By André Hereford on July 20, 2017 @here4andre
Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of Cabaret (★★★) bumps and grinds its way through a solid, legs-wide-open rendition of Kander and Ebb’s timeless musical. Inspired by Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall’s singular nineties production, the national tour, directed by BT McNicholl, turns up the naughtiness and puts the bi in “bye-bye, Mein Herr.”
In lieu of a truly galvanizing Emcee or Sally Bowles, Cabaret earns its money by placing the story front and center, filling the margins with tantalizing detail and a stunningly talented ensemble. Benjamin Eakeley, who appeared alongside Alan Cumming and Michelle Williams in the musical’s 2014 Broadway revival, takes the lead as Clifford Bradshaw, an aspiring American writer arriving in Berlin in 1929.
Guided by his new German friend and pupil, Ernst Ludwig (Patrick Vaill), Cliff quickly discovers the city’s louche, licentious underbelly at the Kit Kat Club, where the twisted Emcee (Jon Peterson) holds court behind a mask of white makeup and red-rouged bare nipples. Populated by society’s sexual rebels and outcasts, the Kit Kat is a divey, dark reflection of the waning years of Germany’s post-WWI Weimar Republic. Inside, anything goes and everything’s for sale.
Expressive lighting extends the club into the audience, infusing the Eisenhower Theater with a speakeasy sense of underground rebellion. The Kit Kat girls and boys grab attention before the show begins, prowling and stretching across the multi-level set either shirtless or in lingerie. All of the Kit Kat players deliver: the band blazes through often inventive arrangements of Kander and Ebb’s fantastic songs, while backup dancers and singers for the Emcee, and the club’s star performer, Sally Bowles (Leigh Ann Larkin), turn the main stage into a thrusting, contorting, naughty playground.
Sally is quite naughty herself. She’s loose and a liar, snorts cocaine, and doesn’t care nearly as much as Clifford does about the rising power of the Nazi party. Larkin is delightfully brassy and sings marvelously, but her Sally’s more exasperating than lovable. While she seizes every bit of humor in the bawdy “Don’t Tell Mama,” she pours enough acid into the deliberately paced take on the show’s classic title tune to sear a hole through the stage.
Eakeley sharply conveys Cliff’s smarts, quickened pulse and bisexual curiosity, but he and Sally’s romantic entanglements don’t engender half the interest generated by the love story between Cliff’s landlady, Fräulein Schneider (Mary Gordon Murray), and her widower tenant, Herr Schultz (Scott Robertson). As Schneider, Murray gathers steam throughout the show, both funny and endearing as an exceedingly practical woman who must measure whether she’d give her life for love. By the time she performs “What Would You Do?,” she’s usurped the heart of Cabaret.
The politics of the show come across cogently, though they’re somewhat muted by the Peterson’s almost-warm portrayal of the Emcee. The greater (and more persuasive) emphasis seems to be on sexual politics, and the story’s timely message of fluidity and acceptance, imparted as much by the stew of attractions and betrayals as by McNicholl’s full-bodied staging and the original, suggestive choreography, recreated for the tour by Cynthia Onrubia.
There’s only one lady in this Kit Kat’s hot and handsy “Two Ladies,” but it’s plenty delightful, as the Emcee gives a little and gets a little from Lulu (Chelsey Clark) and Bobby (Joey Khoury). Peterson might not capture the indomitable edge of menace the Emcee can add to the club, but he sells the imp’s lustful attitude and appetite for provocation.
The Emcee takes pleasure in thumbing his nose at convention, just as Cabaret uses outré carnality and violence to tell a story about believing in love during a time of shocking inhumanity. The heat shoots like lightning from the Kit Kat players, who transform the Eisenhower Theater into a sultry and intimate club, where life is beautiful, the girls and boys are beautiful, and everyone’s troubles wait outside.
Cabaret runs to August 6, at Kennedy Center, Eisenhower Theatre, 1501 14th St. NW. Tickets are $59 to $149. Call 202-467-4600, or visit Kennedy-Center.org.
By André Hereford on March 28, 2025 @here4andre
A robust fall/winter for dance in the DMV gives way to a lighter but still bountiful spring, with an impressive variety of utterly inviting events and performances to choose from -- from Decolonized Beatz Indigenous World Pride at Atlas Performing Arts, and international troupe Compañía Medusa exploring queer themes at Dance Place, to several collaborators melding tap dance with different genres of movement and music to keep us swinging all through the season.
ATLAS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER1333 H St., NE 202-399-7993 www.atlasarts.org
Decolonized Beatz Indigenous World Pride -- Celebrating the work of Indigenous storytellers, organizers, and performers, the arts and performance series Decolonized Beatz brings Indigenous World Pride to Arena Stage (1101 6th St. NW) on May 30, and the next day to Atlas with music and dance performances, panel discussions, film screenings, a drag show featuring Lady Shug and Ritni Tears, and a closing dance party with beatz by DJ Rivolta Sata (6/1, Lang Theatre, free admission but registration required) BALLETNOVA CENTER FOR DANCEFredgren Studio Theatre 3443 Carlin Springs Rd. Falls Church, Va. 703-778-3008 www.balletnova.org
By Doug Rule on March 29, 2025 @ruleonwriting
For true fans of live music, and the whole concert-going and festival-going experience, Spring 2025 in the DMV is shaping up to be a banner season. And for those who're also fans of queer music and of seeing LGBTQ performers live in concert? Well, we're about to experience a real embarrassment of riches in that regard. And no, not just because of all those coming to town for WorldPride 2025. In fact, the number of out artists stopping through the area both before and after Pride this year is impressive.
Melissa Etheridge is one. Bob Mould another. Also due to visit is Allison Russell, John Grant, Rahsaan Patterson, Halsey, and Lucy Dacus. Not to mention Kylie Minogue, who's got local gay hearts beating padam padam for sure. Down the road, once Pride is a wrap, it'll be Ty Herndon's turn. Also Brandy Clark's. The Indigo Girls, Pink Martini, Laura Jane Grace will all also follow suit. Oh, and Cyndi Lauper will also return to have a little more fun -- and say farewell one more time, after time.
By Doug Rule on March 2, 2025 @ruleonwriting
"It was in high school that the theater bug hit me," says Miss Kitty. "I started as a singer before, and then, once I got to college, that's when I really started getting into dance." By the time she graduated from college, she notes with a flourish, "you could say became a triple threat."
The local performer's potential to become a triple threat was intimated early on by key officials in the drama department of her alma mater, Catholic University.
"I remember auditioning for a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance," she says. "They called me back as Ruth, the nursemaid. Many of my classmates and my voice teacher questioned that, I told them, 'No, I'm actually quite elated that they would be willing to call me back to play a female part, because I would feel a lot more comfortable that way."
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