“Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome!” to the hottest spot in all of Berlin, the Kit Kat Club. Take a trip into the daring underground of 1930’s Germany with Kander and Ebb’s classic Cabaret. An ambitious production from Horrorshow Productions, a relatively new theatre company in the Toronto scene, Cabaret offers an immersive experience from the moment you walk up to the theatre, and it’s one you won’t soon forget.
Photo by Josh Willick
As you approach Alumnae Theatre, you might notice a gal or two sitting outside chatting in large fur coats; those aren’t fellow patrons, those are some of the Kit Kat Girls awaiting their turn on stage. Horrowshow Productions has provided an immersive prologue for audience members prior to the show, where the performers from the Kit Kat Club get an extra chance to shine as they perform period-appropriate numbers for the audience – cabaret style! The bar is stocked with German beer, Schnapps, soft Pretzels (I got one at intermission; the smell of them made my mouth water), and Kit Kat bars. You can have a drink and a snack and listen to the talented cast perform, all before the real show even starts! They make good use of Alumnae’s lobby space and firehall history as the dancers utilize the old fire pole! The only thing that could have made it better would have been if the performers were actually interacting with the audience, and not just each other; a little “welcome to the Kit Kat Club, darling” could have gone a long way with making it feel truly like I was in this den of debauchery.
For those who have yet to be acquainted with this heartbreaking tale, let me tell you all about this infamous Kit Kat Club and its inhabitants. Cliff Bradshaw is a young American writer who travels to Berlin to write his next great novel. While searching for inspiration, he meets Sally Bowles, the current star of the Kit Kat Club and a British expat. The two end up living together and falling in love after Sally’s former beau Max fires her from the club and kicks her out of his place. Cliff is renting a room from Fräulein Schneider, who despite best efforts doesn’t always have the most upstanding tenants. She does, however, have a love interest of her own: a local fruit seller Herr Schultz. However, as the politics of the outside world blend into the beauty of the Kit Kat Club, the characters we’ve fallen in love with are forced to make some life-changing choices in order to survive.
Photo by Josh Willick
What I found interesting about the story was how much more invested I was in the subplot than in the main love story. Sally comes off as an impetuous child, and though she’s been taken advantage of many times and my heart breaks for her, there’s something stubborn about how she tries to tackle life. Likewise with Cliff, who is privileged enough to be able to travel the world to write, and turns out not to be the kind of man we think he is at the beginning of the play. The two of them have an out: they’re not German, they can just go home and escape the impending doom we know is coming. But Fräulein Schneider and Herr Schultz cannot. She fully understands what’s likely to happen to her if she marries him, and we as the audience know with abject certainty what would happen. It was so hard to watch this community that Fräulein Schneider has built around her turn on her so quickly; it’s a painful reality that many people would have been facing during this time in history. Sally Bowles might steal our hearts through song, but Fräulein Schneider and Herr Schultz broke my heart on an entirely different level.
What surprised me was how the Emcee floats through it all; he not only hosts you at the Kit Kat Club, he pops in in various scenes and can sometimes act as a little puppet master to the other characters around him. Taylor Long stars at the Emcee of this production and he is perfection: the mix of sexy and scary is exactly what I expect from this role, and Long delivers. His costume reveal in the final moments of the play literally made me gasp; it’s a beautiful nod to the queer history of the time and I was glad to see it represented in this production.
Photo by Josh Willick
Jessa Richer and Emrik Burrows join Long as Sally and Cliff. Richer belts her heart out as Sally Bowles, though I wish her cockney accent hadn’t been used for her singing voice; it took me out of the songs which was unfortunate. Burrows navigates the highs and lows of his character with grace. Jill Louise Léger and Cyril Johnston play Fräulein Schneider and Herr Schultz. Their chemistry is off the charts and they both have brilliant comedic timing. Their performances are what made me fall in love with their characters so much. George Marino plays Ernst Ludwig, and he did an amazing job of letting the audience in on his secret little by little (though the shocked gasps in the audience at the end of Act 1 made me giggle a bit). Alexandra Nunez is a spicy and sultry Fräulein Kost, which makes it heartbreaking when she chooses to turn on her landlady and neighbours.
Photo by Josh Willick
Making up the chorus of the Kit Kat Club is a wildly talented ensemble of triple threats: Maureen Barnes, Michelle Chew, Dorian Fournier, Jennifer Gibbs-Reilly, Steven Hotchkiss, Gus Lederman, Randy Lei Chang (who also gets to show off his violin skills!), Rober Mackenzie-Herr, Mai Luening, Justin Matthews, Michael Murphy, Avi Petilar, Nichole Sherwin, Kevin John Siazon, and Lizzie Song. The numbers like “Willkommen” and “Money” where they’re all singing and dancing together gave me goosebumps. It’s also thrilling to see such a large cast for an independent production; it made the stage feel full and vibrant. Along with the on-stage orchestra, lead by pianist Adam Rosenfield, you fully get the feeling of being at a real cabaret.
“What good is sitting alone in your room?” Especially when there’s a production like Cabaret to take in! To have a new company tackle such an unfortunately relevant piece of theatre in such grand fashion is truly commendable, and I trust this won’t be the last we see of Horrorshow Productions.
Cabaret runs in the main theatre space of Alumnae Theatre until December 7. For more information and tickets, visit: https://www.horrorshowproductions.com
Cover Photo: The cast of Cabaret. Photo by Josh Willick.
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