Cabaret

The most recent musical I viewed and felt strongly impacted from was the musical Cabaret in the
Playhouse theatre London, which has been redesigned to look and feel like a well-known popular
night club in Berlin, known as the 'KitKat Club.’ This musical was written by Joe Masteroff and
directed by Bob Fosse with music composed by John Kander and lyrics written by Fred Ebb. From
the moment you step through the doors of this theatre you are instantly immersed into the world of a
Berlin nightclub due to the dancers prancing and performing around you, live music being performed
by musicians and bright glamorous settings all the way through to the theatre. Amy Lennox an Oliver
nominated actor, takes on the role of Sally Bolles (the lead character) who fights through flips and
turns all throughout this musical however is persistently a bold confident character. The narrator of
this musical is played by a character named Emcee. In the production that I watched Fra Free played
this role with an extremely mysterious yet uplifting attitude and with a strong German accent. The
stage this production takes place on is an ‘in the round stage’ with audience facing the performers
from every angle.

This historical Musical is set in 1929-30s during the twilight of jazz age as the Nazis were ascending
to power. There is a twisted love story between the characters Sally Bowles and Clifford Bradshaw
amongst all the chaos of wars begging and night club action taking place. There is a wide range of
everything within this musical such as: big bold and bright ensemble numbers like the opening
number ‘Don't tell Mumma,’ there also takes place multiple dark emotional scenes within the musical
therefore enticing an audience who like to take on challenging emotional content, there are multiple
hilarious moments in this musical as well, one being when the character Fraulein schneider and Hans
have a deep love scene with a physical pineapple being the centre of attention. Due to all these themes
forming within this musical it is safe to say that Cabaret is aimed at everyone especially the people
who enjoyed the excitement and glamour however it is advised that you must be over the age of 16 as
there are some highly sensual moments within Cabaret.

Cabaret is fascinating from the moment you arrive to the moment you leave the theatre once the
prologue cast have done their formidable performing, fosse dancing and exiting eye contact with the
audience, you head on through to the main stage where there are tables with 1930 light fixtures placed
and racked seating around the stage. There are performers interacting with you once you are sat, they
commence starting frantic assembly styled chair duets in seats that have not been taken yet by
audience members yet. The moment the show beings the character Emcee enters in an abstract way
creating an atmosphere of enigma and excitement, he is stood centre stage constantly turning focus
points to make sure all members of the audience are clear on what is happening. Once Emcee had
completed setting the space the ensemble members seductively make their way on to the stage and
once all performers are stood on the outside of the circular stage the stage begins to revolve. Once the
stage began turning which was an impactful design itself you had a chance to see all the characters
striking makeup and wild costumes therefore adding on to a highly impactful design moment. The
makeup certain characters wear consists of bright red bold lipstick and showstopping neon blue eye
shadow and glistening highlight alongside this, the outfits begin so out of the box, colourful and
extremely pleasant to the eye making every ensemble member pop out as all outfits were vastly
different.

This musical begins as an explosion of colour light and happiness to represent a true feeling that was
floating about in the 1930s this is clear to the audience as all performers are performing with high
energy and all production elements such as light, sound, hair, and makeup are too the max. Once the
Nasi is introduced to the musical there is a gradual shift from all this bubbliness to nothing. Colours
began to dullen the lights got weaker the sound became less intense. The breaking point of all
happiness is the incredible title song cabaret performed by Sally Bowles this is an earth-shattering
performance as it rocks all elements of the happy vibe within the musical to absolute misery
representing an accurate real-life situation that occurred once the war began. The most impactful
aspect of this idea of happiness to nothingness are the bows at the end of the production bows are
constructed solidly, no fun movements, no fun music and no fun costumes everyone is wearing brown
uniform in three rows, and everyone bows at the exact same time showing that Hitlers powers have
worked and now all has been drastically changed from the bright bold fun people they once were to
utter nothingness and sameness. This was impactful as I left the theatre truly taken back from the
shifts in emotion.

I would highly recommend cabaret musical to everyone as it has highly impacted me and many
others.