Chad Jones’ Theater Dogs

Continues through Sept. 20 at SF Playhouse

Lauren English dons a brunette bob wig as Sally Bowles singing the title song in the SF Playhouse production of Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret. Photos by Zabrina Tipton

Intimate theater puts new spin on an old musical chum
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Bay Area audiences have had plenty of opportunities to come to the Cabaret.

The Kander and Ebb musical has been done at TheatreWorks, Shotgun Players and Best of Broadway (the touring version of the 1997 Broadway revival, once with Joely Fisher in the lead, once with Andrea McArdle), to name a few.

Now SF Playhouse is whisking audiences back to Berlin circa 1930 and into the sleazy confines of the Kit Kat Klub. And I do mean confines. SF Playhouse set designer Kim A. Tolman has turned the small theater into a facsimile of an actual cabaret dive. The first two rows of seats have been replaced with small cabaret tables, and the Kit Kat Girls from the show serve drinks before the show actually begins.

There’s as much stage as there is audience, so this is an immersive experience to say the least. Director Bill English turns the show into a musical play. It’s a small cast for a musical (13 people), and most of the cast members serve time the orchestra. For instance, Tania Johnson, who plays Fraulein Kost, is a mad woman on the accordion – she actually makes it sexy in sort of a raunchy-dirty sort of way.

And Brian Yates Sharber(below with the Kit Kat Girls), who gives the role of the Emcee a rather enigmatic spin, wails on a sassy red clarinet. The most actively musical cast member is Will Springhorn Jr., who plays Nazi Ernst Ludwig and then dashes back to the cramped orchestra pit to play various saxophones.

The multiple duties yield strong results. The band (which includes Martin Rojas-Dietrich on piano, and who also plays club owner Max, and drummer Alex Szotak, who looks all of 14, and Kristopher Hauck on trombone) sounds appropriately rag tag and debauched. It sounds like they’re playing music, but their minds are on something much more deviant.

English has chosen to produce a version of Cabaret that isn’t quite the original and definitely isn’t the revival, which includes the songs (”Maybe This Time,” “Mein Herr”) from the movie. This version is closer to the 1987 revival. “The Telephone Song” is gone, as are “Why Should I Care” and “Meeskite,” but a song for the Emcee, “I Don’t Care Much,” is in. Unlike the original production, Cliff is presented as a bisexual (an invention from the movie), and like the revival, the number “Two Ladies” is performed by the Emcee and one actual lady and one chorus boy dressed as a lady. Lewdness follows.

To read the full review, please visit my Examiner.com site here.

Cabaret continues through Sept. 20 at SF Playhouse, 533 Sutter St., San Francisco. Tickets are $40 regular, $55 for cabaret seating. Call 415-677-9596 or visit www.sfplayhouse.org for information. Note: English leaves the role of Sally Bowles Aug. 23 and is replaced by Kate Del Castillo beginning Aug. 27.

We still don’t know what’s in store for the new SHN/Best of Broadway season (announcement to be made soon). But news out of New York is that there are all kinds of tours heading out on the road that may or may not be coming San Francisco way.

One of those tours is Disney’s Mary Poppins. And the news there is that original Broadway stars Ashley Brown (Mary) and Gavin Lee (Bert the chimney sweep — also from the London cast) will head out on tour with the show. How rare it is to get the original Broadway stars (though these aren’t exactly mega-watt stars) to hit the road. There’s no San Francisco date, but Mary Poppins does have a date at the Ahmanson in Los Angeles, so at least it will be within shouting distance.

Also heading out on tour is Curtains, the final Kander and Ebb musical (with an assist from Rupert Holmes after Ebb died). This is the theater-loving whodunit that earned David Hyde Pierce his best actor Tony Award. The Broadway production closes next month and heads out on tour in the Fall of ‘09., which begs the question: will anyone remember the show by then?

Finally, this isn’t really a tour, but it may be coming to a town near you.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Rent is finally closing after 12 years on Sept. 7, and now a new business venture from Sony Pictures Releasing called The Hot Ticket, will film the final performance and broadcast it to movie theaters around the country (much like what the Metropolitan Opera is doing, though this sounds like it won’t be live, which is a bummer).

Screening dates in the U.S. and in Canada have yet to be announced, although Hot Ticket presentations will be shown in strictly limited engagements in 2K and 4K digital theatres.

In a statement Sony Pictures Releasing president Roy Bruer said, “Going to your favorite theater doesn’t mean just going to the movies anymore. Audiences everywhere enjoy sharing special events with their friends and family in public places – it’s just not the same at home. Our mandate will be to identify the one-of-a-kind and sold-out events that people around the country most want to see and we will work to present them to audiences everywhere. With the very best in special event programming and state-of-the-art digital projection and sound in theaters, The Hot Ticket will offer the kind of unparalleled, access that will make these events memorable viewing experiences.”

You can sign up for updates at http://the-hot-ticket.com.