Review – Cabaret

I confess, I’ve lived in Brum, for nine years, I enjoy musical theatre and I had neither seen a production at the REP nor did I know much about Cabaret. Wasn’t it one of those that’s a bit raunchy with lots of people wearing suspenders? Or maybe not wearing them after the sign at the entrance warned me to expect nudity. Still, as they say, ignorance is bliss and it was a bit like a game I sometimes play at festivals which involves joining any queue of people I happen to pass without consulting the programme and letting serendipity dictate what I’ll see and do for an hour or two.

And so it was that I took my seat (possibly the most comfortable theatre seat I’ve ever had the pleasure of sitting in) before a large set bidding me

‘WIL
KOM
MEN’.

Our protagonist was the ever-so-slightly wet-behind-the-ears Clifford Bradshaw (Henry Luxemburg), a young American would-be novelist arriving in Berlin on the eve of 1931. With the help of Ernst (Karl Moffatt), the first person he meets, he is rapidly swept into the heady world of risqué nightlife and Sally Bowles (Samantha Barks) in particular, and – in the immortal words of Blur – ‘girls who are boys who like boys to be girls who do boys like they’re girls who do girls like they’re boys’.

Weaving together stories of love and stories of lust with the increasingly insidious overtones of the Nazi Party’s rise to power, I was mesmerised in turn by the lights and mirrors of the night time entertainment and by the haunting repetition of Tomorrow belongs to me, the anthem of the Hitler youth.

At the risk of sounding like a fan (or worse, a relative), I really enjoyed the characters put before us. There was no one who could be boxed up as either ‘good’ or ‘bad’, everyone had a past which gave rise to their desires and motivations in life and each one had enough humour in their soul that I could like them. Even the Nazi sympathisers, which was a somewhat uncomfortable revelation – it’s so much easier to despise people from afar.

But that’s really the message of the show isn’t it? Treat every person as an individual, don’t try to apply your own labels to them, if they want to identify with a particular group or characteristic, accept it. As a favourite poem of mine by Kathy Galloway says: ‘you shall be you and I shall be me’.

Oh, and to anyone still interested, my companion and I agreed that the nudity was minimal and tastefully done although I did have a good giggle at the sailor wearing nothing but his hat!

Highlight: love song about a pineapple
Lowlight: variable quality of German accents
Confusion: dubious pregnancy timeline