CABARET: CCSF Scores Another Hit!

CABARET: SF City College Theatre Arts Department Scores Another Hit.*

The April 25 through the 27th marks the final weekend of “Cabaret,” another hit for the City College of San Francisco Theatre Arts Department. Directed and choreographed by Deborah Shaw; Musical Director: Michael Shahani.

“Cabaret” was written by composer John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Joe Masteroff * *

It’s Berlin, 1930s. Nazis are rising to power, but at the Kit Kat Klub, you wouldn’t know it. There, it’s bawdy entertainment with girls, girls, and chorus girls danceg in black Merry Widows, fishnet stockings, and spike heels to an off-key jazz band. There are patrons from all over Europe, single men dance with the Kit Kat girls hired to entertain, married couples spicing up their union, unhitched couples, and unattached girls. A feature of the club is a Kit Kat telephone with cat eyes that light up on every table. See someone you like across the room, call and invite them over! The Master of Ceremonies is impeccably and convincingly played by multi-talented Joseph Stiefvater, in white-face and distinctive eyelashes, accentuating his expressive eyes. He welcomes patrons in several languages, and sings “Willkommen.” Throughout, he introduces acts, comments on current social, cultural, and political scenes in a cynical style, a Brechtian device that is one of the show’s outstanding features. As the MC, Stievater transcends Joel Grey’s interpretation of the role. He leaps on stage in a grand jete. He may execute an entrechat or two between numbers. An opening highlight has the band playing“Cabaret,“ as it rolls out on a wheeled platform, through a gilded curtain.

The part of romantic lead Clifford Bradshaw is played by Corey Lappier, who reminds one of Tom Hanks in looks and acting demeanor. Bradshaw is an American writer who has come to Berlin hoping for inspiration to finish his novel. Claudia Barr gives us an honest portrayal of the spinster Fraulein Schneider in whose rooming house Bradshaw finds lodgings. He had befriended an earnest German on the train, aptly named Ernst Ludwig (a convincing Spencer Peterson with a spot-on accent). Later, Ludwig takes Bradshaw to the Kit Kat Klub where he meets and falls in love with its star attraction, vocalist Sally Bowles, acted by Jennifer Veilleux. Veilleux has a beautiful voice; she plays the role coquettishly. Her fresh-scrubbed look, which, at this stage in her promising career, appears to not quite track with the part of a cynical, abused, hard-bitten night-club singer. As her obvious talent grows, she will find the depth she needs for such a role. Bowles is from London and her life is dicey as the club owner’s mistress; she nonchalantly admits having casual affairs, which Bradshaw, blinded by love, accepts. When she moves in with him, Fraulein Schneider looks the other way as one of her boarders is Fraulein Kost, a prostitute, catering to Nazi adherents (the dark-haired “full-figured“ beauty who plays the role is outstanding) Kost brings in the money for Fraulein Schneider in these difficult economic times which Hitler promises to turn around - - and, eventually, does. Fraulein Schneider is courted by a German Jew fruit-seller, Herr Schultz. Actor Sergio Almaguer nails the character of the aging bachelor, who, despite anti-Semitic rumblings, is unfazed, saying that this will pass in few months, it always does. He can’t be touched. He’s German by birth.

Ludwig engages Bradshaw in a shady deal to make money; after one transaction, he quits. One senses the turn of the tide when Ludwig shows up at the club wearing an arm band bearing a swastika. A pane of glass in Herr Shultz’s store is shattered signaling the beginning of Kristalnacht. Nazi detractors and Jewish sympathizers are beaten. Everything begins to fall apart, including Bradshaw and Bowles, Schulz and Schnieder. The Klub chorus trades Merry Widows for men’s beige shirts, tied at the waist, and sings with the patrons, “Tomorrow Belongs to Me"(the Nazi anthem of the show). Yet, the Kit Kat Klub, like time, goes on - - the MC cavorts and sings, the patrons come, Sally Bowles is still the star, and Fraulien Kost plies her trade with sailors.

Songs, such as “Cabaret,“ and “Tomorrow Belongs to Me,“ are interspersed throughout the production, played by the excellent musicians recreating 1930s cabaret jazz, to which the MC and the cast sing and dance. Stiefvater croons the romantic ballad “If You Could See Her Through My Eyes,” while waltzing with a gorilla wearing an apron and dust cap, playing on the theme of prejudice.

Michael Shahani and Director Shaw are to be commended for the look, sound, and feel of their production in which they had to work with twenty-four student actors who double as singers and dancers. Other outstanding actors are Holly McKay, in a gorgeous rose-beige silk shift, as a pretty Klub regular, courted by eager suitors; Will Chen plays a government official, Klub patron, and later, a Nazi inspecting passports and papers at the train station. There are many other actors whose dedication is instrumental to the success of “Cabaret“ .


* The black and white poster for the show, featuring a reclining nude wearing a military cap and swastika pasties on her breasts, caused an uproar in the College administration. The notoriety only increased interest in the production. The poster was soon edited to remove the pasties and cover the breasts with writing.

**(The production sounded so much like a Brecht-Weill collaboration, Kander was accused of stealing from Kurt Weill. But Lottie Lenya, Weill’s wife, who played Fraulein Schneider in the original, set them straight.)