Rotimi Agbabiaka Triumphs as Electric, Elegant Emcee

by Barry David Horwitz

If you see one musical this year, Center REP’s “Cabaret” would be the one. There’s no bigger thrill than seeing masterful Rotimi Agbabiaka dancing, singing, gyrating in brilliant costumes, playing the emcee in a 1931 Berlin café. He drains every note for its deepest satirical meaning while dancing up a storm.

Agbabiaka’s gyrating, sensual, gender queer, bare-chested, and girdle-wearing Emcee beckons from Center REP’s stage in Walnut Creek to all of us.

He’s onstage almost the whole time, on the spiral staircases at or on the hanging metal balconies above. His leering, whirling, sexy overview of the cool romance between Cliff Bradshaw, the American alien—a stranger in a strange land—and Sally Bowles, the English wannabe cabaret chanteuse, makes their coupling even more doubtful.

Of course, Cliff is gay—per Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories—and Sally doesn’t give-a-damn. Both are escaping middle class morality in 30s Berlin, which offers a sexy place to hide. Until it doesn’t.

Brilliant staging, singing, dancing, delight us. The satire stings: “Come to the Cabaret, My Friend.” Director Markus Potter gives us a nightmare equal to the last days of Pompeii. We recognize the rise of fascism and murder—so familiar to us now.

It’s an exhilarating ride with magnificent set pieces like the giant German flag that flows out from the emcee’s waist to cover the stage in Black, Yellow, and Orange, the German colors.

In one scene, the entire trans and beautiful Kit Kat Dancers—in all their glory—males with hairy chests and earthy women in Chorus Line costumes, singing “Money, Money, Money.” Agabiaka and the choristers are wearing skirts of dollar bills around their waists, and in the crotch—as they dance wildly.

 

Among the standouts are the stirring singing of Monique Hafen Adams, as she belts out “Welcome to the Cabaret,” after we realize the whole darned 30s German self-indulgence is about to fall to Hitler. Sally manipulates clueless Cliff Bradshaw, though they don’t really click as a couple. He’s more focused on the cute chorus boys.

The Kit Kat Dancers are fabulous—and “Even the Orchestra is Beautiful,” as our ever-present Emcee tells us menacingly.

The Nazi menace raises its head through the innocent seeming Ernst (Charlie Levy) who turns out to be a Nazi agent. Ernst turns his anti-Jewish wrath on innocent landlady Fraulein Schneider, well sung and acted by Kelly Ground.

As Schneider, Ground forcefully confronts her tenant about the sailors she entertains. She chides Fraulein Kost (delightful Michelle Drexler. And later she movingly confronts the fact that her own elderly boyfriend is Jewish.

Richard Farrell plays her fiancée, Herr Schultz, and he serenades his beloved in strong, resonant tones. He makes a fine, confident lover and the two of them nearly run off with the show, they are so touching together.

Agabiaka comes back to muster the cast in one last night of debauchery. And Director Potter brings a powerful ending that makes the show perfect. A Must See because 30s Berlin sounds a lot like US, here and now.

 

“Cabaret” –book by Joe Masteroff, based on “My Life As a Camera” by John Van Druten, based on Berlin Diaries by Christopher Isherwood,

music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, originally directed by Sam Mendes, choreographed by Jessica Chen, musical direction by Eryn Allen, directed by Markus Potter.

–by Center REPertory Company, Walnut Creek, California. Info: lesherartscenter.org – to June 23, 2024.

Cast: Rotimi Agbabiaka, Monique Hafen Adams, Jacob Henrie-Naffaa, Michelle Drexler, Kelly Ground, Richard Farrell, Charlie Levy, Landan Berlof, Faustino Cadiz III, Sydney Chow, Jesse Cortez,

Elizabeth Cowperthwaite, Elizabeth Curtis, Andrio Jordan Fong, Paul C. Plain, Antonia Reed, Jillian A. Smith, Adria Swan, Ann Warque, and Dedrick Weathersby.

Banner photo: Rotimi Agbabiaka & Company at the Kit Kat Club. Photos: Kevin Berne