Cappies Review: Walt Whitman High School's Performance Of 'Cabaret'

By Alden Walcott of Langley High School

The enveloping grittiness of 1930s Berlin. The glowing sign of the Kit Kat Club, illuminating its daringly extroverted yet somehow delicate staff. The haunting sensations of pulsing spotlights and reverberations of sound all joined together to bid an ominous "Willkommen" to Walt Whitman High School's breathtaking production of Cabaret.

Set in Berlin at the dawn of the Nazis' rise to power, Cabaret opened on Broadway in 1966 as a musical, with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Joe Masteroff. Ultimately based on the 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin, by Christopher Isherwood, the story centers around the hedonistic nightlife at the disreputable Kit Kat Club, highlighting the relationship between English cabaret performer Sally Bowles and American writer Clifford Bradshaw, as they navigate a society shifting subtly yet rapidly around them.

Never flinching from the intensity of the setting and the importance of its message, the cast maintained focus and made character choices that enveloped the audience in both suspense and laughter. The ensemble found the humor in the breathless, energetic dance numbers such as "Don't Tell Mama," and the irony and fun in "Money," all carefully contrasted with the suspense and forward-facing, stark bleakness in moments such as the revelation that Nazis live among them.

Ryan Robbins stole the show as the emcee, embodying the carefree, chameleon-like presence of a nightclub host at a club where "everyone is beautiful." His dancing had subtle references to the jazz age in which the plot is based, and he inhabited the seedy yet optimistic character in his facial expressions, the physical comedy of his performance of "If You Could See Her," and his command of both his physical presence and his emotions as he carried the audience on a ride through the dawning realization that change was upon them.

Equally impressive was the relationship between Sally Bowles (Samantha Sanders) and Clifford Bradshaw (Joseph Akinyoyenu), perhaps an unlikely couple, with Sanders' upbeat, cheerful energy juxtaposed with Akinyoyenu's compellingly grounded manner. Their rapport was both tender and raw, mirroring the moment with their vocals in songs such as "Perfectly Marvelous."

In a musical centered around over-the-top cabaret nightlife, Fraulein Schneider (Elizabeth Abbott) provided an important counterpoint. Her charisma, portrayed in songs such as "What Would You Do?" navigated the world of difficult choices the characters must make as the plot continues to twist, highlighting that for all that one might wish "everything was beautiful," the world does not always live up to that billing. Her bravery and staunch drive to survive underscored the choices many of the characters choose to make in the end.

The other star of the evening was the clever use of light and sound. The lighting crew (Ella Gontkovic, Alyssa Hodor, and the Whitman Lighting Team) designed a full back wall of light, portraying the glow of what the audience thinks it sees in the first act with literal rose-colored light, allowing us to see the Kit Kat Club through a version of rose-colored glasses, only to focus more intensely blue and purple light in Act 2 to symbolize the changing Berlin.

The sound team (Colin Frankel, Maya Kawamoto, and the Whitman Sound Team) matched not only the lighting cues but the performers' every dance move and hand gesture, with riveting and time-specific choices, from train noises to slamming doors.

Haunting in both its depiction of history and its foretelling of today's political undercurrents, Whitman High School's Cabaret provides us with the hope that "Maybe This Time," things can be different.