Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome

After a quiet period from seeing We Will Rock You, I'm happy to say that March is going to be very busy - I'll be seeing time travellers, swash-buckling heroes and people kissing fish (try and work out what these are); but to round off February, I visited Manchester's Palace for a classic I had never seen on stage before: Cabaret.

The classic Kander and Ebb piece is based off the play I Am A Camera, which itself is based on the novel Goodbye To Berlin... Makes your brain wobble a bit.

The musical adaptation won 8 Tonys and ran for over 1000 performances - which was very rare at the time. The version most people know of course would be the 1972 film directed by Bob Fosse (as explained in Fosse/Verdon), which I watched in uni but didn't quite get it so I was hoping Maybe This Time (haha) seeing it on stage would change that. This time, I got it.

It's Berlin, New Years Eve, 1930 and American author Cliff Bradshaw arrives in Berlin to the famous Kit Kat Club; where he meets its eccentric Emcee and the singer Sally Bowles. The Club is a safe haven, where you can forget all your troubles; but with the Nazis rising to power, its not long before the politics seep in; firstly in a mocking way, but with the audience's hindsight, end with bleak consequences.

The headliner in the cast is none other than John Partridge (Chicago) playing the Emcee - the best way to describe his performance would probably be... unpredictable.
He would go from a goofy Joel Grey impersonation to melancholic, from joking about threesomes (and more) to him being all out scary. You had no idea which way he was going to jump.
Is there anything this guy cannot do...?!

As Sally Bowles, I wasn't a massive fan of Kara Lily Hayworth - I wouldn't expect her to be a copy of Liza Minelli, but it felt like she was holding back a bit vocally, and there were times when I could hear everyone on stage and in the band OTHER than her, Mein Herr being a good example.

It wasn't until her eleven o'clock number, the title song when I kind of got her, but because you KNOW what's going to happen to Germany in the next few years, you want to shake her and scream "WHAT are you doing, get out while you still can!". It was the same for a lot of the characters but for Sally especially, the best way to put it is, like Cliff said at the end, "We were Asleep". I have seen people say she was incredible, so it could just be me, but even though I could tell she was trying, it wasn't a character arc I could really get behind.

If anything, I don't think this is Sally's story at all, but rather Cliff's, as he as is taking in the new world of liberalism in the club and danger on the streets - so cheers to Charles Hagerty for a solid performance.

As for the other characters, I have got to mention the secondary love story (which to me is a lot more interesting than Sally and Cliff's); Herr Schultz and Fraulien Schnieder, played by Anita Harris and James Paterson. It's sweet and sad and performed brilliantly with such heart, from Harris especially. If I had to pick a favourite performance of the night, it would be from her.

From the cast onto the production itself, this is the Rufus Norris-directed and Bill Kenwright-produced production that first tread the boards in London as far back as 2006, and has been on many many tours since then, as well as another revival.
And let me tell you that this is a lot darker and bleaker than what you would expect it to be.

If I can describe the production on one phrase it would be that it f**ks with your brain!

Like the Emcee's performance, the tone of this show can change suddenly from one opposite to the other extreme in an instant; the classic example of this is going from the heartfelt Maybe This Time, to the misleading Tomorrow Belongs To Me at the end of the first act - which is possibly the biggest WTF Act 1 ending in the whole of musical theatre (that I've seen anyway).

Oh, and I do need to mention another thing - for a touring production, rather than a piece you would find in artistic London, it is also incredibly brave. I know this production originated in London, but they have NOT toned anything down for the tour!
Being as bleak as it is and knowing what's to come for these characters is one thing; and being very sexual and gender liberating is another to add to the pile....
But being as Avant-Garde and brave for characters to get their 🍆s out...! I am not even kidding!
…. and I thought Hair was the show known for whipping it out...!

I personally think this show is something you should definitely try once if you are a musical theatre fan - is it something I would see again? Not sure as it is a much bigger hard-hitter than you would expect it to be.
Don't think you're only getting cheap lights, jazz hands and Liza Minelli. You're also going to be getting something much darker in that.
Expect your brain to be well and truly f**ked; but considering the current climate, it is f**ked in the way it needs to be.