“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
(If you like these nutshells — or any other “06880” feature — please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
