Drawing us into the party is Joe Faragher as our flamboyant Master of Ceremonies, an outrageously charismatic and appropriately uninhibited force who takes charge of his cabaret Kit Kat Girls in their big show-stopping numbers. Those Kit Kat Girls keep the club steamy and the customers beguiled through their opening Willkokmmen and keep the dollars rolling in with The Money Song. And then there’s the scandalous Two Ladies number with the Emcee and two Kit Kat Girls dancing under the sheets and under the strobe lights.

The American writer, Cliff Bradshaw (a good performance by Bryce Roos), finds this little cabaret just to his liking. Especially when the show’s premiere star Sally Bowles, a young English woman, picks up on him right off the bat. Natalie Stevei is a fun and flirty Sally with a magnificent voice, shining brightest in the last scenes as the party ends.

Elsewhere, Laura Walsh is the somewhat prudish middle-aged landlady who shares a charming romance with middle-aged Herr Schultz (Nima Ghassemian), a Jewish man who knows how to pick a good pineapple. Arianna Neikrug is a hoot as Kit Kat Girl/profitable prostitute Fraulein Kost. Ilze Mattson dons a gorilla suit and dances nicely and humorously in the initially amusing, eventually disturbing If You Could See Her duet with the Master of Ceremonies – just one of choreographer Chelsea Field’s many triumphs that ranges from wildly theatrical to sweetly intimate. And Andrew Weitz is Ernst Ludwig, an importer of illegal goods and a person of growing political power.

Director Wendell Stevenson and crew have created a huge, visually dazzling production with terrific dancing and vitality. The cast is dressed up in Kim Overton’s great costumes. They perform amongst John Paul Luckenbach’s always-impressive sets, dancing and singing to the music of Jim Foschia’s school orchestra, which is completely on top of the big score. And painting it all is the razzle-dazzle of Rob Fritz’s brilliant lights that could blind anyone to the terror about to unfold.

Performs December 3 - 12, 2009

Rob Hopper
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Executive Director
National Youth Arts

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