The role of
Sally Bowles in the musical “Cabaret” is a difficult one for actresses. To
start off with she has to be a first rate performer to appear as a third rate
entertainer in a sleazy 1929 show bar in Berlin. She also has to get the
audience on her side though she is basically a prostitute who will sell her
body for a fur coat, a job or a place to stay. 
She has to be brassy, the life of the party, in the numbers she does at
the Kit Kat Club but still be vulnerable enough under her façade to have a naïve
American writer fall in love with her and for her to think, if only for a
moment, it might work. She wants to ignore the world around her and how it is
intruding into her life in spite of the facts of what she is seeing.

Andrea Goss,
as Sally Bowles, in the opening night performance of the Roundabout Theatre
Company touring show of “Cabaret” at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami
presented by Bank of America in the Broadway In Miami 2015-2016 series,
delivers the goods whether singing showy numbers in the Kit Kat cabaret such as
“Don’t Tell Mama” and “Mein Herr” or songs that reflect how she feels in “Maybe
This Time” and the title tune “Cabaret” where she lets loose with how she sees
life.

In an equal
demanding, and a more in your face performance, Randy Harrison as the Emcee is
on stage most of the evening as either the focal point of numbers like the
chilling “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” or the satirical “If You Could See Her” while
breaking your heart with “I Don’t Care Much” or standing on the side as an
observer. He brings a lot of sexuality to the show along with many laughs.

Quietly
stealing the show as Fraulein Schneider, a landlady, and Herr Schultz, a Jewish
fruit store owner, are Shannon Cochran, with a strong voice, and Mark Nelson as
the heartbreaking suitor. Their duets on “Married” and “It Couldn’t Please Me
More” along with her solo on “What Would You Do” are the most moving moments in
this musical.

The Kit Kat
Cabaret Boys, Girls and Band bring a lot of sparkle, fun and sex to the
production while Lee Aaron Rosen as the American writer fighting his
homosexuality, Ned Noyes as a Nazi who tries to use the writer in his cause and
Alison Ewing as a Nazi sympathizer who also happens to be a prostitute add to
the time in history when many people had to make decisions as to where they
would go in a world becoming more frightening and, in many ways, more than a
cabaret than the Kit Kat Club.

There were a
few minor problems such as at times the actors using accents that made their
words intelligible, a very distracting, annoying use of a disco ball and a
first act that dragged a bit but all in all with music and lyrics by John
Kander and Fred Ebb and direction by Rob Marshall and Sam Mendes this
production shows why “Cabaret” has become a classic in the Broadway history of
musicals.

“Cabaret” is
playing at the Adrienne Arsht Center until April 17^th and then will
come to the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale January
10-22, 2017.

“Cabaret” runs 2 hours and 42 minutes
including a 20 minute intermission.