I well and truly lost my Cabaret virginity this weekend! :D :P

First up came the stage version last Friday, at the New Theatre, Cardiff. Cast:
Emcee Wayne Sleep
Sally Bowles Samantha Barks
Fraulein Shneider Jenny Logan
Herr Schultz Matt Zimmerman
Clifford Bradshaw Henry Luxemburg
Ernst Ludwig Karl Moffatt
Fraulein Kost Suanne Braun
Hans (Young Nazi) Theo Cook
Fritzie Danni Bowen
Victor Benjamin Timothy
Rosie Nouska Hanly
Texas Cydney Uffindell-Phillips
Frenchie Jessica Ellen
Hamburg Helmut Tom Woods
Rudy Alistair Postlewaite
Helga Lucy James
Bobby Hendrick January
Lulu Rebecca Scarrott

I shan't give a synopsis, as I'm sure many of you are already familiar with it, and if you're not the one on Wikipedia is far more comprehensive than I am able to!

Ms. Barks gave a good performance as Sally. I say good, but she was not excellent. I felt her acting was a little wooden, more that she was just playing the part rather than becoming Sally herself (in stark contrast to Lisa O'Hare's Mary Poppins whom I saw a few weeks ago, who epitomised the character perfectly). She has a very nice voice. Maybe This Time and Cabaret were excellently performed. I wish I could say she was a good dancer, but as she did not dance, I cannot comment on it. As my limited knowledge of the show beforehand was that it was quite dance orientated, I was quite disappointed that the lead did not demonstrate this.
Wayne Sleep gave a much more solid performance as the MC. Although at times I think he lapsed into Wayne Sleep instead of his role, he had great comic timing and exuded enough creepiness into the role to keep some mystery to it. Whilst not the greatest vocal performer, he had enough character to make up for it (IMHO, I'd rather see an actor with an OK voice than a singer with rubbish acting skills).
I liked the character of Cliff - I thought he was a bit more naive than Sally, but a lot more aware of his surroundings. The actor suffered from the occasional accept lapse, but was generally good in the part.
I loved the subplot between Fraulein Shneider and Herr Schultz. So sad. I loved 'It Couldn't Please Me More' as a song, it was very sweet, and I was surprised that it was one of the songs I came out humming most. Having read the biogs beforehand, I was star-struck at being in the mere presence of the legendary 'Shake 'n' Vac' lady (obviously Ms Logan has done many more prominant pieces throughout her career, but that advert was legendary!) and the voice of one the Thunderbirds!
Honourable mentions go to the glamourous Suanne Braun, the haunting voice of Theo Cook ('Tomorrow Belongs To Me' is one of the most frightening pieces of theatre I have ever witnessed, and I hope to see him to bigger things in the future as I think he could have a great career ahead of him), and the gorgeous Lucy James as the voluptuous Helga, who may just have the most phenomenal legs in showbiz :P
The sets were not elaborate, they will not win awards, but they did the job well enough. I liked the split level effects that were used to see different pieces of action occurring in different places at once. The glitzy lights of the 'Kabaret' were enough to create a deliciously trashy atmosphere without being blindingly full on (I'm the kinda gal who shuts her eyes in club if there's too much funky lighting going on, so I didn't mind!).
One thing thing which amused me was, although no one expressed any audience-based objections to the nudity on stage (mainly from behind, admittedly), there was the teeniest smidge of a male-male kiss and there was audible tutting going on all around me (and a distinctly disapproving "oh!" - Mary Whitehouse would have been proud!). Hypocritically, the same tutters didn't raise a peep when there was all sorts of lesbionics going on in the background of another scene, but I'll save my political rantings for another place!
All in all, I enjoyed the show very much. Although not as polished and slick as MP when I saw that, I think, because I enjoyed the plot more, I rate this show higher in a sense, although I would like to see a different actress in the role of Sally, and more dancing included.

Having never seen the film, but having one of the freebies that was given out with a newspaper a few years back, we decided to watch the film yesterday with the show still fresh in our minds. I had already prepared myself for some of the differences between the film, but to be honest, I still found it disappointing. Gone were all the songs from outside the club (apart from Tomorrw Belongs to Me, which was still frightening). Gone was Cliff Bradshaw, replaced by 'Roger' (incidentally, does anyone know why the name was changed?). Sally is now American, with Roger being the English character. Gone was the Shneider/Schultz subplot. I found I didn't much care for the sub-plot introduced instead, about the Jewish man passing as Christian, who fell in love with the Jewish student of Roger's. I didn't especially like Liza's renditions of the songs - she's quite brash and shouty (and my mother's dislike of her vocal style and her mother's was one reason why i never saw this film when I was younger, as no Garland Family films were ever played in my house, apart from the Wizard of Oz, or by my dad secretly when my mum was out!) - maybe that's how they're supposed to be sung, I'm not an expert, but I preferred Sam Barks delivery, even if her technique wasn't as impressive as Minelli's. I preferred Sally being English also, and for the male to be American. I'm not sure why, I just felt it fitted the characters better. Joel Gray made a brilliant EmCee, very dark, I can definitely see why he deserved his Oscar.

I don't know if I'll watch the film again. It was good, but it was lacking the emotion I got from the show. I also suffer from a chronic lack of attention span, and whilst a live performance can grip me all the way through, I actually briefly nodded off in the middle of the film (although I suspect having written 3000 words of essay in 3 days hadn't helped either...). I would, however, see the show again, although I'd wait for a new production first.

Thanks for reading - this has been a more interesting way of spending a morning in work! :lol: