Broad Brook Opera House, Broad Brook, CT
through February 23, 2014
by K.J. Rogowski
Key to the success of a show like “Cabaret,” are the
elements of strong voices, distinctive characters, and a cast that truly
projects the raw energy and bawdy antics alive at the Kit Kat Klub during the
tumultuous days of 1929 Germany and the rise of Nazi power.
Director Becky Beth Benedict and her cast have done just
that, and provide an entertaining and thought provoking evening, as the seemingly
impenetrable and devil may care bubble that insulates those who frequent the
Klub, slowly and surreptitiously metastasizes and shatters, taking with it many
unsuspecting lives.
Heading up the cast is Tomm Knightlee, as the raucous Emcee.
He drives the show with true pitchman style in numbers like the racy “Two
Ladies,” the classic “Money,” and the seemingly silly, but suddenly all too
pointed “If You Could See Her.” He is backed up by choruses comprised of both
the Kit Kat Girls, and the Kit Kat Boys, all of whom keep the action hot as
they bump and grind their way around the stage, and each other.
Brianna Stronk-Wandzy as Sally Bowles and Michael King as
Clifford Bradshaw deliver solid performances both in their musical numbers and
in conveying their tale of star crossed lovers. Wandzy traces her ill-fated
journey moving from “Don’t Tell Mama,” to the fragile hope of “Maybe This
Time,” and ending with a return to addictive “Cabaret.” Paralleling their fate
is that of Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz, whose dreams of love in their
golden years are cruelly undone by the new order of things, as punctuated in Janine
Flood’s challenge, “What Would You Do?”
The focus of this show stays, as it should, with the people
and their stories, using an imaginative, simple and multifunctional set; and
musical accompaniment that never overwhelms the voices. Come to the Cabaret.
