing insight into the tragic story unfolding in the city.

 

Former Eastenders actress Michelle Ryan, as fesity showgirl Sally Bowles, earned her spurs with a strong and confident performance, displaying a fine voice and portraying an underlying vulnerability. There were also superb performances from Henry Luxembourg, who stepped into the role of American writer Cliff only a few days before, Siân Phillips and Linal Haft as Fräulein Schneider and Herr Schultz, and Harriet Thorpe and Nicholas Tizzard as Fräulein Kost and Ernst Ludwig.

 

Whilst the high-kicking dancers, slinky costumes and iconic vibrant full ensemble numbers, with live music from the onstage band, set the pulse racing, it was the final shocking scene which really hit home.JUDY FOSTER

 

http://www.dissexpress.co.uk/lifestyle/lif...baret-1-4285759

Arts blog- http://behindthefootlights.blogspot.co.uk/...09/cabaret.html

Cabaret

Bill Kenwright Production

Theatre Royal, Norwich

Saturday 22nd September 2012

 

From the first moments, as Will Young's Emcee peers through the middle of the front cloth to "Wilkommen" the audience in, it is clear he is going to be the star. The success of his vocal performance almost goes without saying; faultlessly silky smooth throughout with a relaxed strength that makes it look so easy, he could sing the phone book. It is his physical performing skills however that are a surprise triumph. Grinning inanely, executing his way through some frantic choreography, his stage presence demands attention throughout in an excellent interpretation.

Michelle Ryan looks fabulous as Kit Kat Club dancer Sally Bowles, most successful in her opener "Mein Herr" and the "Perfectly Marvellous" duet with Cliff, when being frivolous and theatrical. She is, however, less impressive in the more emotional moments, and frankly disappoints in a flat version of "Maybe this Time". By the title number, near the end, Sally Bowles should have the audience entirely bought in - the part doesn't even demand a wonderful voice, as long as the actress sparkles with charisma. Ryan looks slightly uncomfortable and the song doesn't build to the glitzy climax that should convince us to "come to the Cabaret".

Among the rest of the cast, Matt Rawle plays the unconventional love interest Cliff with flair and emotion, Nicholas Tizzard is disturbingly charming as Nazi Ernst Ludwig, and Harriet Thorpe is a glamorous Fraulein Kost.

Siân Phillips is entirely superb as landlady Fraulein Schneider, with her adorable love interest Herr Shultz played by Linal Haft. The quiet beauty of their flowering relationship is in many ways both the highlight and subsequent tear-jerking tragedy of the whole show. Sensitively directed and subtly performed, the storyline works wonderfully.

This was a highly sexually-charged production, with some moments bordering on the sadomasochistic, but it worked very well and was certainly hard hitting, with committed and energetic performances by a busy ensemble. The show is full of dark plot lines beneath the initial glitz of the cabaret, with the Nazi Youth's "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" unsubtly but affectingly staged. The final scene, by which time the Nazi's have taken over Berlin, hauntingly depicts the symbolic future for ordinary German citizens.

Cabaret, with it's full-frontal nudity warnings and controversial storylines, will be something of a contrast for the Savoy when it replaces Soul Sister in the West End next month. An unapologetically unsettling production - well worth seeing.

 

Cheshire Today

Review: Cabaret, Lyric Theatre, The Lowry, Salford Quays

Tue, 25/09/2012 - 15:35

 

By Michelle McKenna

 

Rufus Norris’s production of Cabaret is an absolutely outstanding revival of Kander and Ebb’s classic musical.

 

Set in Berlin in 1931 as the Nazis are rising to power much of the action is based around the seedy Kit Kat cabaret club and the relationship between English performer Sally Bowles (Michelle Ryan) and American writer Cliff Bradshaw (Henry Luxemburg) who arrives in the city on New Year’s Eve 1930 searching for inspiration for his novel and immediately makes friends with local man Ernst Ludwig.

 

Sally and Cliff’s story is intertwined with that of Fräulein Schneider (Sian Phillips), a German woman in her later years, who runs the boarding house where Cliff is staying and her suitor, Jewish fruit store owner Herr Schultz (Linal Haft).

 

The early acts of the play are quite light-hearted and in parts very funny but as it progresses you begin to see a picture of the storm that is brewing in wider Berlin and indeed Germany behind all the razzmatazz of the Kit Kat Club.

 

And while the catchy musical numbers, including the famous “Cabaret” will have you tapping your feet and the wonderfully slick choreography of Olivier award-winning Javier De Frutos will grab your attention, the storyline is just as compelling.

 

Will Young stole the show with his portrayal of the enigmatic Emcee the Master of Ceremonies at the Kit Kat Klub, serving as a constant reminder of the ominous political mood of the time.

 

He manages to portray an eccentric character that is at times, sinister while also managing to show moments of vulnerability. I usually cringe when the audience hollers at the “big name stars” but I have to say on this occasion the support from the crowd was well deserved and his appearance on stage in a pair of tight leather shorts didn’t harm matters!

 

The other “big name” was former Eastender Michelle Ryan and I was equally impressed with her performance as the lively Sally Bowles. She proved to be a fantastic dancer with a beautiful and strong voice as well as a talented actress, finding the balance between Sally’s outrageously wild side and the young girl who thinks that she is unlovable.

 

Equally impressive was veteran actress Sian Phillips with her touching portrayal of the strong Fräulein Schneider, who yearns for love yet knows that a romance with the Jewish Herr Schultz would be her undoing.

 

The staging, designed by Katrina Lindsay, is simplistic yet effective, with beds, ladders and dressing tables, wheeling in and out of view, often forming part of the dance routines.

 

All in all this was the best play that I have seen in a long time. It has everything you would expect from a musical but above all it tells an engaging tale, which leaves the audience with food for thought.

Venue: The Lowry

Where: Salford

Date Reviewed: 25 September 2012

WOS Rating: ***

Reader Reviews: View and add to our user reviews

 

Rufus Norris' production of the classic Cabaret received mixed notices when it arrived in the West End for the first time. It featured a miscast Anna Maxwell Martin and the dark elements of the narrative were hammered home to the audience, therefore the shock impact was all but lost.

 

Sally Bowles is not supposed to the best singer in the world but whenever she steps into reality through the likes of "Maybe This Time" - you should feel an emotional connection, as the character's life spirals out of control against an ever changing backdrop in Berlin.

 

Michelle Ryan performs well when playing Sally the singer/entertainer. But whenever she has to emote, she does not fare so well. Will Young's Emcee is over-styled and comes across like a German Frank Spencer. Young does play to the crowd convincingly but the Kit Kat Club scenes are so brief and rushed that you never really feel like guests in the debauched venue, so everything feels a bit too clinical as a result.

 

Sian Phillips and Linal Haft are both brilliant conveying poignancy and fear in equal measure as Fraulein Schneider and Ernst Ludwig - an older couple finding love at a time of shifting sands. Harriet Thorpe is also reliably good as a lady of the night whose business is booming.

 

Javier De Frutos' choreography feels confused as much of it takes place outside of the club environment. Like Norris' direction, something is missing - the dirt underneath the fingernails, the bruises of oppression and a sense of hedonism coming to an abrupt end are all strangely glossed over as this piece is very episodic.

 

Henry Luxemburg's Cliff seems to be starring in a far better production. It's a shame that his sterling efforts are not fully rewarded. Cabaret is uneven and slightly flat, although there are flashes of brilliance in between the 'speak and spell' style direction.

 

- by Glenn Meads

British Theatre Guide

Cabaret

Book by Joe Masteroff, music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb

Bill Kenwright Productions

The Lowry, Salford

From 24 September 2012 to 29 September 2012

Review by David Upton

 

Willkommen, Will Young, to the role he was probably designed to play...

As Emcee, in director Rufus Norris’s ‘re-imagining’ of his award-winning Cabaret, Young positively inhabits the part of the Berlin club compère in a production that re-establishes this central character as the focus of the story.

Whether chewing the carpet, as Hitler in a babygro, or maybe manhandling himself once too often, you certainly have to hand him the credit here—or he’d probably snatch it anyway.

Naturally his first appearance is greeted with whooping and hollering, from both genders in the audience, but anyone would have to agree he does look naturally lascivious in lederhosen.

Young’s vocal talent, in particular, is to the fore in the Aryan hymn "Tomorrow Belongs To Me", which closes the first act in especially effective style. But it is put to even more haunting use for "I Don’t Care Much", a pivotal song to the story that is too often left out of some productions.

Michelle Ryan gives one of the most affecting portrayals of the good-time girl Sally Bowles seen in some time, even if her singing voice doesn’t always quite hit the same high notes.

Sian Phillips and Linal Haft are also particularly effective as the Schneider and Schultz characters caught up in the encroaching anti-semitism of 1930s Germany.

Indeed Norris’s intelligent production is very well able to balance the show’s themes of hedonistic decadence and the reactionary darkness of tyranny, even if it can’t quite resist a little full-frontal titillation just to show how grown-up it is.

There can be no such qualms, however, about the naked use of the cast in a visually-authentic closing scene, even as the curtain comes down on a stunned audience silence.

Never underestimate the power of musical theatre to sometimes be as emotionally potent as its dramatic cousin.

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/leisure/thea ... -31926021/

 

The Lowry, Salford

 

If Cabaret is an accurate picture of 1930s Berlin - and everything seems to suggest so - the German capital must have been quite the place to see and to be seen.

 

The stage musical has it all, excitement to enjoy, freedom to live, love, lust and share, along with an all pervasive decadence and unavoidable corruption. What is there not to like.

 

After all the uncertainty of post World War One rampant inflation, there followed a seize-the-moment culture - Berlin had become a city where moral parameters were considered redundant and which were often subject of great mockery. The Weimar Republic had, albeit unwittingly, ushered in an age of permissiveness - no censorship, no closing hours, no morality laws.

 

The musical Cabaret is set mostly in a Berlin night club which enjoys all those freedoms - and in the rooms of Fraulein Schneider’s once genteel guest house. This award-winning production captures the era with a totally convincing feel and sound - capturing the eventual demise with equal candor.

 

Will Young is Emcee - the been there, done that and too involved to buy the T-shirt Kabaret club MC - and Michelle Ryan is Sally Bowles the young English singer and dancer swept up by all the decadence - a girl with everything to gain, win and lose.

 

If ever the saying “he’s a bit Marmite - you either love him or hate him”, meant anything, it probably applies to singer actor Will Young; he can be a delight or annoying - very annoying.

 

In this role he has discovered his perfect vehicle and though it is not without some flaws, it is a role he can throw himself into without reserve - which he does. It is an over-the-top, in-your-face, full-on performance which has everything in full measure - even if, occasionally, it overflows into a caricature of the parody.

 

Michelle Ryan is delightfully convincing - flamboyant yet vulnerable, worldly wise yet childishly and she slip seamlessly into both with a fine voice and great legs. Welsh actress Sian Phillips is the landlady who has morals to spare yet must turn a blind eye when her guests don’t have any. Even she cannot avoid the terrible changes and Ms Phillips is totally convincing.

 

Henry Luxemburg, Lionel Haft and Harriet Thorpe all contribute greatly to a superb, all-singing, all-dancing ensemble production which - under the excellent direction of Rufus Norris - is not afraid to mix the fun and laughter with the gritty morality, disturbing politics and the show’s decadence to despair storyline. It is an intoxicating story entertainingly told.

 

**Cabaret is at The Lowry, Salford Quays until Saturday

LIVELY MUSICAL IS WELL WORTH THE TRIP

Published at 16:57, Friday, 28 September 2012

THEATRE REVIEW: Cabaret, The Lowry, Salford, Monday September 24

 

AS Will Young took to the stage in some fetching leather lederhosen at the Lowry on Monday night, in the opening number of Cabaret, I just knew I was in for a treat – both visually and musically with this latest re-imagining of one of the world’s best-known musicals.

 

While I’d only ever seen the film version of Cabaret where Sally Bowles takes centre stage – Rufus Norris’ production, which stars Will Young as Emcee and Michelle Ryan as Sally Bowles, puts Young’s character firmly back in the spotlight and the singer-song writer pulls off the performance of his career.

 

From his opening number, Wilkommen, met with whoops of delight by the audience, through to his beautifully powerful rendition of Tomorrow Belongs to Me and the haunting I Don’t Care Much – Young’s voice delights and astounds.

 

Michelle Ryan, who I’d previously only ever seen in television roles, was a revelation as the good-time girl Sally Bowles, and while her vocal talents can’t match those of Will Young, she can certainly hold a tune.

 

While this all-singing, all-dancing production captures the pure decadence of the age, it also effectively highlights the encroaching Nazism of the era – culminating in an extremely moving end scene where a naked cast huddles together under falling snow. The dramatic impact of this denouement is undeniable.

 

Cabaret plays at the Lowry until September 29, before transferring to the West End. Catch it if you can. It’s certainly worth the drive.

 

CLAIRE CRISP

http://www.nwemail.co.uk/home/lifestyle ... Path=home#

Edited October 10, 201212 yr by munchkin

Cabaret Review Savoy Theatre

 

Posted on October 9th, 2012 by Neil in London Theatre Articles, Reviews » No Comments

 

Cabaret October 2012The story of Cabaret is in the wind lately. We’ve recently seen I Am Camera at Southwark Playhouse based on the same story, and now the Rufus Norris revival of the musical itself returns to the West End to take up residency at the Savoy Theatre, with Will Young of Pop Idol fame taking on the role as the Emcee.

 

It is impossible to divorce this production from the 2006 production, also directed by Rufus Norris. With the same director and choreographer – and even some of the same cast – you can’t help but compare. This doesn’t always work in this production’s favour.

 

Thankfully, the full frontal nudity has mostly been removed, and the audience can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that there is no nude dancing this time round. You get the odd bit here and there, but it’s more natural and fitting with the situation. The ensemble is much smaller and it leads to a more intimate performance that works rather well. The interaction between the leads and the ensemble is wonderful, and the production was at its best in the ensemble numbers. The choreography was tight and a joy to watch.

 

The biggest surprise in the production is Will Young himself. You want to dismiss him as a stunt casting who isn’t really strong enough to carry the role of the Emcee, and I was delighted to be proven wrong. Young carries the role with great confidence and energy, and had the audience in stitches in nearly every scene he appeared in. His voice is strong, his acting is spot on, and he’s so comfortable in the role that you forget his reality television background. He is best described as a rather mad looking cross between a clown and a monkey, and it works. He ad libs where necessary and the audience adores him.

 

At the same time, how much of a stunt casting is a celebrity that has a musical theatre degree from Arts Educational? It’s easy to forget that Young is a trained performer, not someone who walked into Pop Idol with no experience. From the performance he gave tonight, he belongs on the West End stage and I look forward to seeing him in many productions in the future.

 

But then there’s Michelle Ryan, who plays Sally Bowles. It’s true that Anna Maxwell Martin wasn’t the strongest singer in the 2006 production and that it suffered somewhat for that, but Maxwell Martin presence and acting ability made up for it. With Michelle Ryan, we have big problems. While her acting isn’t bad as such, I didn’t find her very believable, and she had very little chemistry with Matt Rawle’s Clifford Bradshaw. After a fairly strong start with “Mein Herr”, it went downhill. Her voice is weak, and she was consistently unable to hit any long, high notes, making “Maybe This Time” painful to listen to for all the wrong reasons. “Life is a Cabaret” wasn’t much better although somewhat salvaged by the way it was acted with heavy use of speaking instead of singing, and “Mama” mostly took place off-stage as background noise, which was probably just as well.

 

Sally Bowles is a tough part to play, but you need an actress with charisma to pull it off, and Michelle Ryan was not the right person to cast for the role. This is hardly her fault, and you end up feeling a bit sorry for the actress rather than for Sally Bowles, who it was difficult to care much about.

 

A similar problem was had with the story of Herr Shultz and Fraulein Schneider. While Sian Phillips doesn’t quite live up to the powerhouse that was Sheila Hancock in the 2006 production, she holds her own and is a delight to watch. Linal Haft as Herr Schultz is more difficult to connect to and even though his story is so heartbreaking, you only really feel Fraulein Schneider’s pain.

 

The production is very mixed throughout but with its problems there is a lot to enjoy here. The change of having the Emcee singing “Tomorrow Belongs To Me”with the ensemble as his puppets was very interesting and the way they introduced the Nazi symbol in the scene was unexpected and very well done.

 

Towards the end where you have the Emcee singing “I Don’t Care Much”, Will Young is stripped down to a more natural voice and in a dressing gown, and delivers the song with fragility and grace, making it all the more powerful. I was also relieved to see they have kept the rather brutal ending of the 2006 production, which after all the glamour, glitz and silly antics is still very effective.

 

Will Young’s fans will be thrilled by this production and every minute he is on stage is delightful. As a whole though, you need to care about the core relationships in Cabaret in order to make the story work, and unfortunately they are difficult to connect to. You have to wonder why Norris would return to directing the same show again so soon, when we’ve recently seen him direct such challenging and groundbreaking work as London Road. Why revive the same musical twice in such a short amount of time with the same director? As much as the production is enjoyable and entertaining in its peak moments, you do end up feeling like there wasn’t anything really new or interesting in the changes that made this production worth the revival.

 

A good time for the most part, but ultimately a bit pointless.

 

Review by Tori Johanne Lau

 

Why not book tickets to see Cabaret and make your own judgement?

 

Tuesday 9th October 2012

 

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Review by Peter Brown

8 Oct 2012

 

3.5 stars

 

It is almost 6 years ago to the day that I first saw this version of 'Cabaret' directed by Rufus Norris. Not very much has changed in the intervening period, though the show has now made its way eastwards, having started at the Lyric and now firmly in residence at the Savoy Theatre. The move obviously presented the opportunity to change things quite radically, but the creative team has declined the offer (apart from some tweaks) and opted to stick with the original formula which obviously must have seemed like a winner.

 

If you have never seen the film, or indeed the stage version before, the story is about a young American, Cliff Bradshaw (played here by Matt Rawle), who finds cheap lodgings in the house of one Fräulein Schneider (Sian Phillips). Arriving at the railway station in Berlin, he is befriended by Ernst Ludwig who turns out to be a member of the Nazi party and something of a money launderer – or, at least, involved in some kind of smuggling – for which he tries to recruit the initially naïve Cliff. At a cabaret, The Kit Kat Club, Cliff meets singer Sally Bowles who later moves in with Cliff at his lodgings. In the meantime, the brutal Nazis are gaining political power, and the freedom which many Berliners have previously enjoyed is about to come to an abrupt end.

 

First performed on Broadway in 1966, the show is based first on the writings of Christopher Isherwood who experienced first-hand the sexually liberated, hedonistic Berlin of the declining years of the Weimar Republic. Isherwood's experiences were encapsulated in various stories including that of Sally Bowles. Later in 1952, John Van Druten turned Isherwood's stories into a play entitled 'I am a Camera' – the title being a quote from Isherwood's 'A Berlin Diary', set in the Autumn of 1930. And later still, in the 1960s, John Kander and Fred Ebb wrote the music and lyrics, with the book by Joe Masteroff.

 

What struck me this time round was the considerable amount of the show which is devoted to the boarding-house landlady Fräulein Schneider. Back in 2006, Sheila Hancock won the Olivier Award for best supporting actress in this role, and deservedly so. Here, Sian Phillips invests the role with a kind of weary acceptance. Though she tries to stamp her authority on her tenants, Fräulein Schneider fails miserably and has to 'come to arrangements' with them, knowing she must do so in order to survive. And that is what Fräulein Schneider is, a survivor, and she is intent on surviving whatever the personal cost.

 

Last time I saw this production, James Dreyfus proved a rather sinister and quirky lead in the role of Emcee. Here, Will Young takes up the reigns and gives us a rather different portrayal. The Emcee is a tough role to crack because the character is so difficult to understand. He is a clown, a shrewd manipulator of the audience in the cabaret and obviously highly intelligent. But we do not find out much more about his background or his motivation for working in a cabaret. Will Young gives us rather more of the clown in his Emcee, but also suggests a more serious, more enigmatic character lurking within.

 

As is I said in my previous review, it really is hard to look at this stage version without referencing the film version with Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles and Michael York as the Englishman, Brian Roberts, visiting the sexually-liberated Berlin at the turn of the decade between the 1920s and 30s. A couple of couples who were sitting behind me – by coincidence both celebrating wedding anniversaries - found the gear shift between film and stage versions rather striking and unexpected – even so, they liked this stage version, I hasten to add. I would think many people will have the same shock, if that is not too strong a word. In many ways, the stage version is a very different animal to the film, and to be objectively fair, they really ought not to be subjected to direct comparison, though that may be a bridge too far for most. In fact, this stage version would be better described as a musical play, or a drama with music, and this is firmly demonstrated in Rufus Norris's honest and authentic direction.

 

It may sound strange, but the real power of Mr Norris's production actually lies in the bleak ending, laden with foreboding. As the Nazis begin to flex their political muscle, the cabaret bars are some of the first victims of the new regime. Simply executed, the denouement is nonetheless incredibly powerful, and also immensely sad.

 

Apart from a few minor issues with timing (which I am sure will be swiftly ironed-out), the overall quality of the production is high with satisfying performances all-round, along with award-winning choreography. And with the highly popular Will Young in the lead, this incarnation of 'Cabaret' looks set fair for a further lengthy run.

 

(Peter Brown)

 

The Arts Desk

http://www.theartsdesk.com/theatre/caba ... oy-theatre

 

Quote:

Cabaret, Savoy Theatre

 

Better voices but less bite mark this revival of a revival of Kander and Ebb's Broadway classic

 

by Matt Wolf|Wednesday, 10 October 2012

 

 

The party's over: Will Young makes his West End debut as the EmceeKeith Pattison

 

 

"All this hatred is exhausting," or so remarks Will Young's ceaselessly grimace-prone Emcee in Cabaret in a comment that encapsulates the evening as a whole. Returning to a show he directed to acclaim on the West End six years ago, the director Rufus Norris has reconsidered John Kander and Fred Ebb's song-and-dance classic with less nudity, stronger voices, and lots of stage business where its bite should be.

 

Audiences will turn out for a show that features bigger names than were on offer on Shaftesbury Ave. in 2006, where musicals neophyte Anna Maxwell Martin played Sally Bowles opposite a purposefully joyless James Dreyfus as a clearly doomed Emcee. But as if to accommodate an admittedly game singer (Young) here making a hyperactive West End debut, the sting of the earlier staging has taken a showbizzy turn that only occasionally honours arguably the most resoundingly political musical ever to hit the Broadway mainstream.

 

One can hardly fault Young (pictured right) for giving it his all (and, at one point, baring all, albeit in a production that elsewhere dispenses with the abundance of flesh from before, at least until the closing image). From the moment he first appears midway up Katrina Lindsay's at once forbidding yet fluid set, the Pop Idol star rarely stops wincing and pulling faces as he struts and high-kicks his way from one state of quasi-undress to another, along the way scooping up songs that aren't necessarily within this character's remit - "Tomorrow Belongs To Me", the ominously lovely first-act finale, preeminently among them.

 

The phrase "less is more" was made for a star turn so determined to impress that one ends up seeking respite from this omnipresent, omnisexual figure of hedonism hurling itself toward the grave in 1930s Berlin. And for all that the show's master of ceremonies has been an authorial construct as opposed to a flesh-and-blood character pretty much from Joel Grey onwards, two-plus hours of vampy posturing can take their toll. In context, it's scarcely a surprise that Young's ghostly and deliberate "I Don't Care Much" late in the second act represents the finest moment in a performance that elsewhere has yet to settle, though a sense of proportion may well come into play as the run continues. (This cast had a month on tour prior to arriving at the Savoy.)

 

Elsewhere, Norris as before communicates the dreamscape tipping into nightmare traversed by all the show's inhabitants, from the heedless chanteuse Sally Bowles (Michelle Ryan) through to the ageing landlady Fraulein Schneider (a hammy Sian Phillips) and on to her beloved Herr Schultz (Linal Haft), the Jewish shopkeeper who refuses to acknowledge the genocidal march gathering pace around him. "It will pass," he says, resisting the chance to exit the country that against mounting evidence he continues to hold dear.

 

"Wake up, Sally," the bisexual novelist Clifford Bradshaw (Matt Rawle) tells the small-time, large-voiced singer who has been sharing his bed. But Cliff alone can read the increasingly swastika-laden writing on the wall amidst a community collectively so blinkered that even he briefly succumbs to the intensifying moral aphasia in "Why Should I Wake Up?", the lesser-known but haunting number that West End regular Rawle - giving by some measure the performance of the night - sends soaring eerily into the ether.

 

Cutting a bruised portrait of battered innocence, Rawle's Cliff falls prey, in Javier de Frutos's reworking of his 2006 choreography, to some cartwheeling thugs, as if to suggest the UK-based Venezuelan as the man for the job should West Side Story ever be looking for someone besides Jerome Robbins to relate the antagonisms of the Sharks and the Jets. (The "Bali Hai"-like backdrop to "It Couldn't Please Me More", meanwhile, is a mistake.)

 

And what of West End first-timer (and EastEnders alum) Ryan (pictured above) as that perennially self-deluded songbird, Sally? It's a pleasure to hear the most anthemic portions of the score for once allowed the sort of vocal heft too often sidelined by directors hellbent on the idea that Sally can't actually sing. But Ryan grievously undersells the book scenes in which this solipsist's spirit starts to break and has her part to play in one's overall feeling that a once-audacious production has on this occasion been defanged.

• Cabaret at the Savoy Theatre until 19 January

Evening Standard

 

Henry Hitchings

 

10 October 2012

 

Quote:

Critic Rating ***

Reader Rating

It seems strange that this is Will Young’s West End debut as he’s such an obvious choice for a lavish musical. It’s as if he has been determinedly holding out for the chance to play the dynamic, sinister Emcee in this Kander and Ebb classic — a part that allows him to be a lord of misrule, a magician and a wicked manipulator.

 

Alongside him is Michelle Ryan, once of EastEnders, also making a West End debut. As the thrill-seeking English singer Sally Bowles, she proves vocally confident and very watchable. But she lacks any air of the bohemian. Her Sally appears irresponsible yet never really brittle, vulnerable or wildly iconoclastic.

 

The story is one of encroaching evil: the hedonism of the Weimar Republic slowly giving way to the brutal philosophy of Nazism. At its heart is US novelist Clifford (Matt Rawle), who arrives in Thirties Berlin intending to write a masterpiece but is soon caught up in a world that’s both decadent and politically unstable and inevitably makes his way to the Kit Kat Klub, over which Young presides with creepy, clownish glee.

 

A sizable part of the action has to do with Clifford’s landlady Fräulein Schneider (Siân Phillips) and her relationship with a local Jewish fruit vendor (Linal Haft). With the norms of daily life in jeopardy, their forlorn affection becomes poignant.

 

Rufus Norris’s take on Cabaret isn’t new. It was staged, to great plaudits, in 2006. Here, with bigger stars, it remains inventive but feels less concertedly political and less depraved. There’s more glamour and not so deep a sense of the disturbing.

 

Javier de Frutos provides jagged, provocative choreography, and Katrina Lindsay’s design uses asymmetry to suggest the distortions of a morally corrupt society.

 

Yet the chilling descent into Nazi nightmare isn’t realised with enough intensity. The central relationships don’t fully convince, and there is a lack of sensuality. Young’s vigorous interpretation typifies a production that has too little menace and contains a good deal of posturing.

 

Until January 19 (box office 0844 871 7627)

 

The Independent

Cabaret, Savoy Theatre, London ***

Paul Taylor.Wednesday 10 October 2012

 

Rufus Norris's 2006 revival of this Kander & Ebb classic blew me away with its dark, fiercely energised and full-frontal vision of Weimar Berlin as a society gyrating its crotch at the edge of the abyss – at once a drug-fuelled hotbed of rampant, polymorphous perversity and a fertile seedbed for Nazism whose rise emerged in pointed conjunction with the spread of neurasthenic kinkiness.

Now the show is back in a re-imagined version in which Norris and his choreographer, Javier de Frutos, often find fresh and arresting way of expressing the same conception, with certain key numbers staged completely differently.

It's Will Young's Emcee who now sings “Tomorrow Belongs To Me”, the fascist portent of this anthem chillingly revealed as he switches from a pretence of sweet-voiced youthful purity into a mad, malign puppeteer. Jerked by his strings, a chorus of traditionally dressed rustics becomes a mountingly militaristic, pistol-toting mob who decorate him with a scribbled Hitler moustache at the climax of the first half.

At the same time, the production seems to have some lost some of its dangerous edge (the depravity can look a bit strenuously dutiful rather than driven).

Young, of Pop Idol fame, sings beautifully and has bags of stage presence in his leather hot pants.

A whiff of Frank Spencer, though, rather than an odour of corruption and moral ambiguity clings to this master of ceremonies whose mock-”don't-mind me” ingratiating manner lacks sufficient irony and doesn't confuse or challenge the audience with contradictory signals.

But he can't be accused of lacking guts or aplomb – whether grotesquely bloated with balloons and scoffing currency for the hyper-inflation satire in the “Money” song or giving an achingly wistful rendition of “I Don't Care Much”, while adrift and off-duty in a dressing-gown, he makes a genuinely distinctive impression.

Michelle Ryan, by contrast, signally fails to rise to the occasion of Sally Bowles. Instead of showing us the emotional flakiness and need behind the heroine's show of worldly bravado, she gives us a wholesome, healthy girl who is about as “divinely decadent” as a lacrosse match followed by a hearty cream tea. Deficient in either charisma or sense of inner conflict, her performance of both “Maybe This Time” and the title number is painful in quite the wrong ways.

The show is still worth seeing for its bold imaginative sweep and for Sian Phillips's deeply touching Fraulein Schneider, even if coming to this Cabaret is not quite what it was, old chum.

Edited October 10, 201212 yr by munchkin

After Rufus Norris and his team managed to get Cabaret so right in the West End back in 2006 (and on its subsequent 2008 UK tour), it was a surprise to hear the same team were reassembled to once again re-imagine and develop a new production of the iconic musical. The show may be different, but the success still stands.

 

This version incorporates much more comedy, but doesn’t detract from the undeniable dark undertones, making them even more apparent and disconcerting than ever. This production’s ability to have the auditorium bursting with laughter one moment then deathly silent the next is truly something to behold.

 

New choreography by Javier De Frutos sets the large company numbers off at a cracking pace – a visual treat. The hardworking ensemble of ten clearly thrive in the movement, giving scenes a terrific life and making them a real pleasure to watch.

 

The surprise of the night is definitely Will Young. He is nothing short of spectacular as the larger than life yet deeply flawed Emcee, who guides the audience through the evening. Not only is his vocal performance first rate but he knows his character inside out and upside down, which makes the world of difference when we suddenly begin to see the character’s vulnerable edge – and boy can he move too! Young holds more than his own when dancing with the likes of various Laine, Bird and ArtsEd graduates.

 

Young is supported by class acts Sian Phillips and Matt Rawle, who are both splendid in their respective roles, Fraulein Schneider and Cliff Bradshaw. Harriet Thorpe is also delightfully dislikeable as Fraulein Kost, bringing some much welcomed comic relief to proceedings before sending a cold chill through the audience with her haunting reprise, ‘Tomorrow Belongs to Me’.

 

As Sally Bowles, Michelle Ryan doesn’t quite hit the mark in the same fashion as the rest of her cast mates. At times her lack of musical theatre experience is quite apparent and the role seems slightly out of her vocal reach. That said she does bring a lovely sensitivity to her character in the second act as Sally’s walls begin to crumble around her.

 

Excellent musical support is provided by the very well dressed nine strong orchestra placed above the stage and under the baton of the ever-impressive Tom De Keyser. As always he leads his musicians with clear expertise and panache, creating a marvellous sounding show.

 

Special mentions go to Katrina Lindsay (Designer) and Mark Howett (Lighting Designer) for creating a wonderfully atmospheric stage. This version is the perfect size for the Savoy and looks tremendous.

 

A fantastic production, which deserves a lot more than 16 weeks and a much bigger audience than it had the night I was lucky enough to “come to the Cabaret”!

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Sorry if this as already been posted

 

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Will Young in Cabaret, Savoy theatre, review

Charles Spencer reviews Will Young and Michelle Ryan in the revival of Rufus Norris' Cabaret.

 

 

Will Young as Emcee in Cabaret Photo: Alastair Muir

By Charles Spencer2:16PM BST 10 Oct 2012Comment

 

For some of us there will only ever be one Sally Bowles. If you first saw Bob Fosse’s film version of Cabaret as an impressionable male adolescent, Liza Minnelli’s sensational performance, with its mixture of sensuality, cheek, vulnerability and vocal power will be etched forever in the memory.

 

There were of course some who complained that Minnelli was miscast. In Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin stories, on which Kander and Ebb’s greatest musical is based, Sally Bowles was meant to be a second-rate cabaret performer while Minnelli, in those days at least, was professional to her fingertips.

Six years ago the director Rufus Norris directed a West End production of Cabaret that was more faithful to Isherwood’s original intentions. He cast that fine actress Anna Maxwell Martin as Sally, who proved heart-stoppingly poignant but was indeed a mediocre singer.

 

Now he has revisited that production. Michelle Ryan, a former star of EastEnders, takes over as Sally Bowles, while the pop star Will Young replaces James Dreyfuss as the unsettling master of ceremonies at the Kit Kat Club.

There are other changes too. Javier de Frutos’s choreography seems less confrontational and sexually unbuttoned than it did the first time around, when the show’s famous decadence often felt more diabolical than divine, and the whole production feels slicker and safer. It will appeal to a wider audience,

but Michelle Ryan proves an attractive and unusually wholesome Sally and puts over the big numbers with great assurance. But she never plumbs the emotional depths of the role. There isn’t enough desperate hope in Maybe This Time, and she constantly always comes over as a plucky survivor, rather than someone teetering on the edge of despair.

There is also little sexual chemistry in her relationship with Matt Rawle’s Clifford Bradshaw, the American bisexual writer who falls in love with her. Rawle is excellent in a role that can often seem underwritten, sharply capturing the character’s disgust at the rise of Nazism and his joy when he believes that he and Sally may have a child together. But you never feel that this mismatched couple are unexpectedly head-over-heels in love. Indeed the relationship between the old landlady, Fraulein Schneider, and her Jewish admirer Herr Schultz proves far more touching thanks to lovely autumnal performances from Sian Phillips and Linal Haft.

 

Will Young, who a few years ago proved a downright embarrassment in Noël Coward’s The Vortex, seems far more at home as the louche Emcee. He has a genuinely disconcerting stage presence with his slicked-down hair, lustful eyes and predatory stillness, and there is a potent mixture of malignity and glee in his performance. As you would expect he sings well too, especially in the initially beautiful Tomorrow Belongs to Me which becomes increasingly sinister as he manipulates the Kit Kat ensemble as if they were puppets on strings, dancing to his tune. The parallel with Hitler and the German population becomes unmistakable.

Norris’s unexpected ending to the show, which it would be a crime to reveal, is even more chilling, and one leaves this patchy but inventive production with a shiver of deep unease.

Tickets: 0844 871 7615

The final 20 minutes of Rufus Norris's revamped revival of Cabaret are shockingly good. The campy glamour of Berlin's pre-war Kit-Kat Club is gradually stripped away, just as the illusions of would-be writer Clifford Bradshaw (Matt Rawle) have been destroyed. The bare brick wall of the theatre is revealed. The fantasy is over. Will Young's Emcee flits through the detritus, singing the ghostly I Don't Care Much like a dying moth trying to search out the light. Soon the chorus will be lined up against the back wall, their shivering nakedness a sharp contrast with the strutting, vampish displays of their bodies in earlier scenes.

 

This is worth the price of a ticket alone, although Norris's take on the 1966 Broadway show, which deviates substantially from the later film version with Liza Minnelli, always wants to have its cake and eat it. It seeks star casting – Michelle Ryan belts out the songs but can't make much impact as the underwritten chanteuse, Sally Bowles – and artistic credibility; both divine decadence and political clout.

 

Perhaps not surprisingly, it's all a little conflicted. When Young's Master of Ceremonies – more comic than menacing, as if Chucky's head had been sewn on to Little Lord Fauntleroy's body – welcomes us into the club, he is, like the production itself, inviting us to enjoy what must also be condemned. Until Norris shapes up and gets tough in Tomorrow Belongs to Me, which has the Emcee as a puppet master manipulating his marionettes, this production operates very cosily at that point where Nazism and eroticism meet – a spectacle of what Susan Sontag described as "fascinating fascism". Just as Cliff himself is redeemed through the narrative, so the evening finally redeems itself. Had Norris dared more from the outset, however, this could have been a rare piece of musical theatre, challenging as well as entertaining.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/oc ... ret-review

 

Cabaret review, Savoy

Will Young as the emcee in a sleazy Berlin club filled with prostitutes and bisexuals... It isn't an image that naturally presents itself, but Young is the undisputed star turn in this revival of Cabaret. By turns mischievous and manipulative he offers us safe refuge in the city's dark underbelly as Nazism takes a stronghold outside. His joie de vivre rescues a shaky first half where none of the pieces fit, and carries us through a second where it all finally gels.

 

 

Cabaret is based on the stories of Christopher Isherwood whose on-stage alter-ego, Clifford Bradshaw, has such a bitty script his only value is as a mirror to the global revulsion at Hitler's rise. His relationship with the cabaret singer, Sally Bowles, makes no sense as it starts after a scene in which he's snogged a man. Sally, played by Michelle Ryan, has a great set of legs as well as a terrific set of lungs, but limited emotional range.

 

Sian Phillips and Linal Haft are the unexpected heart of the evening as the elderly couple who can't commit because one is a Jew and will compromise the business of the other. The allusions to what will come are deeply moving, as is the ending. It is Young, however, who is the real revelation - he's elegant, nuanced, funny, and his character visibly grows and changes. What he isn't, is sexy. None of them are, not even the dancers. Fans of the songs, and of the singer, won't mind.

 

In conclusion: The start is a struggle saved only by Young, and by Katrina Lindsay's spectacular set. The puppet song and dance routine for Tomorrow Belongs to Me is a triumph and the ending deeply moving. It works where you least expect it.

 

http://mmtheatrereviews.blogspot.co.uk/ ... savoy.html

 

Thursday October 11,2012

By Julie Carpenter

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ANYONE who remembers the 1972 film version of Cabaret might question whether Will Young, with his cheeky smile and engaging persona, is the natural choice to play the show’s menacing emcee.

Kander and Ebb’s dark musical, set in Thirties Berlin as it lurches towards Nazism, swirls around the seedily decadent Kit Kat Club, where the voyeurish emcee acts as ringmaster.

 

It’s a role that bagged Joel Grey an Oscar (alongside Liza Minnelli’s star turn as Sally Bowles) and while he may lack Grey’s leering malevolence, Young actually proves in his element in the role, preening, cavorting and camping it up in black leather lederhosen and sock suspenders.

 

His mischievous impishness might be more benevolent than some portrayals but it does make for a jolting contrast when he slips into Nazi satire, ending the song Tomorrow Belongs To Me, for instance, by impersonating the

furious Fuhrer, screeching his words as if at a Nazi rally.

 

While the show is hung around the relationship between nightclub singer Bowles and visiting American Clifford Bradshaw (the excellent Matt Rawle), the horror of the piece partly lies in the gulf between the characters’ comprehension of how the political shift will affect them and the reality which slowly encroaches.

 

Rufus Norris’s production could be accused of initially lacking some edge and Javier De Frutos’s choreography proves more raw than sleazy, perhaps losing some of the heady permissiveness of the pre-Nazi era.

 

But rather than having the Nazi threat hanging in the air it comes in short, sharp bursts like slaps in the face,

particularly in the second half, while the cheery opening half almost lulls the audience into the same complacency displayed by many of the characters.

 

It ultimately proves effective. Michelle Ryan (Zoe Slater in EastEnders) doesn’t try for Minnelli’s gloriously, sluttishly sexy performance.

 

She’s like a game boarding-school girl on a jolly adventure which is probably nearer to the role as originally created by novelist Christopher Isherwood but doesn’t entirely convince.

 

There is more pathos in the relationship between the elderly Fraulein Schneider and the Jewish grocer Herr Schultz (Sian Phillips and Linal Haft) while the final image, where the nightclub dancers are stripped of their eroticism and stand, naked and shivering, in a gas chamber, may be overt but it provides a chilling reminder of how, in Clifford’s

words, this is the end of the world.

 

3/5

 

http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/view/351312

 

Edited October 11, 201212 yr by truly talented

The Times

 

Will Young as befits a pop idol appears in a porthole beneath huge letters spelling WILL. But it is of course the beginning of WILLKOMMEN the Emcee's invitation to the nightlife of 1930s Berlin, and Young, pictured below, faces his most demanding stage role yet. Palid beneath dark clown eyebrows, between cynical joke songs and melodic melancholy he has to be a symbol of both decadence and vulnerability; sometimes sexually wild, sometimes a Hitler (controversially, he is given the Nazi anthem Tomorrow Belongs to Me, high on a podium pulling puppet strings of folksy Bavarian dancers into a final goose step). Finally, he is the victim among victims in a shocking final coup de theatre.

 

In Rufus Norris' revived production, Young is a worthy kingpin. Strong vocally and dramatically, he has an assured presence even during the battier numbers, where he hooches along as if playing seated volleyball or leads an 8 in a bed romp involving sausages, a bloke in a snorkel and a lifesized giraffe head. He manages this, and the brilliant silhouette staging of the gorilla song, as finely as he does the dark, drifting beauty of quieter moments.

 

The show is not without its awkwardness. Kander and Ebb’s 1966 musical (book by Joe Masterhoff) is a mutation of John van Druten’s play I Am a Camera, itself drawn from Christopher Isherwood’s writings: the film used aspects of both. Sally Bowles’s fragile affair with the bisexual writer is officially its centre but really it has two anchor points: one the cabaret songs which echo and mock, the other an affecting elderly romance between the landlady Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz, the Jewish fruiterer. Sian Phillips’s grainy rendering of So What? And Linal Haft’s beautiful Heiraten are superb, their sorrow restrainedly fine-drawn.

 

Michelle Ryan’s Sally Bowles, on the other hand is expressive, touching in song, but in dialogue her lines often feel, well, like lines. So their story is the least of it, which contributes to an odd imbalance between the fun of the first act and the terrifying darkness of the second. You may miss the angular power of Bob Fosse’s old choreography. Javier De Frutos opts instead for a ropy realism – the Kit Kat Club was meant to be a dive, after all – and, despite some startlingly athletic moves it is deliberately slaggy, crotch-y, imprecisely seedy stuff. Which I quite liked, in context. As the hero remarks, “I like this town, it’s so terrible and tawdry”.

 

Libby Purves

The Stage

 

Cabaret

 

Published Thursday 11 October 2012 at 10:37 by Lisa Martland

 

Will Young’s West End debut has been a long time coming. Ten years ago he put his drama studies on hold, famously won the TV talent contest Pop Idol and successfully pursued his music career. Now he relishes a new challenge, one of the most iconic musical theatre parts ever created, and offers a bravura performance that any seasoned stage performer would be proud of.

 

In the pivotal role of the Emcee, the simultaneously grotesque and beautiful figure who hosts The Kit Kat Club during the twilight of the Weimar, Young follows authoritatively in the footsteps of artists such as Joel Grey and Alan Cumming (the former of course making his mark not just on Broadway, but also in Bob Fosse’s 1972 movie version of Cabaret).

 

In the best productions of the show, John Kander and Fred Ebb’s revue numbers performed at the Berlin nightclub do more to comment on events taking place elsewhere in the narrative than any dialogue could achieve (although Joe Masteroff’s libretto still holds up relatively well). Indeed it is in these sequences that director Rufus Norris’ ‘reimagining’ of the show - he also staged the piece back in 2006 - is at its very best. The three-and-a-few-more-in-a-bed scenario during Two Ladies is a fabulous mini-farce while, on a more serious note, Tomorrow Belongs to Me, complete with human puppets on Swastika strings, is an extremely powerful conclusion to Act I (all credit to Javier De Frutos’ raunchy and frenetic choreography and an excellent orchestra led by Tom De Keyser). Dressed in black leather lederhosen, the flirtatious Young reveals a compelling, sensual and intense stage presence while maintaining a convincing chemistry with the rest of the ensemble.

 

In the early stages of the evening, the show’s satirical and political edge is overwhelmed somewhat by the visual glossiness of the production which would be more at home in the recent stylised staging of Kander and Ebb’s Chicago. While Katrina Lindsay’s minimalistic set and Mark Howett’s lighting emphasise the insular worlds of both the Kit Kat Club and life just beyond, the costumes suggest slickly sexy rather than seedy and tawdry which might have been truer to the underground world inhabited by the characters.

 

Superficiality is also a problem in the relationship portrayed by Matt Rawle, as American wannabe writer Clifford Bradshaw, and Michelle Ryan’s surprisingly dull rather than decadent Miss Bowles. While both give competent performances, it is hard to believe that these characters hold any depth of feeling for each other and do we as an audience really care whether they do? In contrast, the poignant tenderness displayed by landlady Fraulein Schneider (an exquisite Sian Phillips) and Linal Haft’s Jewish fruit shop owner is truly moving.

 

Perhaps the flaw in this production is that it tries occasionally a little too hard to evoke the risque world of permissive Berlin before Hitler’s word was law. Yet what remains is a refreshing and hugely atmospheric reinterpretation of a musical theatre classic which stills offers food for thought almost five decades after Broadway audiences saw it for the first time.

 

http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/revie ... 55/cabaret

 

Love this one. :wub:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Metro

 

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Will's brilliant reviews keep coming. :cheer:

 

 

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By Ben WaltersPosted: Thu Oct 11 2012

Rufus Norris's production of Kander and Ebb's spectacular take on Christopher Isherwood's stories of 1930s Berlin first opened at the Lyric in 2006. This revival's casting has provoked anticipation: Michelle Ryan, once of 'EastEnders', is Sally Bowles, love interest of Isherwood's proxy, Cliff Bradshaw and star of star of seedy cabaret joint the Kit Kat Club; Will Young, first winner of 'Pop Idol', plays the club's Emcee. One falls flat; the other excels.

 

It's a strong production, staging tight, slick numbers in a hard, flexible set whose design is laced with hints of German Expressionism. The band, mounted high at the rear of the set, does justice to the iconic numbers ('Wilkommen', 'Mein Herr', 'Maybe This Time' et al) and the satirical routines have convincingly sharp edges.

 

Young proves a compelling ringleader, his voice expressive, his presence snaring the necessary combination of charm and grotesquerie - now cod-Von Trapp, now Mr Creosote.

 

The show's conspicuous weakness lies in what should be its central relationship, between naÔve American newcomer Cliff and iconic demimondeuse Sally. Matt Rawle's Cliff feels a little jaded from the off and Ryan's loud, smiley, glib turn fails to capture Sally's combination of charisma, cunning and sadness. This leaves a significant gap, admirably filled by Si‚n Phillips and Linal Haft as landlady Fräulein Schneider and her Jewish suitor Herr Schultz.

 

Their rich performances bring this relationship rightly to the fore, especially when the rise of the Nazis becomes dramatically crucial in the story's second half. As the show builds to its sucker-punch climax, Cliff and Sally come to seem like the silly children Cliff suspects them to be, with Schneider, Schultz and the Kit Kat cast the tragic victims of history.

Daily Mail

QUENTIN LETTS: Will Young hits the thigh notes in Cabaret

By QUENTIN LETTS

PUBLISHED: 01:43, 12 October 2012 | UPDATED: 01:58, 12 October 2012

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Short and sweet: Will Young as Emcee in Cabaret

Cabaret (Savoy Theatre)

Verdict: Will power ★★★✩✩

Will Young in skimpy lederhosen alert! Rufus Norris’s production of Cabaret stars TV pop discovery Mr Young as Emcee, the master of ceremonies at the 1931 Berlin nightclub where much of the tale is set.

The stage is filled at first with a giant WILLKOMMEN. Mr Young’s distinctive face — he has a jaw and teeth to trump Anneka Rice — appears in the O of the word. Then he lifts one of his leather-short-clad thighs into view. At which a sizeable proportion of the opening night audience, many of them chaps, emitted a husky groan of longing.

Mr Young is definitely one of the good things in this show. He sings handsomely, as does Matt Rawle who plays bisexual American writer Clifford Bradshaw, ‘just visiting’ decadent Berlin in its last days of abandon before National Socialism.

Some of the other singing is, ahem, less good. Game old Sian Phillips has accepted the role of Fraulein Schneider, Bradshaw’s landlady.

I have heard sweeter sounds rise from a blocked tuba. She can no more hold a tune or tempo than a rhino can waterski. It’s a deep voice (think Lee Marvin in Paint Your Wagon) and ze Fraulein has ein supposedly moving duet, Married, with widowed Jewish greengrocer Herr Schultz (Linal Haft).

Maybe Mr Haft was given the part because he, too, is no Caruso. Either way, Married was like listening to a conversation between the late Jacques Cousteau and one of his fellow frogmen, several leagues deep.

But enough bitching! The band pumps out John Kander’s celebrated tunes efficiently and the hoofers flash a lot of buttockry and biceps, doing some impressive leaps from a height. As is only proper, this Cabaret has more suspenders than the average branch of Fenwick’s Ladies’ Fashions, and not all of them are worn by girls. At times we could be in Max Mosley’s front room.

 

Bradshaw meets and links up with the nightclub’s lead singer, Sally Bowles (Michelle Ryan). Sally is a drug addict, desperate, lonely, a mess. You would not think so from Miss Ryan’s hearty interpretation.

This Sally could be a Volvo mum or a county netball player. She sings lustily and wears her slinky outfits with hygienic precision, but should ‘life is a cabaret’ not be sung more in defiance, by a fragile sparrow who realises that she will never find marital stability?

 

Berlin's best: Young plays Emcee, the master of ceremonies at the 1931 Berlin nightclub where much of the tale is set

 

 

Young is defintely one of the goodt hings in this show - he sings handsomely but some of the other singing is, ahem, less good

All the time, Germany’s politics worsen. Kind Herr Schultz is in peril. The Kabaret era is doomed.

The staging features lots of metal struts, a mobile steel staircase and a couple of long ladders attached to runners. The ladders thing eluded me, I must confess.

There is a well-performed six-in-a-bed scene — at one point a giraffe joins the fun — and a striking final tableau when the nude dancers huddle under snow at the back wall.

Shades of the concentration camp horrors that were to come.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/ar ... z292w7Tl00

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From Baz Bamigboye, also Daily Mail.

 

Watch out for……..

Will Young who was excellent when I saw him as the master of ceremonies in a late preview of the John Kander and Fred Ebb musical Cabaret, which is on at the Savoy Theatre, Rufus Norris has re-staged and built on the version he directed a few years back. The second act is tremendously moving and reminds you that it’s a rare musical that stands for something.

Do catch this Cabaret.

 

Edited October 12, 201212 yr by truly talented