Word: casting
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Dates: during 1980-1980
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...fooled and being gotten have hardened us to their tone. If the theater's stories have sobering messages for the audience, the whole production is supposed to be uplifting, to reassure us that the bastards won't get us again. But at the end of the evening, when four cast members pick at their guitars while the remainder clap their hands to the tune of "Here Comes the Sun," all the audience can do is shift uncomfortably. The music is not bad, but it is foreign...
...sound technical basis, work well and bring the tales to life. In other parts however, Prince's troupe buffs the stories with several coats of shlock and the actors can do little to salvage the intended meanings and morals. Confusion reigns at the end of "Henny Penny," as the cast sings and rocks to the Vietnam ballad "What are We Fighting For" while Foxy-Loxy ships the birds off to who knows where. It's easy to suspend cynicism and read between the still-fresh lines of the simple tales, but ten years later, Story Theatre's sociological comments seem...
...some would say, make up a musical. Cabaret piles political and historical meaning on top of the basic elements, in a melange that often trips up directors. This production's director, Scott Goldsmith, however, masterfully sidesteps a problem that plagues many musicals: uneven singing, acting or dancing, by performers cast for their talent in only one area. Cabaret's strength lies in a group of multi-talented performers who never let any side of the show down, handling its weighty acting demands as skillfully as the song-and-dance numbers...
...club, like all the sets, is very simple, offsetting the elaborate costumes and the seven beautiful girls cast in the chorus line. In these scenes, Andrew Sellon gives an outstanding performance as the ghoulish Master of Ceremonies. Appearing in heavily rouged whiteface, the host welcomes the other characters, as well as the audience, into the club's milieu, and the brutal world of Hitler's Brownshirts...
...instinctive cracker-barrel wit. Inside the shy and often childish teen-age girl there is always a glimmer of the powerhouse woman she would become. The craggy-faced Jones makes the most of a role that fully capitalizes on both his redneck swagger and salty charm. The supporting cast is also first-rate. Rock Drummer Levon Helm (formerly of the Band) brings flinty dignity to the role of Loretta's laconic but loving father, and Beverly D'Angelo (who played