BACK WITH A BANG
GOODSPEED IS STAGING A FULL SEASON OF MUSICALS AGAIN, LED BY ‘CABARET’
It's 2022, and Goodspeed Musicals is staging a complete season of full-scale musicals for the first time since the pandemic changed the theater world. Kicking things off is a classic show that Goodspeed has never done before: “Cabaret.” “Cabaret” was a title that Goodspeed leaders had discussed over the years, says Donna Lynn Hilton, who became artistic director in January 2021 after more than three decades with the organization. (David Byrd was named Goodspeed's managing director at the same time.)
As they discussed potential programming for 2022, with the world easing out of the pandemic, that show kept coming up.
“We know that we have an older audience that is never coming back to us for many, many reasons associated with their lives and what the pandemic has done to them,” Hilton says. So, she says, by deciding to produce “Cabaret,” “it's a pretty intentional choice to give our existing audience a title that they know and appreciate and, in many cases, love. They certainly they know the score. And to give our developing audience, our growing audience something that has more relevance in this moment as we're all coming out of probably the most traumatic thing that has happened to many of us in our lifetimes.”
Discussing that relevance, Hilton said someone at a member event asked her if the rise of fascism across the world had anything to do with choosing “Cabaret,” since the increasing power of Nazism in 1929-30 Germany is a major element looming over the storyline. She said no at first and then realized the answer was yes.
“Because central to the story of ‘Cabaret' is the question: what would you do when they come for your neighbor? I think we're at a time in the world where we need to ask ourselves that question,” Hilton says.
She says that “Cabaret” is also lighthearted, funny, and entertaining, with fantastic musical numbers and incredible dancing, but it's not going to let audiences get away without considering the aforementioned question.
All about ‘Cabaret’
“Cabaret” is set in Berlin as the jazz era is fading and the Nazis are taking more control. American writer Cliff Bradshaw meets singer Sally Bowles in the decadent Kit Kat Club, where people blithely ignore what is happening in the country. The show follows their drama-filled relationship. Another equally fraught romance during “Cabaret” is between Fraulein Schneider, who owns a boarding house, and Herr Schultz, a fruit vendor who is Jewish.
“Cabaret,” which hit Broadway in 1966, features songs by John Kander and Fred Ebb, including “Maybe This Time” and “Don’t Tell Mama.” Its book is by Joe Masteroff, based on the John Van Druten play from the stories by Christopher Isherwood.
Hilton notes that the stage version of “Cabaret” is very different from the Oscar-nominated film adaptation. A number of characters who are central to the story on stage have much smaller presences — or don’t exist at all — in the movie.
For people who know the film only, she says, “You’re going to see something that’s going to surprise you in terms of the strength of the story, in terms of the heart of the story, in terms of the relevance in our world today.”
Casting about
The cast is a mix of Broadway veterans and new talent, many of whom are making their Goodspeed debuts.
“We looked at the story, and we considered the responsibility that all of us in our industry have right now, to make sure that we’re creating pathways for artists who may not have had them in the past. What does that look like on ‘Cabaret’? Well, ‘Cabaret’ is set in Weimar Germany during the rise of Nazism. … There’s a story there about race that has to be protected in the telling of it, and at the same time, we want to present the rainbow of talent that is the American theater today,” Hilton says.
“We made the decision to cast in the roles that are central to the impact of the rise in Nazism in the moment with white-presenting actors. So the roles of Schultz, Schneider, Cliff Bradshaw … and Ernst (a smuggler who, it turns out, is a Nazi) are white. The rest of the company is the diversity of the globe. We felt that for an audience in 2022, that would actually underscore, reinforce, support that question of: What are you going to do when the person that isn’t like you is at risk? Are you going to be able to step up and become an ally or are you going to turn your back?”
Echoes of Fosse
Directing the show is James Vasquez, who had worked at Goodspeed a decade ago developing a piece in the Goodspeed Festival of New Musicals. He lives in California, and Hilton says one of the great things that happened during the pandemic is she was able to spend hours on her screen, talking to people who live far away.
“We have so many new artists working with us this year that I would not have had opportunity to meet if hadn’t been forced to sit down for a year,” she says.
A colleague suggested she get in touch with Vasquez, and they had two great conversations that led to his directing “Cabaret.”
The choreographer for the production is Lainie Sakakura, who worked on last fall’s “A Grand Night for Singing” at Goodspeed. Sakakura suggested asking Nicole Fosse, the daughter of dancer/actress Gwen Verdon and director/ choreographer Bob Fosse, who helmed the 1972 movie version of “Cabaret,” about reconstructing one number of his. Nicole Fosse created The Verdon Fosse Legacy, an organization established to protect her father’s intellectual property.
Allowing a reconstruction in a professional production is rare, but Fosse gave her approval.
The Goodspeed production will recreate “Mein Herr.”
When Goodspeed leaders asked Sakakura to choreograph the production, they wanted her to bring her own sensibility to the piece, but they also knew she had an appreciation of the Fosse style.
Sakakura was in the original company of the show “Fosse,” so she has a direct link to Fosse’s work.
“She spent years in the room preparing for that production, working with dancers who had worked with him and Gwen, and she worked with Gwen, to learn the Fosse repertoire,” Hilton says.
Returning to form
During the past two pandemic-impacted summers, Goodspeed had pivoted and presented outdoor concerts and shows instead of its traditional indoor stage musical pieces.
Hilton says it feels really good to be back to having a full season of musicals at the Opera House.
“It feels normal in a way that’s a little bit scary after everything we’ve been through. But, you know, that’s a good thing. At the same time, it’s really stressful and we’re walking on tenterhooks all the time, just trying to make sure we stay healthy, keep everyone healthy, that the audience returns the way we need them to. So far, they absolutely are. We’re really, really encouraged,” she says.
As for gearing back up, the biggest issue has been with staffing, as it has with so many other businesses. For Goodspeed, it’s across the institution but particularly in the production department.
“So many people that were sidelined during the pandemic had to make the decision to go into other fields in order to support themselves and their family, so the workforce in our industry is really depleted right now. It takes so much effort to secure that one person . ... It’s the same for the theater industry as it is for the manufacturing industry as it is for every other industry right now,” Hilton says.
Goodspeed expects to reopen its Terris Theatre in Chester, where the theater develops new musicals, in 2023. The work at the Opera House underwrites what Goodspeed does at the Terris, so executives are waiting to bring back Terris until the Opera House is back up and running and they are sure audiences are returning at the level it needs.