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Cabaret, at Lido 2 Paris: tragedies pass and look alike

2022-12-02T14:31:35.445Z


CRITICISM – The new production of the musical on the rise of Nazism sheds light on the abysses of today.


“Willkommen, Welcome, Welcome.”

Cabaret

's first song

is a worldwide success.

It has been ringing since 1966, the date of the creation of the musical truly unlike any other by John Kander (lyrics) and Fred Ebb (music), produced by the essential Hal Prince.

But it sounds different each time.

In 1966, Berlin and the Nazis still haunt the Jews who hold Broadway.

But the news at the moment is the demonstrations by white people against the application of racial discrimination laws that are hitting Prince.

The images of young blond people marching in anger are superimposed.

The story stutters.

How to warn against the excesses of populism, its ideals that are too good to be true, its refusal of the fragilities that weave people together?

Prince remembers Christopher Isherwood: before settling in America, the English novelist passed through Berlin, the only city in the world where he could experience his homosexuality.

Between 1929 and 1933, he observed this city of a thousand pleasures dancing on the volcano of the rise of Nazism.

His friend is a cabaret star without much talent, who lands his roles horizontally.

He notes everything, without judging.

In 1933, as soon as Hitler took power, he packed his bags: not to take a position is already to accept.

In 1939, he published

Goodbye to Berlin

, a novel which he adapted for the theater under the title of

I Am a Camera.

in 1951. From it will be born a first film in 1955, the musical comedy, the film of Bob Fosse in 1972 and many times.

A record for a story that features a homosexual and uninspired writer, a Jewish grocer who offers pineapples, an old maid and pusillanimous landlady, a cabaret dancer who has an abortion, prostitutes and a few Nazis...

Read alsoJean-Luc Choplin: “The Lido must become a place of production and creation”

Is it confusion or enthusiasm that dominates the production mounted for the opening of Lido 2 Paris on the Champs-Élysées?

Robert Carsen, who signs the staging, puts the viewer on the edge of the abyss.

We resume the choruses,

Willkommen

,

So What

,

Don't Say Mama

,

Tomorrow Belongs to Me

, interpreted by a cast as involved in the voices as just in the game. abysses of the moment.

Cheerful and decadent

Carsen leads the dance with a surgical genius.

The entertainment is there: cheerful and decadent like the spirit of the times.

The Kit Kat Klub revue takes the audience on a wave of fun and danger.

The dances devour the space, the orchestra sounds loud and clear.

Carsen plays the game of the cabaret which takes the public to task, installed at pedestal tables where good champagne and horrible appetizers are served.

Emcee, master of ceremonies, embodies a perfect link between the Berlin of Sally Bowles, that of Isherwood and Europe today.

Radiant and monstrous, disturbing, formless, powerful, he is the impassive observer of the tragedies that pass and resemble each other, obligatory numbers in history.

“Life is a cabaret”

, sings Sally Bowles.

We run there!

“Cabaret”, at

Lido 2 Paris

(8th), until February 3, 2023.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2022-12-02

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