Review by Paul Towers, 7/2/24
Cabaret at The Kit Kat Club by Joe Masteroff, music by
John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb
Based on the play by John van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood
Directed by Rebecca Frecknall
Produced by ATG
At Playhouse Theatre, London
“an extraordinary production”
The Playhouse Theatre has been completely refitted as the seedy Kit Kat Club of 1920’s Berlin. We walked into the entrance, an otherwise unremarkable door in an unremarkable wall, and threaded our way along a series of narrow corridors towards the basement. Along the way we passed alcoves where random performers danced or played instruments. The atmosphere was building. Eventually we came to a fork, one way to the stalls and the other way back up to the circles. We went right and started to climb up to our seats in the Gods.
As we edged into our seats high above the lighting rig (a bargain at £30!) we got our first view of the performance area. I hesitate to call it a stage as it was in the round, a circular raised platform made to look like reclaimed wood.
As we had been warned there were already pre-show entertainments in progress; the Kit Kat ‘Orchestra’ members were dancing and playing instruments around the performance area drifting amongst the audience like wraiths.
Then, suddenly, with a clash of the ‘proper’ band the lights dimmed and the show proper started with the Emcee (Jakes Shears) suddenly illuminated in the centre of the stage.
I have seen a couple of productions of Cabaret but this one is by far the best and the darkest. The first half is full of laughs and pathos but gradually you feel the benign influence of the encroaching Nazi influence. This is subtly illustrated by Sally Bowles (Nic Myers) portrayed as a puppet, an apologist for the approaching terror.
In the second half the full horror of what is to come is shown as Sally falls apart.
This is an extraordinary production that should be seen by as many as possible.
www.kitkat.club/cabaret-london/
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