Cast dives into Cabaret roles
Sally Bowles changed the look of show business. Before her nightclub act, no musical theatre production had the darkness and vulnerability that she exhibited on stage. Yes, Sally Bowles is a fictional character, but she was part of a game-changing show that Broadway and The West End are still living up to today.
Masters of Ceremony (aka the Emcee) have, for centuries, been some combination of hucksters, ringmasters and host. They were part of the show and part of the sales. The posters and flyers did the outside marketing and the Emcee was the centre of internal marketing attention once the customer came through the door.
One of them kiltered off the path of sweet and sizzle. He used shadowy moods and edgy attitudes inside his bar, his lounge, his little world.
Bowles and The Emcee combined to knock musical theatre off the path of happy-go-lucky showtunes and its gosh-golly facade. They knocked musical theatre off of the Showboat, out of Oklahoma, away from Pinafores and Carousels and into the Cabaret. It was a dark place, that nightclub in 1930s Germany, but that’s what shed such light.
Bowles was a great singer in the spotlight but she was no Fair Lady.
The Emcee was the master of the ceremonies, but he was no Capt. Von Trapp.
No, Cabaret was first seen on stage in 1966, and while Von Trapp and his musical family were the centre of one sort of pre-Nazi depiction of Central Europe in The Sound Of Music, Cabaret based its plot on the episodic novel Goodbye To Berlin by Christopher Isherwood. It showed a much grittier, streetlevel transformation to Nazism that made the lives of Bowles, The Emcee and their friends at the club all that much more colourful.
“All the stuff you’ve seen me in before was funny or sweet, but Sally is dark, and it’s forcing me into some truths I’ve never had to explore before in a character, but truth is dark and it has to be rooted in realism if it’s going to be authentic,” said Shelby Meaney, the lead actor in the Judy Russell production of Cabaret on now at the Prince George Playhouse. She is the latest talent to take on the role of Sally Bowles like Julie Harris, Liza Minnelli, Judi Dench, Natasha Richardson, Emma Stone, Prince George’s Catherine McCarthy and others before her.
The Emcee in this version is in the hands of Owen Selkirk, following in a line that includes Joel Grey, Randy Harrison, Alan Cumming and Prince George’s Andrew Halladay.
“This show humanizes the Second World War which is unusual, when you think about it, because we are so used to seeing documentaries and historical material and films about the military aspect of Nazi Germany. We don’t usually get to see the real people, right at that time just before things went awful.”
In that sense, everyone in the cast and crew understands why Cabaret is surging in popularity all across the show-biz world right now. With power figures espousing intolerance like Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Boris Johnson, Malcolm Roberts and some clear examples here in Canada, the creeping shadows of nationalism, genderism and bigotry have come alive on the world stage.
The similarities are unmistakable to the dangerous ideologies that got power in 1930s Germany.
Selkirk said the effect on the production team is different than past shows he’s been involved in (he was the Prince in the Christmas production of The Nutcracker at Vanier Hall, he was a cast member with Ballet Kelowna, and was in Russell’s production of The Producers in 2012). During breaks in the rehearsal action, the cast and crew are talking about world events and political views instead of the personal or practical conversations usually heard on-set.
“It has been asking us ‘how do you feel about that?’ about a lot of things,” agreed Meaney. “It suggests that we evaluate ourselves and our views, look at why we think different things, no matter what it is. Sally chooses to be oblivious to some really important stuff happening right in front of her. That’s her way of processing it. She’s written to be that way, to get us thinking about who we are and what we’re paying attention to.”
The facts that Meaney lived for a prolonged period in Jordan while Selkirk lived a long time in India help them infer more of themselves into their characters, and add meat to their portrayals.
This show is a political statement wrapped up in fiction, but it is also an arts exercise. The songs are musically entertaining and draw out strong performances from the actors. It is set on a stage in a nightclub, so the dancing has to be professional grade at all times.
“I’ve been a professional dancer for 10 years, but this feels like a transition,” said Selkirk. “It’s familiar, but it’s new, to be stretching out into a full character like this. You feel vulnerable and exposed, but excited at the same time. I’m using this as a gauge to see if I like it, if I can do it. It’s a crash course.”
“I believe Sally represents a lot of struggles I’ve faced in my own life,” said Meaney. “I can relate to her. But the singing is another thing. It’s vocally very difficult. Curtis (Abriel, the show’s music director) said this part was secretly written for a man, because the tones are so low. And I don’t like (to transpose the music up to my comfort tones). I want to sing it as the composer intended. I believe that has a role in the overall effect of the show, whether I am consciously aware of that or not.”
Helping the dynamic between the two central characters – despite the fact they are rarely on stage together – is the history between Meaney and Selkirk. It was during a high school production that charted their mutual route to professional stages later in life. Meaney was cast as Sandra D in the 2007 PGSS production of Grease. Playing opposite in the role of Danny Zuko was a young Selkirk and they got along so well that Selkirk heeded Meaney’s advice to pursue theatre arts.
They are back on the stage together, this time at the Prince George Playhouse, in Cabaret running most nights until Feb. 24. Tickets available online at
or at the door while supplies last.