Cabaret 11/20/03

For Thursday, November 20, 2003

By CHRISTOPHER HOILE
Eye Weekly

Featuring Barbara-Lynn Redpath, Stephen Sheffer. Presented by Lloyd Allison Entertainment. Music by John Kander. Lyrics by Fred Ebb. Book by Joe Masteroff. Directed by Jordan Allison. To Dec 6. Tue-Sat 8pm; Thu mat 1pm; Sat & Sun mats 2pm. $44.50-58.50, $5 student/senior discount. New Yorker Theatre, 651 Yonge. 416-872-1111.

Twenty-year-old director-producer Jordan Allison writes in the program that his Cabaret is "inspired" by the 1998 production directed by Sam Mendes. This homage goes so far as showing the Emcee in a concentration camp uniform at the end. His honesty is admirable but it confirms that Allison's production is not characterized by innovative direction.

There are other problems. Stephen Sheffer, who looks the part of the Emcee and sings well, is curiously devoid of irony and charisma. Only in his solo, "I Don't Care Much," does he seem fully engaged with the part. Brian Wigg gives Cliff, the American would-be novelist visiting Berlin, about as much personality as a doorstop. This means that the strong-voiced Barbara-Lynn Redpath, who has real stage presence, has to act Sally Bowles in a vacuum. It's no wonder then that unlike the 1972 film or Mendes' production, her Sally comes off not as a confused lost soul but a confident career woman. All the other performances are strong, especially from Julia De Sotto as Frau Schmidt and Michael Coady as Ernst. But the dancers need greater precision.

The handsome set places all of the action in the Kit Kat Klub with a 12-piece band above. Conductor Gretchen Helbig consistently chooses tempos that are rushed so that the mood or even the words of some songs have little time to sink in. Exacerbating the situation, the sound technicians have made the band so loud it frequently threatens to drown out the singers already struggling with microphone glitches.