Fascism You Can Dance To

Theater Review

by Jay Blotcher, February 19, 2007

Aside from being a sterling example of that rare case where a film adaptation outshines the original stage show, the musical "Cabaret"—on stage or screen—still offers a sobering history lesson for us all. "Cabaret" takes place in 1930s Berlin, when the Weimar Republic is losing ground to a new breed of political animal known as the National Socialist Party—or the Nazis. A rootless woman meets a sexually conflicted man and they try to find a home in each other’s lives as the old world is wrenched away from them.

It would be expedient to merely reset the event in the present day, call the Nazis “Bushies” and let the allegory play itself out. But W and his stormtroopers lack the costumes and smarts to make the parallel stick. After all, they dragged us into an invasion of Iraq and forgot to churn out some catchy songs that would have made this a war worth singing about.

That said, the performance by the Marist College students was impressive. They juggled the bilious, black humor of the Kit Kat Klub musical numbers with the ominous events presaging the Nazi rise to power. As the garish master of ceremonies, Kurtis McManus channeled both Alan Cumming (the pansexual emcee of the recent Broadway revival) and Dr. Frank 'n' Furter of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. But the initial schtick soon gave way to deeper acting, as he located the conflicted soul of a man who finds himself in far over his head.

The production featured a level of dancing exuberance found rarely in college productions and featured sets and costumes that captured the tone and period nicely. Unlike the film, that centers on American transplant Sally Bowles, the musical focuses on the love affair between a German landlady and a Jewish fruit vendor. Faculty members Dr. Missy Alexander and Prof. Jeff Bass gave deep humanity and pathos to the roles of Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz. Katie McSherry conveyed the joyous unrepentance of Fraulein Kost, a whore living by her wiles. And hiss-worthy indeed was Ryan Defoe as the milquetoast Nazi stooge Ernst Ludwig. Even though I know the story inside out, I felt a palpable shiver during the final scene when the Klub performers and waiters emerge from the mists, bedecked in Nazi armbands as a huge, blood-red swastika descends from the flies. Hosannas to the faculty and students of Marist College, an academic institution with deep religious roots, for not shying from the divine decadence of this production.

Jay Blotcher, a former Manhattanite, began his Ulster County life as a weekender in 1996. He and his partner, Brook Garrett, now live in High Falls. Jay is a regular Chronogram contributor and has written for the New York Times, the Times Herald-Record, the Citizen, InsideOUT, and Ulster Publishing’s Almanac.