by June August

Thank you Adam Karsten and Coachella Valley Repertory (CVRep) for the courage to offer audiences a challenge:  get out of your head, let go of familiar notions and images, and immerse yourself in a new experience of an old favorite. Recreating a musical with a long history such as Cabaret takes more than vision: it takes guts. The preview performance I had the privilege of attending was an example of both.

Cabaret premiered on Broadway in November 1966.  Joe Masteroff’s book, adapted from the John Van Druten play I Am a Camera, has a timeless score by John Kander and Fred Ebb.  The Van Druten play was based on a 1939 story, Goodbye to Berlin, by Christopher Isherwood.  I know I’m not the only one in the Coachella Valley who saw that first U.S. production.  There are probably others like me who saw the reimagining of the show on Broadway in 1987, a Toronto production in the early 1990s, a 1999 Los Angeles production, a Roundabout production in 2000, a local production by College of the Desert in 2022, and of course the 1972 Bob Fosse film. Although the show has undergone and survived many transformations, I’ll risk contradiction to say the CV Rep version is the most eye-opening.

I was seven when World War II came to an end.  Stories about the rise of Hitler and Nazism were plentiful over the decades following August 1945. The period leading up to the war has been thoroughly documented in history books and documentary films, and dramatized in novels, stage, and screen. The Holocaust became a term most Americans were familiar with.  There was no question about Nazi atrocities. Today, however, there are Holocaust deniers, despite all evidence attesting to those horrors. When I read or hear about Fascism occurring today around the world, including the United States, I wonder whether those deniers and others are aware of the threat that democracy is under.

As Cabaret so vividly reminds us, anyone the Nazis considered non-Aryan was “poisoning the blood” of the Germans.  Where have we heard that phrase recently?  Even those born in Germany and who considered themselves lifelong Germans were subject to racism and, in the case of Jews such as the character Herr Schultz, poignantly portrayed by Fred Frabotta, faced extinction.  But the Holocaust did not stop there. Roma people (then called Gypsies), gay people, political dissidents, non-Caucasians, the physically or mentally disabled, and anyone who didn’t “Sieg Heil” became victims in death camps throughout Europe. 

CVRep’s Cabaret nudges one’s conscience and memory from the first heartbeat of the show.  “Remember, remember?” it first whispers, then shouts at us.  Post-World War I Germany was in the economic turmoil that led to desperation and depravity. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s attempt to establish the League of Nations and help rebuild the impoverished, famine-ridden country were a flop.  No longer ruled by a Kaiser, Germany became fertile ground for extreme movements such as communism. Into this political miasma emerged a charismatic power-seeker, Adolph Hitler.  In case you forget, the rest is history.

The care taken in selecting the performers was obvious, including brilliant casting of Kristen Howe as the Emcee.  Brava and bravo for her nonbinary characterization.  It was powerful, fierce, and at times brutal, but it all worked.  Cecily Dowd was a seductive, believable Sally Bowles.  Leslie Tinnaro, my heart was with you and your dilemma as Frau Schneider, especially when you sang “What Would You Do?”  And Herr Schultz, I was worried about what would inevitably happen to you.  Marrick Smith, I liked your honest portrayal of Cliff.  But I hated you, Ernst Ludwig (Ben Sears) and Fraulein Kost (Erin Stoddard), although not your performances, because you still didn’t know what you were a party to.

The staging was seamless. The stark, multi-level set gave me pause until the performers became the set pieces as well as the characters. Every stomp of the dancers’ feet only added realism to the harshness and violence that was soon  to come down upon them.

There is also an immersive performance bit that CV Rep has been touting in some of its advertising. However, I will not describe it here, in order to preserve the surprise.

To the entire cast and crew:  Enjoy the opportunity that your work in creating this production is giving you. You deserve it.

Notes: My one real criticism is the uneven energy levels between Act I and Act II. At the end of Act I, I was shaking. However, the end of Act II was disappointing in that it lacked the same intensity. Also, whether intentional or not, the lighting, particularly on the principals, created shadows that often obscured their facial expressions. In addition, I understand why the German rants at the opening were used to establish mood. Since I’m not a German speaker, I found it frustrating.  May I suggest a projection of the English translation, a written translation somewhere in the print material, or a more vociferous delivery of the rant? And it’s hard to read the yellow type against dark red paper in the program.

The cast, creatives, and crew for this production consist of:

 Emcee – Kristen Howe*

Sally Bowles: Cecily Dowd

Cliff: Marrick Smith*

Fraulein Schneider: Leslie Tinnaro*

Herr Schultz: Fred Frabotta

Fraulein Kost/ Baden/ Dance Captain: Erin Stoddard*

Ernst Ludwig: Ben Sears*

Kit Kat Club Girls and Boys:

Amber Lux Archer

Alli Bossart

Charlie Bostick

Beverly Durand*

Gabriella Garcia

Rachel Kay

Erik Scott Romney*

Ali Simon

J Pablo Stewart*

Erin Stoddard*

Emily Unnasch

Directed by Adam Karsten

Choreography by Karen Sieber

Music Direction by Brent Alan Huffman

Sound Design – Joshua Adams

Costume Design – Hannah Chalman

Scenic Design – Jimmy Cuomo

Stage Manager – John M. Galo*

Assistant Stage Manager – Melina Ginn

Properties Design – Ryan Marquart

Hair and Makeup Design – Lynda Shaeps

Dance Captain – Erin Stoddard*

Lighting Design – Moira Wilkie

ORCHESTRA

Conductor / Piano – Brent Alan Huffman

Keyboards / Programming – Stephen Hulsey

Clarinet  / Saxophone – David Young

Drums – Dominique Torres

*Appearing through an Agreement between CVRep and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

PHOTOS by David A. Lee

 Cabaret has been extended through Saturday, February 10th, with available performances on Wednesday, February 7, 2024 at 2:00pm and 7:00 p.m., Thursday, February 8, 2024 at 7:00pm, Friday February 9, 2024 at 7:00pm, and Saturday, February 10, 2024 at 2:00pm and 7:00pm. Tickets are available at https://cvrep.org/, by telephone at 760-296-2966 ext. 0, or at the box office Tue - Fri 10:00am - 4:00pm and 1 hour prior to performance. The theater and box office are located at 68510 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Cathedral City, CA 92234.

CVRep’s offerings for the rest of the 2023-24 season are:

POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive, by Selina Fillinger (February 28 – March 10, 2024). This side-splitting comedy applauds the women who somehow manage to keep things running in, and out, of the presidential Oval Office. Seven brilliant and beleaguered women surrounding the most powerful man on earth increasingly take desperate measures to save face when his scandals spark a global crisis.

Nice Work if You Can Get It, music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin, book by Joe DiPietro (April 10 – April 21, 2024). There’s a “Somebody I’m Longing to See” and they’re “S’wonderful” with a “Fascinating Rhythm”. Before you, “Call The Whole Thing Off”, get the “Sweet and Lowdown” of this “Lady Be Good” musical that will hit the CVRep stage with Gershwin songs you’ll be humming the whole way home. In a brand-new take on the classic 1920s musical farce, this screwball comedy features romance, high-spirited production numbers, and a Tony Award winning script that pokes fun at class snobbery in the prohibition era.