Staples Players Rewind: “Cabaret”

“Cabaret” is a remarkable play.

But the 1967 Tony Award-winning musical — set in Berlin as the Nazis rise to power, and which portrays hedonistic nightlife, an interreligious romance, and other adult themes — is a tremendous challenge for high school students.

Which is why Staples Players has produced it, several times.

Two shows were 20 years apart. But they’re tied together by a common thread.

In 1984, under director Al Pia, 12th grader David Roth played the sinister Kit Kat Club emcee. The role — made famous by Joel Grey and Alan Cumming — shifts frequently between playful, vulgar and menacing. It’s difficult for anyone to pull off — let alone a teenager. But Roth is superb.

Twenty years later, he was in his first years as Players co-director, at his alma mater. This time, Brandon Floch embraced the emcee role.

Former media teacher Jim Honeycutt filmed that 2004 production. He also unearthed a videotape of the previous one.

He went to work, editing both. He cut them exactly the same — same highlights, same length, everything.

The only thing different is 2 decades’ worth of technological advances. The ’84 show was shot with one camera, at the back of the auditorium. Audio was captured — not always well — by the microphone on top of the camera.

By ’04, technology had advanced considerably.

Now click here and click here — or below — to enjoy this double feature.

PS: Honeycutt even hunted down the casts of both shows. They included:

Fall, 1984

• Emcee – David Roth
• Sally Bowles – Marjorie Levine
• Fräulein Schneider – Traci Davis
• Herr Schultz – John Donovan
• Clifford Bradshaw – Micu Oprea
• Ernst Ludwig – Mark Donovan

Fall, 2004

• Emcee – Brandon Floch
• Sally Bowles – Mia Gentile
• Fräulein Schneider – Sally Eidman
• Herr Schultz – Zach Shornick
• Clifford Bradshaw – Steven Fuentes and Peter Stonbely
• Ernst Ludwig – Noah Schnoll and Clayton Morrell

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