Obscure Videos: The Donmar Cabaret
But Cabaret got a rather better London revival in 1993, this time directed by Sam Mendes at the intimate Donmar Warehouse, with at least part of the audience seated at tables in a cabaret-style environment. Critics were enthusiastic, although the production played only a limited run and did not transfer for an extended West End engagement.
The Roundabout Theatre Company smartly chose to bring the Mendes Cabaret to New York in 1998, but with major alterations, including a new co-director and choreographer and new designers. The result played the Kit Kat Klub the old Henry Miller, then moved to Studio 54, and it emphasized the cabaret environment even more than had the London version.
The only holdover from London in the Broadway cast was Alan Cumming, which was not surprising, as Cumming had pretty much walked away with the Donmar production. But the New York version got a more effective Sally in Natasha Richardson. Roundabout's Cabaret was a smash, and went on to become the second longest-running musical revival to date, the first being, of course, that of another John Kander-Fred Ebb musical, Chicago.
The original '60s Cabaret was fascinating for its mix of diverse styles, with one half of the show a traditional book musical, the other a concept piece wherein the Emcee's numbers commented on the "real" action of the other scenes. In Mendes' version of Cabaret, those two distinct worlds were blended, and playing the show in an actual cabaret setting further blurred the distinction. As a result, the Emcee's role gained in both stage time and significance.
There were new scenes, such as the one set in Sally's dressing room. Songs were dropped "The Telephone Song," "Why Should I Wake Up?," "Meeskite," the original "Money Song", film songs were added "Maybe This Time," "Mein Herr," "Money", and other songs were altered in concept the first "Tomorrow Belongs to Me," with the Emcee crouched over a phonograph, or "Married," with Fraulein Kost as a bandstand singer, crooning in German.
While the 1987 Broadway revival of Cabaret, still in the original Hal Prince/Ron Field/Boris Aronson staging, allowed the hero to be bisexual, the new version offered an even franker treatment of the hero's sexuality. With audiences much less easily shocked than they were in the '60s, Mendes heightened the show's level of lewd decadence. Where the original offered a somewhat light first act that darkened into a harsher second, Mendes' version removed much of the humor of the older couple, making things dark right from the start.
For Broadway, Rob Marshall was brought in to co-direct and choreograph, replacing London choreographer Lea Anderson, and the superb Robert Brill/William Ivey Long/Peggy Eisenhauer/Mike Baldassari design replaced the London sets and costumes by Sue Blane and lighting by Paul Pyant.
At the Donmar, the Mendes Cabaret was not quite the brilliant reinvention it would become in New York. And that can still be judged because the Donmar Cabaret was preserved on tape and telecast by Carleton Television in the fall of 1994. The tape makes it clear that, while all the essential ideas of the production were in place at the Donmar, the addition of Marshall improved not only the staging of the musical numbers but all aspects of the production. Given the fact that the Donmar run was relatively brief, it's somewhat surprising that Mendes' Cabaret did not return to the West End in its superior New York version.
When I first saw the tape of the Donmar Cabaret, several years prior to the Roundabout production, I was surprised at how much the text diverged from Joe Masteroff's original script. Apparently so was Masteroff, even though he eventually approved most of the changes and worked with Mendes on further revisions.
The Carleton television version of Cabaret runs two hours but includes commercials. As a result, there are major cuts in the material, and it's difficult to know how many of them were made for the reduced TV time and how many of them were made in the actual Donmar production. There's no "Don't Tell Mama," but it was probably not in this version, because, as seen on the telecast, "Mein Herr" uses the staging concept employed for "Mama" in New York. But the videotape also cuts "Maybe This Time" and "Money," and surely at least the latter was in the Donmar staging.
Noticeable alterations between the Donmar and Broadway versions include the fact that no principals on the London tape double as musicians, as a couple did in New York. The Emcee's patter in "Wilkommen" is different, and the cabaret boys are not introduced during the number. It's not the actress playing Fraulein Kost who sings "Married," and the finale still features the solo spoken lines of the principals and Sally's reprise of the title song, both from the '66 text and both eliminated in the Roundabout version for a quicker wind-up. And the design was considerably enhanced from the far more barren Donmar version, even if certain concepts were retained for New York, such as the overhead orchestra in its frame and the twin staircases at the sides of the stage.
At the Donmar, Sally Bowles is Jane Horrocks, best known in this country as Bubble on "Absolutely Fabulous" and for the title role in the stage and film versions of Little Voice. Her Sally is zany, with an emphasis on the comedy, but she rises well to the late dramatic scenes. But even by the standards of some of the other Sallys, Horrocks' singing is poor, her title song intense but off-key. How did she ever manage to get through Little Voice in the theatre, a show in which she had to mimic the voices of some of the greatest pop singers? One doesn't especially miss "Maybe This Time" on the telecast, because one doubts that Horrocks would score with it.
An actress not known for musicals, Sara Kestelman makes an excellent Fraulein Schneider, and her Schultz, George Raistrick, is likewise quite fine. Cliff is an appealing Adam Godley, an actor who appeared in Broadway's most recent revival of Private Lives. As seen on the telecast, Cumming's Emcee was pretty much all there at the Donmar, even if he managed to enrich it in New York.
The Roundabout version of this Cabaret was rumored for a videotaping, to star Richardson and Cumming, but it failed to happen. So there's no good reason why the Donmar Cabaret tape couldn't be shown or released in this country, although Mendes may feel that, because the production was improved in its New York incarnation, the Donmar version doesn't represent this extraordinary revival at its best.
Interestingly enough, another Mendes/Donmar Warehouse revival of a brilliant American musical, the 1995 Company, also got preserved for television, but that video would have no commercials, so the tape includes the complete performance.