Review: Cabaret

Cabaret, on Kristallnacht, in the name of entertainment

The City Theatre’s Cabaret is almost sinful entertainment

Joe Masteroff, John Kander, Fred Ebb: Cabaret. Helsinki City Theatre, large stage. Translated and directed by Kari Heiskanen, translated by Jukka Virtanen, choreography by Markku Nenonen, conductor Timo Kärkkäinen, set design by Kaarina Hieta, costumes by Sari Salmela, lighting by Mikko Ijäs, sound by Eradj Nazimov. Cast: Martti Suosalo, Merja Larivaara, Santeri Kinnunen, Kristiina Elstelä, Ismo Kallio, Mikko Kivinen and Helena Haaranen.

The beginning promises. The end will have an effect. There is room for all kinds of things in between. Such a performance is the Helsinki City Theatre’s take on the musical Cabaret, based on Christopher Isherwood’s novel Farewell to Berlin, which has been adapted into many things. However, you don’t lick until you drop. Today is the second premiere of Cabaret and new stars are on fire. Kari Heiskanen’s direction gives quite a lot of room for the actor’s own personality, so the overall impression of this musical hit that has travelled around the world many times may be very different. We are waiting with excitement.

How many of us who dressed for the premiere of the City Theatre remembered that on exactly the same evening and night 62 years ago, Germany experienced the so-called Kristallnacht. That night, supposedly to avenge a diplomatic assassination in France, the Nazis destroyed synagogues, looted Jewish shops, and expelled Jews from the country. How would this spectacle on the big stage, which walks with rather light shoes, have tasted in terms of the horror moment of history: destruction, which, however, is also centrally linked to the story told by the musical. Probably quite grotesque in relation to reality.

Well, the reality is pretty far from the new version anyway, and I don’t necessarily say this in a bad way. The staging probably corresponds exactly to what the Helsinki City Theatre wanted and needed, a little bit of Nazism, a little bit of tinkerbell, somewhat happy and to some extent sad fates in life. Let’s make a success that pleases so that the viewers come despite the fact that in fact all the life destinies in the story end tragically.

There has been no desire to take the risk that the interpretation would work the other way around, i.e. depict a cruel history and the people who fold in its grip with really dark and even horrible lines. Director Kari Heiskanen seems to have understood his own task.

Sally Bowles, at the premiere, Merja Larivaara sings her piercing final song handsomely like Barbra Streisand, dressed in a stunningly beautiful gold lame dress. Even the eye rests. The role of the Nazi Ernst, the messenger of evil written in the story, is played by the excellent comedian Mikko Kivinen. He is the teddy bear Nazi of the show, and this is of course no coincidence. Kristiina Elstelä and Ismo Kallio play their senior subrets, as is customary in the theatre, without a bump and excellently.

So Cabaret is pleasant, although always a bit like behind a glass and without a strong personal touch. Pretty soon, the viewer realizes that this is primarily a theatre of different solo characters. The roles are a kind of arias. The real aspiration and will towards the other person is almost absent. Except for the premiere crew about author Bradshaw.

In this version, Isherwood’s alter ego Bradshaw is finally allowed to confess his homosexuality, which was completely impossible during the 1960s Broadway production and for a long time after. The actor gets something to act, some kind of contradiction in his hands. In my opinion, Santeri Kinnunen was absolutely excellent and touching already in The Death of a Merchant, and even in Cabaret, he brings emotions to the interpretation that make you think that there really is something going on here. There is also decadence. Martti Suosalo is a fierce dynamo with his raw but nuanced vocals in the role of the master of ceremonies. It’s a shame that the character is allowed to lose his authority leading the stage and the audience in the form of a few completely silly scenes. The man plays the woman as a man, makes clichés, and the artist loses his prestige.

The beginning of Cabaret really promised. It’s actually the same as in the really powerful Cabaret interpretation seen in New York. Or at least it aims to do the same. When the audience enters the hall, there are already women from the Kit Kat club, described as lewd, longing for a new po for themselves.

The garter girls are dressed quite lustfully by Sari Salmela, while the boys, with the exception of one, are just skinny, just supporting characters. No wonder Bradsahw is not particularly enthusiastic about them, at least. There should be eroticism in the air. The result is just so from Tampere that . . . But the beginning is different from a Finnish point of view, and the performance also ends effectively with Kaarina Hieta’s set design, but let the ending retain its surprising nature.

The libretto is, to some extent, as always the problem with Cabaret, while the music is its absolute luminosity, after both the composer, John Kander, and the conductor Timo Kärkkäinen and his happy and uninhibited energetic band. There is no lack of energy in Markku Nenonen’s fast-paced dances either. They don’t really reflect the change in times and appreciation that takes place within the story, but they offer spectacular entertainment numbers and danced sparingly despite the slight unevenness of the crowds.

They are entertainment, and the whole performance is entertainment, even at its most daring, a kind of erotic fair for the whole family. Maybe it’s better that way. It doesn’t go to the viewer’s throat.