{"id":2725,"date":"2015-04-13T15:03:20","date_gmt":"2015-04-13T20:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/~reviewing\/?page_id=2725"},"modified":"2015-04-13T15:03:20","modified_gmt":"2015-04-13T20:03:20","slug":"cabaret-continues-to-be-worth-seeing","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/reviewing\/?page_id=2725","title":{"rendered":"‘Cabaret’ continues to be worth seeing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted April 13, 2015<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By BRANDON MICHAELS<\/p>\n

NEW YORK \u2013 I am not a fan of theater. I am not a fan of art. Ever since I was a baby I would speed through a museum as fast as I could, hoping that would mean that we could leave sooner \u2013 I toured the Vatican in 15 minutes.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll never forget when my grandparents took me to the \u201cRipley’s Believe It or Not!\u201d museum in St. Augustine. I knew that we were eating lunch when it was done, so I convinced my grandfather to \u201cstep lively,\u201d as my father used to say to me on the walk to nursery school when we lived on Central Park West.<\/p>\n

My grandmother has always pushed the arts. \u201cCabaret\u201d was the first play she ever took me to, so I found it only fitting that I go see it with her one final time before the show ends it\u2019s run this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cCabaret\u201d holds a special place in my heart for more than being my first play and a memory I share with my grandmother. Alan Cumming, a \u201cCabaret\u201d staple, stars on \u201cThe Good Wife,\u201d my father\u2019s favorite show. So the trip covered two bases, a nostalgic night with my grandmother and a birthday present for my father who turned 60 this past Friday.
\nReplacing Emma Stone was Sienna Miller, riding high off her role in \u201cAmerican Sniper.\u201d She might has well have been a cardboard cutout; she struggled most of the night looking out of place and uncomfortable as Sally. The show became exactly what I had always thought about Broadway plays: long, boring and forgettable if not for the performance of Cumming.<\/p>\n

Unfortunate, as my grandma put it, because she remembered a time when the star of the show was whoever was lucky enough to play the role of Sally. Just ask Miller\u2019s predecessor Emma Stone, who garnered rave reviews for her time in the show.<\/p>\n

Miller\u2019s lackluster performance did allow for something, however, as Alan Cumming carried the show and showed just how spectacular he really was. The juxtaposition of Cumming\u2019s flawless performance compared to Miller\u2019s banal performance underscores just how great Cumming truly is \u2013 the show is ending its run when Cumming\u2019s time ends, opting not to recast his roll of Emcee. Cumming is irreplaceable.<\/p>\n

Outside of Miller\u2019s disappointing portrayal of Sally the show still had its strengths. The show was once again run by the team behind the 1998 Broadway run of Sam Mendes, the man behind 007 films \u201cSkyfall\u201d and \u201cSpectre,\u201d and Rob Marshall, \u201cInto the Woods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cumming is not the only mainstay that carries the show as supporting cast members Linda Emond and Danny Burstein, who play Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz respectively, have remained for the duration of the show, successfully representing the emotional story.<\/p>\n

The audience is set up much in the same way that the Kit Kat Klub is portrayed \u2013 minus the minimally dressed wait staff and the drugs. The seating reminds me of a Vegas show, intimately set at tables where you feel closer to the action than you would in traditional theater seating.<\/p>\n

If you can grab a ticket by the end of the week and you enjoy theater, the show is worth seeing. Cumming is worth seeing. As is the music and orchestra, which is fantastic, as Cumming points out multiple times throughout the night. While Miller might be forgettable, Cumming surely is not, and is single-handedly worth the price of admission.<\/p>\n