THEATER REVIEW : Life Is No ‘Cabaret’ at La Habra

There’s something disconcerting about the quaintness of the La Habra Depot Theatre--a faithfully preserved former railroad station--housing the Berlin decadence and Brechtian devices of “Cabaret.” But there it is, in not quite all of its glory.

If the journey from a venue that’s drenched in Midwestern charm to the show’s Weimar era is a stretch for the audience, it’s also sometimes a strain for members of director Larry Watts’ cast.

At its worst, this “Cabaret” is undone by sheer lack of skill, from those pesky German accents to flubbing the difficult songs by John Kander (music) and Fred Ebb (lyrics).

At its best, this staging is most at home with book writer Joe Masteroff’s story of innocents swept up in the rise of Nazi intolerance--American writer Clifford Bradshaw (David Frederick Fogg), Kit Kat Klub star Sally Bowles (Adriana Sanchez), haus mutter Fraulein Schneider (Terri Miller Schmidt) and her would-be Jewish mate, Herr Schultz (Larry Blake).

This is a production split between the two halves of “Cabaret” itself: its German, Expressionist, stylishly didactic side, and its American, human-scale, narrative side.

Except for a generally confident Chris D. Thomas as emcee of the Kit Kat, there is little expression at all in this entertaining gateway to evil. Sometimes, as in Watts’ set design piece showing a Toulouse-Lautrec painting of the Moulin Rouge, it’s not even in the right country.

Thomas is good enough that in his one drag scene with the Kit Kat Girls, he’s sexier, more alluring, more evil than the girls themselves. You either have the Berlin cabaret style, or you don’t; in this case, one does, and the other haven’t a clue.

Unfortunately, one of the clueless includes Sanchez’s Sally, who lacks the star quality to headline the Kit Kat. (Sanchez, though, admirably kept her composure Sunday when her tight-fitting bustier revealed more than it was supposed to on “Don’t Tell Mama.”)

While Sanchez suggests Sally’s sometimes-thoughtless drive to get ahead no matter whose heart is broken, her singing and speaking voice is one monotonous boom, as if she were playing at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. And as she’s booming, notes waver as much as her emotional grip on the role: Only near the end, when she’s about to lose Clifford for good, does Sanchez make Sally’s life matter.

Fogg, Schmidt and Blake, on the other hand, so dominate the story that the cabaret interludes feel airless. Fogg’s Clifford balances a young American innocence with the sweaty tenseness of an artist trying to find his voice under impossible conditions. His eyes convey a quiet sense of justice (his growing disgust for the Nazis around him) and little patience for stupidity (Sally’s refusal to read the paper).

Schmidt and Blake deliver quietly as well, especially during the song “Married.” She’s a don’t-push-me gal who knows her limitations; he’s meek, an easy target, almost feminine. (In a way, Schmidt and Blake reverse gender roles as much as Thomas does.) He tends to soften her, which makes it all the sadder to consider what kind of life they might have shared.

The force driving them apart, though, is wanly suggested here. Marty Maurer’s Nazi activist Ernst couldn’t intimidate a bird, or a gentle creature like Schultz. His foundering dialect makes his voice robotic, but without any cold firmness.

From the over-synthesized musical direction by Rusty Vance to the fitful scene transitions, this is a “Cabaret” just a little afraid of the dangerous territory in which it is treading. It needs to be as daring, as mischievous, as the show’s original inspiration. Otherwise, why come to the “Cabaret”?

* “Cabaret,” La Habra Depot Theatre, 311 S. Euclid St., La Habra. Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2:30 p.m. $8-$10. (310) 905-9708 or 691-8900. Ends Oct. 16. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.

Adriana Sanchez: Sally Bowles Chris D. Thomas: Emcee David Frederick Fogg: Clifford Bradshaw Marty Maurer: Ernst Ludwig Terri Miller Schmidt: Fraulein Schneider Larry Blake: Herr Schultz Joanne Gula: Fraulein Kost Scott Sellars: Maitre D’/Bobby Monti Miller, Lauren Spicer, Nicki Peck, Lynette Deveraux, Cheryl Newcomer, Karen McCord:Kit Kat Girls

A La Habra Depot Theatre production. Book by Joe Masteroff. Music by John Kander. Lyrics by Fred Ebb. Directed by Larry Watts. Costumes and set by Watts. Choreography: Nicki Peck. Lights: Brad Steward.