I went with a group of friends to see Cabaret at the Raleigh Little Theatre last night. A friend, Jay Dolan, played the role of Ernst Ludwig, and he did a wonderful job!
I won't go into the plot details here; have a look at the Wikipedia entry for those details. There were a few scenes which could be considered controversial. There was the warning that this musical was not intended for those under thirteen years old. And this warning came with good reason.
In the middle of the first act, an entire row of people got up and walked out. It was rather rude; these people sat right in front of me and blocked my view momentarily of the action going on in the stage. It was during the song "Two Ladies" when they walked out.
Here is the Wikipedia description of that scene:
The Emcee and two female companions sing a song ("Two Ladies") that comments on Cliff and Sally's unusual living conditions (In most productions, one of the girls is played by a man).Admittedly, the actions depicted might be considered explicit, but I thought it was tastefully done, and should be taken in the spirit intended. I suppose to those who walked out, it was interpreted very differently.
As far as I'm concerned, if those people left for prudish reasons, they missed the point, and as a result, they missed a wonderful performance, complete with excellent dancing and a gutsy performance by Mark Ridenour, who played the Emcee, who was battling laryngitis.
Oh, and to Jay - you did a great job! Well done.
1 comment:
Too bad they didn't stay long enough to see that the "Two Ladies" song is not what the whole play is about. Though with a whole row exiting at once, I wonder if there were people who would have stayed but felt pressured to leave, lest they be thought perverted. Either that, or it was one of those annoying groups who only bought tickets so that they could make a point of walking out and demanding a refund as a form of protest, and that just seemed to be the best scene to do it. Oh well.
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