CABARET REVIEW : Running Roughshod Over Weill in ‘Berlin to Babylon’

The good news about the opening performance of “Berlin to Babylon” at the Cinegrill last Saturday night is that it revived some very lovely songs by Kurt Weill and Friedrich Hollaender. The bad news is that Cameron Silver--the show’s only performer--didn’t appear to have grasped either the subtleties or the symbolism present in many of the works.

Silver opened the evening on a dark stage, shining a flashlight on his face in a feeble emulation of Joel Grey’s classic Weimar imagery. He sang the first number, Weill’s “Berlin Im Licht” in German (and thanked his dialogue coach), then reverted to upbeat, smiling presentations of material that obviously demanded far more complex renderings. Of cabaret theatricality, there was little to be seen, other than a bare trace of movement choreography and an occasional smidgen of atmospheric lighting.

Even so, the songs might have sustained the performance, had Silver fully appreciated the potential they possessed for interpretive nuance. But he ran roughshod over almost everything. Weill’s (and Ira Gershwin’s) “My Ship” was sung with no apparent awareness of its metaphoric significance in “Lady in the Dark.” “Nanna’s Lied” and “Two Hearts” disintegrated into the kind of jovial readings one might expect from the juvenile lead in a ‘30s musical.

If the show, which was directed by Jeremy Lawrence (who also provided some of the English-language lyrics), ever had a script or a structure beyond the assemblage of a disconnected sequence of songs, it was nowhere evident. Worse, Silver’s sporadic efforts to provide context were nearly always off base.

“Shickelgruber,” a bitingly satirical send-up of Hitler by Weill and Howard Dietz, was introduced with an unrelated story about Hollaender’s escape from Berlin; Hitler was never mentioned. “Nanna’s Lied” was identified, too thoughtlessly, as a typical Weill song “for a whore” (neglecting to note that the words were by Bertolt Brecht).

The real mystery of “Berlin to Babylon” is why Silver chose to explore tunes that were so inappropriate for his upfront, effusive performing style. Valuable as it may be to hear this captivating music, it’s a shame that it could not have been presented in a framework that better revealed its many fascinations.

* “Berlin to Babylon: The Songs of Kurt Weill and Friedrich Hollaender,” Cinegrill, Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, 7000 Hollywood Blvd. 8:30 and 10 p.m. tonight . $10, plus $10 food and beverage minimum. (213) 466-7000. Running time: 1 hour.