I'm not a
huge fan of musicals although, as a theatre reviewer, I have made the
effort to gain a foothold in the genre and have thus seen a fair few
over the years nonetheless. For some odd reason, I find it particularly
hard to follow narrative threads when the text is being sung and therefore
find myself losing focus after a while if the entire script is set to
music. I generally fare much better with musicals that combine spoken
text with songs and, indeed, found myself completely engrossed this
time by Toy Factory's Cabaret.
Much credit must go to the work of producer Felina Khong and director
Beatrice Chia-Richmond who assembled a top-notch team of artists to
create this lavish spectacle, whose spiritual cousin and millennial
cinematic equivalent must arguably be the fizzy and fantastic Moulin
Rogue. In fact, I found the most compelling character in Cabaret
to be neither the naïve and straight-laced young American writer
Clifford Bradshaw who travels to Germany in the 1930s seeking adventure,
nor Sally Bowles, the lead player at the seedy nightclub whom Clifford
eventually falls in love with, but the city itself and its Kit Kat Klub.
I had problems with Toy Factory's Bent
(also directed by Chia) in 2003 but my favourite scene in it was one
set in a wartime Berlin nightclub because I felt the company had captured
the mood and time brilliantly. And in Cabaret, 1930s Berlin
also came vividly to life because of the brazen, scantily-clad Kit Kat
Klub dancers in their raunchy dance numbers and because of the heady
blend of sex, play and danger in the air. The experience was particularly
satisfying because production values were high across the board. There
was not a single weak link in the company's efforts to bring Joe Masteroff's
book to the stage, whether in terms of costumes, music, lighting or
choreography. I was especially impressed by the spirited and committed
performances by the sometimes gender-bending ensemble cast of dancers.
Often, the ensemble is overlooked, particularly when there are big stars
in the main cast but by the sheer power of their over-the-top but always
knowing performances, they were anything but forgettable.
Speaking of big stars, international recording superstar Fei Xiang
was certainly solid in his opening number Willkommen as the
Emcee but he began to truly dazzle only as the play progressed and he
increasingly let himself get caught up in the theatrical excesses of
his flamboyant role. The Money Song and the bawdy Two Ladies
were personal highlights but his electrifying presence was especially
stirring in the sobering Finale because he captured so well
the utter collapse of his now-imprisoned character, one branded with
both the deadly yellow star and the pink triangle. Emma Yong too acquitted
herself admirably as the iconic Sally Bowles. The fact is that even
though her character's narrative arc did involve complications and conflicts,
she, like most characters in musicals, lacked truly complex shadings
and subtleties - which is fine as I certainly don't mean that remark
as a criticism in any way. Musicals are, after all, essentially about
the melodrama and big hits and Yong played up the vibrancy and almost
cartoonish quality of her kitten-with-a-whip character with much success.
I particularly enjoyed her full-bodied, show-stopping performance of
the signature song Cabaret. It was no easy feat to step into
Liza Minnelli's shoes but Yong pulled it off with great flair and as
a student acquaintance of mine pointed out, she made us feel proud of
our Singapore talents and certainly gave the next generation of artists
something to aspire to.
Both Fei Xiang and Yong were well-supported by an outstanding supporting
cast which included Mark Richmond, Celine Rosa Tan and, most notably,
Karen Tan and Daniel Jenkins. Karen Tan (Fraulein Schneider) and Jenkins's
(Herr Schultz) quieter and mature, nuanced performances made the older
couple's tender, star-crossed love story a particularly moving counterpoint
to the razzle-dazzle of the rest of the play. Never was a funny little
love song about pineapples more hilarious or strangely sad. Celine Rosa
Tan's feisty performance as Fraulein Kost, the woman all the sailor
boys know both by name and in the biblical sense, was full of the self-confidence
and vitality required of the part and showed the actress to have fully
realised the potential hinted at in her earlier work with The
Necessary Stage and World-in-Theatre.
The show was not without its flaws. Sometimes the music overpowered
the vocals of the actors, particularly (and oddly) Fei Xiang's, and
while the likeable Jason Chan had a pleasant enough demeanour on stage,
he couldn't lift the juvenile lead role of Clifford Bradshaw beyond
its rather bland trappings, though that is arguably more the fault of
the genre itself than it is Chan's.
However, these were minor when set against the much stronger elements
in the rest of the work. It was truly impressive, for example, that
for all the glitz and glamour of the elaborate staging, so many of the
disturbing themes of the book still came through. I literally shuddered
when Richmond was revealed to be part of the Nazi party and led the
crowd at Herr Schultz and Fraulein Schneider's engagement party to sing
Tomorrow Belongs to Me as a chilling pro-Hitler anthem, while
Cliff, Sally, Fraulein Schneider and especially the Jewish Herr Schultz
looked around in disbelief and, worse, fear at the sudden realisation
that their friends were not as they had seemed and could turn against
them at any time.
This, after all, resonates in the story of our own age though, thankfully,
to a much smaller extent. Still, we live now in a time of paranoia where
we are told we can no longer trust our own neighbours. Many are still
judged by their race, religion or whom they choose to love and we are
told what we are allowed to read, see and celebrate in books, plays,
movies and television. And the decisions of a few can still lead the
whole world into war.
And all we have to fight against this is what we have always ever had
- love and hope. In Cabaret, though, it is not enough.
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"Never was a funny little love song about pineapples more hilarious
or strangely sad"
Credits
Book by Joe Masteroff
Music by John Kander
Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Director: Beatrice Chia-Richmond
Music Director: Saidah
Choreographer: Zaini Mohd Tahir
Production Designer: Goh Boon Teck
Costume Designer: Frederick Lee
Lighting Designer: Mac Chan
Hair Designer / Stylist: Ashley Lim
Sound Designer: Mike Walker
Vocal Coach: Amanda Colliver
Make-Up Design: M-A-C Pro Team
Fight Choreographer: Lim Yu-Beng
Production Manager: Pierre-Andre Salim
Stage Manager: Woo Hsia Ling
Technical Manager: Teo Kuang Han
Properties Mistress: Pebble Tan
Wardrobe Mistress: Engie Hoo
Producer: Felina Khong
Musicians: Michael Veerapen, Gerald Chia, Desmond Chow,
Feng Ying Yi, Fabian Lim, Kenneth Lun, Wilson Ong, Vikneskumar Veerappan
and Colin Yong
Cast: Fei Xiang, Emma Yong, Jason Chan, Karen Tan,
Daniel Jenkins, Mark Richmond, Celine Rosa Tan, Farah Dawood, Rosanna
Hyland, Cynthia Lee Macquarrie, Danielle O'Malley, Stephanie Van Den
Driesen, Rebecca Lynn Whitby, Shirley Wong, Desmond Chen, Jay Espano,
Zachary Goh, Andy Keegan, Mohamad Nazri Ishak, RJ Rosales and Bernd
Windhofer
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