Actors lend precision to ‘Cabaret’ roles
By Karlie Baker
IV Leader Staff, April 12, 2007
Unlike many productions where the most pre-performance
action is the orchestra pit’s warm-up, IVCC’s “Cabaret” had already opened for
the evening. Principle characters and supporting cast alike bustled about the
onstage club, cocktails in hand.
The actual show started off unassumingly. The girls just came
out and started the show — for both the audience and cabaret guests. It was, to
say the very least, a fitting start to a show with such a light tone.
The show itself, performed in the Cultural Center from
March30-April 1, served as a testament to days without consequence. These
characters go out every night; they savor the good times and each other.
The choreography seemed the type that one could watch night
after night without getting bored, as cabaret guests would have needed. The mood
was as light as the jazz the girls performed to. “Cabaret” then accelerates
swiftly from good time fun to the politics of Nazi Germany.
David Nolden’s American character Clifford Bradshaw notices
the injustices of the time, while other characters do not. The show briefly
explores the concerns of pre-concentration camp Berliners — ruined love affairs,
a business in jeopardy.
The actors fill their characters’ personalities with
precision. Melissa Burgett’s Sally Bowles was brazen, demanding and that brand
of fabulous only capable by the British. Herr Schneider, played by Michael
Lewis, hobbled about, mouth agape, like any rascally old man unleashed on the
world.
Emily Winner’s Fraulein Kost was particularly shameless, and
well-played as such. At times, it was impossible to tell who the true audience
was — those in the auditorium seats or the ever-present Cabaret guests. Perhaps
this was fitting, as the show began on the same note.
One thing is for sure: sexual innuendo is funny in any
language.