George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” With things in the world being what the are, these words come into sharp focus on the 12th Avenue Arts stage in the current production of Cabaret being put on by the Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society.
Even before the story begins, cast members mingle and schmooze with the audience. This immediately brings the audience in and makes us part of the show and 12th Avenue Arts is instantly transformed into the Kit Kat Klub and we are its patrons. Any divide that normally exists between performer and audience is gone. This has an even greater effect when, as the events of the story turn darker, the audience becomes complicit in the horrible acts taking place on stage.
Cabaret is set in the 1930s in Berlin and revolves around American writer Cliff Bradshaw and his love affair with performer Sally Bowles. Bradshaw arrives on the scene and is swept up in the gritty glamor of the Kit Kat Klub and the captivating charm of Bowles. Their affair quickly heats up and they end up living together in Bradshaw’s room in a boarding house. This brings us to the other set of lovers: Fräulein Schneider, the owner of the boarding house, and Herr Schultz, the neighboring fruit vendor who happens to be Jewish. Both are coming to this relationship later in life and though it doesn’t have the frantic passion of young love, it is incredibly sweet and romantic. Inevitably, the influence of the Nazi party’s rise to power starts to take its toll on the pairs of lovers as well as the fanciful world of the Kit Kat Klub. In the end, all the characters are affected either by action or deliberate inaction. Throughout the play, there are musical interjections from the M.C. and the Kit Kat Klub ensemble which mostly happen outside the story usually offering commentary on the characters and their decisions.
Steering this challenging musical ship is Casey DeCaire as the enigmatic M.C. DeCaire brings some serious legit singing chops to this role as well as a magnetic charm. He is incredibly nuanced in a role that can often be over the top. The decline of their civilization can be measured in each time he delivers the seemingly insignificant lines, “Meine Damen und Herren, mesdames et messieurs, ladies and gentlemen.” Each one a little less polished and a little less sure. Serving as the audience surrogate is Christopher Puckett as the fish-out-of water Cliff Bradshaw. Puckett is winsome and vulnerable and the few times we get to hear him sing, it is a real treat. He is all limbs and awkwardness and always on the outside looking in, making him the perfect scribe of this story (which he becomes by the end of the show).
From the moment Tanesha Ross enters as Sally Bowles, we know we are in good hands. Ross commands the stage with ease. She expertly walks the delicate balance of being completely charismatic and effervescent while always trying to keep a very tenuous lid on the deep well of pain that lurks just beneath the surface. In Ross’s heartbreaking rendition of “Maybe This Time” we begin to see the cracks in her facade.
As a contrast to the bawdy and fantastical world and characters in the Kit Kat Klub are Fräulein Schneider and Herr Schultz played beautifully by Teri Lee Thomas and Mark Rabe respectively. Their chemistry is magnificent and these two Northwest theater veterans are responsible for some of the most poignant and tragic moments in the show.
Director Phil Lacey has assembled an amazingly talented cast that is also incredibly diverse – not just in race but also in age, size, and gender. While sometimes the bigger dance numbers seemed hampered by the challenging space, the choreography by Alyza DelPan-Monley is inventive and compelling. The band (sometimes joined by members of the cast) led by music director/conductor Brandon Peck is seriously rocking.
Cabaret is playing at 12th Avenue Arts through December 15th with a Pay What You Can Industry Night on December 9th. For tickets and more information, please visit https://seattlegilbertandsullivan.com/cabaret.