“Cabaret” at The Phoenix Theatre Company

Eddie Maldanado as Emcee and Alyssa Chiarello as Sally Bowles (Photo credit: Brennen Russell)
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The hit musical “Cabaret” is currently enjoying its fourth Broadway revival, 58 years after its debut performance. It continues to play sold-out performances across the country, including at The Phoenix Theatre Company (TPTC). Over the years, the show has reinvented itself, adapting to the changing times. The 1998 incarnation, by British film and stage director Sam Mendes is, by far, the most poignant in its depiction of the Nazi ascent to power in the 1930s. 

It takes a Brit like Mendes to understand what Americans could only imagine, that is, how volatile national politics can so effectively conceal a hostile power grab by a previously innocuous and minor political faction, such as Germany’s National Socialist German Workers’ Party (a.k.a. the Nazi Party). It is Mendes’ version of the show that has been adapted to TPTC in this, its final production of the 2023/2024 season. Clearly, TPTC was saving the best for last!

Cabaret Kit Kat Club (Photo credit: Brennen Russell)

On the surface, “Cabaret” is a fun and irreverent musical comedy that thumbs its nose at authority and societal mores. We are drawn into the unbridled debauchery of a seedy German cabaret (i.e., the Kit Kat Klub), a venue in decline during one of the worst periods of modern history for Europe as a whole and Germany in particular. The Great War (i.e. World War One) had barely ended when a global economic depression ensued. (No one knew that a second World War was on the horizon, with even more devastating consequences.)

We arrive in Berlin on the coattails of American writer, Clifford Bradshaw (played by Christopher Behmke). He travels with a typewriter and a dream of immersing himself in European culture a la Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and others of the “Lost Generation”. Behmke plays Bradshaw with just the right amount of guarded optimism, knowing that he is essentially taking a shot in the dark and hoping to hit the bull’s eye. Hitting the target at all would be satisfactory. Pragmatically, he does not expect much and does not easily get taken in by the smooth-talking hucksters that abound. Through dubious acquaintances, he finds himself visiting a local night club, and becomes entangled with several of its more colorful performers.

Christopher Behmke as Clifford Bradshaw and Nick Gunnell as Ernst (Photo credit: Billy Hardiman)

The Kit Kat Klub is hosted by a character known only as Emcee. In Joel Grey’s original interpretation of this role back in its 1966 premiere, Emcee was an impish and gregarious showman who was at once engaging and detached. In contrast, Eddie Maldonado’s portrayal at TPTC is closer to that of the Devil incarnate. He is an unapologetic narcissist and a master manipulator of people. He exudes the persona of a naively flamboyant lecher. Beneath the surface, he takes joy in being the puppeteer that controls everyone around him. At the same time, he sees the writing on the wall and knows that he will soon need to decide which faction of the impending conflict he will side with, for his own survival. 

Maldonado wears the persona of Emcee like a great flowing robe. His mannerisms, his inflections, his singing voice, all are masterfully woven into this persona. If there is a real Eddie Maldonado, we cannot see him underneath the demonic guise of Emcee. It is a chillingly Tony-worthy performance.

Eddie Maldonado as the Emcee (Photo credit: Brennen Russell)

Of equally stellar caliber is Alyssa Chiarello, who performs the coveted role of Sally Bowles, the British expatriate who beds her way to the top — and that is a relative term — of the German night club circuit. The role was made famous by Liza Minelli in the 1972 movie, and who was the first choice for the original Broadway production but was considered too big a star. Minelli left big shoes to fill and Alyssa Chiarello takes on the challenge with a vengeance. Chiarello exudes the fatal optimism of someone who should know better, with a poignantly sanguine rendition of “Maybe This Time”. Her full-throated, unbridled performance of the title song, “Cabaret”, is an absolute showstopper, leaving no doubt of her astounding range and talent.

Alyssa Chiarello as Sally Bowles (Photo credit: Billy Hardiman)

Johanna Carlisle-Zepeda as Fräulein Schneider and Mike Lawler as Herr Schultz, play an elderly couple who find each other at the worst possible time. Herr Shultz is Jewish and is targeted by rising Naziism. The budding relationship, however short-lived, offers some tender moments in the midst of all of the chaos that is the world of the denizens of the Kit Kat Klub. Shanni Barret as Fräulein Kost is the picture of both envy and jealousy. Through Barret’s depiction of Kost, we see the deep-set resentment that foments under the surface of post World War One Germans who struggled to climb out of a black pit of economic despair. It is no surprise that Fräulein Kost is one of the first converts to Naziism, as depicted during a performance of “Tomorrow Belongs To Me”, an otherwise innocuous song of hope that becomes a Nazi rallying cry.

Mike Lawler as Herr Schultz and JohannaCarlisle-Zepeda as Fraulein Schneider (Photo credit: Brennen Russell)

“Cabaret” is a timeless classic. But in so saying, this writer senses the bittersweet irony of that statement. By the show’s end, we are both stunned and exhilarated in its parting acknowledgement of the real world, and not the fantasy world inhabited by Emcee and his Kit Kat cohorts. There are strong cultural and political undertones to the story which, for better or for worse, continue to resonate today in light of all that goes on in the present day world. For this reason, “Cabaret” is a show for the ages that may well be in performances for another 50 years.

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About Joe Gruberman 49 Articles
I'm a writer/producer/filmmaker/teacher based in Phoenix, AZ.

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