Sex, drugs and fascism

Imagine you are living in a country with an increasingly authoritarian and nationalistic government, in a city with a reputation for sex clubs and readily available illicit substances. A singer from a club known for its cabaret shows goes through an experience that makes her a well-known character for years to come.

Now imagine this city is not modern-day Portland, but Berlin during the rise of Hitler’s Third Reich; the singer is not Storm Large of Dante’s favorite Storm and the Balls, but rather Sally Bowles, the character Large plays in Portland Center Stage’s steamy-yet-thought-provoking production of Cabaret.

This is not your parents’ version of the famous musical. The show is restricted to audiences over 18, and for good reason. During an early scene, the aptly named Emcee stands on the arms of a front row seat and treats the embarrassed occupant to an up-close and personal experience of very suggestive dancing. The girls and guys are scantily clad, in keeping with the cabaret theme, and could pass as strippers any day. And what would a Portland version of Cabaret be without a few kink allusions?

The show is more than a glorified version of Dante’s Sinferno, however, as it quickly veers into touching and eventually quite serious territory. Even the hedonistic dancers and patrons of Cabaret‘s Kit Kat Klub desire a deeper connection with a special someone. Two love stories, complete with real-life complications, take center stage for a good portion of the show. But then Hitler’s National Socialist Party wins the election, casting a shadow over the happy couples and eventually the iconic club itself.

Storm Large does a good job of not just giving us a 1930s version of herself, but really playing the character of Sally Bowles, including her vulnerable side. Her voice is very well-suited to musical theater, as anyone who has heard her at Dante’s or on Rock Star Supernova can attest. Actor Wade McCollum is the one who really steals the show, however, as the enchanting and haunting Emcee. He seduces us into this world of decadence, and we then watch his contagious energy slowly die out as the specter of Nazism descends.

Eventually there is nothing left of him but a phantom. Some of the best performances are by Michele Mariana and Richard Matthews, who play an elderly couple whose love story parallels Sally’s. Their relationship steals the limelight with a charm and vitality that their younger counterparts do not even begin to approach.

The direction of Cabaret is superb. The action never stops or loses our attention for a moment. We are taken through the entire realm of emotions, from stimulation and levity to tenderness and eventually even fear. The stage is designed around a rotating circular platform that is not only utilized during many of the musical numbers, but also serves for instantaneous scene changes without ever catching sight of a stagehand. My only complaint is that Emcee’s mic was sometimes turned down a tad too low to hear everything he was saying or singing. Even so, Cabaret is the best theater performance I have seen all year.

It is not all fun and games, however. Starting immediately before the intermission, there are a series of Nazi-era songs and skits performed, which we are tricked into laughing at and clapping for. Thus the audience becomes implicated in the guilt of going along with the rationalizations of genocide, as do the customers and performers at the Kit Kat Klub.

The characters spend most of the time saying, “Nothing that bad will happen here,” until it does. The play ends with the sound of Hitler’s acceptance speech as Nazis are ushered into power. It left everyone with such a sick feeling that no one clapped for over a minute until a fade up and down of the lights indicated that the play was indeed over, and that we could begin clapping for the excellent performance.

In retrospect, the characters’ casual dismissal of the looming threat of totalitarianism seems foolish. Yet one walks away asking themselves, “If they didn’t see it when it was coming, what about me?” As nationalistic sentiment against a particular “unlawful” racial group grows in our country and individual liberties are compromised, do we see fascism creeping up on us?