Ti-Ahwaga Community Players and Cabaret, 3 Feb 2023
Ti-Ahwaga Community Players production of Cabaret, at the Ti-Ahwaga Performing Arts Center, Owego, NY, was a wonderful experience this past Saturday evening, 3 Feb. 2024, following a wonderful dinner with friends at Ernesto’s in Owego, NY.
Ryan Canavan, as Emcee or Master of Ceremony, did a great job in portraying this elusive character with the wonderful excitement, as it should be.
Same can be said about the British character, Sally Bowles, played by Ilana Rose Wallenstein, Sally Bowles. ”The character of Sally Bowles was based upon Jean Ross, a British cabaret singer with whom Isherwood lived as a room-mate in Weimar-era Berlin.” (Reference: Cabaret: 1972 film (n.d.). Wikipedia. Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabaret_(1972_film).
Andrew Mextorf who played the American from Harrisburg, PA, Clifford Bradshaw, also portrayed this character in a top-notch personification. The character of Bradshaw is modeled after author, Christopher Isherwood’s “semi-autobiographical novel,” Goodbye to Berlin which is the basis of this musical. The novel “recounts [Isherwood’s] time in 1930s pre-Nazi Berlin.” (Reference: 50 years of Cabaret, 2016, Playbill, Website: https://www.playbill.com/article/50-years-of-cabaret-the-surprisingly-transformative-jo). In one sense, I kept thinking of Bradshaw not being Clifford, but Christopher.
On November 16, 1966, Cabaret opened on Broadway with Joel Grey and Peg Murray (Reference: 50 years of Cabaret (2016, Nov. 20). Playbill, Website: https://www.playbill.com/article/50-years-of-cabaret-the-surprisingly-transformative-journey-of-a-classic) headlining the show.
In later productions, Joel Grey and Liza Minnelli played the leading roles (“Me no leica,” (2013, Oct. 5), RegenAxe [blog]. Website: https://regenaxe.com/2013/10/05/me-no-leica/).
In 2002, John Stamos of TV’s Full House, played the role of Emcee (Reference: Gans, A. (2002, Apr. 2). Playbill. Website: https://www.playbill.com/article/tvs-john-stamos-joins-the-cabaret-april-29-com-104810).
There have been others.
Cabaret, the movie, was released in 1972, with Bob Fosse as choreographer (Reference: Cabaret: 1972 film (n.d.). Wikipedia. Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabaret_(1972_film)).
Another bit of history about Cabaret (Reference: Cabaret: 1972 film (n.d.). Wikipedia. Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabaret_(1972_film)).
By the time Adolf Hitler implemented the Enabling Act of 1933 which cemented his dictatorship, Isherwood, Ross, Spender, and others had fled Germany and returned to England.[24][16][17] Many of the Berlin cabaret denizens befriended by Isherwood would later flee abroad[25]: 164–166 or perish in concentration camps.[25]: 150, 297 [26]: 74–81 These factual events served as the genesis for Isherwood's 1937 novella Sally Bowles which was later adapted into the 1955 film I Am a Camera and the 1966 Cabaret musical.[23][27]
In a review of the musical, New York Times reviewer, Walter Kerr, wrote, “me no leica.” (“Me no leica,” (2013, Oct. 5), RegenAxe [blog]. Website: https://regenaxe.com/2013/10/05/me-no-leica/). I do not agree with such detractors who also claimed the book by Isherwood was titled, Goodbye Berlin, not Sally Bowles.
The remainder of this Ti-Awhaga cast was phenomenal. The dance numbers were well choreographed and synchronized very well. The movement in and out of the audience as if we are part of the Kit Kat Club being portrayed in the musical was also quite likable by this audience member. The lighting and stage design also worked well. The orchestra was also very interesting.
The one thing I would say, “me no leica” was the balance between the sound of the singers and the orchestra. The orchestra often overpowered the singers and it was difficult to hear them. It seemed as if there was a slight improvement following intermission, but to this member of the audience, I think the contrast could have been even better.
My final words are “me leica.” And certainly, I recommend others attend so as to learn from history what happens when a dictator was on the rise in Germany, in order to stop such a thing, at all costs, remembering, unlike the Germans that the opposition to the dictator was not bad at all, but slander, libel and lies were used in Nazi Germany, as the eventual German “Propaganda Minister,” Goebbels, used a method of glorifying individualism with hearsay and repeatedly telling lies until they became the truth.
Goebbels quotes:
Goebbels: ”A lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.”
Goebbels: ”If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself.“
Goebbels: “If you tell a lie long enough, it becomes the truth.“
Goebbels: “If you repeat a lie often enough it becomes accepted as truth.“
Goebbels: “The age of hairsplitting Jewish intellectualism is dead… The past lies in flames.“
All of this represent a prequel to a Holocaust. This was well represented for those who wish to learn from history and learn how to stop such a thing. Learn it from the Ti-Awhaga Community Players and their production of Cabaret.
For this audience member, “me leica.”
Tioga Herald 