A GOOD thing happened in Wagga this week: the Playhouse re-opened after what seemed like an age of being black while the car park was de-contaminated. But the best of it was the way it re-opened: the University Theatre Ensemble’s rousing production of Kabarett Youkali: Land of Dreams and Desires. Devised, written and directed by acting lecturers John Saunders and Christopher Childs-Maidment, the show takes its name and inspiration from obscure work of composer Kurt Weill fleeing the Nazis in 30’s Paris and its structure from the well-known musical Cabaret that in turn was adapted from English novelist Christopher Isherwood’s Goodbye to Berlin.
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The show opens in subdued light, shadowy figures arrange tables and stools in a desultory way, as near as you can tell they are scantily clad women; Cole Porter’s Love for Sale plays tiredly in the background. Then lights go up on the arriving emcee and the show explodes to life as he engages the audience with his rapid fire wit; from there the show gallops with a variety of acts, some based on Cabaret, others newly devised.
Music helps drive the show: as well as standard numbers from Cabaret others are woven in: songs from Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, Tom Lehrer’s The Masochism Tango gets a guernsey and there’s a sensational version of the nineteenth century evergreen When You’re Smiling as examples.
The ensemble student cast of 20+ dance and move well on the simple but efficient set and sing well, both in solo and groups; there are deadpan comedians, quietly evil Nazis, puzzled and nervous Jews and a fabulous contingent of working girls of all shapes and sizes; it’s hard to believe there were so many pairs of fishnet stockings in Wagga. A large part of the success of the show comes through the on-stage band’s handling of the music under the excellent leadership of Peter J Casey on keys.
I haven’t mentioned individuals as there were too many eye-catching performances and to cite a few would be unfair, but overall this is a production that everyone should be very proud of; it is witty, sophisticated and with just the right touch of eye-winking eros; there are future stars on stage. Kabarett Youkali is paradoxically both bleak and uplifting. Those who missed it are mugs – but there are still seats available for tonight!
– Fred Goldsworthy