“Cabaret” was a wonderful mix of fun, witty scenes and heart-dropping moments. Dazzling costumes, amazing stage presence and phenomenal vocals stole the show.
While the beginning of the musical was surprising (going in blind, I did not know how raunchy the first act would be), the end of the first act and second act left the audience gobsmacked. Taking place in Berlin after World War I, “Cabaret” follows the boys and girls of the Kit Kat Club as well as main characters Cliff Bradshaw (Ryan Heinsheimer) and Sally Bowles (Tilly Leeder) and the unforgettable Fräuline Schneider (Siena Gutierrez) and Herr Shultz (Isiah Gunderman Graham).
“Cabaret” was incredible, showing gender and sexual fluidity as normalized. Many of the characters were openly fluid, especially the dancers of the Kit Kat Club, played by Emma Busby, Jocelyn Burke, Nic Rhodes, Catie Spann, Isa Sanchez, Cate Castelli, Jacob Lende, Hao Tran and Austin Jensen.
The Emcee of the show, played by Brandon Sutorius was the most important character by far. Not only did he open and close the show, his vocals, movement and total embodiment of the character kept your attention throughout the show. Sutorius was in almost every scene and you could not miss him in the gaudy makeup and corset he donned for most of the performance.
If you have not seen the musical, I highly recommend it. If you have, you can relate in terms of being surprised. At first, you thought the biggest surprise was the leading man, Cliff, being involved with another man. Quickly, you realize the biggest surprise was the Nazis.
Despite the surprises, our hero stayed strong. There was an amazing character arc, from when we first meet him on the train as the seemingly goody two shoes to when he is having an emotional outburst.
Heinsheimer embodied the character, every move on stage was deliberate. When I met him after the show, I came to another surprise: he didn’t remotely sound the same. On stage, he was a focal point that you could follow easily due to his commanding voice. You truly felt as if he was Cliff Bradshaw, novelist.
Instead of a hopeful man traveling to Berlin and leaving crushed, he is just a CMU theater student. This, in my opinion, is the best kind of acting. The kind where you can separate the character from the actor easily.
On the subject of the actor differing from the character, Leeder does not even have the same hair as her onstage persona, Sally. Leeder was shining in every moment of “Cabaret”, even in the heart wrenching scenes. Her voice carried through the entire auditorium and not a note was out of tune. Her solos, including “Don’t Tell Mama”, “Maybe This Time” and “Cabaret” all had a strikingly different tone, despite it being the same performer.
Leeder’s costume, makeup and attitude made me fully believe that she was a Londoner who moved to Berlin and ended up at the seedy Kit Kat Club. The heartbreak her character had previously experienced was apparent in all of her actions and you could even see it in her posture. Despite the hardship, she manages to be bright in all of the right moments.
“Cabaret” is about Germany in the 1920s and 30s, but manages to be relevant to today. There is a movement happening and some people are ignorant. The character Cliff is an active member in recognizing the movement and opposing it while others are complacent or simply do not see what is happening. The glaring similarities between how characters respond will hopefully open up some viewer’s eyes to what they have not considered.
The social message, acting, costumes, design and backstage movements immerse the viewer into a different world. The backstage workings were incredible, you could see how fast they changed scenes and kept the entire set COVID friendly. You could see the orchestra behind the clear backing of the props and they were, as the Emcee would say, beautiful.
The Theater Department poured their heart into the performance of “Cabaret” and you could tell. Though the actors could not see each other, they were still in time with each other. This takes hours upon hours of practice and all of the performers should be recognized for their amazing performances.
