Carryl is not a household name (Failure: A Love Story and Romeo & Juliet on stage locally.) Nor is she the first person you would assume would be cast as the landlady renting out space to an American writer (Christopher Maikish) who falls in love with Kit Kat Club entertainer Sally Bowles (Talisa Friedman) and who falls in love herself with Herr Schultz (Matthew Henerson.) She’s not as old as most women who have played the part. And then there’s the fact that she’s African-American. If any of this surprises you, your surprise can’t possibly measure up to Carryl’s when she was asked by director Michael Matthews to do the show.

“I was shocked,” she says with a laugh. “He said this role and I went,” and she makes a loud gulping sound. “I think I was terrified. I think part of it was the political side of me which was I don’t want to be the betrayer. No matter how tragic the story, you can’t help but judge her a little. I think when you are a cultural other you get blamed for a lot of things. To be this Black woman who plays somebody who is a betrayer, I was terrified there would be no empathy. Plus I didn’t want to think of myself as a person who would fail. This character is so complicated and scary and challenging and I didn’t want to mess it up.”

For those unfamiliar with Cabaret, set in Berlin during the rise of the Nazi party, Fraulein Schenider falls in love with Herr Schultz, a Jew. When they get engaged a party is held to celebrate their upcoming wedding. But at the party one of the characters reveals himself to be a Nazi. Schneider calls off the engagement as it would jeopardize the security of her life. Playing a woman for whom survival is the key to most of her decisions was made easier for Carryl with one tip from her director.

“He didn’t even talk to me about history. He said, ‘what’s the love in the scene?’ When you step back and look at her, there is love. There is a kind of love with  [tenant] Fraulein Kost – that motherly/sisterly love where they drive each other insane and still the fact is, she may threaten to call the police, but she never does. Cliff says he could give her 50 marks, she needs 100. He doesn’t saying anything and she responds on a human level to another person in need. It’s really easy when you find what in the scene is about love. What is kindness.”

Having a mixed race relationship amongst the two oldest characters in the musical actually allows for a more topical resonance according to Carryl.  “Difference is just the beginning. We are talking about a society where the point was to erase all difference. That was the Nazi design. They did kill Blacks. They did kill gypsies, homosexuals, everyone who was different from them. What is says about what’s happening today is really powerful and it is an opportunity that Michael trusted would be there. That’s not the story. It’s not what it’s about, but it is a reality and it is there. That I got to be a part of that is exhilarating.”

As for Fraulein Schneider being the emotional center of the musical, Carryl never thought of the character that way.

“That’s what Michael said to me,” she reveals. “He took me aside and said very securely, ‘you are the emotional center of the show.’  I think that quite possibly it is because where Sally is exceptional in her own way, Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz are more the every day. They are kind of your every man. And ultimately they are the reasons Germany went the way that it did: Fraulein Schneider for not having the courage of her conviction and Herr Schultz for not being willing to see what was happening.”

The role does allow Carryl to sing all or parts of three songs and she has an obvious favorite.

“What Would You Do?,” she says without hesitation. “She proves that she has just enough courage to care about something and someone. She has to dare to step outside herself and let herself love. Then she sees all the people she must survive with. She knows what’s right, but she doesn’t know what’s survivable. If you have to choose between what’s right and surviving, that’s where most of us live – you chose survival.”

She also credits the show’s writers, John Kander, Fred Ebb and Joe Masteroff, for writing a show that will continue to resonate for decades to come.

“These people were geniuses. The text is so open and so simple. Any time people talk in terms of superiority/inferiority and who belongs and who doesn’t, any culture that grapples with those questions will gravitate to this text. We are born with all of this amazing beautiful stuff in us: whether different colors, genders or sexualities or have different thoughts. But we have this drive towards destruction in the programming. It’s heartbreaking.”

Production Photos by Matthew Brian Denman

The post The Perfectly Marvelous June Carryl appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

I recently spoke with Matthews, who in addition to directing this production serves as Co-Artistic Director at Celebration Theatre, about the challenges of doing a show so strongly associated with its film, making the show his own and the perpetual topicality of the show’s themes.

How influential are other productions by Hal Prince and Sam Mendes and the Bob Fosse film for you as a director? Do you embrace their existence or act as if they never had been seen?

I have to treat it like no one has ever seen the play before, but I’d be a fool to not know. I have to make sure I don’t copy or imitate. But there’s so much in the ’98 production [that Mendes directed] that’s influenced by all of them. I’m going very very bare bones with the show. The whole theatre is done into the Kit Kat Club itself. Nothing new there. We call it our sticky floor cabaret. Your feet stick to the floor due to body fluids, sweat and blood. We have a cast of 13, so we whittled down a couple of ensemble members. It fits like a glove in that space.

What role does ambiguous sexuality play in this production? Does being at Celebration Theatre give the audience an expectation that you will be edgier than the Broadway revival had been?

Yes. Yes. Our whole show, choreographically speaking, we’re going with burlesque. All the boys and girls the movement is burlesque. It’s definitely a strip tease. Each number has a peel-away moment. We’re really going there in a great way to go with the mission of why we are doing the show. It will be very immersive and fully character-driven. No nudity though.

 We’re talking and you are about one month into rehearsals. What have you learned about Cabaret that surprised you?

That it’s a meta-musical. It’s a play with music. It was actually super refreshing. I feel like every single song happens because it has to happen. It’s necessary. Every single one. That’s why it works so well. Every song pushes the story forward.

In the past couple of years, Celebration Theatre has had great success with reinventing big splashy musicals [The Boy From Oz, Priscilla Queen of the Desert] to fit into the small space you have. Why do you think they’ve been so successful?

Michael Shepherd and I, we are storytellers and we love to tell great stories really well. We also love the intimacy the space gives us. You can do anything in that space and we’re going to make it happen. The closer people get to the show then the story gets told in a brand new way. We don’t want you to lean back and relax. We want you to scoot in and watch.

Christopher Isherwood, whose book I Am A Camera was the basis for the musical, once wrote, “If it’s going to be a world with no time for sentiment, it’s not a world I want to live in.” Is there sentiment in Cabaret that isn’t somehow sullied by the situations surrounding these characters?

Oh absolutely. There’s still sentiment at the same time as complete despair, outrage and heartbreak. It comes from it.  We care so deeply about these characters.

From your perspective, what makes Cabaret a show that not only continues to entertain, but also provokes?

My favorite thing about it, and one of the things I’m working on, is that it’s so crazy to do this show because it felt like it could have been written yesterday. It resonates so well with what’s happening today in our world. How did we not learn these lessons? That’s pretty powerful.  We’re not just doing a show for a show’s sake, but because it’s relevant. And cabaret is all about that.

Photos of the cast of “Cabaret” by Mae Koo

The post Director Michael Matthews Follows Fosse, Prince and Mendes appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Cabaret – Celebration Theatre

Previews begin 5/25

Over the past two years, Celebration Theatre has had back-to-back hits with taking very large, splashy musicals (The Boy from Oz, Priscilla Queen of the Desert) and making them work in the intimate settings of their Hollywood theatre. Now they tackle the Kander & Ebb musical Cabaret. This production, much like the 1998 revival that starred Alan Cumming and Natasha Richardson, is set in the Kit Kat Club. But for this production, director Michael Matthews is offering up a far more decadent and dirtier club than has been seen before. Almost every performance of the two previous musicals sold out, extended their runs and still sold out. So I ask you, what good is sitting all alone in your room?

Beauty and the Beast: Live in Concert to Film  – The Hollywood Bowl

May 25-26

Most films that get live orchestral treatment at the Hollywood Bowl don’t have songs. With these two performances of the Disney animated film classic, the memorable characters from the film will be voiced live by an all-star cast that includes Zooey Deschanel as “Belle,” Kelsey Grammer as “Lumiere,” Taye Diggs as “Gaston,” Rebel Wilson as “LeFou,” Jane Krakowski as “Mrs. Potts” and Anthony Evans as “Beast.” Michael Kosarin is conducting the orchestra. There are also a few special performances before the film.

Crossing – The Walis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts

May 25-26

If you are interested in getting a good sense of what the future of classical music and opera will be in the years ahead, then checking out this chamber opera by Matthew Aucoin is an excellent place to start. The 28-year-old wrote Crossing about a period of time in poet Walt Whitman’s life in which he abandoned all the comforts of his life to tend to wounded soldiers in the hospital during the American Civil War.  These two performances are concert performances and not fully staged productions of Aucoin’s work. But they will give you an excellent look into his work and, by extension, one direction contemporary opera is heading. For more information on Crossing, check out our interview with Aucoin here.

Ann Hampton Callaway and Amanda McBroom – Catalina Bar & Grill

May 25-May 27

Last October singers Amanda McBroom and Ann Hampton Callaway brought their show Divalicious to the Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa and also the Venetian Show Room at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. Now it’s LA’s turn to see these two wonderful singers in the show where they work their magic on songs from the Great American Songbook and some of their own recordings. They will be joined by Music Director Michelle Brourman on the piano. These sisters are doing it for themselves.

Photo by Steve Sorokoff/Courtesy of BroadwayWorld.com

Schumann Focus: Symphony #4 and the Cello Concerto  – Walt Disney Concert Hall

May 26-27

The LA Philharmonic continues its journey through the symphonies of Robert Schumann with these two performances of the 4th Symphony. What makes the 4th Symphony (in D Minor) so unique is the four movements are played through without a break. This was unheard of at the time of its premiere. As with the earlier concerts this week, Sol Gabetta will be playing the Cello Concerto and Gustavo Dudamel is conducting.  Note that Saturday’s performance is a matinee.

The post The 5 Shows You Must See: This Weekend in LA (5/25-5/27) appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Antonio Sanchez performs his Birdman score – Royce Hall/UCLA

February 16

Though his remarkable score for the Oscar-winning film Birdman was ruled ineligible for an Oscar nomination (due to the amount of source music also used in the film), it stood out as a remarkable and unique composition.  Antonio Sanchez, the man who wrote and performed the score, will be playing the score live while the film is projected. Unlike most live music to film presentations that are currently in vogue, his performance is not a note-for-note replication. As it is more jazz-like in construct, it will be his improvisation on what he did for the film. If you want to see what Sanchez has to say about the score now and how he tackles these live concerts, check out my interview with him here.  Also, he is performing with his band, Migration, on Saturday night at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel. They will be performing his Meridian Suite album in its entirety.

Salonen: Wing on Wing – Walt Disney Concert Hall

February 16-18

Fresh off last week’s four concerts featuring Esa-Pekka Salonen’s three concerti (for cello, piano and violin, respectively), is another round of concerts. These three  performances include Beethoven’s Violin Concerto (performed by Vilde Frang), Mozart’s The Impresario and Salonen’s Wing on Wing. It was for the opening of Walt Disney Concert Hall that Salonen composed the work. Frank Gehry’s architecture inspired the work and celebrated the realization of the concert hall.

Priscilla Queen of the Desert – Celebration Theatre

Opens February 17

In 2016, Celebration Theatre did what seemed outright impossible. They put on a production of one of the biggest, splashiest musicals Broadway had ever seen, The Boy From Oz, in their small theatre in Hollywood. It was a smash success, was highly-acclaimed and won several awards.  If at first you do succeed, try it again. And they are – with another big splashy musical (so big it played the Palace Theatre on Broadway): Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Based on the film of the same name, the show tells the story of two drag queens and a transgender colleague on a road trip across Australia. There is a secret reason for the road trip that threatens the relationship the three share. Amongst the songs featured in the show are such disco classics (no, that’s not an oxymoron) as “Don’t Leave Me This Way,” “I Will Survive,” “Shake Your Groove Thing” and “Hot Stuff.”

The Unauthorized Musical Parody of Jurassic Park – Rockwell Table & Stage

Now playing

When the UMPO series did musical parodies of films like The Devil Wears Prada and Home Alone, it was pretty easy to visualize what they might do. With their new show, poking fun at Stephen Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, I just wonder how many dinosaurs get songs and what they would be? Of course, the characters played by Jeff Goldblum (who makes regular appearances at Rockwell), Laura Dern and Sir Richard Attenborough at the ones most likely to break into song. But wouldn’t you love to hear a T-Rex do “Children of the Revolution” or “Bang a Gong?”

The New Colossus – The Actors’ Gang

Now playing

In light of the tragedy that occurred this week in Florida, perhaps there’s no better time to be asking the question, “Who are we as a nation?” The Actors’ Gang Ensemble and Tim Robbins put together The New Colossus, to ask that question, but as it pertains to immigration. By telling the stories of their own ancestors in a variety of languages, eras and with the incorporation of poetry, music and movement, this show not only asks the question above, but also reminds us that we are, and have always been, a nation of immigrants.

The post The 5 Events You Must See: This Weekend in LA (Feb 16-18) appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

The post What does the view upstairs look like? appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

“It is not the Broadway production,” Shepperd says. “There’s no way in hell I can replicate what they did on Broadway. I saw it and thought it was great, but I thought a lot of the story was missed. When I picked up the script I went, ‘I don’t remember that. I didn’t remember this.’”

Shepperd says this script is just as important as Allen’s songs (which include “When Everything Old Is New Again,” “I Honestly Love You,” and “(Arthur’s Theme) Best That You Can Do.”) “Let’s face it, it’s a great jukebox musical with a great story about a man who lead this amazing life,” he says. “But when you break it down, it’s all about the love of his mother, the love of his first wife [Liza Minnelli], the love of his last partner [Gregory Connell], and his love of music. If you use those and tell that story, it can fit in any size space.”

Chuck Rowland, a gay-rights pioneer and co-founder of the Mattachine Society, founded Celebration Theatre in 1982. The company has since put on countless LGBTQ-themed productions. According to Shepperd, The Boy From Oz fits right in. “What other musical tackles the subject of AIDS and seeing [the main character’s] lover die?” he asks. “It’s a story about loss and a story of not being able to express your true feelings and emotions because you were raised by someone who said, ‘Don’t cry out loud, just hold it inside.’”

The ambition to tackle such a big show in a small space began as a conversation between Shepperd and Celebration Theatre co-director Michael Matthews. “We order our drinks and we sit down and have our drinking meeting,” Shepperd says. “At the end we have come up with this lavish season and all the stars that are going to do our shows. Wouldn’t it be funny if we got The Boy From Oz and Hugh Jackman came and did this in our theatre? Of course, I send over the letter with everything and I got the phone call four days later.” Alas, Jackman is not part of the deal. Actor Andrew Bongiorno will be playing Peter Allen in this production.

Over the past two years, Celebration Theatre has lost its space on Santa Monica Boulevard, tried a few other venues as their home, and have, at least for now, settled in at the Lex Theatre. When asked, Shepperd admits there are parallels between Peter Allen’s story and Celebration’s recent history.

“Look at the trajectory of Peter Allen’s career: he’s a lounge singer who, by happenstance, is discovered by Judy Garland,” he explains. “She takes him to New York, and he falls in love with this woman. His career is not dead, but it’s not really moving forward. It took this break-up for him to go, ‘Wait, I’m in the worst crisis in my life, and I’m just now finding my artistic soul, and I’m able to create some of the best music ever.’ Do I think that’s synonymous with Celebration and where we’re going? Yes. We were cruising along nicely, and then we hit a horrible speed bump. We were broken. We had to search frantically to pick up all the pieces, and there are still a few pieces missing. But we are able to superglue most of it back together. And now we are going to start producing and creating the best work we’ve ever done.”

The post Michael A. Shepperd Brings the The Boy From Oz to a 55-Seat Theatre in Hollywood appeared first on Cultural Attaché.