Gwenyth Kirkwood
Life & Arts Section Editor
Emcee (Jordan Baez) and Sally Bowles (Katya Jade Sacharow). Photo by Douglas Osborne-Coy’s| Special to The Leader.
The energy in the Robert W. Marvel Theatre shifts from the second you step into the theatre to the moment you sit down.
Dressed in flashes of red, white and black clothing, cast members linger on the stage and slither through the aisles before the house lights dim.
Wandering through the theatre, performers stumble through the rows in character.
The production of “Cabaret” presented by the Department of Theatre and Dance and directed by Jessica Hillman-McCord has an almost immediate, fully immersive invitation into the fading hedonism of 1930s Berlin.
The Kit Kat Club’s chaotic yet captivating energy really came alive in Act I, fueled by the Emcee, played by Jordan Baez, and an incredible ensemble.
The orchestra created an ambiance while opening with “Willkommen.” Phenomenal numbers like “Two Ladies,” “Tomorrow Belongs to Me,” and “Money” stood out to me the most.
I found “Two Ladies” to be humorous, provocative and, to have that theatrical charm, whereas “Money” had a very dark tone.
Closing out the first act, “Tomorrow Belongs to Me (Reprise)” sent chills down my body, as the nightclub’s lively escape suddenly escalated into an extremely chilling display of Nazi nationalism.
This dramatic shift was elevated by the production’s amazing lighting design; these shifts really elevated the production’s excellent lighting design, credited to Jaydon Zullo.
The lighting set the tone when transforming the theatre from a sensuous glow of the nightclub to intense hues of red.
While I found every scene to be incredible, the production’s greatest emotional impact came when the ensemble shared the stage.
Supporting cast members went to great lengths to reveal the disturbing truths that exist beneath the surface of the nightclub.
Emma Leahy, who plays Kit Kat girl Lulu and serves as Sally Bowles’ understudy, highlighted the intentional details tangled into this performance and every layer of background stories.
Leahy notes small details on the cast’s costumes that may be overlooked.
Every single Kit Kat girl had a unique detail of barbed wire in their costumes to symbolize the unsettling, dark danger of Nazi Germany.
“Lulu’s character-they say in ‘Willkommen’ that she’s the baby, so I played with that a lot,” Leahy explained. “She just joined the Kit Kat Club because she was thrown out by her parents and her father was abusing her, and in her mind, she’s always spaced out; she’s constantly on drugs and drinking because she’s so enthralled by this new environment. She thinks she can be the next Sally Bowles.”
The energy fades into a horrifying reality as the political climate escalates in Act II: Leahy noted that her character Lulu’s perspective significantly changes and that “she needs those substances just to survive from day-to-day.”
What starts as a hopeful and thrilling journey quickly shifts into a terrible reality of the rising fascism that drives American expat Cliff Bradshaw, played by Nate Carr, to desperately want to return to the United States.
In Act I, the Kit Kat Club portrayed to me this feeling of an escape and a way to freely express yourself.
By Act II, the club has entirely crumbled, revealing the characters’ shifting political awakenings and worries.
“Act I is so, there’s so many big numbers, and it’s so physically demanding, and the energy is so high, but Act II is a really hard place to go mentally,” said Leahy. “Our director, Jessica Hillman-McCord, said in our designer meeting, I don’t want this to be culinary theatre; I don’t want it to be like, oh, you eat a meal, oh, that was great, moving on. She wanted everyone in that theatre to be impacted and forced to think about how this relates to today.”
As I exited the theatre, I couldn’t stop thinking about how crucial it is for Fredonia to put on a production like this, a production that challenges the audience to sit in the performance. Ask yourself, “What Would You Do?’