‘Cabaret’ in Dallas speaks to today as much as yesterday

There are two touring productions in Dallas of great 20th-century musicals right now, Cabaret and Ragtime. Sadly, the latter is using CD tracks and not a live orchestra, which is a shame because it has a sublime score, and also, musicians are out of work. Cabaret, thankfully, is on the other end of the spectrum.

There is a live orchestra in this tour of composer John Kander, lyricist Fred Ebb and writer Joe Masteroff’s 1966 musical in AT&T Performing Arts Center’s Broadway Series at the Winspear Opera House. And true to the revival directed by Sam Mendes (first in 1998 on Broadway, then by the Roundabout Theatre Company in 2014 on Broadway), the orchestra is not only in full view of the audience, on the second level of Robert Brill’s set, but they’re dressed in the skimpy costumes of the performers at the Kit Kat Club. Conducted by pianist Robert Cookman, they sound marvelous.

That matches the rest of the production of this musical set in the early 1930s in a Berlin nightclub as Nazism is rising. Based on a play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood, who is represented as the character of American novelist Cliff (Lee Aaron Rosen), we view the writer’s experience with various characters: Star nightclub performer Sally Bowles (Andrea Goss); Fraulein Schneider (Shannon Cochran), who rents a room to Cliff and is courted by grocer Herr Schultz (Mark Nelson).

As the character’s name suggests, the Emcee (Randy Harrison) guides us through the story and subplots as narrator, chief entertainer and Greek chorus. Harrison, best known for playing Justin on Showtime’s Queer as Folk, but with an impressive theater résumé of musicals and the masters of world drama, follows on the heels of memorable performances in this role by Joel Grey and Alan Cumming, and more than holds his own. He’s thoroughly engaging, with sharp comic and improvisational timing and a commanding tenor. Along with the male and female Kit Kat dancers, he executes Rob Marshall’s original choreography beautifully.

Goss gives us an entertainer who’s a knotty ball of confidence and insecurity, driven by unflappable determination. Cochran and Nelson are perhaps the best I’ve seen in these heartbreaking roles, brilliant in such numbers as It Couldn’t Please Me More and Married. Cliff is the smart, observant writer with his own secrets, and Rosen hints at those mysteries, ever aware that the circumstances around him are changing, and not for the better.

Cabaret is a masterpiece for many reasons, not least of which is its relevance to a number of political situations we’ve seen throughout the 20th century, and are possibly facing during this presidential election. An America in which immigrants and “the other” are feared to the point of paranoia and violence is not so different from 1930s Germany.

Cabaret thrills and entertains, but it delivers a powerful, thought-provoking punch. It’ a very high point in a strong history of touring productions at AT&T Performing Arts Center.

This story was originally published May 27, 2016 at 4:36 PM with the headline "‘Cabaret’ in Dallas speaks to today as much as yesterday."