That leaves Broadway favorites, and particularly the classics — what’s lacking on Paris phases, inexplicably, is newer musicals, like “Hamilton” and “The E-book of Mormon.” Carsen’s “Cabaret” isn’t really the primary model of this musical, with its e book by Joe Masteroff, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb, to be seen in Paris this century. A French translation, staged by Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall, was offered at one other historic cabaret venue, the Folies Bergère, in 2006. However the Lido2Paris’s manufacturing, in English with subtitles, is a dry, ominous showstopper.
Carsen, a famend Canadian director, takes full benefit of the venue’s format: The Lido was designed as a cabaret-restaurant, with tables laid out on three sides of a thrust stage, and the Equipment Kat Klub, the Weimar-era Berlin venue round which “Cabaret” revolves, is true at house on this environment.
Earlier than its revue closed, the Lido provided a high-end dinner service every evening. (Over 150 folks had been laid off as a part of Accor’s takeover, from restaurant employees to the everlasting ensemble.) Now viewers members need to trek to considered one of two small bars to purchase a glass of champagne and nibbles, which left the auditorium feeling a bit of abandoned.
The manufacturing captures the nihilism of 1929 Berlin and the regular rise of Nazism, which some characters see as little greater than a distraction, beginning with cabaret performer Sally Bowles (a job made well-known by Liza Minnelli, right here given stressed depth by Lizzy Connolly). Clifford Bradshaw, a bisexual American author who has come to Berlin in search of freedom and inspiration, involves see the rising political menace — but fails to persuade Sally, regardless of the love between them.
Because the sardonic Emcee who presides over each the Equipment Kat Klub and the present itself, Sam Buttery is an arresting sight from the opening “Willkommen” — bald with heavy, darkish make-up, directly charismatic and blasé.
