Wilkommen, bienvenue — a welcome Cabaret

February, 2005

Cabaret, Woodbridge School

NAZISM, World War Two, the Holocaust are such taboo subjects in Germany it seems most German teenagers today do not even know who Hitler was.

This could not be said of Konstantin Matt hies, one of the undoubted stars of Woodbridge School 's brilliant production of John Kander's Cabaret.

The Oscar-garlanded 1972 film is excellent, but the stage musical is even better, and an astonishing cast of pupils really gave it their all. In several ways they outshone many professional theatre shows.

The promenade staging, with the audience sat around tables as visitors to the Kit Kat Klub, was ingenious and effective. But it was the quality of the singing, the dancing and some wonderful acting that made it an evening to take the breath away.

Sam Piper as the outrageous MC, with his comic timing, asides, singing and eyebrow-raising innuendo, was an obvious star.

The dancing girls were also a treat - and Emily Skinner as Rosie revealed a lovely voice, with great delivery.

But while this was all hugely enjoyable, Cabaret also has some sobering and serious points to make. And in Dide Siemmond's Fraulein Schneider and Matt hies's Schultz this production had a pair of singers and actors to bring a tear to the eye.

He is the Jew who refuses to believe what is happening in 1930s Berlin, she the aging spinster who knows only too well.

The well-known song If You Could See Her Through My Eyes turns knockabout comedy into shock revelation. When it is followed by Schneider's agonised plea What Would You Do? it takes on deeper meaning.

The characters of Sally and Clifford are less central than in the movie, but were given thoughtful portrayals by Ben Burrows and Lucy Wilmott, who came into her own in the closing title song.

If the mark of a good musical is that it sends you home humming, then leaves you still thinking the next day, this was a triumph.