CABARET: CCSF Scores Another Hit! TANGO Evolution Fires Up Palace of Fine Arts Theatre

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.)

Extreme Tango, in association with Breast Cancer Emergency Fund presented a TANGO Trilogy* at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in San Francisco.

TANGO Evolution

Program # 1 of the Trilogy:

San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts Theatre was on fire the weekend of April 18-20. Not literally. The combustion was due to the dynamic blending of the award-winning Eroica Trio, bandoneon player, Daniel Binelli, and classical guitarist, Eduardo Isaac. The Eroica Trio is a chamber music ensemble consisting of three gorgeous, lively women in bright red gowns (instead of stodgy, serious people in black): Sara Sant’Ambrogio, cello; Susie Park, violin; and Erika Nickrenz, piano. The newspaper “Tucson Citizen’ wrote of the Eroica Trio: ”They look like supermodels and play like demons on crack.” Eroica Trio has “sent a whole new audience flocking to concert halls around the word. They have performed to capacity crowds at Davies hall with the San Francisco Symphony.

The musicians not only provided the music for guest artists, the breathtaking Argentine Tango couple, Sebastian Huici and Miriam Larici, but also performed duets and solos in their own right.

The Sunday matinee program began with Huici and Larici dancing to the late bandoneon master Astor Piazzolla’s electrifying, “Libertango,” performed by the Eroica Trio, Isaacs and Benilli. Huici’s entrance grabbed the audience. He leapt on stage with balletic grace, coming together with a sultry Luici in a passionate embrace. Dancing Argentine Tango almost requires one to have a background in ballet and gymnastics with its complex foot- and leg-work, lifts, holds, and sweeping turns. Intricate and extended moves that generate applause. Argentine Tango is a mix of sensuality, passion, jealousy, and romance, with an overarching theme of danger. Each dance tells a story, ending in a mesmerizing, dramatic, sculptural pose.

Sebastian Huici’s costumes throughout were mostly casual and dark - - long-sleeved shirt and full-cut pants, setting off Miriam Larici’s classic tango styles of brilliantly colored, reds, blues, silver and black, split-skirt, silver-threaded, and sequined numbers, with rhinestone accessories. Though in one delightful piece, Larici in an apron and Huici in his undershirt, enacted a domestic scene. Still, they danced Daniel Binelli’s own “Anhelo y Misterio,” a romantic piece, in heavenly white ensembles. Their lines, in white, starkly and breathtakingly contrasted with the dark stage and the musicians subtly lit behind them.

Isaac and Binelli performed duets in Mariano Mores “El Firulete,” Piazzolla’s “Bordel 1900,” and, “Anhelo y Misterio” and each had solos: Benelli acted out comically, with bandoneon on his knee, Carlos Cobian’s “Los Mareados”, and Eduardo Isaac played Piazzolla’s soulful “Mieserere Canyengue.” The trio played Piazzolla’s “Primavera Porteno,” J. Turina’s “Trio #l, Opus 35,” and knocked everyone out with Heitor Villalobos’s romantic, haunting, and heartbreaking, “Aria Cantilena.”

Huici and Larici left the audience in an exalted state with their finale, danced to Piazzolla’s “Adios Nonino,” backed by the Eroica Trio, Isaacs and Benilli, receiving two standing ovations.

Huici, born in Buenos Aries, began ballet training at 17 and by 18 was part of a prestigious Argentine dance school, The Colon Theatre in the Argentine Opera House. He performed with the Kirov Ballet, in several productions. He was also with the London Royal Ballet. Still he had a passion for tango and in 2007 became involved with the Columbia Artists stage production “Tango Buenos Aires," and toured the US.

Miriam Larici, from Matheu, Argentina, started dancing at five, and was trained in classical ballet, jazz and flamenco, gymnastics and tango. She was in Warner Bros. “Mambo Kings” and has been seen on television programs throughout the world, and has been part of the show “Forever Tango” touring world wide. She was lauded by dancer Leslie Caron. Miriam achieved her childhood dream dancing at the Colon Theatre in Buenos Aires, in “Forever Tango.” She has performed for two years at Walter Kerr and Marquis of “Times Square on Broadway.”

Classical guitarist, Argentine-born, Eduardo Isaac‘s acoustic guitar album of 2005, "One for Helen” has been called one of the greatest. He had collaborated with Daniel Binelli in 1997, and now records with New Tango Vision Trio in the Bay Area. Arranger and music director, bandoneon master, Daniel Binelli, of whom famed legendary bandoneon master Astor Piazzolla had said, when he first saw 14 year-old Binelli playing the bandoneon on Argentine TV, “who is that monstor?” He has become a fixture in the Bay Ara. In 2007 his performance in San Francisco’s Delores Park drew a crowd of over 5000.


* Put these next programs on your calendar:

Program 2, Tango x3, Argentine Tango & Brazilian Jazz, with Polly Ferman, Jovino Santos Neto, and Erika Nickrenz, takes place August 15- 16, at 8PM, with a 2 and 7PM shows on Sunday, the 17th

Program #3, Leadings Ladies of Tango, Café Victoria - All female tango, Polly Ferman Music Director, and 7 piece Orchestra, featuring Silvana Deluigi, and dancers; TangoMujer/Tango Con*Fusion, takes place November 28 -29 at 8PM and Sunday, November 30, at 2and 7PM.

Go to: Tedvivian@xtango-sf.com 408.594-1132 or www.xtango-sf.com

Tickets at www.tix.com