‘Cabaret’ at MGM Grand doesn’t quite meet expectations

Joe Delaney

Friday, Sept. 1, 2000 | 10:42 a.m.

The Roundabout Theatre Company production of "Cabaret," co-starring Miss America 1998 Kate Shindle as Sally Bowles, Jon Peterson as the emcee and a talented supporting cast, will be performed in the MGM Grand EFX Theater through Sunday, with 3 p.m. matinees on Saturday and Sunday.

It is a faithful revival, with the Joe Masteroff book, John Kander music and Fred Ebb lyrics intact, running two hours and 25 minutes, including an intermission.

We found it slow moving, uneven, ponderous at times and episodic rather than free-flowing as we found the original. The audience of approximately 1,000 in the 1,700-seat theater was slow in responding, not really getting into it until Shindle's bravura rendition of "Cabaret," preceding the finale.

Responsibility must rest with Sam Mendes' direction and Rob Marshall's co-direction. Marshall's choreography was much more decadent than I remember it on Broadway, or in the film, way over the top.

I should point out my familiarity with the Christopher Isherwood stories and the John Van Druten play based on those stories, "I Am A Camera," starring Julie Harris. Having seen both of those stage and film versions, plus the stage and film versions of "Cabaret," I may have been expecting too much of this production.

Peterson was excellent, capturing the manner and the essence of the emcee. Shindle's Bowles had few redeeming features, and Jay Goede's Clifford Bradshaw, in love with Sally, even fewer and overdone as well. It was hard to root for either one.

The real story in this version is the doomed romance of Herr Schultz, as portrayed by Hal Robinson, and Alma Cuervo's Fraulein Schneider, the landlady -- two performance gems.

Kudos as well for Lenora Nemetz's Fraulein Kost, a boarder "who rented by the hour," and Drew McVety's Ernst Ludwig, a villainous sort, plus the Kit Kat Girls and Boys and, especially, the hard-charging Kit Kat Club Orchestra.

I tried my best to like this as much as the audience finally did at the show caught. Perhaps it was one of those nights. If you are a "Cabaret" fan, don't let me keep you from seeing it at the MGM Grand this week.