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CABARET
Theatre 2000
The Regent Centre
Christchurch
May 2002

KANDER & Ebb’s brilliant, hard-hitting musical about the decadent bohemians who congregated in pre-war Berlin and the price they were soon to pay for that decadence seems a salutary warning to us all given Monsieur Le Pen’s current French success.
It is perhaps that aspect which gives Bertie Brown’s fine production such a chilling edge and makes the usual curtain call “happy clap-along” feel somehow inappropriate.
In many ways this is, I believe, the company’s best show yet, having generated a rare depth of feeling from the entire cast. Certainly it is the first time during a musical that I have heard an audience applaud someone’s exit after a piece of libretto – although given Cindy Wells’ emotionally-charged performance as the sad, middle-aged Fraulein Schneider I was far from surprised.
The show is, naturally, well sung but it is acting skills that feature most strongly. Mike Purnell is the epitome of decadence as ‘Emcee’, Andrea Young a charming Sally Bowles and Danny Seldon an excellent Clifford Bradshaw, and there are outstanding performances too from Malcolm Clarke (Herr Schulz), Syd Young (Ernst Ludwig) and Alice Smith (Fraulein Kost).
Please – don’t miss the Cabaret. Enjoy. Ponder. You’ll have a Perfectly Marvellous time.

Linda Kirkman
Courtesy of the Bournemouth Daily Echo

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