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Dr. Kyra Belan share this Breaking SWFL Art News November 1-7, 2014 Cabaret

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Posted | 0 comments Twelve performances of Cabaret come to the Lab Theater on February 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27 and 28 at 8 p.m., and on February 14 at 2 p.m. There will also be an opening night reception, starting at 7:15 p.m. Tickets are $12 for students and $22 for adults at the door. The theater also offers Thursday night discounts to seniors and military, at $18.50 per ticket. Tickets are available from the theater’s website, www.LaboratoryTheaterFlorida.com or by calling 239.218.0481.

In this section, you will ﬁnd articles about the play, playwright, director and upcoming production of the show at the Laboratory Theater of Florida (posted in date order from oldest to latest).

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Ty Landers turns in Depp-like performance as Kit Kat Klub Master of Ceremonies in Lab Theater’s ‘Cabaret’ (02-07-15)

On stage now through February 28 at the Laboratory Theater of Florida is Cabaret, the company’s ﬁrst-ever musical. Produced and directed by Brenda Kensler, the 1998 Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall revival of the 1966 Broadway production stars Ty Landers as the oversexed, androgynous emcee of the Kit Kat Klub, a role that was reprised by both Joel Gray and Alan Cummings.

Gray was the ringmaster in a circus of sexual deviants. Cummings, by contrast, brings the audience inside, seduces them into the Kit Kat Klub’s world of debauchery making them co-conspirators, co-criminals, complicit in the horror. As he aged, Cummings changed from a rent boy to an older, darker character, all the more cynical because of all that he had seen and done.

Landers’ emcee clearly relishes the club’s decadence, depravity and amorality, but rather than beckoning us to join in the action, he seems to be asking through medley of quizzical, incredulous and farcical facial expressions “Are you really sure you want to do this?” Maybe it’s because he knows

how it all turns out, or perhaps he realizes that once you start down the rabbit hole, there’s no turning back. But there is something foreboding, forbidding and stand-ofﬁsh in this emcee’s interactions with the audience.

“I did watch several interpretations of the role, although not the movie, since that’s not what we’re doing in

this production,” Landers confesses. “[Director] Brenda [Kensler] and I are trying to do something fresh and new, realizing, of course, that the audience has certain expectations and there’s a ﬁne line between these competing tensions.”

Landers maintains this balancing act with the deft and adroitness of a Nik Wallenda crossing the dark, windy- city skies over Chicago on a tightrope without safety net or tether. At times, he gives

himself over to wanton lechery and lasciviousness, getting deep into the mind and demeanor of his character with a look and intensity that conjures a made-up and costumed Johnny Depp. But at other times, he hangs on the periphery, observant yet strangely detached from the depravity losing command of the club and events spiraling out of control all around him.

The musical number Two Ladies is a point in case. The lyrics suggest that our oversexed emcee is the

center of an whirling, swirling threesome in which he’s the only man. “I like it. They like it. This two for one.” But on stage, the girls seem more interested in each other, leaving the emcee on the outside looking in during most of the routine.

And that underscores Landers’ qua director Kensler’s slant on this Kit Kat emcee. He’s a metaphorical stand- in for the German people in the Weimar Republic in 1929-1931, as the Nazis swept to power seemingly overnight, vaulting Adolf Hitler into the ofﬁce of Chancellor that was the stepping off point for his subsequent power grab in Germany and that Europe beyond. At ﬁrst, like the vast majority of hedonistic, pleasure-seeking Germans, our emcee deludes himself into thinking that all this politics doesn’t affect him. But as it becomes clear that it does, he realizes too late that the democratic republic’s disintegration and the Nazi’s rise to power spells the end to their freedom and for the orchestra, the Kit Kat boys and him personally, the loss of their very lives. Blunting the

pain with increasingly more booze, pills, drugs and debauchery, Landers’ metaphorical Master of Ceremonies is barely able to make it through the songs and routines he once handled with command, control and conﬁdence.

Landers drives this point home ﬁrst with his rendition of If You Could See Her, which he performs with a gorilla to parody the Nazi propaganda about Jews, and by virtually disintegrating himself on stage as the play draws to its inevitable soul-shattering denouement which will stick in your heart and mind for days after the performance ends. But as American novelist Cliff Bradshaw warns Kit Kat headliner Sally Bowles midway through Act One, “If you’re not against all this, then you’re for it!” And, after all, there are consequences to elections.

Whether you love the symbolic content of plays like Cabaret, or just really good singing, dancing and acting, there’s much to really, really like about Landers, co-star Taylor Adair (Sally Bowles) and the rest of the cast of Lab Theater’s revival of this three-time Broadway blockbuster. See above for play dates, times and ticket information.

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Taylor Adair sparkles with evocative, sensitive portrayal of British cabaret singer Sally Bowles (02-07- 15)

Cabaret opened last night at the Lab Theater. A musical? At Lab Theater? Hell yes! And while there are talented scene stealers, crazy good co-stars and the sullen, perversely sexy Kit Kat Girls, the star of this show is the inimitable Sally Bowles. But we don’t really meet the headliner until nearly 20 minutes into the show when the Kit Kat Klub’s slithery nameless emcee steps forward to say in his lilting heavily-accented affectation, “And now, meine Damen und Herren… Mesdames et Messieurs… Ladies and Gentlemen- The Kit Kat Klub is proud to present a most talented young lady from

England. Yes- England! I give you- and don’t forget to give her back when you’re ﬁnished with her- the toast of Mayfair… Fraulein Sally Bowles!!”

Bowles is passionately but sensitively played by Taylor Adair. This is Adair’s ﬁrst lead, and hearing that, you might wonder what would prompt director Brenda Kensler to cast a relative rookie in such a big, important, complex role. And when Adair belts out the ﬁrst stanzas of Don’t Tell Mama ( who “doesn’t even have an inkling that I’m working in a nightclub in a pair of lacy pants”), the Simon Cowells in the audience may be

questioning Kensler’s choice of leading lady. Adair is more pitchy than melodic. She shouts more than sings, “And you can tell my Grandma, Suits me ﬁne, Just yesterday she joined the line.”

But all doubts about Adair’s vocal qualiﬁcations to play Sally Bowles become Memorex with Maybe This Time. The girl has pipes. Range, vibrato, tonality and vocal control to spare. But it’s her phrasing and musicality that impress. When playing off-stage Sally, Adair captivates with her limitless ability to lay bare her character’s cloistered emotions and deepest inner fears. What explains the difference between the show-stopping Maybe This Time and pitchy, less resplendent tunes like Don’t Tell Mama and Mein Herr?

“I’ m trying hard to play Sally the way that Christopher Isherwood wrote the character,” Adair explains. Isherwood wrote the book (Berlin Stories) on which the play is based. Like the character Cliff Bradshaw, Isherwood went to Berlin to write a novel and ended up living with a promiscuous cabaret singer by the name of Jean Ross, on whom the character of Sally Bowles is based.

“To prepare for this part, I read the novel and in it, Sally wasn’t super talented, which explains why she’s performing in a place like the Kit Kat Klub [which was a dive, although one of the better underground cabarets in Berlin at the time].” But that requires Adair to downplay her vocals when Sally’s on stage in the Kit Kat Klub, a task that’s complicated by being required to sing with a British accent. “I just get in character and give it over to acting,” says the self-deprecating Adair. “If you know how to hit a pitch, then you can not hit the pitch just as well.” Adair plays Bowles with sensitivity and understanding. “She wasn’t truly glamorous. She was stuck in the [1920s] ﬂapper era. But Sally isn’t stupid,” Adair continues, supplying insight that is informed as well by hours spent viewing and breaking down I Am a Camera, a play that John Van Druten wrote based on Isherwood’s Berlin Stories that was performed on Broadway in 1951 and subsequently made into a ﬁlm.

“Sally has created this persona, this façade,” Adair observes. In fact, Bowles tells her love interest,

Cliff Bradshaw, “I used to pretend I was someone quite mysterious and fascinating. Then I grew up and realized I am mysterious and fascinating.” But Adair knows better. “She’s not stupid. She is failing and, deep down, she’s knows it. She wants to be great, but it’s slipping away, which makes her desperate and willing to do anything to hang on to her [perceived] success.” Including sleeping with the club’s owner, Max, in order to stay employed, and blunting her guilt and disgust with a continual stream of gin and drugs. “She was a real person, and I’m trying to pay respect to that.”

Adair’s recreation of Sally Bowles conjures comparisons to real-life cabaret singer turned Hollywood icon, Marlene Dietrich. All angles and androgyny, Dietrich was a sex symbol and fashion icon almost from the ﬁrst

moment she appeared in German ﬁlms in the 1920s. And perhaps Sally Bowles a/k/a Jean Ross may have aspired to follow in Dietrich’s footsteps. Adair’s Bowles believes with every ﬁber of her being that if she accepts her limitations, accepts failure and gives up her dreams. She also realizes that her relentless at-any-cost pursuit of her dreams is killing her anyway. “After all,

Sally does say in [the title song Cabaret] that ‘I made my mind up back in Chelsea, when I go, I’m going like Elsie,’” who dies from too much pills and liquor. And because of the depth and emotion that Adair brings to her adrift, emotionally-broken character, we are reminded that Cabaret is more than just the music, the girls and the orchestra … as beautiful as each may be. Cabaret is a poignant story about the way a handful of lives were affected

by events in 1931 Germany over which they have absolutely no control. Like an earthquake, like a tsunami, like a Category 5 hurricane, each of the characters in this sad, tragic story are irrevocably altered by a conﬂuence of events that they could not predict, did not expect and could not escape. “And all the while,” Adair notes wryly, “Sally does her utmost to remain blissfully ignorant.”

Just barely into her twenties, Taylor’s playwriting, acting and singing credits are modest to date. She competed in Lab Theater’s 2013 24-hour Playwriting Project, and has appeared as an actor in Amadeus and

Death of a Salesman. She was also recently seen locally in Mazeltov, the Musical, and has won singing awards as well. But with her breathtaking performance in Cabaret, it’s a certainty that Southwest Florida audiences will be seeing a lot more of this emerging talent. This reviewer, for one, will make it a point to see anything in the future that includes Taylor Adair in the cast or as a playwright. You should do the same.

Cabaret is on stage now at the Laboratory Theater of Florida. See above for play dates, times and ticket information.

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Lab Theater’s ﬁrst musical, ‘Cabaret’, unmitigated, unqualiﬁed success (02-05-15)

Lab Theater’s ﬁrst-ever musical is an unmitigated, unqualiﬁed success. Cabaret opens tonight and in this blockbuster performance, Taylor Adair is fabulous as the mysterious, oversexed Sally Bowles. (Wait to you hear her vocalize.) Ty Landers is tremendous as the leering, lascivious emcee of the Kit Kat Klub. And the Kit Kat Girls and Boys are scary, scary good. But beyond the glitz, the girly action, the lighting, set and music, Cabaret is a tightly crafted, poignant story about lives ruined and relationships lost at the advent of the rise of the Nazi Party in 1931 Berlin. This is life- changing, memory-making theater you don’t want to miss. Performances are already selling out. See above for play dates, times and ticket information.

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Setting the stage for Lab Theater’s production of ‘Cabaret’ (02-04-15)

Cabaret opens at the Laboratory Theater of Florida on Friday, February 6. Performances are already selling out for the Theater’s much-anticipated ﬁrst-ever musical.

For this show, Artistic Director Annette Trossbach is going the extra mile to immerse Lab Theater audiences in the seedy, divinely debauched Brechtian world of Berlin’s Kit Kat Klub. Instead of traditional theater seats, patrons ﬁll ﬁnd cozy tables for four where they can sip wine and feel the vibe of the cabaret as wait staff and Kit Kat Girls amble through the club to pull patrons on stage to be part of the show. But to really get a feel for what it was like back then, it helps to reconstruct the socio-political climate that existed in the Weimar Republic in 1931.

The Weimar Republic was the name given to the democratic state that was created in Germany in the aftermath of World War I. By 1926, the future in war-torn Germany looked bright.

In fact, life was so good that when a fringe extremist by the name of Adolf Hitler published Volume 2 of his autobiographical proclamation titled Mein Kampf, most Germans dismissed his venomous anti-Jewish rants as the ravings of a lunatic with no chance of gaining political inﬂuence, never mind any real political power. But then the Great Depression hit. Overnight, unemployment skyrocketed and more than 3 million factory workers, skilled artisans and shopkeepers found themselves without jobs or the means to provide for themselves and their families. The Nazi Party seized the moment, offering both a scapegoat and a solution. They denounced Jewish wealth and bankers, demanding that the Republic be purged of this pervasive threat not only to life in Germany, but all life on earth.

On New Year’s Day in 1930, black-booted, brown-uniformed Stormtroopers killed eight Jews. In the next eight and one-half months, they accosted Jews in cafes, theaters and clubs like the Kit

Kat. They interrupted religious services in synagogues throughout the country. Rather than punishing the Nazi Party at the polls for their anti-Semitic transgressions, 6 million Germans cast votes for Nazi candidates, increasing their representation in the Reichstag from 12 to 107 seats. Brandishing a slogan of Deutschland erwache, Judah verrecke (Germany awake, death to Judah), the Nazi Party was now the second largest political organization in the Republic.

The Nazis celebrated their win by desecrating more than 50 synagogues, defiling several thousand Jewish tombstones and attacking Jews returning from temple on the eve of Rosh Hashanah a few days later. An eye witness recorded how, in one incident, five young Stormtroopers stood guard, protecting three other youths as they beat an elderly Jew with their fists and rubber truncheons.

While numerous Jews ﬂed or began preparations to leave Germany, hundreds of thousands of others remained, convinced that as soon as the economy improved, anti-Jewish sentiment and pogroms would gradually subside. After all, Jews had been a part of German society and culture since Roman times. They had served in the Army, defended the Fatherland and made the same sacriﬁces as their full- blooded German compatriots in the Great War, and they’d been on the front lines during the post-war rebuilding process. In their minds, they were Germans who were Jewish, not Jews living in Germany.

But what German Jews did not know, could not know, was that two of the most lethal anti-Semites in the entire Nazi Party, Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich had been appointed in the ﬁnal days of 1931 to organize and expand the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) or Intelligence Service. Heydrich would go on to be appointed as Plenipotentiary for the Preparation of the Final Solution of the European Jewish Questions and would be responsible (notwithstanding his 1942 assassination) for setting the wheels in motion along with Himmler and Adolf Eichmann for the murder of 6 million Jews.

It is against this backdrop that we, the audience, enter the Kit Kat and meet 19-year-old British cabaret performer (played by Taylor Adair), her sexually conﬂicted American lover and wannabe novelist Cliff Bradshaw, the club’s provocative leering emcee (played by Ty Landers) and (of course,) the orchestra and the

tawdry, Kit Kat Girls. But make no mistake. Cabaret is ﬁrst and foremost a dark, insidious political story wrapped in a disturbingly exuberant prurient package. It lays bare the decadent excesses and desperation of bohemian Berlin on the precipice of the birth of the Third Reich.

“Welcome to the cabaret!”

See above for play dates, times and ticket information.

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Lab Theater’s ‘Cabaret’ will immerse guests in naughty, tawdry revival (01-30-15) Improvisation, leather, androgyny, homosexuality, honesty… There is the Liza Minelli Cabaret with sequins and glamor. And then there is the 1998 Cabaret revival, gritty, dark and tawdry. What a perfect Cabaret for the edgy, risk-taking Laboratory Theater in Fort Myers. For its revival, the Laboratory Theater will be transformed into the Kit Kat Club, a less-than-savory cabaret club in

1930s Berlin, Germany. Instead of house seating, cafe tables will be provided for guests, providing an intimate setting in which cabaret dancers may take to the ﬂoor to interact with guests.

Julian Sundby of Vibe Studios is the musical director, veteran actor/singer Taylor Adair will play Sally Bowles and Ty Landers will play the emcee. “This show is an incredible ensemble piece,” says Ty. “We have

a solid team of passionate people on board. Their hard work and determination is going to make this a truly memorable experience.” Further cast members include Lucy Harris as Fraulein Kost, Lauren Redeker as Texas, Madison Mitchell as Rosie, Shelley Sanders as Lulu, and Joseph Loiacono as Herr Schulz. Cabaret takes place during the Nazi Party’s rise to power in 1931 Berlin, Germany. In a seedy nightclub, the emcee oversees a cross-section of tawdry performers and audience in the doomed city. Sally Bowles, the headliner, has a relationship with a young American writer and is caught, as they all are, in the German Jewish trauma of pre-World War II. This award-winning musical recently starred Alan Cumming in its gritty Studio 54 revival.

In its long and illustrious history, Cabaret was:

Winner! 1967, 8 Tony Awards Winner! 1967, New York Drama Critics Circle Award Winner! 1998, 4 Tony Awards for the Broadway revival

Winner! 1998, 3 Drama Desk Awards for the Broadway revival

The Star Tribune says of Cabaret, “The action shakes with naughty excitement.”

See above for play dates, times and ticket information.

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Brenda Kensler has had a lifelong long affair with Cabaret (01-29-15) “I was always a musical theater fan,” says Cabaret director Brenda Kensler. “When I saw Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey in Cabaret, I was spellbound. She with her green nails, and him with his lipstick and eyeliner made Cabaret my favorite musical. It was different. It seemed a little naughty. It was fun!”

In 1998, Brenda had the opportunity to see the revival at Studio 54. Green nail polish and men

wearing lipstick and eyeliner no longer had the impact, so how to update the show? “Improvisation, leather, androgyny, homosexuality, honesty … the truth about a cabaret in 1933 Berlin and Alan Cumming as the emcee. “I knew then that I wanted to direct Cabaret in a small venue with tables and chairs. I wanted it to be a little raunchier, a little dirtier. I

wanted the audience to feel they can interact with the actors.” Kensler showed her directorial mettle in last season’s hit show, Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune, and this summer’s Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays. Brenda attended Eastern Michigan University, and later taught elementary school. At 47, she returned to dance classes, with an emphasis on performance and musicals. Her ﬁrst show was 42nd Street, followed by Sweet Charity, Hair and Forum. After making the move to Florida, she was in How to Succeed in Business, but regards her most life-changing role as Ida in Cemetery Club. Brenda’s ﬁrst directing experience was Love, Sex and the I.R.S.

See above for play dates, times and ticket information.

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Brenda Kensler to direct Lab Theater’s production of Cabaret (11-23-14)

Brenda Kensler is thrilled to be directing her dream show for the Laboratory Theater. Last season, Brenda directed Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, as well as the summer sell-out show, Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays. Brenda attended Eastern Michigan University, and later taught elementary school. At 47, she returned to dance classes, with an emphasis on performance and musicals. Her ﬁrst show was 42nd Street, followed by Sweet Charity, Hair and Forum. After making the move to Florida, she was in How to Succeed in Business, but regards her most life-changing role as Ida in Cemetery Club. Brenda’s ﬁrst directing experience was Love, Sex and the I.R.S.

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Lab Theater issues call for musicians for upcoming production of Cabaret (10-30-14) The Laboratory Theater of Florida will be holding auditions for musicians for its upcoming production of Cabaret. The auditions will be at 5 p.m. on Sunday, November 16 at the theater, which is located at 1634 Woodford Avenue and Second Street, in the downtown Fort Myers River District.

Musicians will appear onstage and may be required to sing and move. Musician roles sought are:

Helga………clarinet, tenor sax Herman……..clarinet, alto sax Victor …….. trombone Texas …. Clarinet, tenor sax

Drummer…….not a character part Trumpet……..not a character part Bass……..not a character part Piano….not a character part

Song and dance auditions will be arranged for the following week and will be by invitation only. Rehearsals will begin in late November. For more information, musicians may visit www.laboratorytheaterﬂorida.com or call 239.218.0481. The Laboratory Theater of Florida is a 501(c)(3) nonproﬁt organization dedicated to the promotion of the

performing arts through live performance, education, community outreach, experimentation and the development of ensemble work. The company features ensemble productions, produces classic works, takes artistic risks and features and challenges local performers of various skill levels. Stay up to date with its news and events on Facebook and Twitter @LabTheaterFL. For more information, please call 239-218-0481.