With fear and trembling, Fio and Husband hosted Friend Paula and her husband for yesterday's matinee of the Palace Theater's performance of Cabaret. The reason they were concerned was that Evita, which they took Brother Bill and his wife to, was supposed to be top-notch, but Fio and Husband thought it was only so-so notch. On the other hand, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which they did not invite any guests to, turned out to be fantastic. With that kind of track record, what would Cabaret be like?
Well, the settings and stage set-up were great and the buxom chorus girls apropos. The characters generally handled the German accent well, especially Melita McAtee as Fraulein Schneider, but "Sally Boles" didn't quite cut it with her supposedly British accent. Sally also seemed somewhat stiff on stage, while "Clifford Bradshaw" came across as one-dimensional. On the other hand, Cathie Sheridan's Fraulein Kost connected with her audience and was deservedly a favorite.
But all in all, the show seemed tired, like Jessica's Kelpsch's choreography, usually so fresh and clever, which featured so many leg spreads that the daring got boring.
And it didn't help that the audience was treated to occasional flashes of daylight through the black curtains at either side of the stage as actors opened the back door to rush across the alley for quick costume changes.
By the end of the l-o-n-g first act, Fiorella was restless. She wasn't involved with any of the characters except Fraulein Schneider. There were some catchy tunes, but no excitement.
Maybe it was the Milky Way that Fio ate between acts, but it seemed to her that the short second act really picked up, and the play ended, of course, with a bang.
Wish it had been that way all the way through.
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1 comment:
Maybe it wasn’t the greatest but what good is sitting alone in your room? Put down your knitting, come taste the wine, come to the Cabaret.
It beats the crap out of fighting with computers!
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