Cabaret: A Review
Cabaret was awful.
It relied on gimmicks and full frontal nudity to compensate for the drama-school style scenery and choreography that wouldn't have looked out of place at a grandmothers disco. Julian Clary wasn't bad, but he wasn't good either - he pulled it together in the second half (his singing voice wasn't all that bad but he struggled with the opening number) but was let down by a lacklustre company, bad direction and terrible choices in costuming. The times he was allowed to interact with the audiences he was brilliant.
Amy Nuttall as Sally was probably the worst performance of any kind I've ever had the displeasure to sit through. She hammed and wobbled around the stage like Les Patterson on acid. Her singing was painful at best, her voice was weak and had the personality of a wet newspaper. On the high notes her voice vanished and cracked, she simply can't sing.
I have no idea what accent Steven Cree (Clifford Bradshaw) was doing, his acting was poor and his singing voice no better. I suppose confronted with the monster that was Amy Nuttall it's hard to do anything than turn to wood. The rest of the company don't bare mention, they were passable and a few could sing. For some reason the mic'ed dancers had the cable running loose down their back, but with it being a Bill Kenwright production that's hardly surprisingly - they probably can't afford mic' tape.
Two mentions for being absolutely fantastic and marvellous are Valerie Cutko as Fraulein Schneider and the always top Barry James as Herr Schultz. They acted and sang the entire company off the stage and into orbit.
Not only was it just appalling but infuriating as there were bits that were exceptional (the ending for instance [not just because it ended] for clever and rather disturbing), the show could have been so much better. I think some of the cast were aware of just how terrible it had been some of them looked genuinely embarrassed at the curtain call and were very much aware of the pathetic applause they were receiving from the audience.
I felt like asking for my money back at the end.
It relied on gimmicks and full frontal nudity to compensate for the drama-school style scenery and choreography that wouldn't have looked out of place at a grandmothers disco. Julian Clary wasn't bad, but he wasn't good either - he pulled it together in the second half (his singing voice wasn't all that bad but he struggled with the opening number) but was let down by a lacklustre company, bad direction and terrible choices in costuming. The times he was allowed to interact with the audiences he was brilliant.
Amy Nuttall as Sally was probably the worst performance of any kind I've ever had the displeasure to sit through. She hammed and wobbled around the stage like Les Patterson on acid. Her singing was painful at best, her voice was weak and had the personality of a wet newspaper. On the high notes her voice vanished and cracked, she simply can't sing.
I have no idea what accent Steven Cree (Clifford Bradshaw) was doing, his acting was poor and his singing voice no better. I suppose confronted with the monster that was Amy Nuttall it's hard to do anything than turn to wood. The rest of the company don't bare mention, they were passable and a few could sing. For some reason the mic'ed dancers had the cable running loose down their back, but with it being a Bill Kenwright production that's hardly surprisingly - they probably can't afford mic' tape.
Two mentions for being absolutely fantastic and marvellous are Valerie Cutko as Fraulein Schneider and the always top Barry James as Herr Schultz. They acted and sang the entire company off the stage and into orbit.
Not only was it just appalling but infuriating as there were bits that were exceptional (the ending for instance [not just because it ended] for clever and rather disturbing), the show could have been so much better. I think some of the cast were aware of just how terrible it had been some of them looked genuinely embarrassed at the curtain call and were very much aware of the pathetic applause they were receiving from the audience.
I felt like asking for my money back at the end.