When people think of Kurt Weill, the German genius behind countless musicals and operettas performed throughout the last century, they usually think of three things: prostitutes, liquor and war-torn Germany.
In Sacramento City Theatre’s latest production “From Berlin to Broadway: A Kurt Weill Cabaret”, director Adrienne Sher brings all of these things together through brilliant numbers, accentuating the mystery of the work with an undercurrent storyline that ties it all together, and all on her first musical.
With a great minimalist set, designed by SCC’s Shawn Weinsheink, the audience is taken to the docks where the majority of the numbers take place.
The show itself is a collection of pieces from Weill’s life’s work left behind after his death in 1950. The show depicts the course of his life moving from Germany to France to America, and shows the differences in his musical craftsmanship through the writers that he worked with including Ira Gershwin and Langston Hughes.
The brightest spots in the production came from a cast with talent all over the map. Many strong voices could be heard, including Martha Kight, Carley Neill and Kim McCann-Lawson.
The dancing aspect of the show was lacking and often inconsistent, but a brutally staged piece involving a woman (Amsale Darden) who keeps coming back to her man (Julian Sandoval) for more brought the pace to a fervent pitch that kept the audience on the edge of its seat.
The play’s ensemble is made up of a rag-tag bunch of multitasking actors who constitute the band, many playing multiple instruments throughout the production. The main showman was Zack Sapunor playing upright bass, and his use of slap-bass and using hands for rhythm brought the music to a height that many others couldn’t reach. However, the idea of actors all taking part in the band aspect of a musical is rather enjoyable, and pulls the cast together onstage into a cohesive whole.
In the end, the only downfall to the production was a dramatic lack of energy on everyone’s part. Perhaps opening jitters, perhaps under-rehearsed, but the audience occasionally were very aware they were looking at tired, worried actors.
MAX’S RATING - A CHEER AND AN INVITATION TO SEE IT AGAIN WITH A GERMAN WOMAN OF THE NIGHT.