BEAUTIFUL LIFE ON DISPLAY IN ‘CABARET’

New Vintage Theatre shines

An evening of flamboyance with musical charm, weaved with menace with magnetism, is promised as New Vintage Theatre’s version of Cabaret opens with Kit Kat Klub MC (Neville Bowman) asking us to leave our troubles outside, because inside, “life is beautiful.”

This musical play takes us into the decadence of Weimar-era Berlin while outside the doors of the club, real life faces the rise of the Third Reich and Nazi Germany.

The two main characters are English rose Sally Bowles (Lyndsey Wong), the enigmatic entertainer, and her bisexual American lover Clifford Bradshaw (Josh Richardson), a novelist who grasps at the creative straws offered by Berlin’s sinful reputation — and as luck would have it, he meets Ernst Ludwig (Matt Gunn) on a train who points him in the direction of accommodation and a place to find stimulation.

Wong carries herself with a confidence and command, but leaves the audience and other characters wondering who she really is.

When Clifford asks, she replies, “you mustn’t ever ask me any questions. If I want to tell you something, I will.”

Perhaps the answers are subliminal in the lyrics to her flirtatious first solo number “Don’t Tell Mama.”

Throughout acts one and two, the soul of her character’s light seeps through the cracks, then wham — an utterly brilliant rendition of the title song Cabaret. It felt like punch in the stomach.

Wong did not follow the template of a traditional Sally Bowles character. She created a back story and whether this is great directing from Bonnie Gratz or the hard work of a dedicated actress, it literally left me in tears.

Richardson takes his role in a matterof-fact approach — a strong leading man with a wonderful singing voice and acting ability. He was most real in his final and fatal last scene.

A tender and tragic substory occurs inside the musical involving the doomed romance between German boarding house owner Fraulein Schneider (Deanna Macarthur) and her elderly suitor Herr Schultz, (Michael Kalmuk), a Jewish fruit vendor.

As the couple find love in their older years, we feel the kindness and admiration in the duet they share at their engagement party. Macarthur and Kalmuk gave the audience a chance for their hearts to grow bigger before the deflating realism of their situation emerges again, caught between the immovable forces of fascism, survival and love.

“What Would You Do?” sings the Fraulein, and we feel why she had to make the decision she did.

Bowman was the thread that weaved the storylines together. He magnified fantasy while metaphorically pointing truths out, giving us a deeper sense of what makes the world go round. The beautiful softly sung “I Don’t Care Much” was a gentle yet powerful execution of the story that left a lump in my throat.

Part of the charm this show exudes is having a live band on stage performing. Hats off to Scott Gamble, drums; Stefan Bienz, double bass; Alex Buck, piano; and Stephen Buck, saxophone, clarinet, and flute.

The final, chilling adieu to Cabaret brought the house down not because of a big musical finale score, but with the realism and remembrance of what happened in Nazi Germany and bringing to the forefront of our minds current situations happening in 2022.

Cabaret is performed by New Vintage Theatre Company and runs until Sunday. Tickets are available through the Rotary Centre for the Arts box office.