Theatre
Cabaret works its wicked way
Published 23 October 2006
Witches from Oz are no match for the sexy and sinister Kit Kat Klub
Wicked Apollo Victoria Theatre, London SW1
Cabaret Lyric Theatre, London W1
There's a new tune blowing through the West End. Broadway has arrived in London with several musical productions, including the delightful (if scatological) Avenue Q; the crazy Spamalot, a stage version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail; and Wicked, which claims to revolutionise song and dance. Does it? Well, not really.
Based on Gregory Maguire's "prequel" novel to The Wizard of Oz, Wicked could be the most tortuous thing currently on stage in the West End. Forget about simple plot or likeable characters. Even the hope of finding a hummable song remains remote during this confused and irritating evening.
The story centres on the two witches with whom we are all familiar - Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, green of face and pointed of hat (Idina Menzel), and Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, bland of coiffure and flounced of dress (Helen Dallimore). In a wholly unlikely twist, these two discover they are room-mates in an American-style prep school somewhere in Oz. Cue furious Eighties-style dancing, Fame-a-like music, the obligatory bonding moment at the school prom and a whole lot of other teenage business that might have come from the offcuts of Carrie - only without the tension.
As the headteacher Madame Morrible, Miriam Margolyes has an unwearable costume and an unspeakable script, burdened with an array of tiresome malapropisms. Elphaba, bearing the torch of an animal-rights campaigner (oh yes), goes off to find the Wizard (Nigel Planer), taking Glinda with her. She meets the Wizard, at which point Margolyes reappears as his assistant. Oh, and there's another witch, who is in a wheelchair.
The script makes the occasional reference to the great film itself. The Cowardly Lion makes an appearance, as does the Tin Man, sort of. Dorothy, mercifully, is rendered in shadow only. The joyous spirit of the original movie is running away as fast as it can from the Apollo Victoria.
As a stylish counterbalance to this vapid evening, Rufus Norris's production of Cabaret shows how a musical should be done. Forget about the toe-curling Broadway habit of giving leading ladies rounds of applause just for turning up (pace Idina Menzel in Wicked). Norris has his Sally Bowles (Anna Maxwell Martin) shoot across the stage on a wheeled ladder, semi-naked, several minutes before she makes her formal entrance at the Kit Kat Klub in a French-knicker-revealing nun's habit.
The evening begins with James Dreyfus, a terrifying Emcee, poking his nose through the set and grimly bidding us "Willkommen", in the manner of a carnal Mr Punch. The Emcee is one of musical theatre's great roles, and Dreyfus plays it with aplomb, commanding his troupe of high-kicking, bottom-smacking girls and boys with menacing eroticism and spitting out banknotes in "The Money Song".
The story is familiar: Clifford Bradshaw, an American innocent (Michael Hayden), arrives in Berlin on New Year's Eve 1930 hoping to find a quiet room in which to write his novel, but is whisked into a whirlwind of depravity thanks to an introduction to the Kit Kat Klub and its star turn, the enigmatic London drop-out Sally Bowles. As Bowles, Maxwell Martin dismisses the not insignificant figure of Liza Minnelli, who made the character her own in the 1972 Bob Fosse film. Yet neither does she inhabit the "Look at me - I'm singing!" style that can be the downfall of big, glittery revivals of such big, glittery shows. Maxwell Martin acts as if she couldn't give a damn whether we were there or not, her performance a display of knowing sexuality tempered with bitter despair and a cut-glass accent.
With cartwheeling Nazis and an on-stage band, Norris gives us a dark, thrilling sense of a pre-war Berlin where seductive semi-nudity at the nightclub must bow to the terrifying nakedness of the concentration camp. The music is crystal-clear, the sex hot and visceral, and the fear real and brutal. When the end comes, it is shocking and sobering.
Pick of the week
The Taming of the Shrew
Watermill Theatre, Newbury
Edward Hall's all-male production of Shakespeare's comedy.
Waiting for Godot
New Ambassadors Theatre, London WC2
Sir Peter Hall's 50th-anniversary revival of his production of Samuel Beckett's most famous work.
The Cryptogram
Donmar Warehouse, London WC2
David Mamet drama starring Sex and the City's Kim Cattrall.
Post this article to
We want to encourage people to comment on our content and to exchange views with other readers and hope this will be done on a courteous basis. However, if you encounter posts which are offensive please let us know by using the 'report this comment' facility or by emailing comments@newstatesman.co.uk and we will take swift action where necessary.
