The Fabulous Fox

This week, I went to go see the musical, Cabaret. This show marks the conclusion of the current Fox theater Broadway musical season. Overall, I’ve been pleased with this series, even if some of the shows were not as much fun as others. Some of this season’s shows were welcomed new stories, while some were only revivals. This is the 4th production of Cabaret that I’ve seen. The Rep, Muny and of course Liza Minnelli’s 1972 movie version (winner of 8 Oscars) have all preceded this week’s performance. Saying all that I’m still going to give this version of Cabaret a thumbs up. I’m giving this production a pass, partly because repetition is in this story’s DNA. After all, this latest revival is a copy (Joe Masteroff’s 1965 Cabaret) of a copy (John Van Druten’s I Am a Camera) of a copy (Christopher Isherwood’s Goodbye to Berlin). Mainly though, I still like this show, because it still makes you squirm. One such notable twitch occurs at the end of the first act, when the cast erupts into that faux-Nazi anthem, “Tomorrow Belongs to Me.” As with other versions of Cabaret, this performance’s production values are too good to truly portray the melancholy and world-weariness that would have permeated a Kit Kat Klub in Weimar Germany. “The girls are [too] beautiful. Even the orchestra [sounds too] beautiful!” It is only the menace of the ALT-right of its day that grinds this story back into the gutter from which it once emerged. The reason that this story keeps getting retold is less you forget it and begin to believe the MC’s siren song and… “Leave your troubles outside. So, life is disappointing? Forget it! We have no troubles here. Here, life is beautiful.”