Cabaret unexpectedly relevant and marvellously entertaining

Cabaret is the perfect musical for the end of the world. Greystone Theatre’s timing of the beloved show might have been an accident, but it’s fitting nonetheless. The lessons hidden in the sexy, seedy Kit Kat Club have an added punch thanks to recent politics. The show is full of over-the-top entertainment but still shines a light on the human condition, then and now.

American author Clifford Bradshaw (Connor Brousseau) arrives in Berlin looking for a story. He quickly finds one, and more, when he visits the Kit Kat Club, a cabaret where sex and celebration are the primary focus. He meets English performer Sally Bowles (Rachelle Block) and gets swept into his own tale.

The audience gets to experience the fascinating new world alongside Cliff. Brousseau lends the character a sweet, ordinary disposition that nicely contrasts the wild characters around him.

The production’s strength is its use of movement and performances that find a great balance between the joyful abandon of the Kit Kat Club and the reality of the Nazi party’s rise. The show, directed by Julia Jamison, makes excellent use of the theatre space.

The show’s weakest element is the singing. That might seem a damning criticism of a musical, but there are so many other reasons to see the show. In the numbers set in the Kit Kat Club, a certain rawness is expected and appropriate. Don’t Tell Mama is a highlight for its cheeky delivery and dance moves. Block sparkles in the scene. Her performance of Maybe This Time is a bit more laboured from a singing perspective, but her vulnerability in the scene is what comes through the most.

In the opening number Willkommen, Jonathon Pickrell’s performance as the MC felt a bit tense,

but that didn’t last. By the wonderfully audacious number Two Ladies any hesitation was gone as he let go and fully inhabited the not-so-subtle character.

Nadia Mori and ‘Eben Doherty are excellent in their roles as landlady Fraulein Schneider and shopkeeper Herr Schultz. Their storyline is the play’s secondary romance, but no less compelling. Though it is simply staged, one of the best musical numbers in the show is It Couldn’t Please Me More (A Pineapple), where the couple falls more in love while singing an ode to the tropical fruit.

The addition of a live orchestra, which includes veteran local saxophonist Sheldon Corbett, is a special element that adds to the spontaneity of the production.

Cabaret runs at Greystone Theatre in the John Mitchell building on campus until April 1.