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REVIEW Review: 'Cabaret' carries Cabaret Theatre to new heights Talent theater's musical production pulls no punches Comment By Roberta Kent for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Roberta Kent for the Mail Tribune Posted May. 30, 2015 at 6:31 PM By Roberta Kent for the Mail Tribune Posted May. 30, 2015 at 6:31 PM » Social News Do not miss — I repeat, do not miss — Oregon Cabaret Theatre’s brilliant production of the multiple award-winning 1966 Broadway musical, “Cabaret.” This is the Oregon Cabaret Theatre as you’ve never seen it before. Cabaret Artistic Director Valerie Rachelle co-directs and co-choreographs this production with Michael Jenkinson. Together, they pull no punches with Joe Masteroff’s bluntly political script and have fashioned precise and explicit choreography to underline Fred Ebb’s in-your-face lyrics and John Kander’s edgy music. “Cabaret,” as you probably know, cannot even remotely be termed “family entertainment.” The Kit Kat Club is about sex — as diversion, as distraction, as solace — and the play's message is that evil cannot be ignored. The first scene opens in the raucous Kit Kat Club in 1931 Berlin. A grotesquely made-up Emcee (Galloway Stevens), attired in tight leather pants, bids us “Wilkommen” as a lithe and limber chorus line of ladies in satin corsets and fishnet stockings artfully pose and prance. And just to show that this is a full-service cabaret, they are joined by a chorus boy in revealing leather shorts. The second scene introduces Cliff Bradshaw (Paul Michael Garcia), a young American writer, seeking inspiration for a novel. Bradshaw meets a smarmy Ernst Ludwig (Matt Brown) on the train from Paris to Berlin and it is immediately apparent that Herr Ludwig is smuggling something. When Bradshaw is willing to follow Ludwig’s recommendation for a boarding house, accept an invitation to a sleazy nightclub and take on Ludwig as an English student, we know that Bradshaw is not an innocent. Bradshaw falls hard for the Kit Kat Club’s headliner, a hedonistic English girl named Sally Bowles (Jillian Van Niel). He joyfully plunges into Berlin’s demi-monde only to be caught up short by the increasingly overt anti-Semitism of Ludwig and his thuggish Nazi friends. Rachelle uses Masteroff’s revised script from the 1998 Broadway revival. This version added the sexually ambiguous chorus boy and gives Bradshaw some bi-sexual hijinks in his own past, though Rachelle and Jenkinson provide their own characterizations and nuances to the story line. As the Emcee, Stevens is masculine, impudent and seductive. He is the sardonic observer, dismissing the Nazis as marginalized bullies and their rise to power as an aberration — until he is swept up by the political consequences. Van Niel’s Sally Bowles is no feckless ingénue. This Sally Bowles is worldly and jaded and has already been tossed around a bit. She knows what she is doing. Van Niel has the acting ability and a soaring voice that commands attention when she takes center stage. But it is Ashland’s own Tamara Marston, as boarding house owner Fraulein Schneider, who gives this production of “Cabaret” its unexpected depth and poignancy. Fraulein Schneider is the “good German.” She is a survivor, prepared to hunker down and not call attention to herself to keep her world intact. If that means rejecting her Jewish suitor (John Lambie), so be it. “What Would You Do?” Fraulein Schneider ruefully asks Bradshaw when he urges her to take a stand. Scenic and lighting designer Craig Hudson uses the entire theater as his set, bringing the audience into the action on stage, using everything from fringed lampshades on the tables to dirndl-attired waitresses. Kerri Lea Robbins’ costumes are sexy and provocative for the “girls” and subtly period for the “civilians.” The Kit Kat Club Band — Jordan Richardson on keyboard, Tom Freeman on percussion and Dennis Freese on reeds — are stashed onstage in a loft, to become intermittently part of the action. Up until now, OCT has always done well-written and amusing productions, heavy on musical skill and generally suitable for your sheltered maiden aunt. This production of “Cabaret” breaks that mold. It is substantive, sophisticated and contemporary. “Wilkommen” to the new Cabaret, my friends. Come to the Cabaret. Roberta Kent is a freelance writer living in Ashland. Reach her at [email protected]. By Roberta Kent for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Roberta Kent for the Mail Tribune Posted May. 30, 2015 at 6:31 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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