Cabaret

 Wilkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome! I'd never seen Cabaret on stage. I had a chance in 2000 to see it but decided instead to see The Producers. I'm still happy with the choice because I think the impact on the seriousness of this show would've been lost on me a bit. Alan Cumming returned to the show that won him the tony all those years ago and man, did he sell it!

We were both underwhelmed with Michelle Williams. She did all right for a film star, but she definitely didn't have the chops that we expected in this role. Granted, Sally Bowles is supposed to be annoying and slightly talentless, but Michelle couldn't act that well. I was very impressed with Danny Burstien's portrayal of Herr Shultz. Both the ending of act 1 and the finale made me feel eerie, sad, and uncomfortable. The show does such a good job of showing how the Nazi occupation started to affect the normal everyday German life and then bouncing into a fun ditty about having sex with lots of women, or living it up. 

 We had great seats at a cabaret table (thank you hip tix gold) sitting in the second to last row, and all the way to the side. The seating itself is a little odd (Aaron had to sit BEHIND me) but the sight lines were pretty good and the lighting with the table lights was so cool. We felt like we were in a real club.

 It was so nice to see it live. As a teenager I actually borrowed this cast recording (2000) from the library and I remember thinking it was so "cool" and "dangerous", but now seeing and hearing it as an adult had a different impact on me.