✭Matinée Wednesday: Round Seven…
Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome…
Im Cabaret, au Cabaret, to Cabaret!
Cabaret is one of my favorite musicals. It takes place during WWII in Nazi Germany. (That’s not why it’s one of my favorites). But really, doesn’t every musical placed in tempestuous wartime lend itself to being a hit? I think yes. I mean, look at Miss Siagon, Les Miserables, and South Pacific… just to give a few examples. All four of these shows were epic successes, all enjoying revivals at one point.
This production of Cabaret was the 1998 revival, which won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical that year. Initally, Alan Cummings was cast as the Emcee and Natasha Richardson as Sally. I would have LOVED to see the two of them, but I saw it about three years too late. Oh well.
During spring break of my spohomore year at GCHS, a couple of buddies and I had a day in the city. Liabond, Phil, Andrew and I spent much of the day in lower Manhattan, walking around South Street Seaport. Liabond took us to this great Thai restaurant. Then Phil, being the Broadway buff that he is, suggested that we go see a show. Phil has seen EVERY Broadway and Off-Broadway play, musical , review… you name it, he’s seen it — and with all cast incarnations. The kid has ridiculous knowledge about theater.
So, anyway, this was probably his fourth or fifth time seeing Cabaret, but he knew that we would all enjoy it — and we did! The four of us were very active in our school’s drama club, Masquers, and all enjoyed going to the theater. Phil directed the musical our senior year and if he could have pulled it off, there’s no doubt in my mind that he would have wanted to do Cabaret. It’s a little too risqué for conservative Garden City. So, instead, he chose The Wiz, in which I played the Scarecrow.
[Fun Fact: The company that I work for, EMG, produced all the creatives for this production. The Stagebill art, front-of-house campaign, marquee and posters were created by our art department.]
