Everything… is beautiful.
by Michael Dresdner
L to R: Kathy Kluska, Mauro Bozzo All photos by DK Photography
For their last major show of the season, Tacoma Little
Theatre has pulled out all the stops to mount an absolutely magnificent
production of the musical Cabaret. With brilliant directing by John Munn and jaw-dropping
performances by what can only be called the perfect cast, a packed house watched
an opening night presentation so flawless you’d swear they’d been doing it for
weeks. I’ll bet once the word gets out, tickets will be rare as hen’s teeth,
and that’s just as it should be.
From the very second Mauro Bozzo steps out onstage and opens the
show as the Emcee, he grabs the audience in the palm of his hand and never lets
go. Looking glorious, his singing, acting, and movement is pure perfection, his
oversized personality reaching everywhere like the tentacles of an octopus. You
can’t ignore him, and you can’t avoid loving him as he gets under your skin and
drags you into the seedy reality of his haunt, The Kit Kat Klub. It’s Berlin’s
hottest nightclub in all possible definitions of the word, where every
iteration of hedonism is indulged, its patrons largely oblivious to the dark
shadow of Nazism creeping through the rest of 1931 Germany.
L to R: Amanda Jackson, LaNita Hudson, Elise Campello, KathyKluska, Haley Kim
Backing him up are the no less amazing Kit Kat girls (Amanda
Jackson, LaNita Hudson, Haley Kim, Kathy Kluska), whose stunning singing,
dancing, posing, and gyrations go beyond hot, beyond sexy, and deep into titillatingly
lewd. With terrific voices, downright athleletic dancing, and barely-there
costumes they provide the supremely talented flesh in this fleshpot of a night
spot that sets the stage for all that follows.
What follows is a group of interwoven tales of diverse
denizens trying to cope. Clifford (Niclas R. Olson) is an aspiring writer from
Pennsylvania, naïve and sweet, with an equally sweet singing voice. He’s soon
befriended by two very different characters. First there’s Ernst (Kyle Sinclair),
an affable and outgoing smuggler willing to adapt to the changing political
tide like one changes his shirt, as long as it is to his advantage.
Elise Campello
Then there’s
Sally Bowles (Elise Campello) the gorgeous, talented, singing and dancing
headliner of the Kit Kat Klub, who pushes Clifford’s comfort zone by moving
into his flat and offering more than just friendship. Campello creates a Bowles
who is sizzling hot on stage and yearningly needy off; a soul adrift seeking
sex and admiration to buoy her.
L to R: Rosalie Hilburn, Joseph Grant
Their digs are owned by landlady Fraulein Schneider (Rosalie
Hilburn), who along with her adoring suitor, Herr Schultz (Joseph Grant), make
absolutely the sweetest old couple imaginable. But like so many human relations
in this dark time and place, they, too, will be affected by the hot Nazi breath
on their necks. Rounding out the tenants is Fraulein Kost (Rachel Fitzgerald),
a sassy, delightful, and completely endearing prostitute who, shall we say,
patriotically gives her all to the Navy.
L to R: Rachel Fitzgerald, Rosalie Hilburn
The rest of the cast (Stephen Nishida, Addison Daniels, Derek
Wisher, Jeremy Thompson, Charlie Stevens) play a variety of roles, all expertly
executed. To a person, this is an amazing ensemble of triple threat actors,
with more than admirable singing, dancing, and acting chops to their credit.
John Munn’s directing choices are also brilliant; variously
chilling, extravagant, sizzling, and heartfelt. The final stunningly powerful scenes
in both the first and second acts will take your breath away.
This is a Kandor and Ebb musical, so of course the songs are
beautiful, meaningful, and elucidating. Musical director Pamela Merritt
Caldwell also leads the excellent onstage Klub band consisting of Robbie Marx,
Keely Freudenstein, Tommy Hawthorne, Benjamin Marx, and even Mauro Bozzo, when
he’s not onstage as Emcee.
Credit for the amazing choreography, which deserves a bow all
by itself, goes to Lexi Barnett. Both the wonderful set and sound design are thanks
to Blake R. York, with props, set dressing, and wigs by Jeffery Weaver.
Lighting design is by Niclas R. Olson (Clifford in the cast) and a superb array
of dazzlingly perfect costumes comes from designer Michele Graves. And for such
a flawless opening night, we need to get stage manager Bethany Bevier and
assistant Abby Lund to also take a bow, even though these jobs usually hide in
the background.
As part of a “Director’s Exchange Program” to reinforce the
cohesiveness of the theatre community, Munn, the artistic director of Lakewood
Playhouse, swapped places with TLT’s artistic director Chris Serface. While
Munn directed Cabaret here, Serface is directing The Mystery of Edwin Drood,
which opens next week at Lakewood.
There you have it; an amazing musical perfomed by a
devastatingly talented cast and backed up with equally top notch production
values. You’d be an utter fool to miss this show.
Cabaret
May 22 to June 14, 2015
Tacoma Little Theatre
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