: The New Jewish Theatre’s current production may be the saddest Cabaret I have seen. I mean that as very high praise.

We sometimes say that a tragedy ends with a death, comedy ends with a wedding. Cabaret ends with the breaking of an engagement between two people very much in love, an abortion and the break-up of two people also in love, and the Nazis coming to power in Depression-era Germany. 

If that’s not sad, I don’t know what is. 

Director Rebekah Scarlet and her cast, designers, and crew immerse us fully in that experience, that sadness. One could argue that in order to do that, they must work against the tuneful and rhythmic delights in John Kander’s music and the sharply observant satire and wit in Fred Ebb’s lyrics. So this cast does, while still somehow helping us enjoy an evening of delights in song and dance. 

Leading this successful blending of opposites is Hailey Medrano as Sally Bowles, the young English woman who has come to the Berlin of the late 1920’s, the Bohemian, entertainment, and artistic capital of Europe, to enjoy it, to sing in a cabaret, and to become rich and famous. She does enjoy it, at least some of the time, and she does sing in a cabaret. Sally is a big, complex role. I have seen Medrano do fine work in several roles lately that are not as challenging as Sally. I was happy to see her have this challenge and to meet it so successfully. 

Dustin Lane Petrillo just recently played the younger son in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, as well as several previous demanding parts, so I knew he could meet the challenge of Cliff Bradshaw, the young American drawn, like Sally, to Berlin and its bohemian ferment. Like Sally, he is exploring his way into himself and into this foreign land, trying already to get his experiences down on paper. As we suffer through his trials with him, it can be a comfort to know that his creator Christopher Isherwood shaped them eventually into much of this show that we are watching.

Since Joel Gray’s Tony-winning performance as the Emcee in the Kit Kat Club, that role has always been considered one of the leading roles, though we learn very little about as a person in the stories told by the play. He is the embodiment of the life of the times that the cabaret and Cabaret celebrate. Spencer Davis Milford makes the Emcee always a fine entertainer but with something demonic always leaking through. 

Jane Paradise gives both the sympathetic maternal quality and the business sense and quick perception of danger needed in her playing of Fraulein Schneider, the proprietor of the boarding house who gives in to Cliff’s bargaining for a cheaper rent. She endures with hidden pain the breaking of her engagement to Herr Schultz forced on her by the Nazis. Herr Schultz, played with equal grace by Dave Cooperstein, is a middle-aged tenant of Fraulein Schneider who owns a fruit-shop. He romances her with fresh fruit. Unfortunately, he is Jewish.

Aaron Fischer plays Ernst Ludwig, a friendly German who chats with Cliff on the train to Berlin, recommends a hotel for him, takes English lessons from him, and offers him a job picking up items in Paris and bringing them into Berlin. Unfortunately, he he is a Nazi. Caroline Pillow is Fraulein Fritzie Kost, one of the prostitutes who rent rooms from Fraulein Schneider and who spills the beans about Herr Schultz. Jayson Heil plays Max, the owner of the Kit Kat Klub, as well as a member of the ensemble, and he plays the violin in the orchestra. Otto Klemp is a passport inspector on the train as well as a member of the ensemble and he plays clarinet in the orchestra. Amarachi Kali plays flute in the orchestra and plays a waitress in the club. Lillian Cooper plays Texas and a gorilla in acts in the club.

In the show’s band, Brad Martin is on the drums, Alerica Anderson on bass, and Kris Pineda plays both accordion and trombone for a fine cabaret sound. As noted, Rebekah Scallet is the director of this splendid production. Carter Haney provided the fine musical direction. Ellen Isom’s choreography brightened the cabaret’s stage. David Blake added a smart and very useful catwalk on two sides of his set. Michele Friedlmaln Siler’s costumes evoked the spirit of the times. Denisse Chavez’s lighting distinguishes between scenes in the cabaret and those elsewhere, though for some reason the cabaret scenes were often darker, sometimes even leaving the leading performer in shadows. Justin Smith designed the sound. Monica Dickhens is the Stage Manager and Gus Kickham her assistant. Aiden Clayburn is the dramaturg and assistant director. Abby Pastorello designed makeup and Dennis Millan Bensie designed wigs. Katie Orr supervises props. Jacob Bailey is the sound engineer, Jayson Heil is the fight captain, and Carolline Pillow the dance captain. John Wilson is the dialect coach and violence and intimacy director.

What a fine and deep experience the New Jewish Theatre provides with their Cabaret.

—Bob Wilcox

Photo by Jon Gitchoff 
From the left, Hailey Medrano as Sally and Dustin Petrillo as Cliff in Cabaret.