Theater Review—

WestConn’s ‘Cabaret’ Is Very Good,

With Original Interpretations

By Julie Stern

DANBURY — It happens that Cabaret, the 1960s hit musical about 1930s Berlin, is one of my all time favorite shows, and over the past few years I have been pleased to review productions around the region, ranging from New Milford and Ridgefield to Bridgeport and Richter Park. Each was uniquely interpreted, and highly enjoyable.

Now it is being staged at WestConn as the joint effort of the Music and Theatre Arts Departments and I am delighted to report that it is every bit as good if not better than any of those, and furthermore, completely original in its staging, choreography, and musical direction, reinforced by an 18-piece onstage orchestra and a huge cast of highly talented performers.

For anyone unfamiliar with the play, it is derived from Christopher Isherwood’s novel Goodbye to Berlin, in which the narrator, an impoverished young English expatriate, captures the world of the the seedy Kit Kat Klub, and the lives of the people in his rooming house, under the growing shadow of  Hitler and the Nazi Party.

For those who have seen the Bob Fosse film of Cabaret, the story focuses almost entirely on the  club’s epicenely sinister Emcee, and Sally Bowles, the madcap, self-destructive star performer- roles made famous by Joel Grey and Liza Minnelli.

In the Kander and Ebb original, the Klub — and Sally’s tempestuous affair with the writer Clifford Bradshaw — are seen in counterpoint to the timid romance between Fraulein Schneider, the middle-aged spinster landlady, and Herr Shultz, the ever hopeful widower who owns a little fruit store.

In a masterful joint effort by students and faculty, WestConn has pulled out all the stops for this production. Elizabeth Popiel’s sets, Amy Jones’ choreography and musical direction, Frank Herbert’s technical direction, Joe Russo’s costumes, and Pam McDaniel’s overall direction are professionally superb.

The two level set has the Klub on center stage at all times, with the orchestra right there in the background, while the hallway and rooms of Fraulein Schneider’s house take up the second tier. In addition, a rotating flat allows the scene to switch instantly between the Klub, the fruit store, and the train to Paris.

Led by a prodigiously gifted Matt Bagley as the Emcee and Minelli look-alike Kayla Koshel as Sally, the sassy contingent of Kit Kat girls and Klub waiters perform all the great songs with joyful and outrageous abandon, from the opening “Willkommen” through “Don’t Tell Mama,” “Two Ladies,”  “The Money Song,” the hilarious “Kick Line,” “Mein Herr,” and the haunting “Cabaret,” sung alone by the defiant Sally after Cliff has left.

The exuberance of these numbers are balanced by the songs which chart the relationship between Schneider and Schulz. Clearly a fine dramatic actress, Jenn Billingsley gives a powerful performance as the conflicted landlady. In “So What?” she recounts the changing fortunes in a life that has survived  World War I and its subsequent upheavals.

The duets between her and Josh Wagner as Herr Shultz — “It Couldn’t Please Me More,” about the gift of a pineapple, and the poignant “Married,” in which they dare to imagine the possibility of happiness” — are as moving as the Klub songs are boisterous and naughty.

In  an interesting twist, Billingsley shares some of her solos with Amanda Forker as the Chanteuse, who belts them out on the club stage, adding another emotional dimension.

Sean Zackrison is stalwart and decent in the part of Cliff, and his voice makes you want to hear him sing more.

Frank Beaudry is both charming and scary as Ernst Ludwig, the smooth young Nazi who befriends Cliff and says not to worry about his politics… until they become very much something to worry about.

Amy Bentley is both funny and mean as the shameless Fraulein Kost, whose room is continually visited by a parade of sailor “cousins.”

And then there are all the others — the bit players, the Klub patrons, the sailors, the waiters, and so forth. All of them were uniformly wonderful, in a show that is exciting, moving, thought provoking, and glorious.

It is playing through November 22. By all means get over to the WCSU campus and see it while you can.