Blake Dean

American Music
13 March 2016

Concert Report: Cabaret

I attended Berry Colleges performance of the Kander and Ebb classic,

Cabaret, on February 20th at 7:30. This event was a theatrical
performance of the musical Cabaret with a score written by the prolific
Kander and Ebb. It was performed in the Berry College theatre which
was a s round theater with stadium seating and the stage below the
audience rather than elevated. This setup created a quite intimate
atmosphere and required the audience to be actively involved with the
piece being performed. The performers were college students at Berry
College who came out to audition for this show.
The targeted audience was quite broad, however I think with the
musical that was selected it was performed more for those who were
literate in theatre than those being recently introduced. It is a concept
musical rather than a linear story which makes a seasoned theatregoer and easier audience member than one who is illiterate in musical
theatre.

The purpose of the event was to showcase the talent within the theatre
department at Berry College and also to tell this story of love,
insecurity and predjuice within the World War 2 timeline.
A very important element to differenciating characters and
personalities onstage was the vocalists chosen timbre. The Emcee
who is a cold, menacing character had a hollow, and dark timbre to his
voice. This darker timbre gave his songs a menacing quality that was
important to his character. Contrasting him, Herr Shultz, a moral,
innocent character had a gentle, thin quality to his voice. This contrast
showed his innocence even in the most climactic of musical moments.
Another important element to this piece was harmony. When all the
members of the Kit Kat Klub were on stage and singing, to bring the
fullness of the amount of singers Kander and Ebb added layered
harmonies to fill out the sound. So while there may only have been 10
or so people on stage it sounded like a much larger ensemble due to
these filling harmonies. Which gave the prominence of the Kit Kat Klub
validity.
I was quite emotional after this musical experience, the book for the
show was so brilliantly intertwined with the score to heighten each
song. The songs were used to humanize each character in the show so
during each musical moment you got to become intimately familiar
with a certain aspect of a character which gave me a connection to
each character. This conncection created by music made my heart

break for each person when their life ended in ruin or shock. I think I
have grown up understanding emotions through music whether it be
learning longing through jazz or happiness through big band; so my
growing up prepared me to understand the brilliance and importance
of Kander and Ebbs score.